Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Google Adds (Or is Testing) Organic Results in Local Finder Knowledge Panel
Update: some interesting observations about differences between the organic results and the 5 pages in the new Lical Finder panel. I am heading out for a few more days vacation so please keep the conversation going.
It appears that Google has upgraded the Knowledge Panel that is visible in the new (early August) Local Finder, with the addition of 5 web search results for the business selected. I am seeing this across browsers so I assume but am not sure that it is a rollout. Given the many changes it could be a test. I first saw this early this AM but it has been spotted by Dave Minchala on Twitter.
The web results are particularly obvious is a given listing has not review snippets or reviews. It becomes less visible and appears below the fold if there are reviews. The results do not show review rich snippets and show the same five web results that appear on a brand search for the listing. Obviously, you should take a look at those top 5, which, are most likely to be seen, and be sure that they reflect well. One can only assume that these are intended to increase engagement with the new Local Finder.
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Comments
21 Comments
Started noticing this over the weekend in the insurance industry. Doesnt make much sense to me at the moment. If you Google the company name you are viewing in the Local Finder, the Organic listings closely mimic the Local Finder Organic Listings.
Apparently if you need even more worthless information about the company, you can find it directly under the Reviews and terrible looking, skewed pictures.
While I find the new Local Pack annoying and the lack of interactivity with the Local Finder dead ending, I actually see these links as valuable…. and prevent me from having to go back once again to the main search results.
@Brian I find it useful when you do a general local research – “auto repair” or “furniture store.” You check several businesses to learn more and see these links.
But even if you do a brand search I find them valuable, as Mike says.
A few observations:
1) “Web Results” give me a feel of ads at the bottom of a typical old-fashionate infosite. Intentional (for future use of ads here)? Bad design/formatting?
2) This is a way for Google to show something for businesses that never took time to optimize their Google listing. Better get it done if you don’t want these links to dominate “your” real estate.
Like I mentioned on twitter the “Web Results” seem to differ from the organic results – the organic results may feature a business with the same name in another state, while those results do not. I’m seeing some other differences in position for the results.
@Colleen
Yes they do vary sometimes. I would suggest that is likely due to the fact that we don’t know the actual “search” that is used inside of the Local Panel. i.e do they include street address? do they include zip?
@Mike It does prevent you from going back to the SERPs but personally, I dont see it as all that valuable. The Local Finder Organics are only organic listings for that particular business, in some cases there are competitors or directories. If I wanted more information on that business, I would do a brand search rather than relying on 5 links G provides here. These links dont seem that useful though that could be an issue with the brands not controlling their own top 10.
Also agree with @Max. The listings look poorly designed or formatted.
@Mike – from what I am seeing in the auto vertical, the actual search on those web results is the business name search results (minus anything that isn’t in the area).
I am also seeing for a few where the “web results” is the site links for that business, just listed out individually.
Thinking this is not a test – we’re seeing it down under too.
@Margaret
I think you are right that it is a rollout… although even the most robust product with Google seems to only be the new normal for 24 months… so I guess you could say that every test is a rollout and every rollout is a test.
@mike – yes, I believe they firmly subscribe to two principles:
“the only constant in life is change” AND “always be testing”
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the variation in the meta descriptions between the standard organic and the KG/LF organics.
It looks to me like G is doing its own thing with meta desc’s.
– not necessarily using the suggested as they usually do in organic,
– finding subdomain listed here
– seeing crawlable documents here (eg PDF) as well as web pages
– biggest surprise is home page meta. Can be up to 4 lines long, found one with 321 characters. Longer ones seem to be when G
not satisfied with the suggested.
Very strange seeming criteria for what’s showing up in this bottom section.
@margaret & Colleen I am traveling today and am on mobile only but I would be curious if these organic results “mimic” the mobile results you see when clicking through to the brand result in a pack on mobile?
You can say that again Margaret. (About all the changes.)
This was reported at my forum last Thursday by Wallery, and I did a post about it and some other changes Friday, so it’s been around at least that long, or just started showing in test buckets back then.
We have a couple threads going discussing this and other new tests/changes/observations. Seems like we have something new is being reported every day.
Mike have you ever seen this big of a flurry of changes all in the same period of time?
Almost seems like they are throwing a bunch of tests at the wall to see what sticks? OR these are a bunch of small changes, to shake things up and distract us before the big change happens?
Hi Mike, what can you do if another business’s website (or other unsavory result) is displayed in your business’s Web Results area?
@eric “Reputation Development”. By that I mean creating alternative pages that rank well on your brand search.
For example pages on Yelp will increase in rank with more reviews. So identify pages that are doing well but not quite as well as you like and see what you can do to get them to jump over your competitors page.
@mike – haven’t been able to create the same sequence or exact same entries on this KG/LF version and on mobile. not knowing the exact search they use to pull in the organics may be having an impact. It looks like they use the company name + city + state. have tried variations with quotes, etc but not yet duplicated the two.
Hi Mike – are you also seeing instances where SMBs are showing up in the new 3 pack that have no physical address and are “service area” businesses thus having no “directions” ? And some instances don’t even have a “website”? Argh . . .i’m curious what your thoughts are on these?
P.S. I also find the additional links very valuable.
The search query Google is using for the 5 organic results at the bottom is “business name city, state”
The results seem similar to the results you get if you type “site: domain“ in Google search, different pages of the same site and then their Yelp page or other similar citations are listed. I`m not sure if I find that helpful or not.
hi i have a current business listed on google my business its on local knowledge panel whenever you type our targeted keyword, its not actually the name of our business but instead a keyword that we have targeted and was able to verify
it was working for like 3-5 months now but upon reading google’s policy about Service-area businesses i wonder if we uncheck “I also serve customers at my business address. (Your address will be hidden from the public if this box isn’t checked.)” option what will happen? will our business still be shown on local knowledge panel? I wonder how google treat brick and mortar vs service base?
I asked cause this local knowledge panel is really our edge on our competition, our site is not ranking so well but with local knowledge panel we are being highlighted and able to have a fair share of competition.
Thank you hope to hear from you soon.
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