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Google Insights changes definition of "Views", makes YoY metrics unviable

Feb 28, 2023 /
All industries  /   Google Business Profile 

Comparing year over year metrics is a very important process for businesses. Seeing your growth over time is a great measure of how your business is performing. For businesses that also work with seasonality, comparing year over year is the only viable way to compare metrics. Google however is changing their GBP Insights for views. Comparing that KPI for any year prior to 2023 will now be comparing apples and oranges. This is because Google is changing its definition of “views”, and this means that the metric from every year prior will now be comparing different data.

As Per Google: “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.”

As the views metric now counts the number of unique users rather than total number of all views, it will lower the absolute number visible on business profiles. This is a drastic shift in itself but this change is further exacerbated by a second alteration to the definition of views.  

GBP insights will now only count views when a maps pin is directly interacted with by a user. This means that a user will have to click on a pin or have it featured in the default top ranking rather than simply have it appear as an option when they make their search. This change in definition will drive a massive drop in KPIs for any business manager reviewing their yearly metrics. Last year, a single search for a term such as “restaurant near me” would drive a view for dozens of businesses, inflating the views metric, and now that search will only be counted for whichever restaurant the user actually clicks on.

The “views” metric now possesses a more strict and more helpful definition, but it will make comparisons to previous years impossible. YoY view KPIs will need to be measured only against 2023 data going forward.

It’s a perplexing problem, for sure, but it’s also one DAC is built to overcome. Check in with our Local Presence Management experts and find out just how much we can do for your business.

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