Local Rankings Drop?

[jpretz]

G'morning!

I got a disturbing report this morning that showed seven of our big keywords drop from high on the first page to not in the top 50. After further research I have found that we are now in Google's local cluster, but no longer on the traditional organic results.

My question is this, has Google changed something that doesn't allow results in the local cluster AND in the traditional organic listings? I'm assuming that this is the case because we're doing smart SEO and have built these rankings up nicely over time, but then just fell off the face of the earth.

I have attached a snapshot of Moz's Ranking History for a few of the keywords, as I assume this will help explain the story. (We're in green).

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

euxQb kwAqh pUxkC

[MiriamEllis]

Hello JPretz,
What you are experiencing is a common phenomenon in which your former organic rankings get subsumed into your new blended/local rankings. These blended/local rankings are made up of many factors, including organic ones.

It used to be common for strong businesses to dominate page 1 of the SERPs. They might have several organic rankings, a local ranking, citations from 3rd parties, video sources and etc., all on one page. Around the time of the Venice update in March (see: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understand-and-rock-the-google-venice-update), I and many other Local SEOs noticed this had changed. For the most part, if a company had a local listing, they no longer had an organic one and vice versa. There has been some fluctuation in this display, but I still find this to be the way of things for most businesses, even in tiny niche verticals in rural locations.

That being said, a couple of the Local SEOs I know have managed in the past to secure a double ranking since Venice. Linda Buquet of CatalysteMarketing is one who comes instantly to mind, as she published a post about getting a double ranking for a dentist:

http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-search-general-discussions/719-lqqk-incredible-shrinking-local-serps-traffic-drops.html

And here's a similar piece from Adam Steele:
http://www.nightlitemedia.com/2012/05/organic-and-google-places-ranking-on-page-1/

Basically, the concept of double rankings revolves around the optimization of a secondary page. I've never engaged in this, and I believe Linda actually recently saw the double-ranked dentist results changes. She and I work together in her Local Search Forum, and I believe she mentioned this to me, so this may all have changed again. I know she was offering training on this in her Advanced Places Training course, but am not sure of the status of this tactic/training at this point. You might like to get in touch with her.

At any rate, what you are experiencing is common and there is even discussion going on in the local sphere as to whether local inclusion causes traffic drops (making it preferable to remain organic). The thing is, this stuff changes almost daily, so the best we can typically due is keep up with the news and changes.

Hope the articles I've linked to will be helpful.