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We’ve talked with you quite a bit about Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) over the last few months. As you may recall, just a few weeks ago we shared how changes are coming to Google Maps that were announced at Google I/O.
We follow what’s happening in local SEO and Google Business Profile (GBP) specifically because this so dramatically impacts you, our agency and local marketing partners. This week we’d like to highlight an agency partner that is accomplishing quite a bit by utilizing Google Business Profile for their clients. We’ve been following this agency partner – and specifically one of their client’s listings – to see how it’s been performing since March 9.
Optimizing a Google Business Profile Increases Search and Maps Views
Back in March we discussed the value of optimizing a Google Business Profile, and shared screenshots showing that once the partner added products and services to their client’s GBP listing, the search and map views started to spike.
A screenshot from March to April compared how the client’s GBP listing went from getting 2.76K views to getting 6.18K views in search and map views. A screenshot taken this week reports 12.2K combined views in search and maps.
How Customers Search Within a GBP Listing Can Be Revealing
In April we discussed Google Business Profile with you and its place in local search. This post was a follow-up to the March article. At that time, we looked at the How Customers Search for Your Business data from GBP insights.
In March, their client’s GBP listing was reporting 2,479 searches in a quarter (3-month timeframe). In April they received 2,912 searches in a month (30-day timeframe). This week’s screenshot revealed this is maintaining, and is currently at approximately 3,145 searches in a given month.
The detailed breakdown on this data is 713 Direct Searches (22.7%), 2,423 Discovery Searches (77%) and 9 Branded Searches (0.3%).
To understand the difference between Direct, Discovery and Branded searches you can look to Google Business Profile Help. Google explains these as:
- Direct searches: A customer directly searched for your business name or address.
- Discovery searches: A customer searched for a category, product, or service that you offer, and your listing appeared.
- Branded searches: A customer searched for your brand or a brand related to your business. This category will only appear if your listing has appeared at least once for a branded search.
- Total searches: The total number of direct, discovery, and branded searches.
Customer Actions Taken on a Google Business Profile Listing Can Be Tracked
Today, we’d like to take this a step further and look into Customer Actions taken on this client’s Google Business Profile listing. While we don’t have screenshots from the previous periods, this week we captured a quarter view.
As you can see for this reporting period, prior to March 19 this GBP listing was getting less than 10 total actions taken daily from the GBP listing. For background, our agency partner started publishing GBP posts to this listing on March 24. Prior to that time, no GBP posts had been published on the listing. The partner published a second GBP post on April 5. Once the partner started publishing GBP posts, the Customer Actions started increasing.
On April 19 the partner increased to publishing a GBP post every week. The actions taken on the GBP listing started increasing even more. So instead of getting 10 total actions a day, now the business is getting upwards of 35 total daily actions. We realize that 35 total daily actions might not seem like a lot compared to other listings, but we can tell you this – it’s a significant number for this industry, especially when we compare it to other GBP listings for a local business (in the same industry) in a smaller city.
On March 14 this agency partner launched a new website for this client, and along with that they set up Google Analytics Goal Tracking and put UTMS on all the links on the GBP listing. We can report that they have had 1,880 sessions on the website occur from clicks on the Google Business Profile listing – along with 99 goal completions, which for this website is either a form fill or a click-to-call. So, if you’re still wondering if Google Business Profile is important or if your local business clients need a website – well, we can confirm both with a powerful yes.
Google Business Profile Adds Services by Scraping the Business’ Website
Have you looked at your clients’ Google Business Profile listings lately in the GBP dashboard? Have you noticed extra services being added to the business’ GBP listing that you didn’t add? These services are pulling from the business’ website.
Google is looking at your clients’ websites to confirm the services listed on their website match the GBP listing, and when they don’t, they will remove those services – and in some cases add additional services to the GBP listing. It’s important to monitor your clients’ Google Business Profile listings on an ongoing basis – we’ve said this before and we will continue to share this truth.
This includes taking the following actions:
- Monitoring reviews and responding to them
- Adding Questions & Answers
- Uploading EXIF-data optimized images
- Publishing Google Business Profile Posts
We’ve Got the Google Business Profile Tool to Help You
At Advice Local, we pride ourselves on providing our partners with solutions – and our Google Business Profile tool can help you accomplish all of the above and more. Request a demo today and take a tour of our complete listing management solution.
Another fantastic post on GMB. I particularly liked your discussion on how GMB works in tandem with a business website. I never knew that the additions to services on a GMB page were caused by Google scrapping their business website.
Thanks!
Rick, thank you for your comment. It seems Google just started doing this more often recently. The scraping feature has its pros and cons for sure.