I thought I'd round out the year by highlighting your five favorite stories (based on click percentage) from my last 51 weekly newsletters. And if you're already looking forward to 2019, get a head start with my predictions for what's coming.
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Welcome to my penultimate newsletter of 2018. Initially I wanted to share just your favorite stories from the past 11 months, but there was too much important content published last week not to share it. So look for my full recap of important stories — and full slate of 2019 predictions — towards the middle …
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Local Search Ranking Factors 2018: Local Today, Key Takeaways, and the Future Source: moz.com Darren Shaw has done an excellent job shepherding the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey of top practitioners in the field. The results from the wider field bore out my sense of the local algorithm these days: both GMB and reviews …
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The Google My Business team has released a brand-new version of its app designed to increase engagement from business owners. Importantly it mentions the concept of a “business profile” in its release, which is a lot easier to explain to a business owner than “Knowledge Panel!” Hope you, your friends, and your families all have …
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Oof. Welcome to Standard Time, guys. I know we got an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night, but it was brutal to see darkness fall just after 5pm here in Portland last night. For me at least, March 10th can’t come soon enough! Those of you who are subscribed to my Agency Insider have …
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Local Services Ads Click Study: Where Do People Click on Local SERPs? Source: www.brightlocal.com This fascinating study from BrightLocal, with expert commentary from Tom Waddington, highlights the impact of Google’s Local Services Ads on clickthrough behaviors. Frankly I was surprised the effect wasn’t even more dramatic, but the test appears to have been conducted solely …
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Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers, and to my American readers and those of you around the world, welcome to a typical Monday grind. đ Hope you learn a little something from these stories to help get your week started on the right foot. On SERP SEO – The Infuriating Reality of Search’s Future Source: …
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Good morning everyone, and welcome to the first full week of Fall! Without any further ado, here are the top 5 stories that caught my eye this week: Is Google Playing the Long Game with SMB Websites? Source: streetfightmag.com “When you look at this Website growth + the Local Knowledge Panel with Posts + AMP …
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Hope everyone's back-to-school season is going great. We've had an incredible run of weather here in the Pacific Northwest, which has made the shorter days just a little less depressing :D.
If you want to go "back to school" for digital marketing, Eric Shanfelt has organized a terrific lineup of speakers for the annual Local Business Marketing Summit, coming up in just 9 days.
[but don't forget to come back and check out my picks for the week's top stories ;) ]
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Will Facebook dethrone Google in local search? Mike Blumenthal and I think it's unlikely, at least as a direct result of their latest moves.
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Lots of buzz about the changes coming to Facebook Pages this week, in addition to strong qualitative and quantitative analysis of the impact of prior changes.
While Facebook remains an essential platform on which small businesses should engage, these changes reinforce my belief that a strong email marketing program -- a channel that you own -- is the best long-term coping mechanism.
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Google’s Path to Becoming the Transaction Layer of the Web Source: streetfightmag.com Mike Blumenthal and I discuss the accelerating trend of Google not just presenting local business information, but monetizing it via on-SERP transactions. Across dozens of industries, consumers are now making reservations or purchases without ever visiting the website of the local business with …
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Does Google Really Need a Social Network to Succeed at Local? Source: streetfightmag.com Mike Blumenthal and I discuss the increasingly social feel of Google’s local results — without a true social network to back it up — in our latest StreetFight column. Is LinkedIn Making a Deeper Move into Local? Source: twitter.com Dana DiTomaso got …
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Hard to believe we are halfway through 2018 already! Happy (belated) Canada Day to my friends and neighbors to the north, and Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans.
