As a local business owner, getting found in local search results is critical for driving new customers to your door. Ranking higher in Google’s local pack and map listings leads to more clicks, calls, and foot traffic.
One of the most valuable free tools for improving local SEO is your Google My Business profile and its built-in analytics, Google My Business Insights.
In this post, I’ll explain what insights are available and how to leverage them to optimize your GMB listing and overall local search strategy.
An Overview of Google My Business Insights
Google My Business Insights provides metrics on how your listing is performing in local search results. It shows you:
- How many times your listing appeared in search results (impressions)
- How many times it was clicked/tapped on (clicks)
- Driving directions requests
- Phone calls
- Photos views
- How many people viewed your posts
- What search queries led people to your listing
These insights help you understand:
- How visible your listing is locally
- How well it ranks for relevant searches
- How engaging your content is
- What’s driving actions like calls, directions, etc.
You can view trends over time to see how your optimization efforts are paying off. Google provides insights for the last 28 days, 90 days, and 12 months.
Connect Google Analytics for More Data
To take your analysis even further, connect your Google Analytics account. This unlocks more detailed data on:
- Traffic sources driving actions on your listing
- Location of customers finding you
- Pages visited on your website
- Conversions from your listing
With Google Analytics, you can track phone calls, store visits, email signups, and more. This reveals how your GMB presence converts into real business results.
5 Key Insights to Improve Local SEO
Now let’s explore 5 of the most valuable insights and how to act on them:
1. Impressions
Impressions show how often your listing appeared in local search results. Low impressions mean you have minimal visibility.
How to improve:
- Optimize your listing for relevant keywords. Add keywords to categories, services, description, etc.
- Earn more high-quality local citations to strengthen your NAP consistency.
- Build more local links, reviews, and other signals of popularity.
- Create engaging posts and photos to get more clicks and increase prominence.
2. Click-Through-Rate
Click-through-rate (CTR) is clicks divided by impressions. It indicates how enticing your listing is to searchers.
How to improve CTR:
- Write compelling titles and descriptions using keywords people search.
- Add photos of your business, products, services, and team.
- Ensure your address, phone, website link, and operating hours are accurate.
- Publish posts showcasing offers, events, products, etc.
- Ask customers for reviews. Higher ratings attract more clicks.
3. Actions
Actions include calls, directions, website clicks, and post clicks. These demonstrate user intent to visit or contact you.
How to get more actions:
- Make your address, phone number, and directions link prominent.
- Highlight the actions you want users to take.
- Use geotargeting in your posts to reach nearby searchers.
- Run local promotions and events to drive calls and visits.
4. Queries
View search queries that triggered your listing to appear. This reveals customer intent and demand.
How to optimize for these queries:
- Add missing keywords and related terms to your listing.
- Create relevant posts and landing pages to rank for those searches.
- Run paid ads for high-value but competitive queries.
5. Traffic Sources
See where visitors came from, like organic search, maps, display ads, etc.
How to get more high-quality traffic:
- Improve SEO to increase organic search visibility.
- Claim and optimize maps listings on Apple, Bing, Waze, etc.
- Analyze high-potential traffic sources and focus efforts there.
Use Insights to Make Data-Driven Decisions
The key is to analyze insights regularly and make strategic changes to your GMB profile and local SEO tactics based on the data.
Here are some examples of optimizing based on insights:
- You notice clicks dropped sharply last month. Check if you lost a key local citation.
- Queries show demand for a service you offer but don’t list. Add it to attract searches.
- Traffic from display ads is surging. Expand your ad budget.
- Competitors rank for a keyword your page targets. Improve on-page optimization.
- Your CTR declined after changing photos. Revert to originals.
Combine With Other Metrics for Full View
While Google My Business Insights are incredibly helpful, they only show part of the picture.
To fully assess your local search performance, combine insights with metrics from other sources like:
- Google Analytics – Traffic, conversions, location data
- Call tracking – Phone call volume and quality
- CRM – New customer acquisition and sales
- Surveys – Customer satisfaction and feedback
- Competitive analysis – GMB rankings and engagement
This gives you a 360-degree view of your local SEO results and where to focus your efforts.
Don’t Forget On-Page SEO
Although your GMB presence is hugely important, on-page SEO remains critical for overall local search rankings.
Make sure your website is optimized for local SEO best practices like:
- Prominent city and neighborhood names
- Address, phone number, and schema markup
- Local-focused title tags and meta descriptions
- Content focused on serving your geographic area
- Internal links to location and contact pages
This gives Google signals to understand the local relevance of your entire site.
Consistency Is Key
The most successful local SEO strategies use GMB insights to make informed optimizations consistently over time.
Don’t treat it as a one-time task. Set aside time each month to analyze the data and take action.
Over time, you’ll see your key metrics improve as local visibility and rankings increase.
In Conclusion
Tap into the free and powerful data within Google My Business Insights. Learn how customers find you, what motivates them to act, and where your strategy needs improvement.
Then combine those insights with your website analytics, competitive research, and other data sources. This enables data-driven decisions to boost local SEO performance.
Consistently optimizing your Google My Business presence along with on-page SEO will lead to higher local pack rankings, increased website traffic, and ultimately more customers walking through your door.
What metrics do you find most valuable from GMB Insights? I’d love to hear what’s working for your local SEO in the comments below!
References
[1] https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-my-business-content-seo/370717/
[2] https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/google-my-business-insights/
[4] https://www.google.com/intl/en_gb/business/resources/improve-your-profile/optimise-google-my-business-listing/
[5] https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-business-profile/local-seo/
[6] https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/06/03/google-my-business-optimization
