This article goes into detail about how to maximize visibility throughout different components and sections on the category guide pages.
Component 1: Featured Products Shortlist
The shortlist at the top of the page is a text based ad unit that features 10 of the products covered in the guide. The way to get featured as one of the featured products in this ad unit is via the PPC auction which I'm including more info about below.
This section doesn't show rankings but rather just has a preview of a few of the featured products that are included in the category guide and then there is a button linking to the rankings section (see below) where used can sort, filter and prioritize based on their specific needs and attributes.
Want to be one of the featured products spotlighted in the featured products shortlist at the top of category pages?
Component 2: Rankings Index Tiles
When the user clicks to 'view rankings' from the CTA in section 1 -- they are taken to the product tile rankings section below.
Ultimately, the goal of this section is to display the best fit matches for a user. When they land on the page, we will always personalize the results for them based on any information that we know while also giving them the ability to toggle off personalization to explore the data and generate their own rankings based on their priorities or interests using the manual filters.
By default, whether personalization is enabled or custom filters the review and installs data that is used to generate the rankings is visible in the UI to hoteliers browsing the site so they can understand what is driving specific recommendations.
2a. Personalized Rankings for Each User (default)
By default, HTR personalizes the results based on any information we know about the user. The most basic information we would have is their location, and so we personalize to surface results that are more likely to be a good fit for each hotelier with more relevant recommendations surfacing as the user inputs more information.
2b. Manual filtering
Users also have the option to manually disable personalization if they want to manually filter to generate and view rankings based on specific criteria.
Once a user disables personalization they can:
Apply Manual filters: Select any attributes they want and dynamically update the rankings based on those attributes
Sort by Featured Fit: The default sort first shows vendors who are actively looking to connect with hotels in the hoteliers region and then secondarily by Premium Members and HT Score.
HT Score: The Hotel Tech Score is a composite ranking comprising of key signals such as: user satisfaction, customer support, user reviews, expert recommendations, integrations availability and geographic reach to help buyers better understand their products.
Popularity: Sorts listings by number of user reviews and reported installs, most to least.
Wondering which option matches the ranking on your profile?
The ranking of a given product that shows on your profile is your overall ranking in the category which is based on the HT Score which is one of the filters available to users (shown here) but by default personalized results per user are always prioritized to try to provide better fit recommendations to hoteliers based on their hotels attributes and needs.
👉 Learn more about HT Score: Overall Rankings
Component #3: Segment Based Rankings
In this section, we show rankings per segment (shown here). Below shows the current UI with top vendors per property type as well as the upcoming enhancement to more detailed in depth segment rankings by property type, hotel size, region and country with specialized summaries per segment ranking to gain better insight to what specific types of hotels are saying about a specific product.
Component #4: Featured Comparisons
There are four slots in the comparison table on page load for products in the category to get featured for added visibility. The default sort will prioritize products who are bidding in the PPC auction if there is a PPC auction in the category. If not, it will fall back to the premium members and then top-ranked products in the category providing additional visibility to companies participating in the PPC auction and who are premium members.
Component #5: In Depth Reviews
The in-depth review section features up to ten products in the category that are top rated based on overall HT score, with priority visibility given to premium members providing members with additional boosted visibility as well as richer content to showcase their products and brand as well as improved indexing on these core pages including: screenshots, AI summaries of their product and their reviews, keyword sentiment analysis, partner recommendations.
Component #6: Pricing table preview
The pricing section in the buyer's guide towards the bottom of the page has a component that features a pricing comparison of up to three products for additional visibility and another way to get discovered for vendors who are bidding in the PPC auction and who are top-rated premium members
