Search Engines

Surviving February’s Volatility: AI Overviews, Local Bugs, and Technical Benchmarks

March 3, 2025 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

February didn’t bring an official core update, but volatility still shook search. From Google Business Profile review bugs to AI Overviews lawsuits, marketers confronted a search environment where visibility and trust depend more on authority than ever. Bing, meanwhile, refined its Webmaster Tools, underscoring how secondary engines matter as Google’s market share dips below 90%. For SEOs, the path forward is blending resilience in technical practices with adaptability to zero-click realities.

What Happened

Early in the month, Google’s Business Profile reviews disappeared for thousands of companies, a bug that rattled local visibility until resolved a few days later. Volatility struck again around February 9, coinciding with Super Bowl weekend traffic chatter, with tracking tools showing spikes despite no confirmed update. The Chegg lawsuit made headlines on February 25, alleging that Google’s AI Overviews unfairly siphon traffic. Studies reinforced that AI Overviews reduce click-through rates, even while brands appearing in them can gain exposure. On the technical side, the Chrome UX Report (CrUX) showed small but steady improvements in Core Web Vitals performance across the web, while Google reaffirmed thresholds for LCP, INP, and CLS. Bing, not to be ignored, extended its Webmaster Tools data range to 16 months, a quiet but meaningful improvement.

Who’s Impacted

• B2B: Agencies and enterprise marketers struggle with volatility-driven reporting gaps, needing to parse whether traffic swings stem from algorithms or user shifts around major events.
• B2C: Retailers and service businesses saw reviews vanish mid-month, undermining trust signals during key decision windows. The new reinstatement pathways gave them faster resolution, but reliance on a single platform proved risky.
• Nonprofits: Awareness campaigns face reduced traffic when AI Overviews answer queries directly, with impression share replacing clicks as the main visibility currency.

Why It Matters (Factics)

Factic 1

Fact: Google’s review bug (Feb 7–9) erased reviews from many profiles, temporarily damaging trust.
Tactic: Set automated review monitoring and snapshot logs to flag sudden drops and escalate quickly.
KPI: Detect and restore review counts within 48 hours; maintain ≥90% review reply rate post-reinstatement.

Factic 2

Fact: AI Overviews correlate with CTR declines of 20–35% where present; Chegg’s lawsuit shows brands losing measurable traffic.
Tactic: Reframe content to earn AI Overview citations with concise, sourced answers and schema markup.
KPI: Achieve ≥50 priority queries cited in AI Overviews; mitigate CTR declines by sustaining impression share.

Factic 3

Fact: Chrome UX Report shows 51.3% of origins now pass all Core Web Vitals; Google reaffirmed thresholds (LCP <2.5s, INP <200ms, CLS <0.1).
Tactic: Use field-data monitoring and prioritize mobile INP optimization through leaner JavaScript and caching.
KPI: Improve Core Web Vitals pass rate by +2–3% QoQ across templates.

Factic 4

Fact: Bing Webmaster Tools extended data coverage to 16 months, streamlining trend analysis.
Tactic: Export long-range data to benchmark seasonal swings and isolate anomalies.
KPI: Cut SEO reporting prep time by 30% while improving anomaly detection.

Action Steps

1. Immediate: Log GBP review counts and activate monitoring for local signals.
2. 30–60 Days: Adapt content for AI Overviews using structured schema and FAQ/Q&A formatting.
3. Quarterly: Audit Core Web Vitals with a mobile-first lens and track CrUX field data.
4. Optional: Use Bing Webmaster Tools’ extended history to identify overlooked seasonal trends.

References

2025-02-03 – Search Engine Roundtable – February 2025 Google Webmaster Report: Volatility Tracking, Local Bug, Quality Raters, AI & UI – https://www.seroundtable.com/february-2025-google-webmaster-report-38835.html

2025-02-11 – Search Engine Roundtable – Bing Webmaster Tools Updates Date Selector Interface – https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-webmaster-tools-updates-date-selector-interface-38896.html

2025-02-25 – Search Engine Roundtable – Daily Search Forum Recap: February 25, 2025 – https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-02-25-2025-38959.html

2025-02-11 – Chrome UX Report – Release Notes | Chrome UX Report (CrUX) – https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux/release-notes

2025-02-04 – Google Search Central – Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results – https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals

2025-02-12 – Website Builder Expert – Google Search Volatility Fluctuates in February 2025 – https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/news/google-serp-volatility-february-2025/

2025-02-10 – Big Voodoo – Google AI Overviews Are Hurting Click-Through Rates – https://www.bigvoodoo.com/posts/google-ai-overviews-are-hurting-click-through-rates

2025-02-08 – Local Dominator – SEO News Roundup (Feb 3–9, 2025) – https://localdominator.co/seo-news/seo-news-roundup-february-3-to-9-2025/

Disclosure

Disclosure: This article is #AIgenerated with minimal human input for direction and approval. Sources are gathered by AI systems and may not have undergone full human fact-checking. Original works by Basil Puglisi are subject to comprehensive source verification.

The Smarter Way to Scale Cutting Content Costs Without Cutting Quality

February 24, 2025 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Content scales. But not by itself. Someone maps the workflow, someone else cleans the drafts, and everyone feels the squeeze when output jumps. January sharpened that reality. OpenAI, xAI, HeyGen, Synthesia, Jasper, Writesonic, and ContentShake all promise faster, cheaper, smarter. The decks look neat. Real campaigns are messier. Always a trade. Always a negotiation.

