New Study Shows How Local Businesses Can Optimize for the Google Carousel

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Google’s Carousel may seem new to most searchers, but it has actually been rolling out since June. That means enough time has past for marketing and search analysts to really start digging in to see what makes the carousel tick.

If you’ve yet to encounter it, the carousel is a black bar filled with listings that runs along the top of the screen for specific searches, especially those that are location based or for local businesses such as hotels and restaurants. The carousel includes images, the businesses’ addresses, and aggregated review ratings all readily available at the top, in an order that seems less hierarchical than the “10 pack” listings previously used for local searches.

Up until now, we’ve only had been able to guess how these listings were decided based on surface level observations. But, this week Digital Marketing Works (DMW) published a study which finally gives us a peak under the hood and shows how businesses may be able to take some control of their place in the carousel. Amanda DiSilvestro explains the process used for the study:

  • They examined more than 4,500 search results in the category of hotels in 47 US cities and made sure that each SERP featured a carousel result.
  • For each of the top 10 hotels found on each search, they collected the name, rating, quantity of reviews, travel time from the hotel to the searched city, and the rank displayed in the carousel.
  • They used (equally) hotel search terms—hotels in [city]; best hotels in [city]; downtown [city] hotels; cheap hotels in [city].
  • This earned them nearly 42,000 data points on approximately 19,000 unique hotels.
  • They looked at the correlation between a hotel’s rank in a search result based on all of the factors discussed in step 1 to determine which were the most influential.

Their report goes into detail on many of the smaller factors that play a role, but DMW’s biggest findings were on the four big factors which determine which businesses are shown in the carousel and where they are placed.

1. Google Reviews – The factor which correlated the most with the best placement in the carousel were by far Google review ratings. Both quantity and quality of reviews clearly play a big role in Google’s placement of local businesses and marketers should be sure to pay attention to reviews moving forward. However, it is unclear how Google is handling paid or fake reviews, so many might be inspired to try to rig their reviews. For long-term success, I would suggest otherwise.

2. Location, Location, Location – Seeing as how the Google Carousel seems built around local businesses, it shouldn’t be a surprise that location does matter quite a bit. Of the 1,900 hotels in the study, 50 percent were within 2 miles of the search destination, while 75 percent were within 13 minutes of travel. Businesses would benefit from urging customers to search for specific landmarks or areas of cities, as you never know exactly where Google will establish the city “center”.

3. Search Relevancy and Wording – According to the findings, Google seems to change the weight of different ranking factors depending upon the actual search. For example, searching “downtown [city] hotels” will result in listings with an emphasis on location, while “best hotels in [city]” gives results most dependent on review rankings.

4. Primary Markets and Secondary Markets – It seems both small and larger businesses are on a relatively flat playing field when it comes to the carousel. Many small hotels are able to make it into the listings, right next to huge chains. The bigger businesses may have more capabilities to solicit reviews, but no hotel is too small to be considered for the carousel.

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Google Expands Social Info in Ads and Updates Their Terms of Service

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Google made waves last week when they announced the expansion of how “Shared Endorsements” are used in ads, as well as the change to their terms of service to reflect this. The funny thing is, most people don’t understand what is actually changing.

The majority were simply confused when they heard that Google was implementing the use of social information into ads, because that has been going on for about two years now. But, as Danny Sullivan explains, the devil is in the details.

Throughout 2011, Google made changes which allowed advertisers to begin integrating images of people who liked their pages on Google+ into text and display ads. All that really showed was a small profile picture, and the phrase “+1’d this page.”

Starting on November 11, that won’t quite be the case. More than simply the people who +1 a page is going to be shown in ads. For example, if you comment, leave a review, or even follow a particular brand, those types of actions can be shown in ads on Google. A mockup of how it will appear is below.

These changes won’t take place until November, but don’t expect a prompt roll-out. It is possible you may start seeing the changes starting the 11th, but more likely it will gradually appear over the span of a few days or even a couple of weeks.

Not much else is known about how advertisers will be able to create these types of ads yet. Most likely, Google would not have announced the update this early, except they had to get the terms of service updated before they could even begin to implement this feature.

If you don’t want to appear in any of these types of ads, you can go to this page and click the tickbox at the bottom to opt out for all ads in the future.

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New Google AdWords Logo and Web UI Begins to Appear

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It seems like everything looks different over at Google these days. Not only has their logo subtly flattened out, but the way we see a significant number of searches has been greatly altered with the introduction of the Google Carousel. Now, AdWords seems to be following suit as reports have started to come in of a new logo and web UI design.

As Search Engine Land reported, Rick Galan tweeted out a screenshot of the new appearance. The logo is now integrated directly into the navigation bar and the green coloring of the bar has been replaced by Google’s widely used desaturated blue-grey.

