When an AI model has nothing on your company, it does not tell anyone. It does not decline, it does not hedge, and it does not mark the spot where its evidence ran out. It reaches for the nearest well-documented thing, which is usually a competitor, a category average, or a version of you from…
Google’s AI Mode rarely shows the same products as the Popular products carousel in regular search results, and when it does, the first seller listed is often different, according to new data from Productrise, which sells organic product tracking for Google Shopping. Only 1.28% of products in the carousel also appeared in AI Mode for…
Recently, I found myself in another conversation that has become increasingly familiar. A senior executive had received a warning from an AI visibility assessment vendor that the company was not sufficiently prepared for AI search. Among the recommendations was something I have seen appearing more frequently: the company needed an llms.txt file. Suddenly, an emerging,…
I wrote an article about auditing publisher websites last week, and it took a little piece of my soul. Like a Horcrux, but without me being a spectacularly evil wizard hellbent on world domination. Allegedly. I argued that SEO auditing should be broken down into four parts: Technical SEO. Content. E-E-A-T. Entities. I think almost…
It’s 7:40 a.m. You haven’t opened Google Ads once. Instead, you type a prompt: “Across all my accounts, what did we spend yesterday? Flag anything more than 20% off pace and tell me what changed.” Ninety seconds later, you have the answer. Three accounts that matter, and the specific reason for each. You follow up:…
Schema markup won’t make AI systems cite you directly, but it does help search engines like Google, Bing, and answer engines like ChatGPT understand who you are, verify your claims, and decide whether to feature you. I’ve supported schema for years, and although the benefits took time to show, the efforts I made on client…
Google Ads has steadily automated more of the decisions advertisers once managed directly. Bidding is an obvious example, but the shift has gone much further. Google now has more influence over which searches ads can match to, where ads appear, how budgets get allocated, and even which creative combinations users see. For advertisers, that changes…
New allegations surfaced that the Rank Math WordPress plugin has introduced a functionality that silently gives the company administrator-level permissions over WordPress sites. The access is triggered when a user is connected to a free Rank Math account and the user opens the plugin’s Help & Support section. Allegedly There Is Zero Consent Or Notification…
Google’s new Preferred Sources embed removes one action from the process of adding a publication as a Preferred Source. With the embed, a reader adds the site and returns to the article. A deeplink sends the reader to Google’s source preferences tool, where the site still has to be selected and confirmed. This simple guide…
More than 100 technology, cybersecurity, financial, and infrastructure organizations have signed an open letter warning that AI-enabled cyberattacks will become “far more widespread and sophisticated” in the coming months. OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, Hugging Face, and other companies that build or defend much of the modern web are among the signatories.…