Sign in with the Google account that manages your listing, confirm it shows as verified, then check the name, address, phone, hours, categories, website, photos and who else has access. The listing itself carries over unchanged.

A new screen at the same sign-in

An owner who signed in yesterday to change the summer hours on the shop's Google listing found a different screen. Google Places is gone, and Google My Business has taken its place.

Google launched it on June 11 as one place to manage how a business appears in search, on Google Maps and on Google+. The separate Google+ dashboard has been folded in too.

Listings managed in either place moved across automatically. Nothing has to be created again, but a first visit is a good moment to read everything with fresh eyes.

What changes for the owner

Everything now sits behind one sign-in: the address, phone and hours, the photos, the reviews, the Google+ page and a few simple counts of how people find the business.

Reviews left on Google can be read and answered from the dashboard, as the business. Updates for the Google+ page are written there too, without a separate page manager.

An Insights section reports how often the page and its updates were seen and acted on. It counts views and clicks, not customers, so treat it as a rough guide.

What stays the same

The listing customers see is the same listing. Its reviews, rating, photos and place on the map carried over, and nothing changes for someone searching.

Verification still works by postcard or phone, and an unverified listing is still unverified. The rules about the business name, address and categories have not changed.

Reviewers still need a Google+ profile. And you still sign in with the same Google account as before, which is where trouble often starts.

The details to check on the first visit

A new dashboard is a natural time to read the listing as a stranger would. Go through these in order:

The last item is the one most often wrong. A listing created long ago by someone who has since left, under a personal account, can leave the business unable to change its own hours.

Businesses that visit their customers

Cleaners, plumbers, mobile mechanics and others who work at the customer's address can hide their own address and show a service area instead.

Many set this up once and never looked again. Check that a home address is hidden, and that the area shown matches the towns or the distance you actually cover.

A map pin on a residential street invites customers to knock on the door, and tells strangers where the owner lives.

A worked example

A house cleaning service with five crews works across three suburbs from an office in the owner's home. Its Google listing was set up four years ago by an office manager who has since left.

The owner had been added as a manager long ago, so she could sign in, but the listing still belonged to the former manager's personal account.

The dashboard showed her home address with a pin on her street, no service area, and hours that said open 24 hours. Beside it sat an empty Google+ page someone had once created.

She asked the former manager to make her the owner, which took one email. Then she hid the home address, set the service area to the three suburbs and corrected the hours.

After confirming which page was verified and held the reviews, she deleted the empty one. Customers now see an area served instead of her street, and the business holds its own listing.

Duplicates and old pages

Some owners find more than one entry in the new dashboard: an old Google+ page, a listing for a location that closed, or a page made for a promotion years ago.

Before removing anything, find the one that is verified and holds the reviews. That is the listing customers see.

Deleting it by mistake takes the reviews with it, and they do not come back when the page is rebuilt.

Reviews in the same place

Reviews now sit a click from the main screen, so new ones are easier to notice. Read them all once, including the old ones nobody ever answered.

Reply as the business to recent reviews that ask a question or raise a problem, briefly and courteously. A review from three years ago rarely needs an answer now.

Photos customers see first

The dashboard shows the profile picture and the large cover image across the top of the Google+ page. Photos added by customers may sit alongside them.

Replace anything dark, blurred or out of date with clear photos of the storefront, the work and the people who do it.

A photo of the sign helps someone driving past find the door. A photo of a crew at work shows that a service business is real.

The counter-case

If your listing was complete and correct last week, it still is. The change is to the screens you manage it from, and nothing has to be done today.

A business that updates its listing twice a year may barely notice. The listing does not expire, and the reviews and the map pin stay where they were.

But a new dashboard is a cheap moment to find an old mistake, and a wrong hour or a lost login tends to surface on the day it matters most.

The first sign-in, step by step

  1. Sign in with the account that manages the listing.
  2. Confirm the listing shows as verified.
  3. Check the name, address and phone against the sign.
  4. Update the hours for summer and Canada Day.
  5. Hide a home address and set the service area.
  6. Review who has access, and remove former staff.
  7. Replace weak photos with current ones.

Step six secures the listing itself. A listing that two current people can manage survives staff changes; one owned by a single former employee does not.

If the previous business at your address remains on the map, the last tenant still listed at your address explains how to report it.

Frequently asked questions

What is Google My Business?

Google's new dashboard, launched on June 11, for managing how a business appears in Google search, on Maps and on Google+. It replaces Google Places and the Google+ dashboard.

Do I have to set up my listing again?

No. Listings managed in Google Places or the Google+ dashboard moved across automatically. Sign in with the same Google account, and the listing should be there.

Has anything changed for customers?

No. The listing people find in search and on Maps, reviews and photos included, is the same one. The change is to the screens the owner uses.

Can I reply to reviews from the new dashboard?

Yes. Reviews left on Google can be read and answered from the dashboard, as the business. Keep replies short, courteous and specific to what the reviewer said.

How do I hide my home address?

Edit the address in the dashboard, say that you serve customers at their locations, choose not to show the address, and set the area you cover.

What if a former employee owns the listing?

Ask them to make your account the owner. If they cannot be reached, Google's help pages explain how to request ownership, which can take some time.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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