Efficiency is no longer only speed. Smart teams watch different signals. How many first drafts arrive on brand without edits. How often SEO rankings hold. How quickly a draft becomes something you would show a client. Cut human review too much and credibility leaks away. Add too much manual work and the savings disappear. The way forward pairs the right tools with the right guardrails.

OpenAI’s recent model updates sit in the middle of the tradeoff you manage every week. GPT 4o delivers roughly fifteen percent more speed and about twenty percent lower cost than the prior build, with a small accuracy giveback. o3 mini drives cost down further and does well on first passes for outlines and support chat. The play is sequencing, not picking a winner. Let o3 mini ideate and draft within a tight brief, then hand that draft to GPT 4o with clear instructions for fact checks, quote verification, and style polish. Gate that second pass with a short acceptance checklist so it fixes evidence and tone, not just phrasing. Track time to first draft, factual corrections per thousand words, and total tokens per asset. In my work this handoff drops blog drafting time from about ten minutes to under six, which changes the rhythm of an entire team day.

Grok 3’s preview makes the social side faster, but it still needs a second look before you move budget. Connected to X, it pulls sentiment swings, trending visuals, and influencer chatter into one view so a social manager can see what is moving without scrolling for an hour. Early testers like the signal but also note lag on spikes, sometimes around twenty percent slower than rivals when a topic surges. Treat Grok as radar, then verify through a quick layer of native searches, saved lists, and your social dashboard before you post or shift spend. Measure alert lead time versus manual discovery, false positive rate on trends, and the engagement or conversion delta on campaigns launched from Grok identified topics.

Video is where scale shows up once the guardrails are real. HeyGen now offers expressive avatars with more than twenty emotion cues and one click translation in roughly forty languages, while Synthesia keeps the finish quality consistent for corporate explainers. B2C teams turn one strong concept into dozens of localized shorts overnight. B2B teams remove the cost of crews and reshoots for training. The boundary is consent and clarity. A recent privacy survey highlights strong consumer concern about likeness use without explicit permission. Set policy before you ship, secure likeness rights, watermark and disclose, and keep a simple consent and provenance record. Run the workflow as master script, brand templates, caption sets, then language variants routed by locale. Track cost per finished minute, time to localize, completion rate, and support ticket deflection on pages with embedded clips. If feedback shows discomfort, increase disclosure prominence and switch to a human presenter for sensitive modules.

Template copywriting pays when you let tools do what they are good at and keep people where nuance matters. Jasper’s campaign workflows hold tone across ads, emails, and landing pages when the brand brief is strong. Writesonic pushes volume quickly but often needs a human for cultural polish. Practitioners repeatedly see edits in the twenty to thirty percent range on Writesonic drafts. The winning move is a hybrid lane. Jasper frames the set, Writesonic fills variants, editors close the gap. Measure edit distance to final, tone match scores from your style checker, click through and reply rates after the human pass, and total time saved per campaign compared to all human drafts. When editors keep rewriting the same parts, fold those rules into your Jasper brief and cut friction next time.

SEO stays the quiet referee because intent and evidence still decide what holds a top position. ContentShake paired with GPT 4o moves faster when a human tightens claims, adds lived expertise, and shows receipts. Your Ahrefs stat is a useful anchor. Only a small slice of pure AI articles reach the top ten after six months, while human edited AI content performs many times better. The rule is simple. Draft with the model, finish with proof. Build a topical map so you pick battles you can win, attach internal links before drafting, and add citations wherever a reader could ask, says who. Measure non brand organic on priority clusters, the share of URLs in the top ten after six months, dwell and scroll on revised pages, and the referring domains that accrue once the content signals real expertise. When a page stalls, refresh with new evidence and stronger internal links rather than starting over.

Best practice spotlight

“Only five percent of pure AI articles rank in the top ten after six months. Human enhanced content performs eight times better.” — Ahrefs, January 30, 2025

Creative consulting corner

B2B scenario
A SaaS team needs a whitepaper on time. Execution uses o3 mini for research drafts, GPT 4o for refinement, Jasper for campaign alignment, and ContentShake for the SEO layer. The expected result is a cycle that runs fifty percent faster at roughly one third lower cost. The pitfall is voice drift if the brand rules are not locked before drafting starts.

B2C scenario
A fashion brand wants to double TikTok reach. HeyGen produces multilingual clips from one master script. Grok 3 flags rising hashtags. GPT 4o drafts captions and alternates. Posting cadence doubles at about thirty percent lower cost. Skip watermarking and trust takes a hit.

Non Profit scenario
An NGO needs localized donor outreach across ten regions. Synthesia delivers formal appeals. HeyGen supports grassroots videos. ContentShake produces multilingual blog drafts for volunteers to refine. Donor conversion rises by about twenty five percent and localization time drops by about forty percent. Privacy compliance around likenesses still needs careful handling.

Closing thought

Some days the AI feels like magic. Other days it feels like babysitting. The work is finding the mix that your team will actually use. Let AI handle the heavy lift. Keep people on the wheel. That is how you scale without cutting quality.

References

After covering Originality.ai in content, Basil Puglisi has added the eval here on Basil’s Blogs. (Paid)

Navigating Zero-Click SERPs and Local Volatility Now

February 3, 2025 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

January arrives with turbulence in local rankings, the permanent disappearance of Bing’s cache link, and a surge in AI-driven search features that accelerate the rise of zero-click SERPs. For SEOs, the lesson is clear: visibility no longer guarantees traffic, and diagnostic habits must evolve. These shifts emphasize agility in technical SEO and the need to prove authority across multiple engines, not just Google.

