Google has now worldwide introduced new organic and paid features for the travel and hotel industry. The new features include ticket booking, prices, and eco-certified badges.
The new features were motivated by the “near me” searches on Google and Google maps. A lot of people search for leisure activities like “events near me” or “things to do near me”.
Google in their official blog announcement here said that one of the terms that have also motivated them is “activities near me”. They clearly linked it to https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=activities%20near%20me and show a gradual increase in this Google search trend.
Eco-certified Badges For Hotel Listings Now
Hotel certification with eco-certified badges is a new feature placed as a tag beside the hotel names. Two types of badges are opened up either for Eco-Check or Green Key based on the features present in the hotel.
These features are selected in the Google Hotel Centre by the Hotel admins. Features of Eco-certifications and Sustainability can be checked in the About tab of the Hotel.
If you are managing any Hotel or it's your client then Google's team has uploaded a complete webinar of these new features here: https://adsonair.withgoogle.com/events/travel-on-air-product-takeover/register?after-register=%2Fevents%2Ftravel-on-air-product-takeover%2Fwatch%3Ftalk%3Depisode on September 23, 2021.
A lot of topics and new features are covered in detail in this webinar.
If you like webinars, we have a complete page dedicated to SEO, Social media, and other related digital marketing here: https://underwp.com/free-webinars-digital-marketing-content-social-media/
Now book tickets directly from Google
Now the leisure activities like “Statue of Liberty” or “Burj Khalifa” will have booking links. These links once configured by the specified admin can redirect the users directly to the payments page.
As you can see in the above image, now you will be able to directly book tickets for Burj Khalifa from your phone. This feature is now only available on mobile phones and the Google Maps app of phones.
The desktop version of Google Maps is yet to be updated with this feature.
Things To Do Ads
As announced by Google itself in the above of this post, Google found the term “activities near me” gradually trending in the past year. This has led them to introduce this completely new feature for Google Ads advertisers.
These ads will appear on top of all search results for terms like these. They show the activity name, its price, and ratings.
This is a pretty new feature introduced by Google. So all the local business advertising agencies should get onto this soon.
This feature is not yet utilized by the advertisers so these results are not yet shown in all cities. Once the advertisers start making ads, the mobile users of Google will see all the things they can do near to their location.
These kinds of ads are very helpful for event management businesses. Now they can advertise their events on top of Google for a very high search term.
Get on it now as the cost of advertising is very low price now for these new “Things to do near me” features of Google. You even will see a good increase in visitors.
Here is a link where you can find more details about it from Google itself: https://support.google.com/hotelprices/answer/10723637
What Does This Mean For SEO and Digital Marketing?
Google introduced a Hotel booking system back in 2015. Now it has taken a step forward and introduced this Eco-friendly and Sustainability option to increase the trust in Hotels and Travel options.
Hotels and their related booking agencies can now take advantage of this option and increase their brand value. This brand value then affects the conversion to their sales.
Ticket booking is the conversion point for your Hotel. This is easy UX for Google users. Google has taught us how to be user-friendly with this new feature.
Users will now be able to book tickets from ticket sellers from the same page. Also, they can compare the prices and select their best seller.
This is just an early introduction to this feature. We are expecting more changes in this feature in the coming days. Changes like reviews of each ticket seller may show up too. But that is just our predictions.
The “things to do” feature is something that is very valuable for PPC marketers. SEO specialists and digital marketing managers of Event planning companies should take note of this feature.
Things to do feature is a new unique way of showing your ads on top of other events in your city. Surely, Google bidding for ads for this term will get higher for this as it is a popular term searched all over the world on Google search.
Act now if you want to take advantage of this feature at the cheapest price possible. If you are hosting an art event or musical event, everything can be advertised here as long as it allows public visitors.
Final Words
Google introducing these new features for the hotel and travel industry shows that there is going to be an increase in people traveling again in the coming months. This is something to be noted.
If you are an agency or SEO specialist that is optimizing a business for local search on Google, then these new features will help you a lot. If you own a hotel or your client is a Hotel, then start booking their tickets from Google itself for free.
And if you are a PPC expert and advertising for event planners, then take early advantage of Things To Do ads and start advertising before the prices rise high.
We keep our visitors updated with important news like these that can help you grow your SEO and digital marketing career. If you like this article comment below and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated.
great post, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector do not notice this. You should continue your writing. I’m confident, you have a huge readers base already!
Good idea about using the Things to do ads. This is certainly a good opportunity to use. I believe in 2022, the tourism industry will start gaining a huge increase.