Over the past couple of weeks some local SEOs are reporting weird drops in their Google Search Console Search Analytics reports for Google My Business profiles that use UTM code tracking. Joy Hawkins said for some of her clients, they are noticing "huge drops in impressions & clicks for the URL we use in GMB that uses UTM codes."
She posted about this in the Local Search Forums and I heard Glenn Gabe ask Google's John Mueller about this a couple weeks ago.
Hey @JohnMu ! Any idea if impression & avg. position calculation was changed in GSC recently for local results? As of 13.01. we're seeing all local (maps, local pack, knowledge panel) URL impressions drop dramatically. Clicks, however remain fine! 🤔 pic.twitter.com/f92gaXcaS2
— Izzi Smith (@izzionfire) January 23, 2019
I was able to ask John about the weird issue in GSC last night for local listings using utm codes, & their impressions dropping off a cliff. Seems that GSC will move those impressions to the *canonical* urls. I would monitor over the next week or two & see how things change. https://t.co/HqAnf1WRoO
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 25, 2019
But the problem still seems to be an issue for many of these users and local businesses.
The only good news is that this seems to be just a reporting issue and not a ranking issue. Rankings and real traffic to the sites have not really been impacted but the reports in Google Search Console show huge dips.
Again, still not sure exactly what is going on but there are issues being reported widely across the Local Search Forums and social media.
Forum discussion at Local Search Forums.
