At the beginning of December, Google rolled out an algorithm update that is proving to be the most significant update to local search in several years. The search giant confirmed the update last week. In its typical understated fashion, Google described the update as “a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results.”

The three factors determining rankings for local searches are: proximity, relevance, and prominence. While Google doesn’t disclose the precise weighting of each factor, it is evident that with the rebalancing, proximity is taking on greater weight. These changes could impact your business listing in local search.

While Google has not announced changes to its guidelines for local search optimization, the update does not change the company’s goals around local search, but rather focuses on improving the quality of local search results. In simple terms, it is achieving this improvement by increasing the weight of proximity in its ranking.

Previously, the relevance of a business listing to the search terms played a greater role in determining the top rankings in local search results. Too often, this meant the SERP would return a search result even if the business was not close to the searcher’s location.

By giving more favor to proximity, the update helps to combat efforts to game the previous algorithm, especially by less-than-local businesses that were appearing in the local SERPs. Over time, more businesses have been able to manipulate their content to win local rankings for searches that, in reality, are geographically distant from the business’ actual location. Following this update, businesses that are in close proximity to the searcher are seeing an improved presence in the SERP, while businesses further away from the searcher are seeing a decline in local share of voice.

While the algorithm update’s emphasis on proximity is the headline, Google’s longstanding, closely related secondary goal of fighting spam is underlined by another observation: we are seeing a reversal, to some degree, in the share of voice for keyword-optimized business names to businesses without keywords in their names. Google has not released any special guidance on this point, but its guidelines against keyword stuffing provide some insight.

All of this is happening concurrently with an update to the local 3-pack results and map design in the SERP. The new design for desktop search places the results on the left side of the page with a new square map to the right of the results. Because it’s being rolled out alongside the algorithm update, it’s not entirely clear yet what impact the design change is having on results.

Key Takeaways

Google’s latest algorithm update for local search is placing greater weight on proximity as a ranking factor. The rebalancing effort is already impacting search results: prominent and relevant business listings that are further away geographically from the searcher are declining in search rank, while closer, relevant businesses with previously less prominence are ranking higher. Reduced consideration for keywords in the business name is additionally protecting the SERP against attempts to game the system.

Going forward, businesses that rely on patronage from local customers have an improved opportunity to reach those customers and should invest the time and effort to optimize their business listings. On the other hand, businesses that were previously performing well in local searches happening relatively far away from their locations will need to recalibrate and find new ways to serve customers in further away locations.

Google announced today that a core update will go live on the afternoon of 9/24. While they have not released information regarding what precisely this update will target, it is possible that sites will see some shake ups in the rankings of their pages. This could result in an increase or a decrease in rankings for particular pieces of content.

When we saw the alert about the impending core update, we wanted to bring it to the attention of our community and discuss what this update means for them and their content.

Don’t panic. In a recent post, we pointed out that after core updates there are often adjustments and rollbacks if Google sees sites move more than intended.

What is a core update?

Google reports that they make minor adjustments to their algorithms on a regular basis– nearly daily–as they work to improve their ability to rank websites and serve their users. Often these smaller updates do not attract much notice. A few times a year, however, they release larger updates. These updates often do attract attention as a number of sites see rises and falls in their rankings across multiple pages. They also likely see the corresponding traffic increases and drops as the updates go live.

Google generally acknowledges these core updates, as they want to give site owners more targeted information about what they should focus on improving. For this particular core update, Google has also specifically gone out of their way to point out that sometimes nothing is expressly ‘wrong’ with content that has lost a few positions as a result of a core update. The purpose of the update is not necessarily to penalize content, but rather to find content that has been better written and developed and will be more trustworthy for users. Sometimes this means that content that follows all of the Webmaster’s Guidelines, may still see a drop.

What should I do as we wait for Google’s core update to roll out?

We recommend that our community carefully monitors their sites through the BrightEdge platform. You can set alerts for any key pages within your site so that you receive notifications if they drop too low in the rankings.

Remember to not only watch for site drops, but also keep an eye on any site ranking boosts. Monitoring how different pages rise and fall in the rankings can offer important clues into how this core updates impacts sites, which then provides valuable insight into how rankings can be regained following this drop.

What should I do if my content drops after Google’s core update?

If you notice a drop in your content as this core update rolls out, take a careful look at what specifically dropped and by how much. Keep in mind that Google is not necessarily penalizing your content, it could instead be a reward for another site that has produced strong content. This means there might not be a concrete criteria that needs to be ‘fixed’ to regain the rankings.

Instead, you will want to carefully evaluate the content that fell alongside any content that rose. You also want to look at the material that now ranks higher than yours and try and detect what might have made Google prefer this content over yours. This will be your key to help you determine how to correct your content and improve your site moving forward.

How should site owners try to improve their content if they drop in rankings?

