Any casual observer has witnessed the total transformation of the world by technology in recent decades. But while the current pace of progress seems dizzyingly fast, some of our handiest gadgets stem from century-old ideas, like mobile search for instance.
In 1926, famed inventor Nikolai Tesla predicted a wireless world, in which we would all be connected by pocket-sized phones.
Today, the world Tesla imagined is precisely the world we live in.
The iPhone has only been around for ten years. But we, on average, reach out and touch our smartphones more than 2,000 times a day.
So what are we using these gadgets for?
Among many things, most of us use our smartphone to find a storefront we plan to visit. We look for the location of businesses, service information, prices and reviews.
4 out of 5 consumers conduct local searches on search engines, and 88 percent search on a smartphone.
Here’s a breakdown of how smartphones inform our local business purchases:
- 89% of consumers perform a local-mobile search for a business at least once a week
- 68% of consumers who conduct local searches on their smartphone go to a store within 24 hour (nearly 50% make a purchase within a day)
- Local searches are more than twice as likely to lead to a purchase (18% vs 7%)
Need a haircut? Or a locksmith? Or a florist?
What do you do?
You Google it. (In the interest of fairness, I suppose we should mention that 10-20% of you will actually ‘Bing’ it.)
So how do customers decide where to shop based on the search results?
What customers expect to see on your mobile website
Source: Ipsos MediaCT
- 73% think getting directions is important
- 70% think a call button is important
- 72% of consumers who search for local information visit a store within 5 miles
- 53% search for directions to a local store
If you’re a business owner, you should ask yourself: can you really afford to be not be online? Do you really want your competition to absorb all the revenue coming directly from mobile search?
According to a recent RedShift survey, 83% of business owners with a website think it gives them a competitive advantage over those without one.
When it comes to mobile devices, customers need to be able to find you quickly, easily and locally — that’s where a website comes in.
They expect to know what you offer, where you are and how to contact you — can they find you on their smartphone?
When you Google your business name, what do you see?
If you want to see your website on the first page, and start getting more customers, give us a call.
