On August 7th, 2015, Mother Google dropped another bombshell. This one affects all local businesses, but has important implications for companies providing all types of home performance services, from HVAC to insulation to healthy home.
Here's what changed. You may recall from past Energy Circle posts and webinars, that we've frequently talked about the configuration of a search engine result page (SERP for us geeks). A typical page, like the one below for "Furnace Repair, Boston, MA" would generate a mix of paid listings (the ones marked ads), organic results (Yelp and Home Advisor), and a "Local Pack" of 7 listings. With paid search having a cost, and organic highly competitive for local companies to beat huge directories like Yelp, the Local Pack was our best bet. With 7 opportunities, companies that optimized for local and had their Google+ pages in good shape could rank well.
Google giveth and Google taketh away. Effective last week, across the entire globe, the 7-pack is no longer. Virtually all local search for services are now in a configuration of 3 that our pals in the search community are calling the Local Stack. 57% of the real estate once available to show our listings is now ... gone. And it's actually worse than that – Google has also moved the map from the upper right column to the center above the Stack, so that organic listings are pushed even farther down. Most local searches now are dominated by paid ads (Google's main source of revenue), a map and three listings.
Pre-August 7, 2015 Google Local 7-Packs
Post August 7, 2015 Google Local 3-Stacks:
What are the implications of this for home performance companies?
Obviously, the challenge of getting your listing anywhere on page 1 just got more difficult. Here's how we see things given the new configuration:
1. Organic is now even that much more important
If you’ve been relying on 7-packs for a lot of your leads, it’s time to look again at your organic strategy. Companies that are on their game can beat the directories and rank highly in organic either above or below the pack. If your local SEO is strong, this is possible, though not easy. Take the long view and know that the effort you put into organic will be useful down the road, no matter what Google does next.
2. Ranking in the top 3 requires you to really be on your local optimization game
Google is taking data from Google+ for these 3-pack listings, so it's vital that that page is perfectly optimized. Be sure your data is exactly accurate, your categories are well chosen and work hard on your reviews. It used to be that you could coast a bit once you got 5 Google reviews (because then the stars would show), but now review volume and velocity is your edge over other companies in your market.
For contractors specifically, unlike some other categories, we know that (for now) buttons do include website and directions. So if you can get into the 3-pack you'll get some 1-click website traffic as an immediate result.
On the downside, no industry 3-packs on desktop browsers will include phone numbers. There have been a number of complaints around the web about this part of the change. We'll need to track the developments with this all-important piece of data for home performance. Mobile browser packs will continue to include phone numbers.
3. You probably need to be using Adwords, as local traffic is sure to decline
Looking at the real estate on a SERP makes it obvious that Google's cash cow – Adwords – rules the page. If you want to get found, it is increasingly difficult if you are not in the paid search mix. Also (and here we’re partly speculating) the day that the Local Stack is purchasable is probably not far off. Getting in the game of buying some of your traffic is increasingly non-optional.
4. Citations are more important than ever
Always a key part of the local search ranking algorithms, Google will continue to use citations as a crucial means of verifying your company identity – whether for a 3-pack or whatever is next in local search. Several experts are saying that citations may be even more important to getting placed in the top 3.
Preparing for what may be to come
Predicting where Google is headed can be a fool's errand, but there are some signs in other industries that we're watching closely and could be coming to our sector at some point.
Paid Local opportunities. We know that Google is testing paid local currently in two categories – locksmiths and plumbers. If plumbers are in the mix, then HVAC cannot be far behind.
Filter sorting with local. In the hospitality category, the local packs have the option of sortability by star rating, price and availability. While not all of these are relevant to us, the new design clearly lends itself to that kind of sorting.
What should you do?
1. Check your rankings to find out if you've fallen out of the local packs for key searches.
2. Stay focused on your Google+ reviews--get to 5 and beyond.
3. Be sure your Google + page is fully optimized: categories properly selected, photos fresh, name and address listed exactly right.
4. Keep pushing on citations.
5. Keep driving for organic traffic through a diverse range of tactics – not banking on just one or two tricks.
As ever, we'll continue to watch these changes and will report as we learn new things.