Google Insights Data
What is it?
On February 6th, 2023, Google stopped supporting APIs that power our Google Insights data and countless other 3rd-party companies using Google to power their data. These changes have affected multiple areas in the platform: Local SEO, Social Marketing, Multi-Location, the Executive Report, and the Google Business Overview page in Business Hub.
Google has since extended the date to sunset these APIs to March 30th, 2023, but the support for these metrics ended on February 6th. This means that any historic data for these metrics will not populate after February 6th.
The following metrics are no longer supported by Google and will not be available to view or download after March 30th:
- Search Types; found in Local SEO, the Executive Report, and Multi-Location
- Photo Views; found in Local SEO, the Executive Report, and Multi-Location
- Photo Quantities; found in Local SEO, the Executive Report, and Multi-Location
- Post Performance; Reach, Engagement & Posts for Google Business Profile, found in Social Marketing
Please note that all other metrics not listed above will remain in the platform and have now been migrated to be supported via Google’s new API. Historical data for these metrics can still be viewed up to March 30th, 2023, but only historical data up to February 6th will populate. If you wish to turn off the cards for these old metrics, please contact Support to do so.
The images below highlight the areas in the platform where the old metrics appear. These deprecated metrics will no longer appear in the platform after March 30th.
Local SEO – Metrics to be removed
Local SEO – After
Executive Report [Listings] – Metrics to be removed
Executive Report [Listings] – After
Executive Report [Social] – Metrics to be removed
Multi-Location [Social Overview Tab] – Metrics to be removed
Social Marketing – Metric card to be removed
Social Marketing – After
Multi-Location Google Business Profile – Metrics to be removed
Multi-Location Google Business Profile – After
When will it take effect?
Effective March 30th, 2023, this data will no longer be accessible on the platform. You are encouraged to download any historical data you wish to have access to until that date. Please note that Google stopped supporting this data on February 6th, 2023, so historical data will only be available to view up to February 6th, and the data may lag at times.
We’ve since powered the insights data in the platform with Google’s new APIs and backfilled the new data being fetched to February 8th, 2023. With the new API, Google has made some changes to the way they define some of their metrics which may affect how your clients see the new data.
For example, profile views are now defined as:
“Users who viewed your profile: Number of unique visitors to your profile. A user can be counted a limited number of times if they visit your Business Profile on multiple devices and platforms such as desktop or mobile and Google Maps or Google Search. Per breakdown device and platform, a user can only be counted once a day. Multiple daily visits aren’t counted.
- Since this metric represents the number of unique users, it may be lower than the number of views you find on your Business Profile and in email notifications.
- Since the metric focuses on views of the Business Profile, as opposed to overall views of the Business on Google, it may also be lower than the number of views you find on your Business Profile and in email notifications.”
Coming Soon
Coming soon to Local SEO’s Google Insights page will be Searches breakdown. This new metric will give clients insight into the search terms that show their Google Business Profile in the search results, providing insight into their SEO and the keywords that help them get found.
Why am I seeing Google’s data populate with zeros in the marketing funnel?
There can be a couple of different reasons why you may see your data populated with zeros.
Either:
a) The date range you are looking at may have no views to showcase.
b) There is a known delay for Google to return data results for the most recent days. Even when accessing Google Business Profile natively, you can expect to see data populated with a ~5-day delay.
We will be monitoring this data closely over the coming weeks, and we will communicate updates, as needed if a continued delay is to be expected.
Why are my clients seeing fewer GBP views and actions?
When Google released their new APIs they also altered how they define certain metrics like profile views, searches, and direction requests. You can learn more about how Google now defines these metrics here. Previously, a single user seeing a local business on their desktop and mobile device multiple times in a day would be counted as multiple views or interactions. Now, Google only counts unique profile visitors. So if a user saw your client’s business on their desktop, then searched for them on their mobile, then clicked “directions to” multiple times, all of these are now tracked as a single interaction. Multiple daily visits/views are not counted. This change helps to improve data integrity and allows the business to gain a more accurate representation of how and how many users interact with their GBP.