Large Drop in GBP Search Impressions Last Week. Anyone Seeing Something Similar?

[willy_evans]

Last week (Jun 29-Jul 5) our company saw a large and very uniform decrease in search impressions for our GBPs when compared to the previous period. There was a similarly sized drop YoY but not as uniform. We're a national retail business with a lot of seasonal variance, so WoW fluctuations aren't unusual. It's just odd to see them this big and this consistent.

I checked with the stores team and the only change we made that week was a bulk upload of our holiday hours for the 4th. We also didn't make any changes to our store/location pages.

The most likely explanation is drops caused by the 4th of July, but we didn't see any similar drops in website traffic or revenue.

Has anyone else seen any similar drops in GBP search impressions? Has anyone noticed a changes in the local pack or anything?

 

[Veronica]

Hi everyone,
in Italy I confirm the same issue. We are seeing a drop in impressions both on Search Desktop and Search Mobile starting from June 25th. The decline is common across clients from different categories and with varying numbers of retail locations.

Search- Desktop

Search Mobile

 

[willy_evans]

Hi everyone,
in Italy I confirm the same issue. We are seeing a drop in impressions both on Search Desktop and Search Mobile starting from June 25th. The decline is common across clients from different categories and with varying numbers of retail locations.

Search- Desktop

Search Mobile

Relieved to not be the only one! Could we be looking at an algorithm change? @ElizabethRule @JoyHawkins @Colan Nielsen

 

[willy_evans]

Looks like our drops started on the 24th/25th of June as well

 

[keyserholiday]

Google rolled out the June Core Update on June 30th. This could account for the decreases.

 

[willy_evans]

Google rolled out the June Core Update on June 30th. This could account for the decreases.

Would it account for the fact that the drops starts on the 24-25th? Is Google rolling out the update a few days before announcing it?

 

[keyserholiday]

Would it account for the fact that the drops starts on the 24-25th? Is Google rolling out the update a few days before announcing it?

@rustybrick reported that people were complaining of a search volatility on the 25th and 26th.

 

[fisicx]

On the other hand, I'm seeing improved traffic across a range of keywords.

 

[willy_evans]

On the other hand, I'm seeing improved traffic across a range of keywords.

Our traffic is up too. This is just search impressions for our GBPs

 

[klharris08]

We're seeing this across many, many multi-location businesses. Looks like missing data beginning around June 24th. I'm guessing it's a bug.

 

[rustybrick]

The data is missing from the GBP performance reports? Right?

 

[Veronica]

The data is missing from the GBP performance reports? Right?

Right!

 

[klharris08]

This is not fixed for us, anybody else seeing any return of this data?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Not yet, but I think it will be fixed.

 

[Henry LocalClarity]

We re-pulled the data this morning from the API. Still no changes. We are seeing the same trends.

 

[fisicx]

Is it a reporting problem or a traffic problem?

If you are still getting the same number of enquiries it means traffic is the same. If enquiries have dropped off a cliff then it's a ranking problem.

Try using a different analytics tool.

 

[willy_evans]

Not yet, but I think it will be fixed.

Any thoughts on if the data will be back filled?

 

[keyserholiday]

Is it a reporting problem or a traffic problem?

If you are still getting the same number of enquiries it means traffic is the same. If enquiries have dropped off a cliff then it's a ranking problem.

Try using a different analytics tool.

You can only obtain this data via the GBP API, so if the data is missing, there are no alternative methods to collect it.

 

[fisicx]

You can only obtain this data via the GBP API, so if the data is missing, there are no alternative methods to collect it.

OK.

But that doesn't answer the question about it being a reporting or traffic issue. It's probably to do with reporting but it could mean a drop in traffic.

 

[keyserholiday]

OK.

But that doesn't answer the question about it being a reporting or traffic issue. It's probably to do with reporting but it could mean a drop in traffic.

It's a data issue, not a drop in traffic. The GBPs I have checked have not experienced any drops in calls, clicks to the website, or for directions. It's the second outage in June.