The Brands & Campaigns That Won Black Friday 2024
When it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the winners aren’t just the brands that rack up sales; they’re the ones that capture attention, drive conversation, and leave a…
Google’s New BlockRank Democratizes Advanced Semantic Search
A new research paper from Google DeepMind proposes a new AI search ranking algorithm called BlockRank that works so well it puts advanced semantic search ranking within reach of individuals…
Perplexity Responds To Reddit Lawsuit Over Data Access
Reddit sued Perplexity and three data-scraping firms in New York federal court, alleging the companies bypassed access controls to obtain Reddit content at scale, including by scraping Google search results.…
4 Expert Tips To Reach More Inboxes
This post was sponsored by Campaign Monitor. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Does it seem like fewer emails are getting delivered? Are bounce rates and…
Measuring When AI Assistants And Search Engines Disagree
Before you get started, it’s important to heed this warning: There is math ahead! If doing math and learning equations makes your head swim, or makes you want to sit…
OpenAI Releases Shared Project Feature To All Users
OPenAI announced that it is upgrading all ChatGPT accounts to be eligible for the project sharing feature, which enables users to share a ChatGPT project with others who can then…
Microsoft Updates Copilot With Memory, Search Connectors, & More
Microsoft announced its Copilot Fall Release, introducing features to make AI more personal and collaborative. New capabilities include group collaboration, long-term memory, health tools, and voice-enabled learning. Mustafa Suleyman, head…
Search Engine Journal Is Hiring!
We’re looking for a powerhouse project manager to keep our marketing team inspired and on track. This is a Philippines-based, fully-remote position working on U.S.-adjacent hours (8 p.m. – 4…
Time We Actually Start To Measure Relevancy When We Talk About “Relevant Traffic”
Every SEO strategy claims to drive “relevant traffic.” It is one of the industry’s most overused phrases, and one of the least examined. We celebrate growth in organic sessions and…
SEO Is Not A Tactic. It’s Infrastructure For Growth
In the age of AI, many companies still treat SEO as a bolt-on tactic, something to patch in after the website is designed, the content is written, and the campaigns…
How And Why Google Rewrites Your Hard-Earned Headlines
TL;DR Google can and does rewrite headlines and titles frequently. Almost anything on your page could be used. The title is not all that matters. The entirety of your page…
YouTube Expands Likeness Detection To All Monetized Channels
YouTube is beginning to expand access to its likeness detection tool to all channels in the YouTube Partner Program over the next few months. The technology helps you identify unauthorized…
AI Assistants Show Significant Issues In 45% Of News Answers
Leading AI assistants misrepresented or mishandled news content in nearly half of evaluated answers, according to a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and BBC study. The research assessed free/consumer versions of…
AI, Automation, And The Fight For Visibility
If you manage PPC campaigns, you’ve seen it. Platforms are making more decisions without asking you first. Campaign types keep consolidating into AI-first formats like Performance Max and Demand Gen.…
96.98% of Clicks Happen in the Top 10 Search Results
How many clicks and impressions come from rankings beyond Google’s first page? To find out, we analysed 458 billion clicks and 17 trillion impressions from Google Search Console. Our findings…
Why Are Brands Rethinking Their Approach To Using Agencies?
Many brands are re-evaluating their relationships with agencies. In a 2024 report, 40% of companies surveyed said they were likely to switch from their primary agency in the next six…
Why Some Brands Win in AI Overviews While Others Get Ignored
Turn Reviews Into Real Visibility, Trust, and Conversions Reviews are no longer just stars on a page. They are key trust signals that influence both humans and AI. With AI…
Google Announces A New Era For Voice Search
Google announced an update to its voice search, which changes how voice search queries are processed and then ranked. The new AI model uses speech as input for the search…
Surfer SEO Acquired By Positive Group
The French technology group Positive acquired Surfer, the popular content optimization tool. The acquisition helps Positive create a “full-funnel” brand visibility solution together with its marketing and CRM tools. The…
Brave Reveals Systemic Security Issues In AI Browsers
Brave disclosed security vulnerabilities in AI browsers that could allow malicious websites to hijack AI assistants and access sensitive user accounts. The issues affect Perplexity Comet, Fellou, and potentially other…
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Atlas Browser For macOS
OpenAI released ChatGPT Atlas today, describing it as “the browser with ChatGPT built in.” OpenAI announced the launch in a blog post and livestream featuring CEO Sam Altman and team…
The Impact Of AI Mode On SEO – Analysis Of 10 Studies
I just got back from San Diego and Toronto, where I spoke at Ahrefs Evolve and SEO IRL – both of which were fantastic. A lot of people I met…
Aligning For Performance, Purpose & LLM Visibility
A major category, focus, or pillar (as I have defined it for decades) of SEO is content. Influencing a range of on-page factors, but more so to develop authentic context…
Review Of AEO/GEO Tactics Leads To A Surprising SEO Insight
GEO/AEO is criticized by SEOs who claim that it’s just SEO at best and unsupported lies at worst. Are SEOs right, or are they just defending their turf? Bing recently…
Wikipedia Traffic Down As AI Answers Rise
The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) reported a decline in human pageviews on Wikipedia compared with the same months last year. Marshall Miller, Senior Director of Product, Core Experiences at Wikimedia Foundation,…
Mullenweg Talks About Commercially Motivating WordPress Companies
At the recent WordCamp Canada, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg answered a question about how individuals and agencies could support the WordPress ecosystem against “bad actors” who don’t share the same…
Raptive Drops Traffic Requirement By 75% To 25,000 Views
Raptive lowered its minimum traffic requirement to 25,000 monthly pageviews from 100,000. The ad network announced the new threshold represents a 75% reduction from the previous standard. Raptive retired its…
17 Data Reports That Every SEO Should Be Tracking in 2026
SEO and marketing are driven by the choices that you make, and those choices should be guided by clear, trustworthy data. Having a range of sources that you track on…
3 LinkedIn Strategies To Turn Your Founder’s Voice Into A Pipeline Driver
Your founder’s voice is your startup’s most valuable – and often most underleveraged – asset. I see this so often with startup leaders. They either avoid posting on LinkedIn (my…
Study Shows 2-5 Weekly TikToks Deliver Biggest View Increase
Buffer’s analysis of 11.4 million TikTok posts from over 150,000 accounts reveals that posting 2-5 times per week delivers the steepest per-post view increase. The study challenges the usual recommendation…