Richard Beverly's Blog

Many local businesses have noticed huge fluctuations in their local search rankings over the last few weeks, with Google now confirming an important update to the local algorithm.  Rolling out between November 30th and December 8th, this update has been named ‘Vicinity’ by Sterling Sky . This is the largest change to the local algorithm since Possum in 2016 and has caused widespread ranking disruption. Google confirmed the update in a tweet on December 16th: Our November 2021 local search update has concluded. It began Nov 30 and ran through Dec 8. It involved a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results. General guidance for businesses remains the same as covered here: https://t.co/uyXFfmUEIR — Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 16, 2021 What’s Vicinity All About? This update is named after the fact that it seems to primarily target proximity as a ranking factor. Although proximity has long been an important signal for local sea

Google has been testing a new layout for the Local Pack interface over the last few months, and has now announced that the change will be permanent.  The Local Pack is a prominent section of the local search results. It features the top three businesses for a local query, as well as a map pinpointing the location of each. Being featured here can make a huge difference to local business web traffic and sales. Google has typically displayed three results with a map above since 2015. Before then, seven results were listed in the Local Pack without the addition of a map. New Local Pack Design The new design—which only applies to searches made on desktop—will feature three results on the left of the page and a map to the right. One notable advantage to this is that the map is bigger and could therefore be easier for some searchers to use. The updated design: The old design: Confirmation from Google In a statement made to Search Engine Land in confirmation of the changes, Google sai

As some of you may have noticed over the last few months, BrightLocal has undergone some visual upgrades (including the color scheme update that went live in our toolset today). These surface changes are more than just about looking good—they are the result of a year-long project looking into how we could improve our brand to enhance user experience. As part of the project, we looked at many aspects of our brand (more on those below), including color. Color plays such an important role across the BrightLocal brand, presenting actionable insights and information, and allowing customers to gain understanding quickly. Looking at the BrightLocal palette, it was immediately apparent that information was sometimes hard to read. When we also discovered that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women suffer from Color Vision Deficiency , we started researching how we could combine color and information to enhance user experience for all of our customers.  The result is an entirely new color palette t