How Google Core Updates Impact Rankings

My Take on Google’s AI Overviews Update and Where I Think This is Headed Yesterday’s announcement wasn’t just another Google I/O demo. It confirmed what many of us in SEO have been preparing for: the transformation of traditional search into a query resolution engine powered by real-time LLMs, multimodal inputs, and personal context. What really stood out: - Google is no longer positioning AI Overviews as an experiment. It’s core to the future of search. - AI Mode is now baked into the UI and set up to handle deeper reasoning, personalized context, and even transaction workflows. - They’re essentially building a browsing assistant layered on top of Search, not just a summary generator. From an SEO perspective, this means a few things: 1. Less Clicks, More Skimming Expect continued decline in CTRs on top organic results for many query types. Even if links are present in AI Overviews, users are likely to get what they need without clicking, or they’ll only click the one link Google spoon-feeds as most “helpful.” 2. A Surge in Zero-Click Rewrites Google's ability to fan out queries, synthesize multiple pages, and stitch together a response means we’re looking at the largest-scale content remixing machine ever built. Google’s pulling from your site to answer the query, not to send users to you. 3. Content Relevance > Rankings Ranking #1 isn’t enough. If your content isn’t structured and contextually rich enough to inform an AI Overview, you’re invisible. Google’s “under-the-hood” query decomposition means your content has to satisfy subtopics, not just surface-level terms. 4. Topical Authority Still Matters, But in a Different Way The model will reward breadth and depth, but especially depth. Brands that build dense, structured, internally-linked hubs on core themes are more likely to be referenced as sources, even if they don’t appear first in traditional rankings. 5. EEAT Becomes Table Stakes If Google is citing your site as a trusted source in an answer it’s generating with real-time reasoning, that content better carries authority signals, real people, clear expertise, and trustworthy data. Thin affiliate-style sites are going to vanish from visibility. 6. A Shift Toward Source Optimization This is the beginning of a new category: optimizing your site not just to rank, but to be referenced in AI Overviews and agentic workflows. Think schema, structured data, and real-world credibility indicators like reviews, awards, and citations. 7. Search Intent is Fragmenting Further AI Mode introduces a layer of subjectivity. One person’s search will yield a different response based on prior activity and context, making targeting “the” keyword less useful. Future SEO is about understanding intent clusters and use cases. 🧵 continued https://lnkd.in/en6tSZ5W 

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

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.