Search Roundup - Google Shares Reports that Boast Surge in Local Intent Search

Google has published a brand new search behaviour report for the United States in order to show trends and growth areas in the fields of small business and local search. One of the standout elements of the report showed that search with local intent has been undergoing a huge surge in popularity, perhaps in line with the engine’s increased local search and find features.Google’s own report refers to the growth in local intent search to be “tremendous” and has revealed that searches with this clear intent that include phrases including “near me” or “local” have risen as much as 350 times the amount seen less than 10 years ago.

The types of location-based businesses benefiting from the surge in local intent search in particular are neighbourhood staples such as:·Restaurants·Diners·Pharmacies·Coffee shops·And of course – pizza places.In terms of those phrases which are receiving the greatest growth increase in recent years, the top performers are for local + type of shop. Within that category, the most popular have been:·Local coffee shop·Local flower shop·Local print shop·Local tire shop/garageThe search demand for local or ‘near me’ coffee related searches has experienced a particular boom – which is great news for local coffee jaunts around the US. Google Allows Local Restaurants to Opt Out of Showing 3rd Party Order System Links On the back of its local search and small business findings, Google has also confirmed that Google My Business will allow restaurants to remove online ordering 3rd party links from their Google My Business listing.In order for a restaurant to do this, they must log in to the Google My Business profile and submit an online form via the dashboard.The option to opt out has been made available as many restaurants now allow customers to order directly through their own website in addition to via a service such as Just Eat. In those instances where the customer is searching to order by the name of the restaurant, the search engine wants local food service providers to be able to capitalise by directing diners to their own website rather than a third party.Though there will undoubtedly be popular restaurants with their own means of processing orders direct which means they could potentially save a great deal on service fee’s from a 3rd party of they encourage customers to order directly through their system instead.