Penguins, Pandas, Hummingbirds, and now Pigeons? Although not an official name; the colloquial term coined by Search Engine Land, Pigeon, is the latest update to the search engine that is built around local search. What do you need to know? Modern Marketing University, your source for the most important news and insight into B2B Marketing, shares our take on Google Pigeon and its effect on your experience marketing and looking for local businesses.
Pigeons: Always Returning Home
The reasoning behind Search Engine Land’s naming of the update is due to the fact that “Pigeons tend to fly home.” What changes were highlighted?
Goodbye “7-Pack,” Hello Hummingbird Graph?
Have you ever searched for something such as “Restaurant in Naperville” or “Sushi in Chicago”? Probably, but what did you find? What used to be served commonly as the “Google 7-Pack” (Ads, Map Results, and Organic Search), now appears for some queries similarly to that of the Hummingbird Graph Search Carousel made popular this time last year.
This replaces searches that appear similarly to that of current searches for “chiropractor”
A Welcome Back to the Local Pack for Some Entities
But don’t wave goodbye to the local pack just yet, as this new update has actually brought back the format for search terms such as Advertising Agencies, SEO’s and Graphic Design Firms for the first time since late 2009.
Realtors Jilted by Pigeon
Relators seeking acceptance onto the 7-pack are feeling jilted, however. Now, local search results for “Real Estate [Location],” “Realtor [Location],” and the like don’t appear in map search at all.
Improved Focus on Local Directories
Do you have your business listed on directories like Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable and the like? These local directories gained a major boost due to the latest update. Note how many times Yelp Pages appear on the top page.
Not only was this a major boost for these directories, searches including the graph actually will include these directories nearly explicitly in the organic search results (In ‘Sushi’ Image, Yelp appears before that of any restaurant).
Many experts speculate that this change is to bring local search closer to that of organic search.
Local Rankings Expected to Depend More on Web Rankings
Possibly a nightmare for companies that focus solely on getting you onto Google Maps, the new update will now tie your map results much more closely with traditional web search metrics. If you have seen a drop in the past few days, it may be a sign that you need to improve your search engine optimization on your website.
For advice on improving traditional SEO, please check out our resources:
Modern Marketing Partners, a Naperville Marketing Agency, hopes that this advice will help you to improve your local search results and succeed in your marketing ventures now and in the future. However, if you seek assistance in kicking your marketing into overdrive, we welcome you to contact us at 630.868.5060.
