Google Business Profile: How to Use It to Get More Customers

Your Google Business Profile (GBP), previously known as Google My Business, is a key tool for boosting your online visibility.

It’ll help you show up in map results:

And in relevant local search results:

Boosting your chances of appearing in front of people looking for what you offer.

Below, we’ll show you:

• Exactly what GBP is
• Why it’s important
• How to set up a profile (or claim an existing one)
• How to optimize your profile
• How to monitor your listing

Let’s go.

What Is Google Business Profile?

A Google Business Profile is a free online listing provided by Google that displays essential information about your business.

A well-optimized GBP improves your business’s chances of appearing in local search results and Google Maps. This makes it easier for potential customers to find and engage with your business.

Unsurprisingly then, your Google Business Profile is an important part of your overall local SEO efforts.

Optimizing your Google Business Profile can help your business appear in a few key places. The first of these is the Map Pack (or Local Pack).

The Map Pack is a collection of top-ranking businesses that appear at the top of local search engine results pages (SERPs). Here’s what it looks like:

If a user clicks on one of these listings, they can learn more about the business and take action. Like reserving a table or getting directions.

Here’s an example:

Your GBP listing can also show up when users perform a direct search for your business.

For example, “Oishii Boston”:

Finally, your Google Business Profile can also appear in Google Maps results, on both desktop:

And on mobile:

Your Google Business Profile can display your business’s:

• Name
• Address
• Contact information (phone and email address)
• Website
• Operating business hours
• Business Category (e.g., salon, restaurant, medical clinic)
• Attributes (such as whether it’s wheelchair-accessible)
• List of services or products
• Customer reviews and ratings
• Videos and photos that showcase your location, products, and services
• FAQs
• Booking information or service inquiries
• Recent posts

Why Is a Google Business Profile Important?

Optimizing your GBP can have a MAJOR effect on your business’s online visibility.

But let’s take a closer look at the biggest benefits.

Increase Your Visibility

GBP stats from Google show that users are 70% more likely to visit your business if you have a completed profile, and 50% more likely to consider making a purchase.

So, if you don’t have an optimized GBP, you’re almost certainly missing out on views, clicks, footfall, and, ultimately, paying customers.

Build Trust and Credibility

When people perceive your business as trustworthy, they feel more confident buying from you.

Your GBP provides a level of transparency to your business which can help to foster trust. If a user can see your physical location, contact details, and what you have to offer, then they’re more likely to view your business as legitimate.

Plus, Google’s algorithms aim to rank content that displays the following four things:

• Experience
• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trust

Otherwise known as E-E-A-T.

The better you optimize your Google Business Profile and the more trustworthy it appears to customers (and search engines), the higher it can rank in local search results.

Foster Customer Engagement

Your Google Business Profile is also an opportunity to let your customers engage with your business.

For example, your customers can leave reviews:

You can benefit from this engagement as it can help build trust with other customers. Because when shoppers can see genuine feedback from other customers, it boosts the credibility of your business.

Plus, Google uses reviews as a ranking factor when ranking businesses in local search results. So getting more of them can improve your rankings further.

The Q&A section of your GBP allows users to ask and answer questions about your business.

This lets users find answers to questions that might help them make a buying decision. Like what kind of parking facilities you have, wheelchair accessibility, and whether it’s dog-friendly.

How to Set Up a Google Business Profile

Here are the steps to set up a Google Business Profile.

It’s also worth noting that the steps might vary slightly depending on your location and what you choose at each stage.

1. Go to the GBP Manager

First, make sure you’re signed into your Google account, or create a Google account if you don’t have one yet.

Then, head over to Google Business Profile Manager and click the “Manage now” button.

2. Add Your Business

Next, you need to enter your business name.

Since anyone can submit new places to Google Search and Maps, your business may already be listed on Google. If your business shows up in the dropdown, you can click on it.

If someone else manages it, you’ll need to claim it (we’ll show you how to do this later).

If it doesn’t show up, it’s time to add it.

Then choose your business type.

Depending on the business type you choose, your next steps will vary. (Note that you can choose multiple business types.)

