Google Adds Local Businesses To EEA Search Result Units via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google says the two result units it rolled out in the European Economic Area this month now support local business queries.

The company logged the change on September 18 and updated its Search Central pages for the aggregator unit and the supplier unit the same day. Both pages now list local businesses next to hotels, flights, long distance trains or buses, and products.

When I covered the rollout on September 8, Google’s supplier page named brick-and-mortar businesses and plumbers as examples but didn’t list local queries as supported. Now it does, which means local results in the EEA can include a unit for directories and a companion unit for the businesses themselves.

Google Adds Local Business Queries

Google’s changelog entry gives one line of explanation: “The aggregator unit and supplier unit now support local business queries.”

How the two units work hasn’t changed. The aggregator unit shows listings from approved vertical search services, a group Google says includes directories, comparison shopping services, and metasearch engines. The top-ranked provider’s results are expanded by default, and only one aggregator unit shows at a time. The supplier unit appears alongside it and shows the businesses themselves.

A separate Google Actions Center page describes local searches as those involving dining, services such as beauty salons, and things to do such as attractions.

How Directories And Local Businesses Can Appear

Directories and other aggregators need approval as a vertical search service before they can appear. Google now sends local applicants to the same interest form it uses for hotel, flight, and ground transportation queries.

For local queries they also have to supply a point of interest feed, which carries fields such as business name, address, phone number, category, images, and ratings.

The Actions Center page says data sent through the feed is used only to fill the partner’s own unit and won’t be used for Google’s services or competitors’ units. The same page says the aggregator unit “replaces existing units” on the results page for local searches. It doesn’t name those units, and neither Search Central page mentions the local pack or Business Profiles.

Businesses themselves don’t have to send anything. The supplier page says direct providers must serve users in the EEA and don’t need to provide data beyond what Google can crawl, though feeds can enhance their results. The supplier unit only appears when an aggregator unit does.

Why This Matters

For local queries where these units appear, EEA results now have an aggregator side and a supplier side. Approved directories and other vertical search services can compete for placement once they supply the feed. Local businesses can appear in the supplier unit next to them without sending Google extra data.

Google’s pages don’t say how often the units show for local queries or which aggregators have been approved. For local queries, rank tracking and Search Console data from EEA countries may now reflect a different search experience than the same queries get elsewhere.

Looking Ahead

Google made the redesign to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, and a deadline in the European Commission’s Search decision is approaching. The Commission’s July 23 press release said Google had 60 days to comply with its decisions. I found no Commission statement as of September 18 on whether this Search redesign satisfies the order.

The same release said Google risks periodic penalty payments if it doesn’t comply.

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