According to searchenginewatch.com , Google+ Local is a new feature that allows, “small businesses targeting local customers because it combines customer reviews and local search into one platform. Yet, many small businesses still aren’t sure how to take advantage of Google+ Local.”

There are two ways that users can search for Google+ Pages.  The first is that when Google knows that a search query is looking for a local business, it will include Google+ Local pages in the search results.  The second way that users can search for Google+ Pages is that they can search from within Google+ itself.  This way Google+ Pages only compete against each other for visibility as other websites are ignored during the search.

It’s important that businesses make use Google+ Local because According to Google, “20 percent of all Google searches have local intent and 40 percent of Google mobile searches have local intent. “

The number of people searching on Google is steadily increasing.  According to Statisticbrain.com, there were 22,000,000,000 Google searches in the year 2000 and 1,873,910,000,000 Google searches in the year 2012.

According to Canadian Internet monitoring firm Sandvine, Netflix and YouTube dominate over half of downstream Internet traffic in North America showing that not all Google searches are related to consumers looking to buy goods.  However, many customers do according to Google, “Combined with the fact that 97 percent of consumers search online for local businesses, it’s easy to see why it’s essential for small businesses to have high local search visibility.”   With so many customers searching for products and services online, companies must also move online in order to increase awareness, articulate the benefits of their products to spur consumer interest in the product, and drive consumers to take action by purchasing products.  These concepts are illustrated by the Google purchasing funnel shown below.