SinglePlatform, Constant Contact’s Local Discovery Arm has just completed a study that shows that 85 percent of small businesses believe it is important for their company to be found on the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Yelp, less than half of small businesses keep their online local listings up to date.
Perhaps the reason for the lack of updates is that, according to the study 70 percent of the small businesses questioned stated that they don’t manage local listings on all of the sites that their consumers use due to lack of time. This puts small businesses at a disadvantage because the study also notes that 2/3rds of consumers use local search on a weekly basis, and that 70 percent of mobile searches lead to immediate action, defined as action within 1 hour.
The study shows that mobile is important, and that 84 percent of SMBs believe that having a mobile-optimized website is important.
Bottom Line: Keeping local listings updated and correct is vital to any local marketing program. Mobile sites are also important for local marketing. If you have a small business and lack the expertise or time to keep your local listings current or create a mobile friendly web presence, please ask your webmaster to help out or recommend a service that can do this for you. These features have become the minimum requirements for an effective local marketing campaign.
Eric Van Cleave is a Partner in Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa, California based SEO, Mobile Website Development, and Responsive Design Development Company.