In this week’s NYT piece, Google’s said that the BBC article about self-promoting listicles used “unrealistic searches people wouldn’t actually do.”
I have some thoughts about that, and about AIO accuracy overall.
Check it out:
algorythmic.co/opinions/my-...
I collaborated with The SEO Community and @adriennekmetz.com on 5 videos and this article that sums them up.
I also got @tory.thegray.co, @jocameroo.bsky.social, Erica Ylimäki, and @kevin-indig.bsky.social to share their insights.
A photo of Tory Gray with a quote "Focus on building a brand that lasts, and don’t lose what you have today in reaching for what you want tomorrow. Focus on community-building tactics that are going to help you grow in LLM platforms and in SEO. Build your brand in a way that is meaningful."
Tory Gray (@tory.thegray.co) encourages SEOs to prioritise building a meaningful, lasting brand by investing in community tactics that support both SEO and growth across LLM platforms.
maj.to/4abzLji
It's that time of the year again: here's the Mueller Report of SEO memes for 2025. #SEO
Embracing Communities
Learn how to foster engagement and build a loyal following with a dedicated online space.
with @erinasimmons.bsky.social, Chris Meabe, Jon Mest and @tory.thegray.co
Ahhh more like in OUR dreams ;)
Thanks so much!
SEO Tool of the Day: Rendering Difference Engine
Need to spot the difference between your HTML and JavaScript rendered content?
"Identify SEO signals added, removed, or altered during JavaScript rendering — without digging into the code."
Very nice! 👏
thegray.company/resources/js...
Saaaame!!
But yeah I'm seeing alllll these patterns. Very fishy obviously bot behavior. In GSC, in 3rd party tools, in Google Trends.
Some logs we've seen have queries matching trending Discover topics.
(I don't have a cohesive theory yet, other than... something is broken.)
They def aren't "supposed to be" - those go through the API and definitionally don't show up in GSC.
And... yet. Is it a fishy LLM workaround? A Google bug? I dunno, but we keep seeing more and more odd patterns like this.
"{thing} - provide a detailed summary" is another we're seeing.
Looks like maybe Perplexity wants in on that sweet sweet user data - and Rendering insights, too 👀
>> www.wsj.com/tech/perplex...
JavaScript SEO in AI Search training session NEXT WEEK! 👉sitebulb.com/resources/guides/webinar...
@sam.thegray.co @tory.thegray.co @womenintechseo.bsky.social - this training is free and OPEN TO ALL!
🤖 Want to easily troubleshoot CSR JS Reliance and Differences with raw HTML easily? There's a new Free Chrome Extension You can use! The Rendering Difference Engine by Gray Dot Company (aka, @tory.thegray.co & team)
Check it out: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/rende...
Note: Check out the Advanced GSC Visualizer extension to see this!
Screenshot of GSC's new crawl budget efficiency score
Screenshot of the new Crawl Stats Analytics report in GSC
New report, who dis?
Is SearchGPT is currently using Google’s search results rather than Bing's? Alexis Rylko researched it, identifying patterns across:
1. Ranked pages ranking with a high overlap with Google search results
...
Ohhhhh very!!
Screenshot of a marketing email from the SSA, with the text: "Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors The Social Security Administration (SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, a landmark piece of legislation that delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans."
Never once in my life have I received a marketing email from the Social Security Administration.
Smells a lot like "we basically killed Medicare for all our constituents and they are gonna be PISSED so we're covering our asses in advance - and kissing a certain President's at the same time."
So pretty!
Mapping site symptoms to JavaScript issues. What you see: Some or all of your pages aren't on Google. Common issues: Google can't discover URLs, JS is changing critical indexation signals, contextual <head> elements are missing or misplaced.
ICYMI @tory.thegray.co and @sam.thegray.co pulled from their combined years of experience optimizing SEO for JavaScript-powered sites across different frameworks to create a super in-depth guide to diagnosing JavaScript issues 💙 Click the link in the comments to get started diagnosing ⬇️
Here's a more detailed follow up to my post yesterday using @seoClarity data to show Google is increasing the number of AIOs that rank lower than 1st position.
Thanks to @sengineland for asking me for the data and insights!
searchengineland.com/google-ai-ov...
Has your technical #SEO team taken our JavaScript SEO course yet? It's free & on-demand: sitebulb.com/javascript-seo...
Huge thanks to @womenintechseo.bsky.social & @sam.thegray.co @tory.thegray.co for partnering with us on this initiative.
yeesh that's awful!
(In case you are wondering, I'm looking for where to link to - that covers this subject well - for an upcoming blog post!)
Screenshot of a Google query with the AIO in position 4 after a featured snippet and 2 organic listings
Well hello AIO *in position 4* - treated like any other SERP feature.
(Or 3, I suppose, if the featured snippet counts as position 0. Whatever - you get my point!)
Anyone else seeing this? 👀 👀 👀
Think user-generated content is just for marketing on social? 🤔 In my most recent article for @searchengineland.bsky.social, I show you how to effectively harness UGC for SEO, including reviews, forums, and organic social posts.
Help your users by letting them help you! Check out the article here ⬇️
This week's WTSNewsletter just dropped with 6 articles and 13 events for SEOs and digital marketers!
Catch up here ⬇️
mailchi.mp/womenintechs...
Has your technical #SEO team taken our JavaScript SEO course yet? It's free & on-demand: sitebulb.com/javascript-seo...
Huge thanks to @womenintechseo.bsky.social & @sam.thegray.co @tory.thegray.co for partnering with us on this initiative.
Screenshot of Nuxt's documentation for URL Routing, where a there's advice for routing users around a website based on a browser's History API. On this list they reference a method called "replace()" which is not recommended in the documentation.
PSA for JavaScript SEO: "Replace" is not a real redirect.
Looking at you, Nuxt router Replace() method! 👀
(But also, ya'll, it's "not recommended" in their documentation for a reason.)
Trade policy update.