Within the local SEO space, there’s plenty of discussion about the importance of business citations for local rankings. And, while this is a core local marketing tactic, it’s vital to consider the people that business information matters to the most: its customers.

In 2021, we released the Business Listings Trust Report, highlighting how consumers interact with business listings to discover and use local businesses.

While the Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023 is very much a continuation of this research, we felt that the way consumers discover businesses or look for information about them today has come on leaps and bounds, with social channels doubling as business listings, and the continued power of visuals such as video content or customer photos.

So, how are consumers looking for local businesses online today and how are they discovering new businesses? We asked over 1,000 people what they thought. Let’s get to it.

Where are consumers finding business information online?

In the 2021 Business Listings Trust Report, we asked consumers which platforms they used to find information about local businesses. This time around, we asked which platforms consumers trust to find information about local businesses.

• The top three most trusted websites or platforms consumers use for researching local businesses are Google (66%), Google Maps (45%), and a business’s own website (36%).

It likely won’t surprise anyone that Google comes out on top as the most trusted platform or website that consumers use to research local businesses. As of July 2023, Google’s worldwide market share as a search engine was 83.49%.

A business’s own website is the third most trusted method of finding business information (36%), which suggests that consumers are more likely to trust what Google is telling them—which is interesting, as business information on things like Google Business Profile could well be provided by the business itself, perhaps unknown to the consumer.

However, clicking straight through to a business’s website also suggests that consumers have a high level of intent, in that they may be looking for more detail about specific products or services and trust that a website is the best place for that information.

Facebook sits as the joint fourth most trusted platform for finding information about businesses online, alongside Yelp. Interestingly, the social media platform is so high up the list for business research, considering this year’s Local Consumer Review Survey found that Facebook usage for business research had fallen year-on-year and that a significant percentage were also wary of fake reviews on the platform. In addition, we highlighted dwindling usage stats for Facebook among US adults.

That being said, Facebook listings are prevalent among both search giants Google and Bing, with Bing often pulling the platform’s reviews through to local pack-style cards that highlight key business information.

In what circumstances are consumers looking for businesses online?

When considering why consumers are looking for local business information online, we provided a new option this year to consider proximity.

• The percentage of consumers using business information sites to discover new local businesses has decreased from 66% in 2021 to 61% in 2023.
• The percentage of consumers using business information sites to find businesses they are aware of, but have never used, dropped from 66% in 2021 to 56% in 2023.
• The percentage of consumers using business information sites to find information about known businesses has decreased from 48% in 2021 to 41% in 2023.

Of the three options presented to consumers in both 2021 and 2023, we can see that percentages have decreased across the board.

It’s interesting as there doesn’t appear to be a clear reason. It could be the case that consumers are considering more varied sources when researching businesses online, as opposed to what they might consider ‘typical’ business information sites—later on, we’ll discuss the prevalence of social media for business discovery in more detail, including channels focusing on user-generated content like YouTube.

The Consequences of Incorrect Business Information

When looking up business information like its address, opening hours, and product inventory, the availability of this information is vital to help consumers make a decision. So, what happens when this goes wrong?

• 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online in 2023, compared to 63% in 2021.

You’ll see in the chart above that the percentages remain fairly static in 2023, which highlights the continued importance of maintaining correct business information across different listings. 

A huge 62% of consumers would be turned away from using a business if they found incorrect information online, which means that only just over a third of consumers would be willing to give your business the benefit of the doubt if inaccuracies are found!

For something that could be as small as a typo in a business address, email address, or phone number, it risks losing prospective customers to competitors and potentially even damaging your business reputation.

What actions do consumers take upon encountering incorrect information?

Although we know that incorrect business information is enough to stop 62% of consumers from using a business, we asked them what their first reaction would be to finding an incorrect address online.

• 36% of consumers would call the business to confirm the correct address, as opposed to 41% in 2021.
• 28% of consumers would seek an alternative business to meet their needs, a decrease from 33% in 2021.
• 7% of consumers would abandon their search there and then, compared to 3% in 2021.

The percentage of consumers willing to call a business has decreased from 41% in 2021 to 36% in 2023, but we can see that this has been distributed across the new options of messaging the business via their socials or sending an email. It may be that, as more and more local businesses have an active social media presence, consumers see it as an easier option to reach out this way. 

On the whole, it appears that if a customer has already decided to visit your business address, they won’t abandon hope at the first hurdle. 65% of consumers said they would take action, either by contacting the business directly or researching elsewhere to confirm the details.

It’s reassuring to know that the majority of consumers are willing to give businesses another chance, but this should still be seen as a warning sign to check your company details and contact information anywhere that it is listed!

Incorrect Business Information Can Cause Consumers to Lose Trust

• 63% of consumers said seeing mostly negative written reviews would make them lose trust in a business.
• The percentage of consumers who would lose trust in a business after seeing an incorrect address decreased from 60% in 2021 to 46% in 2023.
• The percentage of consumers who would lose trust in a business after encountering an incorrect phone number decreased from 66% in 2021 to 45% in 2023.

It’s important to consider that many business information sites also double as review platforms, or pull in reviews from other sites. When asking consumers about the issues that would make them lose trust in a business, we added considerations around negative reviews, both in terms of written content and review ratings. “Mostly negative written reviews” was the top issue that consumers said would make them mistrustful of a local business, with 66% of consumers highlighting this.

This is a particularly interesting finding and comes hot off the back of some research Near Media has recently completed around searcher behavior. At our recent Local SEO For Good conference, Near Media’s David Mihm, Greg Sterling, and Mike Blumenthal presented some fascinating findings that showed only about 33% of users were actually reading reviews.

They found that users are taking the time to seek out review content and scrolling SERPs to find better-reviewed businesses. Perhaps this suggests that, although they might not be reading them properly, consumers are skim-reading reviews to look for red flags and common themes.

Meanwhile, our findings show that 44% of consumers would lose trust in a business if they saw what they would consider a “low” average review rating. But what’s considered “low”? Well, our Local Consumer Review Survey this year found that 87% of consumers would not consider a business with an average rating below 3 stars, so that feels like a good indicator.

Our findings and the findings from Near Media show that, even if there are platforms where you do not focus on your business’s reputation, the information consumers find can be powerful enough to turn them away.

It’s interesting to see that consumers appear to be more lenient towards the issues we first presented in 2021. The percentage of consumers saying that they would lose trust in a business after spotting inaccurate information such as physical address, contact number, opening hours, and email address, has all decreased since the 2021 report.

The most significant difference is in the results for encountering incorrect phone numbers. In 2021, 66% of consumers said this would make them lose trust in a business, compared to 45% in 2023. Although this still takes a stop in the top three issues that cause consumers to lose trust, it reflects a shift in consumer behavior as to how they prefer to interact with businesses (as a self-confessed phone-avoiding millennial, I can relate).

What business information is most important to consumers?

Does the importance of different types of business information vary by industry?

Although it appears consumers are now feeling a bit more forgiving of businesses when it comes to issues with business information, we did have to wonder how this would vary for businesses in different industries: would you be more forgiving of a retail outlet for a low average review rating, compared to a medical clinic, for example?

N.b. In this section, we’ve chosen to display the results in two separate charts, grouping industries based on the type of consumer need (first, entertainment and pleasure, then emergency and professional services).

• Consumers view correct opening hours as most important for retail businesses (53%), food and drink businesses (51%), and entertainment businesses (47%).
• Correct address information is the second most important factor for retail businesses (48%).
• High average review ratings are seen as more important for hospitality-focused businesses: hotels (42%) and food and drink (41%).

For retail businesses, consumers need to know the most basic—yet most vital—business information: its opening hours (53%), where it is (48%), and how to get in touch (42%). It’s likely that, if a consumer is searching for a particular type of local retailer online, they already have a purchase in mind and are looking to get to that location soon.

Reputation elements appear to be less important to consumers here. This is likely because the quality of the product they’re looking to buy is often not connected to the quality of the service experience.

However, for businesses in which the service experience is the product, for example in hospitality and entertainment, review ratings and the number of positive written reviews are shown to be more important to consumers.

42% of consumers said that a high average review rating was important to them when considering hotels, followed by 41% for food and drink businesses. Similarly, 41% of consumers highlighted that a high number of positive written reviews was most important to them when looking for information about hotels.

While retailers should still view reputation management as important for building trust with potential customers, if a potential customer has a purchase in mind, then the likelihood of them visiting the store regardless of review ratings will remain fairly high.

• 49% of consumers said correct contact information is most important for tradespeople and service area businesses (SABs).
• Knowing the correct physical address is more important to consumers when looking for automotive businesses (46%) and healthcare businesses (42%).

Arguably, the requirement for businesses in the industries listed above sits much more in the realm of necessity and, in some cases, even urgency, compared to those in hospitality, entertainment, and retail. Therefore, we can see that consumers are placing a high level of importance on fundamental business information, like accessing the correct contact information and the correct address.

Being able to find correct contact information is most important to consumers when looking for tradespeople (49%), financial and legal services (46%), and healthcare businesses (44%), suggesting that, when these types of businesses are required, that need is for now.

Out of these industries, consumers think it’s important that tradespeople and SABs are reputable, with two of the top most important factors being a high average review rating (44%) and a high number of positive reviews (43%).

Again, as these types of businesses are often required in a more immediate sense, it follows that consumers expect to see evidence of their reliability. Plus, if you’re inviting a professional into your home for something like a plumbing or electricity emergency, the customer wants to be assured that they are respectful, trustworthy individuals.

How often are consumers encountering issues with business information?

• 56% of consumers are encountering incorrect business information online at least once every few months.
• 23% of consumers are coming across fake business listings at least once a month.
• 28% of consumers are contacting businesses on social media and not receiving a response at least once a month.
• 8% of consumers are calling the incorrect number for a business at least once a week.

Just 13% of consumers say they have never encountered incorrect business information of some sort online, while 35% of consumers are encountering it on at least a monthly basis.

As we know from earlier, 35% of consumers would either find an alternative local business or abandon their search entirely as a result of incorrect information, so that’s a lot of business regularly lost.

And, for those businesses where customers have arrived to find them closed (or not even there!), this oversight in business information will likely be funneling their would-be customers directly to a nearby competitor.

26% of consumers are visiting businesses too early or late due to incorrect opening hours on at least a monthly basis, so you can imagine that if it was for something as convenient as coffee and groceries, or as urgent as car repair, they’re going to go elsewhere instead of waiting for you to open.

Worryingly, more than half of consumers are spotting fake business listings throughout the year—with 23% of consumers coming across them at least once a month! There are several reasons that fake business listings might exist online (such as spam or fraudulent intentions), but in some cases, legitimate businesses may be creating spammy listings in an attempt to outrank their competitors, causing confusion and turning customers off in the process.

The bottom line is that encountering spam or fake listings is incredibly frustrating for consumers in need of a particular product or service, and is also harmful to local businesses in that industry.

How often are consumers searching for and using different types of local business information?

• 40% of consumers search for business opening hours several times a month.
• 36% of consumers are clicking through to websites from URLs found on business information sites several times a month.
• 39% of consumers are searching for business information, such as whether a business is child or dog-friendly, every month.

We also sought to understand the frequency of search behavior for particular business information. This can help to highlight where there may be gaps in your own business information.

For example, 39% of consumers said they are searching for business attributes such as being child or dog-friendly, or wheelchair accessible, on at least a monthly basis.

This means that if you aren’t calling out this information on your business listings, then you may well be losing out to competitors. Consider where you can make this information prominent across your listings: for example, Google Business Profile (GBP) allows you to add specific attributes to your listing that call out things like ‘dog-friendly’ and ‘LGBT-owned’, while you could also consider adding Q&As to your GBP to make it really clear.

Meanwhile, if you aren’t consistently updating changes to your opening hours across listings, or checking the correct URL is being used for your site, that’s a huge amount of people potentially being turned away.

The Role of Social Media in Online Business Discovery

Social media plays a huge role in the discovery of, and interaction with, local businesses. With so many platforms available to create an official business profile, and of course, many consumers taking to the platforms as the first port of call to rave—or rant—about experiences with brands, it makes sense that this is the case.

What social platforms do consumers trust for business discovery?

• Facebook and TikTok are the least trusted social media platforms, with 43% of consumers saying they either do not trust the information at all, or believe it to be somewhat untrustworthy, respectively.
• 42% of consumers believe that the information they see on YouTube is either somewhat or strongly trustworthy.
• Consumers are most ambivalent towards Threads, the newest competitor within the social media environment (at the time of publication)—41% of consumers have no strong opinions about the trustworthiness of the information on the app.

So, at the beginning of the survey, consumers highlighted Facebook as their fourth-most-trusted method of looking for business information online across all websites and platforms. And yet 43% do not believe the information they see on the social media website is entirely trustworthy.

It’s a little bit of a head-scratcher, but as we determined in the Local Consumer Review Survey earlier this year, consumers are generally more wary of misinformation and things like fake reviews today than they have been in previous years. With the sheer quantity of businesses managing Facebook pages, and some using them in place of a website entirely, it does make sense that it remains the most used.

Meanwhile, 42% of consumers believe that the information they see on YouTube is either somewhat or completely trustworthy. While that subject could probably fill many debates, it does show us that it’s a valuable channel for local businesses to consider—particularly considering how YouTube results are integrated into Google search—whether that’s in creating a YouTube channel yourself or considering options such as paid advertising, and influencer reviews.

TikTok is perceived to be untrustworthy by 43% of consumers, the same figure as for Facebook. Despite its reliance on video content, like YouTube, TikTok is known for controversial trends and users going viral, so it’s perhaps not so much in the minds of consumers when it comes to thinking about local businesses.

