Algorithms are evolving. Zero-click SERPs are more common, through AI Overviews (AIO) and Search Generative Experience (SGE). And, consumers’ social awareness has shifted. Having a recognizable and trustworthy brand can make or break your local visibility in 2025.

In our recent Live Masterclass: How Important is Brand for Local Search Visibility in 2025?, expert panellist Elizabeth Rule unpacked how brand strength influences local SEO performance. 

Here are the top takeaways from Elizabeth’s session to help you align your branding efforts with your local SEO goals—and get found by more customers in 2025.

Watch the Replay

Brand Is As Important Now As It Always Has Been

Why is everyone talking about brand right now?

The hype of AIOs and SGE, alongside the increase in zero-click search has brought brand right into focus. A good example of this is how Forbes tends to rank across multiple AIO searches, and continues to show up after various algorithm updates. It feels like Google is favoring bigger brands with more domain authority over smaller brands. 

Alongside this, Google is launching a new brand profile through the merchant center (not all local businesses will be able to use this), which is a clear indicator that Google is shifting toward focusing on what a brand can bring to a topic or industry in search results. 

Tip 1: A Strong Brand Is More than Just Your Logo

Having a strong brand means people know and trust your business. They’re more likely to click on your listing or your website than a brand they don’t know.

Trust and awareness in your brand can come from the local community, your review profile and through zero-click search.

Tip 2: Tap into Communities

Offline communities, online communities, and social media are all great ways to get your brand out to your target audience. 

Brands that use more traditional marketing, such as billboards and branded vehicles, do a little better in SEO because more people are aware of and engaged with the brand in general. This engagement helps you rank better, and the more people click your website, the higher up in the SERPs you’ll show.  

Spread your marketing efforts beyond Google and your website. Local social media groups or community forums, like Facebook groups, Next Door, or local SubReddits, are great ways to get your brand out there. 

Tip 3: Your Brand Website Is Critical

Getting your website up to date is crucial, as it’s a valuable source of truth for Google. Mention the important information about your business—who you are, what you do, the services you offer, and where you do it. Make it easy for Google and your customers to understand all of this information. 

While this information helps Google build its organic results and customers move further down the funnel, it could also help your brand if and when it appears on AIOs. Though there doesn’t seem to be a known indication of Google’s ranking factors for AIO, or how they pull the information that appears from it, it is known that Google sometimes pulls through incorrect information.

Tip 4: Become an Authority in Your Sector

Showcase your authority, knowledge, and understanding of your website through your brand entity. For example, your website is a great place to put your well-crafted content and answer the questions that your customers and potential customers have. 

Tell your audience how to do things and show that you know how to do it best. (An example here would be a decorator—explain to your audience how they can decorate themselves, but also show your authority and expertise in case they’d prefer for you to do it for them.) Become the go-to brand for knowledge and education.

Tip 5: Should You Use Keywords in Business Names?

Your business name is a huge part of your brand, and you want to make sure your business profile appears at the top of search results. With that in mind, adding one or two top-converting keywords to your business name means you can have a keyword-rich Google Business Profile.

An example of this would be to add a unique brand modifier to your name. This could be ‘Tarquin Heating and Air Conditioning’ as opposed to ‘Toronto Heating and Air Conditioning’. 

An oldie, but a goodie… do not do this! 

Tip 6: Online Reputation Is Crucial for Brand

Your brand reputation shows potential customers how well you do business, and reflects your brand as a whole. That’s why reviews are critical for brand, and something you really shouldn’t ignore.

Getting new, regular Google reviews is a ranking factor, and according to the 2025 Local Consumer Review Survey, 27% of consumers would use a business if they can see new reviews from the past month.

So, while you don’t have full control over your Google reviews, you can control how you manage your reputation. Whether that’s responding kindly to a negative review, responding with gratitude for positive reviews, or asking your customers to leave a review for you, reputation can help build trust and conversions. 

All in all, brand-building isn’t a quick SEO fix. It’s a strategic, long-term investment that pays off in trust, engagement, and higher-quality traffic. Having a strong brand will impact the way potential customers perceive you, remember you, and engage with you. 

If you need help building your brand, get in touch with our local SEO services team to discover how we can support your goals. 

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter five of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’. 

What’s that? Google has put out another algorithm update. It’s OK, you’ve not been doing anything dodgy with any of your clients. You know the local search algorithm inside out. Nothing bad will have ha… wait, what’s that? Your best-performing client’s visibility has suddenly tanked? That can’t be right. Why is your phone ringing incessantly? Why is that email in all caps? What are you going to do?

Ok, that may be a bit of an extreme example, as things like this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But the truth is there’s no guarantee that an algorithm update won’t affect one of your clients. On some occasions, they may have done absolutely nothing wrong, but Google has decided that someone else has done something better, and this update has surfaced their content in place of yours.

Another example is when they add something to the algorithm, like changing how opening hours affect local rankings.

So having a process in place to respond to one of these situations is important. We’ve talked to a number of experts from across the local search industry to find out how they react when one of their clients has potentially been affected by an algorithm update.

Algorithm Response Plans from the Experts

We asked each local search expert “Google has launched (yet another) algorithm update. Your client’s been affected. What do you do?”. You’ll find their answers below.

"It should not be a surprise, but the first step is understanding what’s been hit and how it affects the business."

Tim Capper, Owner at Online Ownership

First off, this shouldn’t be a surprise. You should have seen the signs if you’re doing local SEO properly. Algorithm shifts rarely come out of nowhere, and clients should already have been prepped for possible turbulence.

Now, let me drop an old-school truth bomb: overreliance on automated “pretty” reporting instead of manual reporting here is what’s happening. And what I see happening probably landed you here in the first place. That’s why I prioritise manual, insight and “gut” driven reporting, focusing on what matters and what’s next rather than just painting a rosy (or panic-inducing) picture.

If you’re paying attention, you should already have seen early indicators, small but telling fluctuations in site performance, sections behaving oddly, or ranking inconsistencies. These “niggles” may not have a clear cause at the time, but they’re worth flagging. That’s why reporting should be proactive, not reactive. 

But now, here we are: algorithm update, impact, damage assessment.

The first step is understanding what’s been hit and how it affects the business. Sometimes, when you step back from the numbers and analyse the business’s core strengths and market positioning, the reality isn’t as dire as it first seems. Is it just this client’s business or all businesses within the same vertical mirroring this impact? 

Next, look at the type of update and what the SEO community is uncovering. Is there a clear recovery path? Can we adjust and bounce back, or is a fundamental rethink needed? 

And finally—be honest. If you don’t know exactly why the algorithm hit a particular site, don’t bluff. Say it straight: “This is new; I need to dig deeper, form a theory, test small, refine, and either roll back or roll out.” That’s how SEO should be done—not knee-jerk reactions, but thoughtful, calculated responses.

Algorithm updates will keep coming. The difference is whether you’re waiting to react or already anticipating the shift.

"As soon as you have that early context, the key is communication."

Rachel Ellen, Local Search Strategist at Croud

Firstly, don’t panic! Before rushing to react, calmly assess the situation by gathering insight from Google Search Console, Google Business Profile (GBP) insights, or other analytics. Data should give you a better idea of the scope of the problem if it’s affecting your client, and if so, how severely. Consider and observe how competitors and the wider industry have been impacted, too, as this helps paint the bigger picture. Look to the wider SEO community. Usually, there’s lots of early chatter that gives an idea of how big an update it’s been and who the early winners and losers might be.

As soon as you have that early context, the key is early communication. In an ideal world, you’ll get to your clients before they come to you. If they open up their email to find early comms or a call invite offering an update, this shows proactivity and instant reassurance that whatever has happened, they are in good hands. If they do come to you first, acknowledge their concerns, but reassure them that volatility is completely normal and that updates can take time to settle. Explain that you’re on the case and will come back promptly with clarity and a plan of action if needed.

From here, it’s good practice to spend some time validating the accuracy and optimization status of your client’s GBPs (including your reviews), their on-site EEAT signals, and their technical health, such as indexing or site-speed issues.

As said, updates can often take a good few weeks to settle, so it’s wise to closely track rankings and traffic patterns during this time. It may well be that things recover quickly, in which case—hurrah! You can update your client accordingly, and concentrate on reinforcing what’s working.  If it’s not so good news, prioritize time for deeper investigation, focusing on identifying content gaps, technical issues, or shifts in user intent.

In a nutshell, when an algo update hits, establishing context is key. Keep clients informed, stick to best practices, and avoid any reactionary moves. If you’ve prioritized quality and trust, you are far more likely to stay ahead.

"Our strategy to troubleshoot rankings post-algorithm update begins with a simple look at the current search results and weighing the top-ranking pages against our own."

Steve Wiideman, Owner at Wiideman Consulting Group

Too often, agencies and clients alike immediately jump to the conclusion that an algorithm update was the cause of any sudden drop in organic traffic or visibility. I think it’s important in any SEO effort that we start by following the same action plan as we would had there not been an algorithm update, but seen a drop in organic traffic. 

Before we dive in, we always want to reassure our clients that in general search engines are very forgiving if we break and need to restore content or attributes that have supported growth. We also want to remind our clients that user signals, and being the final destination users prefer to go to, are more important than content and links alone. Therefore, if fresh search results yield lower click-through rates, our listings will naturally rise back to the top over a few weeks as the search engine figures out that these new results weren’t very helpful. 

Our initial plan includes:

1. Running a full crawl of the website using whatever industry tools are at your disposal. We prefer Ryte due to its robust feature set and detailed insights. However, Screaming Frog, SEMRush, or SiteBulb would be a good runner-up. We’re looking for crawling and indexing issues. You wouldn’t believe how often we see development servers deploy to production with a Disallow: / in the robots.txt file.

2. Look for content changes at the site level, such as the replacement of heading tags with span tags, and the removal or programmatic replacement of titles, descriptions, and other metadata. Modifications of structured markup, XML sitemaps, and internal links. All of these can raise an eyebrow with Google and other search engines, which when made during an algorithm update have been known to emulate the “shaking of the Etch A Sketch,” almost like starting over with page-scoring. Best not to make updates during algorithm updates.

3. Navigate to Google Search Console and run a before and after comparison from the date of the drop-off, sorting by Click Difference first, then by Impression Difference. What types of pages lost clicks and impressions? Transactional, commercial, or perhaps both?

4. Lastly, we’ll look at spam and negative SEO, starting with new incoming links available in AHREFS and other link analysis tools. I’ll analyze the anchor text of recent links to see if competitors decided to fool Google into thinking our client was attempting to manipulate search results. If I don’t see a pattern, I’ll filter redirecting links to see if a competitor is attempting to force Google into thinking our pages are temporary using a 302 redirect, which often sends our listings into the dreaded Omitted Results. If I see a high spike in Google Search Console, despite conversion and traffic being down, it’s possible that a competitor is attempting to fool Google into thinking our client is manipulating search behaviors.

Once we have the all-clear from these four areas, only THEN do we look at the change in traffic being potentially caused by an algorithm update.

Our strategy to troubleshoot rankings post-algorithm update begins with a simple look at the current search results and weighing the top-ranking pages against our own. Here is a breakdown of these steps:

1. Based on the most affected pages, choose the top 3 to start with.
2. Run a search for the keywords for which the pages lost the most clicks and isolate the top 3 competitors.
3. Using a Google Sheet (or other workbook software), create a row for each SEO focal point to compare and columns for our client’s site and the top three competitors.
4. Fields might include File Name (pizza.html), Title, Meta Description, H1, Incoming Links, Internal Links, AI score, web vitals scores, image names and alt attributes, use of video, maps, reviews, etc.
5. Run a survey and ask participants which of two pages (your client’s vs one competitor at a time) is the most helpful and why.

Once completed, it’s a great idea to pow-wow with the team and break down the differences in your client’s page versus the competition. Sometimes, we learn right away what likely caused the drop in rankings. For example, after the “Medic Update,” we noticed Healthline’s survival and found a small Fact-Checked badge our client didn’t offer. Less than a month after testing and adding the badge ourselves, we saw nearly instant recovery.

If this becomes the case, no further testing should be required. However, if the team is still scratching their heads, run the other two competitors through this sequence until the problem becomes obvious. 

Reverse-engineering new search results after an update is by far the easiest and fastest way to identify what we believe Google suddenly cares about, and often enough, what they don’t. If, after all the testing and reverse-engineering, the problem still isn’t resolved, return to this page and find an expert (or experts) you would like to reach out to for their personal opinion or, if necessary, an audit. In most cases, traffic and visibility returns on it’s own within a few weeks, so if it’s possible, get buy-in to hold off on any immediate changes until the dust settles.

" I assess whether our clients are actually affected by the update."

Elizabeth Rule, SEO Analyst + Account Manager at Sterling Sky

First and foremost, I assess whether our clients are actually affected by the update, which can take several weeks, sometimes even a month or two, to determine.

For example, the Diversity Update that began rolling out in August 2024 didn’t show its full impact on our clients’ organic traffic until November and December. Because of this delay, we didn’t communicate any major findings to clients until we had concrete data, which was about two months post-update.

