A measured field study · 10 studies
How India's Local Businesses Get Found
This is a direct measurement. Over August 2026 we pulled raw data on eight service trades across six ordinary Indian cities, Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow, Surat, Kochi and Nagpur, and read one question through it from every angle: when a person goes looking for a local business, what actually decides which one they find and choose. Forty-eight live search results, nine hundred and sixty businesses on the map, a demand map of what the country types, the domains of the firms that already win, and the knowledge graph the machine reads. Each study below is one cut of that dataset, with the method and sample size stated beside every number.
Sources: live Google search-results and AI Overview data, Google Places, Google Ads search volume, Google Knowledge Graph, Google PageSpeed Insights, and DNS-over-HTTPS. Collected August 2026. Every figure is measured, never estimated, and small samples are labeled as such.
- Study 01Discovery Science
Who Actually Answers a Local Search in India: 48 Queries, One AI Overview
An AI Overview appeared in 1 of 48 local queries. The answer is still the map pack.
In 48 live local searches across six Indian cities, Google's AI Overview answered once. The map pack answered for three of eight trades, and never for the other five.
Read the study - Study 02MSME & Global Commerce
The Aggregator Toll: Who Owns the Organic Answer When the Business Does Not
An aggregator is the top organic result in a fifth of local searches.
In a fifth of forty-eight local searches across six Indian cities, the top organic result is not a business. It is Justdial, IndiaMART, Practo, or a social platform occupying the space instead.
Read the study - Study 03Choice Science
The Dead Star: When a 4.9 Rating Stops Meaning Anything
Across 960 businesses the median rating is 4.9. The star no longer sorts anyone.
Across 960 rated businesses in six Indian cities the median Google rating is 4.9, and 97.2% sit at 4.5 stars or higher. When almost everyone clears the bar, the star stops sorting anyone.
Read the study - Study 04Choice Science
The Review Moat: The Real Barrier Is Volume, and It Is Front-Loaded
The review leader in a local market holds about a quarter of all its reviews.
Star ratings compressed to a median of 4.9 across 960 Indian businesses; review count did not. The leader in an average local market holds 23.2% of every review counted there, a lead volume alone can build.
Read the study - Study 05The Attention Landscape
The Near-Me Nation: How India Actually Searches for a Local Business
"Gym near me" outsearches "gym" more than three to one. Proximity is the query.
Across 112 India keywords measured in a single August 2026 pull, "gym near me" outsearches "gym" more than three to one, and proximity phrasing resolves through the map pack, not a website.
Read the study - Study 06Demand & Paid Media
The Cost of Being Found: What Local Attention Is Worth by the Month
The dentist keyword set alone carries roughly $350,000 a month in ad value.
Measured cost per click times measured search volume prices local attention by the month. Dentist keyword sets alone model to roughly $349,700, the highest of eight Indian trades measured.
Read the study - Study 07Conversion Science
The Readiness Teardown: Are the Sites That Already Rank Machine-Ready?
The sites that already rank are mostly slow on a phone.
Eighteen local sites winning searches across six Indian cities, tested on Google's own mobile speed test. Median score: 58 of 100. Seventeen of eighteen miss the 2.5-second bar Google calls good.
Read the study - Study 08Trust, Ethics & Regulation
The Half-Locked Door: India's MSME Email Authentication Gap, Measured
83% of these domains publish SPF; only about 11% actually enforce DMARC.
Most of these MSME domains publish SPF. About half set a DMARC record. Only about one in nine actually enforces it, the setting that stops a forged invoice from reaching an inbox.
Read the study - Study 09Discovery Science
The Entity Void: The Knowledge Graph Barely Knows These Businesses Exist
The knowledge graph holds an entity for about 2% of these local firms.
Raveneye Global queried Google's Knowledge Graph for 48 businesses already leading their local Indian markets. One resolved to a matching entity, and it belonged to a national brand, not a local firm.
Read the study - Study 10Measurement & Honesty
The Findability Index: Which Local Trade Is Hardest to Break Into
Which of the eight trades is hardest to break into, scored from the data.
A composite score built from four measured signals, demand, aggregator crowding, review depth, and map-pack absence, ranks coaching institute and gym hardest to break into among eight Indian trades.
Read the study
Where does your business stand in the answer?
Every study here measures a surface a real buyer moves through. A Machine-Readiness Score is a specialist-reviewed read of where one business stands across classic search, the local map pack, AI answers, and reputation. No guaranteed number, and no obligation.