Google Pigeon is finally rolling out in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and other English speaking countries. This was confirmed by Google on 22nd December. Pigeon first got rolled out in July this year in the US, but late last week there were indications that it had also rolled out further than America.

The algorithm update is aimed at giving users more accurate local search which will help present users with more relevant results. Although Google hasn’t given it an official name, the update was dubbed Pigeon by Barry Schwartz from SearchEngineLand.

Google Pigeon is an update on how organic local results show on Google search engine result pages and Google Maps search listings, and has also brought with it improved distance parameters. Because of this it means that businesses that are within a certain radius to searchers will appear higher in the rankings meaning that the majority of results will include local businesses, and inadvertently be more useful to users.

Having said that, it is still important to use traditional SEO techniques to boost your local search results such as targeted quality content, relevant directory entries (e.g. yell.com), using your Google+ page and utilising Google My Business.

Let us know if you see any changes to your positions since this algorithm update. We’ll be keeping an eye on our clients’ standings.