Can We Outrank The Google Places Local Listing 7 pack in 2015?

[majesticlub]

Hello everyone,

I would like to know if it's possible and if any of you had success outranking / ranking above the Google Local Listing 7 pack?

I am in Canada and every time I search for something like (city+dentist) (toronto dentist) I do not see any organic result above the 7 pack. I searched for like 10 city and every searches the local listing are the first to show up and the organic result under it.

So I did not see any organic result outranking the Google Places and I look at like 10 different city if not more.

So I would like to know If i can rank above them for organic results with no Google places, with no physical address, local phone number and/or citations even if there is currently no organic result showing up above them ?

What do you guys think ?

Thank You

[BradyDCallahan]

Are you still seeing a 7-pack? From what I've seen, the latest Pigeon update has removed almost all local 7-packs for a more compact, 3-pack or the new "local stack" (or whatever we're calling it). When I Google "toronto dentist," I'm getting a more compact 3-pack, granted I am in the States.

To answer your original question, I'd probably say no just because it's probably not the best way to focus your local SEO efforts. In most cases the local packs are at the top of SERPs (underneath ads, of course) but very rarely are they half-way down the SERP. I have some clients targeting keywords with SERPs that trigger the local pack between organic listings 1 and 2, but that's becoming rare.

Your goal should be to rank in the local pack (or higher in it, if you're already there). What I can say is the way to possibly jumping the local pack and the way to move up in the pack are likely the same tactics: basic local SEO. There are a ton of blog posts out there from awesome experts like Andrew Shotland and Mike Blumenthal, but some important initial questions to ask yourself and audit your website with:

• Basic SEO principles: duplicate content (all forms), good title tags, img tags, etc.
• Local SEO principles: business city/state in title tags, NAP on (basically) every page, local phone number used (not 1-800), etc.
• Technical principles: all the basics, 404s, bad 301s/302s, XML sitemap, using schema for local business (or more specific schema [there's now a dentist one, I believe], etc.)

If you're a multiple location business there's a whole lot more to the Local SEO principles, but I'd recommend checking out some of the experts' and their blogs for those. Some of those recommendations and answers can be too long for a Moz Q&A.

[DonnaDuncan]

You can, if you narrow your objectives, specialize and try to rank organically.

If you're trying to rank for "big city" + "short, popular and highly competitive keyword phrase" then you won't be able to outrank local search results. At least not for the short term.

The recommended approach is to carve a geographic or specialty niche for yourself, produce excellent, compelling content, and build some popularity and authority. Once that's done, you can consider expanding and going after some of the more popular and general terms like "toronto dentist".

See what Matt Cutts has to say on the matter here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XHAhn8HCzs.

[paints-n-design]

not really the right place, but has anyone an idea if and when Pigeon update is coming to europe?

[BradyDCallahan]

I believe it rolled out internationally this past month (December). Check out SERoundtable for updates. Barry's great with that stuff.

[JVRudnick]

Haven't seen any 7-Packs in months now...I too am up in Canada using g.ca and they're all gone for all of our own searches....

[paints-n-design]

Saw it - in english only. I think it would take a little while until we will see it in german... THX 4 the respond.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Vasily,

You've received some great feedback here from the community and nice of fellow Canadian Jim Rudnick for letting us know he hasn't seen 7-packs in months. I digress here, but in the US, I am still not only seeing 7-packs for dental searches but am also seeing major directories outrank them organically. Ah - the fun of Local SEO!

Basically, I agree with what Brady has written. With their 3 or 7-pack display ranking up top, they are showing you what they think is best for customers and best for Google. Getting this to change is unlikely, though a major algo change on Google's part in 2015 could, of course, throw all of this out the window For now, your best bet is to be able to achieve consistently good visibility in the packs-n-stacks in your area.