Site owners should pay close attention to Google’s strategy for ranking content. Specifically, their algorithm attempts to identify the Expertise (E), Authoritativeness (A), and Trustworthiness (T) of content. They also instruct their team of search quality raters to score search results based on this criteria. Keep in mind that these raters can not actually impact search results. Instead, their ratings are used to determine the effectiveness of the search algorithms.

If you notice a drop in your rankings, you should carefully evaluate your content based on these criteria. Look at the originality of your content: do you produce any original information or research for your customer? Consider also your own expertise and why people should trust you. Do you give them a good reason to believe what you have to say? Does your site and page layout help to support your expertise? Do you regularly cite sources within your content and otherwise support what you have to say?

Google wants you to focus on producing content that offers high value for your users. Your content should have something that your competitors do not have if you want your piece to rank highly.

Google continues to update their algorithm, and this includes rolling out core updates that have the potential to impact the rankings of large numbers of sites. The search engine giant has given us the heads up regarding this upcoming update and went out of their way to remind site owners that a loss in rankings does not automatically mean that best practices or webmaster’s guidelines have been violated. Instead, the focus lies on content that embodies the E.A.T. criteria to better serve the users. Keep a close eye on your site through the BrightEdge platform and let us know how the update impacts you.

So if your traffic drop was due to an algorithm change and does not revert, what can you do?

Remember, organic search is a long play game, so make your plans, adjust a bit, and keep producing and optimizing relevant and valuable content. We’ll repeat our guidance from our last algo update post for your convenience:

1. Increase your content production cadence of blogs, pages, FAQs, glossary, and videos to try to offset the lost traffic
2. Continue to focus on high-quality content
3. Be authoritative, deep, and relevant, target over 1000 words per piece and preferably over 2000 words
4. Be original, fresh, accurate, and current
5. Build multiple pieces in a content silo and internally link them together
6. Be well liked and linked to internally, externally, and socially
7. Work on page load speed until you get to 95 score
8. Reduce the bounce rate of people landing on your site
9. Provide an excellent customer experience and site performance
10. Consider using schema markup, which Google has been promoting since 2011 and people are starting to report positive rank and traffic impact from schema

With the recent news in our market, it felt like a good time to share our thoughts about search marketing landscape and what we are working on at BrightEdge.

Since Lem and I founded BrightEdge, it seems that every year brings more change and plenty of exciting opportunities for search professionals and digital marketers.

Like you, we see Search changing. A lot. When we talk with our customers, we hear the same common themes. Search is becoming more and more integrated into the marketing department. Organic Search is highly valued for insights about customers, the market, and competitors.

Those insights help companies grow revenue, drive product innovation, and create winning content marketing strategies. All of this change means it is more important for us to deliver the innovations that our customers need and want to be successful in their jobs.

Innovation

Our brand promise starts with innovation. In the early days of BrightEdge, our customers valued our rapid innovation to stay ahead. Our customers were on the front lines – they either delivered or they didn’t deliver – and we wanted to make sure they had insights, technology, and support to be successful.

Over the years, we’ve led the market with great technology and innovation. We’re incredibly proud of what we have accomplished and flattered that many of these features are now standard across the industry.  

 

We’re going to keep pushing more new innovations to market– and bringing them to market as fast as we can. A few recent, market-leading innovations are highlighted below:

Intent Signal

BrightEdge Intent Signal helps search marketers understand and optimize for organic potential. It identifies which topics show organic results above or below the fold. It goes a step further to tell which pages show above the fold – and are highly visible – and where to capture more of the organic opportunity.

You can read more about Intent Signal below:

BrightEdge Intent Signal: Optimize for Organic Opportunity “Above the Fold”

BrightEdge Intent Signal

HyperLocal

HyperLocal search allows customers to understand how topics and content perform for searches conducted in every corner of the globe. Marketers can track demand and content performance for over 32,000 US and 36,000 non-US city search locations or submit custom locations for both desktop and mobile.

You can read more about HyperLocal below:

BusinessInsider: BrightEdge Announces Next Wave of Organic Search Innovation with ContentIQ and HyperLocal Releases

HyperLocal Targeting: Content Performance From the Eyes of Your Customers

ContentIQ

ContentIQ is our next-generation site audit solution with advanced crawling capabilities and full integration within our SEO and content performance platform. All BrightEdge customers can add ContentIQ to their BrightEdge platform to identify the site errors that impact organic search performance.

You can read more about ContentIQ below:

ContentIQ: Detect and Fix Site Errors with Comprehensive Site Auditing

Customer Success

At BrightEdge we believe that our greatest responsibility is to ensure our customers’ success. In the past 12 months, we’ve made a big investment in supporting our customers - from the BrightEdge SEO power users who love DataCube to the digital marketers and content marketers who are just beginning to understand the power of SEO.

Search is hard and complex, and as Search moves into mainstream marketing we realize that it is more important than ever to invest in ways to support our customers – always with an eye on helping them deliver real results and ROI. We continue to work hard in this area and keep looking for innovative ways to make search easier, more accessible, and to be the main driver of marketing strategy.

