In short:
- On October 14, 2026, Google added message and chat button clicks to its Business Profile performance data, alongside the daily metrics and monthly search keyword impressions it already reported.
- Put those numbers, your own count of real leads and a monthly contact page check on a spreadsheet, with one row per month.
- Add a notes column for changes you made and for updates confirmed on Google’s Search Status Dashboard, so every change in your numbers has a likely reason written next to it.
On October 14, 2026, Google started counting something new for local businesses. Its Business Profile Performance API change log shows a new metric called MESSAGING_CLICKS. It counts how many times someone clicked the message or chat button on a profile, such as WhatsApp or text message.
If you already track calls and website clicks, that’s one more column to add. If you don’t track anything yet, a new metric is a good excuse to start. Here’s a simple monthly scorecard. It’s one spreadsheet with one row per month, it takes about 20 minutes to fill in, and after a few months it helps you answer the questions that matter on a small budget: is this working, did that change help, and should we spend more or hold off?
Set up one page, one row per month
Daily numbers bounce around. A rainy Tuesday or a slow holiday week can look like a problem when it isn’t. Monthly numbers even that out, and they match how you probably already think about your business: what came in last month, and how that compares with the month before.
Keep it to one page. If the scorecard needs a meeting to explain it, nobody will fill it in. Set up these columns:
- Month
- Calls from your Business Profile
- Website clicks from your Business Profile
- Message clicks from your Business Profile
- Top search terms and their impressions
- Leads you actually received (calls answered, form fills, emails)
- Contact page check
- Notes
Start with the leads Google counts for you
Your Business Profile performance data records how people act on your listing, including calls and clicks through to your website. You can get those counts without setting up any tracking of your own, so they go in the first columns.
Message clicks belong next to them. If your profile has a message or chat button, some people may be using it to contact you instead of calling. Seeing all three side by side changes how you read a month. If calls dip but messages rise, it may not have been a bad month. People may simply have contacted you a different way.
What to do:
- Check whether your profile shows a message or chat button. If it does, add the Message clicks column.
- Make sure someone actually watches that inbox. A message nobody answers is still a lost lead, even after you’ve counted it.
- The change log covers Google’s Performance API, which is where reporting tools get their numbers. If a tool or the person who manages your marketing sends you these numbers, ask them to include message clicks starting with October.
Write down what people searched to find you
The same performance data includes monthly search keyword impressions: the search terms your profile showed up for, and how often. You don’t need every term. Each month, copy your top five into the scorecard along with their impressions. Over time, watch for three things:
- Your name versus your services. If most impressions come from people typing your business name, the people finding you already know you. If service terms like “furnace repair” or “birthday cakes” show up too, you’re also reaching people who are new to you.
- Services that never appear. If you offer something that never makes the list, check whether your profile and website name it clearly, in the words your customers use.
- Season-to-season changes. A year of rows will show you whether your November and December searches look different from your summer ones, so you can plan next year around what you actually see.
Count the leads you actually got
Google counts clicks, not customers. A tap on “Call” doesn’t always mean the person got through. So add one column of your own: the calls you answered, plus the form fills and emails that came in last month from any source.
Keep it simple. A tally on a notepad by the phone works. So does counting form notifications in your inbox on the first of the month. If Google’s click counts and your own count move together, you can trust the trend. If they don’t, look into it. Lots of call clicks but few answered calls, for example, can mean the phone isn’t being picked up during busy hours.
Check the page where people reach out
Once a month, run your contact, booking or quote page through PageSpeed Insights. Google’s guide to Core Web Vitals for business decision makers explains that PageSpeed Insights shows a site’s three Core Web Vitals at the top of its report. One of them, Interaction to Next Paint (INP), measures how quickly a page responds when someone clicks, taps or types. Google rates 200 milliseconds as “good” and 500 as “poor.”
Write the INP result in the scorecard. Then check the page yourself: open it on your phone, fill in the form and tap the button. Write down whether it worked. If the form stopped sending sometime last month, this column will catch it before an annoyed customer tells you.
While you’re on that page, look at the wording on the button. HubSpot reports that forms with buttons labeled “Submit” had lower conversion rates across the landing pages of more than 40,000 of its customers. If you change the label, add it to your notes.
The notes column keeps you from chasing rumors
The notes column makes the other columns useful. When a number moves, you want to know why before you change anything. Each month, write down:
- Changes you made: new photos, a rewritten services page, a new button label, a paused ad.
- Things outside your control: a holiday closure, a Pittsburgh snow day that kept people home, a staff vacation.
- Google updates confirmed by Google: no others.
For updates, go straight to Google’s own Search Status Dashboard. For example, it lists the September 2026 spam update as released September 24 and complete as of October 8. That gets a line in both your September and October notes. If an update isn’t listed on the dashboard, leave it out of your notes, and start with the causes you can check yourself: your site, your profile and the time of year.
How to read it after three months
A single month tells you very little. By the third month, you can start to see patterns. When you sit down with the scorecard, ask:
- Are total leads going up, down or staying flat? Add up calls, website clicks and message clicks, then compare that total with your own lead count.
- Does anything in the notes line up with a change? If you updated your contact page in September and form fills rose in October, that’s a clue, not proof. Keep watching.
- Is the contact page still working and responding quickly? If it isn’t, fix it before you spend money sending more people there.
- Which search terms are growing? Feature those services on your site and in your posts.
A scorecard won’t bring in more leads by itself. It helps you make your next decision based on what actually happened, and that matters most when the budget is tight.
Set it up this week
- Open a spreadsheet and add the eight columns above.
- Fill in October’s calls and website clicks, and message clicks if you have that button.
- Copy your top five search terms and their impressions.
- Run your contact page through PageSpeed Insights and test the form on your phone.
- Add the September spam update to your notes, along with anything you changed this fall.
- Put a recurring reminder on your calendar for the first business day of each month. The next one is Tuesday, December 1.
If your contact page column keeps coming back “needs work,” or your clicks and real leads don’t match, we’re happy to take a look at the page where your leads come in. Request a free website review, and we’ll tell you what we’d check first.
Keep reading: Insightful Analytics Power Smarter Decisions