For example, if you choose a local store or service business, you’ll need to add a business category.

But if you choose online retail, you can add a link to your website.

3. Enter Your Location

If you choose online retail or local store, you’ll need to add your business address.

If you don’t serve customers at your business address (but you do visit them in person), then you don’t need to enter a business address. But you can add a service location.

For example, if you run a plumbing business based in Seattle and carry out your work at customers’ homes, you don’t need to add a business address.

However, if you run a hybrid business, then you’ll need to add a business location. Hybrid businesses serve customers at their business address but also visit or deliver to customers.

For example, a dine-in restaurant that delivers food to customers as well.

4. Enter Your Contact Info

Type in your phone number and your business’s website (the website part is optional).

5. Verify Your Google Business Profile

Once you’ve entered all your details, you’ll be taken to a confirmation page. Click “Continue.”

After this point, there are a few different things that might happen. Google asks most users verify their business either via:

• Phone
• Text
• Email
• Live video call
• Video recording
• A postcard sent in the mail

Depending on the verification method Google offers you, verification times will differ. For example, a postcard with a verification code will take a lot longer to get to you than a text.
Once you’ve entered your verification code, you should be verified fairly quickly. But in some cases, Google may need to manually review a listing. In these cases, verification can take several days.

While you’re waiting to be verified, you can go ahead and make changes to your profile. However, they won’t be visible to users until you’ve been verified.

There are some (rare) cases where Google will automatically verify profiles. If you verify your business website through Google Search Console (GSC), then your GBP can be instantly verified once you create it.

Or you can create your Google Business Profile first and verify the matching site with GSC after. Google can then verify your GBP without you having to go through any of the methods we mentioned above.

You can also instantly verify your profile if you create your GBP using a Google account linked to a domain that’s been verified with GSC.

For example, we created this “Bunogiorno Pizza” profile using a Google account linked to a domain that had already been verified by GSC. So the GBP was instantly verified, as you can see here:

If your business needs multiple profiles for different physical addresses, then you may be able to use bulk verification.

For example, if you have a pizza franchise in both central New York and Boston, bulk verification can save you from having to individually verify the profile for each location.

How to Claim a GBP Listing Managed By Someone Else

If your business already exists on Google Maps but you haven’t set up a GBP, you can click the “Claim this business” option.

You’ll then be able to verify that you own or manage the business, similar to the steps above.

But what if a Google Business Profile has already been set up for your business by someone else, but you can’t access it?

For example, let’s say you’ve just taken over a branch of “Guitar Center.”

You search for your store on Google and find that a GBP has already been set up by the previous owner. But you haven’t been granted access yet.

There are a few steps you’ll need to take to claim ownership so that you can also manage the Google business listing.

First, go to the Google Business Profile setup page and type in your business name. Then, choose your business from the list.

On the next page, click “Request Access.”

You’ll then need to fill out a form to send to the profile owner asking for access to it. The form will ask you to:

• Choose the level of access (management or ownership)
• Choose your relationship to the business (owner, employee, or agency)
• Enter your name and contact number

Then, click “Submit.” You’ll now need to wait for the profile owner to respond and grant you access.

Best Practices for Optimizing Your Google Business Profile

Once you’ve created or claimed your GBP, it’s time to optimize it. This is essential for ensuring your business can appear in front of your target customers.

Plus, a study on local search ranking factors has shown that the completeness of your Google Business Profile can have a big impact on your conversion rates. Suggesting that the more info you provide in your listing, the more likely users are to convert.

Let’s take a look at the ways you can optimize your profile.

NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) & Website

NAP stands for name, address, and phone number, and it is crucial for local SEO. In short, it establishes trust with search engines and users, while also giving your customers ways to reach you.

An important thing to bear in mind is that your NAP details need to be consistent across the various directories and sites your business is listed on. When other sites reference your NAP details online, this is known as a citation.

Google may use citations to help rank content in local search results. So, the more citations you have from relevant, reputable sites and listings, the higher you might rank.

However:

If there is a conflict between the NAP details on your GBP and those in your other citations, Google might not know which information is accurate. So it may end up hurting your rankings, rather than helping them.

