Google Things to do

Your tours where travellers search

When someone searches Google for things to do in a city, Google can show tours with prices and a way to book. Google Things to do puts your published tours there, in Search and Maps, and supports the “Book” button on your Google Business Profile. Travellers who click land on your own website to book and pay. Google’s Things to do connection is a redirect: the booking and the money stay with you.

Each night, Tourtify rebuilds your feed of published tours in Google’s product feed format: titles, descriptions, photos, meeting points, languages, cancellation policy, ratings and prices. Prices are all-in, the lowest single-traveller rate including mandatory fees and taxes, because Google requires the price on Google to match the total on the page the traveller lands on.

A validation report for every tour

Only tours with everything Google requires go in. The rest are listed with what to fix. Blocking problems include a tour that isn’t published, a title over Google’s limit, no photo served over https, no meeting point address or destination, and no option with an online price. Warnings point to what ranks lower: titles longer than recommended, few photos, a short summary, no Google Maps link to the meeting point, no stated cancellation policy, or no guided languages.

A worked example: a food tour has one photo, a 40-character summary and no cancellation policy. It is ready but carries three warnings. Adding four more photos, a fuller summary and a free cancellation policy clears them, and the next night’s feed sends the better listing.

Business-level checks matter too: the name on your Google Business Profile, exactly as it appears on Maps, so Google can match your tours to it; an https website; and a phone number with the country code.

Delivery, tracking and the partnership

Most businesses send their feed through Tourtify, which combines every opted-in business into one nightly upload as a Google Things to do connectivity partner. That connection depends on Google approving Tourtify: until it is live, your feed is built and checked every night but not sent, and it goes out from the first night after the connection is switched on. If Google has approved you as a direct partner, you can deliver from your own Actions Center account instead, by SFTP with an SSH key created on the plugin page, to Google’s development or production endpoint.

Every link from Google is tagged with utm_source=google, utm_medium=things_to_do and a campaign name you choose, and points to the right tour and option. Visits from Google and the bookings and revenue they bring are counted per day, and each such booking is noted on its timeline. Optionally, your average rating and review count from verified reviews on your website are sent too.

Setting up Google Things to do

1. 1Switch on Google Things to do. Turn the plugin on. Your first feed is built that night.
2. 2Add your Business Profile name. Enter it exactly as it appears on Google Maps, and check your phone number.
3. 3Fix blocking issues. Open the validation report and fix what keeps each tour out of the feed.
4. 4Clear the warnings. Add photos, summaries, meeting point map links, cancellation policies and languages.
5. 5Choose the delivery. Keep “Through Tourtify”, or use your own Actions Center account if Google approved you.