Google has been known to provide updates to its algorithms that alter how search engine pages display. A quality SEO company will do their best to keep up with these updates to avoid lagging behind. In September, Google had an update that had marketers scrambling because they did not understand what was happening. There hadn’t been an announcement of a pending algorithm update in the changing behavior in SERPs, and that was vexing, to say the least. The latest update was dubbed Possum due to the fact that My Business Listings for many websites seemed to have vanished, when in truth, they have just been through filtering. Search marketers felt the shift in the algorithm, but the impact wasn’t very apparent. In fact, some people believed that it was the Penguin 4.0 in effect. Google Possum seems to influence local searches the most and marketers must understand how that plays out in the big picture.
Local Results
As for now, the Possum update seems to have the greatest impact on how local businesses rank on the search engine. Before the update, the geographical component was a big thing with Google. Local businesses with physical locations just beyond the city limits did not rank for keywords, including that city. For example, if a local business in San Francisco is just outside the city, the site will not rank for phrases that had “San Francisco” in them. The issue was that Google Maps did not consider such businesses as being in the city. It has been hard for marketers to create effective local SEO strategies when a company doesn’t have a physical address inside the city. Even when a site owner follows all the rules, has great content, and engages visitors, their rankings remain hopeless. When the Possum update rolled out, some of these websites saw a massive spike in local rankings. Marketers noticed the patterns in several businesses, which apparently is an effort to increase diversity.
All About Location
Another location-related alteration is the proximity of the searcher to the business when conducting a search. After the Possum update, it appears that location is taking center stage. Put simply, the position of the searcher influences the type of results they get. Take an example of a hardware store that has multiple locations in Maine. When a client, who is in Portland where there is a store does a search, they get high-ranking listings. However, someone in Westbrook may not see the listings. The map on Google search zooms out further with every mile the searcher makes away from the city where the business is located. The consequence of this is that marketers have to ensure that searchers use the right city-oriented phrases when doing their searches.
Reducing Spam
The Possum update is said to be a way for Google to reduce spammy and duplicate business listings that have been plaguing the search engine. It was common to find several professionals sharing the same address, phone number, and website. Online companies got around the physical address requirement when doing search engine marketing by renting virtual offices. Initially, Google fixed this by setting filters on identical domains and phone numbers. For instance, if a company has five different departments each with a My Local Business Listing but the phone number and website domain are the same, two or three will be filtered. Google did this to allow searchers more options when trying to find local businesses. It is pointless for a user to have a lot of results for the same company that don’t provide alternative solutions.
With this update, filtering includes physical address as well. As a matter of fact, the search engine is filtering out listings of entities that have the same address but different suite numbers. It means that having duplicate local listings for companies will be tough from now. There is a negative effect for enterprises due to this. Picture a group of lawyers who have rented one building, but each one has a different practice and separate services. When all of these lawyers list their businesses in My Local Finder, only one or two will show up, meaning that the rest lose out on rankings. Such companies can prevent getting dumped into search-engine-land oblivion by presenting their business licenses to Google in order to distinguish the different domains using the same address. There have also been speculations that Google can tell when separate offices are owned by the same person because there have been reports of site owners who can get two businesses ranked at the same time. This feature has made marketers realize that there is more to Google than initially thought, thus making it that much harder to pull tricks.
Keyword Sensitivity
Another fundamental of the Google Possum update is the importance that the order of keywords now has when doing SEO. A minor variation in the keyword will give a searcher completely different results. For example, searching for “mortgage lenders Kansas City” and “Kansas City mortgage lenders” or home automation system Springfield MO and Springfield MO home automation system will give varying outcomes, unlike before when you could expect similar SERPs. You may also notice a difference in search results by adding the abbreviation of the state to the city keyword. Marketers should consider this when researching and bidding keywords for use in local SEO.
Goggle Possum is relatively new, and it is clear that changes will keep coming with time. As per the standards, Google developers are not finished tweaking the algorithm; and therefore, marketers should brace themselves for more adjustments. For clarity’s sake, the update is not a penalty for some sites. Google said that it is just a new filter that favors some listings more than others. Even when companies with different locations websites are seeing them disappear, the main page doesn’t get affected. The fluctuations have been going on for a while, leading marketers to think that testing is still ongoing. There are possibilities that some of the elements that have brought these search engine changes may revert to the old ways but that remains to be seen. All marketers can do now is update websites accordingly to take advantage of the new local preferences that Google is showing.