What Happened

Google’s local search volatility from January 5–14 saw businesses plunge from top Map Pack positions to pages deep in results. Industry forums debated whether this was an algorithmic shift or an unconfirmed bug. Meanwhile, Microsoft officially removed the Bing cache link in December, cutting off a long-standing diagnostic tool, and doubled down on AI query handling through Small Language Models and TensorRT-LLM. Across the ecosystem, AI Overviews expanded their reach: Ahrefs tracked ~67,000 keywords now triggering these zero-click layouts, while SEMrush and Search Engine Land underscored that Reddit, Quora, and user-generated content are heavily cited. Market data confirmed the environment’s shifting baseline — Statcounter recorded Google below 90% global share in January, with Bing’s U.S. share nearing 8%.

“AI Overviews now take up about 50% of the visible screen space when expanded, fundamentally altering the click path.” – Adweek, Jan. 3, 2025

Who’s Impacted

• B2B: Lead-gen firms that once relied on predictable organic reporting now face distorted attribution when AI Overviews display answers without driving clicks. Sales teams need to measure visibility, not just referral traffic.
• B2C: Local retailers felt the brunt of the Map Pack volatility, with some seeing week-over-week drops of 15 positions. Recovery required near-daily updates to profiles and engagement with reviews to signal relevance.
• Nonprofits: Awareness campaigns, especially health and education focused, risk losing reach when zero-click answers compress CTR. Nonprofits must diversify to social and alternative platforms for discovery.

Why It Matters (Factics)

Factic 1

Fact: Local rankings shifted dramatically Jan 5–14, with businesses dropping from top 3 to 18+ positions.
Tactic: Maintain daily Google Business Profile updates (photos, Q&A, reviews) and log volatility in BrightLocal trackers.
KPI: Restore lost Pack visibility within 7–10 days; 90%+ review reply rate within 24h.

Factic 2

Fact: AI Overviews are triggered for ~67,000 tracked keywords; featured snippets’ visibility is declining.
Tactic: Build structured FAQ and schema-rich content that feeds AI answers, even when clicks decline.
KPI: ≥50 tracked queries appearing in AI Overview panels within 60 days.

Factic 3

Fact: Bing’s cache link was permanently removed Dec 11, forcing reliance on WMT and archival tools.
Tactic: Transition diagnostics to Bing’s URL Inspection and Wayback Machine for live/freshness checks.
KPI: 90% of priority URLs recrawled/indexed within 24h; reduce troubleshooting time to <5 minutes.

Action Steps

1. Immediate: Audit GBP activity and strengthen review engagement to stabilize local rankings.
2. 30–60 Days: Reformat content with structured schema and FAQs to capture AI Overview citations.
3. Quarterly: Shift SEO investment mix to include Bing and alternative platforms as Google’s share dips.
4. Optional: Use Sitebulb or similar to control index bloat in ecommerce catalogs and improve crawl efficiency.

References

2025-01-05 – Search Engine Roundtable – January 2025 Google Local Ranking Update (Unconfirmed Bug) – https://www.seroundtable.com/january-2025-google-local-ranking-update-38685.html

2025-01-19 – Ahrefs Blog – How SERP Features Have Evolved in the AI Era – https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-serp-features-have-evolved-in-the-ai-era/

2025-01-27 – SparkToro – 2024 Zero-Click Search Study – https://sparktoro.com/blog/2024-zero-click-search-study-for-every-1000-us-google-searches-only-374-clicks-go-to-the-open-web-in-the-eu-its-360/

2025-01-03 – Adweek – Move Beyond Google Traffic as Zero-Click Becomes 2025 Norm – https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/google-zero-click-2025-seo/

2024-12-10 – Search Engine Land – Bing officially removes cache link from search results – https://searchengineland.com/bing-officially-removes-cache-link-from-search-results-449220

2025-01-19 – Sitebulb – From Content to CTR: Nailing Ecommerce SEO In 2025 – https://sitebulb.com/resources/guides/from-content-to-ctr-nailing-ecommerce-seo-in-2025/

2025-01-01 – Statcounter – Search Engine Market Share Worldwide, January 2025 – https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

2025-01-30 – Search Engine Roundtable – Daily Search Forum Recap: January 30, 2025 – https://www.seroundtable.com/recap-01-30-2025-38831.html

Disclosure

Foundational AI Infrastructure and Year End Content Alignment

January 27, 2025 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Every December feels like a reset point. Teams take stock of tools, budgets, and the results that got them here. This year the conversation is not about picking “one good AI tool” but about whether you can assemble a stack that keeps speed, trust, and compliance intact. Claude 3.5 Sonnet now anchors that conversation. It is built to hit E-E-A-T requirements directly, so your content does not just read well, it looks credible in search. Surfer SEO, updated in late December, is the other half of the equation. Together they make sure briefs are aligned, drafts are faster, and the SEO lift shows up in measurable gains.

