How to Use Google Maps Insights to Drive More Business

Insights from Google Maps for local businesses offer rich information showing you how customers use your service and what you can do to better serve them.

By analyzing metrics like user interactions, location visits, and search visibility, you can make informed decisions to enhance your marketing strategies. This intelligence enables you to refine your product or service selection to better suit customer demand and increase customer engagement.

Getting to grips with tools such as these is vital for developing your business and beating the competition in an increasingly digital world.

Why Google Maps Matters for Businesses

Google Maps is much more than a navigation app. It’s an important tool for small, local businesses that are looking to increase their discoverability online and connect with more customers. With Google Maps Insights, businesses can use this valuable analytics data to inform their marketing strategies and increase visibility in local search results.

Improve Local Visibility

Google Maps Insights gives you the most critical business analytics that guide your business strategies. It’s an important second step to understand how customers are interacting with your business online. By accessing your business profile analytics, you can keep an eye on key performance metrics, including profile views and customer actions.

Monitor important metrics such as search queries to understand how customers find your business. Additionally, track how many people are asking for directions to learn something useful. This information is critical for increasing your visibility in local searches. It makes sure your business shows up if/when new customers are looking for your services.

Connect with Local Customers

Knowing the ways in which customers are discovering your business via search queries is essential to the foundation. It provides you insight into which keywords are driving customers to your listing, so you can optimize your content in response.

Recording customer interactions, like phone calls, website visits, and direction requests, gives you a glimpse into how engaged customers are with your business. Reviewing popular times and visit duration can help you optimize staffing and inventory, ensuring that you meet customer demand effectively.

Drive Foot Traffic to Store

This is why optimizing your business profile for visibility is key to attracting new customers. A complete and optimized profile makes your business stand out and encourages customers to learn more about what you have to offer.

With location-based advertising, businesses can even more effectively target potential customers, bringing them directly to your store’s doorstep. Personalizing marketing efforts to meet customers where they are, like offers geared toward what’s popular in that community, can triple customer engagement.

Identifying service area gaps allows you to expand your reach, while aligning your offerings with local preferences ensures you meet customer needs. It allows them to build brand awareness, connect with their target audience, and create a positive online presence.

With some diligent attention to detail within your Google Business Profile, you can help convey the quality, skill, and professionalism of your business.

Understanding Google Maps Insights

Google Maps Insights is a goldmine of local data that businesses with a physical location should be using to dominate their local market. By understanding how this tool operates, you can make informed decisions that enhance your visibility and engagement with potential customers.

Here are some of the most important areas to investigate when it comes to using Google Maps Insights.

What are Google Maps Insights?

With Google Maps Insights, you can monitor new leads generated, helping you evaluate the success of your marketing efforts. For instance, if you run a new marketing campaign and see more people getting directions, you’ll know your marketing hit the mark.

Tracking your coverage of service area can identify where you have room to grow. If you see a heavy volume of requests originating from a district you haven’t accounted for, consider reaching beyond your current target. It might lead to new possibilities for you.

Understanding the data on where projects are located is integral to making informed decisions about where to target limited resources. Learn about the top sources of customer visits. Taking advantage of these insights will allow you to spend less on your marketing budget and offer the products people in each of your locations want most.

Accessing Your Business Profile Analytics

Think of your Google Business Profile (GBP) as your free one-stop-shop for managing your online presence. Monitoring customer feedback is essential to understand satisfaction levels.

For example, if feedback repeatedly mentions slow service, this insight can help you make a change at an operational level. Even better, responding to all reviews—even the bad ones—professionally shows future customers that you’re trustworthy and credible.

When customers notice that you listen to their feedback and act on it, it builds their loyalty. Generating more customer reviews adds to your online reputation. In addition, businesses that regularly respond to reviews with a high average rating score see more daily visits.

With Google Maps marketing, you’ll gain valuable insights into customer behavior, giving you a clear picture of what draws users to your business.

