Google Business Profile
Search Engine Land is your definitive source for Google Business Profile news and content. You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data-driven insights to help you optimize your local search presence, work smarter, and make better decisions.
Why Google Business Profile matters for your strategy
Google Business Profile (GBP) is essential for businesses looking to attract local customers, improve their online visibility, and manage customer relationships effectively. With new features like AI-transcribed menu uploads, staying updated on GBP innovations can significantly impact your local SEO strategy. Whether you’re optimizing GBP listings, managing reviews, or utilizing advanced insights, this page offers tools and tips tailored to your business goals.
Our comprehensive coverage ensures you stay ahead of trends, such as new features for Google Business Profile, changes to local search algorithms, and actionable tips for maximizing the impact of your GBP; we break down what these changes mean for your local SEO strategy.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, alongside subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
Explore strategies to improve your local visibility, manage customer interactions seamlessly, and improve your business’s reputation online
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Survey: More consumers trust accuracy of SMB websites over Google My Business
BrightLocal also found an overwhelming consumer preference for phone calls vs. other channels such as email and messaging.
Local SEOs mixed, some peeved at idea of paying for Google My Business services
They recognized the logic – but many had strong criticisms.
Google may decide to charge for Google My Business listings
If Google starts to charge for Google My Business listings it may introduce some issues for how Google defends their free/organic listings.
Google Posts can now highlight customer testimonials in some countries
Let your customers highlight your business with a new form of Google Posts.
Google adds short names and URLs to Google My Business listings
The new feature has yet to be publicized by Google, but local guides like Mike Blumenthal report that it's already available to some verified business in Google My Business.
Machine reservations: Google’s Duplex expanding to more Android, iPhone users
The technology appears to be ready for prime time as Google readies machine-based booking for categories beyond restaurants.
SMX Overtime: The new realities of local search
SEO expert Damian Rollison offers insights into the sites that matter for local search and ranking besides Google My Business, and why you should put some time into managing all of them.
SEO industry ‘a minefield of dodgy practitioners’: Australian official seeks action
Small business advocate is calling for new regulation.
Google My Business boosts visibility of business offers in Google Posts
A new feature in Google Posts can display up to 10 offers from your business.
Google opens complaint form to crack down on fake info in Maps
Will this reduce the issues with fraud and spam in the Google My Business listings? We'll see.
Google Q&A: More than 90 percent of questions unanswered by business owners
The answers that are there are mostly coming from Local Guides, who may or may not provide accurate information.
Business owners can now reply to reviews on Google Maps desktop
If you primarily use a desktop computer, you'll be happy to know that you can now reply to Google Maps reviews without opening a mobile app.
SearchCap: Google Ads click share, shopping ads & more
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: For retail advertisers, Shopping ads continue to overshadow text adsFeb 12, 2019 by Ginny Marvin Fourth-quarter reports from Marin and Merkle highlight the importance of Shopping ads for merchants’ search advertising […]
SearchCap: Bing Ads targets, Google AMA & Google Maps AR
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Is Google Maps what augmented reality has been waiting for?Feb 11, 2019 by Greg Sterling AR walking directions could be a breakthrough application for the industry. Bing Ads multiple language targeting: […]
Breaking down the new realities of local search: What we learned at SMX West
Experts at the San Jose event explored local rankings, Google Posts and dealing with competitors' location spoofing.
SearchCap: Google Search Console changes, hotel check-in/out data & search ad tracking
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Search Console to consolidate Search Performance reports to canonical URLFeb 6, 2019 by Barry Schwartz Big changes are coming to how Google reports on your data within Google Search Console. […]
Google My Business supports hotel check-in and check-out times
Google is now giving hotels a way to communicate even more about their properties to customers.
SearchCap: Local SEO survey, Moz domain authority and GOOG earnings
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 5 takeaways from Google’s Q4 2018 earnings for search marketersFeb 5, 2019 by Ginny Marvin Google executives discussed search experience, campaign, device and performance updates on Monday’s earnings call. Moz upgrades […]
5 takeaways from Google’s Q4 2018 earnings for search marketers
Google executives discussed search experience, campaign, device and performance updates on Monday's earnings call.
