If you run a local business, Google’s SERPs can often work in your favor. Mobile users automatically see listings for nearby businesses that Google judges most relevant or helpful for their query, and desktop users see them too. Since Google’s Possum update, though, a listing alone won’t push you to the top of the SERPs. Possum gives Google’s users a more diverse and helpful list of local businesses. Below we cover what you need to know about the update and how to make it work for you.
Launch Date: September 1, 2016
By fall 2016, more people than ever were searching from mobile devices. Someone searching for a product wants a solution fast, and that usually means a nearby store or business that can meet their specific needs. Google saw this, and it built Possum to make local search more nuanced and relevant.
What Google’s Possum update affected
Possum is meant to give users more relevant local options when they search. As a result, competition for those local spots is fiercer than ever, and that competition is the main risk the update brings for a business owner. You can’t do anything about having local competitors nearby. What you can do is take specific steps so your local SEO is ready for Possum when someone searches.
How Google’s Possum update works
Google built Possum to diversify local rankings, and it gives the searcher’s location more weight than ever. The closer a searcher is to a business’s address, the more likely that business is to show up in the results, as long as it matches the query and has good SEO. Possum also varies local results according to the exact keywords a user picks and the order they type them in.
Possum can also help businesses just outside the city limits of the place where the searcher is. Before the update, Google left out businesses located beyond a town or city’s boundary, even when they were a reasonable distance from the user. Since Possum, those businesses have a better chance of ranking in local search even if they’re not in the user’s zip code. Proximity is what counts most.
How to adjust your SEO strategy for Possum
Even a small local business has to take its ranking seriously. Your potential customers are looking for you online, probably on a phone, so you can’t afford to ignore what Possum does to local results. Here are a few simple steps to adjust your SEO, whether you’re recovering from a drop in rankings or trying to stop one before it happens.
Optimize your site’s SEO
When you’re trying to rank in local listings, the best way to get the system working for you is simply to practice good SEO. Google wants to show its users the most relevant results, so do everything you can to get picked up by Google in the first place and show its crawlers that your business answers that particular user’s query.
Experiment with your Google Business Profile categories
If you’re one of several businesses in the same category on Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), and your locations are fairly close together, that may be why your rankings are low. Try adjusting the categories on your profile. Pick a more specific category or, if it fits, try a different category altogether.
A word of warning comes with this tip: change categories carelessly and you can do serious damage to your SEO. Since your web traffic depends heavily on your SEO strategy, we recommend talking with SEO experts before you make any drastic category changes to your Google Business Profile.
Vary your keywords
With Possum, even the order of your keywords makes a difference. Different versions of a keyword or keyword phrase return different results, even when they say the same thing. This kind of keyword research is easy to do yourself. Search for the keywords you want to rank for. Then shuffle the same words into a different order and search again. Did the results change? Because Possum is so particular about keywords and their order, your keyword strategy has to keep changing if you want to stay on top.
Making Possum work for your local business
When people want a local solution, Google tries to show nearby options that also give the exact answer or product they want. The good news for local businesses is that Possum can work in their favor if they have an effective SEO strategy. You now know what the update looks at and how to avoid dropping out of the top rankings; make the changes that apply to you and collect the local traffic.