#BlinkTank: The BFCM wash-up
Well, BFCM is finally behind us. I hope the period went well for everyone, though it has certainly been a challenging stretch for many operators.
We are continuing to see the trend of the last couple of years play out - buying behaviours were softer in October and early November, followed by a sharp pickup for the peak sales period. That said, competition is significantly higher and costs are rising steeply.
This is a slightly shorter newsletter as the dust settles.
The Cyber Monday outage
One of the undeniable headlines from the weekend was the Shopify outage on Cyber Monday. It is never the news anyone wants during peak trading.
I spoke with The Logic, a Canadian tech publication, to share a few comments on the situation.
📝 https://thelogic.co/news/shopify-cyber-monday-outage/
Forrester on SEO and AEO
Forrester recently published an article discussing the move of SEO to the centre of the marketing mix.
The content is not exactly groundbreaking for those of us working in search, but it is always interesting to see these discussions move outside the weird little corner of the professional world that we occupy.
📝 https://www.forrester.com/blogs/seos-hype-fueled-move-to-the-center-of-the-marketing-mix/
Google Search Console reporting delays
A quick note in case you have seen issues with indexing in Search Console over the past few days.
Google has confirmed this is an issue on their end. Crucially, they have stated this does not affect actual performance or serving - just the reporting within the tool.
📎 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/googlesearchcentral_fyi-page-indexing-report-delays-were-activity-7401148758643855362-ZTsB/
Accessibility lawsuits and overlays
We have seen a few recent examples of spurious lawsuits regarding both accessibility and tracking pixel compliance. This is currently specific to the US, but it is worth monitoring as we expect to see an upturn in this activity.
If you are tempted to look into using an "accessibility overlay" tool for quick compliance, I highly recommend watching this video from the wonderful Heydon Pickering. It sums up, in a very singular way, why that is a terrible idea for your user experience and your actual compliance status.
📎 https://briefs.video/videos/what-are-accessibility-overlays/
A note on exits
Finally, we are working with an investor who is currently sourcing Shopify brands turning over less than two to three million who are looking for a full exit.
If you fit that profile and would like an introduction, feel free to reach out.
All the best,
Sam