Skip to main content

Google Launches New Local Search Algorithm: SEOs Notice Significant Ranking Changes


Last night, Google pushed out a new and major local search ranking algorithm change. I broke the story at Search Engine Land where Google provided details for me on this update.
Note: Later we named the update the Pigeon update.
This is not really a spam change but more of a fundamental change to the local search ranking algorithm. Google would not tell me the percentage of queries impacted by this change but based on early reports, I'd say it is a significant number of queries impacted by this local algorithm change.
The changes have rolled out to both the Google Maps search results and Google Web search results. Google told me that the new local algorithm has "deeper into their web search capabilities, including the hundreds of ranking signals they use in web search along with search features such as Knowledge Graph, spelling correction, synonyms and more." It also has better accuracy over distance and location rankings.
This has rolled out only for US English results and we have no idea when and if it will roll out for other languages or countries.

Significant Changes Seen

SEOs and webmaster have already picked up on significant changes. I have a screen shot from a search result for [ice cream] from earlier this week and the results are even different with that query.
Before:

 After:
 
Even without knowing there was an update, SEOs picked up on it last night and this morning in the Black Hat World forum and WebmasterWorld (paid membership required) forum. There are many forums discussing all the changes and there are a lot of ranking changes.
Also, back in 2009, Google dropped local results for web designers and SEOs. Well, now it seems some of that has come back with this new local search algorithm.

Comments

ottvard said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
October 11, 2014 at 4:39 AM
ottvard said…
Hi, thanks for this article. This was very helpful and i will keep coming back to your blog.

Regards http://www.professorblackhat.com
October 11, 2014 at 4:40 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Google Update Early in This Month

So after reporting a Google update on May 1st, then waiting and watching the community over the weekend to say - oh boy, there was a Google update rolling out over Friday through the weekend - we then had Google tell us there was no update. I used a Panda bear giving an evil stare because most of us knew something changed. And Google, after a bunch of arm twisting, finally gave me/us confirmation, which I posted on Search Engine Land. Google told us this was not an update for web spam, but a normal Google core search quality update. That is what I said earlier but I didn't have it on record. I assumed it wasn't related to Panda, Penguin or core spam, but rather a normal Google search core algorithm update and it was. I am not sure exactly why Google wouldn't confirm it back then but now they are and hopefully in the future they will as well. So the 10% of you that call me out as a traffic whore (or whatever you call me) for being the first to report on ...
1 comment
Read more

eBay Admits Google Penalty Had A "Dramatic Impact" On Earnings

Back in May we reported that eBay had some sort of penalty that hit their Google search visibility by about 50%. That is major but now we somewhat know how major. Danny Sullivan reports on Search Engine Land that it may have costed them $200 million. On the eBay earnings call yesterday, eBay’s chief financial officer Bob Swan said : Now, let’s turn to the Marketplaces business. Marketplaces delivered $2.2 billion in revenue, which grew 6%, GMV grew 8%, and operating margin declined 340 basis points. It was a challenging quarter. As John indicated, we got off to a good start, but we had significant obstacles late May.The combination of the cyberattack and the Google SEO had an immediate and dramatic impact on GMV growth. June GMV growth was 7% driven by slower active buyer growth and lower conversion. In light of these events, we have made significant investments to get eBay users reengaged, including couponing, seller incentives and increased marketing spend... ...
1 comment
Read more

The Best SEO Tools for 2015

In the blink of an eye, new tools come and go. There are a million out there, and most new and experienced SEOs are always asking - what are the best tools out there? Which tools are definite "must haves" and which should I shelve? In 15 years as a digital marketer, I’ve been particularly interested in searching for powerful tools that can go a long way. I’ve always believed that by revealing the right data, a good tool can open doors. So without further ado, here is a list of some of the best tools I’ve discovered, and why. SEMrush The first, and most powerful, way we use SEMrush is to determine if a site is healthy or not. Whenever we are doing outreach and working on link-building campaigns, we always check SEMrush to see how many keywords a site is ranking for in Google. When we find sites that have a high volume of inbound links and DA, but no keywords ranking in SEMrush, then it’s likely they’ve been penalized. We also check their organic traffic to d...
2 comments
Read more