Key Metrics to Track

Your marketing efforts are beautiful. Your business’s aesthetics are an important aspect of luring customers to you. Getting customers to upload photos will help you show off your business’s best side.

According to Google, verified businesses with photos are 42% more likely to get requests for directions and 35% more likely to receive clicks to their website. Checking negative content that can damage brand perception is key.

Monitoring brand status will help ensure new customers tie your brand to a quality experience. Visually showcasing your business highlights, like limited-time promotions or exclusive services is a great way to stand out and drive more customers.

Google Maps offers a seamless user experience, consolidating all necessary information, making it easier for potential customers to choose your business over others.

Decoding Customer Behavior with Maps

Decoding customer behavior is key to helping our hometown local businesses succeed and endure against the competition found everywhere and online. Here are 7 insights from Google Maps that can illustrate how customers find, get to and get to know your business. By utilizing this data, you will be able to make data-backed decisions that will strengthen your operations and improve your customers' experiences.

How Customers Find Your Business

Google aggregates anonymous data from users who have opted in to Google Location History, offering insights through Google Business Profile listings. This information breaks down how customers find your business, whether it’s through a direct search or discovering you via a Maps recommendation.

Importantly, Google Maps results often show at the top of organic search results putting your business in front of customers in a more visible position. For example, when a potential customer searches for “coffee near me,” your business profile will appear at the top of search results.

This increased visibility can go a long way towards increasing pedestrian activity. Mapping these pathways out allows you to customize your marketing, so it’s more likely to engage someone along their unique journey to becoming a customer.

Customer Actions on Your Listing

Google Business Profile Insights offers a treasure trove of information about how customers are engaging with your GBP. That includes things like website visits, phone calls, and directions requests.

More than 80% of consumers rely on these online reviews to inform their buying decisions. By regularly updating your profile and responding to customer reviews, you can significantly steer their decisions in your favor.

Addressing customer reviews or questions in a timely manner can improve their affinity toward your brand and foster repeat customers. When you keep track of these interactions, you can adjust your products, services, or strategies to more appropriately align with what customers want.

Popular Times and Visit Duration

The other major feature of Google Maps insights is learning about times of day your business is busiest or about your average visit duration. Identifying when you’re busiest and when your facility has the longest wait times allows you to staff more strategically.

For example, if data indicates a surge in visitors on weekends, you can ensure ample staff to provide excellent service. This kind of advance work is key to creating memorable customer experiences, which in turn lead to stellar online reviews and repeat business.

Google Maps houses valuable geographical data poised to refine your market savvy and ensure you are equipped to meet customer demand.

Boost Sales with Google Maps Analytics

These Google Maps analytics provide Local SEO and Google Maps marketing strategies to boost sales by beating the competition. By using these analytics to gauge customer behavior and improve services to meet that demand, you can positively impact your sales.

Here’s how to use Google Maps to boost sales and enhance your business’s online presence.

1. Optimize Your Business Profile

Your business profile is often the first impression potential customers will get. Making sure your name, address, and phone number—also known as NAP—are correct and the same everywhere is the bare minimum.

Make sure to add high-quality images that display your offerings, such as products, services, or atmosphere. An engaging, thorough description utilizing important keywords will help improve your rankings in organic search results.

Make it a habit to update your profile when you have new products, services, or hours of operation to show customers you’re still active.

2. Target Location-Based Advertising

With location-based advertising, you can target customers who are nearby and ready to make a purchase. With the help of Google Ads, you have the ability to run campaigns specifically geared towards certain geographic locations.

For example, if you own a cafe in downtown Berlin, you can increase walk-in customers. Target showings based on rides to all those looking for a coffee shop near me!

Creating a radius around your business will help make sure people who see your ads are the most relevant audience.

3. Improve Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is vital for building loyalty. Plus, with Google Maps customers can ask questions and post reviews directly on your Google My Business profile.

Responding to these reviews as quickly as possible—both the good and the bad—demonstrates that you care about what your customers have to say. This personal touch alone can go a long way in improving your store’s image and driving more foot traffic.

