Google My Business Is Making a Big Change

Google is rolling out more changes to their local business management product - Google My Business. The first change….it’s no longer called Google My Business. Learn about all of the branding and feature changes coming to Google My Business and what it means for multifamily business listing management. 

It Starts With a New Name

Google has renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile. This is the new name going forward in an effort by Google to “keep things simple”. While this may seem like a huge change, Google Business Profile has gone through a long list of name changes over the years. So while it may take some getting used to - GBP certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue like GMB - the name change is not the biggest change on the table. 

Next Goes The App

Google has been making moves to encourage businesses to manage their single listing directly on Google Search or Google Maps. While this is a feature that has been available for some time, most businesses actually manage their profiles within the Google My Business console. Google is now encouraging users to manage their listings within the web interface or mobile apps.

Managing Multiple Locations

However, for most of the multifamily industry, managing each property directly within the interface or app is not ideal. Don’t worry! The Google My Business console will be renamed “Business Profile Manager” and will continue to support larger businesses and agencies managing multiple locations. However, we do expect there to be more changes coming to the console throughout 2022. 

New Features

There’s still plenty to be excited about. Google also announced new features coming to Google Business Profile.  The new features include:

• The ability to claim and verify locations directly in Google Search or Google Maps
• Call History is officially launching in the US and Canada
• Messaging can be done directly in Google Search and read receipts can be controlled in Google Search and Maps
  
  

Some of these features are still only available for a select group of businesses, but expect them to become fully available soon. 

What Does This Mean for Multifamily? 

As it stands, these changes aren’t going to drastically impact the way you manage your local listings. The Google Business Profile console will still be available to manage multiple locations. 

However, we do anticipate there will be more changes coming to Google Business Profile as Google continues to allow more features to work directly within Google Search and Maps. So make sure you continue to follow REPLI for the most up-to-date information on managing your Google Business Profile listing.