Google My Business is being renamed Google Business Profile, as the search engine moves to reorganise the tool for local businesses and local SEO.
In its blog post, Google said business owners could now claim and verify their Business Profile directly on Google Search or the Google Maps app. It advised small businesses to manage their profile directly on Search or Maps, and said the name change was “to keep things simple”.
The Google My Business App is being retired in 2022. Google My Business on the web will be renamed Business Profile Manager, and will transition to support primarily larger businesses with multiple locations.
Claim and verify your Business Profile
Search for your business name in Google Search or Maps and you’ll see an option to claim and verify the associated Business Profile. (You don’t need to do this if you’ve already claimed your business via a Google My Business listing).
Once your business is verified, you’ll be able to edit the information such as address, opening hours, photos etc.
A number of new features have been added.
Message customers via Search
See and respond to customer messages directly from your Business Profile on Google Search. Further details of messaging here.
Here’s Google’s mockup of how it works.
Call history
Merchants in the US and Canada with verified Profiles can bring up call history to see which customer calls came from their Business Profile on Google, and review analytics on inbound call performance. You can see more details of call history here.
Read receipts
Check if your messages were seen by the recipient with read receipts. The feature will be available for all Business Profile merchants this month.
Google promised to share further details on the changes in the coming months.