4. Identify Service Area Gaps

By leveraging the insights from Google Maps, you can better pinpoint the regions and locations that currently have less of your services’ representation. Through examining customer data, you may find out that other neighborhoods are lacking in service.

Knowing where the most people search from can help you direct your services or marketing to those areas, increasing your footprint.

5. Tailor Offerings to Local Trends

Being in tune with local trends could be the difference that gives your business the edge over competitors. Leverage Google Maps, paying special attention to the busiest areas and up-and-coming hubs in your community.

If you sense an increasing trend toward vegan food, capitalize on it! Change your menu to capture this growing trend.

This kind of agility to respond to market demand can go a long way toward expanding your customer base.

Enhance Local SEO with Maps Data

Tapping into Google Maps data is essential for local businesses looking to improve their local SEO. Knowing how maps data influences local search results can help companies get more visibility and ultimately, more foot traffic. With an understanding of these targeted tactics, you’ll be able to set your business up to rank as high as possible in local search results.

Improve Local Ranking Factors

12 Local ranking factors are huge determinants of whether or not your business will appear on Google Maps. Clean and accurate business information is essential. This data means all basic contact information, like your name, address, and phone number (NAP).

Keeping your NAP consistent across all platforms makes sure search engines can see that your business is credible. In fact, getting a lot of favorable consumer reviews can improve your local ranking. For instance, actively encouraging satisfied customers to leave feedback on your Google Business Profile can create a strong reputation and improve ranking.

Additionally, using images and videos to showcase your products or services will further increase engagement. A restaurant, as an example, can display its mouthwatering dishes, capturing the attention of diners looking to eat. By responding to customer questions and reviews, you foster a loyal community.

Good or bad, it helps create a culture of loyalty to your brand.

Optimize Keywords for Local Search

In-depth local keyword research Selecting the most effective keywords to target for local search is a vital part of improving your Google Maps optimization. Prioritize local, location-based keywords that are specific to your business area.

If you have a bakery in Boston, doggone it, optimize for terms like “best bakery in Boston.” These longtail keywords will bring more qualified traffic to your shop. Use these keywords to your advantage in your business description, posts, and any answers you give to customers’ questions.

In addition, think about long-tail keywords that address what customers might be searching for. Don’t simply use “coffee shop,” but rather “organic coffee shop in New York City near Central Park.” This level of detail increases the chance of attracting users who are most likely to become paying customers or clients.

Continuously refine your keyword strategy to capture seasonal shifts and local happenings. This will ensure your content is up-to-date and accurate.

Monitor Competitor Activity

Monitoring your competitors’ moves can provide useful information about the state of your local market. Research their Google Maps strategy, from their review management to their photo usage and engagement tactics.

If a close competitor is actively posting about new promotions, special events, etc., then pay attention! Take these dynamic, disruptive approaches and adopt them yourself to capture the interest of your audience.

Using tools such as Google Alerts can put you one step closer to discovering whenever a change is made to your competitors’ strategies. This proactive approach allows you to adapt and refine your own marketing efforts to stay competitive.

Google Maps Performance Tracking for Contractors

Knowing how to leverage Google Maps in the right way can make a huge difference in your local business visibility as a contractor. By leveraging Google Maps insights, you can gain a clearer picture of your performance in lead generation, service area coverage, and project location data. Each of these insights will empower you to make data-backed decisions that promote growth and strengthen customer interaction.

Track Lead Generation

This is an important step toward understanding how well your overall marketing strategy is working. You’ll be able to track how many calls, visits, and direction requests have come from your GBP. When you notice an increase in incoming calls after distributing a new ad campaign, you know your marketing initiatives are effective.

This signifies that potential clients are noticing your work! Additionally, taking a look back at these metrics over time can be incredibly telling in regards to seasonal trends and what your customers are doing. Use this information to better shape your marketing efforts.

