Local business discovery is a frequent, multi-platform activity. BrightLocal found that 82% of its U.S. respondents searched online at least daily in 2025, while review research from GatherUp and consumer behavior data from SOCi show that trust, recency, accurate listings, and business responses all influence the final choice.
Contents
- How often consumers search for local businesses
- Platforms and devices used for local search
- AI and cross-channel discovery
- How reviews shape research and trust
- How deeply consumers read and filter reviews
- Review and recommendation platforms
- Listings, ratings, and business responses
How often consumers search for local businesses
BrightLocal’s Consumer Search Behavior: Where Are Your Customers? measured U.S. consumer behavior in 2025. The study found that local search is not limited to occasional, high-intent moments:
- 58% of respondents said they search the internet several times a day.
- Another 24% said they search online daily.
- Combined, 82% searched online at least daily.
- 39% estimated that at least 41% of their searches are devoted to information about local businesses.
- 30% were comfortable selecting one local business after researching and making a decision.
- 49% often or always planned their travel route to the local business they selected.
- 56% often or always checked that business information was correct and matched other online mentions.
The same BrightLocal study also recorded how readily people broaden their search. 23% of respondents often or always switched platforms to find more local-business options, while 21% never did so. That split suggests that a business may be discovered in one environment but evaluated in another, particularly when a consumer wants more choices or needs to confirm practical details.
Platforms and devices used for local search
Google remained the leading default destination in BrightLocal’s 2025 U.S. research. Google was the default local-search platform for 45% of respondents. When Google and Safari were combined, 53% effectively used Google’s search ecosystem for local queries. Google Maps was the first local-search stop for a further 15%.
Maps were important as a group: Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Bing Maps together accounted for 20% of default local-search platforms in the study. For local businesses, that makes location data and map-facing information part of the search experience, not merely an afterthought to a website.
Gen Z showed a broader platform mix in the same BrightLocal sample. Google was the default local-search platform for 30% of Gen Z respondents, and Google Maps was the default for 18%. TikTok ranked as the default local-search platform for 10% of Gen Z respondents, while social-media platforms were the primary local-search method for 26%.
| Local-search destination or method | Share reported | Study and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Google, all U.S. respondents | 45% | BrightLocal, 2025 |
| Google ecosystem, including Safari | 53% | BrightLocal, 2025 |
| Google Maps, all U.S. respondents | 15% | BrightLocal, 2025 |
| Google, Gen Z respondents | 30% | BrightLocal, 2025 |
| Google Maps, Gen Z respondents | 18% | BrightLocal, 2025 |
| TikTok, Gen Z respondents | 10% | BrightLocal, 2025 |
| Social media as primary method, Gen Z | 26% | BrightLocal, 2025 |
These figures describe default or primary behavior, so they should not be added together as if they were mutually exclusive market shares. They instead show why local search visibility needs to account for search engines, maps, and social discovery.
AI and cross-channel discovery
Generative AI was present in local discovery, but adoption varied substantially by age. BrightLocal reported that 46% of U.S. respondents in 2025 did not actively use generative AI in search. At the other end of the age range, ChatGPT was the default general-search platform for 10% of Gen Z respondents.
Baby Boomers reported lower active use in the same study. Only 19% said they actively use generative AI in search, 59% said they do not actively use AI in search, and 21% did not know whether they use AI in search. These responses indicate that self-reported AI behavior is not uniform across generations, and that some consumers may encounter AI-assisted results without labeling the experience that way.
Reviews also appeared in AI discovery. In BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2025, 6% of U.S. consumers said they used ChatGPT or another AI tool to find local-business reviews. That is a smaller channel than conventional search or established review platforms in the supplied research, but it establishes AI as one route into review evaluation.
How reviews shape research and trust
Reviews are deeply embedded in local-business research. BrightLocal’s 2025 U.S. consumer review study found that 96% of consumers were open to writing a review for a local business. Only 4% said they never read online business reviews. Reviews therefore operate on both sides of the customer journey: many people may contribute them, and very few say they never consult them.
