Google My Company: 8 key features at a glance [2024]

Using Google My Company has nothing but benefits and is a must for almost every business. And since Google is developing the My Company feature a lot, I think it's time to list the most important features anno 2023 for you.

Before we begin

Before we begin, it is important to tell you that the features available within My Company depend on the category you choose.

For example, a restaurant may have different functions than a wholesaler. And in turn, a marketing agency may have different capabilities than a bakery.

So is there a position not listed? Then it is possible that it is not available to you. Did I miss a job that is available to you? Let me know in the comments.

1. Google Posts

When you log in to Google My Company, you'll see a menu on the left with all the features. In that order, I'll walk you through those features.

And we are going to start with the Google Post.

I always compare Google Posts to a kind of blog/news feature within your My Company. With this feature you can namely:

• Share updates about your organization
• Share Blogs
• Add offers
• Add events
• Add products

Then now you understand why I make the comparison with the blog function within your website. After all, it's virtually the same thing. It is an additional way to deliver important information directly through Google to customers and potential customers.

2. Information

Of all the functionalities within Google My Company, this is the most important and this is where you should really pay the most attention.

After all, this is where you can share all essential information with your target audience. Think about:

• Company name
• Category
• Address
• Service areas
• Opening hours
• Special opening hours
• Phone number
• Shortname
• Website
• Appointment Link
• Products
• Services
• Highlights
• Brief description
• Founding date

As you sit, this information is incredibly important and is also not something you set up once. This is something you keep track of on a monthly basis.

I assume that most of the above points are obvious, but to be sure, I'll explain a few more.

Category

Within the category heading, you can specify what kind of business you have. As I mentioned earlier, the category is very important because it determines what features and capabilities you have within My Company.

Look carefully for the category that suits you best. By now there are more than 3,000 categories, so I expect your industry will be among them.

Is it not? Then choose the category that is most relevant.

Shortname

The shortname is a type of designation (can be an abbreviation ) of your business that makes your business easy to find within Google My Business and Google's regular search results.

With the shortname, for example, you can also easily create a short review link that you can send to customers for a Google review.

For example, my shortname is "onlinemarketingagency" and the review link looks like this:

Tip: claim your shortname as soon as possible, because shortnames must be unique and you don't want someone to hijack your name.

Appointment Link

At first it seems very obvious what an appointment link is ... and it is. After all, this is the URL of the page where people can contact you. And yet I see that many people don't fill it out.

Pretty crazy, because should someone be interested in your service or product, they can get to the right page with the click of a button. Handy, right?

Products

When you sell products (both tangible and intangible) you can also easily share them with people within My Company. You can add products individually, or you can add them by collection.

Adding a product is about 2 minutes of work and when you've done it comes out looking like this:

Or, for example, like this:

Services

That services feature is fairly new within Google My Company. I have since added my services there for some time, but they are not showing my My Company profile.

That is very unfortunate!

Still, I leave them in because you never know how Google will use this for its indexing. So should you provide services, be sure to complete this.

Highlights

The heading highlights should really have been called "characteristics. After all, these are features of your organization. I am not a big fan of this feature because the options are very limited.

Within Online Marketing Agency's My Business account, I only have the attribute "Under female management. For example, if you have a store you will see attributes about payment, supply, scheduling, accessibility and amenities.

3. Insights

The insights feature of My Company is a kind of Google Analytics feature within My Company. In fact, here you will find all kinds of information about how often your business is searched and found. You can find here:

• Keywords that people enter to then come to your business
• How customers search for your company (direct, general search and brand name)
• Where people view your business on Google (Maps and search results)
• Customer actions (visiting website, requesting directions, calling and sending a message)
• Requesting directions
• Phone calls
• Photo Views
• And the number of photos displayed of your business

In short, all of this information is incredibly important. You can use it to determine whether you are being searched for, whether you are being found and whether people are contacting you.

You need to see this data every month because it allows you to determine whether your online marketing activities are working. In fact, virtually none of this data will show up in Analytics.

4. Reviews

Why reviews are so terribly important I hope I don't have to explain to you. You exude confidence and authority with them.

You'd rather buy from a company with 500 reviews than a company with no reviews when all other factors are the same, wouldn't you?

If you have an online store, you can work with a Kiyoh or Klantenvertellen, for example, to collect the reviews. This does come at a cost.

Collecting reviews can also be done with your Google My Business, of course. In fact, if you have created a shortname, you can send a recognizable and shareable link to your customer when they have made a purchase, for example.

And you can easily automate the sending of that email. So that doesn't have to take up your time.

5. Messages

When the messaging feature (I call it chat feature) of Google My Company went live in November 2018, I was right there at the ready.

I immediately wrote a blog about it. Because what a brilliant idea I thought it was.

Now that we're 1.5 years later, I still think it's a good idea. But now you get to guess how many times the feature has been used in those past 1.5 years with me?

Exactly, 0 times.

That doesn't mean the feature is bad or doesn't work, but that means it doesn't work for my business and my target audience. Although I do think the "Request a quote" button is a good addition.

The messaging feature allows potential customers to send you a message when you use and have set up the Google My Business app. This ensures that you are quickly in touch with your target audience.

So the disadvantage is that virtually no one knows and uses this feature.

6. Photos

Do you have a beautiful office and want to show it off to potential clients? Or do you have a nice showroom with your already products on display?

Have photos taken of that and add them to your My Business. And when you have photos taken, take photos where you are helping the customer, of the outside of your premises and of your team working for its customers.

In fact, you can incorporate all these photos into your Google My Business profile. This exudes confidence and, of course, can also make you look professional.

And you are mistaken about how often people view these photos. In fact, you can see that directly in the insights I explained earlier.

Tip: Do you have a really cool office or sit in a really unique location? Then have 360 degree photos taken of your location. Then people can walk through your building as if it were Google Maps!

7. Website

Let me get right to the point: this feature is one you should ignore. With this feature, once your My Company profile is fully completed, you can create a website with the click of a button.

A website that is not findable, not beautiful and not user-friendly. And there is almost no conceivable situation in which that is good for you.

8. Users

The last important Google My Company feature is adding users. Want to give an employee, your SEO specialist, or co-owner access to your My Company? Then you can do that here.

In case you're curious about how to do that, I wrote a blog about it: Tutorial: How to add someone to Google My Business [10 steps].

Bonus tips

To end this article with a bang, I have a few more concrete and useful tips for you. Here they come:

• Use the Google My Company app. Then you will always have access to the above points.
• Use your most important keyword in your business name
• Always respond to the questions people ask within your My Company
• Always respond to reviews. Always. So also on negative reviews
• Don't have access to your My Company? Here's how to solve it in 3 steps