Another different SERPs layout - local query on google.co.uk

[aakk9999]

I have just noticed another different SERPs layout on Google. It was on google.co.uk using IE8 and the query was for "hotels" followed by a location.

It used to show 2-3 sponsored links followed by a map with 7-pack and organic SERPS below. However what I am seeing is the following:

Main column:
- Three sponsored links
- organic search entries, BUT... if the organic search is on the map or has Google place page, then just below the green URL I see a red baloon with a marker, to the right there is two line address, on the far right says xx reviews with wording "Place page" underneath, both, baloon and reviews/place page are links.

Right column:
Above "Sponsored links" there is a google map with red baloon markers that correspond to baloons shown in organic part of SERPs.
Below the map are Sponsored Links.

E.g. the organic listing that has map/place looks like this:

Page Title - Example.com
-------------------------------
Listing description of example.com
spreading over 2 lines (as usual)
www.example.com/ - Cached - Similar
BALOON Address line 1 .................................34 reviews
IMAGE ..Phone number .................................Place page

Note: the dots are used to represent spaces, there are no dots on actual SERPs

In some cases instead of the phone number there is excerpt from reviews, e.g.

BALOON Address line 1 ......................................................................34 reviews
IMAGE .."Positive: I loved bla bla bla " - example2.com example3.com .......Place page

Where example2.com (and sometimes example3.com) are domain names (clickable) that the review comes from.

So, you may have a hotel entry in SERPs with reviews shown, ballon to the map, the first line of a review and one or more clickable links to OTHER sites (not the hotel site) that the reviews came from.

Definitely favours agregate sites that provide review features since as long as hotel ranks, there may be a link to their site in SERPs.

[tedster]

This sounds like the layout we discussed Google.com testing in July for certain "hyper local" searches. It was incorrectly assumed, at first, that the SERP did not contain any organic terms at all. The red balloon markers looked like it was entirely a Places result.

Screen capture: [blog.converseon.com...]
Thread: [webmasterworld.com...]

[aakk9999]

You have a brilliant memory - yes this seem to be a variation of what was described in that thread. In this particular search query what I saw was a strange way of amalgamating organic SERP and Google places 7-pack.

In fact, the first three entries were exactly the same as organic, but if you happen to have a Google place, you get balloon (even if you would not normally be listed as one of 7-pack for that search terms).

Then next 6 entries are google places entries, but if you also had organic listing on page #1, then your organic would jump in that place and you would get balloon. If you did not have organic for this search term then it would only show what it would normally show for 7-pack for that entry. At the end are further 6 organic listings, in the normal order, but if the entry was already listed above, then this organic entry would be "weeded out" so that it does not appear twice on the page.

Interestingly, the position #1 that now shows balloon has never been shown in Locals 7-pack for that query and when trying in different browser and getting "old style" results, it is still not there in 7-pack.

So in that particular SERP the first fourth and fifth had red baloon, whereas SERP entries 2, 3 and 6 did not. I found that it makes me just gloss over these entries without the balloon as the ones with balloon so much stick out.

I also got few other variations of it - something more like the screenshot you posted link to, plus few other variations on how SERPs are displayed when the map is shown in the rightmost column - for example one SERPs had 15 entries listed.

In the thread you are referring to it says:

Yes, the user needs to do the search from within the same geographic area, but that alone is not enough.

In my case I searched from UK for a place in a completely different country, so definitely not in the same geo area.

From what I could conclude - the layout seems to be influenced with how many local listings are for that particular search phrase. It appears that if there are less local results then you get more to what I saw, whereas with more local results (where there was previously the full 7-pack) then you get something more similar to what the screenshot in your post shows.

I also found my focus much more on Google map and actually "seeing" the sponsored links below it (whereas before I developed a complete blindless for that column).

[tedster]

It sounds like Google has decided to expand this kind of result - and now that I understand that the links will send traffic directly to the website and not just to Google Places, I think it's a good thing. For some queries, I really don't want to read about [location keyword] on some auto-generated page off in a totally different location.

And even better is that Google is still testing and refining the idea without blasting it out in a beta (or alpha) form.

[RP_Joe]

I like the map on the right. It flows much better. They seem to be testing in UK. I wonder why they picked that region.

[Robert Charlton]

I'm not able to see these results on google.co.uk, and... just to be certain... I'm wondering whether they are Local [hotels cityname] results for your city only, or whether they are geo-organic results for a variety of cities searched.

The [car rental nyc] result reported previously, and similar searches for other large cities, could be seen as geo-organic in the US, and could be searched nationwide.

The implications of local only vs geo-organic, IMO, would be significantly different.

[aakk9999]

@robert

When I got that layout, I searched from UK on google.co.uk and it was [hotel place], the place was in fact a Mediterranean island in south of Europe, so definitely not local to UK.

I have then tried the same search for a city in UK and also got that layout. So I would say that what I saw was geo-organic.

However, I am not seeing that layout any more.