Google Core Update SEO Insights

How is your DMO preparing for Google's latest changes to the search experience? I'm compiling a running list of tips - please share yours below! Content Structure ✔ Front-load Useful Content: Place key takeaways or bullet-point summaries at the top of your content. This helps users quickly find valuable information and improves engagement. ✔ Break Down Long-Form Content: Divide longer articles into shorter pieces, each answering a specific question. Focus on addressing topics rather than just targeting keywords. ✔ Include Titles and Feature Images: Use compelling titles and high-quality feature images to capture clicks from AI Overview results. Content Quality ✔ Create Content That Answers Complex Questions: Develop in-depth content that addresses complex queries, providing information that may not be easily answered by generative AI. ✔ Write New Content on New Ideas: Produce original content about new ideas and comparisons, especially for mid-funnel queries that existing online content may not cover. ✔ Include Sources, Quotes, and Stats: Use authoritative sources, quotes, and statistics to enhance the credibility and visibility of your content in AI search. Unique and Personal Content ✔ Include Personal Stories: Share personal experiences and stories to add a human touch that AI cannot replicate. This helps build credibility and engagement. ✔ Showcase Credible Experience: Highlight firsthand experiences and expertise to establish authority and trust with your audience. Alternative Traffic Channels ✔ Build Audiences in Push Channels: Develop and grow audiences in channels where you can directly push content to them, creating anti-fragile traffic sources. This includes CRM but could also mean increasing paid search and social budgets. ✔ Focus on Search Optimizations for YouTube: Optimize content for YouTube and other secondary search channels to reach a broader audience. ✔ Lean into Reddit: Their deal with Google means Reddit is frequently cited as a source for AI Overviews or in standard search results; the opportunity is both in responding across Reddit subs and in creating one, i.e. /r/VisitingOregon (h/t Mika Lepisto). ✔ Invest in Generative AI Chatbots: Implement generative AI chatbots to share and distribute content to visitors. #destinationmarketing

Your website is a goldmine of untapped traffic. And you're ignoring it. I’ve helped several clients double their new monthly visitors by updating content they already had. Here's the exact process that you can do in a couple of weeks. ➡️ The Content Audit 1. First, identify your top 20 posts. 2. Not by traffic - by potential. 3. Look for topics where your competitors are ranking but you're not. 4. These are your hidden opportunities. ➡️ The 500-Word Rule 1. Each post needs fresh, valuable insights. 2. Not fluff. Not AI content. 3. Real, experience-backed information your competitors missed. ➡️ The Internal Link Strategy 1. Create a web of relevance. 2. Connect these 20 posts strategically. 3. Think like Wikipedia - every important concept links to a deeper explanation. 4. This signals topical authority to Google. ➡️ The On-Page Refresh 1. Rewrite those boring H2s and H3s 2. Craft an intro that hooks both Google and readers 3. Update old stats and examples 4. Add FAQs addressing new search intent The Math Is Simple: 20 posts × 25 daily visits = 500 daily visitors That's 15,000 new monthly visitors. Without writing a single new post. I've used this exact system with 50+ clients. It works in every niche. The best part? You already have everything you need. You just need to start.

Google just wrapped up its latest core update. It ran for 16 days and, like usual, shuffled the deck. Some sites that got hit back in 2023 saw a bit of a bounce back. But the real story isn’t rankings. It’s what’s replacing them. AI Overviews are showing up more often, especially on news and informational queries. In some verticals, they appear nearly 70 percent of the time. And most of those searches end without a single click. If your content isn’t being cited or quoted in those overviews, it doesn’t matter where you rank. You're not getting seen. This is the shift that’s catching a lot of marketers off guard. SEO isn’t dead, but it’s not the only visibility channel anymore. AI is rewriting the rules. I’ve been teaching founders and other marketers how to adjust for this in my AI Visibility (GEO) System course at the CMO Growth Guide. It’s not about chasing keywords, it’s about being the source AI tools pull from. Time to start thinking that way.

