A lot of movement in the 3-pack / Local Finder

[Scott ClientClicks]

Yes, so far they are still there. (finger's crossed emoji)

Here's two observations from doing a variety of searches in the legal niche. (very small sample size warning.)

* Keywords in the business name seem to be weighted more heavily now.
* Local pack order seems to have changed for keywords that don't include the city modifier. When the city modifier is included, the results look to me to be the same as last week.

Does anyone else see similar patterns?

 

[danieljc]

I've tried edits to both clients that went missing and neither one has come back after a couple hours wait.

 

[Greg B]

Hi all,

I started noticing very unusual activity in the local map pack last week. But, not just in rankings! Rather, in odd behavior.

Honestly, I think Google has made some mistakes on their end.

Example: I have a customer who OWNS local for his website in his town. He appears for over 20 search terms (in mapping) for his location.

Here is the strange behavior from Google. Until last week I could check his ranking using the "Product+town name" and he would obviously show because he is very strong in local. Now, catch this. His website is located in Lake Worth Texas and he would naturally show up for Lake Worth when Google had an accurate geographical search.

However, there is more than one "Lake Worth" in the United States. NOW in the map pack if someone types "Product+town" results from Lake Worth FLORIDA show up. That is several states away! Far from Local. He still shows in 2-3 spots in the organic SERPS, but "local" displays for Lake Worth Florida.

So, I did some testing. If I type "Product-town-state" he now appears in the local pack just as he did before. I think Google Local has gone 'loco'.

This is Bing behavior.

 

[danieljc]

Where before I said organic didn't seem significantly affected, I have to revise that. I'm now seeing noticeable upticks in organic rankings yet ironically, maps rankings still either down or disappeared for same businesses.

 

[BenFisher]

Strange, I have been doing reports for many of our clients, I am seeing improved rankings across multiple niches (law, hospitality, real estate, solar (big bump here))

Just to name a few. The pattern I see so far is that terms which are tighter in key phrase are rising, also where an emphasis on high relevance.

Example:
Realtor - lost only a few places
Lower ranking for: [City] homes (generic)
Higher ranking for: [city] house values, [city] realty (matches semantic content)

Solar - only gained - no losses
Home solar energy (geo searched)
Home solar energy [state]
solar for home [state]

I keep looking for examples of losses, and I am just not seeing much across 40+ clients.

Will keep digging.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I haven't seen many losses either. Lots of gains though!

 

[Tony Wang]

Still checking, but so far I've dropped out of a few 3-packs, and haven't seen any gains :-( Haven't seen much change in organic.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Just confirming we saw lots of movement over the weekend too, so it looks like the rollout wasn't finished yet. Hopefully it is now

Most of our clients saw gains, a few new ones saw losses.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Here is the article I mentioned I'd share. I'll be doing a follow-up one most likely next week because since writing this I have documented and noted several other patterns among some of the disappearing listings that are getting filtered.

I'm becoming more and more convinced there is a spam filter in local and that the criteria for it changed as of last week. Of course, I could be wrong

Is Google filtering your business in the local search results?

 

[danieljc]

It's a great article. But none of the criteria for disappearance are fitting my experience. I have organic rankings, authority, age, and non-duplication and still missing listings. I called GMB support and they confirmed no issue with listing (not that I was expecting anything from them). But I'm also seeing a lot of fluctuation still so I don't think we're done with rollout.

 

[JoyHawkins]

It's a great article. But none of the criteria for disappearance are fitting my experience. I have organic rankings, authority, age, and non-duplication and still missing listings. I called GMB support and they confirmed no issue with listing (not that I was expecting anything from them). But I'm also seeing a lot of fluctuation still so I don't think we're done with rollout.

I found several other things after writing it. What industry is the client in?

 

[danieljc]

I found several other things after writing it. What industry is the client in?

One is Criminal Lawyers and another is Personal Injury Lawyers

 

[JoyHawkins]

One is Criminal Lawyers and another is Personal Injury Lawyers

How many other profiles share their address, and are any of them lawyers?

 

[danieljc]

How many other profiles share their address, and are any of them lawyers?

I described it in the email I sent you earlier since one of them was a mutual client with you. But for the criminal lawyer - one other. For the PI lawyer, zero others.

 

[Hammer]

I have found some very strange behavior. Specifically, if I search "nokomis florida mortgage broker" I get a single listing for Gulfside Mortgage Services, but if I look for "nokomis fl mortgage broker" I get a 3 pack (with only two listings, one of which is Gulfside Mortgage Services). A week ago, the first search showed the same findings that are now gone. If I use "nokomis florida mortgage lender" I get the same 2 findings as "nokomis fl mortgage broker" but then add one more to complete the 3 pack.

I've checked others that we work with in the mortgage industry (my niche) and many of the standard search findings I've been using as examples for months are now gone or have to use different search terms to find.

Another strange example - "home loans by paige arizona mortgage" no Google my Business knowledge graph - flip two words "home loans by paige mortgage arizona" and WALLAH it's there, with very different organic SERP too.

I am not the expert many here are, but I've not seen Google act so strange before....

- Hammer

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yep, just looked at a dentist case where he ranks 3rd for dentist + city, but is completely filtered for "dentist + city + state abbreviated" even though he ranks organically for it.

Before I often didn't see huge variations depending on how you searched but the cases I've looked at so far today all are showing wide variances.

 

[petrakraft]

Would it be possible that a permanently closed business (which is https://maps.<wbr>google.com?cid=-<wbr>6463753163164809100) with the same adress is causing the filter? That ski rental office disapeared from the 3-pack http://maps.google.<wbr>com/maps?cid=<wbr>17226836047165249779 . The same adress is "Markt 57a". Right now my listing is IN the 3-pack again because I changed the adress to "Markt 57" (which is wrong without the "a") - but like that it seems to escape the filter.
Some months ago I have been in contact with a Google person regarding that "permanently closed" venue to disconnect it with maps but they didn't.

Additionally I could see that:
- for the searches "ski school in [town]" and "ski school [town] the local packs are gone
- if a venue has by default the town in its business name -> the 3-pack is gone as well. I have that seen those examples several times. Only that one "lucky" business is showing with that search term with the knowledge graph and 1st result in organic.

 

[Robin]

I think you might be right (Daniel + Joy)

I'm also still seeing a lot of fluctuation and 'odd' results on the 60+ clients I'm tracking.

Several of them rank top 3 organically and have consistently ranked in the 3-pack but suddenly have dropped out of it.

But I'm also seeing the opposite: clients who rank 10-20 organically and have never been in the 3-pack and suddenly are there.

 

[Rich Owings]

Hi all,

After spending some time checking various queries for a dentist client, I'm struck by the diversity of results. As others are seeing, it varies tremendously depending upon whether you use city state, state city, no geo modifiers, zip code, etc. Is it possible that these variations are intentional, to give more businesses a chance to show up for various category queries?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Rich,

Yep, I'm seeing this too. Was checking out a recent example over at another forum and will share here.

• You type in "Dental Implants Lake Forest IL" and get Forest North Dental & Richard Rosenblatt in the local results (they share a phone # and address) so the filter doesn't seem to be in play here.
• Type in "Dental Implants Lake Forest" you just get the practice, Richard appears filtered
• Type in "dentist lake forest" you don't get either. I wasn't expecting to get Richard since he doesn't have this category but was expecting to see the practice.