The Google Business Profile (GBP) Connector App pulls your GBP data into the Yext Knowledge Graph as entities. It is best used for an initial one-time data pull to populate your Knowledge Graph with existing location data.
This guide covers four steps — the last two are optional:
- Account setup
- Install the GBP Connector App
- Update the connector to import a subset of locations (optional)
- Adjust the connector to edit data (optional)
Account setup
Before installing the Google Business Profile Connector App, ensure your GBP data is properly structured and connect your GBP account to Yext.
Confirm owner access
To install the connector app, you need Owner level access in your GBP account. If you do not have Owner access, reach out to the administrator of your organization's GBP account.
Configure photo gallery
To ensure the correct photos are imported to Yext for your locations, configure the Photo Gallery field in Yext. See the Manage Publisher Configurations help article for steps.
Match entity IDs to store codes (existing entities only)
If you already have entities in the Yext Knowledge Graph that you want to enrich with GBP data, make sure the Entity IDs in Yext match the Store Codes in GBP. If they do not match, the connector will create new locations instead of updating existing ones, or could add data to the wrong locations. If you do not yet have entities in the Knowledge Graph, skip this step.
Link your Google account
The GBP connector app uses OAuth to access your Google data. Follow these steps to link your GBP account with Yext:
- Navigate to Linked Accounts in Yext and click +Add Linked Account next to Google.
- Check off
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/business.manageas your scope. If you also want to pull data from Google Drive, check off that scope as well. Note: if you are using a Reseller account, whichever OAuth scope you enable will be available for all sub-accounts. - Click Link.
- In the popup, choose the Google account you'd like to link. Note: you must have previously logged into this Google account on the device you're using in order for it to appear. If the account doesn't appear, log into it in a separate window, then return to this page and refresh.
- Go through the authorization flow. When prompted to provide a name for your linked account, an editable ID will be automatically populated. Note this ID, as you will need it in the app installation flow.
- Click Save.
Install the Google Business Profile Connector App
Yext has six Google Business Profile apps. Each pulls information for a different entity type: Locations, Restaurants, Hotels, Healthcare Professionals, Healthcare Facilities, and ATMs. These apps transform and map your Google business information to Yext fields, pulling all your locations in as entities.
Note: During the app installation flow, you'll need a Linked Account ID and a GBP Location Group ID. The Linked Account ID is the ID noted in Step 1. To find your Location Group ID, look in the URL when viewing your location group in Google Business Profile, e.g., https://mybusinessbusinessinformation.googleapis.com/v1/{location-group-ID}/locations.
- Navigate to the Apps page in Yext and select the Google Business Profile connector for the entity type you'd like to import.
- Review the installation instructions and click Install.
- Enter the Linked Account ID and a Location Group ID.
- Click Continue. You will be redirected to the connector overview page where you can run your connector now or edit its configuration. If you are using the connector to update entities that are already created in Content, click Edit Configuration and follow the steps below.
Update existing entities
You can also use the GBP connector to update existing entities. After installing the connector, edit its configuration:
- Navigate to Content > Connectors and click on the relevant connector.
- Click Edit Configuration.
- By default, the connector maps the Google Store Code field to the Entity ID in Yext. If the store codes match your entity IDs, skip to step 5.
- If the Google Store Code does not match the Entity IDs of your Yext locations, find a Google field in the connector configuration that does contain your Entity IDs. If you are using a single-location account, add an Add Column transform with a value that matches your location's entity ID.
- Navigate to the final step of the connector flow and unmap the current Entity ID mapping.
- Select the field that contains a match to your Entity IDs and map it to Entity ID.
- Unmap any fields that you do not want to overwrite on your existing entities (for example, if you do not want to update store hours, unmap all hours fields).
- Click Save. You will be redirected to the Connector Overview page.
- Click Run Connector to update your existing entities.
If some entities fail after you run your connector, see the Google Business Profile connector source reference for troubleshooting steps.
Update the connector to import a subset of locations (optional)
After an initial install, you may want to apply filters to the businesses brought into the platform.
