Change in "near me" searches for non-map (organic) results?

[HoosierBuff]

has anyone noticed that "near me" search results have changed a bit recently? I don't have a ton of info, but, for a few sites, I have seen that the below the map results seemed to get much less local in nature for near me searches. Has anyone seen this?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Interesting. Not something I've noticed yet. When did you notice the change? I know the core update in March definitely changed a lot in general.

 

[HoosierBuff]

I was running my monthly reports for clients, and I think it definitely ties with the core update.

I have a financial advisor client, and it seems the "near me" would always bring up a number of localized organic results, but, now, after the map it's mostly national brands.

I need to research it a bit more, I think I saw something similar with another client

 

[HoosierBuff]

I need to add this, because its important:

The change in Near Me results is definitely occurring outside the map, and because of that, the loss of ranking is more acute in adjacent zip codes. Where I was able to at least rank a bit, often ranking around 20-40, for a "near me" in an adjacent zip code, those have disappeared.

For <keyword term> + <cityname> the rankings are pretty much the same as before.

my hypothesis is that when google cranked up the core update, the local business still ranked for + cityname term, because their sites all say the cityname on them. The "near me" searches are impacted, because that is less of a local keyword match situation and the main topical term dominates.

It makes sense if a local site ranks for "financial advisor detroit", because they likely say "financial advisor detroit" all over the site.

Its more difficult to rank for "financial advisor near me" (in detroit), because however google is assessing near me in the organic results, they must have dialed up the importance of the main keyword vs. however they determine the near part.

 

[Blueviolet38]

I have noticed this. The ranks for the 'near me' terms still seem quite unstable. A few of my clients lost ranks, and regained their positions yesterday, but lost them again today.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

We started noticing this back before/during October 2022, and has been expanding in occurrence. @keyserholiday posted about Google lowering map pack results (for certain keyword searches) which seemed to coincide closely with certain industry specific "near me" keyword search results being almost useless for local intent. For us, it significantly has impacted our medical clients but others have been affected too. Things like "flu shot near me", "rsv testing near me", etc. When Google returns non-local results without a local pack, how helpful is that?!

My gut feeling: it is due to Google's rough Q3 and Q4 in 2022, which they obviously knew well in advance, so they began to dial back the helpfulness of "near me" searches and placement of the local pack. It looks like they also are expected to show a pretty weak Q1 2023. For industries that rely upon the Local Pack and Organic results for "near me", Google probably wants to monetize those searches, so it is forcing Ad spend to get local visibility.

 

[keyserholiday]

We started noticing this back before/during October 2022, and has been expanding in occurrence. @keyserholiday posted about Google lowering map pack results (for certain keyword searches) which seemed to coincide closely with certain industry specific "near me" keyword search results being almost useless for local intent. For us, it significantly has impacted our medical clients but others have been affected too. Things like "flu shot near me", "rsv testing near me", etc. When Google returns non-local results without a local pack, how helpful is that?!

My gut feeling: it is due to Google's rough Q3 and Q4 in 2022, which they obviously knew well in advance, so they began to dial back the helpfulness of "near me" searches and placement of the local pack. It looks like they also are expected to show a pretty weak Q1 2023. For industries that rely upon the Local Pack and Organic results for "near me", Google probably wants to monetize those searches, so it is forcing Ad spend to get local visibility.

Google announced that they are adding ten medical categories to LSA.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Google announced that they are adding ten medical categories to LSA.

Jason, if you have a link that you could share about the new medical LSA categories it would be much appreciated. I'd like to get ahead of the curve on this, one of our medical clients would love to expand into the LSA territory.

 

[keyserholiday]

@JeffClevelandTN Here you go 10 NEW HEALTHCARE VERTICALS ADDED TO GOOGLE LOCAL SERVICE ADS (LSAS)

 

[Orlando Sydney]

My gut feeling: it is due to Google's rough Q3 and Q4 in 2022, which they obviously knew well in advance, so they began to dial back the helpfulness of "near me" searches and placement of the local pack. It looks like they also are expected to show a pretty weak Q1 2023. For industries that rely upon the Local Pack and Organic results for "near me", Google probably wants to monetize those searches, so it is forcing Ad spend to get local visibility.

The map pack has been on what essentially is bottom of page two in our niches for many months, occasionally a random search via vpn or private browser shows it on the bottom of page 1, that is rare now.
Money talks is a saying here.

So LinkedIn and Microsoft advertising is on the cards for B2B reach

I've also got a hunch the business name (keywords) has greater weight for map packs now as well.

 

[MeganR]

Since March update, my Brightlocal reports for a law firm is showing mostly all Yelps for near me searches - - there's a definite uptick too in overall Yelp appearance for near me searches as opposed to pre-update reports.

 

[keyserholiday]

Since March update, my Brightlocal reports for a law firm is showing mostly all Yelps for near me searches - - there's a definite uptick too in overall Yelp appearance for near me searches as opposed to pre-update reports.

I am seeing an uptick in directory websites as well.

 

[jesslikescawfee]

I am seeing this. I did a search for "oil change near me" in Rochester, NY, and results past the 2nd sponsored section look like this

 

[sixthcitysarah]

I am also seeing this - a lot of non-local results for SEO/marketing terms (ex: paid forbes lists, national agency pages that are across the country, fiverr pages, etc) and then the local pack isn't until the 8-10th result.

 

[jesslikescawfee]

I am also seeing this - a lot of non-local results for SEO/marketing terms (ex: paid forbes lists, national agency pages that are across the country, fiverr pages, etc) and then the local pack isn't until the 8-10th result.

We have a bunch of people all across the US, and I had them run "near me" searches on a number of keywords/phrases. Some have out of area results on what would be considered page two, and all had them dominating "page 3." Over the past few months for main category keywords (high competition) we've lost a ton of impressions to these results, but for long tail keywords/phrases, we've picked up a bunch. It makes no sense why the near me searches are resulting in links out of state and all across the US. Perhaps it is AI being introduced into the search. I have no idea.

 

[brianwildman]

Yes, I have seen this with plenty of my attorneys. Have them ranking first for city + keyword but then when you search the keyword + near me they show up very low and the search results are pulling in attorneys from other cities.