Google’s ranking algorithm is one of the tech world’s biggest moving targets. Reverse engineering its core structure and frenetic pace of updates has spawned the whole of the SEO industry. And local search – governed by a subset of ranking factors and dynamics – correspondingly engenders local SEO.

That’s where local SEO firms have planted a flag. And at the top of that list is Andrew Shotland’s* Local SEO Guide. In addition to being a leading local SEO practitioner for companies of all sizes, LSG is a source of thought leadership – flowing from decades of experience and ongoing hands-on perspective.

The latest action comes from the company’s SERP Summary, released this week. Under the category of Google Weather Reports, it makes sense of a key component of Google Search: the results page itself. The SERP continues to evolve as Google colonizes it with its own functions (a la “zero-click search”).

“Winning at SEO keeps getting harder,” Shotland told Localogy Insider. “Over the past year, the changes we’ve seen in Google’s search results (a.k.a., SERPs) and the changes we have seen in search behavior (a.k.a., AI) have made it even more critical that SEOs find a competitive edge wherever they can.”

*Editor’s note: Come see Shotland present insights and data at Localogy’s upcoming L25 conference.

Google Goes to Washington: A Conversation with Andrew Shotland

Who, Where & Why

Going deeper, what does the SERP Summary do exactly? It tracks how SERPs change over time, including variables like who’s ranking where and why. It’s updated every Wednesday so it’s a living breathing thing, rather than a static or periodic deliverable. This makes it rich with ongoing insights.

As an example of the types of takeaways that can be extracted from the SERP Summary, it previews some nuggets that it’s been tracking for months. These include domains that are seeing the most growth in quantity of ranked keywords over time (spoiler alert: Reddit), and the most decline (Forbes.com).

As for local action, the SERP Summary’s first version focuses on 100,000 keywords in the Home Services vertical. Those are broken down into 64 categories and five cities (Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, & Seattle). This focused approach is to achieve meaningful depth in a high-value local vertical.

“We started with Home Services because we have a lot of big and small clients in this vertical and already have a lot of data,” said Shotland. “But we think we can apply SERP Summary to any vertical and find winning strategies.”

Local Packs & Video Stacks

So what are some of the top strategic takeaways that the data reveal so far? Here are a few that Shotland provided to us.

• Inline videos (i.e., YouTube) are becoming a bigger part of the Home Services SERP experience. DIY videos for home repairs have probably been my #1 YouTube use case for the past two decades. It only makes sense they are prominent here. So if you are doing SEO in these categories, what’s your video play?
• Local Packs are key. I’m actually surprised they aren’t on 99% of these SERPS. Interesting to note that in January, ads took a dive while “Local Map Results”, Local Packs that show a Google Map, took their place. I don’t have the data (yet) to support this, but I am guessing they replaced Google Ads units with LSAs and other in-map ad units.

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Things get more nuanced from there, including an impressive level of tactical depth that you can preview. Meanwhile, we envision lots more flowing from the LSG well. That includes longitudinal SERP analysis over time, as well as expansion to other high-value local verticals like retail and restaurants.

Bottom line: Whether it’s the above specific findings or others that emerge over time, the point is to have an informed position that’s data-backed. This will offer an edge to businesses that internalize and act on the data, says Shotland, as it’s getting harder and harder to establish territory in the SERP land grab.

“We think that edge comes from using big data to observe what’s working and not working at scale,” he said. “That’s why we built SERP Summary.”

Header image credit: Edho Pratama on Unsplash