Here's some very light reading for you to enjoy while you're waiting for the burgers to develop that tasty sear on the grill. :D
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The State of Email Marketing in 2018 Source: themanifest.com The Manifest, a sister publication of Clutch, conducted a wide-ranging survey that serves as a great primer on the kinds of emails you can send and why each is effective. The survey found a considerably higher percentage of small businesses using email marketing than we did, …
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In last week’s Agency Insider, I mentioned I’d share the effect of the EU’s new GDPR permission requirements on my own email list. Based on what I’ve seen on Twitter and read across the marketing landscape, the results were both expected and unexpected. The number of Minutive subscribers dropped to a third of my original …
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CBS â60 Minutesâ piece on Google’s abuse of dominance Source: www.yelpblog.com I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve agreed with Luther Lowe, Yelp’s VP of Public Policy who no doubt helped pitch and secure this story on 60 Minutes. Local search features prominently, and it’s exceptionally well-executed by the 60 …
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I had a fabulous, productive, and fabulously-productive time at LSA’s annual conference in Chicago last week. Great content and great networking in a great city. Thanks to Greg Sterling and the rest of the conference organizers for the opportunity to present not once but twice! Here are the Cliffs Notes from both of my sessions …
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Thanks to Melanie Nathan for the opportunity to speak to the SEMrush audience. She asked some great questions & gave me the opportunity to lay out my digital marketing worldview in just a few minutes!
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April is a busy month for Tidings — and for me personally! ICYMI, we now offer the ability to build a newsletter from your Instagram account, and you can also subscribe to social channels besides your own from within your settings area. As far as my schedule, I hope to see many of you at Local …
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Q&A, Reviews, and Fake News on Google: False Content Is Not Just a Facebook Problem Source: streetfightmag.com A quasi-rant from yours truly and Mike Blumenthal about the lack of serious media attention on the impact of fake Q&A or fake reviews on small businesses, despite the rising outcry against fake news. Facebook and Google have for years refused to …
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Thoroughly enjoyed meeting many of you at my EngagePDX session last week–and hope to meet many more of you at SMX West this week and/or Local U Austin next month! On the Future of AMP Source: streetfightmag.com Mike and I discuss how AMP fits into Google’s larger worldview, and how quickly we may see AMP for …
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Tidings now creates newsletters from any Instagram account! Try for yourself at tidings.com/instagram Unpacking the Increasingly Complex Local SERP Source: streetfightmag.com Mike Blumenthal and I discuss the visually-overwhelming local services search result, how Google is weeding out businesses for each result type, and whether this is ultimately good for consumers and small businesses. (Spoiler: it’s …
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Longtime subscribers know that I typically share the top five stories from a given week to keep reading time under 60 seconds. But I came across an older item that I couldn't resist sharing (read to the bottom to see it).
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The Best Newsletters in America Source: t.co Check out this ancient (1992 ? ) article from Inc. Magazine with great advice for print newsletters–that still holds true and applies equally well to digital ones. Replay: What Local Marketers Must Know in 2018 Source: www.lsainsider.com For those who weren’t able to make my LSA webinar with …
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Next Year in Local SEO: Predictions and Possibilities for 2018 [Video] Mike and I took a deep dive into our respective predictions for 2018 last week. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! Trump’s Hotels Are Getting Yelp-Bombed After His “Shithole” Remark Over time, Yelp will remove the negative reviews manually, …
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Hope you all had a fabulous holiday break! For me at least, it’s a rough return to reality this morning but maybe these little nuggets can help you re-adjust. đ Is SEO Opportunity Growing or Shrinking? Source: moz.com Interesting analysis from Rand Fishkin to close out the year. I’ll admit to being shocked that the percentage …
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Before I dive in to this week’s stories, I’d like to let readers know about a couple changes in store for Minutive. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as we enter the holiday season, I (and Minutive) will be taking next week off for a bit of relaxation. I hope you’ll enjoy that time off with me! More significantly, …
