Google's Core Update Pushes YouTube to AI Overviews Dominance
Just checked a client that ranked in AI Overviews last week and now the top 4 links in AI Overviews are all YouTube. Let me guess: the core update was another way for Google to boost YouTube, like it did with the Discover core update.
Google AI Overviews Frequently Wrong, Listicles Skew Answers
It's live: @trippmickle & a few other authors from @nytimes published new research about how frequently Google's AI Overviews are wrong. It includes a quote from both @thomasgermain and me about listicles influencing AI responses. Check it out - https://t.co/cIouYjP8kt https://t.co/jMhk3MH27F
Google Serves Spanish Snippets Despite English Query
There's a new one - Google is showing me a title and meta description *in Spanish* even though I'm searching in English from Brooklyn. The URL is zoom . us and the page content is in English. I was recently in...
SEO‑dead Hype Turns Into 410 Page Deletions
Also the same companies who pushed the narrative (and $$$) that SEO is dead/dying last year are now using 410 response codes on the pages they helped scale/rank&tank for their clients last year. I wish I was kidding.
Disclaimers Shield Google Legally but Don’t Improve Answer Quality
Do these disclaimers help Google avoid legal liability or something? They’re all over AIO now (and IMO they don’t do much to take away from otherwise bad quality answers 😅😅)
Good SEO Drives Success in AI Search Studies
Every time I read a correlation study about what works well in AI search it always just ends up being “good SEO.” 🤔
SEO Trends Boost Employability for True Experts
The irony is that this stuff only makes real SEOs more employable. As I often say, “call me in 6 months.”
Self‑promotional Listicle Sites Still Suffering Post‑algorithm Crash
Not all sites with self-promotional listicles have been hit, but for the handful that were hit on ~Jan 21, the crash is still crashing. As a reminder, these sites used dozens/hundreds/thousands of self-promotional listicles (plus other spammy approaches) https://t.co/Ri1SdOPJ1t
Google Flags .co Domain as Suspicious, Blocks Linking
This will be an interesting little SEO/AEO experiment: Google Gemini won’t link to my new constancy site (yet) - it keeps saying it’s a “suspicious link” 🙄 I think cuz it ends in .co. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ll be building links etc. to...
Don't Flood Your Site: Seek SEO Expert Advice
Oh now I “need” to write hundreds of articles? 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ Please consult experienced SEO professionals before burning down your site with stuff like this.
YouTube Secures Yet Another Core Update Victory
Oh look YouTube wins another core update, truly, who could have seen this coming? 🫠
AI Mode Delays Linking New Sites in Sandbox
Seems like AI Mode / AI Overviews have a “sandbox” waiting period for new sites. They are able to talk about the consultancy I launched yesterday but so far no links to the site yet in AIO/AI Mode. https://t.co/TG38v0lrV8
Gemini’s “Source” Links Redirect to Ad‑filled Google Searches
Only Gemini would provide a “link to a source” that actually just takes you to a Google search result with an ad for another company 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ https://t.co/wt9eXpthqz
Public AI Content Case Studies May Trigger Traffic Drops
Answer: they’re all public case studies about scaling AI content. Usually the case study was written near the time of the peak. Not sure if cause of drop is the content, the case study, or both 😅😅😅
LLMs Can't Render JavaScript, Trust Their SEO Advice Cautiously
Friendly reminder to be very careful taking technical SEO advice from LLMs; they will confidently make statements about how sites operate that simply aren’t true in many cases, because most LLMs can’t render JavaScript. This includes Claude.
Google Discover AI Redirects All Content to YouTube
So in my Discover feed, Google uses AI to summarize the situation and then gives the illusion of linking to multiple brand logos (no one is ever gonna click on that btw) - but when you click to expand? It’s...
Baidu's New English Wiki Boosts US Visibility
Baidu's English pages appear to be exploding in visibility in the U.S. It looks like it's tied to the core update, but I think it's actually that they launched an English Wiki site within the last week: https://t.co/O54gTff7C8 https://t.co/R6b5Ntxk0B
AI Articles Prematurely Report March 2026 Core Update
AI-generated articles already being published (and one even quotes me with a quote I never said) about the March 2026 Core Update 🫠🫠 lol, the update was announced Friday and has barely kicked in yet, let alone completed. There is no...
No Clear Evidence of Core Update Yet
FYI I just checked many sites; still not seeing any convincing signs of the core update hitting yet.
ChatGPT’s Site: Queries Fail on Exa, Work Elsewhere
Fun fact: the site: search operator only works on Google and Bing, but not Exa. ChatGPT uses site: search operators in fan-out queries. 😅
Fan‑out Query Updates Dramatically
My thoughts on the new fan-out query changes in ChatGPT (response to @chris_nectiv post) https://t.co/zChQKjii1S
Seeking AI Clone to Attend All Product Demos
Has anyone made an AI agent I can use to clone myself to be able to attend all the dozens of product demos I am pitched weekly?
Google's Fake External Links Create Confusing, Poor UX
This one is objectively bad for user experience though. I know Google often introduces changes that reduce clicks out to external sites. But in this case, it makes the user *think* they are getting an external link when they are...
Claude's Surprising Take on AI Search Citations
Working on some new analysis of AI search citations and Claude just said this… 🤔 https://t.co/3tMq0fbAGF
Vibe Coding Risks SEO; AI‑generated Sites Fail without JavaScript
I think vibe coding is going to create a lot of these types of SEO issues
AI Is Reshaping SEO Strategies, Says WSJ
I liked this part of the WSJ article about AI & SEO yesterday: https://t.co/JKEoR59sEz https://t.co/3bUjneWgaX
AI Spam Floods My Feed with Fake Quotes
Every day I wake up to alerts for my name that include: - quotes I never said (like the one below) - AI rehashes of my original articles AI slop is out of control https://t.co/92UnlDqbYD
Google Penalizes Spammer Who Topped Discover Update
The biggest (and unexpected) winner of the Google Discover Core Update (via @GrowOnDiscover) has since been manual action’d The site was doing all types of spammy stuff so it was surprising they came out on top. Until Google took notice....
