Local SEO Statistics 2026: Reviews, Maps and AI Search Data
Sourced local SEO statistics for 2026: how US consumers find local businesses, review standards, Google Business Profile rules, ranking factors and AI search.
US consumers who read reviews for local businesses, 2026 (BrightLocal)
Latest local searches started on Google Search; 9% on Google Maps (BrightLocal, 2026)
Consumers who used AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6% (BrightLocal, 2026)
Policy-violating reviews Google blocked or removed on Maps in 2025
Key Takeaways
How do people find local businesses in 2026, and what do they check before they call or visit? The honest answer starts with what nobody publishes. Google does not release the share of searches with local intent, average Business Profile views or Local Pack click rates, and many of the local SEO statistics in circulation are Google statements and industry surveys from 2014 to 2018 with the year removed.
This page collects local search figures that can be traced to a named publisher and a date: Google’s own disclosures and help pages, BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer and small-business surveys, Whitespark’s 2026 ranking-factor survey, Pew Research Center, StatCounter, the SBA, the FTC and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, and named vendor studies of AI search. Every row names its source and period. Figures were last checked on October 21, 2026. For help applying them to your own locations, see our SEO services.
How to read this page: “Survey” is a sample survey: BrightLocal’s consumer surveys (1,002 to 1,227 US adults per study, published February to July 2026, with fieldwork dates not published), its small-business survey (1,002 US owners of businesses with 1–50 employees, October 2026), its 2018 voice study, Pew Research Center and a May 2016 diary study of 1,000 US smartphone users that Google commissioned. “Survey (expert panel)” is Whitespark’s ranking-factor survey of 47 local search practitioners, which records their judgment rather than measured rankings. “Official (company-reported)” is a figure Google or Alphabet states about its own products, usually without a method; the near-me figures from 2015 to 2021 are kept for their dates, not as current values. “Platform rule” is how Google’s help and policy pages say something works. “Official (regulator)” and “Official statistics” come from the FTC, the CMA, UK legislation and the SBA. “Measured (research study)” is Pew’s browsing-data analysis, “Measured (independent dataset)” is StatCounter page-view data, and “Measured (vendor study)” is a company’s own analysis of AI answers or its customers’ data (BrightLocal, SOCi, Yext, Uberall). Every source is listed once in the Sources section at the end.
How People Find Local Businesses
Most local searches still run through Google, but rarely through Google alone. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, 52% started their latest search on Google Search and another 9% on Google Maps, and 71% used Google Search at some point. Social media, AI tools and review sites each played a part for a minority.
Decisions are quick and shortlists are short: 75% chose a business in under 30 minutes, and 72% looked at three or fewer businesses. Google’s own scale figure is annual and global, more than 5 trillion searches a year, and Google does not say what share of them is local. For context, the SBA counts 36.2 million small businesses in the US, 99.9% of all businesses.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 84% | US consumers who had searched online for a local business in the previous three months, the screening figure behind BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer search behavior study (published June 2026; base not stated, since the study’s 1,227 respondents were all recent local searchers) | BrightLocal, Jun 24, 2026Survey |
| 52% | Consumers whose most recent local business search started on Google Search; a further 9% started on Google Maps (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 9, 2026Survey |
| 71% | Consumers who used Google Search at some point during their most recent local business search; social media was used by 30%, AI tools by 23% and review sites by 19% (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 9, 2026Survey |
| 75% | Consumers who took less than 30 minutes to decide which local business to use; 28% decided in under five minutes (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published June 2026) | BrightLocal, Jun 24, 2026Survey |
| 72% | Consumers who looked at three or fewer businesses before deciding; 1% looked at more than ten (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published June 2026) | BrightLocal, Jun 24, 2026Survey |
| 5 trillion+ | Searches on Google per year, as stated by Google in March 2025; Google does not publish a daily figure or the share of searches that are local | Google, Mar 3, 2025Official (company-reported) |
| 36.2 million | Small businesses in the United States (36,207,130), 99.9% of all US businesses, in the 2026 edition of the SBA Office of Advocacy’s small business FAQ | SBA Office of Advocacy, Feb 3, 2026Official statistics |
| 62.3 million | People employed by US small businesses, 45.9% of private-sector workers (SBA Office of Advocacy, 2026 edition) | SBA Office of Advocacy, Feb 3, 2026Official statistics |
Near-Me Searches: What Google Published, and When
The best-known near-me figures come from Google, and they are old. Google’s Think with Google articles reported near-me growth between 2015 and 2018, and the figures measured narrow query patterns over two-year windows: US mobile “near me” searches containing “can I buy” or “to buy” grew more than 500% between the second half of 2015 and the second half of 2017, and “near me today/tonight” searches more than 900%.
