For the past couple of days I have been noticing changes to the local pack rankings in Google. The Google My Business local results are changing but the forums are pretty quiet about it. But Austin Holdsworth posted on Twitter about it and the Local RankFlux tracker is showing changes as well. In addition, now the Local Search Forums has chatter on it.
Here is Austin's tweet:
@JoyanneHawkins @mblumenthal @rustybrick are you all seeing any changes in GMB maybe in terms of some sort of update? Seeing massive rank changes on my listings currently.
— Austin Holdsworth (@AustinHolds) November 6, 2019
Here is the Local Search Forums chatter:
I have a client with 4 locations and 3 of the four seemed to overnight took a slid down in maps. One was in maps and went to #4. Any quick thoughts on what would cause an over night drop? He did make an error a week ago and put he closes at noon vs. midnight.
I have had the same thing happen yesterday as well in Legal. Dropped from position 4 to page 2 in maps.
Same thing happened with one of my client's website (related to Legal). It was in the 3 pack but now it dropped to #10.
If you look at the Local RankFlux tool from BrightLocal, it is showing fluctuations to the local pack listings:
So it seems like there is some update going on with the Google local rankings. Google has not confirmed it and we don't see local ranking updates that often at all.
Did you notice changes to how you rank in the local pack?
Things may be calming down this morning but you may have noticed this over the past few days.
Forum discussion at Twitter & Local Search Forums.
