Things move at a bit slower pace here on the 45th parallel. While the world’s big-time SEO’s and SEM’s are all up in arms and tweeting about Google’s recent (and fairly major) local search change, I doubt that it has impacted many folks here in McCall. Which is essentially the reason why I didn’t rush to jump on the bandwagon and start blogging about it 3 days ago when the news broke.
What’s a Google Local 10 Pack you ask? Beer? Huh? No, it’s the SEO-hypster term for a cluster of business listings (up to 10) that are often found on Google results pages for common local search terms — and similar to what you would see near the top of the page for the search “mccall idaho seo“.
But the subtle difference is that for a few search terms/keywords (like “doctor”, “dentist”, “lawyer” and “burger”) Google is now automatically including your geo-location (based on your IP address) along with the search term. For example, before the 10 Pack change, if you typed in “burger”, you would get results for
Google Local 10 Pack - "burger" (in McCall, ID)
“burger” that weren’t tied to any particular location. But post-10 Pack change, if you search for “burger”, you’re effectively searching for “<your location> burger”. Meaning if Google detects that your IP address is in McCall, Idaho, you’re going to get a results page that will have a Google 10 Pack of businesses in McCall that Google thinks would like to sell you a burger. In reality (here in McCall), you won’t get 10 because it can’t find that many burger businesses right now. In fact, at the time of the posting, only Paradise Burgers is being displayed. Seems like some folks are missing out.
You can spot the “10 Pack” in action by looking for a thumbnail-sized Google map
Google Local 10 Pack - "lawyer" (in McCall, ID)
along with the business listing(s) on the results page — and they always seem to be a few organic listings down the page. People have been saying they’re always the 4th listing, but I’m finding that’s not the case. Also — note that my location was originally defaulting to Boise, Idaho and had to change it to McCall, Idaho.
This will definitely impact local business search in McCall to some extent, and I’m planning on doing more research to provide further examples.
Questions? Thoughts?
-Scott
