In the past few months Google has upgraded the analytics and reporting tools for your Google Maps listing on what is now called Google Places. Since I have been told that web surfers don’t like to read long articles, I will create a quick overview with photos.

The data screens have MANY digital marketing implications that can be utilized to refine your marketing investments. That is best done on a one-to-one basis as I look at your Google Maps data.

It is vitally important that every business owner login to their Google Places (http://places.google.com) account (formerly Local Business Center) and check out the new features and reports. So, let’s get started.

Here is a basic Google Maps listing; more data shows on the page so this is just the top part of the listing.

Short Term Comments Added

You can now add comments to your Google Maps listing that will last 30-days. This is a feature that is accessed when you view your Google Places report. the comments can talk about your current sale or promotions so this should be added to your monthly digital marketing task list.

To view your report, login to your Google Places account, find your website listing and click on the “View Report” link as shown below:

Google Maps Analytics

When you login and click on View Report your screen will look like this:

Notice that you can add post comments on the upper right side of the screen. These comments appear on your Google Maps listing page.

Do You Have A Perfect Score?

You can also see if you have completed all required information with your completeness score. Most businesses will not be at 100% and that is due to a few factors that includes:

• No Videos Loaded
• No Photos Loaded
• Hours Not Specified
• Category Data Missing

Please make sure you get your Google Maps account to 100%.

If you scroll down the report, you get a great deal of useful information. You can see why Google Maps is one of the highest FREE sources for calls and traffic to your website.

You should not be surprised that your map appears most often for your business name or the category you selected.

Google Maps – Today’s Version of The Yellow Pages

The visibility for your business address and phone number is one of the basic benefits of adding a Google Map, but there are other benefits. Did you know you can add free coupons to your maps listings? Did you realize how many calls and clicks you get every month so if that is the case, if your Maps listing updated each month?

Scroll down some more and you will see that you can also see which cities are requesting the most driving directions. This data is perfect for refining your online marketing strategies.

Updating Your Service Area

One of the newest things you can do is to specify your service area. Since many dealers will pickup cars for service miles away or deliver cars that are sold online, you should change the default radius and expand it to include more towns as shown below:

Wow…that’s the fastest overview to some of the new features of Google Maps. This is more to say and especially how to leverage this data but first get past all these action items!

Questions? Send me an email to: info@pcgdigitalmarketing.com