Google is testing a change in how website links are displayed when a business profile appears in the so-called local pack. What’s changing? Links are disappearing from the organic search results. What does this mean? A potential drop in website traffic. Is there anything you can do about it? Yes! You’ll find the solution in the article.
If your business ranks among the top three results on Google Maps for a given query and appears in the local pack in Google search results (i.e. the local results section), Google may move your website link down in the organic results or remove it entirely. Until now, it looked like this:
After the changes, search results that include a local pack section may look like this:
Changes to how links are displayed have been rolled out by Google since August of last year, although they are only now starting to be noticed more widely by GBP specialists, Google Business Profile owners, and users themselves.
What are the risks of the link display change introduced by Google? The key challenge will be a potential drop in organic traffic by as much as 50%, which will directly affect your ability to attract new customers and, ultimately, your sales.
Google continually introduces updates aimed at improving the quality of search results, and this time the change is likely driven by the desire to diversify the results. Joy Hawkins, founder of the Local Search Forum, LocalU, and Sterling Sky, refers to it as a “diversity update”. A similar situation occurred back in 2019, when Google stopped showing the same URL both in featured snippets and in regular search results. So far, Google has not officially commented on the changes in how links to local business websites are displayed.
Hawkins has published a video on YouTube about this topic—it’s worth checking out.
According to Hawkins and our specialists, the solution is to provide a different website URL on your Google Business Profile other than the homepage. For example, you can link to a contact page, such as domain.com/contact. This approach is compliant with Google’s guidelines, as they do not specify that the website link on a business profile must lead to the homepage.
No. In some cases, nothing has changed – the business profile still appears in the local pack, and the website remains highly visible in Google’s organic search results. However, it’s wise to prepare for such changes in advance to avoid losing traffic to your website and experiencing a decline in sales.
If you manage multiple Google Business Profiles and need support with updating website URLs across several listings, contact us so we can help with our innovative app! growAp enables comprehensive management of Google Business Profiles, saving you time and reducing the risk of losing visibility.
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