In the past we've been able to view just how many impressions our local listings on Google has received and how many clicks we've received from the simple step of adding our business's to Google's local search.
Today Google rolled out with what I'd consider a major update. This update comes with a lot of extra useful statistics that we've not had before about our local listings such as what terms people searched and then seen your listing, what specific action they took when they clicked on your listing (More Info, Driving Directions, clicks to your website) and a handful of other very useful bits of information.
I've written a post on a social media site for marketers where you'll find screenshots of this data and some extra opinions on why this new data is useful. My intentions are not just to get you to visit this other site where the post is but at the same time I don't want to duplicate the post here as I have run out of time for the moment. If you are interested please feel free to check it out at: http://www.pickysite.com/blog/65.html
Sincerely,
John F. Jones III
That is awesome and will be extremely useful. I am in the process of getting my own site up, is this part of Google Analytics? or where would I get to view this info on my site?
Dennis,
First things first you'll need to add your business to Google Local if you haven't done so already. You can do so by going to http://local.google.com/ and then on the left hand side you'll see, "Put your business on Google Maps.
Go through that process of creating a Google account if you don't have one or logging into your already created account if you have one. From there you'll get the option to "Add new listing"
When you fill everything out you'll get an option to verify by phone or by postal mail. Unless you want to wait 4 - 6 weeks I'd suggest verifying by phone.
After that it is a simple matter of returning to http://local.google.com/ and logging in to view statistics for the listing you've submitted to Google Local. You'll of course have to give it time but you can check it every week or once a month or whatever you'd like.
I'll drop this in an e-mail to you as well.
Sincerely,
John F. Jones III
Seems like a good tool.
Where do I go from here?
After that it is a simple matter of returning to http://local.google.com/ and logging in to view statistics for the listing you've submitted to Google Local. You'll of course have to give it time but you can check it every week or once a month or whatever you'd like.
Google Local is such a great tool for Realtors, since our business ARE exclusively local. And since it's part of Google, it can help you get indexed faster and rank a little better.