Author Archives: SocialSignalCounter

How to explain flat traffic when SEO is actually working

How to explain flat traffic when SEO is actually working

You know that sinking feeling when you look at your organic traffic dashboard and see – nothing exciting.  The line’s flat, and you’re dreading the conversation with your boss about why your SEO investment isn’t “working.” Here’s the thing: flat traffic doesn’t mean failure anymore.  Some of the most successful SEO campaigns I’ve worked on […]

What Is The PPC Manager’s Role In The AI Era?

What Is The PPC Manager’s Role In The AI Era?

Every few months, someone asks a version of the same question “What happens to PPC managers now that AI runs the platforms?” The question usually comes wrapped in anxiety, sometimes in frustration, and often in the hope that there is still a lever left to pull. At this point, the answer has become clearer. PPC […]

Recommended or Rejected: Does AI Trust You : Social Media Examiner

Recommended or Rejected: Does AI Trust You : Social Media Examiner

Social Marketing Trends The data you’ve been missing! Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 17th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss […]

More Sites Blocking LLM Crawling

More Sites Blocking LLM Crawling

Hostinger released an analysis showing that businesses are blocking AI systems used to train large language models while allowing AI assistants to continue to read and summarize more websites. The company examined 66.7 billion bot interactions across 5 million websites and found that AI assistant crawlers used by tools such as ChatGPT now reach more […]

What still works, what no longer does, and why

What still works, what no longer does, and why

For more than a decade, international SEO has followed a familiar playbook:  Create dedicated country- and language-specific URLs. Localize the content. Deploy hreflang. Let search engines rank and serve the correct version. In the AI-mediated search environment, that playbook is no longer enough.  In 2026, consistent global visibility is determined less by traditional ranking mechanics […]

How Google defines your entity

How Google defines your entity

Most businesses don’t fail to rank in the local pack because they lack reviews, links, or proximity.  They fail long before that because Google never considers them eligible in the first place.  This is a recurring pattern in local search that almost everyone overlooks.  Google decides what you are before it decides how relevant you […]

Google rules out ads in Gemini — for now

Google rules out ads in Gemini — for now

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says Gemini won’t get ads — at least for now — as Google prioritizes trust and core assistant quality over monetization. What’s new. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Hassabis said Google has “no plans” to introduce ads into Gemini, emphasizing a focus on building a better, more […]

OpenAI moves on ChatGPT ads with impression-based launch

OpenAI moves on ChatGPT ads with impression-based launch

OpenAI is preparing to launch impression-based ads inside ChatGPT as early as February, marking a faster-than-expected step into advertising. What’s happening. According to a report, OpenAI is already testing ads with select advertisers and plans to charge on a pay-per-impression (PPM) basis, rather than the more familiar pay-per-click model. The test is expected to be […]

Optimize Google’s new Interaction to Next Paint metric – Search Engine Watch

Optimize Google’s new Interaction to Next Paint metric – Search Engine Watch

30-second summary: Good page speed and user experience help your site stand out in search results The Interaction to Next Paint metric is replacing First Input Delay You can improve make your site respond faster to user input by reducing CPU processing times The Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google has […]

Same URL in AI Overviews and blue links counts as one Google Search Console impression

Same URL in AI Overviews and blue links counts as one Google Search Console impression

If the same URL appears in both a Google AI Overview and the classic 10 blue links, Google Search Console counts it as a single impression, not two. That clarification comes directly from Google’s John Mueller. The background. Mark Williams-Cook, director at SEO agency Candour and founder of AlsoAsked, shared it publicly on LinkedIn after […]