There has been a 350% spike in search interest for ‘near me’ and ‘local’ queries in the US compared to a decade ago, according to a new report detailing small business trends that was released by Google late last week.
In a case study called ‘How we’re helping small businesses succeed’, Google said that there is now a “tremendous momentum” in the number of people searching for local enterprises.
Combining content marketing with effective SEO can help SMEs to reach and engage with these regional and local audiences.
With this in mind, Google pledged $10m to help entrepreneurs and launched a ‘Google for Small Business’ website earlier in the summer to offer personalised plans and advice to enterprises so that they know what tools and tactics to use to get ahead.
The Alphabet-owned company has now followed up by highlighting a few trends that smaller businesses can look to tap into to drive better results from their campaigns.
Search interest in ‘local shops’ soared to a record high in 2018, as did interest in ‘local coffee shops’.
‘Mom and pop shops’ were also popular with users looking for restaurants, diners, pharmacies and pizzerias to satiate their hunger and get the products they need.
Local shop searches were more concentrated among people on or near the east coast of the US, with West Virginia and New Hampshire the top spots overall.
A few other locations that feature heavily in ‘near me’ searches include coffee shops, flower shops, tire shops and print shops.
