• Variations in clickthrough rates across verticals, including the impact of Google Business Profiles and directories
• Mobile vs. desktop behaviour, zero-click search and ad engagement, brand and reviews, country-specific insights
• Digital Markets Act update, focusing on self-preferencing and its potential to transform local search strategies

Google Search Console, Business Profile Insights, and Analytics are useful tools to help understand how consumers interact with your site and business profiles. But they don’t share how or why consumers choose sites or businesses like yours on Google in the first place.
David and his team analysed over 1000 European searcher sessions across a diverse set of verticals including hotels, restaurants, and home services. In this session, he will share some of the most surprising takeaways from the 2024-25 research, including:
– the click-through curve for each vertical, and how that curve differs from vertical to vertical, including Google Business Profile and Aggregator (directory) usage 
– how mobile and desktop search behaviour differs
– zero-click search engagement data
– ad engagement data
– country-specific search behaviour
– the role of brand in search behaviour
– how consumers utilize reviews
– and more.
Along the way, David will also give an update on the latest Digital Markets Act developments, particularly as they relate to self-preferencing–a law whose rigorous enforcement may spur the largest shake-up in Google’s approach to local search in over a decade. After this session you will have a better understanding of how behavioural research can help assess your true competition, and how it can be used not just to optimize your search investment theses, but your messaging, packaging, and positioning strategy.