It appears that Google Search is testing showing only local listings from Google Business Profiles for many types of “near me” queries. So when you search [dentist near me] or [indian food near me] and so on, you only get local listings and no web search results.
I can’t personally replicate this, but I had two people notify me of this over the past few days.
First it was Melanie Funderburk who posted a video capture of this in action X and wrote: “I’m seeing NEW proof from Google where £40 is on page 1 of Google Mobile Search for ‘dentist near me’.
AFAIK – I’m seeing NEW proof from Google where £40 is on page 1 of Google Mobile Search for “dentist near me”
😍😲 Wow!@DarrenShaw_ @ColanNielsen @JoyanneHawkins @rustybrick @Miriam_Ellis_ pic.twitter.com/HgsQaejpPG
— Melanie Funderburk (@MelanieFunder) May 3, 2024
He then published Gagan Ghotra X, “for ‘near me’ queries Google is testing to NOT show any blue links on the first page and only include business profiles”. Posted this video:
Breaking 🚨🚨 for “near me” queries Google is testing NOT showing any blue links on the first page and only showing business profiles.
Screen recording here 👇
High quality recording here (because this platform compresses the video quality a lot) – pic.twitter.com/7BxpzXB8bj
— Gagan Ghotra (@gaganghotra_) May 5, 2024
Again, I don’t see it, but it wouldn’t surprise me that Google might be testing this.
Discussion forum a X.
