How to use Google My Business insights
Key take-aways
Business Profile on Google is a free online business listing from Google My Business that helps you share key information such as business location, contact details and opening times with potential customers. With Insights for Business Profile on Google, you can access valuable data about your profile and discover the ways people are finding your business online. Learn how the Insights feature can help you make smarter online marketing decisions.
1. What is Insights for Business Profile on Google?
2. How do users find your Business Profile?
3. What actions do users take from your profile?
Business Profile on Google
A product from Google My Business that lets you create and manage your Business Profile on Google so that people can see your business when carrying out search and Google Maps. Business Profile on Google is a free business listing that appears in search results.
Knowing which Google platform is driving traffic to your business gives you an insight into the intention of your potential customers.
1. What is Insights for Business Profile on Google?
Insights on the Business Profile on Google dashboard provides information about how people find your business online. Its data covers the previous 28-day period. Business Profile on Google listings makes it easier for people in the local area to find you, and the Insights feature helps you evaluate whether you are getting the most out of it.
With the Insights feature, you can learn:
- Where users came from (e.g. Google Search or Google Maps)
- Actions taken (e.g. visiting your website or requesting directions)
- Common words and phrases queries that led people to your profile
- How your posts are performing with potential customers (through the Post Insights feature)
You can use this information to understand how potential customers find your profile and interact with it.
When it comes to local businesses, knowing how and where people are searching for you is essential. Looking for something nearby—for example a coffee shop, noodle restaurant, or shoe shop—is one of the most common searches users make. Nearly one-third of all mobile searches are related to location.
2. How do users find your Business Profile?
Insights helps you understand how users find your business online by providing data on how they arrive on your Business Profile on Google. It consists of three datasets: search type, search origin and search queries.
Search type
Insights tells you whether searches to your profile are "direct" or "discovery". A direct search is a user searching for your business by its name or address, such as "Myhill & Sons DIY" or "17 London Road". A discovery search is a user searching for a product or service that your business offers and your profile appearing as a result. For example, if a user searched for “DIY shops near me" on Google Maps.
This information can indicate how your marketing and branding efforts are performing. For example, a high percentage of direct searches means that users have heard of your business or know its name and are searching for it specifically, indicating good levels of brand awareness.
Search origin
People can find your Business Profile via Google Search or Google Maps, and Insights tells you how many users originated from each. Knowing which Google platform is driving traffic to your business gives you an insight into the intention of your potential customers.
For example, a clothing boutique in York might notice that the majority of users find its profile through Google Maps on smartphones. This could indicate people are looking for its opening times to plan their visit or trying to find the bricks-and-mortar location of the business on-the-go.
Search queries
Search queries tell you about the words and phrases users entered into Google to find your profile. For example, if you are the owner of a pet shop in Brighton, you can learn the phrases and keywords potential customers searched for, such as "tropical fish Brighton" or "bird cages Brighton".
You can use the results from your search data to determine which keywords — meaning words or phrases — people have used to find your profile, which can inform marketing copy across your business as well as provide you with keywords to use in Google Ads campaigns.
3. What actions do users take from your profile?
Insights also tells you which actions users take once they arrive at your profile. This includes visits to your website, calling your business or making a request for directions. Having information about the behaviour of your potential customers can provide useful insights. For example, if a high percentage of users are visiting your website, this suggests they want more information about your business in addition to what appears on your profile.
Ask yourself what that information could be. If your business sell goods, users might want to know if a particular product is in stock. Research shows that 82% of potential customers research purchases their phones before visiting a local store. To make potential customers' lives easier, you could consider adding more information to your listing directly or to the homepage of your website.
Smart business decisions are backed up by data, and the information that Insights provides tells you a valuable story. Reviewing the performance of your profile regularly can help you identify important trends and create more effective digital marketing campaigns. Remember, Business Profile on Google is available for free – so start taking advantage today.
Dashboard
A visual and customisable summary of your account's performance data.