Post Pigeon Strategies That Work And Don't Work

[Dustybones]

A few bold statements in this post and hoping to get others weighing in on this subject.

Which Local SEO Strategies Are Dead Post-Pigeon?

Google?s recent Pigeon update is one of the largest shakeups in local SEO in a long time. It almost completely removes your chance to rank on the first page for your keywords, if Yelp and a few local directories are also targeting them. Essentially, it makes you look for alternate routes to front page success, without allowing you the luxury of ignoring local keywords. What?s dead after Pigeon, and how can you succeed moving forward?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for posting Justin. I skimmed earlier when you shared it with me.

I have different viewpoints on a couple of his observations.

"Wide Area Localization No Longer Works

One part of Pigeon focused on the radius around a business that would trigger local results. You still can, and should, but the radius in which it kicks in is typically much smaller."

I'm seeing a much wider radius that ever. Before you packs would almost always be the city of the query. Now it's common to see 5 of the 7 listings that are from surrounding cities/towns.

"Ranking for Local Keywords is Much Less Likely

One thing Pigeon did was return local results to a more general focus on traditional SEO factors, while de-emphasizing local keywords."

That whole part does not make sense to me.

"de-emphasizing local keywords"??? What does that mean? Like having city in the query? There is no de-emphasis on geo terms at all.

"Focus on ranking in the carousel. The carousel packs a lot of information into a small space, and it’s a lot to consider. Optimize your page for the carousel, both so you appear in it and so you appear close to the front. As an added bonus, any actions you take to optimize your place in the carousel are likely to help you appear in local pack results as well. Combined, these two take up a lot of space on local results, and can be highly beneficial to your business."

He makes it sound like you can just get in the carousel. Or like there is a carousel and a pack at the same time and you can get in both???

There are some other good and valid points so it's worth a read.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

One thing Pigeon did was return local results to a more general focus on traditional SEO factors, while de-emphasizing local keywords."

That whole part does not make sense to me.

"de-emphasizing local keywords"??? What does that mean? Like having city in the query? There is no de-emphasis on geo terms at all.

Hey may have meant local keywords returning local packs is down. If that's what he means, I've seen that I suppose. But it's also made it much easier to rank for those queries not returning map results, which is the opposite of his/her conclusion I believe. Unless I read that wrong.

No clue Linda.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ahhh, I didn't read it that way. Thought he meant the pack algo was de-emphasizing local KWs.
(I have local pack tunnel vision sometimes.) But you are probably right and he meant it that way.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Ahhh, I didn't read it that way. Thought he meant the pack algo was de-emphasizing local KWs.
(I have local pack tunnel vision sometimes.) But you are probably right and he meant it that way.

I honestly have no idea. It was really confusing.