
Everybody’s trying to reach a local audience these days, but our new report finds that hyperlocal might also mean hypersmall. The big attraction to “local” comes from the fact that local websites hold more value because their site visitors make the vast majority household purchases within a few miles of their homes. Our new report digs into a few disturbing aspects of local site traffic, including data that show that the unique visitor-to-actual-people ratio is nearly 4 to 1. Audiences are being overstated, and some of those visitors aren’t even local. The 15-page report includes 16 charts and graphs detailing our findings from site surveys and analysis of local websites. Among the conclusions: Sales reps who know this information and come clean with advertisers about their traffic details are likely to gain their trust – and a leg up on the competition still peddling the “unique visitor” story.