Trending [November 5, 2019 Local Algorithm Update] Unexplained big drops in GMB rankings

[JoyHawkins]

Following launch of Bedlam, they dropped to page 3 organically and #8 locally.

Bedlam wouldn't have caused them to drop organically because that update was specific to the local results. There was a different update Nov 7-8 that probably impacted them but you can check those dates in Search Console. We saw several law firms negatively impacted by the update on Nov 7-8. Most of the drops were to sensitive/legal topics and in some cases the sites that made them drop are .gov sites or medical sites. That's the trend we've seen with most of the organic updates in the last 2 years.

 

[marston gould]

Everywhere I've read has said that authority is being rewarded over proximity in Bedlam update. Maybe it's different dependent on the industry, I'm not really sure, but I surely haven't seen law firms with more authority being rewarded. I have a client who, for the past 5 years, has ranked in local snack pack for search terms in his city.

Following launch of Bedlam, they dropped to page 3 organically and #8 locally.

I analyzed all 7 competitors which improved in rankings, compiled a spreadsheet breaking down number of pages indexed, citation sources via WhiteSpark, backlinks and domain authority via SEMRush, reviews, and even calculated the distance between each law firm's location to the center of the city.

4 of the 7 competitors which suddenly outrank my client are located less than a mile from the center of the city. My client has more reviews, pages indexed, local citations, backlinks, referring domains, and domain authority is significantly higher than all of these firms. My client is only 2.9 miles from city center. The firms outside of the 1 mile radius which now outrank my client pay extra money for Findlaw and Superlawyers listings. I don't necessarily see how authority is being rewarded when 4 law firms, one of which doesn't even have a website listed in their GMB profile, suddenly outrank my client simply because of where their law firm's office is located.

1) Take a look a the page rank of the competing pages using your favorite tool (Ahrefs, Moz, etc.)
2) Compare the backlink profile to each of the competing pages and look to see what the page rank profile is of the pages linking to these competing pages - both external and internal.