(Plus, it’s confusing for potential customers if they want to visit your business or contact you and they find conflicting information.)

If you’ve set up your GBP, you’ll already have entered your business name and address on your profile (unless you run a service area-only business).

But you can still double-check and amend them in your Google Business Profile Manager after setting it up. (Just note that some changes may take some time to go live.)

Click the “Edit profile” widget.

Under “About” you can edit your business name and category.

It may be tempting to add extra info or tags to your business name (e.g., “Pizzarama – The Best Slices in Chicago”). However, Google’s guidelines state that:

If you do include extra details in your business name and try to stuff it with unnecessary keywords, Google might see this as an attempt to manipulate your rankings. And as a result, Google could suspend your GBP.

Next, click the “Contact” tab.

Here, you can add or edit your phone number. You can also include a link to your website. This is a key step as it lets you drive organic traffic to your site through your Google Business Profile.

To add or update your address, click the “Location” tab, then select “Business location” to add one or edit the current one.

If you scroll down, you’ll be able to edit your service area. (This section isn’t relevant for businesses that only serve their customers at their business address.)

You can add up to 20 service areas for your business. Bear in mind that the boundaries of your service areas shouldn’t extend more than (around) a two-hour drive from your business.

Google uses this information to determine when and where to display your business in local search results. For example, when a user searches for “shoe stores in Las Vegas,” Google uses the addresses that businesses provide to show accurate and relevant results.

The same applies to service areas.

For example, if a user searches for “electricians in Baltimore,” Google finds businesses that service this area and displays them to the user.

So, providing full (and accurate) details can help ensure your business appears for the right searches in the right places.

But you don’t just need the information to be correct in your GBP. You also need it to be consistent across other listing sites too.

This can get tough when you have LOTS of listings all over the place. Which is where a tool like Semrush’s Listing Management comes in.

You can use this to check your NAP information across a variety of listing sites. You’ll be able to see where your listing is missing, and where there are errors.

This makes it easy to stay on top of ALL your listings in one place.

Add Attributes

Another key element of GBP optimization is adding your business’s attributes to your listing. These give users more information about your business and help them decide if it meets their needs.

For example, someone who uses a wheelchair will find it helpful if you add an accessibility attribute to your listing.

Attributes are split into two categories:

• Subjective attributes: Google sources these from users who have visited a business. Google prompts users, often through the Google Maps app, to provide feedback on the business. For example, if you own a restaurant, these aspects could include things like if it is cozy, good for kids, or good for groups.
• Factual attributes: These are attributes that you can add to your listing yourself. Such as whether or not you allow dogs inside.

We’ll be focusing on factual attributes here, as they’re the ones you can actually control as the owner of the GBP listing.

As well as being helpful to users, attributes also make your listing more likely to rank for search terms that contain an attribute modifier. For example, “restaurants with braille menus near me” or “hotels with free wifi New Jersey.”

There are LOADS of different attributes you can add to your listing. To see the full list, click “Edit profile” in your GBP manager.

Click the “More” tab and you’ll see the list of attributes you can add.

(The attributes you can add will vary depending on your location and business category.)

The more information you can give users about what to expect from your business, the better.

Write a Business Description

Your Google Business Profile description should be concise and descriptive.

Try to address some of the common pain points your target audience might experience, and explain how your products or services can effectively address these challenges.

Here’s an example:

The short description tells you exactly what the business offers, while also catering to specific requirements customers might have. Like security, size requirements, and parking.

Your business description needs to include keywords relevant to your niche, but you shouldn’t stuff it with them. As with any SEO-optimized content, use them naturally in the text—they shouldn’t disrupt the flow.

The benefits of using keywords in your business description include:

• Boosted relevance: Using keywords makes it clear to both users and search engines what your business is about. Google then uses these keywords to understand which relevant search queries to match to your business.
• A competitive advantage: If your competitors aren’t using well-researched keywords in their listing, you can outrank them in local search results by including relevant keywords in your own Google Business Profile.
• More engagement: When users see relevant keywords in your business description, it makes them more likely to engage with your listing. This can lead to more clicks on your website link, more calls, and increased footfall.

