Google Pigeon Algorithm – The best practices for local ranking improvements
In this article we talk about Pigeon algorithm. Google zoo has a variety of animals. The core function of Google’s search engine is PigeonRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by two PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University.
Google’s pigeon algorithm relies on page speed and relevancy of search query. This algorithm simply ranks a website based on its authority on local search engines.
Upon its launch many bloggers claimed that this algorithm update was not a penalty. However many websites got outranked with every Google’s algorithm update.
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Since July 24th 2014 one has heard and read many websites lost their ranking on local search results. Why? It depends on many factors such as their websites activities, their pay per click campaign, their on page SEO, link profile, negative SEO and their social media campaigns.
One of the key changes which were seen after the update has been a drastically lower number of queries that now include a local listing pack.
If your website has encountered a traffic drop, this may well be due to the disappearance of your local listings.
Many local directories have seen a considerable boost in rankings. For some queries, the entire SERP is built from well-known local directories only.
Should you build local listing on these types of directories? I strongly suggest you not to do it. This type of directory listings temporarily ranks your website in Google, then with the next algorithm modification, you lose ranking.
If you remember during Panda and Penguin updates in 2013, everybody was suggesting guest blog posting and I advised my students and community members not do it.
Later Google penalized guest blogging campaigns. Everybody lost ranking except my students, their clients and our clients’ websites.
Search results put a heavy emphasis on your listing’s image and rating, while showing all options side-by-side. So make sure to put a high quality banner and photo in your Google+ and the other social media accounts and encourage your customers to review your business.
Creating a Google+ Local page for your local business is the first step to being included in Google’s local index. Your second step is to verify your ownership of the listing. Make sure to apply a proper category when creating your Google plus page.
Make sure your business name, address and phone numbers are also consistent in all local directories where your business is listed.
Add product keyword in your business title. It is good for your SEO. Content writing and content strategy in local language is another important key in ranking your website.
There are more strategies in local search engine ranking.
At Golden Way Media we have been increasing our client’s ranking on local search engines in Nordic, German, French,Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and English languages.