It seems that Google has made another update to their local search ranking factors this past weekend; many local SEO webmasters have noticed a pretty big shift in their search results.
Remember the Google Maps Googlebomb update that hit local results late last week? If not, here’s a quick summary: local businesses were coming up in search results for searches that were both derogatory and racist. Days after they apologized for dropping the ball, we saw a major change and shift in local search results.
Some have said this shift is “screwy”, for lack of a better word. Google is still having some trouble with their local search results, as some SEO experts are saying they are still having trouble showing your current location when searching.
But even when your location is set properly, the results are still way off! The local results that are showing up in the map section are not accurate based on where the searcher is located.
Other SEO experts have said that more national companies are showing up in Organic local forums, instead of local companies, which is very alarming for local and small businesses.
Google responded with this:
We’ve started to update our ranking system to address the majority of these searches – this will gradually roll out globally and we’ll continue to refine our systems over time.
We don’t have a ton of information about this new local update mess, but if we had to make an educated guess, we would say it is directly related to the Google Maps bomb.
We will keep you posted on this update as we learn more about it!