Dive Brief: 

• According to BrightLocal's annual Local Consumer Review Survey, 88% of consumers — roughly 9 out of 10 — trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. 
• The same amount utilize online reviews to determine the quality of a local business, and 39% do so on a regular basis. 
• People are reading a lot of reviews, too: 85% say they read up to 10 reviews at a time, while 7% often read over 20. 

Dive Insight: 

The importance of having a strategy for local online directories is underscored by this study. Potential customers are weighing online reviews heavily in making purchasing decisions, which should get businesses moving on managing their online personas. It's interesting that, despite some prevalent fraud from brands padding their reviews with paid-for positivity, consumers would still trust the reviews as much as they do.