Short answer: Track calls, direction requests, website clicks, review growth and enquiries booked. Ignore impressions, follower counts and average ranking position — they move independently of whether your phone is ringing, which is the only thing that matters.
The vanity metric problem
Marketing reports are frequently designed to look impressive rather than to inform decisions. Large numbers with little meaning are easy to produce and hard to argue with.
| Looks impressive | Actually tells you something |
|---|---|
| 50,000 impressions | 62 calls from your profile |
| Average position improved to 4.2 | You now appear in the map pack for three key terms |
| Social reach up 300% | Four enquiries came from social |
| 1,200 profile views | 38 direction requests |
| Domain authority increased | Organic enquiries up from 6 to 11 |
Impressions in particular are close to meaningless for a local business. Being seen by people in the wrong town, or by people who never click, is not progress.
The metrics worth tracking monthly
From your Google Business Profile
- Calls — the clearest indicator of commercial value
- Direction requests — high intent, particularly for premises-based businesses
- Website clicks — people wanting more before contacting
- Messages, if enabled
- Searches that found you — direct versus discovery. Growth in discovery searches means new customers are finding you
Reviews
- New reviews this month
- Average rating and its direction
- Response rate — should be 100%
- Your review count against your three nearest competitors
That last comparison is the one that actually predicts ranking movement, and almost nobody tracks it.
From your business
- Enquiries received
- Quotes sent
- Jobs won
- Average job value
Without these, no marketing report can tell you whether anything is working. Visibility that produces enquiries you do not convert is not success.
Ranking positions, handled honestly
Ranking reports are less reliable than they appear, because local results vary by the searcher’s exact position. You might be first from your own premises and eighth from two miles away — both are true simultaneously.
If you track rankings, track them for specific terms from specific locations, and understand that a single “average position” number for a local business is close to fiction.
More useful: are you in the map pack for your three or four most valuable search terms, in the areas you actually serve? That is a yes/no question with a real answer.
Seasonality will mislead you
Most local businesses have seasonal patterns. A roofer comparing November to July, or a gym comparing March to January, will draw entirely wrong conclusions.
Compare like with like — this November against last November — rather than month against month. Year-on-year comparison is the only way to separate genuine progress from the calendar.
How long before numbers move
| Activity | Realistic time to visible impact |
|---|---|
| Profile completion and category fixes | 2–6 weeks |
| Photo and posting activity | 4–8 weeks |
| Review growth programme | 2–4 months |
| Citation cleanup | 2–4 months |
| Content and local pages | 3–6 months |
| Local link building | 6–12 months |
Judging local SEO after four weeks is judging it before most of it has taken effect. Equally, a year with no movement in calls means something is genuinely wrong.
Tracking where enquiries come from
The simplest and most reliable method costs nothing: ask. “How did you hear about us?” on every enquiry, recorded somewhere.
Supplement with:
- UTM parameters on your Google profile website link, so profile traffic is identifiable in analytics
- Call tracking if volumes justify it — though be careful, as an inconsistent phone number across listings damages NAP consistency. Use a tracking number that forwards, and keep the primary number consistent everywhere
- A dedicated form on your site rather than only email
What a useful monthly report looks like
One page, five sections:
- Calls, directions, clicks — this month, last month, same month last year
- Reviews — new, total, average, response rate, competitor comparison
- Map pack presence for your key terms — in or out
- Work done this month
- What happens next
If a report takes more than five minutes to understand, it is not a report — it is a document produced to look like work.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I review the numbers?
Monthly for trends, quarterly for decisions. Weekly checking produces noise and anxiety.
Why do my rankings differ from what I see?
Local results vary by searcher location and personalisation. Searching your own business from your own premises will always look better than reality.
Should I use call tracking?
Useful for attribution, but implement it carefully so your primary number stays consistent across listings.
What single metric matters most?
Enquiries that turn into paid work. Everything else is a proxy for it.
Every plan we run includes a monthly report built around these numbers rather than impressions — including the competitor review comparison that predicts where you are heading. See the plans or book a free audit.
Related reading: Lead response time · How to get more calls from your profile