The Vicinity Algorithm Update: Is anyone seeing major shifts in local rankings? With reviews being at the focus?

[sixthcitysarah]

Hi all,

I was hoping to see if anyone else has been seeing changes in the local pack over the past week?

My team and I have been seeing tons of new businesses, that were not in the local pack before, all ranking ahead of others. And the only thing they have in common is a high level of reviews.

Keyword stuffers are still ranking up there as well, but the newcomers with high reviews don't even have their main category as the most relevant to the search. (Ex: Website Designers are ranking for SEO terms above all other Internet Marketing Providers/Marketing Agencies that used to rank)

I know Google released another product reviews update on Dec 1, but in the past, I don't believe it was ever noted to impact local as well.

Curious on everyone's thoughts!

 

[Blueviolet38]

I'm still finding this update extremely difficult to understand. Pretty much every company across every city that was previously in the three-pack has been demoted.

The companies that are ranking are lower quality across the board.

Is there any information available about where SABs were hit by this update?

I am going to build more local links for my clients to see does it help. Does this seem like a sensible strategy or are local links not connected?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Companies with exact keywords in their name are now taking up 2 of the 3 top spots in Maps. I know in some verticals/markets companies with keywords in their name were demoted after the update, but not in this example.

There are still keyword-rich listings ranking all over the place. The update didn't change that - it just severely shrunk the radius for how far away they rank. So now, if you have keywords in the business name it no longer makes it so you can rank across an entire city - what users see when they search is a lot more varied based on how far away they are from the business in the search results.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Pretty sure it basically just shrank the radius in general, regardless. I think that is why they call it the vicinity update.

Yep - exactly

 

[itstaymc]

It definitely shook up personal injury. I have had clients in the top 2 for the last few years going to 8 and 13. The top results that are showing do not make any sense. I am hoping for a correction soon.

This happened to us (PI law firm in Las Vegas) our traffic dropped from 4800 views per month to MAYBE 1200. Our competitors with a higher review count (who are further away in proximity) now appear before we do. I'm really hoping it reverts.

 

[Janell H]

What will Google do (or what are Google's policies) if a client's service is part of their registered LLC business name and can also provide legal paperwork to Google for confirmation? Seems like Google cannot argue or penalize a listing if it's actually their business name!

 

[RobSEO]

Has anyone had any insight or update on this issue? Noticing with a personal injury client that they've dropped significantly since late last year for personal injury KWs. Is there any solution here?

 

[Janell H]

Thanks for clarifying, @JoyHawkins

 

[Jeremy Booze]

@seosemsocial I have done 2 write ups on it thusfar with some observations:

The Vicinity Update: What You Need to Know About Google's Largest Local Algorithm Update in 5 Years - Sterling Sky Inc

On December 8th, one of our forum users asked about some serious differences they were seeing in the local pack results. The thread quickly started getting a lot of replies from users that were noticing similar patterns. Earlier today, Google confirmed that this was an algorithm update that...

www.sterlingsky.ca

The 'Vicinity Update': Winners and losers from the November 2021 local update

Google rolled out a local update between November 30 and December 8. It seemed to focus on changes around proximity and distance.

searchengineland.com

Joy, I'm interested in what dot plot mapping analytic tool you are using to produce the visual ranking analytics seen in the image below. I know of one SaaS that provides this but I would be interested if there is another that offers this solution.

 

[Jeremy Booze]

Joy will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's Places Scout. If not, Local Falcon would be the other option.

Scott -
Looks like both offer a similar feature. Thanks for the info!

@JoyHawkins

 

[sinbad10]

Our two major competitors hired agency's this year and one of them started to buy out every other company in area they could get their hands on. A 3rd company within our service area also hired a large agency but are not located in our main location. Both of our major competitors review profiles unnaturally grew to 3 figures (Uh huh) and I've had to start reporting B.S. GBP's that started to show up in our service areas.

The company that just knocked us out did a couple simple page tweaks and is magically growing reviews at a very quick pace as well. They do not have an overall well designed and optimized website either.

Hey @Rob, May I know which tool did you use to analyse to get this report? Thank you

 

[rgblocal]

Hey @Rob, May I know which tool did you use to analyse to get this report? Thank you

We try to be strategic with review velocity. It is very possible to see huge spikes from natural sources if you are using email/SMS automation based on previous customer lists.

 

[Blueviolet38]

Hey All! I am seeing some major shifts for some businesses that got destroyed with this update (rankings are back closer to what they were before). Is anyone else seeing this?

Hey Joy. I have also seen some major improvements for service companies I work for in recent days. It is great and I hope it holds!

 

[JWDM]

Hey All! I am seeing some major shifts for some businesses that got destroyed with this update (rankings are back closer to what they were before). Is anyone else seeing this?

Yes, HUGE improvements. I have several personal injury clients that regained top rankings after a big hit Nov/Dec, it feels like something corrected.

 

[Rob]

Hey @Rob, May I know which tool did you use to analyse to get this report? Thank you

GMB report from Brightlocal.com

Hey All! I am seeing some major shifts for some businesses that got destroyed with this update (rankings are back closer to what they were before). Is anyone else seeing this?

Yes. My HVAC client is not only back but made some substantial gains on some major terms in his city of origin. He is in #1 position, which in five years I've managed his business profile the company in that #1 spot has never moved. Out of 40+ other terms I monitor over various service areas he's back in the top 3. The farther service areas, however, he has not come back. Not that I really expect to rank at the farther distance areas in the local pack.

 

[Blueviolet38]

I am seeing changes again recently. Nothing as extreme as in the vicinity update but definitely some movements that haven't been particularly favorable for us.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Blueviolet38 as of what date?

 

[Blueviolet38]

Sorry for the delay in responding Joy. I think around the start of July but some of my clients have benefited and others have seen their ranks disimprove. Generally, things seem to be jumping around more than they did 1 year ago.