In one of our previous blog post, you’ve learnt how to create a Google Business Profile for your business from scratch. Now in this post, you will learn how to edit or update your business information accurately on your newly created Google business profile. It is also crucial part of doing local SEO.
To keep your business information on Google search accurate and up to date, you can edit your Business Profile on Google after it has been verified. While you can make changes to an unverified Google business profile, the changes will only be visible after completing the Google business profile verification process.
So, make sure you have been claimed or verified your Google business profile because claiming and verifying Google Business Profile (GBP) is the first priority if you want to make edit and update business information accurate and up to date on your business profile.
New Editing Google Business Profile on Google search via the NMX
Managing a GBP listing from Google search is not new thing. Most of business owner’s already have been managing Google business profile from Google search since 2017.
Earlier before, managing Google business profile was done in Google’s business manager platform which was look like below,
But now business owners allowed to manage and edit their business profile right from Google Search. This means you must understand how to effectively make the most of your Business Profile in the “in-search experience” (or New Merchant Experience/‘NMX’ as it is sometimes called) or via the bulk edit function at business.google.com.
NMX is the new Google Search interface used to manage your Google Business Profile in Google Search.
How to Edit and Manage your Google Business Profile on Google Search
First you have to find your Google business profile, To find your profile, make sure you must sign in to the Google Account associated with it.
- On Google Search, search for my business.
- On Google Search or Maps, search for your business’s name and city.
Note: If you’re managing more than one business, at the top, click the Down arrow. Then, select the business you want.
Here how’s it will show your business profile on Google search look a little something like this:
This is the Google Search interface used to manage your Google Business Profile in Google Search.
On the right side, the section is called Merchant Panel, where you’ll see the main menu, three-dot menu, Carousal Cards.
In the Merchant Panel, you will see two main items: the menu and the cards.
The menu section allows you to perform the main functionality of managing your Google Business Profile. This is where you can edit your profile, add posts, upload photos, include products and services, respond to reviews and messages, etc.
The menus in your Merchant Panel depend on your business categories. So what you see may look different than another business in a different industry.
And if you click the three dots for accessing following additional features to customize and control your Business Profile:
- Manage users: Add or remove profile managers
- Profile details: View your Business Profile ID
- Business status: Mark as temporarily or permanently closed
- Remove business: Delete your profile
And Carousal Cards are little “cues” or hints on things you may want to do or act on with your Business Profile. Carousal Cards will also vary as per the business category.
In order of left to right in the merchant panel’s menu section, we’ll go through in each of these options one by one and learnt what’s inside it and how you can edit and update it.
Edit Profile
From the “Edit profile” menu, you can edit your core information about your business, such as:
- Business name
- Business categories
- Description
- Opening date
- Phone number
- Website
- Business address or service areas
- Business hours
- Attributes/More information:
- From the business (You can add attributes like women-owned, veteran-owned, LGBTQ+-owned, etc.
- Crowd (i.e., LGBTQ-friendly)
- Highlights
- Offerings (i.e., drive-through)
- Planning (i.e., Appointment Required, Accepting New Patients)
- Service options (i.e., Offers online appointments, Offers online care, Language assistance)
Depending on your business category, you may see other additional options available like:
- Check-in and check-out times (hotels only).
- Hotel information (hotels only).
- Health insurance (medical categories in the U.S. only).
- Offers online care (medical categories only).
- Or other options.
Note: what you have available options to you will depend on your business category type.
Learn more about how to edit your and modify business information on Google business profile accurately here.
Read Reviews
Paying attention to your customer reviews is essential to growing your business.
In this section you’ll be able to see and respond to reviews received by your customers recently.
Once you click on read reviews menu, it opens a pop up box where you’ll see total number of reviews with average rating score on the top.
Below average review score you’ll see there is a “Reply Review” button and a “Get more reviews” button.
If you click on the “Reply Review” button. You’ll see a reply message popup box where you’ll respond to that review to show the customers that you care and provide additional context.
If you click on the “Get more reviews” button. You can request reviews from customers by sharing a “URL shortlink” to your business.
Below both “Reply Review” button and a “Get more reviews” button. You’ll see all reviews which has three filter options i.e. “All”, “Replied” and “Unreplied”. Additionally, you can sort them in four types i.e. Most Relevant, Newest, Highest Rating, Lowest Rating.
Most Relevant and Newest are sorting in the order form. The reviews are by default ordered by “Most relevant”. and you can see newest reviews recently published by sorting in “Newest” order.
And “Highest Rating” and “lowest Rating” are sorting based on the rating score. All scores are rated on a scale from 1 to 5 stars, with 5 as the highest rating and 1 as the lowest.
Learn more about how you can manage Google business Profile Reviews here.
Photos
This Photos menu let you upload photos and videos on your Google business profile.
By clicking on “Photos” menu, you will see a popup as shown below in which you can add photos, add your business official logo, and choose your ‘cover’ photo.
Here you’ll see three options for photos uploading:
- Add Photos : Here you can upload photos and videos from your business. As per business prospective here are following kind of business specific pictures you can upload for your business:
- Exterior Photos of Office Building’s facade, Office Main door, Business Billboard Signage are the best.
