A product of Google Maps, Google My Business, has been around for years and recently Google announced that it will no longer be called Google My Business but instead called Google Business Profile. Google really didn’t give a real reason for the name change other than to say they want to “keep things simple”. They made a similar change a couple of years back when they renamed Google Adwords to just simple Google Ads. They keep us on our toes, or maybe heels, that is for sure!
What happens with Google My Business now?
Assuredly Google My Business is not going away, rather just pivoting a bit. At our SEO agency, we have found that clients (especially in home services), get the lions share of search leads via Google My Business or Google Maps, so don’t fret it is not going away, rather being adapted.
Based on what we can surmise Google is going to ask more single location businesses to manage their Google Business profile listings directly in Google Maps rather than in the traditional Google My Business interface. For those that have multilocation businesses, the idea is that those will be managed in an interface that is similar to the old Google My Business platform that they will call “Business Profile Manager”
What to do with your Google My Business profile.
For now, we recommend just leaving it as is and continuing whatever optimization strategy that you have in place. The fear is that this is the start of some major changes that may be coming to the forefront in coming years. However, in full transparency, we SEO folks live with that fear every day, so welcome to the club known as SEO anxiety! We will continue to monitor these changes as they become live and adapt our client’s GMB now Google Business Profiles as testing dictates is needed. If you have any questions or concerns about what to do with your profile, we are always here to help!