Wondering how to get started with automation? Columnist David Fothergill provides a handy primer, including recommended tools and what they can be used for. The post The SEM automation primer appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Link building for e-commerce sites can be a challenge, but it isn't impossible. Columnist Christian Sculthorp shares tactics that you can use to acquire inbound links to your online store. The post 6 e-commerce link building tactics that still work in 2016 appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more. Google NYC 10 year anniversary birthday cake: Source: Instagram...
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/search-pics-google-nyc-10-years-keyboard-pranks-folding-table-257630 Posted by randfish At first glance, local links and local citations might seem unnecessary for non-local websites. On a closer look, however, there are strong underlying benefits to gaining those local votes of confidence that could prove invaluable for everyone. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand explains why all sites should consider chasing local links and citations, suggesting a few different ways to discover opportunities in your areas of focus. Video TranscriptionHowdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to talk about why websites — every website, not just local websites — should be thinking about tactics and a strategy to get local listings and local citations. Local & online businessSo for a local and online business, like Lock Fyne Whiskies, they sell whiskies in their specific store. You can go in — and I did — and buy some stuff. They also sell on their website, I believe just in the United Kingdom, unfortunately, for those of you watching around the rest of the world. But there are certainly reasons why they would want to go and get local links from places that link to businesses in Inveraray or in Argyll or in Scotland as a whole. Those include:
Online-only businessBut if you're an online-only business, I think a lot of folks make the case of, "Wait a minute, Rand, isn't it true that if I am getting local links and local citations, those may not be boosting my relevance, my ranking ability as much as they are boosting my local ranking ability, which I don't actually care about because I'm not focused on that?" So, for example, whiskyshop.com, I think they are also based in Scotland, but they don't have physical locations. It's an online-only shop. So getting a local link for them in whatever part of the region of Scotland they are actually in would...
There's one more that I should include here too, which is that...
Local-only businessLastly, a local-only business — I think this is the most obvious one — we know that it...
Easy ways to find citation/link sources in your locale:If you're going to go out and look for some local links, a few quick recommendations that are real easy to do.
So with that, I hope you'll do me a favor and go out, try and get some of those local links. I look forward to your comments, and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care. Video transcription by Speechpad.com Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4246511
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. The post SearchCap: Google search games, AMP experiments & more appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Check out the new amp-experiments component that lets you easily test different variations of your AMP pages. The post AMP now supports A/B testing and other experiments appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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A quick query for "solitaire" or "tic-tac-toe" will surface either game within both desktop and mobile search results. The post Google rolls out new solitaire & tic-tac-toe games directly in search appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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The higher threshold will put added pressure on smaller businesses to gather reviews. The post Google now requires more reviews for Seller Ratings to show in ads appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Expanded text ads are here, and advertisers will likely be doing significant ad copy revisions as a result. Luckily, columnist Russell Savage reminds us that you can use AdWords scripts to ensure that your new ads are devoid of spelling errors. The post Spell-check your new expanded text ads with...
