Google Removes Ads from Tourist Destination Searches

No Ads on pages that include Google Travel Guides

[glitterball]

Google is no longer displaying any ads for searches for major tourist destinations, e.g. Venice, Santorini, Tenerife etc.
These are pages that include Google's travel guide knowledge graph, so a knowledge graph that includes no external citation source, and therefore no non-Google links.

In the past, there were so many ads displayed above the organic search results for these keywords, that there were often no organic results above the fold. I know from experience just how expensive these terms are to bid on, so Google have made a choice which does affect their bottom line.

<snip>

[edited by: goodroi at 11:25 am (utc) on Apr 21, 2018]
[edit reason] TOS #24 [/edit]

[keyplyr]

I'm also no longer seeing ads on large city names. Of course the top is still usually Wikipedia, but then Google's travel guide photos & tips.

This and a few other recent developments clearly illustrates that Google now sees websites, and those that advertise, as competitors.

[Travis]

Less ads, people should be pleased :)

[RhinoFish]

I googled "visit venice italy", I see an ad.
Do you mean searches for just "venice"?

[glitterball]

@RhinoFish yes

[Travis]

Do you mean searches for just "venice"?

@RhinoFish yes

I would not call it a "Tourist Destination Search".

[glitterball]

All right, well pick somewhere that you would consider a tourist destination, then. Same point.
Google obviously thinks they are tourist destinations because they have plastered the page with links to their "travel guide" and Google hotels.