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YouTube, has introduced a “Breaking News” section on its homepage, it shows a collection of videos pertaining worldwide news and events. The feature appears on both mobile, as well as desktop.

Barcelona attack being the very recent major incident happened across the world, the Breaking News section was showing the videos related to it. The section shows region-specific videos displayed in horizontal scrollable format, the section includes options like ‘Recommended’, ‘Watch It Again’, and ‘Recently Uploaded’.

If users do not wish to see the Breaking News section, they can remove it from their homepage, by clicking on ‘X’ if using a desktop or ‘Not Interested’ if using mobile.

Still, it is not clear if the ‘Breaking News’ will appear daily or only when some major incident occurs. The feature is live on live on the iOS and Android YouTube apps, as well as the desktop site.
 

2015 brought some of the biggest changes and updates in digital marketing. Be it the launch of mobile friendly algorithm, several Phantom Quality updates, 28th Panda Update in July, death of Google Plus, Google as a subsidiary of Alphabet or the RankBrain, 2015 was jaw dropping from every aspect.

As predicted, Mobile remained the focal area of Google in every facet. Not only has Google declared that a mobile optimized website is essential to rank higher, but it also launched AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) which took their mobile obsession one step further.

Overall we can say that 2016 is shaping up as a year of immense opportunity for website owners. But before we step into the future let’s have a look at what we got right & where we went wrong in 2015.

RECAP OF 2015

1.    Google and HTTPS
Google continues to push site owners to get HTTPS. They are not only displaying “Unsecured Connection Warning” in Chrome but also sending “Google Console Warnings”. Those warnings cover several practice error issues with SSL/TLS. Ignoring this will result into zero HTTPS boost for you.

2.    Facebook Modification 
Facebook worked tirelessly & as predicted they made a direct play for search, unleashed Atlas targeting to a great extent, expanded into Mobile Payments and upgraded their messaging functionality. All these changes resulted into an enormous boost, both in their overall usage numbers & stock price. So far, Facebook played really well & it seems like they are going to shine in 2016 too.

3.    Wearables Becoming Popular
Apple created a lot of Buzz when they launched Apple watch back in 2015. SEO & digital marketers' happiness was different from that of Apple enthusiasts. They were happy because now wearable gadgets are coming in fashion and it will unlock a whole new world of opportunities as they can provide us with real time data. However, the Apple watch wasn't a hit. But at-least they tried!

4.    SEO Code of Ethics
Everyone thought that the SEO code of ethics will formalize in 2014. Then we thought that it will arise in 2015. But it never happened. And that’s good, because it would have done more harm than good. If you'd like to know why? Click here.

5.    Mobile-Optimized Content
Site owners who were quick to react relished immense benefit by optimizing their website for mobiles. Google Mobile-Friendly Update also encouraged Mobile content, which was a win-win for everyone. 

6.    Google Algorithmic Updates
Google owned the stage by launching algorithmic updates back-to-back. They rolled out a brand new Panda update, Mobile-Friendly Update, Multiple Phantom quality updates and is about to launch a penguin update in upcoming days.

NOW LET'S LOOK AT WHAT DOES 2016 HAVE IN STORE

1.    Structured Data will become a Ranking Factor 
Structured data is going to play a big role in 2016. Google will also focus on Rich Snippets, Knowledge Panels & Featured Snippets. They are about to publish guidelines on “How to get Featured Snippets”. Basically, Google is trying to say that we haven’t made structured data a ranking signal yet, but we will do it eventually! So it's better that you get on-board already.

In case you are thinking what type of Structured Data will be good,  you can go with JSON-LD, as Google is really fond of it.

2.    2016 will bring more updates to Local Search
Google revamped Local Search to a great extent. The removal of Google plus from the equation, enabling users to easily set the city location, shrinking the local pack from 7 to 3 results & increased number of ads totally changed the local SEO.  But they are not done yet.

Google will continue to push home services ads & move SMBs to a pay-to-play model. Be ready to witness more of this kind of ads.

3.    Increased focus on User Experience
Providing a great user experience is Google's paramount goal and they are just trying to serve their goal by pushing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), mobile-friendly content, HTTPS, and page speed. If you want to rank higher in 2016, take a mobile-first design approach.

4.    Improvement in the digital assistant space & wearables
2016 seems to be really good for digital assistant space. While Cortana & Siri are getting better & better, there's one player that will join the game and bring variety to it. And that is none other than Facebook's highly ambitious project “M”. Unlike Cortana & Siri it will be backed by both human/digital assistance making it unique among others.

