Google Business Profiles (Google My Business) and Google Search are continually expanding their features and updating their algorithms to help improve a user’s search experience constantly.
It can be quite troublesome to keep track of all of these updates and improvements. But SEOs around the world make it their duty to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to all the new innovations that the company comes up with.
Google My Business especially, has given marketers a new way to help optimize their clients for local search. It has paved the way for small businesses everywhere to truly benefit from the platform rather than painstakingly optimizing their sites for their target keywords or spending thousands on ad spend every month.
But just how much has Google My Business done for local businesses? This is one of the questions we hope to answer in this article. We have even created a nifty infographic to help cover all of these statistics we’ve gathered for you today.
We will also go over some interesting search statistics as well that tie into everything, and how you can begin benefiting from these new findings.
Why Google My Business is changing the game for local businesses
Do you own a small local business that receives 90% or more of its business from your town or the surrounding area? Then Google My Business is going to be one of the best assets at your disposal for receiving more leads and customers.
The platform was created in June of 2014 and ever since then, has provided business owners with a fantastic way to promote themselves through the platform for free.
Every year, Google updates the platform and adds new features to help customers get the best possible experience from their search engines.
Some of these feature additions include posts, health & safety attributes (thanks COVID), online service attributes, and call logging (finally!).
Google My Business has become such an important part of optimizing your site for local. Because of this, it’s important that you learn how much of an impact it’s having across the board for business owners everywhere.
Businesses are receiving more views than ever before
Google has put together a pretty amazing system together for their My Business platform. Around 49% of businesses listed on GMB receive more than 1,000 views on search per month. And many businesses receive ten times that or more even.
This means that local businesses can start benefiting from search without an intensive SEO budget or optimizing every page on their website and building tons of links.
Now, of course, it’s still worth it to do all of the above. But this gives start-ups and small local businesses a way to instantly start receiving search traffic. This is a huge bonus given to us by Google and shouldn’t be overlooked.
“Near me” mobile searches are exploding astronomically
Think With Google recently reported that there was a 900% increase in “_ near me today/tonight” searches from mobile devices. This is an absolutely massive increase across the board.
Hotels and car dealerships seem to be the top industries that are benefiting from Google My Business. Hotels receive the highest number of views on search and car dealerships receive the highest amount of calls and visits from GMB.
If your business doesn’t require someone to go to your website, then GMB seems to be the spot for you. Car dealerships are getting more leads from GMB than they are from page rankings at this point.
Additionally, 34% of “near me” searches done by tablet and desktop resulted in an in-store visit, and 50% of searches done on a mobile phone resulted in an in-store visit. This shows that people are actively going out and visiting local businesses even throughout the pandemic and using GMB to find the spots they want to go to.
This is great news honestly. I am expecting this stat to skyrocket after restrictions are lifted.
People are searching to discover local businesses
Over 84% of searches are classified as “discover” searches, meaning they are looking for a new spot or are searching for a new service that they recently had no idea about.
This means that they are potentially searching for your business waiting to be served your amazing products or services as a brand new customer.
No matter how many people you serve, there is another person out there trying to find your business. They just don’t know it yet!
“Google is the new homepage” – Mike Blumenthal
Because of Google My Business, Mike Blumenthal made the statement back in 2017 that “Google is the new homepage”. This goes to show just how important your GMB listing is.
Typically, your meta title and description would be where you made your first impression towards users.
Now, this is done through the Map Pack or your knowledge graph which shows all the details related to your business taken from GMB.
What does this mean for local business owners? It means that your GMB and website should be optimized to help pick up on these searches and navigate users to your website or business.
How do I optimize my Google My Business Listing?
But Liam! How do I optimize my GMB so that I can benefit from this dramatic increase in searches?
Well, one of the first things you want to focus on is making sure your GMB profile is completely up-to-date. Store hours, products, services, pandemic safety attributes, everything should be filled out to the best of your ability.
Continue to post frequently about your business and its services or products. A good frequency is to post one-two times per week.
After that, begin asking your previous customers to leave amazing reviews for your business on Google. Many people have local guide accounts of Google now as well. These accounts hold a greater weight than just any Google account leaving a review.
The more reviews you get from local guides, the better. This can have a large impact on your visibility in the Google Map Pack.
The Map Pack is where your business will appear if you are within the vicinity of someone searching for your services. It also isn’t limited to a certain amount of distance away from a business either.
Even if you are across the city from a searcher, if your business performs well, and has impeccable reviews, you can still easily rank in the Map Pack for their search.