Once we’ve confirmed whether a client has been affected, and to what extent, we move into action planning. This includes developing strategies to recover lost rankings or traffic if necessary, or identifying opportunities if performance has improved (since not all updates are negative).

Communication is tailored based on the client’s level of SEO awareness and involvement. For clients who are highly engaged in SEO and likely to follow industry news, I’ll often reach out proactively when an update is announced, knowing they’ll want to discuss it. For others who are less SEO-savvy or are busy running their business day-to-day, we typically wait until we have meaningful insights and a clear plan before reaching out.

When a client raises concerns directly, we’re always transparent. We share where we are in the analysis process, what early signals we’re seeing, and what actions (if any) we’re taking on their website or Google Business Profile (GBP).

"Analyze competitor movements to understand if this is an industry-wide shift or specific to your client."

Myriam Jessier, Fractional SEO + Trainer at PRAGM

When a client’s local SEO performance takes a hit after a Google algorithm update, here’s my actionable framework for agencies to effectively manage the situation:

Immediate Response Plan

1. Assess, Don’t Panic

Don’t rush into making changes during the update rollout. Algorithm updates take time to settle, and what looks like a disaster on day two might stabilize by week three. Document the current rankings and performance metrics to establish a clear baseline for comparison.

2. Research the Specific Update

Each algorithm update targets different aspects. Identify what this particular update focuses on—whether it’s content quality, local engagement metrics, review management, or technical factors. Cross-reference the timing of ranking drops with the update rollout to confirm causation.

Sometimes, it’s not algorithmic but a problem client or agency side that caused the issue and you waste time searching for a needle in a Google update haystack. 

3. Strategic Client Communication

Contact the client proactively before they come to you in panic mode. Be transparent but reassuring – explain that fluctuations are normal, you’re monitoring the situation, and have a structured process for assessment and action.

Detailed Analysis Phase

1. Targeted Performance Audit

Use geo-grid rank tracking to identify precisely where and how rankings have shifted across neighborhoods or service areas.

• Are the ranking variations within the same city as expected?
• This helps you review things such as content, listings, etc. for specific neighborhoods—for example, Le Plateau in Montreal is famous for having many recent French immigrants, so keywords and content can’t be the same as for the rest of the town. 
• Find areas where your client has low visibility but could expand. 
• When an algorithm update hits, geo-grid tracking helps agencies to see if the effects are uniform across the entire service area, or if they’re localized to specific regions. This makes things more actionable for you as an agency. 

Analyze competitor movements to understand if this is an industry-wide shift or specific to your client. Check Google Trends to see if whatever you are ranking for is no longer trending.

Some industries like plumbing may have seasonal peaks, while others may simply be evolving (such as fitness coaches specialized in specific training programs). 

2. Identify Pattern-Based Impacts

Look for patterns in affected keywords, content types, or business categories. This helps pinpoint which aspects of the algorithm update are most relevant to your client’s situation. If you can’t find the red thread, chances are, it’s a bigger problem than a local SEO issue.

3. Local Listing Integrity Check

Verify all local listings for accuracy, consistency, and compliance with Google’s latest guidelines. Listing quality and verification standards have become increasingly stringent and your client may not be aware of that.

Recovery Strategy Implementation

1. Prioritize Google Business Profile Optimization

Update categories, attributes, and service offerings to align with current search intent patterns.

2. Enhance Local Content Relevance

Create or optimize hyperlocal content that demonstrates genuine community engagement. 

3. Review Management Recalibration

Implement a systematic approach to review generation and management if you haven’t already. Focus on genuine customer engagement rather than volume. If possible, try to establish a review scheme that matches other ones in the area.

4. Technical Local SEO Refinements

Review that structured data to make sure you avoid nightmares like this one. 

Client Retention Best Practices

1. Education Over Reassurance

Position your agency as a strategic partner by educating clients about the nature of algorithm updates. You could have a short newsletter that goes out or a phone call to help them understand that updates are here for a reason: to reward businesses that do things right… but sometimes, they do temporarily miss the mark and correct the course later. 

2. Implement Regular Algorithm Resilience Checks

Don’t wait for the next update. Establish quarterly reviews of local SEO fundamentals to ensure ongoing compliance with Google’s evolution.

3. Set Realistic Recovery Timelines

Be honest about recovery expectations. Major shifts can take two to three months to fully stabilize, if not more. Outline specific milestones to track progress and keep clients engaged in the process.

Successful local SEO agencies don’t just react to algorithm updates–they anticipate them by consistently aligning with Google’s fundamental goal: connecting users with the most relevant local businesses that genuinely meet their needs.

Communicate, don’t panic, and do your research

So there we have it. A thorough run down of how you can respond when the chips are down. The key to retaining your clients is through strong communication. This communication starts before the problem arises. A strong relationship that’s based on trust and education can do a lot to help when things get trickier.

Then, don’t panic. Remember that algorithm updates often take weeks to actually finish rolling out. Do some proper research of your own. Check whether traffic is actually down alongside rankings. See what the industry is saying. Work out whether the client has even been affected by an algorithm update. It could be something seasonal.

Then, once you’ve done all that research you can get a plan together. All the while, communicating what you’re doing to your client.

Is it just you? What about your local competitors? What about your industry?! Welcome to hours of digging through forums and ranking tools to get the answers you need for your bosses and clients.

Wish you had a way to quickly determine which ranking changes are being felt throughout your industry?

Introducing Local RankFlux, the world’s only ‘weather report’ for Google’s local ranking algorithm.

The wider SEO industry has been lucky to have multiple tools dedicated to tracking seismic changes in organic SERPs for years. Local SEO? Not so much!

That ends today, with the (re)launch of Local RankFlux: a completely free tracking tool and early-warning system from BrightLocal, designed to give local marketers the edge in understanding what’s happening with Google’s local algorithm.

How Does It Work?

BrightLocal’s local rank tracking software has been monitoring the local SERPs of our customers for years. With Local RankFlux, we apply the same technology to a set group of:

28 keywords x 26 industries x 20 cities = 14,560 keywords (560 per industry)

This means we’re tracking nearly 15k SERPs every day to determine a statistical point of variation (the Local RankFlux score) and to understand if similarities are seen in specific industries.

Local RankFlux simply looks at all these SERPs, calculates how much the rankings for these keywords have changed since yesterday, and gives the level of variation a score, from 0 (no change at all) to 10 (complete upheaval, volcanoes erupting, cities falling into the sea).

• 0 – 3 indicates ‘low’, expected fluctuation (i.e. nothing significant has happened)
• 3.1 – 6 indicates ‘medium’ fluctuation (i.e. something minor has happened)
• 6.1 – 10 indicates ‘high’ fluctuation (i.e. something major has happened – likely a local algorithm update)

That’s the simple version, though! I’d encourage you to take a look at our detailed methodology so you can better understand how the Local RankFlux Score is calculated… The more you know!

How Do I Use It?

Easy! Just bookmark the URL www.brightlocal.com/local-rankflux today, and when you think there’s been a rumble in your rankings, head there, check the score, and filter the data to your own industry to see if there’s anything more to learn.

Want to be ahead of the game? Sign up for one or more of our email alerts:

Daily: Simple. Get a daily email telling you today’s Local RankFlux score.
Weekly: Sign up, and every seven days you’ll get an email with the previous week’s Local RankFlux scores.
Urgent: Sign up to ‘Urgent’ to only receive an email when the score is above 4, which we determine to mean that a Google local algorithm update is likely.

Happy Rankings!

We hope you find Local RankFlux useful and can get a bit more sleep next time you feel that ol’ tremble in the rankings.

Want to know more about Local RankFlux, or need to report a bug? Get in touch with us at content@brightlocal.com.

So, next time you’re looking for a juicy statistic to throw into a pitch deck and support your point, ask yourself if it really represents the story as things are today.

At BrightLocal, we’re big on integrity. That’s why we’ve curated this list of up-to-date, verified local SEO statistics for 2025. Using much of our own local SEO research, as well as statistics sourced from other trustworthy publishers, you’ll find the most relevant local marketing stats below.

General Local Search Statistics

• Local search queries show the following types of results in Google’s first ten organic results:
  • Business websites (47%)
  • Directories (31%)
  • Business mentions (16%)
  • Forums and discussions (7%) 

(Business Listings Visibility Study, 2024)

Consumer Search Behavior

• 80% of US consumers search online for local businesses on a weekly basis, and 32% search for them daily (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 61% of consumers use business information sites (like Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Better Business Bureau) to find information about a local business that is new to them or that they have not used before (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023).
• 42% of searchers click on Google map pack results for local queries (Backlinko, 2024).
• 72% of consumers use Google to search for local business information, but this drops to 61% for 18-24 year olds (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 67% of 18-24 year olds use Instagram for local business information, followed by 62% using TikTok (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 47% of consumers would look for an alternative business nearby if the one they intended on visiting was closed (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 2 in 3 US consumers have already made a decision about what they’re going to buy before they visit a physical store (Think with Google, 2023).
• 29% of consumers encountered businesses not stocking the products in-store that they said they did online at least once a month in 2023 (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 40% of consumers visit Google when researching or planning a purchase they plan to make in a physical store (Think with Google, 2021).
• 65% of US consumers approach holiday shopping with a mix of online and in-store spending (Think with Google, 2024).

Local Business Review Statistics

Finding and Comparing Online Reviews

• 83% of consumers use Google to find local business reviews (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
• 31% of US consumers use Instagram to find local business reviews, and 20% use TikTok as alternative local business review platforms (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
  
• 74% of consumers use at least two review platforms in their business research, whilst 34% of consumers use three or more review platforms (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
• Over three-quarters (76%) of US consumers consume video content when looking for review information about local businesses (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).

Review Stars and Ratings

• 91% of consumers say that the local branch reviews of a multi-location brand impact their overall perceptions of big brands in some way (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 71% of consumers would not consider using a business with an average review rating below three stars (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 63% of consumers said seeing mostly negative written reviews would make them lose trust in a business (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 69% of consumers would feel positive about using a business if its written reviews describe positive experiences (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 88% of consumers say they’d use a business that responds to both positive and negative reviews, whilst only 47% said they would consider using a business that doesn’t respond to its reviews at all (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).

AI in Local Search

Using AI for Search

• ChatGPT Search shows business websites for 58% of its local search sources, followed by business mentions (27%) and online directories (15%) (Uncovering ChatGPT Search Sources, 2024).

Local Marketers and AI

• 88% of multi-location marketers are using generative AI within their organizations (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 36% of of high-performing brands are using AI to ‘a great extent’ in their marketing, compared to 13% of average-performing brands (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 59% of local agency marketers want to develop their AI and machine learning skills in 2025 (Local Marketing Industry Survey, 2024).
• 32% of US adults said that they think AI would provide a better experience and outcome than typical search when looking for a local business (Near Media, 2024).

Consumers and AI

• 61% of consumers feel well-informed about AI developments (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 41% of consumers feel comfortable with businesses using AI to inform and communicate, so long as it improves their overall customer experience (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
  
• Not local, but still important: 17% of US consumers are using AI chatbot technology like ChatGPT for search (Washington Post, 2024).

Local Search Industry Statistics

• 94% of high-performing brands have a dedicated local marketing strategy, compared to 60% of average performing brands (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 86% of local marketers say their clients are aware of how new developments in search could impact their business visibility and rankings (Local Marketing Industry Survey, 2024).

We hope this list inspires you to kickstart your local marketing strategies for 2025 and beyond.

Think we’ve missed any crucial figures? Please feel free to get in touch with the content team, drop us a note in The Local Pack, or catch us on LinkedIn, Blue Sky, or X

Not even 18 months ago, we found that ChatGPT’s local search capabilities were pretty poor. Fast-forward to now, and ChatGPT-4 enables users to search the web in real time, producing local search results similar to Google or Bing.

Hot on the heels of our recent Business Listings Visibility Study, where we analyzed the types of results Google surfaces for local queries, we got straight to work replicating the study for ChatGPT Search. So, ready to dive in?

Methodology and Terminology Used

In this study, we conducted 800 manual local business web searches in ChatGPT, recording the first ten search sources ChatGPT displays in its local results’ ‘Sources.’ It’s important to note that while Google displays results in the hundreds, ChatGPT’s ‘Sources’ can vary significantly—sometimes showing only a handful of sources and other times showing more than ten.

The image below highlights the difference between what ChatGPT displays as results (or answers) to the user query, and the sources for its answers.

We used the exact search terms used within the Business Listings Visibility Study so that we could provide a direct comparison of the results. As we did in that study, we used one ‘transactional’ keyword (e.g. “coffee shop”) and one ‘informational’ keyword (e.g. “best coffee shop”) in searches across 20 different business verticals, using 20 different US cities.

Understanding Definitions Within This Study

For every search result source, we recorded the website name and classification of each website’s ‘type’ using the following criteria:

Search Results Compared

Nearly three-fifths (58%) of all the sources for ChatGPT Search results were business websites. Typically, these were local business websites directly related to the business type or business vertical contained within the search term (e.g. “coffee shop chicago”, “hair salon boston”).

Business websites were also the top result type in the Business Listings Visibility Study (47%). As we noted then, you would generally expect to see business websites dominating search engine results based on the interests and intent of users, so it follows that ChatGPT Search might mimic a similar number of results if it understands intent in the same way.

