Near Media: Reviews Decide the Click Without a Brand

Near Media has published a podcast episode (EP 270) presenting research by Greg Sterling into how people choose a personal injury lawyer in Atlanta. It combines a national survey with recorded user testing. This is Near Media's own research reported on its own podcast — it is not a Google announcement, and nothing about Google Business Profile has changed.

Even so, one finding is worth knowing if you run a salon, garage or clinic: when a searcher recognises none of the names in front of them, reviews do the deciding.

What the research found

Sterling's central argument is that brand recognition decides the click before anyone compares options. In the user-testing footage, the searcher skipped the local pack entirely, fixed on the Local Service Ads, and picked the firm she already knew. She then looked at that firm's Better Business Bureau page only to confirm a choice she had already made.

Asked directly which single lever moves behaviour, Sterling's answer was reviews. Not everyone arrives with a brand in mind, and Near Media reports that searchers without one "lean on and rely on" reviews both to build a shortlist and to rule firms out again later.

Two other findings stand out. Near Media's survey found the decision came down to experience with the customer's particular kind of case and the financial terms — both, in its reading, being ways of reducing risk in a purchase that is hard to judge. And "we support the community" ranked at the bottom of the messages that would actually prompt someone to make contact, despite respondents saying in the abstract that local involvement mattered. Near Media calls this the say-do gap.

On AI, the 2025 survey found fewer than 2% would turn first to a tool like ChatGPT to find a lawyer; Google remained the default entry point, and Near Media says the 2026 figure ticked up but the pattern held. Around 78% said they would consider a firm they saw in an AI Overview, and about 18% would use AI somewhere in the process.

What this does and doesn't mean for you

Be careful about carrying the whole study across to your trade. Near Media's respondents overwhelmingly said they first heard of these firms on television — roughly 55% recalled brands from TV — and Sterling flags this as unusually strong in legal, where firms buy traditional media at a scale doctors and restaurants do not. You are not going to out-advertise anyone on TV, and you don't need to.

What does carry across is the part about searchers with no recognition to fall back on. That describes most people looking for a garage or a hair appointment, and it is decided by the same signals that affect local ranking. For them, your reviews are the argument.

So, practically:

• Keep reviews arriving steadily rather than in bursts, and keep replying to them. If you are starting from none, getting the first few is its own job.
• Encourage customers to say what job you did for them. "Experience with my kind of case" was one of the two deciding factors in the research; a review that names the specific service does that work for you.
• Make your prices or your pricing approach easy to find on your website. Fear of cost was the other deciding factor.
• Don't lead with community involvement. Near Media found people say it matters and then don't act on it.

One last point from the episode worth filing away: Sterling and Mike Blumenthal note that offline activity builds awareness that returns as branded searches on Google, and that branded-search demand itself lifts rankings. Local sponsorship and word of mouth aren't separate from your online presence — they feed it.

No change to your Google Business Profile is needed here. This is a research finding, not a product update.