Google My Business Call History Feature Rollout

Google has added yet more functionality to the Google My Business platform, although still in beta, the call history feature is slowly being rolled out across the Google product. Since its launch in 2014, Google My Business has transformed local SEO and the way that businesses interact with customers through search results.

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is effectively business profiles that can be claimed for businesses and displayed in search results. These profiles are then eligible to be displayed in Google Maps as well as standard search results. Most commonly you will see them displayed in what’s called the ‘local pack’, this is the top section of organic search results displaying a map followed by 3 profiles with a corresponding letter attributing the business location on the map. They will also be displayed in Google Maps search results as well as in the right hand side of search results when searching by brand keywords.

Google My Business profiles allow customers to leave a review of their experience, find out opening times of a business, request directions to the business premises, click through to the business website, call the business and also send text/IM messages.

How Does The Call History Feature Work?

Similar to how Google Ads call tracking works, Google My Business profiles with the call history feature active will display a unique telephone number to each user. When a user dials this unique number, the call is then tracked within the call history section of Google My Business, stating if the call was answered or missed and the customer’s telephone number.

The Advantages?

One of the key advantages of this feature is the ability to view any missed calls that may have been initiated by a call from your Google My Business profile, however by far the biggest advantage is further being able to attribute a potential sale/lead from a call through your profile to organic search performance. This feature is still in beta and only available in the US currently, however we hope to see this rolled out in the UK soon. The feature currently doesn’t report if a call was initiated by a user that searched your brand name directly or through discovery (related keywords), likewise it doesn’t display if the call was initiated from standard search results or Google Maps, hopefully this is something that will also be added in the future.