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The acquisition adds organic search optimization to ScribbleLive’s growing content marketing arsenal of algorithms and other tools. The post ScribbleLive buys SEO platform Linkdex appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Want some simple SEO tips that will help move the needle without breaking the bank? Columnist Stephan Spencer has seven for you. The post 7 quick SEO hacks for the SEO newbie appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Doodler Sophia Diao says she hopes the doodle she designed inspires everyone to enjoy the outdoors. The post US National Parks Google doodle surfaces list of parks from Crater Lake to Acadia appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. The post SearchCap: PPC tips, link structure & more appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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SEOs often focus heavily on accumulating inbound links, but don't overlook links within your site. Columnist Dave Davies shares his guide for how to structure your site's internal links. The post Optimizing your internal link structure appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Are you a PPC newbie looking to get the most out of your campaigns? If so, columnist Brett Middleton has some advice for you! The post 3 things every PPC beginner needs to try appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/3-things-every-ppc-beginner-needs-try-254745 Posted by Dr-Pete From Featured Snippets to In-depth Articles to Knowledge Panels, Google SERP features have remade the search marketing landscape. After three years of planning and many months of work, I'm thrilled to announce the launch of advanced SERP feature tracking in Moz Pro, available immediately to all customers! Using the most comprehensive data set on the market, Moz Pro now provides advanced analysis of the 16 features listed below: Try it out now under the [Rankings] tab within any campaign, or read on for a walk-through of the new features. New to Moz Pro? Take a free 30-day trial! Stage 1: AwarenessAt MozCon 2013, I gave a talk called Beyond 10 Blue Links, documenting the diversity of Google features surrounding organic results. Many of us at Moz felt strongly that the world of SERP features could have a profound impact on search marketers, and so we started to catalog Google's changes and collect the data to find out just how much SERPs were evolving. In early 2014, we built a prototype to better understand how we could help customers track SERP features, but we discovered that most of our customers were unfamiliar with them. None of us knew, at the time, exactly what impact SERP features were having or how we should adjust our tactics. The idea of tracking possibly dozens of types of results was daunting, especially in an industry where most of us already wore too many hats. So, we kept tracking the data, and we learned along with the industry. We also, I hope, contributed to that education. We built the infrastructure we knew we'd need down the road (much credit to our Silo team), even if we weren't sure when the turn in that road would come. Eventually – and in large part due to the growth of Featured Snippets – we knew that our customers were ready. Stage 2: AcceptanceAs of August, 86% of the SERPs in our 10,000-keyword tracking set had some kind of non-organic feature (a Knowledge Panel, a Featured Snippet, Rich Snippets, a Local Pack, etc.). If you count ads and shopping results, that number goes up to 97% – the days of 10 blue links are long gone. We recently did an analysis of over 400,000 search result interactions (thanks to Russ Jones) and found that SERPs with rich features send 28% fewer clicks to traditional organic results. At the same time, many of these features, including Featured Snippets, create new opportunities for non-traditional clicks. Either way, the impact on your SEO is very real, and it's essential to understand what you're up against. The challenge in tracking SERP features, as an SEO, is that which features matter to you can vary wildly with your niche. I've seen a single feature radically impact traffic for some sites, while that same feature may have little or no impact on others. Once you've accepted the reality of SERP features, you have to understand how the landscape looks for your own industries and sites: One of the first things you'll see on the new SERP Features page is the overview. This graph shows the presence of features across your campaign, as well as the proportion of features that you're listed in (where applicable). At launch, we support the 16 highest-impact desktop SERP features. Click on the pull-down above the graph, and you can pull up a Trended Analysis for any feature. Good news: we've already got a 60-day history available at launch. It's time to accept that SERP features really do exist, and dive into the details. Scrolling down, you'll see a comprehensive list of your Campaign keywords along with your current ranking, plus the features those keywords displayed the last time we checked them: The keyword list shows all of your campaign keywords, along with their rankings and a list of icons signaling which features appeared on those SERPs. Blue icons indicate that your site appears in the feature, red icons indicate your competitor is in it, and orange icons mean that you're both listed (this might occur in multi-listing features, such as News Packs). At the top of the page, you can narrow your list by keyword, label, location, or feature. Let's say you just wanted to see keywords with Featured Snippets. Next to the funnel icon at the top, click [+], then select "SERP Feature" and choose one from the list: The overview graph and keyword list are both filtered now, and you can explore whatever features are most applicable to your work. Stage 3: OpportunitySo, what do you do with this knowledge? We've developed an insights system to help you answer that question. For example, if