SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward This week's Core Updates is dedicated to Jill Whalen. Thank you for championing good content and carving a path for women in this industry. You will be missed. Read dedications to Jill from around the SEO industry, collected by Barry Schwartz, here. SEO updates you need to know 🗣️ Google launches Search Live. Search Live allows users to ask questions in AI Mode, via the Google app, using voice input....
13 days ago • 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 🤖 AI Mode has started rolling out to all US users. It's been almost 4 weeks since Google's announcement at Google IO and many SEOs are reporting AI Mode appearing in the SERPs and Google Search Console data. 📈 97% of URLs linked in AI Mode appear in the top 10 organic results. While there isn't a direct correlation, this data is very similar to AI Overviews, suggesting...
20 days ago • 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 🖥️ Desktop accounts for over 90% of referral traffic from AI search. This may be skewed because Apple's Safari, is the default browser for nearly 1 billion users and doesn't have AI search included by default...yet. 🫥 Google Search Console fails to report on 50% of queries. This is particularly apparent with conversational-style/long-tail queries, which are likely to grow...
27 days ago • 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 🤖 Google fixes AI Mode tracking issues. Google has removed the noreferrer tag that was causing AI Mode traffic to be attributed as Direct on GA4. Referral traffic from AI Mode is now landing in the Organic Search channel. 🕵️ Reddit launches Reddit Pro Trends, a free tool to track keywords and brand mentions. Pro Trends allows users to see real-time search trend data and...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 🤖 Google launches AI Mode in the US. AI Mode uses Gemini to offer a conversational style interface, similar to ChatGPT Search or Perplexity. According to Google, this is "only a glimpse of what's to come." 📉 Clicks from AI Mode are currently not trackable in GSC but will be soon. It was initially believed that clicks from AI Mode would not be trackable at all but John...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 📊 Google clarifies that AI Overviews count as one position on Google Search Console. John Mueller explains that AIOs are considered "one block" so, no matter where the link is within the AIO, it's considered a single position. 🗃️ Redacted documents from Google's DOJ trial give details about ranking signals. The details include information about ABC signals, Topicality and...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 📊 Google confirms their system has favoured larger sites and they didn’t intend this but that’s how the algorithm has evolved. Google also stated that they're actively trying to correct this but fixes can take months to implement. 🖥️ AI Overviews appear for over 13% of all queries. Unsurprisingly, over 88% of the queries that trigger AIOs are informational. There has also...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 🛍️ ChatGPT Search adds new shopping features. Product suggestions can now appear in carousels and will pull details from structured data. OpenAI also confirmed that these are organic results, not ads or sponsored products. 🖥️ Google's AI Mode expands to include local results and products cards. AI Mode is also being tested for users who haven't opted in and, if you do want...
2 months ago • 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know ▶️ Google is testing AI Overviews on YouTube. Video carousels featuring AI highlight clips may appear for product searches and even some local searches. This continues Google's expansion of AIOs into every corner of Search. 🤳 Users can now review their video verification recordings for Google Business Profile. Video verification can be difficult to get right the first time...
2 months ago • 6 min read