Almost everything you see about how to do better in AI search is speculation. Guesswork. Predictions. We need to move from react mode to control mode. We need to go from predicting the future to experimenting to discover it.

I'm not really shouting about this until next week, because it's Friday afternoon here, but in case you're curious, I think that, when it comes to GEO, we should stop guessing, and start testing: www.searchpilot.com/resources/bl...

For those who like to consume audio content, my conversation with @rosshudgens.bsky.social about the future of e-commerce SEO is now on the podcast feed: shows.acast.com/business-cla...

Yesterday @brodieclark.bsky.social and I put out a conversation we had about product search. The recording and notes are now available for everyone: www.searchpilot.com/resources/bl...

Published the audio version of my conversation with @randfish.bsky.social on the podcast feed (recorded in-person at SEO Week): shows.acast.com/business-cla... For those who like to listen instead of watch.

While we're all very excited about AI, there's another search change that is arguably MORE dramatic for ecommerce and retail in the short term: Google's changing approach to product search.

A challenge of testing is that detecting small, single-digit % improvements is hard. Doing so repeatedly can be transformational to business performance, but each individual one can get lost in the noise.

If you want to keep up with @SearchPilot content on your commute, your dog walk, while you exercise, or while doing chores, the business class lounge podcast continues - latest episode is my conversation with my brother @tomcritchlow.com : shows.acast.com/business-cla...

"We have no doubt about the value of testing… I can’t imagine running an SEO team without testing now." -- Organic Search Director, Global Sports Brand

I have to pinch myself sometimes when I look at our customer list. We set out with a mission to prove the value of SEO for the world's biggest websites, and MAN we have some great logos, not even all of which we can share publicly. We have published a few new customer stories, and have more coming.

Join @rosshudgens.bsky.social and me tomorrow for a conversation about "future proofing e-commerce SEO". I love Ross's take on how your 3 week vision is your new 3 year vision:

Veo3 video generation technology is amazing. I'm proud to show off the latest @searchpilot.bsky.social advert. I'm very confident this gives off the exact right message about how we help businesses succeed. .....hang on a second.

About a decade ago, I ran a study to see how good SEOs were at figuring out which of two pages would rank better for a given query. The punchline was "about as good as a coin flip". We recently re-ran the study and put humans up against AI. Check out the results:

Been doing SEO 10+ years, and still absolutely love these A/B split tests that challenge SEO fundamentals "Does Changing an H2 to an H1 Improve Organic Traffic?" Click for results: www.searchpilot.com/resources/ca... via @searchpilot.bsky.social

We recently added a shareable PDF to my popular article on SEO depreciation: www.searchpilot.com/resources/bl...

Tomorrow, @randfish.bsky.social and I are streaming a conversation we had live and in person in NYC at #SEOweek. We'll be live answering questions in the chat during the stream, so even though the recording will be available afterwards, you'll get the most out of it by being there live.

Comparing the ROI of paid and organic search work with @kevingibbons.bsky.social (full video on the @searchpilot.bsky.social YouTube channel):

Per click cost inflation in paid search IS A THING. Here's how PPC leaders think about it and hold Google accountable: (this is a snippet from my recent conversation with @kevingibbons.bsky.social - find the full thing on the @searchpilot.bsky.social YouTube channel!).

Great to have @searchpilot.bsky.social sponsoring RE:COMMERCE today. Come say hi if you’re here!

This was a lot of fun. Need to rent a studio more often and do more!

This is happening in under an hour and it's not too late to join @kevingibbons.bsky.social and me talking about all kinds of things related to ecommerce including SEO, hiring, and (as the image says) building marketing strategies as PPC costs rise:

One thing wrong with Google's AI overviews: they've shipped the UX from an academic paper! Excerpt from my conversation with @tomcritchlow.com

[email protected] has put out a couple of great studies recently that are worth taking together: 1. Only 86% of pages were indexed on ecommerce sites 2. Most pages were not indexed for *quality* reasons 3. Not crawled in the last 130 days? There is a 99% chance it's not indexed

Who's going to RE:COMMERCE? We will be there, hosting a roundtable. (If you don't have a ticket yet, drop me a DM).

I promised my #SEOweek slides so here you go folks: docs.google.com/presentation...