By making data-driven decisions to focus your efforts on those best-performing channels, you’ll see your business growth become more powerful.

Measure Service Area Coverage

Measuring your service area coverage is essential to knowing where your potential future clients are coming from. Additionally, Google Maps lets you track the performance of your services as well by letting you know how many users are searching your services based on geographic locations.

By analyzing these learnings, you can determine which neighborhoods are most underserved or which areas have the most demand. For example, if data shows a significant number of searches in a particular zip code, it may be beneficial to focus your marketing efforts there or even consider expanding your service area.

By taking this targeted approach, you can ensure that your resources are being focused in the right places and maximize your operational effectiveness.

Analyze Project Location Data

By tracking project location data, you can gain better insight on where your projects are geographically located. By mapping every job you’ve ever completed, you can get an understanding of the trends and patterns tied to your work.

If you find that the majority of your projects are in one particular area, take advantage of it! Develop your marketing efforts around that niche and shake the dust off the surface to uncover potential.

This data can aid in future planning. Knowing where your resources are most effectively utilized allows for better scheduling and logistics. Familiarity with these insights improves your ability to make strategic decisions that meet or create demand in the market.

Leverage Reviews and Ratings

Understanding how to effectively use reviews and ratings on Google Maps can significantly enhance your local business's visibility and trustworthiness. This section will explore the critical strategies for leveraging customer feedback in a way that fosters growth and improves your reputation.

Monitor Customer Feedback

Customer experience is at the heart of any successful organization, so paying attention to what customers are saying on all available channels is key. Google Maps can give you a window into how customers feel about your services and products. Making it a priority to check these reviews regularly will help you see trends, good or bad, that will make or break your business.

For instance, if multiple customers mention long wait times, it may be time to reassess your staffing or service processes. Once you know what products tend to receive the most negative feedback, you can take decisive steps to improve customer experience.

Or, you can use Google’s recent changes to track the change in review volume received over time. This information will allow you to gauge how successful any changes you’ve implemented are. Through competitive analysis, you can see how your star ratings stack up against those of other local competitors. This provides you with useful information to improve your programs.

Respond to Reviews Professionally

The way you choose to respond to customer reviews can make or break how the public sees your business. Responding professionally to positive reviews and all negative reviews equally shows that you care about your customers. It demonstrates your dedication to improving their experience.

This could include things like responding to a happy client’s public praise on social media, which might help secure future business. Conversely, you get an opportunity to publicly respond to negative reviews and demonstrate your compassion. By expressing an openness to address their concern, you prove your commitment to quality customer service.

By answering thoughtfully and honestly, you are opening a conversation with all of your current and potential customers.

This not only goes a long way towards correcting specific issues, but it can make a huge difference to future customers. Customers who are likely reading those reviews notice that you’re super responsive to your customers, which in turn makes them feel more secure with your business.

Encourage Customer Reviews

Intentionally prompting your customers to leave reviews is the easiest way to boost the quantity of reviews you’re getting. Use post-purchase emails to keep the appreciation going from your happy customers. Put up posters around your place of business to motivate them to tweet about their great experiences!

Consider giving a minor reward to encourage consumers to submit a review or rating. For instance, giving them a discount on their next purchase can work wonders. Keep the process simple! Include clear links to your Google Maps listing, so it’s easy for customers to leave their feedback.

More reviews mean more positive signals to Google which means more visibility for you and it means more credibility. Customers are more likely to trust a business if it has a high quantity of authentic reviews. This trust develops into one of the most powerful tools in your marketing strategy.

Optimize User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC), including reviews, Q&As and more are extremely important for local businesses. It allows them to better connect with their customers and build a robust online presence. Google Maps Insights provides businesses with some invaluable tools to help them use this content in the best way possible, improving visibility and credibility.

By optimizing UGC, you’ll not only improve local SEO, but you’ll encourage community engagement. Here, we’re highlighting some of the most important smart strategies you should use to make the best of UGC—even more so, on Google Maps.