You can find the right keywords to target by performing keyword research. Get started with our free keyword research tool:

Add Images

Adding images to your Google Business Profile is VERY important.

High-quality images can make your listing stand out and entice people to click on it. Plus, they:

• Create a positive first impression for users and provide them with a clear sense of what to expect from your business
• Offer a visual preview of your business premises, showcasing your products or services
• Can boost conversions since your customers may use them to decide whether they want to engage with your business
• Show Google and your customers that your business is active

You can add images to your GBP listing within the profile manager.

You’ll have the option to add three different types of images:

• Logo
• Photo
• Cover photo

Your cover photo is the most important, since it’s the image most likely to appear next to your listing in the Map Pack and Google Maps.

Here’s an example of how your cover photo shows up in the Map Pack on the SERPs.

As it’s the first thing customers see, you want it to be a clear, high-resolution image that draws users in and accurately represents your business.

When customers select your profile, more images will show up. These could be images you’ve uploaded or ones your customers have added.

For any type of image you add, you need to adhere to Google’s image and video guidelines.

However, sticking to these guidelines isn’t the only thing you need to do. Here are some more steps you should take to make sure you optimize your GBP images:

• Avoid stock photos: Authenticity is essential. Don’t use stock photos as they lack originality and might not represent your business accurately (and they’re often easy to spot too). Use unique, original images that truly showcase your business.
• Optimize photo titles: Don’t use the generic names that are automatically given to your images (e.g., “image_321”). Use descriptive names like “Hotel room with sea view” and incorporate relevant keywords into them.
• Monitor customer photos: Google lets customers add images to your GBP, so you need to ensure you check these photos frequently and remove any that aren’t appropriate or don’t accurately represent your business. To do this, you need to send a removal request to Google.

Create Google Posts

GBP lets you create posts that you can share with existing and potential customers. Users can view these posts under the “Overview” or “Updates” tabs.

According to GBP expert Darren Shaw:

You can share offers, announcements, and events with customers. You can also post about things like popular items coming back into stock or changes to your menu.

Or, you could create informational posts about developments within your niche. For example, an online marketing agency could create a post about the latest Google algorithm update.

This is a great way to communicate directly with your audience (and show them that you know what you’re talking about and have what they are looking for).

You can create posts via the GBP Manager dashboard.

You can then choose to either add an update, an offer, or an event. The type you use will depend on your goals.

You can then add a photo, a description, and a button.

Then, you need to add a description that tells users all about your update. This is another opportunity for you to incorporate relevant keywords into your profile.

Here, we’re targeting “meat feast pizza”:

Finally, you can add a button. The options include:

• Book
• Order online
• Buy
• Learn more
• Sign up

Since we want users to order pizza from the site, we chose “Order online.” Then we just need to paste in a link to the page we want the button to lead to and click “Post.”

How often you post updates will depend on your goals and the types of posts you create. But once a week is a decent place to start.

You should create a regular posting schedule for your GBP listing. For example, you could post a “Tip of the Week” every Monday or a “Client Success Story” every Friday.

Feature Products

You should include your main products and services on your Google Business Profile. Not only does it make your profile look more complete, but it can draw customers in, giving them a sneak preview of what you have to offer.

For each product, you can include details like pricing, photos, and a call to action button.

When you add them, you’ll see them underneath your GBP in search results:

Your users can click on each one to learn more, making this a great opportunity to convert.

There are several SEO benefits to adding products to your GBP listing, including:

• Improved rankings: By adding products to your listing, Google gains more detailed and relevant info about your business. This makes your listing more likely to appear in local search results when users are searching for products in your area.
• Higher click-through rate (CTR): By adding products and including images, prices, and product details, you can make your listing more appealing to users. As a result, you could increase your website’s organic CTR.
• User engagement: Showcasing your products can make your profile more trustworthy. It also encourages user engagement (for example, customer reviews, website visits, or calls). These interactions can lead to better rankings in local search results.

You can add or edit your products through the GBP manager as well.

First, add a photo of your product and the product name.

Then, select a category and add a price, a product description, and a link to your product landing page (optional).

