Where is the nearest Motel? Where can I find a good restaurant near me?
When we rewind a few decades we can see people searching for some items in yellow pages, or asking the passerby for directions.
Now, Google has its own business directory tool, Google My Business helping the business get found online.
Google my Business(GMB) can improve the business. Visibility through local SEO connects you to the new audiences, helps you to understand the online customer behavior around your business surroundings.
Do you know?
One in two people who conduct local searches visit a store that day and 76% of the people who search for something nearby on mobile devices could visit the related business within a day.
In this guide, I’ll go over everything you need to know about Google My Business.
I’ve got you covered with the following topics:
- Google My Business Stats
- Google My Business Marketing stats
- Why use Google My Business
- GMB and mobile usage
- GMB conversion and CTR rates
- Role of Reviews and photos in GMB
Let’s dive into some stats of Google My Business!
Google my business listing statistics
- 84% of the searches are of discovery searches.
The average business is found in 1,009 searches per month. Where only 16% is direct searches. Hence, 157 are the direct searches and 852 discovery searches every month.
- 49% of the business will get more than 1,000 views of searches per month.
Google my Business has a very high number of searches, also 33% receive 1,000 plus views on maps.
- Hotels have the highest number of views on both maps and search every month. The average hotel has 53% of its views from maps and 47% from search.
Hotels have the highest number of views on search and maps, while Car dealerships get the highest number of calls and visits from GMB.
- 5% of Google My Business listing views result in a website click, call, or direct request.
This is an average conversion rate of 5%. It may seem low, but it has grown from 3.87% to 4.83% – which is a 25% increase from 2017 to 2018.
- Local businesses have a median of 11 photos on GMB.
Hotels have more photos like 150 each on GMB. and 6% of the GMB listings will just have one photo.
GMB Revenue Statistics
Average spendings on GMB by industry
- GMB has a circulating supply of 620 million coins and a supply of 5 billion coins.
In a 24-hour trading volume of $5,210.01, the GMB price is $0.00094603.
- GMB’s gross annual income has increased by 29 million GBP during the time period 2000 to 2018.
At the start of the time period 2000 to 2018, gross income was around 46 million GBP. The peak annual income was around 92 million in the year 2007/08.
(statista)
Why use GMB
Direct search and Discovery search stats
- By the end of 2018 direct searches grew by 38%, while GMB listings grew from website clicks by 29%.
When compared to the GMB insights from 2017 to 2018, discovery searches grew by 6%. The business received 22% more calls in 2018.
- According to 2018 stats, stats of Google my Business had ups and downs.
Total views of GMB were 65% in April and 61% in May.
Discovery searches had 83% views in April, and 95% in May.
Profile views in Google maps had 92% in April and 91% in May.
Why You Must Use Google My Business for Marketing?
- GMB increases your visibility on the web.
This is one of the biggest benefits of GMB listing. Google searches of which 46% are having local intent. Creating a GMB listing increases the chances of making it on to the top list which earns you revenue as it shows your business on Google maps and places it before organic search results.
- GMB shares information with your potential customers.
GMB allows you to share information about your business including working hours, contact information, and your address. It allows you to share your updates, news, announcements and more. These posts show up on maps and searches, enabling you to keep in touch and keep potential customers updated.
- GMB helps you to solve the real-time queries of customers.
Google added a messaging feature to chat directly with customers who find your business on the results page. This feature helps to answer your questions of your potential customers in real-time. It gives the option to activate or deactivate the feature.
- Boosts your appeal with reviews among potential customers.
Reviews play an influential role in making purchases. 90% of the customers read reviews to evaluate the quality and choose the product with the highest reviews. Reviews build trust and confidence among the customers.
According to a local survey, customers who trust online reviews and recommendations are around 88%. Reviews are also a ranking factor used by Google.
According to a survey by Moz’s on local search ranking factors, online reviews make up 10% of how search engines determine the ranks on google.
- Increase in traffic and sales.
GMB listing can help your businesses to increase your sales and traffic. Businesses are 70% more likely to attract local visits from browsers. Multiple verification steps should be completed before appearing in local searches creates trust and help to increase sales. Your business page should also load quickly to reduce the user’s time who spends on waiting for pages to load.
- Free Google Advertising.
Running Google Ads campaigns is one of the several ways to promote your business, but you should have a budget. Improving your SEO is the other way but this takes a long time to rank in google. GMB listing offers a cheaper and faster way to get targeted exposure on search engines. Creating, claiming, and verifying your listings does not cost you and also less time is taken to optimize your profile.
GMB and mobile usage
How many searches happen on mobile
- Mobile devices have 52% of global internet traffic.
- A recent report says that US mobile search is roughly 58% of overall search query volume.
- Food & Beverage has the highest percentage of mobile search volume with 72% and Banking has the lowest mobile search volume with 39%(61% on desktop).
- Another interesting fact is that mobile queries are slightly longer than PC search queries.
For example:
In Food & Beverage, average query strings for PC were 13.8 characters, mobile queries were 15.5 characters.
- 34% of “near me” searches done via tablets and desktops results in-store visits.
(HubSpot)
- Also 50% of “near me” Google searches done through mobile results in a store visit.
- 60% of Google searches are done by mobile devices. The figure was half of that 34% 5 years ago.
(Statista)
- 95% of mobile searches in the US are captured by Google.
(Statista)
- A third of the Google searches made by mobile are related to location.
