Heads-up! Like I thought might happen early this week, the December 2025 core update has completed rolling out. It was a big update causing a lot of volatility across sites, verticals, and countries. I'll have more to share about the update soon.

I've helped a lot of companies over the years that expanded to a number of ccTLDs. It's important to understand that the other sites are still *different sites*. They need to build their own signals and power over time, so just setting up a bunch of ccTLDs does not mean you will be successful...

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/29 edition of "Core Update Notes". The update is nearing completion and it wouldn't shock me to see Google officially say it's done early this week. Other than the 12/20 tremor, most sites are still moving in the same direction impact-wise.

It's like the industry's version of spotting Bigfoot :) -> I spotted another ad in AIOs the other day. You don't see them often... so I always try to screenshot them when I do. It's like having my own version of the Patterson-Gimlin film of Bigfoot.

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/27 edition of "Core Update Notes". AI Overviews and AI Mode are both rooted in Google's core quality and ranking systems, so any type of quality reevaluation during a broad core update can impact visibility there. That also includes other Google surfaces...

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/26 edition of "Core Update Notes". We are now two weeks into the rollout and you can clearly see the massive swings across many sites, verticals, and countries. I have not seen another tremor yet like we saw on 12/20 but it's always possible we do see another

Yep, here come the ChatGPT ads and maybe *new* types of ads? Like giving "preferential treatment" to sponsored parts of the answer? Oof... -> OpenAI staff discussed prioritizing sponsored content in ChatGPT when users ask relevant queries and created mockups with ads in sidebars or as pop-ups

Good Morning Google Land! This is a special Christmas Eve edition of "Core Update Notes". Ho ho ho... The December core update keeps rolling on. I have not seen another tremor yet like we did on 12/20 but that could always happen as we approach the third week of the rollout.

I've spoken w/several news publishers that got hit hard w/the Dec core update and lost a ton of Discover visibility. I know it's hard to hear, but relying on Discover is super risky. Google has explained that, I've seen that many times when publishers contact me after core updates roll out, etc.

Interested in the Dec broad core update? I just published a video covering the "Core Update Notes" I've been sharing. Including the heavy volatility we've seen, YMYL impact (esp. w/Finance and Health/Medical), impact to news publishers, previous spam update hits, the 12/20 tremor, and more.

Jarvis approaching. "Some are testing this internally and working through it..." -> Important point from Google's Nix Fox about the importance of personalization in AI conversations Google has a HUGE advantage if people give it permission to connect the services.

The transformation continues. I noticed that Google had an animation of text running in the Google search bar in Chrome. This is based on the plus sign added recently which lets you upload docs, images, use Deep Research, etc. Yep, we are witnessing the transformation of Search to something greater.

This is wild. I literally messaged the EIC of a publisher last week explaining that I love their content, but the user experience is unbearable. Well, they are getting hammered based on the update. DO NOT anger or frustrate users. It will absolutely come back to bite you. Navboost is important...

Interesting, I saw an audio icon show up in an AI Overview. I don't think I've seen that before here in the US. I know it's been tested in India & other countries, but this is the first time I'm seeing it here. Also, I can't replicate now across devices so it was clearly a test. Just a heads-up.

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/21 edition of "Core Update Notes". For today's edition, I'll cover an interesting site that I have covered heavily before -- Wirecutter. They are dropping again after surging back from another weird drop in August. Details below.

More about the Google lawsuit against Serpapi. Google says they circumvented SearchGuard (a technology Google deployed earlier this year to block SerpApi from scraping its search results)

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/20 edition of "Core Update Notes". It looks like we might be seeing the first tremor with the December 2025 broad core update. The tools are spiking again and I'm seeing movement across a number of sites that have already been impacted by the update.

Whoa, Google is taking legal action against Serpapi -> "We did this to ask a court to stop SerpApi’s bots and their malicious scraping, which violates the choices of websites and rightsholders about who should have access to their content. This lawsuit follows legal action that other websites..."

Bing on the effect of duplicate content on AI Search (and SEO) "For SEO, less is more. Clean, consolidated signals help search engines and AI systems understand your intent and surface the right version of your content." blogs.bing.com/webmaster/De...

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/19 edition of "Core Update Notes". We are now a full week into the rollout and it has been a huge update so far. Anything can change as Google updates additional systems throughout the rollout, but as of now there have been some insane surges and drops...

Oh, I'm sure that LLM tracking data is top-notch.... Right... -> Browser extensions with 8 million users collect extended AI conversations. The extensions harvest full AI conversations over months. As @lilyray.nyc said on X, "So that’s where (some of) the LLM tracking companies get their data."

Great episode -> Google's @dannysullivan.bsky.social and @johnmu.com explain that AI SEO is the same as traditional SEO (on the latest Search Off The Record Podcast) I highly recommend listening to the episode if you haven't yet. Important for site owners to understand:

Focus on ecommerce? A BIG heads-up -> A NEW AI search engine has arrived. And it might just be killer for helping with shopping. Meet AlexaPlus.com from Amazon -> Alexa Plus’ website is live for some users www.theverge.com/news/845678/...

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/17 edition of "Core Update Notes". As of this morning, most impact has continued in the same direction across many sites I'm tracking that have been impacted, so I'm not seeing any reversals yet based on Google updating additional systems during the rollout.

