"Impressions" metric

[Meghan Trapp]

[FONT=Source Sans Pro, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica Neue Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Can someone please give me your explanation on the difference in the GMB metrics for queries vs views (search & maps)? Which metric would be most like the traditional ?impressions? metric of how many times searchers have viewed a listing. I'm interested in your thoughts since I'd like to possibly use "impressions" to make a sort of ?CTR? since we're testing post content etc.
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[FONT=&quot]Thanks![/FONT]

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Meghan,

This article explains all the different GMB Insights - https://support.google.com/business/answer/7069123?hl=en

Does that help?

 

[Meghan Trapp]

Hi Colan,

Thanks, but that is what I was really looking to clarify. What is the difference between a "search" and a "view". Google's documentation only really describes the difference between Direct & Discovery (keyword phrase type), and Search vs. Maps (where it appears), but doesn't explain beyond. The total searches are are never the same as the total views (so it's not like looking at the same metric sliced 2 different ways). So how is google coming up with 2 metrics - is a search for example, when your listing appears at all, and a view would be a click to expand the listing (where you clicked from, in search or in maps?)?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Meghan

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Google?s response to this when we asked them a while ago was: ?My thought here is that it?s total views (someone pulls up Maps, sees the local businesses along the side, even though they were searching for something else, scrolls through their local area and sees multiple listings, etc) versus actual searches where users are searching for your business name or the category and they pull up your business. This would explain the pretty large discrepancy as well?.

Given this explanation, total views should always be a much more inflated number that is way less accurate when reflecting how much people are actually seeing your business online.

 

[Meghan Trapp]

Great thank you for your insight!