Google is testing at least 3 new calls to action in hotels’ knowledge panels.
The “Book a Room”, “Reserve a Room”, and “Compare Rates” CTAs take users to the “rates” tab, which was added to hotels’ local panels earlier this month.
Google often tests various CTAs in knowledge panels. Earlier this year Google was testing “View rates” call to action in hotels knowledge panels, that had the same conversion goal of hotel bookings through paid ads in Knowledge Panels:
Google is testing “view rates” pop-up for hotel listings. cc:@rustybrick @jenstar @mblumenthal pic.twitter.com/13Dyt9uWWF
— Sergey Alakov (@sergey_alakov) April 23, 2017
Also, just under a year ago Google was testing a similarly designed “Write a Review” call to action to encourage more reviews:
review button test. It’s only visible after clicking on a 3 pack listing, not after branded search. cc:@mblumenthal @rustybrick @jenstar pic.twitter.com/PwwKAa2AyX
— Sergey Alakov (@sergey_alakov) October 19, 2016
Interestingly, Bing Ads was testing a similar “Book a Room” call to action this past summer, as Jennifer Slegg reported on The SEM Post.
It’s hard to say whether this new feature is going to stick, but what we know for certain is that Google continues to push for more engagement and conversions directly in search results pages, and it’s especially obvious in the hospitality space.