a keyword in your campaign currently displays a Featured Snippet, and you rank in the top 5 organic results, you've got a decent shot at being able to compete for that snippet. So, we call that out: Click on any keyword with "Insights" to see possible opportunities. At launch, we highlight keywords with Featured Snippets, News Packs, Reviews, Videos, and Site Links (if you're not currently listed in them). We hope to add more insights in the near future. Bonus: Questions in KWEWant to put this to the test today? Here's a way to easily start tracking Featured Snippet opportunities. Go to Keyword Explorer, enter a term, view all results, and then, in the first pulldown select [are questions]. You'll get a list of question suggestions related to your chosen search term: Now, select the questions that interest you, and add them to your Campaign. We'll start tracking Featured Snippets and other SERP features, and soon you'll be discovering new opportunities to stand out from your competition. Thanks to everyone involved on the Product and Design teams, and special thanks to our Silo team for putting the pieces in place over the past year to make tracking features possible. Please reach out to us with any comments or suggestions, and we hope you enjoy the new features! Join our Launch Day Twitter Q&A Party!Try it today and tweet questions (the occasional comment or rave also welcome!) to @Moz with #OwntheSERP. Questions will be answered in real-time throughout the day (ok, technically between 7:00 am and 4:00 pm US-PST) by one of our pros: @RandFish, @Dr_Pete, @BritneyMuller, @JontheExiled. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4230200 Posted by WilcoxAJ We’re all well aware that the tides have shifted in SEO. Building links for the sake of building links is no longer the best strategy. We’ve all heard the gospel of great content being preached: "Just create great content, and the links will naturally come." While this may be true for brands with existing followings, it’s often a very different story for most SMBs. The fact of the matter is that if a brand lacks social presence and followers, it may get more eyeballs on its great content by printing a copy, and stapling it to a tree. For that reason, you need to pay to get that great content in front of the eyes that are most likely to share/blog/mention it. I’m going to show you how to do this using LinkedIn Ads. LinkedIn, the resume site?"LinkedIn?", you say? "Why would I share content on LinkedIn?", you ask? Very good question! Everyone’s favorite professional social network is very well known for its ability to host your resume, as well as its usefulness in finding your next job. What you may not have noticed is that LinkedIn has been making great strides towards becoming a content hub, and it began back in 2012. In 2012, LinkedIn released their Influencer program. It allowed business celebrities like Bill Gates and Richard Branson to publish long-form articles, and it allowed the likes of us peasants to follow that content without requiring said celebrities to accept our connections. In 2013, the network announced its acquisition of Pulse, a news and content engine, which can push you content based on your industry, seniority, etc. It then released a new ad unit called "Sponsored Updates," which allows advertisers to put content in front of the right eyes. In 2014, long-form posting (such as the likes of Arianna Huffington and Barack Obama enjoyed) was then released to all LinkedIn members. You can see how, gradually, the professional network positioned itself to become the place you go for your business news. Getting startedBy now you may realize how helpful LinkedIn advertising can be for your content marketing efforts, but you don’t know how to get started. No problem! Here’s what you need: 1. Company page admin accessSponsored Updates (the native ad unit that was built for sharing content effectively) require a connection to the company page. First and foremost, you’ll need to have an existing administrator of your LinkedIn company page add you to that as well. Here’s that process: If your company has not yet created a company page, that’s no problem either — they’re quick and easy. You can create your company page for free. 2. LinkedIn Ads account accessIf you have an existing LinkedIn Ads account, here’s how to get access: If you don’t already have an existing account, here’s how you do it: Why use LinkedIn Ads?Although the ads platform may not be pretty, or have the feature set we in PPC have come to expect, its granular control over B2B targeting can’t be beat. I’m certain you can see the value in being able to reach someone by:
Who should I target?That depends. Who would you get the most value out of seeing your content? Here are a couple angles that I’ve used: 1. Venture capital hackIs your company getting ready to raise a round of funding? You could target those within the "Venture Capital & Private Equity" industry. The fact that potential investors have heard of you could mean precious increase to your valuation. Here are the targeting settings where I did just that for a client: 2. Publisher hackDo you want to get your content linked to? How about targeting those that buy ink by the barrel? Here’s what I’ve used for just such an occasion: By reaching those with seniorities of manager and above in the publishing industries, you’re able to get your content in front of those who could cite, publish about, or otherwise authoritatively share your content. Attitudes toward native adsHow do we feel about advertising? Savvy consumers are suspicious and skeptical of advertisers. The fantastic part about sponsoring content is the vast majority of consumers don’t view it as an ad. When you ask customers how they found you after arriving through sponsored content, you’ll get answers like "A friend shared…" or "I came across…" Of course, if your sponsored update feels like an ad, you’ve shot all of your blissful goodwill in the foot. What does it