Business mentions made up more than a quarter (27%) of ChatGPT Search sources across the local searches we conducted. This is significantly chunkier than the 16% we saw for Google’s search engine results. As we’ll get to later on, Wikipedia surprisingly dominates the business mention category throughout this study.

Meanwhile, business directories only made up 15% of ChatGPT Search’s sources. It’s very interesting to note the difference in both the presence and breadth of directory results within this study compared to the business listings study. Not only do directory results show up less for ChatGPT searches than Google searches, but some of the most prominent directories, like Yelp and Facebook, do not appear at all.

The most prominent directory found as a source throughout this study was Three Best Rated, making up almost a quarter of all directory sources (24%), followed by Expertise (18%). Although it seems odd that some of the best-known business directories are missing from the first ten sources, it serves as a reminder that brands and businesses should take the opportunity to boost visibility in all the relevant places, and not just the most well-known ones.

When we look at the breakdown of results for transactional and informational search terms, the pattern stays the same. 

However, informational search terms see more of a level split between business website results (43%), business mentions (35%) and directories (22%), while transactional search term sources are largely skewed towards business websites (72%). 

Healthcare and Wellness

Searches for healthcare and wellness businesses predominantly surface business website results. It largely makes sense when you consider the general nature and urgency of a person needing to find a healthcare business. For more urgent care, they’re less likely to want to spend time comparing business information, and will just want to see which businesses are closest to them on a map.

There are just four terms in this group where business website results appear for fewer than 50% of the first ten ChatGPT sources: ‘best chiropractor,’ ‘best day spa,’ ‘best dentist,’ and ‘best gym.’

In these cases, we see more directory sources, yet there does not seem to be a clear reason for this—particularly when Three Best Rated appears as a directory source for so many different business searches. 

It does make sense that ‘best day spa’ and ‘best gym’ would have a higher percentage of business mentions within ChatGPT Search sources. After all, these are the more wellness-focused businesses, for which potential customers might want to read different types of articles and reviews before making a decision.

Hospitality

The hospitality searches are dominated by a range of business mention results. These include well-known hospitality publications like Thrillist, Eater, and The Culture Trip, while local blogs and news sites like Secret Seattle and San Diego Magazine appear for specific location terms.

It is surprising that directories are not more prominent for hotel searches. While giants like Tripadvisor, Expedia, and Booking.com did appear in source lists, they are largely overshadowed by business mentions. If you think about the results you would see in Google’s SERPs, hotel results tend to be very transaction-led, and travel directories themselves have become commercial comparison or booking platforms—so it could be that this is intentional on ChatGPT’s part.

However, the most common business mention source was Wikipedia, which also seems an odd result for hotel searches. It’s not exactly the glossy, photo-laden review content you might expect from Condé Nast or similar.

Services and Trades

A typical search engine user might expect to see many directory results in the Services and Trades group, such as Thumbtack, Angi, BBB, and so on. It’s surprising, then, that only two of the search terms generated a significant number of directory results in the source lists (“best electrician” at 62%; “best storage facility” at 35%).

It’s also not clear why there is such a difference between the number of directory results appearing for ‘best electrician’ and ‘best storage facility’ searches.

As with the healthcare group, sources for Services and Trades searches are mostly in the business website category. Arguably, there is also some degree of urgency attached to the intent behind local services searches, which might explain why the results are mostly business websites. 

Then again, because ChatGPT Search is still so new, we don’t know enough about how well it understands web search intent.

‘Your Money or Your Life’ (YMYL)

The ‘Your Money or Your Life’ group concerns businesses that can impact clients’ lives, health, and finances. Here, directory results take a stronger share of the sources. 

It makes sense that someone searching for these types of businesses would want to compare professionals and businesses by using directories. Directories provide the opportunity to compare customer reviews and read professional profiles in more of a side-by-side view than simply flicking between business websites.

It’s also notable that these percentages tend to increase for informational terms, where a user is more likely to be looking for a comparison.

Entertainment

The Entertainment group is another interesting one where directories are surprisingly absent, although the findings are similar to those of our business listings study.

Both ‘betting store’ search terms see a very large number of business mentions, which, as we discovered in the Business Listings Visibility Study, is likely due to gambling regulations varying so much from state to state. Therefore, local and trade publications are likely to cover the topics.

Notable Findings

Mentions on Wikipedia

As we touched on in the hospitality and entertainment sections above, Wikipedia makes a surprising number of appearances throughout this study. Generally, where local business searches are concerned, Wikipedia is an uncommon result—particularly to appear within the first ten results. This is likely because, as a largely educational platform, it does not match the ‘informational’ intent behind searches such as ‘best coffee shop’ or ‘best hotel.’

Wikipedia probably appears as a source in ChatGPT Search because the platform is trained on Wikipedia’s articles and media. Although this suggests that LLMs might still have some learning to do regarding search intent, it does highlight the value of a Wikipedia presence—something many business owners and brands might not have previously considered.

The below screenshot highlights an example of a local business with its own Wikipedia entry.

If you’re interested in learning more about the relationship between Wikipedia entries and search engine sources, this guide explains how managing brand entities via Wikipedia can inform Google and influence features like knowledge graphs.

No Forum Presence in ChatGPT

One area we haven’t touched on yet is forums. We first conducted a SERP study to analyze result types in May 2024, when Reddit’s exclusive partnership with Google dramatically altered the types of results being surfaced to users. Since then, the Business Listings Visibility Study found that the presence of forum results had decreased significantly, accounting for just 7% of search results displaying for local business searches.

In the case of ChatGPT Search, it seems to ignore forums completely for local business searches. Although it seems that ChatGPT can access content from Reddit or Quora, based on the response below, there do seem to be limitations preventing ChatGPT from sourcing local business information from it.

Yet, at the time of writing, it appears that the Google-Reddit exclusivity deal is still in place. And it doesn’t explain why other forums like Quora aren’t present in its source lists, other than that ChatGPT might not deem these results ‘helpful’ enough.

How to Appear in ChatGPT Search’s Sources

ChatGPT Search, in its current form, has only been available since October 2024, so it’s unclear just how mainstream it might become as a search engine. Yet we can’t ignore the fact that over 300 million users are using the wider ChatGPT platform weekly, with over one billion messages sent a day. So, that’s a hefty number of people that could use it for local queries.

With that in mind, you want to give your brand the best shot at appearing in ChatGPT Search’s source lists. How?

Optimizing for LLMs

Crystal Carter recently put a guide together on optimizing for large language models (LLMs), so we’d strongly recommend reading this. The document can be quite technical and goes beyond just ChatGPT, but contains actionable insights to consider for ChatGPT, such as:

• Checking release notes and documentation for LLMs to keep up to date with changes
• Reporting inaccuracies regarding your brand as and when you see it
• Optimizing for the search engine that powers the LLM (in this case, Bing powers ChatGPT)

Local Marketing Matters

The good news is that optimizing for ChatGPT Search is not an entirely new area to learn, as the local search tactics that you already employ do make a difference. While the sources for information might vary, ChatGPT generally sources local business information like business reviews and ratings to surface results and inform some of the snippets of information it provides—even including Google reviews.

The prominence of business mentions in this study highlights a significant opportunity in building brand awareness through local link-building. Considering outreach and building relationships with different types of press and publications, like news sites, trade publications, and local blogs, can help secure business mentions in the right places. 

Many LLMs are working on securing partnerships with prominent media outlets to train models on their information, so securing coverage with some of your high-priority media outlets could bring two-birds-one-stone returns.

Summary

As we’ve highlighted, these results are a snapshot of ChatGPT Search right now—and things are moving fast. Even if you’re not quite ready to test the waters of LLM optimization (or GEO), now could be a good time to review your local marketing efforts and ensure your business information is correct and up to date in all the right places.

Have you tested out ChatGPT Search since its launch? Tell us about your experiences, or share your predictions with us! You can catch us over on LinkedIn, X, Blue Sky, or by joining our Facebook community, The Local Pack.

Appendix

Directories as ChatGPT Search Sources

Although business directories only make up 15% of ChatGPT Search’s sources in this study, 50% of all directories were dominated by the following websites:

• Three Best Rated (24%)
• Expertise (18%)
• Tripadvisor (8%)

The remaining 50% of directories are made up of the following:

More than just a seasonal service, HVAC companies now see year-round demand as consumers prioritize maintaining comfortable indoor environments, especially with extreme weather becoming more common.

But with this demand comes fierce competition. Without targeted local marketing, it’s easy for even the best HVAC companies to get lost in the shuffle. That’s why focusing on building a strong local and digital presence is so important in this industry.

What’s more, the first port of call people often have when they have a heating issue is Google. So, showing up in local searches is crucial. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to consider when you’re performing local SEO for your HVAC business.

Understanding Your Local HVAC Market

To run a successful HVAC business, it’s important to know your local market well. This means understanding who your customers are, what they need, and what other HVAC companies in your area are offering. 

Here’s how understanding your local market can help your HVAC business succeed:

Know Your Local Customers

Every community is different, and understanding who lives in your service area helps you market your HVAC services more effectively. For example, think about the age, income levels, and homeownership rates in your area:

• Age: Younger homeowners may be looking for energy-efficient systems, while older homeowners might care more about reliability and comfort.
• Income: Areas with higher incomes may be willing to invest in premium systems, while others may prefer budget-friendly options.
• Homeownership: Homeowners tend to invest more in long-term HVAC systems compared to renters, who may only need quick fixes.

By understanding these details, you can make smarter decisions about how to advertise your services and what types of systems or maintenance plans to promote.

Know the Local HVAC Needs

Like other home services businesses, your region’s climate and types of homes greatly impact the demand for HVAC services. For example:

• Warm climates will likely have more demand for air conditioning repairs, replacements, and routine maintenance.
• Cold climates might see more calls for heating system services.
• Older homes may need system upgrades, new ductwork, or other improvements.

Knowing the common HVAC issues in your area can help you focus your marketing efforts on the services that people are most likely to need.

As you can see in the image above, in our work with Cold Factor, we use this information to inform the messaging for that particular area, hitting home the importance of cooling systems in Texas.

Keep an Eye on Your Competitors

It’s always helpful to see what other HVAC companies in your area are offering. Are they focusing on repairs? Do they offer promotions or maintenance plans? By understanding what your competitors are doing, you can identify areas where you can do something different or better. For example, if most companies offer emergency repairs, you might stand out by providing energy-efficient upgrades or flexible financing.

It’s not just about their services, either: you need to see what they’re doing to get ahead in their marketing efforts. Has one of them doubled down on reviews, or have they obtained some local SEO services that have seen them jump up the rankings? It’s good to know what you’re up against.

Optimizing Google Business Profile

If you want your HVAC business to stand out locally, having a solid Google Business Profile (GBP) is a must. It’s one of the easiest ways to get in front of potential customers who are searching for HVAC services in your area. It’s also the quickest thing you can do to start on your local SEO.

Here’s how to get started and make sure your GBP profile is working hard for you:

1. Set Up and Verify Your GBP

First things first—if you haven’t already, go to Google Business Profile and set up a profile for your HVAC company.

It’s pretty straightforward, but one important step is verifying your business.

Google will send you a verification code, usually by mail, to confirm you’re the real deal. Once verified, your HVAC company will pop up in Google searches and on Google Maps when people in your area are looking for services.

2. Optimize GBP for Your HVAC Services

Now that your profile is up, it’s time to fine-tune it so customers can find you easily. Here’s how:

• Use Keywords: Think about what customers are typing into Google when they need HVAC help. Are they searching for “air conditioning repair” or “heating installation”? Make sure you use these keywords in your business description and services section to show up for the right searches.
• Define Your Service Areas: Be clear about where you work. List all the areas you serve so that people in those neighborhoods can find you when they’re searching for local HVAC services.
• Pick the Right Categories: Choose categories that match the services you offer, like “HVAC contractor” or “air conditioning repair service.” This helps Google connect you with people who need exactly what you do.

You can see how we’ve done this for Cold Factor’s GBP:

3. Keep Your NAP Consistent

This might sound simple, but keeping your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) consistent across the internet is super important. You want the info on your GBP profile to match exactly with what’s on your website, social media, and other places like Yelp or Angi. Why? If Google sees different addresses or phone numbers floating around, it can get confused, and your rankings might drop. Plus, customers need to be able to reach you without any confusion!

A simple way to do this is to enlist the help of a citation building service to save you time and hassle.

4. Get and Manage Customer Reviews

Customer reviews can make or break a business and are especially important for local services like HVAC. Encourage your happy customers to leave a review on your GBP page—maybe send them a link or a quick follow-up message after a job. Reviews help build trust with new customers who are checking you out for the first time.

And don’t forget to respond to reviews! Whether they’re glowing or not-so-great, replying to reviews shows that you care about your customers.

By optimizing your GBP profile, you make it easier for local customers to find your HVAC services, trust your business, and choose you over the competition.

Local SEO Strategies for HVAC Companies

Google Business Profile is just one part of the local SEO puzzle, though. Focusing on other areas of local SEO is a smart move, too. Local SEO helps ensure your business shows up when people in your area search for heating or cooling services.

