Get your Business found online -
Activate your listing today
Connect your Google Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram and more - with step-by-step screenshots and short videos. Works the same whether you manage one location or many.
Listings onboarding
Useful terminology
Glossary of terms
Entities
The Location of the business (JB Hi-Fi Melbourne, JB Hi-Fi Sydney, etc)
Map Pack
The Google Map Pack is a prominent search result feature that shows a mini map and the top three local business listings for location-based queries. It appears above most organic results and highlights key info like ratings, addresses, and contact options. Ranking in the Map Pack is a major part of local SEO because it drives high visibility and clicks.
Publisher
The platform that houses your Listing / Review (Eg. Google, Facebook, DoorDash, etc)
The impact of listings
Why Listings Management?
With just one click businesses can update location and business information, such as address, (holiday) opening hours, payment methods, accessibility, keywords and categories, and much more.
Reach
2.5x more potential paying customers with higher local search visibility
Higher data saturation (60%) means higher local map pack position
SEO value from consistency and more listing locations
“Business is about to close”
Google feature enablement
Standardise and Synchronise
Benefits of listings
Why are listings important?
4/5 consumers regularly use search engines to find local information.
Consumers search mainly for Address, Opening Hours & Accessibility.
50% of consumers who do a local search on a smartphone visit a company within 1 day, and 34% who search on a computer do the same.
Local searches lead to more purchases than non-local searches. On a smartphone, 18% of local searches lead to a purchase within 1 day vs. 7% of non local searches.
Impact of review management
Why Review Management?
Review Management is the single most important factor in a customer deciding for your business. A higher review score will lead to more customers, which increases the amount of reviews. Generate reviews, reply promptly and make use of auto generated replies to best fit the business’ strategy.
Reply promptly and consistently for
higher map pack positions
Keep brand messaging
consistent using assets
Save time with a
single overview of all reviews on all platforms
Know how to reply to positive as well as negative feedback
What you'll need
Before you start
DURATION: About 15–20 minutes
Enough time to get through the core connections in one sitting.
Your Online Essentials login
Access to mydashboard.onlineessentials.com, where everything below happens.
Use “Forgot My Password” on the login screen.
Your Google account login
The Google account that manages (or should manage) your business — needed to connect your Google Business Profile.
This section covers creating a login.
Facebook admin access
You'll need to be an admin on your business's Facebook Page to connect it.
This section covers creating a page.
Basic business details
Address, phone number, opening hours, and a short description — you'll be asked to confirm these.
Have your best answer ready; you can refine it later.
Dashboard overview
Getting to know your dashboard
Home
Inbox / My Tasks
Knowledge Graph
Listings
Reviews
Analytics
Your homepage — a snapshot of your most important information. Four elements here will look empty at first and fill in as you use the platform:
- To-Do List — your must-do tasks, such as replying to a review.
- Correct Your Data — flags any issues found with your information on a connected platform.
- Listing Actions Per Week — a summary of how customers are finding and engaging with your listing (site visits, page views, calls, etc.).
- Reviews (Last 90 Days) — how many reviews you've received recently.
Home
Inbox / My Tasks
A checklist of everything that will strengthen your listing — from adding your opening hours to writing an accurate business description. Most of these become less important once you've completed your business profile in the Knowledge Graph (Section 3.3).
Knowledge Graph
This is the most important part of the platform — it's where your business information lives, and the better it's filled out, the better you'll perform everywhere your listing appears.
- Entities — your business location(s). If you have more than one, each is managed here, and each location is its own product license. See Section 5 for setting up multiple locations.
- Assets
— photos and videos you want to appear on your listing.
Listings
- All Listings — once your information is filled in, it's sent out to every platform available to your business. This screen shows what's synced, not yet synced, or still processing, and lets you fix or opt out of individual platforms.
- Duplicate Suppression —
helps you flag a listing on a platform that isn't actually a duplicate of your business — useful if a similarly named or located business is being confused with yours.
Reviews
All reviews of your business, wherever they're posted, in one place. Replying — to positive and negative reviews alike — meaningfully improves how your business ranks and appears in local search.