cost?Depending on the audience, I’ve found LinkedIn clicks to cost between about $4–8. That being said, sharing content carries with it a huge advantage. For those familiar with the AdWords auction system, it will come as no surprise that you can get significant discounts on your cost-per-click (CPC) if your click-through rate (CTR) is high. For the uninitiated, each time a LinkedIn user loads a page on the site, there is an opportunity cost associated with showing an ad. Advertiser A may be willing to bid $20 per click, but if their CTR is .1% the platform would make, at most, $20 from showing the ad to 1k visitors. Contrast that with Advertiser B who is only bidding $3, but has a CTR of 1%, which results in a maximum of $30 to the platform for showing ads to those same 1k visitors. This means that LinkedIn maximizes its revenue when advertisers have great CTRs, so it lowers costs of high CTR performers in order to reward them for their profitability. The advantage, then, of sharing content that's low in friction and high in interest is that it garners high CTRs, and therefore lower CPCs than content that presents more friction. Remember that you're targeting your ideal audience here, and getting as many of them as possible to your content/offers will likely pay significant dividends in the future. Added bonus!Remember in the section above when I mentioned getting your ideal audience in front of your content pays significant dividends? This is where I get more specific. You’ve got your ideal audience to your site now, and you paid between $3–7 per click to do it, which is costly in many verticals. Do you keep relying on $3–7 clicks to continue to bring them back until they’re raving fans and ready to talk to your sales team? You could, but then your cost per engagement will look sky-high. Contrast this with the possibility of placing your LinkedIn traffic into AdWords, Twitter, and Facebook retargeting audiences (tutorial here). You can even name those audiences after the persona you drove there (i.e. Media, or Venture Capital) to make interpretation of the accounts easy. For instance, if your LinkedIn campaign is targeting media, then call your retargeting audience “Online Media Professionals” or something to that effect. How much do you normally pay for retargeting traffic? $.60? $1? Less? Whatever it is, it’s bound to be a huge discount compared to your original source of the traffic, and the big advantage to you is that everyone in that audience, you got to qualify through the most effective B2B targeting. Staying on top of your ideal audiences’ minds with banner ads is great and all, but what gets even more exciting is then using those retargeting audiences as persona development. Persona developmentFrom following the retargeting strategy above, you know that you’ll end up with a retargeting audience that contains your ideal audience. This allows you to serve a lot of impressions very inexpensively. Use this to your advantage to test content titles, etc. Are you interested in finding out whether the phrase "data-driven" is more engaging than "big data?" How about testing colloquial messages as opposed to more formal? Try running different versions of the content in image A/B tests to test what resonates most with your persona! As you test against this audience, you’ll start to find out how best to talk to them, and what types garner the greatest results. After all, you’re paying for the traffic, so you might as well get all the use out of it you can. RecapTo sum it all up, start by gathering a significant announcement, and decide the influencer who would have the greatest sway over publishing/funding it. Target those folks using LinkedIn’s powerful ad targeting. Then retarget those visitors using your favorite retargeting channels to further invest in the influencers. Then watch business results happen, in a truly scalable fashion! Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4227588
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. The post SearchCap: Google drops “mobile-friendly” label, Bing Ads & AMP for e-commerce appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Google will reinforce its emphasis on the mobile search experience with a new penalty affecting "intrusive interstitials" on mobile web pages. The post Google warns it will crack down on “intrusive interstitials” in January appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Google says the change is designed to declutter its search results. The post Google dropping “Mobile-friendly” label from search results appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Advertisers can apply now to begin testing ETAs in their campaigns. The post Bing Ads opens pilot for Expanded Text Ads appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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On a fundamental level, effective search engine optimization (SEO) is about creating connections with your target audience. Columnist Ryan Shelley shows how personas can help you achieve these connections. The post The human side to SEO: the power of personas appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Columnist Chris Liversidge explains why fixing your analytics gaps and taking lifetime customer value into account can lead to better results in your organic search initiatives. The post Integrate lifetime value to benefit a customer-led SEO strategy appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Google documented how to take your e-commerce site and make it AMP ready. The post Google shares tips on using AMP for ecommerce appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/google-shares-tips-using-amp-ecommerce-257291 Posted by Dr-Pete Google is constantly testing new design elements, but over the past few months they've been testing a change that, while it might seem small on the surface, represents a major philosophical shift. The screenshots in this post were all captured on live SERPs but appear to be tests and have not