The new AdWords logo might by signaling a redesign of all Google product logos towards a more flat design, such as what they have done with their flagship logo. Their old logo is below for comparison.

It could also simply just be a test as Google has not released any public statement or announcement for the logo, so much is unclear, especially how long a roll out might take. No one knows when we will see the change, but don’t be surprised if your AdWords experience looks different in the near future.

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Matt Cutts Says Redirecting Users Based on Location Data Isn’t Spammy

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Leave it to Matt Cutts to always be there to clear the air when there is an issue causing some webmasters confusion. One webmaster, Peter, asked Matt Cutts whether geo-detecting techniques is actually against Google’s policies, as it is common for websites to be designed so that users are given the information (price, USPs) most relevant to their lives based on geo-location.

In some understandings of Google’s policies, this may be against the rules, but it turns out all is fine, so long as you avoid one issue.

In one of his Webmaster Chat videos, Cutts explained that directing users to a version of a site, or delivering specific information based on location are not spammy or against Google’s policies. It only makes sense to offer viewers information that actually applies to their lives.

What Google does consider spam is directing their crawlers or GoogleBot to a web page of content that users cannot see. Sending GoogleBot to a different location that what visitors see is a bad idea, which is considered spam or a form of cloaking. Instead, treat GoogleBot as you would any user, by checking the location information and sending the crawler to the normal page reflecting that data.

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How Can Local Businesses Optimize for Google Carousel?

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Most of the changes we see to Google are relatively minor. The average user might notice that the layout is a little different, or the ads are in a new place, but in general most of the massive changes to Google occur under the hood, in their search ranking and spam fighting algorithms. But, as you’ve probably seen by now, Google Carousel is Google’s latest update, and it is a fairly substantial change to how Google users see results.

The carousel is a row of images across the top of some search engine result pages (SERPs) laid on top of a black background. At the moment, the carousel contains up to 20 results, and it appears mainly on SERPs for travel, hospitality, or restaurant related searches. However, the carousel has also sporadically been appearing on queries for sports, entertainment, and education, suggesting the future directions the carousel may be expanding in.

Instead of getting what was called the 6- or 10-pack, users get these images as well as review ratings, property name, and address. To compliment the new carousel you also see the usual sponsored links you often get for other searches. Interestingly, the variation of terms for which the carousel appears seems to be random. Jim Yu from Search Engine Watch notes that a search for “hotels near disneyland” gets the carousel, while “disneyland hotels” did not.

The first bit of good news for search marketing professionals is that all of the results included in the carousel are essentially all in the first spot. Of course the majority of viewers will likely view the results from left to right, but they are not visually ranked in the same manner they were before.

The other good news is that the Google Carousel opens up numerous opportunities for local businesses to strengthen their brand online. BrightEdge research reported that the carousel currently affects 14 percent of keywords across all industries, with travel and hospitality being the most affected.

Restaurants are also highly impacted by the new layout, while entertainment terms only get the carousel for five percent of searches. Clearly, those most affected are also those with the most to gain: local businesses.
There are a few things you can do to ensure you’re business gets into the carousel for relevant searches in your area, and to be sure to beat the other competition within the listings. Yu suggests:

  • Set up a Google Places for Business and Google+ page. You can visit this post to learn more about the most important aspects of both services, and understand how to merge the two types of pages for a single business.
  • Make sure images for your pages are high resolution, unique, and up to date. Keep them sorted in terms of priority, so that users will see the images you want them to first.
  • Encourage happy customers to review your business on Google. Not only will it help you gain conversions online, research has shown it plays a large role in getting your business in the carousel.
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Google Speeds Up Mobile Search With Ping Attribute

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SpeedometerHave you noticed a difference using Google on your smartphone this past week? Last week Ilya Grigorik, a Google developer advocate, announced Google was making a tiny tweak which should speed up mobile search on both Safari and Chrome by 200-400 milliseconds.

The company implemented an attribute called <a ping>, which allows them to basically do the click tracking and redirect practically at the same time, as Barry Schwartz explained.

You might not actually be experiencing search with the change, since Google is “gradually rolling out this improvement to all browsers that support the <a ping> attribute.” Grigorik also took the time to explain exactly how the change works:

What’s the benefit? Whenever the user clicks on a result, typically they are first sent to a Google URL redirector and then to the target site. With <a ping>, the click is tracked using an asynchronous call, meaning that the user sees one less redirect and a faster overall experience!

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Matt Cutts Says Not To Hold Out Hope For PageRank Update Before 2014

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It remains incredibly unclear what Google’s thoughts or plans are for PageRank, as Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, commented on Twitter yesterday that there won’t be any updates to PageRank or the toolbar anytime before 2014.

