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Google December 2022 link spam update done rolling out

Thursday, January 12th, 2023

Google has confirmed that the December 2022 link spam update is now finished rolling out. The update took 29 days to roll out, starting on December 14, 2022 and ending on January 12, 2023. Google has posted it was completed today, January 12.

What is a link spam update. A link spam update looks to neutralize, or no longer count, links that Google finds to be spammy and against Google’s guidelines. Google wrote that this launch “may change as spammy links are neutralized and any credit passed by these unnatural links are lost. This launch will affect all languages.”

First time using SpamBrain for links. This is leveraging what Google calls SpamBrain, Google referenced it in the 2018 Google spam report, specifically the spam trends section where Google talks about its “machine learning systems” to improve search spam detection.

Google added that SpamBrain can not only “detect spam directly, it can now detect both sites buying links, and sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links.”

Nullifying link spam.  Google used the word “neutralize” links, and in the previous link spam update Google used the word Google used here was “nullifying,” which does not necessarily mean “penalize,” but instead, to ignore or simply not count. Google’s efforts around link spam have been to ignore and not count spammy links since Penguin 4.0 was released in 2016.

Why we care. If you saw ranking declines in Google over this rollout period, it might be related to this new link spam update. Ensure your links are natural and follow Google’s webmaster guidelines. Work on improving your site to naturally attract new links over time.

As Google wrote with previous link spam updates, “Site owners should ensure that they follow the best practices on links, both incoming and outgoing. Focusing on producing high quality content and improving user experience always wins out compared to manipulating links. Promote awareness of your site using appropriately tagged links, and monetize it with properly tagged affiliate links.”

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Google’s December 2022 helpful content update is now done rolling out

Thursday, January 12th, 2023

Google has confirmed that the December 2022 helpful content update is now finished rolling out. The update took 38 days to roll out, starting on December 5, 2022 but was first noticeable on December 6th, and ending on January 12, 2023. Google has posted it was completed today, January 12.

As a reminder, Google’s helpful content update is a sitewide signal. It targets websites with a relatively high amount of unsatisfying or unhelpful content, where the content is first written for search engines.

What was new with this update. The December 2022 helpful content update (aka system) is a global update, impacting all languages and not just the English language. This will help Google’s systems detect more forms of low-quality content created for search engines and primarily not for people.

Google also told us this system was updated with additional signals to help Google identify more content created primarily for search engines versus people.

What to do if you are hit. Google has provided a list of questions you can ask yourself about your content. Read through those questions as we posted over here, and in an unbiased manner, ask yourself if your content is in sync with this update.

Please note if this update has hit you, it can take several months to recover if you do everything right and make changes to your content over time.

More on the helpful content update. Google’s helpful content update specifically targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”

This algorithm update aims to help searchers find “high-quality content,” Google told us. Google wants to reward better and more useful content that was written for humans and to help users.

Content written for the purpose of ranking in search engines – what you might call “search engine-first content” or “SEO content,” has been frequently written about lately and discussed across social media.

In short, searchers are getting frustrated when they land on unhelpful webpages that rank well in search because they were designed to rank well.

Google’s new algorithm aims to downgrade those types of websites while promoting more helpful websites, designed for humans, above search engines.

Google said this is an “ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in search.”

Why we care. If you notice any ranking and visibility changes in Google search over the past two weeks or so, especially if those were big changes, you can likely attribute it to this update. Read Google’s advice, make the necessary changes, and hope for a recovery in the upcoming months.

We hope you all benefited from this update and if not, we hope you recover quickly.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




8 dangers of copying another brand’s SEO

Thursday, January 12th, 2023

A successful SEO strategy includes various must-have components, such as SEO best practices, a proper focus and connection with target audiences and competitive factors.

Best practices and audience aspects are generalized and personal to your brand. Conducting a competitor analysis is also critical, as you want to learn from brands already well-positioned in the space you want to be in. 

However, there is a risk of going overboard when we play follow the leader, trying to match what the high-ranking competitor sites are doing.

