Google's new local ranking algorithm that launched in the US earlier this year has rolled out to the UK, Canada and Australia.

December 22, 2014 at 8:24 am

Google has confirmed that their local Pigeon update, which rolled out in the U.S. on July 24, 2014 has now expanded over last week to the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

After questioning Google about rumors of this change, a Google spokesperson told us, ” I can confirm that this update has rolled out to the UK, Canada and Australia.”

BrightLocal first spotted the changes and asked if Google did roll out the Pigeon update beyond the US. They were indeed right.

The original Pigeon update aimed at providing a more useful, relevant and accurate local search results that are tied more closely to traditional web search ranking signals.

This rollout happened late last week, and may indeed impact local shopping traffic for many merchants in the UK, Canada or Australia. Which again is surprising to us that they have not held this update until after the holiday shopping season.

Postscript: Google added today (same day as this story published) that they are still rolling this out and it now goes beyond just the UK, Canada and Australia. This update is being rolled out to all English-speaking locales except India.