Your Google Business Profile (GBP) drives valuable clicks to your website, but in Google Analytics, this traffic often gets mislabeled as "google / organic" or "(direct) / (none)." This makes it impossible to know how effective your GBP optimization efforts really are. UTM parameters are the solution. They are simple tags you add to your URLs to tell Google Analytics exactly where your traffic is coming from.
What Are UTM Parameters?
UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are snippets of text added to the end of a URL. There are five main parameters, but for GBP, we're focused on three:
- utm_source: Identifies the source of your traffic (e.g., `google`).
- utm_medium: The marketing medium (e.g., `organic`).
- utm_campaign: The specific campaign name (e.g., `gbp`).
Creating Your Main GBP Website Link
Your main website link on your GBP profile should be tagged to identify all traffic coming from your profile. We recommend the following structure:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp
So, if your website is `https://mybakery.com`, your full GBP website link would be:
https://mybakery.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp
Use Google's Campaign URL Builder to create these links easily and avoid errors.
Tracking Google Posts and Other Links
You can get even more granular by tagging links within your Google Posts. This allows you to measure the performance of specific offers or announcements. For this, we'll modify the `utm_campaign` parameter.
- For a Summer Sale Post:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp-summer-sale-post - For a New Product Post:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp-new-product-post
Effortless Analytics
MyGoProfile helps you make sense of your data, showing you what works so you can do more of it.
Seeing the Data in Google Analytics 4
Once you've implemented UTM tracking, you can easily find your GBP traffic in Google Analytics 4:
- Go to **Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition**.
- In the search box above the table, type **"gbp"** and press Enter.
- The table will now be filtered to show you only the traffic from sessions where the campaign name includes "gbp."
You can now see exactly how many users, sessions, and conversions are being driven by your Google Business Profile, finally proving its ROI.
UTM Tracking for GBP FAQ
Quick answers to UTM tagging for Google Business Profile and seeing your traffic in Google Analytics.
What is UTM tracking for Google Business Profile?
UTM tracking for GBP means adding UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) to the website URL you put in your Google Business Profile. When someone clicks that link, Google Analytics records the visit with those tags, so you can see how much traffic and how many conversions come from your GBP instead of it being lumped with generic "google / organic" or "direct" traffic.
How do I add UTM parameters to my Google Business Profile website link?
Append ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp to your website URL (e.g. https://yoursite.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp). Then set that full URL as your website link in your GBP profile. Use Google's Campaign URL Builder to build the link without errors.
What UTM parameters should I use for GBP?
For your main GBP website link use: utm_source=google, utm_medium=organic, utm_campaign=gbp. For links inside Google Posts you can vary utm_campaign (e.g. gbp-summer-sale-post) to see which posts drive traffic. Keep source and medium consistent so all GBP traffic is easy to filter in Analytics.
How do I see GBP traffic in Google Analytics?
In Google Analytics 4 go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. Use the search/filter and type "gbp" (or your campaign name) to see sessions and users from your UTM-tagged GBP link. You can then see conversions and other metrics for that traffic.
Does adding UTM parameters to my GBP link affect SEO?
No. UTM parameters are ignored by Google for ranking. They are only used by analytics tools to attribute traffic. Your GBP and website rankings are not affected by adding UTMs to the website link in your profile.