Wesley Young says, “As 2016 comes to a close and we begin planning for next year’s goals and budgets in earnest, it is prudent to remember to take time for reflection. Learning from successes experienced and mistakes made helps you set goals that will move you forward and plan for ways to get there.

To help remind you of some of the most important lessons learned this past year, below are my Top 10 Insights from 2016. In full disclosure, it’s my Top 10 list and thus is largely derived from the articles I wrote this year and statistics cited therein, but at least you’ll know you won’t find this list anywhere else!  Here we go (in no particular order):

1. Sometimes simple is better than the best

My most-read article this year was “10 Ways to Simplify Your Local Search Marketing Strategy.” The space has gotten so crowded with marketing products, platforms and media that it is overwhelming even the experts. Think of what that means to the SMB. The attempt to understand, select and effectively utilize marketing media and technology is a struggle for most local business owners.

Sometimes, the best solution for an SMB (small to medium-sized business) isn’t what has the greatest potential for return. Rather it might be the one that they can work with most easily, manage within their time and budget and get a reasonable and secure return. There is value in simplicity and clarity.

2. Speed kills (like, totally slays it, dude)

Speed is a highly valued commodity. Consumers want it and bail when faced with slow sites. Google wants it to make sure consumers are happy and stay on the web instead of going to competitors’ app platforms. Google has even made it a ranking factor for its mobile search algorithm. So it was a huge surprise to learn that retail mobile sites are trending slower, with median load times of 4.33 seconds in 2013, to 4.8 seconds in 2014, to 5.5 seconds in 2015“.

Top 10 local search insights of 2016

Search Engine Land

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