Forbes estimates 60%+ of organic traffic is being effected due to the introduction of AI summaries, the adoption of LLMs, and ultimately the changes in SEO. I recently spoke at Affiliate Summit East on the emergence of AI and the impact to eCommerce. I touched on SEO and the move to SGE (search generative experience), the issues facing identity capture and noise created by bots as well as AI-generated content, and how content goes viral with changes to TikTok & Meta's algorithms. Sharing some of the learnings (and slides) on AI summaries and rankings: Impact - Google's AI summaries can take up to 3 full mobile scrolls or 2 desktop scrolls (1500 pixels) - LLM search went from 0.25% of traffic to 2.25% in <12mo - 60% of organic site traffic is impacted meaning the CTR drops aka people do not end up landing on your site. How to adapt - SEO & SGE are underpinned by the same recipe: content. - How to show up as the featured AI summary or authority? 1. Create unique content and lots of it 2. Build contextual content At Checkmate we get 1.5M+ unique visitors/week to our public-facing product pages. We also are featured on 1700 ChatGPT pages. How we were able to do that is by pulling in long-form structured content for the products we help sell as well as using LLMs to generate some unique content. For those in eCommerce I featured Stanley 1913 with what I think as a really strong product pages that rank well for SGE. If you look at any of their products they have extremely rich, unique content. They leverage product descriptions, product specs, related other products, reviews (not hidden or collapsed) & FAQs. For SGE shorter isn't better, the more unique content the generally better the indexing. Stanley 1913 also has a really strong formatting structure with clear H1, H2 tags, and containers. You have to remember if a bot can't make sense of the text then it won't surface in AI summaries. This will also be extremely important in the future of agentic commerce. 2. Building contextual content The way people are searching is moving from "black shoes" to "best shoes for running a marathon". Context is key. To be able to show up in LLMs or AI summaries, you need to associate your products within that context. 3 easy ways to do that: 1. Create and leverage a PR strategy 2. Build your own written contextual information in a blog on your website 3. Contribute/invest to review sites If you are able to both create unique content with a strong structure and build contextual content AI summaries and LLMs can be a great source of traffic. It is early days so investing in content and structure is a must. Drop me a note if you have other tips you see working or other brands doing it well!

Both Marie Haynes and Glenn Gabe, two of the SEOs (and dear friends!) I trust and respect most in our industry, have each published important articles today about Google's Helpful Content Update (HCU). I'll link to both in the comments. And I'm sharing screenshots from my favorite parts of each (Glenn's, then Marie's). Glenn's article explains what it means that Google deprecated its sitewide "unhelpful content" classifier from the old Helpful Content ranking system, and has since baked that signal into multiple systems that now assess helpfulness. Glenn also describes how "multiple systems can be at odds and counterbalance each other." These points have been confusing for many site owners, so I'm glad Glenn wrote about it. Marie wrote an important article urging Google to do more to be more transparent with website owners affected by the HCU and to provide more specific, clear guidance other than "this content is not helpful," which at this point, in my opinion, feels like vague advice, given that these sites have been trying to make their content more helpful for 7 months and not a single one has seen traffic improve. Not even by a little bit. Most dropped further with the March Core Update. I haven't had time to write my own version of this article yet, but I fully agree with both of them. What I said in my recent HCU YouTube video still holds true: I really think Google went too far with the September HCU, and am pretty disappointed to see exactly ZERO sites reversing course after 7 months of hard work, for many of them. For these site owners, there currently isn't even a glimmer of hope. This impact feels disproportionate for many sites who had absolutely no idea they were doing anything wrong. I've seen too many examples of sites seeing -90% traffic losses who were writing legitimate, experience-driven content. They don't deserve to be penalized the same way Google is penalizing pure spam AI content farms. (I normally don't use the word "penalty" to describe algorithm hits, but at a -95% traffic loss, the impact is the same as a penalty.) I am also sharing two screenshots of tweets I wrote to Google this week (they did not respond to either this time). But personally, I think it says a lot when Glenn, Marie, and I are all aligned on something like this... In my opinion: a little more transparency, more clear communications or expectations around timelines for recovery, specific guidance for affected site owners (other than "have helpful content"), or maybe even a new search tab for "Perspectives" that highlight niche blogs - seeing Google do any of these things would go a long way. #SEO #helpfulcontentupdate #HCU #marchcoreupdate

