Searchers interact more with business search results on search engines

A new study on consumer search behavior last year revealed that consumers have become more active with business search results on search engines. Consumer actions with business listings have grown 17% over the past year, and includes actions such as requesting directions, clicks to contact a business, etc. This data was reported by Yext in a 2020 Search Trends study, and the data was sourced from a sample of over 400,000 US business listings.

Businesses are getting better at responding to reviews, with review responses increasing 47% year over year. “Consumers are leaving more reviews about businesses. The number of reviews per business site grew 27% over the year.

“In fact, financial services review volume grew 91% per site, the fastest growth of any industry.” This could also contribute to an increase in consumer actions, as it may encourage more people to leave reviews knowing that the business is more likely to read and respond. Search impressions on business listings are also up, up 10% compared to last year, which may explain the rise in consumer actions, although it is interesting to see engagement growing faster than views.