The most notable change is a " smaller radius around the presumed location of the searcher from which to draw the local search results. "
Mike continues with an example:
https://www.google.com/search?q=jewelry+buffalo
For this query " Google had effectively reduced the diameter of the search radius from 12 to 6 miles "
What surprised Mike was that when driving to Buffalo and searching for self storage:
" the iPhone Google app returned results within 7 mile distance of me, this dropped to 5 miles and then as the density of storage companies increased closer to urban Buffalo the stated distance from me dropped to 3 miles. "
This change in radius might be query dependent in the sense that:
" I voice searched for “Jewelers” and the distance noted was 5 miles. The search for “DUI lawyers” (Google must think I am a reprobate) was 7 miles and did in fact return a pack local result unlike the desktop search. "
Mike Blumenthal originally shared:
A case study 9 days after the Google Local update
(from yesterday)
What we can`t know and can`t really discover with tools like Moz and Whitespark keeps us in the dark as to what is really happening. ?
Pigeon - An Anecdotal Impact Report
