A roofer in Dundee has spent a season on her Business Profile, her service pages and her reviews. The phone feels busier, but when her accountant asks what the work produced, she has a feeling and no number. Local search pays out in three actions before any sale: a call, a request for directions and a click to the website. Count those in the reports that already record them and you can say what search is producing.
Most local customers never reach your website
Someone types "roofer near me" on a phone and sees the map pack. They tap call, directions or the website link. Two of those taps never load a page of yours, so website analytics alone misses most of what local search does.
You read three places instead. The profile's own report shows actions taken there. Your analytics shows what happens after a website click. A rank snapshot explains why the numbers moved.
Read the profile's performance report first
Google's Business Profile help describes a Performance report built into the profile. Its sections use Google's own names: Interactions (the total), Searches (the terms people used to find you), Views (how many people viewed your profile on Search and Maps), Directions, Calls (the times a customer clicked the call button) and Website clicks. Messages and Bookings appear if you use them.
Two details from the same help page matter when you compare months. Views count unique visitors, one per person per day. The Searches metric updates at the start of each month and, according to Google's Business Profile help, can take up to five days to appear, so don't read it mid-month.
Ask three questions of the report.
- Are we being found for the right things? In Searches, separate terms containing your business name from the rest. Branded terms are demand you created elsewhere. Unbranded ones ("emergency roofer", "roof repair dundee") are what local SEO earns, and growth there is the clearest sign it's working.
- Are we being chosen? If views rise while calls and directions stay flat, you're being shown and passed over. Look at photos, rating, hours and category before you blame ranking.
- Are the actions the ones that make money? A trade wants calls, a restaurant wants directions, a clinic wants bookings. Decide which is yours and lead your monthly note with it.
Treat every count as a floor. Calls counts taps on the button, not conversations, and someone who reads your number and dials by hand never shows up.
Make website clicks visible in your analytics
A click on your profile's website link reaches your analytics as a visit from Google, filed with every other organic search visit. You can't tell whether the map pack or your pages did the work.
Tag the link. UTM parameters are the small labels on the end of a URL that tell Google Analytics where a visit came from. Google Analytics help documents them, and Google publishes a free Campaign URL Builder that assembles them. Set the profile's website link to your homepage plus a source of "google", a medium of "organic" and a campaign such as "business-profile". GA4 can then show those sessions on their own. Check first that the homepage's canonical tag names the clean address.
Next, make the site's own revenue actions countable. In GA4, taps on your phone number link, form submissions and booking clicks can be recorded as events. Mark them as key events, which is Google Analytics' name for conversions. Filter those to the business-profile campaign and you have the chain from profile click to enquiry.
Count calls without breaking your listing
Call-tracking services swap in a number that records every call. It's the only way to count connected calls rather than taps. Before you put one on your profile, read the phone section of Google's guidelines for representing your business. The number must be under the business's direct control, local rather than a central helpline where possible, and must not redirect or refer users to a number other than the business's own. The guidelines don't mention call tracking by name, so use it only where the number is yours, local and permanent.
The quieter cost is consistency. A number that appears only on the profile disagrees with every other listing, and the citations lesson explains why keeping those clean is worth the effort. For most small businesses a simpler method works: ask every caller how they found you and write it down.
Put the numbers on one page, once a month
Rankings explain the movement in the counts, so record them alongside. A single rank check is a snapshot from one spot, and local results change with where the searcher stands. A grid of checks across your service area shows the shape instead.
Keep one row per month: views, top unbranded terms, calls, directions, website clicks, tagged sessions, key events, review count and the grid pattern.
Then resist reading it weekly. Seasonal trades compare a month with the same month last year; everyone else compares quarter with quarter. Month-to-month noise in a small business is large enough to tell any story you like.
Frequently asked questions
How to check SEO locally?
Start in the Performance report inside your Business Profile, where calls, directions, website clicks and unbranded search terms are already counted. Then run a rank grid for your main service term to see how visibility changes across your service area. A single check from one spot misleads, because local results shift with where the searcher stands.
Does local SEO still work?
Customers still act from the map pack, and the profile's report counts those actions. The evidence is in your own numbers: unbranded search terms growing, and calls or directions rising with them. If views rise but actions don't, the problem is how your listing converts, not whether local SEO works.
How much should I pay for local SEO?
This lesson doesn't set a price, but it gives you a way to judge any quote. Take a baseline row before work starts, then ask what should move in calls, directions and unbranded terms over a quarter. If a provider can't point to those reports, you can't tell what you're paying for. Call tracking is an extra cost, and it only makes sense where the number meets Google's guidelines.
What is the best SEO tracker?
For a small local business, you don't need one tool. The Business Profile Performance report covers actions on the map, GA4 covers what happens after a website click, and the free Local rank grid covers rankings. Put the results on one monthly row and you have a tracker that costs nothing.
What to take away
- Most local customers act from the map pack without visiting your site, so count calls, directions and website clicks in the profile's Performance report first.
- Unbranded terms growing in the Searches section is the clearest sign local SEO is working. Views rising while actions stay flat is a conversion problem, not a ranking one.
- Tag the website link on your profile with UTM parameters so GA4 can separate profile traffic and tie it to phone taps and enquiries.
- Record one row a month, rankings included, and compare quarters or the same month a year apart rather than week to week.
Next
With a baseline written down, find the fastest things to move it in The 30-minute local quick-wins audit.