Have you ever noticed that whenever you search a product or service on Google the top results aren’t always first? Yeah, you guessed it Google is stalking you. Well, at least staying aware of your location in order to provide the best geographical match to your search query.
What is interesting is that the results that Google does display may not have a website, reviews or even well written content. Although this may be frustrating for search users, it is ultimately a way to increase ad revenue.
So what does this mean for organic search results? Organic results are not largely affected by this geographic results box, however it does mean that they are displayed further down the page.
Remember that Google is not the only source on information on the Internet. Utilise other platforms to improve your SEO such as TripAdvisor, Yelp or even Facebook. Optimise these sites and encourage traffic to your business here in order to improve your Google results.
Another impact of this is that local SEO must be more competitive. Before this update, your business may have been ranking on the first page through your own SEO. However, because of this update your business may now require the professional services of an SEO agency that has the time and resources to best optimise your business.
Just because Google is using a smaller geographic radius, it does not mean that local SEO is futile, simply work smarter and just a little bit harder to keep those ranks up.