In my humble opinion, based on the years I have been in business and working with businesses, I have found the most ignored and overlooked marketing strategy in today’s digital world to be … drum roll …. Local SEO (search engine optimization).

The mindset appears to be that SEO is for businesses that can offer products or services nationwide or globally.  Many businesses that depend upon a local market for survival, such as hair salons, mom & pop bakeries, coffee shops, attorneys, mechanics, etc. still focus on the word of mouth or traditional local marketing resources such as radio, newspaper, etc.  While these have their place for certain demographics, there is a whole generation of new customers that are not being marketed to.

The new generation of consumers are mobile.  That means they use their mobile devices to listen to music, read news, check social media and search for information.  In fact, 4 out of 5 consumers use search engines to find information.  These consumers are less likely to hear an ad on the radio, in the newspaper, or on TV.  So how do you reach this new generation of consumers?  You go digital.  Locally.

Here are 16 helpful statistics to convince you how important local SEO is.  We all love bullet statistics.

• The Google 3-pack appears in the top spot in 93% of searches with local intent
• 50% of consumer who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within day, and 34% who searched on a computer/tablet did the same
• 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day
• 87% of smartphone owners use a search engine at least once a day
• 60% of American adults use smartphones and tablets to search for local product and service information
• 50% of local mobile searches are looking for business information like a local address
• 78% of local mobile searches result in offline purchases
• 71% of people surveyed say they look up and confirm the location of a business before going to it for the first time
• For local listings, 68% of searches were found to have used 'get directions' or 'click to call' in a mobile ad
• 1 in 3 smartphone searches were made right before a store visit
• 89% of participants admitted to searching for a local business on their smarthphone once a week or more with 58% searching at least daily
• 46% of all searches on Google are local
• 86% look up the location of a business on Google Maps
• 76% local searches result in a phone call

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