There was some enquires and discussion after my recent post on Google #Masterclass2017 of how important is #local search for SMB. Well, here is a chart that you may find interesting although it's not dealing with SMB as such.
There obviously is a lot of interest in local searches. How influential are they to your business? Well, here is a study of just how important by brightlocal here
Here are some highlights in Italic.
84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about a business.
74% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more.
58% of consumers say that the star rating of a business is most important.
People today are clearly forming a view on your business faster than ever. Based on this it does not take them much time. A few dreadful reviews, a awful star rating and you are out.
The good news, is that the study shows.
7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they're asked to, so ask people to write something good and you have to keep doing it as
73% of consumers think that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant, in fact, I doubt they would read these old reviews no matter how good they are, as reviews are listed from most recent backwards and very few people are reading more than a few. So great five star reviews, three months ago are of minor use.
Here is an example I needed to buy some dog food urgent on the way home as we had run out, so I did a google search "Dog food near me" and got something like this.
I looked at how close they were and also the rating. What would you look at? Now tell me it does not matter in retail?
