Is Google My Business going premium?

Google My Business has been a boon for millions of business, being utilized by many digital marketing companies, SMEs & large corporations. It is a tool offered by tech giant Google with which all kinds of organizations can take full control of the information being shown about them on the internet. Having a complete set of GMB information about your business proves to be a boon for your search presence. It even gets you featured in the local-3 pack for eg: when you search for restaurants around you, a list of 3 restaurants along with map locations will appear at the to of the SERPs. All the collective services provided by GMB have been free for all.

Benefits of Google My Business

Keep your information updated:

You or the online marketing company you hire can constantly update the information that is displayed about your business on the Internet. Users searching for businesses like you will see you as a better preference if they get more details about you for eg: your website, your location, your working hours, your social media handles and more.

Express what your brand is all about:

GMB also allows you to add certain content that helps you to be more expressive about what your brand is and what it offers to the people. There are various options like adding an introductory paragraph, adding a few frequently answered questions(FAQ) that your target audience would usually wonder about when it comes to choosing a business like yours for their problems. It also shows the reviews shared about your brand by your previous customers which, if positive, raises your brand value and helps to improve your relationship with all the major search engines on the internet. You can take help from one of the best digital marketing agencies in Mumbai to write better content for your business.

Respond to customer grievances:

Having GMB by your side, you can solve the questions, queries, and grievances your customers have relating to your brand. Here are a few examples:

1. Some customers might be lost when it comes to searching for your business’s physical location. When they search for your restaurant on Google Maps, Google My Business marks your presence on Google Maps along with other details of your business such as reviews, photos, contact details, etc. This will solve the problem of finding your business’s physical presence.
2. There will be customers who will drop reviews for your brand which can contain suggestions, positive testimonials or their grievances with your offerings. You can easily tend to these reviews and if they are negative you can conveniently get in touch with them and solve the issues they have.

GMB has been an absolutely free tool provided and supported by Google. However, a detailed questionnaire has gone out to many GMB users. This survey hints on GMB features that can be released as premium features in the near future. Sean Butcher was the first to get the questionnaire and tweet about it.

The features that might be included in the Premium Subscription

In the latter part of this survey, information is taken on the investment amount of the business in advertising and online marketing. The survey wanted to know if it is less than $500 or that amount or more than that. Here is the list of GMB features that will possibly be included when you take a premium Google My Business subscription:

• Google customer support: Google will provide support when it comes to making the most out of your investment in your Google Business Profile and advertising on Google.
• ‘Book’ button on your business profile: You can activate a ‘Book’ button on your business profile.
• Promote your ‘Book’ button: Google search results will display the ‘book’ button from your business profile.
• Verified reviews: For those businesses suffering due to fake reviews, google comes to the rescue by verifying reviews being placed on your business profile.
• Promoted map pin: Your business will pop up on the map when someone will search around in a map where your business is located.
• Call reports and recordings: This is a feature many medium and large enterprises are already availing. Google will provide call recordings and reports on calls made through your business profile.
• Verified bookings: A feature many e-commerce stores use, Google will collect information on the users making appointments with your business and displays the date on your business profile.
• Automated message responses: A feature we feel wouldn’t be necessary, Google will receive information from you about some frequently asked questions like hours open, services offered, etc. and automatically answer those who are asking these questions on your business profiles.  
• Automated response for reviews: Google will also automatically reply to reviews for which you create messages and send to Google.
• Google search results placement: An already existing feature in the form of Google Ads, Google will show your business at the top in a google search result.
• Get leads from competitor profiles: This feature is pretty surprising. When a customer messages a business similar to yours, your business will be suggested to the customer to ask for the same services.
• Background check: Google will carry out a background check on your business and show the display the data to customers, building trust in your business. This feature is good but it can hamper the growth of small businesses.
• Instant Quote: This feature lets you provide an instant quote to certain quote situations.
• Request Quote: Similar to instant quote, this feature lets your customers request a quote for your offerings.
• Offers: Google will display offers and promotional discounts that are currently being provided by your business.
• Featured Review: Google will feature a review of your choice at the top of your business profile.
• Google Guarantee: Google guarantees that your business is reliable and will return the money to the customer if they are genuinely unsatisfied with the service.
• Remove ads from your business profile: A very important feature, google might remove ads placed on your business profile on the listings for a price. For eg: Let’s say you are a book store. If someone discovers your business profile on the business listings, they would also see an ad beneath your name of some third party booksellers, whoever bids more( Amazon would be an obvious possibility). Now due to this, there would be a high chance of Amazon stealing business from under your nose. But now if you subscribe for displaying your business profile without ads, it will make a huge benefit for your business.
• Verified licenses: Google will display licenses provided by you on your business profile communicating that you are a trustable business.
• Video on your business profile: A feature already existing within the Photos area, Google will show a video provided by you that will describe what your business is all about.

Conclusion:

Many of the features that Google has mentioned in the survey either already exist through some other Google or third party service, or are pointless. However, there are a few features that make a huge positive difference to the business. But again these are a few. We feel that all business will have to make an addition in their marketing expenses with the GMB premium subscription. This won’t affect large enterprises, however this new offering will impact SMEs. But we feel that this expense isn’t as fruitful as it seems. However, you can avail the other benefits that Google provides as a search engine. Being one of the best SEO companies in Mumbai, we have harnessed the power of Search Engine Optimization to provide explosive growth and ROI to our clients. Contact Us to talk more about your requirements today!