Target Local HVAC-related Keywords

The first step in local SEO is targeting the right keywords. You want to include HVAC-related terms combined with the cities or areas you serve in your website content. For example, instead of just writing “AC repair services,” say “AC repair in [Your City].” Be specific! Whether you offer air conditioning repair, heating services, or maintenance, make sure you’re using location-based keywords where appropriate. 

For example, if you serve multiple areas, make sure to mention each one: “We provide AC repairs in [City 1], [City 2], and [City 3].“

If you only target one area, this could be across your website, but if you have several service areas or specific locations, you can create dedicated pages for those, too. 

Create Location and Service Area-specific Pages

If your HVAC business serves multiple towns or neighborhoods, create a separate landing page for each location. These pages should focus on the specific HVAC services you offer in each area and, of course, use local keywords. Not only does this help with SEO, but it also lets your customers know that you’re familiar with their area and ready to serve them.

For example, you might have pages like “Furnace Repair in [City A]” and “HVAC Installation in [City B].” Each page can highlight the services specific to that location and the unique needs of the area, like hot summers or cold winters.

You can see how we do this for Cold Factor with specific ‘areas we serve’ pages.

Optimize Meta Descriptions and Titles

Your meta titles and descriptions are what potential customers see in Google search results, so it’s important to include local terms here too. This not only helps with SEO but also makes it clear that you’re a local business ready to help people in your community. Use phrases like “Air Conditioning Repair in [Your City]” in your page titles and meta descriptions to attract more clicks from people in your area.

For instance, instead of “Expert HVAC Services,” try something like “Reliable HVAC Services in [Your City] | Heating & AC Repair.”

This can help improve your click-through rate, but it’s unlikely to improve your rankings specifically. Standing out in the results is important, though, as ranking alone isn’t always enough to guarantee a click.

Building Relationships with the Local Community

At Risely, we want our HVAC clients to get more involved in their community. Which is why we help them build relationships with local nonprofit organizations. Getting involved locally can increase your brand’s visibility and create lasting relationships that drive new business. 

Sponsoring local events, sports teams, or community programs is an effective way to increase your brand’s presence. Whether it’s sponsoring a youth soccer team or getting involved with a local charity, showing your support for the community helps build goodwill and trust. People are more likely to choose a company that actively supports the community they live in.

If you’re more of a hands-on person, you could even consider helping out with your van in the community. It would get you known as someone who wants to help and get your van all over the place.

All of this helps get your name out there and have people remember your business when they need HVAC services.

Running Localized Paid Advertising Campaigns

If you’re looking to boost your HVAC business and bring in more local customers, running paid advertising campaigns is a smart way to get your name out there. Paid campaigns let you target the people in your area who are most likely to need your services, whether they’re searching online or browsing social media. Here’s how to make the most of localized paid advertising:

Geo-targeted PPC Campaigns

One of the most effective ways to use paid ads is through geo-targeted Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Geo-targeting allows you to show your ads only to people in your specific service area. That way, your budget is focused on reaching local customers who are actively searching for HVAC services.

For example, if you offer AC repair or heating installation in a particular city or neighborhood, you can set up your ads to only appear to users in those areas. This helps ensure that your ads are seen by the right audience—people who are nearby and need your services.

For local searches, these ads are called Local Service Ads. You can see an example of the ones we’ve set up for our client below. For these ads you need a Google Business Profile.

Leveraging Retargeting Ads

Retargeting ads are a powerful tool that allows you to reach people who have already visited your website or Google Business Profile. Maybe someone checked out your HVAC services but didn’t book an appointment right away? Retargeting ads keep your business front and center, showing reminders to potential customers as they continue to browse the web or social media.

For example, if someone visits your website to look at furnace repair options but leaves without making a decision, retargeting ads can show them a promotion for furnace tune-ups when they’re on Facebook or Google later. It’s an effective nudge that can turn interest into action.

Leveraging Social Media to Grow Your HVAC Business

Social media is a powerful tool that HVAC companies can use to connect with local customers, build brand awareness, and generate leads. Here are some tips on how to leverage social media for local engagement:

Share HVAC Tips and Promotions

One of the easiest ways to engage your local audience is by sharing helpful HVAC tips and advice. Posting content that offers value, such as how to maintain your air conditioning system in the summer or quick fixes for a faulty heater, will position your company as an expert in the field. 

In addition to tips, share promotions and seasonal offers to attract customers. For example, post about discounts on winter heater tune-ups or summer AC servicing. These posts encourage followers to book your services and share deals with friends and family.

Interact with Local Customers and Businesses

Take the time to interact with your followers by responding to their comments, answering questions, and engaging in local conversations. If someone comments on one of your posts with a question about their HVAC system, offer a helpful response. These small interactions can build trust and make people more likely to choose your business when they need HVAC help.

Tracking and Measuring Local Marketing Success

Set Up Local Analytics and Use Call-tracking Software

Use tools like Google Analytics to track important data like phone calls and website visits. There’s a dedicated tool in GBP too, known as Google Business Profile Performance. This helps you see how potential customers are finding and interacting with your business online. 

Call-tracking software like CallRail allows you to monitor the calls coming in from your local marketing campaigns. By assigning unique phone numbers to different ads or landing pages, you can track which campaigns are most effective at driving calls and, ultimately, new business.

Review Local SEO Rankings Regularly

Your local SEO rankings are a key indicator of how visible your HVAC business is in your area. Use local rank tracking tools like BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid to check your rankings for important keywords like “AC repair in [City]” or “heating services near me.” Regularly review these rankings and adjust your marketing strategies as needed to stay competitive and improve your visibility in local searches.

Regular SEO rank trackers won’t cut it when you’re tracking these sorts of searches.

By tracking your marketing efforts and making data-driven decisions, you can continually refine your strategy to attract more local customers and grow your HVAC business.

Last Thoughts

Local marketing is essential for HVAC companies looking to stand out and grow in a competitive market. By implementing strategies like optimizing your Google Business Profile, focusing on local SEO, engaging with your community, and running targeted ads, you can attract more local customers and boost your business.

If you’re an HVAC business owner, now is the time to start using these strategies to stay ahead in your local market.

That’s why we’re beyond excited to introduce our latest free BrightLocal Academy course: ‘How to Create a Winning Local SEO Strategy for Any Business,’ led by local SEO expert Greg Gifford!

What’s this course about?

Greg Gifford, Chief Operating Officer at SearchLab Digital, brings over 15 years of hands-on local SEO experience and a decade of global speaking engagements to this comprehensive new course. Designed for freelancers, agency pros, and in-house marketers, this course will guide you step-by-step through building an actionable local SEO strategy.

Whether you’re looking to upskill, refine your existing expertise, or enhance your results, this course is the perfect tool to take your local SEO game to the next level.

Here’s Greg with a quick overview:

What’s inside the course?

The course comprises 12 bite-sized modules, each with actionable insights and tips. Quizzes are integrated throughout to help reinforce your learning, and at the end, you can take a final exam to earn a certificate that you can share on social media to show off your newfound skills. 

So, what are you waiting for? Get started today and learn from one of the industry’s top experts. 

Who is this course for?

If you already have a basic understanding of local SEO and want to learn how to translate that knowledge into a practical, effective strategy, this course is for you. Not quite there yet? No worries! Check out Greg’s free ‘ A Beginner’s Guide to Local SEO ’ course on BrightLocal Academy to lay the groundwork first.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the Academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘How to Create a Winning Local SEO Strategy’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?      

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?      

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

We’ve been surveying the local search industry since 2011 to help marketers and SEOs assess its state. When you work in such a fast-moving and competitive industry, it’s natural to ask classic imposter syndrome questions, like “Am I doing this right?” or “What does everyone else think of this?”. So, we wanted to help marketers find the answers.

The Local Marketing Industry Survey: Agency Edition examines the experiences of almost 400 local agency marketers, including freelancers and consultants, agency owners, and agency employees of all levels. Let’s take a closer look at the insights. 

Local Agency Marketers at a Glance 

It helps to set the scene by taking a snapshot of how agency marketers are feeling about their roles and the wider industry. But who are we representing when we talk about ‘agency marketers’? 

We aim to provide realistic and balanced representations of local marketers so that our insights can be relevant, useful, and, more importantly, actionable. Below is a breakdown of agency roles and seniority. Aside from the smallest segment for C-suite agency marketers, you’ll see a pretty balanced spread.

Salary Averages in the USA: Gender Pay Gap of 31%

The median salary for local agency marketers in the USA in 2024 was $80,000.

We present the median salary instead of the average because it’s a better representation of the ‘mid-point,’ whereas averages can be skewed by numbers in the extremes. When we extracted the same data from 2023’s Local Search Industry Survey, we found no change year over year. So, it doesn’t look like agency marketers are any better off in 2024 than they were in 2023.

However, when we break the salary medians down by gender, a different picture emerges. Male agency marketers are earning 31% more than female agency marketers, highlighting a significant disparity.

According to Salary.com, the median US salary within the professional services industry is $77,454. Based on our findings, female local agency marketers earn 19% less than this, while males earn 3% above the professional services median.

Unfortunately, the gender pay gap disparity is not a new finding and is not just limited to this industry. Earlier this year, Search Engine Land found that male SEO professionals were earning 36% more than females, but it is an enduring issue across industries globally. 

I hope that in providing these figures, female-identifying local SEOs and agency marketers can use these benchmarks as a resource to negotiate higher, fairer salaries. But obviously, it’s not as simple a fix as that. Nicole DeLeon provided some great research and conclusions for Moz in 2020, highlighting areas that need to be improved across the industry (and beyond), such as salary transparency.

Salary Satisfaction Levels

On the surface, the majority of agency marketers feel satisfied with their salaries—67% of all respondents said they were ‘somewhat satisfied,’ ‘satisfied,’ or ‘very satisfied.’

However, we decided to break out freelancers and consultants to provide a view from a self-employment lens and acknowledge that determining (and paying!) your own salary can be challenging. While the pattern largely follows a similar sentiment, it is noticeable that a higher percentage of freelancers and consultants are ‘somewhat satisfied’ compared to ‘satisfied’ (29% vs. 23%), and 6% of freelancers and consultants are ‘very dissatisfied’ compared to just 2% of other local agency marketers.

We also looked at salary satisfaction broken down by gender to see if, knowing what we do about the salary disparity, female agency professionals might be feeling less satisfied with their salaries compared to male agency professionals. Nothing stood out from this view, and the patterns for both groups reflected a similar, generally positive sentiment that looks much like the chart above.

However, when salary satisfaction was broken down by years spent in the industry, one group stood out.

Just 46% of respondents with fewer than two years of industry experience feel satisfied with their salaries.

This could suggest that ‘entry-level’ agency professionals are eager to progress within their roles and earn higher salaries accordingly. It could also show that they feel frustrated at the compensation they’re receiving in relation to the responsibilities and tasks they have to perform. 

Generally, entry-level agency SEO and local marketing roles can involve many necessary but often time-consuming (and sometimes menial) tasks rather than the juicier areas like strategizing. It also tends to be the stage of a career where you’re more likely to need to learn quickly on the job, so the pressure can outweigh salary satisfaction—meaning, it’s easy to see why this group of respondents stands out.

Incentives Beyond Salary

Of course, there are other financial incentives associated with (but not exclusive to) salaries that feed into the ‘package’ an employer provides that will affect salary satisfaction overall. Bonuses, profit shares, commission, and other reward types are attractive incentives that can essentially ‘top up’ salary levels, while the prospect of salary increases and promotions highlights opportunities for career path progression.

So, aside from measuring median salary levels, we also wanted to gauge the other ways in which agency marketers are being invested in by their agencies. It’s important to note that we excluded freelancers and consultants from the chart below.

It’s encouraging that 40% of agency marketers have received a raise in the last 12 months, while a further third have benefited from various bonus schemes.

Almost a quarter (23%) of all agency marketers have not received any additional salary incentives, though. If we examine that group of local marketers more closely, we can see a distinct relationship to lower feelings of satisfaction around their salaries overall.

Incentives and motivation have been hotly debated topics in business and management disciplines for decades. As a business grad myself, I grimace any time a workshop facilitator asks the room if they know about the hierarchy of needs… but I digress. 

While many will argue that financial incentives aren’t a true motivator in the workplace, the fact is that even though inflation has slowed down, prices for just about everything in life remain high.

So, for agency owners or even senior agency marketers, it’s worth considering how you can introduce incentives that recognize your team members more and reflect your commitment to investing in them.

Career Progression and Learning at Work

Clear career pathways and progression opportunities are a big ‘green flag’ for any agency wanting to hire and retain top talent. Yet it’s all too common to hear professionals say that the only progression opportunities for them at work are in line management. 

Line management is a challenging task that requires a specific skill set. It is not for everyone. With this in mind, we asked agency marketers how they felt about their career progression opportunities at work.

The two statements reflected in the chart highlight that the majority of agency marketers have opportunities to develop at work. However, there is an interesting difference between the certainty of having clear progression paths at work and developing new areas of expertise. 

