Especially Restaurant and Hospitality marketers, have you changed your SEO or (as in my case much of my) overall online strategy for your Hospitality Clients after Carousel?
Carousel's functionality as a SERP is so different that it does seem to have larger implications for businesses that will be presented in this SERP format. Now rather than one click to a client's website where you have much more control over the experience, Carousel will create more clicking and comparison shopping within the SERP. Clicking on a Thumbnail in Carousel doesn't click through to the business' website, instead it now returns a new SERP with a search phrase on the business name.
As a result, things like online ratings sites (Yelp, Urbanspoon, etc) are much more relevant to the client's overall digital presence. Hence in many cases the need on the part of clients for more digital marketing services.
And while on first blush, it appear to potentially be a negative for SEO and a boon to other disciplines, I am currently of the belief that this raises the stakes for SEO for restaurants in competitive markets immeasurably. All of the Carousel SERPs that I've seen have been limited to two panels of horizontal thumbnails. If your restaurant doesn't appear in those results, you're much less likely to have online traffic turn into real world traffic. Interested to hear the input of the community, especially those that specialize in Hospitality Marketing.
