GMB to GBP: Evolution of Google Business Profile

Zach Pokudov -

In November 2021 Google announced that Google My Business will be turned to Google Business Profile. That was mostly made to accommodate the needs of the small business. As was stated in by VP of Merchant Shopping at Google Matt Madrigal: “The existing Google My Business web experience will transition to primarily support larger businesses with multiple locations, and will be renamed “Business Profile Manager”. For the small businesses, it was recommended to manage their business profile directly on Search or Maps.

It’s, by far, not the first time Google rebranded its platform for local businesses. In the last 16 years, Google My Business was changing its name 5 times and each change was somehow connected to the change of primary focus:

  • 2005 - Google Local Business Center. Here businesses could update their listings as they appear on Google Local to ensure accuracy.
  • 2009 - Google Places. A next step in the evolution of GBP. The idea behind it was simple - to get all information about the location that you’d like to visit from one place, instead of looking for photos or telephone numbers all around the Internet.
  • 2011 - Google+ Local. Here Google tried to make the space for local businesses more engaging, with such features as sharing posts, photos, videos, and hangouts. Also, user reviews were integrated to make business location information more relevant to users. As some experts pinpoint, it was Google’s response to Facebook. However, Google never caught on, which pushed the next change.
  • 2014 - Google My Business. Google replaced the Google Places for Business and Google+ Local dashboards, which allowed users to manage business information from one dashboard without duplicating efforts. As Adam Dofrman states: “Google understood at this point how important a business web page on Google’s Knowledge Panel could be”. And that’s how GMB quickly became the most important factor for multi-location companies.
  • 2021 - Google Business Profiles. Google My Business name still represented a focus on small businesses, while the product became especially important for multi-location businesses like Starbucks and McDonald's. Thus, the name Google Business Profile should better reflect that change, while small businesses should manage their presence directly on Search or Maps.

Of course, as always with rebranding, some new features were rolled out and in the following articles, we will show you, which changes have been applied, how you can use them and what to expect from Google Business Profile.