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Google Q&A Rolling Out Worldwide Source: www.blog.google Q&A is a massive conversion opportunity, but also (potentially) a massive reputation management nightmare — anyone can ask any question they want, or give any answer they want, right on “your” Knowledge Panel. How Local SEO Fits In With What Youâre Already Doing Source: t.co I absolutely love Miriam Ellis’s …
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2017 Local Marketing Year in Review Source: tidings.com See which of my 2017 predictions tracked most closely with reality, and how I think we’ll remember the most important developments of 2017. 2018 Local Marketing Predictions Source: tidings.com As you start to plan your local marketing strategy for 2018, here’s my take on the major developments …
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How the End of Network Neutrality Could Affect SMBs and the Public Interest Source: streetfightmag.com With Google and Facebook already devouring more and more traffic for themselves, the likely end of Net Neutrality this week pushes small business websites even further behind the 8-ball. The tech giants will all rush to cut deals with ISPs …
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Happy Thanksgiving to Minutive readers everywhere — Gobble Gobble! Local SEO Guide’s 2017 Ranking Factors Study Source: www.localseoguide.com I’ve been back-and-forth with authors Andrew Shotland and Dan Leibson about the circular logic of even reporting the #1 ranking factor at all (which sadly has earned many of the headlines I’ve seen). A more useful takeaway from this extremely …
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Survey Says: Newsletters Take too Long to Send for Most Small Businesses Source: tidings.com Last month, we ran a Google Survey asking 500 U. S. small business owners a simple question: From start to finish, how long would you estimate it takes to create and send your company’s email newsletter? The results strongly validated the …
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Google Home Services Ads Rebrands, Expands Source: www.blog.google Google is massively expanding its Home Services Ads program, now called Local Services Ads–a clear indication of its intent to expand not just into more cities but into more verticals. This release is the strongest indication yet of Google’s drive to fully-monetize more and more local search …
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Help Eric Ward’s family in their time of loss Source: www.youcaring.com Eric marketed websites long before Google or Facebook even existed, and had such a positive impact on our industry. Ironically his nickname of “Link Moses” doesn’t capture what a great broad-based marketer he was. He was an incredibly down-to-earth, genuine person, and I’ll remember him fondly. Biggest …
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Facebook news feed change is death to small businesses Source: medium.com Facebook has released a news feed “improvement” that, at least in this author’s view, will eliminate organic page visibility altogether. It’s a good time to build your subscriber list and investigate an easy email newsletter, if you want customers to see those social updates you’re …
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Local Guides: Googleâs 50 Million âFeet on the Street’ Source: www.lsainsider.com While the 50 million number is wildly inflated (it basically means that 50 million Google Maps users leave occasional reviews), the Local Guides program has become a real asset for Google, far more valuable than Yelp’s Elite. Small businesses need to know that reviews …
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Understanding the 2017 U.S. Local Search Ecosystem Source: whitespark.ca Now that I’m no longer in the trenches of SEO, Darren Shaw and Nyagoslav Zhekov of Whitespark agreed to take over research for the latest edition of the Local Search Ecosystem graphic. We hope it helps you understand who the major players are when it comes …
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The Local SEO Handbook: Maximize your visibility in local search results Source: tidings.com Hot off the digital presses — The Local SEO Handbook, a free ebook now available for download, handcrafted by yours truly. The Impending HTTPstrophe â And What it Means for Local Businesses Source: streetfightmag.com Mike Blumenthal and I take a little deeper …
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Is Your Website Secure? You’re Running Out of Time Source: www.searchcommander.com I predict the insecure Chrome warning will have a far bigger negative impact on small businesses than “Mobilegeddon” ever did — it has the potential to be an HTTPstrophe. If your site isn’t served over https://, nearly 2/3 of your visitors (Chrome’s approximate market …
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Add turnkey email newsletters to your agency’s suite of services. Find out how with our new agency platform Âť Announcing Tidings’ First Offline Event: Assembled. (Nov 1) Source: www.facebook.com We’ve invited digital marketing experts from across the Pacific Northwest to give targeted 1:1 consultations to small businesses in the areas they need the most help. …
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40% of Consumers Want Emails From Brands to Be Less Promotional Source: www.adweek.com Adobe Research is out with a fantastic summary of why informational newsletters are so effective: consumers want informative content delivered via email. Researchers taught AI to write totally believable fake reviews, and the implications are terrifying Source: www.businessinsider.com We can scoff at the …
