Introduction to Google Business Profiles (GBP)

We've compiled our top Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) resources into one mega guide to help you learn how to optimize your profile to convert searchers into customers and grow your local search visibility.

What is Google Business Profile (GBP)? Google Business Profile is a free tool that allows business owners to engage with customers on Google. With a Google Business Profile you can easily connect with searchers across Google Search and Maps.

The benefits of GBP:

• Improved rankings - For local search queries Google will show Business Profiles in the search results. Optimized, well maintained profiles are likely to show up higher in the results. (Proximity aside).
• Increased visibility - With a Google Business Profile you can now show up for local results in the local pack, local finder and Maps, as well as organic search results. For many businesses this means an increase in visibility.
• Enhanced brand recognition - A fully optimized GBP can provide searchers all the information they need right in search results. As a brand, you can control how your business is presented through the data you share.

Own Your Branded Search Results

You can control how your business is presented for branded searches with the data you share in your GBP, reviews, images, feature use, and your website content.

A lot of businesses or SEOs find the constant changes in this product to be both confusing and frustrating. We've put together this guide to optimizing your Google Business Profile so you can take advantage of this product to benefit your business, own your branded search results, and earn more customers.

Anatomy of a Google Business Profile

Below is the anatomy of a Google Business Profile (GBP). See the corresponding chapters to find tips on how to take advantage of the features available.

Please note that Google frequently changes the layout and order of appearance of these sections. Not every profile looks the same and Google is frequently testing new layouts and releasing new features, so keep that in mind as you progress through this guide.

[New in 2022] The New Merchant Experience

In late 2022, Google changed the way business owners make updates to their Google Business Profile by releasing what is called the New Merchant Experience (NMX). This new interface is found directly on the search results page, and all edits to your business profile must be made here as Google has deprecated the Google Business Dashboard.

Anatomy of the NMX:

With the NMX, you'll find that all the settings for your Business Profile will be at the top of the search results page:

The features available to your business in this section will depend on your business category, country and other factors. For example, not every business will have the "Bookings" feature.

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