LOCAL SEARCH
Did You Know?
30% of all search queries contain a city, state or zip code.
With 2.6 billion local searches performed each month, the Internet has now surpassed print Yellow Pages and newspaper as the primary source for local consumer service information. The adoption of smart phones will only add to these numbers; 27 percent of all mobile searches are for local information.
- Piper Jaffray, 2008
83% of U.S. households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services… the Internet will soon surpass newspapers as a local shopping information resource.
- The Kelsey Group, 2009
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Up to 46% of Local Searches Result in a Store Visit
Nearly 4 in 10 US Internet users (37%) who conducted an online local business search in 2009 ended up visiting the store in person, up 5% over the prior year.
Users of local search engines, at 46%, were most likely to head to the store after finding a local business.
- TMP Directional Marketing, December 2009
Is Your Annual Paid Search Spend At the Right Level?
Small businesses spent $1,658 on average in Q3 2009, up 91 percent over prior year.
33% spent between $1,000 and $1,999 in the third quarter.
15% spent between $2,000 and $2,999.
12% spent $3,000 or more.
19% spent between $100 and $999.
Search spending is widely spread out among SMB categories.
Top 20 categories represented just 20% of total search spending.
Leading spenders were Attorneys, Dentists, Air Conditioning Services, Physicians & Surgeons, Insurance, Roofing, and Plumbing Contractors, with 1-2% spending share each.
Google Can Deliver More Traffic, But Yahoo Delivers a Lower CPC
Google dominates with a 60% share of the paid search market.
Yahoo has 26% share. Bing has 10.5%.
Google’s cost per click (CPC) jumped 14% over last year.
Google’s CPC is now 30% more expensive than Yahoo and Bing.
- WebVisible, October 2009
Local Search Tools by Business Category
For most business categories, local searchers used general search engines rather than more specialized local search sites or online yellow pages.
Local search engines were biggest for users looking for child care and hotels, while nearly one-half of home services searchers used Internet yellow pages.
Mobile users are taking advantage of ever more sophisticated handsets to get important local info wherever they are. They were significantly more likely to access mobile content in 2009 compared with the prior year, up 40%. That includes a 127% increase in subscribers using mobile apps to get local info.
- WebVisible, Oct 2009
Could Your Business Use a 50% Increase in Foot Traffic?
Foot traffic to Foamorder, a mattress vendor in San Francisco, increased 50 percent because of positive reviews on Yelp, said its owner, Michael Gorham.
- NY Times, March 2009
Yelp is Growing While CitySearch is Declining
Citysearch had 24.9 million visitors in February, down 21 percent from the year before.
Yelp more than doubled its monthly visitors to 20.5 million in that time period.
- Compete, March 2009
Another Data Source Confirms Yelp and CitySearch Growth Percentages
Citysearch had 13.4 million visitors in February, down 6%.
Yelp had 6.6 million in February, double last year.
- comScore, March 2009
Yelp Grows 250% in 2008
Yelp had 7 million visitors in December 2008, up from 2.8 million a year earlier.
- comScore, December 2009
Google and Yahoo! started to include local listings in their main web search results for
local search queries in 2006.
Over 60% of U.S. Internet users (over 110 million people) performed a local search in
2006.
41% of those conducting a local search were searching for something in their home
area.
47% of local searchers visited a local merchant as a result of their search behavior.
52% said they were searching specifically for a business phone number or address.
- comScore, September 2006
SOCIAL MARKETING
9% of small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) are currently using Twitter for marketing.
Here’s the breakdown by age of business…
16 percent of SMBs in business three years or less
11 percent of SMBs in business four to six years
6 percent of SMBs in business seven to 10 years
2 percent of SMBs in business 11-plus years
32% of SMBs INTEND to use social media in their marketing in the next 12 months, including Facebook and LinkedIn.
39% of SMBs plan to include customer ratings or reviews on their own Web sites.
31% plan to place links or ads on social sites or blogs.
- The Kelsey Group, December 2009
MOBILE MARKETING
Growth in respondents using mobile devices to search for products or services locally…
18.5% searched the Internet for local products or services (up from 15.6 percent last year)
11.1% searched the Internet for products or services outside their local area (down from 14.3 percent)
15.9% obtained information about movies or other entertainment
13.3% obtained information about restaurants or bars
4% purchased a physical item that needed to be shipped (e.g., a book)
3% used a coupon from their mobile phone
- The Kelsey Group, December 2009
Smartphone penetration at 29 percent of U.S. adult mobile subscribers, up from 18 percent last year.
- The Kelsey Group, December 2009
Researchers found that 85% of smartphone users were ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ satisfied with their smartphones.
They use smartphones for personal reasons two-thirds more often than they use the units for business.
- PC World / Mac World Survey, Fall 2009
Nearly 20% are using mobiles to search for local information, 15% are logging on to social networks and sending emails.
- The Kelsey Group, Autumn 2009
SENIORS
In the past five years the senior set has become 55% more active with nearly 18 million active seniors now checking online content.
Seniors have increased the time they spend online by more than 10% over the past five years and are now staying online for about 58 hours per month.
What are seniors doing online?
• 88% are checking email
• 68% are mapping destination points
• Nearly half are reading news updates (Political) and 37% are reading business news
• 39% are planning vacations
Seniors are also becoming more social with nearly 8 million logging on to Facebook. Video is beginning to capture seniors’ attention with 8.2 million using Windows Media Players and 7.6 million checking video clips on YouTube.
- Nielsen Online, Dec 2009
LOCAL ADVERTISING
“Locally targeted ads are an increasingly important component of the digital ad landscape because they represent a more efficient allocation of ad dollars,” said comScore vice president Brian Jurutka, October 2009