I keep seeing teams lose time because their AI work lives in five different tabs. When we treat it like a stack, the picture changes. You can track content velocity, on-brand rates, and compliance alongside clicks and conversions. The EU AI Act sets the outer rails. It classifies systems from unacceptable to minimal risk and its reach crosses borders if your system touches the EU. The practical move is simple, run your use cases through the IAPP resources and the compliance checker, tag anything that might count as high risk, and give those flows a basic quality management routine. Measure review cycle time, error rates after publish, and the percentage of assets that clear compliance on the first attempt.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet pulls weight where teams feel the pinch. It posts a jump on SWE-bench Verified, roughly thirty three percent to forty nine percent, and it ships with computer use so you can direct it to click through interfaces, complete forms, and repeat the little UI chores that burn an afternoon. Haiku sits beside it with predictable per million token pricing for input and output, which helps when you budget. The way to use this is straightforward, let Sonnet produce structured outlines or working code, then call computer use for the routine steps you usually click yourself. Keep a short rubric for what a good run looks like, log each pass, and sample outputs for a human recheck. Track time to first draft, percent of runs that do not need a fix, and minutes saved on common UI flows.

Visual work tightens up when MidJourney 6.1 is in the loop. Coherence improves, small features like eyes and hands render more reliably, and standard jobs process about a quarter faster. Text placement also gets cleaner when you put words in quotes, which is handy for social variants and ads. Use the speed to try more concepts, rely on the cleaner details for production assets, and lean on the better text accuracy when the headline carries meaning. Watch concept to final cycle time, reject rate for visual errors, and the lift you get when you A or B test variants that depend on accurate text.

Video at scale becomes practical when the studio is simple and translation respects the original performance. HeyGen’s end-of-year update brought a refreshed interface, a multi-track AI studio so motion, captions, and overlays live together, and a translation feature that preserves the original voice and lip movements. Lock your master script, assemble scenes in the studio, then generate language versions without rebuilding timelines. Track cost per finished minute, localization turnaround, completion by locale, and support deflection on help pages that embed the clips.

Search is still the quiet referee, and the signals are loud. Google’s March core update removed hundreds of sites that leaned on low quality AI, which puts the focus back on E-E-A-T and lived expertise. Use authors with real credentials, base pages on genuine experience, and cite reputable sources. Operationalize that advice with Surfer’s first person case studies and keep an eye on release notes for ideas like generative engine optimization and tracking LLM traffic. Measure the share of URLs in the top ten after six months, non brand organic on priority clusters, dwell and scroll on revised pages, and the correlation between your content scores and visits.

Authenticity checks sit inside that same loop. Originality.ai’s benchmark report pegs overall accuracy near ninety seven percent, and it notes how quickly AI content volume has climbed on major platforms. Treat detection as a spot check. Run pre publish scans on high stakes assets, keep an evidence log that ties every claim to a source, and reserve final judgment for editors who know the subject. Track false positives and false negatives on your own samples, the percentage of assets that clear review on the first pass, and complaint rates after publication.

Social strategy benefits from the same discipline. Marketers plan to use AI for rewriting and image creation, and the bigger gains come when teams add listening, competitive research, and audience analysis to the workflow. Use AI to surface patterns, not to replace judgment. Build a weekly cadence that ingests listening outputs, drafts options, and routes the best ideas to human review before you post. Measure alert lead time versus manual discovery, trend false positives, and the engagement delta on posts that come from AI assisted insights compared to your baseline.

Best Practice Spotlight

Two examples show what this looks like in the wild. Airmason, a SaaS provider, used Surfer SEO to map topic clusters before writing a word. Internal links were baked in, gaps filled, and rankings followed. Their traffic rose thirteen times over baseline. On the other side, The Browser Company put Claude 3.5 Sonnet into its internal web workflows. Benchmarks showed it beat every other model they had tested, cutting prep and research cycles across the board. That is not theory, that is infrastructure at work.

Creative Consulting Corner

B2B — Technical Case Studies at Scale

Challenge: Engineering teams lack time to write detailed case studies.
Execution: Transcribe a quick interview, feed it into Claude 3.5 Sonnet, then refine with Surfer SEO before sending it to review.
Impact: Time to draft falls by 50 percent, rankings for niche technical terms climb within weeks.
Tip: Standardize interviews as raw material. It makes technical writing repeatable.

B2C — E-Commerce Launch Kits

Challenge: Fashion retailers need fresh visuals for Instagram and TikTok every day.
Execution: MidJourney V6.1 look kits set the style, Claude 3.5 Sonnet generates caption variations, and HeyGen avatars add localized introductions.
Impact: Carousel engagement rises 12 to 18 percent, cost per SKU drops almost in half.
Tip: Keep one visual constant each week to anchor recognition.

Non-Profit — Donor Storytelling with Reach

Challenge: Complex science must become relatable for donors.
Execution: Claude 3.5 highlights statistics, HeyGen narrates them with avatars, Originality AI verifies text before release.
Impact: Email click through rates increase by two points, donors report stronger understanding of the mission.
Tip: Keep a story bank of ten reusable narratives linked to citations.

“The Browser Company, in using the model for automating web based workflows, noted Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperformed every model they have tested before.”
(Anthropic, 2024)

“AI can assist in creating content that aligns with E-E-A-T by systematically addressing user questions, structuring information logically, and maintaining a consistent expert tone.”
(Surfer SEO, 2024)

Closing Thought

Infrastructure is no longer abstract. It is Claude guiding briefs, Surfer sharpening authority, HeyGen scaling video, MidJourney defining the visual system, and compliance tools keeping everything in check. The teams that treat this as their operating rhythm, not an experiment, are the ones that enter 2025 with trust, speed, and credibility intact.

References

Anthropic. (2024, December 3). Introducing computer use, a new Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Claude 3.5 Haiku. Anthropic.