In 2017 Google also reported that comparable local searches without “near me” had grown 150% in two years, because people expect local results without asking for them. The latest related figure from Google found for this page is from April 2021, when searches for “local” + “business(es)” were up more than 80% year over year. Treat every number in this table as a dated observation, not a 2026 trend.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 34x | Increase in Google search interest in “near me” from 2011 to March 2015; Google said interest had nearly doubled in the previous year (Google Trends) | Think with Google, Apr 2015Official (company-reported) |
| 80% | Share of “near me” searches on Google that came from mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2014 | Think with Google, Apr 2015Official (company-reported) |
| 30% | Share of all mobile searches on Google that were related to location (Google search data, global, April 2016) | Think with Google, 2016 (data to May 2016)Official (company-reported) |
| 76% | People who searched on a smartphone for something nearby and visited a business within a day, in a May 2016 diary study Google commissioned from Purchased (1,000 US smartphone users, 634 of them local searchers) | Think with Google, 2016 (data to May 2016)Survey |
| 28% | Searches for something nearby that resulted in a purchase, in the same May 2016 Google-commissioned diary study (no time limit stated for the purchase) | Think with Google, 2016 (data to May 2016)Survey |
| 1.5 billion | Destinations people visited each month that were related to what they had searched for on Google (Google data, March 2016); a count of visits, not of searches | Think with Google, 2016 (data to May 2016)Official (company-reported) |
| 2.1x | Increase in US mobile searches for “stores open now” or “food open now”, March 2016 against March 2015 (Google Trends) | Think with Google, 2016 (data to May 2016)Official (company-reported) |
| 150% | Growth in comparable US local searches that did not include “near me”, January–June 2015 to January–June 2017; Google said these had outgrown searches that include “near me” | Think with Google, Aug 2017Official (company-reported) |
| 500%+ | Growth in US mobile “near me” searches containing “can I buy” or “to buy”, July–December 2015 to July–December 2017 | Think with Google, May 2018Official (company-reported) |
| 900%+ | Growth in US mobile searches for “___ near me today/tonight” (for example “cheap hotels near me tonight”), July–December 2015 to July–December 2017 | Think with Google, May 2018Official (company-reported) |
| 200%+ | Growth in US mobile searches combining “open”, “now” and “near me” (for example “pharmacy near me open now”), July–December 2015 to July–December 2017 | Think with Google, May 2018Official (company-reported) |
| 80%+ | Year-over-year growth in Google searches for “local” + “business(es)”, such as “local businesses near me”, reported in April 2021 during the pandemic | Google, Apr 5, 2021Official (company-reported) |
Google Business Profile: Rules and Usage
Google does not publish average Business Profile views, calls or direction requests; owners see performance data only for their own verified profiles. What Google does publish are the rules, and they are specific: the profile name must match the real-world name, a service area should not stretch beyond about two hours’ drive, and a profile can list up to 20 service areas.
Adoption among small businesses is high but activity is not. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of US owners of businesses with 1–50 employees, 85% had a Business Profile but only 35% said they kept an active presence there, and 22% named Google as a top-two source of new customers. Google Maps users suggested 80 million updates to business details in 2025, and since April 2026 Google emails verified owners about important edits before they go live. For what changed in spring, see our guide to local SEO after the March 2026 core update, and for each profile feature, our Google Business Profile guide.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Verified only | Business Profile performance data (views, clicks and other customer interactions on Search and Maps) is available only for verified profiles, to their owners and managers | Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| Real-world name | Google’s rule for Business Profile names: the name used on the storefront, website and stationery; adding taglines, store codes, hours, phone numbers or URLs isn’t permitted and can lead to suspension | Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| About 2 hours | Maximum extent of a service-area business’s overall service area, measured as driving time from where the business is based (Google says larger areas may suit some businesses) | Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| 20 | Maximum number of service areas (cities, postal codes or other areas) a Business Profile can list | Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| 85% | Owners who said they have a Google Business Profile; 63% manage it themselves (BrightLocal Small Business Marketing Report 2026, 1,002 US owners of local businesses with 1–50 employees, October 2026) | BrightLocal SMB report, Oct 21, 2026Survey |
| 35% | Owners who said they maintain an active presence on their Google Business Profile, against 43% for a Facebook page and 41% for a website (BrightLocal Small Business Marketing Report 2026, 1,002 US owners of local businesses with 1–50 employees) | BrightLocal SMB report, Oct 21, 2026Survey |
| 30% | Owners who had updated their Google Business Profile in the past week (hours, photos, posts or review replies); 72% had updated it in the past three months (BrightLocal Small Business Marketing Report 2026, 1,002 US owners of local businesses with 1–50 employees) | BrightLocal SMB report, Oct 21, 2026Survey |
| 22% | Owners who named Google as one of their top two sources of new customers, against word of mouth (35%), social media (33%) and AI tools (23%) (BrightLocal Small Business Marketing Report 2026, 1,002 US owners of local businesses with 1–50 employees) | BrightLocal SMB report, Oct 21, 2026Survey |
| 80 million | Suggested updates to business hours, contact information and other details that Google Maps users submitted in 2025 | Google, Apr 16, 2026Official (company-reported) |
| 79 million | Inaccurate or unverified edits to Business Profiles that Google blocked in 2025 | Google, Apr 16, 2026Official (company-reported) |
| April 2026 | Month Google began emailing verified, active owners about important edits to their Business Profiles before the edits go live | Google, Apr 16, 2026Official (company-reported) |
Google Maps and the Local Pack
Alphabet said in October 2024 that Google Maps had passed 2 billion monthly users, and Google says Maps draws on information about more than 300 million places, including reviews from more than 500 million contributors. Since March 2026 it has also answered conversational questions through Ask Maps, rolling out first in the US and India.
