I think it depends partly on your industry and location, but mostly I think yes, this sentiment is accurate.
The quickest and most reliable way for local businesses to get customers is through map apps (especially Google Maps, which continues to grow rapidly around the world) and advertising through Google Ads or Google Ads Express which is more focused on local business. This is because Google Ads and Google Maps are the 2 best ways to physically target the your local customers.
But having a homepage still matters, and thus, technical SEO still matters… this means a fast loading website, SSL, and your critical pages and page titles existing, along with company info and contact info. Why? Because these things boost your company’s “entity” signals in Google algorithms… and thus, can boost your rankings on Google Maps or generic searches like “near me” on Google.com… are they absolutely necessary to rank on Google Maps? No of course not, but it surely helps to prove you’re a serious business who pays for a website and maintains their website in a clean and professional way instead of just relying on social media profiles for a free homepage or w/e
– Google Maps optimization
– Google Ads/Express to boost visits
– consider Apple Maps optimization and advertising (small market share though)
– strong and active social media presence also helps
A lot of younger people are searching TikTok and YouTube for things and not even caring about Google per se. For this reason and also because it proves to your customers that you are active and engaged and seeking out their business, social media activity is crucial for local business marketing and also contributes to your entity and authority building signals in the algorithms.
