The Local Stack Rollout - A New Day In Local

[MiriamEllis]

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/

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2015/08/07/thoughts-about-the-new-local-stack-display/comment-page-1/#comment-859275

http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/35481-goodbye-7-packs-only-3-packs-no-phone-address-all-local-results.html

http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/35515-new-local-3-stack-local-pro-opinions-roundup-change-rocked-our-world.html

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!

[Travis_Bailey]

That's a little odd. I'm still getting the old results.

[DonnaDuncan]

A three pack.

fDNINnG

[Travis_Bailey]

What do you get for 'Plumber NYC'?

[DonnaDuncan]

I'm seeing snack packs on my iPad.

[Travis_Bailey]

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!

LrraIRp.png

[Travis_Bailey]

Think of desktop search as a dying breed. That real estate doesn't really exist on mobile and tablet.

[Travis_Bailey]

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.

[DonnaDuncan]

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.

[MiriamEllis]

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!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Travis,

Yes, I'm seeing phone icons on mobile, but not on desktop ... and no addresses.

[DonnaDuncan]

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.

[Travis_Bailey]

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.