- Interior Photos inside of your office, your team photos and what kind of work you do inside the office.
- Product Photos or videos you’re selling, plus the services you offer, etc.
- Logo : Upload your business logo which helps your potential customers recognize your business on Google.
- Cover Photo: Upload your best photo that represents the best your business nature. Remember that whatever cover photo you have been uploaded, it doesn’t guarantee the cover photo will show up as the first image for your local knowledge panel.
Another easiest way to add photos and videos is directly from your Business Profile with in just a few clicks.
Performance
In this menu, You can check your performance insights of your Business Profile over a given time period. Just need to set a date range and get the following kind of performance data on how people interact with your business on Google.
- Overview of the total Business Profile interactions
- Calls
- Messages
- Bookings
- Directions
- Website clicks
- How your products performed
- Top products
- How people discovered you – by platform (Google Search or Maps) and devices (Mobile or Desktop)
- Organic Search Breakdown – How people found your GBP by Searching keywords
Advertise
This links take you to Google Ads Smart Campaign just in case you want to spend some money and run paid advertisement on your Google business profile to be on the top.
Edit Products
Adding products to your Google Business Profile can help showcase your offerings right when customers search for your business. In this section, you can add your products that you’re selling to your potential customers. If you’re a retail business then this would be great to show your products to your potential customers.
Once you click on “Edit Products” a popup will appear on the screen as shown below in the screenshot. Then click on “Get Started” button.
Now you’ll add all the details about each of the individual products you’re selling such as:
- Product name
- Product Category
- Product Price
- Product Discounted Price (Optional)
- Product Description
- Product Landing page URL (Optional)
- And Adding Product Photo Option
Once you’ve added all the product details, then simply click the “Publish” button and it will appear within a while in your Google business profile.
Edit Services
If you are a service-based business, then this section is made for you. Here is where you will list the types of services that your business offers.
For example, if you’re a barber shop, you might choose categories like hairdresser, hair coloring, hairstyling, haircut and more. Then under each category, you would include each service that falls under those main categories.
Bookings
If you let customers book appointments with you using tools like HubSpot, then this feature lets you add a special link. People can click the link to see your calendar and pick a time to schedule a meeting with you.
There are two types of booking buttons Google business profile provides:
Featured book button: which prominently display a button at the top of your profile to let customers book with your preferred Google integration partners.
Also Links to your Online booking tools: Let customers book you directly through custom links to your online booking pages. This could be a webpage URL of your own website (don’t forget to UTM tag it up!)
Choose your best as per your nature of your business.
Q&A
The Q&A feature lets customers and potential customers ask you questions about your business, and you can answer them.
But keep in mind, anyone can ask or answer these questions, so it’s important that you check them often and try to be the first to respond.
Add Update
Updates are actually just Google Business Profile posts. To make one, just click on “Add update,” and you can create a post, offer, or event.
Click on “Add Update” to add a new post to your listing.
Be sure to click “Preview” to make sure your post looks good, and then click “Post” to publish it. It will appears in few minutes at the Google business profile mid section.
Ask for reviews
Getting reviews is super important for your local SEO and business reputation. The “Ask for reviews” button takes you to the same referral link page as the one under “read reviews.”
When your customer’s click on that link, it takes them straight to your Google Business Profile, so they can easily leave a review as per their experienced.
What’s inside the three dots menu in the top right in the Menu panel?
The three-dot menu is easy to miss because it’s on the right side of the main menu and kind of hard to spot.
But it has some important features to help you manage your Business Profile better. When you click it, you’ll find:
- Business Profile settings
- Notifications
- Add a new Business Profile
- Your Business Profiles
- Help & support
- Send feedback
- Terms and Service
The most important section is Business profile settings in which you can do following things:
You can add, edit or remove peoples who mange your Google Business Profile.
You can also see advanced settings, like your Business Profile ID, Shop codes, enable/disable phone number display to your customers.
You can mark your business as permanently closed, transfer ownership, or remove it (though Google makes the final decision).
Check link requests from other Google products, like Google Ads or Google Merchant Center.
In the Notifications section, set up email alerts for customer messages, reviews, Q&As, bookings, and more.
If you manage more than one Google Business Profile, the “Your Business Profiles” section is really useful.
Here, you can see all the profiles you manage. Just click the one you want, and you’ll go straight to it in Google search.
You can also add and manage more profiles from this section.
Google CTA Carousel Cards
Under the Menu section icons in the Merchant Panel described above, you’ll find a carousel of related Google CTAs, such as:
- Complete your profile
- Add photos
- Get custom email
- Add update
- Get more reviews
- Create an offer
- Claim your credit
- Set up booking
- See your latest photos
- Add a map to your website
Keep an eye on Google’s notifications and call-to-actions (CTAs). They can help you see which parts of your profile might need fixing, and also show you which features of Google Business Profile (GBP) and other Google services they want more people to use.
The ‘NMX’ or IN-SERP GBP editing tool is what most businesses use to update their Google business listings. This guide will show you how to use the direct editing tool to do the most common tasks for businesses. Just remember, the Google’s editing tool is always evolves and changing, so stay alert for updates, and I’ll keep an eye out too!
