The BrightLocal tool picked up one of the the biggest updates I've seen it report in a long time or maybe even ever. It normally runs at the 2.x in terms of local pack changes but yesterday, Wednesday March 11th, it showed 6.78 out of 10 in terms of fluctuations in the local search results.
Here is a screen shot of the tool:
BrightLocal said on Twitter that its "LocalRankFlux is reporting its biggest number to date." It is not just one specific industry but all of them, they said "All industries are trending above their norm with real estate being particularly volatile...But don't panic and don't make any big changes yet! it's always possible this could be a Google bug."
Local SEO experts saw the fluctuations with their clients, here are some quotes:
There was one in February that made some massive differences for our clients (good ones) that barely got mentioned so I'm interested to see how this one compares.
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) March 10, 2021
Definitely some major movement today. It’ll be interesting to see if it keeps up tomorrow.
— Austin Holdsworth (@local_austin1) March 10, 2021
*laughs nervously* pic.twitter.com/3uuM8ZCKEW
— Austin Holdsworth (@local_austin1) March 10, 2021
We do not often report on Google local search ranking updates, but we did most recently last February but like I said, this one, according to the tool and early local SEO chatter, seems big. Maybe it is a Google bug?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
