Since its global launch in November 2021, Performance Max is no longer a novelty – it’s a fully embedded part of the Google Ads ecosystem. Designed to streamline campaign management, automate optimization, and boost performance, PMax promised to revolutionize how advertisers run campaigns. But has it lived up to that promise – or simply traded […]
New AI platforms, powered by generative technologies like Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Grok, and countless specialized chatbots, are rapidly becoming the front door for digital discovery. We’ve entered an era of machine-led discovery, where AI systems aggregate, summarize, and contextualize content across multiple platforms. Users today no longer follow a linear journey from keyword to […]
The Core Web Vitals Technology Report shows the top-ranked content management systems by Core Web Vitals (CWV) for the month of June (July’s statistics aren’t out yet). The breakout star this year is an e-commerce platform, which is notable because shopping sites generally have poor performance due to the heavy JavaScript and image loads necessary […]
OpenAI has rolled back a feature that allowed ChatGPT conversations shared via link to appear in Google Search results. The company confirms it has disabled the toggle that enabled shared chats to be “discoverable” by search engines and is working to remove existing indexed links. Shared Chats Were “Short-Lived Experiment” When users shared a ChatGPT […]
Google recently fixed a bug that enabled anyone to anonymously use an official Google tool to remove any URL from Google search and get away with it. The tool had the potential to be used to devastate competitor rankings by removing their URLs completely from Google’s index. The bug was known by Google since 2023 […]
Reddit is investing heavily in search, with CEO Steve Huffman announcing plans to position the platform as a destination for people seeking answers online. In its Q2 shareholder letter, Reddit revealed that more than 70 million people now use its on-platform search each week. Its AI-powered Reddit Answers feature is also gaining traction, reaching 6 […]
Google is indexing public ChatGPT shared links. This means your AI-generated conversations could be indexed and discoverable via Google Search. This includes prompts and answers that users have explicitly shared via OpenAI’s “Share” feature, often without realizing the content may become publicly accessible. What’s happening. A search using site:chatgpt.com/share + reveals shared interactions containing sensitive business details, personal […]
Bing has updated its sitemap guidance with a renewed focus on the lastmod tag, highlighting its role in AI-powered search to determine which pages need to be recrawled. While real-time tools like IndexNow offer faster updates, Bing says accurate lastmod values help keep content discoverable, especially on frequently updated or large-scale sites. Bing Prioritizes lastmod […]
SEO is no longer enough. Discoverability in AI-powered search now depends on operations – a shift many marketers haven’t accounted for. AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews aren’t fooled by clever messaging. They synthesize operational signals – from order issues to pricing gaps – to form brand perceptions. These aren’t marketing […]
Younger generations are shifting toward specialized, multi-platform search, and surprisingly high trust in AI is accelerating the trend, according to new survey data. Why we care. Searching is no longer synonymous with “Googling.” While traditional search engines still dominate for information retrieval, Americans are also turning to social media, AI tools, and ecommerce platforms, depending on […]