Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Google Adds Dates to Hotel Local Carousel
Barry Schwartz reported on SEL this am that Google was now allowing dates of stay to be set directly on the carousel. When updated, Google updates the results for their hotel finder immediately below the ads.
I know that I have covered this topic before but it is striking even on my fairly large display that Google 1) makes only one general search result visible in this display and 2)virtually every link goes back to Google.
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My god – what annoying search results. I really doubt most people are futzing around with the carousel when searching for a hotel. They’re going right to TripAdvisor and the like.
It also struck me that when I type in “hotels Buffalo NY” I see zero IYPs. The closest thing to one is TripAdvisor, but that’s kind of a unique case. Google has absolutely nuked the Yelps of the world – at least in this vertical.
I see these results and I see google is taking a piece of the hotel search business in a variety of ways.
1. they have redefined above the fold with a new presentation google commands.
2. The carousel pushes down alternative choices among serps and even visible ads.
3. two ads show on top. I bet that makes ads more competitive for the top two spots. It spurs higher bidding.
4. The google booking service, is a google paid service. the little icon on the upper right hand corner implies in soft terms google is getting paid for showing this data and accommodating the booking arrangements for different hotels.
and then everything else is below the fold, also on my rather ample pc screen.
Google has 80% of the search market…there are a lot of ads for queries for hotels by city name. 8,9,10, 11 ads are showing and the competition pushes the bid prices ever higher. Google makes more money per click on an ad.
Then you can choose from a booking source…but its google’s…and google is getting paid for presenting the information. Before google presented this consolidated information all these booking services were showing on their own in the serps. But now google has represented the info and is taking a piece of that.
so I ask….how do you spell monopoly?
G.O.O.G.L.E ???
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