Also, we can expect to see a lot of wearable gadgets in 2016. Thus, we recommend you should at-least be aware of wearable SEO, so when needed you can employ and reap the benefits of being aware and prepared.

Beacons will become more popular overtime and they will make it easy for you to connect with your existing customers. Also, you can expect new players such as Yext & their Xone beacons to enlarge nationally, as a medium to track offline customers online & then target them with re-marketing ads.

5.    Virtual Reality Monetization
Samsung gear VR was one of the top Christmas items of 2015. It comes at a minimal price of $99, thus making it affordable to masses. Also since we all know that Facebook acquired Oculus Rift, we can expect to see more advancements in the VR space.

It is estimated that the VR revenues will go up to 1 billion dollars in the coming year and will escalate to 4.4 billion dollars by 2019. So the company which will provide the best VR gear will reign supreme and will get to have the biggest piece of the 1 billion dollar cake.

6.    The downfall of Yahoo
Yahoo is still going through hard times and it seems like they will have to sell their search units to someone else. However, they have made deals with Google and Bing, but they are not getting fruitful results and the company is still struggling to survive on various aspects.

Many investors are now losing patience and blaming Marissa Mayer for not having a clear vision. Many experts are predicting that Yahoo may sell their assets to AT&T while some are claiming that Google will be the best bet.

7.    Google will roll out major algorithms which will make site audit tougher
Google will roll out both Panda & Penguin updates in 2016. They can be rolled out at the same time and that will be a major issue for website owners who keep getting hit (negatively) by these algorithms.

Till 2015, it was a bit easy to identify the issues which got you penalized, but since Google's expectations from a website are growing, they are making more complex algorithms. So for SEOs it will be tough to identify the exact cause of penalty in 2016. If you are an SEO expert, it's better to understand how to correctly audit a site & surface all website issues.

Final Takeaway

Your actions, predictions, and preparations will decide whether this year will be great or worse for you. We recommend that you gather as much information as you can and closely monitor any updates thathave the potential to influence the digital marketing space. That way you can achieve your goals in 2016.

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The top 20 updates for local search in 2016

The mobile-friendly update began on April 21st. Fourteen days later, Google announced that more Google searches now take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries, including the US and Japan.

Google Adwords has adapted over the years to be more accommodating to mobile search, and to help advertisers measure cross device conversions.

This month, Google introduced several new products and innovations that allow you to “measure every moment that matters,” understand the full impact of your PPC campaigns and make better decisions for your business. Click here to read more. 

Last month, we reported on the Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm Update that will begin this month. Many in the industry are calling this update “Mobilegeddon.” Sounds ominous! It is a fact that starting April 21st, Google will be expanding its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. 

In a recent study, 44% of Fortune 500 web sites failed the mobile-friendly test and are at risk of being penalized in search results when that update rolls out on April 21st. 

You can do better than those Fortune 500 companies! Take steps now to make sure your website is mobile friendly. Click here for Google’s guide on Mobile-Friendly Websites. 

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Every new social media platform that comes along...Instagram, Google+, Ello...you name it... is invariably the next big thing—the one that’s going to take down Facebook. Hasn’t happened yet!

A Pew Research Center survey, conducted in September 2014, found that: 

• Facebook remains by far the most popular social media site. While its growth has slowed, the level of user engagement with the platform has increased. 
• For the first time, more than half of all online adults 65 and older (56%) use Facebook. This represents 31% of all seniors. 
• Overall, 71% of internet users are on Facebook, a proportion that represents no change from August 2013. 
• 52% of online adults use multiple social media sites. Facebook acts as “home base”—it remains the most popular site for those who only use one, and has significant overlap with other platforms. 

It’s important to note that, according to the survey, “every other social media platform measured saw significant growth between 2013 and 2014.” Click here to read Social Media Update and then get to work on your social media campaigns. Call us if you need help. 

From Google’s Webmaster Central Blog: “Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.” In other words, make the necessary changes to your website or risk losing rankings.

Search Engine Land reports that the algorithm runs on a page by page basis, “So if you have 10 web pages on your web site and 5 of them are mobile-friendly and 5 are not, then only the pages that are mobile-friendly will benefit...Many websites have sub-sections or specialized pages that would be hard to make mobile-friendly, so webmasters do not need to fret about going 100% mobile-friendly by April 21st.” 

