If you’re asking yourself, “why have my Google profile views decreased?” you’re not alone. A recent Google API update is the reason for your declining Google Business Profile (GBP) statistics. Here’s a concise guide to the changes and what they mean for your veterinary practice.

1. Understanding GBP Insights: GBP Insights is a tool that reports local search performance, including profile views and how searchers find and interact with your business. It is unique among Google’s tools for its exclusive focus on local search presence.

2. Why It Matters: Regularly monitoring local search performance allows you to assess how potential customers are discovering your veterinary practice. You can track keyword effectiveness, measure customer engagement, and analyze performance across different platforms.

3. What’s Changed: Google updated its APIs, affecting metrics on the GBP Insights dashboard. They have removed data points such as post views and clicks, query volume categories, and user-uploaded photo views. However, you can still see map and search views, website and call clicks, driving directions, and keyword queries.

4. The Impact: The changes consolidate views. Previously, separate views were counted for every interaction a customer had with your business profile. Now, multiple actions by a single user in a 24-hour period count as one view. This could result in lower view numbers, but the data will better represent unique user interactions.

5. What to Look For: The new API update provides a search breakdown in your Insights page, enabling you to identify the search terms leading customers to your profile. This valuable data can inform your SEO efforts and identify key traffic-driving keywords.

6. Additional Insights: Also, new interaction data will be available, including the number of bookings, food orders, and unique conversations received through your business profile.

Takeaway: While the metrics might appear lower, the updated data provides a more accurate reflection of your customer interactions.

We are working on an in-depth review of the changes and what they mean to your practice so keep your eyes open for that post here and on our Facebook and Instagram pages.