SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know β
The June 2025 Core Update completed its rollout on 17 July 2025. This appears to have been a relatively quiet core update compared to some of the more volatile recent changes. π΅οΈ OpenAI launches ChatGPT agent. This is one of the first major demonstrations of the "agentic web" future that many experts are predicting. ChatGPT was able to browse, compare and order a roast...
9 days agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πΈ Content on professional Instagram accounts is now indexable by Google by default. This reinforces the importance of being consistent across both social media and organic search. π Both OpenAI and Perplexity announce their own web browsers. This is hugely important, as it is likely that user data mined from browsers will play a vital role in the future of managing the...
16 days agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π¨ Google begins rolling out the June 2025 core update. Many were predicting that we were overdue for a core update so lo and behold, a new core update began on 30 June 2025. Rollout may take up to 3 weeks to complete. 𧱠Cloudflare now blocks all AI crawlers for new websites by default. This impactful update includes verification requirements for crawlers, one-click crawler...
23 days agoΒ β’Β 7 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π° Google tests new types of customised search including 'Preferred sources'. Similar to the Discover feed, personalised search can show you more Top Stories from sites you regularly visit. 𧱠Google launches Offerwall, a new monetisation option for publishers. Available via Google Ad Manager, Offerwall allows publishers to monetise engaged users and give readers the option...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
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 π£οΈ Google launches Search Live. Search Live allows users to ask questions in AI Mode, via the Google app, using voice input....
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π€ 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. π 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...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π₯οΈ 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. π«₯ 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...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π€ 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. π΅οΈ 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 2 months agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know π€ 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." π 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...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 8 min read