Major Google Local Algo Update Just Hit - Check Your Clients!

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Oh man, Google is totally rocking the boat.

Big Local Algo update just started shaking things up about 2 hours ago.

CHECK YOUR CLIENTS!

Seeing lots of movement. Some really spammy listings that previously had a local penalty are now ranking on top. BUT also seeing listings move to the A spot that deserve to move up. So mixed bag so far.

But I'm just starting to research, so hopefully this will end up being a good update.

SearchEngineLand: Google Updates Local Search Algorithm With Stronger Ties To Web Search Signals

What are you seeing in the local packs you track?

Is it a good update for you or a bad one?
#offline marketing #algo #check #clients #google #hit #local #major #update
  • Sorry forgot the link before, just added it above.

    Had to rush off and start working on before/after screenshot comparisons and
    started a mini analysis of results. Still working on screen shots and posts at my forum. Will try to get back here later tonight if I can with more info.
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  • Awful update, from what I see the relevance has drastically gone down. Citation power has gone up, location doesn't have as much weight, and organic factors seem to have gone down.

    I'll wait until the dust settles and see what happens, but overall, I'm very unhappy with the amount of garbage that has risen to the top.
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    • A few of the results I just posted at my place.

      I don't track just client listings because I don't personally work on clients any more.

      BUT I track entire packs with screenshots so I can analyze & reverse engineer the algo.

      City Realtor and City real estate agent or agency. NO MORE PACK!

      Beverly Hills cosmetic dentist dropped from being a 7 pack to a 3 pack.

      Chesapeake dentist used to always be a 7 pack. Now it's a 3 pack.

      Los Angeles personal injury attorney - major shake up.

      Seattle Chiropractor big shake up. A listing is totally spammy!

      Indianapolis plumber - pretty big shuffle.
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    • Just as user of Google I have found it harder and harder to find what I want. Long tail results bring up the same crap as non-long tail. I literally can't find what I am looking for anymore. Been getting worse and worse this last year. About to switch to another search engine that is less worried about what blackhat people are doing and more worried about letting me find what I want and need.
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  • For me this update was great. 2 customers I have been waiting for a while to rank are now in the Google 7.
    • [1] reply
    • Biggest thing I've noticed is organic rankings that used to appear before the 7-pack are now dropped below. This has happened in a couple different cities I'm targeting. Whereas before there were 3 listings ahead of the 7-pack, now it's either 7-pack listings at the top or just one organic listing.

      Also, I have clients who never appeared in the 7-pack (but were #1 organically) all of a sudden in the number 1 slot in the local listings, as well as further down the page organically. This is with medium - low quality backlinks <100 and zero reviews. I have one client beating out a big name brand that has over 65 reviews and a domain age of 12+ years!

      Is this update good or bad? Depends on your point of view I guess. Clients sites' whom I haven't touched for months literally jumped to the A list spot overnight. I - we - aren't complaining.
  • This update is a living nightmare.

    Basically 90+% of my most profitable 7 packs have disappeared.

    I had top 3 rankings in G local for terms like -

    mold remediation nj
    mold removal nj
    basement waaterproofing nj
    waterproofing nj
    mold testing nj
    mold inspections nj
    mold remediation new jersey
    mold removal new jersey
    foundation repair nj
    mold clean up nj
    mold company nj
    etc etc

    Looking at my SERPFOX yesterday and today I have a drop of >>>1400+ positions (I'm tracking about 150 keywords total).

    The ONLY THING I've seen in my niches is Google outright REMOVED the 7 pack and replaced it with organic listings.

    Since the 7 pack had been dominating 90% of my main keywords for the last 6 months THAT is what I was working on. I stopped building links and focused more on reviews and citations which got me ranking good and making great $$$.

    But now? My earnings are cut off by the neck. I am up shits creek without a paddle or any clue what to do now.

    I don't charge my clients monthly fees, I get paid solely for performance. So if I'm not performing.... I'm not getting paid.

    I guess this is why people say "you shouldn't depend on Google so much for your traffic" but WHAT THE HELL ELSE am I suppose to do? Seriously. Direct mail never worked very well for these industries. Adwords never converted very well for me. Neither has Facebook PPC.

