How Changing the Links to Your Site In Google My Business Listings Can Make Your Google Analytics Work Smarter.
Google My Business (GMB) listings play a vital role in most businesses’ visibility to prospective customers. In order to understand the impact a GMB listing has on a business, it is crucial that all links in the listing are configured correctly. I’ll show you how to make some simple, but important changes, but first I’m going to show you through Data Studio visualizations the impact this will have on your Google Analytics data. This one change can shift your whole perspective on how your different properties are working together. I call that the “GMB Effect”. You can see this effect on your own sites but first, you have to configure your GMB listings with tracking links using UTM parameters. Don’t worry, it’s easy!
Examples of the GMB Effect on Traffic to Actual Sites
First, take a look at the traffic attribution for a couple of sites that have GMB listings but have not configured their GMB links correctly. All of the examples here are from real sites and GMB properties. The graphs below show how visitors are getting to the business web site. Each bar represents a major marketing channel, or medium, and each bar shows how much each source contributed. Google Organic Search is often the largest source of traffic, and the charts below are quite typical of many websites. These charts come from a template I made to provide a quick site overview for people who manage many sites. You can get the template here, but do that later…. pay attention!
Analytics results in Data Studio without the GMB Effect
Spa Equipment Distributor with Service Area
Education Non-Profit with Storefront
Note the similar pattern of distribution of organic, direct and social traffic coming to these sites. I see some variations of this pattern occasionally where someone is doing particularly well with some social media posts or advertising. Usually, those other sources of traffic bounce around over time while the organic remains steady and we return back to this distribution over time.
Now, compare those distributions to the traffic of similar sites that have their GMB links correctly configured. Now Google Analytics, the Data Studio charts, you and your clients can distinguish GMB from other organic traffic sources. The difference should jump right out at you from these charts! See the big bright green chunks? That’s the GMB Effect!
Analytics results in Data Studio with the GMB Effect
Fence Installer with Service Area
Spa Business with a Storefront
Charity Food Cupboard with Storefront
Again, the bar chart patterns show the same distribution and follow the same patterns we saw in the first group, but now the “GMB Effect” can clearly be seen. The GMB source of traffic is the largest in all three of these cases. This is a common pattern that I see even before any optimization is done on the GMB listing. After optimizing a GMB listing the visuals can be even more compelling.
So, here is the point and the big payoff. What do you think is happening in the first examples? Does GMB play an important role in driving visits to those websites? Should the business stakeholders be paying more attention to their GMB listings? Do they think that the phenomenal design of their home page is driving traffic to their site?
The point is without using UTM params you can’t answer those questions! Who would not want to know their largest driver of traffic to their site? Of course, it is possible that a particular GMB listing does not have that much effect in some cases, but the point is you can’t know for sure without using tagging!
How to Add UTM Tracking Links to your Google My Business Listing
A few days ago I was watching a webinar where some well-known experts had a round table discussion about digital marketing tactics for local businesses. When asked for one top tip they wanted to leave people with, Claire Carlile’s response was an emphatic “Tag your GMB links with UTM parameters!”. She has backed this up by providing “Claire’s Complete Guide to UTM Tagging for GMB” just released the same day this post is being written. Instead of duplicating that information, I’ll give you the basics here and some alternatives to Claire’s work. Despite some differences, our approach is the same.
Here is an example of a pretty standard GMB listing. The website for the organization is linked to the website button as shown below.
Unfortunately, this link is not tagged with UTM parameters, so the URL for the link looks like this …
https://oaces.net/ Untagged link on this GMB listing
If this link was tagged properly it would look like one of the examples below.
https://oaces.net/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=listing&utm_campaign=oaces1
This is my preference for tagging. An example of Claire’s version would be:
https://oaces.net/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb-listing
The anatomy of a GMB tracking link
In Claire’s structure, the utm_content tag is optional and is to describe specific pieces of content you might add to the listing such as posts. I prefer to change the UTM source tag to “gmb” for some reasons I’ll explain later. Either one of these formats will work – the important thing is to keep your labeling consistent, descriptive and precise. The figure below shows how a tracking link is constructed following my suggested structure.
- The URL of the target page. The only difference is the “?” is added to separate the URL from the parameters. Parameters are separated from each other by the “&” symbol.
- The utm_source tag is used to set or override the normal google analytics value for source. In this case I set the value to “gmb” which overrides the standard “google” analytics setting. Many people like to leave this set to “google”.
- The utm_medium tag is used to set or override the normal google analytics value for Medium which is used to group similar types of sources. Anything coming from a search result is usually considered as “organic”. Facebook and Pinterest would be “social”.
- The utm_content tag is used with campaigns to distinguish more precisely which link the user clicked on. In this case “listing” refers to the link from the website button on the GMB listing. If you produce posts for our GMB listing your might set the content tag to identify specific posts.
