Google Map is a web mapping service offered by Google. It is one of the finest services provided by Google that help businesses to reach their customers easily and effortlessly. Recently they have updated Maps with 4 innovative features that will help businesses and improve searches. These features will not only improve the users experience but also help businesses to connect with a wider audience through this platform.
Let’s check the new updates that will be useful to you:
Messaging from Maps & Search:
To make the work more effortless Google has come up with messaging features to map and search where communication becomes easy between businesses and consumers. Businesses that have verified profiles in Google My business can take the benefits of these features to connect with their customers. They can communicate with their customers through Google Maps app. These messages from customers will be seen in the business messages section in the updates tab. Messaging can be turned on or off from the setting panel of the Google maps and Google My Business apps.
So far messaging features are only available for mobile devices but slowly and gradually Google will be coming up with desktop versions to add messaging directly in search. So the businesses can view and respond to their customers through desktops as well.
Customers can utilize business messaging from search results with an update to Google Posts. If you click on the message button given in the business profile, consumers can interact through any post created in Google my Business.
The given example will help you to understand how the new ‘’Message’’ button look like on the business post:
Updated Performance Insights
Well Google My Business insights are coming with more metrics to analyze the performance of search results. This will help to monitor business performance by measuring the number of consumers engaging with the maps and search. Google is adding more data to performance insights that will highlight businesses queries that people are using to search their listing in Maps and search.
The Data insights will monitor the following information:
- The total number of searches that reaches your business profile
- Performance details from past one year
- Help with list of search phrase people used to search for your business
- How many times each search keyword triggered the business profile
Google will come up with more such data that will reveal more about the consumer’s behavior pattern. Through which devices they had visited the Google Map or search. All performance data will be available up to 6 months.
Community Feed
A new community feed is being added in the Explore tab of Google Maps.
In the feed users will find the latest feedback, pictures, videos and posts added to Maps by advertisers.
However if you are in the restaurant and food industry then community feedback is must. You need to update about the new cuisine with fascinating images and videos that tempt your audience.
Street View User Contributions:
Google is running a small test for the street view features where they will analyze and monitor how these features will help people to contribute imagery to street view using mobile devices. Using a street view app, users can record a series of connected images while they move down a street or path. After the footage is recorded and published with a street view app, Google will automatically rotate the position of the image and put them into a proper sequence. The feature will be very useful to the business that can provide updated street view images outside of their offices.
Conclusions: The new features will be useful and beneficial from a marketing perspective. This will also help businesses to connect with their consumers through Map and search.