Has anyone else noticed a major increase in Yelp, BBB, etc. results in local SERPs, pushing business websites further down?
-
Across multiple cities and markets, this seems to be a trend. "Chicago coffee shop" or "Minneapolis hair salon" or "Sacramento car repair" - outside the local 7-pack, virtually every result is Yelp, BBB, Yellowpages, etc.
Is this related to algo changes, or simply a result of those national sites pumping major resources into SEO? It just seems to be suddenly far more prevalent than it was even 6 months ago.
-
Good discussion going on here! While I agree with the comments here that strong local businesses are still faring well in the SERPs, I, too, have noticed Google's bias towards Yelp and actually blogged about this recently. A few years ago, there was a similar situation going on with Merchant Circle. Practically every local search would bring up Merchant Circle listings, but it seems to me that MC has now been replaced by Yelp with similar results. I rarely see MC results on page one, but Yelp has become extremely dominant. This could change, of course, but for now, having a well-maintained Yelp profile is very important for most local businesses.
-
I have noticed especially Yelp listings competing with local sites on the first page for a while. I have also noticed in the last week a slight jump. Yelp listings that were previously towards the bottom of the first page are now at the top. I can see other issues that Colin pointed out, but I see it on sites that are doing a lot of things right as well.
At least my clients are happy when it is their Yelp listing that is going up. Not so much when it is their competitors poaching the top spots!
-
Listings like Yelp have continued to increase their traction in SERPs in the past few years. Yelp is a very trusted source of information, especially on a local scale. Broad-match keywords like "local diners" will most likely give you Yelp or Google Places results, as opposed to individual websites.
When considering SEO, most people will focus their efforts on driving organic search traffic to their site. Really though, we should consider our online reputation as a whole. If you get a customer to walk in your front door, does it really matter if they found your webpage, or if they found you on Yelp or FourSquare? As marketers, our ultimate goal is to generate leads and convert them to sales - it does not matter how we reach the end result.
So in short - you shouldn't be alarmed by this, and shouldn't even feel threatened by it. Use these platforms to manage your online reputation, receive feedback, and engage your potential customers.
-
Noticed this as well--especially for some long-tails that we were ranking extremely high for steadily dropped to the bottom of the page and were taken over by sites with extremely high DA.
IMHO, Google probably steadily increased the weight of the DA factor and this caused a shift in the organic rankings.
-
I've seen a lot of un-optimized competitor sites get pushed back to page 2 and taken over by listings in the past couple months. But, the sites I take care of that don't have dupe content issues, mass spam links, and silly keyword stuffing are doing great!
I don't think engines are favoring anyone....I just think things are evolving, and local business websites need work! They tend to be crippled with technical issues, and have over-optimized copy and no real backlinks. And a lot of businesses are linking to their own Yelp or directory profile from the homepage of their website, sometimes anchored with the keywords they want to rank for. Lot's of issues going on here.
-
I've noticed it happening with the site s you mentioned and then some. I started a discussion about it awhile back. http://moz.com/community/q/interesting-serp-trend-i-m-observing
We've been outranked by ebay, amazon, wikipedia, and etsy.
-
I have noticed this getting worse for a while now. It is annoying but they carry a huge advantage in Domain Authority and will thus rank better. Hopefully you have a presence in all of those different directories.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Still no good search results after 2 months of indexation
Hi guys, One of our website (https://www.residentiebosrand.be/) has been online for about two months. It's indexed and Google shows search results. But the website is not ranking on the keywords it's supposed to be ranking: 'residentie bosrand'. How come we still don't find the website on the first pages in the search results, while these are the main keywords on the website's URL, page, ... ? Best regards,
Algorithm Updates | | conversal0 -
Do the sub domain backlinks count for main domain and increase authority?
Hi all, I just wonder if the back links for different sub domains will be counted and considered to rank the main domain better or they are just limit to sub domain pages? There are many websites which has got multiple sub domains which receive backlinks? So the backlinks to main domain and sub domain weigh same at Google? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Bounce rate seems to decrease as site climbs the SERP but SERP ranking always drops down after a few days - WHY ?
Like quite a few sites recently we've seen some large fluctuations for our domain the SERPs over the past 6 or so weeks. One thing ive noticed, is that when the site seems to rank higher in the SERPs we get a lower bounce rate. If the sites average across all of its main keywords in #5 the bounce rate is c. 40% (this site is a creative portfolio site, so i guess the niche has a slightly higher bounce rate than normal as you will get some people who click through an notice straight away that the style of the portfolio isnt what they where looking for) But when the sites ranking averages #2-3 the bounce rate tends to be about 25%. (The thing is that we tend to always drop back down after a fews days or so) Has any one else noticed this ?
Algorithm Updates | | jpeg801 -
Searching for Compelling Hard Data on why B2B Websites Should Be Responsive
I am being asked to provide hard data in support the migration to a responsive website for a large B2B website. I have searched for any case studies showing before/after comparisons - no luck. I can easily show: Current data on desktop vs mobile visitors, their bounce rate, pages per visit, etc. Google Analytics Benchmark data - really compelling stuff there! In the past year, 100K visitors have come to the site from mobile devices. GWMTs shows the client not receiving mobile impressions for important keywords, All the close competitors have gone responsive. In APAC regions, mobile is more widely used than in the USA. BUT, I can’t show that making this expensive and time-consuming transition will result in more revenue. The client is a financial services software company, with a 2-3 year sales cycle. Has anyone seen data to support this transition? Thanks everyone! Have a great long weekend.
Algorithm Updates | | RosemaryB0 -
Increased 404 and Blocked URL Notifications in Webmaster Tools
In the last 45 days, I am receiving an increasing number of 404 alerts in Google Webmaster Tools. When I audit the notifications, they are not "new" broken links, these are all links that have been pointing to non-existent pages for years that for some reason Google is just notifying me about them. This has also coincided with about a 30% drop in organic traffic from late April to early May. The site is www.petersons.com and its been around for a while and the site attracts a fair amount of natural links so in the 2 years I've managed the campaign I've done very little link-building. I'm in the process of setting up redirects for these urls but why is Google now notifying me of years old broken links and could that be one of the reasons for my drop in traffic. My second issue is my I am being notified that I am blocking over 8,000 urls in my Robots file when I am not. I attached a screenshot. Here is a link to a screenshot. http://i.imgur.com/ncoERgV.jpg
Algorithm Updates | | CUnet0 -
Why do in-site search result pages rank better than my product pages?
Maybe this is a common SERP for a generic product type but I'm seeing it a lot more often. Here is an example SERP "rolling stools". The top 4 results are dynamic in-site search pages from Sears, ebay and Amazon (among others). I understand their influence and authority but why would a search return a dynamic in-site SERP instead of a solid product page. A better question would be - How do I get my in-site SERPs to rank or how do I get my client's page to rise above the #5 spot is currently ranks at? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BenRWoodard0 -
What effect does previous page visits have in SERP?
We've all seen it before, right before a result, you see "You visited this page on ____" What effect does a single visit have? Multiple visits?
Algorithm Updates | | 10JQKAs0 -
Local events in SERP
Hi all, I just noticed some extra links in the SERP where a webpage was showing events in the city. Does anyone know how these events can be indexed and placed by google in teh SERP? I have attached a screenshot, the underlying pages don't seem to be that special. I was wondering if there are special guidelines when optimising for events. It seems that Google will only show upcoming events for the next few days... Any help is greatly appriciated! Cheers!
Algorithm Updates | | hellemans0