Google’s a necessity for any business in 2021. It’s also never staying still. This can be super helpful for your business — so long as you keep up with and utilize Google’s changes.

Most recently, they’ve got a handful of changes to Google My Business. Here’s what they do and how you can take advantage of them:

First off: New attributes

Between the end of 2020 and the first half of 2021, there have been quite a few changes here.

For starters, there have been a lot of updates to what you can add as far as your business’ attributes. This includes attributes regarding your venue’s accessibility, who owns and leads your business, and health and safety; for the latter, hotels and restaurants especially have a bunch of options for attributes they can highlight.

For accessibility, with Google My Business you’re now able to highlight not only that your store is wheelchair accessible, but also (if relevant) if your bathroom and seating are wheelchair accessible. As for the ownership and leadership attributes, you can now update your Google My Business profile to include whether your business is Black-owned, veteran-led, or woman-led. Then with health and safety, you can indicate your business’s mask requirements, whether customers need a reservation, whether you take temperature checks, and more.

Also important to note: Businesses in the hospitality industry have a whole other section of attributes they can highlight. For example, restaurants can indicate their service options of whether they offer dine-in, takeout, or curbside delivery. Meanwhile, hotels have the following to highlight:

• Health and safety measures including COVID-19 responder policy, wellness, and accessibility
• Internet offerings
• Food and drink offerings
• Payment options
• Amenities, recreation, and other services
• Children’s options
• Pool on premise
• Parking and transportation
• Business offerings and events
• Pets policy

Screenshot example of new attributes on GMB

What other changes are new with GMB?

Beyond new attributes, Google My Business has some other updates too. One of these is that GMB is now able to integrate with Wix websites. Now, businesses can access GMB data and customer interactions, plus manage their GMB profile directly from Wix.

You also now have new means to communicate with customers and gain competitor insights. This is because Google offers a tool that allows businesses to directly communicate with users via the Google My Business platform.

While this can be quite helpful, in some cases someone who messages you with this feature will be prompted to similarly reach out to other relevant businesses — AKA your competitors, which you obviously wouldn’t prefer as a business-owner. That being said, it goes both ways — if you have this messaging feature enabled, then when someone contacts your competitor through it, they could also be prompted to contact you with their same request.

And on the flip side, if you feel you have a demonstrably better product, then it could be in your best interest for users to be prompted to contact your competitors after they contact you. For example, if doing so will lead a customer to seeing your competitors’ prices are higher than yours, or if you believe your customer service will be shown to be clearly superior, then this could work to your advantage.

Another change is new review management capabilities. Now, Google’s given businesses the ability to request removal of a review if they suspect it’s spam or otherwise fake. Google’s also begun putting a “New” label next to recent reviews so that other users can know which are the most timely.

Lastly, you’ll now have expanded editing capabilities in Google Search and Maps.

With this new family of features, you’ll be able to edit your business’s service offerings and schedule Google Posts now directly within Search. And, if you’re a restaurant owner, you can now add menu items from Search and Maps. Google’s also working on adding the ability to edit customers’ ordering options.

These changes are really great for you to be able to better inform and engage with your customer base and those interested in your products or services. It also means, though, that if you don’t take advantage of these features, you could lose ground to competitors who are better utilizing them. In the end, it’s a no-brainer: Not taking advantage of Google My Business updates leaves you behind, while fully utilizing it puts your business in a better position to succeed.