Does Google Analytics automatically desseminate Maps/Places traffic from Organic traffic? Do webmasters still have to apply UTM parameter tracking to URLS in their GMB profile listings?

[RosemaryB]

It was recommended a few years to apply UTM parameters to local URLs to get more accurate referral/source tracking in Google Analytics.  Here is an old Moz post about this process https://moz.com/blog/tracking-traffic-from-google-places-in-google-analytics

However does GA automatically separate this traffic out nowadays?  Is there a method to identify the traffic coming from Maps/Places without UTM parameters?  Is UTM tagging still necessary if we want to see these traffic reports?

[DmitriiK]

Hi there.

As far as I know - no, Google doesn't separate it. If you go to your google analytics account and got to real-time view, and then go to google and find your company in maps and click on website's url, you will see that in real-time traffic sources in still displays as Google/organic source/medium.

Hope this helps.

[Mobilio]

This is article from year of 2011 and today things are different.

Today you have Google MyBusiness where you can manage all your locations. And there is "insights" where you can see performance of this location individually and clicks to your site. Also clicks for driving directions, click to phone, etc.

But if you wish you also can tag url to minimize spending time going back and forth in MyBusiness and Analytics.

FcJt669

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Rosemary,
No, the traffic will not be automatically separated by Google, but what your post has made me realize is that we really do need an update on this celebrated post that was written in the pre-Plus-divorce era:

http://localu.org/blog/how-to-segment-local-search-analytics/

I honestly don't know if anyone has written anything on this important topic since the breakup. I'd love to see Ed Reese do a followup on that post, or someone else who is up to the task!

[RosemaryB]

This has been a common question from several of my clients.  I'm shocked that Google hasn't done anything to segment this local traffic since it's coming from one of their own products.  Google insights on the GMB panel isn't enough to cut it when our client has thousands of local listings.