Did Google Just Punish Organic For Showing Up In Local?

[Discountvc]

Google pushed the local search results in a prominent spot on a ton of search results. That means (for me) that all first page rankings (including a lot of 1st place rankings) have completely disappeared.

Subfolders still rank and homepage still ranks where local search is not included. This is weird. Is this a glitch or is there something we can do about this?

[EGOL]

I am seeing (as of this morning) that lots of the SERPs that I watch are completely scrambled.  The rankings of sites are shuffling like the Google dances of 2003.

[ResslerMotors]

I'm having a similar experience at the moment.

[SEODinosaur]

Probably preparing/ adjusting the new algorithms for over optimized SEO sites.

[Discountvc]

What do you mean by that, Donnie? It is fairly clearly linked to the presence of local results on the query. Results without a local character are not affected (from what I see at least).

[SEODinosaur]

I dont know for sure what it is. That was just a guestimate.

BTW I did say "probably" and I was implying that Google updates are scrambling results..   Regardless of location.

[flowsimple]

Isn't this just a reflection of Google Venice affecting the algorithm? Now, search queries without geo modifiers will also return local results if Google believes it is relevant.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

Like Pashmina, I'm wondering if what you are seeing relates to the Venice update. Did you catch Mike Ramsey's YouMoz post on this?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understand-and-rock-the-google-venice-update

Some changes have definitely happened.

Miriam