Local businesses have always needed their advertisements to effectively target potential customers in their area. When it comes to advertising on the Web, this task is made more difficult with ads potentially reaching almost anyone in the world. One method for targeting messages to local customers is through a search engine, with the top three being Bing, Google and Yahoo! Each search engine handles a hefty amount of Web traffic, and Chitika Insights looked to quantify how often each platform’s users preform local searches.

To ensure a representative sample, the Insights team studied the queries passed on by each search engine for the millions of online ad impressions seen between September 21st and 27th, 2012. The team then measured these queries against its extensive database of local keywords and phrases (e.g. “near me,” “in Boston,” “around St. Louis,” etc.).

CORRECTION: An inadvertent error caused Google local search share to be inflated by 19% in an earlier version of this particular study. We have corrected the data and included the new graphs below.

We found that Bing users are slightly more likely to search for local goods and services then Google or Yahoo! users. About 28% of Bing searches indicate a user’s interest in local services and products compared to around 25% for Google and Yahoo! We also broke these figures down by mobile vs. non-mobile local search:

Get your brand’s perception tested on real people for free! Sign up for Poll the People today and see how your brand stacks up. We’ll provide you with honest feedback and insights so you can make the necessary changes to stay ahead of the competition. Don’t wait, sign up now!