The survey of the trend of "near me" searches in the UAE

Many businesses have an official website where it is possible to explore the products or services. But only 9% of consumer buying in UAE still happens online, 2% of shoppers make a purchase using the phone and 84% prefer offline shopping, i.e. to visit a store (*Intersecting data according to Google Consumer Barometer).

Look at these stats:

• more than 90% of consumers buy within 20 miles;
• mobile makes up 88% of all "near me" searches, with those mobile searches growing at 146% year over year.

Today every search for goods and services has local intent — even if a user doesn't specify the search area (for ex. "buy glasses" or "bakery nearby"), the SERP will be relevant to the user's location. So, the map with pins on goes to a priority position.

This data confirms that the omnichannel users look for goods, services or places wherever it suits them at the moment. That is why the basis of an effective marketing strategy for any local business is "to be nearby with the customer" everywhere he/she is looking for.

Brick-and-mortar companies can get incredible benefits just by submitting business information to the maps and other sources working with local search. It is extremely important today when a search engine can interpret requests like "the nearest shoe repair" and provide the results as pins on the map according to the user's location.

That is why for local business it is extremely important to work with locations: submit business data to the listing network, and create citations by adding the information to the maps, navigators, online directories, social networks, and other sources. Also, location management implies the updating of the information, monitoring if the data are correct, rejecting attempts to change them, and using local SEO to improve ranking position.

Even compared to the sites at the top of the SERP, the map gives advantages due to a higher conversion rate:

• 44% of users click one of the companies listed in the Local Pack (top-3);
• 8% of users view "More places";
• 29% of users explore the SERP;
• 19% of users click paid ads.

The trend of "near me" searches

Another significant trend that also affects the success and profitability of a business is "near me" searches. So, consumer queries have become more conversational and this requires companies to optimize their listings more accurately.

According to Google (2018, May), "near me" mobile searches that contain the term like "can I buy" or "to buy" have grown by more than 500% over the past two years. Moreover, there has been a 900%+ growth in mobile searches for "…near me today/tonight" (for example, "open mexican restaurant near me today", "cheap hotels near me tonight").

Thus, for consumers, searching is not just about finding a product or service anymore. It is about finding a specific thing within the area ("nearby") at a certain time.

And finally the statistics that demonstrate the correlation of researching online and buying offline are as follows: 76% of people who search on their mobile for something nearby (local stores or services) visit a place found in the search within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.

So, if you want to target consumers more effectively, you should work with your listings properly: to add the data to the missing sources, update the existing citations on the web, optimize in order to rank higher on generic local searches.

If you want customers to find your business locations, not your competitors, use the power of a global trend: make your listings more "visible" by responding to thousands of user requests. Tools and opportunities of listing management service make local marketing simple, and digital presence — efficient.