The AccuRanker team and I analyzed over 300,000 local SERPs in the largest US cities of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago to find a clear answer to this question:
Are Google local packs a survival kit for local businesses? What is the ratio of local to global businesses that appear in Google local packs?
This research would not have been possible without the amazing AccuRanker API, which can process large amounts of data in less than an hour! The results of this analysis will be of interest to both search marketers and business owners who offer local SEO services.
In addition to the results of my extensive research, I also included expert opinions as I distributed a survey among the most respected local SEO experts.
What proportions of local and global businesses are in Google Local Packs
Why is local SEO so important?
63.6 percent of experts confirmed that local search delivers better ROI than any other online channel
Local SEO is a vital issue for all businesses georgia mobile phone numbers database from SMEs to large companies. If you are a business owner or a manager who runs SEO processes, you should strive to get the maximum benefit from the opportunities that local search offers for your business.
So what is the desired effect?
Depending on how relevant your business is to a particular search query, your domain name should appear in local pack listings and at the top of Google SERPs. In August 2015, Google switched to showing three results in local packs instead of seven, so it's quite difficult to get into these packs.
But there are much bigger brands than mine. Can I compete with them in local packs?
It’s clear that small businesses can’t allocate the same amount of resources to local search optimization as larger companies. As a result, small businesses don’t have the same number of links and other SEO signals that rank their sites higher in the local pack. Google local listings partially solve this problem when it comes to local results that include specific locations. However, let’s imagine a situation where there are a number of global brands near your local business. How will local results be prioritized in this case? Will your business still be visible? Let’s dig deeper to find out the answers to all these questions so you can choose the best local SEO strategy for your business!
How did we calculate the numbers?
I conducted a study with the AccuRanker team to track the competition among global and small businesses in Google local packs.
Here are the main steps we took to obtain a list of final insights:
With the help of AccuRanker's keyword suggestion feature and Google Keyword Planner, we collected 111,000+ local keywords - those containing words like "nearby", "around me", "nearby".
Next, we grouped all the keywords into categories like real estate, shopping, financial services, catering, sports, health, auto services, and others; the clustering was done partly with the help of Google Keyword Planner, but most of the work was done manually.
The AccuRanker team then set up location tracking campaigns for these keywords in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, the three largest cities in the US. It’s worth noting that AccuRanker has incredible capabilities – it can track over 300,000 keywords via its API in just 30 minutes! In my experience, I’ve never seen anything like this before.
The resulting raw datasets were the domain names and websites of companies appearing in local packs in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and represented in the top three results. With the help of keyword categorization, I was able to not only analyze general trends, but also dig deeper to see how local businesses were performing across industries.
Here are my top 10 analyses:
1. More than 60 percent of local packages are filled with global domains
Global and local spheres of influence
Global vs. local domains - local packs with domains
I divided the list of domains that appear in local packages into two groups: global and local. I used the data provider traffic metric to check the traffic of over 36,000 domains .
Here's the bad news for small local businesses:
More than half of the domains appearing in local packages are not local at all
The overwhelming majority of local packages in different niches that I analyzed are filled with sites of large international businesses.
Since we’ve already discovered that local businesses often don’t have websites, it’s pretty predictable that global domains could benefit from this. Experts we spoke to also noted that one of the biggest problems local businesses face is that big brands and giant domains dominate local SERPs:
Local SEO Difficulties
2. The Shopping category shows the largest presence of global domains in local packs – over 53 percent
Global domains are powerful, have impressive link profiles, and are trusted by Google, so global domains have a number of advantages over domains for small businesses, even on a local scale.
3. Shopping, auto services, transportation, and catering categories have the highest number of SERPs featuring local packages
Here is the breakdown of these four niches:
Shopping is the leader here, accounting for about 26 percent of local searches that include local packages
Auto Services is the second leading niche, accounting for 20 percent of local searches that include local packages
Transportation accounts for about 8 percent of local searches with local packages
Catering – 6 percent of local searches for local takeaways
4. Walmart and CVS are the most visible areas
Although the number of local searches for the healthcare niche is much lower than for the shopping or automotive niches, there is a strong leader. CVS appears in over 15 percent of local searches for healthcare.
