Monthly Industry Roundup: July 2016

Location3 News: Our biggest news of the last month was the official launch of Location3.com 4.0! The new website seeks to build on the story of Location3 as an agency, highlight the expertise of our employees and showcase our performance for client partners. Take a closer look, and let us know what you think!

location3.com

In other news, Verizon completed its purchase of Yahoo. Location3 founder Andrew Beckman shared his insight on Verizon’s intentions. Hint: Mobile. The answer is always mobile.

And our biweekly podcast, Digital Shoptalk, delivered Part 2 of our “Everything is Local” conference, featuring a panel of digital marketing gurus from the Denver area.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN LOCAL?

How Amazon Alexa and ‘Voice Apps’ Are Changing (Local) Search

Collectively, Google Now/Assistant, Cortana, Siri and Alexa are training people to conduct voice searches. Microsoft has said that 40 percent of voice searches carry local intent. Voice queries are growing significantly on mobile devices and will ultimately overtake conventional text input search queries, just as mobile searches have overtaken desktop query volumes.

The move to voice search/virtual assistants requires publishers and marketers to start thinking about content in terms of questions and how to optimize for voice search and rich answers.

Google Now Showing Time People Typically Spend

Google is now showing average times spent at different businesses. While the popular Times feature is helpful to understand when a business is busy, it is unclear how useful knowing the average time spent at a location can be for consumers.

After Buying Yahoo for Nearly $5 Billion, Verizon Now in Search Business

The deal includes most of Yahoo’s assets, though not the Alibaba shares or Yahoo Japan and several other assets. The fact that Verizon is a wireless carrier and ISP now makes it a potentially formidable player in the world of digital content distribution and advertising — mobile in particular.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN VIDEO?

Why You Must Adapt to Mobile Video

Last month we talked about the value in creating vertical video for mobile devices. This month, we’re showing you why adapting to the device is so important. Zenith is predicting consumers will spend an average of 19.7 minutes per day with mobile video, and 16 minutes a day with fixed video (desktop). This is a 39 percent increase for mobile video.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOCIAL?

Snapchat Targets Older Users with Memories Feature

This is an interesting move for Snapchat. They have added a memories feature. For a platform that is meant to be short-term, memories doesn’t seem to be a natural fit. They site the change due to their changing audience demographics. They are now estimating 38% of adults 25-34 use Snapchat, and this new feature will appeal to an older audience.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN ANALYTICS?

Tableau 10 with New Enterprise Features

The much-anticipated, newest version of Tableau, Tableau 10, will be shipped with some amazing features that will be a significant step up from its previous versions. Please check out all of the new features here.

Among those new features, the following two are the most exciting:

Cross-Database Join

Cross-database join allows data from separate sources to be, well, joined. Previously, to unite data from separate connections, data had to be blended within the report. Blending data is a quick and convenient way to join data on the fly. However, because the “blended” data is not materialized, it often slows performance when blending with too much data.

With cross-database join, separate data connections can be joined to create a new integrated data source. The new integrated data can be extracted and materialized without impacting performance. Cross-database join will give data more meaning and answer questions that couldn’t previously answered without integrated data.

Custom Territories

New map features will make it possible to create custom maps by simply dragging and drawing the custom territories on the map. The feature will take geo-coding data exploration and analysis to another level.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEO & CONTENT?

How “Think Globally, Act Locally” Can Help SMBs Hold Off Big Brands

Moz’s Ronell Smith describes in this post the idea that local brands are wasting their time and energy trying to rank for terms they have no shot at. Smith suggests that these brands, instead, should be focusing on establishing their brand through Google My Places, accurate citations and responding to third-party reviews. According to Smith, “local content is David’s slingshot to Goliath’s plate of armor.” Local-specific content is an area where small businesses can take some real estate from the big boys, who often choose to use their resources elsewhere.