The Local Stack Rollout - A New Day In Local
-
Hey There, all my fellow Local SEOs!
Yesterday morning, I was searching for a car wash and was really puzzled to see my search return snack pack-style results, given that I wasn't looking for a restaurant, hotel or an entertainment venue. Sure enough, what I had run into was the rollout of Google's latest local SERPs, which for the sake of clarity, let's call the Local Stack. This is happening in multiple countries and across thousands of keywords and your local clients (or your local business) are likely to be affected by it, so I thought I'd post a heads-up here.
Good Reading:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2015/08/06/7-pack-becoming-3-pack-with-mobile-like-snak-pack-rollout/
That last one has a bunch more great links in it.
In June, I wrote a post here on Moz itemizing my concerns about the Snack Pack and its impacts on the hospitality/entertainment industries. Now, these same concerns are coming to me local-search-wide, with the rollout of the Local Stack. My early days key points from looking at the new Local Stack:
-
No phone numbers without clicking through to Local Finder, which I consider to be really poor usability, given the invention of the cell phone and the way we use it call businesses.
-
No links to the Google+ Local page, meaning that consultants like ourselves may have a really hard time explaining the value of creating a Google listing when so few SERPs will now actually lead to that listing.
-
3 chances to rank when your city has dozens or even hundreds or businesses in a single industry seems next-to-impossible. It's not a good reflection of the diversity of the business scene in the real world. There aren't 3 Italian restaurants in San Francisco or 3 lawyers in Boston. There are scores of them. Google's Local Stack is a poor reflection of the real world, in my view, and makes every city look like a one horse town.
-
On the other hand, the baldness of the Local Stack is making the 'more' link at the bottom of it really jump out at me, and if you click through, up to 20 businesses will show with the Local Finder. So, I'm a bit torn on this. Are the 4 businesses that just fell out of prominence with the removal of the 7 pack worse off or are 13 businesses now jumping for joy because they are in a sort of pack today that they weren't in 2 days ago? I guess this depends on how willing consumers are to click that 'more' link.
-
Given the meagerness of the Local Stack, organic is likely a great deal more important now for every local business, but I'm concerned by SERPs I'm looking at which are mainly taken up by directories rather than any actual local business websites.
So, those are some first thoughts from me and I would totally love to hear yours on this thread as you are trying to assess how you see this impacting your clients or your business. It's definitely a new day in Local!
-
-
That's a little odd. I'm still getting the old results.
-
A three pack.
-
What do you get for 'Plumber NYC'?
-
I'm seeing snack packs on my iPad.
-
Interesting thing... I was spoofing my user agent in developer's tools. Queries from Nexus and iPad tablets still return the old map pack et. al. Interesting. I kind of thought of mobile and tablet as 'one thing', but apparently it's not - at least at the moment.
Confirmed it on physical tablets I have laying around. Yay internet appliances!
-
Think of desktop search as a dying breed.
That real estate doesn't really exist on mobile and tablet. -
Those that have an address listed tend to have the Directions icon. Which isn't terribly useful for businesses that don't typically generate foot traffic. Poor SABs.
I initially thought The Googles were attempting to do away with the phone part of NAP confusion, for people. You know, click the Website icon... more than likely they'll get access to a good phone number. It may be unthinkable if all the listings have been well managed, but I would imagine that's the exception and not the rule.
I really want to know what they were thinking when they made packs for restaurants. No directions... no phone number... until one clicks through on a listing. Then you get what you wanted to know about to begin with (the actual listing... with phone, directions, menu...) followed by results related to the actual company. There's a difference between the click through display on desktop and mobile, but the gist is similar.
It seems like The Googles has been listening to an exceedingly drunk and confused focus group.
-
Yes, I don't expect that space to remain vacant for long. It's so hard for small businesses to compete. I really hope we don't see Google try to monetize it.
-
Hey Donna,
Agree with you. So much white space on so many SERPs, it looks like a blizzard. One thing I've been thinking about regarding this, as many Local SEOs are speculating that this could be a step on the path to monetized packs and also considering Google's move into the home service fulfillment arena - what if we will see an iteration of this in future where you have to pay to get your address/phone to show? And on mobile, what if Google started charging for clicks on the phone icons? I wonder...
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!
-
Hi Travis,
Yes, I'm seeing phone icons on mobile, but not on desktop ... and no addresses.
-
Disappointing.
I suppose not supplying the phone numbers will encourage a few more folks to click on the "more" link at the bottom (hoping to find one). It'll certainly be interesting to watch.
One thing that strikes me is the all the wasted real estate off to the right where the map used to display. When Ads are available, they're posted but often there is nothing but white space. I have a hard time imagining Google plans on leaving the space vacant for long.
