Advertising Continue reading below How has local search evolved? The 2000s were really strange years for local SEO. For the first half of the decade, it felt like Google was constantly improving; Google was kind of walking around, playing with Google Maps, throwing out 3 packs, 7 packs, 10 packs, wondering if their Google “Plus Box” and local business center would stand the test of time. And while times have certainly changed since then, there's . Below, I look at some of the most iconic moments in local SEO. 2005: Birth of Google Maps. 2007: Google begins listing local business information in search results. 2008: The local OneBox goes from displaying only 3 local businesses to 10. 2009: The 7-Pack becomes the 10-Pack. 2010: Google's Local Business Center becomes Google Place Pages. 2012: Google launches Venice and ShieldsUp updates. Google+ Local replaces Google Places.
Finally, we see the merger of fax list Google+ Business and Google+ Local. 2014: Google creates Google My Business. And we meet Pigeon, perhaps the biggest local search algorithm update. Advertising Continue reading below If you had a local business in the early 2000s, the number one local SEO tactic on your list was getting Google's OneBox display. Then later it became the 10-Pack. The launch of Pigeon is perhaps the most groundbreaking update Google has made to improve localized SEO. On July 24, 2014, Pigeon was deployed to influence distance (that second ranking signal I discussed above). It appeared that directories like Yelp were favored over local businesses.
But, as you can see by the search queries below in a BrightEdge analysis, many local businesses have benefited from Pigeon while others have been impacted: Hospitality (+28%) Food (+19%) Education (+13%) Jobs (-68%) Real estate (-63%) Movie (-36%) Insurance (-11%) Advertising Continue reading below Additionally, following the Pigeon update, Moz updated its 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors report, which has since changed in 2015. Take a look at the top 10 localized ranking factors of 2014, according to Moz: City, State in Landing Page Title Website domain authority Landing Page URL Page Authority Quality/authority of inbound links to the domain Quality/authority of inbound links to landing page URL Physical address in the search city Structured Citation Quality/Authority Product/service keyword in website URL Click-through rate from search results City.