Google publishes no click-through rates for the Local Pack. Survey data shows what searchers look at instead: in BrightLocal’s July 2026 study, 44% checked how close a business was, 38% its star rating and 37% its number of reviews, while 16% said a business’s position in the results mattered and 6% just clicked the first result.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2 billion+ | Monthly users of Google Maps; Alphabet said in October 2024 that Maps was the latest of seven Google products to pass 2 billion monthly users | Alphabet, Oct 29, 2024Official (company-reported) |
| 300 million+ | Places whose information Google Maps analyzes to answer Ask Maps questions, including reviews from a community of more than 500 million contributors (March 2026) | Google, Mar 12, 2026Official (company-reported) |
| 44% | Consumers who looked at a business’s address or how near it was while researching their most recent local search; 38% looked at the star rating, 37% the number of reviews and 34% whether the listing was complete (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 15, 2026Survey |
| 16% | Consumers who said how high a business appeared in the results affected which listings they looked at; 6% just clicked the first result (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 15, 2026Survey |
| 32% | Consumers who put clear and complete information (hours, address, phone) among their top three reasons for choosing a business, the most common; 30% chose for the most or best reviews (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 15, 2026Survey |
Online Review Statistics
BrightLocal runs its Local Consumer Review Survey each year to track how US consumers use local reviews. Its 2026 edition, a panel of 1,002 US adults published in February 2026, finds 97% reading reviews for local businesses and rising standards: 68% will only use a business rated four stars or more, up from 55% a year earlier, and 74% look for reviews from the last three months.
Google remains the main review site, used by 71% of consumers, but down from 83% in 2025, while Apple Maps rose from 14% to 27%. Replies matter too: 80% are likely to use a business that answers every review, and 50% are put off by templated replies. For more on reviews, see our online review statistics for 2026.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 97% | US consumers who read online reviews for local businesses (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults, published February 2026) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 41% | Consumers who “always” read reviews when browsing for businesses, up from 29% in 2025 (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 71% | Consumers who used Google for reviews of local businesses, down from 83% in 2025; the average consumer used six review sites (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 27% | Consumers who used Apple Maps for reviews of local businesses, up from 14% in 2025 (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 68% | Consumers who will only use a business rated four stars or higher (55% in 2025); 31% require 4.5 stars or more (17% in 2025) (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 47% | Consumers who won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews; 9% would use one with five or fewer (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 74% | Consumers who look for reviews written in the last three months; 32% want reviews from the last two weeks, up from 20% in 2025 (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 85% | Consumers more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews; negative reviews make 77% less likely to use one (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 54% | Consumers who visit a business’s website after reading positive reviews, the most common next step (32% when last asked in 2019); 31% visit the location (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 80% | Consumers likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews; 42% are unlikely to use one that never replies (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 89% | Consumers who expect business owners to respond to reviews; 19% expect a same-day reply (6% in 2025) and 81% a reply within a week (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 50% | Consumers put off by generic or templated replies to reviews (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 69% | Consumers who wrote a business review in the previous 12 months; 78% had been asked to write one (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 45% | Consumers who left a Google review in the previous year, ahead of Facebook (34%), Yelp (24%) and Apple Maps (17%) (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 11% | Consumers offered an incentive to write a positive review in the previous year (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 1 billion+ | Reviews Google published on Google Maps in 2025 | Google, Apr 16, 2026Official (company-reported) |
Fake Reviews: Enforcement and the Law
Fake reviews are now a legal risk as well as a platform one. In the US, the FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials took effect on October 21, 2024, and its December 2025 warning letters cite civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation. In the UK, fake reviews and undisclosed paid-for reviews have been banned practices under the DMCC Act since April 6, 2025, and the CMA can now fine firms up to 10% of global turnover.
