Here in the Los Angeles area, the conversations around racial equality happening in our country in early June led to a groundswell of support for Black-owned businesses. A grassroots-style campaign began to highlight Black-owned businesses by which LA neighborhood they were located in, and I even found a restaurant that I’d been wanting to try in my city of Pasadena on the list. I began to see my friends sharing these lists on social media, helping others to discover the Black-owned businesses in their neighborhood, and soon after, I realized that this was happening in cities across the country. People who were possibly looking for a tangible way to show support for racial equality could do so by visiting these businesses that others were helping to identify, and this trend was becoming widespread.
While the support for Black-owned businesses was growing through passing along these neighborhood lists, it may not be something a customer would immediately go out of their way to find if they weren’t thinking of it. I know I hadn’t thought to see which businesses in my city were Black-owned until the list for Pasadena flashed across my phone screen in a friend’s Instagram Story.
That’s when Google took the concept of this grassroots campaign and helped the cause by putting it on their widely-used platforms and introduced the Black-Owned Business attribute for Google My Business.
The Black-Owned Business attribute is a new tag that business owners can add to their GMB listing. Much like the women-led business or accessibility attributes they’ve previously introduced, Google lets business owners add these attributes to “…stand out to your customers who find your business on Google.” Now, when someone is browsing Google Maps for a place to eat, they’ll notice a special badge on the business’ listing, indicating that it is Black-owned. Google Search will also feature this label as well, so when someone is searching for services in your field, they’ll see this badge on your listing.
Business owners can now add the “Black-owned business” attribute to their GMB listing. The heart icon will appear on your listing when customers find your business on Google Maps or Google Search.
If you’re a business owner who wants to add this to your Google My Business listing, it’s simple to do. First, sign in to your Google My Business account on your computer, go to the menu, and click “Info”. Next, click on “Add Attributes” and click “Edit”. Find the Black-owned business attribute, and click “Apply”. You may discover other applicable attributes you might want to add to your business while you’re there, so take a look at the list and find which ones apply to your business.
Personally, I really appreciate the fact that Google has added this badge and made it available for business owners. Had I not seen the original lists of Black-owned businesses circulating on my social media, I might have missed out. Google now makes it easy to find, and it’s encouraging that they’ve made it a point to highlight Black-owned businesses as we continue to have important conversations with our neighbors, friends, and family regarding racial equality.
Author Bio:
Jon Frisch is a Content Creator at WebPunch. He lives in Pasadena, CA, and spends his time writing and recording music, playing guitar, and performing. He also got married recently! He is the fun uncle, or funcle, if you will, to ten awesome nieces and nephews. Jon loves a good karaoke night, writing comedy scripts, taking road trips, and finding the best coffee shops in town. Jon never passes up the opportunity for a good pun or a lame-dad joke.
