Every month Google does a little dance that can either help you by elevating your site in the search rankings or it can hurt you by dropping it lower in the search results; making it harder to find.
I’m seeing some big shifts in the Google search results in my local market on local terms. And, at least for now, I think these changes have probably helped out some of my competitors out more than it has helped me.
Rats.
Many in the search engine optimization industry call these shifts in the search results the Google dance. Being that I’m in the martial arts, I call it Google Capoeira. It can be a deadly dance, indeed.
What is the Google Dance? Simply put, it’s a term that is often used to describe the index update of the Google search engine that happens approximately once a month. Sometimes it boosts your rankings. Sometimes it tanks them.
Until recently, there was only one other martial arts schools website on page one of the search results other than mine. The rest were local directories like yellowpages.com, superpages.com, merchantcircle.com…et al. This has been this way for years now.
I liked that because my martial arts school is listed in those directories. If a visitor didn’t go to my site, at least I had a chance to get them in the directories versus them going to my competitors home page where I had nothing.
Now, all of a sudden, the top 10 results in Google’s search engine results pages (aka SERPS) are ALL martial arts schools. This is a big change and is something I’ve NEVER seen in my market. Most of these sites have been out there for years… stale… unchanged…. then all of a sudden, they’re there.
Poof! In the top 10.
Like magic my competitor’s sites appeared on page one of the search results when they weren’t even in the top 20 before. And, I know they haven’t done anything search engine optimization wise as I have torn them apart a ton of times over the years.
Google, for now, just gave them a lift thanks to the obvious changes in their algorithm.
Here are a few other observations I’ve made:
- New competitors in the top 10 – As I said above, I’m seeing my competitors websites who weren’t previously ranked in the top 20 now appear in the top 10. Many of the local directory sites have gone to page two of the search results.
- Facebook gets dropped – My Facebook fan page for my martial arts school was number 3 for a desirable keyword phrase while my site was #1. Now, its nowhere to be found in the first 50 results. I think this has more to do with Google devaluing Facebook overall. I don’t see Facebook come up in a lot of searches anymore. But, it’s still a great tool to have; especially for keeping in touch with current students.
- The #3 Ranked Site shouldn’t be there – The biggest surprise to me is that the new #3 site in Google is 99% built using FLASH…has music…uses a splash page… and huge file sizes. All no-no’s in basic Search Engine Optimization. But, there they are. This site shouldn’t be ranking this well. They don’t even have good title tags so this one is head scratcher. I think this site will tank after a few months but for now is clogging things up.
- My Merchant Circle page wiggles – My merchant circle page keeps floating in and out of the top 10. I’m hoping it sticks soon. I’ve done additional optimization to that page to help it in the rankings and it looks like that might land soon. I’m going to do a post about that soon so hold tight.
Some strange things are afoot at Google. These could be temporary changes as part of their algorithm or perhaps they are more permanent. Time will tell, I suppose.
However, I’m not surprised to see things shift like this at all.
In fact, I expect it.
Why?
Because Google is always trying to figure out what is the most relevant pages to serve up. They are constantly spidering and re-indexing their results and want to have the best sites appear on page one for a given keyword or keyword set.
Sometimes this process will help you. Sometimes it won’t.
Some of these directory sites might come back but other’s might not. That’s why it’s good to diversify as part of your defensive blockade.
Are you seeing changes in your Google search results? Has your site gone up or down in your market?
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I'm Ryan Wheaton and I work with martial arts school owners to help them attract more students. Many martial arts school owners are confused at how to best market their business and feel awkward in selling situations. I help them overcome those challenges to become confident and competent in marketing and selling their services - helping them become more profitable so they can live the lifestyle they want to live. 
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Honestly, I think it’s better the way you described. It might hurt you in the short-run (I doubt it because your site is better than your competitors!) but in the long run, it’s a good thing. Google seems to be knowing that you’re searching for some kind of local business so they want to give you a bunch of local businesses to choose from. The SEO you and I know probably still work well for global stuff, but my bet is that they “know” you’re a small business using very localized keywords. They probably are using some of the same localized lessons they’ve learned from Google Adwords in order to make sure relevant things pop up.
I’ve noticed the same thing happen to our market (I help a kung fu school with their website and I kind of patterned off of yours as a starting point). Before me, it was really a nothing page (single free GoDaddy page with lots of pictures thrown on it). It STILL came up in many search tests I did. It definitely shouldn’t have shown up on a few!
I have noticed these exact same changes in my area. A while ago we were the only school ranked in the first page and no other school was ranked in the first page. I do however rank 1st in the organic, 4th with merchant circle and 8th thru the yellow pages. Now another school is mentioned in the first page and their website is one of those cookie cutter websites. It made me wonder what google did with the new rankings.