Google Core Update SEO Insights

Over the past two years, we’ve been fed a steady diet of “AI will change SEO.” And sure, it will — it already has. But that’s not the full picture. The AI shift that’s happening on Google’s homepage — through AI Overviews — isn’t just changing organic performance. It’s changing the entire search experience. Paid included. Let me spell it out: • Google’s AI Overviews are giving users full answers before they even think of clicking. • The format takes up prime real estate above the fold — pushing both paid and organic listings down. • In some cases, the overview takes the entire page. This isn’t a theoretical future. This is a visible, structural change to how results are served and seen, and as of a few days back it surpassed the 20% mark of all searhes. I pitched a major client this week who said, “AI isn’t a focus for us right now — we’re prioritizing Paid.” That’s the blind spot. Because whatever you’re running in Paid will be affected — through impressions, CTRs, conversions — all downstream from this new AI layer. If your strategy assumes that SEO is under attack while Paid stays safe… You're not seeing the whole board. Look below, you see paid ad?

Dear CEOs and Founders, Seeing Google Search Console impressions up but clicks down? It's a common SEO puzzle! This often means your content is visible, but not compelling enough to click, or Search Engine Results Page (SERP) changes are at play. Key Reasons for this trend: 1. SERP Feature Changes: Google frequently updates the SERP layout with features like video carousels, image packs, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, and ads. These can push your organic listing down, reducing visibility and clicks. 2. Featured Snippets and AI Overviews: A featured snippet (position zero) or AI Overview can answer a user's query directly on the SERP, eliminating the need to click through to your site. This leads to higher impressions but fewer clicks. 3. Google Ads: More paid ads above organic results decrease visibility and lower your Click-Through Rate (CTR). 4. Irrelevant Keywords and Content Mismatch: Ranking for irrelevant keywords or having a search snippet that doesn't accurately reflect user intent can deter clicks. 5. Low Ranking Position: While impressions may increase from ranking for more keywords, appearing in lower positions (e.g., on the second page) significantly reduces clicks. 6. Unappealing Titles and Meta Descriptions: Poorly crafted or truncated titles and meta descriptions fail to attract users. 7. Competition: Stronger or more compelling search results from competitors can draw clicks away. 8. Structured Data Issues: Errors can remove rich snippets, reducing visual appeal and CTR. What you can do to improve clicks on your website? 1. Analyze your data: Use Google Search Console's Performance report to identify specific queries and pages with high impressions but low clicks. 2. Optimize titles and descriptions: Craft engaging, keyword-rich meta titles and descriptions that accurately reflect your content and encourage clicks. Consider using numbers or emotional triggers. 3. Improve ranking position: Focus on SEO strategies to achieve higher rankings for relevant keywords, as higher positions generally yield higher CTRs. 4. Use schema markup: Implement schema markup to enable rich snippets, making your search results more visually appealing and informative. 5. Match search intent: Ensure your content aligns with the intent behind your target keywords. Provide comprehensive answers for informational queries or strong product pages for commercial ones. 6. Monitor and adapt: Continuously observe your CTR and other key metrics in Search Console. A/B test different titles, descriptions, and content formats to see what resonates best with your audience. By carefully analyzing your data and implementing strategic changes, you can improve your CTR and drive more qualified traffic to your website! Drop a comment below if you're doing something different to improve clicks on your website from search engines. Thank you!

It’s not about ranking for every keyword—it’s about ranking for the right ones.📈 For Ethos, a luxury watch marketplace, SEO wasn’t just a box to check—it became a growth engine. Here’s what we at Schbang achieved in just a few months: -106% increase in website sessions driven by content tailored to what customers were searching for. -37% growth in organic leads from better keyword targeting and optimized content. -2X leads in men’s watches by focusing on the right audience and intent-based searches. Here’s how we made it happen: -Understanding user intent: We discovered customers weren’t just browsing,they were ready to buy. By analyzing search behavior, we honed in on their needs. -Refreshing content: Existing content was audited and revamped, while new blogs were created—reviews, exclusives, and buying guides that resonated with users. -Smarter keyword targeting: We moved away from generic terms and focused on high-intent keywords like "gold watch price" and "shop buying," capturing users closer to purchase. -Technical SEO done right: Everything from meta tags and structured headings to page speed and canonical tags was optimized to make Ethos’s site more Google- and user-friendly. This wasn’t about doing more—it was about doing it better. What’s one SEO insight you wish you knew sooner? Drop it in the comments—we’d love to hear your thoughts!