    And I don't mean to offend Claude. But there is NO WAY to "stay on top" of updates like this. They just happen. They're like miniature hurricanes. They just come and wipe out everything... and I'm glad I'm not paying some overpriced consultant just so I can be told over the phone "we're staying on top of the everything so don't worry"... "just cause you perceive things are over doesn't mean they really are".... meanwhile my traffic has plummeted 80%, I'm not making sales, not making money and am on the verge of going out of business.

    How do you change the "perception" of someones business being compeltely wiped out Claude?

    How do you change the "perception" of Googles SERPS being like Russian roulette? Because that's exactly that it's like. Work for 6 months ranking your site organically then Google replaces 90% of your keywords with G local. Work for another 6 months ranking in G local than Google replaces that shit with organic listings again. It's ridiculous.

    How do you change the "perception" that everything you've done for the last 6 months has been a complete waste of time? I waste all this time getting reviews and citations, then BAM! BYE BYE G local.

    Then I have to listen to people saying "Every time there is a change, it's another reason to contact prospects and clients. Another reason to shake the bushes and make sales." Shake WHAT "bushes". Google is the ONLY ONE shaking bushes here.

    No offense, I just find that comment to be a bit out of touch with reality (at least the reality of a business owner, maybe not so much for consultants). And this is why I don't do consulting or hire consultants. Because most consultant's don't get paid for performance or results, they get paid for smoke screens and talking a good game.

    There are people going out of business right now and Claude is basically saying "this is a great time to take advantage of those poor desperate *******s". Maybe I'm twisting words but that's exactly what it sounds like to me.

    I am 1 of those poor desperate *******s (more desperate than poor but I don't know how long that's gonna last).

    So what would you like to sell me Claude? A newsletter? Some facebook marketing that doesn't convert for shit? An adwords campaign for $3,000 / month that generates 15 calls and 1 conversion?

    Forgive me for sounding so negative. But I only work with 4 clients. 1 of who is my brother.

    Last week my brother was doing so well he was shopping for a new home, this week, he's just sad, miserable and depressed out of his mind. We're both trying to stay positive but it's not very easy to do when BOTH your businesses just got wiped out. So this is a PERFECT OPPORTUNITY for you Claude. You have a desperate prospect right here in front of you.

    If you wanna pm me I'll gladly put you on conference call so me and my brother can listen to you pitch whatever you're selling.

    And if you can close my brother on anything, you can have him as a client. I can worry about myself but I'm more worried about him right now. Because all I can say to him right now is "I'm sorry bro, I know this is frustrating but you know these updates happen, and I can't really tell you what I'm gonna do for another couple of weeks".

    But maybe you have something more rosy to tell him?

    Cause if you can do better for him than I can than you deserve him as a client. Just don't expect it to be an easy sale cause he's been in sales for 20 years and is 1 of the sharpest salesmen I know.

    -Rob
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    • Sorry to hear about this.

      I wish there something that could be done.

      Google has the power.
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    • Results will always be mixed because it is a zero sum game. If someone wins that means someone else loses.

      Time to evaluate where your listings have been lost and perhaps work on general seo. Reviews, etc always have value. There are still a number of links on the Google 1st page. Just a question of getting one.
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    • My client's search results are all fine. They are still dominating the Google page one search results, and so am I. Maybe if you built your brother something that lasted, you wouldn't both be in this position.

      Lashing out at someone else, because you are failing, is the sign of a loser.

      Stop whining, grow some balls, and learn from your mistakes.

      And, I don't want to sell you or your brother anything. Ever. You could have simply asked me how to keep your search results dominating Google, and I would have helped you...for free. But not now.
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    • Red, you really know how to make friends on the forum lately. Do you even know who
      Claude Whitacre is, why don't you try Googling his name.

      Claude is an excellent speaker, invader and a brilliant marketer.


      Below is Claude speaking at a seminar, it's a long video but at least watch the first 20 minutes.

      Claude Whitacre On Local Online Marketing In 2011 From Dallas Texas - YouTube

      Honestly he would have helped you at no charge and knowing Claude from my time here on the forum he has never not once tried to sell or pitch to any member of this forum.