Ignoring competitors or those currently ranking for topics within your target audience will hurt your chances of reaching and surpassing competitors. But focusing on them too much and copying their SEO strategies can have more damaging effects.

You definitely should know what other brands are doing and match up your strategy with what the search engines are “rewarding” those sites for doing well. 

Be mindful, though, of the eight dangers of copying another brand’s SEO.

1. Brand confusion

Most companies want to build a distinctive brand image and identity. Whether it is defined best by creative, messaging, or thought leadership, the goal is to be recognized and known for something.

If your idea of building a brand is by copying another brand’s SEO too closely, you will naturally start looking and sounding like them. This leads to a danger of brand confusion and can result in a lack of awareness of your brand.

Even if you are found in Google search results and get your target audience to click through, you risk not standing out. 

Your website will not be distinctive enough if you have many of the same elements as other sites, like page content, pages, navigation structure, and keyword focuses. 

If the searcher comes back later and finds your competitor’s site, will they even remember you? Will you stand out?

2. Lack of connection with your audience

Copying another brand’s SEO can also lead to losing connection with your audience.

Even if you are not replicating the competitor’s branded or trademarked content (because you shouldn’t), you will not have much unique content or perspectives if you are driven by copying someone else.

Beyond brand confusion, your content won’t be original and you are less likely to provide something unique and different to your target audience.

If they can get the same content and experience elsewhere, why would they want to give you their money, time, or attention?

Copying a competitor’s SEO will lead you to make trade-offs of unique opportunities you have to authentically engage with your site visitors.

3. Duplicate content and risk of being filtered

Naturally, if you’re literally copying your competitors’ SEO, you’re at risk of copying their copy itself.

Yes, they have some things working for them that might include their web copy and content being ranked well by Google. However, there are so many variables and ranking factors that you can focus on to get ahead.

Plus, when you copy content verbatim or in spurts, expect to see your content filtered from the SERPs. Since you are not the original creator, not in the same authority status as the competitor, or not providing enough unique copy, your site will likely be the one filtered out of Google search results while the competitor continues to rank as the author or originator of the copy.

4. Potential legal action

While I see fewer threats and real legal action in organic search, it can happen.

Copying content, ignoring copyrights and trademarks or harming any business relationships that impact SEO performance can lead you closer to legal action.

I find it hard to come up with a reason to copy another brand’s SEO or to follow what they are doing so closely that you run this risk. Just don’t do it.

Even if you dodge legal action, items 1-3 above should be enough justification for not getting too close to what they are doing.


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5. Being strategically reactive

Having an SEO strategy is necessary. If the primary drivers of the strategy are to copy another site’s SEO, then that’s not really a strategy.

Again, look at competitors and what’s working for them in your efforts. But, don’t follow them so closely that you’re simply reacting to everything they do. Blindly following along will keep you firmly in a position where you’re chasing them or in parody with them.

You want to include proactive aspects like:

Beat them in areas where they aren’t competing. Find white space to fill and have a farseeing approach to get there.

6. Following a competitor’s poor strategy

Related to being reactive, you run the risk of implementing bad SEO. They could be ranking well for a key term that you want to rank for. However, they could also be doing a lot of tactics poorly. 

Maybe you misjudged what SEO factors were truly driving that ranking.

What if they were heavily supported by some high-quality links and brand mentions and not propped up by their content quality?

If you copy their content strategy and don’t have those links, you’re likely going to fall flat and look bad at the same time.

Additionally, with the emergence of SpamBrain from Google and how it further evaluates the quality of content, you have more incentive to differentiate than to follow along when it comes to on-page and content SEO strategy.

7. Measuring the wrong performance metrics

While there are some great “spy” tools out there that help with analyzing competitor sites, they aren’t perfect.

You can’t truly know (unless you have CRM and analytics access or other direct sources of the competitor brand) how well the SEO strategy is working for other sites.

What you can likely see is where they are ranked and connect that with the estimated search volume for the specific rankings or queries. Sure, you can overlay some estimated or benchmark conversion data. However, the more data points you’re estimating and adding together, the more inaccurate your numbers will be.

