We’ve previously talked about the changing nature of SEO, and how that means some tactics can become outdated or even no longer seen as best practice. Combine that with some of the, um, questionable advice that can sometimes be found online, and you can find yourself in a bit of a pickle.

Mistakes happen, but some can be more costly than others. If your business no longer ranks in the local map pack or organic results, that’s a problem because it means prospective customers aren’t able to find you. If you’ve recently received several negative reviews and didn’t respond to them in the hope the issue might go away, that’s a problem because it’s going to affect the way consumers perceive your business.

Understanding the consequences of mistakes and missed opportunities can help you make sure they don’t happen. And if they do? We’ve gathered some of the biggest local SEO mistakes from our industry friends, and shared their fixes here with you. 

Not investing in the right platforms

It may come as a surprise, but the biggest mistake could be simple inactivity.

In August 2025, we surveyed 778 SMB owners and managers. While 72% of them said that SEO had a medium-high impact on their business, the reality of their tactics highlighted some serious mistakes.

• 40% said they have a dedicated website.
• 35% of SMBs have Google Business Profiles.

So before we get into the specific mistakes that experts often see across these platforms, it’s worth knowing that the biggest mistake of all is not being present in the first place. A Google Business Profile and a website are basic foundations for ranking and interacting with your customers.

The good news is these mistakes are simple to fix, and we can help. Read our guides on creating a Google Business Profile (they’re free, and simple to claim), and our step-by-step advice on creating a website from scratch.

Google Business Profile mistakes

There are many mistakes you can make with a Google Business Profile (GBP) beyond being among the two-thirds of businesses that don’t have one. If you are, quickly go and claim one now. Read on for tips to help you avoid a profile suspension and find out why adding secondary categories is more than just a tick-box exercise.

"GBP category errors are almost always highlighted in our audits and pitches."

Rachel Ellen, Local Search Strategist at Croud

When setting up or managing your GBP, you’re given the option to choose one primary category and up to nine additional ones. Sounds simple enough, but this is hands down one of the most common (and costly) mistakes I see across the wide range of clients I work with, no matter the industry.

Correctly chosen categories help your listing show up in the right local searches. But get them wrong, or worse, leave out relevant ones, and you’re practically handing over visibility to your competitors.

Take a recent example: I was reviewing a client’s GBP who specialises in boots and shoes. They hadn’t selected either “Boot shop” or “Shoe shop” as a category. Instead, they’d gone with something vague and less helpful. No wonder they were struggling to rank for the terms that actually mattered to them.

And it’s not just about visibility, it’s about instilling confidence in potential customers. Even if your profile does rank, having a broad primary category like “Clinic” while your competitors are listed as “Physiotherapy clinic” or “Chiropractor” can make you seem like a less relevant choice. Someone looking for a specific service is much more likely to click on the profile that spells it out clearly.

In multi-practitioner scenarios, think doctors, therapists, or dentists, shared primary categories across all profiles can even result in a practitioner profile outranking the main business listing. One way around this is to diversify categories across listings to protect your brand’s presence in local results.

"Time and time again: a merchant gets unsuspended or verified, and immediately makes changes to their GBP"

Ben Fisher, Founder and Lead Consultant at Steady Demand

I see it time and time again: a merchant gets unsuspended or verified, and they immediately do things like change their business name or add or remove an address. This can trigger another verification process and usually a suspension.

Another big thing I see is with profile suspensions in particular. The situation usually unfolds like this: the merchant is suspended and they do not read the appeal screen properly and rush through the process. They will ignore the section for adding proof or forget about it. Then, after the appeal is denied, they rush through the review process. These are your two chances to appeal, so don’t waste them.

Missed opportunities for content

Many business owners don’t realize the opportunities that posting their own photos, videos and posts to GBP presents. As Claudia Tomina explains below, it’s now more important than ever.

"Photos and videos aren’t just nice-to-haves anymore; they’re ranking signals"

Claudia Tomina, CEO at Reputation Arm

One of the most common mistakes I see in local SEO is the lack of content. Specifically, not generating enough photos and videos. These aren’t just nice-to-haves anymore; they’re ranking signals. Google now uses visual content to extract context, keywords, and relevance, so when businesses neglect this area, they’re missing a major opportunity to improve visibility.

The fix? Stop overthinking it and start recording. For service-based businesses like plumbers, contractors, or restoration teams, the job site is your content studio. Capture before-and-after photos, record quick videos explaining what was done, and upload consistently.

You don’t need to be a polished presenter, authenticity will resonate. Over time, this habit will build trust with potential customers and strengthen your brand presence across search.

"Hire a professional photographer to upgrade the quality of your images"

Mike Blumenthal, Co-founder at Near Media

For Mike Blumenthal, one of the biggest local SEO mistakes is:

Using stock photography. Hire a professional photographer for a day to upgrade the quality of the images uploaded to GBP.

Not carrying out competitor research

Local-level competitor research may seem like a ‘nice to have,’ but if you aren’t monitoring your closest competitors then you could be harming your own visibility without even realizing. Amsive’s Bambi Frazier explains in more detail below.

"People think they know what’s holding them back, when in reality, it’s their top competitors simply executing better at the local level."

Bambi Frazier, Sr. Product Manager (Local SEO) at Amsive

Review management missteps 

We’ve all seen funny examples of negative business reviews with sarcastic owner responses. But in reality, this response sentiment can be a detriment to the brand and how others perceive it. And not responding to reviews at all? Customers do notice.

"So many business owners don’t realise they shouldn’t do this: replying poorly to negative Google reviews."

Elizabeth Rule, SEO Analyst at Sterling Sky

"Appreciate those who write reviews"

Greg Sterling, Co-founder at Near Media

Not responding to business reviews. Business owners or managers should respond to all reviews to address concerns, appreciate those who wrote reviews and demonstrate general engagement and responsiveness. This will help with consumer perceptions of the business and may indirectly help with local visibility.

Responding to all of your business reviews

The 2025 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 89% of consumers would use a local business that responds to both positive and negative reviews.

 

Hopefully, these mistakes and missed opportunities have given you some food for thought, and something to keep front of mind as you navigate the realms of local marketing. But if you feel that these have simply added to your never-ending list of things to do, you might also want to consider how fully managed local SEO services could help you.

So, next time you’re looking for a juicy statistic to throw into a pitch deck and support your point, ask yourself if it really represents the story as things are today.

At BrightLocal, we’re big on integrity. That’s why we’ve curated this list of up-to-date, verified local SEO statistics for 2025. Using much of our own local SEO research, as well as statistics sourced from other trustworthy publishers, you’ll find the most relevant local marketing stats below.

General Local Search Statistics

• Local search queries show the following types of results in Google’s first ten organic results:
  • Business websites (47%)
  • Directories (31%)
  • Business mentions (16%)
  • Forums and discussions (7%) 

(Business Listings Visibility Study, 2024)

Consumer Search Behavior

• 80% of US consumers search online for local businesses on a weekly basis, and 32% search for them daily (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 61% of consumers use business information sites (like Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Better Business Bureau) to find information about a local business that is new to them or that they have not used before (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023).
• 42% of searchers click on Google map pack results for local queries (Backlinko, 2024).
• 72% of consumers use Google to search for local business information, but this drops to 61% for 18-24 year olds (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 67% of 18-24 year olds use Instagram for local business information, followed by 62% using TikTok (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 47% of consumers would look for an alternative business nearby if the one they intended on visiting was closed (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 2 in 3 US consumers have already made a decision about what they’re going to buy before they visit a physical store (Think with Google, 2023).
• 29% of consumers encountered businesses not stocking the products in-store that they said they did online at least once a month in 2023 (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 40% of consumers visit Google when researching or planning a purchase they plan to make in a physical store (Think with Google, 2021).
• 65% of US consumers approach holiday shopping with a mix of online and in-store spending (Think with Google, 2024).