      Edit: Don't just watch 20 minutes, watch the entire video and you'll honestly pick up some excellent marketing strategies.
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  • I'm sorry to hear about this, too. I used to rely on Google for much of my income both SEO and Adwords, but got wiped out more than once and went back to my offline business.

    I'm trying work back into online now, but I want to be completely independent from Google. I've seen this happen way too many times now.
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    • You can all you want say you are at the mercy of Google. That is just plain out not the truth. There are STANDARD practices that are not so effected by Google updates. I only saw gains straight across the board with this Google Local update. again STRAIGHT across the board. I have never been slammed by Panda or any other update either.

      If you follow slow and steady growth and do everything by HAND you simply can not loose. If you understand the basic principles of SEO and what Google, Yahoo, and Bing expect you can not loose.

      The moment you STRETCH any 1 parameter.. well, it will sooner or later bite you. The thing I have seen with Google in the past. If you mess around with 1 aspect of Google be it page SEO, or Local listing, or YouTube or G+, that 1 manipulation can come around and effect the others for any given property.

      If you spend less time trying to beat Google, and start playing along with Google. the rewards will come. If you realized what the value is of paying Yahoo the $295 or whatever it is to get a Yahoo listing.. you would play the game. If you understood that to get better listed on Bing, you need to use their webmaster tools But honestly... how many do?

      My general search engine traffic is broken down pretty evenly across the big 3. 40% Google, 30% each for Yahoo and Bing. of course this a give or take number but across the MANY websites that I have built ( that employ the 3 tier investment ), this is a number that hold true for the most part.

      I am sorry that many have lost out from a Google update Red I feel really bad for you that you basically have had your income just over night removed from you. but this is business. Name me ONE business that does not diversify. It is YOU that have made Google the ruler of your wallet.

      Google is but a piece in a well thought out SEO strategy. I will tell you on a percentage basis that traffic from Yahoo converts better. Bing tends to draw more mobile based traffic, it converts a bit lower BUT, that traffic tends to spend MORE. To be honest... Google traffic among the 3 is the least desired in my book. But I am in the business of bringing in the traffic that create conversions for my clients. As long as the traffic is targeted and converting I could care less where it comes from.

      We by FAR live in more than a one pony town. but to listen to this thread.. it would seem that is what everyone is relying on.
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    • Rob sorry to hear about how this has effected you and your brother.

      Back in the old days, when it was G Places I did all the approved things, no spam and got friends and clients ranked highly and got them some great results.. I thought I had it nailed.

      Then a carpet cleaner friend was #1 in the 7 pack for years had his listing disappear overnight. There was no spam involved in his ranking. Long story short, some contractor hired by G delisted him by mistake. Took forever to get his listing up again haven't been able to get it higher than page 3 since. He's lost tens of thousands of dollars. Another dentist friend who was #1 and has over 25 great reviews and fully optimized listing has been pushed down to bottom to 7 pack by other listings that aren't claimed and have no reviews.

      Then came came G+ Local, Plus the all the algo changes in between. I tried to keep up but after some sleepless nights I decided it was too stressful to have my income depend on a giant I had no control over and that changed the rules when every it felt like it.

      I stopped offering local ranking services and stopped depending on G traffic for anything I did from then on. It was hard at first but life has been so much better investing time and money into things that I control.

      For those who are still keeping up with all the G places, local +, business, changes and are still getting results for your local clients, I hope you make a mint. You deserve it.

      Ron
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  • Red,

    I think you're overreacting a bit... the update is early, it has been a couple days and there's nothing to really freak out about yet, there will be adjustments and further changes. I'm sure you're hit a bit harder by this since one of your clients is family but the truth is, it happens, you just have to go with the flow and adjust your strategy. It's the same in every industry, changes happen online and offline, and we have to adjust or we have to quit.

    Rankings are great, but when performing any sort of SEO, it is only a step towards the real goal. The real goal is traffic... quality, relevant, traffic to your website. Maybe you should revisit a few things to implement to kind of compliment your SEO... Adwords, Microsoft adcenter, retargeting, highly targeted facebook ads, SEO, local listing optimization (different from local SEO), work on bing local, along with other offline techniques.

