Significant G+ Local Ranking Shifts

[Colan Nielsen]

Anyone seeing significant changes in your clients G+ Local rankings today?

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Hadn't really noticed one, no. What are you seeing or what are you suspecting?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Something changed, just starting to research.

Mike posted about the sh*tty Hummingbird one boxes being largely gone. So something changed.

A previous consulting client emailed me that's ALWAYS been #1 and she's gone from the pack.
So was just researching for her.

So then when I just saw your message, started checking some listings I track and yes lots of movement all over the place.

So it appears there is either a dance or a full blown update is in the works.

I have not had time yet to check Webmaster World and other places to see if there was an organic update.

What are you seeing Colan? Any rhyme or reason?

What's everyone else seeing?

 

[Dave]

Saw one change that is ugly from our perspective. Still have a #1 in organic above the pac, which is good...but not as good as before. Will be looking closely at this going forward.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Rhyme or reason? Maybe....

One client jumped 23 to 3 for main keyword.

There was a one-box listing that was showing-up, and I thought if that was fixed, then that would be the connection, but I'm still seeing a one-box every so often today.

 

[Linda Buquet]

One member here was penalized out of the carousel and even though he cleaned up the listing after I told him what was wrong, he remained #1 organic but just could not get in carousel and deserved to be. So it looked to me like one of those lingering penalties. Just checked and he's now #1 in the carousel. YAY!

One of my old ex-clients who jumps in and out of the pack cuz he's WAY far from centroid - has been out of the pack for months now. Just jumped back in and is sitting at C which is awesome considering big city and he's way on the border of town.

Am seeing some SERPS with new players in the pack that do not usually rank.

And then there is the one plumber that is normally A and dropped out of the pack. (But Google changed something odd on their listing so that's maybe not algo but something just with their situation.) I don't have time to do consulting these days and am not on retainer so have not made time to dig any deeper on that one.

 

[CaseyMeraz]

Checking around today in the Lawyer landscapes I have seen a lot of movement for local in the SERP's. Today I am seeing a lot of new players, some completely gone, and others that were ranking well moved down. This is not isolated to one area and I am seeing the same results across multiple geographic areas. Organically however I have not seen many changed.

Although I see this much more often it might be worth noting. Over the past few days I noticed a lot of local searches being pushed below the first group of organic listings where previously they were above them. I see Google testing this all of the time but this time it's been the same for days.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Casey, Welcome!

And thanks for sharing your observations! Ya, I feel an update coming on.

 

[Dustybones]

Seeing some movement in Orthodontics....Some good, some bad.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Dusty!

I'm having convos other places and am getting other reports. Some moving up and some down and Blake who is also a member here said many of the new listings he's seeing jump into the pack are spammy or EMDs.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Another change I just noticed. Something is definitely up!

Local SEOs Rejoice - Google Likes You Now!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I wonder if this algo change (if that's what it is) has anything to do with the recent business name guideline update?

For example, maybe they turned the dial down to devalue the business description as a ranking signal and also turned the dial up on something else...

 

[21Development]

I wonder if this algo change (if that's what it is) has anything to do with the recent business name guideline update?

For example, maybe they turned the dial down to devalue the business description as a ranking signal and also turned the dial up on something else...

I've yet to see a listing (where I previously hadn't) that wasn't an EMD or have keywords added to the title. I think you're onto something with it being a function of the recent guideline changes. As a test, I added "Local SEO" to the end of my biz name. I'll share what I find. Either way, it seems like the dial was CRANKED up on the value of the title.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I've yet to see a listing (where I previously hadn't) that wasn't an EMD or have keywords added to the title.

The limited number of examples I came across today didn't have EMD's or keywords in title. They were all legit listings that are 100% within the Google Places Quality Guidelines, as well.

 

[21Development]

Thanks, Colan. Good to know. Very glad to see that it's not intentionally rewarding spammy biz titles.

 

[Dustybones]

Also noticing a lot of shifting in Maps. Businesses once marked closed now reverted back and markers with incorrect address at wrong locations.

 

[Gloria Gunn]

Hey there- I have been lurking and soaking up Linda's training like a sponge. Thank you Linda for providing such an insightful forum and great training. We have noticed some weird droppings. We have a client in the plumbing/Air conditioning space and he dropped about 6-15 spots for plumber and plumbing and different combos of city+kw, kw+city just kw in his G+local listing. He also dropped for the word air conditioning and its variations, but climbed somewhat for the word air conditioner, air conditioner repair, etc.

I checked out his five of his competitors and ran some ranking reports on those and they all dropped for the keywords plumber and plumbing and their variations of it in their g+local listing (i.e., kw+ city, city+kw, etc.).

We have other clients for less competitive kw in less competitive space have stayed the same or climbed a few notches. Not sure the reason why, but wonder if higher competitive kws are some how being impacted? Thoughts? It seems like some craziness is going on for sure.

- Gloria

P.S. Big huge shout out to Colan of Imprezio Marketing who has so graciously taken my emails this weekend. Colan thank you again for being such a big help-

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey there- I have been lurking and soaking up Linda's training like a sponge. Thank you Linda for providing such an insightful forum and great training.

Thanks Gloria, glad you are soaking up the training.

We have noticed some weird droppings.

Haha, that cracked me up! Goo Goo bird or Hummingbird droppings. (That's what some of the ranking changes remind me of.

We have a client in the plumbing/Air conditioning space and he dropped about 6-15 spots for plumber and plumbing and different combos of city+kw, kw+city just kw in his G+local listing. He also dropped for the word air conditioning and its variations, but climbed somewhat for the word air conditioner, air conditioner repair, etc.

I checked out his five of his competitors and ran some ranking reports on those and they all dropped for the keywords plumber and plumbing and their variations of it in their g+local listing (i.e., kw+ city, city+kw, etc.).

Can you check something? If they all dropped then does that mean new listings moved into the pack that were not there before???

Cuz that's what happened in part with the plumber I posted about. She was always #1 and Roto-Rooter and Mr Rooter were never in the pack. Now they are in the pack and she's knocked ou.

 

[Gloria Gunn]

Hi Linda- lol

That's exactly what happened there are 4 new players in the 7-pack- the one that was number 2 for the word plumber is now number 6, number 1 is now number 7, 4 new players and a new number 1 for plumbing, plumber, and plumbing repair (no +city) in the G+local

mine got knocked down from 8 down to 24-ugh for plumber and plumbing but plumbing repair only got knocked from 3 down to 8.

for plumber +city it only dropped from 8-17. The good news is that they haven't dropped any further in the past couple of days and some of his kw are moving up a few, some moving down a few. Some appearing for the first time in organic and G+local.

It is puzzling for sure. Is anyone else noticing other strange happenings, or has stuff seemed to mellow a bit?

Thanks,
-Gloria

 

[Linda Buquet]

Are any of the new listings spammy or EMDs or exact match KWs in the Places title?

Can you PM me the query and tell me which ones are new in the pack?