Here's a quick summary of the concept:
🔹 The idea is that Google doesn't "like" to rank the same URL in both the local pack and the organic results.
🔹 So, if you link to your homepage on your GBP, then you can expect your homepage not to rank as well organically.
🔹 For example, a law firm wants to rank for "personal injury lawyer seattle". They rank #1 in the local pack, and maybe they used to also rank #1 organically, but because of the Diversity Update, they have dropped in the organic results.
🔹 Joy thinks this started rolling out widely in October or November of 2024.
I've seen a lot of people pushing back on the idea, and I was also skeptical when I first saw it, but I think I understand the concept better now.
I think that many people (myself included) were looking at this in binary terms. We see a #1 local pack ranking and then a #2 or #3 organic ranking and assume this isn't a thing. "Well, it's not impacting my clients"
But after watching their recent video, I realize it's more nuanced than that. It looks like testing would reveal that prior to the update, that business may have had #1 and #1, but the diversity update is impacting their organic visibility.
It's a DEMOTION of their organic rankings, not a strict removal from organic.
And you might even see a case where you still have a business ranking #1 in local and #1 in organic. This is possible when their organic strength is just that much stronger than the competition's.
Joy's suggestion is to try linking to a different page of the site. Like, if your GBP links to the homepage, try linking to a dedicated service page and then make dang sure you're building internal and external links to that page.
Very interesting stuff.
It's early days for this new way of thinking. We shouldn't be quick to take a simplistic view of it and dismiss it.
We should be taking a hard look at our client's rankings before and after Fall 2024 and see if we notice the pattern.
We should be testing the impact of adjusting the page we link to on our GBPs. Could you move your client or business from #4 organically to #1 while still maintaining a #1 local pack ranking just by linking to a different page? Possibly.
Testing and finding out for yourself is always better than dismissing a new theory in SEO.
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