Survey: Local SEO an ‘artisanal’ discipline dominated by small agencies
Roughly 53 percent of firms doing local SEO have 10 or fewer clients.
SearchCap: Bing Maps API, Google and YouTube ads and targeted SEO
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Now your Google text ads can show on YouTube search results, tooJan 30, 2019 by Ginny Marvin Google says early tests have shown similar performance results for text ads on YouTube […]
SearchCap: Google AMP errors, Google My Business messaging & Search Engine Land Awards
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: DuckDuckGo is growing fast but not enough to grab SEOs’ attentionJan 28, 2019 by Greg Sterling The search engine’s share is small but some of its metrics are better than Bing’s, […]
Data: Google organic search CTRs decline on desktop, see big drop on phones
Mobile organic clicks on declined roughly 10 points between 2016 and 2018.
SearchCap: Amazon adds acquisition metrics, Google Posts, SMX West starts next week
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Get started with marketing automation–learn the terms you need to know Jan 23, 2019 by Digital Marketing Depot For businesses involved in digital marketing, marketing automation has quickly become a game-changer. […]
The Most Critical Google Ads (AdWords) Trends of 2019
Search engine marketing (SEM) has been a game-changing marketing tool for companies for the last ten years. But today, creating a simple ad is not enough to keep driving traffic to websites. Search has become so complex that it is prohibitively difficult for the average individual to create a successful search ad. AdPoint Agency, a […]
SearchCap: Amazon’s record-breaking holiday season, Google My Business updates, more
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Amazon had a record-breaking holiday season, here’s how advertisers managed it Jan 22, 2019 by Melissa Reilly The holiday season brought improved Sponsored Brand ad copy approval times but policy enforcement […]
Small business scammer shut down by Google lawsuit
Defendant firm had falsely represented that it was acting on behalf of Google.
Google offers improved GMB sign-up flow for service-area businesses
Improved process will make it easier to set up service areas on GMB.
Google’s internal SEO strategy: Make small changes, embrace change, consolidate
Google gave a rare glimpse into how they manage their 7,000 internal websites.
Leading local SEO predictions: Reserve with Google will grow, real-time local inventory gets real
GMB messaging, voice search optimization, local inventory data, Q&A and the decline of SMB websites are all explored.
Google emphasizes ‘Message this business’ in new local search test
Take notice, Google is testing a more prominent look for the messaging feature in the local search results. Is your business ready to manage text messages from your customers?
Ask an SMXpert: New approaches in customization can build better analytics reports
Data-driven digital marketing expert Simon Poulton outlines opportunities in various solutions to customize dimensions for more focused analytics reporting.
Year in Review: Top 10 SEO expert columns of 2018
Here's a look at the most read columns from our SEO experts that stood above the rest this year.
SEO Year In Review: 2018 saw Google updates and a focus on mobile
Here is our recap of what happened in SEO in 2018 - with links and summaries of some of the bigger changes throughout the year in search and SEO.
Will Google Home Hub ever become a useful local search tool?
Just a few modest improvements would make Home and Home Hub more effective for local search.
SearchCap: Google Maps personalization, Google AMP report & Google shopping
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: What’s a CDP? Does your company need one?Dec 10, 2018 by Digital Marketing Depot Gartner predicts that the average US adult will own more than six smart devices by 2020, making […]
Google Maps’ ‘For You’ tab comes to iPhones and a whole lot more countries
The personalized recommendations tool will be available in 130 countries on Android and 40 on iOS devices.
Google shutting down Allo, where Google Assistant made its debut
The company is investing in Duo and Android Messages, where it says it's seeing consumer traction.
SearchCap: Google’s filter bubble, live streams in search & exact match naming
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google search now supports live streams with Indexing API, structured dataDec 5, 2018 by Barry Schwartz Do you live stream video content? Here is a new way to get more exposure […]
SearchCap: Bing in SwiftKey, Google My Business API & Intent Lab search insights
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing teams up with Intent Lab to add deeper AI-powered insights to searchNov 29, 2018 by Robin Kurzer The partnership aims to provide deeper insights to help marketers align their messaging […]