Local Business Review Statistics

Finding and Comparing Online Reviews

• 83% of consumers use Google to find local business reviews (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
• 31% of US consumers use Instagram to find local business reviews, and 20% use TikTok as alternative local business review platforms (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
  
• 74% of consumers use at least two review platforms in their business research, whilst 34% of consumers use three or more review platforms (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).
• Over three-quarters (76%) of US consumers consume video content when looking for review information about local businesses (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2025).

Review Stars and Ratings

• 91% of consumers say that the local branch reviews of a multi-location brand impact their overall perceptions of big brands in some way (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 71% of consumers would not consider using a business with an average review rating below three stars (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 63% of consumers said seeing mostly negative written reviews would make them lose trust in a business (Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, 2023).
• 69% of consumers would feel positive about using a business if its written reviews describe positive experiences (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).
• 88% of consumers say they’d use a business that responds to both positive and negative reviews, whilst only 47% said they would consider using a business that doesn’t respond to its reviews at all (Local Consumer Review Survey, 2024).

AI in Local Search

Using AI for Search

• ChatGPT Search shows business websites for 58% of its local search sources, followed by business mentions (27%) and online directories (15%) (Uncovering ChatGPT Search Sources, 2024).

Local Marketers and AI

• 88% of multi-location marketers are using generative AI within their organizations (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 36% of of high-performing brands are using AI to ‘a great extent’ in their marketing, compared to 13% of average-performing brands (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 59% of local agency marketers want to develop their AI and machine learning skills in 2025 (Local Marketing Industry Survey, 2024).
• 32% of US adults said that they think AI would provide a better experience and outcome than typical search when looking for a local business (Near Media, 2024).

Consumers and AI

• 61% of consumers feel well-informed about AI developments (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
• 41% of consumers feel comfortable with businesses using AI to inform and communicate, so long as it improves their overall customer experience (SOCi Consumer Behavior Index, 2024).
  
• Not local, but still important: 17% of US consumers are using AI chatbot technology like ChatGPT for search (Washington Post, 2024).

Local Search Industry Statistics

• 94% of high-performing brands have a dedicated local marketing strategy, compared to 60% of average performing brands (Brand Beacon Report, 2024).
• 86% of local marketers say their clients are aware of how new developments in search could impact their business visibility and rankings (Local Marketing Industry Survey, 2024).

We hope this list inspires you to kickstart your local marketing strategies for 2025 and beyond.

Think we’ve missed any crucial figures? Please feel free to get in touch with the content team, drop us a note in The Local Pack, or catch us on LinkedIn, Blue Sky, or X

Not even 18 months ago, we found that ChatGPT’s local search capabilities were pretty poor. Fast-forward to now, and ChatGPT-4 enables users to search the web in real time, producing local search results similar to Google or Bing.

Hot on the heels of our recent Business Listings Visibility Study, where we analyzed the types of results Google surfaces for local queries, we got straight to work replicating the study for ChatGPT Search. So, ready to dive in?

Methodology and Terminology Used

In this study, we conducted 800 manual local business web searches in ChatGPT, recording the first ten search sources ChatGPT displays in its local results’ ‘Sources.’ It’s important to note that while Google displays results in the hundreds, ChatGPT’s ‘Sources’ can vary significantly—sometimes showing only a handful of sources and other times showing more than ten.

The image below highlights the difference between what ChatGPT displays as results (or answers) to the user query, and the sources for its answers.

We used the exact search terms used within the Business Listings Visibility Study so that we could provide a direct comparison of the results. As we did in that study, we used one ‘transactional’ keyword (e.g. “coffee shop”) and one ‘informational’ keyword (e.g. “best coffee shop”) in searches across 20 different business verticals, using 20 different US cities.

Understanding Definitions Within This Study

For every search result source, we recorded the website name and classification of each website’s ‘type’ using the following criteria:

Search Results Compared

Nearly three-fifths (58%) of all the sources for ChatGPT Search results were business websites. Typically, these were local business websites directly related to the business type or business vertical contained within the search term (e.g. “coffee shop chicago”, “hair salon boston”).

Business websites were also the top result type in the Business Listings Visibility Study (47%). As we noted then, you would generally expect to see business websites dominating search engine results based on the interests and intent of users, so it follows that ChatGPT Search might mimic a similar number of results if it understands intent in the same way.

Business mentions made up more than a quarter (27%) of ChatGPT Search sources across the local searches we conducted. This is significantly chunkier than the 16% we saw for Google’s search engine results. As we’ll get to later on, Wikipedia surprisingly dominates the business mention category throughout this study.

Meanwhile, business directories only made up 15% of ChatGPT Search’s sources. It’s very interesting to note the difference in both the presence and breadth of directory results within this study compared to the business listings study. Not only do directory results show up less for ChatGPT searches than Google searches, but some of the most prominent directories, like Yelp and Facebook, do not appear at all.

The most prominent directory found as a source throughout this study was Three Best Rated, making up almost a quarter of all directory sources (24%), followed by Expertise (18%). Although it seems odd that some of the best-known business directories are missing from the first ten sources, it serves as a reminder that brands and businesses should take the opportunity to boost visibility in all the relevant places, and not just the most well-known ones.

When we look at the breakdown of results for transactional and informational search terms, the pattern stays the same. 

However, informational search terms see more of a level split between business website results (43%), business mentions (35%) and directories (22%), while transactional search term sources are largely skewed towards business websites (72%). 

Healthcare and Wellness

Searches for healthcare and wellness businesses predominantly surface business website results. It largely makes sense when you consider the general nature and urgency of a person needing to find a healthcare business. For more urgent care, they’re less likely to want to spend time comparing business information, and will just want to see which businesses are closest to them on a map.

There are just four terms in this group where business website results appear for fewer than 50% of the first ten ChatGPT sources: ‘best chiropractor,’ ‘best day spa,’ ‘best dentist,’ and ‘best gym.’

In these cases, we see more directory sources, yet there does not seem to be a clear reason for this—particularly when Three Best Rated appears as a directory source for so many different business searches. 

It does make sense that ‘best day spa’ and ‘best gym’ would have a higher percentage of business mentions within ChatGPT Search sources. After all, these are the more wellness-focused businesses, for which potential customers might want to read different types of articles and reviews before making a decision.

Hospitality

The hospitality searches are dominated by a range of business mention results. These include well-known hospitality publications like Thrillist, Eater, and The Culture Trip, while local blogs and news sites like Secret Seattle and San Diego Magazine appear for specific location terms.

It is surprising that directories are not more prominent for hotel searches. While giants like Tripadvisor, Expedia, and Booking.com did appear in source lists, they are largely overshadowed by business mentions. If you think about the results you would see in Google’s SERPs, hotel results tend to be very transaction-led, and travel directories themselves have become commercial comparison or booking platforms—so it could be that this is intentional on ChatGPT’s part.