Analytics
Two ready-made dashboards — one for your listings, one for your reviews — covering the metrics most people need. A custom dashboard is available if you want to dig deeper.
Connect listings
Step by step connection guide
Finding your connection settings
Log in at
mydashboard.onlineessentials.com.au.
From your dashboard, open your Listings product and select Edit.
In the new tab that opens, click the profile icon in the bottom-left corner.
Select Account Settings.
Select Linked Accounts — this is where you'll connect Google and Facebook.
Connecting & verifying your Google Business Profile
I have one
I don't have one
From Linked Accounts, choose to connect Google. Sign in with the Google account that manages your business — not a personal account, if they're different. In most cases, Google will ask you to verify the listing, usually with a short video recording of your storefront or workspace.
- Verification is handled by Google, not by this dashboard — it typically takes 2–5 business days. A “pending” status during that window is normal, not a sign something went wrong.
- Once verified, return to All Listings and confirm the sync.
If you already have a Google Business Profile
You'll need a Google account first (a personal Gmail account works). From there, the same connect-and-verify steps above apply. Google's own guides are the most reliable reference for this part of the process:
If you don't have a Google Business Profile yet
Connecting Facebook & Instagram
From Linked Accounts, choose to connect Meta. You must connect with a Facebook Business account — a personal profile will not connect.
I have one
I don't have one
Make sure you're an admin on the Page, then connect it the same way as Google, from Linked Accounts.
If you already have a Facebook Business Page
Go to
facebook.com/pages/create (or, from the Facebook app, the menu icon → Pages → Create).
Give the Page a name and choose the category that best matches your business.
Fill in the About section — a short description and contact details.
Add a profile picture and cover photo.
Click Create, then return to Linked Accounts to connect the new Page.
If you don't have a Facebook Page yet
Other platforms
Once Google and Facebook are connected, your information syncs out to every other platform available for your industry and location automatically — no separate setup needed for most of them. A small number of platforms, such as TripAdvisor, require their own existing account to connect to. If you don't have one, contact us and we'll help set it up.
Multi locations
Setting up multiple locations
If your business has more than one location, each is managed as its own Entity in the Knowledge Graph, and each is its own product license.
To see your locations: open Knowledge Graph → Entities. Every location you're licensed for appears here.
To work on a specific location, select it from the Entities list — its profile, connections, and sync status are all managed individually from there.
Each location goes through the same steps — business details, Google Business Profile, Facebook — connected and verified separately, since each is a distinct listing on every platform.
What happens next
What happens after you connect
Most platforms sync within a short window
once your information is complete and your accounts are connected.
Google Business Profile is the exception
— if verification is pending, that's Google's own 2–5 day process, not a sync delay on this end.
Check status anytime from All Listings,
which shows exactly what's synced, processing, or needs attention.
Nothing here is a one-time task
— your information stays synced going forward, so updating it once (a new phone number, holiday hours) updates it everywhere.
FAQs
Troubleshooting & FAQ
I forgot my Online Essentials password
Use “Forgot My Password” on the login screen at mydashboard.onlineessentials.com.
I forgot my Google or Facebook login
Use each platform's own “Forgot password” option — you'll need access to the phone number or email the account was originally created with.
I don't have a Facebook Page yet
That's fine — This page has a five-minute walkthrough for creating one.
Why do I need Facebook to connect Instagram?
Instagram business accounts run on the same Meta tools as Facebook Pages, so Facebook has to be connected first. It's a Meta requirement, not something we've added.
My Google Business Profile won't verify
Verification is handled by Google directly and typically takes 2–5 days, most often via a short video recording of your business. If it's taking longer, check the email on the Google account for a message from Google before contacting us.
I don't have a TripAdvisor account
That's fine — contact us and we'll help set it up, since it can't be connected without an existing account.
Can I stop and come back later?
Yes. Everything you enter is saved as you go — just log back in and pick up where you left off.
I have more than one location — do I repeat everything?
Each location is set up individually, but once you've done one, the rest follow the same steps.
Need
support?
Contact us on help@onlineessentials.com
