Video: Last Week in Local 7/22/2019

Mike Blumenthal

Mike: There’s a practical reason for California to enact the legislation: The state estimates it loses $7 billion in payroll tax annually due to companies misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

Barclays recently estimated that classifying California drivers as employees could cost Uber and Lyft, respectively, $500 million and $290 million annually.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Uber bluntly wrote that reclassifying its drivers as employees “would require us to fundamentally change our business model, and consequently have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

Duh!

Mike: Retailers believe antitrust regulators’ traditional reliance on price is ripe for reevaluation and are encouraged by recent statements by policymakers indicating a renewed commitment to evaluating non-price competition harms,” the letter says.

Amazon responded to the RILA letter with the following comment: “The retail market is fiercely competitive. Amazon represents less than 4% of U.S. retail. The vast majority of U.S. retail sales – 90% — still occur in physical stores.”

Anti-trust in the US is largely a matter of which side of the argument has the regulators ears.

Mike: Typical Silicon Valley hubris. Break the rules and apologize later. Be sure to watch the video and then wonder whether your recent food delivery is safe.

Mike: Last fall the Supreme Court overturned several decades of sales tax avoidance by companies selling on the internet. B & H came up with a creative solution – if you use the new B & H credit card you will receive awards on your card equal to your local sales tax.

A great piece of marketing on their side AND an indication of just how lucrative these credit cards can be.

Mike: Google Q & A Autosuggest has been upgraded to now include Q & A answers as well as Posts.

It’s past time that you have a great Google Q & A FAQ at Google and are sure that you articulate the value of any post in plain english (not just a graphic) so that it can show as an answer

Mary: @CaseyMeraz gives us some tips on breaking through in the highly competitive world of Law Firm SEO. In this article Casey discusses several SEO tips that you may not find on your everyday blog, including getting rid of bloated content.

Mary: Niki Mosier of Seer explains how to use some of the new GMB features to your advantage.

Mary: Darren Shaw’s presentation from MozCon 2019 gives an easily understood case study showing which tactics really work in taking a business from zero web presence to ranking hyper-locally in just 8 months.

Mary: Are citations worth messing with any more? Read this discussion between David Mihm and Mike Blumenthal before you decide.

Carrie: I’m still flabbergasted by the assertion that this person knew nothing about recent WSJ articles or zero click search research.  Really?

Carrie: Join myself, Mary and Willys DeVoll as we discuss content creation for a variety of different scenarios – from mom & pop business to enterprise, scalable content.

Carrie: As usual – Mary rocked the stage talking about your brand and how to rock Google’s local search algorithm!

Carrie Hill: Joy’s Mozcon presentation outlines things that Local needs to work well – that don’t necessarily impact by organic

Carrie: Miss Greg Gifford at Mozcon? Here’s your chance to view his info (and movie reference) filled slides!

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