Briefing

Earlier this month, Google announced new search features scheduled for release in the the European Economic Area (EEA). The changes are part of Google’s efforts to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Notable changes and additions include:

• A carousel-style rich result for travel-related search terms such as “hotels near me”. 
• ‘Aggregator units’ which display links to major aggregator websites relevant to a user’s search.
• Refinement chips to allow users to filter search results more accurately.
• Enhancements to improve the visibility of airline websites for flight-related search terms. 

Complying with the Digital Markets Act

The Digital Markets Act is focused on bringing a fairer business environment for competition. This will involve changes to search result pages, ultimately impacting organic traffic from EEA countries particularly for travel, local services, and shopping search terms.

With Google’s introduction of more carousel-style rich results, it will improve the visibility of particular search results, therefore improving user engagement with interactive elements such as prices, ratings, and images.

Websites incorporating carousel structured data markup may have the chance to improve visibility in search results for specific keywords, potentially leading to increased organic traffic.

Our recommendations

We recommend analysing search engine result pages and keyword rankings to fully understand how Google’s new search experience will impact your site. Additionally, to stay competitive, try adding carousel structured data markup to help improve keyword visibility in search results.

To be eligible for structured data carousels you will need to add ItemList structured data in combination with at least one of the following supported structured data items.

• LocalBusiness and its subtypes, e.g:
  • Restaurant
  • Hotel
  • VacationRental
• Product
• Event

Google plans to introduce structured data carousels in the EEA this month, aligning with the enforcement of the Digital Markets Act.