Google Renames 'Google My Business' Platform to ‘Google Business Profile’

If you closely follow the Mployer Advisor blog or attended our recent webinar extolling the benefits of harnessing a Google My Business profile, it will come as little surprise that this piece of rebranding news from Google caught our attention.

Yesterday, Google announced in a statement that the company’s Google My Business platform will be known as Google Business Profile going forward. Google attributes the name change to a desire to “keep things simple.”

In 2022, the company will also retire the Google My Business app altogether “so merchants can take advantage of the upgraded experience on Search and Maps.”

Google recommended that small business manage their profiles directly on Search or Maps prior to the transition. For more details on how employers can easily claim and verify their Google Business Profile directly on Search and Maps, here’s an explainer.

The tech giant also noted, “The existing Google My Business web experience will transition to primarily support larger businesses with multiple locations . . we’ll share more details on these changes in the months ahead.”

With the name change announcement, Google also said that new features would roll out, including a Performance Planner designed to help businesses more easily decide how much to invest around important events or in driving certain business goals.

As Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land rightfully noted, this is not the first time Google’s local business platform rebranded. Before Google My Business, the platform was called Google Places, before that Google + Local and so on.

More to come as we see what other features or long-term plans Google plans to roll out.

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