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Google Search Console Not Tracking All Local Pack Clicks

Published

2 years ago

January 3, 2023

Google Search Console Not Tracking All Local Pack Clicks

For the past few months or so, I’ve been tracking reports that suggest that Google Search Console is not properly tracking clicks and impressions from the local pack. This first came up in September and after numerous requests from SEOs, I have not seen a serious reply from Google on the matter, not yet at least.

Joy Hawkins, a respected local SEO, posted the issue both on Twitter in her Local Search Forum back in September. She wrote, “Local SEOs if you are using Search Console to track activity from the 3-pack you could be looking at some seriously wrong data.” She showed how Google Search Console was out right missing data.

In her first test, on September 6, 2022, she asked several colleagues and friends to search [Google Maps SEO companies near Uxbridge Ontario], then to click on Sterling Sky’s name in the local three-pack and then click the website icon to go to our website from there.

She then shared these analytics, this one from the Google Business Profile performance stats and showing clicks:

Google Analytics she showed also picked up on the traffic:

But Google Search Console did not:

She did this test several times, all with the same result.

She wrote, “Based on what I saw here, it looks like a huge amount of traffic from the Google Business Profile from mobile is completely missing in Search Console, and some data from desktop. I believe one possible reason for this is that when you click on a listing in the 3-pack on mobile, you get a URL string that says Google/local services/profile whereas on a computer, you get Google/search.”

Then she tried to get some answers from Google on this topic but it kind of didn’t happen.

Patrick Stox, who is not a Googler, but is good with these data issues, wrote on Twitter:

There’s also a data-ved (used for encoding) that decodes to different type numbers for different tabs (web, news, image, video).

At least with a quick look that’s still my best guess. The data-ved and the ping probably send data to systems like GSC and are missing.

— Patrick Stox (SEOpedia) (@patrickstox) September 29, 2022

John Mueller from Google did chime in a bit:

I was just looking at this again and I see the tracking there now, where it was missing before. I’d be curious what happens if you re-run your test @JoyanneHawkins. pic.twitter.com/rkCSzx5TYy

— Patrick Stox (SEOpedia) (@patrickstox) October 18, 2022

So did Daniel Waisberg from Google:

I was waiting for John to dig into this, maybe he was also waiting for me? 🤔

— Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg) November 2, 2022

A month or so later, the issue was still there:

Just following up here, I did another test on the 18th (on mobile) and none of those clicks are showing up still. The only clicks SC shows from that day on mobile are branded searches, which isn’t what I told people to search + click on. pic.twitter.com/RYmXblGbhE

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) October 31, 2022

Then two months later, still nothing:

As far as I know, it’s still broken and Search Console is not tracking tons of clicks that happen in the local pack.

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) December 27, 2022

So I figured, maybe highlight it here to see if any of you know more about this or maybe Google can reply after the holidays?

Forum discussion at Twitter and Local Search Forum.

Source: www.seroundtable.com

Related Topics:clicks Console Google Local Pack Search Tracking

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SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 25, 2024

Published

7 hours ago

October 25, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google said it does not use ARIA for SEO or ranking purposes. Google said AI is not going away, so don’t be left behind. Google Discover seems to be getting new icons. Google Search has these top recipe guides. Google is testing other people search box. Plus, I have my video scheduled to be posted today. And again, I am offline today, this was pre-written and scheduled.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Does Google Search Use ARIA? Likely Not.

Google Search likely does not use ARIA Accessible Rich Internet Applications, for ranking or even indexing purposes, according to both John Mueller and Martin Splitt at Google.

Google: AI Is Not Going Away, So Don’t Be Left Behind

Google’s John Mueller posted his thoughts on AI, which were two fold. (1) AI is not going away, so he doesn’t recommend you take a stance against AI and (2) he isn’t a fan of all the hype around AI, because it is making many feel insecure about their future.

Video: Google Ranking Movement, Sitelinks Search Box Going Away, Gen-AI In Bing & Google, Ad News & More

This week, we had more Google search ranking volatility to report on – surprise, surprise. Google is deprecating its Sitelinks Search Box next month. Google may have penalized Fortune Recommends over site reputation abuse. Google is showing generative AI throughout the search results…

Google Discover Design Update & New Icons

Google Discover is rolling out some small design updates to its interfaces. It has these new colored icons that communicate the action and Google is also showing other articles shown in a carousel.

Google Search Top Recipe Guides List

Google is showing a section named “top recipe guides” that can be expanded or collapsed in Google Search. It shows a “Lists of options from the web” in this expanded section.

Google Other People Search Box

Google is testing another variation of the people also ask box, this one is titled “other people search.” I am not sure if there is any functional or technical difference between this box and the other variations outside of the title.

NYC Google Salad Bar Top View

Here is a top down view of a salad bar at the Google offices in New York City. You can see the Google chef making up a custom salad for a Googler.

Programming Note: Offline For Simchat Torah On Thursday & Friday

This is a programming note that Thursday and Friday are Simchat Torah and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Thursday and Friday, October 24th and October 25th.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Simchat Torah.

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Google Search Snippet With Shop Nearby Rich Result

Published

1 day ago

October 24, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Google is testing adding a new rich result type to the search results snippet named “Shop nearby.” The shop nearby link will open the Google Business Profile of the business’s website.

We have seen similar snippets before with city names in the snippets and also shop nearby features but this is a variation of that, I believe.

This new one was posted by SERP Alerts (Brodie Clark) on X and SERP notes, here is a screenshot:

Here is the video of this in action:

This local SEO test seems to work quite well. A ‘shop nearby’ rich result is appearing for some eComm stores, triggering the GBP hover panel for the closest store to show. The fast loading panel on mobile works well. Details: https://t.co/WupmipgeQg cc @DarrenShaw_ @mblumenthal pic.twitter.com/Hid1O0SU3U

— SERP Alert (@SERPalerts) October 21, 2024

Forum discussion at X.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Simchat Torah.

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SEARCHENGINES

Did Google Hit Fortune Recommends With A Search Penalty

Published

2 days ago

October 23, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Google may have hit Fortune Recommends with a search penalty, downgrading its Google search rankings. This may be related to the site reputation abuse policy, like it may have done previously to Forbes Advisor a few weeks ago and some other large publications.

Fortune Recommends is hosted on a subfolder at fortune.com/recommends and is the product reviews arm of Fortune Media. Fortune says it publishes “unbiased research and information on the products and services readers use every day to make their lives better.”

It seems the site got hit around October 11th, as per Glenn Gabe who documented the hit in a post on X. Glenn wrote, “now Fortune Recommends is dropping heavily as of October 11th. And it’s a BIG drop in search visibility. I’m seeing close to 400K queries drop in position with many completely lost.”

Here are two charts, one from Sistrix and the other from Semrush, I believe:

Glenn asked, “is it a manual action for Site reputation abuse, or is it algorithmic like it seems for Forbes’ affiliate content? Only Google knows. Muahahaha.” Very true.

As we previously covered, the site reputation abuse policy is still not algorithmic, this does seem to be a manual action, that Google actually started to enforce back in May. But when I spoke to Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, he said the site reputation abuse policy will be manually enforced for a long time.

Google also updated its spam guidelines a few weeks ago and added more detail about site reputation abuse.

Here is Glenn’s post:

I’ve already covered how Forbes Advisor and APNews Buyline both dropped heavily, but now Fortune Recommends is dropping heavily as of October 11th. And it’s a BIG drop in search visibility. I’m seeing close to 400K queries drop in position with many completely lost. So, is it a… pic.twitter.com/ACBR2S1pVX

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 22, 2024

Maybe it was hit because of this post on X?