Our research did not survey US adults under the age of 18, but it is worth noting how Gen Z is using the social platform as a search engine more than Google, so it will be interesting to come back to this topic over time and see how consumer trust in business information on TikTok changes.

How often are consumers using social media for business discovery?

• 30% of consumers use Facebook to find local business information on at least a weekly basis.
• This is closely followed by YouTube, which 27% of consumers say they use to find local business information more than once a week.

Consumers can’t expect every local business to be a TikTok sensation, and even just keeping up with regular social posting can be tricky when you’re a small business. However, understanding how frequently consumers are looking at social media to find businesses shows us that it’s vital to ensure your business’s information is at least discoverable, correct, and consistent across these platforms.

The most obvious platforms that spring to mind for business information are Facebook, which is also considered a business citation site, and Instagram, which has refined the way it shows users business information via its maps functionality. But even TikTok and Snapchat, social platforms used largely by younger demographics, have map functionalities and business information built in, so you never know when user-generated content could even pop up featuring your local business! 

Plus, while the Local Consumer Review Survey found that 20% of consumers were using TikTok for local business discovery as of January 2023, we can see here that 31% of consumers are now using it on at least a monthly basis. That’s a significant jump in less than a year.

The Importance of Photos for Business Discovery and Building Trust

Of course, photos aren’t limited to social platforms. Consumers had long been posting photos to the likes of Tripadvisor before many of today’s platforms came into their own! But in today’s ‘always online’ world, the sheer diversity of visual content creates more choices than ever when it comes to researching and discovering businesses.

Not only do we see the glossy, marketing-quality photos that businesses want you to see across their websites and business listings, but we also get the everyday and behind-the-scenes content they share on social, not forgetting the spontaneous snaps from customers.

• The industries where business-supplied photos are seen as more important than customer photos are entertainment (24%), retail (21%), healthcare (16%), and financial and legal (15%).
• Consumers care most about customer photos in the hotel (32%), food and drink (29%), and beauty and wellbeing (26%) industries.
• Photos of staff and team members within the healthcare industry are seen as important by 17% of consumers.

For service- and experience-centered businesses, consumers want to see accurate reflections of exactly that: the experience. 32% of consumers rated ‘photos taken by customers’ as one of the most important factors affecting their decisions around hotels, followed by 29% for food and drink businesses, and 26% for the beauty and wellbeing industry.

Considering each of these industries can be known for glossy, staged, and over-saturated imagery, it’s not surprising that consumers are looking to each other’s experiences as evidence of what’s ‘real’.

Choosing a hotel is a particular investment of your trust because, for however many nights, a consumer is using this as an alternative to their home. For beauty and wellbeing experiences, a consumer places trust in its professionals, often related to very physical treatments, and therefore wants to be reassured by real customer results beforehand.

The top two industries where consumers rate business-provided photos as more important than those taken by customers were entertainment and retail. As we highlighted when discussing the importance of reflecting fundamental business information for industries such as retail, consumers are likely looking for similar here, including imagery of the business itself to confirm location. For entertainment businesses such as movie theaters or bowling alleys, this could be much more facility-led—namely, does the venue offer what the consumer wants?

Although photos of business team members seem to be lower down on the scale of important decision-making factors, there is a notable percentage of consumers choosing healthcare (17%) and financial and legal businesses (15%) based on the availability of staff photos.

For healthcare, which can involve very personal and sometimes invasive treatments, consumers want an idea of exactly who they will be trusting with their physical or mental health. In financial or legal environments, it’s the same sentiment: consumers are placing trust around sensitive topics in an individual as opposed to a brand, so it’s important that they’re able to see who they will be dealing with.

Essentially, these findings show that being able to display a breadth of photos across your business listings will ultimately provide potential customers with more information up-front to help them make a decision. As well as the high-quality marketing imagery, it’s important to show customers what’s real, so keep this in mind when adding photos to your listings.

Summary

It’s clear that the consequences of inaccurate business information can be vast, ranging from causing confusion and frustration to potentially damaging a business’s reputation or losing out on customers completely.

At the very least, local marketers and business owners should use the insights gathered in this report to get on top of their business listings and check the accuracy of information across various platforms, including social media.

Of course, it can be a big job to source everywhere your business is listed, and setting reminders to review and update information may not always ensure the work gets done—but there are easier ways to manage it! Check out the available services through BrightLocal’s Listings Management tools, which cover everything from building your citations to ensuring your business updates are pushed out to all relevant listings.

Methodology

A representative sample of 1,138 US-based consumers was used to conduct the Local Business Discovery and Trust Survey in September 2023. The survey was distributed to an independent consumer panel via SurveyMonkey, in which age group breakdowns and gender are balanced.

However, SurveyMonkey’s consumer panels only consider participants who identify as male or female and therefore do not consider where participants may identify outside of binary genders. Additionally, no consumers under the age of 18 participated in this survey.

Using Our Data

You are welcome to use the survey findings, charts, and data, provided BrightLocal is credited and linked to via this page’s URL. If you have any questions about this research, please contact the research team.

With eleven years of insights behind us, we’ve reported throughout some of the biggest and most unprecedented events to shake the industry, and the wider economic environment as a whole. 

The information provided by local marketers enables us to compile the current picture of the industry, from salary averages and overall satisfaction at work to a run-down of how agencies and freelancers are offering and billing for their services. 

So, let’s dive straight into this year’s findings. 

Local Marketers at a Glance

Firstly, who do we mean when we talk about ‘local marketers’? We surveyed 534 representatives with roles in marketing or SEO functions involving a local focus. This included freelance consultants and representatives from agencies, small businesses, and multi-location businesses. 

While you can find the summary of this year’s survey participants within the research methodology in full (at the bottom of this page), it’s important to note that 72% of this year’s respondents identified as local marketers based in the US. The remaining 28% represent the UK (6%), Canada (5%), Australia (3%), and 24 other countries (14%). 

For that reason, salary averages have been converted into US dollars at the current rate, so that we can provide an accurate representation.

Salary averages

We compared the average and median salaries of local marketers in the US to data from our 2022 and 2021 surveys.

As well as a clear upward trend in the average US pre-tax earnings since 2021, we can also see that the increase in 2023 is significantly larger than that seen in 2022. Between 2022 and 2023, the average local marketing salary has increased by 15%, compared to an increase of 5% between 2021 and 2022.

Interestingly, while the median salary range has also increased since 2021, the percentage increase is 6%. Comparing the increase in average salary to the increase in median salary, it tells us that there are outliers weighted much more towards the high-earning end of the scale.

Correspondingly, as we’ll delve further into in a few sections’ time, 71% of survey respondents self-described as being in ‘Senior’ positions within their organizations.

How satisfied are marketers with their salaries?

It’s one thing to measure average earnings within the industry, but how satisfied do marketers feel with their salaries in general?

• The majority of local marketers feel ‘somewhat satisfied’ with their salaries (46%).
• The percentage of local marketers feeling generally unsatisfied with their earnings has increased from 14% in 2022 to 19% in 2023.

Broadly, it appears that most local marketers feel okay about what they’re taking home, and this has not changed from 2022—with 46% of marketers responding as ‘somewhat satisfied’.

However, there also appears to be a trend showing that more local marketers are unsatisfied with their salaries in 2023 compared to 2022. 19% reported feeling unsatisfied in 2023, compared to 14% in 2022, while the percentage of satisfied respondents has decreased from 39% in 2022 to 35% in 2023.

So, while it seems that local marketers are earning more on average in 2023 than in 2022, they’re also feeling less fulfilled by it. There could be several reasons causing this, with the biggest and most obvious external factor being the rising cost of living across so many parts of the globe.

And, although salaries tend to increase annually in line with inflation, it could also be the case that some marketers are not feeling enough of a difference against rising costs elsewhere.

Do job seniority and knowledge levels affect earnings?

We wanted to take a closer look at factors specific to the local SEO industry and how they might affect salary satisfaction. First, we examined the relationship between job seniority and salary satisfaction.

• 42% of senior local marketers are ‘Very’ or ‘Extremely’ satisfied with their salaries, compared to 21% of mid-level marketers and 17% of junior marketers.
• Junior local marketers are the most unsatisfied with their salaries, with 48% reporting being either ‘Not very’ or ‘Not at all’ satisfied with their earnings.

The chart presents a clear picture: senior local marketers are much more likely to be satisfied with their salaries than those working at mid- or junior levels. It makes sense, considering it is generally the case that more senior roles have higher salary bands attached to them.

However, as noted previously, 71% of survey respondents identified as senior-level marketers, including a significant amount of business owners, CEOs, and directors, so you would expect to see these within the high-earning bracket.

So, we analyzed the relationship between salary satisfaction and expertise, first asking: how do local marketers rate their levels of local SEO knowledge?

• 92% of local marketers rate their local SEO knowledge as ‘Good’ or better.
• Just 1% of local marketers believe they hold poor levels of local SEO knowledge.

We can see here that being more senior doesn’t necessarily equate to being an expert—in this case, holding ‘Excellent’ levels of local SEO knowledge. Just over a quarter of respondents rated their expertise as ‘Excellent’.

Generally, though, local marketers rate their knowledge levels as good, with only 8% highlighting ‘Fair’ or ‘Poor’ knowledge levels.

So, with this in mind, would we find a relationship between expertise and better salaries? We took the pre-tax earnings of our US respondents to calculate the average earnings against the level of local SEO knowledge.

The results speak for themselves, but we were still surprised by the jump between salary averages from ‘Very Good’ to ‘Excellent’ knowledge levels. It goes to show: the more you know!

Now, returning to all local marketers and not just the majority earning in USD, we compared salary satisfaction against self-proclaimed knowledge levels.

To quote a certain US sitcom legend, could it be any clearer? Not only are individuals who possess ‘Excellent’ levels of local SEO knowledge earning the most on average, but they’re also the most satisfied with their salary.

The biggest takeaway here for local marketers should be that you don’t necessarily need to reach director levels to become an expert in your work. Honing your expertise within your field and building on your local SEO knowledge will help you to become a subject matter expert and, as it happens, you can put a price on that!

Working in Local SEO

We’ve compiled a snapshot of the individuals working in local marketing, but what’s it like to work on it, day-to-day?

Annual revenue for agencies and freelancers in the local marketing industry

Looking at freelancer revenue alongside marketing agency revenue can be a useful measure for freelancers when considering billing methods and pricing services.

• More than half of freelancers see less than $50,000 in annual revenue.
• 22% of agencies earn between $1mil-$5mil in revenue.

We can see that revenue is fairly evenly distributed across the range for agencies, reflecting the various sizes and types that make up our agency participants. 71% are earning up to $1mil a year in revenue, 22% see between $1mil-$5mil revenue, and 6% earn over $5mil in revenue annually.

For freelancers, however, we can see this is very heavily weighted towards the ‘lower than $50,000’ bracket. 52% of freelance local marketing experts earn less than $50,000 in revenue.

While it should be noted that many of our freelance respondents told us that their consultancies run part-time alongside other employment, this finding still highlights the challenging environment for the self-employed—or those thinking about becoming self-employed.

• The percentage of freelancers earning less than $50,000 in annual revenue has increased from 24% in 2021 to 42% in 2022 and 52% in 2023.
• 94% of freelancers are earning less than $250,000 in annual revenue in 2023.

When we isolate freelancer revenue and compare it to 2022 and 2021, it tells an even clearer story: we can easily see that freelancers are bringing in less revenue each year.

Annual revenue for single and multi-location businesses in the local marketing industry

Looking at annual revenue for single and multi-location businesses, we can see it is more weighted towards the higher end of the revenue brackets.

• 61% of single and multi-location businesses see over $1mil in annual revenue.

This information is useful for freelancers and agencies assessing their service pricing. Freelancers, particularly, may find they are pricing services too low—or perhaps billing in ways that end up disadvantaging themselves—so, it’s always good to see what businesses and brands are bringing in.

What are the most important local SEO metrics for success?

Everyone sees success slightly differently, which of course is why we have metrics in place to measure how we’re doing on the local front. But even key metrics tend to vary from business type to business type.

So, how do those marketing in-house measure local marketing success, compared to agency and freelance local SEOs?

• 45% of businesses highlight Google organic rankings as important for local marketing success.
• 44% of businesses highlight Local Pack rankings as important for local marketing success.
• Google Local Pack rankings is the most important metric for both agencies (54%) and freelancers (50%).
• The top three local SEO metrics for agencies are Local Pack rankings (54%), new leads (45%), and Google organic rankings (39%).
• The top three local SEO metrics for freelancers are Local Pack rankings (50%), phone calls (45%), and new leads (35%).

We can see that businesses across the board are in agreement that Local Pack or Local Finder rankings in Google are one of the most important local SEO metrics. This makes sense, given the hierarchy and visibility these results tend to have within the SERPs. If you’re not displaying in the Local Pack, potential customers are not going to have easy access to key information like your business name, description, address, and phone number.

It is interesting to see that a higher percentage of agency marketers place high importance on new leads (45%) compared to businesses (40%) and that businesses are the most concerned with their organic rankings overall (45%).

Of course, improving (or maintaining) organic rankings have long been a desired goal for businesses of all types in the SEO world. But, with agency marketers highlighting new leads and freelancers highlighting phone calls (45%) as important success metrics, perhaps this goes to show that they are more familiar with the fluctuating tendencies of organic ranking and are more concerned with contributing to their clients’ bottom lines, showing value in doing so.

