Video: Last Week in Local Feb 5, 2018

Last week in local 2/5/18 Join Local U for the latest public episode of Last Week in Local, a weekly conversation about the articles that attracted our attention during the past week ending February 5th. This week features Mary Bowling &  Mike Blumenthal. If you have a special topic you would like us to discuss…

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Targeting Hyper Local Customers with Paid Advertising

In my years as a marketer for small businesses, I’ve found that most eliminate paid advertising as a legitimate channel – both because of cost and targeting.  There’s a misconception among non-marketers who are trying to run businesses that PPC or CPC advertising is too broad reaching for a mom & pop establishment with one…

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Video Deep Dive: Facebook and Local Attribution

This is the 23rd installment this year of our Deep Dive Into Local series. For the week ending Monday, June 27th, Mary Bowling and Mike Blumenthal shared their thoughts about the previous week in local. The complete video, including links and commentary on critical happenings of the previous week is posted in the Local U…

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Video Deep Dive: Upcoming Mobile Ranking Change

This is the 10th installment this year of our Deep Dive Into Local series. For the week ending Friday, March 18th, Mary Bowling and Mike Blumenthal shared their thoughts about the previous week in local. The complete video, including links and commentary on critical happenings of the previous week is posted in the Local U…

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Mobile Opportunities, Observations, & Insights Post-Mobilegeddon

With all this talk about Mobilegeddon, I decided to take a look at mobile traffic trends over the past three years. Specifically, I looked at Google organic searches via mobile devices. I compared those searches to Google organic searches via desktop, tablet, and mobile organic searches from other search engines, and any other traffic pattern…

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Is Apple Watch the Product that Defines the Wearable Market?

For the past ten years, Local has been about people going to a search engine and looking for a local service or perhaps looking at a classified in Craigslist. That has started to change with mobile and the development of vertical marketplaces like Uber and AirBnB. But the Internet of Things and wearables portend even…

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A Guide to Google Mobile Local Pack Results

Last week, Google pushed its new, blue mobile local pack (previously seen on Android and Google Now) to the iPhone. As the world and Google goes mobile (and local), it makes sense to detail and name the various local pack results that we are now seeing in the mobile environment. For the most part, there…

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Ignoring Mobile? You’re Ignoring Half Your Local Prospects

Many local businesses aren’t sure where to focus first with their online marketing, and insurance agencies are no exception. New research suggests that mobile optimization should be near the top of every small business’ priority list. A newly released consumer study by Nielsen, xAd and Telmetrics reveals that as of 2013, a whopping 50 percent…

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