Brian Fitzgerald is the Director of Search and Social for TIG Global, a leading interactive marketing agency located in Washington, DC. Brian presented these slides at the recent SMX West conference. To view a video of his presentation, please visit http://blog.tigglobal.com

1. Up Close With Google Place Pages March 8, 2011

2. About MICROS | TIG Global Global leader in hospitality hardware and software 100,000+ restaurants and 25,000+ hotels Acquired TIG Global and Fry.com in 2010 to grow eCommerce offerings Brian Fitzgerald Director, SEO and Social Media 10+ years experience in hospitality industry

3. Hotels and Restaurants Rely More Heavily on Local Search

4. Google Place Search Opportunities to click to Google Place Pages Opportunities to click to third parties

5. Hypothesis, Analysis and Caveats Hypothesis Place Search impacted a searcher’s ability to get directly to a website by offering more options to Google Place pages and third party sites Analysis Looked at referring data for 250 hotel and restaurant websites Roughly 90% hotels and 10% restaurants Compared two time periods (removed the week Place Search launched) 11/1/2009 – 10/22/2010 11/1/2010 – 1/31/2011

6. High Level Findings – Before Place Search

7. High Level Findings – After Place Search

8. High Level Findings – % Change

9. Breakdown for Google Places

10. Breakdown for TripAdvisor

11. Restaurants Restaurants saw a higher than average increase in Google Places referrals

12. International International businesses saw a decrease in Google Places referrals

13. Top 10 Highest Changes

14. Doubletree Florida

15. Conclusions, Beliefs Did Place Search Impact Your Business? The always inconclusive… “It Depends” It likely depends on: How was your local search optimization before Place Search? How was your natural/organic search optimization before Place Search? How reliant are you on Google and third parties for traffic? What type of business are you?

16. Place Page Details

17. Google and Hotel Rates Introduces rate comparison at an early point in the researching/shopping phase Presents risk of commoditization

18. Rates and rate checking showing on Place Pages as well Presents inventory control and management issues

19. How does this relate to you and your business? Intermediated businesses as most at risk Does someone other than you control your product or service?

20. Where can Google send people other than your website?

21. Where can Google send people other than your website? Google Shopping Google’s Boutiques.com

22. Questions, Comments, Feedback MICROS | TIG Global blog.tigglobal.com @tigglobal Brian Fitzgerald bfitzgerald@tigglobal.com @bpfitzgerald