The wise folk across t’internet (such as BrightLocal) began noticing in Dec 2014 that there were changes appearing in local search results. It seems that things are getting a bit tighter geographically.
What does this mean for a local business? Possibly a loss of traffic to the website which can then lead to reduced revenue. (“Possibly” because there are things that can be done to counter this).
Here’s a scenario to illustrate the point.
Let’s say you run a pizza restaurant and most of your customers come from the lovely city of Brischester (made up name!). Furthermore, your pizza restaurant is located just outside the city, not in it, because you wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous countryside views – beautiful sunsets for your customers while they dine on your tasty pizzas.
Now, Google is trying to present the best results it can for its users. So hungry Harold in Brischester searches on Google for “pizza restaurant brischester”.
Prior to Dec 2014 your restaurant may have appeared in Harold’s search results.
However, with Google’s Pigeon algorithm (the clever maths that drive Google’s search results) it’s possible that your restaurant might not appear in the search results as high as it used to (and possibly not at all, depending on how the search was carried out).
Why is this? Your restaurant hasn’t moved.
Instead the geographic area from which the search results are given may have shrunk somewhat due to the algorithm and so, because your pizza restaurant is outside Brischester, the search results are different. Better for Google, better for Google’s visitors. But for your pizza restaurant? Not so much.
What’s the fix? Well some people have a rant about Google. It’s doubtful that this will have any effect on the Google folk who build the algorithms.
One alternative is to increase your digital marketing efforts (or start them). While this won’t undo the Pigeon update this may improve your site’s results by increasing your brand’s presence via the quality, relevancy and authority of your site.
Please don’t think this is advocating a tactic or two to “fool the search engines”. Far from it. This is about a robust strategy, containing local seo elements, that will help your visitors and potential customers. Help them and you’re doing the right thing for the search engines.