Over the past couple weeks, I've been seeing sporadic reports from some local SEO experts that the local results are becoming more "hyperlocal" and/or fewer results are showing for local specific queries.
For example, a thread at Local Search Forums has a couple local SEOs talking about it but there were other threads last week as well.
The local SEO there said "we are seeing massive compression in local search query radius and map pack search results. In many tested areas (legal, dog boarding, photographers) we were seeing 4+ pages of map search results -- now seeing one page (two at most)."
Another local SEO agreed saying, "Very similar results around my area as well. Local Map Pack is definitely getting more hyperlocal with these results."
There are some examples in the thread but honestly, I do not track the local search results that carefully. But the one I periodically look at does seem to show less results in the Google Maps results than it did before. It shows only one page of results for a very generic keyword such as [web developers] in my region, whereas it did show several pages prior.
Are you noticing Google is getting more hyperlocal with their local results? Some suspect it might be related to Google prepping for ads in the local pack. If so, that is a shame.
Forum discussion at Local Search Forums.
