With the holiday season fast approaching and consumers already embarking on their holiday shopping, Google is looking to help businesses maximise their Google listings for the holidays through new claiming options and additional insights.
Google My Business is a powerful tool. It gives businesses a way of boosting their local search presence and engaging with customers online. But, there exists one nuance surrounding this platform – the verification process.
It seems Google too has come to realise this. The tech giant is now looking to make it easier for businesses to claim and customise their listings, with a new option to update and verify their profile – directly from Search and Maps.
As said by Google:
“Starting this week, you can easily claim and verify your Business Profile directly on Google Search or the Google Maps app. Search for your business by name and you’ll see an option to claim and verify the associated Business Profile. Once your business is verified, you can edit your business’ information, including the address, store hours, photos and more.”
Google is also adding some additional options to message customers from Search directly, with the addition of new metrics on inbound customer calls that originated from their Google Business Profile.
Introducing: Google Business Profile
Moving forward, “Google My Business” is being renamed to “Google Business Profile”. According to Google, the Google My Business app will be retired in 2022 so that more merchants can take advantage of the new experience on Search and Maps.
As for the existing Google My Business web experience, this will transition to support larger businesses with multiple locations, and will be renamed “Business Profile Manager”. It all sounds rather confusing, but Google will share more details on these changes in the months to come.
Showcase Local Inventories
With shoppers, and holiday shoppers in particular, they want to know what is available before they get to your store. If there is anything that the pandemic has taught us, it’s to plan ahead.
Google has recently announced the “in stock” filter on Search; this will ensure shoppers can see only the nearby stores that have stock of a specific item that they’re looking for.
Promote Your Location to Nearby Shoppers
If your focus lies on store-specific goals, or seasonal menu items, marketers can promote their location to nearby shoppers using Local Campaigns. This will enable easy connection with shoppers searching for businesses across Google Maps, Search, Display, and YouTube.
Google has made it easier than ever to plan local campaign budgets heading into the festive season using Performance Planner; this assists in creating plans for local advertising investments as well as how changes to those plans might affect outcomes and performance.