Ideally, your focus is on your end goal. Whether that is some type of conversion to sales, leads, or other meaningful ROI aspects for your business, you’ll want to start there and work backward to know what the traffic and approach should be.

If you focus purely on your competitor’s rankings and getting to their positions, then you’re copying them without having a complete understanding of what gaining their rankings will do for your business in terms of ROI.

You can spend a lot of time and money investing in copying their SEO strategy to find out that it wasn’t worth it for your specific needs, even if it helped you get on par with their rankings.

8. Risk against new competitors

If you’re overly focused on copying another brand’s SEO, you might fail to pay attention to the wider landscape.

I have had clients focused on one or two other companies jockeying for the top spot, answer boxes, and other prime real estate in the SERPs. So focused, that months down the road, a new competitor – or set of competitors – emerged looking much different and leapfrogged the long-established top-ranking sites.

Having the blinders on looking at a single site or two can cause a narrow SEO focus for all the reasons previously mentioned. It also puts you in danger of being overtaken by newer competitors and those with a different and better strategy for building authority status and relevant content.

Develop your own unique SEO strategy

Remember that applying best practices, focusing on your audience, and paying attention to the competitive landscape are all important for a solid SEO strategy. Doing just one or two won’t get you as far in terms of rankings, traffic and conversion goals.

Competitor analysis and reverse engineering can be useful. However, when you know who is ranking well or seemingly doing well in the space you want to own, be mindful of the dangers of copying their brand’s SEO strategy.

There’s a balance between matching up well with competitors on ranking factors, helpfulness to the audience, and gaining visibility without selling out your own brand or getting on the wrong kinds of radars legally.

Plus, you want to be as resistant as possible to their mistakes taking you down or taking your focus off of those coming up behind you. Leverage the information, but include it in your broader SEO strategy to gain the benefits and minimize the dangers.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Meta introduces new ad targeting limits for teens

Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

Starting next month, Meta will remove the option for targeting advertising to teen users based on gender. They’ll also end advertisers’ ability to target personalized ads to under-18 users based on their in-app activity, including who they follow on Instagram and what Facebook pages they like.

After the changes take effect, personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram will only draw on a user’s age and location to determine relevance (where location is necessary to assess which products and services are available in a user’s area).

Facebook and Instagram will soon roll out new controls for teen users (kids under age 13 aren’t allowed on those apps — technically). Teens will be given an option to “see less” of a given topic, shaping which ads the platform will serve them.

Why we care. Advertisers will no longer be able to target users under the age of 18 based on in-app activity nor target their age or location, except where relevant. You’ll need to restrategize if you advertise a product or service to users under 18.

Not new. Meta recently rolled out new privacy updates for everyone under the age of 16, or 18 in some countries. Starting in November, teens will default to more private settings when they join Facebook. For teens already on the platform, Meta recommends making these changes manually. The new privacy settings affect:

This month Meta was fined 390 million euros ($414 million) after European Union (EU) regulators found it had illegally forced users to accept personalized ads.

Google blocks ad targeting for kids under 18. In 2021 Google updated its policies around minors online, letting those under 18 remove images from search. “Children are at particular risk when it comes to controlling their imagery on the internet. In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce a new policy that enables anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, to request the removal of their images from Google Image results,” wrote Mindy Brooks, product and UX director for kids and families at Google.

YouTube will change the default upload mode to private for kids aged 13-17. SafeSearch will be automatically turned on for those under 18 using Google Search. Those under 18 will not be able to turn on their location history.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Apple Maps relaunches Apple Business Connect

Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

Apple has revamped the Apple Business Connect service, where businesses can update what Apple Maps shows about their business. This service initially launched Apple Maps Connect in 2014, and it is similar to how Google Business Profiles works.

Apple Business Connect. Apple said this is a “free tool allows businesses of all sizes to customize the way their information appears across Apple apps.”

