Must-Know Local SEO Statistics For Your Business Growth

This is a wake up call for all multi-location marketers. If you’re not allocating resources for a robust local seo strategy, you’re lagging behind!

Allocating time, budget, and attention to local search helps businesses to get found and be chosen by customers online. Especially on Google, though, you need to know the current best practices. Because we live in a world of constantly-changing algorithms.

To take the pulse of search and digital marketing, let’s take a look at the most important local search statistics.

• SEO stats help you prioritize your efforts, because you’ll know what channels might require more resources over others.

• SEO stats help you stay competitive, because you’ll know what others are doing—and what you can do better.

• SEO stats help you stay on top of trends and give you the chance to be an early adopter.

As a multi-location business, you can use these to inform your marketing strategy and maximize impact both online, and off.

The State of Search and Digital Marketing

According to Statista, the global digital advertising market will reach $786.2 billion by 2026. That translates into a compound annual growth rate of 13.9%. And the portion dedicated to ad spend is expected to reach $279.30 billion this year—with the US, unsurprisingly, generating most of that growth.

Digital Marketing is Booming

Though marketing budgets are decreasing, 63% of businesses have increased their digital marketing budgets just this past year. In fact, 72% of overall marketing budgets are put towards digital marketing channels; because:

• 60% of total ad spending will be generated through mobile by 2028.

• 27% of consumers conduct a search for a business after seeing their display ad.

• Customers are 70% more likely to make a purchase from a retargeting ad.

Search Engine Optimization is the Dominating Force

The SEO industry is worth $80 billion; and a 59% share will most likely belong to Google, the most dominant search engine visited 87 billion times every month.

• 53% of all website traffic comes from organic searches.

• 75% of people never scroll past the first page of the SERP.

Local Search Engine Optimization has Gained Ground

Safari Digital found that 46% of all searches on Google involve local intent; and 28% of these searches have a local intent resulting in a purchase. So customers do visit these businesses to buy in person.

• 87% of customers use Google to find local business.

• 400% more “open now near me” searches in recent years.

But local search is no longer just about local listings. This is how local search queries break down in Google’s top ten organic results:

• Business websites (47%)

• Directories (31%)

• Business mentions (16%)

• Forums and discussions (7%)

Search Behavior has Changed

Google found that shoppers go online first on more than 60% of occasions, most likely entering a hybrid customer journey with a phygital customer experience.

• 49% of consumers like to buy from brands with a local presence.

• 42% of users click on Google 3-Pack results for local searches.

But consumers aren't just searching on their computers with typical queries like 'café':

• 60% of smartphone users contact a business directly from local search results.

• Voice search usage has increased to 8 billion today—a 146% growth since 2019.

If you haven’t started optimizing your online presence yet, things can easily go sideways:

• 62% of consumers avoid businesses with incorrect online information.

• 65% of consumers combine online and in-store shopping for the holidays.

Reviews Rule Rankings

Positive reviews are a hall mark of a business that is worth trusting.

• 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses.

• 73% of customers are more trusting of businesses with online reviews.

• 84% of customers seek out negative reviews to see how businesses handle these.

• Consumers spend 50% more with businesses that regularly respond to reviews.

And BrightLocal’s latest Local Consumer Review Survey found customers overwhelmingly choose Google for local business searches and evaluations.

• 81% of consumers turn to Google for local business reviews.

• 34% of consumers use Instagram as an alternative platform.

• 23% of consumers use TikTok to read fellow consumers’ reviews.

What matters, though, aren’t just the average star ratings, but also the balance of positive and negative reviews, as well as how a business responds to them:

• 71% of consumers wouldn’t consider a brand with an average rating below 3 stars.

• 63% of consumers lose trust in businesses with mostly negative reviews.

• Only 47% of consumers would consider a that doesn’t respond to all reviews

With such strong signals being sent from reviews alone, it’s worth considering your current review management strategy.

AI Conquered Online Search

With tools like Perplexity and SearchGPT leading the way – and Google launching AI Overviews – online search has become inseparable from AI.

• 17% of consumers use AI chatbots like ChatGPT for conducting online searches.

• 32% of consumers believe AI provides better local business search experiences.

On that note, Brighlocal recently uncovered ChatGPT search sources, highlighting why it's crucial to maintain a strong online presence:

• 58% of local search results come from business websites.

• 27% of local search results come from business mentions.

• 15% of local search results come from online directories.

