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Good morning, Marketers, there is something about the holidays and how things just slow down that make me uncomfortable. 

This week is a short one in the U.S. with Thanksgiving this Thursday, but it is also a super busy week for retailers. But, when it comes to news, especially search marketing news, things tend to slow down a lot. And for those that know me, I am addicted to writing about news, breaking news and writing about it in a fast and furious way.

That being said, online retailers have been waiting for this season all year and for them, this is not the slow season. We published our big analysis from the data providers around the recent Google November core update and from the looks of it, this hit hard and fast and at probably the worst time for these online retailers.

We hope this update only benefited you all but if not, we hope you find comfort in knowing that you are not alone. And, since it’s a holiday here in the U.S., you can expect our next newsletter on Monday morning.

Barry Schwartz,
Fast and furious typer

Google’s November 2021 core update hit fast and hard; here is what the data providers saw

The results from this data showed that this rollout hit hard within the first 24 hours of the announcement and then slowed fast.

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6 tactics to rank better in Google Discover

While you can’t target users or interests, you can increase your chances of ranking better in Google Discover. At SMX Next, John Shehata shared the tactics he uses to up the odds and analyze what works.

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Webinar: Your New Year’s Marketing Resolution: Master the Art of Saying No With These Six Steps

SEO remains the stalwart mainstay of digital marketing, driving as many as 22% of all website visits. But its practice has become more complex and it involves more considerations than SEOs enjoyed in the “ten blue links” era. Today, SEO includes everything from content marketing to user experience. This 76-page report reviews the market for SEO platforms, plus the latest trends, opportunities, challenges, and vendor profiles.

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Microsoft Bing launched Page insights

After months of testing, the lightbulb icon in the Bing Search results are live for all.

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Why consumer privacy is Google’s ace in the hole

Google's ad business changes mean that advertisers should prepare and tap into their first-party data to stay ahead.

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SMX Build: Free one-day intensive for serious SEOs

If you’re an SEO craving cutting-edge tactics that move the needle, you won’t want to miss SMX Build: SEO for Developers — a FREE one-day training intensive that explores the tools, testing, tactics, and strategies advanced SEOs need to know.

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Whether Google manipulated AMP or not, it’s a great time to reassess using it

If the allegations from 17 state attorneys general are true, we’ll likely all ditch AMP. But even if they’re not, the page experience update is now live and we have a clearer idea of what the possibilities and compromises are without AMP.

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Shorts

• Googlebot stalled last week. There are some reports that Googlebot slowed crawling for a six-day period last week. This first came from Olivier Papon on Twitter but many saw it. I don’t think it was 100% across the board, but we asked Google for more details a week ago and are still waiting to hear back.
• Google local photo bug. There is this new bug with Google local business profiles in Google Search that if you click on the first photo in the desktop search results using a Chrome browser, the image comes up blank. This was also spotted by Nicolai Helling on Twitter.
• Sort by date Google bug. Are you a news junky like me and always looking for the latest news? Well, good luck using the News tab in Google Search for that. There is a bug with the sort by date filter that Google is aware of and working to fix.

From MarTech

• The OOH industry’s digital transformation encourages marketers to test and learn
• 3 ways to gain more visibility into your lead lifecycle
• Adobe updates its holiday shopping predictions
• Good morning: There’s plenty to be thankful for
• Build trust, gain sales

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