Google Pigeon Update

Google’s Pigeon update is the latest from Google in its long term sequence of algorithm updates that are designed to make search results more relevant. This time, the Pigeon update aims to make local search results more closely tied with web search signals. Here is a brief summary on the changes that you are likely to see with the Pigeon update.

Local Search Results Are Affected
The major changes from this update are likely to be internal however users of Google’s services will notice the changes when they look at the Google Maps search results as well as Google’s web search results. The businesses that are most likely to be affected by these changes are local businesses. These local businesses may see changes in their rankings either positively or negatively. In addition, they may also see an increase or decrease in leads and sales that originate from these search results.

The Current State of the Pigeon Update
The manner in which this change will affect rankings depends on the culmination of ranking signals from various search features including spelling corrections, Knowledge Graph and distance and location factors. This change has not yet been rolled out globally and is currently only affecting results that appear in US English. Google says that the change will make search results more relevant for users searching for local businesses. Google has not yet announced whether it will make the changes available in other countries or languages other than US English.

Reports of Rankings Changes
As the update rolls out, businesses may begin reporting changes in their rankings. It is unclear exactly how many searches are likely to be impacted by this change. Google has not announces whether web spam has been targeted with this update as many of its prior updates have been focused on eliminating spam from the search engine results.

What to Do Next
If you are a local business and you are concerned about this change, it might be a good idea to hire an internet marketing company to help monitor your rankings. The internet marketing company will be able to advise you how to regain your rankings in the event that your business is negatively impacted by this update.

Many businesses are likely to see changes with this and subsequent updates. Therefore, since Google is taking a look at how local search results are organized, local businesses should expect that more changes will be on the way in future updates. Local businesses should make sure that they are using only the latest white hat SEO techniques in order to maintain their local search rankings. This will also ensure that they are not harmed negatively by Pigeon or other updates that will affect local business search results in the future.

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