Member Avatar for PixelatedKarma

Hello everybody,

For those of you who don't know, on July 24th Google released it's Pigeon update. According to Search Engine Land (see the article here), on July 24th US webmasters began to witness considerable changes in their local rankings. As of right now we are monitoring our Client's sites and have noticed small incremental changes for our US clients but nothing yet for our Canadian or European Clients. I'm sure that will begin to change over the next month or so.

As of right now this update does not appear to be penalizing any sites however it does appear to be a core change to the local search engine ranking algorithms. This does appear to put more importance on more traditional ranking methods (synonoms, correct spelling, etc.) for websites targeting local niches but that is so far these methods are relatively untested. As of right now though it is nearly impossible for anybody to tell exactly what has changed and what will work to increase local serps. According to search engine land one thing that does appear to be happening is that directory services are beginning to rank alot better (Yelp, YP, etc.). This may make it more valuable for anybody doing local SEO to make sure that you are infact submitting to high PR, do follow and high reputation directories relevant to the categories of your website(s). Still be cautious though because spammy links may still get you in trouble with Google Penguin on some of the less then reputable directories or submitting your website(s) to irrelevant categories. If that happens you may wind up with the nightmare of trying to disavow and remove links which Matt Cutts has specifically said may not even be enough to get you fully de-penalized and even if it does work it may still take you several months (3-12) to get the penalty completely removed.

If you have been negatively effected and need a quick solution, my best recommendation is spend some money on PPC adverts until any sure fire stradegies are discovered.

Just thought I'd give the daniweb community a heads up and please feel free to let me know if you have witnessed anything odd going on with your website(s).

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by garimajaswal115

Dani AI

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Quick context and what matters now — Pigeon was a local-search overhaul that tied Google’s local results more closely to its core web-ranking signals, and it produced noticeable volatility (many queries changed how the local pack displayed and which sites appeared). The first rollout affected US English queries and industry trackers saw the update later expand to other English-speaking markets; the practical effect was that purely proximity-based signals became less dominant and conventional SEO factors mattered more for local visibility. (brightlocal.com)

Triage checklist (if rankings or local-pack placement changed)

  1. Measure the impact — compare local-query traffic and impressions in Search Console and GA for the affected dates; use a local rank tracker for the same queries and locations.
  2. Verify Business Profile(s) — confirm verification, remove/merge duplicates, correct categories, hours and service-area settings.
  3. Citation / NAP audit — make sure Name/Address/Phone are consistent across high-quality aggregators and directories.
  4. Structured data — add or validate LocalBusiness/Organization JSON‑LD so Google reads your address/phone/hours reliably.
  5. Site health & local landing pages — check mobile, speed, canonicalization, localized landing pages and on‑page relevance for each service area.
  6. Monitor and document — keep a log of changes, tests and any paid activity used to bridge drops.
    These steps are the quickest way to separate algorithm-driven local changes from other technical or data problems. (developers.google.com)

Longer-term advice and cautions — respond with clean signals, not quick link schemes. Invest in a correct Business Profile, accurate citations, useful localized content, reviews and community/PR links that naturally earn attention. Avoid buying or bulk-submitting low-quality links (those can trigger link-spam enforcement and long recovery processes). Server location alone is rarely the deciding factor — use proper geotargeting and URL strategy for multi-country sites and focus on trusted local signals instead. For businesses that need time while changes settle, short-term paid ads can maintain visibility. These steps reflect what and others saw early on and give a pragmatic path forward for and if you’re still seeing movement. (developers.google.com)

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Member Avatar for erikko

I still wonder how does this affects local seo as I can't see any changes as of yet.

Member Avatar for PixelatedKarma

Is your website hosted on US servers and is it targetting local areas of the US? If not then you won't notice a difference until they release the next Pigeon update. Basically from what we are seeing over here is if a website used any sort of old white hat seo tactics - it either stayed the same or improved locally.

If however they kind of ignored link building through local websites/niches/etc. then we have noticed a slight drop. Nothing to make our Clients go crazy but enough that now some sites need some additional local SEO work.

Also we have read but can't confirm that this update also effected rankings in local Google directories; so for example if someone searched Chinese Food in Houston Texas - you would get a Google Knowledge Graph in the SERP with Business Names, Phone Numbers and Reviews some people are actually reporting that that website listing is moving some sites around depending on how focused they were on local markets.

Member Avatar for garimajaswal115

This Update Affects On Local Searching Example (What Is Your Location You Will Put Your Exact Location.)

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