Generally, SEOs with wider industry experience keep abreast of things like algorithm changes, industry news, and ranking fluctations on behalf of their business clients. So, it makes sense that agency and freelance marketers look outside of organic rankings to secure local SEO success—because we all know unpredictable it can be out there!

Reacting to Changes in Local SEO

Each year, we ask local marketers a variety of questions around core elements of local SEO, namely whether reacting to algorithm updates continues to be a priority for them and their clients, as well as their thoughts on how, or if, key products like Google Business Profile (GBP) have improved.

• 61% of marketers agree that reacting to algorithm changes is an important priority, down from 64% in 2022.

The numbers haven’t changed drastically year on year, but we can see a slight shift in how marketers are perceiving the importance of algorithm changes.

Google can take many months to confirm algorithm changes and, with so many unconfirmed updates throughout the year so far, you can’t blame SEOs for perhaps prioritizing them less than before, perhaps ‘waiting and seeing’ rather than reaction right away.

While fluctuating or disappearing rankings can be confusing and frustrating, it’s fair to say marketers are much savvier to the various different ways local SEO success can be achieved.

• 43% of marketers think GBP has improved in 2023, compared to 57% in 2022.
• 24% of local SEOs feel GBP has not improved in 2023, compared to just 9% in 2022.

It feels like Google Business Profile has changed a lot already in 2023, but it’s interesting to see that local marketers just aren’t loving it this year.

It’s worth noting that 2022’s survey was conducted and published before changes such as the NMX came in, bringing that flurry of bugs and annoyances along with it towards the end of the year. So, while a lot of significant changes have been made to GBP through 2023, it’s quite likely that some marketers are still pretty put out by those events.

Still, the floor is open. We recently reported on some positive new updates to GBP in July, so perhaps attitudes will change. Or could it be a sign that change is on the horizon? Perhaps local marketers are simply spreading their efforts across more local SEO tools and tactics.

A Day in the Life: Agency and Freelance Marketers 

It’s always interesting to gauge how many clients local marketers have. In 2022’s report, local marketing agencies averaged 19 clients, while national marketing agencies averaged 16, and freelancers averaged 14.

How many clients do local marketers have?

• 69% of freelancers have between two and ten clients.
• 33% of agencies have over 51 clients!

The sweet spot for freelancers appears to be having between two and ten clients (69%), but we were pretty shocked to see that a third of all agencies said they had over 51 clients! Even for some of the larger organizations, this seems like a lot.

Of course, all clients are different. You may have a variety of clients on retainer while working on one-off projects at the same time, and clients may come to you for very different services. Yet, seeing the polarizing results for freelancers and agencies here, it feels like a similar pattern to what we saw in annual revenue; freelancers way down at the lower end and agencies at the opposite side of the scale.

While freelancers don’t have the luxury of multiple colleagues on hand compared with agencies, it does raise the question of whether freelancers might simply be offering their small sets of clients too much in terms of services or output. If this is the case, time could easily be eaten up by a small number of clients, making it a challenge to find time for new client acquisition.

Average Client Lifespan 

It’s interesting to consider the average lifecycle of a client partnership: if you have five clients that you’ve worked with for several years, that could be a highly valuable relationship. But if your two to five clients are turning over every six months or so, you may find yourself scrambling to pull together pitches for new business.

• 25% of freelancers have clients with an average lifespan of 12 months or less, compared to 12% of agencies.
• 23% of agencies and 22% of freelancers have been working with clients for five years or more.

On the whole, it looks like agencies and freelancers are doing well at maintaining some lengthy client relationships. 96% of agencies work with clients for at least a month, although this is lower for freelancers at 75%.

It got us thinking, though: does a turnover of clients affect revenue? Would working in shorter cycles be more costly to the marketer overall, or would long-term partnerships end up benefitting a client more? What would be the ‘sweet spot’? 

We took US revenue ($) and calculated the average for each client lifespan bracket.

There’s clear evidence to show that local marketers should be aiming for anything over 12 months for a more fruitful partnership. Meanwhile, the Goldilocks duration appears to be between two and three years. But don’t take that as a sign for binning off any of your long-standing clients! You obviously know what works for you, but it’s a really useful indicator to bear in mind.

What local SEO services do agencies and freelancers offer?

Seeing what local marketing services are—or aren’t—widely available is a great way to understand opportunities to expand the services you offer.

The graph above highlights the top five most commonly offered SEO services, and charts the changes year-on-year since 2021. These areas have largely held steady across the years, highlighting how they remain fundamental local SEO services.

As for a full run-down of services, let’s take a look at who’s offering what to their clients:

It’s no surprise to see that all of the ‘core’ local SEO services such as GBP management, content creation, auditing, analytics, and citation management are high up there for both agencies and freelancers. Although, there are some notable discrepancies:

• 72% of agencies offer reporting and analytics, compared to 56% of freelancers.
• 76% of agencies offer technical SEO, compared to 53% of freelancers.
• 64% of agencies offer PPC, compared to 33% of freelancers.

As agencies tend to have a variety of different experts in a team, it makes sense that they can offer such a breadth of local SEO services. However, as we discussed earlier, around the value of becoming a subject-matter expert, the lower figures for services provided by freelancers highlight some niche areas that could be very lucrative for clients. As we’ll come to below, clients do place value in some of the more niche marketing specialisms. 

As well as technical specialisms like analytics, PPC, and technical SEO, there is a huge gap in the percentage of freelancers offering video (17%) or influencer marketing (5%).

Despite being low down among the services offered, we can also see, however, the growth for video marketing and influencer marketing since 2022. With the introduction of video content to GBP profiles and Google Perspectives now rolling out and incorporating user generated content (UGC), it seems some local marketers have already switched onto the opportunities to offer services in these areas.

Moreover, the Local Consumer Review Survey 2023 found that 20% of US adults are using TikTok for new business discovery. Whether inciting influencers to create video content or encouraging local businesses to get on the platform themselves, it’s a lucrative area for local marketers to get involved in.

What local SEO services are considered the most valuable?

You know how it is. You’re proposing a strategy based around several key tactics, and a client chimes in with something like “oh, but I saw this thing on TikTok and…”

It’s always interesting to see which services marketers feel are the most valuable for their clients. However, this year, we also asked them what they think their clients believe are the most valuable.

• The top three local SEO services that marketers see as most valuable are: GBP management (76%), content creation (53%), and citation management (43%).
• The top three local SEO services that clients see as most valuable are: GBP management (52%), content creation (39%) and website design (34%).
• 29% of clients see PPC as one of the most valuable local SEO services, compared to 23% of local marketers.

It’s encouraging to see that clients are fairly aligned with marketers in terms of priorities, which hopefully makes collaborating on strategy or getting buy-in from other stakeholders a little easier. However, it’s clear with services like website design, PPC, and social media that clients place importance in services that involve very immediate or visual changes.

It makes sense, in many ways: clients like seeing where their money is spent—or, even better, where the return on investment is coming from—but it can make pushing the case for more technical and behind-the-scenes elements like technical SEO a challenge.

You’ll note that citation management is not seen as a priority for clients, with less than a fifth of agencies and freelancers saying that their clients (18%) would highlight it as one of the most important services. As you may already be aware, citation management can be a tricky service to explain, and clients may not always understand the full scope of it as a service.

Local Listings Management Explained: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Facebook, and Bing

Learn more

How are agencies and freelancers billing their clients?

It’s always useful to see what other people are doing, particularly if you are a freelancer or starting out as one. How should you bill your clients? There are a variety of methods by which agencies and freelancers prefer to bill, so we summarised the findings:

It’s interesting to see that very few marketers are working on day rates, whether freelance or agency-based. It appears the general way to go is charging clients a monthly fee based on the deliverables they receive, with 61% of agencies and 53% of freelancers opting for this method. 

However, 43% of freelancers are still billing at an hourly rate. Of course, it always comes down to preference, but hours can be a tricky figure to quote for some local SEO services—particularly in more creative areas such as copywriting and content creation or social media management, where tasks can end up taking a lot longer than you’d planned (or hoped).

Local Marketer Learning and Development

This year, we wanted to introduce the theme of learning and development, to find out not only where local marketers are seeking expertise, but whether they’re afforded the benefit of professional development as part of their employment.

As we know from the findings above, the more knowledgeable employees are the most satisfied with their salaries, so it should make sense that businesses want their employees to continue developing. But, how many local marketers have the opportunity?

Do local marketers have personal training budgets?

• Just 39% of local marketers are certain they have a personal training budget in their role.
• More than half of local marketers do not have a personal training budget.

It’s quite a sorry picture, with 54% of marketers not given a personal training allowance. Meanwhile, 7% of marketers were unsure, which suggests their organizations either do not offer the benefit or do not communicate them well enough. It’s a familiar sight to see vague mentions of ‘professional development’ and training within job specifications, but it’s very different for businesses to actively encourage their people to learn.

Despite this finding, local marketers are undeterred. A whopping 98% of marketers are putting time aside to learn within their roles, budget or none, with nearly two-fifths of those spending two hours or more learning. We love to see it!

Where are local marketers seeking expertise?

• 81% of local marketers are spending time researching to build their local SEO knowledge.
• 66% of marketers learn via webinars.

Unsurprisingly, the top methods of learning on the job (considering so few marketers have access to dedicated budgets) rely on the do-it-yourself approach. Research, webinars, YouTube, and industry news are generally all free—albeit timely—methods of learning, and it’s very encouraging to see there is a strong level of commitment in the industry.

Looking to the Future: New Tech, Optimism, and Hiring Trends

We’ve got a clear picture of how marketers are doing in local SEO right now, but what about next year—and beyond? With much of 2023 already dominated by discussion around developments in generative AI, competitor brands, and changes to SERPs, how do marketers feel about achieving local success in 2023?

There has been a decrease in the percentage of marketers feeling optimistic about achieving local SEO success in the next year, from 23% in 2022 to 19% in 2023.

Alongside this, we can see a corresponding increase in the percentage of marketers feeling pessimistic about their chances of local marketing success, from 36% in 2022 to 46% in 2023. 

As well as the aforementioned developments in generative AI that have hit marketers thick and fast so far this year, there have been other significant changes within the industry that could contribute to feelings of apprehension about 2024.

Despite this fast-growing innovation, the start of 2023 saw plenty of turbulence with lay-offs affecting some of the world’s biggest tech companies. Not to mention the chaos at Twitter, now X, which impacted businesses of all sizes as marketers grappled with the potential loss—and still ever-changing nature—of this important marketing channel.

Moreover, with Google’s new generative AI-led search functionality, Search Generative Experience (SGE), likely coming at some point in 2024, this adds another key component to marketers’ growing lists of things to master.

POLL: Are Local Marketers Ready for SGE?

Spoiler alert: No, not really. Read on to discover who feels confident about the imminent roll-out of Search Generative Experience (SGE), and how marketers feel it will affect local search results.

Read

Will marketers be hiring in the near future?

With a sense of apprehension around achieving success in the industry, how does this leave marketers feeling about growing their businesses with new hires? 

• 44% of marketers will not be hiring this year, compared to 36% in 2022 and 30% in 2021.

The chart shows a clear trend in business hiring activities, with decreases in the percentage of marketers looking to hire since 2021. The most significant drop comes under the ‘definite’ statement, from 21% in 2022 to just 14% in 2023.

Although there is evidence to suggest that inflation is easing in the US, the cost of hiring and retaining employees is often the biggest outgoing for businesses, so it’s a decision that can’t be taken lightly.

Generative AI in Local Marketing

Meanwhile, local marketers are feeling hopeful about developments in generative AI and what it could mean for business.

While our recent generative AI case study highlighted that 73% of US adults have not used generative AI tools, it’s a very different story within the local SEO niche. Just 7% of marketers have not used generative AI to experiment within their roles. Of the 93% that have, these are the tools they’ve used:

And it seems, for the most part, local marketers are impressed by what they’ve seen so far. We presented several statements around the use of generative AI within local marketing, whether for their roles or wider businesses as a whole.

• 83% of marketers are actively looking to incorporate generative AI into their roles.
• 73% of marketers are actively looking to incorporate generative AI into their business.

• 75% of local marketers feel that generative AI will bring new business opportunities.
• 75% of marketers expect potential tech partners or new tools to be actively incorporating generative AI into products.

So, while we’re not saying you absolutely should be jumping on the bandwagon, it’s good to keep in mind what your peers and competitors are doing with generative AI. With 75% of marketers agreeing that generative AI will bring new opportunities, it might be worth carving out some time to discover what these might be for yourself.

Moreover, for digital marketing or web design agencies and marketing software organizations, the finding that 75% of local marketers expect tech partners and tools to be actively incorporating generative AI into their products definitely cannot be overlooked!

Generative AI in Local Search: A Case Study About Pizza

Read case study

Share your thoughts with us

Thanks for reading this year’s Local Search Industry Survey report, and we’d like to say an enormous thank you again to the local marketers who participated in the survey!

We hope you found these benchmarks useful. Does the information ring true for your experience in local search, or do you have any differing experiences you’d like to share? Please consider joining the conversation with our community of over 2,000 local SEOs over on The Local Pack, drop us a tweet, or mention us on LinkedIn.

About the Local Search Industry Survey 2023

Local marketing audience data

The Local Search Industry Survey was conducted via SurveyMonkey and received a total of 534 responses through our subscriber channels, customer base, social media, and peers within the community.

Although SurveyMonkey only asks participants for binary gender information and therefore doesn’t provide a wholly accurate representation of our audience, 37% of respondents identified as female, 60% identified as male, and the remaining 12% preferred not to disclose their gender.

