An advanced guide to Google Search Console for local searches
So you’ve dived into Google Search Console (GSC) after typing “An introduction to Google Search Console for local businesses” or you took a look under the hood and thought, “That’s just way too much search data.” How can I understand all of this?”
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. That was one of the reasons I created one Looker Studio review to help break down and visualize the data into easy-to-understand chunks.
The search data in GSC can be overwhelming, especially for many business owners venturing into GSC for the first time. But after following the steps in our first GSC post, we can now show you how to look at search data in a little more detail from a more local perspective. (Didn’t read the first post but want to get further with GSC? No problem! Let’s dive in.)
In this guide, I’ll show you how to filter search data in Google Search Console to:
- Understand your visitor’s local intent
- Use GSC to create “Frequently Asked Questions” content on your website
- Collect ideas for Google Business Profile Posts
- Post your own Questions and answers about the GBP from the questions asked by users
- Use the data to create additional content or expand on what the user may want to learn more about
- Track yours UTM tagging from your GBP (Google Business Profile)
Filtering search data with regex
To filter the search data, we usually use something called Regular Expressions (or Regex).
What is Regex?
Think of Regex as a special type of search tool within Search Console. This allows you to zoom in on specific patterns in your website data to uncover hidden insights into how people find your business online.
Think of regex as a special search language that you write to tell Search Console exactly what you’re looking for. It’s like giving him a clear set of instructions to follow.
In Regex, you use some special symbols and characters instead of normal words to create these statements. It might look a bit strange at first, but it’s not too difficult to learn.
When you apply a regex pattern, Search Console scans your data and shows you only the parts that match your instructions. It’s like filtering out the clutter and focusing on the things that matter.
For example, if we want to find all searches that contain the word “local” or “near me,” it would look something like this:
(?i)\b(?:local|near me)\b
What does that mean?
(?i)
: Case-insensitive flag to ensure case-insensitive matches\b
: Word boundary that ensures that words are whole words and not parts of other words(?:...)
: Non-capturing group that groups words without creating a capture grouplocal|near me
: Alternatives within the group that match one of the given words\b
: Another word boundary to complete the word match
Example matches
When we look at the search console data for a local restaurant, we might see searches like:
- “Find local restaurants”
- “Restaurant near me”
Note:
- This regular expression finds each of the specified words as whole words anywhere in the query.
- This is case insensitive, so capitalization doesn’t matter.
- Word boundaries ensure an exact match.
- The non-recording group is used for efficiency and clarity.
We’ll use the example above later in this post, but let’s start with something a little simpler.
Let’s start with your local city and state
It’s time to roll up your sleeves and dive into the search data. We’ll start simple and then increase the complexity of our regex filters. First, let’s look at how to filter the results to show searches that only contain your city or town.
The regular expression would look like this:
(?i)\b cityname \b
Simply copy the example above and replace “city name’ with the name of your city, but first I want to show you how and where we are going to add it.
Log in to your GSC dashboard and select Search Results under Performance.
Now, above the main table of search data, we edit the settings and apply our first filter.
Select “+ New” and then “Query…”.
Select “Custom (Regex)”
We now want to copy the regex example:
(?i)\b cityname \b
And paste it like this:
They will have replaced City name with the name of your city. Now simply click on “APPLY”.
Your Queries table should now only contain the most common queries that contain your city name. Look at search data and see what your customers are searching for, including the name of your city. It can be very revealing.
Well done, you’ve created your first filter with regex! We are now building on this.
We now filter the search data by city and state. For example, in my next example, I’ll use Atlanta, Georgia, which can also be written as “GA.”
My regular expression would look something like this:
(?i)\b(?: atlanta|georgia|ga )\b
Note the use of the pipe ( | ) – the OR operator. This means that any of the three options can be assigned to “atlanta”, “georgia” or “ga”.
Now my search data lists all searches that contain the words “Atlanta,” “Georgia,” or “GA.”
