2021 Google My Business Insights Update
Colan Nielsen

Updated on June 15, 2021 to include new Directions and Website Clicks breakdown  

Google announced some changes coming to GMB Insights in October 2020. According to this Google My Business help center article titled Changes to your Insights data:

Business Profile Performance reporting is moving closer to your profile on Search and Maps. You’ll be able to access more of the core profile metrics directly from your Business Profile. We start with interactions to let you know how often people have contacted you. More metrics will follow over the next months and will include detailed reports about searches and the number of people who saw the profile.

After metrics are added to Performance reporting, the older versions of those metrics will eventually be removed from the Google My Business web and app platforms.

Performance reporting is currently available on Search and will soon be available on Maps.

Data will be available for up to 6 months. You’ll be able to review your performance by selecting custom time frames, with interaction metrics updated daily and other metrics updated monthly.

This appears to be the official announcement of GMB adding performance metrics to the direct edit experience that we wrote about n August 2020.

The help center article goes on to highlight how GMB has refocused reporting on the business profile:

Important: We can’t provide timelines for any individual change before it takes place. We’ll update this article as changes take place. Updates can include:

  • New metric update frequency: We may update how often a metric is calculated (for example, updating the data at the end of the month).
  • Addition of new metrics: The metrics provided in Performance reporting will evolve over the coming months to include new data that has never appeared on the Google My Business Insights page.
  • Unchanged metrics: Certain metrics will move to Performance reporting without significant changes. 

The table below will announce upcoming changes to the metrics or new metrics we’ll introduce to Performance reporting. **Taken from the help center document. 

MetricChange
Searches

Queries used to find your business

Moving to Performance reporting on Search in October 2020.

Searches will be updated monthly instead of quarterly and this data will be available for up to 6 months.

January 26, 2021, Update

As of today we are learning of, and seeing a few new additions to the GMB Insights section.

Mobile VS Desktop Breakdown

As of today, we are seeing a new section in Insights, that breaks down how many people viewed your business profile on both Google Maps and Search, broken down by mobile and desktop. Here’s what it looks like.

GMB Insights mobile vs desktop

We also learned that “Directions” as well as “Bookings” and “Website Clicks” will be available soon as well.

June 15, 2021 Update

As of today, it looks like the Directions and Website Clicks metrics are now available in the GMB Insights Dashboard. Here’s what it looks like.

gmb directions insights

website clicks insights

For more, join the conversation at the Local Search Forum.

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Colan started in the local SEO world back in 2010 and is also deemed a product expert by Google as a Top Contributor on the Google My Business Forum. He is a contributor to Moz’s famous Local Search Ranking Factors survey and is a former Google MapMaker Regional Lead. Read Colan's full bio here.