-
Desktop Fun:
Well, if a listing doesn't have a site linked to their Google MyOMGWTFBBQ (If they can't make up their mind, that's what I'm calling it.) and they rely on service calls, that business is kind of screwed for the time being.
Yeah, one would have a higher likelihood of clicking on the business name section - if we're only talking about pixel height and width. But that graphic, though. People look for buttons, even if that button is only 84x106 on desktop.
People click on graphics. They don't visit plumbers.
Developer Console (emulated mobile):
I'm getting the little phone handset (what an anachronism) icon.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Practitioner Vs Practice Listings: Local Pack Issues
Hi, and THANK YOU! in advance for any input you give, its much appreciated. We've been doing research on this and also wanted to see if the community could provide any more input. We work with a plastic surgery clinic. The namesake of the surgery clinic is that of the first doctor: Practice Name: Gardner Plastic Surgery Plastic Surgeon 1: Dr. Gardner (we've worked with him since at least 2015) Plastic Surgeon 2: Dr. Baccaro (joined practice June 2018) Plastic Surgeon 3: Dr. Crespo (joining their practice starting Sept. 1 2020!) To summarize our issues to date: As we brought on our new surgeon Dr. Baccaro in 2018 we decided to ultimately claim his practitioner GMB listing, and to claim Dr. Gardner's (which had been unclaimed and we had to eliminate duplicates.) Before deciding to utilize the supplementary practitioner listings, we were managing/optimizing their main practice listing: Gardner Plastic Surgery. We continued to primarily/heavily optimize “Gardner Plastic Surgery” and mimicked the details for “Dr. Gardner” and “Dr. Baccaro” From Dec. 2018 - Jan. 2020 we would from time to time notice that "Dr. Paul Gardner's" individual listing was showing up in Local Pack instead of "Gardner Plastic Surgery" but it was not really a big issue, happened very occasionally. Around Dec. 2020 - Jan. 2020 we experienced some Google errors when trying to create Google Posts with videos--it resulted in a few very random and unexpected suspensions. We were posting appropriate content, it seemed that Google was struggling to process our video files from API and it would get stuck in a loop etc. All in all the suspensions happened, and we worked with Google many times to try to understand and stop that from happening. Fortunately that hasn't happened since (and we now don't post videos to Google posts because that was a bit too stressful. We still upload to main photo/video area) Since February 2020 to present we have consistently noticed "Dr. Paul Gardner" appearing in place of the well-optimized full of photos/videos/posts "Gardner Plastic Surgery." We thought algorithm updates etc./COVID were all factors as to why doctors may be more prescient than a clinic. There were times where we thought it was fixed for sure, only for it to continue to crop up. Specifically we were trying to rank for the search term "naples plastic surgeon" What We've Done So Far: I've done a LOT of research and understand a number of errors we were overlooking from Q&As like this (duplicate categories/phone numbers): https://moz.com/community/q/gmb-page-for-law-not-ranking-but-individual-attorneys-names-are And: https://moz.com/community/q/partner-outranking-main-site-in-local So I understand we have some decisions to make on the best path forward. We’re guilty of just about all of the issues Miriam elaborates on. ** As we move forward there are a few elements at play:** They are adding a new surgeon to the practice in September, we’re excited! Making a clear decision before he arrives is important With the addition of the 3<sup>rd</sup> surgeon “Gardner Plastic Surgery” is actually changing the name of its business to “Naples Plastic Surgery” as its much more suiting to the growing scope of practice. ** To end:** Wow. I wrote a lot and really appreciate it if you stuck with me! Some thoughts I had that I wonder if anyone has insight on: Is the fact that “Gardner Plastic Surgery” is “Dr. Gardner’s” namesake a huge factor into why the individual doctor is popping up more often? He’s well known and his name and his business name have been around the internet for years longer than Dr. Baccaro etc. Do you think changing the name to “Naples Plastic Surgery” along with other needed updates could help address the issue? Could our string of unfortunate, though ultimately well-intentioned suspensions be part of what’s enabled “Dr. Paul Gardner” to prop up as well? Should we choose to heavily optimize all listings and see how diversifying categories etc. helps? Should we try to de-optimize and focus on practice profile for now as that’s our main listing? If you have any other recommendations, I’d love to hear them. I think working on optimizing and diversifying our listings would be useful. Thank you again.
Local Listings | | MoxxiMarketing0 -
New Google My Business - No more Google+?
I created and verified a new Google My Business page for a client and found that there won't be any more Google+ created automatically. I spoke to Google Support and they confirmed this is the case because apparently, the two Google products confuse people. Now, if we want a G+ page created for our client, we have to go and 'Apply' for one here - https://plus.google.com/create We're not sure how to go moving forward with new clients. Has anyone tried to apply for a G+ account successfully using the above link? If we create a new Gmail account, don't we get a G+ account anyway (or is that not the case as well)?