- The utm_campaign tag is used to organize sets of links so they can be grouped together. This allows you to measure all the links you created for a specific effort. This tag allows you to compare the performance of a group of links against others. Vital when evaluating the performance of paid campaigns.
Why I set source to GMB instead of Google ….
First, I don’t think of GMB as a campaign. Many businesses have listings even if they don’t claim them, so it’s hard for me to think of those as accidental campaigns. GMB is so standard now that it is a fixture in the search results. I also don’t think of GMB listings as giving the same experience as regular site links. I feel they deserve to be their own source because they are experienced by users differently.
Second, setting the source to “gmb” gives me more information at a higher level. I find that charts showing breakdown by source are better at showing the “GMB Effect” to business owners. Sure, It is simple to show campaigns too, if that is your preference. I just think it is harder to get the context you need to really compare GMB traffic to regular site listings in the search results. I like using campaign tags for detailed information and they come in handy when the business has multiple locations. It then makes it easier to see the total effect of GMB listings and then break down by location if I have the campaign tags free to use for that.
Whether you decide to use “gmb” in the source tag is not the most important thing here. It’s a bit of a pain, but it is entirely possible to rewrite the data into new source fields, should you feel the need to, through the magic of Data Studio case statements. What’s important here is that you implement some changes to your links in GMB listings.
Getting Your Tracking URLs the Easy Way!
I highly recommend Claire’s article mentioned above for her organization of UTM links. I use this method when I am working with a lot of links myself, but when I am working alone I use a different system. I tag a lot of things for different reasons so I use this very handy Chrome extension, “Google Analytics URL Builder“. Using this extension to create a tracking link is easy! Just load a page in your Chrome browser and click the little cart icon. This will pop up a URL form for the page as shown below. You can either fill in your parameter values on the fly or you can save presets and just change field values if needed. This keeps my links consistent and speeds up the process!
Once you have your tracking URL copied to the clipboard you can paste it into your GMB listing where you would put a regular link. To set the main website button GMB link first click on the “Info” link in the GMB manager as shown below.
Next paste your tracking URL into the globe icon. This controls the link for the website button for your main listing GMB link as shown below.
Once you save the changes it may take a few minutes for Google to verify that the link is valid. After that every time someone clicks on the link they will register with Google Analytics as coming from your GMB listing. Simple right?
Please note that adding the tracking links to your GMB listing will also give you more insights into your Google Search Console data also. You will be able to tell which keywords are driving traffic through the GMB listing and which are coming from your regular search result links. I often find that the listing outperforms the regular links in driving traffic to the site, particularly the home page for brand terms.
Give the site owner the insights they need!
When site owners realize that before a user clicks through to the website on a GMB listing they must be viewing the listing first, they tend to take better care of the listing! I’ll post more about insights you can pass on when using UTM GMB links with search console in another post.
Just in case you were wondering, tagging your GMB listing is not something new – there are some other very good posts all about the topic. You can see one of mine from last year that was inspired by a presentation I gave to the London Analytics Meetup. So, why are people like Clarie and I repeating the message in so many ways? Because we keep seeing business listings that are not tagged! If you have an untagged listing you have the opportunity to get a much better understanding of the GMB Effect!
Have some thoughts on the subject or need some help? Post a question or comment in the section below or look me up on Twitter @Helpfullee or connect with me on LinkedIn – Lee Hurst
Header Image from Skye Studios and Unsplash.com
Hi Lee,
After setting up the tag and changing the URL in my GMB will my website URL on the GMB now show the fully tagged URL rather than my actual URL?
Hi Anthony, It will not show in the UI, but it will show in the address bar at the bottom if you mouse over the website button. Nothing to worry about there!
Hi Lee Hurst,
Thank you very much for sharing the valuable information regarding tracking local business traffic.
Is there any negative effect of adding UTM tracking? I have asked this question but none of expert have responded.
Some suggested purchasing short URL, Ask to create UTM tracking links, and short it with the help of short URL, they suggested using your own domain custom links so it looks natural.
What’s your thought?
Thank you
Hi Vijay,
I have not heard of any negative effect from adding UTM params to GMB links. If you had several locations you could experiment with this, but I doubt it will make a difference. This is because it is difficult to tell when the UTM params are added to a link on GMB , whether on the main page, or in posts and products. When I am researching sites I have to mouse over the buttons and check the links on desktop, and users rarely check this on mobile – no real indication of the underlying URL there! I can think of one disadvantage to using a short URL though – If it is not under your domain, you will not see any data for your listing in Search Console. When you use the UTM params , at least for the main link, the GMB listing is easy to identify and get the search queries for it. I can’t really see a reason to use a shortener here, but maybe I am missing something? Would love to hear another opinion, but I have not seen any local experts suggest it is needed.
Where do actually gets listed the GMB traffic by default? (without UTM tagging).
In organic or referrer?