Although Google makes adding a landing page optional, we’d highly recommend doing so, as it’s SUPER important for increasing conversions.

When writing your product description, incorporate relevant SEO keywords into it to encourage customers to engage. Including keywords also increases the chances of your profile showing up in the Map Pack and Google Maps for relevant product searches.

As well as incorporating your target keywords, you also need to:

• Be clear and concise
• Highlight key features and benefits
• Provide solutions to the potential pain points of your target audience
• Include a link to your product landing page

Respond to Reviews

When it comes to choosing a local business, users rely heavily on customer reviews to make a decision. They’re likely to consider a business to be trustworthy and reliable if it has positive reviews, and they’re unlikely to engage with a business that has mostly negative ones (or none at all).

Google recognizes how much users value reviews, and displays a star rating as part of a business’s GBP listing.

This indicates how positive or negative the reviews are for this business, and it’s one of the first things potential customers see when a listing appears in the Map Pack.

Reviews are also important for your listing’s rankings in local search results. Both the quantity and quality of your reviews (i.e., the scores you get) can affect your local rankings.

There’s no surefire trick to getting good reviews and ratings. And you don’t have much control over whether customers leave you a review or what they say.

To increase your chances of getting more positive reviews, you need to make sure you satisfy your customers.

But sometimes you’ll have to ask for reviews. You can encourage your customers to leave reviews by sharing a link. To do this, click on “Ask for reviews” in your GBP manager.

GBP will then generate a link for you, which you can give to customers directly and ask them to leave a review of your business.

You can copy this link and embed it on your site, or you can click the email, WhatsApp, or Facebook widgets to share it with customers.

This is a good way to encourage users to start reviewing your business.

Plus, Google may bold certain keywords in reviews if they match the search query.

In the example below, you’ll see keywords like “pineapple fried rice,” “prawn,” and “seafood” bolded.

So the more relevant keywords you can get into your reviews, the better. But you want to make sure those reviews are natural. And obviously you can’t choose what words customers use.

Instead of explicitly asking your customers to include keywords in reviews (not recommended!), ask them to include detailed information about their experience. For example, what they ate. This is a nice way to get them to include keywords naturally.

Another reason why getting keywords in reviews is important is because Google sometimes includes keywords that are mentioned often at the top of their reviews section.

Users can click on these to be taken to the reviews that reference the specific terms they’re interested in.

In the image below, you’ll see terms that show up often as “soft shell crab,” “oxtail,” and “mussels.”

But just having reviews on your profile isn’t enough—you also need to respond to them. This is a great way to engage with your customers and enhance the credibility of your business.

It also shows that you take an active interest in the feedback your customers provide.

When responding to reviews, there are several things to bear in mind:

• Respond as quickly as possible: This shows that you value what customers have to say and shows that your business is active
• Be professional: If a customer leaves a negative review, accept the criticism and address it appropriately (more on this soon)
• Use your brand’s tone of voice: This should be consistent throughout all of your brand’s online content
• Respond to specific details: This shows you’ve taken the time to fully read the review and pay attention to what they value about your business (rather than just copying and pasting generic replies)

Responding to negative reviews requires a slightly different approach:

• Remain calm and maintain a measured, professional tone: Don’t get defensive or confrontational
• Acknowledge and address their concerns: This shows that you take customer feedback seriously
• Offer solutions: This demonstrates how committed you are to customer satisfaction
• Ask the customer to contact you directly to discuss the matter: This can be a great way to address their specific issue
• Learn from their feedback: If the negative review is fair and genuine, it could highlight areas of your business that you need to improve

A great way to keep track of your reviews and respond to them is by using Semrush’s Review Management tool. This feature makes it SUPER easy to manage all of your reviews from GBP and other directories in the same place.

Once you’re set up, head to Semrush’s Listing Management tool and select the “Review Management” tab.

Here you can see an overview of all the reviews your business has received online. You’ll also be able to view your average star rating.

In the “Reviews” section, you can filter reviews. This is useful if you want to deal with any negative reviews first.

Then, you can click on the review and respond to it on the relevant platform. Plus, if you’ve connected your GBP, all you need to do is type in your response and click reply.