However, the most common business mention source was Wikipedia, which also seems an odd result for hotel searches. It’s not exactly the glossy, photo-laden review content you might expect from Condé Nast or similar.

Services and Trades

A typical search engine user might expect to see many directory results in the Services and Trades group, such as Thumbtack, Angi, BBB, and so on. It’s surprising, then, that only two of the search terms generated a significant number of directory results in the source lists (“best electrician” at 62%; “best storage facility” at 35%).

It’s also not clear why there is such a difference between the number of directory results appearing for ‘best electrician’ and ‘best storage facility’ searches.

As with the healthcare group, sources for Services and Trades searches are mostly in the business website category. Arguably, there is also some degree of urgency attached to the intent behind local services searches, which might explain why the results are mostly business websites. 

Then again, because ChatGPT Search is still so new, we don’t know enough about how well it understands web search intent.

‘Your Money or Your Life’ (YMYL)

The ‘Your Money or Your Life’ group concerns businesses that can impact clients’ lives, health, and finances. Here, directory results take a stronger share of the sources. 

It makes sense that someone searching for these types of businesses would want to compare professionals and businesses by using directories. Directories provide the opportunity to compare customer reviews and read professional profiles in more of a side-by-side view than simply flicking between business websites.

It’s also notable that these percentages tend to increase for informational terms, where a user is more likely to be looking for a comparison.

Entertainment

The Entertainment group is another interesting one where directories are surprisingly absent, although the findings are similar to those of our business listings study.

Both ‘betting store’ search terms see a very large number of business mentions, which, as we discovered in the Business Listings Visibility Study, is likely due to gambling regulations varying so much from state to state. Therefore, local and trade publications are likely to cover the topics.

Notable Findings

Mentions on Wikipedia

As we touched on in the hospitality and entertainment sections above, Wikipedia makes a surprising number of appearances throughout this study. Generally, where local business searches are concerned, Wikipedia is an uncommon result—particularly to appear within the first ten results. This is likely because, as a largely educational platform, it does not match the ‘informational’ intent behind searches such as ‘best coffee shop’ or ‘best hotel.’

Wikipedia probably appears as a source in ChatGPT Search because the platform is trained on Wikipedia’s articles and media. Although this suggests that LLMs might still have some learning to do regarding search intent, it does highlight the value of a Wikipedia presence—something many business owners and brands might not have previously considered.

The below screenshot highlights an example of a local business with its own Wikipedia entry.

If you’re interested in learning more about the relationship between Wikipedia entries and search engine sources, this guide explains how managing brand entities via Wikipedia can inform Google and influence features like knowledge graphs.

No Forum Presence in ChatGPT

One area we haven’t touched on yet is forums. We first conducted a SERP study to analyze result types in May 2024, when Reddit’s exclusive partnership with Google dramatically altered the types of results being surfaced to users. Since then, the Business Listings Visibility Study found that the presence of forum results had decreased significantly, accounting for just 7% of search results displaying for local business searches.

In the case of ChatGPT Search, it seems to ignore forums completely for local business searches. Although it seems that ChatGPT can access content from Reddit or Quora, based on the response below, there do seem to be limitations preventing ChatGPT from sourcing local business information from it.

Yet, at the time of writing, it appears that the Google-Reddit exclusivity deal is still in place. And it doesn’t explain why other forums like Quora aren’t present in its source lists, other than that ChatGPT might not deem these results ‘helpful’ enough.

How to Appear in ChatGPT Search’s Sources

ChatGPT Search, in its current form, has only been available since October 2024, so it’s unclear just how mainstream it might become as a search engine. Yet we can’t ignore the fact that over 300 million users are using the wider ChatGPT platform weekly, with over one billion messages sent a day. So, that’s a hefty number of people that could use it for local queries.

With that in mind, you want to give your brand the best shot at appearing in ChatGPT Search’s source lists. How?

Optimizing for LLMs

Crystal Carter recently put a guide together on optimizing for large language models (LLMs), so we’d strongly recommend reading this. The document can be quite technical and goes beyond just ChatGPT, but contains actionable insights to consider for ChatGPT, such as:

• Checking release notes and documentation for LLMs to keep up to date with changes
• Reporting inaccuracies regarding your brand as and when you see it
• Optimizing for the search engine that powers the LLM (in this case, Bing powers ChatGPT)

Local Marketing Matters

The good news is that optimizing for ChatGPT Search is not an entirely new area to learn, as the local search tactics that you already employ do make a difference. While the sources for information might vary, ChatGPT generally sources local business information like business reviews and ratings to surface results and inform some of the snippets of information it provides—even including Google reviews.

The prominence of business mentions in this study highlights a significant opportunity in building brand awareness through local link-building. Considering outreach and building relationships with different types of press and publications, like news sites, trade publications, and local blogs, can help secure business mentions in the right places. 

Many LLMs are working on securing partnerships with prominent media outlets to train models on their information, so securing coverage with some of your high-priority media outlets could bring two-birds-one-stone returns.

Summary

As we’ve highlighted, these results are a snapshot of ChatGPT Search right now—and things are moving fast. Even if you’re not quite ready to test the waters of LLM optimization (or GEO), now could be a good time to review your local marketing efforts and ensure your business information is correct and up to date in all the right places.

Have you tested out ChatGPT Search since its launch? Tell us about your experiences, or share your predictions with us! You can catch us over on LinkedIn, X, Blue Sky, or by joining our Facebook community, The Local Pack.

Appendix

Directories as ChatGPT Search Sources

Although business directories only make up 15% of ChatGPT Search’s sources in this study, 50% of all directories were dominated by the following websites:

• Three Best Rated (24%)
• Expertise (18%)
• Tripadvisor (8%)

The remaining 50% of directories are made up of the following:

We’ve been surveying the local search industry since 2011 to help marketers and SEOs assess its state. When you work in such a fast-moving and competitive industry, it’s natural to ask classic imposter syndrome questions, like “Am I doing this right?” or “What does everyone else think of this?”. So, we wanted to help marketers find the answers.

The Local Marketing Industry Survey: Agency Edition examines the experiences of almost 400 local agency marketers, including freelancers and consultants, agency owners, and agency employees of all levels. Let’s take a closer look at the insights. 

Local Agency Marketers at a Glance 

It helps to set the scene by taking a snapshot of how agency marketers are feeling about their roles and the wider industry. But who are we representing when we talk about ‘agency marketers’? 

We aim to provide realistic and balanced representations of local marketers so that our insights can be relevant, useful, and, more importantly, actionable. Below is a breakdown of agency roles and seniority. Aside from the smallest segment for C-suite agency marketers, you’ll see a pretty balanced spread.

Salary Averages in the USA: Gender Pay Gap of 31%

The median salary for local agency marketers in the USA in 2024 was $80,000.

We present the median salary instead of the average because it’s a better representation of the ‘mid-point,’ whereas averages can be skewed by numbers in the extremes. When we extracted the same data from 2023’s Local Search Industry Survey, we found no change year over year. So, it doesn’t look like agency marketers are any better off in 2024 than they were in 2023.

However, when we break the salary medians down by gender, a different picture emerges. Male agency marketers are earning 31% more than female agency marketers, highlighting a significant disparity.

According to Salary.com, the median US salary within the professional services industry is $77,454. Based on our findings, female local agency marketers earn 19% less than this, while males earn 3% above the professional services median.