Google’s own enforcement runs at scale: in 2025 it blocked or removed more than 292 million policy-violating reviews and over 13 million fake Business Profiles. Profiles caught using fake reviews can lose the ability to receive new reviews, have existing reviews unpublished and carry a warning to consumers.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 292 million+ | Policy-violating reviews Google blocked or removed on Google Maps in 2025 | Google, Apr 16, 2026Official (company-reported) |
| 13 million+ | Fake Business Profiles Google removed in 2025; it also placed posting restrictions on more than 782,000 policy-violating accounts | Google, Apr 16, 2026Official (company-reported) |
| Prohibited | Google Maps policy on reviews: paid reviews, content posted from several accounts by one person, incentives for posting or removing a review, and selectively soliciting positive reviews are all banned | Google Maps policy, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| Review freeze | Restrictions Google may place on a Business Profile found to break its fake engagement policy: no new reviews for a set period, existing reviews unpublished, and a warning to consumers that fake reviews were removed | Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| Ineligible | Google Search rule: pages where a business controls the reviews about itself, including embedded Google or Facebook review widgets, are not eligible for star review snippets with LocalBusiness or Organization markup | Google Search Central, updated Sep 8, 2026Platform rule |
| 5–0 | FTC vote approving its final rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, announced August 14, 2024; the rule bans fake reviews, buying positive or negative reviews, undisclosed insider reviews and review suppression | FTC, Aug 14, 2024Official (regulator) |
| Oct 21, 2024 | Date the FTC’s Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) took effect | Federal Register, Aug 22, 2024Official (regulator) |
| $53,088 | Maximum civil penalty per violation of the FTC’s Consumer Review Rule, as stated in the FTC’s December 2025 warning letters | FTC, Dec 22, 2025Official (regulator) |
| 10 | Companies FTC staff warned on December 22, 2025 about possible violations of the Consumer Review Rule; the FTC says the letters are not formal findings of a violation | FTC, Dec 22, 2025Official (regulator) |
| Apr 6, 2025 | Date Part 4, Chapter 1 (protection from unfair trading) of the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force (apart from three sections), under commencement regulations SI 2025/272 | UK legislation, made Mar 4, 2025Official (regulator) |
| Banned | Status the CMA says several online review practices gained under the DMCC Act in April 2025: obtaining and posting fake reviews, paid-for reviews not clearly marked as incentivised, hiding negative reviews and inaccurate star ratings became ‘banned practices’, automatically deemed unfair and illegal | CMA, Mar 27, 2026Official (regulator) |
| 10% | Maximum fine, as a share of global turnover, the UK Competition and Markets Authority can impose on firms that break consumer law under the DMCC Act | CMA, Jan 24, 2025Official (regulator) |
| 6 months+ | Under undertakings Google gave the CMA in January 2025, UK businesses found boosting ratings with fake reviews get a warning on their Google profile and lose new reviews; repeat offenders have all reviews deleted for six months or more | CMA, Jan 24, 2025Official (regulator) |
| £23 billion | UK consumer spending potentially influenced by online reviews each year, an estimate from the CMA’s 2015 work on online reviews and endorsements that it repeated in January 2025 | CMA, Jan 24, 2025Official (regulator) |
| 14 | Businesses under CMA investigation using its new consumer powers after it opened five fake and misleading review cases on March 27, 2026, in sectors including funerals, food delivery and car sales; the CMA has reached no conclusions | CMA, Mar 27, 2026Official (regulator) |
| 97% | Consumers who think businesses should face punishment for fake reviews; 57% say offenders should be banned from review platforms (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
Mobile Local Search
Local search is mostly a phone activity. 91% of US adults own a smartphone (Pew, 2026), and in BrightLocal’s July 2026 survey 73% of consumers started their latest local business search on a phone, though only 57% of those over 60 did. Across all web traffic, StatCounter measured phones at 49.04% of US page views in September 2026, just above desktop (48.55%), and 59.06% worldwide.
The widely shared Google figures on mobile local search, such as 76% of nearby searchers visiting a business within a day, come from 2016 and sit in the near-me table above with their dates.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 91% | US adults who own a smartphone, Pew Research Center survey of 5,511 adults, January 30 – June 18, 2026 (35% in 2011) | Pew Research Center, Oct 19, 2026Survey |
| 73% | Consumers whose most recent local business search started on a phone; 19% used a computer and 8% a tablet (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 9, 2026Survey |
| 57% | Consumers over 60 whose most recent local business search started on a phone, against 86% of those aged 30 to 44 (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 9, 2026Survey |
| 49.04% | Share of US web page views from mobile phones in September 2026, against 48.55% from desktop and 2.42% from tablets (44.10% mobile in September 2025) | StatCounter, read Oct 21, 2026 · Sep 2026 dataMeasured (independent dataset) |
| 59.06% | Share of worldwide web page views from mobile phones in September 2026, against 39.20% from desktop | StatCounter, read Oct 21, 2026 · Sep 2026 dataMeasured (independent dataset) |
Local Ranking Factors
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, which its help page describes as prominence, and that there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. It does not publish weights. Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factors survey estimates them from expert opinion: 47 practitioners score 187 factors. Its 2026 edition, published in November 2025, puts Google Business Profile signals at 32% of local pack and Maps rankings and review signals at 20%.
