Google Launches Analytics Dashboard For Local Businesses

Google is launching a new dashboard feature today that allows business owners to see how customers find their website.

The new dashboard is called Local Business Center (LBC) and is a free tool that allows business owners to also control the content of their business listings as they appear in Google Search and Google Maps.

Business owners can take advantage of the new tool by claiming their listing in the LBC and going through a brief verification process. Once a listing is claimed, business owners will have access to the following data:

Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.

Actions: The number of times people interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to the business' website or requested driving directions to the business.

Top search queries: Which queries led customers to the business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for "tea" or "coffee"?

Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location.

The Google Blog provides additional details. "When you log in the LBC today, you'll find that we've already populated the dashboards for claimed listings with data from the last 30 days. After that, new information will be added every day, so you can check in often to see how things are going."

"We're also working hard to add more historical information, and to make this available for businesses outside the U.S. All the data we share through the dashboard will be anonymous and aggregated, to protect the privacy of Google users."