GMB to GBP: what's new for small business?

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 small business, such as location management from Search, chat with customers, call history, and additional advertising opportunities. So, let's dig in.

Verification and profile management from Search and Maps

For small businesses, the Google My Business rebranding is more about change in functionality. Now you can search for ‘my business’ on Google to find your Business Profile. Then you can manage your profile either on Google Maps or Search.

There you can update and edit all crucial information that people can see while looking for your business, such as working hours, telephone numbers, addresses, etc. Thus, it reflects the enterprise focus of Google Business Profile, as small businesses can easily manage their listings from Search.

As was pinpointed in a study by Search Engine Journal, the option to edit your Business Profile information from search has been around for several months. However, with the rebranding, you can verify and resolve any other issues regarding your Business Profile directly from search. So, for small businesses, there is basically no need to use the separate GMB mobile or website app.

Chat with customers

In addition to that, it’s also possible to message customers directly from Search. This is an attempt to make a conversation between businesses and customers more engaging. Google even released a special guideline, which tells you how to deal with that.

Once your turn on the сhat function, customers will be able to find the “Chat” button on your Business Profile and could message you at any time. You can customize the automated welcome message and share photos with customers right in the chat.

Moreover, through Google Search, you could not only respond to any message but also manage reviews and Q&As from one place. According to the study by Retail Council of Canada, 90% of customers rate immediate responses (10 minutes or less) as “essential” or “very important” when they have a question about a business. With that being said, communicating quickly via chat, reviews, and Q&As is crucial to provide pleasant customer experience.

Call history

With that feature, you can keep track of phone calls from your customers directly on Google Maps and Search. That should increase your engagement with customers, as you know how many of them were trying to reach you via Google Maps. Call history will keep all your calls in one place.

As it is only an experimental feature right now, it is available only in the US and Canada for a selected group of businesses. Interestingly, there is an automated message from Google at the beginning of customer calls that cannot be turned off. To turn it off you need to turn off call history entirely.

Moreover, there are also some interesting advertisement opportunities. If your GBP is connected to Google Ads and you turned on your call history, calls with an ad click that lasts longer than a specific time will be shown in the linked Google Ads account as “Calls from Ads” conversion.

So you need to watch out because if you have call conversion in your ads strategy and use smart bidding, you can find a change in your ad spend. To check more details on how it could affect your ads strategy you can go here.

Performance Planner

There are more updates concerning advertisement. By using Performance planner you can plan your local campaign budgets within Google Ads. This tool allows you to see forecasts for your campaigns, understand opportunities in seasonal periods, explore outcomes by adjusting campaign settings, and manage budgets across accounts and campaigns. In other words, you can analyze your campaign performance in more detail, get suggestions and adjust your campaign accordingly.

If you’re curious to know how it works from a technical standpoint here is an answer from Google Ads Help: “To give you the most accurate forecasts possible, Performance Planner takes into account billions of search queries and is usually updated every 24 hours. Performance Planner simulates relevant ad auctions over the last 7-10 days, including variables like seasonality, competitor activity, and landing page.” Some campaigns might have specific requirements, so you can check if your campaign is eligible to use Performance Planner here.

Now you know what changes will affect small businesses in Google Business Profile. In the next article we will cover changes that will as well affect multi-location businesses, so stay tune and follow us to the the latest Local SEO updates.