These are expert judgments, not measurements. Whitespark’s experts weight local organic results differently, led by on-page signals (33%) and links (24%), and for the first time they scored visibility in AI answers, where on-page signals (24%) and reviews (16%) lead.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 3 factors | What Google says local results are mainly based on: relevance, distance and popularity, which its help page explains as prominence (how well known a business is, including links and reviews) | Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| No paid boost | Google’s statement that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and that it keeps algorithm details confidential | Google Business Profile Help, read Oct 21, 2026Platform rule |
| 32% | Weight experts give Google Business Profile signals (categories, keywords in the business name, proximity) in local pack and Maps rankings (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 20% | Weight experts give review signals in local pack and Maps rankings, up from about 17% in the 2023 edition as read from Whitespark’s chart (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 15% | Weight experts give on-page signals in local pack and Maps rankings; behavioral signals 9% and link signals 8% (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 6% | Weight experts give citation signals in local pack and Maps rankings, the same as personalization (6%); social signals, added back in 2026, 4% (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 33% | Weight experts give on-page signals in local organic (non-map) rankings, ahead of link signals (24%) and behavioral signals (10%) (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 24% | Weight experts give on-page signals in visibility in AI search answers, scored for the first time in 2026, ahead of reviews (16%), citations (13%), links (13%) and GBP signals (12%) (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 227 | Score of the top-ranked local pack and Maps factor, primary GBP category, ahead of proximity of the address to the searcher (225) and keywords in the GBP business title (223); scores are summed across the experts’ 0–5 ratings (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 210 | Score of the top-ranked local organic factor, a dedicated page for each service, ahead of city or neighborhood keyword relevance of content (190) and the quality of inbound links to the domain (187) (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
| 179 | Score of the top-ranked AI search visibility factor, presence on expert-curated “best of” lists, ahead of a dedicated page for each service (170) and prominence on industry-relevant domains (167) (Whitespark 2026 survey of 47 local search experts, published November 2025) | Whitespark, Nov 6, 2025Survey (expert panel) |
Differences by Industry
No public dataset gives local search volumes or conversion rates by industry, so the industry tables that circulate have no source. What does exist are survey and vendor cuts. Health and medical businesses were the most likely to keep an active Business Profile in BrightLocal’s 2026 small-business survey (52%), independent retailers the least (21%). People searching for food and drink or for health and medical services were more likely than average to check proximity (48%, against 44% overall), and those looking for professional services less likely (29%).
In AI answers, the sources differ by sector. Yext’s analysis of 6.8 million AI citations found listings supplied 52.6% of healthcare citations, while 47.6% of retail citations came from brands’ own websites. Uberall’s restaurant benchmark found 83% of quick-service locations absent from AI recommendations but does not state its sample size.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 52% | Health and medical business owners who keep an active Google Business Profile presence, the highest of eight business types; automotive 40%, beauty 39%, trades 38%, food and drink 35%, professional services 33%, home or garden services 32% and independent retail 21%, the lowest (all businesses 35%) (BrightLocal Small Business Marketing Report 2026, 1,002 US owners of local businesses with 1–50 employees) | BrightLocal SMB report, Oct 21, 2026Survey |
| 35% | Home or garden service owners who named AI tools as a top-two source of new customers, against 23% of all owners; beauty 29%, automotive 28%, retail 17% (BrightLocal Small Business Marketing Report 2026, 1,002 US owners of local businesses with 1–50 employees) | BrightLocal SMB report, Oct 21, 2026Survey |
| 48% | Consumers searching for food and drink or for health and medical businesses who looked at address or proximity, against 44% overall and 29% for professional services (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 15, 2026Survey |
| 36% | Consumers searching for trades who cited clear pricing or a deal as a research factor, more than for any other business type (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 15, 2026Survey |
| 10% | Consumers who spent more than an hour researching professional services before choosing one; food and drink, retail and home or garden services were the quickest decisions (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published June 2026) | BrightLocal, Jun 24, 2026Survey |
| 52.6% | Share of AI citations for healthcare queries that came from listings (directories such as WebMD and Vitals), in Yext’s analysis of 6.8 million citations from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, July–August 2025 | Yext, Oct 9, 2025Measured (vendor study) |
| 47.6% | Share of AI citations for retail queries that came from brands’ own websites (finance 48.2%); in food service, listings supplied 41.6% and reviews and social content 13.3%, the highest of the four industries (Yext, July–August 2025) | Yext, Oct 9, 2025Measured (vendor study) |
| 83% | Quick-service restaurant locations absent from AI-generated recommendations in Uberall’s benchmark of its customers’ data (May 2026; sample size and period not stated); the top three brands per category held 53.4% share of voice | Uberall, May 8, 2026Measured (vendor study) |
Voice Search and Local