Google’s July 2025 Update: What’s Changing in Search Link In Bio. Google completed its June 2025 Core Update rollout on July 17, but the ranking shifts are still unfolding — and July brought additional refinements that many are seeing across their traffic and visibility metrics. Here’s what stands out: Core Focus Areas: • Better alignment with user intent • More weight on E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority, trust) • Stricter penalties for manipulative link-building and keyword stuffing • Increased visibility for structured, well-organized content (especially for snippets and AI Overviews) • UX and mobile-first design now directly impacting rankings Under the hood: Google is applying newer systems like MUVERA and its Graph Foundation Model to improve how it understands relationships between content, context, and authority — not just keywords. What this means for site owners and marketers: • Sites with thin or outdated content saw drops • Sites focused on depth, clarity, and trustworthiness gained • UX, mobile performance, and semantic clarity are now critical 📌 If you saw volatility in early to mid-July, this is likely why. Now’s a good time to review your content, technical SEO, and user experience with fresh eyes. #SEO #GoogleUpdate #SearchEngineOptimization #ContentStrategy #EAT #July2025 #DigitalMarketing #SERP #TechnicalSEO #UX

Your brand matters to Google. This SEO data study found losers of the Helpful Content Update had weak brand signals when compared to link signals: In this study, Tom Capper analyzed 1.8M URLs to identify the winners and losers from two different Helpful Content updates (September 2023/March 2024). He defined the winners and losers as anyone that had a 50% change in terms of their top 10 rankings queries. After analyzing his data, he found something super interesting. When calculating a Domain Authority:Brand Authority ratio, this was one of the factors most correlated with sites that saw losses. - Domain Authority: Uses links to measure the "power" of your site - Brand Authority: Uses brand search as a proxy to measure the power of your brand. The higher this ratio is the more likely it is that your site was impacted by the Helpful Content Update. This means sites that have great link profiles but lack a strong brand presence were most likely to be impacted. His study found that: 1. The losers of the Helpful Content Update had an average of a 2:1 DA:BA ratio. This means that they had stronger link profiles relative to the number of brand searches. 2. Winning and neutral sites had similar DA:BA ratios (1.39 and 1.40). This means that the HCU potentially punished sites with weaker brands but didn't necessarily reward sites with stronger or average ratios. 3. When performing the same study on URLs ranking in the top 3 positions only, the data still stood up. Losing sites had an average DA:BA ratio of 1.75 while winning sites were around 1.40 4. When looking at periods where there was no HCU, the DA:BA ratio wasn't correlated with either winners or losers from the update. This is super interesting as it shows that Google might be using brand search as a proxy to understand truly valuable sites. While they clearly don't use a "Brand Authority" metric internally, they need to have a way to numerically calculate the popularity of a given brand at scale. I think it's common knowledge that brand plays in a role in how a site is able to perform. However, Tom's data shows that Google possibly turning up the dial on this to try to show true brands to users.

