“Near Me” Searchers Buy the Same Day

Did you know that 50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit that business within a day?
Interesting is the fact that 18% of those visit will make a purchase that same day. Even more stunning, is the fact that Millennials will buy 29% of the time on the same day. So it stands to reason that your business should ensure that it can be found in a “near me” search for all the categories and products you sell.

1. Being mobile compatible is not good enough.

Finding a product or service nearby used to require a combination of the Yellow Pages, a paper map, and a telephone — not the most convenient solution. Thanks to the powerful devices in consumers pockets and on their wrists, buyers can now quickly and easily find things around them. All you have to do is sit at a coffee shop or commuter train and you will see consumers figuring out where to go next, where to buy the products they are interested in and where to get service, all from their smart phones.

“Turning to our smartphones when we need something — a forgotten word, a better (used car) price, a movie time— has become a reflex”, according to Matt Lawson, ‎director of search ads marketing at Google.

Words like "near me," "closest," and "nearby" are increasingly common across the billions of search queries on Google every month especially in Automotive research. Searches like “Used Honda’s near me” and “Closest used car lot” are quite common. According to Google, search interest in "near me" has increased a staggering 34 times since 2011 and nearly doubled again since last year. The vast majority come from mobile — 80% in Q4 2014.

In a new article on Think with Google, Matt Lawson, says,

"We want things right, and we want things right away. As a result, the consumer journey looks markedly different than it did just five years ago. Instead of a few moments of truth, it’s a series of 'micro-moments' when we turn to mobile to act on a need."

He call's them "I want to go" moments, read more http://bit.ly/Iwanttogo

2. Make Micro-Moments, Awesome Moments

Consumers have become fast at Google “Sniping”. They are expecting the answer right away and expecting the site they find to provide those answers in an instant. In other words, we have become less tolerant of poorly designed websites and sites with a bad customer experience.

For example if a customer searches for “Oil Change near me” or “Service in Alden NY” they expect to find sites they recognize. Then when they tap into that site from their mobile device you better take them to a site where they can find service and oil changes and it better be an awesome mobile experience.

3. Embrace Google’s New Mobile Experience.

In Google’s latest round of changes to their awesome search algorithm they focused on rewarding sites with amazing  mobile sites. You can test your site by going to http://bit.ly/SEOFriend

Make sure your websites are “Mobile Friendly” or “Near Me” compatible. Think about it, if 80% of “near me” searches are preformed on mobile devices, which makes sense, what do they see when they search for your brand “near me”. In other words test it against the mobile tools out there such as Google’s mobile friendly tag

4. Taking Advantage of “Near Me” Search

I was at a used car super store last week,  speaking about this subject with Scott Harvell and his team. I asked if he's store was “Near Me” ready? He beamed back at me and said, “Go ahead and check.”

So I pulled out my smart phone and searched “used cars near me.” Auction Direct  was listed on page one, with the “Mobile Friendly” tag.

Looking around his showroom at the many customers, I realized how important it is to have a great website fully compatible with Google’s latest search.

5. Focus on Your Google Business Listings Again.

I was visiting a large dealer group the other day, while waiting in the showroom I searched “Nissan Dealer Near Me” and was horrified to find that the very store I was standing in somehow was listed as “permanently closed” by Google maps.

How much business is that costing them. You cannot loose focus on the importance of Google’s Business Listing. You should have someone at your company reviewing them monthly and adding photos and videos as often as possible to keep it fresh.

6. Focusing on Localized Search with Special Websites

Consumers seldom know where they want to buy a car, they tend to search for things like “used cars in Alden NY” or “Charlotte Used Trucks” as their opening volley. You will notice that Autotrader.com and Cars.com are dominant advertisers in that space. For good reason. Customers search for the product they want in the town they want it, twice as often as a business name.

However, buying a domain like UsedCarsCharlotte.com and pointing it at your main site does not work, because in the past black hat SEO heathens ruined this technique. They built hundreds of phony one page landing pages with static content to game the old Google algorithm. Google now penalizes businesses that use this technique and in some cases have practically black balled victim dealers using into obscurity.

On the other hand, Google loves content rich websites that complete their main goal “Relevance.” So the way to help customers find the car they want in the market they are shopping in, is to have fully functional websites. Similar to car.com or craigslist.com that list your inventory and allow a great mobile and desktop experience for your customers.
UsedCarAd.com ($499 per year) is a perfect example of an inexpensive way to get yourself a “localized” web site. It provides a full inventory search, specials, aged inventory and 10 separate contact points including an awesome stepped credit ap.
It go as far as to allow the consumer to stay within your localizes site including VDP (vehicle detail pages) or allow the user to jump over to your branded VDP and continue their shopping experience on your main website.

7. Follow Google's Rules and They Will Love Your Site

At our company, Dealer Simplified, LLC, we study Google and their rules on a daily bases. We read their blogs, we watch their learning center videos. Why? Because we learned if you embrace their rules, Google will love your sites. Let me say that again in a different way. Stop fighting them, instead do what they say and they will index your site beautifully. 

An example of how great Google lays out the rules is this site: http://bit.ly/MobileSeo devoted to helping you make your mobile site compatible with Google's latest search algorithm.