rolled out permanently. Here's an example of the basic change: Notice how each result (ads and organic) is wrapped in a container and visually separated on a gray background. These containers are called "cards" in Google's vernacular, and they're important, but we'll get to that. Why should we care about a few borders and a background? Shift #1: Mobile-first designWe've known for over two years that Google was shifting to a mobile-first design philosophy. Earlier this year, Google removed ads from the right-hand column. While this change was partially due to performance, I believe that a big part of it was standardizing the ad environment across platforms (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc.). What's not obvious from the test above is that this card-based design is more than just boxes and backgrounds. Google is testing a serious move toward single-column SERPs. The removal of ads from the right-hand column was only the beginning. Here's a SERP screenshot for "polar bear" in Google's current desktop design: Below is the test design, captured back in May. The Knowledge Panel has been moved to the top-left, and the right-hand column is gone. This is not a Knowledge Card of the sort we typically see on the top-left. It is the traditionally right-hand desktop entity, moved and collapsed (with a "More about Polar bear" arrow): Here's the same search on an Android phone. Notice the card-based format and Knowledge Panel at the top. Obviously, nothing is in the right-hand column, because mobile only has one column: There are still display differences between mobile and the desktop test, of course, but you can clearly start to see the convergence between the test and the current mobile design. How will it all fit on the left?Getting everything on current desktop SERPs into one column poses significant challenges, and Google is experimenting with a few variations. Here's a SERP that has both a Knowledge Panel and a Knowledge Card, for example: In this case, the Knowledge Card showing the support phone number appears above the Knowledge Panel, and both are above the first organic result. You'll notice some design differences on this example, which was captured in July. Here's another example, with a different, more interesting layout: This SERP has a local 3-pack, which is at the top (like on current designs), followed by an organic result, and then followed by the Knowledge Panel. This pushes the Knowledge Panel down the page quite a bit, and the #2 organic result down well below the fold. In another example, we saw a Knowledge Panel below four ads and four organic results. So, the traditional top placement may become more flexible. Here's an example with a Featured Video, followed by a Knowledge Panel, and then the first organic: The bottom of this same SERP has another interesting feature: a set of three different related searches, each with their own card. On the current design, these live at the bottom of the Knowledge Panel, but here they've been split off from the panel and expanded: Keep in mind that these are only variations in testing, and that this testing has been ongoing over a period of months. We can piece together Google's intent from looking at multiple tests, but we can't pin down what the final design will look like or when (or even if) it will launch. Shift #2: Google NowThere's another reason I think the card-based design is potentially interesting. Google Now, Google's predictive search product, was built on the "card" concept. Here's an Android screenshot: Google Now mixes and matches results of personal interest. On this screen, I've got a Knowledge Graph-style card with an upcoming game time, another KG-style card with a recent box score, and a carousel of news results, all under a topical "Chicago Cubs" section header. Here's another Google Now screen:Here, I've got another news carousel (note its similarity to mobile search news carousels), and then an individual news story with its own card. Google Now shows that you can create a result using virtually no traditional organic results and mix multiple Knowledge Graphs, news, and other entities in a single, fluid experience. What does it all mean?Cards are much more than just a design philosophy. We're used to seeing SERPs in clusters: a column of organic results, a Knowledge Panel, a box of news results, a box of local results, etc. Prior to individually-labelled ads, even AdWords ads came in visually-delineated chunks. With cards, we have to start thinking of each individual information unit as a stand-alone result, and every SERP is a mix of the most relevant results across a wide variety of sources and types. Viewing SERPs as collection of search information units (SIUs?) also allows Google to easily adapt across a wide range of displays, from desktop all the way down to wearables, which might only have screen space for a single card. Even voice search can be adapted to cards. Currently, if you run a voice search on Android that returns a Featured Snippet, for example, your mobile device will read that snippet back to you. Voice search is returning one card, a single unit of search information. Cards give Google a great deal of flexibility, and will begin to break traditional design barriers and result groupings. We may see ads leaving top and bottom blocks and being dispersed between other results. We may see a mix of shopping results, say a single product card and a multi-product carousel on the same page. Similarly, we may see multiple news results or carousels across a single page. We may see multiple Knowledge Cards or personalized results, if a search merits that kind of personalization. The era of cards is the final nail in the coffin of ten blue links. Ultimately, our definition of search engine optimization is going to have to expand beyond traditional results and into any information unit that can drive traffic. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4218355 |
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