Pretty nifty bookmarklet for viewing query fanout in ChatGPT from JC Chouinard. Just tried it out and it works very well. If you're looking for ways to quickly see that data, you should check this out -> ChatGPT Query Fanout Analyzer (Bookmarklet)

Wait, no tuna chunking of content, no posting tons of doorway pages, no LLMs.txt, no cloaking to AI, no stuffing of meta tags? ;) Please listen to Nick here... -> "On optimizing for AI Search, Nick Fox said it is "the same" as what you'd do for optimizing for web search and Google Search, it is SEO

Remember the num=100 situation where Google removed support for the parameter based on AI scrapers and bots scraping the Google SERPs? When they did that, avg position surged heavily and impressions dropped. @analyticsedge.com pinged me about a recent change for some sites. And I'm seeing it too...

To clarify, this is about JavaScript rendering. If you use JS to change the meta robots tag, then understand that Google can skip rendering and not execute JS if it sees a noindex tag in the static html. So if you want a page indexed, then don't use noindex from the start only to change it via JS.

More sports features showing up in the SERPs. This time I was seeing a "What's new" feature that provided a Discover-like feed based on the player. Each listing was AIO-like where you could tap the publisher list. Then at the bottom there was a "Discover more" section with additional players.

Google Morning Google Land! This is the 12/14 edition of "Core Update Notes". As expected, the update is landing, and in a big way for some sites already. I'm seeing big swings in search visibility based on running the numbers for over 3K sites previously impacted by major algorithm updates.

I tested Google Translate's new LIVE translation functionality and it's mind-blowing. This is huge and something many have wanted for a very long time. You should try it out. Will be massively helpful to anyone traveling to other countries where you don't know the native language well...

Anyone focused on real estate seen this before. Mike believes this new, and a big deal -> Google Enters The Portal Wars Looks like a partnership b/t Google & ComeHome. "Includes full property detail pages, links to request a tour, and contact an agent..."

Look for the new icon -> The new Gemini in Chrome integration is live on iOS. It's right there in the address bar taking over where the lens icon was. Will definitely get some attention from people and it is helpful... Once you tap it, you can use lens or tap into Gemini with questions.

Good Morning Google Land! This is the 12/12 edition of "Core Update Notes". We are less than one day into the Dec broad core update & it typically takes 24-48 hours for the update to land, so I was not expecting to see much. That's the case so far after running visibility reporting for 2K+ sites.

Here we go! We knew it was close. Today is the day. We've been waiting for this broad core update for a long time. I'll be posting updates based on what I'm seeing. It usually takes 24-48 hours to land. Stay tuned -> Google December 2025 core update rolling out now

Focus on news? Big announcements yesterday. I'm already seeing the experiment where AI-powered article overviews are showing for The Washington Post. There is an AI disclaimer for "Story previews" & you can preview the article before clicking through. Then there is a prominent link for the article.

Google Features Update: If you're a news or media publisher, a huge heads-up. Preferred Sources is rolling out globally and it can 100% impact your visibility in Top Stories. Google is rolling out "Spotlighting subscriptions", first in the Gemini app and then AIOs and AI Mode in the coming weeks

**Super important for publishers interested in Google Discover**: I covered that second bullet yesterday & Barry followed up with Google after the presentation! Search & Discover are more separate now signals-wise... which is also possibly why they have a big spam problem now there...

Glad they added this back! I have shared about this forever. Google used to have "smaller core updates" in their documentation but it was removed as they refined the doc. It's back now to make sure site owners understand they can update a core system, or several, outside of broad core updates.

Oh boy, inserting clickbait title tags and only for search engines (not users) -> Instagram appears to be generating often misleading SEO-style headlines and long descriptions for users' Instagram posts, appearing in Google Search results

We've been waiting a long time for the next broad core update. Sounds like it could be close... "Google's John Mueller said Google is still working on the next core update. This update should be out soon, but it is unclear if it will happen in the next couple of days or after the holiday season."

It's live for me now. Great addition -> Google Search Console is rolling out weekly and monthly views - more granular data www.seroundtable.com/google-searc...

Ads coming to Gemini -> Google told advertising clients that it plans to bring ads to Gemini in 2026, separate from ads in AI Mode "In separate calls Google reps indicated that ad placements in Gemini are targeted for a 2026 rollout, though details on formats, pricing, and testing remain unclear"

Grokipedia is growing in Google Search. Now up to 650K urls indexed. And I'm seeing it rank in a number of knowledge panels (including for people). Very interesting. Will be interesting to follow. :)

"No live tests for ads" -> ChatGPT head says screenshots of ChatGPT ads are "either not real or not ads"; OpenAI's research chief says "anything that feels like an ad" is now turned off the-decoder.com/openai-insis...

So, how long before Reddit tanks in Google and then AI search engines like chatgpt, perplexity and others based on the AI spam being posted there? -> AI Slop Is Ruining Reddit for Everyone “It’s probably more prevalent than anybody wants to really admit, because it’s just so easy to shove your..."

AIOs ranking in position two or lower has increased based on Stat data. I've seen this more and more as well. And it's now much higher for navigational queries, which makes sense -> Did We Pass Peak AIO? — Whiteboard Friday

The NYT isn't messing around. A new AI lawsuit, this time suing Perplexity -> New York Times Sues A.I. Start-Up Perplexity Over Use of Copyrighted Work "The Times said in its lawsuit that it had contacted Perplexity several times over the past 18 months, demanding that the start-up stop using..."

The benefit of NOT enabling site owners to block AIOs or AI Mode separately -> CEO Matthew Prince says Cloudflare has blocked 416B AI bot requests for its customers since July 1, and that Google can see 3.2x more internet pages than OpenAI

Working on international SEO projects? I published a video today covering how AI Search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, & Copilot handle translated content, hreflang, and multilingual prompts. I cover three separate examples. This is based on my blog post from earlier this week.