Spring brings new updates to Insites

With the days getting more bright and cheerful with the coming of Spring, we thought we’d spread some more sunshine for our clients!

We have introduced two exciting new features in Q1 that we want to highlight: 

• Detection of Service Area Businesses (SABs) on the Google Business Profile
• The ability to select the server closest to you when using Google Lighthouse tests

Service Area Businesses (SABs)

It is challenging for many to identify Service Area Businesses and confirm the “claimed” status of the Google Business Profile (GBP). We are delighted to say we can now detect if a GBP has been claimed (and all the extra information we capture on the profile) even if it is a SAB.

Businesses marking themselves as a SAB are typical for “call-out” businesses such as plumbers or carpet cleaning services that come to your location versus visiting them. Another group that uses SAB on their GBP are people who operate from a home address and don’t want to reveal that to the world. So missing out on detecting these businesses was an issue we wanted to rectify.

The screenshot below shows how the GBP information of a SAB shows up on the Insites platform:

Notice that the address field now says, “This business is a service area business that is marked on the map by an area rather than a specific location” instead of showing the actual physical address.

While we’re here, we might as well point out some of the other features we added to the GBP scan in the past year:

• Showing if photos are uploaded to the GBP
• If there are any Google Posts (very valuable for SEO)
• What are the Service Options (beneficial to Google in surfacing exact results to queries)

All of the information we gather on GBPs provides digital agencies with needed information they can use to help small businesses improve their online presence.

Select the server for Google Lighthouse testing

We all know that Google rules the roost when it comes to measuring the performance of websites, and Google Lighthouse tests are the standard most people turn to for their information. For example, Insites uses Google Lighthouse in our Mobile Speed and Core Web Vitals tests.

The Google Lighthouse test measures several factors, but the important part is that it uses so-called “lab data” to determine the website’s performance. This lab data is generated using a “single device and fixed set of network conditions”.

And there’s the rub.

While a “particular device” is not generally a problem, the server’s location can impact the results. For example, a test run from the UK against a server in California versus that same test run against a server in Dublin, Ireland, will likely yield different results.

We have now implemented a new feature that will automatically select the closest server from one of four servers in the US and Europe to overcome this issue. The servers are in California and Virginia in the US and Dublin, Ireland and Frankfurt, Germany in Europe.

Your localized Insites account setup determines the automatic selection. However, it is possible to select the server you would like to use manually.

Just go to your account settings and, under enabled tests, look for Mobile Speed. Next, click the “cog”, and you will see the option to select the region for the server.

We are always listening to our customers, and these were two areas our customers asked if we could improve upon, and we did!

Insites is committed to providing our customers with the most accurate and actionable data possible. With the continuing evolution of the digital landscape, we will continue that commitment to develop and evolve the Insites platform to stay the premier sales enablement tool for digital agencies!