    In the future, never get complacent with SEO... even when things are fine, it always makes sense to continue analyzing and adjusting. If 50% of your traffic or more comes from SEO that puts you at high risk. Try driving additional referring traffic, work on long tailed keywords with city specific landing pages in new jersey to drive organic results instead of the local, although with city specific landing pages, I wouldn't be surprised if you show locally as well.

    You're a smart dude... you know how this works... it's not a doomsday event, just another update that we have to adjust to. You'll figure it out.
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    • Okay, noob question here, but what is 7 pack? 4 pack? Etc?

      Google Maps search results? Google carousel numbers?
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  • So has anyone figured out how to get out of this update yet?
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    • I'm working on a full analysis of all my client sites to see what has worked and hasn't with this update. First gut instinct is the role that organic plays in local has declined.. but I haven't been diving in too much and won't until tomorrow or Wednesday when the dust settles.

      For all we know at this point some of the change could be a penalty filter that moved certain sites up in order to penalize.
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  • So far for me I have seen no changes at all with the exception of one client that I have not been able to get on to page one. That client is now on page one 2x for multiple search terms organically and in map spots.
  • Good I see at least one of my spammy money sites back on top where it doesn't belong. Cool. Maybe time to put GSA back in operation.
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    • Yeah that's a good idea use GSA to its freaking limits and get it pushed to the bottom of the list again. Your a Genius!
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  • Great update, I have seen a significant rise on all my clients Insights and Clicks. I hope this is helping them. I am also seeing more 3-packs compared to 7-packs.
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    • Posted a bunch of new stuff at my forum today. Up to 88 posts, just related to this specific update.)

      Here are a couple of the observations I posted today.

      1) Even though SEland says Google told them this update has a lot to do with traditional organic signals, the ranking order does NOT match pure organic like it used to.

      (Used to except for violations and other problems on the G+ L side but you could always perfectly match up the correlation.)

      So there is other stuff in the mix which I'm trying to analyze, as I have time.

      2) LOTS more pure unclaimed G+ L listings with no site attached in certain packs. So those don't have organic SEO factors, but maybe citations or other 3rd party signals. But the ones I checked don't have much going for them. No reviews and G+ L page not even claimed.

      EXAMPLE: "Chesapeake accountant" (with location set to Chesapeake Va)
      Top 2 listings no site, just unclaimed G+ L page. Then further down another with no site.

      Right now I'm analyzing small town low competition markets that typically don't optimize much, in order to try to see how Google is ranking pure unadulterated rankings that have likely not been manipulated.

      3) SERP pack order no longer matches maps ranking order. Used to match up pretty well unless there was a penalty.

      From what I've seen the maps ranking order still mirrors the PRE 7/24 algo. But the SERPs pack order has now of course changed.

      HOWEVER after I wrote that I realized...

      WAIT!!! What I said above was using CLASSIC maps in FF. It's still the old algo. (I still use Classic for most research, better on several levels.)

      But I just searched NEW maps with Chrome and the map ranking pretty much jives with the current SERPs pack order.

      SOOOOO It's just like classic maps didn't get the update, but new maps did.

      Bunch of other stuff going on including more home based businesses getting suspended even if had address properly hidden. That started 7/24 too. Not sure it's related but some surmise the timing is suspicious. Long post about that at my place too.

      Anyone else have service area or home bases businesses suspended, disabled or deleted the past few days???
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  • I get much worse results from Google than I used to. I've been doing a research on two different niches and no matter what kind of "long tail keywords" I choose, the results usually come from the same "major" sites and other results are irrelevant or redundant. It's been like this for several months now and it only gets worse... I sometimes dig 10 pages deep and see no improvement. It's frustrating. Need a new search engine fast :-)

    Let me clarify a little. If ESPN is an authority site for sports, Google will be bringing the results from this site in ANY sport field out there, regardless of how "suitable" a given page is for my search. They give way too much authority to some big players, making the topic search boring and biased.
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  • May I know what is 7 pack?
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    • when you do a google search, there are 7 listings (or was) near the top, below the ads(usually) at the top.

      try this search " taipei hair salons"
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  • This algo change almost reminds me of how things were pre-panda. Anyone else feel the same?
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    • Agreed. Google is getting way too confusing nowadays.
    • This algo reminds me of a bi-polar Panda with multiple personality disorder.

      But I think it's on meds now because it's starting to stabilize a bit.
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