Searches for Near Me Products & Services
Google & Location Marketing
What is mobile-based location marketing?
Google is working on auto-completing "near me" searches for both mobile device and desktop searches. Google's term "micro-moments" is intent-driven moments of decision-making events during a consumer's journey. The search could be for things to do, places to go or things to buy. Often these searches are intended for places nearby ... local.
We recently searched Google for "used cars" and the results included local used car dealers. A search for "Mexican food" resulted in a list of local Mexican food restaurants. We had the same local results show for searches for church, high school, and grocery store. However in the case of the grocery store results, there are several local grocery stores (within a few miles instead of 20+ miles) that didn't show. Is this result due to Google's "near me" still being developed or, is it due to the websites of these establishments needing optimization?
2015 data shows that 53% of mobile searches have local intent. It appears that businesses can thrive in Google's world but it will require adding intent optimization to their SEO strategy. This will require a combination of accurate location data in addition to content to get the attention of consumers who are experiencing micro-moments in a mobile world.
A Pew Research Center study for U.S. Smart phone Use in 2015 shows:
- 62% of smart-phone owners have used their phone in the past year to look up information about a health condition.
- 57% have used their phone to do online banking.
- 44% have used their phone to look up real estate listings or other information about a place to live.
- 43% used their phone to look up information about a job.
- 40% used their phone to look up government services or information.
- 30% used their phone to take a class or get educational content.
- 18% used their phone to submit a job application.
With “near me” searches rapidly advancing, this is a critical time for your business to have visibility in search results. Accurate location data shared with major publishers such as Google is the key to visibility. It's very important that your location data is accurate across the web ... check your listings in the various directories for accuracy and make corrections, if needed. U our
Learn how Google is delivering location search results without inclusion of geolocation in search terms.