Google Business Profiles is finding more ways to connect you with businesses that share your values. On October 17, 2023, Google announced the “Disabled-owned” attribute that companies could use on their listings if a disabled person owns them. While the “Indigenous-owned” attribute was not announced, we can see it on the list of attributes to use for your own listings, as pointed out in this recent X post.

We have covered the LGBTQ+ owned attribute in the past, so it looks like GBP is really looking to provide safe spaces and pivot to more inclusive policies on its listings platform.

Aside from these three, GBP also has several attributes, including the following:

• Asian-owned
• Black-owned
• Veteran-owned
• Women-owned

These attributes give “merchants an option to self-identify as a member of the community,” said Google in its announcement. 

Here’s how you can edit your attributes:

• On Google Search
  • Search your company profile
  • Click “Edit Profile” and Select “More”
  • Click your attribute
• On Google Maps
  • Access your business profile
  • Select edit profile
  • Select your Business information
  • Click “More”
  • Select your attributes

According to Google, these attributes will appear “across other Google products or services,” like Search, Maps and Pay, enhancing your company’s ability to connect with like-minded people.

Have you seen them? If yes, try them out and connect with people who share your values.

Read more about the new GBP attributes here.

More SEO News You Can Use

Google Tests Desktop Discover Feed: If you’ve found Google Discover valuable, then this is good news. Spotted by MSPowerUser, the search engine company is seen testing out this feature in India with the potential to expand abroad if successful. This is revolutionary because of two things. First, this would mean more referral traffic to news and content websites without using paid ads. Second, this would be a significant makeover of Google’s plain homepage  something we last saw a while ago. It should be noted that this feature has been in Bing Search. Maybe Google now sees the value of putting more information on their homepage. Catch the full story from this article in The Verge.

Google Launches Structured Data for Vehicles: On October 16, 2023, Google unveiled the “vehicle listing markup,” which allows car dealerships to display their “for-sale vehicle inventory data to Google.” While the traditional feed method is still a good option, the new vehicle listing markup provides opportunities to list their vehicles no matter their size. You can use the markup to provide basic vehicle information, such as availability, pricing and other critical details. This new markup would be the better choice for those who want to keep things simple. But if you’re more comfortable delving into the technical details of your listings, we recommend using the feed method instead. Here’s Google’s help document to learn more about it.

Google Ads Roll Out Centralized First-Party Data Access Tool: Introducing the Google Ads Data Manager – your hub for collected first-party data to “simplify the ways you connect and use your first-party data with our ads solutions,” said Google in its October 11, 2023 announcement. This upcoming tool aims to streamline how marketers interface with Google’s ad ecosystem, leading to more efficient and measurable conversions. Data Manager will put “all your data management controls in one place, enabling you to drive incremental revenue and better outcomes for your business,” said Google. The search engine giant is also confident this would work, citing Sansiri’s 43% qualified leads while using the Data Manager. Google Ads Data Manager is expected to go live in early 2024. Read this announcement to learn more about how it works.

SEO for AI-Search Explained by Bing Exec: In a YouTube episode by Kalicube, Bing’s principal product manager, Fabrice Canel, shed light on how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping SEO. According to Canel, the game-changer is the concept of “qualified clicks,” which are more valuable than regular clicks from traditional search engines. AI search captures richer context from user queries, driving more relevant traffic to websites. He advised SEO experts to go beyond just keyword optimization and aim for easily indexable content. To speed up this process, Canel recommended using IndexNow, a rapid indexing API. While acknowledging the growing power of AI search, he also emphasized that traditional “10 blue links” still have a role in search results. Watch the whole YouTube video here.

YouTube’s AI-Powered Spotlight Moments Is Coming: In other AI news, YouTube is strengthening its pivot to a more AI-centric approach to advertising, giving us new tools to tinker with. This time, the company is launching Spotlight Moments – a tool that uses AI to find sponsorship opportunities for your brand from the most popular, relevant videos in your space. This tool “gives brands a high share of voice across video content surrounding the world’s biggest cultural moments,” said Google. Spotlight Moments is on top of the expanded availability of its AI-powered Video Reach and Video View campaigns, enhancing content distribution and view efficiency. If you’re looking to up your YouTube advertising game, explore these AI tools yourself. Here’s Google’s announcement for more information.

Editor’s Note: “SEO News You Can Use” is a weekly blog post posted every Monday morning only on SEOblog.com, rounding up all the top SEO news from around the world. Our goal is to make SEOblog.com a one-stop-shop for everyone looking for SEO news, education and for hiring an SEO expert with our comprehensive SEO agency directory.