Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
LBC: Canada & Australia Get Data Rich Dashboard
I heard yesterday that the Data Rich Dashboard in the Local Business Center was rolled out in Australia. Today it seems that it has finally made it to Canada as well.
Canada may very well be the last major industrialized nation to have gotten the dashboard although we have yet to hear from Denmark.
Usually Canadians dance in the streets when a hockey team wins some sort of cup or another, but I hear that tonight Jim Rudnick and Joan Van Hilten will be joining Dev. 🙂
Hey keep it down up there! Some of us are trying to sleep.
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23 Comments
Been working on some US and European clients for past week. I hadn’t even noticed the Canadian LBC got the advanced stats today, till I saw this post in my RSS reader.
*Off to check some stats
Dev is a lil too excited there though. Happy dance? 🙂
@Stever
How far back do the stats go? Are they from the same start date as your US dashboards?
As to Dev’s happy dance… it is a touch weird but maybe this is why google delayed giving to Canadians sooner, they were worried about the consequences! 🙂
Aw, c’mon Stever, don’t be such a wet blanket! (:
WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO…..man, that “did” take a bit, eh…but yup, doing the Steel City Watusi here this am….
Boom-shuck-a-luck-a…Boom-shuck-a-luck-a….
:-))))))
Jim
Yes, there was much joy in Canuckistan. Some even did the dance of belated recognition.
It’s a special feeling knowing that as a nation we’re the red-headed step-child of search markets 🙂
After this pat on the head Google can ignore us for another 18 months before we’ll start to get cranky again – we’re polite like that.
Ryan
@Jim
I knew that there was a special Canadain dance and tune for this…I was just hesitant (being an outsider and all) to name it.
Ah, but now I can confidently proclaim to the rest of the world that it is called the “Steel City Watusi”. I love this blog. It builds my knowledge about Local Quirks every day. 🙂
@RFK
Canuckistan – That’s “rich”. I love it. 🙂
To all-
Is someone going to answer my question: How far back do the stats go?
Congrats to the Canadians and the Australians. Meanwhile my experience is that this data is severely deficient. Check out against one’s own analytics and you’ll see how deficient and potentially misleading it is.
It does have certain values though as follows:
1. If the top ten phrases wherein maps shows for a certain business include some wierd categories, it signals to you that maps has data that drives showing the business with inappropriate categories.
That in its own right could “dilute” the showing of the business where clicks and sales might occur. It is a way to ascertain if the categories are appropriate and especially if certain citations “miscategorize” the business.
2. If you SEO or represent similar businesses in different markets, total impressions gives an idea of the visitorship or size of the potential search markets in different regions. That is interesting. It might suggest that within a certain area or region your business/service is well known or not.
Hi Mike…
from a detailed look the stats go back ONLY to Sept 21 for all clients….
still doing the comparison tween our Urchin analytics and G’s tho….
and while there may be issues, at least we’re “in the ballpark!”
🙂
Jim
@Jim
That’s interesting. Google started rolling out Places in that timeframe.
Hey Mike – I am definitely joining Dev with the happy dance here in Canada although I am day late in experiencing this 🙂 Have been analyzing stats since morning – Such a joyous moment!!
@Shagun
Which one are you in the video? Dancin, Dancin in the Street….all we need is stats, sweet sweet stats
At first glance I get stats back to July 22nd on 5 accounts. “There is no data for dates prior to 22 Jul, 2009” pops up if I try go any further.
I get the same as Wayne, July 22nd 2009 is as far back as she goes.
earlpearl is right though – upon closer analysis some of the data is so far off as to be downright bs. Its fine if you are keeping a close eye on your analytics but Joe or Jean small business could be steered a little wrong here.
Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
– Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review
Big Congrats To the Northerners and the people of OZ! Happy for you!
Mike: That video is quite dated. Fortunately, I like the rest of the readership, am significantly younger than you. Were there telephones when that song was popular? 😀
Yup… The Aussie data only goes back to 22 July – and seems to be missing the Driving Directions stats as well.
Okay it seems like some of y’all have been making fun of my happy dance and I’ll just have to show you how good it is at a conference after party perhaps.
Steve, us Canadians rarely ever get a bone from the big G, so when you’ve got something to celebrate about and the inner geek rejoices, why not tweet it out eh? 🙂
@Dev-
Well we have the theme song picked out 🙂 for the dance. EarlPearl will be there as well. I agree that you all have gotten the very short end of the stick.
@EarlPearl
Your Time Distortion Machine has a funny way of revisiting history. If we were the same age in the video, it is likely that we are the same age now, you alter cocker, you.
@Wayne
Once we are done getting Google to fix the merges, the spam, the oneboxes, the geocoding, the lost towns, we can move onto getting the stats both beefed up and improved quality wise 🙂
Wow – I’m always the last one to the party aren’t I. Here I am slogging away doing manual loads, requirements gathering, Billing Data Base hodgepodging and general office duties.
I am not doing the Steel Town Watusi until they bring me a REAL pro hockey team. Until til then I’m doing the Toronto Two Step.
The data does seem to only go back to Sept 22. I can’t see where they have stored any other stuff.
yeah I am not to certain why we get the short end of the stick. WE’RE CANADIANS after all, the least obnoxious people in the entire world. Sheesh.. I would have been singing the praises of the Google Geeks for weeks and weeks. I’d have shouted from the mountain tops ” AND ONE GOOGLE TO RULE THEM ALL”.. I would have been estatic.
And yet I’m an hour late and a buck short. Sorry Google.
*blows kazoo* Thanks for the Reporting Dashboard.
Hip Hip Hooray.
@Joan…great comments here from a fellow-canuck! and I too am happy that we’re at least in the game now…while my own stats and yours it appears only go back about a month, least they’ll now collect…
oh, and yes, I’ve compared with our own analytics, and they appear to be spot-on….well couple of little dingers, but really really close at this point….
so thanks Google…and now, back to that Steel City Watusi!
Boom-shuck-a-luck-a…Boom-shuck-a-luck-a….
🙂
Jim
@ Jim
Not Bow-shick-a-wowow?
I’m happy as well. For sure. Do you track your URLS?
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