What Is Google My Business (Now Google Business Profile)?

On November 4, 2021, Google announced on its official blog that "Google My Business" would become "Google Business Profile." The exact wording, signed by Matt Madrigal, then Vice President and General Manager of Merchant Shopping, recommended that small businesses manage their profile directly on Search or Maps, and stated that to keep things simple, Google My Business was being renamed Google Business Profile (fact verified directly against the official source, see Sources at the end of this article).

In practice, across articles, courses, and SEO tools, "Google Business Profile" and the old name still coexist almost evenly. And "Google My Business" remains, by a wide margin, the term people search for most on this topic: years after the rename, plenty of business owners still learn the tool under a name that hasn't been official for a long time. That's why this guide keeps that term in the URL, while the content itself uses today's correct name throughout. That's not a contradiction, it's a deliberate choice: whoever searches for the old term should still find the page, and whoever reads it should still get the current facts.

It wasn't just a label change. The same announcement carried a second, less-known decision: in 2022, Google would retire the standalone Google My Business mobile app, so merchants could use the upgraded experience on Search and Maps directly. That part of the announcement explains most of the confusion that still surrounds this topic today, and it's covered in the next section.

Of the four changes in that table, the one that trips up most business owners isn't the name, it's the app disappearing. Plenty of guides and tutorials, even recent ones, still tell readers to "open the Google My Business app," an app that simply isn't available to download anymore.

Google's official documentation lays out two distinct paths, and picking the wrong one is one of the most common mistakes when getting started. If no Business Profile exists for the business on Search or Maps, the path is to create one at business.google.com/add. But if an unverified profile already exists, the correct path is to claim it through Google Maps, searching for the business name and city and selecting "Claim this business" (fact verified directly against the official source, see Sources).

That second scenario is more common than it sounds. Google can generate a profile automatically from public data, such as a directory listing or Maps data a user has marked as visited. Anyone can also suggest a new place on Maps without the business owner having done anything yet. The result is that many businesses already have a visible, unverified profile on Google, without anyone at the company knowing, sitting there waiting for someone to claim it.

That's why the real first step, before filling out any form, is searching for the business name on Google Maps and Search. If something shows up, even incomplete or miscategorized, claiming it is the right move, not creating a duplicate. Setting up a new profile when one already exists almost always ends with two listings for the same business competing against each other for the same searches, a problem that then requires a merge request that can take weeks to resolve. During that time, reviews, photos, and search visibility get split across two listings instead of building up one profile, which hits small businesses with few reviews the hardest.

The retired app is the other half of that same 2022 update. Before, managing the profile, responding to reviews, uploading photos, or changing hours ran almost entirely through the Google My Business app. With it gone, that work now splits across three channels: the Google Maps app, Google Search itself when signed in with the account linked to the profile, and the web dashboard at business.google.com. Google's current Maps help documentation confirms this: once a profile is verified, changes get made through Maps and Search, with no mention of any separate app (see Sources). Anyone still searching the Play Store or App Store for "the Google Business Profile app" won't find it, because it no longer exists as a standalone application.

A Google Business Profile solves one specific need: someone searching for a business, by name or by category near their location, finds hours, address, phone number, photos, and other customers' reviews in seconds, without leaving Google. On Search, that profile shows up as a knowledge panel next to the results; for local searches, it appears inside the three-result Maps pack that often leads the page, ahead of even traditional organic search. A complete profile, with the right category, real photos, and recent reviews, directly improves the organic CTR of that result, since it gives people more reasons to click or call without ever visiting the website.

The profile also supports short posts, public questions and answers, booking or ordering links, and direct messaging with the business. All of that counts as local SEO, the slice of ranking that depends on proximity and these exact signals alongside on-site content. Reviews in particular work as one of the most visible trust signals both users and Google can see, something that comes close to what E-E-A-T describes for written content: a factor built one review at a time, with no shortcuts. Photos work the same way: images the business itself uploads carry more weight with users and with Google than generic stock photography or shots passersby happen to add.

What a profile doesn't do is replace a website. It doesn't host a full product catalog, doesn't process payments, and offers far less customization than a site of your own. It doesn't guarantee a fixed position either: placement in the map pack depends on relevance, distance, and reputation, all of which shift with every search and every nearby competitor. A poorly maintained profile, with outdated hours, the wrong category, or reviews left unanswered, can hurt a business more than help it, especially when the local target audience compares several profiles before deciding. Repeated policy violations, like a fake address or purchased reviews, can also get a profile suspended, which wipes out visibility on Search and Maps entirely until the case gets resolved.

• Before creating a new profile, search for the business name on Google Maps and Search: if something already shows up, claim that profile instead of creating a duplicate.
• Verify the profile as early as possible; until it's verified, other people can suggest edits that go live without the business reviewing them.
• Keep the name, address, and phone number identical across the profile, the website, and any directory the business appears in.
• Upload real photos of the location, the team, and the products, and update the hours whenever holidays or vacations change them.
• Respond to reviews, both good and bad, instead of leaving them unanswered.
• Use the profile's posts and Q&A section to reflect real updates, not as a generic ad space.

• Creating a new profile without first checking whether one already exists, either generated automatically by Google or suggested by a user, which ends in a duplicate and a merge request that can take weeks.
• Looking for the standalone mobile app Google retired in 2022, instead of managing the profile through Maps, Search, or the web dashboard at business.google.com.
• Leaving a profile unverified for months, which means the business has no real control over what information gets shown.
• Ignoring negative reviews instead of responding to them professionally.
• Picking a category or address that doesn't match the actual business, just to show up in more local searches.
• Creating a separate profile for every employee or service at the same location, instead of running one well-maintained profile.