Unfortunately, the gender pay gap disparity is not a new finding and is not just limited to this industry. Earlier this year, Search Engine Land found that male SEO professionals were earning 36% more than females, but it is an enduring issue across industries globally. 

I hope that in providing these figures, female-identifying local SEOs and agency marketers can use these benchmarks as a resource to negotiate higher, fairer salaries. But obviously, it’s not as simple a fix as that. Nicole DeLeon provided some great research and conclusions for Moz in 2020, highlighting areas that need to be improved across the industry (and beyond), such as salary transparency.

Salary Satisfaction Levels

On the surface, the majority of agency marketers feel satisfied with their salaries—67% of all respondents said they were ‘somewhat satisfied,’ ‘satisfied,’ or ‘very satisfied.’

However, we decided to break out freelancers and consultants to provide a view from a self-employment lens and acknowledge that determining (and paying!) your own salary can be challenging. While the pattern largely follows a similar sentiment, it is noticeable that a higher percentage of freelancers and consultants are ‘somewhat satisfied’ compared to ‘satisfied’ (29% vs. 23%), and 6% of freelancers and consultants are ‘very dissatisfied’ compared to just 2% of other local agency marketers.

We also looked at salary satisfaction broken down by gender to see if, knowing what we do about the salary disparity, female agency professionals might be feeling less satisfied with their salaries compared to male agency professionals. Nothing stood out from this view, and the patterns for both groups reflected a similar, generally positive sentiment that looks much like the chart above.

However, when salary satisfaction was broken down by years spent in the industry, one group stood out.

Just 46% of respondents with fewer than two years of industry experience feel satisfied with their salaries.

This could suggest that ‘entry-level’ agency professionals are eager to progress within their roles and earn higher salaries accordingly. It could also show that they feel frustrated at the compensation they’re receiving in relation to the responsibilities and tasks they have to perform. 

Generally, entry-level agency SEO and local marketing roles can involve many necessary but often time-consuming (and sometimes menial) tasks rather than the juicier areas like strategizing. It also tends to be the stage of a career where you’re more likely to need to learn quickly on the job, so the pressure can outweigh salary satisfaction—meaning, it’s easy to see why this group of respondents stands out.

Incentives Beyond Salary

Of course, there are other financial incentives associated with (but not exclusive to) salaries that feed into the ‘package’ an employer provides that will affect salary satisfaction overall. Bonuses, profit shares, commission, and other reward types are attractive incentives that can essentially ‘top up’ salary levels, while the prospect of salary increases and promotions highlights opportunities for career path progression.

So, aside from measuring median salary levels, we also wanted to gauge the other ways in which agency marketers are being invested in by their agencies. It’s important to note that we excluded freelancers and consultants from the chart below.

It’s encouraging that 40% of agency marketers have received a raise in the last 12 months, while a further third have benefited from various bonus schemes.

Almost a quarter (23%) of all agency marketers have not received any additional salary incentives, though. If we examine that group of local marketers more closely, we can see a distinct relationship to lower feelings of satisfaction around their salaries overall.

Incentives and motivation have been hotly debated topics in business and management disciplines for decades. As a business grad myself, I grimace any time a workshop facilitator asks the room if they know about the hierarchy of needs… but I digress. 

While many will argue that financial incentives aren’t a true motivator in the workplace, the fact is that even though inflation has slowed down, prices for just about everything in life remain high.

So, for agency owners or even senior agency marketers, it’s worth considering how you can introduce incentives that recognize your team members more and reflect your commitment to investing in them.

Career Progression and Learning at Work

Clear career pathways and progression opportunities are a big ‘green flag’ for any agency wanting to hire and retain top talent. Yet it’s all too common to hear professionals say that the only progression opportunities for them at work are in line management. 

Line management is a challenging task that requires a specific skill set. It is not for everyone. With this in mind, we asked agency marketers how they felt about their career progression opportunities at work.

The two statements reflected in the chart highlight that the majority of agency marketers have opportunities to develop at work. However, there is an interesting difference between the certainty of having clear progression paths at work and developing new areas of expertise. 

68% of marketers agree that they have clear progression paths within their agencies. In fact, a full 32% of respondents agreed strongly with the statement. Meanwhile, 85% said their agencies would be open to marketers developing new areas of expertise to achieve professional goals. Both are positive statements, but the difference suggests that development at work might be more self-led for some professionals, putting the onus on individuals to shape their development.

For some, that can be an empowering move, but realistically, it can be challenging to make time in your day-to-day life to learn new things. Having clarity in development and progression by ensuring line managers are regularly working with team members on a more formal plan removes that feeling that it’s ‘all on you’.

Training Budgets As An Incentive

Offering employees a personal training allowance, while not directly impacting salary, is a positive indicator that shows a commitment to growth and progression. In many cases, the ‘perk’ has become a desirable part of the overall employer package. It reflects good attitudes towards growth, and the personalization element highlights a sense of autonomy for agency marketers when shaping their development.

While freelancers and consultants can certainly allocate training and development budgets for themselves, we removed them from this dataset to examine how larger agencies approach training more closely.

Last year, we found that just 39% of agency marketers had access to personal training allowances, so it’s great to see how much this has improved, now standing at 57% of marketers.

For the remaining 43%, it might not necessarily mean that training and development isn’t an important part of their agency life. Access to events and industry conferences, product training or training with partners like Google and Meta are often regular parts of the job. Yet, arguably, those with access to a personal training budget are likely to benefit from both the necessary and chosen development opportunities.

We also had to wonder, while a training budget isn’t a direct financial incentive, does this autonomy and empowerment mean agency marketers are more fulfilled with their salaries? 

While we can’t directly compare all salaries here to say that those with training budgets are earning more than those without, it certainly seems like there is a relationship between salary satisfaction and personal training budgets. 76% of local agency marketers with training budgets are satisfied with their salaries, compared to 52% of agency marketers without allowances.

It follows that better access to training and development ensures professionals are learning new skills, therefore placing them in better positions for career progression, and leading to overall salary satisfaction.

Feelings of Job Security

Finally, and arguably more importantly than salary satisfaction, how are local agency marketers feeling within their roles right now?

It seems like we’re never short of ‘big things’ to acknowledge when discussing the current business or economic landscape, from inflation and significant industry layoffs to political unrest and global conflict. Therefore, it is important to gauge how secure marketers feel at work, and hopefully, it can help answer one of those imposter syndrome questions we mentioned at the start of the report.

Overall, the picture is strong, with just 8% of marketers stating they don’t feel very or at all secure. However, looking at this small group of respondents more closely, almost half are business owners, whether consultants or agency owners, so it gives a glimpse into how those with the closest eye on the bottom line are feeling.

Breakdown of job security levels by job role:

Moving Onto New Roles

All of the areas that we’ve discussed so far can become key reasons for wanting to move on to a new role. But there are other reasons for moving on that might sit entirely outside of an agency’s control, such as personal commitments and changes in circumstances, perhaps even a big career change. So, where do local agency marketers sit at the moment? 

Given that we can probably assume those who aren’t sure right now aren’t looking for a new job any time soon, that means approximately 65% of agency marketers plan on staying put for now. For the remaining 35% of marketers, what’s prompting their decision to move?

The main reason is pretty clear, and it comes back to our earlier point that, yes, money isn’t everything… but it is actually also sort of everything. 53% of marketers plan on moving on for a higher salary. Agency owners should wonder why that might be—are you paying your employees what they deserve, and are conversations around salaries approachable? For those professionals that did receive a raise in 2024, were they paid enough?

