Deep Dive Special Edition – Darren Shaw of Whitespark, just released the 2017 Local Search Factor Ranking Factor Survey results. Join Darren and Mike Blumenthal as they discuss the results.
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Mike Blumenthal is a co-founder of GatherUp and helps oversee their research, industry insight and agency offering. Mike has long been regarded as the foremost expert on local search and Google Maps, earning the nickname “Professor Maps”. Mike also co-founded LocalU!His motto: All Local All the Time.
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Nice discussion. I believe one point wasn’t adequately explained. Specifically Lisa Kolb’s reference to hotels with booking information supplied by the OTA’s (online travel agents). Expedia is a prime example. Expedia earned about $6 billion last year as a web based booking company.
Google, in a severe case of deliberate understatement describes the OTA’s as its “partners”
Partners means that if an OTA showing in something such as the local PAC books a hotel room, google makes some money.
Ergo!!!!! The local PAC, the local finder and booking through them is monetized.
A hotel can show availability and price on is own. It doesn’t need the OTA’s .
Lisa discovered if B&B’s (who tend to pay huge % fees to OTA’s if they use them) don’t use OTA’s they tend to drop out of the PAC and/or drop way down in the local finder rankings
Gentlemen: That is a pay to play “scheme”
And pay to play has little (or nothing) to do with links or citations or NAP consistency, etc etc
That is a HUGE finding and very different than discussed.