AI is quietly rewriting the rules of Search. Today’s Google earnings might make it loud. Alphabet Inc. is expected to post $79B in revenue and 13% YoY EPS growth for Q2. On paper, things look solid. But beyond the top-line numbers, the most important trend to watch isn’t revenue. It’s how search is changing, from within Google itself. According to Semrush and other industry trackers: LLM-powered search already accounts for 4% of global queries → 13–17% of desktop Google searches now show AI overviews → In info/entertainment categories, LLM summaries show up in 50%+ of searches → By 2026, LLM share of search is forecast to hit 17% → By 2028, it may fully surpass traditional search This pace of change could even beat mobile search’s rise, which took 7 years to overtake desktop. And this is all happening inside Google, before OpenAI or Perplexity even enter the mainstream search habits of the average user. So if you’re a founder and SEO is core to your discovery strategy, this shift should be sounding alarms. The next 12 months are going to be critical for adapting. You need to understand: → How AI tools are presenting your brand → Whether you’re showing up in LLM answers → And how to optimize for a world beyond blue links If you're trying to figure out your next steps here, my former if(we) colleague Billy Leung is building Datacy, one of the first tools focused on AI Results Optimization (AIRO), helping companies audit and improve their presence in AI-generated search. His startup is definitely worth checking out, among others. It’s early, but this space will grow fast. → Consumer behavior is evolving. → Discovery is being rewritten. → The next generation of growth channels is already here. How are you adapting to this new era of search for your business? Lmk in the comments below! 👇🏾 ---— 👋🏾 Want more startup advice and tech news? Follow me here: Justin Gerrard And check out my podcast: Rush Hour Podcast ♻️ Repost if you think someone in your network would benefit! #google #alphabet #earnings #search

I have over 15 years of SEO experience, But if I had to start from scratch in 2025, Here's exactly what I'd do: (Warning: This is NOT for agencies or those chasing vanity metrics, but for SEO strategists looking to attract real, high-quality leads without spending all day on SEO). 1. Forget chasing keyword rankings every day → Focus on high-quality content that serves your audience’s needs. → SEO is a long-term game, and consistency over time will get you results faster than obsessing over ranking shifts. 2. Stop over-complicating your SEO strategy → Document your SEO journey. Share real wins and failures—people value authenticity over perfection. → People are more likely to connect with you if they feel like they’re getting the inside scoop. 3. Ditch the fancy SEO tools for now → Use your own experience and your client’s pain points as a starting point. → Write about what you’re learning, not just what you think others want to hear. People love real stories and actionable insights, not jargon-filled tips. 4. Forget perfection on website design or visuals → Focus on text-based posts that offer value and clear takeaways. → Professional pictures > fancy design work. Your expertise is your value, not the aesthetics. → Share screenshots of actual SEO work to show the process. People love behind-the-scenes looks into real business work. 5. Implement this 20-minute content system → 10 mins: Write about 1 thing you learned today about SEO (whether technical or content-related). → 5 mins: Edit for clarity using a tool like Claude or any AI editor. → 5 mins: Add a hook + CTA (call to action). The truth? Most "SEO experts" will tell you to spend hours perfecting every detail. But after helping several business owners level up their SEO strategies, Here’s what I’ve learned: The ones who succeed treat SEO like a conversation, not a sermon. It’s not about rankings, it’s about genuine connections and providing value. That’s it. That’s the “secret.” P.S. - Now that you know it, what are you going to change? Follow me, Kapil Ochani, for all things SEO. #SEOForLeads #SEOInsights #RealSEO

Seeing impression drops in September? Read this before you panic. 😉 Google quietly disabled the “&num=100” parameter, the hack SEOs used to load 100 results on one page. That change rippled through rank trackers and Google Search Console. Translation: reporting shifted, not necessarily your demand. ⁉️ What this actually means • Rank trackers may look jumpy as they re-engineer how they collect data. Expect turbulence and shallower “depth” unless you pay for more crawl. • Many sites saw big impression drops and “average position” spikes around Sept 12–18. That’s a counting change, not an audience collapse. Annotate your reports. • The shift ties into Google’s ongoing SERP experience changes (pagination/scroll experiments), which keep altering how we measure visibility. 👍 How to read September like a pro - Prioritise clicks, sessions, and conversions over impressions. Impressions got noisy; revenue didn’t. - Compare year-over-year where possible, and draw a line on your graphs for Sept 12–18 to mark the methodology change. - Segment by landing page and non-brand vs brand. You’ll spot true demand shifts even when visibility metrics wobble. (This is where business impact lives.) - Ask your tools how they’re adapting. Some will limit results to top 10–20 by default; deeper tracking may cost more or run slower for a while. - Communicate early. Add a one-liner in your deck: “Sept data impacted by Google removing &num=100; expect lower impressions, different averages; no evidence of traffic loss.” 😥 Red flags that do warrant action • Clicks or organic sessions down without a matching paid/seasonality story. • Conversion rate drops from organic. • Key pages losing clicks and queries (check page-level GSC). If you see those, investigate content quality, SERP changes, and competitors, not just the dashboard. This is a reporting reset, not a crisis. Keep your team focused on the metrics that move the business, not the ones that moved the goalposts. 😊

