Google Announces “Pigeon” Major Local Search Algorithm That Closely Mimics Traditional Search Ranking Signals

The algorithm has been rolled out for US English results and will try to deliver a more useful experiences for local searches.   The update has to do with results in maps as well as local results in the SERPs.  Google has come out and said that local now takes into account ranking signals organic results are tied to, the knowledge graph, synonyms, spelling corrections, among others.   This update has also improved Google’s distance and location ranking parameters.  No specific comment has been made by Google in terms of the percentage of queries that this update impacts.  The name pigeon was not exactly conveyed by Google, but by the search industry in the sense that pigeons find their way home in a local sense.  Some have said that this update has given greater power to local directories in terms of their organic placement.  It has also been said that 7 pack local results in SERPs have vanished for certain verticals.   A perfect example is the legal vertical.  If you search for a term with no geo-modifier for some searches depending on the geo the result will be legal and local directories.   If you specify a geo-modifier you still get the 7 pack local result.  Other verticals such as restaurants have seen restaurants only be represented in the local carousel,removed from organic, and replaced in organic by restaurant sites like urban spoon.  Another change that was noticed is that Google has fixed Google Local results showing up over Yelp for Yelp specific searches that Yelp has complained about in the past.  Only time will change the true results of this most recent up whether them be negative or positive.