Data from a research company shows that local is the second-largest channel behind organic search. The two organic channels combined dominate the traffic at 69%, in page views, and channel revenue
contribution.
The Milestone research report segments local organic and organic search traffic, and down-journey performance by analyzing traffic sources from multiple channels to provide a
benchmark.
For the research, the company reviewed more than 500 location-based websites, 63 million sessions, and 176 million page views between January 2020 and June 2021. Then it categorized
results as location or non-location-based businesses.
The data represents what Milestone research identifies as trackable digital traffic.
Local traffic is the highest-intent traffic,
meaning that its share of page views and revenue is higher than the traffic session share, with a share of page views at 28.6% and share of revenue at 25.5%.
The findings suggest, according to
Milestone research, that local search benefited from the pullback in paid spending and traffic that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By segmenting the local traffic from the organic
traffic, Milestone research saw that:
- Local traffic is one-third of total organic traffic for location-based businesses
- Local traffic has better engagement and higher
conversion
- Local traffic has higher revenue per transaction
The research company also offers suggestions for businesses including, but not limited to:
- Completing the company’s Google My Business profile
- Add Schemas to help search engines understand website content
- Optimize for voice search on engines and assistants
- Add FAQs to lead in a specific topic.