Member Avatar for Adriano 7

What do you think of the possibility that GMB could become paid?

  • 5 Contributors
  • 11 Replies
  • 121 Views
  • 2 Months Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by seigell971

Dani AI

Generated

raised a sensible question and several members (, , , ) have already covered the business-model angle. Below are practical, up-to-date steps and contingency planning to protect local visibility whether Google introduces paid add-ons or not.

  • Claim and verify the Business Profile (keep ownership tied to a company account). Official guidance is on Google’s help pages. ()
  • Record baseline KPIs now: impressions, clicks, phone calls, direction requests, and website sessions (use UTM tags). That baseline makes any future paid option a measurable ROI decision.
  • Lock down consistency: NAP (name, address, phone) must match the website and major directories. Clean up duplicates and incorrect listings on Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, etc.
  • Use every free Profile field that applies: primary category, secondary categories, attributes, services/products, business hours (including special hours), photos, and posts. Those elements move the needle on both clicks and conversions.
  • Implement a review strategy: request reviews from actual customers, respond promptly, and log common feedback themes for service improvements.

Technical and defensive moves:

  • Add LocalBusiness structured data on site pages to ensure a strong site-based signal independent of the Profile (see schema.org/LocalBusiness). (https://schema.org/LocalBusiness)
  • Keep a documented backup of Profile content and local citations, and export data where possible.
  • Track customer flows from Maps/Search separately in analytics so paid vs organic impact is visible.

If Google adds paid tiers, treat them like any other paid channel: test with a small budget, define target CPA/ROAS, and expand only when incremental revenue exceeds cost. Maintain diversified local channels (e.g., Bing Places) so a single platform change cannot eliminate local visibility. (https://www.bingplaces.com/)

Recommended Answers

All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for rproffitt

I googled GMB and here the first hit heralded "DON'T DIE WITHOUT EXPLORING WHAT YOUR BODY IS TRULY CAPABLE OF".

One of the problems of using acronyms is that not everyone can divine what you meant. Try this:

  1. Write what the acronym means then in parens the acronym for use later in the discussion.
  2. Forget acronyms when you don't need to use them.
Member Avatar for Adriano 7

I intended Google my Business

Member Avatar for Dani

One of the problems of using acronyms is that not everyone can divine what you meant.

This is in the digital marketing forum, and within that industry, it's pretty widely understood what GMB means.

What do you think of the possibility that GMB could become paid?

As far as it becoming paid, I don't think that would make much sense at all for Google's business model. It's to Google's great benefit to be a directory of every single brick and mortar company that exists. Limiting it to just paid users would go against Google's mission of indexing the web, indexing every book, indexing every storefront, indexing every street in the world, etc. In terms of having paid premium listings, they already do that with Google Ads. GMB works nicely as an Ads Extension right now.

Member Avatar for Dani

I also just noticed the topic title is Google My Business ;)

Member Avatar for rproffitt

Thanks Dani,

When I clicked to read this thread the title was not on screen but yes it's in the URL. That's my only excuse here.

Guess I need to scroll harder now.

Member Avatar for rakeshkapoor992

Well there is a possibility that it become paid . Maybe they will charge for some features . A great GMB profile can bring a lot of business so there is a possibility they will introduce a new features and charge for it.

commented: Let's hope this happens. While free is great, at some point it costs to add features and is worth paying for. +15
Member Avatar for Adriano 7

I asked this question precisely because I knew that they were already testing this version in the USA, when I learned of the news there was talk of a $ 50 badge that made a Google guarantee appear on your GMB profile.
I don't think it's great though if they introduced other functions at modest prices so that you can make the version accessible even to smaller companies you could start thinking seriously about an implementation of this type, given the importance of the tool in recent times

Member Avatar for Dani

The bottom of the article I linked to in my previous post says:

Just to be clear, Google Guaranteed is not new, it has been around for years. What is new is this $50 per month subscription package that businesses can buy to get Google Guaranteed and possibly other services from Google.

So it seems like it's a pay-to-play type thing. This errily reminds me of what made Google so great in the first place back in the very early 2000s. At the time, GoTo.com was the first pay-per-click search engine, where companies could bid a couple of cents to be listed higher up in the search results. The idea really caught on with some other search engines at the time. Google stood out in that they offered an AdWords PPC model that put the paid ads off in the sidebar, making money from ads, yet clearly differentiating what was paid from what was organic listings. To me, this feels as if Google forgot their beginnings, allowing businesses to buy their way into getting a badge that they didn't earn organically.

Member Avatar for Adriano 7

If this works, I think it will gladly forget them.

Member Avatar for seigell971

Google my business is one of the best local listing service provided by Google. Currently Google provide this services free of cost because both Google and business owners get benefits from It. The question is how Google get benefits from it?

Google my business pages all across the world help Google to become more popular in the people who need local services. Every people find their requirement very easily. So, more people goes to Google and search their local needs. In this way Google, increase their user without doing anything. Only they develop a system where verified business owners can list their business.

On the other side it may be possible that Google also charge money to list your business in future.

Edited by seigell971 because: Add a word to make it better
Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.