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Google is big, like really big, like civilization level big! So when a company this big introduces something, even the most apathetic person gets excited. And this year at annual I/O, They introduced a lot of cool new things, but the one that got everyone’s attention was the “Google Lens”. 

Although there have been several unsuccessful attempts in the past to launch the same technology, this time it looks that the image recognition technology will finally be able to take off. Since the Google’s AI has become more sophisticated, it seems that now the Camera lens can be used in many more ways than just taking the selfies.

The main highlights of the Google Lens are: 

Business Details: Just point your mobile camera at store fronts and Google will provide you with knowledge graph and other vital details about that business. 

Connect WiFi: No need to manually enter the password, just click an image of the default username and password and your phone will automatically connect to the WiFi.

Image Recognition: Now you can get results based on what you are seeing. Just take a picture of the flower you want to know more about, and Google will provide you with all the details.

Exciting, isn’t it! Here’s the video.

Watch this crazy insurance lady!

She didn't advertise. She didn't do social media. She focused solely on RELATIONSHIPS and won! Big time.

Here is a transcript of what she has to say:

most recently i just sold insurance agency 0:05 and retired and I wanted to take a 0:07 minute or two to tell you about how we 0:10 utilize send out cards and the teachings 0:13 of cody Bateman in that insurance agency 0:16 and so what we did for the last six 0:19 years I've been a customer of send out 0:21 cards and we utilize that system in our 0:23 agency to send about 850 Birkett cards a 0:27 year we also had a referral program so 0:30 if someone refer business into our 0:32 agency we would acknowledge the referral 0:35 and send out i think you know with a 0:37 starbucks card and we did that right 0:38 from our send out parts website or we 0:41 can do it from our phone and so it made 0:44 it really easy to act on our promptings 0:46 to appreciate when people refer to us we 0:51 also taught our staff to basically 0:55 listen to the customer and by building 0:58 the relationship we were asking them 1:01 about what was going on in their life 1:02 and we listened about babies or 1:04 celebrations or we acknowledge people 1:07 and they got sick with cinema get-well 1:09 card or maybe if we heard someone had a 1:11 death in the family we would send a 1:13 sympathy card and so we just wanted them 1:16 to know that they matter to us as a 1:19 person we wanted to build that 1:21 relationship and that they mattered 1:23 beyond the insurance transaction and it 1:26 was our number one mode of marketing we 1:30 did not use email marketing we did not 1:32 use facebook we did not use twitter we 1:36 only use send out cards to touch our 1:38 customers and some of those customers 1:40 i've never met i had 1500 + customers so 1:42 them around the country I've never met 1:44 them but I could still effectively build 1:47 the relationship to send out cards i 1:51 didn't have to see them every day I had 1:52 this powerful tool that I could send 1:55 them something and let them know that I 1:57 cared you can definitely make a 2:00 difference and you can be unique in a 2:03 noisy world and send out cards is that 2:06 powerful tool so i hope this helped 2:09 and I hope you have a great day.

Here is how YOU can get signed up.

When you sign up - I will gift you about $500 in bonuses! What are they? When you sign up for a marketing bundle or business bundle I will create your first custom brand manager card back. I will put your logo and contact information together in a graphic and send it to you to upload to your custom brand manager.

I will also transfer a set of 12 custom cards to your account that you can customize with your information and photo/headshot and start using the system right away.

Sign up here

Download the app to your phone here!

Facebook has been quite impressive so far with launching new updates. Now, they have rolled out some new features to business pages yet again and perhaps, you have already started using them.

Your response time is central to the quality of your customer service
Your response means a lot to your customers. No one can deny the fact that customers have the right to know how responsive a page or business is on a prior note before they message. To help customers know when they have to expect a respond, Facebook has revealed their new feature showcasing response time on Fanpages.

Earlier, Facebook had set a high standard for the feature by adding the “Very responsive to messages” indicator only to Pages where 90% of messages were responded to within five minutes. Facebook has now taken the responsiveness of pages into a new level by segmenting them as “within minutes”, “within an hour”, “within hours” or “within a day”. The page Admin can keep it as auto or set any of the above time frames to show on their page.