The global AI market was valued at over $196 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36.6% from 2024 to 2030. Meanwhile, 88% of multi-location marketers are using generative AI; which isn’t surprising considering that AI assistants can help with content creation, review management, customer service, ad targeting, and so much more.

• 36% of high-performing brands use AI extensively in marketing.

• 59% of local agency marketers want to enhance their AI and ML skills in 2025.

Marketers leveraging AI are expected to see 60% higher revenue growth compared to those not using it. Gartner forecasts that 75% of marketing teams will depend on AI to manage at least 30% of their workflows in 2025.

How Multi-Location Businesses Stay on Top of Local Search

With all of these local SEO stats being thrown around online, it can be tempting to bury your head in the digital sand. But they actually are an opportunity to stand out.

The good news is: 94% of top-performing brands have a dedicated local marketing strategy. However, our latest benchmark report, we found that most multi-location businesses still aren’t getting the basics right to get found:

• 29% do not use online business listings.

• 42% do not include a list of local stores on their website.

• 56% do not provide local web pages for each local store

Moreover, they have untapped potential to be chosen and convert more consumers:

• 66% do not respond to reviews frequently enough.

• 52% do not engage customers with CTAs on local pages.

• 75% do not have customer referral programs.

And lastly, they miss opportunities to drive loyalty and make customers come back:

• 62% do not analyze sentiment.

• 62% do not have customer loyalty programs.

• 65% do not use review management tools.

In fact, the average local marketing maturity levels of multi-location businesses worldwide is only 48%, with maturity declining as the customer journey progresses:

Tip #1: Race to the top of search engine results pages

Remember that 87% market share for local searches? Yes, there are other search engines, but Google remains the go-to for the vast majority of internet users thinking locally. This means you should be investing time and resources into improving your Google ranking, using all of the critical content features on Google Business Profiles.

Google determines local ranking primarily by drawing on relevance, distance, and prominence. Yet, the most important local ranking factors include:

• Google Business Profile: make sure it is as complete as possible including your name, address, category, attributes, images, FAQs, and more.

• Reviews: encourage customers to leave reviews and respond to them quickly. Harvard Business Review found that replying to local reviews boosts submissions by 12%.

• Behavioral signals: optimize your click-through rate, bounce rate, and time spent on a webpage, and consider adding location landing pages.

• Calls to action: add booking, reservation, and order opportunities on Google, or integrate third-party delivery services.

Besides creating entries in the top 25 online directories, we recommend adding local landing pages to your website, too.

Tip #2: Build a flexible and durable digital marketing strategy

The algorithm is always changing, which means local SEO is not something you can “set and forget”. Make sure you’re future-proofing your multi-location business with a durable, future-ready local marketing strategy:

• Make use of managed listingsrather than spending resources on manual updates.

• Go local with your social media strategy and consider both organic and paid posts.

• Add locator and local pagesto your website to help customers find your stores.

• Automate your review management to not miss a single review.

What’s Next for Local SEO and Search Behavior?

One of the most effective ways to ensure your local business ranks on top is to curate and update your local online presence; because corporate-level digital marketing on its own is not enough anymore.

However, multi-location businesses must optimize their online content across the board—and this so-called “Local 3.0”, according toSearch Engine Land, involves everything from images to product inventories on your profiles.

Moreover, you need to tie your search engine marketing to revenue.

The Future of Local SEO Measurement

As local SEO continues to evolve, there's an urgent need for a new approach to revenue attribution. But our research on revenue attribution shows:

• 77% of marketers feel increasing pressure to deliver revenue results quickly.

• Just 27% are tracking sales revenue attributed to location marketing.

• Only 32% have set clear key performance indicators (KPIs).

You’ve probably experienced the challenges firsthand—the sheer volume of data can be overwhelming, and many businesses struggle with limited resources to effectively manage it all. But here’s what you have to look at:

• Visibility: How easily your locations appear in online searches.

• Reputation: How customers perceive your brand and their trust in it.

• Engagement: How effectively you connect with customers and build loyalty.

• Conversions: The success of turning visitors into customers, driving sales.

Enter: Location Performance Optimization

Location Performance Optimization (LPO) offers a fresh approach that combines visibility, engagement, reputation, and conversions into a single strategy to drive revenue at every location. To optimize your location marketing strategy, you’ll need to shift from focusing on isolated metrics to adopting a revenue-driven mindset.

Get in touch if you'd like to learn more about LPO or LPS—a unified, powerful metric that combines visibility, engagement, and reputation data, all linked to revenue performance.