Neils Bosch asked the esteemed Google engineer whether there would be an update before next year, to which Cutts responded, “I would be surprised if that happened.”

According to Search Engine Land, it has been over 8 months since the last Google Toolbar PageRank update, back on February 4, 2013. Many have proclaimed the toolbar dead, but Cutts has personally defended the toolbar on a Webmaster chat within the past year, and said the toolbar won’t be going away.

However, as Cutts himself explained, Chrome doesn’t have a PageRank extension, Google dropped support for Firefox in 2011, and Internet Explorer 10 doesn’t support toolbar extensions. It seems clear there will be less and less of an audience for the toolbar, so its relevancy and use will likely taper off until it just kind of disappears.

It is always possible that Google might put out a surprise update next year, but don’t expect PageRank to be around forever.

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Google AdWords Gains Web UI Copy and Paste Functionality

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AdWords Editor is one of the best tools available for editing and building out campaigns and ad groups, but it has its limits. For example, it would be convenient to be able to break up an ad group, clone a campaign, or copy keywords right into the Web UI. Thankfully, now you can, as Ginny Marvin reports. This week, Google added copy and paste functionality for the Web UI, making AdWords Editor even better than before.

Users are now able to copy keywords, ads, ad groups, or entire campaigns directly into the Web UI with the simple keyword shortcuts you are already used to. Simply press Ctrl-C/Cmnd-C and Ctrl-V/Cmnd-V. Though if you want, you can also use the Edit drop down menu.

Martin suggests the final version of the update might not be exactly as Google’s screenshot shows. Apparently you may see “Copy to” instead of “Copy” in the drop down, and you might not see the option to “copy keywords as paused”. Other than that, the tool is expected to roll out as planned.

You will be prompted when copying keywords to select both the campaign and ad group where you would like them to be copied.

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New AdWords Update Includes Estimated Total Conversions

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googleadwordsGoogle AdWords announced yesterday a major reporting update to conversion tracking called Estimated Total Conversions will be rolling out over the next few weeks. The new feature provides estimates of conversions which take place over multiple devices and adds this to the conversion reporting we are already accustomed to.

Once enhanced campaigns launched earlier this year, search advertisers have had more control to combine mobile and desktops with the ability to further modify bids by mobile as well as other targeting considerations. There was a missing piece limiting the effectiveness of campaigns. We had limited data on how consumers actually navigate and convert across multiple device options.

What is a Cross-Device Conversion?

The widespread use of mobile and tablet devices to browse and shop online has greatly influenced how we actually interact with businesses. From our couch, we can have three options for achieving our online goals within reach, and it has been shown that we choose different devices for different tasks.

A study from Google last month found that more than 90 percent of multi-device consumers move sequentially through several screen like mobile to desktop, or mobile to tablet in order to complete transactions. There are even those who move from desktop screen to desktop screen, likely going from work to home computers. Anytime a person begins the actions that initiate a conversion on one screen, only to complete the conversion later on another screen, that is a cross-device conversion.

How Estimated Total Conversion is Calculated

Google calculates these types of conversions for advertisers based on how their customers convert when they are logged in. Then, they use this data to extrapolate out data to estimate what the total conversions from cross devices may be. The data is only used in aggregate and is not personally identifiable according to Search Engine Watch.

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Missing Keyword Data to Return to Webmaster Tools

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Google-Webmaster-Tools-LogoLast week SEO and online marketing professionals all had a collective freakout as keyword data stopped showing up in Webmaster Tools. They even made memes! Well there is good news, Google has said the issue was an unintended bug, and should be fixed soon.

Google made a very public switch to secure search last week, in an effort to encrypt all search information and provide “extra protection” to searchers. Webmasters immediately noticed nearly all of their keyword referral data disappeared and was replaced with “(not provided)”. The best way to deal with the issue was to access similar keyword data under Search Queries within the Search Traffic section of Google Webmaster Tools.

But there was a problem, when secure search was implemented that keyword data stopped being reported or provided within Webmaster Tools. Many questioned whether this was a mistake or a change in policy, while the regular anti-Google group proclaimed Google had lied and was intentionally hiding the data; Matt Cutts had previously estimated only one to two percent of keyword data would be affected by secure search.

Now, John Mueller, a member of the Google Webmaster Tools team in Europe, as well as a separate Google spokesperson have both clarified the missing data was the result of the bug, and they are working hard to solve the problem.

Mueller posted to the Google Webmaster Central forum, “The team is aware of the problem and working on speeding that data back up again. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.” The spokesperson told Search Engine Watch, “We’ve recently fixed a small bug related to data reporting in Webmaster Tools. We expect reporting to return to normal in the coming days.”

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