We surveyed local SEO and marketing representatives from the following business types: 

72% of this year’s respondents identified as local marketers based in the US. The remaining 28% represent the UK (6%), Canada (5%), Australia (3%), and 24 other countries (14%). 

Publishers are welcome to use the charts and data outlined within this report, crediting BrightLocal and linking to this article’s URL. If you have any questions about the report, please contact sammy.paget@brightlocal.com or research@brightlocal.com.

When your head is buried in the day-to-day, whether you’re responsible for a small business or managing several business locations, let’s face it—sometimes you just miss stuff.

With some users already actively engaging with Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), but many others around the world unable to get a feel for this new search experience, it got us thinking about how ‘ready’ local marketers really are. So, we decided to find out.

We polled the BrightLocal user base, including freelance marketers and representatives from agencies, single-location businesses, and multi-location businesses, to get a snapshot of how people are feeling about SGE right now.

Recap: What is SGE?

Announced in May 2023, Search Generative Experience (SGE) is Google’s new way of integrating generative AI into search results. Collating key information from a variety of sources, and presented as a ‘snapshot’ at the top of search results, it’s essentially designed to enable more detailed searches from the beginning and encourage more conversational follow-up queries.

Currently, SGE is available to a limited amount of US-based users via Google Labs, and the wider roll-out date is unknown—yet expected to be in early 2024.

1. Do local marketers feel confident in their understanding of SGE?

Before we can understand how marketers think local search will be affected, we wanted to measure how confident they are in really knowing what SGE is—apart from yet another digital marketing acronym.

• 33% of local marketers have not heard of SGE.
• Just 17% of marketers feel they have a confident understanding of what SGE is.

We expected to see low levels of confidence in terms of understanding what SGE actually is, but we were surprised to find that one-third of local marketers have not heard of SGE at all. It reinforces the point that not everyone in the business of local marketing is fully engaged with SEO news.

Meanwhile, less than a fifth of local marketers (17%) said that yes, they do have a confident understanding of what SGE is. That leaves 50% of users that don’t have a confident understanding of SGE—assuming the 9% of ‘I don’t know’ responses essentially mean ‘no’.

2. Do local marketers think SGE will make appearing in local search results easier or harder?

While we can’t know for certain what the full roll-out of SGE will look like for businesses, we wanted to measure users’ optimism towards potential changes to local search results. Do they think it will be easier to appear in local search results with SGE, harder, or about the same?

• 4% of local marketers think that SGE will make it easier for local businesses to appear in search results.
• 15% of marketers think it will be harder for local businesses to appear in search results.

Overwhelmingly, we can see that local marketers really just don’t know what will happen. Given the general lack of understanding and awareness around SGE, this is not exactly surprising. But it does tell us that, simply, marketers are not ready for the roll-out and its effect on their businesses or clients.

What should marketers do with this data?

Well, if you’ve also been feeling unsure about what SGE will bring, then the key takeaway is: know you are not alone!

It’s going to be an interesting time as we all get to grips with the Search Generative Experience but, in the meantime, here are some key considerations and sources to help you keep on top of the changes.

Agency and freelance local marketers

If you work for an agency or freelance for local SEO clients, the number one thing you should be doing is managing their expectations for changes to come. There will likely be an adjustment period, but, as more users search with SGE, it will also learn and change over time.

Prepare your clients ahead of time so that, on day one of roll-out, you aren’t bombarded with panicked questions!

Senior SEO Specialist, Andy Simpson, summed this up nicely for us and commented on how much SGE is changing already:

Andy Simpson

Senior SEO Specialist at Digital Law Marketing

 

“SGE (and Google’s Bard) is seeing constant updates and changes, so what we see this week can be different the following week. It’s an exhilarating time to be in the local search space, how will it change the landscape of local search and/or search in general?

At this moment in time, depending on the search query, it dominates the top of the desktop/mobile search experience, users are going to either ignore it and think “what the hell is this” until they get familiar with it OR they won’t scroll down to the 10 blue links below, and the organic SERPs will be lost to many users forever… let’s just see where this ride takes us!”

In-house marketers and local business owners

On the flip-side, if you are in-house or managing local SEO for your own business, don’t panic. As mentioned above, SGE will change as it learns, so we wouldn’t advise making any drastic changes based off of a hunch!

SEO Strategist, Dayna Lucio, highlights how SGE should reinforce the key fundamentals of local SEO, such as Google Business Profile (GBP) information, and customer reviews:

Dayna Lucio

Strategist, SEO at Amsive Digital

“I think it more or less is continuing to showcase the things we already stress in local SEO—provide the information that users are looking for on GBP profiles and within on-page content and continue to pay attention to reviews, because this is another way that Google is highlighting those. Like anything with Google, I expect there to be multiple tests and changes as time goes on, so its hard to say what the impact will be.”

So, the key advice here is to continue to ensure you are grounded by local SEO principles and focus on your customers.

Community, industry news, and expert sources

• If you’re not already, we’d recommend subscribing to our newsletter—we regularly round up the latest and most important news in local marketing and wider SEO practices, as well as release our research findings and expert takes on the most talked-about topics in local SEO.
• Join our community of local SEOs in The Local Pack, a group of over 2,000 strong! This is your place to ask (and answer) questions, exchange insights, and discuss new changes and challenges in local search.
• Similarly, Sterling Sky’s Local Search Forum is a goldmine of all things local search, with many prominent local SEOs answering queries and providing advice.
• Our Expert Focus series sees local and digital marketing take on a variety of topics, from AI in local search, to agency culture and client engagement.
• Follow Google Search Liaison on Twitter (sorry, X…) for updates on SGE.

Do you have any strong feelings around the future of local search and SGE? We’d love to hear your thoughts or help answer any questions. Please feel free to comment in The Local Pack, tweet us @BrightLocal, or email research@brightlocal.com. 

Methodology

This poll was conducted within the BrightLocal tool platform and received 378 responses from our user base, including local SEO consultants, and representatives from agencies, single-location businesses, and multi-location businesses.

• Do you feel you have a confident understanding of what SGE is?
• How do you think SGE will affect local search results?

Business owners or listing managers have been able to add up to nine additional categories to support a Google Business Profile for some time now.

We know that Google Business Profile (GBP) signals are imperative to your local rankings, including choosing the most accurate and relevant primary business category. In fact, local search experts also cite additional categories within the top 15 individual ranking factors within the Local Pack and Local Finder.

But, so far, there has been little in the way of hard evidence to show whether using more categories directly impacts your local rankings.

Using our very own Local Search Grid (LSG), we studied the local rankings of 1,050 business locations. The aim was to identify any possible relationships between additional business categories and local ranking performance.

How many additional categories are businesses using?

To start off, we wanted to find out how many additional categories different business types were using on average. Then, we took the 15 top-ranking locations from each primary category set and compared the averages.

• Department stores use the most additional categories, with 4.7 on average.
• Electricians use the fewest additional categories, with an average of 1.

You can see that there is a broadly positive correlation between top-ranking business locations using more GBP categories. For five of the seven primary category sets analyzed, the top-ranking business locations are using a higher number of categories on average.

The two areas where we can see the opposite, however, are with the primary categories, Electrician and HVAC Contractor. Interestingly, both of these categories sit within the Service Area Business (SABs) and Trades industry. 

One way of looking at these results is that, hypothetically, if you were looking for an electrician or HVAC contractor, that’s kind of the main criteria of your search. For a day spa, however, you might be more interested in other specifics, such as having a beauty salon or massage parlor on site. The same goes for a department store, where you may be interested in anything from home goods and furniture to women’s clothing and brand outlets.

Another possibility for SABs is that, as contractors tend to work as sole traders, they might be the only ones responsible for managing and updating their Google Business Profile information. Taking the time to optimize listings may not always be top of the priority list, which could explain why it’s so common to see just a primary category set.

So, how many categories should they be using?

SEO Analyst, Elizabeth Rule, recently discussed the topic with Claire Carlile during one of our Local Search Clinics. 

Elizabeth Rule on number of GBP categories

SEO Analyst at Sterling Sky

 

“Your primary category is going to hold the most weight by far; you want that to be the most important service category for you. The other nine all hold the same weight, but they are going to directly impact your ability to rank for queries related to that category.

“Say you’re a dentist, you’re probably going to want your main category to be Dentist. But, if you specialize in children’s dentistry, you’re going to want to add that as a secondary category as that is going to directly impact your ability to rank for children’s/pediatric keywords.

“If you have nine categories that are relevant, add them all. It will help your rankings for each one. But if you don’t have them all, don’t add them. You want to rank for the categories that matter to you.”

via the Local Search Clinic webinar, March 2023

What are the average map rankings per number of additional categories?

Onto the burning question: just how do businesses rank locally when making use—or not!—of additional categories?

You’ll note that, while you can add up to nine additional categories, we have grouped 5+ categories together within our data. This is because the number of business locations using five or more business categories was too low to provide wholly representative data points. There just aren’t a lot of businesses out there using more than five additional categories!

• The lowest average map ranking of 7.6 comes from businesses that aren’t using any additional categories.
• Businesses using four additional categories rank better, with an average of 5.9.

Essentially, the chart above shows that businesses have a better chance of improving their local rankings simply by using additional categories in the first instance. Business GBPs not using additional categories have the lowest average map rankings.

Meanwhile, we can see that the average map ranking improves when using one or more additional categories. Most notably, the sweet spot for GBPs seems to be having four business categories, where local rankings averaged 5.9.

If you think about it from the perspective of a would-be customer with specific requirements, adding categories that match as closely as possible to these provides more relevant, helpful results. Taking the generic primary category of ‘Lawyer’ for example. It’s quite likely that a user would have a particular area of law in mind for their requirements, such as personal injury or family law.

Does the relationship between local rankings and GBP categories vary by industry?

Next, we took each set of primary categories and calculated the average map rankings per number of additional business categories.

Beauty and Wellbeing: Day Spa

• Day Spa GBPs using four additional categories have an average map ranking of 5.4.
• The lowest-ranking Day Spa GBPs use between 0-1 additional category.

We’ve already highlighted why it makes sense for Day Spa GBPs to make use of several additional categories, as it’s likely that there are many that relate to the available products and services on site.

Our findings also show that using additional categories appear to have a positive effect on local rankings, as Day Spa GBPs using four additional categories held an average map ranking of 5.4.

If you conduct a local search for ‘day spa near me’ or similar, the results shown in the Local Pack or within Google Maps don’t necessarily place businesses with that primary category at the top. Google recognizes, for instance, where similar categories (like massage spa, sauna, beauty salon) might also show relevant results. So, it’s a good idea to keep how your audience might be searching in mind.

Healthcare: Dentist

• The best-performing Dentist GBP uses 1 additional category on average, with an average map rank of 7.3.

For this primary category, there doesn’t seem to be a ‘smoking gun’ or a clear pattern to determine whether there is a relationship between the number of additional categories and dentists’ local rankings. 

Our data suggests that using more than one additional category is better for local ranking performance than none at all, but there is an anomaly in the data for three additional categories.

Of course, it’s important to always reflect the most accurate information possible—especially within regulated health industries. Additionally, many additional categories related to the field of dentistry require demonstrated certification and available services, such as cosmetic dentists or dental implant providers.

Legal Services: Lawyer

• Using one or more additional categories appears to have a positive effect on Lawyer local rankings.
• Lawyer GBPs with one additional category have an average map ranking of 5.9.

For GBPs using Lawyer as their primary category, our findings show the highest average map ranking (5.9) comes from those using one additional category in place. This is closely followed by those using four additional categories, with an average map ranking of 6.0.

While the results for GBPs using two and three additional categories show lower average map rankings than these, it still follows that using any amount of additional categories yields better results in rankings than none at all.

Real Estate: Real Estate Agent

• For GBP profiles using Real Estate Agent as the primary category, our findings show that using three or more additional categories achieve the best average map ranking.

This data set didn’t contain enough data to represent three or four additional categories, so we’ve combined the average map ranking for 3+ additional categories. However, the results show a clear relationship between using more additional categories and better local rankings.

Of all the industries we studied, this pattern appears to be the most consistent in terms of showing incremental gains.

Retail: Department Store

• Of 150 Department Store GBPs, we found not a single business location using two additional categories.
• Department Store GBPs with four additional categories have an average map ranking of 5.3.

The Department Store set was interesting to analyze as, although we didn’t have representative enough data to reflect five, six, eight, or nine additional categories, we noted that 33% of the GBPs studied here used seven additional categories, while none of them used two additional categories! But for the purpose of consistency, we have continued to show ‘5+’ additional categories.

As noted previously, for the type of retailer that generally offers a multitude of products to its customers, it makes a lot of sense that many Department Store GBPs would utilize the ability to add more relevant categories. Moreover, our findings show that the Department Store GBPs with four additional categories have the best average map ranking of 5.3.

Service-area Businesses: Electrician and HVAC Contractor

Electrician seems to be the primary category that goes against the curve the most. Our data found that the GBPs with five or more additional categories had the lowest average map ranking, at 7.9. Meanwhile, the top two average map rankings can be attributed to three and zero additional categories.

As discussed within the first section looking at how many categories businesses were using on average, we noted that electricians were generally using the least—in fact, mostly zero. The top-performing GBPs using Electrician as a primary category used an average of 0.5 additional categories. So, in this case, it does not appear that there is a relationship between the use of additional categories and local rankings within this business type.

For HVAC Contractor, the results are more evenly spread. However, unlike the Electrician category, we found that zero additional categories led to the lowest average map ranking, at 8.0.

The top two numbers of additional categories are four and two, although it’s worth noting the drop in average map ranking in the middle with three additional categories.