SEO is full of hidden loops. Not the obvious “𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 → 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰” type. I mean the non-linear effects that make your metrics behave strangely, even when everything looks fine in reports. Last week I shared the SEO Metrics Map (https://lnkd.in/egsgAx7j). Several people asked me in DM: “OK, but what about the deeper connections – the ones dashboards never show?” So here is the next layer. SEO’s Hidden Loops 6 counterintuitive effects that quietly shape your rankings, CTR, and impressions: 1) 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 Publishing many pages boosts impressions… but can lower total CTR because new pages start at weak positions. 2) 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 When users bounce quickly, Google sees a mismatch and gradually pushes the page down in the results. 3) 𝗞𝗲𝘆𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗽 Two pages targeting the same topic split impressions and end up lowering each other’s CTR. 4) 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Adding more keywords increases impressions, but many of them appear at very low positions, pulling CTR down. 5) 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸 When a site grows too fast, indexing slows down. Important pages stagnate because crawl budget goes to unimportant ones. 6) 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗽𝘀 Higher rankings → more visibility → more clicks → more chances to earn backlinks → even higher rankings. None of these loops are obvious inside Google Search Console. And they don’t show up in typical dashboards. But once you understand them, SEO stops looking chaotic and starts looking logical. And if you missed the SEO Metrics Map, I’ll add it in the comments. This cheat sheet is a natural next layer on top of it.

Google Search Console is telling you the truth. Just not the whole truth. Most marketers think they’re looking at complete search data. They’re not. According to recent analysis, up to 75% of impressions are filtered out in query-level reporting due to privacy thresholds. In some cases, 38% of clicks never get reported. Which means you could be optimizing based on 25% of the story. I noticed these few patterns: → Three out of four impressions may be hidden in query-level reports → Bot impressions are rising (some sites seeing 4–6% vs a typical 1–3% SaaS baseline) → Since March 2025, clicks dropped over 50% while impressions stayed relatively stable → AI Overviews (AIOs) correlate with declining click-through rates → Google’s removal of the “num=100” parameter further shifted visibility dynamics This isn’t just a reporting quirk. It changes how you interpret performance. If impressions are “down,” are they actually down? Or are they just filtered differently? If clicks are declining, is it demand or AI answers absorbing intent before users ever reach you? There’s also a practical takeaway most teams miss: GSC has two API endpoints. → Aggregate data (no dimensions) = includes filtered data → Query-level data (with “query” dimension) = only what meets privacy thresholds Divide visible query impressions by total aggregate impressions. That ratio is your real filter rate. For many sites, it’s 70–80%. Before you rewrite your SEO strategy, fire your agency, or assume demand collapsed, measure the gap. Because in 2026, search visibility isn’t just about rankings. It’s about understanding what you’re not being shown.

Aleyda Solís does it again. In this new article, she breaks down and illustrates brilliantly how AI-powered search still relies on traditional SEO factors, but how they need to be understood through a new lens. Why? Because user behavior changes in conversational search. And that shift affects how we think about rankings, visibility, and content design. 👉 Highly recommended read if you work in SEO, product, content, or strategy: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dm2QrMDm Clear, visual, and super actionable.

What explains Google's record quarterly search revenue $54.2B (+12%y/y) while #clicks decline & #sitetraffic drops? Here's my perspective: ▶️ In yesterday's Q2 earnings Sundar Pichai said, "Our new features, like AI Overviews and AI Mode, are performing well,"CEO Sundar Pichai said. AI Overviews now has 2 billion monthly users (up from 1.5B last quarter). ▶️ This means there are MORE total searches happening. “We see AI powering an expansion in how people are searching for and accessing information,” Pichai said yesterday, adding that AI features “cause users to *search more* as they learn that search can meet more of their needs.” BrightEdge has reported a +49% surge in total search impressions as users engage in complex conversational queries. ▶️ Yet in May, BrightEdge data showed -30% drop in clicks and new Pew Research Center data shows ~50% drop in clicks when #AIoverviews are present...(leading many to proclaim"#GEO will be the end of Google.") ▶️ However this means AI Overviews acts as a filter: broad, top-of-funnel research queries (e.g., “best X,” “Y vs Z”) are now answered directly by the AI summary. This powerful filter satisfies the curiosity of users who are "just looking," effectively ending their journey on the search results page. These likely would have been lower converting searches. ▶️ The remaining clicks are more valuable. Because casual browsers are filtered out, the users who do still click are highly qualified and possess strong commercial intent. They are past the initial research phase and are ready to act. Google is successfully monetizing these fewer, but far more valuable, bottom-funnel clicks at a premium. WordStream by LocaliQ analysis has shown CPCs are up +12.88% ▶️ Thus (Massive Increase in Impressions)x(Higher Cost Per Click)>(Decline in Click-Through Rate). ▶️ Questions of course are (1) is the increase in impression sustainable or will these shift to other Answer Engines? And (2) what about the massive Capex required to do this? Time will tell...