Possum Update Analysis - Biggest Google Local Update Since Pigeon via Joy Hawkins

[JoyHawkins]

If it just happened this week and it was mostly organic, it wasn't Possum. Possum was on Sept 1 and was primarily impacting the local results (not organic).

 

[Adufar]

If it just happened this week and it was mostly organic, it wasn't Possum. Possum was on Sept 1 and was primarily impacting the local results (not organic).

So what could have caused the huge drop of rankings? at the moment I don't have any idea since I checked google console and I got no notification indicating the violation.

 

[JoyHawkins]

It generally takes me 1-2 hours of analyzing to answer that question intelligibly. It could be Penguin but I have no way of knowing without looking at the backlinks and search console, and Analytics. You also didn't list the domain name or keywords so it's like shooting in the dark lol.

 

[Rich Owings]

when I search for KW + Location the business will show no.1 in the 3 pack but it won't show in the organic result

I'm seeing this with at least one of my clients, post-Possum.

Just for good measure, have you forced a recrawl of the site using Google Search Console's Fetch as Google tool?

 

[Adufar]

I'm seeing this with at least one of my clients, post-Possum.

Just for good measure, have you forced a recrawl of the site using Google Search Console's Fetch as Google tool?

before the huge dive this what happened on the google console. DNS was flagged red.

It generally takes me 1-2 hours of analyzing to answer that question intelligibly. It could be Penguin but I have no way of knowing without looking at the backlinks and search console, and Analytics. You also didn't list the domain name or keywords so it's like shooting in the dark lol.

the backlinks are all citations and local directories that have consistent NAP which I am also careful in choosing.



----update

suddenly the rankings went up after 3 days and are back. I noticed it after I search for the business brand name and the result showed our domain name. So I fetch and render the site on google console.

It was really strange since I didn't received any message from google console about a certain penalty if it was link spam, or content.

It still bugs me and I need to find out what happened on that huge dive so that if it will happen again I will know how to resolve it quickly.(or if others will experience it and who are reading this thread it might also help them)

so what really happened?

 

[JimFranco]

before the huge dive this what happened on the google console. DNS was flagged red.







the backlinks are all citations and local directories that have consistent NAP which I am also careful in choosing.



----update

suddenly the rankings went up after 3 days and are back. I noticed it after I search for the business brand name and the result showed our domain name. So I fetch and render the site on google console.

It was really strange since I didn't received any message from google console about a certain penalty if it was link spam, or content.

It still bugs me and I need to find out what happened on that huge dive so that if it will happen again I will know how to resolve it quickly.(or if others will experience it and who are reading this thread it might also help them)

so what really happened?

I think for sure it was your console error that created the drop in traffic. Anytime you have something like that you need to fix and have google fetch again.

Seen it dozens of times.

 

[Adufar]

I think for sure it was your console error that created the drop in traffic. Anytime you have something like that you need to fix and have google fetch again.

Seen it dozens of times.

have you experienced something like this many times? How often do this happen?

if this happens again changing hosting would be the best option?

I was really confused what was the main root of it because a lot of things happened all at once.

DNS could also be an issue since if the server is not performing well then on the technical side there is an effect.

 

[JimFranco]

anytime you have a crawl error or dns error , google will remove your site from the index and you will see a big drop in traffic.

Once you fix the issue you should submit your site to be crawled again. Once it comes back and traffic goes back then you know thats the only issue.

I have experienced it many times with my own sites and clients.

 

[DMG]

It's an ahead-of-it's-time article, and I've already linked to it a couple times from guest blog posts about SEO.

What I'm not finding anywhere is an across-the-board agreement on how to get to the top 3 in the 3 Pack, compared to before. Seems like theories abound, but it's still too early to tell. I fear some more impatient clients will leave me, even when their organic rankings are stellar. They see the new patient flow drop with the 3 Pack, and I'm the one to blame.

Any insight on how to get a website to return to the Google 3 Pak in a post-possum world is greatly appreciated!

 

[JoyHawkins]

@DMG,

I've looked at dozens of cases and it really depends on the scenario but there are some trends I'm noticing.

- It's more important now than before to know about any duplicates that exist and if those duplicates are causing the main listing not to rank.

- 3rd party reviews seem to have more of an impact than previously

- Category dillution (targeting too many un-related categories) seems to also be more of an issue than before

- Organic ranking seems to still be one of the main drivers of who ranks so improving this seems to always be the best idea.

- The types of backlinks you have seem to be more important now. Having super-relevant links from industry-related sites goes a long way.

- Content of reviews is more important than simply the # of reviews.

- The business' location in relation to where the person is searching from is more important than before.

 

[find8]

I have 2 clients that are in the same building. One is a chiropractor (Ryken Chiropractic & Wellness Center) and one is a nurse practitioner (Pedersen Primary Care). They offer some similar services but are separate businesses and I am trying to figure out how to select their Google categories. I am afraid if they are too similar that Google will filter one of them.

Some of the gray areas are categories like "wellness center" and "pain control clinic" which really applies to both.

I have noticed that there are similar categories to both of these like "wellness center" and "wellness program"....also "pain control clinic" and "pain management physician".

If I give each client the slightly different category will that be enough to differentiate them in Google's eyes? Sharing an address and similar categories is really making me nervous with this possum update.

 

[JoyHawkins]

It's unlikely that they will both rank for the same keywords regardless of what you pick for the categories. I always suggest going with the most specific category and then test adding some generic ones to see if it improves activity or makes it worse.

 

[JimFranco]

is it really that strict ? There is so many medical offices with a ton of different practices in the same field in the same buildings. I imagine if they have different suites and different phone numbers and different business name they would not have to worry about it ? Or am I wrong ?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Jim,

Every example I have seen since Possum filters all but 1-2 from the Local Finder for one given query. I saw one example where 3 in the same building managed to stay. It's not just the same address either - it's based on proximity so cases like hotels that are all squished in the same corner are also getting filtered.

 

[find8]

Thanks Joy and Jim for responding.

I don't really know how strict Google is going to be with this case. That's why I'm concerned. They do have different suites, phone numbers and names but unfortunately they both want to rank for things like "pain management". They both manage pain, just in different ways. One is a chiropractor/massage clinic and the other is more of a primary care doctor. I doubt Google will let both of them show up at the same time for the same keywords so I'm having a hard time figuring out how best to handle this.

I'm also not sure how much I need to differentiate the categories. Will Google penalize one or both if they are too similar? Or does it not matter at all?

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would do what I referenced earlier - use the most specific category and then test adding some generic ones to see if it improves activity or makes it worse.

It's really hard to say what will happen with categories which is why I suggest testing. It's unlikely you'll get them both to rank for the same thing but it is possible.