Strange UK rankings

[mamberton]

Hi i work for a local marketing agency specialising in dental marketing - I've been reading about the so called 'Pidgeon' update and how it has been affecting local search results in the US....has it been rolled out to the UK yet?

The reason that i ask is that I have seen a change in the search results over here in the last few weeks with website's seemingly with poor domain authority (according to Opensite Explorer), unverified Google + Local listings with few reviews now ranking very well and I can't seem to explain it!

If you type in 'Dentist London' - London Dental Centre ranks top in the organic and in the 7-pack despite only having 3 Google reviews (one with 1 star) and a domain authority of 12. If you compare this to its competitors like Award Winning Dentists in London Offering Complete Dental Services - Bow Lane Dental (domain authority of 32 with 87 google reviews) and London General Dentist EC2, Cosmetic Dentistry, Private Dentist in Liverpool Street | City of London Dentist (domain authority 25 and 17 google reviews) amongst others, its seems like websites which traditionally wouldn't rank, now rank very highly for competitive keywords despite poor 'SEO metrics'....can anyone explain this?

There are many other examples I could show you which highlight this issue. I know they are many, many ranking factors but it feels like it is almost pot luck now if a site ranks rather than if good local SEO work as been done on it.

 

[george]

Hey there,

I also work in the UK market with slightly different types of clients.

Also reported strange results but prior the Pigeon update, that are still valid today without a single change. Thus, I don't think the bird has landed to the UK just yet.

I think my observations here (which I made before the update and that are still valid as of now) apply pretty much to yours: http://localsearchforum.catalystema...cal-algo-shake-up-you-seeing-2.html#post44515

Regards,
George

 

[mamberton]

Hi George,

Thanks for the reply, I'm glad it is not just me who is experiencing strange rankings when it comes to clients vs competitors! I guess we will just have to keep plugging away and hope Google fixes it.

If a competitor is ranking well due to good content with no SEO I don't have a problem with that but it is frustrating when I see a website with a new domain, no reviews, poor content and no inbound links ranking 1st in the results.

Marcus