Generally when it comes to a Google local ranking algorithm update, you need to wait a week or so to see the chatter from the local SEO community. I am not seeing a lot of that chatter yet but BrightLocal's tracking tool is lighting up over the past two days, showing signs of serious fluctuations in the local rankings in Google Search.
Here is what the tool shows for the past two days compared to the previous days. Keep in mind, the tool has been very calm for the past several weeks:
The tool also lets you break down which industries or verticals were most impacted and it seems like car dealerships, bars and pubs, accounting/financial firms and some others were impacted most by this update.
Joy Hawkins did reply to the Local Search Forums thread saying "Yep, I'm seeing some pretty giant shifts on the handful of clients that I just checked."
Like I said, there is very little chatter but I am curious, do you see ranking changes in your area for the local pack in Google Search? Are your clients getting less traffic from Google My Business? You won't see it yet in your Google My Business Insights yet because those reports are a few days lagged behind.
Joy did add some charts from her client data:
Seeing some pretty large shifts in local rankings in the last 48 hours. Add to the discussion here: https://t.co/zzLzkiTZzI pic.twitter.com/RsGb50zpaQ
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) February 26, 2021
Anyway, here is a heads up that you might see fluctuations with your traffic from Google Local and Google Maps over the next few days.
Forum discussion at Local Search Forums.
