3 Pack Impressions in Analytics?

[danieljc]

I've searched here and elsewhere but can't find a current answer to this:

If you view impressions in Queries under Search Engine Optimization is Google Analytics counting impressions that are in the 3 pack or no? Based on sites I'm looking at which have 3 pack rankings but page 10 organic rankings for same query, I'm thinking the answer is yes.

Anyone know? Thanks in advance.

 

[gyitsakalakis]

Last time I received an official statement on this from John Mueller: No, Search Console data (GA > search engine optimization > queries, etc) does not include local packs (Google My Business data).

 

[danieljc]

Really? Ok, that's really interesting. If that's the case, then everyone who does local SEO should look at their client's analytics and sort by average position and look at the #1 rankings. You may see single impressions in #1 that are normally like #100. Think about this.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would say they probably couldn't count it because then they would be counting it twice if the person is there organically and locally?

Normally if someone is in the 3-pack, they are also there organically so you would see the organic data in Search Console.

The average position doesn't include the 3-pack either. So if they are #1, it means #1 organically.

 

[gyitsakalakis]

Right. It would only work if it were the same data source (which it isn't) or they were able to scrub it (which they don't really have a lot of incentive to do), IMHO.

 

[pbarnhart]

I have run multiple tests over time with a unique URLs in the GMB listing that appears no where else.

Google's John Mueller said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faQE0R6GaoY#t=1835)

What I know we don’t count is the knowledge graph side bar. So if I search for your company name and then it has a link in the sidebar that goes to your company web site as well. So that is something we wouldn’t count in the Search Console

I see Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Position for links for links that are only available in the GMB listings. So knowledge graph side bar "NO" but map pack definitely "YES"

 

[pbarnhart]

Screen shot - repeated with multiple accounts. The /#gmb links appears only with the GMB listing and is the link available on the "globe" website link on the map pack.

In this example, there is also an organic listing further down in the results - and this link also appears in the search console reporting with its own position data.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Very intriguing. I'll ping a few more people to see if anyone else knows why that might be.

 

[gyitsakalakis]

Much could have changed since Feb 2015, but here's what I was referring to: https://youtu.be/oqK1e6ekjME?t=22m40s

 

[CodyBaird]

Pbarnhart,

Very interesting. How many websites / GMB pages are you doing this on? How long?

Seems alot like tagging.

I see that you are also in Austin.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[pbarnhart]

+30 sites, +6 months. Consistent.

I was inspired by Dan Leibson's post via Linda Buquet: http://www.localsearchforum.com/goo...-clicks-your-google-my-business-listings.html

We use hash tags so they don't end up in GA directly or affect citations.

We set it up right after that post. I use Google Tag Manager to actually mod the source/medium so we can see it separately in GA, and as a side benefit we are seeing it in search console as well. Working on a blog post about our experiments in fact.

A few "test" and extremely low traffic sites allow me to basically run a lab to watch impressions and where all the various clicks are coming from and going to. I cross reference the actual server logs as well - the links are not being requested by Googlebot for indexing either, as far as we've detected.

 

[CodyBaird]

Cool. Thanks for sharing. I have got to quit putting off doing this

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[seoWest]

Hey Cody, it's an excellent way to demonstrate the value of 3 Pack presence to clients.

I am using the exact method Dan Liebson's suggested (i.e. appending utm to the url in the GMB listing) and the click-through metrics are then available in Analytics in the Campaigns view.

I have heard that Google intends to provide GMB Insights to Analytics in the near future. I am excited about this, because currently, I manually scrape GMB Insight data - specifically click-to-call - and build custom xls reports for select clients.

 

[DanLeibson]

So they do count it in GSC, but the counting is non-sensical, just like all search analytics data.

If you are using tracking URLs for your GMB page you will sometimes see that parametricized URL in Google Search Console, but the impression data doesn't make sense (again like the search analytics report in general).

I talk about it here http://www.localseoguide.com/should-you-trust-googles-search-analytics-report/

 

[gyitsakalakis]

Interesting, we use tracking URLs across a bunch of accounts but have yet to see params in GSC.

 

[DanLeibson]

Check out the article I link to above, you can see some screenshots. I think it is tracking branded one boxes with local results or maybe even KG results for a branded search as they pull data from GMB and that is the only place the tracking URLs are. But with GSC and it's black box of data, who knows?

 

[alakov]

I have a tagged google my business url and some of its impressions/clicks are definitely in the GSC analytics.

 

[Dave]

Very interesting. What you are really speaking about is data from webmaster tools (or whatever it is called now). Webmaster tools data is remarkably different from what we see using impressions from adwords.

From the earliest days that Google ever generated local data and since then webmaster tools data it HAS NEVER gotten close to what we've seen from adwords with regard to impressions. Heck it doesn't approximate clicks from the adwords side of things.

I just looked at matching data; 90 days worth for some selected terms wherein the knowledge box and PAC data show all the time.

The differences between click and impression data in adwords vs webmaster tools is SIMPLY ASTRONOMICAL in scope. I checked it on a variety of search phrases wherein our smb's show in the pac ALL the time.

Our local adwords impression data is INVARIABLY much greater than that in webmaster tools data. Invariably.

Personally I think webmaster tools data stinks. Just rots. Its what google wants you to see...not what is occurring.

I could go on and on about this ranting endlessly....but purely generated google data without any other source of verification data is not very believable in my book.

Which brings up--> is adwords data believable???? Well I'd like to see a very big discussion on that from all the webmasters using it...local and beyond local.

But that is a separate issue.

 

[gyitsakalakis]

Interesting, we use tracking URLs across a bunch of accounts but have yet to see params in GSC.

Ha, my team has corrected me... We do have params in GSC. Whoops.

 

[DanLeibson]