November 2021 local search update (Vicinity): dates and what changed

What Google changed#

Google said little about the content of the update. Its Search Central account posted on 16 December 2021 that “it involved a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results.” Google did not say which factors. It added that “general guidance for businesses remains the same” and linked to its help page on local ranking.

Google never used the name Vicinity. Search Engine Roundtable reported that Joy Hawkins of the local SEO agency Sterling Sky named it the Vicinity update, and that she believed it was “mainly about proximity,” making distance weigh more heavily and possibly devaluing keywords in business names. That is her analysis, not Google’s.

When it rolled out#

Google said the update “began Nov 30 and ran through Dec 8.” It confirmed the update only on 16 December 2021, after local SEOs had reported ranking changes and asked Google about them. Google’s Danny Sullivan said the update was global, and acknowledged on Twitter that not announcing it at the time “was a miss in this case.”

The window overlapped other changes. The November 2021 core update finished on 30 November, and the December 2021 product reviews update began on 1 December. Search Engine Land also noted a redesign of the local pack interface around the same time.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no impact figures: no share of local queries affected and no numbers on businesses that gained or lost visibility. Industry reports described large movements in map pack rankings, but those are third-party observations, not Google data.

What site owners should do#

Google’s local ranking help page is the guidance it pointed to, and it is current today. It says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and that local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence.

• Keep your Business Profile complete and accurate: name, address, category and hours.
• Verify your locations.
• Collect and respond to reviews; Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help.
• Distance is outside your control, so compete on relevance and prominence.

How to check whether it affected you#

This is now historical. Search Console keeps 16 months of data, so use archived analytics exports or rank tracking from late 2021. Compare local visibility for the week before 30 November 2021 with a week after 8 December, allowing for the overlapping core and product reviews updates. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists them.

Related updates#

• The Possum update (2016) was the previous widely reported local ranking change.
• The openness local ranking change (2023) was the next local change Google confirmed.
• The November 2021 core update finished the day this update began.