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Google Releases Dashboard Features For Local Businesses
By Navneet Kaushal
Expert Author
Article Date: 2009-06-03
Yesterday, Google launched a new dashboard feature in the Google Local Business Center (LBC), which will provide businesses with new visibility into the techniques their local listings are found on Google. It will also enable them to make better decisions regarding customer's attraction.
The new feature will provide business owners with information about Google users interaction with their local listings. The addition will help LBC to draw local search data and assist owners optimize their listings and efforts to attract more customers.
According to a 2009 WebVisible/Nielsen Study more than 82% consumers rely on search to find local businesses, and the LBC dashboard will provide them with the following data on that activity in Google Search and Google Maps:
- Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a search result on Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.
- Actions: How many times users interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times users clicked through to the business' website or requested driving directions to the business.
- Top search queries: Which queries led users to the business listing; for example, whether more customers are finding the listing for a cafe by searching for "tea" or "coffee".
- Zip codes where driving directions come from: Lists and maps of the zip codes users are coming from when they request directions to a listing.
The new dashboard will enable business owners to identify trends, like days when interest in their business spikes, or seasonality in the types of searches that lead potential customers to their listings. It will enable them to better determine changes to their listings affect the traffic flow to that listing. It will also allow them to calculate the impact of changes related to web content or modifications to marketing campaigns. With this information, owners will be able to make right decisions about the most effective ways to promote their businesses and attract new customers.
The new data-rich dashboard will be pre-populated at launch with Google data from the past 30 days, and updated daily. All data available in the dashboard will be anonymized and aggregated, so no individual Google user data will be shared.
The LBC dashboard is accessible to all business owners who has claimed their listing in the Local Business Center. However, business owners who don't have an LBC account yet, can create one for free by visiting http://www.google.com/lbc. At present, the Local Business Center is available in 36 countries, but the dashboard feature is currently made available only for US listings.
To know more about the new dashboard and the Local Business Center, visit Google Lat Long Blog.
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About the Author:
Nav is the founder and CEO of Page Traffic, a premier search engine company
known for its assured SEO service, web design and development, copywriting and full time SEO professionals.
Navneet has wide experience in natural search engine optimization, internet
marketing and PPC campaigns. He is a prolific writer and his articles can be
found in the "Best Articles" section of many websites and article banks. As
a search engine analyst , he has over 9 years of experience and his
knowledge is in application here.
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