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Yellow Pages to stop printing directory after 51-year run Source: www.bbc.com I’m of surprised this didn’t make wider rounds in our industry last week, but perhaps that’s because half the people in our industry aren’t old enough to have ever seen a yellow pages! This development likely portends a similar decision by U.S. publishers in …
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Tidings Agency Platform Launches Source: tidings.com Agencies and consultants can now whitelabel the full-featured Tidings product and provide awesome newsletters for their clients via their own branded portal. The Fallacy of Googleâs âMicro-Momentâ Positioning Source: streetfightmag.com Mike Blumenthal and I dissect one of Google’s best-known PR gimmicks in this episode of our bi-weekly StreetFight conversation. …
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Home Service Ads Alert â Read this Post Source: blumenthals.com Mike and I had a discussion of sorts about this post on Twitter last week. Essentially Google has given up on policing high-spam Service Area Business categories and just said “fine, we’ll use advertising budgets as our algorithm.” Needless to say, I see these kinds …
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Why Email Marketing Source: www.campaignmonitor.com I’m finally getting around to building some core marketing assets for Tidings in preparation for a couple big feature launches later this week. As part of that process I rediscovered this high-signal gem by Campaign Monitor summarizing the top virtues of email marketing. Can Yelp Extend Its Moment in the …
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Googleâs new program to track shoppers sparks a federal privacy complaint Source: www.washingtonpost.com Avid Minutive readers might remember I highlighted Google’s credit-card partnership a few months back. That program has now led to a privacy complaint before a federal agency… though I’m not holding my breath on the federal government regulating one of the biggest …
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The Evolution of Local SERP Topography Source: tidings.com My thoughts on how the local SERP has evolve, annotated with key milestones in Google’s business/revenue trajectory. The Place of Newspapers in the Local Marketing Ecosystem Source: streetfightmag.com Despite having their ad revenue decimated by Google and Facebook over the last decade, local newspapers (in many cases) …
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Google to add ‘news feed’ to website and app Source: www.bbc.com The latest innovation in Google’s continuing quest to keep people on Google as long as possible…the famous purity of the Google homepage is about to become dramatically less pure. Facebookâs Self-Serve Ad Creative Canât Be SMBsâ Only Choice Source: streetfightmag.com Can’t it? Continuing a …
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Googleâs Product Bid for DIY Wallet Share Source: streetfightmag.com Mike Blumenthal and I discuss Google’s three major product rollouts in a 30-day span; Websites, Posts and now SMS messaging, in the context of their long-term play with all three: Adwords Express. Google adds salon and spa bookings through Maps and Search Source: techcrunch.com Across *every* …
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One Size Does Not Fit All in the SMB Digital Market Source: streetfightmag.com Inspired by my vacation in rural WIsconsin a couple of weeks ago, Mike Blumenthal and I discuss the differences between marketing channels for urban business owners vs. rural ones in our latest StreetFight conversation. The Cheap SEO Epidemic | How Much Does …
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Hope you all had a great Fourth of July, a happy Canada Day, or just generally a good start to the week! I thought about taking the week off, but there were too many good stories to share! Minutive will be back to its regularly-scheduled Monday timeslot once again next week. Is DexYP the Consolidator …
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Google Posts now live for all Google My Business users Source: searchengineland.com Google’s latest content product, (sort of) called Posts, went live last week. I’m skeptical it’ll be around for long, as it runs counter to Google’s transaction-facilitator trend and draws eyeballs away from advertisers. But for the time being, it’s a great chance for …
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5 questions: Talking local SEO with David Mihm Source: yoast.com I was honored to be part of Yoast’s “5 Questions” interview series! Tidings WordPress Plugin Now Available! Source: tidings.com You can now publish your Tidings newsletters to your website or blog with a single click — turning your content curation efforts into evergreen search traffic …
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Local SEO Expert Q&A: 56 Answers on Local Marketing Source: rachelmhowe.com Rachel Howe conducts interviews with local search leaders about such topics as their top three marketing priorities, AR/VR, and more. An honor to be included in such an illustrious group! Stop All Social Media Activity (Organic) | Solve For A Profitable Reality Source: www.kaushik.net …
