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Possum Update (September 2016, Never Confirmed): What We Know

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Google never confirmed the Possum update. The local SEO community dated a major local pack and Maps shake-up to September 1, 2016 and documented filtering of businesses sharing an address or category, plus a stronger role for searcher proximity.

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Possum is not an official Google update: Google never confirmed it. On September 1, 2016, the local SEO community reported a major shake-up in local pack and Google Maps rankings, documented most thoroughly in Joy Hawkins' analysis for Search Engine Land. The name came from local SEO consultant Phil Rozek: many owners thought their listings had vanished when they had only been filtered, so the listings were "playing possum".

What changed is known only from that community coverage, not from Google. The shake-up affected local results (the local pack, Local Finder and Maps rankings) rather than organic listings, and the most-reported behavior was a stronger filter: businesses sharing an address or a category with a competitor were far more likely to be filtered out of the local results. The searcher's physical location also appeared to matter more than before, with proximity exerting a stronger pull on what the local pack showed.

The scale was measured after the fact: a study Joy Hawkins ran with BrightLocal, covered at Search Engine Land, tracked 14,242 keywords across 1,307 businesses and found 64% of local keywords saw some ranking change between August 31 and September 7, 2016, while organic results were largely untouched. Because Google never acknowledged the update, there is no official description of it and no official recovery guidance; everything on this page reflects the local SEO community's testing and coverage.

Rollout log

  • Local rank trackers and the local SEO community report a major shake-up in local pack and Maps rankings; Google never confirms an update.

  • End of the week measured by a follow-up Joy Hawkins/BrightLocal study, which finds 64% of 14,242 tracked local keywords changed between August 31 and September 7.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Did Google ever confirm the Possum update?

No. Google never confirmed Possum. The name was suggested by Phil Rozek and adopted by the local SEO community, and everything known about the update comes from community analyses such as Joy Hawkins' coverage, not from Google.

What did the Possum update change in local search?

Per the community coverage, it affected only local results (the local pack, Local Finder and Maps): businesses sharing an address or category with a competitor were filtered more aggressively, and the searcher's physical location took on a bigger role. A BrightLocal study with Joy Hawkins found 64% of tracked local keywords changed in the week of the shake-up.

What should you do if your business was filtered by Possum?

The coverage described Possum as a filter rather than a penalty: a filtered listing still exists and has not been removed, it is just not being shown for that result set. Because Google never confirmed the update, there is no official recovery guidance; the observations about shared addresses and categories in the community coverage are the only map of what triggered the filter.

Written and maintained by Akash Mansukhani, Keywords Everywhere. See how we source and correct this page.
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Cite this page: Keywords Everywhere, "Possum Update (September 2016, Never Confirmed): What We Know", last updated 1st Sep 2016, https://keywordseverywhere.com/news/google-algorithm-updates/possum-update/
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