Meanwhile, improved work-life balance (41%) and workplace flexibility (40%) are two key areas that go hand-in-hand and show that many agency professionals are seeking a job that more closely matches their needs. 

Work-life balance and flexible working have become standard components of discussions around the workplace. You cannot move on LinkedIn without coming across thought leaders discussing their views on hybrid working, workplace flexibility and work-life balance. Even though 2024 seems to have been a big year for ‘return to work’ mandates, it’s clear from our findings that work-life balance continues to take precedence for agency employees.

Agency Health, Life and Approaches to Structure

In the following sections of the report, we’ll examine some key areas of agency life through the lens of ‘high performance.’ To determine who the high-performers were, we asked marketers what their agency’s primary goal had been throughout 2024, and followed up by asking how they’d performed so far towards that primary goal.

For the sake of this section we have divided up respondents into ‘High-performing Agencies’, and ‘Everyone Else’.

• ‘High-performing Agencies’ = Respondents who said their agencies were ‘exceeding’ performance expectations.
• ‘Everyone Else’ = Respondents who said their agencies’ performance has either ‘met’ or ‘fallen short’ of expectations this year.

This view can help us understand what the ‘High-performing Agencies’ are doing differently from everyone else.

Looking at those business goals, we can see that all agencies are largely following the same trend; new client acquisition, increasing revenue, and increasing the lifetime value of existing clients were the top three priorities.

The key difference, though, is that ‘High-performing Agencies’ prioritize increasing lifetime value (AKA customer retention) more than ‘Everyone Else’ (20% vs. 14%).

While there’s not a huge difference between the two percentage points, it raises an interesting point that seems to come up repeatedly when discussing business goals: the importance of customer retention. 

Earlier this year, we explored this theme in the Brand Beacon Report 2024, where similar findings highlighted how high-performing brands also valued customer retention more than their average-performing competitors. In that report, we touched on the supporting evidence that shows customer loyalty can have a greater impact on your bottom line than simply chasing new customers.

The ‘Right’ Agency Structure

The way an agency is structured and works with its clients is crucial to its success—but is there a right way of doing things? You know what I’m going to say here: well, it depends.

The overall size of an agency and its teams and the variety of services offered will influence how things are run, and it may change as the agency scales or diversifies. We were interested to see how agency marketers are typically set up and also whether we could glean any insights from those ‘High-performing Agencies’. 

Overall, there is a fair mix of team structures, which you’d expect to see. Aside from our freelancers and consultants, the top agency team structure is one where the account manager is a primary point of contact for all client work. It is also by far the most common structure for ‘High-performing Agencies’.

At first glance, I was surprised at these results, mainly based on my own experiences working within smaller, more collaborative agency team structures. Perhaps there is something to be said for the efficiency of running on this model, leaving channel specialists to actually spend time executing the work. 

Obviously, we’re not going to recommend restructuring your agency based on these insights, but if you ever find yourself wondering if there are better ways of doing things, it might give you some food for thought.

Choosing the Right Marketing Agency Structure

Read more

Approaches to Billing Clients

Billing is another area that completely varies based on the nature of the work you do, how your agency is structured or, as a freelancer, how you like to work. It’s also an area that has a lot of new agency owners or start-up consultants scratching their heads, so it’s useful to benchmark the approach. Again, is there a right way?

Monthly fees based on deliverables (or retainers) are still the most common billing method, although it’s very interesting to note the downward shift year-over-year (54% vs. 64%). Coinciding with this, there appears to be an upward trend in agencies billing by project (41% vs. 39%) and those calculating retainers based on hours (29% vs. 22%).

A monthly retainer based on hours suggests that these agencies have a very clear idea of how much their service products cost. On a similar note to the team structure section, it could also nod to a sense of efficiency in how agencies deliver their services. Alternatively, an hourly retainer model could be more attractive to some clients in that they can work with account managers to spend the money on the services they need accordingly.

What Should My Agency Be Charging for Local SEO?

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Local Marketing Services Provided

Which services are agencies packaging up into their core local marketing offering?

Before delving into a more comprehensive list, we’ve summarized the most commonly offered local marketing services in the chart below.

The majority of what we’d call the ‘fundamental’ local marketing services sit at the top of the list of services most commonly offered to clients. Although website design appears to be a surprisingly high (60%) offering for local marketing agencies, in this case, it is more common than local SEO pillars like citation management and review management.

The full list of local marketing services is shown below.

Based on previous benchmarking surveys, we expected review management, PPC, and social media to appear higher in the list. However, both PPC and social media require very different skill sets, and it’s not uncommon for clients to use multiple agencies based on their specialities. 

It is interesting to see that less than half of agencies offer review management (down by approximately 2% on 2023’s Local Search Industry Survey). Could it be that, rather than providing this service, agencies are encouraging and educating clients to implement these strategies themselves? This might also show that businesses and brands themselves have become more savvy about owning these areas of local marketing in-house.

The areas lower on the list, though, can also act as a gap analysis of sorts by highlighting that there is space in the local marketing agency market for ventures into these areas.  

Client Lifespan and Turnover

The aim of a successful agency is not necessarily to have the most clients but to have clients with fruitful and mutually beneficial partnerships. Sometimes, these partnerships come to a natural end as a project wraps up, while others are based on longer-term strategies and vision.

It’s an amazing feat to be able to say you’ve worked with a client for five or ten years, but you want to make sure that the relationship is still fruitful for both of you.

At first glance, the pattern for ‘High-performing Agencies’ versus ‘Everyone Else’ is largely similar, and it looks like the sweet spot for everyone is a client partnership between one and five years.

However, it’s also notable that ‘High-performing Agencies’ seem to retain the longest partnerships of 10 years and over more commonly. So, what are the top reasons for client turnover when they do inevitably move on?

It’s not surprising that budget cutting is the most common reason for client turnover. Whether you’re a high-performing agency or not, if clients are looking to save dollars, partner services and tools are often the first things to be scrutinized.

The reasons for turnover appear fairly even across all local agencies, but what is the least common reason for ‘High-performing Agencies’ is actually the second most common reason for ‘Everyone Else’: project work. Again, we’re not going to make any bold recommendations about overhauling the way your agency is doing things, but if your agency isn’t performing against expectations or is struggling with client turnover, it could be useful to examine the ways you are selling and billing work.

Reacting to Developments in Search

We can’t discuss the state of the search marketing industry without acknowledging some of the developments, innovations, and—let’s face it—shakeups influencing the way agency marketers do their jobs.

You don’t need me to point out how often things change within SEO. Along with constant developments and improvements to key local marketing products like Google Business Profile (GBP) that can change the tactics businesses in different industries use, the industry has seen plenty of big swings in 2024. I am, of course, referring to Google’s AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience), ChatGPT Search, and other changes in the way people search for things and get information online.

When big news breaks, agency marketers quickly turn to industry news outlets, experts and peers to see the reaction. But how aware are their clients of what’s going on?  

86% of local marketers agreed that their clients are aware of how new developments in search could impact their business visibility and rankings. 

Over the years that we’ve been running industry surveys, we’ve asked local marketers whether their clients see reacting to algorithm changes as an important focus. Considering algorithm updates are usually something you don’t ‘see’, Google overhauling its SERPs with AI Overviews has been big news. 