You can view more customer success stories below:  

BrightEdge Case Studies   

Community

Building community is another area where we continue to make big investments and see traction in the market. With SEO going mainstream, we saw a need to foster collaboration and share insights across search, content, and digital marketing communities.

Our annual Share Conference is recognized by Forbes and Inc.com as a must-attend conference, and this year we are taking Share on the road to local communities and across the globe.

You can read more about the Share17 Global Insights tour below:  

Share17 Goes on the Road

We’ve also launched User Groups in NYC, London, SF, Chicago, and Minneapolis to make it easier for search marketers to network, make key connections, and learn from one another. And we’ll continue to ramp up community events to support the digital marketers and content marketer on SEO best practices.

We’ve been very excited about the turnout and passion around these impactful customer events.

Building the BrightEdge community has been one of the most rewarding parts of my job – above all, I value spending time with customers and hearing from them. We love our customers and the community that we support. All the passion in our industry is a sign that SEO is here to stay, SEO is more important than ever, and SEO is becoming a marketer’s (not so) secret weapon.

Before I sign off, I need to thank the 300+ employees at BrightEdge for the hard work, enthusiasm, and customer-obsessed mentality that they bring each day. This blend of passion, desire, business acumen, and market maturity that comprises the BrightEdge team makes me extremely proud, and I’m excited for what lies ahead.

Enhanced HyperLocal capabilities allow digital marketers to understand demand and content performance for the locations that matter most to their business.

Digital experiences are now localized to the areas where searches are conducted

Google has taken the next step in providing the most relevant results to consumers – displaying different results pages for small geographical locations, even cities just miles apart, called hyperlocal. 

With digital experiences varying according to location, you can get a skewed view of how your customers experience search locally if you confine your analysis of organic demand (search volume) and content performance (organic ranking) to a single location. You may fail to see the variances in search volume between a metropolitan area and a small nearby town. And using a single-location view of organic performance can hide the fluctuations in ranking across multiple geographies.

To prioritize SEO and content marketing investments effectively, it’s critical to have the clearest picture of how customers experience your brand in organic search results – where and when they are searching.

Marketers need a more granular view of demand and content performance with hyperlocal

HyperLocal capabilities within the BrightEdge platform now allow customers to understand how topics and content perform for searches conducted in every corner of the globe. Digital marketers can track demand and content performance for over 32,000 US and 36,000 non-US city search engines, or submit custom locations, for both desktop and mobile.

Accessing data at the most granular level is a best practice for effectively optimizing for organic performance. Here are a few instances where it makes sense to understand your brand’s digital performance down to the specific areas critical to business success:

• To target customers for hyperlocal marketing
• To drive customers to physical locations
• To understand fluctuations in demand
• To expand into new regions

1. When you are looking to target customers in a (hyperlocal) very specific location

Let’s say that you know geographically where your highest-converting customers are searching – for example a specific city or a neighborhood. While you care how you are turning up in search results in general, you care even more about how you are showing up (or not showing up) for the audiences in these highly targeted areas. By using our HyperLocal capabilities, you can now see how your content is displayed in SERPs for these specific locations.

You can also view trending of performance over time in a specific location.

By targeting the locations that matter to your business, you secure a more accurate understanding of how you are performing in search for the precise audiences you are targeting.

2. When you want to drive customers to one of your retail locations

Google research shows that 50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a store within a day. With the increase in smartphone searches (which now make up more than half of total searches online), it is increasingly important to ensure that your brand is showing up for relevant topics in order to drive visitors to your brick-and-mortar locations.

Using our HyperLocal capabilities, you can view performance for the local search engine closest to each storefront location.

With these insights, you can understand demand for specific topics, as well as how you rank for people searching in that immediate vicinity. You can choose to optimize for the areas and topics where you are falling behind in local search.

3. When you are trying to understand fluctuations in demand for your products or services

Consumer interests are incredibly regionalized. Something that is popular in one area can fail to capture the attention of consumers in another area. An aggregated search volume figure fails to show you how search volume for that topic can fluctuate across locations. With our HyperLocal capabilities, you can view search volume across the different locations that matter to your business.

Knowing this can help you allocate your marketing resources and create strategies to optimize for topics in the regions where demand is the greatest.

4. When you are looking to expand and want to compare differences in demand across regions

Similar to the use case described above, you want to understand nuances in demand for your product or services in different regions where you are aiming to expand – either domestically or internationally. There can be a drastic difference in search volume for the same topic in cities that are separated even by a few miles.

With access to the most granular search insights, you can compare demand across potential target regions and take a data-driven approach to selecting how you allocate resources as you grow your business.

Providing volume and granularity of search insights unmatched by other SEO platforms, BrightEdge is the only search and content solution that allows customers to understand how pages are performing in the specific locations that are most critical to their business success.

You can contact us to learn more about optimizing for content performance using our HyperLocal enhancements.