What replaced Google My Business?

If you’ve noticed changes to your local business listing, you’re not alone. The familiar “Google My Business” platform has been rebranded as Google Business Profile (GBP), a move confirmed by industry experts and Google’s own documentation. Managed through business.google.com, the legacy mobile-only manager was officially sunset in 2025, replaced by a more integrated, AI-enhanced experience. This isn’t a shutdown but an evolution, with GBP now serving as the central hub for managing your online presence across Google Search and Maps.

GBP is free and actively evolving, with new features like Gemini AI integrations enabling businesses to analyze performance data, draft review responses, and receive real-time profile updates. A 2026 Google blog highlights its role as a “digital storefront,” emphasizing its importance for local visibility. For small businesses, this means a more dynamic tool to compete in a landscape where 46% of local searches show Maps and 35% more website clicks come from profiles with photos.

Optimization remains critical. Choosing the narrowest accurate primary category can boost rankings more than any other on-profile edit, while filling all nine secondary categories adds visibility without cannibalizing your main focus. Over 40% of leads for some businesses originate from GBP, underscoring its value. For service providers, eligibility remains restricted to those with face-to-face customer interactions, though Google Ads offers an alternative for online-only ventures.

For businesses seeking to maximize their local SEO, setting up and managing a Google Business Profile is a foundational step. Tools like AI Business Sites streamline this process, ensuring your profile is optimized for visibility, credibility, and lead generation. Whether you’re a local contractor, retailer, or service provider, understanding and leveraging GBP is essential in 2026.

Google didn't just rename its local listing product — it rebuilt it into an AI-powered platform that keeps changing how businesses show up in local search. If you haven't looked at your listing since the My Business days, the tools around it have moved on without you.

The biggest shift is the 2026 Gemini integration. According to Google's official announcement, small businesses can now connect their Business Profile directly to the Gemini app, giving the AI access to reviews, customer questions, and performance data. Gemini can analyze search impressions, direction requests, and call data; draft review responses in your brand voice; and push real-time profile updates.

A companion feature called Business notebooks acts as a centralized hub for organizing chats, sources, profile data, and websites — with proactive alerts and recommendations. Both began rolling out globally in June 2026, announced at Google for Brazil (blog.google).

The stakes are real. Google describes the profile as "your digital storefront" on Search and Maps, and for some businesses over 40% of leads come through it (Google's product page). With 200M+ verified listings globally and an average of 1,260 monthly views per profile, freshness now matters more than ever — Google's 2026 AI-generated place summaries pull directly from your reviews, posts, and web content (DigitalApplied's 2026 guide).

Verification has changed too. Video verification is now the default for new listings, emphasizing authenticity through live actions like unlocking a cash drawer — postcard verification is deprecated for most service-area businesses (DigitalApplied).

For multi-location teams, the legacy mobile-only manager sunset in 2025, replaced by a consolidated Business Profile Manager where everything happens:

• Location Groups for organizing multiple listings
• Bulk edits across all locations at once
• User permissioning for team access control

All of it lives at business.google.com, not the old per-profile interface (DigitalApplied).

One rule hasn't changed: only businesses making face-to-face contact with customers are eligible for a profile. Online-only businesses are directed to Google Ads instead (Google support).

For busy owners, keeping pace with these changes — AI integrations, verification requirements, category optimization — is exactly the kind of ongoing work a managed service like AI Business Sites handles as part of setting up and maintaining your Google presence, so your storefront keeps working while you run the business.

Google Business Profile (GBP) has become an indispensable tool for local businesses, with 200M+ verified listings globally and 46% of local searches now displaying Maps results. For small businesses, this means visibility is no longer optional—it’s a competitive necessity. A single GBP profile can generate 1,260 average monthly views, and for some businesses, over 40% of leads originate directly from their profile. These numbers underscore why maintaining an optimized Google Business Profile is critical for driving foot traffic, calls, and online conversions.

The evolution of GBP into an AI-enhanced platform further amplifies its value. Google’s 2026 AI summaries pull data from reviews, posts, and web content, making profile freshness and specificity more important than ever. Businesses that regularly update their listings, respond to reviews, and share timely posts gain a significant edge in local search rankings. For example, steady review velocity boosts click-through rates by 2.8x, while profiles with photos see 42% more direction requests and 35% more website clicks. These insights reveal that GBP is not just a listing—it’s a dynamic, algorithm-driven storefront.

• 200M+ verified GBP listings globally
• 46% of local searches show Maps results
• Over 40% of leads for some businesses come through GBP

For businesses, this means the Google presence is no longer a static asset but a living entity that requires ongoing care. Google’s integration of Gemini AI further transforms GBP into a strategic tool, enabling businesses to analyze performance data, draft review responses, and receive proactive recommendations. However, managing this complexity manually is time-consuming and error-prone.