68% of marketers agree that they have clear progression paths within their agencies. In fact, a full 32% of respondents agreed strongly with the statement. Meanwhile, 85% said their agencies would be open to marketers developing new areas of expertise to achieve professional goals. Both are positive statements, but the difference suggests that development at work might be more self-led for some professionals, putting the onus on individuals to shape their development.

For some, that can be an empowering move, but realistically, it can be challenging to make time in your day-to-day life to learn new things. Having clarity in development and progression by ensuring line managers are regularly working with team members on a more formal plan removes that feeling that it’s ‘all on you’.

Training Budgets As An Incentive

Offering employees a personal training allowance, while not directly impacting salary, is a positive indicator that shows a commitment to growth and progression. In many cases, the ‘perk’ has become a desirable part of the overall employer package. It reflects good attitudes towards growth, and the personalization element highlights a sense of autonomy for agency marketers when shaping their development.

While freelancers and consultants can certainly allocate training and development budgets for themselves, we removed them from this dataset to examine how larger agencies approach training more closely.

Last year, we found that just 39% of agency marketers had access to personal training allowances, so it’s great to see how much this has improved, now standing at 57% of marketers.

For the remaining 43%, it might not necessarily mean that training and development isn’t an important part of their agency life. Access to events and industry conferences, product training or training with partners like Google and Meta are often regular parts of the job. Yet, arguably, those with access to a personal training budget are likely to benefit from both the necessary and chosen development opportunities.

We also had to wonder, while a training budget isn’t a direct financial incentive, does this autonomy and empowerment mean agency marketers are more fulfilled with their salaries? 

While we can’t directly compare all salaries here to say that those with training budgets are earning more than those without, it certainly seems like there is a relationship between salary satisfaction and personal training budgets. 76% of local agency marketers with training budgets are satisfied with their salaries, compared to 52% of agency marketers without allowances.

It follows that better access to training and development ensures professionals are learning new skills, therefore placing them in better positions for career progression, and leading to overall salary satisfaction.

Feelings of Job Security

Finally, and arguably more importantly than salary satisfaction, how are local agency marketers feeling within their roles right now?

It seems like we’re never short of ‘big things’ to acknowledge when discussing the current business or economic landscape, from inflation and significant industry layoffs to political unrest and global conflict. Therefore, it is important to gauge how secure marketers feel at work, and hopefully, it can help answer one of those imposter syndrome questions we mentioned at the start of the report.

Overall, the picture is strong, with just 8% of marketers stating they don’t feel very or at all secure. However, looking at this small group of respondents more closely, almost half are business owners, whether consultants or agency owners, so it gives a glimpse into how those with the closest eye on the bottom line are feeling.

Breakdown of job security levels by job role:

Moving Onto New Roles

All of the areas that we’ve discussed so far can become key reasons for wanting to move on to a new role. But there are other reasons for moving on that might sit entirely outside of an agency’s control, such as personal commitments and changes in circumstances, perhaps even a big career change. So, where do local agency marketers sit at the moment? 

Given that we can probably assume those who aren’t sure right now aren’t looking for a new job any time soon, that means approximately 65% of agency marketers plan on staying put for now. For the remaining 35% of marketers, what’s prompting their decision to move?

The main reason is pretty clear, and it comes back to our earlier point that, yes, money isn’t everything… but it is actually also sort of everything. 53% of marketers plan on moving on for a higher salary. Agency owners should wonder why that might be—are you paying your employees what they deserve, and are conversations around salaries approachable? For those professionals that did receive a raise in 2024, were they paid enough?

Meanwhile, improved work-life balance (41%) and workplace flexibility (40%) are two key areas that go hand-in-hand and show that many agency professionals are seeking a job that more closely matches their needs. 

Work-life balance and flexible working have become standard components of discussions around the workplace. You cannot move on LinkedIn without coming across thought leaders discussing their views on hybrid working, workplace flexibility and work-life balance. Even though 2024 seems to have been a big year for ‘return to work’ mandates, it’s clear from our findings that work-life balance continues to take precedence for agency employees.

Agency Health, Life and Approaches to Structure

In the following sections of the report, we’ll examine some key areas of agency life through the lens of ‘high performance.’ To determine who the high-performers were, we asked marketers what their agency’s primary goal had been throughout 2024, and followed up by asking how they’d performed so far towards that primary goal.

For the sake of this section we have divided up respondents into ‘High-performing Agencies’, and ‘Everyone Else’.

• ‘High-performing Agencies’ = Respondents who said their agencies were ‘exceeding’ performance expectations.
• ‘Everyone Else’ = Respondents who said their agencies’ performance has either ‘met’ or ‘fallen short’ of expectations this year.

This view can help us understand what the ‘High-performing Agencies’ are doing differently from everyone else.

Looking at those business goals, we can see that all agencies are largely following the same trend; new client acquisition, increasing revenue, and increasing the lifetime value of existing clients were the top three priorities.

The key difference, though, is that ‘High-performing Agencies’ prioritize increasing lifetime value (AKA customer retention) more than ‘Everyone Else’ (20% vs. 14%).

While there’s not a huge difference between the two percentage points, it raises an interesting point that seems to come up repeatedly when discussing business goals: the importance of customer retention. 

Earlier this year, we explored this theme in the Brand Beacon Report 2024, where similar findings highlighted how high-performing brands also valued customer retention more than their average-performing competitors. In that report, we touched on the supporting evidence that shows customer loyalty can have a greater impact on your bottom line than simply chasing new customers.

The ‘Right’ Agency Structure

The way an agency is structured and works with its clients is crucial to its success—but is there a right way of doing things? You know what I’m going to say here: well, it depends.

The overall size of an agency and its teams and the variety of services offered will influence how things are run, and it may change as the agency scales or diversifies. We were interested to see how agency marketers are typically set up and also whether we could glean any insights from those ‘High-performing Agencies’. 

Overall, there is a fair mix of team structures, which you’d expect to see. Aside from our freelancers and consultants, the top agency team structure is one where the account manager is a primary point of contact for all client work. It is also by far the most common structure for ‘High-performing Agencies’.

At first glance, I was surprised at these results, mainly based on my own experiences working within smaller, more collaborative agency team structures. Perhaps there is something to be said for the efficiency of running on this model, leaving channel specialists to actually spend time executing the work. 

Obviously, we’re not going to recommend restructuring your agency based on these insights, but if you ever find yourself wondering if there are better ways of doing things, it might give you some food for thought.

Choosing the Right Marketing Agency Structure

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Approaches to Billing Clients

Billing is another area that completely varies based on the nature of the work you do, how your agency is structured or, as a freelancer, how you like to work. It’s also an area that has a lot of new agency owners or start-up consultants scratching their heads, so it’s useful to benchmark the approach. Again, is there a right way?

Monthly fees based on deliverables (or retainers) are still the most common billing method, although it’s very interesting to note the downward shift year-over-year (54% vs. 64%). Coinciding with this, there appears to be an upward trend in agencies billing by project (41% vs. 39%) and those calculating retainers based on hours (29% vs. 22%).

A monthly retainer based on hours suggests that these agencies have a very clear idea of how much their service products cost. On a similar note to the team structure section, it could also nod to a sense of efficiency in how agencies deliver their services. Alternatively, an hourly retainer model could be more attractive to some clients in that they can work with account managers to spend the money on the services they need accordingly.

What Should My Agency Be Charging for Local SEO?

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Local Marketing Services Provided

Which services are agencies packaging up into their core local marketing offering?

Before delving into a more comprehensive list, we’ve summarized the most commonly offered local marketing services in the chart below.

The majority of what we’d call the ‘fundamental’ local marketing services sit at the top of the list of services most commonly offered to clients. Although website design appears to be a surprisingly high (60%) offering for local marketing agencies, in this case, it is more common than local SEO pillars like citation management and review management.

The full list of local marketing services is shown below.

Based on previous benchmarking surveys, we expected review management, PPC, and social media to appear higher in the list. However, both PPC and social media require very different skill sets, and it’s not uncommon for clients to use multiple agencies based on their specialities. 

It is interesting to see that less than half of agencies offer review management (down by approximately 2% on 2023’s Local Search Industry Survey). Could it be that, rather than providing this service, agencies are encouraging and educating clients to implement these strategies themselves? This might also show that businesses and brands themselves have become more savvy about owning these areas of local marketing in-house.

The areas lower on the list, though, can also act as a gap analysis of sorts by highlighting that there is space in the local marketing agency market for ventures into these areas.  

Client Lifespan and Turnover

The aim of a successful agency is not necessarily to have the most clients but to have clients with fruitful and mutually beneficial partnerships. Sometimes, these partnerships come to a natural end as a project wraps up, while others are based on longer-term strategies and vision.

It’s an amazing feat to be able to say you’ve worked with a client for five or ten years, but you want to make sure that the relationship is still fruitful for both of you.

At first glance, the pattern for ‘High-performing Agencies’ versus ‘Everyone Else’ is largely similar, and it looks like the sweet spot for everyone is a client partnership between one and five years.

However, it’s also notable that ‘High-performing Agencies’ seem to retain the longest partnerships of 10 years and over more commonly. So, what are the top reasons for client turnover when they do inevitably move on?

It’s not surprising that budget cutting is the most common reason for client turnover. Whether you’re a high-performing agency or not, if clients are looking to save dollars, partner services and tools are often the first things to be scrutinized.

The reasons for turnover appear fairly even across all local agencies, but what is the least common reason for ‘High-performing Agencies’ is actually the second most common reason for ‘Everyone Else’: project work. Again, we’re not going to make any bold recommendations about overhauling the way your agency is doing things, but if your agency isn’t performing against expectations or is struggling with client turnover, it could be useful to examine the ways you are selling and billing work.

Reacting to Developments in Search

We can’t discuss the state of the search marketing industry without acknowledging some of the developments, innovations, and—let’s face it—shakeups influencing the way agency marketers do their jobs.

You don’t need me to point out how often things change within SEO. Along with constant developments and improvements to key local marketing products like Google Business Profile (GBP) that can change the tactics businesses in different industries use, the industry has seen plenty of big swings in 2024. I am, of course, referring to Google’s AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience), ChatGPT Search, and other changes in the way people search for things and get information online.

When big news breaks, agency marketers quickly turn to industry news outlets, experts and peers to see the reaction. But how aware are their clients of what’s going on?  

86% of local marketers agreed that their clients are aware of how new developments in search could impact their business visibility and rankings. 

Over the years that we’ve been running industry surveys, we’ve asked local marketers whether their clients see reacting to algorithm changes as an important focus. Considering algorithm updates are usually something you don’t ‘see’, Google overhauling its SERPs with AI Overviews has been big news. 

66% of agency marketers said their clients feel reacting to algorithm updates is an important focus in 2024, up 5% from 2023. It makes sense that clients want to stay on top of such changes.

Yet, as we know, the nature of local search is changing in ways beyond traditional search and the ways in which people discover businesses are changing. What about developments beyond Google? 

73% of local marketers agreed that clients are aware of the importance of ranking beyond Google. Although lower than the awareness of algorithm changes, it’s positive to see this in such high numbers. With the news of ChatGPT Search still hot off the press, it will be interesting to see how this might change in the coming months.

Local Marketing Agencies in 2025 and Beyond

With such big developments in the industry continuing to roll out, and absolutely no sign of the AI hype dying down, exciting opportunities lay ahead for agencies and their clients.

AI and Big Opportunities

Alongside big tech swings in 2024, we’ve also seen a real return to basics in terms of the impact of foundational SEO. E-E-A-T continues to be at the top of experts’ minds when highlighting the importance of focusing on end users. At the same time, those specializing in certain verticals or niches are quick to highlight the benefits of new GBP features. 

On the whole, where do agency marketers think the biggest opportunities are for their clients in 2025?

As a content purist, it fills me with joy to see that E-E-A-T is front of mind for agency marketers as the top opportunity (24%) when it comes to their local marketing strategies. Of course, being at the behest of Google’s guidelines, you could argue that it leaves little choice for those wanting their clients’ content and websites to be found. But, a strong focus on creating content and experiences that are truly helpful to the end user can only be a good thing.

I’d expected to see alternative search engines and new advertising platforms with higher percentages, particularly with how platforms like Reddit have gained such visibility in SERPs and become an attractive advertising option.

Perhaps it’s too soon to expect agency marketers to have strong thoughts about strategies beyond Google. Although ChatGPT Search is using Bing’s Index to power its search engine functionality, it’s still early days.

In the areas of local marketing that agency marketers believe to be the biggest opportunities in 2025, it’s no surprise that the most common answer is AI and machine learning. 

As the biggest opportunity for their agencies, it makes sense that it’s also the most common area in which agencies want to improve their own knowledge. 

59% of agency marketers want to develop their expertise in AI, and it’s a sensible answer too, no matter your thoughts or skepticism on AI. There is a lot out there, with baiting email subject lines and constant streams of new articles on the subject, and clients often expect agencies to be up to speed on the ‘latest’ thing. So, wanting to get to grips with AI beyond a general understanding is a good business decision.

Plus, despite the healthy sense of optimism around the opportunities AI can bring, agency marketers seem to be also conscious of how it’s being sold to them.