Bloomberg Law. (2024, December 31). A lawyer’s guide to the EU AI Act. Bloomberg Law.

HeyGen. (2024, December 19). 2024 Christmas HeyGen update. HeyGen Community.

International Association of Privacy Professionals. (2024, December 31). EU AI Act resource hub. IAPP.

MidJourney. (2024, July 30). Version 6.1 release notes. MidJourney.

Originality.ai. (2024, December 11). The 2024 AI detection benchmark report. Originality.ai.

Search Engine Journal. (2024, December 18). Google’s SGE and the future of E-E-A-T: What SEOs need to know. Search Engine Journal.

Social Media Examiner. (2024, December 14). How AI is changing social media strategy in 2024. Social Media Examiner.

Surfer SEO. (2024, December 12). 18 SEO case studies from first person accounts. Surfer SEO.

Surfer SEO. (2024, December 18). Surfer blog release notes. Surfer SEO.

After covering Originality.ai in content, Basil Puglisi Decided to post evals for 2025 Basil Blogs.

Proving E-E-A-T in a Post-AI World

January 6, 2025 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Search engines close 2024 with a double punch: Google launches both a core update and a spam update in December, while Bing removes cache links and accelerates with new AI models. For SEO practitioners, these shifts set the tone for 2025 — content quality, crawlability, and multi-engine diversification are no longer optional. What happens in December doesn’t just move rankings; it reshapes strategy.

What Happened

Google’s December 2024 core update (Dec 12–18) rolled out in record time, completing in six days with significant volatility across health, finance, and retail. Days later, the December spam update (Dec 19–26) targeted manipulative content at scale, overlapping the holiday season. At the same time, Bing permanently removed its cache link on December 11, closing a long-standing diagnostic tool, and introduced Small Language Models with TensorRT-LLM, improving query throughput by up to 100×. Finally, Statcounter data shows Google dipped below 90% global share, while Bing and Yahoo gained marginal ground, underscoring diversification opportunities.

“The December 2024 core update was unusually fast and more volatile than the November update.” – Search Engine Land, Dec. 18, 2024

Who’s Impacted

• B2B: Analytics and reporting workflows need adjustments, as volatility from two updates in quick succession complicates attribution. Firms dependent on steady organic lead flow may see disrupted cycle times.
• B2C: Retailers hit by thin or duplicate content in December risked visibility loss at peak holiday traffic, directly impacting conversion trust and year-end revenue.
• Nonprofits: Awareness campaigns tied to seasonal giving faced risks if donor pages tripped spam policies, with compliance and discoverability tied more closely to perceived authority.

Why It Matters (Factics)

Factic 1

Fact: Google’s core update completed in just 6 days, producing an average ranking shift of 2.8 positions in sensitive categories.
Tactic: Audit top-performing YMYL content with user intent in mind and refresh expert authorship to align with E-E-A-T standards.
KPI: +10% CTR improvement on refreshed pages within 30 days.

Factic 2

Fact: The spam update affected ~1.8% of queries globally, with thin and AI-scaled content hit hardest.
Tactic: Conduct a content quality sweep, removing low-value AI text and bolstering with first-party data and human insights.
KPI: Reduce low-quality flags in Google Search Console by 20% within 60 days.

Factic 3

Fact: Bing’s cache operator was retired Dec 11, while AI query handling improved latency from 4.76s to 3.03s.
Tactic: Shift diagnostics to Bing Webmaster Tools URL Inspection and optimize for conversational search queries to capture Bing’s AI-driven indexing.
KPI: Ensure 90% of high-value URLs are crawled/indexed within 24 hours; +15% CTR increase from Bing queries.

Action Steps

1. Immediate: Run a year-end audit of content quality, especially YMYL topics, for compliance with spam and E-E-A-T signals.
2. 30–60 Days: Update ecommerce faceted navigation to block low-value filters and consolidate canonicals for crawl efficiency.
3. Quarterly: Rebalance SEO investment across Google, Bing, and Yahoo based on traffic contribution and SERP enhancements.
4. Optional: Test structured conversational answers optimized for Bing’s SLMs to capture zero-click visibility.

References

2024-12-18 – Search Engine Land – Google December 2024 core update rollout is now complete – https://searchengineland.com/google-december-2024-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-449421

2024-12-26 – Search Engine Roundtable – Google December 2024 spam update done rolling out – https://www.seroundtable.com/google-december-2024-spam-update-done-38656.html

2024-12-11 – Search Engine Land – Bing officially removes cache link – https://searchengineland.com/bing-officially-removes-cache-link-453879

2024-12-16 – Search Engine Land – Bing Search gets faster, more accurate and efficient through SLM models and TensorRT-LLM – https://searchengineland.com/bing-search-gets-faster-more-accurate-and-efficient-through-slm-models-and-tensorrt-llm-449427

2024-11-14 – Google Search Central Blog – Updates to our faceted navigation documentation – https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/11/faceted-navigation

2024-12-13 – Search Engine Land – Decoding Google’s E-E-A-T: A comprehensive guide to quality assessment signals – https://searchengineland.com/google-eeat-quality-assessment-signals-449261

2024-12-31 – Statcounter – Search Engine Market Share Worldwide, United States, November 2024 – https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

2024-05-16 – Search Engine Land – Google’s March 2024 core update and new spam policies shake up search results – https://searchengineland.com/googles-march-2024-core-update-and-new-spam-policies-shake-up-search-results-427113

Disclosure

Holiday Discovery, AI Acceleration, and Search Precision

December 23, 2024 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

The holiday season acts as a stress test for digital platforms. TikTok positions itself as a retail discovery engine with its Holiday Shopping Guide. Adobe advances enterprise workflows through the new AI Assistant inside Adobe Experience Platform. Google keeps teams on their toes with continued emphasis on quality signals that shape visibility. Together, these shifts make one truth clear. Advantage depends on speed of alignment across community, creative, and search. Campaign cycle time shortens. Organic reach pivots quickly. Engagement metrics like click through rate and bounce rate swing as platform behavior changes.

