Google Business Profile Overview
Google Business Profile (GBP) provides users with valuable insights into their company’s search appearance. GBP insights are user-friendly and supply business owners with worthwhile data that is easy to locate and understand.
The data provided through GBP allow users to learn crucial information like the number of times their company has shown up on Google, how users find a company via search, and the kind of interaction that a user has with a business. Interaction type can be classified depending on whether the user clicked through to the company website, called the business, or requested directions to the brick and mortar location.
Important Data Learned in Google Business Profile
Business owners can learn vital information from the data collected by Google Business Profile. The most important features of GBP that companies can utilize are listed below.
Performance
This tool provides users with information such as how many views the company has, searches performed, and activity. The search metric is important because it informs the business whether the name or address was searched (Direct) or the company appears as a result of a generic search (Discovery).
Business owners can learn how many new users their business is reaching through the discovery metric along with how many users they retained through the direct label.
Queries
This metric informs businesses of the keywords that users search on Google to find the company. From this information, business operators can decide whether they are using effective keywords in the content on their website, blog posts, and posts on Google Business Profile.
Customer actions
This tool informs companies on what kind of action a user typically will take on their agency’s listing. Customer actions are usually defined as calling the firm, requesting directions, or visiting the company’s website.
Some business owners will use these insights to help them plan GBP content.
For example, if many users are requesting directions, it may be wise to have a post about parking facilities and public transportation near the store.
Directions Requests
This feature is resourceful because it informs companies where their customers are located. This can influence marketing efforts because it will help determine what neighborhoods to direct those tactics toward.
Phone Calls
When a searcher clicks on a company’s GBP listing, the firm will be able to use this information to learn what day and time is most popular for receiving calls.
From this data, operators can schedule posts according to when people are viewing the page. This allows a business to maximize the reach of its GBP profile.
Photo Views
Pictures are essential for an establishment to drive traffic to its website.
Google states that “Businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for driving directions, and 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses who don’t have photos.”
This metric provides business managers with confidence that their photos are receiving views. If a business has fewer views than its competitors, then they should reevaluate their GBP image strategy.
Photo Quantity
This insight gives an agency owner a sense of how many photos to post on their GBP profile. If the company has fewer photos than its competitors, it should consider uploading more images.
These are some of the best metrics to use to gain insight into how a business is doing with its GBP presence.
The Views Metric Is Faulty
Although many business owners use the views metric, the information obtained through this tool may not be accurate. Users have reported huge increases or decreases in their views throughout the months.
Since this happens often, views are not an accurate metric to rely on. In fact, views are not a depiction of the number of users who engaged with an agency’s listing, searched for it, or most importantly, even laid eyes on it.
When users look at a map or search for an establishment’s competitors, the views on Google Business Profile will rise. The views metric is used to prove the success of SEO work. However, it may be deceiving if a business has a map label or if location extensions are enabled on Google Ads, as it may lead to more views than what the firm has actually received.
Stay Tuned for Google Business Profile Updates
At times, Google will make additions to the Insights available through Google Business Profile. We will update you with any important new insights and data points as they are implemented. For the time being, take advantage of the insights currently available to give your company a stronger online presence.