79% of agency marketers said that they feel some businesses are overselling the capabilities of AI. And, if you think about how often you see ‘do x with AI’ shoehorned into meta titles in Google results now, you can’t blame them.

As we pointed out in our generative AI case study last year, it is ever-evolving, and professionals should remain cautious of its capabilities for now, particularly as far as accuracy is concerned. We are increasingly seeing cases of ‘AI-washing‘ throughout various industries, in which businesses are being held accountable to inflating the capabilities of AI in relation to their own products.

It’s particularly interesting, then, that despite a sense of caution and skepticism, agency marketers still expect potential tech partners to actively incorporate AI into new products. Following generative AI’s explosion into the industry in 2023, we started asking local marketers about their expectations of AI moving forward.

Not only do agency marketers still expect tech partners and tool providers to incorporate AI into their products, the sentiment appears even stronger in 2024.

So, wait a minute, what are we saying here? Let’s summarize:

• 33% of agency marketers think the biggest opportunities for their agencies lay within AI.
• 59% of agency marketers want to develop their own knowledge in AI.
• 79% of agency marketers think that some businesses are overselling the capabilities of AI.
• But, 84% of agency marketers still expect potential tech partners to actively incorporate AI into new products.

It’s a slightly confusing message overall, but in my mind it suggests that there is a sense of wanting to be seen to do the right thing or be known for keeping up with the latest tech developments. 

Investing in the Future

Overall, the future of local marketing agencies paints a fairly strong picture. Along with an appetite to develop marketer expertise (and, therefore, agency services) in relation to AI, agencies appear optimistic about their growth, both in terms of increasing team sizes and maturing their existing tech stacks.

66% of agencies told us they’ll be hiring in 2025. Although we didn’t ask agencies about AI roles specifically within their agencies this time around, it will be interesting to see whether we see changes in team structures or service product offerings throughout 2025 that can be attributed to how AI is influencing the workplace.

Meanwhile, almost three-quarters of local marketing agencies plan to invest more in their stack stacks next year. It’s important to remember that investing in technology doesn’t always mean adding ‘more’ to the stack and often involves maturing. Streamlining platforms for better visibility across teams, improving integrations, cutting loose outdated or redundant tools, and investing in new products to support the demand for new services are just a few obvious benefits of investing more in technology.

So, it’s encouraging to see that marketers are willing to make the investment rather than shy away from making potentially grand investments.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for taking the time out to read the Local Marketing Industry Survey: Agency Edition. Once again, we owe a huge thanks to the local agency marketers who participated in the survey—we really can’t do it without you!

We hope you found these benchmarks useful. Anything you’d like to share or discuss from this report? Be sure to tag us in your posts on LinkedIn or start a post in The Local Pack, we always love to hear your commentary and feedback.

If you’d like the opportunity to contribute to research like this, make sure you’re signed up to receive the BrightLocal newsletter.

About the Local Marketing Industry Survey: Agency Edition

The Local Marketing Industry Survey was conducted via across August and September 2024 using BrightLocal’s subscriber channels, social media, and peers within the community.

The survey population is made up of 385 respondents, of which 53% identify as male, 44% identify as female, 1% identify as non-binary, and 2% prefer not to disclose gender.

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.

For instance, as the graphic shows above, 14% of contractors analyzed don’t even have a website, which is a significant barrier to reaching potential customers online. Ensuring your business ranks high in these local searches directly connects you with customers who need your services now.

This post will cover the most important elements of Local SEO for contractors. We’ll discuss optimizing Google Business Profiles, leveraging local keywords, building local citations, and managing online reviews. Each part plays its role in developing a complete local SEO strategy that can enhance your visibility online and attract more customers.

The Role of Google in Local SEO for Contractors

Google is the main place people search online, so being visible on Google can help you get noticed by potential clients. Google sorts local businesses based on what it thinks is helpful for the searcher. This means you need to give Google the right signals to show up in local search results. 

Google Business Profiles Are a Cornerstone of Local SEO

A Google Business Profile (GBP) gives you a public identity on Google. This is a free listing that shows your business’s name, address, phone number, and more. It helps people find your business when they search for the services you offer. Your Google Business Profile can affect if and where you appear in local search results.

Google’s Local Algorithm

Google uses a special system to rank local businesses. This system looks at things like how close you are to the person searching, how relevant your services are, and how much people trust your business. To rank well in local searches, you must make sure your online information is complete, accurate, and trustworthy.

Starting with Google Business Profile: The First Step for Every Contractor

Creating a Google Business Profile is where local search success begins. This listing lets people find your business when they look for services you offer in your area.

Claiming Your Google Business Profile Listing

1. Go to the Google Business Profile website and sign in with your Google account.
2. Type in the name of your business and check if it already exists. If not, continue to add your business.
3. Enter accurate details like your business name, address, and phone number.
4. Choose a category that fits your business best.
5. Verify your listing using the method provided by Google, often by phone call or mail.

Tips on Optimizing Your Profile for Maximum Visibility

1. Add a detailed description with relevant keywords about your services.
2. Post high-quality photos of your work, team, and office.
3. Choose attributes that tell more about what you offer, like ’24/7 service’.
4. Keep your hours of operation updated, especially during holidays.
5. Use the posts feature to share updates, offers, and events.

How Accurate Business Information Affects Local SEO Outcomes

Having the correct information on your Google Business Profile helps your local search ranking. Google uses this data to match your listing with the right searches. Make sure your contact information and service details are the same everywhere online to improve your chances of showing up in local search results.

You’ll know you’ve filled out all important details when your profile strength circle is complete and green.

Ready to improve your rankings? Talk to us about our Local SEO Services

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How Contractors Can Use Keywords to Reach Local Customers

Finding the right local customers starts with knowing what they are searching for. You’ll need to pinpoint people’s words and phrases when looking for your services. Many times, these keywords have a local element like a city name or “near me” behind them.

For contractors, it’s not just about knowing these local keywords but also understanding how often people search for them and how competitive they are. This is where keyword research tools come in handy. 

These tools show data on local search trends. They help you discover the best local keywords to aim for.

Once you have a list of local keywords, you should use them in your online content. This includes your website, social media posts, and Google Business Profile. Using these keywords helps improve your chances of showing up in local searches when potential customers are looking for your services.

• Identify keywords that customers use when searching for your local contractor services.
• Use keyword research tools to look at search trends and find the best local keywords to target.
• To improve visibility in local searches, incorporate these local keywords into the content of the website, social media, and Google Business Profile.

NJ Basement Waterproofing & French Drains is a great example of a strategic business name based on keyword research. Notice that no other competitors mention “French drain” in their names. With only five reviews, this contractor is beating more established businesses. 

It must be stressed that too much of a good thing can be toxic. Keyword stuffing your GBP name beyond what is reasonable could result in suspension or re-verification. 

Breaking Down On-Page SEO Strategies for Contractors

Understanding on-page SEO methods is like having a blueprint for getting your contractor company noticed online.

Best Practices for Local On-page SEO: Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Headers

On-page SEO starts with the basics. You need to get your title tags, meta descriptions, and headers right. Your title tag is the main sign that shows up in search results, and it’s the first thing people see. It should include the city or region you work in and the main service you offer. Next, meta descriptions act as pitches that tell someone why they should click on your website. Again, mention location and services. Headers structure your content, making it easy to read. Use local keywords in headers to connect with local searchers.

Despite its importance, the study found that 22% of contractors are missing H1 tags on their homepage, and 17% of contractor homepages analyzed had fewer than 200 words of text, which can hinder the ability to rank well for targeted keywords.

Content Optimization for Local Intent with Service-specific Keywords

For your website’s content to speak to local searchers, you need to optimize it with keywords that matter to your community. This means you should mix your service terms with the local areas you serve. For example, if ‘roof repair’ is a service, ‘roof repair in Miami’ anchors it to a location. Adding these local service-specific keywords throughout your site helps locals discover your business when they need your services.

Internal Linking Strategies to Boost Local Relevance

Internal links tie your website together. They guide users and search engines to other useful pages on your site. Use descriptive link text that includes local keywords. For example, a link saying ‘Learn more about our Miami electrical services’ is better than just ‘click here.’ This builds local relevance and helps your site’s SEO.

Service Area Pages: Connecting with Your Local Client Base

Contractors often work in different cities or neighborhoods. To reach people in these places, making special pages for each service area on your website is a good idea. These pages can also help your site show up in search results when someone looks for contractors in those areas.

The Importance of Creating Dedicated Pages for Different Service Areas

When you have a separate page for each place you work in, you help search engines understand where you offer your services. This can make your business more likely to be found by people in those places.

How to Craft Unique and Helpful Location Pages

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Optimal Strategies for Structuring and Optimizing Service Area Pages

Here’s how you can make these pages useful and easy for people to find:

• Make sure the page title includes the area name and your service, like “House Painting in Springfield.”
• Write about the services you offer and mention how you understand the specific needs of that area.
• Include details like landmarks or local events to show you are part of the community.

Engaging Local Clients Through Geo-targeted Content

You can connect better with local people by talking about things they know. For example, write about how the local weather in Portland affects house paint choices. This can make your website more appealing and help people find you when they search for contractors in their area.

PJ Fitzpatrick’s website is a superb example of service area pages that are done well. This contractor is a multi-location business spanning six East Coast states. These local service area pages go a long way to being found successfully over that large stretch of land. 

It’s no wonder that they also happen to have the highest review count of all contractors in the study. Nearly 8,000 at the time of the study. 

Why Keeping Your Business Info the Same Everywhere Matters

When you list your contractor business online, your name, address, and phone number (NAP) details must be the same, no matter where you put them. This is important for local SEO. Think of the internet as a big phone book. If your info matches everywhere, search engines like Google understand you better and can show your business to more people looking for contractors.

Building Local Citations for Your Contracting Business

Local citations are listings of your contracting business on websites. They can be on local business directories, industry directories, or social media profiles. To build local citations, put your business info on these websites. Remember, your NAP should stay the same across all these websites. Every time your business is mentioned with the correct NAP, it’s like a vote for your business that helps search engines trust you more.

Keeping Your NAP Consistent for Better Local Rankings

Search engines need to trust the info they find when listing your contracting business high in local searches. By keeping your NAP information consistent, you help build that trust. Go through each place where your business is listed and check if your NAP is correct. If you find mistakes, fix them. This can mean updating old addresses or phone numbers. By doing this, you help search engines see your contracting business as a reliable choice to show people doing local searches.

• Make a list of every place your business is listed online.
• Check each listing to make sure your NAP is correct.
• Update any listings with outdated or wrong information.
• Keep track of new places you list your business, and always use the same NAP.

To make this easier, you can use BrightLocal’s Citation Tracker. This tool helps you keep an eye on all the places your business is listed online. It checks your name, address, and phone number (NAP) in different directories to make sure everything is correct. If Citation Tracker finds any mistakes, you can fix them right away. Citation Tracker also lets you know about new places where you can list your business, helping you keep your information consistent everywhere. Using this tool saves you time and makes sure your business looks trustworthy to search engines, which can improve your local search rankings.

The Power of Social Proof: Reviews and Testimonials in Local SEO

When people look for contractors, they often want to hear from other customers first. Reviews and testimonials play a big role in deciding who to hire. The 2024 study revealed that only 8% of top-ranking contractors have a rating below 4.0 stars, indicating the critical role that positive reviews play in maintaining a competitive edge in local SEO.

Strategies to Encourage and Collect Customer Reviews

Asking customers to leave a review after a job is a good idea. You can do this by sending an email or a text. You can also give customers a link that takes them right to where they can leave a review. Making it easy for customers is important.

• Ask for reviews in person after a completed job.
• Send follow-up emails with links to review sites.
• Include a review link in your email signature.

Handling Negative Feedback and Maintaining a Professional Online Image

No one likes to get negative feedback, but it can happen. When contractors get negative reviews, they should respond in a helpful and professional way. This shows other customers that they care and try to make things right. It can turn a bad review into a chance to show good customer service.

Contractors can build trust with potential customers by focusing on reviews and testimonials. Over time, this can lead to more business and better search rankings.

To help with this, you can use BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager. This software lets you see all your online reviews in one place. It sends you alerts when someone leaves a new review so you can respond quickly. Reputation Manager also helps you ask happy customers to share their positive experiences. By using this tool, you can handle negative feedback better and show that you care about your customers. This helps keep your online image professional and trustworthy, which can attract more customers and improve your search rankings.

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Link Building for Local Contractors

Getting links from businesses and groups nearby can be very helpful for local contractors. If you do it right, building these links can lead to a stronger presence online in your service area.

How Backlinks Affect Your Site’s Authority

Think of backlinks as votes for your website’s trustworthiness. More votes can mean higher authority, which often leads to better search engine rankings. For contractors, this could mean more local customers finding your services. But remember, the quality of the links matters more than the number. Links from respected local businesses, organizations, and industry-related sites are more effective than many links from general directories.

Ways to Get Local Backlinks

Here are some ways to get these valuable local links:

• Join local business groups and directories. This can lead to links from their websites.
• Get involved in community events or sponsor local teams or charities. They might link to your site as a sponsor.
• Create helpful resources or blogs that address local issues. Local media or organizations might link to your content as a useful source.

