The short answer
Use three sources together. The Performance section of your Business Profile counts views, call button taps, website clicks and direction requests. A UTM-tagged website link shows those visits in Google Analytics, where you can mark booking requests as key events. A tracking number you own, or a simple "how did you find us" question at the front desk, tells you which calls became booked visits. Review the numbers monthly and change one thing at a time.
Why track profile leads
Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a nearby patient sees, and many of them call or tap through from it without ever searching your website. Keep services, booking links, and Q&A accurate so those taps start from trustworthy details. If you do not measure what happens next, you cannot tell whether new photos, posts or review requests are bringing in patients, or whether calls are being missed.
Tracking answers a few plain questions: how many people acted on the profile, which actions they took, how many of those became booked first visits, and whether that number is going up or down after the changes you make.
What the Performance report shows
Verified profiles get a Performance section. According to Google's performance help page, you open your profile, choose Performance and set a date range. The metrics most useful to a practice are:
- •Views: unique people who viewed the profile on Search and Maps, counted at most once a day per person.
- •Searches: the search terms that showed your profile. Google updates this at the start of each month, and it can take a few days to appear.
- •Calls: taps on the call button. This needs a phone number on the profile, and it counts taps, not answered calls.
- •Website clicks and directions: taps on your website link and requests for directions, with repeated taps and cancellations filtered out of directions.
- •Messages and bookings: message conversations, and bookings completed through a connected booking provider if you use one.
Practices with several locations can download performance data for many profiles at once from Business Profile Manager, which makes it easier to compare offices side by side. Our multi-location profile guide covers that setup.
Tracking calls
The Calls metric tells you how many people tapped to call, not what happened next. There are two ways to fill that gap, and many practices use both:
- •A front desk log: ask every new caller how they found you and record the answer the same way each time in your scheduling system. It costs nothing and catches people who saw the profile but dialed the number by hand.
- •A tracking number: a number used only on the profile that rings your office, so every call to it is counted as a profile call, along with whether it was answered and how long it lasted.
If you use a tracking number, follow Google's guidelines for representing your business: the number has to connect to your location, be under the direct control of the business and not be a premium-rate line, and it must not redirect callers to anyone else. Google prefers a local number to a central call center line where possible, and it allows additional phone numbers, so you can keep your main number listed as well.
Whatever you use, keep patient details out of marketing reports: a report needs counts and outcomes, not names or reasons for visits. Our call tracking guide covers numbers across all channels, and our SmileTrak call tracking and reporting service is one way to set this up.
Tracking website visits and booking requests
Many patients tap through to your website before they book. To see those visits clearly:
- Tag the website link. Use UTM parameters on the website URL in your profile, for example source google, medium business-profile and campaign gbp-website. Use a different campaign name for the appointment link and for post buttons.
- Mark bookings as key events. In Google Analytics, mark the event that fires when someone sends a booking request or completes online scheduling as a key event. Reports then show how many of those actions came from profile visits. Our conversion tracking guide covers the setup.
- Track click-to-call on the site. Count taps on the phone link as an event too, since many profile visitors call from your website rather than from the profile.
Send the profile link to the page that best answers a nearby searcher, usually your home page or the page for that office, with a visible way to call or book.
Putting the sources together
No single tool sees the whole path, so keep a simple monthly sheet with one row per month and these columns:
- •Profile views, call taps, website clicks and direction requests from Performance.
- •Tagged profile visits and booking key events from Google Analytics.
- •Profile calls answered and missed, if you use a tracking number.
- •New patients who said they found you on Google Maps or Search, from the front desk log.
- •A notes column for anything you changed that month: hours, photos, categories, phone number, posts.
The counts will not match exactly, because people switch devices and some never tap anything before calling. That is fine: the trend and the ratio between steps are what you act on. Our monthly report guide shows how to fold this into a wider report.
Using the data
Read the sheet from top to bottom and fix the first weak step:
- Few views: work on the profile itself (categories, hours, photos and reviews). Our guide to showing up in the local map results covers what Google weighs.
- Views but few actions: check that the phone number, hours and booking link are correct and that photos show the real office.
- Call taps but few booked visits: look at missed calls and call handling first. Make sure calls during busy hours roll to someone who can book.
- Website clicks but few booking requests: look at the landing page on a phone. Is the call button visible, and does booking take more than a few steps?
- Sudden drops: check the notes column. A changed phone number, new hours or a suspended profile usually explains it.
Change one thing at a time and give it a month before judging it. Profile tracking works best alongside local SEO, paid search and steady profile posts, each tagged so you can tell them apart.
Sources
This guide is marketing guidance, not legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I see how many calls come from my Google Business Profile?
Open your profile, choose Performance and pick a date range. The Calls metric counts taps on the call button in Search and Maps. It does not tell you whether the call was answered or whether the caller booked, so pair it with a record at the front desk or a call tracking number.
Can I put a call tracking number on my Google Business Profile?
Google's guidelines ask for a phone number that connects to your location and is under the direct control of the business, and they do not allow numbers that redirect callers to some other business. A tracking number you own that rings your office meets that description. Many practices also keep their main local number listed as an additional phone so the familiar number still appears.
How do I track website visits from my profile?
Add UTM parameters to the website link on your profile, for example a source of google, a medium of business-profile and a campaign name such as gbp-website. Google Analytics then reports those visits separately, and you can see how many of them lead to a booking request.
Which numbers matter most?
Start with three: how many calls and booking requests came from the profile, how many of those calls were answered, and how many became booked first visits. Views and searches show reach, but bookings are what tell you the profile is working.
How often should we review the data?
Once a month is enough for most practices. Compare the same months year over year where you can, note any changes you made to the profile, and look for big shifts such as a drop in calls after a phone number or hours change.