Redesigned inbox tells businesses more about their customers to better serve them

This feature has already been rolled out globally. The new Page inbox not only have the stunning look but also have many improved qualities. It made easy for the Page admins to manage interactions with the Fans. While messaging a fan, the new inbox would display past interactions the user had with the page and more information about the user like DOB/City/Job will be displayed on the right side. Even Admins can add tags to categorize conversations.

A key metric for almost any business is conversions.

Many AdWords advertisers are already measuring their website conversions, using either AdWords Conversion Tracking or imported Google Analytics Ecommerce transactions.  Measuring actual conversions is ideal, because it allows you to optimize your bids, your ads and your website with a clear goal in mind.

However, hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses aren't measuring their website conversions today. Some businesses may not have a way for users to convert on their website and others may not have the time or the technical ability to implement conversion tracking.

The Google Analytics team is committed to helping such users use their data to drive better marketing and advertising performance.  So, for businesses that don’t measure conversions in AdWords today, Google has created an easy-to-use solution: Smart Goals. Smart Goals help you identify the highest-quality visits to your website and optimize for those visits in AdWords.

Activate Smart Goals in Google Analytics
To activate Smart Goals in Google Analytics, simply go to the Admin section of your Google Analytics account, click Goals (under the View heading) and select Smart Goals.  The highest-quality visits to your website will now be turned into Smart Goals automatically.  No additional tagging or customization is required.

Import Smart Goals into AdWords
Like any other goal in Google Analytics, Smart Goals can be imported into AdWords to be used as an AdWords conversion. Once you’ve defined a conversion in AdWords, you’re able to optimize for

Optimizing for Smart Goals in AdWords
One of the benefits of measuring conversions in your AdWords account is the ability to set a target cost per acquisition (CPA) as opposed to just setting a cost per click (CPC).  If you aren’t measuring actual conversions today, importing Smart Goals as conversions in AdWords allows you to set a target CPA.  In this way, you’re able to optimize your AdWords spend based on the likelihood of conversion as determined by the model.

Smart Goals will be rolling out over the next few weeks. To be eligible for Smart Goals, your Google Analytics property must be linked to your AdWords account. Note that your Google Analytics view must receive at least 1,000 clicks from AdWords over a 30-day period to ensure the validity of your data.

Yahoo search is going to add new features for mobile users & will also roll out a search algorithm update. Yahoo mobile users will witness the following changes this year. 

Integration of Twitter 
Celebrity searches will return with top tweets that are related to the celebrity. 

Brand new image search
You will experience a new way of discovering pictures of your favourite celebrities. Click on the photo of a celebrity and then you can explore trending content that is linked with that celebrity. 

Improved search experience
Latest news and happenings can be seen right on the search engine result page. Also, the search algorithms have been updated. So now you will see most recent and popular stories at the top of the news result thread. 

AMP compatibility
News in Yahoo search is now compatible with Accelerated Mobile Pages. So get ready to experience faster mobile browsing. 

It's good that Yahoo finally launched some updates, but we don’t understand why many of their updates are celebrity focused. Maybe their brilliant CEO has some mind blowing future plans, but as of now.... the updates are not interesting and useful. But still, it's very big and pleasing news for Yahoo mobile users (if there are any).

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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

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project will roll out by February 2016. It means you have less than 20 days to prepare. So let’s have a quick look at what you should be doing:

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. 

The impact of Google’s Mobile-Friendly Update, as measured by MozCast (a weather report showing turbulence in the Google algorithm—the hotter and stormier the weather, the more Google’s rankings changed) was, in the short-term, much smaller than expected. 

Though the impact of the mobile-friendly update may be less than apocalyptic, in a blog called “How Far Did the Sky Fall,” Dr. Peter Meyers, Moz Marketing Scientist, wrote: “Google’s push toward mobile-first design and their clear public stance on this issue strongly signal that mobile-friendly sites are going to have an advantage over time.” 

If your website is not mobile-friendly, we advise you to move very quickly in that direction! 

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