Exclude businesses by Google Location Group
- Navigate to Knowledge Graph > Connectors, locate your connector, click View, then click Edit Configuration in the top right corner.
- If you only want to import certain location entities, switch the operation to Fetch Locations With Filters.
- Enter your filter input in the Filters field. Your input must follow Google's guidelines: replace quotation marks with
%22and replace spaces with+s, e.g.,storeCode=%22my+store%22. For more detail, see the reference documentation. - Click Pull in the upper right corner to confirm the correct entities are being pulled in.
- Go to the last step of the connector and click Save.
Exclude closed locations
- Navigate to Knowledge Graph > Connectors and choose your Google Business Profile connector.
- Click Edit Configuration.
- In the mapping step, scroll up and click on your data set. Find the column that indicates whether a location is closed or open.
- Click Add Transform.
- Create a Filter Rows transform to remove locations that are not open.
- Click Apply.
- Click Continue in the bottom right.
- Save your connector and re-run it when you're ready.
Exclude duplicate locations
- Navigate to Knowledge Graph > Connectors and choose your Google Business Profile connector.
- Click Edit Configuration.
- In the mapping step, scroll up and click on your data set. Find the Duplicate Location column, which indicates whether a location is flagged as a duplicate in Google.
- Click Add Transform.
- Create a Filter Rows transform to remove duplicate locations.
- Click Apply.
- Click Continue in the bottom right.
- Save your connector and re-run it when you're ready.
Adjust the connector to edit data (optional)
You can make changes to the connector configuration to control what data enters the platform. Navigate to Knowledge Graph > Connectors, locate your connector, click View, then click Edit Configuration. From here, you can edit which fields are brought in, apply transforms to change data format, or add a custom TypeScript function.
Note: Be careful when removing pre-installed transforms — many are required to keep GBP data in a format that Yext can ingest. For example, the custom convertTime function ensures hours enter the platform properly.
Change which URL to sync to GBP Website
- Navigate to Knowledge Graph > Connectors, locate your connector, click View, then click Edit Configuration.
- In the mapping step, find the field mapped to Website URL > Display URL.
- Click on it and click Clear.
- Find the name of your Custom URL field and choose it. Click Apply.
- Save your connector and re-run it.
Apply category overrides
- Create a Custom Field named Temp Category Override of the Single Text Type and add it to the applicable entity type. See the Add Custom Fields help article.
- Go back to your connector and click Edit Configuration.
- Scroll up and click on the Specify Selectors section. Click Add Selector.
- Add a Selector with the appropriate header and JMES Path for categories.
- Click Save.
- Find the Find and Replace transform on the Categories column (typically the 5th transform). Click the pencil icon to edit it.
- Add your new column as one of the columns the transform acts on. Click Save.
- Find the Map Publisher Categories transform (typically the 7th transform). Click the pencil icon to edit it.
- Add your new column as one of the columns the transform acts on. Click Save.
- Scroll down to the Map Data step.
- Find the column you added and map it to your Temp Category Override field.
- Click Save.
- Run your connector.
Add an "Opening Soon" field
Each Google connector pulls "Coming Soon" information from GBP in case a location has not opened yet. The Google property contains a date specifying when the location is set to open. Any downloaded connector will have pre-selected and transformed this field, labeled Coming Soon in the connector framework.
To use this field, add a "Coming Soon" date-type field in the Knowledge Graph and map the existing selector in your connector to this field. The field will be updated the next time the connector runs.
Add more holiday hours
By default, the connector only maps ten scheduled Holiday Hours. To add more:
- Find the four Split Columns transforms on the connector, which are pre-applied to all Holiday Hours fields.
- Edit each transform and click +Add Column for each additional Holiday Hours schedule you'd like to include. Use the convention
HolidayHoursField[x]for new column names. - Once all four transforms are updated, go to the final step of the connector: Map Data.
- Find the new columns you created and map them to their corresponding fields in Yext (StartDate, Open Time, Close Time, IsClosed).
- Save the connector and run it.