Monthly Industry Roundup: November 2017

Location3 News

Franchisees Increase Store Visits With LOCALACT

Since the full-scale launch of LOCALACT, Location3’s local digital marketing platform, our franchise clients have reported steady increases in customer traffic. Anytime Fitness, FASTSIGNS, and HoneyBaked Ham have successfully implemented the user-friendly platform across 65,000 franchise locations combined, and the early returns are substantial. In the two months since its release, LOCALACT has served:

• 1.7 billion map listings views
• 27 million driving directions
• 9 million click-to-call customer connections

The full release can be read here.

Location3 Accepted Into Forbes Agency Council

Location3 Accepted Into Forbes Agency Council

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN LOCAL?

How to Tighten Your Local Search Strategy

Location pages can be make-or-break for franchise SEO. They may seem simple enough, but one wrong decision on the back end can cost you. Location3 CEO Alex Porter recently shared with Business.com three reasons why your location pages might be suffering in SEO and how to fix them. Here’s an excerpt from the column:

Your locations are missing their own pages

While it’s helpful to have content about your local stores on your brand website, each location should also have its own landing page. Ideally, a store location should have its own unique, mobile-optimized page that includes hyperlocal content specific to that particular business location.

The full column can be read here.

 

2018 Local Search Conferences are Coming Soon

Location3’s Head of Local Search Nick Neels has compiled his annual list of local search conferences for 2018. Check out the full list here. Feel free to let us know if we’re missing anything. This list will be updated throughout the year for those looking for professional development opportunities.

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEO?

No Tells From Google on Mobile-First Index Rollout

Google’s Gary Illyes says Google won’t be telling the public when the mobile-first index will be in place, according to several tweets from SMX East attendees.  Illyes added that the much-anticipated rollout may never be fully intact as “outliers” will always be present. It was previously reported by several outlets that the mobile-first index was in place for several sites deemed “ready”. Google reps previously pegged early 2018 as the planned rollout, but don’t expect a formal announcement.

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN PAID MEDIA?

Facebook Creative Split Testing Now Available

Facebook recently announced a couple of new features for social advertisers. Creative split testing enables advertisers to A/B test different ad formats, visuals, headlines, and calls to action to determine which versions of their ads drive the best results. Users will only see one version of the ads during split tests.

This is a move away from Facebook’s automatic selection of the top performing ad within an ad group, which forced advertisers to manually set up true A/B testing in separate ad groups.

The other feature introduced is Test and Learn, a pilot program that will allow advertisers to as specific questions and receive information on which tests they should run. The full details are included in this post from AdWeek.

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN PPC?

Campaign Shortcuts to Prevent Headaches

Location3 PPC specialist Hannah Will recently joined our video podcast, “Digital Shoptalk”, as part of our Digital Tricks and Treats episode. Will shared a couple of simple tricks for setting up PPC campaigns. Skip to 6:37 for the PPC portion of the podcast (watching the entire video is fine too).

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN CONTENT?

A Formula For Videos People Love

For the average content marketer, videos can be intimidating to produce. Amy Scmittauer Landino, author of Vlog Like a Boss, luckily has shared a nine-part formula for successful video content. Here are a couple of ingredients:

1. Put your main subject first

Whatever your video is about, get right to it. “Don’t waste any time getting to your subject. Whether it’s human, like a brand rep, or an item that you’re showing off, get that thing on camera immediately – especially if it’s a person. Faces are very relatable,” Amy says.

2. Minimize your branding

Keep your branding subtle. You may love the idea of floating your logo on a beach with pretty music for a 30-second intro as a way to make the video seem “more professional,” but that kind of self-indulgence won’t buy you the attention you’re looking for, Amy says.

The rest of the formula can be found here.