4 New Features of Google Maps to Grow Your Local Business Presence

The advent of the twenty-first century was manifested with the launch of the most important tool for local SEOi.e., Google Maps. This marvelous development by Google is a web mapping service that provides dozens of commendable features that assist people in traveling. This development has revolutionized the perception of traveling ever since its dawn and its popularity is still burgeoning day by day.
Google Maps which initially emerged as a web application in 2005 was too neonate as compared to its present version which evolved and is now equipped with features that one couldn’t even think of at the time of its launch. Soon, the Google Maps app for Android Operating System was released which opened a new chapter in the history of the application. Its usage has reached about 1 billion monthly users worldwide.

What are the Uses of Google Maps for Businesses

The prevalence of this app on such a large scale has made it a spectacular platform for business owners to promote and expand their businesses, especially after the launch of a significant update in 2018. This app is extraordinarily beneficial for the business that operates under physical location.
This is so because this app not only functions as a search engine for finding the business that the user intends to find, but it also serves as a map that directs him to the location of that particular business. Google maps are deemed to be a crucial mobile traffic driver owing to the fact that a large proportion of mobile searches are “Location-based”.
Google Maps weigh much for the business owners as it permits the users to efficiently contact their business, motivates them to visit the business’s website, displays the business with images, and offers customer credibility as well!
Google Maps has consistently launched new updates to enhance user experience. This blog talks about the recent groundbreaking updates on google maps and explores how businesses can use these updates to their advantage.
New Google Map updates
Following are some of the upcoming and newly launched Google map updates for the local businesses and their users in general

1. Sending messages from maps and search

To provide its users with a better experience, Google is bringing a new update where direct messages can be sent and received from maps and search. This update is actually available to verified business profiles in order for the customers to contact them directly from the Google Map App.
These messages will then appear in the updated tabs under the “Business Messages” section. If you have a verified business profile, you can turn this feature on or off according to your needs and ease. You can turn it off from the setting panel of the Google Maps and My Business app.
The most recent update from Google Maps enables business owners to see and respond to customers on the desktop by adding messages directly in the search box.Due to this new update, customers can now initiate a new conversation with the business account through any post created in the Google My Business app, before this update, customers could only contact the business profile by clicking on the “Message” button present on the business profile.

2. New Updated Performance Insights

With every new update, Google is modifying its metric system to critically analyze the dataset to get more accurate rankings. New performance insights have been introduced to the metric system of the Google My Business (GMB) app where it allows the system to track the progress of a business by keeping a track of the number of customer engagements initiated from Maps and Search.
Moreover, the new update to the performance insights will show the queries people used to find their listing in Maps and Search to the respective businesses.
Now if you are a business owner, you might be interested in finding out the information that gets tracked by the new updates in the GMB app. Theseinclude:
• The total number of searches that boosted or triggered your business profile.
• List of the terms people used in the search box in order to find your business profile. It gives you an idea of what your customer wants or is actually looking for.
• Exactly how many times a search term triggered your profile
• The relative performance statistics from last years
Google is planning on adding a new update this year where it will show you whether the customer found you through Maps or Search and on what device (i.e., mobile or desktop)

3. Addition of the community feed feature

In the upcoming update, a new community feed is being added in the ‘explore tab’ of Google Maps.Following this update, the feed users will be able to view the latest photos, reviews and posts added to the Google Maps by the experts and by the visitors of that place.
This feature becomes one of the most compelling reasons to keep your business listing updated on a daily basis because the frequency of you posting content to your business profile will directly affect the frequency of it occurring in the peoples' community feed.

4. Street View feature

Google is testing its new feature to launch in the market. After this update, people will be able to contribute graphics or imagery to Street View by their phones. By using this app, users will not only be able to put pictures but also record a series of connected images as they move down a street or a road.
Once you have recorded and uploaded particular footage, Google will automatically rotate, position, and put the sequence of these images together in order to create an elaborate view.

How Does this Feature Help Local Businesses?

It helps businesses in areas without a good street view coverage, to get global coverage which will help the customers find them easily and eventually leading to good and growing business. If you are a local business owner, you can put a street view of the outside of your business area to enhance the location description to your street which will eventually help your customers in locating you.

This feature is actually available for people using the app with an ARcore-compatible device in Canada, Toronto, New York, and many other countries. And this update is expected to be introduced in many other countries in the near future.
These are some of the key updates that Local SEO Service Providers and SEO companies, in general, are keenly looking at because these can turn out to be deal-breakers for businesses and their online presence. That is why you need to be aware of these newer updates and stay one step ahead of others.
This is it for today. If you want to learn about International SEO in 2021 as well, do check this blog for deeper insights. I hope you enjoyed the blog and have learned something valuable. Don’t forget to leave your feedback and feel free to ask if you have any questions. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Do share it with your friends so they can benefit as well. Thank you!