- 65% of the paid clicks on Google search results are from mobile devices.
(Statista)
- Mobile Google search CTR on average is about 4.1% which is greater than average CTR of the desktop ad 3.17%.
- Mobile Google searchers click on organic results 41% of the time, and desktop google searchers click 62% of the time.
(Moz)
- Hospitality and Travel ads have higher CTRs average around 5.36% on paid mobile results.
- Around 42% of mobile-driven brand interactions involve Google search.
What percentage of GMB calls are directly GMB call option
- On average 59 actions per month are received by GMB listings.
- 16% of businesses from GMB, receive more than 100 calls per month.
- Only 5% of views result in an action. This has increased between 2017 and 2018.
- The highest number of calls and website visits from GMB are received by car dealerships.
- Between 2017 – 2018, there was a 22% rise in calls from GMB.
- The average business will receive most of the calls between 10 am and 12 pm on Mondays. Local businesses tend to receive split calls from GMB between 9 am and 5 pm.
GMB performance benchmarks
Average GMB conversion rate
- According to the Bright local study, the average conversion rate at the end of 2018 was 4.83%.
The average conversion rate in 2017 was around 3.87%, which was 53 actions for 1,370 views on search or maps. In 2018, it had a growth of 25% in just one year.
The average conversion rates do vary by industry.
For example:
The highest conversion rate of car dealerships is 7%. And the lowest conversion rates at 2% include marketing companies, locksmiths, photographers, etc.
GMB ROI & CTR rate
- Organic results in Google searches with 3-4 words in the title drive higher CTRs than organic results with 1-2 words in the title.
- Roughly 5% of the GMB listing results in a website click, call, or direct request.
How many call or actions does an average business get from GMB
- The average business from the GMB listing receives 33 clicks per month.
- The average business from the GMB listing gets 59 actions.
- 56% of actions are website visits on GMB listings. 24% of actions are called to the business. And 20% of actions are direct searches.
GMB Reviews Statistics
What percentage of people trust in google reviews
- 91% of people regularly read online reviews.
According to Bright local research, online reviews were read by most of the people, 84% of the people trust online reviews and make the decision quickly. 68% of people make decisions after reading 1-6 online reviews.
(inc)
- Online reviews really matter for product purchases.
Businesses need to create and maintain a process that encourages the customers to leave good reviews, monitor the given reviews, and improves negative reviews.
(inc)
- The conversion rate increased by 380% when the reviews are displayed for higher-priced products.
According to the Spiegel Research Center, the likelihood of the product getting purchased increases by 270% when it gets about five reviews. And when reviews are displayed for lower-priced products, the conversion rate increases by 190%.
What percentage of companies respond to questions on GMB reviews
- 97% of the customers say that reviews influence their buying decision, so review management has to be a top priority for every customer-facing business.
Brands need to be engaging and interacting with consumers to create an open channel. If you do not respond to the reviews, there is a risk of increasing your customer churn by 15%. Online reviews should not be seen as static information.
(dixa)
- Responding to negative reviews can create positive results.
Statistics show that of the customers who got a response from a company after posting a negative comment, 33% turned around and gave a positive review, while 34% of the people deleted the original negative review.
For example:
Darren Shaw of Whitespark released the findings from his annual Google local rankings survey.
Results of the survey found that reviews of a local business accounted for 15.44% from 10.8% only after evaluating the reviews which are up by 5%.
How to use GMB properly
- Control, index, and display pertinent business information of the business.
- Interact with potential consumers and manage your online review reputation.
- Curate consumer photos, videos, and user-generated content.
- Gather insights regarding how your consumers are arriving on your site.
How many photos do highly converting listings use
- 60% of consumers prefer images that will enable them to have a 360º view of the product.
33.16% of the consumers want to see multiple photos of the product, and only 0.52% of the customers want to see a single product photo.
(inchoo)
- 22% of the online returns of the products are due to the difference in photos of the items ordered.
According to Weebly Research, product online returns will be because the items look different than in the photos.
(weebly)
- Google recommends that the product’s images should be no less than 75% and not more than 90% of the full image.
Except for the main image of the product, back views and close-ups can be used as additional images online.
For example :
Asos is a webshop with ideal product photos according to the standards. It uses heavy photography in different ways. The homepage has collection photoshoots presented in a creative way. Asos also adds product videos, where consumers can visually experience the products in a better manner, which increases their sales.
(inchoo)
The average number of photos by industry
According to the study conducted by Statista of over 45,000 businesses.
- Hotels have an average of 150 images each.
- Restaurants ranked second with an average of 67 photos each.
- Car dealerships ranked third with an average of 46 photos each in the GMB listing.
- Bars ranked next with an average of 37 images each.
- Real Estate(10), Insurance(8), Marketing(8), Medical(7), Business services(5), and Funeral services(4) ranked in the bottom.
(statista)
Images are powerful. VERY powerful.
Here’s why:
- Our brains can process images faster than text.
- The brain is predominantly a visual organ.
- Most people are visual learners.
How images impact results of the business are below compiled from different expert sources.
- Using images has increased revenue by 17% per visitor.
- 63% conversion lift is seen as the product image size is increased by 28%.
- Adding a smile in a photo has increased sales by 10%.
- Switching to real photos from stock photos increased lead signups by 45%.
- Using the right colors increased opt-ins by 132%.
- Aligning images with copy has boosted revenue by 108%.