Presentation SMX München 2012. With the Venice-update, Google changed the rules for how the places-results are displayed in the web-search. Get ready to relearn al lot of things you know about the local Universal-Search integration.

1. Code Venice:
Google’s big
Local Search
update in 2012
Presentation SMX München 2012
March 28, 2012 - 14:35 h
Hanns Kronenberg
1

2. Personal information
Hanns Kronenberg
Study of Business Economics with an emphasis on Marketing & Statistics
at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
1996 – 2000 Productmanagement and Business Development for TV-
platforms (RTL-Group, Deutsche Telekom)
2000 – 2007 Productmanagement, Business Development and SEO for
Internet-platforms (Tomorrow Focus, muenchen.de, meinestadt.de)
2007 – 2011 independent SEO-consultant
Since 2011 Head of Product Management SISTRIX
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3. Search quality highlights: 40 changes for February
Improvements to ranking for local
search results. [launch codename
“Venice”] This improvement improves
the triggering of Local Universal
results by relying more on the ranking
of our main search results as a signal.
Source: http://insidesearch.blogspot.de/2012/02/search-quality-highlights-40-changes.html
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4. With the Venice-
update, Google
changed the
rules for how the
places-results
are displayed in
the web-search
4

5. Get ready to
relearn al lot of
things you know
about the local
Universal-Search
integration
5

6. Organic results
Code Venice
=
much more
hybrid local results
(Blended Place
Search) Google Places
results
6

7. What exactly are
hybrid local
results?
7

8. the

9. box

10. is

11. missing

12. the

13.
heading

14. „Places

15. for...“
in

16. this

17. case,

18. the

19. first

20. two

21. results

22.
both

23. use

24. the

25. website‘s

26. Title

27. Tag

28.
as

29. heading

30. instead

31. of

32. the
name

33. for

34. their

35. Places-entry
hybrid

36. local

37. results
(here„7-Pack“)
less

38. than

39. 1*in

40. schon

41. SA

42. gwurden

43. aesuts

44.
0

45. dorganic

46. r uch

47.
en

48. U
10

49. esichtet
outside

50. the

51. hybrid

52. box
Example hybrid local results for
„pizza münchen“
8

53. (1) OneBox

54. (here

55. as

56. 3-Pack)
(2)heading

57. has

58. identical

59. name

60. as

61.
Places-entry
(3)box

62. titled

63. „Places

64. for...“
Example Places-OneBox
„call a pizza münchen“
9

65. Why is the
difference
between hybrid
local results and
Places-
OneBoxes so
important?
10

66. Google uses a
different
Ranking-
algorithm when
they sort the
hybrid local
results
11

67. Before we look
at the differences
in the Ranking-
algorithm, let`s
crunch some
data
12

68. Evaluation
Special evaluation of
SISTRIX Toolbox Data
SERPs for 1 million keywords
on google.de (1. SERP)
Comparing the data from
two survey periods
A) 01. CW 2012 (January)
Venice
B) 12. CW 2012 (March)
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69. Amount of Google-SERPs with Google Places-results
(Places-OneBoxes and hybrid local results)
8 %
1. SERP with hybrid local results 1. SERP with Places-OneBoxes
6 %
together 5,2 %
together 4,7 %
4 %
1.7 %
Venice
3.7 %
2 %
3.5 %
1.0 %
0 %
1. CW 2012 12. CW 2012
Source: SISTRIX Toolbox Data, 1. SERP for 1 million Keywords evaluated at google.de, 1. CW 2012 and 12. CW 2012
The amount of SERPs with hybrid local results
has grown from 1 % to 3,5 %
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70. Amount of Google Local Universal Integrations
All Local Universal
Integrations amount amount
= hybrid local results hybrid local results
21% 67%
100%
01. CW 12. CW
Venice
2012 2012
amount amount
Places-OneBoxes Places-OneBoxes
79% 33%
Source: SISTRIX Toolbox Data, 46245 (1. CW) and. 52498 (12. CW) 1. SERPs with Local Universal results on google.de, 1. CW 2012 and 12. CW 2012
After Venice, two-thirds of the Google Local
Universal Integrations will be hybrid local results
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71. Distribution of amount of Places within the hybrid local results 12. CW 2012
70 %
56 %
42 %
28 %
14 %
12.00 % 10.00 % 3.00 % 2.00 % 70.00 %
0 %
3 Places 4 Places 5 Places 6 Places 7 Places
Source: SISTRIX Toolbox Data, 35093 1. SERPs with hybrid local results on google.de, 12. CW 2012
Most of the integrations we see for
hybrid local results are „7-Packs“
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72. Distribution of amount of Places within the Places-OneBoxes 12. CW 2012
80 %
64 %
48 %
32 %
16 %
27.00 % 73.00 % 0 % 0 % 0 % 0 %
0 %
2 Places 3 Places 4 Places 5 Places 6 Places 7 Places
Source: SISTRIX Toolbox Data, 17405 1. SERPs with Places-OneBoxes on google.de, 12. CW 2012
It seems that you will only find Places-
OneBoxes as either „2-Packs“ or „3-Packs“
17

