Google Analytics Now Integrates Google Business Profile Data
▼ Summary
– Google has published documentation for a native link between Google Business Profile and Google Analytics, adding local metrics like calls and direction requests to Analytics reports.
– Once linked, a Business Profile section appears in Analytics with seven metrics: interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings, and menus.
– The integration combines metrics from multiple linked profiles and does not allow filtering by individual location, nor does it work in explorations, comparisons, filters, or subproperties.
– Analytics retains Business Profile data for only six months and shows all metrics regardless of business type, unlike the Business Profile dashboard.
– The native link consolidates local actions into Analytics for single-location businesses, but multi-location brands get less benefit due to the lack of per-location reporting.
Google has officially documented a new native connection between Google Business Profile and Google Analytics, enabling local business metrics such as phone calls and direction requests to appear inside Analytics reports. However, not every Analytics account may see this integration right away.
What Appears in Analytics
After linking a profile, a dedicated Google Business Profile section becomes visible in your reports. It includes seven key metrics: interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings, and menus. To set up the link, navigate to the Analytics Admin panel under Product links.
Limitations of the Integration
If you link multiple profiles, Analytics merges the metrics across all of them. You cannot segment or filter by a specific location. Additionally, these metrics cannot be used in explorations, comparisons, or filters, and the integration does not support subproperties.
Analytics retains Business Profile data for six months. Reports will not display any information older than that, even if your Analytics date range extends further back.
There is another notable difference from the Business Profile dashboard. Analytics shows every Business Profile metric regardless of your business type, while the dashboard hides metrics that are irrelevant to you.
Why This Matters
Previously, Analytics could only track Business Profile traffic through UTM tags on profile links, which primarily captured website clicks. Actions like calls, directions, and bookings take place directly on the profile itself. This native integration brings those local interactions into Analytics alongside your web data. For a single-location business, this consolidation happens within a tool they already use. Multi-location brands and agencies, however, gain less from this integration compared to a single-location business.
What’s Next
Google’s help documentation does not specify whether the link is available to all Analytics accounts or whether per-location reporting will be added later. Since Analytics holds only six months of Business Profile data, it reflects recent local trends rather than a long-term record. For now, the Business Profile dashboard, exports, and the Performance API continue to offer more location-level detail than this Analytics integration.
(Source: Search Engine Journal)
