If you have brick and mortar business or service area business in your city, you can’t neglect the importance of showing up in the local search results when customers look for a similar business using the term ‘business name near me‘. Here are some stats indicating why you should really think about optimizing your online presence for local search. (Courtesy of Search Engine Journal)

• Over 50 percent of people who search locally on their phone go visit a physical store within one day.
• 34 percent who search locally on a computer or tablet did the same.
• Over 60 percent of American adults use tablets and smartphones to search for services or products in their local area
• 78 percent of local-based searches on a mobile device end in purchases being made offline.
• According to a survey, 71 percent of people have said they search for the location of a business in order to confirm its existence before going there for a first-time visit.
• 1 in 3 searches on a smartphone was conducted just before arriving at a store.

Let’s break down the above bullet points and explain what they mean for your local business.

So, looking at the bullet points above, it is clear that the number of people who use their mobile devices to locate a store product or service is superior to those who use desktop computers and more than half of those who search actually visit the business location. This could be your local restaurant, lawyer’s office, dental office or your service area based plumbing or electrician business. Wouldn’t you want your business name to show up on top of the local search results? Of course, you would. A couple of important takeaways from the first points are:

1. Your website must be mobile-friendly. As of March 2021, Google will switch to mobile-first indexing for all websites.
2. Optimize your Google My Business profile to increase local visibility in the 3-Pack. Here is more on how to optimize your GMB profile