SEOs Still Unfamiliar with JSON‑LD
Ah yes, JSON-LD! SEOs had clearly never heard of or used it before GEO. 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️ https://t.co/GSNcGB23GV
AI Renames Generic Images with Perfect Descriptive Accuracy
Just had Claude Cowork go into a folder full of images with generic filenames and rewrote them to be descriptive before uploading them onto a site and the output is perfect. 10/10. 👏🏽👏🏽
Avoid Risky AI Search Tactics; They Damage SEO
One of the worst things you can do for AI search visibility? Destroying your SEO performance with shiny new AI search tactics that are ultimately dangerous for SEO - and by extension - AI search. In my latest Substack article, I wrote...
LinkedIn Posts Now Surface in Google Discover for Influencers
Cool new update from Discover Snoop: Individual LinkedIn Posts are now appearing in Google Discover. This is in addition to X, Instagram, and TikTok posts already showing more frequently in there. And as @AndellDam has recently been highlighting, this appears to...
Tweet Relevant Content to Appear in Google Discover
How to show up in Google Discover 2026 edition: tweet things you also might be interested in 😅 https://t.co/QuiAVIpyCy
Google Deleting Citations on Self‑promoting Listicles: Ultimate FAFO
Imagine if Google actually removes *all* citations for queries that previously showed self-promoting listicles. That would indeed be the ultimate FAFO
SEO/AI Case Study Drives Explosive 2024 Organic Traffic
Dear lord, just found another SEO/AI case study about how the company exploded this site's organic traffic in early 2024... ...when do we get the follow-up case study? 😅 https://t.co/O5fQZBGYsg
Long‑standing Niche Gaming Content Thrives Post‑Discover Update
Amazing to watch this site's Google Discover performance over time, including improving after the Discover core update. It's a super niche gaming site with authors who have been writing original, human-written content for the site for 15+ years https://t.co/9DKgLLJhnW
ChatGPT Isn’t Replacing Google Search, Despite Hype
I guess ChatGPT isn’t killing Google search after all. (We knew that, but I still see posts on here and IG saying this daily)
Claude Simplifies Complex Academic GEO Studies
Enjoying using Claude to break down some of the “academic GEO studies” I’ve been reading https://t.co/HNl9KQYHdn
Boasting About SEO Wins Gets You Caught Fast
The funny thing about people publicly boasting about their explosive SEO campaigns is that bringing viral attention to them is the single best and fastest way to get caught, including potentially having multiple accounts in your GSC all penalized at...
Google's Search Flooded with AI Rehashes, Official Sources Hidden
It’s officially getting annoying searching on Google for the official source of information, and needing to ignore all the top-ranking, “updated 3 days ago,” AI-generated rehashes of the actual article you’re looking for.
Listicle Placements Now Come with Brag‑worthy Plaques
So now not only are there companies selling placements on listicles, there are other companies selling plaques you can buy for having been featured on the listicle 😂😂😂 https://t.co/NrDHMSvquN
Scribd’s /Document/ PDFs Boost SEO Visibility
Another blast from the past: Scribd is exploding in SEO visibility. Mostly from its /document/ folder (UGC PDFs & AI-generated summaries of PDF contents) https://t.co/ZGr1eYj5tr
Scaling Content Brings Hidden Risks for AI Search Tools
Fantastic new article by @pedrodias about the risks of scaling content. A good read for some of the new AI search tools who have recently entered the space.
Gemini Faces First Wrongful‑Death Suicide Lawsuit, ChatGPT Leads
Wow, the first wrongful death suicide lawsuit against Gemini (Compared to 9 already for ChatGPT) Not a good sign. h/t @natejhake & Jamie Alberico 🤯 https://t.co/IEFIMObcTO
Google Consolidates Entities and Social Profiles in Discover
This is cool. And it fits with the larger trend Google has been implementing across Discover and News for years - highlighting entities, brands, recognized authors, and linking their social profiles all in one place
ChatGPT Traffic Mirrors Google Organic Rankings
Screenshot 1: Grokipedia - projected organic traffic 2. Grokipedia ChatGPT citations 3. Grokipedia AIO citations 4. Grokipedia AI mode citations Interesting how closely ChatGPT aligns with Google organic traffic 👀 All data from @ahrefs https://t.co/insLf5sN2u
When SEO Webinars Turn Into Weekend Exit Signals
Someone just sent me a high-profile webinar about “SEO vs AEO” where the AEO part apparently focused on “adding FAQ schema to product pages” Ok. That’s my sign that it’s officially time to log off for the weekend 👋🏽👋🏽👋🏽 https://t.co/zWCUoVLqIw
Tracking Organic Visibility in Public AI Search Cases
It’s always a fun ride checking organic visibility for the public AI search case studies 😂
ChatGPT Carousels Align with 83% of Top Google Shopping Results
“Over 83% of ChatGPT carousel products were found as strong matches in Google’s top 40 organic shopping results.” Another article showing how ChatGPT uses Google’s results - this time for Google Shopping. Great new research by Tom Wells at @peec_ai https://t.co/ABBzFlGH55
Query Fan-Out Redefines Keyword Research Methodology
Props to @Lem4 from @Similarweb for publishing some of the most well-thought out and actionable AEO/GEO research I've seen so far. Nice new article about how query fan-out/reformulation changes keyword research methodology: https://t.co/cLJLOo86IQ