The voice search figures still in circulation come from BrightLocal’s April 2018 survey of 1,012 US consumers, which found 58% had used voice search to find local business information in the previous year. BrightLocal has not repeated that study. Its 2026 research treats voice as one channel among many, and voice searchers were less likely than Google Search users to weigh proximity (33% against 47%). For the wider picture, see our voice search statistics for 2026.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 58% | US consumers who had used voice search to find local business information in the previous 12 months (BrightLocal survey of 1,012 US consumers, April 2018; not repeated since) | BrightLocal, Apr 26, 2018Survey |
| 46% | Voice search users who looked for a local business daily (BrightLocal survey of 1,012 US consumers, April 2018; not repeated since) | BrightLocal, Apr 26, 2018Survey |
| 33% | Consumers whose most recent local search used voice search and who looked at a business’s address or proximity, against 47% on Google Search and 49% on Google Maps (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 15, 2026Survey |
AI Search and Local Discovery
AI answers are now part of local search. Alphabet reported more than 2 billion monthly users of AI Overviews in July 2025 and more than 1 billion monthly active users of AI Mode in July 2026. In BrightLocal’s 2026 review survey, 45% of consumers had used AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier, though in its July 2026 search study only 2% of consumers who started their latest local search on an AI tool relied on it alone.
Being named in an AI answer is harder than appearing in Maps. BrightLocal’s September 2026 study of 200,085 local searches found Google Maps named the tracked business in 66% of searches, against 32% to 38% for AI answers, and SOCi found ChatGPT recommended 1.2% of multi-location brands’ locations, against 35.9% appearing in the local 3-Pack. When AI answers cite sources, they lean on what businesses manage: Yext puts the share at 86%.
Pew’s March 2025 browsing data, which is not limited to local searches, shows lower click rates: users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits to a page with an AI summary, against 15% without one. For AI-curated discovery beyond Search, see our guide to Google Discover optimization in 2026.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 billion+ | Monthly active users of Google’s AI Mode, a figure Alphabet reported in July 2026, nine months after AI Mode’s global expansion in October 2025 | Alphabet, Jul 22, 2026Official (company-reported) |
| 2 billion+ | Monthly users of AI Overviews across more than 200 countries and territories, reported in July 2025 | Alphabet, Jul 23, 2025Official (company-reported) |
| 18% | Google searches that produced an AI summary in March 2025, in Pew Research Center’s analysis of 900 US adults’ browsing data; 60% of searches beginning with a question word did | Pew Research Center, Jul 22, 2025Measured (research study) |
| 8% | Visits to a Google results page with an AI summary in which users clicked a traditional search result, against 15% of visits without a summary; 1% clicked a link inside the summary (Pew, March 2025 browsing data) | Pew Research Center, Jul 22, 2025Measured (research study) |
| 26% | Google results pages with an AI summary after which users ended their browsing session, against 16% of pages with only traditional results (Pew, March 2025 browsing data) | Pew Research Center, Jul 22, 2025Measured (research study) |
| 45% | Consumers who used ChatGPT or other generative AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier, making AI the third most used source (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 40% | Consumers who trust AI platforms to recommend businesses (32% do not); 42% trust AI recommendations as much as traditional reviews (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 82% | Consumers who read AI-generated review summaries when deciding on a local business; 23% would rely on the summary alone (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults) | BrightLocal LCRS 2026, Feb 11, 2026Survey |
| 2% | Consumers who started their most recent local search on an AI tool and used no other channel; 43% of them went on to check Google. Among consumers already using AI for local searches, 18% felt ready to contact the business an AI tool recommended (BrightLocal survey of 1,227 US consumers who had searched for a local business in the previous three months, published July 2026) | BrightLocal, Jul 9, 2026Survey |
| 66% | Searches in which Google Maps named the tracked business, against 38% for AI Overviews, 33% for ChatGPT and 32% for AI Mode (BrightLocal tracking study of 200,085 localized, non-branded searches for 1,300 business locations, published September 2026) | BrightLocal, Sep 16, 2026Measured (vendor study) |
| 4.1 | Average number of businesses ChatGPT named per local answer, against 3.5 for AI Mode and 2.5 for AI Overviews; about one answer in ten named none (BrightLocal tracking study of 200,085 localized, non-branded searches for 1,300 business locations, published September 2026) | BrightLocal, Sep 16, 2026Measured (vendor study) |
| 28.5% | Share of all citations in the AI answers that pointed to Google Business Profiles; business websites were 93% of unique cited domains and 42% of all citations (BrightLocal tracking study of 200,085 localized, non-branded searches for 1,300 business locations, published September 2026) | BrightLocal, Sep 16, 2026Measured (vendor study) |
| 1.2% | Brand locations ChatGPT recommended in SOCi’s 2026 Local Visibility Index (2,751 multi-location brands, about 350,000 locations), against 11.0% for Gemini, 7.4% for Perplexity and 35.9% appearing in Google’s local 3-Pack for their top keyword | SOCi, Jan 28, 2026Measured (vendor study) |
| 4.3 | Average star rating of locations ChatGPT recommended in SOCi’s 2026 index, against 4.2 for Perplexity and 3.9 for Gemini | SOCi, Jan 28, 2026Measured (vendor study) |
| 86% | Share of 6.8 million AI citations (ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, July–August 2025) that came from sources brands manage, as Yext reports it; its breakdown gives websites 44% and listings 42% (together 86%) plus reviews and social 8%; forums such as Reddit supplied 2% | Yext, Oct 9, 2025Measured (vendor study) |
How to Use These Statistics
Start with Google’s rules, because they are the only part of this page that describes how the system itself works: verified ownership, complete and accurate profile information, a real-world business name and genuine reviews. Then use the survey data to set priorities. Consumers look at proximity, star rating, review count and completeness before they click, and most decide within half an hour from a shortlist of three or fewer.
