A Win for Local SEO
As being reported everywhere now, phone numbers and addresses returned to the Local 3 Pack today.
The rollout seemed to begin on the West Coast with several people reporting the change this morning. I began noticing the change about 5pm Chi-town time.
Phil Rozek put up a post a little later noticing the same in Boston. This could have been a slow data center rollout beginning in the West this morning.
Not All Pay-to-Play?
This change is welcome news to the Local SEO industry which has been beaten down of late. Last night, Blumenthal reported about the 3 Pack Pay-to-Play/Local Stack he was noticing. Maybe Google isnt going to shove it in us as hard as we originally thought when it looked like they were going full Pay-to-Play.
Anyone else noticing other changes?
Brian
I've been in the Local SEO game for over a decade. I help all sorts of small businesses gain traction in Local, and have extensive experience with Lawyers and Insurance Agents. I really enjoy helping small businesses with their local marketing. I also dig whiskey, hockey, and smoked meats.
Great insight into Google’s “updates”, really disheartening that it took them this long to realize that the G+ results in the local packs had nothing but a website link previously. Just shows how little attention the local results get, probably since they don’t earn revenue from it. Still trying to figure out why some of our client’s Google+ pages are outranked in the 3-pack by businesses with no websites, content, or even a claimed G+ page, in what world is that a “relevant” result?
Hi Erik,
Appreciate the comment. Agree with your assessment on why G isnt focusing too much on Local – until recently anyway – mostly because they dont earn revenue from it. They sure are trying to though..just look at San Francisco and the Pay to Play they have going on in the services section.
What kind of clients are you working with which are not ranking in the 3 Pack? Im interested because I am seeing some of the same things and am working on a new post about it.
The most notorious are hair salons, tree services, and accountants/tax/CPAs, despite heavy listing management, CONSTANT Google+ posts and activity, and even weekly blogging, they just don’t move in position. Which is anticipated SOMETIMES marketing local SEO, but the people who beat us in search results with these industries specifically are not even trying.
Thanks for the insight, Erik. I noticed the same for Hair Salons, pizza, insurance and auto repair.
Hopefully my upcoming post will shed some light on this. Thanks for stopping by!