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Weird SERP with Google - What's Up With That?

May 24, 2017
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Jason
We are seeing some strange things with Google Organic SERP's and was wondering if anyone is experiencing the same thing. Primarily around "dealer" keywords, i.e. honda dealer, honda dealers, honda dealership, honda dealer near me, etc.

Google is pulling dealers from locations a flight away and not sure why...it seems almost as if location feature has been disabled or is not being recognized (no so much from the browser side but from the algorithm). Maybe RankBrain is not working as intended. See below screenshot with the keyword "honda dealer" and the location is Rialto, CA. We have dealers hundreds and thousands of miles away from the search location.

Screen Shot 2019-05-11 at 4.50.55 PM.png
 
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Reactions: Alexander Lau
Their system is far from perfect. I think we've all witnessed strange SERP (anomalies) over the years. You have a legitimate grip there, I'd keep an eye out for those, if I were you. Their update very well might have caused some of that, but it's almost impossible to tell, need a greater sample size for comparative analysis.

For a second, I though this was another Dealer.com complaint @Rick Buffkin. HA HA HA! That would make sense, injecting incorrect geos and them ranking in the wrong areas.
 
Jason, for what it's worth I'm not too far away from you. I did a search for Honda Dealer this morning from Irvine CA and the SERP results look spot on. It could be a number of things, hopefully Google has straightened it out for you by now.
 
Chris, thanks. The results are looking better for some areas than others. Our pages are ranking fine, but it was just strange seeing dealers hours away on the SERP. Again could be the AI piece of Google.

Here is an example from today:
I am in LA (near UCLA) and my closest Honda Dealer would be Culver City or Santa Monica (10 min.) and Google organically (with Location settings on) gives me Downtown Honda (25 min w/ no traffic) with Santa Monica/Culver City (showing up in the middle of Page 1).

Google Maps looks good but there is no GMB displaying.
 
I know it's frustrating, believe me, I know, but Google does this kind of stuff all the time. They run so many tests it's hard to tell if it's a test, a screw up or both. And it really sucks when you have to try to explain it to a GM or Owner. Sometimes you just have to have patience and things correct themselves.
 
A lot of times you won't hear anything because nobody else is seeing it. That's what drives you insane. You ask yourself is it just me? Is it Google? Is there anything I can do?

And in my experience, unless there's been a seismic change in your website or Google, there really isn't anything you can do, which makes it that much more frustrating.