Are We Experiencing a Local Algorithm Update? [Local RankFlux Data – May 2020]

On May 4, Google announced the latest algorithm update to hit organic search, the ‘May 2020 Core Update‘. While SEOs worked to understand the impact of this on their clients, we began to notice a lot of movements among local results as well.

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the May 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that:https://t.co/e5ZQUAlt0G

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 4, 2020

On May 5, our local algorithm tracker Local RankFlux began reporting significant ranking fluctuation — peaking on Friday with a huge 5.58. To put this into context, a “normal” level of flux sits between 2.2 and 2.8 — so doubling this level represents very unusual activity. In fact, this is higher than the neural matching changes back in November 2019 (the previous peak for Local RankFlux activity).

Local RankFlux score

There has been discussion of local ranking changes among the local SEO community since late April, with Local Search Forum members discussing changes starting April 23 (correlating with scores of 3.11 and 3.57 on April 23-24).

Local RankFlux late April 2020

However, there has been no formal confirmation of any algorithm update that is known to affect local rankings, with Google’s Danny Sullivan responding to Joy Hawkins:

So there’s nothing in particular we know of that should be doing this. Which isn’t to say it’s not happening, just no major updates or anything like that. It would be useful if people have any recent examples. If they see it over the past day or two or so, or see it forward.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 8, 2020

What’s Going On?

So, if there isn’t a known local algorithm update, what could be happening?

The spike on May 8 could signify a mass of rankings returning to their pre-April 24 places, after a slow period of change over the past few weeks. Since Saturday, May 9, flux has dipped back to a more usual level, which could indicate that rankings are starting to stabilize. Let us know in the comments how your rankings are being affected.

Across the forums, we’ve seen lots of businesses reporting normally well-performing businesses bouncing around local results, with many seeing large drops followed by returning to normality soon after.

Finally seeing some strong upwards movement on a few locations that had seemed “stuck” for a while no matter what we did.

— Alexander D. Riddle (@AlexDRiddle) May 8, 2020

Source: Local Search Forum

Source: Facebook

Some SEOs are also reporting an increase in spammy listings. This was also the case during the November update, though things soon improved once results began to settle.

Anyone seeing a recent uptick in GMB spam / poor quality local results which may or may not be related to last week’s core update?

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) May 11, 2020

There have also been suggestions of Covid-19 post types affecting GMB listings — although with Google posts’ relatively low usage, it feels unlikely that this could the cause of such high levels of volatility.

Looking at an industry level, it’s important to note that each niche appears to have different expectations of daily ranking changes, with hospitality businesses tending to see high levels of change, while some service-area businesses see comparatively low flux.

We compared last week’s flux peak with the..



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