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[Interactive] The Local Marketing Stack: A Roadmap for Small Business Marketing Decisions TIDINGS.COM This project has been an extended labor of love that I hope to refer hundreds/thousands of business owners to in coming years. I’d love any feedback/suggestions from Minutive readers. Tidings Chrome Extension Now Available TIDINGS.COM It was a big week for Tidings …
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Google now knows when its users go to the store and buy stuff WWW.WASHINGTONPOST.COM Google has long known which searchers visit a given store by persistently tracking iOS Google Maps and Android users’ locations, but they’re now taking it one step further. This new credit-card-data partnership (unless it’s miraculously shut down by an obscenely derelict …
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7 unannounced updates to Google My Business we’ve seen in 2017 SEARCHENGINELAND.COM A fantastic summary of recent changes to GMB from Joy Hawkins. Even I wasn’t aware of 4 out of the 7. Kill Google AMP before it KILLS the web WWW.THEREGISTER.CO.UK A nicely nuanced look at the positives and negatives of AMP. Personally, I’d …
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The Current State of Google Maps â Fake News, Fake Reviews STREETFIGHTMAG.COM Mike Blumenthal and I continue our bi-weekly StreetFight conversation, this time focusing on Mike’s research into fake review networks. Tips for Attracting Local Clients WWW.DUCTTAPEMARKETING.COM I was honored to be invited by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing to a wide-ranging podcast covering …
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The Yext IPO and the triumph of local SEO SEARCHENGINELAND.COM “The global market for local listings management may be worth up to $50 billion.” That’s a preposterous figure. It assumes that all 100,000,000 businesses are willing to pay $500 annually for a specific, commoditized service. Even the 2020 $19 billion number cited by Borrell Associates …
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This is how Google will collapse DANIEL COLIN JAMES James condenses many of the arguments you’ve seen in this newsletter over the past year into a single column–and adds one to which I hadn’t previously given much weight–ad-blocking. It may be hard to believe given Alphabet’s record profit announcement last week. But, although James overstates …
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Preparing for local reach in a ‘post-rank’ world, Part 2: Create content for local research SEARCHENGINELAND.COM Zipsprout’s Megan Hannay gives some great answers to one of the most common questions I receive at conferences: “how do I create unique local content at scale?” You Probably Shouldnât Forge a Judgeâs Signature to Solve Your SEO Problems …
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Frustration With Digital Marketing Vendors Boils Over for One SMB STREETFIGHTMAG.COM Mike Blumenthal and I resume our bi-weekly conversation, discussing the causes and dangers of unrealistic sales targets and overinflated performance metrics when selling digital marketing to small businesses. How Small Business Marketing Can Succeed in 2017 CLUTCH.CO Any agency or digital marketing vendor subscribing …
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Pinning Down Abuse on Google Maps research.google.com Make sure you click through and read the full PDF. It’s interesting not for its conclusions (see below), but for the rare insight into how Google My Business works on the back-end. (In particular, the taxonomic logic behind Google’s category system.) Spam In, Garbage Out â Why Googleâs …
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Apologies for the slight delay in this week’s Minutive. I’ve been heads-down on a couple of major improvements to Tidings which I’ll formally announce later this week. They’re actually live now, so if your curiosity is just overwhelming, feel free to try them out for yourself! đ In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the …
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What Does the Bot Bubble Mean for Facebookâs Long Game? STREETFIGHTMAG.COM In our latest Streetfight conversation, Mike and I discuss Facebook’s incredible positioning as a C2B communications tool–one that’s at least as good as Twitter–but their failure thus far to fully capitalize on it. Facebook Inches Closer to Something That Looks Like Local Search WWW.LSAINSIDER.COM …
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The State of Searcher Behavior Revealed Through 23 Remarkable Statistics MOZ.COM The entire study is worth a read. While I’ve been emphasizing this scenario in presentations for the last 2-3 years, I now have a statistic to go with it: 57.1% of Google searches on mobile result in no click at all. Given the prevalence …
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Are Words the New Links? blumenthals.com Inspired by our conclusion from our recent StreetFight conversation that the concept of a “citation” needs to evolve, Mike Blumenthal lays out his theory of Entity Authority and absolutely nails it, IMO. Mobile page speed is important, but not (yet) for SEO The definitive answer to the question of …
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This week's edition features David's theory on the future of local ranking factors, two conversations with Mike Blumenthal, and a "new" program from Google that enables more on-SERP transactions.
