It appears that though it wasn’t the direct actual intent, Google Panda may be impacting local search results in such a way that it bodes very well for local businesses based on findings from CNET.
Google rolled-out Google Panda, a substantial algorithm change also referred to as “Farmer”, earlier this year (February) for all U.S. queries, and earlier this month for all English language queries. The change was rolled-out as an attempt to optimize a user’s experience by identifying low-quality sites and web pages to help weed out sites that might be relevant to a query based on content (“content farms”), but not truly relevant to what a user is actually searching for.
CNET compiled about 100,000 Google results in March soon after the first roll-out, and then last week, just after the new update, and one of the most interesting findings was the impact Google’s algorithm change has had on local search results and local businesses, both large and small.
For larger local businesses, for example,CNET chief political correspondent Declan McCullagh shares, “Yelp picked up 45 first-page appearances for generic searches like “chocolate,” “cleaning,” “food,” “lights,” “laundry,” “tv,” and “weddings,” from a Califronia address, while Davidsbridal.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Walgreens.com also benefited in the U.S. from localization.”
For smaller, locally-themed businesses, McCullagh shares, “For our U.S. tests, we used an Internet address near Palo Alto, Calif., which prompted Google to rank nearby businesses and municipal Web sites near the top of search results,” McCullagh explains. “The City of Palo Alto’s Web site appears in the first page of search results for terms including 'adventures,' 'art,' 'business,' 'gas,' and 'jobs.' PaloAltoOnline.com makes repeat appearances ('budget cuts,' 'restaurants'), as do Stanford, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and Mike’s Bikes.”
What does this mean for our local business clients?
It means that home service contractors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and other local businesses and contract marketers have more of an advantage to really show up in local searches and promote traffic to online websites. Thus, local businesses need to be capitalizing on Google’s trend toward local searches, as it’s more important and useful than ever before.
Though Google Panda was ultimately focused on weeding out content farms, it appears that, as a result, local businesses are faring well and should seize the opportunity to utilize all local business tools that help boost search engine ranking, such as Google Places, HotPot, and so on, and work with the right team to ensure their website is optimized for Google and local search engine results.