Either way, the data here suggests that using at least one additional category for your HVAC Google Business Profile will be more advantageous in local rankings. 

What can we learn from this data?

The key takeaway from these findings is that, when it comes to GBP categories, more is generally more… helpful.

Google doesn’t provide a complete list of the business categories available, but there are around 4,000 in total! So, when setting up or optimizing your Google Business Profile, don’t look at selecting the categories as a quick or menial task. 

If you’re not sure how to choose the categories that best fit your business, there are several things you can do:

• Review your competitors’ GBPs. One of the easiest and most powerful (and not to mention, free) methods of optimizing your GBP is simply by monitoring your key competitors and how they’ve set theirs up. You can also use tools like Local Search Grid to display your top competitors’ additional categories, as well as factors including review numbers and ratings.
• Conduct keyword research. Researching similar terms and topics to your business type or niche can be really useful for broadening your knowledge of terminology other people might use to talk about things your business does.
• Search like a local. Just because a user might be searching for ‘lawyers near me’ in the first instance, it doesn’t mean that Google won’t show map pack results for personal injury attorneys or criminal defense lawyers. Carry out Google and Google Maps searches for different business types and you’ll get an idea
• It’s okay to change them! Don’t forget, you can add or change your GBP categories as you need to. You might manage a business with seasonal products or services, or your business offering might just naturally evolve over time. Your categories don’t have to be set in stone.

Summary

Let’s face it, the Golden Rule of optimizing for search will always be to have your audience in mind (E-E-A-T, people!), so don’t try to game the system by adding irrelevant categories and services.

And remember, while we know that categories are key GBP signals that can influence your local rankings, there will always be other factors at play, such as:

• Number of Google reviews
• Avg. Google review rating
• Inbound links
• Domain authority
• Spam score

Did you find this study useful? Do you have any hot takes on the topic? Let us know your thoughts in our Facebook community, The Local Pack, or tweet us at @BrightLocal.

Methodology

To carry out this study, we selected seven primary categories to focus on:

• Day Spa
• Dentist
• Department store
• Electrician
• HVAC Contractor
• Lawyer
• Real Estate Agent

For each category, 15 business locations were chosen from a random location in the US, for a total of 105 locations.

We then set up a report for each location in LSG, using the following criteria:

• Grid size: 7 x 7
• Spacing: 500m
• Keywords: 10

Grids were only adjusted if automatically placed over large bodies of water, national parks, etc. 

From each report, we took the average map ranking and the number of additional GBP categories used for each location, plus the first nine top competitors listed. This created an overall sample of 150 locations per primary category, for a total of 1050 locations within the study.

A Note on Keywords Used in LSG Reports

We chose the above primary categories as some of the most ‘generic’ within their respective industries so that we could conduct keyword research and apply the same list of 10 keywords for each location’s report.

When its first iteration of business listings, Apple Maps Connect, was released in 2014, the news flew somewhat under the radar. In fact, many of the tweaks Apple has made to its maps product have. 

Skip forward to January 2023. A big announcement came from Apple: they were re-releasing their listings service as Apple Business Connect, and local marketers were intrigued. Finally, it looked pretty good. Finally, Apple users might consider switching to their device’s native maps app. And, importantly, it was a new(ish) platform for local business discovery. 

So, where are we five months in? Are more users adopting Apple Maps now, and are businesses making use of Apple Business Connect?

Apple Maps vs Google Maps: who uses what?

In terms of device preference, global market share data from StatCounter shows that Android’s operating system takes the lion’s share, with an impressive 72% of the global market in Q1 2023 and iOS at around 27%.

Historically, though, Apple devices and iOS operating systems have been heavily preferred by consumers in the US. I distinctly remember listening to an episode of The Vergecast a few years back and being astounded by the “blue bubble” phenomenon. If you’re an iOS user, you’ll understand what I mean—but for all of us Android (or other) users: essentially, Apple users hate us and our stupid green bubbles.

As of 2023, market research highlights that Apple’s iOS takes between 55-57% of the US market share, with Android claiming between 42-45% (ranges use data from both Financial Times and Statista research). But does that mean all of those iOS users automatically side with Apple Maps? Not necessarily.

While Apple Maps is exclusive to iOS devices, any user can download Google Maps. We polled our social communities across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to find out their overall preference, as consumers, between Apple Maps and Google Maps.

• 88% of people use Google Maps, compared to 12% who use Apple Maps.
  

It’s important to note that our social communities cover mostly US, Canadian, UK, and Australian audiences, so there will be a broader representation of Android users. But the results are staggeringly clear—Google Maps is the clear victor!

As for delving into the reasoning behind their choices, some of our community volunteered their thoughts:

Obviously very biased to Google Maps and as an android user it’s my default for everything anyway. My wife, Debi, plans all our trips via Google maps (using saved lists) even though she is an Apple user. Debi just finds Apple maps frustrating compared to what she can do with G…

— Andy Simpson (@ndyjsimpson) May 18, 2023

When researching places to go, I like to use Google Maps since it’s connected to Google reviews whereas Apple is connected to Yelp.

— Andrew Prince (@AndrewPrince16) May 18, 2023

“As a consumer, my phone is Android so I use Google Maps for my GPS. Also, when friends use Apple Maps to navigate to our house it always sends them to the wrong place. We always have to tell them to use Google Maps or they won’t make it. Google is simply a better, more accurate product at this time.”

– David Byrd, via The Local Pack

It’s clear that, even after many improvements to Apple Maps in recent years, users see Google Maps in a much more favorable light, whether due to better location accuracy, a more enjoyable interface, or familiarity and trust in its linked Google Reviews.

Are Businesses Using Apple Maps?

Either way you look at it, Apple has previously stated that Apple Maps has hundreds of millions of users.

When you spend so much of your working day in Chrome browsers (and generally at the behest of Google’s guidelines) it can be easy to forget about claiming and optimizing an Apple Maps listing. But if your business isn’t correctly listed, you’ve got a lot of people to potentially annoy–and many that won’t find you altogether!

 

Quick tips from Claire

Advice from our resident Local Search Expert, Claire Carlile

 

“It’s important to make sure your business details are correct as Apple Maps is the default map app for all iOS devices, plus you need to keep in mind that Apple Maps data is used in various other places, such as the DuckDuckGo search engine.”

 

Who’s claimed their Apple Maps business listing?

We wanted to find out how many businesses are making use of the listing service, so we polled our customer base to find out 1) if they have claimed their listing on Apple Maps and 2) whether this was claimed before or after Apple Business Connect was released.

• 58% of businesses have not claimed their Apple Maps business listing.
• Just 18% of businesses have claimed their Apple Maps listing since new features were released.

Although this is along the lines of what we expected, it’s quite shocking to see that almost two-thirds of businesses are missing out on their Apple business listings altogether. In its most basic form for businesses, Apple Maps is a credible and important platform for ensuring your name, address, and phone number (NAP) consistency. Additionally, as Claire highlights above, it’s also really important to consider what other services may be relying on Apple Maps, such as DuckDuckGo.

 

Quick tips from Claire

Advice from our resident Local Search Expert, Claire Carlile

 

“Claiming and optimizing an Apple Maps listing is always one of the foundational pieces that I suggest when starting work with a new client. At present there aren’t as many ‘moving parts’ to ABC as GBP – but make sure you get the basics right at the outset – name, address, phone number, map pin, and any other fields that are available in the interface.”

 

Do Businesses know about Apple Business Connect?

We also wanted to explore the awareness levels of Apple Business Connect among businesses and whether those that have claimed their listings were actively using the tools. While January’s announcement was covered in local SEO and digital marketing news, we know that some of these can fly under the radar—particularly as far as Apple Maps is concerned. Has this knowledge reached the audience who arguably need it most: small businesses?

Again, we polled our customer base and highlighted several of Apple Business Connect’s features, announced in January 2023, to measure their awareness.

• 59% of businesses are not aware of the tools available via Apple Business Connect.
• Only 16% of businesses say they are using Apple Business Connect features.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a similar picture, with just as many businesses who haven’t claimed their listings on Apple Maps also completely unaware of the newer listings tools.

With 8% of businesses saying they are unsure, it suggests that they are probably unaware of the listings tools available, although it’s also possible that their listings are managed and optimized by an agency or consulting partner.

The bottom line is: awareness of Apple Business Connect is low. This means missed opportunities for optimizing your business listing with engaging content, such as professional and inspiring imagery, or raising awareness of unique offers with custom Showcase cards.

What should marketers do with this data?

First of all, if you haven’t already: claim your Apple Maps business listing! Whether you’re a local marketer working with clients or a small business managing your local SEO, you should consider claiming your business listings across prominent platforms as a foundational element.

Next, ensure your key business information is displayed and correct, such as your NAP, opening hours, website, and any other crucial information (think restaurant menus, payments accepted etc).

Take your efforts up a notch by optimizing your listing with Apple Business Connect’s tools. If you’re a marketing consultant or agency, speak to your clients and ensure you’re not missing out on any key offers or updates. Aim to educate them in the power of these tools and encourage good communication so they stay up to date. While they’re likely (hopefully!) aware of the importance of their Google Business Profile, remember that potentially millions of people use Apple Maps as a default, or may visit alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo. 

So, are you surprised by these results? Has this information made you more likely to consider spending time on your Apple Maps listings? We hope you found it useful and that it’s given you something to think about for your business(es) or clients! Please feel free to share your thoughts on the topic with us over at The Local Pack or via our Twitter.

Methodology

Our consumer poll “Do you use Apple Maps or Google Maps?” was conducted across Twitter, within BrightLocal’s Facebook Group The Local Pack, on Instagram stories, and on LinkedIn. A total of 143 votes were received. It’s important to acknowledge the small sample size and likely limitations around demographics here, but it helps us to form an overall picture of the current appetite for Apple Maps within the local marketing world.

The BrightLocal customer poll was conducted within our tool platform and received 384 responses from local SEO consultants, agencies, single-location businesses, and multi-location businesses. 

Google finally joined the party with Bard, Microsoft unveiled AI-powered Bing Chat, and we’re already a few iterations deep into Chat-GPT. And then, in May, the explosive announcement of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE).

So, with increasing prevalence, integration within everyday search tools, and varying levels of public accessibility, we wanted to test how these different models respond to local search queries. Are they accurate? Useful?

You might already know that BrightLocal HQ is based in Brighton, UK. We also just so happen to have a food-obsessed content team—including two ex/sort-of food bloggers (yes, one of them is me, hi). So, what better way to be able to manually verify the accuracy of AI-generated search results than by analyzing those of search queries around our own local pizza restaurants?!

Contents

• Methodology
• Key Findings
• Results
  • “Where are the best pizza restaurants in Brighton?”
  • “What are the top-rated pizza restaurants in Brighton?”
  • “Most authentic pizza restaurants in Brighton”
  • “Best takeaway pizza in Brighton”
  • “Pizza delivery near me”
• Analysis
  • ChatGPT vs Bard
  • Bing Chat vs SGE
  • A Note on Traditional Search
• Summary

Methodology

This case study centers around searching for local hospitality businesses in Brighton, specifically pizza restaurants, from the perspective of a typical consumer.

We determined five search queries, each with slightly differing intent, based on what a consumer might be looking for, but all with the common theme of local business discovery:

• Where are the best pizza restaurants in Brighton?
• What are the top-rated pizza restaurants in Brighton?
• Most authentic pizza restaurants in Brighton
• Best takeaway pizza in Brighton
• Pizza delivery near me

These exact queries were entered into four publicly accessible (sometimes via a waitlist) generative AI tools and two traditional search engines as a control group:

Generative AI Tools

• Google Bard 
• Search Generative Experience 
• Bing Chat
• OpenAI’s ChatGPT (May 24 version)

Traditional Search Engines

• Bing
• Google

We’ve taken screenshots of every result provided to analyze the type of content and media displayed, whether sources are quoted, and how accurate the information is.

We did not refine our prompts, attempt to improve the results or gain any further information from the AI bots about where their information is sourced.

Key Findings

• Traditional search engines remain the most accurate for results containing business information. 
• SGE provides local business information (listings, reviews, and maps) 100% of the time, compared to 80% via traditional Google searches.
• Bing provides local search results with directory links, maps, images, review ratings, and business listings 100% of the time.
• Bing appears to be making leaps and bounds in matching intent behind local search queries—watch out, Google!
• Bard provides some incorrect results, such as incorrect business names or businesses in other parts of the UK, 80% of the time.
• Bard and ChatGPT do not generally provide citations to support their responses.
• Bing Chat cites its sources for local search results 100% of the time.

Table: How often media formats and business information is presented in search results for local search queries

Results

“Where are the best pizza restaurants in Brighton?”

Bard

Bard’s results to this query show quite a hodgepodge. There is a mix of independent pizza restaurants, known chains, shopping center food court brands, and… a London pizza restaurant, which definitely isn’t based in Brighton.

What’s more, it’s not clear how Bard is determining what makes this list of restaurants the ‘best’, although each result is attributed to a clickable source. There are no review ratings attached to them either, which is unusual considering Bard is a Google product.

SGE

SGE’s results display much in the way you would expect a typical Google search to for this kind of local query. A selection of local business listings are displayed in a local pack-style format, complete with a map and review ratings. 

The main difference here is that, rather than pulling a quote from a business review, SGE assigns each business a rather ‘samey’ description. Laid-back, inexpensive, and vegan options are descriptors you’d probably expect for any casual dining situation, so it doesn’t feel particularly helpful.

