Google, like most of the search engines is constantly making variations to its search engine results page(SERP’S) . It has started showing video results, image search results, shopping results, books and local listings. All these variations have resulted in a drop of traffic for the sites that are listed highly in the organic search engine. So, is Google slowly killing organic searches and giving more preference to its services? Well that’s a question which i cant confidently answer in the affirmative or negative.

However, one variation in the SERPS that has really caught my attention is the aggregation of results for a local query. For e.g. when you search for “search engine optimization india” the first three results are for “search engine optimization india”, however the next three are results for “search engine optimization” and then the normal results continue . These results are clearly demarcated, thus there is no scope for any confusion or manipulation. Have attached the snapshots.

Google.com

Google.co.in

More importantly, these results are shown on google.com and google.in. Thus these results are visible to people across the globe.

Implications:

What this really means that if you rank in the top three for a generic keyword, and if some one appends country name then your site will be displayed. So you necessarily don’t need to spend time and effort to achieve rankings for the particular countries. You just need to focus on the shark and the smaller fish will be targeted automatically. However, if your site does not cater to a global audience then you might end up getting a lot of visitors which eventually don’t convert. Through Analytics one can know for which country keyword is your site getting most visits and if you don’t have a presence in that country then you have a clear idea where your next base should be set up.

This variation however is not reflected for any other search results. So I assume Google is still testing this out and accumulating data before making it a part of all search results. Will keep everyone updated if there any more tweaks to the SERPS.