Google is making it easier than ever for agencies and platform partners to manage all of their managed business listings with the introduction of a brand new tool called Google My Business Agency Dashboard. For clarity, the tool is not generally intended for use by individual businesses, although the company has been making great strides on that front as well – for both customers and businesses. Instead, the Agency Dashboard is intended to help those entities who manage client listings and who often have in excess of 100 business locations to manage. Prior to this latest release, that’s the number of locations each account had been limited to and that’s the first thing the new tool does away with. However, it also comes with a plethora of other benefits and advantages, too.
Breaking down what’s included with the new Agency Dashboard, a single organized account will now be able to manage thousands of locations. Google says that adding more locations isn’t slowing things down, either. So users can expect the same speed they’re already getting with location management. Teams, called User Groups, can be set up to make handling all of those much easier, with each team being assigned a location group or groups. Meanwhile, the Agency Dashboard includes a search tool so that none of those locations get lost and finding them among the rest is simplified. The tool is also safer for businesses since each location now needs to be contained within a “location group.” Those were previously referred to as business accounts under the prior system and Agencies will need to request access to a customer’s location via the location group or they can be invited to co-manage a listing. Those requests and invites are also manageable from within the new dashboard.
Perhaps best of all, Google My Business Agency Dashboard is already available. It goes without saying that registration is required but the extra effort will undoubtedly be worth it with consideration for the convenience on offer. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of cost on either the official websites or on Google’s official announcement so, presumably, this is an extension of the Google My Business tools already in place. That should mean there aren’t any costs associated with it.