This is why it’s so important to make sure you have a loyal customer base that is willing to show their love for you on Google. Pair this with some great user metrics on and off your site, and you are on your way to truly benefit from Google My Business.
Google Search Statistics
Google continues to show dominance across the web globally
Google was the most visited website in 2019 with 62.19 billion total visits. Once the statistics are released for 2020, we are sure they will be in the top 3 at the very least (but I wouldn’t doubt that they take the #1 spot again).
They also still hold 92.05% of the global market share for search engines around the globe. In the United States, they hold an 88.1% market share and received 267 million unique US visitors in 2020.
In Canada, they hold an even higher market share of 92.07%. Google also received nearly 1.77 billion visits from Canadians in 2019-2020
Image taken from Statista
It seems that the grip that Google has over the search engine market isn’t easing up any time soon.
Google processes more and more searches each day
It’s mind-blowing how much information is processed by Google on a day-to-day basis. Nearly 5.5 billion searches are processed every day. On top of this, 92.26% of all global searches take place on Google.
This equates to over 2 trillion searches per year. And we suspect this number will only continue to rise as Google’s supremacy over the search industry extends.
Google still receives many new brand new searches every day
16-20% of all searches made on Google per year are brand new queries that the search engine has never seen before. Millions of new queries are created every year for companies, blogs, and individuals to capitalize from.
Keeping a keen eye on rising trends is a great way to stay ahead of the curve and make sure that you are able to benefit from any new queries in your industry that your users may be interested in.
Using Google Trends to identify rising trends or new interest in previous trends is a tool that should not be taken for granted. SEOs everywhere need to use any tool that can provide them with an advantage to help their clients.
Businesses can use this tool to see if there is a rise or dip in interest for their products or services. They can also identify global trends that may affect their business or website.
Mobile is completely taking over
Nearly 63% of all searches on Google came from mobile devices in 2020. We all know about the rise of mobile devices taking over the internet. With most of the world accessing the web through their phones and tablets; it’s no secret that a majority of searches on Google come from mobile devices.
The mindset most designers and developers work in is a “mobile-first” philosophy. This hasn’t changed for years and only goes to solidify the concept as the numbers skyrocket. It was only a few years ago that mobile overtook desktop rising above 50% of the total number of searches.
We are already at 63% now. This goes to show how important it is that your website is optimized for mobile. Do away with large slider images packed full of javascript.
Anything that can potentially slow down your website past the 2-second mark risks losing a massive majority of their traffic.
If you are having troubles with website page speed and performance, contact a web developer that specializes in handling these requests.
A massive majority of ad clicks are coming from mobile devices now
Marketers in the pay-per-click realm will be happy to know that a massive majority of online ad clicks are coming from mobile. Over 69% of ad clicks happened on a mobile device in 2020.
This is a massive amount of clicks coming from mobile. Desktop pales in comparison to their smaller counterparts.
For PPC marketers, you must focus on creating landing pages and ads that cater specifically to mobile users first and foremost.
Fast and speedy landing pages, an intuitive user interface, and a solid user experience are the way to a mobile user’s heart.
Don’t leave them waiting around at slow loading pages, or make them go searching for your call-to-action buttons, and definitely don’t make them fill out long forms.
Put yourself in their shoes and test new ideas alongside a team that knows how a mobile user navigates the web. This is crucial to majorly successful ad campaigns with high conversion rates.
How to act on these statistics and get more traffic than ever before
SEO is a crucial component of your brand and online marketing. In order to capitalize on this massive amount of traffic being sent from Google every day, businesses need to make sure they have a proper strategy in place to raise rankings and build authority.
SEO can help build your business’s website up so that it captures users and navigates them to your funnel. This will lead to more conversions and money in your bank account.
We do this through proven white-hat practices that work. Let us share with you how we can help exponentially grow your traffic, increase conversions, and give your business more authority and trustworthiness in the digital landscape of today and tomorrow.
Conclusion
Google continues to show dominance throughout the internet, being one of the world’s top websites for global traffic. It has improved its My Business platform greatly to help benefit business owners everywhere and has given lots of potential to small local businesses that can’t afford a huge SEO budget.
One of the biggest findings in this article is that “near me” searches are absolutely exploding to new heights as we move through 2021 with a 900% increase so far. As the pandemic restrictions are lifted and life goes back to normal, local businesses are sure to begin thriving again thanks to the help of GMB.
We are maintaining our hope through these trying times. Some industries have been absolutely decimated by the pandemic, as well as many small local businesses that help keep our economy alive.
Let’s do our best to help the lifeblood of our communities get back on their feet and support locals using Google My Business!