This is your reminder that an SEO apocalypse might be around the corner. I see SGE (Google's generative AI results) on at least 60% of my queries. If Google goes live with what they have today in beta, the sites that generated clicks off that 60% of queries will see their search traffic decline dramatically. That's an apocalypse. However, I caveated my headline with "might" be an apocalypse because Google can still reduce how much visibility they give SGE. Still, I have no doubts that it will be the most disruptive thing that has ever happened to search. For context, the Panda algorithm in 2011 impacted just under 12% of search results, and it was one of the largest changes ever on Google to date. I have written several newsletters (link on my profile) on my predictions and suggestions on how to inoculate a site against SGE, but the biggest thing you can do right now is communicate that this is coming. There's always a tiny chance that nothing ends up happening, but I would rather be guilty of warning of a doomsday that never occurs than fail to warn about a doomsday that I saw coming. The good news for SEO managers, consultants, and agencies is that when this storm hits (see my upcoming newsletter for my prediction on when it happens), YOU will suddenly become the most valuable person anyone can know. Websites that suddenly see dramatic shifts in their traffic will want a voice of calm to tell them what to expect and what they should do; SEO people will have those answers. Here are a few points to keep in mind as you navigate whether you should be concerned or ignore it as some are doing: 1/ Google doesn't typically announce a product launch and then not launch it. This was announced in May - it's coming, like it or not. 2/ This might be the worst thing ever for users, but Google products fail SLOWLY. If/when Google gives up on this, most of the sites impacted will already be out of business 3/ Sales and conversion won't change much across the Internet, but the traffic will. Anyone who is focused on traffic as a KPI is going to feel pain. 4/ Traditional measurement tools will become less reliable. Keyword rankings won't matter if the user doesn't scroll past the generative response. 5/ Links and images in the SGE box are liability protection features for Google, not a new way to send traffic to sites. If the answers satisfy the user, there's no reason to click any links 6/ According to the DOJ's antitrust suit, Google spends $10b+ to maintain its dominance as the world's leading search engine. ChatGPT is a threat, and they will do whatever it takes not to lose market share. SEO results WILL get caught in the middle of this fight. 7/ There's very unlikely to be a big announcement before Google lets in their first few logged-out test cohorts, so if you are waiting for a warning before starting to plan, consider the May announcement the warning. What did I miss? PS please share so more people know this is coming!

I’ve been relatively quiet on here lately because, well, things are changing. Fast. The latest shift? A steep decline in search and direct traffic since Google’s June 30 Core Algorithm Update. We’ve spent the last year talking about how generative search and LLMs will chip away at website traffic, but until now, the impact felt theoretical. Not anymore. This latest update rolled out AI Overviews across most searches. And since then, traffic has been in free fall, for organic and the catch-all, direct. We’re seeing the biggest impact on large content publishers, but smaller sites aren’t immune. So, what does it mean? Honestly, a lot. We’re entering a kind of SEO-stagflation. For some sites, impressions will rise while clicks fall. For others, impressions stay flat, but clicks still decline. Your ranking drops, and even if you hold position, the value of a click is shrinking. The percentage of influence a website has in the sales process—especially during discovery—is declining. That doesn’t make websites irrelevant. But it does suggest a shift. Websites as conversion points, not education hubs. And asking, “What replaces websites?” misses the point. Instead, it's a rethinking of what's actually important in the marketing cycle. Reach will drop. Engagement metrics won’t tell the full story. Intent will be measured in views and impressions, not clicks. Frequency will become the gold standard. Positioning will outweigh tactics and placements because everyone will have tactics and placements. Community is no longer a buzzword. It’s becoming the new distribution strategy. Weird times ahead. Probably good for the consumer. Definitely tough for marketers explaining this to CEOs and shareholders over the next few quarters. Hold on. It’s going to be fun.

Google dropped a bomb on websites using third-party content for SEO (with threats of severe penalties like deindexing). Here’s what you need to know. The Short Version: Google updated its Site Reputation Abuse Policy in November. And they’re continuing the crackdown on “Parasite SEO."  (Using a reputable website’s authority to publish irrelevant or spammy content to inflate search visibility) What Changed: The update explicitly states that if the content is hosted on your site, you’re responsible for it. No more exceptions for: - Complex business relationships - Claims of minimal involvement - White-label content services - Licensing agreements Those loopholes allowed site owners to hide behind “editorial oversight”. But there’s no hiding now. Why It Matters to You: Google’s not just filtering content, they're straight up deindexing pages (removing them from Google altogether) and penalizing the rest of the site as well. If you have third party content like guest posts or licensed articles on your site (or you don’t remove those spammy comments), you’re at risk. And if you’ve been relying on less than reputable agencies with less than reputable link-building practices to drive traffic to your site, (yes that includes writing low-quality articles with ChatGPT) the gig is up. What You Need to Do: - Audit Your Existing Content Remove anything that doesn’t add value or doesn’t align with your site’s core topic. - Establish (or improve) Content Guidelines Everything you post should be well-written, useful, and aligned with your messaging. - Start Reducing Your Dependency on Third-Party Content Focus on creating high-quality, original content that delivers value to your customers. TLDR: Third-party content isn't worth the risk anymore. It’s time to build a real content strategy.