Google’s trying out a new way to display tweets on a given subject within search results, with a ‘Popular on Twitter’ panel highlighting related, trending tweets for certain queries.

As you can see in this example, shared by SEO expert Shay Harel, a new ‘Popular on Twitter’ panel is showing up for some location-based search queries, providing additional context based on trending tweets.

Tweets have long been incorporated into search results for celebrities and brands, so it’s not a huge shift in how Google has always displayed tweet results in SERPs. But it’s interesting in the context of how Google is looking to provide more real-time engagement data into its results, which could make tweets even more important, and could help to drive more tweet engagement from certain search types.

Tourism-related brands, for example, may want to monitor which Twitter handles are being highlighted in this panel, in order to understand how this display could impact user response and engagement, while the handles that are featured could get an exposure boost, putting more emphasis on their Twitter approach.

This is probably the most important impact from a marketing perspective – if more tweets are being shown in more places in Google search, that adds more SEO emphasis on actual tweet activity. So whether you think your audience is on Twitter or not, they’re almost certainly using Google, and this could provide another reason for maintaining a regular tweet schedule, based on what people may find in related queries.

There’s not a lot of information to go on at this stage, but it may be worth monitoring related search activity, and seeing what tweet results are showing up.