We put out our interviews and discussions on a podcast feed so if you want to get the best @searchpilot audio content grab it here: shows.acast.com/business-cla... (latest episode with Eli Schwartz)

Struggle to tell @tomcritchlow.com and me apart? Never seen us together in the same place? I don't think we have done a stream together before - join us later today (5pm UK time / 12 noon ET / 9am PT) as we try to figure out what's going on at Google and what we should all be doing about it:

Happy Easter

I don't know if most people realise quite how much Google search results pages have diverged between the US and the UK?

A trend we are seeing more and more of in enterprise retail -- the need to work with more and more data sources:

When I spoke to Eli Schwartz recently, I ended up giving this little intro to who Jeff Dean is. I recommend everyone in search listens to the episode of the Dwarkesh podcast where he interviews Jeff and Noam Shazeer.

Come and see Eli Schwartz and me chatting "SEO's New Playbook: Survive the AI Shift with Product-Led Growth" - starting in a couple of minutes: www.searchpilot.com/seo-playbook...

Two reasons to register to join Eli and me on Tuesday next week: 1. A lot is changing with the rise of AI, and Eli has some great ideas for how businesses can survive and thrive 2. You'll get a chance to get a pair of AirPods!

Yup. I think that's a great analogy. LLMs will be big. They already are. But they're not taking search market share.

I am very interested in @randfish.bsky.social's recent research into the growth of LLMs, their impact on people's search habits, and their impact on Google. See below for why I think it's like the growth of social media almost 20 years ago:

Can't wait to be back in NYC for #SEOWeek, talking about large-scale ecommerce and retail SEO. Tickets still available - hope to see some of you there.

Check out the latest couple of episodes of the Voices of Search podcast where I talked about "making organic search into a performance channel" and "depreciation of SEO":

I was reminded of this presentation Tom Anthony and I gave in 2016 where we talked about where the "next trillion searches [per year] will come from".

I had a very interesting conversation with Abishek Rajendra on the @searchpilot.bsky.social podcast and now it's written up for those who prefer reading to listening: www.searchpilot.com/resources/bl...

The AI search revolution is here. Ecommerce leaders are already adapting. 1️⃣ Test Google’s AI search. Stay ahead of changing search intent. 2️⃣ Track how your audience uses LLMs. Future-proof your brand. Want to turn AI search into your growth channel?

I've been enjoying the rabbit hole of the interplay between Google Merchant Center and Google Search Console this week. Product feeds can (often do!) contain loads of similar product variations which often correspond to a single canonical product page.

🚨 The biggest threat to Google search? AI-generated slop. It’s almost good enough to fool you—just uncanny valley content. LLMs are starving for real data while noise buries quality. The only way forward? Test, learn, and cut through the noise. Are you ready? 👇

Wrote up my recent journey with tinnitus and some hearing loss and (partial) recovery - in case it helps anyone: willcritchlow.com/hearing-tinn...

Google learned that freshness wins. Stock levels, prices, reviews—users need the latest info now. LLM-based engines will have to catch up. By the time they do, we’ll be testing against them too. Freshness isn’t optional—it’s the game. 🚀

AI is changing e-commerce. Before a person is likely to buy from you, a machine has to recommend you. SEO isn’t just about ranking anymore—it’s about optimizing for AI-driven recommendations. Brands that test and learn will dominate.

Most marketers guess. The best marketers test. Human preferences are messy. Google’s algorithm is unpredictable. Enterprise SEO A/B testing is the only way to know what works—before rolling out changes across millions of pages. Stop guessing. Start testing.

🚨 The #1 AI marketing channel isn’t ChatGPT or TikTok. It’s Google. And it’s not even close. Google’s AI decides who ranks, who gets clicks, and who wins. If you’re not testing how AI impacts your SEO, you’re already behind. Watch the video 👇

Have you heard about iPullRank's SEO event in NYC at the end of April? I'm excited to be heading back to the city, and to be speaking at what promises to be an amazing event. Early bird pricing ends this week so grab a ticket quickly if you want the best price.

Competition is BACK to the search space, and that's a really good thing:

New post: How to make sure you aren't blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt for ecommerce www.searchpilot.com/resources/bl...