What Does Google’s ‘Pigeon’ Update Mean for Your Business?

Google have recently made a change to their local search algorithm that could potentially result in substantial changes to your ranking capabilities when it comes to localised search. You may have already witnessed a change in the amount of traffic you’ve been getting, especially with regards to local search terms. The algorithm update itself is a review of location parameters and distances so that search becomes more relevant overall.

The update, dubbed ‘Pigeon’ by Search Engine Land, focuses on various search capabilities and their connections with local search results. One of the things Pigeon seems to be targeting is directory sites ranking above local, individual business websites. Spelling correction, the Knowledge Graph and synonyms are all likely to be affected by the update as well.

Now this doesn’t seem particularly ideal if you’re an individual business but there are a few ways the algorithm could benefit you in the long term. To those who ranked particularly well for popular search terms, we say don’t panic just yet. Local results have become all the more important to your success, with queries now becoming increasingly geo-targeted. The fact that local businesses have such a small amount of competition means that ranking has become even more valuable.

Whilst this means your business might not appear as much in local search as it did in the past, the relevance of the people who search for you will increase substantially, bringing in far more qualified searchers. If that’s not enough to have you encouraged, businesses have already reported an increase in site traffic since the update was released, possibly down to higher quality and fewer businesses turning up in search results.

It’s highly advised that, if you haven’t already done so, you create a Google page for your site so that you appear in both Local and Carousel results. Just make sure that your page is fully up-to-date and verified to receive the full benefit of qualified leads arriving from local search results.

If you’re eager to increase traffic to your site with the help of experienced, valuable marketing techniques, get a free consultation from Artemis today.