Monthly Industry Roundup: March 2017

Location3 News: Location3 head of Local Search Nick Neels traveled to San Diego for Local Search Association’s flagship event, LSA 2017. Neels was a featured speaker at this year’s conference, presenting “Developing a Market Prioritization Model for Greater Effectiveness.” Neels’ insights were at the center of Location3’s award-winning case study on the performance of HoneyBaked Ham throughout the holiday season.

That highlight brings us to an obviously related bit of news. Location3 received the top prize for Best Local Search Campaign at LSA 2017. This is the second time in the last three years that Location3 has won the award. The winning submission included a franchise marketing case study that showcased our ability to drive incredible ROI for HoneyBaked Ham, including the national brand and the 211 individual franchisees across the country.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SEO?

Google Research Indicates Majority of Mobile Sites Bloated

• According to Google, the time it takes to load the average mobile landing page is 22 seconds (this seems absurdly high)
• Additionally, Google’s research also indicates 53% of people will leave a mobile page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load
• Google came to the conclusion that “the majority of mobile sites are slow and bloated with too many elements”
• Obviously, these stats indicate poor user experience
• Google recommends compressing images and text and continuously testing mobile and desktop speeds in their Test My Site tool (this tool displays mobile, desktop and mobile friendliness all at once)

Emojis Are Back in Google SERPs

• Emoji were removed from Google SERPs back in 2015, but now they’re back
• Google says emoji will appear “where relevant, useful and fun”
• We can expect to see more in the future
• A newly filed Apple patent includes an emoji button on its keyboard so this is also why Google is bringing them back in the SERPs
• Should brands rush to cash in and place the characters in awkward, stilted contexts, Google may opt to banish them again

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN LOCAL?

Waze Digs into Your Car Dashboard

• As Waze usage moves from your phone to your car dashboard, Google will be getting a lot more info
• Some predicting car data could be 750 billion dollar industry by 2030

How to Optimize On-Page Signals for Local Search

• On-page signals are the number one factor in local search ranking at 20.3%; link signals came close at 20%; followed by Google My Business signals at 14.7%. (via Moz)
  1. Add Accurate NAP to Your Website
  2. Optimize Content for LOCAL KEYWORDS
  3. Add ALT attributes to your images
  4. Optimize LP Content
  5. Optimize LPs based on Site Structure

Proximity to Searcher is the New #1 Local Search Ranking Factor

• • • Proximity appears to be weighted more than links, website content, citations, and reviews in the local pack ranking
    • Proximity impacted non-geo modified terms more than results for geo-modified terms
    • Results sometimes cluster together
    • Google would rather show a smaller pack than a 3-pack when there is a business that’s too far away from the searcher
    • Speculates that this will increase ad revenue for google
    • Also speculates that this is because it is a better user experience

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN DISPLAY?

Amobee Makes Big Acquisition in Turn

Amobee has agreed to acquire Turn. In the ad-tech space, this is a pretty big acquisition. Turn is one of the top DMP/DSPs in the space – so Amobee will be acquiring a lot of technology into the stack. Amobee has historically been known for their branding and rich media capabilities, so this acquisition will help round out their full funnel offering. It will also help position them in International markets.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN VIDEO?

Streaming Services Continue Traditional TV Takeover

4th quarter 2016 saw some of the steepest declines in traditional pay TV service, down 1.7%. Many of those users are moving to a service like SlingTV and DirectTV Now, so for those traditional service providers that have added a digital option, their overall user base did not decline that significantly. But from the consumer’s perspective, they are cutting the cord. The biggest saving grace for traditional services was the availability of live programming. But now with YouTube TV, consumers will have another option to get their live programming. Here’s a blog post from Location3 that digs into the details.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOCIAL?

Instagram Stories Leading to Snapchat Declines?

The launch of Instagram stories may correlate to a decline in the number of Snapchat stories. From August to November 2016, the average unique viewers per Snapchat Story has decreased about 40%, according to this article from ClickZ

Kenshoo and Pinterest Make a Formidable Tandem

Advertisers using the Kenshoo platform to manage their search campaigns will also be able to run product search ads on Pinterest. Images and copy are pulled in through Google Shopping Ads. While Pinterest doesn’t have near the volume of searches Google does, they do have a lot of information on what consumers are interested in. Combining the two sources of data provides a lot of insight and opportunity for advertisers.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN ANALYTICS

Google Adds Features to Data Studio

Here are a few of the “powerful features” added to Google’s data visualization tool:

Reuse – Create a filter once and then use it on as many different components on the report as you want. No more recreating identical filters!

Compound filtering – Combine multiple AND and OR filter conditions together into one reusable filter.

Metric filters – Filter metric values that are too large, too small, or within a specified range.