I was doing some research for a client this afternoon when I noticed an interesting change in the Google SERP. In the screen print below I was doing a search for “antique repair raleigh nc”.

Normally you might expect to see a 7 pack box at the top of the results page and a map with the place markers, however in this case the results are a bit different.

In this result there is one organic listing right at the top followed by a kind of large version of the 7 pack which takes up much of the page.

For businesses that have reviews they are also showing a snippet of a review, any rating they might have and a link to their place page. Also the map appears on the right hand side above the paid advertising and scrolls up and down with the page.

At the very bottom of the SERP are 5 more organic listings, including the one at the very top makes for just 6 organic spots instead of the normal 10 you would expect to see.

I suspect this is just a test they are running and that the results will return to what we have been used to lately. Google is constantly trying to improve it’s user experience and this is an interesting look into the direction that they are considering.

Google SERP testing

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