Google seemed to be full of surprises. It is just like when you are having a fancy day in a an amusement park. But the sun doesn’t just shine there because Google is now frequently showing carousel designed results on local searches.
Google thought that as we are searching for a local thing it is better to see it with images. So, if you are looking for restaurants, bars, libraries, beaches and other local places expect images when you search for it on Google.
The Google Knowledge Graph Carousel is a horizontal scroll of images with black background responding to a query. Users can scroll many images through clicking the arrow on the right side. You can find detailed information such as location, contact numbers, overall review-based score, and photos of the image or place you clicked.
Here’s a snippet of the announcement,
On the other hand, this carousel design actually got an old version that looks like this,
however, Google changed the design to resemble like this,
The new carousel design for local search is more interactive and is now rolling out in English in the U.S and now available on your desktop.
What does it mean for Local SEO?
This design is showing up more frequent in these days. It presents a faster way of getting information about a local place being queried for. If this knowledge graph contains valuable information needed by the user it can severely impact the way consumers will look up for a place. It will also compel website owners to create best image of their place.
This new way of presenting search results will compel every web owners to be more cautious of what they presented on their website as well as their details in Google Places. Expect that a stiff competition in local SEO will arise. It is still a tail to Google’s aim to provide user experience.
However, the carousel design is not yet available to countries outside USA. Over time US search results will have it with more features to come. Also, I believe that it will also be available to countries outside USA sometime soon.
And this only shows that more local signs is coming up, and that is why you need also to optimize your site locally and prepare for the competition locally. A sign that giving us hint that Google truly value local search result since it wanted to create a unique and exciting experience to users.
If you are asking if how many results are required for the new local carousel to display, Mike Blumenthal has an answer to this question wherein according to his blog post on the new local carousel, it must be about at least 5 in order to display.
So, do you like the new design? Share your message below.
