Google My Business is now known as Google Business Profile as Google migrates features to Maps and Search.
Google is also rolling out more support for managing your business profile directly in Google Search and Maps.
Google is renaming Google My Business to Google Business Profile. It moves efforts to bring more of the business profile management out of the Google My Business app and directly into Google Search, Google Maps, and those respective apps.
Google Business Profile will be the new name going forward for Google My Business. Google said the reason for the new name is to “keep things simple” and sometime in 2022, Google will retire the Google My Business app completely.
Another new name you say?
We are now calling it Google Business Profile, before that it was named Google My Business, before that, Google Places, and before that, it was Google+ Local, before that it was also Google Places, and then prior to that I think it was just Google Local. Yes, the local business management product has been through many names, I think I am even forgetting some previous names the product had.
Google My Business going away?
What does it mean that Google My Business name is going away? Well, Google is encouraging businesses to manage their single listings directly on Google Search or Google Maps, either via the web interface or mobile apps. Yes, for a long time now, Google lets businesses manage their individual listings directly in the search results or directly in Google Maps Now, it is saying it prefers businesses with single listings to manage their businesses in Search or Maps and not in the old Google My Business console.
Google said that the existing Google My Business web experience will transition to primarily support larger businesses with multiple locations and be renamed “Business Profile Manager.” Google will redirect and rebrand the Google My Business web interface, in fact, I personally still use google.com/places to be directed to google.com/business right now.
If you manage multiple locations for your business you will still continue to use an interface like Google My Business, renamed to Business Profile Manager going forward. There may be changes to the Business Profile Manager throughout the upcoming months.
New features:
How do you manage your business?
You can either just search for your business name in Google Search or Google Maps for businesses or search for “my business” in Google Search to see the business you have already claimed and verified.
Why we Care
Local search in Google is powered much off of the business profiles Google has in Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business. For now, the web interface is not changing much, outside of branding, but over the coming months, you can expect more and more of the features in the old Google My Business web interface will work directly in Google Search, Google Maps, and the respective apps.
Keep in mind that many more changes will be coming as Google My Business completes its evolution to Google Business Profile. We will work diligently on keeping you up to date on these changes through this Blog.
There could be some confusion in the coming months about these changes. If you have any questions at all regarding how this transition will impact your business or your ability to manage your listing on Google, do not hesitate to reach out to me at dwatts@waynation.com.