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Any Notable Change in Google's Location Based Results?

Local SEO

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Rusty_Shackleford last edited by

I've noticed with many of our clients that when searching for general terms, with obvious local intent, that Google assumes you are in the nearest metro area rather than the specific locality. Anyone else noticed this?

Example: I have an HVAC client who has ranked a solid #1 for "HVAC Repairs" since January - if the user was in the small town we were targeting (Wake Forest) since January. However, now Google assumes users in this town are in the nearby metro area (Raleigh), and displays local and organic results for Raleigh instead of Wake Forest. I first noticed this change in mid-May. From what I've read about the Nov Hummingbird update, I don't see that playing a direct role. Any insight?
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BCutrer last edited by

We were seeing that before Hummingbird. Even in SERPS with no mapbox or the returns under it, slots 7&8 seemed to be very local centric. We did screenshots of the same result in an incognito in our various locations and got very local specific returns in those slots.
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