Good news for local businesses
Search Engine Land’s recent Local Consumer Review Survey looked at the way consumer behavior has changed since 2010, and what they found is important for local businesses. Here are a few highlights:
- Only 15% of internet users don’t use the web to find local businesses, while 24% use the web every week or almost every day.
What that means for you is that having a web site that represents you well and that customers can find can obviously drive more business your way.
Question: How many times have you used the Internet to find a local business in the last 12 months?
Some other findings —
- A clear majority say that positive customer reviews at places like Yelp and Google Places make them trust a business more.
- And 52% say they’re more likely to use a local business if they’ve seen positive reviews about them.
- In fact 72% say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from people they know.
Those are all reasons we encourage all of our clients to ask their own delighted customers to write reviews in such places. Of course you need to claim your listings in those places and fill out as much as possible about your business there first. For more on that, see our blog posts in the Local Search category.
Does your experience agree with this study? Let us know by leaving a comment.