The way consumers search and shop is changing, and businesses must adapt

When is the last time you searched for any business and added ‘near me’ at the end?
This is becoming a very common way for people to search for desired products and services. Many businesses would probably be surprised at just how fast the ‘near me movement’ is growing.
For example, in Australia, AusGarage says the number of people searching “4×4 shop near me” grew 3450 percent between 2019 and 2020.
In that same span of time, searches for “auto body shop near me” reportedly grew 1650 percent and “mobile auto electrician near me” increased 500 percent, says AusGarage, which explains that even very common ‘near me’ searches like “tyre shop near me” doubled during this time.
If businesses don’t capitalise on this trend, it’s a missed opportunity for growing the customer base.
The AusGarage automotive marketing agency has several suggestions for businesses that want to capture this audience.
The first recommendation is to ensure that the business’ website is mobile friendly since most of these new searches take place on mobile devices. The business should go the extra mile in providing an exceptional mobile user experience.
AusGarage also says that businesses should not underestimate the importance of Google My Business (GMB) listings because these are being featured in many ‘near me’ search results.
The GMB listing should be double checked to make sure it has been set up correctly and is optimised to include the services and products offered.
Genuine, positive customer reviews on the map listing by local customers go a long way in boosting the GMB listing as well.
After checking off these two basic steps with the mobile-friendly website and GMB listing, AusGarage says there are some more advanced strategies a business can look into.
These include image geo tagging, schema markup, Google local ad campaigns, and suburb centric articles and service pages.
AusGarage says that these strategies aren’t always needed and may be harder to implement, but they are worth considering as they have the potential to increase the customer base.

For more information on improving your ‘Near Me’ visibility, visit www.ausgarage.com.au/the-near-me-movement/