Over the past few years, the results you see while planning travel on Google have shifted from lists of links to a dynamic ecosystem of answers. Type into Google, “best pearl harbor tours” today, and you get a paragraph unpacking popular options.
Click the “Show more” option and you’re not exactly invited to click into a website—instead, each of the primary links shown here result in additional Google searches expanding on the original query.
Consider the remarkably common search term pattern: “Things to do” + “Location”. All 11 of the clickable items in the example below take you deeper into Google’s search results (knowledge panels, maps, new searches, etc) rather than to into an operator’s web page.
For example, when I click the “Ripley’s Aquarium” card, I get their Google Business Profile. Notably, only 1 of the 14 clickable elements in the business profile take you out of the Google search result and into Riply’s web page.
Google Prioritizing Answers Over Clicks
What we’re witnessing in these examples is simply a response to what Google has known about its users for decades—that they prefer the low friction path to an answer. And Google is delivering on that preference.
Given Google’s shift towards providing answers directly in the search engine results page (SERP), it comes as no surprise that zero-click searches are on the rise. Two (of many) studies show this to be the case 👇
- Spark Toro found that nearly 60% of US searches end without a click—and that was back in 2024.
- Ahrefs found that the presence of AI overviews reduced clicks by 34.5%
What this means for your tour, activity, or attraction brand is likely an increase or sustained volume of impressions in organic results, but a decrease in overall clicks to your website from those results.
With this foundational shift in mind, we want to give you some ideas of how to maximize your brand’s visibility in Google’s ever-shifting SERP landscape. To do that, we’re going to break the “search funnel” into two categories: Discovery & Branded
Here’s how we’re thinking about those categories 👇
| Discovery | Discovery | Discovery | Branded |
| Awareness: “Things to do…” | Interest: “Activity + Location…” | Specific Long Tail: “Activity + Demographic / Qualifier + Location…” | Branded: “Company Name” |
 |  |  |  |
Are My Search Results The Same as Yours?
This is an important question to address before we get into the specific SERP features prevalent in today’s results. Like most things in the digital world, the answer is “it depends”—but in most cases, the answer is no, your results are likely not the same as mine. Two important things to keep in mind here are:
- Search result features and elements are changing, constantly: What you see today, probably isn’t what you saw last month, which is most likely completely different from the year before.
- Results are personalized: There’s debate about just how personalized search results will become over time, but the general consensus aligns on the trajectory of personalization: We’re getting more personalized, not less.
Because of these two things, the search results you see probably aren’t the results your friend across town sees, and certainly aren’t the same result your customer across the country sees. More than ever, tools like SEMrush (for assessing the overall SERP landscape), Search Console (for seeing actual visibility in Google), or Scrunch AI (an emerging tool to help with AI visibility) are requirements to getting a sense of your true organic visibility. The core drivers behind unique and/or personalized search results today include:
- Your Location: This is arguably the most significant factor. Search engines use your IP address and, if enabled, your device’s location services to provide geographically relevant results. A search for “things to do near me” for example, will yield a vastly different set of results for me here in Madison, WI than the same query performed in another city. This “localization” is so fundamental that it even affects results for users who are not logged into a user account.
- Your Search History: Your past queries and the links you’ve clicked on create a digital breadcrumb trail that search engines use to infer your interests. If you frequently search for and click on links related to a particular topic (say, your website 🙂), you are more likely to see results related to that topic in subsequent, sometimes even unrelated, searches.
- The Device You’re Using: The device you search on can influence the results you see. Search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites for users on mobile devices and may tailor the presentation of information, such as showing app store links for mobile users, etc.
With all that in mind, let’s get into the discovery SERP elements.
Maximizing Your Visibility in the Discovery SERP
Let’s unpack some of the more common features being used by Google to help travelers plan vacations, day trips, and more.
Google’s Things To Do Feature
What is it?
Google’s “Things to Do”result is the immersive search feature that aggregates bookable tours, activities, and attraction tickets into the SERP, allowing users to compare reviews, pricing, photos, and different tour options without leaving the platform.
When does it surface?
- Most commonly, this feature surfaces when you type in “things to do” + a location.
- It also commonly surfaces during categorical searches such as “moraine lake tours”.
