Site owners have become used to Google suggesting other businesses when viewing the local results for a business, but Google usually relegates that to the very bottom of the listing, after all the other details for the business such as reviews, ratings and other business info.  But looks like they are testing a more aggressive approach that seems Google placing these alternative businesses WITHIN the local information for the business being viewed.

Sergey Alakov spotted this test it shows Google placing the “People also search for” much higher in the individual business information panel.

Here is the most aggressive version, which sees the “People also search for” placed right after the map, and before the ratings or any of the reviews.

Here is a second version, which places it beneath the ratings but above the reviews themselves.

And here is the third one, in its usual position, showing beneath the ratings and the reviews for the business, the position that most local businesses are probably happy with.

It is important to remember that these are showing when someone has clicked through from local 3-pack to show an individual business information, so Google is potentially diverting traffic from an individual listing in their search results.

It isn’t clear how widespread this test is, as I was unable to replicate it.  But for local businesses, it isn’t a great test, especially if Google finds that searchers are actually using them.