TikTok frames the holiday moment as a guide to getting discovered. The platform is not only surfacing trends. It is shaping purchase intent. Brands that lean into creator led shopping experiences see measurable impact as product demos and live shopping push directly into conversion paths. The Factics here is simple. User generated credibility is the fuel. The tactic is to co create with micro influencers who appear in search driven product queries so the right clip meets the moment of intent.

“TikTok is reshaping holiday shopping for Gen Z and beyond.” — Forbes Agency Council, in a Forbes article published October 29, 2024.

Adobe brings a different kind of velocity with the Experience Platform AI Assistant. The tool gives marketing teams direct access to insights so execution does not wait on reporting cycles. Teams query the assistant, test journeys, and adapt messaging in real time. Factics at work again. Personalization throughput rises when decisions move from quarterly planning to continuous optimization. Early adopters report meaningful reductions in workflow time and improvements in customer engagement scores when the assistant lives inside the work, not outside it.

Google underscores the third leg of the system with ongoing guidance tied to quality and authority. The message is consistent across updates this year. Align to experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. The tactic is structured governance. Maintain a content audit rhythm. Add clear author attribution. Remove outdated pages that dilute relevance. Factics connect directly. Teams that maintain an audit cadence recover faster after volatility compared to those that rely on single shot fixes.

The integration point is alignment. Community discovery, creative acceleration, and search precision are not separate motions. Winning brands run them as one connected system. Influencer strategy fuels AI driven content production. That content is structured to survive search scrutiny. The result is a content engine that is faster, clearer, and more resilient when demand spikes.

Best Practice Spotlight

General Motors and Adobe AI Assistant

General Motors pilots Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant to accelerate personalization workflows and campaign execution. Marketing teams query data directly and automate delivery based on real signals. Productivity improves and time to value shortens as journeys update without heavy analyst cycles.

The Pink Stuff on TikTok Shop

The Pink Stuff rides community energy through clean tok videos and turns attention into sales with TikTok Shop. The brand sells more than one point two million units in five months. The lesson is direct. Viral discovery converts when the path to purchase is native to the platform.

Creative Consulting Concepts

B2B scenario

Challenge: A mid sized software firm faces slow lead velocity in the fourth quarter.

Execution: Embed Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant into marketing operations so non technical staff can act on insights and run rapid tests.

Expected outcome: MQL to SQL conversion improves by 25 percent with a 15 percent reduction in cycle time.

Pitfall: Over automation risks losing human context in high value deals.

B2C scenario

Challenge: A fashion retailer wants to win holiday gift searches but paid costs are rising.

Execution: Partner with micro influencers to produce search ready gift guides on TikTok and anchor the push with live shopping and clear product bundles.

Expected outcome: Engagement rate climbs by 30 percent and online sales lift by 20 percent during the peak window.

Pitfall: Too many creators without clear product differentiation can erode authenticity.

Nonprofit scenario

Challenge: A nonprofit struggles to maintain visibility and donor trust during peak retail noise.

Execution: Run a content audit aligned to E E A T. Add expert attribution. Remove outdated pages. Tell the donor story with verified sources and transparent outcomes.

Expected outcome: Organic visibility improves and year end donation conversions rise by 15 percent.

Pitfall: Without ongoing review, gains decay with the next wave of updates.

Closing Thought

Holiday strategy now sits where discovery, acceleration, and governance meet. When TikTok shapes intent, Adobe compresses workflow time, and Google rewards authority, the edge belongs to teams that synchronize the system.

References

Adobe Newsroom. (2024, July 25). Media alert: Adobe announces general availability of Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant to supercharge enterprise productivity.

Futurum Group. (2024, June 11). Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant is generally available.

MarTech. (2024, March 26). Adobe’s generative AI Assistant for Experience Platform now in beta.

Forbes. (2024, October 29). How TikTok is reshaping holiday shopping for Gen Z and beyond.

Marketing Dive. (2024, September 17). TikTok courts holiday advertisers with new AI tools and creator marketplace updates.

TikTok for Business. (2024, September 12). Holiday 2024: A guide to getting discovered this season.

Google Search Central Blog. (2024, March 5). What creators should know about our March 2024 core update and new spam policies.

Google Search Central Blog. (2024, August 15). What to know about our August 2024 core update.

Search Engine Journal. (2024, September 25). Google algorithm updates and changes: A complete history.

Core Updates, Spam Battles, and the Future of Search in an AI Era #AIg

December 2, 2024 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

What Happened

Between August and November 2023, Google’s search ecosystem underwent one of its most aggressive update cycles in recent memory — a clear signal that the company is tightening its grip on AI-generated spam while refining search quality for the human user.

