16 Stats That Prove the Importance of Local SEO

When you’re looking for a local business that’ll fix your favorite pair of shoes, sell you the book your friend recommended, or bake a spaceship-themed cake for your kid’s birthday -- how do you find it?

You pull up your favorite search engine for a little online research, of course.

Your customers are no different. When they’re looking for a product or service similar to what your local business sells, they’re going online to find it.

Did you know that 88% of consumers who do a local search on their smartphone visit or call a store within a day? In fact, nearly 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information. 

A strong local SEO strategy is key to driving more people to your store, whether you have one storefront or five hundred. Take a look at these 16 local SEO facts and see why utilizing SEO could help your organization. (And to learn which parts of your site to optimize for local searches, check out this post.) 

16 Local SEO Stats  

1. 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information. (Source: GoGulf)
2. 72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles. (Source: HubSpot Marketing Statistics) 
3. 97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else. (Source: SEO Tribunal)
4. 88% of searches  for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours. (Source: Nectafy)
5. 61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site. (Source: HubSpot Marketing Statistics)
6. By 2021, mobile devices will influence more than $1.4 trillion in local sales. (Source: Forrester)
7. 18% of local smartphone searches led to a purchase within a day, whereas only 7% of non-local searches led to a sale. (Source: Think with Google)
8. 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase. (Source: SEO Tribunal)
9. “Near me” or "close by" type searches grew by more than 900% over two years. (Source: Chat Meter)
10. 72% of computer or tablet users and 67% of smartphone users want ads that are customized to their city or zip code. (Source: Think with Google)
11. By using location-based coupons on mobile can lead to a 9916% increase in incremental mobile revenue. (Source: WordStream)
12. Local searches result in purchases 28% of the time. (Source: Joel House Search Media)
13. Search result information will send 70% of consumers to a physical store. (Source: Joel House Search Media)
14.  92% of searchers will pick businesses on the first page of local search results. (Source: SEO Expert)
15.  Global retail ecommerce sales will reach $4.5 trillion by 2021. (Source: HubSpot Marketing Statistics)