Bing Chat

Bing Chat also goes for a straightforward list approach, with short descriptions and clickable sources. It’s not clear where these descriptions have come from, as some of them are pretty questionable, such as stating that Wild Flour Pizza is “known for its ‘yummy’ pizzas”.

The sources are a mix of review sites, search engines, and restaurant websites. However, one of the sources is wrongly attributed, which highlights an issue with result accuracy.

As the results continue generating, we also get a map pack with Bing business listings and reviews pulled from Facebook. This looks much more like the kind of search results a user would be used to seeing, helping to reinforce trust in the model.

ChatGPT

It’s interesting that it feels like ChatGPT is being ‘careful’ right from the start, with a mini disclaimer to say it can’t provide any up-to-date information, which is alo reinforced in the final paragraph.

All of the results are independent and generally well-loved Brighton restaurants. But there are some accuracy issues. The most bizarre is that result five, The Coal Shed, has never served anything close to a pizza on its steakhouse menu. Meanwhile, VIP is described here as “known for its New York-style pizza”, when it is most definitely Neapolitan. And, yes, it matters!

The ChatGPT results don’t provide any images, review ratings, sources, or any business information that might back up the list. It’s not really giving the typical user a reason to trust the results—something you’ll see recurring throughout this case study.

Traditional Search

As mentioned, SGE unsurprisingly produces the closest thing to typical search results, especially when compared directly to Google. So, I suppose the question here is: what is SGE really adding to the searcher’s experience?

“What are the top-rated pizza restaurants in Brighton?”

Bard

For this search query, Bard presents the same restaurants as before (including the London-based one, doh!). However, it does appear to recognize that in asking for the ‘top-rated’ pizza restaurants, the user expects to see some kind of review rating information, and highlights the Google ratings.

Still, it’s strange considering these aren’t actually the top-rated according to Google—and a quick search for the ratings of several other local pizza restaurants easily confirms this. 

It also links each restaurant image to a source, including TripAdvisor, one of the brand’s websites, and a local business listing website, none of which reflect the Google review rating. Possibly just the source for the image, but odd logic either way.

SGE

The Search Generative Experience results for this query are displayed similarly to the last query, with five local pizza restaurants displayed in a map pack-style format.

Just like Bard, though, these aren’t all actually the top Google-rated pizza restaurants in Brighton.

On first glance, the labels highlighting each restaurant’s pizza style seemed a cool and useful addition… until I realized they were incorrect. Fatto a Mano, for example, doesn’t make sourdough pizza, and I think any Italian would faint if you tried to describe national chain, Pizza Express, as Neapolitan! 

Bing Chat

Bing Chat also understands the intent behind this query and displays pizza restaurants based on their TripAdvisor reviews. However, it does not include any useful review information, such as the number of stars, number of reviews, or its popularity within the area. 

Plus, comparing directly against TripAdvisor’s ‘Ten Best Pizza Restaurants in Brighton and Hove’, Bing Chat doesn’t display its results in the same order.

Strangely, while attributing each result to TripAdvisor originally, the list goes on to cite different sources for the individual restaurants’ descriptions.

Further down, a map pack is generated with more results—some are in the first list, some not. These show opening hours, Facebook review information, and link through to each business’s respective website.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT’s result for this query was incredibly surprising! When I’d first played around with the tool several months ago, it was more ‘willing’ (slightly nervous to humanize a bot) to provide suggestions. Now, it seems, and perhaps based on previous user feedback for inaccurate or confusing results, it won’t pull through any information from its current knowledge base.

It doesn’t even provide local restaurant websites, such as Restaurants Brighton, merely pointing to TripAdvisor, Yelp and Google Maps. Disappointing… but, maybe for the best?

“Most authentic pizza restaurants in Brighton”

Bard

For this query, I wanted to see how the various tools perceived the intent behind ‘authentic’ pizza, so I suppose the accuracy of the results here will be subjective, based on your own definition.

However, Bard displays five independent Brighton pizza restaurants here, which I think is a pretty good attempt of providing useful results. The descriptions for each are largely accurate, although it’s interesting to note that Bard specifically calls out VIP as perhaps not being the most authentic (I have a lot of Italian friends that would disagree!).

It doesn’t justify how it chose these options, and the source links (mostly to TripAdvisor) appear to be there mainly as image credits.

SGE

As with Bard, it’s not clear what prompts the SGE to display these particular pizza restaurants, or how it perceives them to be the most ‘authentic’ in town. And—without wanting to appear like I’m bashing a local business—it’s very interesting that it lists a known tourist buffet restaurant within these results.

However, with reviews in their hundreds and average ratings sitting above 4-stars, perhaps this is SGE’s rationale.

Bing Chat

Now, this is a great response and much more in line with what I’d expect to see when searching around food authenticity. The Graphic Foodie is a prominent local food blogger, who also happens to be Italian, and therefore has incredibly strong knowledge and beliefs on what makes pizza, well, pizza. 

To start by quoting Fran’s renowned list of the best pizza in Brighton shows solid understanding of the user’s intent behind this query and creates an element of trust in serving up the most relevant results.

Next, it goes on to quote listings from another locally well-known restaurant site, although it should be noted that this is not from a list of the ‘best’ or ‘most authentic’—but, it’s useful to provide the user with alternative sources and more options.

Chat GPT

Given its last response, it was surprising when ChatGPT decided to play for this query. Especially considering its top result is incorrect. 

Yes, Cin Cin is very well-known in Brighton for its Italian small plates, but—while its focaccia is absolutely delicious—the restaurant does not offer pizza, let alone a ‘selection’ of them.

The remaining three restaurants, whether you agree with their authenticity or not, are long-standing Brighton independents, so a pretty fair reason to make the list. Although the incorrect description of ‘New York-style pizza’ is used once again for VIP.

But I do like the little disclaimer here that recognizes the subjectivity around this query:

“Remember, tastes and opinions on authenticity can vary, and it’s always a good idea to read reviews or get recommendations from locals who have specific knowledge of authentic Italian cuisine and its representation in Brighton.”

Traditional Search

While there is nothing wildly different to highlight in the UX of traditional search results for this query, it should be noted that Bing also uses Fran’s pizza guide as a featured search snippet. Another tick that Bing is interpreting the intent behind this search better than its competitors. Well done, Bing!

“Best takeaway pizza in Brighton”

It might not always be the case, but the intent behind searching for a takeaway pizza vs a pizza restaurant is quite different. For one thing, you’re likely going to be eating takeaway pizza at home, but the type and style of pizza are often quite different (your Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s, for example).

Bard

Bard pretty much displays the same restaurants it associates with pizza time and time again, and continues to include unimaginative descriptions. It doesn’t offer any additional information specific to takeaway, such as whether the restaurant provides its own delivery service or is available on food courier apps.

Plus, not only has it included one pizza restaurant from London, this time it has listed two!

SGE

These results are a mixed bag. The labels ‘pizza delivery services’ are useful in this case, although not entirely accurate. Two out of three offer online ordering for pizza delivery, while the third seems to be available through third-party apps or collections only.

The other two restaurants, while you can get takeaway from, feel like unusual choices. If you were caught in the mood for takeaway pizza, a buffet restaurant doesn’t seem a likely first choice. It’s also interesting that the list of additional restaurants doesn’t contain any of your ‘typical’ takeaway pizza chains.

Bing Chat

It feels like Bing Chat got a bit confused here and wasn’t able to correct itself. The initial list of five restaurants, sourced from Deliveroo, contains two duplicates, including one that doesn’t actually exist—’Pizza Mezza’ feels like a tangle of local brands Pizza Me and Purezza. This means there are only two genuine results in the first list, and you’ll note that the description for each is almost identical. Not at all helpful.

ChatGPT

As with the last query, ChatGPT decides to give this one a go and provides some pretty strong independent recommendations. Apart from the incorrect description for VIP, these are genuine and (mostly) accurate options.

Traditional Search

Bing and Google provide what you might call the most ‘commercial’ of results for takeaway pizza. Still considering your location, but big brands like Domino’s or third-party apps such as Just Eat make it to the top of results—whether displayed in local map results like Domino’s or by featuring sponsored ads.

“Pizza delivery near me”

Bard

Two London pizza restaurants are included yet again, which means Bard definitely isn’t considering location for this search query. Bizarre, considering ‘near me’ is the most obvious use of a local query, and my location settings are on.

The results are very basic, consisting of the business title, generic descriptions, and image links.

SGE

Surprisingly (and considering we’ve accessed SGE via a VPN ), these appear to be SGE’s most useful results yet! Each pizza outlet is very much geared towards pizza delivery, and prominent on pretty much all of the food ordering apps.

Although let’s just ignore the contrast of those descriptions against some of the average review ratings, shall we..?

Bing Chat

Another limited result here suggests the AI model doesn’t quite understand why I want to use it to find pizza delivery near me… and, I mean, fair.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT goes back to its original tactic of not offering me much information, instead pointing to delivery platforms, giving me a short intro on how to use them, as well as how to use a search engine. ADORABLE.

Analysis

Look, are you going to use generative AI tools to order pizza in your area? Of course you’re not. But with the experimental technology quickly making its way into much more public realms, such as SGE and Bing Chat, it is important to consider how the ‘typical’ user might perceive these kinds of results. And, as we’ve seen, they’re not always right, let alone useful.

ChatGPT vs Bard

As far as these tools go, we rate their usefulness for local search queries as very low. And both ChatGPT and Bard contain the highest amount of inaccurate information, such as listing restaurants that aren’t based in Brighton. In 80% of the results Bard showed, incorrect or inaccurate information was presented.

Although, the likelihood of your typical consumer using either of these right now for that purpose is pretty slim. Both tools describe themselves as collaborators, providing examples such as generating or debugging code or planning menus as example use cases. 

A survey by dentsu found that, of 1000 adults in the US, 73% have not used generative AI tools. Those who have cited use cases like experimenting or curiosity, and content generation for everyday automation as their reasons for using them.

In a recent analysis, Miriam Ellis investigated how and where Bard sources its information regarding local businesses, even going as far as asking it how to get cited by the tool itself. 

So, while it doesn’t seem that ChatGPT or Bard will dominate local search, there are things you can be doing to improve your chances of being cited by generative AI bots for those that are searching—and the good news is that these tactics are only going to be aiding your local marketing efforts.

Source: Miriam Ellis, Moz

Similarly, upon asking ChatGPT how it provides recommendations for the best pizza restaurants, it cites a “​​combination of online reviews, articles, and recommendations from various sources, such as food bloggers, restaurant guides, and customer reviews”. Bing Chat provides a very similar response, although it specifies review sites “such as” TripAdvisor and Yelp.

Bing Chat vs SGE

With their close relationship to traditional Bing and Google search engines, this is where the comparisons get juicier. The ‘typical’ user might not be using generative AI tools for local search queries right now, but if this technology is rapidly integrated into our everyday search platforms, then there might not be much choice in the near future. So, how do the results stack up?

Barring the instance where Bing Chat couldn’t correctly list takeaway pizza outlets, both SGE and Bing Chat appear to provide accurate results that you would find via traditional search methods. There are a couple of kinks to iron out, such as the accuracy or relevance of the different labels SGE assigns to businesses, while Bing Chat’s cited sources don’t always seem to correlate with the information it presents.

A Note On Traditional Bing and Google Search

While the answer to which search engine is ‘better’ generally comes down to personal preference, comparing Google and Bing side-by-side does show that Bing has been working hard on its business search results and intent matching. Referring to the table in our key findings, we can also see that Bing shows results in the form of maps, images, review ratings, and business listings 100% of the time, compared to Google showing these formats 80% of the time.

From a local marketing perspective, it’s important to remember that different search engines can allow businesses to reach new audiences and target different demographics. 

Learnings and Recommendations

• Considering Bing may pull your business reviews from multiple sources, it’s good practice to ensure your review campaigns are covering multiple, relevant review sites.
• The prevalence of listings websites highlights that the importance of business listings is not going away any time soon! Take the time to ensure the correct business information (your NAP) is listed across the relevant sites. Check out some of the top citation sites by industry.
  
• Maintaining crucial local marketing elements such as your GBP and review profile, and building a reputation through customer service and community engagement, will also strengthen your likelihood of being cited by generative AI tools.
  
• Varying results displayed by search engines reinforce the importance of ranking beyond Google. Check out our guide to alternative search engines for more. 

Summary

The main message? ChatGPT and Bard show they can’t beat traditional search for local business discovery. But for Bing Chat and SGE, the AI-powered results that are integrated with traditional search engines, the lines are a little blurry.

It’s hard to say where AI-powered chatbots, or their adoption by mainstream users, will be in another few months. And, while SGE is not currently available to those outside of the US, the full integration between AI model and search engine is inevitable.

Overall, the integration of Bing Chat and SGE provides a better sense of familiarity to the typical user, in line with traditional search engines, compared to Bard and ChatGPT. Only time will tell whether users default to these results when they roll out as mainstream.

We hope that you found this case study both useful and enjoyable to read! What are your thoughts on the place of generative AI in local search? Let us know over on Twitter, or on our Facebook community, The Local Pack.

That’s especially true for fast food brands. Take Burger King and McDonald’s. Whether you’re traveling for leisure or work, and find yourself in unfamiliar territory, there’s just nothing like seeing those famous golden arches or orange burger buns and feeling that, in a way, you’re home.

Is that too dramatic (or perhaps just reflective of my feelings towards delicious, salty junk food)? It certainly got us thinking recently about the role of local business reviews for some of the world’s biggest brands. How do these global icons stack up from a local perspective, and could they learn a thing or two about review management?

