I’ve been doing additional testing on the “new” Local Stack Pack and the Local Finder. Here are some additional observations from my testing:

• Organic Listings are no longer listed above the Local Stack [tweetthis]Organic Listings are no longer listed above the Local Stack via @brianbarwig[/tweetthis]
• GMB Primary Categories are now showing in the Stack and Local Finder [tweetthis]GMB Primary Categories are now showing in the Stack and Local Finder via @brianbarwig[/tweetthis]
• Zooming in on the Local Finder causes a reduction in listings shown [tweetthis]Zooming in on the Local Finder causes a reduction in listings shown via @brianbarwig[/tweetthis]

Let’s go deeper.

Organic Below the Local Stack

Searching various terms in various cities, the Local Stack is showing above nearly ALL Organic listings as of now. So far, I have yet to see any Pay-to-Play in that space on the desktop but I imagine that is coming soon. Check it:

 

 

 

 

It goes on and on like this. Several of those screen grabs dont even have Organic listings above the fold. Pay-to-Play folks…its coming. Above the fold will be completely dominated by Google Ads.

GMB Primary Categories in Stack/Local Finder

I noticed it this weekend and Jen Stegg wrote about it this morning, but GMB Primary Categories are now showing in the Local Stack and Local Finder. Here are some additional screen grabs. Jen goes into more detail, so go read her post.

 

 

It doesnt seem to make a difference what the GMB Category is as the main Categories are different in each Local Stack. Just an observation.

Local Finder Reduced Listings

This seems obvious but is something which I haven’t noticed mentioned yet. If you do a search, click to the Local Finder and zoom in, the results in the Local Finder are reduced each time.

Take “Crystal Lake Dentist” for example.

 

Click through to the Local Finder and you will notice the standard 20 Pack of listings on the left.

 

Zoom in on the Map once and the listings change, though the 20 Pack is still present.

 

Zoom in again and the listings change again and this time the Local Finder 20 Pack adjusts to only 12.

 

One last zoom and there are only 2 listings showing.

 

I assume this is because you are narrowing down the search to a specific area so defined, G is only showing what is absolutely relevant.

That’s all I have for now. The way this is going, we will have new updates by Wednesday.