Local search results acting weirdly?

[Terry]

Is anyone seeing highly variable local search results since the January 2020 algorithm update, when mobile devices, especially smartphones, are used for the search, while desktop/ laptop results for the same search remain stable?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

HI @Terry When you say "highly variable" do you mean ranking for a particular keyword going up and down?

Any chance you can share a couple examples?

Thanks

 

[Terry]

Hi Colan!

Up to mid-January we've seen our site (Dr. Janice Stuart Vancouver Psychologist) consistently rank in the 3-Pack for the kw "vancouver psychologist" and variations, whether searching on desktop, laptop and iPhone.

ie. the site appeared in the 3-Pack (our primary goal) for all these kw's, no matter what device was used for search:

results before JANUARY2020 Update:
searching for Vancouver Psychologist -> site appears in 3-Pack
Vancouver Psychologists "
Psychologists Vancouver "
Psychologist Vancouver "

But after the JANUARY2020 Update the rankings of the site changed significantly, but ONLY when searching on the iPhone (ie. no significant change in rankings using desktop/laptop):

results on iPhone (after JANUARY2020 Update:
searching for Vancouver Psychologist - site not found
Vancouver Psychologists -> position #9
Psychologists Vancouver -> position #9
Psychologist Vancouver - site not found.

This anomaly started appearing no matter what location we searched by iPhone from, whether downtown (either at or within 2 blocks of the office), or from North Van (about 2 - miles away from the office). Furthermore, these iPhone search results varied several times during the day, sometimes showing the same results as desktop/laptop searches, then showing the 'anomalous' results (when the search was repeated a short time later).

Here's another example of an anomalous iPhone search result. Although the search was made downtown, within a block of the office location, the results are for practitioners' offices over on the West side of town. And there seems to be no pattern to the iPhone search results - they're all over the place compared to the 'normal' rankings delivered by desktop/laptop:

I hope this explains the problem, Colan. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[JoyHawkins]

I tried to replicate it and couldn't. Are you using a ranking tracker to get this data or just searching yourself? If the latter, personalization could be at play.