Sometimes Google announces changes to the algorithms that affect search engine rankings. And sometimes they don’t, which leaves marketers in the dark about what’s happening and how to stay ahead of the changes.
Marketers are still talking about an unconfirmed update to local SEO that was rolled out on November 6th. It was named “Possum 2.0” by people online.
At first, there was a lot of speculation and guessing about this update. But marketers have since learned a lot about it by observing how it’s impacted local search results.
So today, we’re going to clue you in on what this update means for your business and what you need to do to stay on top of the changes.
What is Possum 2.0?
According to WordStream, Possum 2.0 is “all about proximity.”
Google updated their algorithm so that My Business Listings that are closest to the searcher rank the highest.
This helps searchers find the businesses that are closest to them, which is definitely more convenient for searchers than the way things were before.
But the changes to the algorithm could potentially be bad for your business. You may see a drop in traffic to your website if the majority of the search queries that were driving your traffic were made by people outside of your zip code.
This update reduced the average number of miles between the searcher and the top listings, so you’re going to lose the most traction in neighboring towns that are more than a few miles away from you.
If your business has taken a hit since this update was rolled out, there are a few things you can do to mitigate the damage.
What you can do to recover from Possum 2.0
One of the things that may be affecting your search engine rankings is spam.
Unfortunately, updates that focus primarily on proximity tend to increase spam. If you see local business listings that weren’t there before the update, they may be fake.
Fake listings tend to have no reviews and spammy sounding names designed to capture search traffic like “Wrongful Death Attorney San Jose.” You should report these fake listings using Google’s Business Redressal Complaint Form so that they get removed.
Another thing that you can do to weather this update is to shift your marketing strategy slightly. Instead of relying on organic search to increase your reach and bring leads to you, set up some Google and Facebook ads.
You can optimize your ads and hopefully make up for lost traffic by:
- Using precise geotargeting
- Using aggressive bidding strategies
- Running some local service ads through Google
- Creating your ad groups, copy, and keywords based on a specific city near you that you want to target
Beyond adding some extra Facebook and Google ads to your marketing strategy, you should mostly do what you were doing before the update. Making hasty changes to your marketing plan based on an unconfirmed algorithm update usually doesn’t end well.
So stay the course and don’t worry too much about this update. As spam listings get removed and you replace some of the lost traffic by running ads, your business will recover.