How to Interpret Google Business Profile Metrics
Want to attract more local customers? Start by understanding Google Business Profile (GBP) metrics. These insights show how people find your business, interact with your profile, and take actions like visiting your website or calling you. Here’s what you need to know:
- Search Traffic Types: Learn if customers find you via direct, discovery, or branded searches.
- Views and Impressions: Track how often your business appears in Google Search and Maps.
- Customer Actions: Monitor website clicks, direction requests, and phone calls to gauge interest.
- Device Performance: Compare mobile and desktop engagement to optimise your strategy.
- Profile Updates: Adjust details like hours, photos, and services to boost visibility and customer interaction.
Tip: Regularly review metrics to spot trends, update your profile, and compare your performance to local competitors. Use this data to improve your search rankings and connect with more customers.
How To Interpret Your Google Business Profile Insights
The following metrics are part of the data we analyse when working on Google Business Profile management for our clients.
Main Google Business Profile Metrics
Understanding Google Business Profile (GBP) metrics is key to evaluating your local search performance. These metrics help you analyse customer behaviour and fine-tune your profile for better results.
Types of Search Traffic
GBP insights break down customer searches into three categories:
- Direct searches: When people search specifically for your business name or address.
- Discovery searches: When your business appears as a result of someone searching for a category, product, or service.
- Branded searches: When customers find your business while searching for a related brand.
These categories show how customers are finding you. A high number of discovery searches suggests your business is visible in relevant categories, while a strong share of direct searches points to solid brand awareness.
Views and Impressions
These metrics measure how often your business is seen:
- Search Views: How often your listing appears in search results.
- Maps Views: How frequently your business is displayed in Google Maps.
- Total Impressions: Combined views from Search and Maps, offering a picture of your overall visibility.
Monitor these monthly to spot trends. A sudden drop might indicate ranking problems, while steady growth signals improved visibility.
Mobile vs Desktop Performance
For Australian businesses, understanding mobile performance is critical. Your GBP dashboard provides insights into:
- Engagement rates on mobile devices
- Desktop usage patterns
- Trends across both platforms
Pay attention to weekly and seasonal changes, as well as customer actions, to refine your marketing efforts. Knowing how your audience interacts across devices helps you create a stronger local presence.
Customer Actions and Interactions
Your Google Business Profile provides a wealth of information about how customers interact with your business. By reviewing metrics like website clicks, direction requests, and call data, you can assess how well your profile is connecting with potential customers and driving engagement. Let’s break down what each metric can tell you.
Website, Directions, and Call Data
These metrics offer a window into customer intent:
- Website clicks: This tracks how many users navigate from your profile to your website. A high number of clicks suggests your profile content is compelling enough to encourage further exploration of your business online.
- Direction requests: This measures how often users look up directions to your location. For businesses with physical stores, more direction requests usually indicate greater interest in visiting.
- Phone call actions: This tracks when and how often customers call your business. Analysing this data can help you identify peak times for inquiries, allowing you to staff accordingly for better customer service.
sbb-itb-c74901f
Improving Your Profile with Data
Reading Performance Trends
Analysing GBP metrics can reveal patterns in how customers interact with your business. Pay attention to weekly and monthly changes in key metrics like search impressions, customer actions, seasonal engagement trends, and times of peak interaction.
Set up a regular review schedule – weekly for quick updates and monthly for a broader view of trends. This approach helps you spot changes that can shape your strategy and guide updates to your profile content.
Profile Content Updates
If you notice a drop in engagement or search impressions, it might be time to refresh your profile. Consider these updates:
- Business Description: Rewrite or update your description to keep it relevant and appealing.
- Operating Hours: Adjust your hours if the data show shifts in peak activity times.
- Photos and Media: Add fresh visuals to re-engage users if engagement is dropping.
- Service Offerings: Update your services based on the types of searches and interactions you’re seeing.
These updates can help reinvigorate engagement and improve your profile’s performance.
Increasing Profile Performance
Using data to guide your improvements can make your profile more effective. Here’s how:
- Optimise for Local Search
Ensure your business details are accurate, complete, and regularly updated to improve local search visibility. Fully optimise your Google Business Profile for best performance! - Boost Customer Engagement
Review the performance of your posts to find what resonates most with your audience. If visual content stands out, include more photos and videos in your strategy. - Manage Responses Effectively
Monitor how quickly you respond to customer messages and reviews. Quick responses not only improve engagement but also enhance customer satisfaction.
Comparing Performance
Industry Performance Standards
Use your data analysis to assess how your profile measures up against local industry benchmarks. Keep an eye on these critical metrics:
- Search visibility: Track how often your profile shows up in local search results.
- Lead generation: Measure how many of those views turn into customer actions like website visits, calls, or requests for directions.
To set realistic benchmarks, compare your performance with businesses of a similar size in your local area. For example, focus on competitors operating in Perth’s CBD.
Making Data-Based Improvements
If you spot performance gaps, refine your Google Business Profile by reviewing key details like your description, service categories, and contact information. Ensure everything is accurate and up-to-date. Regular updates can also help improve your profile’s performance in local search results.
Conclusion
Google Business Profile (GBP) metrics play a key role in boosting your local online visibility with advanced local SEO and encouraging customer interaction. As we’ve covered earlier, regularly reviewing these metrics allows you to make smarter updates to your profile.
Keep your business details accurate, respond quickly to customer messages, and frequently refresh your profile with new posts and photos. By analysing your metrics, you can focus on the actions that improve your local search rankings and customer engagement.
Leverage your GBP data to identify patterns and opportunities. This could mean optimising for mobile users, adjusting your business hours to match peak search times, or updating your photo gallery to attract more attention. Let the data steer your approach.
Integrate your GBP optimisation efforts with a comprehensive digital marketing plan to further enhance your local presence.
Read our dedicated section for more insights and tips on Google Business Profiles.
Related posts
Dorian Menard
https://searchscope.com.auI’m Dorian, founder of Search Scope and an SEO obsessed with ROI and lead generation. After a decade in the trenches, I’ve built and ranked digital assets for businesses across the world. I cut through the noise with data, automation, and strategies that actually convert. When I’m not scaling rankings, you’ll find me on a motorbike or setting chess traps — always planning three moves ahead.