Is cvs.com really such a strong domain name? I checked its competitors using a competitive intelligence tool. Here are cvs.com’s most relevant organic search competitors: walgreens .com, drugstore .com, riteaid .com, and rxlist.com. Rxlist.com is an online medical resource that primarily includes patient self-education information, so it overlaps with cvs.com in terms of shared keywords, but it’s not really a pharmacy chain competitor like CVS is. Drugstore.com is an online shopping site that sells vitamins and beauty products, so it’s not a direct competitor to CVS. Walgreens and Rite Aid are pharmacy chains like CVS, so they’re direct competitors.
After checking this, I turned to AccuRanker, which allows me to add competitors by selecting a set of keywords and a specific location and see how they perform in a local result. I decided to check how cvs.com and its competitors appear in the SERPs for different pharmaceutical keywords in Los Angeles. The following chart shows the visibility of cvs.com and its main competitors:
visibility and rivals cvs
Walmart, the second-leading domain in local search, has achieved such high visibility thanks to its brand awareness—it has 90 percent of branded searches. For example, one of Walmart’s direct competitors in both online and offline markets, Target Corporation, has three times fewer branded searches. This proves that having a strong brand is a winning strategy. However, when analyzing our data, we found the exact opposite of Walmart. The liquor store Warehouse Wines & Spirits shows up a lot in general searches but less than four percent in branded searches. So, even without strong brand awareness, you can still be highly visible!
5. The presence of local packs for local search queries in Google SERPs does not exceed 30 percent.
Yep, that’s right. Only 30 percent of Google SERPs for local searches show local packs, meaning there’s plenty of opportunity for local businesses to take advantage of this. No matter what your business niche is, Google offers local listings, and they’re practically free to get involved.
6. A large number of searches that do not include local packages are related to various topics that include "24 hours".
I can’t believe that giant cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago don’t have 24-hour coffee shops, grocery stores, gyms, and supermarkets! It’s clear that queries containing the words “24 hours” are also local . So there’s room for SEO activity for many local businesses that are open 24 hours a day.
7. Accommodation-related search queries include local packages in over 95 percent of analyzed SERPs
Despite the low number of local packages in all analyzed SERPs, the accommodation category is fully covered. Looking at the results of my research, it seems to me to be among the most competitive niches. However, the expert survey reveals that this is not the case.
For most accommodation search queries, SERPs show local packages (for example, “cheap hotels near me,” “best places to stay near me,” or “comfort inn near me”). At the same time, of those local packages that do appear, only 36 percent include local businesses.
8. Law and beauty services are among the most competitive niches, as law and beauty local search queries have the lowest SERPs without local packages
Local SEO experts have confirmed that both legal services and real estate are two niches where competition is quite fierce. Legal services have a high level of competition because the number of searches is really low. So it’s really hard to stand out in this niche. We asked AJ Ghergich, founder of Ghergich & Co, a consulting agency in Saint Louis, Missouri, to comment on the state of the legal services niche:
AJ Ghergich
SEO and Content Marketing Expert, ghergich.com
In my opinion, law is the most competitive simply because of scarcity. For example, keywords like “personal injury lawyer nyc” cost $70 to $80 per click on Google Ads. The search volume is low but the ROI for the right client is very high.
So you’re facing a ton of competition for a very small amount of search volume, and when you combine that with deep-pocketed and sometimes ego-driven lawyers, you’ve got a tough job.
9. Most local businesses still prefer to maintain a minimal web presence
I assume this is because it’s complicated to prove a direct link between online visits and actual purchases, which is why business owners try to avoid going online. Also, not all businesses are aware of using Google Local listings unless they have a website.
10. Only 41 percent of local packages appearing in Google SERPs have domains
Local package with and without domains
Local packs with and without domains
Even businesses that are aware of Google’s options for local businesses often choose not to create a website. Of all the local packs that appear on SERPs for local search queries, only 41 percent include links to a business’s site. As a result, many local businesses don’t see abandoning a website as a real problem. They don’t understand the opportunities and profits that digital marketing can create. This is a sad state of affairs, but it also creates a huge gap for digital agencies that are ready to work with local and hyperlocal businesses. These agencies can easily reach out to these businesses and suggest that they develop a website and run a local SEO campaign.
