A whopping 90% of marketers in a new study believe Google’s focus on proximity “frequently or sometimes” harms search results quality. This finding was recently published by Moz in their State of Local SEO report. The findings are based on the responses of roughly 1,400 marketers, segmented by marketer type and company size.
A sense of fragmentation and a high degree of confusion was present among most marketers who were pursuing local SEO. The survey asked the population about what factors influenced local search rankings. Although proximity was cited as the top factor by 32%, the next highest response was “no top-ranking factor” and 11% of the respondents didn’t understand the question at all.
Additional findings include the following:
- 64% see Google as the new “homepage” for local businesses
- 66% of clients and agencies care more about conversions and revenue than rankings by themselves
- 65% of respondents use between 2-5 local SEO tools and software
Businesses will need to put more effort into their local SEO to show up in local queries, based on this report. The question is, will confusion decrease over time? And, if so, how long will it take?
Sources: Search Engine Land