Encourage Photo Uploads

Pushing customers to upload their own photos will go a long way in making your business’s profile on Google Maps as robust as possible. Having professional photos adds a layer of visual authenticity that can woo potential customers.

Try to provide rewards for consumers that post their experiences with images. Discounts on your products or entry into a giveaway would be enough to get them on board! Your neighborhood coffee shop might be able to do a super creative Instagram campaign.

They can invite patrons to take and tag photos of their new favorite drink in their store! This not only provides a beautiful, colorful gallery of visuals, but you establish a sense of community amongst your consumers. Feature these pics on your Google Maps Contributor profile.

This will help portray real people’s experiences and even humanize your business, making it appear more personable and welcoming.

Monitor Content for Brand Perception

Keeping an eye on UGC is key to knowing how consumers are viewing your brand. Look out for anything you can on reviews, comments, and pictures that customers are creating and sharing.

Use available Google Maps tools to monitor these findings intently. If several reviews mention great service, that’s an indication that guests value it. When they say they didn’t like the ambiance, that’s a direct line to improvement.

Engaging with all reviews, good and bad, demonstrates that you care about customer experience. In doing so, it demonstrates your passion and dedication to improving their experience. This forward-thinking strategy is integral in building a strong brand voice and earning the loyalty of your audience.

Showcase Business Highlights Visually

We hope this short guide helps empower more local businesses to use visual storytelling to enact meaningful change. Leverage UGC to amplify any major events, takeovers, launches, or other community initiatives.

Accompany this colorful journey with a stream of fresh photos on your Google Maps business profile to show off your business’s progress in a visually impactful way. A local gym, for instance, might post pictures from popular community classes, competitions, or before-and-after pictures of clients.

This further emphasizes the dynamic nature of your brand. It also attracts potential customers by fostering an energetic and welcoming vibe.

Conclusion

Leveraging Google Maps insights can be a game changer for local businesses. You not only receive access to important information that highlights customer interactions and preferences. By strategically analyzing this information, you can make sales skyrocket and increase the chances of your business showing up for local SEO initiatives.

By tracking performance, you can better understand what’s working and what’s not. With smart leveraging of reviews, you can build your authority and attract more local customers. User-generated content helps to increase visibility for your business.

Implementing these tactics will ensure that you shine brighter than every other diamond in the Local Services market. Get to know these insights, use data to make better business decisions, and see your business flourish. Download the infographic to learn more. Get started with Google Maps insights today to unlock your business’s full potential and connect with your community like never before. If you wish to learn more about how to improve your Google My Business, visit us at Ma Consulting Services to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Maps Insights?

Google Maps Insights is a tool that gives local businesses valuable insight into how customers are engaging with their local listings on Google Maps. It includes information on views, searches, and user actions, helping businesses make informed decisions.

How can I access Google Maps Insights?

You can view Google Maps Insights from within your Google My Business account. Simply log into Google My Business, select your listing, and click on the “Insights” tab to start see your data.

How does Google Maps impact local SEO?

Google Maps makes it easier for your business to appear in localized search results. As listings become more optimized, they win over customers first, boosting foot traffic and revenue.

Can Google Maps analytics help boost sales?

Sure, mining Google Maps data can help you spot customer trends and preferences. Focusing deeply on each aspect of their consumer journey, businesses will find ways to market to convert and drive more business.

What role do reviews play in Google Maps performance?

Reviews are possibly the most impactful part of your Google Maps ranking. Businesses with positive reviews are seen as more credible and receive more customers, whereas negative reviews can scare potential customers away.

How can I optimize user-generated content on Google Maps?

Prompt your customers to upload their reviews with great photos and quality images. Taking a dip into this type of content will not only make you more visible but help build the community of local support that every business craves.

Is Google Maps performance tracking useful for contractors?

You betcha, as we say up north. Contractors can use Google Maps performance tracking to understand customer behavior, optimize their listings, and enhance local marketing strategies effectively.