Click here to read Google’s Mobile Friendly Websites guide. 

Click here to check if YOUR website is Mobile Friendly or not.

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A study of over 100 million emails found that “Transactional Emails” (those sent to one person as a result of an action triggered by that person) have a click rate that is 42% higher than their newsletter counterparts. Click here to read 5 Things We Learned Analyzing 100 Million+ Emails.

In 2014, email marketing was cited as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the United States (source: eMarketer).

A new Facebook insights product called “Topic Data” will soon be available to a select group of marketers. Topic Data will show marketers what audiences are saying on Facebook about events, brands, subjects and activities. 

According to WSJ: Facebook for the first time is promising insights companies can use to develop products or decide which audiences to target. A business marketing a hair-de-frizzing product might use Topic Data to see demographic information about people discussing humidity’s effects on their hair. The company might use that information to improve marketing campaigns on Facebook or TV, or to identify potential customers they hadn’t previously considered. 

Facebook plans to “Iterate on Topic Data thoughtfully and deliberately, and look to expand its availability at a later date.” 

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The big news at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show and posted on Google’s blog: 

This spring, Sony, Sharp and TP Vision, with its range of Philips TVs, will start shipping televisions powered by Android TV. These have all the goodness of Android TV built in so you won’t need to plug anything extra into your television. You can use a single remote to watch live TV channels and play games, movies or shows from Google Play and your apps. 

Where Google goes, advertising follows!

From a 2005 New York Times article: “The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked.” December 1, 2014 marked the tenth anniversary of Cyber Monday.

According to internetretailer.com: “One universal trend emerged on Cyber Monday and throughout the holiday weekend: Consumers are browsing and buying more online with their mobile devices.” According to Custora, Mobile Shopping (ecommerce orders made on mobile devices) accounted for 21.9 percent of Cyber Monday orders. Email marketing drove 23.9 percent of orders.

The lessons are clear—make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Take the mobile-friendly test here. And, set up an email marketing campaign!

The sign on your business is in disrepair. Packages delivered to your business are blocking your doorway. What do you do? You repair the sign and you move the boxes. You make sure your business is easy to find.

The same care is required for your local online presence. You won’t rank well if you have conflicting information on any one of the thousands of sites where Google and other search engines gather local listings data. And, consumers are confused when they see discrepancies—they’re likely to go to a competitor whose listings are clean and consistent.

Give us a call and we’ll tell you more about local listings management.

Imagine you're just going about your working day a cashier at Target and next thing you know, you're on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. You're widely recognized! Because of social media, all.

That's what happened to #alexfromtarget. The account of how Alex became famous illustrates the mind-blowing power of social media.

Every interaction and communication you have on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networking sites builds your business and your brand. You probably won't be a sensation like Alex, but you will be where consumers spend huge amounts of time and share huge amounts of content. The amount of information that is shared every day on Facebook is astounding! Facebook has more than one billion users and every 20 minutes, those users share one million links. Twitter is also remarkable in terms of marketing potential.

If you're not on social networking sites, or you're neglecting what you started, get it going today!

Penguin is the algorithm update that's crafted to champion Google in opposition to spam and other techniques that go against its webmaster guidelines.

The version that was released in October 2014, Penguin 3.0, is a global recharge that affected lower than one percent of English search queries.

As indicated by Search Engine Land, "The Penguin formula mainly considers a site's backlink profile ... It should demote sites with bad link profiles and help sites that were previously hit and then cleaned up their link profiles." Click here for more details about Penguin 3.0.

September 10, 2014 was a day of protest against proposed changes to net neutrality rules.

Internet Slowdown Day really did not actually slow the internet. Instead, a coalition of companies referred to as Team Internet posted symbolic "loading" icons on their website or blogs to underscore the issue.

FCC rules founded in 2010 compel Internet service providers to treat all web traffic consistently. In 2011, Verizon brought a case against the FCC, charging that alreadying existing rules disallowing companies from buying and selling fast-lane availability were against the law. In January 2014, a federal appeals court ruled in Verizon's favor.

In April, the FCC contemplated updated rules that could create a two-tiered internet-- fast lanes for those who can afford to pay for an enhancement and slower lanes for those who can't.

The FCC received over 3.7 million comments on the topic. The FCC held a series of open internet roundtables discussions but no decision has been announced.

Click this link to read Five Major Ways the Internet Will Change Without Net Neutrality.