July 2021
NEW: Google My Business Functionality.
What is Google My Business (GMB)?
Google My Business (GMB) is the management tool for a Business Profile on Google. Your Business Profile is the summary information that appears in Google Search and on Google Maps. Overall, it forms a valuable part of the consumer journey, including pre-trip, in-trip and post-trip. So it's pretty important that your business has an up to date and accurate GMB listing!
Why you should link your GMB and ATDW profiles.
By linking your GMB listing/s to the corresponding ATDW profile, you can update more digital marketing channels with minimal effort, therefore saving time! For example, when you need to update a business phone number, instead of visiting your GMB account and your ATDW account to update the information, you can update your information from ATDW and the updates will automatically sync onto your GMB listing.
On top of this, linking your GMB and ATDW accounts also provides the opportunity to view valuable Google generated statistics on your business's search performance, in ATDW-Online. These simple to view and understand statistics, compared against your ATDW insights, can form a great depth of information into your business's digital performance.
Where to find the Google My Business function.
The GMB functionality can be found in three locations. Each location will direct you through the same process to link your GMB listing to your desired ATDW listing. The three locations include a prompt that will appear when you submit a listing for review, viewable in the "Stats" section and within the Integration settings in the "Account" section.
When submitting a listing for review.
- Update or create an ATDW listing.
- Click the "send for review" button.
- Webpage will redirect to a GMB prompt to connect listing.
- Click the blue button to "Connect Google My Business".
"Stats" section access.
- Click "Stats" in the black navigation menu.
- In the orange menu, select which listing you wish to connect to a GMB listing.
- Select the "Google My Business" option from the dropdown list.
- Click the blue button to "Connect Google My Business".
"Account" section access.
- Click "Account" in the black navigation menu.
- Select "Integrations" and "Manage your integrations" from the orange menu.
- Click the "Google My Business" option under the Add integration section.
Linking a Google My Business listing.
- From ATDW-Online, click the "Connect Google My Business" or "Google My Business" button.
- A Google sign in page will appear in a new pop-up window on your screen.
- If your business has previously access and used a GMB account, log in using your pre-existing details for that account. Once logged in, continue to step 3.
- If your business has never used a GMB account to manage your Business Profile on Google, you will need to click "Create account" and follow the steps. Google may require you to verify your business through their verification process. For more information please visit Google's Add or Claim your Business support page.
- Google will navigate you through a selection of questions to confirm you wish to connect your GMB account to ATDW. You will need to read and agree to any prompts where necessary.
- You will need to confirm to Google that you trust ATDW as this will grant permission for ATDW to provide updates to your Google My Business listing on your behalf.
- On successful connecting, you should be able to see your GMB listing is linked. This should be visible in both the accounts section and the stats section. As indicated in the example images, it should show the account name.
- To manage the connection of your GMB listing, you can use the account section to manage the integration, or in the stats section you can view available Google insights and access the functionality module for more options.
Using the Google My Business functionality.
Once your Google My Business account is linked to your ATDW listing, applicable updates to your linked ATDW listing will sync onto the corresponding Google My Business listing when those changes have been reviewed and accepted.
Applicable fields that will sync to a Google My Business listing include; Business Name, Business Type, Address, Phone Number, Website URL, Description, Opening Hours, and Product Image/s.
Through the ATDW website, you will also be able to view key Google insights. These will appear under the 'Stats' section. To find this information, click 'Stats' on the black navigation menu and select the listing you want to view insights on. Google insights may not appear immediately and take some time to receive the information from Google.
Google My Business FAQs
YES! After connecting your first GMB listing, follow the same steps to connect your other listing. During the process, you will be asked to choose the location you want to connect to the ATDW listing. If you don't have a GMB listing for the location yet (i.e. if it's a new location) you can click the "create location" button to add a new location to manage. Creating a new location may require verification through Google's standard verification processes.
When you submit updates to your ATDW listing, these will be synced to your GMB listing after the listing has been reviewed and approved. If the updates are rejected or still pending review, the changes won't sync with your GMB listing. It can take up to 5 business days for changes to ATDW listings to be approved.
If your changes to your ATDW listing have been approved and they have not been updated on your GMB listing, the eligible fields may have encountered an error during the sync process. An error could occur if the information was not entered correctly (i.e. the address isn't recognised by Google Maps or an invalid phone number format). If the changes aren't reflecting accurately, you may need to sign in to your Google My Business account through Google and update your information there.
For any assistance or support regarding Google My Business listings and profiles, you will need to contact the Google support team. The ATDW support team will be able to assist with any ATDW listing related queries and can not assist with any direct Google My Business related queries. For more information and support, please visit Google's GMB support page.