Archive for the ‘Studies’ Category

The first part of the current “Local Consumer Review Survey 2012” focuses on the number of local searches for companies as well as the general influence of online-ratings on consumers. In the second part of the study, BrightLocal.com, a company specializing in local marketing, has focused on the question of what users search for online and what role a company’s reputation plays.
The main result: although users search for restaurants the most when conducting local searches, “consumers read reviews for all types of local business at the point at which they need those services,” explained Myles Anderson from BrightLocal.com on searchengineland. Because users read less reviews than in 2012 in order to make up their mind, it is important for local businesses to have positive reviews. If users stop reading so many reviews, they tend to focus on the latest ones, continues Anderson. Read the rest of this entry »

Next to online directories, there are a number of local search platforms and mobiles apps that help users find businesses and service providers in their vicinity. “Because the local data from each of the services usually comes from the same sources, one can assume that they also deliver results in a similar manner,” concludes Greg Sterling from Searchengineland. But he wanted to know for sure and hired Implied Intelligence to review the completeness and the accuracy of the results from the leading local search services in the USA. Read the rest of this entry »

The ILM East, one of the most important conferences for local search, brought experts from around the world together in Boston last week. In the three days, numerous panels discusses the hottest trends in the branch – from Boom with daily deals to social media strategies for regional providers to “VidLoMo” – local marketing with videos. Especially in video marketing there is a lot of room for improvement – large, national and international firms dominate in this respect, as represented in the discussion panel “VidLoMo – Integrating Video Into Local Marketing”. According to John McIntyre, chief executive at Backyard, this is due to a lack of trust in the communication medium on the part of small businesses. “Innovations must deliver clear results,” he explains. Even so, 60 percent of all businesses that have booked a free video for a test-run by Backyard went on to become paying customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Already 85 percent of consumers use the internet to search for local businesses, 16 percent of all users every week. This is one of the results of the current “Local Consumer Review Survey 2012″. Additional findings of the survey: consumer trust in online customer ratings has raised by ten percent in the past two years. About 72 percent of the surveyed found online as well as personal recommendations to be important, according to Myles Anderson, founder and chief of BrightLocal.com, a company specializing in local marketing, which conducted the survey on Searchengineland. Read the rest of this entry »

The local marketing service Balihoo for the US market has called local web to be a continuously growing ecosystem in the online-media, raising awareness of regional businesses and aiding with growth in profits. Over one trillion dollars of US retail numbers can be linked with the internet, making the local web one of the most important sources online, according to a study from the GroupM Search and Kantar Media Compete. Read the rest of this entry »

The eleventh representation Ipsos-study about the use of directories has released some amazing results: not only do 96.3 percent of all Germans use various directories in their search for private and business contacts in addition to shopping possibilities, but also that the printed version remains the most popular. This makes 2011 the busiest year for directories, despite competition from search engines and other locally and regionally oriented media forms, according to the VDAV (Verband Deutscher Auskunfts- und Verzeichnismedien), who directed the study. Read the rest of this entry »

Because local search is becoming more and more important, the ad company MDG Advertising, which concentrates on targeted internet marketing strategies, has developed an infographic using various sources to give users a general overview of the development of local search. According to theMDG-Blog, companies can use it as a sort-of road map to improve their own methods of local search. Read the rest of this entry »

The primary source for local searching has transferred from traditional directories to Google, according to the Software Initiative Deutschland e.V. (SID). But wait a minute: didn’t some pretty hefty studies just show to opposite? SID was unfortunately unwilling to comment on any sources for their study. Read the rest of this entry »

Local search in communities and mobile are ever-developing into a hype, according to the latest user study from the US pollster Pew. More than fifty percent of all smartphone users search for local information on-the-go. Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly half of the 312 million people in the United States use a social network. And of all adults who use the internet, about two-thirds are on a social network. This is displayed in a recent study by Search Engine Journal, who agrees that social media is here to stay.

“[T]ake a look below at the steep curve of the user growth rate in all age ranges and demographics, and the continuing pervasiveness of social networking into every facet of work, play and life in general. It’s hard to argue that social media hasn’t changed forever how we interact and connect online,” writes Jenise Uehara Henrikson at Search Engine Journal. Read the rest of this entry »