Google Business Profile not only serves as a helpful tool for businesses to maintain their online presence but also as a way to track the performance of their businesses in Search and on Google Maps. This week, Google announced a few changes to how these performance Insights can be accessed within the Google Business Profile dashboard.
What changed?
When viewing a Location Group within GBP, users can download a 'Bulk Insight' report which provides performance metrics such as views and actions users have taken on their Listings over the past 18 months. However, this report has been outdated for quite some time since Google's release of its Performance API and deprecation of the Call History feature.
After this change, the bulk insights report will more accurately reflect performance metrics from Google's Performance API which allows businesses to track key Calls-to-Action that they couldn't before, such as:
Business bookings
Food orders
Business conversations
Previous insights in these downloadable reports, which included overall ratings, direct and discovery searches, total views by source, and specific action counts (like website actions, directions actions, and phone call actions), are being replaced. The new metrics will now include:
Google Search (by device: Mobile/Desktop)
Google Maps Views (by device: Mobile/Desktop)
Desktop Calls
Messages
Bookings
Directions
Website Clicks
Food Orders
Food Menu Clicks
Hotel Bookings
How Yext can help
Yext has offered accurate insights from the Performance API within its platform since their release in early 2022. Beyond providing customers with the latest insights from their Listings, it also offers additional benefits such as:
Preserve Long-Term Insights: One of the significant concerns with the change is the potential loss of 18 months of historical data. Yext keeps Google insights from 18 months and beyond accessible, allowing you a consistent view of your business performance over time.
Unified Dashboard: With Yext, you aren't limited to just Google insights. You can view your performance across multiple platforms such as Bing, Apple, and Yelp, giving you a comprehensive understanding of your online presence across various platforms. Integration and Visualization: Beyond Yext's in-platform Analytics features such as Report Builder and Custom Dashboards, it offers integrations with popular data visualization tools. Whether you're a fan of Tableau or Google Data Studio, Yext ensures you can view and understand your data in the format that works best for you.
