5 replies to this topic

[anim8tr]

I'm wondering if maybe I've missed some recent news. It seems that Google local listings are no longer showing up in any of my browsers (IE and Firefox). For example, if you do a Google search on "puppies for sale", normally I'd get a listing of businesses that sell puppies. But starting a couple of days ago, Local Listing are no longer showing up... at least for me.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Have I missed some recent news about this feature? Thanks...

[Jill]

They didn't show up for me for that query, but I did one for Greek Restaurants and they did show up. Although it was at the very top.

Does seem that they're making some changes.

I think they're integrating local results more into the actual SERP than they used to. Will definitely keep an eye on this.

[anim8tr]

Jill, Maybe that's it, (that they are playing around with the search results page a bit). I just did a search on greek restaurants and all of the Local Search results showed up below the fold at about position 5, just under the Google Images results. I don't use Google Toolbar, and I'm not logged into any Google Accounts and so I'm not impacted by those items.

If anyone has heard anything more about this, please let me know! Thanks again...

[Andy_Seo]

I agree - they are modifying something as three weeks I did a routine search - that would bring back a map and listings in my area - but instead it was showing results 200 miles away from me! This is quite a famous one over the past few months here in the UK:



A search in the UK, from a UK IP for a place in London gives me Australian results! I love my wife, but that is a far for a romantic dinner for two! South Bank is a well known part of London (for those of you who don't know) and Google should have been able to distinguish between this South Bank and a South Bank is Oz.

But anim8tr, back to your original point - I am seeing less results in local search over in the UK - but I have to say when they do show up, the maps are all over the place.

EDIT - BTW I also searched 'pages from the UK' and the result was still the same. ;-)

[anim8tr]

[...]
A search in the UK, from a UK IP for a place in London gives me Australian results![...]

Andy, that is odd. I haven't seen results like this. I wonder if your internet connection is somehow rerouted through Australia? Maybe a "traceroute" would shed some light on this (?).

[Andy_Seo]

Andy, that is odd. I haven't seen results like this. I wonder if your internet connection is somehow rerouted through Australia? Maybe a "traceroute" would shed some light on this (?).

anim8tr - its just the tip of the ice berg! Since June 6th 2009 a number of non UK based websites (not even UK focused) have been appearing withing the SERPs across the board. This resulted in the following website being created - http://ukserps.co.uk/ - and Matt Cutts releasing a video answering a question no-one asked - http://www.mattcutts...say-uk-results/. Could it be Caffeine? Could it be a testing ground? Could it be a broken Geo filter (believe me someone has put that argument across!)? Who knows. But recently other SEOs in other countries have started to voice their concerns.

It should also be noted that 'UK' related searches have increased since June.