I recently compared my March 2025 “What works well in LLMs” analysis with Ahrefs’ May 2025 study of 75,000 brands, and we independently arrived at the same surprising conclusion about AI search visibility. It turns out, brand matters – a lot. Today’s Memo is a deep dive into a concept that’s often talked about (but […]
Google hasn’t done a full cannonball into the large language model (LLM) pool, but they’re definitely in the water. On May 20, Google launched AI Mode to all U.S. searchers, marking its most significant step yet toward integrating generative AI into the core search experience. AI Mode is their version of what ChatGPT and Perplexity’s […]
As some of you have already heard, I accepted the role of Microsoft Ads Liaison in June of 2025. That means I will start sharing Microsoft-first strategies. It doesn’t mean: Giving preferential treatment to Microsoft if something else is genuinely a better answer. Telling you to do something because Microsoft has a quota (this isn’t […]
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A large-scale analysis by Ahrefs of 600,000 webpages finds that Google neither rewards nor penalizes AI-generated content. The report, authored by Si Quan Ong and Xibeijia Guan, provides a data-driven examination of AI’s role in search visibility. It challenges ongoing speculation that using generative tools could hurt rankings. How the Study Was Conducted Ahrefs pulled […]
People are increasingly turning to AI for answers, and publishers are scrambling to find ways to consistently be surfaced in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and other AI search interfaces. The answer to getting people to drop the URL into AI chat is surprisingly easy, and one person actually turned it into a WordPress plugin. AI […]
This post was sponsored by Vehnta. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Why isn’t Google Ads working for my B2B marketing campaigns? How do I improve lead quality in B2B Google Ads campaigns? What’s the best way to scale Account-Based Marketing (ABM) using Google Ads? The good news: Google Ads isn’t broken […]
Google Keyword Planner now has enhanced forecasting tools that let you break down keyword forecast volumes by city, region, and device type. This brings a new level of granularity to campaign planning. Why we care. For advertisers targeting multiple locations or optimizing for specific user contexts, this update enables more precise budgeting and local strategy […]
TikTok is reportedly developing a separate version of its app for U.S. users, with a planned launch date of Sept. 5, according to reports. The current app would stop functioning in the U.S. by March 2026. This could be a pre-mature preparation for a forced divestiture amid ongoing U.S. government pressure over its Chinese ownership. […]
An analysis of more than 8.4 million English-language Google People Also Ask results found that 12.6% of answers are now AI-generated. That’s according to Mark Williams-Cook, founder of SEO tool Also Asked. Why we care. Google is increasingly relying on AI to fill content gaps. These AI-generated answers seem to appear when Google likely couldn’t […]