And if you want the platform to handle your reviews automatically to save even more time, you can even set up AI auto-replies.

Add Questions and Answers

Another way to optimize your GBP listing is to use the Q&A section of your profile.

This lets customers ask questions about your business and allows you or other customers to respond. (You can also ask questions yourself and then answer them.)

The Q&A section is a great way for customers to find essential information about your business. It also provides another way for you to get user engagement.

You can view your Google Business Profile’s Q&A section in your GBP Manager dashboard.

You’ll then see questions that customers have asked. And you can answer them here too.

Add a Menu, Food Ordering, and Bookings

If you own a restaurant or a business that takes bookings, you can provide your customers with even more useful information through your GBP.

They don’t carry much weight when it comes to local search rankings, but they can massively impact conversions.

How to Add a Menu

For dine-in businesses, adding a menu lets you showcase your offerings to users and hopefully entice them to visit.

If your business delivers food, a menu is essential, as users need it to be able to order from you.

As with everything else we’ve mentioned, you can edit your menu options from your GBP manager dashboard.

You can add the name of the section (appetizers, main meals, desserts, etc.), along with details like:

• The name of the item
• The price of the item
• A description of the item
• Whether or not it’s vegetarian or vegan

Repeat this for all the items on your menu so that users can access your full menu directly from your Google Business Profile.

How to Add Food Ordering Options

By allowing customers to order food directly through your GBP listing, you make engaging with your business more convenient.

Customers may also be more likely to order if they can do it quickly via your listing rather than having to call your business.

To do this, go to the “Food ordering” section of your dashboard.

Then, make sure you click the blue toggle to allow ordering and click “Add a link.”

Add a link to your order page and click “Save.”

Next, choose whether you want to accept pick-ups, deliveries, or both.

Now your potential customers will be able to see your menu AND place orders right within your GBP.

How to Add Bookings

Finally, if you run a business that takes bookings, like a restaurant or bowling alley, then you should enable the bookings feature for your GBP listing.

This makes it super easy for customers to reserve a lane or table. And as with menus and ordering, the easier it is for customers to do, the more likely they are to convert.

To get started, head to the “Bookings” section in your GBP Manager dashboard.

You’ll then have two options:

You can register with a third-party provider who will manage your bookings, and you’ll get a book/reserve button at the top of your listing.

Or you can add a link to your site’s booking page, which users can click to make a booking.

Doing this is a good way to direct organic traffic to your site. And you might get better conversion rates this way (but you may want to test both options to see which works best for your business).

How to Monitor Your Google Business Profile Listing

The Google Business Profile Manager allows you to analyze the performance of your profile and gain market insights, such as information about customer behavior.

You can then use this information to improve your profile and to make decisions in other areas of your business’s marketing strategy.

Let’s take a look at the valuable data GBP gives you access to.

Business Profile Interactions

This is the total number of times users interacted with your profile.

Things that are classed as interactions include:

• Calling your business
• Making a booking
• Asking for directions to your business
• Ordering food
• Asking a question
• Leaving a review

To view this data, click “Performance” in the GBP Manager.

(This is the first step you’ll need to take whenever you want to view your profile’s performance, so we won’t mention it again for the rest of the metrics.)

You’ll then land on the “Overview” page. At the top, you can choose the time frame you want to see the data for.

It’s useful to analyze data over different time periods so that you can pinpoint trends, identify growth and decline, and establish goals and benchmarks.

A good place to start is one year, as you can see fluctuations throughout the year (e.g., due to seasonality).

By using the graph, you can identify when there were spikes in interactions and when there were drop-offs.

You can then align this data with your previous optimization efforts to see what was successful and what wasn’t.

Searches

At the bottom of the overview page, you’ll see search data. This provides a breakdown of the specific terms and the corresponding number of times your Google Business Profile appeared for each.

This information is VERY useful for a few reasons:

• Keyword insights: You can use this to identify the specific keywords users are typing in to discover your business. These keywords can also provide insights into the keywords you should use to optimize your Google Business Profile.
• User intent: By analyzing these search terms, you can determine user intent and interests. Along with how well your business aligns with what they’re looking for.
• Content creation: If you know what search terms are driving traffic to your GBP listing, you can then create posts on your listing (or your website) that are relevant to those specific keywords.

