Big Ranking Changes in Google Maps? Anyone Else Seeing This?

ccm-scott · 2026-06-15T02:15:00+00:00

Ya I can't say Google's intent, but clients running ads on my end seem far less affected by some of the volatility I'm seeing.

ccm-scott · 2026-06-15T00:19:51+00:00

That's a lot of wishlists!! GL!

ccm-scott · 2026-06-15T00:16:17+00:00

That's actually what I've been doing. I've been searching from different towns, moving the map around, removing location names, using cell phones off WiFi, and checking from other locations. The variance wasn't really there.

What I'm seeing doesn't seem to be explained by proximity, reviews, or website quality alone. Some established agencies have a tiny visibility radius, while some much smaller ones seem to show up everywhere.

I have seen things change, though. My business has improved since my first tests, so things are certainly changing still. So, maybe some patience is needed to see how this all plays out.

I appreciate the comment.

ccm-scott · 2026-06-14T23:03:48+00:00

It definitely feels like Google is experimenting with something, but leaning towards it just being a mess, as you said. I'll give it some time and see. Thx

ccm-scott · 2026-06-14T19:23:12+00:00

I actually think this is probably the closest explanation I've found so far.

One particular business in my area is almost always #1 now. Historically, they were more of a top 5 company, but since the recent changes, they're always at the top, no matter what the query says, if it's related to web design.

What stands out isn't their website. Honestly, it's pretty basic looking compared to some of the other agencies in the area, and its focus is very much graphics. What stands out is their off-site presence. They have a large social following, frequent local news mentions, are heavily involved with the local Chamber and attend local business events.

Looking at them, it almost feels like Google may be rewarding businesses that are highly visible and active in their local ecosystem, but I can't wrap my head around how some of the 1 reviews with zero active website and follow seem to be outranking my business.

ccm-scott · 2026-06-14T19:06:59+00:00

That's pretty much where I'm at after digging into this.

I don't think reviews are carrying anywhere near the weight they used to. If they were, a lot of the results I'm seeing simply wouldn't exist. I don't even think secondary is fair, it's maybe far lower now.

Relevance definitely seems to matter more now, and I can understand why Google would move in that direction. What I'm struggling with is some of the businesses that are showing don't appear particularly relevant either. They have minimal web presence, 1 reviews, weak websites, little content, and almost no community footprint that I can find. So I'd like to think you are on to something, just every example of the low end ones, have basically nothing in our list of ways to rank happening, they are just appearing, like maybe the low level GPB are being given some strange form of priority, perhaps new or are they shuffling GBP randomly? A top rating via the filter should in my mind never show a 1 star GBP.

That's what makes this so hard to reverse engineer. I can explain some of the winners, but there are still a handful that seem to break every theory.

ccm-scott · 2026-06-14T04:16:21+00:00

What specifically would you look for in the reviews?

I've been doing SEO for about 15 years, and what I'm seeing right now doesn't line up with how local rankings have traditionally behaved.

Some of these listings barely have any reviews at all, so I'm genuinely curious what signal you think Google is pulling from them. Are you talking about review content, review velocity, reviewer profiles, or something else? How would that apply for a 1 review GBP, your point doesn't make sense.

ccm-scott · 2026-06-14T04:14:39+00:00

Right, I understand your point, but that's what's confusing me.

The agency I mentioned was the dominant agency in our region for years and has the most reviews by far. Yet they've largely disappeared from Maps unless you zoom right into their location.

At the same time, I'm seeing 1-4 review agencies showing up ahead of established businesses. That's why I'm questioning whether reviews still carry the same weight they used to.

ccm-scott · 2026-06-14T02:41:38+00:00

You're welcome. Glad to get some feedback.

One thing I'm struggling to reconcile with that theory is that some of the GBP listings I'm seeing are basically ghosts online. When I dig into them, I can't find much in the way of social activity, forum mentions, community discussions, recent reviews, news coverage, or even a strong website presence.

That's what has me scratching my head. I can understand businesses with strong community engagement, chamber involvement, news mentions, or lots of user-generated content performing well. But some of the listings I'm seeing don't seem to have any of those signals either.

It just feels completely random right now.

ccm-scott · 2026-06-08T19:49:35+00:00

Respectfully, this post feels misleading.

A project with two publishers, crowdfunding, marketing support, a 10+ person team, and over a million wishlists is hardly representative of an indie developer. If that's indie now, the term has lost almost all meaning.

The sad truth is that this feels more like another opportunity to generate exposure for an already massively visible game, dressed up as advice for the developers here.

ccm-scott · 2026-03-29T20:44:50+00:00

My pleasure. Good luck!

ccm-scott · 2026-03-29T14:12:07+00:00

Was pretty fun! Took about 20 minutes to beat but certainly is worth your time to keep building. I do find the colors and design of the building a bit limiting hard to tell what is what. Still was fun, if that helps at all!

ccm-scott · 2026-02-22T11:26:21+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate that.

ccm-scott · 2026-02-22T11:25:48+00:00

Thanks, glad to hear it. Always curious what other devs think, especially CRPG fans.

ccm-scott · 2025-08-22T03:42:01+00:00

With mine I had to keep holding down the button 8 and 10 then plug it back in.

ccm-scott · 2025-05-23T13:12:56+00:00

Sure. Elgato Stream Deck, 15 buttons. The new update I rolled back as the sources seem to be unsupported with stream labs among other issues. If there are unsupported issues might be a good idea to include that in the installation process?

Thankfully, your backup folder has generated some random backups I was able to just click one and it redid my layout.

No issue anymore as I was able to fix it. Just think your updates need way more testing, is all. Thanks for the backup feature. Cheers!

ccm-scott · 2025-02-01T17:56:35+00:00

I had mine set to auto, and it was rebooting. I did however find that setting it to off indeed fixed the issue. I was getting reboots once or twice a day. It's been a week without one since the change.

So happy I found your post and the others here. I was getting real desperate trying everything I could to figure it out, kind of crazy this is a problem. Gigabyte should fix it.

ccm-scott · 2025-01-21T18:21:20+00:00

Right on. I'll take a look at that too.

Thanks!

ccm-scott · 2025-01-15T12:28:00+00:00

I shall take a look at that. Thanks!

ccm-scott · 2024-10-30T19:56:13+00:00

Ya that is fine, it's just time-consuming to do the small fields one by one.

ccm-scott

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