Local search still runs mostly through Google, but customers now check more places before they choose. In 2026, 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses and 45% have used AI tools for local recommendations. Meanwhile, a 2025 survey found only 35% of small businesses have a Google Business Profile. The local SEO statistics below are grouped by theme, and each one links to its original source.
Many local SEO statistics roundups recycle numbers that are years old or impossible to trace. Every figure here links to the page it came from and includes the year of the data. Where a number has a caveat, I’ve noted it.
How people search for local businesses
- 58% of consumers search online several times a day, and 82% search at least daily. (BrightLocal Consumer Search Behavior, 2025)
- 39% of consumers estimate that at least 41% of their searches are about local businesses. BrightLocal notes there’s no reliable current figure for the true share of local searches, so this is a self-reported estimate. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 45% of consumers default to Google for local searches, rising to 53% when Safari (which uses Google) is included. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 15% go straight to Google Maps for local searches, and maps apps overall (Google, Apple and Bing) are the default for 20%. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 14% of consumers start local searches on social media, rising to 26% of Gen Z. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 85% say contact details and opening hours are important when researching a local business, ranking above price and proximity. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 56% often or always check that a business’s information matches other mentions online. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 67% often or always look at reviews after a local search, and 49% often or always go on to plan their route to the business. (BrightLocal, 2025)
What this means for your business
People searching locally are usually close to acting, and they check whether your details add up. Accurate hours, phone number and address across every listing are basic requirements. If yours conflict, fix them at the source before doing anything else.
Google Business Profile and the local pack
- Only 35% of small and mid-size businesses say they have a Google Business Profile. (BrightLocal SMB Marketing Report, 2025)
- 89% of SMBs say they invest in organic SEO, yet only 40% say they have a dedicated website. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 54% of small business owners manage marketing on their own. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- Customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider buying from a business with a complete Business Profile. This comes from Google’s help center; the underlying research was done with Ipsos in 2017, so treat it as directional. (Google Business Profile Help)
- Customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable if its profile is complete. Same Google source and caveat as above. (Google Business Profile Help)
- Experts ranked “business is open at the time of search” as the #5 local pack ranking factor out of 187. It was a new factor in the survey of 47 local search experts. (Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors, 2026)
- 24% of local pack results in BrightLocal’s sample had no website listed on their profile. (BrightLocal near me study, 2025)
What this means for your business
If two-thirds of small businesses don’t have a profile at all, simply claiming, completing and maintaining yours puts you ahead of a lot of local competition. Categories, services, hours, photos and steady reviews all count. Our step-by-step guide to ranking higher on Google Maps covers the details, or you can hand it to us through Google Business Profile management.
Online reviews
- 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses. (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, 2026)
- 41% “always” read reviews when looking at businesses, up from 29% the year before. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- The average consumer uses six different review sites when choosing a business. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- Google’s share as a review source fell from 83% to 71% in one year, while Apple Maps nearly doubled from 14% to 27%. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 47% won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 74% only care about reviews written in the last three months. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 31% will only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from 17% a year earlier. 68% require at least four stars. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 85% are more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews, and 77% are put off by negative ones. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 54% visit the business’s website after reading positive reviews. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 89% expect business owners to respond to reviews. 19% expect a same-day reply and 81% expect one within a week. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 80% are likely to use a business that responds to all its reviews, while 42% are unlikely to use one that ignores them. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- Templated or generic review responses make 50% of consumers unlikely to choose a business. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 78% of consumers were asked to leave a review in the past year, and 83% of those asked went on to leave one. (BrightLocal, 2026)
What this means for your business
Review volume, recency and replies all matter, and expectations keep rising. A steady flow of new reviews beats a burst every few years. Ask every happy customer, reply to every review in your own words, and build reviews on more than one platform. Here’s our guide to responding to negative reviews and earning more Google reviews.
Mobile and near me searches
- 46% of consumers say they always or often add “near me” to local searches. (BrightLocal near me study, 2025)
- Searches for 24 industry-specific “near me” terms fell 19% between 2021 and 2024. (BrightLocal, 2025)
- 94% of local pack results showed no evidence of “near me” optimization on the business’s website. (BrightLocal, 2025)
What this means for your business
Google already understands local intent, so you don’t need to stuff “near me” into your pages. BrightLocal concluded that the local pack leans heavily on the searcher’s location and proximity. Focus on a strong profile, clear location and service pages, and good reviews.
AI and local search
- 45% of consumers used AI tools to find local business recommendations, up from 6% the previous year. AI tools became the third most used source for local recommendations, behind Google and Facebook. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 31% used ChatGPT for business recommendations in the past 12 months, and 23% used Google’s AI Mode. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 64% of adults aged 30 to 44 asked AI for a business recommendation in the past year, compared with 24% of those over 60. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 88% of AI users fact-check reviews cited by AI tools, either by checking whether a review is legitimate or by looking at its source. 97% sometimes double-check AI recommendations against real reviews. (BrightLocal, 2026)
- 40% of consumers say they actively use generative AI when searching online. (BrightLocal Consumer Search Behavior, 2025)
- Google users clicked a regular search result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when none appeared. They clicked a link inside the summary on 1% of visits. Based on March 2025 browsing data from 900 U.S. adults. (Pew Research Center, 2025)
- AI Overviews appeared for 15.69% of tracked queries in November 2025, after peaking near 25% in July. Semrush found real estate and shopping had the smallest share of AI Overviews, likely because local packs and ads already serve those searches. (Semrush, 2025)
- AI Overviews reached more than 1.5 billion users a month. (Google, Q1 2025 earnings remarks)
- Branded web mentions correlated with brand visibility in ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews at 0.66 to 0.71, and YouTube mentions at about 0.74. Correlation, not proof of cause, across 75,000 brands. (Ahrefs, 2025)
What this means for your business
AI is now part of how people find local businesses, but most of them still verify with real reviews. That makes your reputation across the web, and the accuracy of your listings, more important than ever. Our guide to showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode explains what you can control. We build that work into our SEO services.
How to use these numbers
Statistics are useful for setting priorities, not for predicting your results. A few ways to put them to work:
- Audit your basics against the data. Is your profile complete? Are your hours right everywhere? Do you have at least 20 recent reviews?
- Pick one weak spot per month. Fix review responses one month, listings the next, service pages after that.
- Measure your own numbers. Track calls, direction requests, form fills and review count monthly. Your trend line matters more than any industry average.
- Check AI answers quarterly. Ask ChatGPT and Google AI Mode for businesses like yours in your area and note what they say.
For Savannah businesses, our local SEO in Savannah page shows how we apply this locally.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of Google searches are local?
There’s no reliable current figure. BrightLocal notes that the popular statistic on local search share traces back to an unconfirmed Google remark from around 2018. In BrightLocal’s 2025 survey, 39% of consumers estimated that at least 41% of their own searches are about local businesses.
How many reviews does a local business need?
BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found 47% of consumers won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 74% only care about reviews from the last three months. Aim for at least 20 and a steady flow of new ones.
Do people still use Google to find local businesses?
Yes. Google remains the top platform for local search and reviews. Its share is slipping as people also use Apple Maps, social media and AI tools, so a presence beyond Google is increasingly worth building.
Are AI tools replacing local search?
Not yet. AI use for local recommendations grew fast in 2026, but nearly all AI users double-check recommendations against real reviews, and Google is still the most common starting point.
Turn the numbers into a plan
If you want to know where your business stands on these numbers and what to fix first, book a discovery call. In 30 minutes we’ll look at your profile, reviews and local rankings, and you’ll leave with a short list of priorities.
