How to Trigger Phone # in the New Local 3 Pack

[Linda Buquet]

Here's a new little tip, an interesting nuance about the new Local 3 pack.

Buried in post #70 of one of our long threads about this update, Conor Treacy shared an interesting discovery.

Just a note when it comes to the phone numbers.

The phone number doesn't show in the small 3 pack results, but someone mentioned it was showing for phone shops. It looks like the word "phone" is a trigger for Google.

If you type in whatever you're looking for and then add "phone" it will show the phone number.

Conor's Screenshots

Regular search:





Search with the word phone:

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THANKS for sharing that Conor!

So as Priya noted, when you query with the word phone, the phone # replaces the hours. So I assume since there is limited room in that display something had to go.

Last night when I was tired I said: "Don't you guys think that's a little odd though? Seems like maybe missing phone is a bug, if adding phone specifically to the query pulls up phone #s???"

But in thinking this AM, I think it's just semantic search at work. Google trying to give you what you ask for. You ask for phone and she pulls it from the Knowledge Graph. I tried it with address, but it does not pull the full street address.

Now, it's not that searchers are going to enter phone in the query. They probably would not think to for a general KW search.

But could come in handy for research. HOW? I just checked and when you click more results, the phone # sticks in the Local Finder.

So if for example you needed to do a quick scan to see if there were any 800# in the pack you were researching. OR if your client was in a city with more than one area code like LA and you wanted to see at a glance how many were in the same area code as your client.

Otherwise to find out, you would have to click each of the 20 listings one by one to check.

So anyway, since that discovery was totally buried in that long thread, I thought I'd pull it out as a new topic BECAUSE...

As Priya said: "Fascinating all the different permutations that this one little 3-pack is providing!"

And you never know if this will spur someone on to experiment and discover something else about this clever and puzzling new pack.

FYI also see more pack discoveries in the thread below. 1) Images in the Local Finder (not snack pack and not food related). 2) Organic results in the Knowledge Graph instead of or below reviews.

Any other ideas about this?
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[Linda Buquet]

Colan, just now shared another discovery I have not even checked out yet.

Remember when I talked about the funky Views page and image click on a Knowledge Graph went to? And said Views was going away and being replaced by a new page mid August?

Well I think it just hit. See Colan's screenshot, post #31 here:

<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/35667-new-local-3-pack-advanced-hack-plus-speculation-new-style-local-page-coming.html">New Local 3 Pack Advanced Hack PLUS Speculation: New Style Local Page Coming?</a>

 

[Brian Barwig]

Im also seeing this. It also works if you type in "number" rather than "phone".



Also seeing a few where the phone number is absent when you type either:



These flurry of changes is getting out of control. This is difficult to keep up with.