Today, more than six in 10 (64%) of local mobile content users own smartphones. The most popular smartphones used for local searches range across the three major platforms: Apple, Google’s Android, and RIM’s Blackberry.

Accessing local content via mobile applications is also on the rise. While local mobile content users most frequently access local content via a browser (73%), about 56% of local content users do so through an application, up 34% year-over year.

What are the key takeaways?

With so many consumers using mobile to conduct local business searches, local businesses can no longer ignore mobile as an advertising medium.

Local businesses should invest in building mobile-friendly websites so consumers can easily access their content in mobile browsers. Restaurants, for example, should prepare mobile-friendly menus and reservations tools.

Local businesses should ensure they are listed among all major online business directories, ranging from Internet Yellow Pages to local search sites such as CitySearch and Yelp, so that consumers can easily find them no matter what service they are using. They should also check to make sure their listings appear among listings in popular local search applications.

Given the high percentage of local mobile content accessed by smartphones with GPS capability, local businesses should explore whether opportunities to advertise via location-based advertising platforms such as Foursquare and Gowalla make sense for them.

source : “State of Local Search” study, prepared by comScore for the Local Search Association.

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