Study: 'Review Ratings' are the Biggest Driver of Clicks in Local


local_service_ad_click_study.jpgBright Local just released a Local Services Ads click study that brought in 5,500 "Impartial internet users" to see how the presence of Local Service Ads affected how they interacted with Google's local search results.

Within the study the focused on San Francisco local search results and watched how users interacted with the results they were getting. The quickly found that only have of the users were shown Local Services Ads and the presence of those ads highly changed user behavior.

Here are some key takeaways:

  • Local Services Ads by Google receive 13.8% of local search clicks.

  • The presence of Local Services Ads affects the number of clicks for all other search result types.

  • When Local Services Ads are present, 25.3% of all clicks are on paid results. When Local Services Ads are absent, this is 14.6% – a difference of 10.7%.

  • Organic results receive the most clicks of all search result types, though they see a drop off when Local Services Ads are present.

  • Organic position 1 receives the highest number of clicks.

  • Review ratings are the biggest driver of clicks in local search results.

It seems like an obvious fact of human nature that the presence of Local Service Ads would disrupt the clicks across the board and this study solidified that with its findings. One thing that we thought was particularly nice to see is the Main Reasons For Clicking portion of the study, which reported Review ratings are the biggest driver of clicks in local search results regardless of the type or organization of the search results.

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  • Actionable Strategy --> Reviews and ratings are vital to the success of your local business as they not only play a...

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