Building Local Business Relationships for Links

Making connections with other local businesses can lead to more than just new customers. It could also cause them to link to your website. Start by taking part in local business events or joining local online business forums. Getting to know other local business owners can lead to them recommending your services, both in person and online, by linking to your site.

Remember, the main purpose of getting backlinks is to raise your website’s authority and establish it as a trustworthy source for services in your local area. The right backlinks can significantly impact your local SEO efforts and help you connect with your local audience.

More Tips for Building Local Links

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Why Contractors Can’t Ignore Mobile Website Optimization

People now use their phones to look everything up, including local services. This changes how you need to think about your website. Being easy to find and read on a phone means more people might choose you when they need a service.

The Increasing Prevalence of Mobile Search in Local Queries

Google says that more searches happen on mobile devices than on computers in many countries. This means that if you’re a contractor, your website must work well on phones. When your site is good for mobile users, it can show up higher in search results since Google switched to mobile-first indexing.

The Effect of Mobile Optimization on Local Search Results and Customer Experience

A website that’s good for mobile doesn’t just help with search results. It also makes it easier for customers to like what you offer and get in touch. Mobile users tend to leave websites that are hard to use on their phones. So, when your site is mobile-friendly, people are more likely to stay and contact you.

Remember, having a website that works well on mobile can make a big difference. You could see better results in searches and leave a good impression on potential customers. 

Best Practices for Mobile-Friendly Website Design

Here’s what you can do to make your contractor website better for phone users:

• Make sure your site has a responsive design.
• Keep your layout simple so it can load fast and be easy to use.
• Use large font sizes for easy reading on small screens.
• Have big, easy-to-tap buttons.

By focusing on these website design elements, you can ensure that people can easily use your site on their phones.

Structured for Success: Local Structured Data Markup

Structured data is a way to format information on your website so that search engines can understand it better. For contractors, this means making it clear to search engines like Google what your business does and where you do it. Using structured data, details like your services, reviews, and location can be showcased directly in search results. This can help your business stand out and could lead to more people clicking on your links.

The following local business schema types are particularly relevant for contractors and other local businesses. Implementing these structured data types can help search engines understand the nature and details of your business, leading to improved visibility in local search results and eligibility for rich search features:

1. LocalBusiness

• Schema Type: LocalBusiness
• Description: General schema type for any local business. It should include information such as business name, address, phone number, business hours, and more.
• Key Properties:
  • @type : LocalBusiness
  • name : Business name
  • address : Business address
  • telephone : Business phone number
  • openingHours : Hours of operation
  • url : Website URL
  • priceRange : Typical cost of services
  • aggregateRating : Overall rating score
  • review : Customer reviews

2. ProfessionalService

• Schema Type: ProfessionalService
• Description: This is a more specific subtype of LocalBusiness and is ideal for service-based contractors like plumbers, electricians, and builders.
• Key Properties:
  • Inherits all properties from LocalBusiness .
  • serviceType : Type of service offered (e.g., “Plumbing”, “Electrical Repair”).
  • areaServed : Geographic area served.

3. HomeAndConstructionBusiness

• Schema Type: HomeAndConstructionBusiness
• Description: A specific subtype of ProfessionalService suitable for businesses providing home improvement and construction services.
• Key Properties:
  • Inherits all properties from ProfessionalService .
  • services : List of specific services provided (e.g., “Roofing”, “HVAC Installation”).
  • hasOfferCatalog : Details of different services or packages offered.

4. Contractor

• Schema Type: Contractor
• Description: A subtype of HomeAndConstructionBusiness , specifically tailored for contractor services such as general contracting, specialized trades, and repair services.
• Key Properties:
  • Inherits all properties from HomeAndConstructionBusiness .
  • additionalType : Type of contractor (e.g., “General Contractor”, “Electrical Contractor”).
  • qualification : Certifications or licenses held.

5. Service

• Schema Type: Service
• Description: Used to describe individual services provided by the business, linked to LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService .
• Key Properties:
  • @type : Service
  • serviceType : Type of service (e.g., “Home Inspection”, “Plumbing Repair”).
  • provider : Reference to the business providing the service.
  • areaServed : Geographic area where the service is available.

6. AggregateRating

• Schema Type: AggregateRating
• Description: Summarizes the overall rating of the business, based on multiple reviews.
• Key Properties:
  • @type : AggregateRating
  • ratingValue : Average rating score (e.g., “4.5”).
  • reviewCount : Total number of reviews received.
  • bestRating : The highest possible rating (usually “5”).
  • worstRating : The lowest possible rating (usually “1”).

7. Review

• Schema Type: Review
• Description: Represents individual customer reviews and ratings.
• Key Properties:
  • @type : Review
  • author : Name of the person who wrote the review.
  • datePublished : Date the review was posted.
  • reviewBody : Text of the review.
  • reviewRating : Rating score given by the reviewer.

8. Place

• Schema Type: Place
• Description: Used for the physical location of the business.
• Key Properties:
  • @type : Place
  • address : Business address in detail.
  • geo : Geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude).
  • hasMap : Link to a map showing the business location.

9. GeoCoordinates

• Schema Type: GeoCoordinates
• Description: Specifies the latitude and longitude of the business location.
• Key Properties:
  • @type : GeoCoordinates
  • latitude : Latitude of the business location.
  • longitude : Longitude of the business location.

10. Offer

• Schema Type: Offer
• Description: Represents an offer for a product or service.
• Key Properties:
  • @type : Offer
  • price : Cost of the service.
  • priceCurrency : Currency in which the price is listed.
  • availability : Availability of the service (e.g., “InStock”).
  • validFrom : Date the offer is valid from.

Local Schema Templates

Learn More

Read more

Implementation Tips:

1. Start with the LocalBusiness Schema: Include essential details like name, address, phone number, and business hours.
2. Add Specific Schema Types: Layer in specific types such as Contractor or HomeAndConstructionBusiness based on the services provided.
3. Include AggregateRating and Review: If your business has reviews, use these schemas to showcase ratings and testimonials.
4. Use GeoCoordinates for Accuracy: Include the geographical coordinates to help search engines accurately map your business location.
5. Validate Schema with Testing Tools: Use tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool or Schema Markup Validator to ensure your schema is correctly implemented.

The Multi-location Challenge: Local SEO for Contractors with Multiple Locations

Contractors with multiple locations face unique challenges when it comes to local SEO. Each location must be addressed individually to ensure potential customers find the correct information. This means tailoring the local SEO strategies specifically for each place of business.

One key aspect is maintaining consistency across locations. Your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) should be the same everywhere it is listed. This includes your own website, social media accounts, and online directories. Consistency helps search engines, and customers trust your business information.

But it’s not just about being consistent. You also need to think about the marketing for each location. Each service area might need a different approach. What works in one city might not work in another. You need to know what people in each area are looking for and how they talk about your services.

How to Manage Local SEO for Each Location

• Tailor web pages for each location: Create service area pages on your website for each location. Use the specific city or region’s name and include information relevant to that local customer base.
• Separate Google Business Profiles: Set up a Google Business Profile for each location. This can help your business appear in local searches in each area.
• Localize content: Develop content that speaks to each area’s local events, news, or issues. This helps each location appear relevant and engaged with its community.
• Manage reviews: Encourage and monitor customer reviews for each location to build a strong, local reputation online.

Remember, each location offers a new opportunity to capture a local audience. By focusing on the specific needs and behaviors of customers in each area, a multi-location contractor can effectively use local SEO to be more visible in search results. By doing so, you will not only improve your chances of being found but also build the trust and credibility of your brand across various markets.

To manage local SEO for multiple locations, agencies, franchise owners, and multi-location business owners can turn to BrightLocal’s Horizon.

Horizon is the only tool that tracks search rankings and review performance for hundreds or even thousands of locations all in one easy dashboard. This makes it simple for agencies to oversee their clients’ various branches and for franchise owners to monitor each store’s performance. With Horizon, you can see how visible each location is in local searches and keep track of their reviews, ensuring consistency and reliability. Additionally, Horizon provides national and state-level metrics, allowing you to watch your overall progress over time. By using Horizon, managing the local SEO for a large brand becomes more organized and effective, helping each location stay competitive in its market.

How do you know if your SEO strategy is working?

Seeing results with local SEO does not end when changes are implemented. You must measure your success to know what works. This means tracking how well your business shows up in local search results, the amount of website traffic it gets, and whether this traffic leads to client contacts or sales. You can better understand your local SEO performance by keeping an eye on these areas.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Local SEO

As a contractor, you should focus on specific KPIs to measure local SEO success. These include ranking in local search results, website visits from local users, and conversions such as phone calls, form submissions, or appointment bookings directly coming from their local search efforts. These numbers paint a clear picture of local SEO effectiveness.

Tools for Tracking Local Search Rankings, Traffic, and Conversions

There are tools designed to help contractors track their local SEO efforts. For example, Google Analytics provides insights into website traffic, tracking users’ location and behavior. Google Search Console shows how a website appears in search results.

BrightLocal can also help you see your search engine ranking positions for local terms. Their Local Search Grid tool allows you to see your search engine rankings for multiple local terms all in one clear, organized grid. With Local Search Grid, you can track how your business performs in different locations and observe changes over time. It also makes it easy to compare your rankings against competitors, helping you identify areas where you can improve. By using BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid, you can gain valuable insights into your local SEO efforts and make informed decisions to boost your visibility in local search results.

Analyzing Data to Guide Future Local SEO Efforts and Marketing Strategies

Data from the tracking tools can help you make informed decisions. For instance, if you see an increase in website visits from your local service pages, this could indicate that your on-page optimization is working. If not, it may be time to revisit your keywords or content strategy. Regular data review allows you to adjust strategies to reach local customers better.

Unlock the Potential of Local SEO for Your Contracting Business

By now, you should understand the steps necessary to optimize your contracting business for local search. Remember that setting up a Google Business Profile is your starting point. From there, target local service queries with keyword research and refine your on-page SEO practices to establish relevance. Your local client base will engage more with content that speaks directly to their needs and community.

SEO is an ongoing process that rewards consistency and attention to detail. You can maintain and improve your online presence by actively managing and updating your local SEO elements. This, in turn, will help your contracting business stand out to potential clients in your area.

Even as the way people search changes, business directories continue to lead the way in business discovery. As of the Local Consumer Review Survey 2024, Google, Facebook, and Yelp were consumers’ top three online sources for finding local businesses.

What we don’t talk about so often, though, is how consumers get there—or, rather, how search engine giants like Google surface these websites in search results. After all, aside from optimizing your brand website for better local rankings, understanding how to maximize your presence in SERP real estate can be a game-changer.

With all of this in mind, we wanted to find out how prevalent business listings are in search engine result pages (SERPs) for searches with local intent, along with other types of business mentions, to give a sense of where your marketing dollars are best spent to try to appear behind one of those coveted top ten blue links.

Methodology

In this study, we conducted 800 manual Google searches for local businesses and recorded the first ten organic search results (AKA the first “ten blue links”) for each, for a total of 8,000 search results.

We used one transactional keyword (e.g. coffee shop) and one informational keyword (e.g. best coffee shop) in searches across 20 different business verticals. We repeated these 40 searches in 20 different US cities to provide a broad set of terms and locations. 

So that we could compare the presence of forum results in local SERPs, we used the same 20 business verticals and 20 US cities as in our previous Reddit SERP study 

Note: For this study, we did not record any AI Overviews (AIOs) because the study focuses purely on organic results. However, it is also worth noting that a recent study (August 2024) shows that AI Overviews match organic results in the top ten organic results almost 100% of the time, so it’s fair to assume that the information that appears in organic results influences AIOs.

SERP Results Compared 

Our study found that business directories make up almost a third (31%) of the top ten organic search results overall, providing users with several options beyond Google’s results to view local business information. As the average local search surfaces three directory results within the first ten, you’re going to want to make sure your brand is present and accurately represented in the most visible and relevant directories.

Meanwhile, it’s generally no revelation that business websites make up a large portion of the top ten organic results for local searches. Whether the intent is informational or transactional, it’s arguably in users’ best interest to visit different brands’ websites to a) complete a transaction or b) gather the information they’re looking for.

One surprise, however, is how the visibility of forum results has changed since our Reddit SERP study, where we found that Reddit made up 11% of organic results for transactional searches and 52% of informational searches (31% across all search terms tested).

While that study focused solely on Reddit results and not any other forums, it’s worth noting that we found that Reddit makes up 89% of all forum results recorded in this Business Listings Visibility Study. As of October 2024, forum results make up just 7% of the top ten organic search results. 

When we look at the breakdown of result types for transactional and informational search terms, the pattern remains largely the same, but with one exception…

The biggest difference is in the proportion of website and directory results displayed in the top ten for informational searches. For informational searches (e.g., best coffee shop), directories take the larger share (37%) over business sites (32%).

Screenshot of SERP for ‘best coffee shop buffalo,’ where multiple business directories are present

Why might directories be this prominent for informational searches? The business listings found on today’s modern directories provide users with a detailed snapshot of several key business factors, not just contact information, particularly where industry-specific directories are concerned.

