What is Google Pigeon Update and How Does it Affect Local Commerce?

On July 24 2014, Google released a new update in its search algorithm. Named “Pigeon” by the experts at the Search Engine Land, this new algorithm gives local search a whole new dimension. This search algorithm is designed to dig deeper into websites to identify signals and build closer ties between the core algorithm and local algorithm. Experts then observed a change in the algorithm, which brought about changes in local map search results.

“Google said that this new algorithm improves their distance and location ranking parameters”

According to the reports from Search Engine Land, “The new local search algorithm ties deeper into the site’s web search capabilities, leveraging hundreds of ranking signals, along with search features like spelling correction capabilities, synonyms and Google’s knowledge graph.”

Before Google Pigeon, while searching for local listings, users would get different results in Google and Google Maps. But with this update, Google synchronizes all the searches to give a reliable search result. It was also seen that the Pigeon algorithm reduced the number of duplication in results, enhancing user experience and quality of search results.

Google’s Pigeon algorithm has not been released worldwide. It had been released for US English results. Later on by December, the pigeon flew to the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

This new algorithm has not much of an effect in the local search listings in India though it has almost been a year since it was released. It would do well for any SEO company in Bangalore to be appraised of this change and do all things necessary to adapt to the change should the Google pigeon be rolled out in India.

A good SEO company in Bangalore will study the effects on this algorithm update on the local search results and strategize website optimization techniques to offer better local search results. A survey showed that 28% of local listings benefited by the update while nearly 37% of business took a huge hit. The rankings of directories and local services such as hospitality, food and education went up. It was noted that search queries related to insurance, movies, real estate and jobs had a negative impact due to Pigeon algorithm.

The SEO Company in Bangalore should study the search trends affected by this change across the world and try to identify its possible impact in the local search engine results. As with all new algorithm updates from Google, the Pigeon also tries to reduce spamming and improve user experience. SEO companies should look for innovative white hat techniques to ensure consistent results even with the changing algorithm landscape.