Technical SEO, split-testing, local search and algorithm analysis from independent practitioners and specialist agencies — SearchPilot, Lumar, Sistrix, Sterling Sky, Marie Haynes and others.
Impact is an automatic estimate of how much a story is likely to
affect one website, weighing who published it, whether Google has
confirmed a ranking change, how many outlets ran it, and whether
the wording implies work on your site. It reads headlines, not
your analytics — treat it as triage, not a verdict.
This blog was originally published on March 3, 2025 and updated on July 22, 2026. Is That "Web Visitor" an Agent or a Human? Back in January 2025, OpenAI’s Operator became the first true "AI agent"…
TL;DR: Bryan Gunawan, an intern in Seer's AI Optimization Academy, made 5 targeted changes to an existing Seer blog post and took it from under 100 impressions to a peak of 1,195 in a matter of…
I have had a number of site owners reach out to ask for help with indexing issues lately. In most cases, I am finding that Google has classified their pages as “crawled-not currently indexed” in the…
TL; DR Brands investing in creator ads may not be taking the right actions to see their desired results The industry is focused on helping brands find the right creator, when the real problem is…
We explore local branding with John Jantsch, examining how to build trust through offline distinctiveness, mine customer interviews to identify primary differentiators and leverage programmatic…
Local Websites in a Sea of SlopPeople increasingly feel that the "open web" is over. The web is now dominated by a small number of powerful "gatekeepers." Beyond this, more paywalls are going up,…
Who doesn’t love a good mystery? I've been thinking about the conundrum that is zero-click search a lot lately, partly because of Rand Fishkin's recent study showing that less than one-third of…
Discover why small business websites are shifting from growth engines to "trust artifacts" to battle AI search friction, click fraud, and generative slop.
Gemini for GBP Is a Big DealLast month Google announced new Gemini features for small businesses. Rolling out this month (except in Europe), it's a significant development. It's not just another lame…
Search is changing what discovery means for retail brands. I have known Heather Physioc for a long time, and I still remember her original work on SEO maturity. It gave a lot of us a better way to…
Standardizing knowledge for the future of AI agents My last piece on Google’s Open Knowledge Format (OKF) was one of the most popular I’ve ever published. Since then, I have been heads down working…
If you work in digital marketing your inbox is likely to be littered with news on the latest AI visibility trackers. With so many solutions on the market it can leave you with a difficult decision,…
Search is changing what discovery means for retail brands. That is true for every retailer, but it is especially true for premium retailers. If you are not trying to win every shopper on price,…
Google just published documentation on what they're calling the Open Knowledge Format (OKF). It represents a standardized way for agents to access knowledge via very simple directories of Markdown…
Tracking your performance in Google’s AI Overviews & AI Mode Google is giving us brand new information within our Google Search Consoles to tell us how our content is being used in AI Overviews, AI…
Alongside a possibly related announcement from Google comes a Google Search Publisher Conduct Requirement from the UK Competition and Markets Authority. Google’s strategic market status means it must…
Everyone in SEO knows Google Core Updates: overnight, the visibility of domains shifts. Our data now shows the same pattern in ChatGPT. On May 23, 2026, the switch from GPT-5 mini to GPT-5.5 shifted…
Google just shared more information to help us get our websites ready for agents. There is a new report from Lighthouse which anybody can run. You do not need external software to run it. You can do…
We are hearing lots of stories where Google is suspending Google Business Profiles for real estate agents working for eXp Realty. In this Google support thread, this individual was told by Google…