This is where a managed approach shines. AI Business Sites simplifies Google Business Profile setup, ensuring your listing is optimized for local search visibility. From verifying your business to integrating with Google Search Console and sitemaps, we handle the technical details so you can focus on your core operations. Our platform also ensures your profile stays fresh with regular updates, leveraging AI-driven insights to maintain relevance in a rapidly evolving search landscape.

In a world where 46% of local searches start on Google Maps, a well-managed GBP isn’t just an advantage—it’s a requirement. By partnering with a service that prioritizes local SEO and profile optimization, businesses can turn their Google presence into a lead-generation engine.

The good news: optimizing your Google Business Profile doesn't require advanced SEO skills — it requires following a handful of steps that most businesses still skip. Each one is backed by measurable results, and together they can transform how your profile performs in local search.

Start with your primary category. This is the single biggest ranking lever on your entire profile. Choosing the narrowest accurate category matters more than a broad one — switching a law firm's primary category from "Law Firm" to "Personal Injury Attorney" can improve Maps visibility more than any other on-profile edit. Be specific about what you actually do, not generic about what you could do.

Next, fill in your secondary categories. You have nine available slots, and according to a study of 1,050 business locations, businesses using additional categories saw higher average map rankings. The results in real case studies are striking: one restaurant client saw up to a 17% increase in overall actions in the first month, while an auto parts dealer gained 22% more leads simply by adding a "tool rental" secondary category. Each relevant secondary category is a net gain — it helps you appear for additional searches without diluting your primary focus.

Then add photos. Profiles with photos receive 42% more direction requests and 35% more website clicks than those without. Your photos are your digital storefront windows, and Google's own research shows customers respond to them.

Finally, maintain steady review velocity. Reviews that arrive consistently over 90 days produce a 2.8x higher click-through rate than reviews that arrive in bursts. This means building review requests into your regular workflow — after each completed job, each invoice paid — rather than scrambling to collect a batch when you remember. If you use a system that automates the ask, like the review request engine built into AI Business Sites' Jobs & Estimates module, consistency happens without you thinking about it.

A quick checklist to work through this week:

• Audit your primary category — is it the narrowest accurate description of your core business?
• Fill all nine secondary categories that remain relevant to your services
• Upload current, high-quality photos of your work, team, and location
• Set up a repeatable process for requesting reviews after every completed job
• Post regular updates — posts older than six months are automatically archived

One more thing worth knowing: Google's 2026 AI summaries now pull from reviews, posts, and web content, so profile freshness directly affects whether AI-generated place summaries mention you at all. A stale profile isn't just invisible to searchers — it's invisible to the AI layer Google is building on top of search.

These steps take an afternoon to set up and an hour a month to maintain. For business owners juggling customers and job sites, that maintenance is often the part that slips — which is why having your Google presence set up and managed alongside your website, as part of one system, keeps these fundamentals from quietly eroding. If you'd rather talk through your situation first, you can book a free strategy call at aibusinesssites.com/book-a-call — no obligation, just a conversation about what your business needs.

Getting your Google Business Profile optimized is only half the job. A perfectly tuned listing that sends people to a slow, thin website — or one with no fresh content and no review pipeline — leaks the very leads it worked to earn. Google's systems in 2026 pull from reviews, posts, and web content to build AI-generated summaries, which means your profile and your website are read together, not separately.

The numbers back this up. According to 2026 industry data, profiles with photos see 42% more direction requests and 35% more website clicks than those without. The same research found that steady review velocity — a consistent flow over 90 days rather than occasional bursts — delivers a 2.8x CTR lift. And Google's own product page notes that over 40% of leads for some businesses come through their Business Profile alone.

That's why the pieces have to work as a system:

• A fast, well-structured website that Google can crawl and rank
• Consistent content targeting your services and service areas
• A steady stream of new reviews, requested automatically after each job
• Search Console and sitemaps set up so Google can find and index everything

Most owners know this. The problem is time. Choosing the right primary category, filling all nine secondary categories, keeping posts fresh (older than six months, they're archived automatically, per Google's own documentation), writing monthly content, and chasing reviews — that's a part-time job on top of a full-time one.

This is where a done-for-you approach earns its keep. AI Business Sites handles the full Google setup as part of a managed build: your Business Profile, Google and Bing Search Console, and sitemaps are all configured before launch — not left as homework. From there, the ongoing work continues: keyword-targeted content published every month, reviews requested automatically after completed jobs, and a weekly SEO report showing where your rankings and traffic are moving.

The result is a Google presence where every piece reinforces the others. Your profile drives clicks, your site converts them, your content builds authority, and your reviews keep the flywheel turning — with none of it sitting on your to-do list.

If that sounds like the version of Google you'd rather have working for your business, the simplest next step is a conversation. Book a free, no-obligation strategy call and we'll look at your current profile, your site, and where the gaps are — no pitch, just a clear picture of what it would take to get your Google presence pulling its weight.