66% of agency marketers said their clients feel reacting to algorithm updates is an important focus in 2024, up 5% from 2023. It makes sense that clients want to stay on top of such changes.

Yet, as we know, the nature of local search is changing in ways beyond traditional search and the ways in which people discover businesses are changing. What about developments beyond Google? 

73% of local marketers agreed that clients are aware of the importance of ranking beyond Google. Although lower than the awareness of algorithm changes, it’s positive to see this in such high numbers. With the news of ChatGPT Search still hot off the press, it will be interesting to see how this might change in the coming months.

Local Marketing Agencies in 2025 and Beyond

With such big developments in the industry continuing to roll out, and absolutely no sign of the AI hype dying down, exciting opportunities lay ahead for agencies and their clients.

AI and Big Opportunities

Alongside big tech swings in 2024, we’ve also seen a real return to basics in terms of the impact of foundational SEO. E-E-A-T continues to be at the top of experts’ minds when highlighting the importance of focusing on end users. At the same time, those specializing in certain verticals or niches are quick to highlight the benefits of new GBP features. 

On the whole, where do agency marketers think the biggest opportunities are for their clients in 2025?

As a content purist, it fills me with joy to see that E-E-A-T is front of mind for agency marketers as the top opportunity (24%) when it comes to their local marketing strategies. Of course, being at the behest of Google’s guidelines, you could argue that it leaves little choice for those wanting their clients’ content and websites to be found. But, a strong focus on creating content and experiences that are truly helpful to the end user can only be a good thing.

I’d expected to see alternative search engines and new advertising platforms with higher percentages, particularly with how platforms like Reddit have gained such visibility in SERPs and become an attractive advertising option.

Perhaps it’s too soon to expect agency marketers to have strong thoughts about strategies beyond Google. Although ChatGPT Search is using Bing’s Index to power its search engine functionality, it’s still early days.

In the areas of local marketing that agency marketers believe to be the biggest opportunities in 2025, it’s no surprise that the most common answer is AI and machine learning. 

As the biggest opportunity for their agencies, it makes sense that it’s also the most common area in which agencies want to improve their own knowledge. 

59% of agency marketers want to develop their expertise in AI, and it’s a sensible answer too, no matter your thoughts or skepticism on AI. There is a lot out there, with baiting email subject lines and constant streams of new articles on the subject, and clients often expect agencies to be up to speed on the ‘latest’ thing. So, wanting to get to grips with AI beyond a general understanding is a good business decision.

Plus, despite the healthy sense of optimism around the opportunities AI can bring, agency marketers seem to be also conscious of how it’s being sold to them.

79% of agency marketers said that they feel some businesses are overselling the capabilities of AI. And, if you think about how often you see ‘do x with AI’ shoehorned into meta titles in Google results now, you can’t blame them.

As we pointed out in our generative AI case study last year, it is ever-evolving, and professionals should remain cautious of its capabilities for now, particularly as far as accuracy is concerned. We are increasingly seeing cases of ‘AI-washing‘ throughout various industries, in which businesses are being held accountable to inflating the capabilities of AI in relation to their own products.

It’s particularly interesting, then, that despite a sense of caution and skepticism, agency marketers still expect potential tech partners to actively incorporate AI into new products. Following generative AI’s explosion into the industry in 2023, we started asking local marketers about their expectations of AI moving forward.

Not only do agency marketers still expect tech partners and tool providers to incorporate AI into their products, the sentiment appears even stronger in 2024.

So, wait a minute, what are we saying here? Let’s summarize:

• 33% of agency marketers think the biggest opportunities for their agencies lay within AI.
• 59% of agency marketers want to develop their own knowledge in AI.
• 79% of agency marketers think that some businesses are overselling the capabilities of AI.
• But, 84% of agency marketers still expect potential tech partners to actively incorporate AI into new products.

It’s a slightly confusing message overall, but in my mind it suggests that there is a sense of wanting to be seen to do the right thing or be known for keeping up with the latest tech developments. 

Investing in the Future

Overall, the future of local marketing agencies paints a fairly strong picture. Along with an appetite to develop marketer expertise (and, therefore, agency services) in relation to AI, agencies appear optimistic about their growth, both in terms of increasing team sizes and maturing their existing tech stacks.

66% of agencies told us they’ll be hiring in 2025. Although we didn’t ask agencies about AI roles specifically within their agencies this time around, it will be interesting to see whether we see changes in team structures or service product offerings throughout 2025 that can be attributed to how AI is influencing the workplace.

Meanwhile, almost three-quarters of local marketing agencies plan to invest more in their stack stacks next year. It’s important to remember that investing in technology doesn’t always mean adding ‘more’ to the stack and often involves maturing. Streamlining platforms for better visibility across teams, improving integrations, cutting loose outdated or redundant tools, and investing in new products to support the demand for new services are just a few obvious benefits of investing more in technology.

So, it’s encouraging to see that marketers are willing to make the investment rather than shy away from making potentially grand investments.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for taking the time out to read the Local Marketing Industry Survey: Agency Edition. Once again, we owe a huge thanks to the local agency marketers who participated in the survey—we really can’t do it without you!

We hope you found these benchmarks useful. Anything you’d like to share or discuss from this report? Be sure to tag us in your posts on LinkedIn or start a post in The Local Pack, we always love to hear your commentary and feedback.

If you’d like the opportunity to contribute to research like this, make sure you’re signed up to receive the BrightLocal newsletter.

About the Local Marketing Industry Survey: Agency Edition

The Local Marketing Industry Survey was conducted via across August and September 2024 using BrightLocal’s subscriber channels, social media, and peers within the community.

The survey population is made up of 385 respondents, of which 53% identify as male, 44% identify as female, 1% identify as non-binary, and 2% prefer not to disclose gender.

Publishers are welcome to use the charts and data outlined within this report, crediting BrightLocal and linking to this article’s URL. If you have any questions about the report, please contact sammy.paget@brightlocal.com or research@brightlocal.com.

Even as the way people search changes, business directories continue to lead the way in business discovery. As of the Local Consumer Review Survey 2024, Google, Facebook, and Yelp were consumers’ top three online sources for finding local businesses.

What we don’t talk about so often, though, is how consumers get there—or, rather, how search engine giants like Google surface these websites in search results. After all, aside from optimizing your brand website for better local rankings, understanding how to maximize your presence in SERP real estate can be a game-changer.

With all of this in mind, we wanted to find out how prevalent business listings are in search engine result pages (SERPs) for searches with local intent, along with other types of business mentions, to give a sense of where your marketing dollars are best spent to try to appear behind one of those coveted top ten blue links.

Methodology

In this study, we conducted 800 manual Google searches for local businesses and recorded the first ten organic search results (AKA the first “ten blue links”) for each, for a total of 8,000 search results.

We used one transactional keyword (e.g. coffee shop) and one informational keyword (e.g. best coffee shop) in searches across 20 different business verticals. We repeated these 40 searches in 20 different US cities to provide a broad set of terms and locations. 

So that we could compare the presence of forum results in local SERPs, we used the same 20 business verticals and 20 US cities as in our previous Reddit SERP study 

Note: For this study, we did not record any AI Overviews (AIOs) because the study focuses purely on organic results. However, it is also worth noting that a recent study (August 2024) shows that AI Overviews match organic results in the top ten organic results almost 100% of the time, so it’s fair to assume that the information that appears in organic results influences AIOs.

