Is anyone else seeing a huge spike in directions actions in GBPs?

[JrussellDAS]

I'm seeing a huge increase in Directions from about half our stores on the 17th and 18th of January 2024. Is anyone else seeing this? I'm surprised after reading this article that talks about a reduction in directions. Google Business Profiles Performance Report To Show Fewer Driving Directions. Perhaps it's bot activity.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@dale-jepto you seeing this at all?

 

[JS Girard]

I've checked a couple clients with address showing and here's a physiotherapist and a snow removal business:

However nothing comparable is showing for business with lower amount of overall interactions. Amongst the profiles I checked I believe these two were the only ones breaching 2K in the NMX stats bar:

 

[JrussellDAS]

I'm also seeing a drop off to zero after the spike (and for stores without the spike). It must be related to Google's actions mentioned in the article (both the spike activity and complete loss of directions actions). Some of the stores are seeing activity up to the 22nd give or take a day. I'm interested to see if this continues and insights into directions activity are gone permanently. This also will skew our KPIs across the board (both the spike and the complete loss).

 

[dale-jepto]

@dale-jepto you seeing this at all?

Yeah, I'm seeing this across a variety of countries and verticals. The delay in data is also a lot longer than the normal 4 days. It looks like a data issue as the increase is isolated only to the direction requests metric. This will be interesting to see where it goes as some profiles are still trending upward.

I've contacted the Google API team for comment.

 

[Claudia]

Google has this posted on the performance pages:

Starting in January 2024, you might see fewer direction requests. This is because Google is making updates to better protect people's privacy and give you more accurate results.

Perhaps they meant higher

 

[Claudia]

Its happening across all categories for one day, January 16th.

 

[dale-jepto]

This is Google's statement in response to my inquiry:

We are aware of the spike, I have reached out to our team and they have confirmed this is accurate. This is likely from improved detection and reporting from the performance metrics.

 

[JS Girard]

... what, so they only managed to improve it for that one day?

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would be interested to know if it stays high for the next week. Keep us posted for those of you that are seeing this.

 

[JrussellDAS]

I would be interested to know if it stays high for the next week. Keep us posted for those of you that are seeing this.

I'm seeing a complete drop off after the spike

 

[GMBapi.com]

As per mid January there are huge spikes for all of our customers on direction clicks - I have added a few screenshots below. Is this a bug? API only? Or has Google changed the way it is measuring or reporting on this metric?

 

[JrussellDAS]

I would be interested to know if it stays high for the next week. Keep us posted for those of you that are seeing this.

It's still high, not as high.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@JrussellDAS I merged the thread you posted into this one as it's discussing this topic.

 

[JS Girard]

I have a conflicting update. The physio has remained visibly higher (with a peak TWICE as high on the 25th):

But the snow removal business is back to somewhat normal... but it shows a small peak on the 24th too, which is fascinating to me, although it seems within regular limits compared to previous numbers:

 

[Claudia]

Up 65% from the previous month.

 

[GMBapi.com]

Up 65% from the previous month.

This is very much in line with what we are seeing.

 

[LAndrews]

We are also seeing the same spike starting around the 16th Jan.

 

[GMBapi.com]

@JoyHawkins - Any word from Google yet as to what is driving this?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Nothing. The spikes are ridiculous and make no sense.