New Google Portal Provides Single Dashboard for Business Services

Small businesses managing a variety of Google services, including alerts, reviews, listings, ad campaigns, and Google+ profiles, can now find these items consolidated into a single dashboard with Google My Business.

Unveiled in June, Google My Business allows small businesses to manage their Google services through one central location. The portal is free to use and is intended to help companies develop more of a presence on Google as a complement to their existing websites.

Information entered by a business into the portal will appear in Google’s search listings, on its maps, and on the Google+ social media site to provide current or potential customers with reliable, consistent, and verified information, regardless of the desktop or mobile device they are using.

Among the features of Google My Business are the ability to: continually update contact information, business descriptions, hours, or website details; manage reviews, view ratings, create hangouts, and upload photos on Google+; and see the number of views of a business’ information on Google, requests for driving directions, and website hits.

Google My Business can be accessed on the go through its app, and companies can manage multiple store locations with Google My Business Locations.

Companies using Google Places for Business or the Google+ Pages Dashboard were automatically upgraded to Google My Business.