We gathered the Google reviews for every Burger King and McDonald’s outlet in the USA (that’s over 20,000 locations!) to see how their average review ratings compare. Who will come out as the top-reviewed brand in the USA? Choose your player… this is the Big Brand Review Showdown!

Since 2010, we’ve seen significant developments in the perceptions of online reviews, the ways businesses engage customers to leave feedback, and the channels or platforms consumers choose to do it on.

Whilst a simple star rating may have been enough to persuade potential customers back then, our findings over the years show that the most important review factors have evolved. This, plus an increasing savviness when it comes to detecting fake reviews, and shifting perceptions of different review platforms, makes for an ever-changing landscape. 

We wanted to continue exploring the perennial theme of fake reviews this year, and explore how reviews may be evolving outside of traditional platforms. So, what does the consumer review scene look like in 2023? Let’s get straight to it.

Key Findings

How important is the average star rating in 2023?

If 58% of consumers feel that a high star rating would make them feel positive about using a business (as seen above), then what do they consider “high”?

We asked consumers what minimum average star rating they would expect to see before they considered using a business. But this year, we also considered the option that a star rating might not be important to some consumers at all.

• 87% of consumers would not consider a business with an average rating below 3 stars.
• 38% of consumers expect a local business to have a minimum average of 4 stars before they would consider using it.
• 6% of consumers said that an average star rating does not impact their decision to use a local business.

It’s clear that, for those who see high star ratings as important, 4 stars and above is the expectation. But with 21% of people happy to accept 3.5-star ratings and 6% saying that star rating isn’t important to them at all, some readers aren’t just taking star ratings at face value, and clearly do assess supporting review content.

The average rating for businesses on Yelp stands somewhere between 4.5-5 stars. So, while consumers may be willing to consider businesses with lower ratings, it’s worth considering how lower ratings could affect your business visibility and discoverability on these platforms.

How much do consumers trust online business reviews?

It’s all very well studying how people use business reviews, but can we measure how much they trust what they’re reading? And how do business reviews stack up against the recommendations of others—such as personal connections, influencers, or professional reviews?

• 46% of consumers feel that online business reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family (down from 49% in 2021).
• 35% of people trust consumer reviews as much as recommendations from social personalities (down from 37% in 2021).
• 27% of consumers trust online reviews as much as professional reviews (down from 28% in 2021). 

Comparing the results with last year’s findings, we can see that results have fallen slightly in each area. This could suggest that consumers have become more suspicious of the content in online reviews or that they are increasingly placing more importance on personal recommendations. 

However, the finding that almost half of consumers trust consumer reviews as much as personal recommendations from family and friends should still be seen as positive. It highlights the relationship between real experiences and how consumers relate to these types of reviews, compared to those of influencers or experts.

On that theme, more consumers trust recommendations from social personalities (35%) as much as online reviews than those trusting professional reviews (27%). Although the relatability of social personalities could be a whole topic of discussion in itself, it further suggests that consumers are looking for realistic comparisons when searching for business information. 

Does trust in reviews vary by review platform?

While we know that Google is the most frequently used platform for reviews, is it also the most trusted? Do people’s perceptions of trustworthiness vary by platform—and does this vary by business type or industry?

We asked consumers which of the market-leading review platforms they would be most likely to trust for businesses in different industries.

• Google is the most trusted review platform across all industries.
• Better Business Bureau (BBB) still clearly has a place among more professional trades and businesses relating to property.

It’s a clear picture. Google is perceived as the most trustworthy review platform for businesses across all industries. Although when it comes to hospitality businesses, such as those specializing in accommodation, there is a review platform that rivals Google: Tripadvisor.

• 42% of consumers would be most likely to trust Google for accommodation reviews
• 31% of consumers would trust Tripadvisor most for accommodation reviews

We wanted to dive a little deeper into the data around hospitality businesses, which you can see in the chart above. Considering Tripadvisor specializes in tourism, covering food and drink, accommodation, entertainment, and even landmarks, it is interesting to note that it is only considered a highly trusted platform for accommodation, and much less so for food and drinks. 

Google and Yelp lead the way as far as food and drink businesses are concerned, but there may be other elements taking away from Tripadvisor’s authority. With how popular visual social media platforms tend to be for food and drink discovery, as well as third-party delivery apps containing their own review systems, the choice for browsing has widened considerably beyond Tripadvisor, while the same hasn’t happened in nearly as great a scale for hotels and accommodation.

What other platforms do consumers use for business information?

As social platforms like TikTok skyrocket in popularity, and almost act as search engines in their own right, we wanted to find out where else people might be looking online for information about local businesses.

• YouTube and local news are the top two channels that consumers use to find out about local businesses outside of typical review platforms, with 35% and 35% using them, respectively.
• 32% of people use Instagram when deciding to use a local business.
• 20% of consumers consult TikTok when deciding to use a local business.

It was interesting to discover that 35% of consumers consult local news platforms as sources of information about local businesses. While this question doesn’t dig into the specifics around ‘local news’ featuring local PR or its acting as more of a business directory, it goes to show that some of the more traditional methods like local news aren’t to be dismissed.

YouTube and Instagram came in as the other top two channels for business discovery which, given their highly visual nature and focus on video content, is good for businesses to consider. While you can’t control the nature of the content that users might be posting to these channels, you certainly can take control of your own social presence and aim to get your content seen and shared by your customers.

With Instagram, ensuring business information is set up correctly can boost your visibility on its maps feature and makes it easier for users to tag their photos with your location. 

For now, 20% of consumers said they look for business information on TikTok. Considering our sample did not contain any consumers under the age of 18, and TikTok’s relative newness as a social platform, this is quite an impressive figure. There is a lot of discussion around the adoption of TikTok for search, so I’d expect the number of consumers using it for local business discovery to grow by 2024’s survey. 

Finally, 28% of consumers stated that they don’t use any of the alternative methods we presented for finding local business information. It could be that there are alternatives they do use that we had not listed, such as service booking apps. But it might also suggest that they don’t see a need to look outside of review platforms. So a takeaway here is: yes, diversifying your online presence is good, but that shouldn’t take away from your efforts in traditional review campaigns. 

Where have people seen fake business reviews?

Of course, we can’t begin to talk about trust without raising the big issue of fake reviews. We’ve been studying consumer perceptions of fake reviews since 2017, and it’s fair to say the issue has only grown in prominence since then. Some platforms, more than others, are fighting back against the issue of fake, misleading or even potentially harmful reviews.

The recently issued 2022 Yelp Trust and Safety Report highlights the actions taken throughout 2022 to protect consumers from misinformation and maintain the integrity of its reviews. The report outlines the software and moderation processes Yelp uses to assess usefulness of content, and details the key reasons for review removal. 25% of over 206,000 reviews were found not to be detailing first-hand customer experiences!

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, it’s important to measure the perception of trust across specific platforms, so we asked consumers where they feel confident they’ve seen a fake business review.

We’ve continued to include Amazon in this question as, although not strictly a business review site, it is often at the forefront of news around fake product reviews—and provides a good (read: bad) example of how sellers can incentivize fake reviews.

• 54% of consumers are confident that they saw fake reviews on Amazon in 2022, up from 52% in 2021.
• 50% of consumers saw fake reviews on Google in 2022, remaining static from 2021.
• 42% of consumers said they’d seen fake reviews on Facebook in 2022, up from 37% in 2021.

Unsurprisingly, Amazon came out as the top website for suspected fake reviews again, with the percentage increasing slightly year on year. More interesting, however, is the finding that a far larger proportion of consumers are confident they’ve seen fake reviews on Facebook in 2022, rising from 37% in 2021 to 42%.

Coinciding with our finding that fewer consumers are using Facebook as a review platform, it’s fair to say that overall trust in the platform has dwindled for another year. Business Intelligence statistics show that US consumer trust in Facebook has fallen more significantly in 2022 than in other social networks, with 82% of consumers unable to trust the giant when it comes to privacy and data.

Google remains static at 50% and, given the sheer size of the platform, as well as the number of consumers using it regularly, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that people see fake reviews there.

What’s more interesting is that, given the number of consumers saying they’ve seen fake reviews there, Google still stands as the most used website for local business reviews, as well as the most trusted across industries. All of this feels like it’s reinforcing the fact that consumers are more switched on and take care in assessing the content of the reviews they’re reading.

We also asked what factors might make people suspicious that the review content they’re seeing is fake.

• 47% of consumers said that reviews with just star ratings and hardly any words would make them suspicious that the review was fake, up from 31% in 2022.
• 40% said that over-the-top positivity would make them suspicious of a fake review, while 32% of consumers said over-the-top negativity would make them suspicious that the review content was fake.

The fact that consumers highlighted a lack of detail in reviews as suspicious shows there has been a greater shift toward the importance of written review content. It correlates with our finding that consumers feel positive about reviews where positive experiences are outlined.

Does review incentivization still take place?

Before we delve into this section, I’d like to start with a disclaimer: BrightLocal does not endorse or recommend incentivizing online reviews in any way. It’s an important statement to make because, upon reading various articles on the subject across otherwise respectable publications, there is still plenty of confusion on the topic and marketing personalities encouraging “creative” methods of incentivization. 

To be clear, any form of incentivization is viewed as bad practice, and, in some cases, you might even get your account flagged publicly as one that engages in it—as seen on Yelp. In September 2022, Google updated its guidelines in a bid to crack down on businesses using incentives to get reviews.

With that terse disclaimer ringing in our ears, then, just how many businesses are still doing it? 

This one was a bit of a shocker! After the percentages of consumers who recalled being offered incentives fell in 2020 (which likely came as a result of the pandemic instead of any moral changes to incentivization) our findings show the practice is still very much alive and kicking. More worrying is the significant increase in consumers being offered cash in exchange for business reviews (from 6% in 2021 to 12% in 2022).

For the first time this year, we also added ‘prize draw entry’ and ‘loyalty points’ as options for incentivization methods. While they may seem harmless or more of a “gray area”, it’s important to note that these methods technically count as incentives for customers as they are being offered something in exchange for leaving a review. 

Summary

Apart from a few significant trend changes, our comparable results reflect a similar pattern year on year, so we can assume that what was important to consumers in 2022 is still important today. And we can’t expect too much to change in just a year, right?

What does stick out, though, is that while consumers remain aware of issues with fake reviews, there has been a positive shift in how consumers are engaging with review content. This means not just taking top-level details at face value but judging the detail and feeling confident in spotting fake content. We’ve summarised some key takeaways from this year’s Local Consumer Review Survey for you to consider within your local marketing and review strategies.

Key Takeaways for Businesses

Well, if you didn’t think Google would let us all rest over the holiday period, turns out it actually kind of did. The announcement that its Helpful Content Update would be delayed was welcome news for some, albeit slightly frustrating for those waiting for the rollout to be done … and waiting. As far as other updates are concerned, it was a quieter month in all. 

What’s new with Google Updates?

Google begins rolling out another iteration of the Helpful Content Update

After an initial launch midway through 2022, the Helpful Content Update got a refresh. The global algorithm update aims to help searchers find useful content by promoting more helpful websites and content. Initially predicted to take several weeks to roll out, Google confirmed an extension was taking place, before a slight pause in the holiday period. The pause of the holidays has now ended.

December 2022 Link Spam Update rolls out

Initially expected to take a couple of weeks to roll out in December, Google has confirmed that its Link Spam Update is also rolling into January… so keep an eye on any ranking fluctuations.

Introducing E-E-A-T

After everyone finally got used to E-A-T and what it meant for local content, Google decided to update it with an extra E. The concept of E-E-A-T marks a significant update to Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines, introducing ‘Experience’ as a key indicator of trustworthiness.

Refined search capabilities rolling out on mobile

After months of testing and a feature at Search On, Google is rolling out topic filters at the top of some search results pages. Using “dinner ideas” as an example, users can narrow down their results with filters such as “vegetarian” or “healthy” and find more relevant content.

Image: SERoundtable

Latest Updates to Google Business Profile

A bug affecting photo and logo uploads 

Another day, another Google Business Profile (GBP) bug! It seems mostly newly verified businesses were having issues being able to upload photos and logos to business profiles. This was resolved around a week later.

Disclaimers added to appointment providers

Business profiles with associated appointment providers now have a disclaimer, reading: “providers are listed in random order.” —however, this can be expanded to explain that if the business does have a preference, then this provider will be displayed first.

Option to download your Google Business Profile when removing a listing

When users navigate to the option to remove a GBP listing, they can now ‘Download content’ to save their listing data.

…but they made it a little too easy to delete your GBP altogether

It was noted by Claudia T on Twitter that the option to permanently delete your GBP was possibly a little bit, well, reckless.

From what I understand there is no way to reverse it. Only owners can remove the business.

— ClaudiaT (@ClaudiaTomina) December 15, 2022

Photos added to GBP are now marked as ‘pending’

Notices have been spotted on images added to Google Business Profiles to reflect that they are pending approval.

Services now showing on GBPs via desktop

An expandable list of services can now be seen on Business Profiles when using a desktop interface. Where categories are limited, this update is helpful for local businesses as they can be more visible to prospective customers.

NMX allows custom maps to be created for websites

The new in-search editing interface now allows users to pick a design and show a custom Google map on their websites – this is particularly useful for businesses with multiple locations.

Latest in Reviews News

Studying the influence of review count on conversion

SOCi’s State of Google Reviews report examined the Google profiles of 31,000 chain and franchise businesses to measure the influence of review count on conversion, further highlighting the importance of actively working on your business review profile.

What do we know about the new Reviews algorithm?

Following the chaotic bug causing the removal of GBPs in November, Mike Blumenthal of NearMedia examines the new review filter. Findings show their benefits but, as we know, there have been cases of false positives and plenty of confusion, too.

