02 June 2009 | Author: J. Cave SEO Consultant

Google releases analytics for Local Businesses

In an attempt to encourage more small businesses to get listed in Google Local, Google is releasing a free analytics dashboard that will give feedback on a business' presence in local search terms.

The local analytics dashboard will give feedback on how successful a business is in appearing for local search terms such as "New York hairdresser".

For example, businesses appearing for the term "New York hairdresser" will be able to get data on what search term was used to find their website, how often that term is searched for and what zip or postal code the searcher is based at.

For businesses relying almost exclusively on local trade, the feature will be extremely beneficial in pinpointing core zip or postcodes that generate them a large amount of business and geographical areas in which they can expand their business.

Undoubtedly, the second part - geographical areas for possible expansion - will be pushed by Google as the search giant hopes to squeeze in an offer of more search visibility for businesses through its Google Adwords programme.

In fact, it is likely that the local analytics feature will encourage a lot more local businesses to take a greater interest in how search affects trading.

According to news site Information Week, Carter Maslan, Google's director of product management for local search, said: "The big eye-opener for some local businesses is going to be that more than 80% of online visitors start at search."

While Google Local Business Center listings are available to businesses in 36 different countries, this new feature is currently only available to the United States. No details have been released as to when the feature will be available to the other 35 countries listed in the Google Local Business Center.

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