If you have ever undertaken any activities which were to boost your local SEO, you certainly know that it is essential for any business to setup and administrate the Google My Business page. With over 72% of global market share, Google remains a true leader of search engine market, so it is no surprise that most of us want to be a part of its extensive worldwide network and optimise the local listings as much as possible. In addition to this, the second party actively ensures that the users are happy. Introducing the freshest update for Google My Business service…
New Insights Layout
This specific update is not completely new but it offers all users some nifty new features, which make our lives easier and the data easier to understand.
It was announced last Tuesday, August 9th, that the Google Small Business Blog informed us that there were
“Some exciting changes to Google My Business, designed to let our users see where and how people are finding them on Google.”
In fact, there were two major updates on the new Google My Business Insights Layout. Below you can find further information on the changes and details.
Google Search or Google Maps – Where do Users Find Your Page?
The first new insight you can now get from your Google Listing is the split between the users who found your Google local page in Google Search Index and those who found it via Google Maps. The data is presented with the timeline graph which provides information on the number of total views and your listing, as well as an actual split of the pages’ views both in Google Search and Maps. You can see the data for the last 7, 30 or 90 days.
Direct vs Discovery: Brand or Service Keywords
The second useful insight for your page sourced from Google Business is the “How customers search for your business” pie chart, now being the first element of the entire section. By analysing this (you can extract your data for 7/30/90 days and you will see a number (and a percentage) of users who found your GMB page by searching with the service/product keyword against the number of people who were typing your brand name directly into the search bar. This is a neat guideline for where you should spend your time while working on your digital marketing strategy: either if you should invest in your SEO visibility for generic service terms, or rather focus on brand-awareness campaigns targeted for a specific region of your local business activity.
No G+ Data
The final change in Google My Business is that no Google+ data is being shown in the Insights section anymore. It seems that the social idea of G+ did not survive in the social world dominated by Facebook and Twitter and Google are withdrawing the G+ elements from their other service interfaces slowly but surely.