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Tidings Officially Launches!
Iâm excited to announce the launch of Tidings, a SaaS product that automatically generates perfectly-branded email newsletters for small businesses.
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How popular is Voice Search? HIGHER VISIBILITY Higher Visibility surveyed 2000 individuals to find out how popular Voice Search is today. Looking at the heavy usage “while driving,” it’s not hard to predict a significant impact on Local Search. A companion to the excellent survey from Stone Temple a couple of weeks ago. Customers want …
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Google Testing New Local Knowledge Panel Call to Action BY MIKE BLUMENTHAL I’m not entirely sure what to make of this test, as it seems at odds with the Knowledge Panel’s focus on structured data that consumers find valuable. Perhaps it represents the last remnants of the Google+ team still fighting for political relevance within …
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The biggest story that caught my eye this week happened over the weekend, and it's not possible for me to go on with "business-as-usual" with this week's newsletter.
The president's repugnant Executive Order effectively restricting entry into this country on the basis of religion is antithetical to our national values, and makes a mockery of the American Dream he pretends to champion.
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Featuring an exceptionally-interesting survey from Eric Enge of Stone Temple, David's latest StreetFight conversation with Mike Blumenthal, and other various and sundry items of interest.
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A long-awaited feature in Google My Business, thoughts from one of the leading voices in the SEO industry, and the benefits of in-market brand marketing are just some of the topics covered this week.
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It was hard to avoid Amazon's headlines this week. Sure, part of it was the PR around the Consumer Electronics show, but most of it is the convergence of years of work and thinking that have gone into Amazon's Alexa strategy. If you don't have a strategy FOR Alexa, it's time to start thinking about out.
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Is There an SMB Analytics Market? And If So, What Should It Measure? BY MIKE BLUMENTHAL AND YOURS TRULY Mike and I resume our bi-weekly conversation series on StreetFight with this discussion of what analytics should matter to (very) small businesses, and whether this is even an addressable market for analytics vendors. LSA 2017 Predictions …
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Included in this issue are your 7 favorites from the last year. Collectively, they provide a remarkably accurate core narrative of where things stand at the end of 2016--you guys are pretty smart!
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Sequencing the Local Marketing Stack BY YOURS TRULY I released this graphic last week to help small business owners understand prioritization and integration of the myriad digital media options being marketed to them today. Building the Essential Digital Marketing Bundle for Local Businesses BY MIKE BLUMENTHAL AND YOURS TRULY In a related story, Mike Blumenthal …
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My 2017 Local Marketing Predictions: Part I, Search BY YOURS TRULY From my vantage point, 2017 has all the makings of a tipping point of sorts in local search. Google’s increased monetization and the decrease in available organic real estate — two of the primary themes you’ve seen me highlight in this newsletter each week …
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A visual decision-making framework to help local business owners evaluate their digital marketing options.
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Joy Hawkins