How often do consumers search for local businesses online?

To help us understand why and how consumers read and write reviews, it’s important to first take a look at how often they’re using the internet to find local businesses. We can then consider these trends when looking at levels of engagement with review platforms.

• 99% of consumers have used the internet to find information about a local business in the last year.
• 78% of consumers use the internet to find information about local businesses more than once a week (up from 69% in 2020).
• 21% of consumers use the internet to find information about local businesses every day (down from 34% every day).

In 2021, far fewer people were searching for online businesses every single day than in 2020, which initially suggests a lessening need for their use. However, looking across the board, the frequency of use has risen greatly. We’ve observed a 9% year-on-year increase of people using the internet more than once a week to find information about local businesses.

We’ve seen a large drop of those less engaged with finding businesses online, too. 1% of consumers say they don’t use the internet to find local businesses at all; that’s an incredible 99% of consumers using the internet to find local businesses. I think it’s safe to say the era of those still relying on the printed business directory is over and that the visibility and impact of online reviews is higher than ever.

Read the full ‘Local Consumer Review Survey 2022 by Bright Local‘.