SERP Results Compared 

Our study found that business directories make up almost a third (31%) of the top ten organic search results overall, providing users with several options beyond Google’s results to view local business information. As the average local search surfaces three directory results within the first ten, you’re going to want to make sure your brand is present and accurately represented in the most visible and relevant directories.

Meanwhile, it’s generally no revelation that business websites make up a large portion of the top ten organic results for local searches. Whether the intent is informational or transactional, it’s arguably in users’ best interest to visit different brands’ websites to a) complete a transaction or b) gather the information they’re looking for.

One surprise, however, is how the visibility of forum results has changed since our Reddit SERP study, where we found that Reddit made up 11% of organic results for transactional searches and 52% of informational searches (31% across all search terms tested).

While that study focused solely on Reddit results and not any other forums, it’s worth noting that we found that Reddit makes up 89% of all forum results recorded in this Business Listings Visibility Study. As of October 2024, forum results make up just 7% of the top ten organic search results. 

When we look at the breakdown of result types for transactional and informational search terms, the pattern remains largely the same, but with one exception…

The biggest difference is in the proportion of website and directory results displayed in the top ten for informational searches. For informational searches (e.g., best coffee shop), directories take the larger share (37%) over business sites (32%).

Screenshot of SERP for ‘best coffee shop buffalo,’ where multiple business directories are present

Why might directories be this prominent for informational searches? The business listings found on today’s modern directories provide users with a detailed snapshot of several key business factors, not just contact information, particularly where industry-specific directories are concerned.

In addition to contact information and opening hours, information such as photos of facilities, listed products and services, and customer-submitted content such as business reviews help to inform user research and enable consumers to compare multiple businesses in one place.

Therefore, if a consumer is searching for the ‘best’ type of local business (a search with informational intent), it makes sense that Google would consider directory results relevant.

Business directory result (Tripadvisor) for ‘best coffee shop seattle’

The difference between how often business websites are shown in results for transactional searches (61%) and informational searches (32%) gives us a clear indication of how Google measures user intent.

For a transactional search like ‘car dealership chicago’, Google recognizes that the user is looking for relevant businesses in a local area, whereas for an informational search like ‘best car dealership chicago’, Google understands the consumer is looking to do some research and compare findings. 

Business mentions and forums also have a larger share of organic SERP real estate for informational searches than transactional ones. Again, where users are searching with the intent of researching or gathering information before making a decision, it follows that Google might generate results with informal opinions in the form of blog articles or discussions.

Next, we’ll take a look at how these percentages change for specific business verticals.

Healthcare and Wellness

Search terms within the health, medical, and wellness categories tend to lead to business website results for both transactional and informational searches. 

Directory visibility is surprisingly low in SERPs for the searches ‘dentist [location]’ (3%), ‘vet clinic [location]’ (3%). At the same time, these are two of the search terms where business websites saw the largest share of organic search results in our study.

It could be the case that, as these business types can be associated with more ‘urgent’ needs, Google understands the intent of these search terms and knows that users need information now, and therefore might be less concerned about ‘shopping around’.

However, this changes when we look at informational search intent. When a consumer is looking for the ‘best’ dentist or ‘best’ vet clinic, directory results jump back up (34% and 23%, respectively). If you consider some of the less urgent needs for these business types, but where a consumer is looking for the ‘best’, things like cosmetic dentistry spring to mind, where it’s likely you would want to shop around before making a decision.

‘Best gym [location]’ sees some of the most forum results in this whole study (18%). When we analyzed some of the USA’s top gym brands in the recent Brand Review Index, we found strong themes of community, culture, and lifestyle. Gym reviewers tend to advocate for their gyms based on very specific factors, and it seems that Google recognizes the need to return search results that reflect this.

Forum result (Reddit) for ‘best gym milwaukee’

Hospitality 

When it comes to hospitality-related searches, you would expect to see a variety of results in SERPs, where professional reviews feature in established lifestyle publications, local blogs host listicle-style articles, and threads on local food scenes are common across forums.

As you’ll see below, the ‘coffee shop’ searches reflect this the strongest, with business mentions in the likes of Eater, Edible, The Infatuation, and Best Coffee Guide all appearing in the SERPs. 

Both transactional and informational searches for ‘fast food restaurants’ and ‘hotels’ show a heavy weighting towards directory results. Hotel results surface the travel-specific listing websites you’d expect, like Tripadvisor, Kayak, Booking.com, and Trivago, where users can compare prices, hotel ratings, and real customer experiences all in one place.

Fast food directories generate a lot of third-party delivery partner sites and apps. Although technically similar to travel-specific directory sites like Booking.com, which have transactional features, fast food third-party sites are unique in that the focus is on getting something right now. So, it is interesting to see the likes of Uber Eats and Door Dash appearing prominently in organic SERPs for informational search terms. Of course, we don’t necessarily recommend listing your fast-food restaurant on all of the delivery apps unless you can handle the customers!

Interestingly, the search term ‘fast food restaurants’ also sees the highest proportion of directory results than any other search term in this study (72%). It shows how far industry-specific directories have come and how they’re continuing to evolve. DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grub Hub, and their competitors are hybrids of a directory, map system, and ordering platform, as each vendor is listed with NAP information.

Services and Trades

While we know from the Local Consumer Review Survey that long-standing directories like Better Business Bureau (BBB) still play a part in consumers’ decision-making, this study reinforces this by showing a strong SERP presence for directories in both transactional and informational search results pages. 

While all transactional searches see more business website results appear in the top ten search results than other types, we can see that some informational terms generate more directory results. ‘Best electrician’ and ‘best HVAC contractor’ lead the way, surfacing a variety of typically more trade-specific directories such as Angie’s List, Expertise, Thumbtack, and BBB.

The clear exception is for ‘car dealership’, where 100% of organic results lead to business websites. It’s the only instance throughout this study where one result type completely dominates the top ten organic results. This shows that SERP real estate for car dealership businesses is incredibly competitive, at least in the USA.

‘Your Money or Your Life’ (YMYL)

‘Your Money or Your Life’ refers to content that provides information that can impact a user’s life, health, and finances, which is why we’ve grouped our attorney, realtor, and tax advisor searches here. The end goal of a user researching these types of local businesses is essentially to instruct a professional who will provide financial, legal, or property advice—pretty life-changing stuff.

Legal and financial advice is not something you want to rush into without plenty of research. Therefore, comparing the experience and reviews of professionals on recognized directories is a ‘must’ in any consumer’s decision-making process.

So, it makes sense that the SERPs for these terms are dominated by directories and business websites rather than informal mentions or discussions, allowing users to do thorough research and compare professionals on trusted directories.

Searches related to attorney and tax advisor businesses (‘attorney,’ ‘best attorney,’ ‘best tax advisor’) generate a particularly large amount of business directory results—in fact, more than half of the top ten organic results for these searches were directories.

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The anomaly in this group is that 43% of informational realtor searches are business mentions. As with car dealerships, I would estimate that this finding is pretty unique to the USA because its real estate market is largely fronted by individual realtors, where face, reputation, and personality are key.

SERP for ‘best realtor chicago,’ highlighting multiple business mentions in results

The business mentions recorded tend to be realtor profiles, as users are likely to want to spend time reading up on the professionals themselves. The example below from PropertySpark was a common result across the different US locations used with our search terms, and you’ll note the significant focus on agents’ social media profiles.