– 22 Aug 2023 – Google August 2023 Core Update rolled out, focusing on deeper content quality evaluation and user engagement signals.
– 14 Sep 2023 – September Helpful Content Update expanded Google’s ability to detect low-value, programmatically generated text, with refinements aimed squarely at AI spam farms.
– 04 Oct 2023 – October Spam Update introduced new link spam detection models and crackdowns on hacked sites injecting AI-written filler.
– 05 Oct 2023 – October Core Update built on the August work, broadening domain trust assessments and tightening EEAT weighting.
– 02 Nov 2023 – November Core Update fine-tuned ranking volatility caused by prior updates, reinforcing the demotion of low-quality AI pages.
– 08 Nov 2023 – November Reviews Update targeted review content, prioritizing verifiable first-hand expertise and punishing thin AI summaries.
– 15 Nov 2023 – Yahoo Search Redesign revealed a modern interface with AI-assisted query interpretation, signaling Yahoo’s intent to re-enter the relevance conversation.

Who’s Impacted

B2B:
Enterprise content teams producing at scale are now under greater scrutiny. AI-assisted copy that lacks subject-matter depth or human editorial review risks demotion. Companies relying on programmatic content generation for SEO will need to invest in fact-checking pipelines and maintain expert attribution to preserve rankings.

B2C:
Consumers are less likely to encounter AI-spam when searching for reviews, tutorials, or product comparisons. This raises trust in results but also increases the competition for genuine creators to surface their work — particularly in shopping and lifestyle queries.

Nonprofits:
Cause-based organizations benefit from the devaluation of generic AI advocacy pages, allowing mission-driven, first-hand narratives to rank higher. However, nonprofits using AI to scale awareness must ensure outputs are human-polished and mission-aligned to avoid algorithmic suppression.

Why It Matters Now

Fact: Google’s September Helpful Content Update specifically refined “content classifier” systems to better identify AI-produced pages that mimic human writing but lack originality or firsthand expertise.
Tactic: Audit all AI-assisted content with human editors for EEAT compliance — Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — before publication.

Fact: The October Spam Update introduced advanced link spam detection using pattern recognition trained on both human and AI manipulation tactics.
Tactic: Conduct quarterly backlink audits, removing or disavowing low-quality domains, and track anchor text diversity to avoid AI-generated link footprints.

Fact: November’s Reviews Update raised the bar for what constitutes a “quality review,” requiring personal experience evidence and discouraging scraped or auto-rewritten product analysis.
Tactic: Encourage reviewers to include original images, video clips, and receipts where applicable to strengthen trust signals in search.

KPIs Affected: Indexed page retention rate, SERP trust click-through rate, backlink profile health, and AI-content penalty avoidance rate.

Action Steps

1. Build an AI-content compliance checklist incorporating EEAT and firsthand sourcing.
2. Pair generative AI tools with mandatory human editorial sign-off before publishing.
3. Monitor update chatter and ranking volatility post-rollout using multi-engine SERP trackers.
4. Expand multimedia elements in reviews and informational pages to strengthen authenticity signals.

“AI in search isn’t going away — but spammy AI in search will. Those who combine automation with authentic expertise will own the next era of rankings.” – Basil Puglisi

References

Google Search Central. (2023, August 22). August 2023 Core Update. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/08/google-core-update-august-2023
Google Search Central. (2023, September 14). September 2023 Helpful Content Update. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/09/helpful-content-update-september-2023
Google Search Central. (2023, October 4). October 2023 Spam Update. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/10/october-2023-spam-update
Google Search Central. (2023, November 2). November 2023 Core Update. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/11/november-2023-core-update
Search Engine Journal. (2023, November 15). Yahoo Search Redesign Aims for Relevance. Retrieved from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/yahoo-search-redesign/496982/

Disclosure: This article is #AIgenerated with minimal human assistance. Sources are provided as found by AI systems and have been verified for date and accuracy. Original articles by Basil Puglisi undergo comprehensive source verification.

Conferences Driving AI-SEO Strategy: SMX Advanced, MAICON, and MozCon Insights #AIg

November 4, 2024 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

What Happened

The summer of 2023 brought a surge of industry-defining conversations as three major conferences — SMX Advanced, MAICON, and MozCon — each placed artificial intelligence at the center of their search marketing agendas.

On June 13–14, SMX Advanced showcased live demonstrations of AI-assisted content optimization, predictive keyword modeling, and real-time SERP analysis. Speakers emphasized AI’s growing role in interpreting user intent at scale, with examples showing how large language models could dynamically rewrite meta descriptions to improve CTR.

From July 26–28, MAICON 2023 broadened the conversation beyond search to AI-driven marketing strategy. Sessions explored integrating AI-powered chat into customer journeys, multi-platform attribution tracking, and how generative tools could reduce creative cycle times without sacrificing brand voice.

MozCon, held August 7–8, tied AI directly to SEO execution. Discussions highlighted AI’s impact on technical SEO auditing, content gap analysis, and competitive intelligence. Presenters demonstrated how combining AI-driven clustering with human editorial review improved both topical authority and ranking stability.

Who’s Impacted

B2B: Enterprise marketing teams gained actionable frameworks for scaling personalization through AI while maintaining compliance with industry-specific regulations.

B2C: Consumer brands saw case studies on AI-enhanced product search and personalized recommendations, reinforcing how intelligent search can drive repeat purchases.

Nonprofits: Cause-driven organizations explored how AI-powered content mapping could increase organic visibility for mission-focused campaigns while operating on lean budgets.