- Lastly, it frequently will surface for brand terms in more competitive markets and for brands with meaningful search volume.
| “Things to do pigeon forge” | “Moraine lake tours” | Branded search |
 |  |  |
Top tips for maximizing Things To Do visibility
- Organic: Ensure that you’re distributing your tours into Google’s Things To Do listings. You can do this by working directly with your booking engine (most booking engines integrate with Google Things To Do), or by working with a third party platform like Magpie to distribute your experiences.
- Paid: Run Google Travel campaigns to lock up relevant paid Things To Do placements in the SERP. These may include direct call outs in Google Business profiles or placements in the carousel. Grabbing the paid placement in prominent Google Business Profiles like Haleakala National Park’s profile (see screenshot) is a great way to increase visibility and drive relevant clicks to your experience. (Read more about advertising in Google Things To Do placements here.)
Google’s AI Overviews
What is it?
An AI Overview is the AI-generated summary that Google now places towards the top of many travel planning search results. Instead of just giving you a list of links, it uses artificial intelligence to read and synthesize information from multiple websites to provide a direct, conversational answer to a your question, complete with links to its sources, or suggested additional searches to go deeper on the topic.
When does it surface?
Broadly speaking, Google AI Overviews are designed to appear for general information queries. For queries with a commercial intent, you’re more likely to find carousels of shopping selections. For navigational searches, you’re likely to see a Google Maps map pack. But if the user is looking for a fact, an AI Overview is likely to generate.
- Top of funnel: AI overviews commonly surface in broad top-of-funnel search terms like “things to do + destination” (often occurring below the things to do carousel and map results).
- Getting specific: AI overviews are especially common when you’re looking for something specific. If you’re looking for a demographic (like “for kids”) and you layer in words like “best” (ie. “best things to do for kids in gatlinburg tn), you’ll often see an AI overview in the result.
Tips for maximizing for AI Overview visibility
Content tips
- Lead with the answer: Put the question you want to rank for in a prominent heading. Then, immediately give a concise answer first for AI citation ease. From there, expand. Include verifiable stats, quotations, data structure and primary sources. Assume your site will be viewed by bots/agents on behalf of users.
- Structure for reuse/chunking: Clear heading structure, definitions, bullets, tables, step-by-steps, and rich media all make page content more easily fetch-able.
- Demonstrate authority: Showcase firsthand experience, credentials, certifications and – most importantly – reviews. Understand that strong first-party reviews are great, but AI is likely to cite reviews from OTAs like TripAdvisor or directory sites like Yelp, too. (A recent study showed that TripAdvisor was the 8th-most frequently cited source on the web by ChatGPT!)
- OTAs & Directories: Keep Business Profile/Merchant Center accurate and up-to-date. Leverage posts, product listings and reviews across the web to make your knowledge graph as rich as possible for your brand.
Technical
- Ensure crawlability, page speed and Google Core Web Vitals, accurate structured data, and clean internal links to the canonical answer page. SEO fundamentals still matter. AI agents search the same web indices (Google, Bing, etc.) that humans do.
- Avoid scaled, thin, or stitched AI pages. Focus on adding net-new value to the topical landscape. You’re an expert in your industry, so act like it.
- Monitor bot activity on site and audit visibility regularly (ex: check server logs, monitor referral traffic from sources like ChatGPT, look for agentic user agent activity).
Google’s Social Posts Features
What is it?
Social media posts and videos from platforms like TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube that Google pulls directly into the search results page. Instead of just showing websites, Google includes these posts to give users the most current and authentic perspectives on a topic.
You’ll often see these posts appear in the “What people are saying” section, or the “Short videos” section of the search result.
 |  |
When does it surface?
To understand when social posts will surface, we have to think about where they’re most helpful:
- Real time info: Google will often prioritize social posts in results for trending topics or news.
- Recommendations: Social posts tend to be more authentic than many web results.
- Visual inspiration: Social posts can be a visual way to draw people into a topic or answer a question.
Top tips for maximizing social post visibility
Two quick tips here:
Own the “Search Moment”: As search and content trends emerge, be among the first to create content in social posts addressing the query. This will elevate your changes of visibility. For example, this past weekend was Moraine Lake’s last weekend of the season. Notice that the middle post calls this out directly—the “morning coffee” post calls it out as well if you click into the post.