In addition to contact information and opening hours, information such as photos of facilities, listed products and services, and customer-submitted content such as business reviews help to inform user research and enable consumers to compare multiple businesses in one place.

Therefore, if a consumer is searching for the ‘best’ type of local business (a search with informational intent), it makes sense that Google would consider directory results relevant.

Business directory result (Tripadvisor) for ‘best coffee shop seattle’

The difference between how often business websites are shown in results for transactional searches (61%) and informational searches (32%) gives us a clear indication of how Google measures user intent.

For a transactional search like ‘car dealership chicago’, Google recognizes that the user is looking for relevant businesses in a local area, whereas for an informational search like ‘best car dealership chicago’, Google understands the consumer is looking to do some research and compare findings. 

Business mentions and forums also have a larger share of organic SERP real estate for informational searches than transactional ones. Again, where users are searching with the intent of researching or gathering information before making a decision, it follows that Google might generate results with informal opinions in the form of blog articles or discussions.

Next, we’ll take a look at how these percentages change for specific business verticals.

Healthcare and Wellness

Search terms within the health, medical, and wellness categories tend to lead to business website results for both transactional and informational searches. 

Directory visibility is surprisingly low in SERPs for the searches ‘dentist [location]’ (3%), ‘vet clinic [location]’ (3%). At the same time, these are two of the search terms where business websites saw the largest share of organic search results in our study.

It could be the case that, as these business types can be associated with more ‘urgent’ needs, Google understands the intent of these search terms and knows that users need information now, and therefore might be less concerned about ‘shopping around’.

However, this changes when we look at informational search intent. When a consumer is looking for the ‘best’ dentist or ‘best’ vet clinic, directory results jump back up (34% and 23%, respectively). If you consider some of the less urgent needs for these business types, but where a consumer is looking for the ‘best’, things like cosmetic dentistry spring to mind, where it’s likely you would want to shop around before making a decision.

‘Best gym [location]’ sees some of the most forum results in this whole study (18%). When we analyzed some of the USA’s top gym brands in the recent Brand Review Index, we found strong themes of community, culture, and lifestyle. Gym reviewers tend to advocate for their gyms based on very specific factors, and it seems that Google recognizes the need to return search results that reflect this.

Forum result (Reddit) for ‘best gym milwaukee’

Hospitality 

When it comes to hospitality-related searches, you would expect to see a variety of results in SERPs, where professional reviews feature in established lifestyle publications, local blogs host listicle-style articles, and threads on local food scenes are common across forums.

As you’ll see below, the ‘coffee shop’ searches reflect this the strongest, with business mentions in the likes of Eater, Edible, The Infatuation, and Best Coffee Guide all appearing in the SERPs. 

Both transactional and informational searches for ‘fast food restaurants’ and ‘hotels’ show a heavy weighting towards directory results. Hotel results surface the travel-specific listing websites you’d expect, like Tripadvisor, Kayak, Booking.com, and Trivago, where users can compare prices, hotel ratings, and real customer experiences all in one place.

Fast food directories generate a lot of third-party delivery partner sites and apps. Although technically similar to travel-specific directory sites like Booking.com, which have transactional features, fast food third-party sites are unique in that the focus is on getting something right now. So, it is interesting to see the likes of Uber Eats and Door Dash appearing prominently in organic SERPs for informational search terms. Of course, we don’t necessarily recommend listing your fast-food restaurant on all of the delivery apps unless you can handle the customers!

Interestingly, the search term ‘fast food restaurants’ also sees the highest proportion of directory results than any other search term in this study (72%). It shows how far industry-specific directories have come and how they’re continuing to evolve. DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grub Hub, and their competitors are hybrids of a directory, map system, and ordering platform, as each vendor is listed with NAP information.

Services and Trades

While we know from the Local Consumer Review Survey that long-standing directories like Better Business Bureau (BBB) still play a part in consumers’ decision-making, this study reinforces this by showing a strong SERP presence for directories in both transactional and informational search results pages. 

While all transactional searches see more business website results appear in the top ten search results than other types, we can see that some informational terms generate more directory results. ‘Best electrician’ and ‘best HVAC contractor’ lead the way, surfacing a variety of typically more trade-specific directories such as Angie’s List, Expertise, Thumbtack, and BBB.

The clear exception is for ‘car dealership’, where 100% of organic results lead to business websites. It’s the only instance throughout this study where one result type completely dominates the top ten organic results. This shows that SERP real estate for car dealership businesses is incredibly competitive, at least in the USA.

‘Your Money or Your Life’ (YMYL)

‘Your Money or Your Life’ refers to content that provides information that can impact a user’s life, health, and finances, which is why we’ve grouped our attorney, realtor, and tax advisor searches here. The end goal of a user researching these types of local businesses is essentially to instruct a professional who will provide financial, legal, or property advice—pretty life-changing stuff.

Legal and financial advice is not something you want to rush into without plenty of research. Therefore, comparing the experience and reviews of professionals on recognized directories is a ‘must’ in any consumer’s decision-making process.

So, it makes sense that the SERPs for these terms are dominated by directories and business websites rather than informal mentions or discussions, allowing users to do thorough research and compare professionals on trusted directories.

Searches related to attorney and tax advisor businesses (‘attorney,’ ‘best attorney,’ ‘best tax advisor’) generate a particularly large amount of business directory results—in fact, more than half of the top ten organic results for these searches were directories.

Top Citation Sites for Attorneys

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The anomaly in this group is that 43% of informational realtor searches are business mentions. As with car dealerships, I would estimate that this finding is pretty unique to the USA because its real estate market is largely fronted by individual realtors, where face, reputation, and personality are key.

SERP for ‘best realtor chicago,’ highlighting multiple business mentions in results

The business mentions recorded tend to be realtor profiles, as users are likely to want to spend time reading up on the professionals themselves. The example below from PropertySpark was a common result across the different US locations used with our search terms, and you’ll note the significant focus on agents’ social media profiles.

Realtor profiles found on PropertySpark

I have a feeling that if we conducted informational searches for a UK equivalent (e.g., ‘best estate agent london’), we would not see such a high level of business mentions! 

Entertainment

The groupings below for entertainment-related search terms don’t appear to show a pattern in the types of search results generated. The amount of SERP real estate taken up by each result type is pretty varied, but then again, so are the business types reflected by the search terms. It would be worth researching the types of search results for businesses in a similar niche—for example; a toy store could be compared against other types of children’s retailers.

However, it was very surprising to see that 60% of ‘best betting store’ search results were business mentions. A closer look at ‘betting store’ results highlighted many intricacies around legal betting in different states, which explains why so many local news sites or betting publications surfaced in the SERPs. So, this is likely a very specific occurrence in US-based searches. 

Some examples included press releases from online trade publications or articles on local news sites announcing the arrival of new sports books in the respective city. It’s likely that these occurrences would be particularly ‘newsworthy’ where some states have seen the re-introduction of legal gambling as recently as 2018.

A business mention result for ‘best betting store denver’ highlights why a store opening is particularly newsworthy

This raises an interesting consideration for businesses that are held to varying state laws or sit within regulated industries where online advertising can be tricky to navigate. Creating educational and authoritative content that explains these complexities on your website and pitching these topics to relevant publications can be an effective way of building credibility, reinforcing the pillars of E-E-A-T, and possibly supporting your local visibility. 

Other Notable Findings

Variety of Directory Results

We’ve touched on the presence of industry-specific directories throughout this study, alluding to a great variety of directories appearing for different searches within the top ten organic results alone. The chart below summarizes which of the study’s search terms generated business directories for more than half of the first ten organic search results.

We’ve collated some examples from our study data below to provide you with an idea of the variety that appeared in our search results—and, hopefully, some inspiration for other places to get your brand or clients listed.

However, despite the variety of directory results appearing in SERPs, we can’t ignore the fact that some—and I’m sure you can guess which ones—dominate the space. That’s right, we’re talking about Yelp and Tripadvisor, of course. We found these long-standing websites appeared for a whopping 28% and 10% of all directory results in this study, respectively.

Opportunities for Securing Business Mentions

Several of the search groups saw business mentions take the largest share of organic search results within their group, winning out over business websites, directories, or forums. So, we pulled these together to examine areas of opportunity for securing business mentions as a local marketing tactic. 

We’ve already touched on how niche businesses or those bound by regulations and varying state laws, like betting stores and sports books, can contribute their expertise to third-party sites as a way of boosting visibility. 

Similarly, businesses in the hospitality industry, such as coffee shops and restaurants, can seek out relevant lists and publications to contribute to and be included within, whether it’s a popular consumer-facing publication or a trade-specific publication. It won’t be as easy as just asking to be included in a ‘Top 10 Best’ listicle but think about ways that you can be creative in pitching your brand or its team—an interview with a head chef, for example.

How can I use this information?

The good news is that such diversity in the results shows how each listing or mention ‘type’ has its place in local SEO, and there are plenty of actionable tactics you can adopt in your local marketing strategies accordingly.

The bad news—depending on the type of person you are, I suppose—is that different tactics can mean more work, but at least this study should help you prioritize based on what types of results get the most real estate in your (or your client’s) vertical.

Directories

The business directory landscape is constantly evolving. Given the presence of different business directories within SERPs across this study and the fact that SERP real estate is an incredibly competitive space, your brand quite simply can’t afford to miss out on being listed in the right places. 

According to the Business Research Company, a combination of factors, such as digital transformation, increasing consumer demand for digital content, and the growth of digital advertising platforms, has propelled the global directory market in recent years. With this comes a greater need for specialized directories.

They might not be the first sites to cross a user’s mind, compared to key platforms and search engines like Google, Yelp, Apple, and Facebook, but niche and industry-specific directories are important research tools for consumers. And clearly, Google believes they are relevant, too. Some of the examples we recorded in this study include Healthgrades, Thumbtack, BBB, ClassPass, Gymbird, Booksy, CarFax, and DoorDash.

Each trade directory is designed to reflect its niche. You might be aware, for example, that online directories specializing in beauty and wellbeing often use calming hues of blue, green, or pink, place emphasis on high-quality photos of their facilities, and highlight key or popular services. Meanwhile, healthcare or medical directories focus on practitioner profiles, official trust accreditations, and testimonials. SAB directories generally emphasize key contact information and pricing for services you need to get done.

Some of these directories might not be free for businesses to join, but it’s a good idea to do some research and see what sites come up in your search results and where your competitors are to see where your brand could be missing out!

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Business websites

As we’ve seen, business websites are shown for almost half of the first ten organic results (47%). So, if you want your brand to appear in the local pack above organic results, you’ll want to give the business’s website the best possible chance of ranking organically for these kinds of local-intent searches. 

It’s certainly not as easy as getting into a business directory, but getting your business website into the top organic rankings starts with nailing the fundamentals of SEO. As a reminder, here are some of the basics to consider:

• Defined website structure with a home page, dedicated product or service pages, category, and local pages.
• Optimized website content that has been informed by keyword research.
• Creating high-quality content that is unique, helpful, and follows E-E-A-T guidelines.
• Optimized metadata to boost chances of click-through from SERPs.

Improving On-page SEO for Local

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Forums

As discussed in our Reddit SERP study, there is little you can do to directly influence your brand’s presence on forums unless you want to come across as inauthentically self-promoting—or worse, spammy.

However, it is a useful reminder to keep an eye on forums for brand mentions if you haven’t been doing so already. In their own way, forum discussions can be a local PR tool if you’re lucky enough to have customers advocating for you! And if you don’t, then there’s another good reason to really hone in on your customer service and retention efforts.

There are also ways of ‘officially’ representing your brand within forums in a way that won’t rub users up the wrong way. Consider creating brand representative accounts and interacting with relevant discussions in an authentic or helpful way. A simple site search can help uncover where people might have questions about your brand or relevant products and services that you offer.

The best way to increase your chances of appearing in forum conversations? Deliver the best service at the most competitive price, and work on your brand to get the exposure and word-of-mouth your business needs.

Brand mentions

Local PR strategies can sometimes fall to the wayside, whether they’re too time-consuming or hard to prove as a good investment of resources. However, the breadth of business mentions in this study’s results highlights how influential they can be in building brand awareness and reaching new audiences.

In the above examples alone, we can see a variety of official local and nationwide news sites, local blogs, trade publications, lifestyle blogs and publications, and social media.

As with forum mentions, you can’t always directly influence the likelihood of someone featuring your brand in a TikTok, so the best advice for creating brand advocacy is really giving your customers a reason to want to shout about you.

As for local and community PR, there are certainly tactics you can adopt to reach your local news sites, specialty blogs, and trade publications.

Conclusion

Of course, the dream scenario is that your business appears in the map pack as the first organic search result, followed by your business listing on multiple authoritative directories, and with glowing reviews and forum testimonials bringing up the rear…

But there really are only so many hours in a day.

That’s why we hope this study has given you food for thought and that the nuances of different business verticals have given you some inspiration for local marketing tactics you can implement that you might not have considered.

If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out which directories might be suitable for you, we have a plethora of citation and listing resources available to help.

Appendix

The table below shows the full breakdown of search result types for each search term. As a reminder, each group of search terms contains 20 different searches, where 20 US cities were used as a suffix for local intent (ie. coffee shop buffalo).