Why It Matters Now

Fact: SMX Advanced’s sessions underscored the measurable lift in organic CTR when AI refines metadata based on live SERP shifts.
Tactic: Implement A/B testing pipelines that allow AI to suggest and rotate new meta descriptions in high-competition keyword spaces.

Fact: MAICON highlighted AI’s potential to cut creative development timelines by up to 40% while preserving brand alignment.
Tactic: Develop cross-functional AI adoption playbooks to align creative, analytics, and compliance teams for streamlined execution.

Fact: MozCon demonstrated how AI-enhanced clustering improves content prioritization and helps maintain rankings during core algorithm updates.
Tactic: Integrate AI clustering outputs into editorial calendars to ensure topical breadth and depth in content portfolios.

Key KPIs impacted: organic CTR, time-to-publish for new content, keyword coverage breadth, ranking stability post-algorithm updates.

Action Steps

1. Audit current metadata and identify high-volume, low-CTR pages for AI testing.

2. Build a cross-team AI adoption framework modeled on conference case studies.

3. Incorporate AI clustering insights into quarterly content planning cycles.

4. Monitor ranking volatility across clusters and adjust publishing cadence accordingly.

“Conferences like these prove that AI in search is no longer experimental—it’s the operational standard for competitive growth.” – Basil Puglisi

References

Third Door Media. (2023, June 14). SMX Advanced 2023: AI in SEO highlights. Retrieved from https://searchengineland.com

Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. (2023, July 28). MAICON 2023 recap: AI marketing strategies for growth. Retrieved from https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com

Moz. (2023, August 8). MozCon 2023: How AI is changing SEO. Retrieved from https://moz.com/mozcon

Disclosure: This article is #AIgenerated with minimal human assistance. Sources are provided as found by AI systems and have not undergone full human fact-checking. Original articles by Basil Puglisi undergo comprehensive source verification.

Bing Joins ChatGPT as Default Search: Microsoft Build AI-Search Advances #AIg

October 7, 2024 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

What Happened

On May 23, 2023, at Microsoft Build, the company announced a major integration milestone: Bing would become the default search engine for ChatGPT, starting with Plus subscribers and later extending to free users. This move gave ChatGPT direct, live access to web search results, blending conversational AI with real-time information retrieval.

The announcement also introduced a shared plugin platform between Bing Chat and ChatGPT, enabling developers to build once and deploy across both experiences. This interoperability signaled a shift toward more connected AI ecosystems, where conversational search could seamlessly extend into commerce, productivity, and content discovery.

Who’s Impacted

B2B: Businesses saw an opportunity to optimize not only for traditional search but also for AI-assisted query contexts. Plugin integration opened new channels for B2B SaaS providers to deliver in-context actions directly within conversational flows.

B2C: For end users, the change meant ChatGPT could answer questions with up-to-date, sourced data instead of relying solely on its training cut-off. This elevated trust and usability for daily search needs.

Nonprofits: Mission-driven organizations gained new reach potential by appearing in AI-powered responses, especially when tied to plugins that facilitate donations, volunteer sign-ups, or event registrations.

Why It Matters Now

Fact: Bing’s integration into ChatGPT bridged the gap between generative AI’s creativity and the freshness of live search.
Tactic: Brands should monitor how their content surfaces in Bing search results and optimize structured data to increase inclusion in AI-driven summaries.

Fact: The shared plugin framework reduced development redundancy across AI platforms.
Tactic: Organizations should evaluate plugin opportunities early, securing a first-mover advantage in conversational commerce and lead generation.

Key KPIs impacted: AI-driven click-through rates, plugin-enabled conversions, Bing organic impressions, and cross-platform engagement lift.

Action Steps

1. Audit Bing SEO performance and cross-reference with AI summary inclusion.

2. Develop a plugin concept that solves a specific customer pain point.

3. Test structured data enhancements to improve AI snippet accuracy.

4. Track AI-assisted referral traffic separately from standard organic search.

“The future of search isn’t just found—it’s delivered in the exact moment and context the user needs it.” – Basil Puglisi

References

Microsoft. (2023, May 23). Microsoft Build 2023: Bing now in ChatGPT and shared plugin ecosystem. Retrieved from https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/05/23/microsoft-build-2023-bing-in-chatgpt

The Verge. (2023, May 23). Bing becomes ChatGPT’s default search engine. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/23/23734472/bing-chatgpt-default-search-build-announcements

Search Engine Land. (2023, May 23). Microsoft Build brings Bing integration to ChatGPT and unified plugins. Retrieved from https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-build-bing-chatgpt-integration-395682

YouTube AI Auto-Chapters, Salesforce Einstein 1, and Google Spam Policies: Aligning Attention, Personalization, and Trust

September 23, 2024 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

YouTube introduces AI auto-chapters that let viewers jump directly into the sections that matter, Salesforce upgrades Einstein 1 to unify data and creative production, and Google sharpens its spam policies to eliminate scaled content abuse and site reputation manipulation. Each launch happens in August, but the alignment is immediate: navigation, personalization, and policy now sit on the same axis. When combined, they shrink cycle times, raise engagement, and strengthen trust. The metrics are clear—content production accelerates by as much as 40 percent, video-assisted click-through improves double digits, bounce rates drop as intent is matched, and organic traffic stabilizes as thin pages are removed from the ecosystem.

Factics prove that precision drives performance. On YouTube, auto-chapters excel when creators map clear beats such as problem, demo, objection, and call to action. Aligned headers and captions let AI segment with confidence, keeping watch time steady while surfacing the exact clip that fuels downstream clicks. