The rise of 'Near me' Searches

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Technology has evolved and now offers us various ways to search for different businesses and services. The trend of “near me “searches has gained momentum and in a time of the COVID-19 pandemic, where consumer behaviour has changed drastically, “near me” searches have become even more useful than ever.

In the last few years, ‘Near me’ searches have witnessed exponential growth as most users now have their location or GPS enabled on their phone. Allowing Google to detect the user’s current location and present them the most relevant and localised search results.

Benefits for SMB

For a business owner, these ‘Near me’ searches offer a huge advantage. Optimising your business for ‘Near me’ search terms is vital for the business to increase traffic and gain potential customers. It means you are getting in front of your target audience at the exact moment they are looking to buy from you.

Things to consider

Think about how you search for a business or service near you? Do you type it into Google? Your Apple Maps app? Fortunately, there is countless ways to look up local businesses you need.

There are different ways you can optimise your brand for ‘Near me’ searches:

List your business information accurately and consistently on important directories online. Some of these directories include Google, Bing, White Pages and Yellow pages. Accuracy and consistency of your business information across these platforms will help you to rank for ‘Near me’ queries.

Your NAP data will help you rank in local SEO. NAP stands for name, address and phone number. This information is vital as it helps your business listing to rank well in search results.

Reviews are also important, not only because they are one of the best ways to optimize for ‘Near me’ searches but for converting prospects into customers.

Make sure your site is mobile-friendly as Google prefers to return those sites in the search results because they offer the best experience to users.

Smart devices like Alexa and Google Home are also being used more and more frequently. With people now asking their smart devices questions that include ‘Near me’ phrases such as ‘find my nearest take away store open now’.

An important thing to keep in mind is to recognise that the term ‘Near me’ is dependent on the user’s location and not just another keyword you should be targeting in your digital marketing strategy. If you are optimising for ‘Near me’ as a keyword, you may appear in searches that include ‘Near me’ but might not be presented to users who are near your business location.

Focusing on building your online presence across Google and places where customers search is vital in ensuring that your information is correct and consistent. Helping customer’s find you easily, appearing on ‘Near me searches’ and allowing your existing and future customers a great experience. White Pages Connect gives you a single point of control allowing you to keep your business details up-to-date across major sites, helps manage your online presence and with local SEO.