Hi Alessandro! If no UTM tags are used the visit from GMB is listed as Medium=Organic , Source=Google . This is exactly the same as any other click on a regular search result that is not a GMB link. This is why it is a good idea to add the UTM parameters!
This is a great post on GMB / URL tracking… thank you so much.
Quick question — once you add “gmb” to the source, how do you see the keyword phrases in Google Search Console?
If I understood you right, you mentioned that adding “gmb” to source would help you see the GMB specific search queries and search data in search console.
I was just wondering how / where you would see this “gmb” specific data in search console?
Thank you again for the great post
Great Question Bobby! At the time there was a bit of confusion over whether Search Console would use the GMB link URL or if it would fall back to just the bare URL. For this reason I chose not to write about this at the time.
Fortunately, in Search Console you will still see separate entries for the URL with the UTM params which makes it very simple to pick out which terms are getting impressions and clicks for your GMB link vs Regular pages. Keep in mind though that Search Console data for queries by page is under reported in search console due to privacy concerns.
This can also make for some pretty neat data exploration in Data Studio. For example, I do a breakdown of Impressions , Clicks and CTR for the regular page VS the UTM version of the page. I also sometimes make 2 tables , one with the queries and the other with the pages, set the interactive filter on both so I can select a term and see all the pages, or select a page and see all the terms.
One important note – with the standard connectors from Data Studio you cannot get combined Query/Page/Rank data accurately , even with data blending. The reasons for this are a bit complicated, but it is a waste of time to try it. The only way I have seen this even partially successfully done is by getting close to raw data from the API and loading into Big Query. For most of us this would be overkill, with the value of the possible insights being outweighed by the time and cost of setup.
If you are interested in seeing some of the Search Console reports with UTM params you can DM me on Twitter @Helpfullee and I’ll be happy to show you some!
Hi Lee,
I would like to know where the data from the UTM goes. I logged into GA with the email that is used for GMB but there was no account set up, I made one but I don’t see where to add the tracking code into GMB. How will the data be sent from the UTM link to this GA account when the tracking code can’t have been added?
Regards,
Ross
Hi Ross,
Putting the utm parameters on the link in GMB does not make the data go anywhere on its own. Here is an outline of what happens when you add the UTM params to your GMB link and how it effects the data – may be more detail than you want , but it may help you conceptually.
1. You add a link back to your website with gmb parameters ( like this https://helpfullee.com/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=main )
2. Someone does a Google Search and your GMB listing is in the results. This will cause data entries in Search Console showing that landing page with all the arguments , the rank position on the page , and whether the searcher clicked on the link. By looking at Search Console data , and searching for URLs with the UTM string you can find all these pages and the keywords used to trigger them on the search results page.
3. The searcher clicks the link and goes to your site. If you did this, say for testing, you should be able to see the full URL with the UTM parameters in the address bar when the page loads.
4. If, and only if, you have Google Analytics installed on your site, a record for the page view will be sent to Google Analytics for storage. When the page view record is stored, the UTM parmeters make Analytics set the source to ‘gmb’ , the medium to ‘organic’, and in the case of the example URL it will set the campaign to main.
5. You can view the data in Analytics in a number of ways – you could view by page url and you would see the UTM parameters in the URLs. You could also view by going to Acquisition/All Traffic/Source/Medium – The visits that came from GMB, if you used the UTM tags , will show up as ‘gmb/organic’ .
If you have not installed Analytics on the website , previous visits are not recorded. You may find data in search console though because this is search result data that does not actually depend on your website. Simply adding the UTM parameters to the URL will make analytics set the source and medium for that page hit. Let me know if that helps or if you need more info! Cheers!
Thanks Lee, I appreciate the info. The thing I’m missing is how to install Google Analytics into the Google My Business site. I don’t see an option to add the tracking code anywhere and am not sure how to integrate it.
Ok , I see. There is no direct way to add Google Analytics to the GMB listing. If you want to view the GMB data , you either need to look at it in the GMB admin screens or bring the data into Google Data Studio. See my other post on using free connectors to view your GMB data here Free Local Marketing Dashboards For Small Business.
You can combine GMB data with your sites Google Analytics data using the blend feature of Data Studio. I suppose this post is more about seeing the impact of the GMB listing inside your sites Google Analytics data.
Hi, thanks for this article. Question, should we make a custom channel in GA after adding the utm codes?
And are you saying that it will just show up under the organic channel as whatever we put in the source in the utm tag, when we look at source as a secondary dimension?
Separating out the GMB source gives you options on how you want to report it. I prefer to keep the medium as organic, and I don’t worry about an extra channel. As you say, I use the source as a secondary dimension in most cases.
You do have options though. If there is a very large need to emphasize GMB, you might add it as a separate channel. I like keeping it as organic and then breaking down by source. Regular searches show up as ‘Google’ and GMB shows up as ‘GMB’ in the source field.