ThriveHive Launches Solution to Audit Google My Business Profiles
The sheer volume of features that Google has added to Google My Business in the past year has made the platform overwhelming for many small business owners. It’s also opening up new opportunities for digital marketing vendors like ThriveHive.
The Massachusetts-based firm is launching a new solution today aimed at helping small business owners navigate the creation and maintenance of their GMB profiles.
ThriveHive is making its new ThriveHive Grader solution free to businesses. With real-time diagnostic assessments of Google My Business profiles, the company believes its solution will fill the gap where business owners struggle to leverage all of the opportunities that Google has to offer.
Designed to evaluate Google My Business profiles based on three key measures—presence, reputation, and outreach—the ThriveHive Grader breaks down ways for businesses to improve their profiles, which also improves their search engine optimization.
“Traditionally, things like directory listings have been viewed largely as a static checklist of items to be completed and then forgotten. We think things are changing on that front, and this solution is really aimed at helping businesses see that there is ongoing effort required in order to maximize local visibility online,” says Adam Blake, chief marketing officer at ThriveHive.
Blake says that ThriveHive Grader is the most comprehensive free online assessment of a local Google My Business listing on the market, with the ability to improve performance and outcomes for small businesses. The new solution is fully backed by Google.
“We’ve been working really closely with the Google My Business product team to ensure that we built a product that helps guide business owners to optimize their online presence in a way that is consistent with Google’s best practices,” Blake says.
So, why now? ThriveHive was founded in 2011, and Google My Business launched in 2014. But Blake says there have been some major local SEO shifts that have happened in recent months, which all center on Google My Business, making now the right time to launch the new Grader solution. The product itself was previewed at the recent Google Partners Growth Summit, where fellow Google Premier Partners could experience the demo before anyone else.
“Google has really been opening up the capabilities of its Google My Business API, so we felt the time was right to launch a really comprehensive grader to help business owners unlock all of that functionality,” he says.
Today’s product release is also a clear indication of the direction in which ThriveHive is headed as a firm. The company acquired Perry Evans’ local/social tech company Closely late last year in a bid to deepen its ability to aggregate and analyze small business data. Blake says the launch of ThriveHive Grader is a step in that same direction, as ThriveHive increases its commitment to the goal of utilizing guided marketing to help businesses succeed with their online marketing.
“ThriveHive is committed to the concept of guided marketing as a way of unlocking marketing value for local businesses,” Blake says. “In particular, you’re seeing ThriveHive continue to invest heavily in free solutions that can enable success, even for those businesses who may not be spending large amounts of money in online advertising.”
Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.
