Google has documented a native way to connect Google Business Profile with Google Analytics, giving local businesses a new place to see some of the actions people take from Search and Maps.
For shops, venues, trades, clinics, professional firms and other organisations in Bath and the wider South West, this is a practical local visibility update rather than a shiny analytics novelty. Calls, direction requests and profile interactions are often the first signs that someone nearby is considering a visit or enquiry. Until now, those actions have usually lived in the Business Profile dashboard, away from the website data many businesses already review in Google Analytics.
The new link should make it easier to put local discovery and website activity in the same conversation. It will not replace a proper local search review, and it has some important limits, but it is worth checking if your business relies on Google Maps, local search results or nearby customers finding you at the right moment.
What Google has added
Google’s help documentation says a Google Analytics property can now be linked to one or more Google Business Profiles from the Analytics Admin area, under Product links. To set it up, you need Editor or Administrator access in Google Analytics and Owner or Manager permission for the Business Profile you want to connect.
Once the link is in place, Analytics can show a dedicated Google Business Profile reporting collection. Google lists seven aggregated metrics: interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings and menus.
That matters because not every useful local action happens on your website. A customer might search for a cafe near Queen Square, tap for directions and never visit the website. Someone looking for an emergency plumber near Bath might call straight from the profile. A prospective patient might check opening hours, read reviews and request directions without triggering the tidy website journey many reports are built around.
For local businesses that have been using Analytics mainly to look at web visits, this could make the gap between website reporting and real local behaviour a little smaller.
Why this is useful for Bath and South West businesses
Local search is often messy in the real world. People move between Google Search, Maps, websites, phone calls, reviews and in-person visits. A restaurant in Bath, a showroom in Trowbridge or a professional service firm in Bristol may see plenty of demand influenced by Google Business Profile long before a conventional contact form is submitted.
Bringing some Business Profile data into Analytics can help owners and marketing teams ask better questions:
- Are local actions rising when website traffic is flat?
- Do calls and direction requests increase after a campaign, event, seasonal change or content update?
- Are people using the profile as the main decision point rather than clicking through to the site?
- Does local advertising appear to coincide with more Business Profile engagement?
Those questions are especially relevant for businesses where online visibility leads to offline action. A spike in direction requests may be more commercially useful than a small increase in low-intent page views. A rise in calls may explain why contact form enquiries look quiet. A drop in website clicks from the profile may point to a need to improve the profile itself, not just the website.
This is also a reminder that local SEO in Bath should not be measured only by rankings or sessions. The useful picture is how easily the right local customers can find, trust and act on your business information.
The limits are just as important
The integration is not a perfect reporting system. Google says Business Profile metrics in Analytics are available for the last six months only, so it is not a long-term archive. If several profiles are linked, Analytics shows the sum of their metrics rather than giving per-location segmentation. The metrics also cannot be used in custom explorations, comparisons or filters, and the link is not supported for subproperties.
For a single-location business, that may be fine. A Bath retailer, studio, venue or clinic may simply want a clearer view of how profile activity sits alongside website activity. For a group with several locations across Somerset, Wiltshire or Gloucestershire, aggregated reporting may be less helpful because it can hide which branch is driving the change.
There is another small caution. Search Engine Journal notes that the link may not appear in every Analytics account yet. If you cannot see it today, that does not necessarily mean your account is misconfigured. It may simply be rolling out or not yet visible in your property.
What to check before relying on it
If the link is available in your account, start with the basics. Make sure the Business Profile itself is accurate: name, address, phone number, opening hours, service areas, categories, website link, booking link and key attributes. Analytics will only make profile data easier to see; it will not fix weak or outdated profile information.
Then check how your website link is tagged. UTM tags are still useful because they help separate Business Profile website clicks from other organic search traffic. The new integration adds profile actions such as calls and directions, but clean campaign tagging still helps when you want to understand what happens after someone reaches the site.
It is also worth comparing Analytics with the Business Profile dashboard rather than assuming the two will always feel identical. Google says Analytics may show every available Business Profile metric regardless of business type, while the Business Profile performance dashboard hides metrics that are not relevant to that business. Treat the new report as another useful lens, not the only source of truth.
For paid activity, the most useful next step is to watch patterns rather than chase one-off spikes. If you are running Google Ads in Bath, local campaigns, Performance Max or search ads for nearby intent, look at whether profile actions move in the same period as spend, creative changes or landing page changes. Correlation is not proof, but it can point you towards better questions.
A sensible local reporting habit
The best use of this update is not to create another dashboard nobody reads. It is to add a short local visibility check to your usual reporting rhythm.
Once a month, look at website sessions, enquiries, calls, direction requests, profile interactions and any meaningful offline context. Did the business run a local event? Did opening hours change? Was there roadwork nearby? Did a new page, review push, advert or seasonal offer go live? Local performance often makes more sense when the marketing data is read alongside what actually happened on the ground.
For Bath and South West businesses, that practical view is more useful than obsessing over a single metric. A customer who asks for directions, calls from Maps or books directly from the profile may never look like a neat website conversion, but they still found you through your local digital presence.
Google’s new Business Profile link for Analytics should make some of that behaviour easier to see. The businesses that benefit most will be the ones that use it calmly: connect it where available, understand its limits, keep the profile accurate, and use the data to improve the path from local search to real enquiry.
