Local search marketing focuses on elevating the visibility of a local business’ presence in the search engines so that can be found earlier and more often in the search results – and clicked more frequently – by people who search online for local businesses to buy from.

And according to a study by the Kelsey Group, the local search marketing field has a growing demand to meet. The study found that 97% of American consumers use the Internet to find local business information – of whom:

• 90% use search engines
• 48% use the Internet Yellow Pages
• 42% use comparison shopping sites
• 24% use vertical sites

Nine out of ten American consumers who use the Internet to find local business information use search engines to do so. Clearly the importance of local search marketing to the success of a business-to-consumer (B2C) sales model cannot be underestimated.

Local Search Marketing in the Business-to-Business Space

It’s worth noting that the importance of local marketing doesn’t end with B2C sales. Business-to-business (B2B) sales are also becoming increasingly dependent upon search engine usage, as a study by Nielsen/Webvisible found that 41% of B2B decision-makers use search engines to find local businesses from which to buy the products and services they need to keep their businesses running.

Big Numbers Back up the Importance of Local Search Marketing

The people behind the search engines are also no strangers to the numbers or to the importance of search marketing at the local business level. Google recently announced that 20% of all Google searches have a local intent behind them (that number climbs to about 33% for Google searches via the mobile Web). And while that does not necessarily mean that two out of every ten Google searches are made by people looking for localbusiness information, it does mean that importance of local search marketing cannot be denied.

Buzz about Local Search Marketing Isn’t Just Talk

If all the talk about the importance of local search marketing seems to you to be just that – talk – then take a look at the numbers below. They are taken straight from Google’s Keyword Selection Tool, which, among other things, reports on local (and global) monthly search volumes:

• 6,600 local monthly searches for “Colorado Personal Injury“
• 6,600 local monthly searches for “SEO Phoenix“
• 4,400 local monthly searches for “Denver SEO“
• 4,400 local monthly searches for “Salt Lake City Auto Insurance“
• 1,600 local monthly searches for “Scottsdale SEO Consultant“

Although the example highlights just five different search terms people use every month to find local businesses in just one city, it’s important to understand that there are hundreds or thousands of additional keywords that people search for every month – many with similar or higher search volumes. And that’s true of hundreds or thousands of cities around the world.

Local Search Marketing Puts Your Business in Front of People Who Take Action

People who use search engines to find local businesses and local business information do not search just for the sake of searching. They search for the sake of finding. And when they find, they take action, as the Nielsen/WebVisible study cited earlier found:

• 70% will call the phone number on a website
• 60% have referred a business they found on the Internet to a friend
• 52% always or often research online first, then follow up with an offline purchase from a local business
• 14% will send a business they found online an email
• 11% will fill out an online form

Obviously the rate of conversion of people searching for local business information means that local search marketing doesn’t just expose a business to a big crowd, it exposes a business to a big crowd with a big appetite that it wants or needs to satisfy that appetite quickly.

Whether your business is a major corporation with locations in cities all across the country or all over the world or it’s a small business with a single location, local search marketing is absolutely essential to its success if it depends at all on local leads and customers.