Local Intent
In our very first regex example, we used this example:
(?i)\b(?:local|near me)\b
Now let’s expand this a bit and add a few more variations:
(?i)\b(?: local|nearby|near me|best in )\b
Example matches:
- “Find local restaurants”
- “Best pizza nearby”
- “Grocery stores near me”
- “Best Coffee Shops in Atlanta”
The context is important. Analyze requests within your specific industry and location. It can be intentional implicit or explicit. Not all local queries contain obvious location terms.
Tip: Increase the date range from 3 months to at least 12 months. This increases the amount of search data you filter and gives you more insights.
What questions are your users asking?
Have you ever wanted to know what questions your potential customers ask to find your product or service? Well, you can do this by using the simple regex snippet below. Just copy and paste the following like we did before.
(?i)\b( what|where|when|why|do|who|how|can|which|will )\b
You can now use the results of your search data on your website and in GBP to:
- Create frequently asked questions (FAQ) content on your website.
- Discover Google business profile post ideas
- Post your own GBP questions and answers to questions asked by users
- Create additional content or expand on what the user might want to know about
Tip: You can always shorten the regular expression and start with the what, where, when and why.
(?i)\b( what|where|when|why )\b
You can customize any of these patterns to include additional words beyond the usual question words. For example:
Commercial Intent:
(?i)\b( best|top|vs|review )\b
Transaction intent:
(?i)\b( buy|cheap|price|purchase|order )\b
Question and keyword
What if I wanted to know what questions were asked that contained a specific keyword?
For example, I have a personal injury attorney and I want to know what questions people are asking about trucks.
The regular expression for this would be:
(?i)\b( what|where|when|why|do|who|how|can|which|will )\b *\b truck \b
Example questions:
- What personality traits do truck drivers have?
- Can truck drivers sleep on the side of the road?
- Why truck accidents are not like car accidents
Just change the word’TRUCK’ for the service or product related to your company.
Tracking the company name
You can use this regex snippet to gain valuable insights into your company’s online presence. By tracking trends in brand awareness, identifying top-performing pages, and even uncovering potential problems, you can use this information to improve your content, SEO strategies, and overall brand visibility.
Identify your business name variations. List all the ways people might search for your business:
- Full company name, e.g. B. “Amazing Products Inc.”
- Common abbreviations, e.g. B. “Amazing Products”
- Possible spelling errors, e.g. B. “Amazing products”
- Variations with modifiers, e.g. B. “Amazing Product Reviews”, “Amazing Products Near Me”
(?i)(\b Amazing Products Inc \b|\b Amazing Products \b|\b Amazing Products \b|\b Amazing Products near me \b)
Replace placeholders with your actual company name variants.
(?i)(\b YOUR_COMPANY_NAME \b|\b ABBREVIATION \b|\b MISSPELLING \b|\b COMPANY_NAME modifier \b)
Remember to monitor the results and adjust the pattern as necessary based on your specific needs and search trends.
UTM tagging
If you’re a good local SEO, you’ve been using UTM tagging in your GBP for many years, for everything from your website links to GBP posts. If not, then read Claire’s guide to UTM tagging for Google business profiles and fix it immediately!
You can easily see your UTM data in your GSC search data. However, since UTMs are linked to the page URL, we need to apply the regular expression to “Page…” and not “Query…”.
…and insert as before:
\?(?:utm_source|utm_medium|utm_campaign|utm_term|utm_content)=[^&]+
Then switch between the Pages tab to see the top performing pages, then switch to the Queries tab to see which queries are generating clicks from your GBP.
Tip: GSC and basic exports are limited to displaying a maximum of 1,000 rows of data per report (property). This can be frustrating, especially for large websites or certain scenarios where you need to analyze more data points.
A workaround to get more data is to create more properties for the same site. In the example below, I created six properties for different sections of the site. This way we get 1,000 rows of data for each property and not just 1,000 rows for the entire domain. Verification is easy once the main domain is verified.
Diploma
For local businesses, mastering Regex can unlock a hidden vault of Google search data about your customers. But like any powerful tool, precision and constant adjustments are key to keeping up with evolving marketing goals and staying ahead.
I hope these regex examples prove valuable. If you have any questions, please contact us Contact me at X (formerly Twitter).