What Google Business Profile Means for Your Dealership

Google My Business is now Google Business Profile

The product and its name have evolved over many years as Google has sought to better build and tailor its tool for local businesses in the United States and markets around the world.

Google launched its local product, Google Local Business Center, in 2005. It was rebranded as Google Places in 2009 and Google+ Local in 2011. With the demise of Google+, the company changed direction again, rolling out Google My Business in 2014. Seven years later, Google adopted a new, smoother, moniker, Google Business Profile.

What is Google Business Profile and how is it different?

Google Business Profile is like a virtual phonebook that not only makes your business easier to find on Google but helps your business to reach potential customers that would otherwise not know how to find you. It allows for your business listing to show up alongside other related local businesses whenever someone looks up your business name or a related term. Business details such as phone number, website, address, review ratings, hours, and more will all be available on one easy screen for potential customers.

Google Business Profile lets a business control the way their listing appears on Google Search and Maps, and allows the business to post updates, connect with customers, list products and services, accept online orders, etc. Now, single listing businesses are encouraged to manage listings within Google Search or Maps, on the web or in-app, instead of on the product’s console. That interface, now called Business Profile Manager, will be geared towards multiple location businesses and enterprise. Google plans to retire the Google My Business app next year.

With the rebrand, Google has added new features, including, the ability to claim and verify a Google Business Profile entirely within Search and Maps, message directly from Google Search, and control message read receipts in Google Search and Maps.

Google has made it possible to respond to reviews, message with customers, upload photos, create enticing offers, and share what makes your business unique from within Google Search and Maps. Plus, businesses can see in a glance how and how much customers interact with its profile and have notifications when a customer connects. While this represents a significant shift in how this information is managed, the value of having the experts at The Automotive Advertising Agency handle your Google Business Profile has not changed at all.

How important is Google Business Profile to local search?

Very! Google Business Profile is incredibly relevant in 2021. The statistics speak volumes. Google has over 90 percent of the search engine market share and has reported that a whopping 46 percent of all searches have local intent. Fifty-six percent of actions on Google Business Profile listings are website visits, 24 percent are calls to the business, and 20 percent are direct searches.

There are several outstanding benefits to leveraging Google Business Profile, your dealership shows up in Google Maps searches, you can become a part of Google Search’s 3-pack, it helps you create trust with customers, its ratings boost your appeal, the listing can increase your traffic, it can teach you more about your customers, the profile helps you to rank higher in results, and it can grow engagement with your brand.

Increasing your dealership’s visibility on Google is massively important. Local search has exploded as businesses small and large have pushed their marketing focus online, especially over the past two years. Google Business Profile is the number one local search ranking factor, with over one-third of the total share!

Let us show you how to get the most from Google Business Profile to drive even more customers to your showroom or service center. We can work together to harness the incredible power of local search to give vehicle shoppers a compelling reason to choose your dealership. Give us, The Automotive Ad Agency, a call at 512-610-7300, or contact us at TheAutoAdAgency.com/contact/, for more information.