Give each source a specific job
Use Business Profile reporting to understand activity around your listing, website analytics to understand measured site behaviour, and your enquiry log to understand real requests and outcomes. The owner’s report can contain all three without pretending they are the same unit.
Google now documents a Business Profile link in Analytics that brings profile metrics into a dedicated reporting collection. The integration aggregates linked profiles and has reporting limitations. Check those limitations before choosing it for a multi-location report; a convenient shared screen does not establish a customer-by-customer match.
Create a small data dictionary
Write one sentence for each number you plan to show: what it counts, where it comes from, what period it covers, and what it cannot establish. For example, “Accepted website requests: form records accepted during the period; excludes known tests and spam; repeat requests still need review.” That explanation prevents a colleague from quietly changing the definition next month.
Keep a source-confidence field in the enquiry log: measured link, customer-reported source, staff inference, or unknown. A person saying “I found you on Google” does not establish whether they clicked an ad, your profile, or an organic result. Preserve their actual answer rather than assigning a channel you prefer.
Avoid comparing different scopes
Google explains that User acquisition focuses on new users, while Traffic acquisition focuses on sessions. Choose a report appropriate to the question and keep that choice consistent. Different scopes can produce different channel values even when the reports share familiar metric names.
For an owner’s monthly sheet, use columns for metric, current period, comparison period, definition, and observation. Add a separate section for qualified enquiries and won work. This keeps website activity visible while allowing the business outcomes to carry the decision.
Worked example: one person in several systems
A fictional customer sees your profile, visits the website, submits a request, and later calls to arrange an appointment. That journey may create several recorded actions but only one new enquiry. If the form and call concern the same job, merge their operational records and retain a note about both contacts.
Suppose a report contains 70 profile website clicks, 220 website sessions, and 12 accepted forms. Adding them to claim 302 leads has no useful meaning. Instead, show those activity measures separately, then report how many distinct suitable requests and appointments the team verified. Explain any incomplete source matching.
Resolve uncertainty without forcing a neat answer
When numbers differ, check date ranges, time zones, filters, changed tracking, and duplicate contacts. Document the unresolved gap. Choose one practical next improvement, such as consistent campaign links or a required outcome field. Your goal is a report that supports decisions despite known limits, not an artificial reconciliation that invents missing customers.
Keep a dated copy of the report definitions. If you later change from all form submissions to verified genuine requests, show the change clearly and avoid presenting the two series as perfectly comparable. A transparent break is better than a smooth but misleading trend.
Your practical checklist
- Use matching reporting dates.
- Write one definition per metric.
- Keep profile actions and website sessions separate.
- Deduplicate real enquiries in the operational log.
- Distinguish measured sources from customer-reported sources.
Written with AI-assisted research and drafting, with source checks and editorial review for this guidebook. Platform facts link to official documentation. Examples and recommendations are our own; no client results are implied. Sources reviewed October 8, 2026. About Getting Found Local