The European Commission is asking industry players to weigh in on Google’s proposal to resolve sweeping antitrust charges tied to its advertising technology business — a case that has already triggered nearly €3 billion ($3.5B) in fines. What’s happening. The Commission is circulating a non-confidential version of Google’s proposal to roughly 200 industry stakeholders, including […]

YouTube is rolling out title A/B testing globally to all creators with access to advanced features, expanding the testing capability beyond the select group that had early access. The announcement came via the platform’s Creator Insider channel, clarifying how the feature works and addressing common questions from creators. Title A/B testing joins thumbnail testing in […]

The strategies that worked in 2025 will not carry your campaigns through the new year. Buyer behavior is evolving, budgets demand tighter discipline, and channels like calls, text, and voice agents are becoming essential conversion paths. As the marketing landscape shifts, the question is no longer whether you should adapt but how fast. The Strategic […]

Social media now drives more traffic to small and medium-sized businesses than search, and many SMBs are beginning to track AI-generated referrals. They also see competitors showing up in AI summaries as an emerging threat, according to new survey data published today by WordStream by LocaliQ. Why we care. Small businesses now see AI summaries […]

Google Maps now lets users leave business reviews under a custom nickname instead of their real name. The feature is part of a four-feature Maps update and is rolling out globally on Android, iOS, and desktop. Local SEO agency Whitespark was among the first to document the change in detail, describing it as one of […]

The latest benchmark results reveal a surprising drop in SEO accuracy from top AI models. TL;DR:  The latest flagship AI models (Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro) have statistically regressed in performance for standard SEO tasks, showing a ~9% drop in accuracy compared to previous versions.  This isn’t a glitch – it’s a feature of […]

AI is changing how people discover and understand brands.  It’s also reshaping how they search, with users turning to tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews for answers instead of clicking through pages.  They interact with synthesized summaries, not traditional results. That shift forces marketers to rethink how visibility is built. SEO still matters, […]

Google is rolling out an experimental feature that lets Search Console users configure the Search results Performance report using natural language instead of manual filter selection. The feature, called AI-powered configuration, translates plain-language requests into the appropriate filters and settings. You can describe the analysis you want to see, and the system handles the technical […]

Google announced new “AI-powered configuration” within the Search Console Performance report that lets you ask Search Console to show you a specific report, and Google will “instantly” configure a report for you. This feature is “experimental” and won’t show up for everyone today. This is a lot like AI-powered advisors in Google Ads and Google […]

People keep asking me what it takes to show up in AI answers. They ask in conference hallways, in LinkedIn messages, on calls, and during workshops. The questions always sound different, but the intent is the same. People want to know how much of their existing SEO work still applies. They want to know what […]