Six months after the release of version 2, Google has released another exciting update to the Google My Business (GMB) API. This update includes several new features that will enable enterprises to more seamlessly update claimed store locations on Google listings and Maps. Brandify earned access to this API during its initial rollout, and has noted the ways the additional functionalities of the API can be supported in real time.
Reading & Responding to Reviews
With the new update, businesses can see reviews left by Google users and respond to those reviews without having to log in to the Google My Business dashboard.
Place ID
The previous matching process on the backend of GMB made claiming locations you wanted to claim more complex. Now, GMB offers the opportunity for brands to provide a Place ID when creating a new location, so that locations in your GMB dashboard can be better linked to existing Google listings. Brandify’s Social Data Acquisition (SDA) and Social Data Matching (SDM) technology leverages Place IDs to help maintain control of the correct claimed locations.
Attribute Support
Google wants to offer consumers the most relevant local content, including special features like whether a restaurant accepts reservations. With this in mind, GMB now allows brands to provide additional, category-specific attributes to improve findability. At this point, these attributes submitted to GMB will not be user-facing, but Google is likely to use them to improve the consumer search experience, and may display attributes in Maps at some point in the near future.
Photos
Through the GMB API update, marketers are now able to select a preferred photo to display first in search. This capability has always existed within the GMB dashboard itself, but its integration into the API takes away the manual complications and gives marketers control over how each claimed location is visibly represented to customers upon first glance.
New Location States
The GMB API has also provided marketers and solutions providers with a programmatic way to monitor which locations need verification. This will help streamline manual verification efforts and eliminate errors with maintaining these properties.
Other enhancements in this update include search/filtering locations by listing state, transferring locations between personal and business accounts and reading additional location states.
The capabilities of the Google My Business API are expected to grow as more solution providers support them. Brandify’s Presence dashboard focuses on real-time location data consistency and has kept pace with the changes in the API. Our team and technology can support any manual changes that the API requires of our current and future customers.
If your brand is ready to push real time updates to mobile customers and leverage the GMB API to its fullest, download the award winning Brandify App today.
