Are You Missing 87% of Your Market? Not If You Do Local SEO.

If you’re a local business, it is more critical than ever to be competitive online through Local SEO, or you could be missing out on 87% of purchase decisions.

Local Based Search Queries – A Crucial Point in the Customer Journey

In a recent study by the Local Search Association, a not-for-profit industry association of agencies and media companies on sources internet users use before making a local product or service purchase; a staggering 87% Googled the local goods or services before purchase. This behavior is followed by visiting company’s website and seeking recommendations from friends and family.

Not surprisingly, physical copies of yellow pages and white pages were the least used methods for product discovery and research. As such, if you’re still paying for yellow page ads in 2017 (yes… we ‘ve had clients doing this), you should seriously consider switching to online marketing channels.

To Be Competitive, Have a Website and Commit to Local SEO

The data also suggest that in later parts of the customer journey – when a consumer is ready to make a purchase, they prefer information from company’s website as opposed to search. This is most likely due to information on your website is most relevant to your customer’s concerns regarding your company’s products and offerings.

Further, the survey found that three times as many people find the search engine to be the most trusted source of information, and four times as many people found search to be the most accurate source of information when compared to friends and family. As such, having a premium website, and making sure you can be found via Google can effectively build trust and credibility with the customer. To further understand how Google ranks local search queries, check out our primer on local SEO.

Over half of the marketing firms seems to understand the implications local search. When surveyed by LSA in first half 2016, 68% of local marketing professionals said search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to meet local business objectives.

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