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Google Search continues to improve its ranking algorithm system, but business owners and SEO service owners are reeling over the newest change Google Search made on its system last July. Without much publicity, Google applied Pigeon, the new rank algorithm system that goes deeper into more detailed online searches, including features that will make local search more possible. The system was dubbed Pigeon by the Search Engine Land, since Google did not dub the system with official name.

 While the system was planned to be more sophisticated and local-oriented search engine system, complete with associated features such as spelling corrections and Knowledge Graph, some local business owners apparently have different opinions, since the new system affects how the search engine results are displayed.

The Loss of 7-Pack Search Results

Many business owners later noticed that whenever related keywords to their business were entered, their business names disappeared from the usual 7-pack results, which included the name of their businesses, addresses and contacts. Also, the search engine result no longer shows the usual result format, which consists of carousel and organic results. For example, when someone enters the word ‘New York restaurants,’ the results will be carousel first, and then directories such as Yelp and Urbanspoon, instead of organic results such as individual restaurants.

SEO expert and software provider Mike Blumenthal showed in his blog the result of his queries of’ San Diego real estate’ and posted the result using Google Doc and Moz software:

Source: Searchenginewatch.com 

As you can see from the image, the result on first search result page shows list of carousel and directory websites, but not the general queries result for ‘San Diego real estate.’ He also noticed that individual businesses that usually got spots on the 7-pack, complete with their business addresses and contacts, were gone. Also, in such short period, his Moz software caught drastic decline in the appearance of 7-pack results, the reason why many local business owners suddenly found that their business names disappeared.

Google Admitted Improvement in Local Queries

According to Google representative to SEL, the Pigeon was designed to increase the searching distance. However, the latest queries by Mike Blumenthal showed that the locations of search results have been reduced drastically. The top results that appear on the first three pages are limited to several nearest suburbs. Therefore, while it helps increasing opportunities for some local business owners, it also reduces the same opportunities for other business owners who were previously already earned 7-pack result in search queries.

Since the system has just been applied for less than a month, apparently online community and business owners still have to see whether the Pigeon will actually be more beneficial for them like Google claimed.