In Business Connect, businesses can manage their place card, including adding and updating photos and logos; inviting customers to take actions like ordering food or making a reservation directly from Maps; and presenting customers with special promotions.

Showcases. Apple also added Showcases, a new feature in the Apple MAps place card that helps businesses present customers with offers and incentives. Apple said, “businesses can easily update the Showcase section of their place card through Business Connect.” The feature is available for US businesses today and rolling out globally in the coming months. 

New APIs. Apple also now supports a new API named the Business Connect API. This is designed for businesses with dozens of locations and allows those businesses “to easily deliver accurate, up-to-date information to Maps at scale through listing management agencies such as Reputation, Rio SEO, SOCi, Uberall, and Yext,” Apple said.

Businesses registration. If you already have an Apple Business Connect account, you can log in and add the new details about your business to your listing – I already did that before writing this story. Otherwise, businesses can register their business at businessconnect.apple.com and get started today.

Why we care. Apple Maps is becoming more and more popular, and it makes sense for you to register and maintain your business properly and accurately on the Apple Maps ecosystem. So make sure your business listing is verified and up-to-date.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




12 new Google Analytics 4 ecommerce dimensions and metrics

Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

Everyone’s favorite new Google product, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), has just released 12 new item and event-scoped ecommerce metrics and dimensions.

Why we care. Ecommerce advertisers and retailers will now be able to view and analyze specific information about products, services and interactions. You should also be able to see Items purchased and purchases by country, which shows you the number of items purchased and the number of purchases for each country.

ICYMI, Google will sunset Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023.

What’s new. You can now find the following new dimensions and metrics in the Explorations and the Data API:

New naming conventions. Google has also renamed several metrics:

Dig deeper. Review the official Analytics Help documentation here.

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




How marketing compensation and roles are changing: Take the MarTech Salary and Career Survey

Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

Although we hesitate to use the term post-pandemic with any confidence, marketing takes place today in a space changed — perhaps irrevocably — by COVID-19. Yes, marketers are making their way back to the workplace; many conferences and expos are back in person; it’s possible to meet and greet prospects face-to-face instead of face-to-video.

But the importance of digital marketing looks unlikely to recede. With it comes increased emphasis on digital content and digital experience, the expansion of ecommerce across almost every vertical and the interest in virtual events.

What does that mean? You guessed it: the growing importance of the digital martech stack.

The “great marketing reboot.” We’re also seeing big changes on the human side of marketing. Many marketing professionals have left the space; others have switched from regular positions to freelance or contract work. There are big opportunities — as well as challenges — for people in the early stages of their careers, whether as marketers or marketing operations professionals.

Data scientist and MarTech contributor Chris Penn calls this the “great marketing reboot.” We’ve introduced a new question into this edition of the survey asking if you’re witnessing the same phenomenon, whether in your own marketing organization or others.

Follow the money. We’re also asking, as always, whether circumstances are impacting salaries, in positive or negative ways, as well as your career trajectories.

As before, we’re partnering with Scott Brinker and chiefmartec.com to field the survey. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete, and we look forward to sharing the results soon.

Take the MarTech Salary and Career Survey

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




5 times you’ll need an expert SEO in 2023

Tuesday, January 10th, 2023

There are many times during the lifecycle of your website that you will need an expert SEO. 

If you don’t enlist the help of a true professional for the following five scenarios, you are risking rankings, traffic and revenue in 2023: 

1. Site redesigns

This new year, many are planning to refresh their websites. The problem is that SEO either never enters the conversation during a site redesign or it’s not handled properly. This is a problem. 

A site migration is when a website undergoes major changes, such as URL updates, a redesign, or content management system or hosting provider changes. 

Any of these changes can negatively impact the website’s performance in the search results when handled well. 

And make no mistake – there is a lot to consider. So much so that we usually break up our SEO checklist into pre-launch, launch and post-launch activities when involved in a site migration.

Even when it’s done correctly, it is common for sites to see a temporary drop in organic traffic (80% of SEOs expect it) but it should recover and even excel past previous benchmarks.