Local Listings | | nhhernandez0 -
Local SEO: Special charakters in brand name?
Hey guys, we run a local gym in Germany located in Nuremberg called: "STUDIO N°1 - natürlich fit". Our domain is: www.studio-no1.de We are currently working on a new website since our current Website isn't really SEO optimized. Until then I would like to start optimizing some off-page attributes. As far as I know one of the main points in Local SEO is that your firm is registered at important directories. In our case we are already registred in most of the important german directories. The problem is that our oficicial company name has a special charakter included. This means that in some cases we have "N°1" and in some others "No1! Our Google Business name for example has "N°1", facbook not (no special charakter allowed). Germanys most important site for listings: Gelbeseiten, doesn't even allow special charakters in brand names.... On which name should I focus to get all the business listings to have identical NAP informations? Does it even matter? Schould I focus on "STUDIO No1 - natürlich fit" or "STUDIO N°1 - natürlich fit"? I hope you could understand my problem. Big Thanks Jonas
Local Listings | | Jo_Da0 -
Adding new business location. Google My Businesses vs. Google Map Maker
Hi everybody, Adding new business location. Is it better for local visibility to add it via Google My Businesses dashboard directly or via Google Map Maker first (and then claim it in My Businesses dashboard)? Thanks
Local Listings | | Ryan_V0 -
Local Listings - where to manage?
I'm optimizing for a a local client and I have suggested we take a look at Moz Local to manage their listings. I showed the customer the data aggregators that Moz Local would push data to. (Which of course they had never heard of). They were concerned about YELP and TripAdvisor, etc. If I populate their local business data into Moz Local > Moz local sends it to > lets say Factual... does Factual send/share this information to Yelp? Or do I need to ad the company information in Yelp or TripAdvisor in addition to what Moz Local is sharing to the aggregators? Would love some feedback! Thanks, Jolie
Local Listings | | MoJoActive1 -
Do canonical links effect local search rankings?
Hello, I have just been doing some reading about canonical links. Part of my role at my family business is to look after all of the SEO and digital marketing for our business. I've been really pleased with the results i've managed to get as we currently rank in the top 3 in the organic search for all of the keywords we've been trying for. My question is though, The Moz scan of my site came back and said we have some duplicate content. Although i've written every page completely from scratch I am sort of saying the same thing. We cover a few different areas for our business and we are in the service industry and i've always thought it was better to have a page dedicated to an area. We are a removals company and I would always type in for example 'Removal companies in London' I wouldn't just type in Removal Companies. It is very location specific which we've found out by asking our customers what they have/would type in. Because of this, I was thinking perhaps this duplicate content is harming our sites SEO so I wondering, if i implemented a canonical link from all of my local area pages to my main House Removals page to say that there is where the content originated.Would it negatively affect the current ranking of my local pages (as it's pretty good) or would it actually increase the strength of our SEO and improve it? Any help would be hugely appreciated 🙂 Cheers, Robert P.S i'm only self taught and i'm trying to learn as much as i can, please be kind.
Local Listings | | BearPaw880 -
Can We Outrank The Google Places Local Listing 7 pack in 2015?
Hello everyone, I would like to know if it's possible and if any of you had success outranking / ranking above the Google Local Listing 7 pack? I am in Canada and every time I search for something like (city+dentist) (toronto dentist) I do not see any organic result above the 7 pack. I searched for like 10 city and every searches the local listing are the first to show up and the organic result under it. So I did not see any organic result outranking the Google Places and I look at like 10 different city if not more. So I would like to know If i can rank above them for organic results with no Google places, with no physical address, local phone number and/or citations even if there is currently no organic result showing up above them ? What do you guys think ? Thank You
Local Listings | | majesticlub1 -
How To Rank Individual Pages Locally?
Hello, A fellow business owner recommend that I signup for Moz to ask questions about local SEO. I just have a few questions, but please excuse my ignorance since SEO isn't something I'm very familiar with. My company has locations in 3 different cities in the state of Arkansas. I've noticed that when I type in certain keywords on Google such as "web design", I see a lot of organic listings from web design companies in my local area - but if I were to search from another city, different listings show up that are related to that city. I have 3 different pages on my company's website for each of our locations that gives a little bit of information about them - such as the general manager, storefront photos, and the employee of the month. What can I do to get each of the pages to rank higher on Google in their respective cities? I've heard a lot of different things mentioned such as having the name, address, and phone number listed. Including Google Maps on the page with our location. And some other stuff such as including stuff such as a "KML file" and a "schema markup". If anyone can give me a list of definitive suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.
Local Listings | | CyberAlien1