Google SERPs Display Changes - Some that Affect Local

[James Watt]

Andy Simpson on the local pros Google+ page posted an article I hadn't seen yet, noting a change on Google's main design, bumping up column width from 500px to 600px. After they nuked ads along the side, I've noticed that right bar is pretty empty for any searches without a knowledge panel, so I in hindsight this was an obvious move. Might mean too that those 4 ads on the top of a lot of searches will take up a little less vertical space, so maybe we'll get some 3-pack above the fold again in more searches.

Here's the article for anyone who'd like to read more. There's several before and after comparisons so you can see side-by-side what it looks like now vs yesterday.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Google SERPs display change

Jen at The SEM Post is on a roll, documenting all the changes that come along with the display change James mentioned, sharing her link above. Here are a couple more related posts from Jen.

<a href="http://www.thesempost.com/google-local-3-packs-wider-detailed-business-info/">Google Local 3-Packs Are Wider & With Detailed Business Info</a>

<a href="http://www.thesempost.com/new-title-description-lengths-for-google-seo/">New Title & Description Lengths for Google SEO in Search Results</a>

Adding Gif for G+

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[Linda Buquet]

Re: Google SERPs display change

Additionally it seems the A,B,C pack display may be getting tested on a wider basis.
Here is a discussion started by Blake Denman showing a generic school search.

<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-maps/42119-snack-pack-showing-letter-ranking-b-c.html">Snack Pack Showing Letter Ranking A, B, C</a>

Notice any other changes recently?

 

[James Watt]

I came here to post those two articles, you beat me to it Linda! The longer title tag especially is a big one, time to test out some new headlines!

For the added information in the 3-pack, does anywhere know exactly where that pulls from? Looking at that SEM post article by Jennifer, at the bottom for Maggie's Shoes it says European Footware for men and women - Pike Place Market. Is that just like an editorial summary, or what is that?

 

[Linda Buquet]

For the added information in the 3-pack, does anywhere know exactly where that pulls from? Looking at that SEM post article by Jennifer, at the bottom for Maggie's Shoes it says European Footware for men and women - Pike Place Market. Is that just like an editorial summary, or what is that?

I believe that's a new option. You can add a description like that in mobile. I became aware of it maybe 3 months ago? Made a post. Let me see if I can find it.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I think it's been talked about a couple times but can't find much that's definitive.

I think it's called a tagline and like I said in this post someone showed me one on a local page.

But in this thread Joy said you can only get a tagline if you added it to a brand page 1st, then converted the brand page to a local page.

An OLD thread from 2014 some pros say then it was only an option to add one from certain devices.
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local/15889-tagline-google-local-page.html">tagline on Google+ Local page?</a>

Illusive as a unicorn.

 

[James Watt]

Always an encyclopedia of local search history... thanks for sharing Linda! If that's going to be put front and center now, looks like that'll be a really important thing going forward, good thing to note down. I'm not seeing any of the taglines right now at least on any of the searches I checked, but if they start showing all of a sudden, that'd definitely be something business owners would want to know about I think. Definitely something to keep an eye on.