Google My Business Messaging provides customers another way to contact your business from mobile search results

July 19, 2017 - By Aaron Hockel

What is Google My Business Messaging?

A new feature rolled out to all businesses last week, Google My Business Messaging allows people to start text conversations with businesses from their Google My Business listing. The idea is simple, when someone finds your listing in mobile search results, they can quickly and easily send you a message from their mobile device. The messages get sent to a mobile phone as texts or can be accessed via Google Allo. Once enabled, the message option will show up with your listing:    

How is Google My Business Messaging Set Up?

Setting up Google My Business Messaging is simple and takes less than 5 minutes, if your Google My Business account is already set up, published, and verified. If you do not have a Google My Business account, click here to set it up. After logging into your account, here's how you enable messages in three quick steps:

Step One:

To set up Google My Business Messaging for your company, first open the control panel for your Google My Business account. On the left hand menu, about halfway down, select messaging:  

Step Two:

After clicking on "Messaging" the next step is to verify your mobile phone number. Simply enter the mobile number where you want to receive messages and Google will instantly send you a verification code. After submitting the code, your number will be verified and you can set up a few custom chat features.

Step Three:

Once your phone number is verified, you can create a custom welcome message. At AltaVista Strategic Partners we use "Thank you for contacting AltaVista Strategic Partners, how can we help you today?". From this screen you can also turn messages on and off and change the mobile number receiving messages as texts. Once you have your welcome message set up, run a quick Google search on your phone for your business. The message option should come up with your listing and you can test it by sending a text.    

You're Ready to Receive Messages!

That is all it takes to set up Google My Business Messaging and start receiving customer inquiries as texts from your Google My Business listing. If you still need help setting up messaging or have a general question about Google My Business, checkout the Google Help Center Tutorial or contact the team at AltaVista Strategic Partners for a free consultation by sending them an email or calling 443-960-4004.