When it doesn’t, though, something has gone terribly wrong. The website may never recover and can experience a long-term drop in traffic.

If you’re going to make significant changes to your website, make sure you have the guidance of a seasoned SEO during the entire process. A website design agency may not have the expertise needed.

2. Deep analysis

Even if you are ticking off all the boxes in an SEO checklist, something sinister may be lurking behind the scenes of your website that’s causing a drop in traffic. Only a deep-dive audit can uncover something like this. 

It is common for site owners to only focus on the top-performing pages. But that’s only a small representation of your website’s quality. The other 80% of webpages on your site could be harming the overall quality and relevance of it, thus impacting your traffic. 

One example? Google’s helpful content update, which looks at the entire website in terms of content quality. If some pages are considered bad, it can impact the whole website. 

Let’s also not forget the impact that well-organized, quality content site-wide can have on relevance. According to Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

“The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the website owner thinks is important. Although Google’s search results are provided at a page level, Google also likes to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of the site.”

In other words, webpages don’t exist in a vacuum. There are many instances where Google considers the site as a whole when ranking. 

There are other hidden issues on a website that can easily be missed without a technical SEO audit. For all these reasons, it’s critical that website publishers get a better understanding of their site through a proper audit.


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3. Ranking for highly competitive terms

Let’s be honest, what keywords aren’t competitive these days? Do a search for any keyword and you will find millions of results. Yet, Page 1 is all that matters. 

Some keywords are easier to rank for than others. For example, you might have an easier time ranking for something like “list of top video games in 2022” versus just “games.”

We should know. It took us years to help a client rank number one for the highly competitive term: “games.” But we did it. And it stuck. 

Ranking for million-dollar keywords doesn’t happen by just following a checklist. It happens with deep SEO expertise from professionals with decades of experience – those who live and breathe technical SEO and understand what’s happening in search right now. 

Sure, you can get SEO guidance from anywhere, but if you’re trying to rank for highly competitive terms, don’t settle. Get an expert SEO.

4. Navigating changes to Google

The search engine results pages are constantly in flux. 

In 2021 alone, Google ran more than 700,000 experiments, which resulted in more than 4,000 changes to search. That’s about 11 changes per day. Do you have the time to follow and dissect all the algorithm updates and how they apply to your website? 

Algorithm updates lead to page one shake-ups and competitors pull ahead. Maybe they have more resources and bigger budgets, maybe they just did slightly better than you. Now you must figure out what changed and how to get ahead again.

Countless factors influence your rankings in the search results. Trying to figure it out should be left to an SEO professional.

5. Technical SEO

Anyone can do easy on-page SEO, but it takes knowledge and experience to get the technical part right. Things like mobile usability, site speed, structured data markup, robots.txt, server maintenance, page experience and much, much more. 

Technical SEO requires the expertise of a professional working in tandem with a website developer or webmaster to ensure the correct changes are done well. One mistake and it can throw SEO results off quickly. 

Every website needs to ensure the technical part is right to rank. Why? Because if a site is not crawlable, it won’t rank. 

Google’s Gary Illyes once said on a Reddit thread:

“[I] really wish SEOs went back to the basics (i.e., MAKE THAT DAMN SITE CRAWLABLE) instead of focusing on silly updates and made up terms by the rank trackers, and that they talked more with the developers of the website once done with the first part of this sentence.”

Level up your SEO game in 2023

A new year brings new possibilities for your website.

It’s time to seriously consider how you will integrate expert SEO strategies so you have a chance to compete on Page 1.

The post 5 times you’ll need an expert SEO in 2023 appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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3 PPC marketing trends to keep a pulse on in 2023

Tuesday, January 10th, 2023

As we begin 2023, it’s a good time to reflect on the macro-level trends we’ve observed last year. 

Here are a few trends that I believe have some staying power and should be considered as you build out your 2023 search marketing strategies.

1. A slow economy and heightened focus on efficiency

In case you haven’t heard, the economy has been struggling (that’s a joke). I graduated with a degree in economics, but like most of us, I have no idea how long this downturn will last. 

