My summary of L25: The Heartbeat of Local

I had the opportunity to represent Duda, along with Itai and Mel at Localogy 25 in Columbus, OH. It was my 3rd year attending this event, and the content was better than ever. Speakers were top notch. Some highlights of what I learned:

Sun. 3/23

Jim Chapelle presented Yelp’s first party insights around trends in consumer behavior. Trending : home services, female entrepreneurs in home service SMBs, and auto services. Shopping malls are shifting from retail- to restaurant-focused. Online quote requests outnumber  calls 5 to 1.

Itzik Levy, vcita; Ben Pashman, Creatify; and Danny Webb, Cinch, each shared the super cool things their companies are doing around AI and automation. 

A recurring theme started to appear, centered around the customer experience: AI/Automation and the need to earn trust. 

Andrew Shotland, Local SEO Guide shared his report around ranking factors after extensive use of SEMRush credits. Super interesting insights that are useful for SMBs and the agencies who serve them: ~2 mile radius is the range for share of voice (unless the SMB is in a less dense geo); Google is biased toward businesses that are open at the time of the search; More reviews are correlated to better ranking; use of city name in keywords is beneficial; use as many relevant categories as possible on GBP; link patterns and GBP interactions are important. Mapmojis are a thing. 

Fan fave Christian Ward, Yext, talked about AI’s effect on Search. The new and emerging digital marketing landscape is causing uncertainty. Christian shared some silver linings: AI searches are resulting in increased quality of traffic to websites. Consumers are using tools that are honed into their specific preferences. Consumer research on AI platforms will lower overall traffic to websites, but bring users to websites that convert at a higher rate as websites become the point of booking, form fill, purchase, etc.

The theme was further emphasized: Trust is the new currency of AI. 

Lisa Mazzarese, Hibu, shared how her team is serving SMB clients using personalized ads with the assistance of Yext’s Brook Henderson and Tiger Pistol’s Sarah Cucchiara. One of my key takeaways from this session was -- again -- the importance of building trust in the end-to-end customer journey. 

We had networking breaks sprinkled throughout the conference, where we connected with partners and industry friends. 

Duda’s CEO and Co-Founder, Itai Sadan, presented data from an SMB survey, along with Localogy’s own Mike Boland (on Mike’s birthday, no less!). Interestingly, when you swap out the word “AI” with “Automation,” SMBs tend to be more receptive. Check out those findings and more HERE. 

Krystal Taing and Allison Townsend from Uberall made me smile with their use of a new acronym: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Up until now, I was using “AEO” and “AIO” for “AI Optimization,” but now I can throw GEO into the mix, but that gets a little confusing when you are also talking “geo” in the location sense. I was pleased to hear them underscore the importance of structured data, “a non-negotiable  in GEO.” Also, it’s best practice to make sure to use conversational language and include FAQs as well as use of categories. 

Ross Gray from Cloud Campaign started his presentation with a picture of his chubby baby — a great way to get the audience engaged, after a long day full of great content. Ross’ presentation covered organic social media and how that leads to adoption and retention. 

In the evening, Yext threw a party and we played darts . They played darts and I brought down the average score, making everyone else feel better about their skills. 

Mon. 3/24

Mark Kabana, Yext shared his perspective, having recently been through the acquisition of his Places Scout. Echoing that trust is the currency of AI, Mark is a wealth of knowledge on the latest and greatest AI tools and how they can be leveraged. Mark mentioned that Danny Sullivan/Google uses the term AIO. So maybe I’ll stick with that acronym. Major street cred. 

Corey Quinn, Corey Quinn, Inc. and Jamie Adams, Scorpion, talked about growth of teams and I was particularly interested in how the Scorpion team finds traction with their franchise customers. 

Monica Ho, SOCi, presented impacts of AI on social media and shared some solid best practices for SMBs and the agencies that serve them. Also, I was thrilled to get 2 more new acronyms: SSEO (Social SEO) and LLMO. I appreciated hearing from Monica how social is already using natural language, which tied together nicely with the takeaways from previous speakers. Monica says that following EEAT still applies as a best practice, and I agree. 

Nick Hopkins, Hibu and James Morse, Ansira, shared their approaches to product release cycles. I really appreciated Nick and the Hibu team’s product direction approach: only do stuff that drives more value (leads) for their SMB customer. 

I had a chance to speak to the Persistent.id team about how they can take consent data and combine that with email addresses so that businesses can run campaigns using their own first party data. I was sorry to miss a few other sessions on Day 2 but heard that all were really good. 

Overall, my impression after L24, last year, was a feeling of discomfort with the unknown impacts of AI disruption. At L25, this year, I came away with a sense of optimism because we are beginning to understand how to optimize for AEO, AIEO, GEO, Automation, Machine Learning, or whatever you want to call it. Fact is, best practices to serve the human in their search for an answer still apply. 

You can learn more about Localogy events at localogy.com.