73. It seems that hybrid local
results are more likely to be
shown for industry-specific
searches (“coffee shop
munich” for example), while
Places-OneBoxes show up
more often for brand-queries
(“starbucks munich” for
example).
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74. Type of result Ranking-algorithm
1. Organic results Google algorithm: organic index
2. Google Places-OneBox
Google Places algorithm
(Universal-Search-Integration)
• First result(s) - Google algorithm: organic index
3. hybrid local results
(mix between organic and Google Places results) • Padding of „7-Pack“ with additional results -
Google Places algorithm
Comparing 3 different
Local Search results
19

75. How can we
unlock the hybrid
local result
rankings?
20

76. Google search-partners
such as aol.com or
t-online.de show the pure
organic SERPs without
Google`s Universal-Search
integrations.
We can use this information
to reconstruct how Google
puts together their hybrid
local results.
21

77. powered

78.
by
Google
“normal“
organicr
result
Example organic result
„Pizza münchen“ aol.de
22

79. The first organic Top
10 result that Google
is able to match a
Places-entry to
will trigger the
display of hybrid local
results
23

80. SERP google.de („Blended Place Search Results“) SERP aol.de („Unblended Google Search Results“)
„sprachschule münchen“ Sponsored

81. Link
Places

82. Page

83. connected

84. 1 Places

85. Page

86. connected
e

87. result 2
hybrid

88. result

89. Places

90. Page

91. connected
e
hybrid

92. result

93. 3 Places

94. Page

95. connected
e
hybrid e

96. result

97. 4 no

98. connected

99. Places

100. Page
hybrid no

101. connected

102. Places

103. Page
no

104. connected

105. Places

106. Page
hybride

107. result

108. 5 Places

109. Page

110. connected
no

111. connected

112. Places

113. Page
no

114. connected

115. Places

116. Page
hybrid

117. 7-Pack

118. completed

119. with

120. 2

121. Places-results

122. without
organic

123. Top-10

124. Ranking
Comparison “Blended Place Search”
and “Unblended Search”
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125. Observed Ranking-rules for hybrid
local results
25

126. Observed Ranking-rules for hybrid
local results
the first organic result (A) with a connected Places-page can trigger a
“hybrid local results“-box on the SERP
25

127. Observed Ranking-rules for hybrid
local results
the first organic result (A) with a connected Places-page can trigger a
“hybrid local results“-box on the SERP
the hybrid local results will start at the same position where (A) can be
found in the “pure organic ranking” (see AOL-SERPs for example)
25

128. Observed Ranking-rules for hybrid
local results
the first organic result (A) with a connected Places-page can trigger a
“hybrid local results“-box on the SERP
the hybrid local results will start at the same position where (A) can be
found in the “pure organic ranking” (see AOL-SERPs for example)
you will find additional organic results from the Top-10 for which Google is
able to match connected Places-pages in the “hybrid local results“-box
25

129. Observed Ranking-rules for hybrid
local results
the first organic result (A) with a connected Places-page can trigger a
“hybrid local results“-box on the SERP
the hybrid local results will start at the same position where (A) can be
found in the “pure organic ranking” (see AOL-SERPs for example)
you will find additional organic results from the Top-10 for which Google is
able to match connected Places-pages in the “hybrid local results“-box
the box (7-Pack hybrids) will be padded with the best Google Places /
Google Maps results until all 7 slots are filled
25

130. Observed Ranking-rules for hybrid
local results
the first organic result (A) with a connected Places-page can trigger a
“hybrid local results“-box on the SERP
the hybrid local results will start at the same position where (A) can be
found in the “pure organic ranking” (see AOL-SERPs for example)
you will find additional organic results from the Top-10 for which Google is
able to match connected Places-pages in the “hybrid local results“-box
the box (7-Pack hybrids) will be padded with the best Google Places /
Google Maps results until all 7 slots are filled
the number of “padded results” increases the typically number of 10
results on the 1. SERP by the same number (for example: “sprachschule
münchen”: 10 organic results +2 padded results = 12 results)
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131. Please notice: Exceptions
there are certain exceptions like for example Location Specific Results
getting into all of these exceptions is something that would go beyond the
scope of this 15 minute presentation
26

132. Conclusion 1:
To reach the top spot
in the Local Universal
results, in most cases
(hybrid local result),
you need to have the
best organic ranking
27

133. Conclusion 2:
Google will „penalize“ the 1.
organic result that has a
Places-profile attached to it,
by adding up to 6
competitors to the hybrid
local results box.
This means that sometimes
it is a good idea for the Nr.
1 to disconnect the listing
from its Places-page.
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134. Conclusion 3:
keep optimizing the
Places-entry to best
profit from all the
possible Places-
integrations
29

135. Website(s): sistrix.com
sistrix.de
Twitter: @HannsKronenberg
E-Mail: h.kronenberg@sistrix.com
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