When you quote a local search statistic, carry its publisher, sample and year with it. A 2016 Google diary study and a 2026 survey of 1,002 consumers can both be accurate, but they do not describe the same market. For a local search program built on your own Business Profile, review and website data, see our SEO services.
Widely Quoted Local SEO Figures, Checked
Many local SEO statistics circulate without a year, or with a measure the source never used. Each one below is checked against the publisher’s own page.
| Often quoted as | What the source says |
|---|---|
| 46% of all Google searches have local intent | Google has not published this. Its only trace is an October 2018 tweet from an attendee at a local search conference held at Google’s headquarters, which Search Engine Roundtable reported with the caveat that a tweet was all it had. Google’s last related figure, from 2016, was that 30% of mobile searches were related to location. |
| 76% of people who search “near me” visit a business within 24 hours, and 28% buy | This is Google’s May 2016 diary study of 1,000 US smartphone users (634 local searchers): 76% of people who searched on a smartphone for something nearby visited a business within a day, and 28% of those searches led to a purchase, with no time limit given. Google has not updated it. |
| Near-me searches grew 900% (or 500%) | Both figures come from Google’s May 2018 article and compare July–December 2015 with July–December 2017 in the US. The 900%+ was for mobile searches for “near me today/tonight”, and the 500%+ for “near me” searches containing “can I buy” or “to buy”. Searches combining “open”, “now” and “near me” grew 200%+. |
| There are 1.5 billion near-me searches a month | Google’s 2016 figure was that people visit 1.5 billion destinations a month related to what they searched for on Google. It counts visits, not near-me searches. |
| 78% of local mobile searches end in an offline purchase | This dates from a comScore, Neustar Localeze and 15 Miles local search study of nearly 5,000 US adults surveyed in December 2013, reported by Search Engine Land in April 2014. No later edition was found. |
| 87% of consumers read online reviews, and 89% use businesses that respond to all reviews | BrightLocal’s 2026 survey gives 97% reading reviews for local businesses. 80% say they are likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews; 89% is the share who expect owners to respond. |
| Google Maps has 1 billion users | Alphabet said in October 2024 that Google Maps had passed 2 billion monthly users. |
| Local Pack ranking weights: GBP 32%, on-page 19%, reviews 16%, links 15% | Whitespark’s 2026 survey gives GBP signals 32%, reviews 20%, on-page 15%, behavioral 9%, links 8%, citations 6%, personalization 6% and social 4%. The quoted split matches none of the five editions in Whitespark’s 2018–2026 comparison chart. |
| 58% of consumers use voice search to find local businesses | This is BrightLocal’s April 2018 survey of 1,012 US consumers, which also found 46% of voice search users looking for a local business daily. BrightLocal has not repeated it. |
| 43% of local searches trigger AI Overviews | None of the sources listed here gives this. Pew’s browsing data for March 2025 found an AI summary on 18% of all Google searches, not only local ones. |
| Google handles 8.5 billion searches a day | Google publishes an annual figure only: more than 5 trillion searches a year, stated in March 2025. |
Quote the Publisher, the Sample and the Year
Local search has more dated statistics in circulation than most topics, because Google’s best-known near-me figures date from 2015 to 2018 and kept circulating without their years. When you quote a figure, carry its source and period with it: “97% of US consumers read reviews for local businesses (BrightLocal, 2026)” can be checked, while “46% of searches are local” cannot.