Local Guides Do Matter!

A case study by Joy Hawkins has found that business reviews by Google Local Guides stay at the top of reviews for longer, as do those from reviewers with profile photos. 

Local Marketing

BrightLocal releases first Local Marketing Confidence Survey

As well as a generally positive outlook for marketers in 2023, we delve into some of the biggest challenges agencies and consultants face with winning new clients.

What does Continuous Scrolling mean for advertisers?

Continuous results scrolling has been confirmed as rolled out on desktop. But what does this mean for ads? Advertisers may see higher impressions and a lower CTR on Search, Shopping, and Local Ads, says Search Engine Land. 

2022 has been awry with increases in fraudulent Google Business Profile and review activity, and retaliations coming thick and fast from Google. Which, as we know, has led to some, uh, chaos in the form of profile suspensions and even disappearing Google reviews.

With those most recent bugs in mind, it can skew your perspective of all the other things that have happened in local search this year and, hey, we’ve seen a lot of positives—Google Maps has even helped fight crime, for goodness sake! Plus, all of the new attributes added to Google Business Profile that makes it—and its local businesses—that little bit more helpful every day, often without users even realizing.

So in true end-of-year style, we’re taking a moment to look back at 2022. Although, before we delve into that, you might be interested to see what New York’s top trending recipe was this year… wait—actually, no, that’s kind of disappointing, New York.

Local Year in Search 2022, Google

January

Kicking off a new year with no messing around, Google confirmed its first big vicinity update since 2016, which local SEOs had been reporting on just before Christmas. Honing in on proximity more than ever, this key change explained some significant fluctuations in visibility for local businesses.

Next, the welcome news for local businesses that Google Business Profile verification could now be carried out by video call. Shortening the verification by as much as two weeks, this was a great move by Google to encourage better engagement from business owners and managers by simply making things easier for them.

And of course, BrightLocal’s own highly anticipated Local Consumer Review Survey 2022 was published, in which we found that more consumers were reading online reviews than ever before.

February

As anti-tech legislation was proposed in the US, Google controversially moved to lobby local businesses on the negative impacts that limiting consumer data could have on business profiles, Google ad products, and synchronization with other core Google tools. As of yet, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act has not been passed into US law.

Towards the end of February, interactive elements were introduced to the local pack, enabling users to zoom, drag and hover on map elements and open the local finder to search for local businesses. Following January’s proximity focus within the vicinity update, this change would give users more control over the way they discover local businesses.

via GIPHY

March

Global focus in March turned, of course, to Europe, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. BrightLocal customers and friends will be aware that a huge part of our team has long been based in Kyiv, so naturally, we rallied to support our BrightLocal family. You can read the message from our CEO and founder, Myles, here.

Google introduced several new attributes for businesses in Ukraine and its surrounding areas, including “emergency help” attributes to signal organizations that offered free services or support or accepted donations and volunteers in humanitarian efforts. Hotel listings were able to display free or significantly discounted accommodation options for those displaced in Ukraine.

Following a couple of months of local SEOs scratching their heads over ranking fluctuations, Joy Hawkins reported a suspected ‘correction’ to the aforementioned vicinity update. Since the rollout in December, keyword-rich business names had been—potentially unfairly—filtered out of results. Although, there has been debate over the practice of using keywords within business names.

via Local Search Forum

And, after reports that further verification requirements for Google Business Profiles may be needed, trust signals were spotted appearing for confirmed business information, such as opening hours and contact details. As our very own Claire Carlile highlighted at the time, this appeared to come as another move from Google to reinforce consumer confidence in local search results.

They're like a series of "trust" signals you think @rustybrick ? Has the state of the GBP ecosystem in terms of accuracy become so bad that Google needs to add these to show consumers they can be confident in the panel details? https://t.co/yPjrzFmfIm pic.twitter.com/1Byf5ZgJyr

— Claire Carlile (@clairecarlile) March 3, 2022

April

A flurry of local changes trickled into April, first with the announcement that the Google My Business app would be finally going away. Aside from the rebrand, this decision reflects changes to how profile managers interact with and edit Google Business Profiles.

We saw more new attributes added to Google Business Profile, helping local businesses to promote their sustainability and be found by more eco-conscious audiences with ‘recycling’ attributes.

Product searches also got the local treatment, with results displaying options for ‘in-store’ products that could be browsed by product or by store. This update should be seen as a big hint from Google that product-focused businesses should be synchronizing products from Google Merchant Center to their Google Business Profiles—or setting this up to list your products altogether, if you haven’t already.

A new results overlay was tested for businesses in Google Maps which, as you can see below, rolled out and still stands. This change allows users to open results for a local business, whilst continuing to scroll the list and compare additional businesses. Though some weren’t keen on its introduction, I have to say I rather like it!

May

May was a huge month for BrightLocal as our team, supported by friends and experts within the local SEO community, was busy behind the scenes organizing the incredible Local SEO for Ukraine event. Six hours of exciting talks, Q&As, and expert panels took place in one day, as part of our fundraising efforts to buy urgent aid and supplies for the people of Ukraine. More on that later!

Big news came for ‘virtual’ and delivery-only food brands, as Google finally enabled them to have listings within Google Business Profile (subject to conditions). Following the rise of delivery-only food businesses and pick-up-only locations since the pandemic, this welcome change would substantially increase visibility for these types of local businesses, beyond the work of social media, word of mouth, and (often non-existent) organic search.

New features for hotel results were also spotted, highlighting another example of how Google likes to use review content in different ways. Expandable ‘top things to know’ options, using snippets of local reviews, provide at-a-glance information to support users in their browsing and decision-making.

June

As the travel industry continues to bounce back, Google introduced updates to travel listings that would streamline the booking process for prospective customers, while also making it easier for profile managers to stay on top of their business listings. Most notably, it enables advertisers to activate ads faster and for hotel rates to be inputted directly into their Google Business Profile.

June saw a new attribute in the form of ‘LGBTQ+ Owned’ joining some of the other community-focused attributes such as ‘Women-owned’ and ‘Black-owned’. This is a nice nod to helping customers support small and local businesses that are part of communities they care about.

July

Instagram threw its hat back into the local ring with the launch of an immersive local maps feature. Although it has played with map features over the years, this feature shows a big move towards local business discovery and even has its own local pack of sorts! Business information, such as opening hours, an indicator of price, and number of Instagram posts can be seen at a glance, while continuing to showcase user-generated content. It’s a nice touch to give more of a platform to small businesses and creators, although as we know, Instagram is a busy and competitive space to keep up with.

Back to Google, an announcement came that Google Posts would now expire after six months. It comes as a very non-subtle encouragement for business owners and managers to stay on top of their GBPs, keep information up-to-date and post relevant, timely updates to attract customers.

By this time, BrightLocal was gearing up for a four-day drive from the UK to Ukraine, packing up and driving three vans of supplies over 1,600 miles across Europe. A huge thank you again to all of those who were able to donate to or support our cause, as well as the generous contributions we received to get us there! We are incredibly proud to have raised our goal of $100,000 across the months.

August

As our team continued the long drive across European borders, August proved to be quite a bumper month for local.

TikTok, never one to be ignored, partnered with Ticketmaster to wade into the world of local events and reinforce its power as a discovery platform. Incentivizing content creators to promote events and include links through contextually relevant content, while providing Ticketmaster with a new sales platform, is quite frankly, genius.

Local businesses such as restaurants and attractions got the opportunity for a visibility boost as Google tested a new photo browsing feature within mobile search results. Swipeable cards allow users to browse images associated with the business, which is particularly important for hospitality brands. So remember, presentation is key—because you don’t know who might be snapping away! 

via GIPHY

At the end of August, we reported on Google’s Helpful Content Update and, at first, not a lot changed. But, as some local SEOs predicted, the update was just getting started. Since then, there has been evidence of sites with quality and authoritative content (including ours, hooray!) being rewarded, whilst Lily Ray spotted a trend in which sites using duplicate or near duplicate content, were impacted negatively. 

Danny Sullivan confirmed that this update would be constantly refined, but left us with the reminder that “if you have good content, you’re generally fine”. It makes sense.

Update isn’t done. It’s also part of a continuing effort, as we’ve explained. We’ll keep refining how it works. Directionally, the guidance we’ve given is what SEOs and creators should be considering.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 31, 2022

Continuing the helpful theme, we also saw prompts for ‘sub-reviews’ being introduced within Google Reviews. You may have spotted that some reviews now have additional information attached to them, such as facilities and amenities. If you’re a Local Guide, you might have even been prompted yourself!

September

Barely a week later, came the September 2022 Core Algorithm Update, which unsurprisingly sent plenty of local marketers into a small panic. Unfortunately, this was shortly followed by a bug that saw dramatic local ranking changes and drop-offs. As it happens, it was unrelated to the updates and didn’t affect all businesses. 

So what did September’s core update impact? Not a lot apparently, and Google didn’t provide many hints on what to do if you were hit. 

Meanwhile, Google’s much anticipated virtual Search On event announced some major updates coming to local search, some of which we’ll cover later. Some of the most intriguing, we thought, was the potential rise of social media and ‘local influencers’ in defining neighborhood vibes, and some very interesting comments about the future of reviews and ratings.

If you’re visiting a new place, it can be hard to figure out what's worth exploring. Soon on @GoogleMaps, you’ll be able to get the vibe of a neighborhood at a glance with photos and videos of the most popular spots coming to life on your map. #SearchOn pic.twitter.com/jr7UogG7hB

— Google (@Google) September 28, 2022

On the subject of review trustworthiness, Google continued its tirade against unethical incentivizing practices. Updating its guidelines, it’s now strictly prohibited to incentivize customers to leave reviews and feedback. While it’s never exactly been seen as the “right” way of encouraging reviews, plenty of local businesses have relied on tactics such as free goods and discounts—and likely still do—so, this one will catch businesses out if Google is as serious about its crackdown as we think. 

October

We kicked off October with the launch of our Resource Hubs and two days of fun, learning, and BrightLocal Bingo at BrightonSEO! As always, it was great to see so many faces, hear from some very insightful speakers, and of course, bag some of that sweet, sweet merchandise.

Continuing the theme of photos and discovery through visuals, Mike Blumenthal covered the importance of businesses upgrading the quality of their photos and ensuring they reflect products and services visually. At the same time, Tricia Clements noted the addition of keywords to business photos being tested, as well as reviews with photos placing near the top:

Google keeps updating and testing new features with photos! They're highlighting pics, adding a keyword and #. When I click on it, it takes me to the 4 reviews in the profile that mention "bathroom". Reviews with pics are at the top. #LocalSEO #IsItNew pic.twitter.com/BZ3BWzCIqz

— Tricia Clements (@yourbizwatchdog) October 19, 2022

And then, when it was all going so well, there was the Google Business Profile suspensions bug. All of a sudden, simply editing key business information could result in a profile suspension—which, of course, didn’t look great for us local SEOs banging on about the importance of up-to-date business profiles! It turned out to be a bug that affected a significant number of profiles, and the reinstatement periods were taking up to three weeks. The lesson there: proceed with caution when making multiple edits to your profiles and always make a note of the changes you make.

November

The chaos didn’t quite slow down in November. Some unpopular changes to Google Business Profile came at the start of the month, as the option to edit profiles within the traditional dashboard was removed. Although to be expected within the rollout of the New Merchant Experience (NMX), many local marketers noted some editing options were frustratingly hidden, and some features were removed altogether. That meant goodbye to photo insights, the ‘how customers search for your business’ statistics, and ‘requests for directions’.

Don't forget to click the three little dots for even MORE options! Such a bad interface for regular users!
If only there was a dashboard where all of this was in one place #localseo #smallbiz https://t.co/aX69CBQImq pic.twitter.com/9nnGngCImN

— Andy Simpson (@ndyjsimpson) October 27, 2022

Then, following the profile suspensions bug, some business profiles saw their Google reviews disappearing entirely around the middle of the month—big gulp. Although some suspected it may have been Google going into overdrive on the spam-fighting front, it was confirmed as a bug that caused profile CID numbers to change.

Update: The saga continues

Found more cases of lost Google GPB reviews:

'They had shortened the business name…& changed my website information to a different link that also went to my website. I realized all 105 of the reviews had VANISHED!'https://t.co/ClRqEpUOwp

— Mike Blumenthal (@mblumenthal) November 13, 2022

And yet, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Some of the more exciting local search features that had been announced in September’s Search On conference began rolling out. Useful search features and attributes, such as searching for local restaurants by dish, finding wheelchair-accessible businesses across more countries, and searching with Live View in some key cities became official.

December

You didn’t think that things would start to wind down, just because we’re in December, did you? As we know, Google loves to keep us on our toes and this month has been no different.

Google has now introduced the concept of E-E-A-T and no, that’s not a typo. The new ‘E’ stands for experience, referring to the first-hand experience and reputation of content creators, as well as the overall reputation of a website. Signaling another key indicator of trustworthiness, local marketers should take the opportunity to review how they demonstrate expertise on topics across their websites.

Meanwhile, back on the spam-busting front, a December 2022 link spam update is rolling out. So, if you notice your rankings begin to fluctuate, you’ll want to review your links to ensure they are natural.

Learnings from 2022

2022 really has been the year that Google showed us it’s not messing around when it comes to spam and fraud, and that quality content remains the jewel in the crown. 

As we know, local search is constantly evolving and new features are constantly coming our way or being tested. So, don’t feel bad if you don’t spot them! Keep up to date with our insights and keep your eye on our Twitter feed to see everything in local marketing as it happens.