Trust in reviews also approached the level of personal recommendation for a substantial group. 42% of BrightLocal’s 2025 respondents said reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends and family.
Consumers were not simply treating every review element as interchangeable. 92% found keyword filters and photos in reviews useful in at least some way. In addition, 48% read an AI review summary before reading positive and negative reviews. This points to a two-stage research pattern: a summary or filter can help a consumer orient quickly, while individual positive and negative experiences provide detail.
Authenticity was a concern. 24% of BrightLocal’s U.S. consumers in 2025 were confident they had spotted a fake review during the previous year. Separately, 46% said that a review appearing to be AI-written would make them suspicious that it was fake. For businesses, the implication is not that every AI-assisted review is automatically rejected, but that language suggesting artificial authorship can affect perceived credibility.
GatherUp’s Beyond the Stars: How American Consumers Use Reviews to Choose Local Businesses surveyed U.S. consumers in November 2024. It found that 85% expressed at least some trust in online local-business reviews, while fewer than 1% said they never consult reviews before selecting a local business. The measurement dates differ from BrightLocal’s 2025 studies, so these results should be read as separate snapshots rather than a single trend line.
How deeply consumers read and filter reviews
GatherUp’s November 2024 findings show that review research often goes beyond a quick glance at the star rating:
- 59% said they spend more time reading local-business reviews than five years earlier, compared with 2019.
- 90% read at least three reviews before forming an opinion about a local business.
- 48% formed an opinion after reading three to five reviews.
- 30% read six to ten reviews before forming an opinion.
- 13% read more than ten reviews before forming an opinion.
- 67% sorted local reviews by recency the last time they consulted them.
The review-count figures describe different reported ranges, not a basis for calculating an average. Together, they show that the research process commonly includes multiple individual reviews and that recency is an active filter. A listing with many historical reviews may still need current evidence to answer a consumer’s immediate question.
Review and recommendation platforms
GatherUp asked U.S. consumers in November 2024 which review platforms they trusted most. Google-based reviews led at 67%. Amazon followed at 47%, Yelp at 41%, Facebook at 34%, Tripadvisor at 31%, and Apple Maps at 26%.
| Review platform | Share selecting it as most trusted |
|---|---|
| Google-based reviews | 67% |
| Amazon | 47% |
| Yelp | 41% |
| 34% | |
| Tripadvisor | 31% |
| Apple Maps | 26% |
The platform mix changes when the question is recommendation discovery rather than review trust. In GatherUp’s same November 2024 U.S. research, Instagram was used for local-business recommendations by 52% of respondents, and TikTok was used by 42%. This distinction matters: a platform can help consumers discover a business even when another platform is where they place greater trust in reviews.
Listings, ratings, and business responses
SOCi’s Nurturing the Customer Relationship: Top Takeaways from SOCi’s 2024 Consumer Behavior Index provides another view of local search and decision-making among U.S. consumers in 2024. 32% searched for local businesses every day or multiple times a day. 87% regularly read online reviews before a purchase decision, and 77% said a local business needed at least three or four stars out of five to be considered.
Listing accuracy could directly affect substitution. When a store profile said it was open but the location was closed, 47% said they would look for another nearby business. This is a reported response to a specific inaccurate-hours scenario, not an estimate of all lost visits, but it shows how quickly a practical mismatch can redirect local demand.
Review participation was also common in SOCi’s 2024 survey: 81% said they write local-business reviews at least occasionally. Business responses mattered as well. 41% said they were more likely to choose a business that responds to its online reviews. Yet only 30% said the business responded within one to two days to their most recent review.
Taken together, the findings describe a local search journey with several checkpoints: consumers search frequently, move among search, maps, social, and review platforms, inspect multiple reviews, and verify whether the business information matches reality. Accurate profiles, current review evidence, and visible responses all appear in the decision context measured by these studies.