Users Who Viewed Your Profile

This is the total number of unique visitors your profile received within the set period. It only counts one visit per device (desktop or mobile) and per platform (Google Search or Google Maps) for each user.

For example, if a user visited your profile twice in one day via Google Search using a mobile device, this would only count as one visit.

To view this data, scroll to the bottom of the “Overview” page.

Here, you’ll see a pie chart. This gives you a breakdown of the percentage of visitors who came from desktop, mobile, Google Search, and Google Maps.

This is valuable information as it allows you to adjust your GBP optimization strategy based on REAL data.

If most people searching for your business are on mobile, you can optimize your profile and website for mobile SEO.

You can use Semrush’s Listing Management tool to compare your GBP performance over time.

For example, in the “Views” graph we can see that Google Search views for September this year are 46% lower than they were in the same month last year. And we saw a 38% decrease in Maps views.

Being able to compare the data year-over-year lets us eliminate the idea of seasonal trends, and suggests there’s an issue with our GBP optimization.

We can then dig into our profile to understand where the issues are, and fix them to improve our visibility.

Directions

This is the number of unique visitors who requested directions to your business by clicking the “Directions” button on your profile.

If a user requests directions, it typically means that they viewed your profile and are actively considering visiting your business. So you can use this metric as a way to gauge interest in your business.

To view your metrics, click the “Directions” tab and you’ll see the total number of direction requests your profile received during your set time period.

You’ll also see a graph representing the number of direction requests over time.

Website Clicks

This metric tracks the number of times users clicked on the website link in your profile. It helps you determine how much organic traffic you’re driving to your site through your listing.

You’ll see a graph showing you the increases and decreases in clicks over the time period you choose.

If your website clicks are increasing, it could suggest that the visibility of your profile is improving and you’re successfully targeting the keywords your audience searches for.

If they’re decreasing, you’ll need to dig into your GBP to understand why (following the optimization steps we discussed earlier).

Calls

You can also monitor the number of calls your business receives directly from your GBP listing.

To track it, click the “Calls” tab in the performance dashboard. As with many of the other metrics, you can then view the graph for your call numbers.

Users may call your business for several reasons, from booking a table to finding out more about your offering. If you see a dip or notice a decline over time, this could be due to things like:

• Seasonal factors
• Decrease in local search rankings
• Changing consumer interests

The exact reasons for fluctuations in calls will depend on the nature of your business and the industry you operate in.

Sometimes, a decrease in calls is NOT a bad thing. In fact, it can be a good thing.

For example, if you implement an online booking system, customers may use that instead of calling. Meaning your calls can go down but your conversion rate can go up.

Other Metrics

There are several other metrics you can track using your GBP Manager dashboard.

Certain features are exclusive to specific types of businesses, such as “Food ordering” for restaurants and “Products” for retail stores.

When you click on the “Performance” tool, you’ll only see the metrics relevant to your business.

These metrics include:

• Bookings: If you’ve connected your GBP to a third-party booking provider, user bookings are a great indication that your profile is well-optimized
• Food orders: For restaurants, getting food orders directly through your Google Business Profile suggests you’re providing enough information to convince customers to buy from you
• Booking clicks (only applies to hotels): For hotels, you can keep track of the number of clicks on your booking link
• Products: You can track the number of views your products receive on your GBP and compare it with actual purchases to gauge your conversion rates
• Menus: As a restaurant, you can track the number of times users click on your menu per day

Optimize Your GBP to Improve Your Local SEO

It’s not enough to optimize your Google Business Profile once—you have to continuously update and tweak your listing. If you don’t, your local search visibility may take a hit.

But it’s WELL worth the effort. Because an optimized GBP can do wonders for your local SEO efforts.

Want to level up your efforts even further?

Start with local keyword research to understand exactly what your customers are searching on Google.

Then use our list of the best local SEO tools to manage your listings and reviews, analyze your competitors, and track your performance.