That said, I think many digital marketers are already feeling the impact.

These environments are tricky to navigate and I certainly don’t have all the answers.

However, the advice I usually start with is leaning into your data. Make sure you have a deep understanding of your top-performing tactics and maximize your investment there first.

An analogy I often use is the concept of a sports team in the playoffs. When it comes to crunch time, a coach will always put their best players in the game for as much time as possible. Those players who are still developing are likely going to be watching the game from the bench. 

Take this same mindset when it comes to your search strategies. If your budget is limited, prioritize your investment on the tactics driving the most return. 

I’m sure many of you reading this are saying, “Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious.” But when I say this, I don’t mean simply consolidating to a brand keyword strategy. Instead, you should: 


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2. Automation vs. autonomy

This debate originated well before 2022. However, I do think the heat was turned up a bit last year with:

Machine learning is getting stronger and will continue to be woven into campaign management platforms.

I believe that to be successful in 2023, you must best balance the power of automation with the autonomy required to achieve your stakeholder’s objectives. 

Think about when you are setting up an automated bid strategy. Part of that process is providing the algorithm with business-specific guardrails that it should operate between – and toward. The better the inputs you provide, the more closely your results will align with your objectives. 

I think that same mindset should be leveraged with applications of AI more broadly in campaign management platforms.

Automation reduces the resources required for foundational tasks. But, we still need to guide it to work toward our business objectives. 

More tactically, think about what datasets you can incorporate. The more inputs you’re providing, the more data points that these algorithms can use to inform the optimizations and recommendations. 

In addition, think about what levers you need to maintain control over and where you can free up your grasp by relying on machine learning to make the optimizations for you

Lastly, consider how to structure your accounts to allow the automation to perform best. 

That balance of automation and autonomy will differ based on the complexity of your strategy.

Advertisers who have the best understanding of what this balance should be for their business stand to benefit.

3. Microsoft on the rise?

What would an article like this be without at least one opinion that is a little “edgy.” Buckle up, folks!

I’ve been pretty impressed with the updates that came out of Microsoft last year. They’ve not only expanded their ad offerings but also their geographic reach by about 70 new markets. 

Microsoft Advertising has always touted their lower costs and comparable features to Google, but we are starting to see some innovation (i.e., Multimedia Ads) unique to the platform.

Let’s be clear – I’m not expecting a significant shakeup in search engine market share. However, if you haven’t looked at innovation opportunities on Microsoft Advertising, now might be as good a time as any. 

The (generally) lower CPCs make it a solid testing environment and much of the innovation they’ve incorporated can help to improve conversion rates. 

Improving conversion rates combined with cheap CPCs sounds like an opportunity worth circling back to in budget-constrained environments. 

This recommendation is particularly relevant for B2B advertisers, as Microsoft Bing is an engine where we have seen particularly strong engagement, likely due to research taking place on work devices.  

Search marketing’s staying power in 2023

Now is an incredibly exciting time to be in search marketing. The platforms are making plenty of updates that it’s hard to keep up.

Search marketing is one of the most powerful tools in the digital marketing toolbox. Other than search, there are only a few other environments where users indicate their interests so clearly. 

I’ve highlighted a few of the trends I’m keeping a pulse on, but in our fast-paced industry, there are likely plenty more trends that you will consider as you build out your 2023 strategy. 

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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing




Google Local Service Ads are now available for dentists

Tuesday, January 10th, 2023

Last week Google updated its Help Center to include a new vertical: Dentists.

The change was first noted by Matt Casady who wrote about the update on Local U. Carrie Hill posted about it on Twitter.

Great new vertical in LSAs! Jump on this one before your competitors do! https://t.co/8Wjupycczf

— Carrie Hill ???????? (@CarrieHill) January 5, 2023

How it works. Prospective dentists will need to complete verification before being eligible to advertise.

Why we care. If you’re a dentist or you’re running ads for a dentist, start going through the verification process now so you can get your LSA ads up as soon as possible!

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