September 18, 2014 Google Pigeon is the unofficial nickname for the recent local search algorithm update that Google implemented in late Summer, 2014.
What is it? Unlike Penguin and Panda, “Pigeon” is not an official term used by Google, but instead was coined by SearchEngineland.com. In the weeks following, SEOs and some webmasters noticed distinct drops in traffic.
As Google has explained in various help forum threads and other online areas, Pigeon is an adjustment that changes the balance of signals used to determine the relevance of local content. While details about the exact signal balance change are unknown outside of Google, its effect is to reward some content creators of local content while keeping results from others at par or lower visibility levels.
The advent of Pigeon means that local businesses and the SEOs that work with them will have to make a few adjustments of their own. Here’s what we know:
1. Businesses that have strong local content will win. Ask yourself the following: why is your business the best at what it does? What has it accomplished? Are the principals of the business thought leaders? What is your story? Do you share content with other local businesses?
The impact of contributing content on the local level is as real for a pizza place as it is for the law practice or the high-end retailer. The pizza place could publish content about its great cooking, links to positive reviews, recipes, and about its involvement with local events. The law firm could publish content about local practice issues, legal professional development, and so on. Google now places a lot of emphasis on this kind of content, especially if there are mentions of local name places, photos and other local cues.
2. Speculation abounds that SEOs may need to examine the role of online Yellow Page directories. For example, Chris Silver Smith at searchengineland.com offers some compelling evidence that businesses may need to reexamine their presence on such directories. These sites are experiencing an upswing in traffic, thanks to the latest algorithm update. Silver recommends that SEOs and webmasters visit the various indexes related to their vertical and conduct research to determine how effective an organic versus paid presence on each site might be.
3. Pigeon still seems to be in flux, according to various bloggers and consultants, with Google still tinkering with the algorithm. Strange results have been reported, with some businesses listings shifting up or down, or disappearing entirely.
What should I do?
As the effects from Google Pigeon unfold, there is no easy silver bullet fix. Instead, we recommend these steps:
1. Make sure that you complete your business Google Plus profile. There is some evidence that being present on Google Plus boosts SEO in certain cases. Anything that helps regular SEO will help for local search. Eric Enge at Stone Temple Media writes extensively about how Google Plus assists local search.
2. Make sure you have Google Analytics installed. Even if you use another analytics package installed on your site, traffic data derived from Google Analytics is extremely valuable, both in terms of serving as a baseline and as an active monitor for measuring the progress of your local online campaigns. The Yoast Google Analytics plug in is an easy way to add GA to your WordPress blog or site.
3. Be active on social media. Your local business should have a local social media strategy targeted towards the community it serves. As Google indexes all content and is using traditional web signals in local search, a strong social media presence with great engagement and content is mandatory. LinkedIn is a great place to start a locally oriented social media area where your business can start exerting local influence. Here’s a download to get you started with LinkedIn Groups.
4. Make sure you have submitted to Google a sitemap for your site, to make it easy for Google spiders to index your site.
5. Use a local-friendly Web publishing system. Your ability to run effective local campaigns depends on being able to actively publish content to where your local users and customers hang online. WordPress is an excellent CMS (content management system) for local content development because it has so many useful plug-ins to help generate compelling local content.
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