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Core Updates SEO Newsletter

The Core Updates newsletter is written by Mark Williams-Cook, a veteran SEO who is Digital Marketing Director at Candour, Founder of AlsoAsked and organiser of SearchNorwich. Over 40,000 SEOs follow Mark's 'Unsolicited #SEO tips' on LinkedIn, which has now been wrapped up into the Core Updates newsletter, along with an overview of weekly news and the current episode of the Search with Candour episode, hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward.

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πŸ’° Core Updates: Ads in nearly 30% of AI Mode and Google is second-most cited domain [20 July]

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ’° Ads now appear in nearly 30% of AI Mode queries. Interestingly, CPC appears to be the strongest determining factor, with ad presence increasing to 53.56% with a CPC of $10 or higher. πŸ₯ˆ Google is now the second-most cited domain in AI Mode. This increase in the last few months is primarily driven by Google Business Profiles in local searches and Product Knowledge Panels...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“Š Google Search Console adds search tracking for social media with new properties. These properties help creators understand which search terms lead users to their content across Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube. βš™οΈ The generative AI controls in Google Search Console appear to be expanding outside of the UK. The controls were first launched earlier this month in the UK,...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“ˆ Google Trends adds comparison over time data and graphs. These new clickable chips add month-over-month, week-over-week, and year-over-year comparison options. ©️ Fraudulent DMCA takedowns are negatively impacting SEO performance. Publishers are reporting that they have had pages deindexed due to fake copyright claims from competitors. ☁️ Cloudflare adds new ways to...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ‘€ Google explains how impressions work in AI Mode and AI Overviews. A link to a site, not a brand mention, is counted as the trigger for an impression. So don't confuse unlinked mentions in AI search with impressions. ⚑ Google's June 2026 spam update rolled out and completed. This update began its rollout on 24 June and was completed on 26 June. It was a relatively fast...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“Š Bing adds new AI visibility insights to Bing Webmaster Tools. There are 2 new ways to categorise queries, Intents and Topics. While Citation Share is a 'share of voice' view of visibility and Compare shows overlaid changes over time. βš–οΈ Google must makes rankings fairer and announce significant ranking changes. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“ Google Business Profile now connects directly to GA4. Yes, local data tracking has finally been integrated into Google Analytics. GA4 can now track calls, bookings, website clicks, direction requests and more. πŸ§‘βš–οΈ German courts rule that Google can be found liable for AI Overview results. The courts found that Google is responsible for the results presented in AIOs. This...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ‘€ Google is launching β€œSearch profiles”: customizable pages that let eligible publishers and creators showcase their content and help audiences follow them directly in Search and Discover 🚫 Google is rolling out the ability for UK-based websites to entirely opt-out of Generative AI features as the result of a CMA ruling. There is now a "AI controls" section in GSC...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“° Google brings Preferred Sources feature to AI search. This feature originated in Google Discover and allows users to choose their favourite websites to highlight in search. These sources can appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. ❇️ AI Overviews appear for over 86% of prompts in Google's AI search. This is from a study of 500,000 prompts and, perhaps most importantly, is...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ” Google launches the Intelligent Search Box, the "biggest change to the search box in 25 years". This new version of the search box adapts to your query, expanding and offering new modalities more easily. πŸ›’ Google announces Universal Cart, an AI-powered omnipresent checkout experience. Universal Cart will work across multiple Google platforms to provide discounts,...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“– Google released a new guide on "Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search". This GEO/AEO guide highlights best practices, as well as dispelling myths around llms.txt, markdown and chunking. πŸ“Š GA4 adds a new AI Assistant channel for measuring traffic from AI search. This new channel can be found in the Default Channel Group report. A new Medium,...