Use the current data to set priorities, then judge your own results by the calls, direction requests, bookings and reviews your Business Profile and website actually produce.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of the sources below.
- Google (The Keyword)New ways we’re protecting businesses on MapsApr 16, 2026
- Google (The Keyword)How we’re reimagining Maps with GeminiMar 12, 2026
- Alphabet (CEO remarks, The Keyword)Q2 2026 earnings call: Remarks from our CEOJul 22, 2026
- Alphabet (CEO remarks, The Keyword)Q2 earnings call: CEO’s remarksJul 23, 2025
- Alphabet (CEO remarks, The Keyword)Q3 earnings call: CEO’s remarksOct 29, 2024
- Google (The Keyword)AI, personalization and the future of shoppingMar 3, 2025
- Google (The Keyword)Local is now digital: Understanding the new local shopperApr 5, 2021
- Think with Google (Lisa Gevelber, Google)How ‘Near Me’ helps us find what we need, not just where to goMay 2018
- Think with Google (Lisa Gevelber, Google)Micro-Moments Now: Why “near me” intent is a “near you” opportunityAug 2017
- Think with Google (Google)How Mobile Search Connects Consumers to Stores2016 (data to May 2016)
- Think with Google (Matt Lawson, Google)I-Want-to-Go Moments: From Search to StoreApr 2015
- Google Business Profile HelpTips to improve your local ranking on Googleread Oct 21, 2026
- Google Business Profile HelpGuidelines for representing your business on Googleread Oct 21, 2026
- Google Business Profile HelpManage your service areas for service-area & hybrid businessesread Oct 21, 2026
- Google Business Profile HelpUnderstand your Business Profile performance & insightsread Oct 21, 2026
- Google Business Profile HelpBusiness Profile restrictions for policy violationsread Oct 21, 2026
- Maps User Generated Content Policy HelpProhibited & restricted contentread Oct 21, 2026
- Google Search Central documentationReview snippet (Review, AggregateRating) structured dataupdated Sep 8, 2026
- Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and TestimonialsAug 14, 2024
- Federal Register (Federal Trade Commission)Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465)Aug 22, 2024
- Federal Trade CommissionFTC Warns 10 Companies About Possible Violations of the Agency’s New Consumer Review RuleDec 22, 2025
- legislation.gov.uk (UK Government)The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/272)made Mar 4, 2025
- Competition and Markets Authority (UK)CMA secures important changes from Google to tackle fake reviewsJan 24, 2025
- Competition and Markets Authority (UK)Fake and misleading reviews: 5 businesses under CMA investigationMar 27, 2026
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of AdvocacyFrequently Asked Questions About Small Business 2026Feb 3, 2026
- Pew Research CenterGoogle users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the resultsJul 22, 2025
- Pew Research CenterAmericans’ Use of Mobile Devices in 2026 (fact sheet)Oct 19, 2026
- StatCounter Global StatsDesktop vs Mobile vs Tablet Market Share, United States of Americaread Oct 21, 2026 · Sep 2026 data
- StatCounter Global StatsDesktop vs Mobile vs Tablet Market Share Worldwideread Oct 21, 2026 · Sep 2026 data
- BrightLocalLocal Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults; fieldwork dates not stated)Feb 11, 2026
- BrightLocalYou have less than 30 minutes to win a customer (consumer search behavior, part 1; 1,227 US consumers)Jun 24, 2026
- BrightLocalGoogle is #1 for local search, but three-quarters use more than one channel (part 2; 1,227 US consumers)Jul 9, 2026
- BrightLocal6% of consumers “just click the top result”. So what wins over the other 94%? (part 3; 1,227 US consumers)Jul 15, 2026
- BrightLocalSmall Business Marketing Report 2026: Customers still use Google, but small businesses don’t think it’s important (1,002 US owners, 1–50 employees)Oct 21, 2026
- BrightLocalWhat 200k local AI searches tell us about what businesses get recommendedSep 16, 2026
- BrightLocalVoice Search for Local Business Study (1,012 US consumers, April 2018)Apr 26, 2018
- WhitesparkLocal Search Ranking Factors, 2026 edition (47 experts, 187 factors)Nov 6, 2025
- SOCiThe 2026 Local Visibility Index (report and press release “In AI-Driven Discovery, Few Brands Are Chosen, Most Disappear”)Jan 28, 2026
- YextYext Research: 86% of AI Citations Come from Brand-Managed Sources (press release)Oct 9, 2025
- Uberall83% of Restaurants Are Invisible in AI Search: New Uberall Report Reveals the Discovery Gap Reshaping the Quick Service Restaurant Industry (press release)May 8, 2026
- Search Engine RoundtableDid Google Say 46% Of Searches Have Local Intent?Oct 17, 2018
- Search Engine LandStudy: 78 Percent Of Local-Mobile Searches Result In Offline PurchasesApr 9, 2014
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