Many large local brands have seen their search rankings drop since Google introduced the pigeon algorithm, which aims to show the closest search terms to the searcher. This article will analyze this principle in detail for you.
Many large, multi-regional brands have seen their traffic drop after Google released the Pigeon Algorithm. This article will analyze the reasons for this phenomenon for you.
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In the past few months, some large brands have lost 5%-10% of their profits after the release of the pigeon algorithm.natural search traffic.
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The changes in Google's pigeon algorithm are concentrated in the following aspects:
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Increased importance of site ranking signals (aka backlinks);
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Increased attention to geographic location;
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Increased emphasis on Knowledge Graph results.
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The real thought is that Google may have gone too far with its "brand" algorithm in the past. It now incorrectly interprets many queries as "brand" queries, resulting in a lot of spam.
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For example, if you search for miami?movers, you'll get the following near-garbage results (exact domain names, fake virtual addresses, etc.):


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This is because Google treats the query as a brand query. So, if your brand or domain name is miamimovermoving.com, you are very likely to appear at the top of the results, thereby pushing the ranking of legitimate brands down or even out of the list.
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If we combine this "brand" and "location" together, we may be able to explain the cause and effect of what happened.
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The location factor now appears to have an "implicit" local lookup feature, displaying a narrower range of local results than before. So, if you search for hardware stores (hardware stores), locate in Portland (Portland, the largest city in Oregon, USA), then the search results you get will not be all the hardware store information in Portland, you More likely to get a list of hardware stores within a 10-20 mile radius of your actual location.
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Basically, Google treats desktop queries the same as mobile phone queries.
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As Jessin Internet Marketing Agency mentioned in their post "Local Search Ranking Factors 2014","Users are the new center".
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So why would this hurt a large multi-regional brand? In this regard, the following theories are available for reference:
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1. Overemphasis on "brand" means that the following types of companies may gain more positions in the results:
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Spammers with exact-match domain names;
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Local businesses are more likely to contain keywords in their names (e.g. Las Vegas Nevada, LLC contains words from Joe's Unusual? Las Vegas Escorts).
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2. Implicit local queries (which are likely to fall into most queries) narrower visibility means that businesses that are not near the searcher are less likely to show up in search results. Admittedly, it's not true for all large chains.
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So, if this is true, how are these big brands going to respond? Here are some tests:
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1. Use a business description, such as Home Depot - Pleasanton, in the title of your Google My Business Page. This may allow branch offices located in the region to gain traction in local inquiries.
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2. Although I don't recommend changing the name to Home Depot Hardware Store just to become a game winner under the new algorithm, especially when the algorithm is unpredictable, the pigeon algorithm is like this. However, you might want to experiment with tweaking the meta tags and text content on your location page to further focus on your target keywords.
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3.build link(Please proceed with caution) Go to your target store pages to determine if they are the strongest and most natural link for your target query. For example, Home Depot did not rank for the local query "hardware store" in Pleasanton, CA. Then, its top non-local organic result is a local directory page. Ideally, it would be the highest ranking non-local organic result.
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If they boosted the "site rank signal" for their Pleasanton location page, then it would jump back into the rankings. We've seen a lot of this since the pigeon algorithm came along.
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Here's an example: For the search term seo pleasantton ca, the example site currently ranks second locally, among some plausible competitors with hidden addresses.


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But if you go to their Google My Business page, change the site link (which currently links to New York Pizza, the fourth-ranked non-native organic segment) to a higher-ranking page on the site, and within a minute or two, you You will see that the ranking results have been greatly improved.


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Among these, I think, is the increase in link authority from the site's Google My Business page that drives the "site ranking signal" across search results.
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What if you changed the link on your Google My Business page to an already #1 organic result?




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In the local search results directly to the top.
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I'm not suggesting that Home Depot hijacks other people's domains, but it's the kind of crap we're seeing polluting localsearch resultspage.
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While it's not enough to top the Local SEO Guide, it's clear that boosting the link weight of your Google My Business page should benefit your local rankings.