We continue our series of articles, in which we're covering changes that mark a new era in Local SEO Game: the rebranding of Google My Business to Google Business Profile. In this article, we will be covering changes that affect mostly multi-location businesses, such as location management from Search, chat with customers, call history, and additional advertising opportunities. So, let's dig in.
Shops and updates from customers
Google has launched the “Shops” section in the mobile search results, which shows three retailers and can be expanded to show up to ten. This feature is based on the organic search ranking, so we can assume that retailers who already rank well may reap its benefits.
As was highlighted in the article by Search Engine Land: “As Google continues to add support for organic shopping features, it only becomes more important for merchants to ensure their sites are optimized both for traditional search results and shopping-related features.” That definitely shows that Google pays significant attention to the rise of digital commerce and its role in the future company development strategy. This feature is currently available only in the US and for search queries only in English.
As was pinpointed by Search Engine Roundtable, Google added to Google Business Profile a new section name “updates from customers”. This is showing the most recent reviews and might be of specific concern for spammy businesses or for businesses with heaps of negative reviews. However, it is definitely going to be beneficial for companies with positive reviews and kind of forces others to work with negative feedback.
New business attributes and industry-related features
Google keeps introducing new attributes for different business categories. In general, attributes are out there to help you better define how you operate, who operates the business, and how you’re handling current health and safety regulations. When you select these attributes, they are being displayed in your GBP and are visible to the searchers.
The phrasing of some attributes has been changed. For instance, the “Women-led” attribute is now ”women-owned” and the “Identifies as women-owned” attribute has a purple heart. In addition to that, Google will keep adding new attributes to highlight the demographics and the diversity of business ownership, such as Latino-owned, Black-owned and Veteran-owned. This is available only in the US. You can check how to work with attributes here.
There are also a lot of industry-related attributes and updates, especially for the industries strongly affected by the pandemic restrictions. For instance, for food-related businesses, Google lets accept orders for delivery and takeout directly through their Business Profile on Google Search and Maps.
That was done because food ordering on Google has increased in 2021 by 230% in comparison to 2020, so it was done to help these businesses. So, always check the list of specific features or attributes depending on the business that you’re running.
Now you know what changes will affect multi-lcoation businesses in Google Business Profile. Follow our blog to get more insights on Local SEO and Local Marketing :)