Realtor profiles found on PropertySpark

I have a feeling that if we conducted informational searches for a UK equivalent (e.g., ‘best estate agent london’), we would not see such a high level of business mentions! 

Entertainment

The groupings below for entertainment-related search terms don’t appear to show a pattern in the types of search results generated. The amount of SERP real estate taken up by each result type is pretty varied, but then again, so are the business types reflected by the search terms. It would be worth researching the types of search results for businesses in a similar niche—for example; a toy store could be compared against other types of children’s retailers.

However, it was very surprising to see that 60% of ‘best betting store’ search results were business mentions. A closer look at ‘betting store’ results highlighted many intricacies around legal betting in different states, which explains why so many local news sites or betting publications surfaced in the SERPs. So, this is likely a very specific occurrence in US-based searches. 

Some examples included press releases from online trade publications or articles on local news sites announcing the arrival of new sports books in the respective city. It’s likely that these occurrences would be particularly ‘newsworthy’ where some states have seen the re-introduction of legal gambling as recently as 2018.

A business mention result for ‘best betting store denver’ highlights why a store opening is particularly newsworthy

This raises an interesting consideration for businesses that are held to varying state laws or sit within regulated industries where online advertising can be tricky to navigate. Creating educational and authoritative content that explains these complexities on your website and pitching these topics to relevant publications can be an effective way of building credibility, reinforcing the pillars of E-E-A-T, and possibly supporting your local visibility. 

Other Notable Findings

Variety of Directory Results

We’ve touched on the presence of industry-specific directories throughout this study, alluding to a great variety of directories appearing for different searches within the top ten organic results alone. The chart below summarizes which of the study’s search terms generated business directories for more than half of the first ten organic search results.

We’ve collated some examples from our study data below to provide you with an idea of the variety that appeared in our search results—and, hopefully, some inspiration for other places to get your brand or clients listed.

However, despite the variety of directory results appearing in SERPs, we can’t ignore the fact that some—and I’m sure you can guess which ones—dominate the space. That’s right, we’re talking about Yelp and Tripadvisor, of course. We found these long-standing websites appeared for a whopping 28% and 10% of all directory results in this study, respectively.

Opportunities for Securing Business Mentions

Several of the search groups saw business mentions take the largest share of organic search results within their group, winning out over business websites, directories, or forums. So, we pulled these together to examine areas of opportunity for securing business mentions as a local marketing tactic. 

We’ve already touched on how niche businesses or those bound by regulations and varying state laws, like betting stores and sports books, can contribute their expertise to third-party sites as a way of boosting visibility. 

Similarly, businesses in the hospitality industry, such as coffee shops and restaurants, can seek out relevant lists and publications to contribute to and be included within, whether it’s a popular consumer-facing publication or a trade-specific publication. It won’t be as easy as just asking to be included in a ‘Top 10 Best’ listicle but think about ways that you can be creative in pitching your brand or its team—an interview with a head chef, for example.

How can I use this information?

The good news is that such diversity in the results shows how each listing or mention ‘type’ has its place in local SEO, and there are plenty of actionable tactics you can adopt in your local marketing strategies accordingly.

The bad news—depending on the type of person you are, I suppose—is that different tactics can mean more work, but at least this study should help you prioritize based on what types of results get the most real estate in your (or your client’s) vertical.

Directories

The business directory landscape is constantly evolving. Given the presence of different business directories within SERPs across this study and the fact that SERP real estate is an incredibly competitive space, your brand quite simply can’t afford to miss out on being listed in the right places. 

According to the Business Research Company, a combination of factors, such as digital transformation, increasing consumer demand for digital content, and the growth of digital advertising platforms, has propelled the global directory market in recent years. With this comes a greater need for specialized directories.

They might not be the first sites to cross a user’s mind, compared to key platforms and search engines like Google, Yelp, Apple, and Facebook, but niche and industry-specific directories are important research tools for consumers. And clearly, Google believes they are relevant, too. Some of the examples we recorded in this study include Healthgrades, Thumbtack, BBB, ClassPass, Gymbird, Booksy, CarFax, and DoorDash.

Each trade directory is designed to reflect its niche. You might be aware, for example, that online directories specializing in beauty and wellbeing often use calming hues of blue, green, or pink, place emphasis on high-quality photos of their facilities, and highlight key or popular services. Meanwhile, healthcare or medical directories focus on practitioner profiles, official trust accreditations, and testimonials. SAB directories generally emphasize key contact information and pricing for services you need to get done.

Some of these directories might not be free for businesses to join, but it’s a good idea to do some research and see what sites come up in your search results and where your competitors are to see where your brand could be missing out!

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Business websites

As we’ve seen, business websites are shown for almost half of the first ten organic results (47%). So, if you want your brand to appear in the local pack above organic results, you’ll want to give the business’s website the best possible chance of ranking organically for these kinds of local-intent searches. 

It’s certainly not as easy as getting into a business directory, but getting your business website into the top organic rankings starts with nailing the fundamentals of SEO. As a reminder, here are some of the basics to consider:

• Defined website structure with a home page, dedicated product or service pages, category, and local pages.
• Optimized website content that has been informed by keyword research.
• Creating high-quality content that is unique, helpful, and follows E-E-A-T guidelines.
• Optimized metadata to boost chances of click-through from SERPs.

Improving On-page SEO for Local

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Forums

As discussed in our Reddit SERP study, there is little you can do to directly influence your brand’s presence on forums unless you want to come across as inauthentically self-promoting—or worse, spammy.

However, it is a useful reminder to keep an eye on forums for brand mentions if you haven’t been doing so already. In their own way, forum discussions can be a local PR tool if you’re lucky enough to have customers advocating for you! And if you don’t, then there’s another good reason to really hone in on your customer service and retention efforts.

There are also ways of ‘officially’ representing your brand within forums in a way that won’t rub users up the wrong way. Consider creating brand representative accounts and interacting with relevant discussions in an authentic or helpful way. A simple site search can help uncover where people might have questions about your brand or relevant products and services that you offer.

The best way to increase your chances of appearing in forum conversations? Deliver the best service at the most competitive price, and work on your brand to get the exposure and word-of-mouth your business needs.

Brand mentions

Local PR strategies can sometimes fall to the wayside, whether they’re too time-consuming or hard to prove as a good investment of resources. However, the breadth of business mentions in this study’s results highlights how influential they can be in building brand awareness and reaching new audiences.

In the above examples alone, we can see a variety of official local and nationwide news sites, local blogs, trade publications, lifestyle blogs and publications, and social media.

As with forum mentions, you can’t always directly influence the likelihood of someone featuring your brand in a TikTok, so the best advice for creating brand advocacy is really giving your customers a reason to want to shout about you.

As for local and community PR, there are certainly tactics you can adopt to reach your local news sites, specialty blogs, and trade publications.

Conclusion

Of course, the dream scenario is that your business appears in the map pack as the first organic search result, followed by your business listing on multiple authoritative directories, and with glowing reviews and forum testimonials bringing up the rear…

But there really are only so many hours in a day.

That’s why we hope this study has given you food for thought and that the nuances of different business verticals have given you some inspiration for local marketing tactics you can implement that you might not have considered.

If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out which directories might be suitable for you, we have a plethora of citation and listing resources available to help.

Appendix

The table below shows the full breakdown of search result types for each search term. As a reminder, each group of search terms contains 20 different searches, where 20 US cities were used as a suffix for local intent (ie. coffee shop buffalo).