🌐

​AI Mode can now open webpages in a side-by-side view within the same tab. While this seems to streamline the browsing experience, it also keeps the user more attached to the AI Mode interface.

🔙

​Google introduces a new spam policy for 'back button hijacking'. Sites that use this tactic may be subject to manual actions or automated demotions. This policy will be enforced from 15 June 2026.

📖

​Cloudflare announces shared dictionaries: use cached files as compression refs to send only diffs of updated web assets like JS bundles. Cuts sizes 97-99.5% vs gzip, faster loads amid agentic web bloat.

⚠️

​A Search Console glitch sent out emails claiming Google began recording impressions on 12 April 2026. This would imply that GSC wasn't collecting impressions before this date, which has been confirmed to be a glitch.

📊

​AI traffic converts 48% better than non-AI traffic for US retailers. This study analysed more than 1 trillion visits across US retailers, as well as a companion study of 5,000 customers, 39% of whom used AI for shopping.

📡

​Cloudflare launches isitagentready[dot]com: scores sites on AI agent support (discoverability, content, bot control, capabilities). Scans top sites show low adoption and uses Radar tracks standards.

🛍️

​Google adds restrictions to businesses involving staff in reviews. Google now prohibits telling staff that they must solicit a certain number of reviews and requesting specific content or the name of the staff member.

🪧

​OpenAI adds OAI-AdsBot, a user-agent that validates sites submitted for ads. This appears to be another step towards OpenAI further integrating ads into ChatGPT and ChatGPT search.

📃

​Google updates patent on autonomous search results. This patent describes what happens when there is no answer to a query. This system waits until an answer exists and then updates the user, without the need to ask again.

Hertz drove +50% more bookings from AI search. Here's the blueprint.

Leading brands are using Semrush for Enterprise to control their brand visibility and convert it into customers.

In a few months, Hertz Iceland secured executive buy-in, delivered a complete seasonal strategy, and grew bookings from AI search significantly.

Their team has a brand visibility blueprint backed by the market's most complete digital visibility data. And now they're scaling it year-round.

I hate this idea that this page is the best.

For your most important pages, ask yourself "how easy is it for a user to find a link to this page?".

Without any technical knowledge, this will give you a good idea if your internal linking is good.

Do they have to go through a menu, then sub-menu to find that page?

Is it hidden away in a footer?

Or is it a clear link on a popular page such as your homepage?

Whoops! I'm breaking Google Search Console

Don't worry about this, nothing has changed.

It's likely to do with the previous impressions bug Google had. Carry on with your day 💅

And trust me, this isn't broken links.

Removing "non-commercial" pages during a site migration can be a huge mistake, as I covered on the Candour x Sitebulb migration training webinar today.​
​
I have seen many cases where informational pages that are genuinely helpful attract hundreds of great links. And yes, while they generate traffic but no direct revenue, they do something more important: they pass that link equity to the commercial (money) pages, helping them rank.
​
If you remove the informational pages with links, those links go to 404s, no equity flows to your 'money' pages — which soon become 'no money' pages. 🔥💸🔥
​
Sad trombone sound 🎵

Migrations have been vilified and hated since day one.

"We can fix it after launch" is a lot more expensive than most people realise when it comes to site migrations. I covered some of these concerns on the Sitebulb x Candour migration training webinar yesterday:
​
⚒️ When 'the fix' is applied, the resulting effect is not usually instant. Google needs to crawl it, index it, and then updated metrics need to flow back into their systems. Depending on what is done, this can take days, weeks, or sometimes even months. All of this time you are losing that additional revenue.
​
🪄 Even if you had a magic wand to instantly put the site back 'as it was', it does not guarantee your old visibility will return. I believe it was Cyrus Shepard who ran an experiment of pulling some pages from Google's index, then letting them back in; they didn't recover their original rankings.
The real cost of the impact is almost always greater than the cost of getting it done right pre-migration.
​
Prevention is usually significantly cheaper than cure!

Those of you who are doing migrations right now, you are just as big a part of the problem.

If you're in a tight spot with a migration timeline, it is always worth asking "why?", and then asking "why?" again. In so many instances, "unmoveable" dates have actually been quite arbitrary when pressed. 🤷‍♂️
​
Once you've established they are actually arbitrary (it just costs time and money), then you have an open door to present: "This is how much it costs to move the deadline back, and this is the cost of not moving it back."
​
They can be difficult conversations, but it is an easier conversation than trying to explain why it wasn't done afterwards! 💵
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Video from the Sitebulb x Candour webinar series on migrations.

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