Google giving extra weight to proximity affecting ranking

[chriscc]

Hi everyone.
I've been looking into what looks like a big drop in ranking for my locations.
I run search grids every few weeks for a handful of keywords (11x11 grid, 200m spacing)
I noticed a steep decline in average position for my locations some time between early Sep and late Oct
I assumed this was a result of more competition, or perhaps I'd let my listing get a bit stale, or perhaps even directly penalised
But I looked at competitors and saw *all* of their average ranks had dropped by a similar amount in the same window
If the main competitors all drop rank, it must mean more competitors... so I dug into the detailed data a bit more.
Thought this was interesting enough to share
I looked at the number of distinct businesses who occupied all the top-3 slots on my grid (11x11 grid so there are 121x3=363 positions to dish out)
As recently as early September, 27 businesses shared those positions. By end Oct that increased to 123 (4.6x increase). At another location, 29 increased to 132
That is not explained by a surge in new business openings
What has happened (imo) is a Google change which is giving significantly more weight to the searcher's proximity. So even tiny listings with a handful of bad reviews are out-ranking competitors when the searcher is on the doorstep of the small business, and that has not been the case for the last few years, at least in my data
I hope this is just some testing and the proximity-importance-knob will get dialled down
But I fear the effect is that the more established and historically better-ranked businesses now have to resort to Ads for display, so our Google overlords will see the change as successful!
Maybe this will help others - it probably applies more to businesses operating in dense metro areas, and particularly inside clusters of businesses with similar primary categories, however new/small they may be
Thanks for reading!

 

[JoyHawkins]

What tool are you using? Can you share a few examples of how ranking looked a month ago vs now?

 

[chriscc]

Hi Joy, I use brightlocal - here's a before and after pic of the grid. i also cross-check with dataforseo data, with the same finding. similar result across different search terms and different locations. but the same result for previous 3-pack dominators - i.e. a significant ranking drop

 

[chriscc]

I should add that brightlocal changed their own grids in the same period, increasing search depth from 20 to 100, but i see the same average ranking drops even normalising for that

 

[JoyHawkins]

Can you manually check a few pins while logged in from that location and see if what you see matches what the tool is showing?

Incognito is becoming insanely innacurate lately. Have you seen a drop in traffic/leads that corresponds with the ranking drop?

 

[chriscc]

Yes I checked with a 'walkabout' when i noticed it a few days ago, and also created my own grid using dataforseo's API, and they match up. When doing an 'incognito search' i open an incognito chrome tab on mobile, go to the google maps on the browser (not the maps app), allow location access and wait for the pin to settle on me, then run the search and view the list

I also looked at brightlocal's rankflux tool but it's barely cracked 4/10 in the last 2 months

 

[JoyHawkins]

To clarify, the problems are all with Incognito but it's not actually reflecting reality which is why I'm asking if you are able to reproduce it while logged in to a Google account or if your actual leads are down? If you aren't familiar with the issue I'm referring to, do a Google search for Google poisoning rank trackers. I'm still trying to figure out how much it is impacting local pack trackers. It's so bad with organic right now that every rank tracker we rely on has become unusable.

 

[chriscc]

Thanks Joy, I had thought maps searches were still reliable, and certainly didn't know that simple incognito searches from an otherwise normal mobile would be affected!

Sorry, I mis-read your post, I see you specified i should be logged in. I'll have to walk around and check. I always (used to) use incognito because I assumed that if logged in, Google would show me my own businesses more often than they would to other people simply because I visit my own site a lot. I'll get back to you.

Do you know if the rank trackers have confirmed map searches are also impacted by the 'poisoning'?

 

[chriscc]

Me again.. I've now done a manual walkabout with a logged-in phone, and cross-checked a dozen grid points. The results closely match the rank tracker search grids which ran just a few hours earlier, so I think we can rule out results poisoning, especially as the search grids have been very stable in the last few days.

I think the hypothesis of Google adding importance to proximity still stands. It's even giving prominence to businesses with no reviews and a horrible GBP profile, as long as they are physically very close to the searcher

 

[Ben Seidel]

@chriscc I'm not giving you advice here, but I would love to ask a couple questions for your specific case as it affects similar items we are monitoring as it relates to proximity. If you wouldn't mind answering:
For your location specifically, what are the dates of your most recent 3 reviews.
Also, has your location's review velocity slowed at all recently?
How many total reviews does your business have?
I know you're saying there are cruddy listings ranking that are physically close with no reviews or poor reviews. However, we find that review health (specifically comparative review count, review velocity, review recency, and average rating) can actually help combat the Google proximity bias to a small degree. I'm just curious if this is at play here or at least rule it out.

 

[chriscc]

Hi Ben, thank you for the reply! The three most recent reviews were today, 2 days ago, and 2 weeks ago. We don't solicit reviews and they trickle in at maybe 3-4/month. We have over 400, and 4.8 overall. It's not so much that we have dropped or that a new competitor has risen, but everyone has dropped and many more businesses are sharing out 3-pack spots. Where a couple of months ago 27 different businesses occupied the 3-pack at every point on my grid, it's now 123 different businesses. So everyone is squeezed into smaller 'patches' in their more immediate vicinity. What it definitely has done is cause the formerly-dominant businesses to start spending more on advertising!

Joy was wondering if the search grid data could be trusted, and I think it can: it's been steady for a week or so and cross-checks on phones at the grid locations match up well

I'm cautiously optimistic that it will get dialled back a bit, since the user experience is much poorer - businesses with keyword-stuffed names, 1-click websites and <10 reviews are being surfaced where they previously would've been buried

 

[JoyHawkins]

Can you share the industry and what type of query it is? Is it one that contains a city name?