In general, you want to apply similar SEO best practices to social posts that you would to a blog post or web landing page.
Map Results / Map Pack
What is it?
Google commonly surfaces a map in order to visualize the location of the top 3 businesses it believes to be most relevant to your search query.
 |  |  |
When does it surface?
Generally speaking, map results are displayed in markets where there are multiple options in the same category. Each of the examples in the screenshots above represent markets with dense options in each of the categories: boat tours chicago, things to do pigeon forge, and zipline maui.
Compare that to markets where the options are sparse, you typically get an AI overview or brought directly into a Google Business Profile:
| “Boat tour lake geneva wi” | “Zipline tour henderson mn” |
 |  |
Top tips for maximizing Google Maps visibility
Google uses hundreds of signals to determine local rankings in Google Maps, but they can be grouped into three major categories.
- The relevance of your map listing to a search
- The proximity of your location to the person searching
- The authority of your map listing and digital presence across the internet
Learn more about how to optimize for these categories and dominate the Map.
Owning Your Brand on Google
Locking up your branded real estate in Google search results remains an essential path towards protecting your direct revenue streams. The effort involved in doing this depends largely on the answers to these two questions:
- How competitive is your market?
- Does the name of your company include a description of the activity itself?
Owning your Branded Results In Competitive Markets
In competitive markets, paid search results can take up a meaningful percentage of the “clickable real estate” in a branded Google Search result. For example, in the competitive Chicago market, we commonly see sponsored Google Travel (Things To Do) carousel placements at the very top of the branded result for 360 Chicago. It’s also common to see an ad from a reseller appear inside the brand’s Google business profile.
These are, unfortunately, pay to play spaces in your branded results. And if you don’t participate in the paid space, another brand (typically a reseller) will buy it up. The good news is that because you’re the most relevant result for your brand, it’s generally affordable and worth the money to lock up this space on Google.
Here’s the risk of not buying up the space. In the example below, there are 12 links sending traffic to an external website—the San Diego Zoo has just 4 of those 12 links, with the other 8 sending to third party sites or competitors.
When Your Business Name = the Activity Name
It’s not uncommon for a company in this industry to have a business name that replicates search intent for their category. For example, many of the people searching for “Sail San Diego” may simply be searching for sailing in San Diego and not realize that there’s a business named “Sail San Diego”.
Depending on how competitive your market is, it can be challenging to lock up your branded real estate when your business name is also a common non-brand search term. Here are three quick examples:
Sail San Diego: Typically, this term generates a map pack which incorporates Sail San Diego along with their competition.
Hike Maui: This is an interesting one, where the search term represents a common non-brand term. The company benefits from this non-brand search volume, but the branded search results make dominating the branded real estate more nuanced.
Hawaii Zipline Tours: For this highly competitive search term, Google is choosing to display a business profile rather than a map result.
Tips for Locking Up Your Branded Search Result
Four quick tips as you optimize your branded search presence:
- Optimize and manage your Google Business Profile: Posting regularly, ensuring a steady flow of positive reviews, and just keeping your profile up to date can all influence your branded search visibility.
- Don’t spend money unnecessarily: If the competition and resellers aren’t currently advertising on your brand name, you may be in a position to limit or eliminate your paid branded search efforts. But act slowly as you do this; the costs of branded advertising are often so low that it’s worth the money for the increased branded real estate.
- Check your auction insights: As you balance your branded ad spend budgets, it’s essential to keep an eye on who else is bidding on your brand term and know what it takes to stay at the top of the page.
- Reach out to your resellers: If you have a contact at Viator, Get Your Guide, etc we’ve found that it’s often worthwhile to reach out to them requesting that they not advertise on your brand terms. This is unlikely to work if your name is categorical (e.g., Sail San Diego).
Building a Resilient, Future-Proof Digital Presence
The 2025 Google SERP is a complex, fragmented, and rapidly-evolving landscape. Winning in this new environment is no longer about mastering a single channel or tactic. It is about building an integrated and resilient digital system where a strong brand, authoritative content, a sophisticated technical setup, strategic paid media, and an engaging social presence all work in concert.
We’d love to hear what you’re seeing in SERPs you care about. Shoot us a message, or send Nate a message on LinkedIn.
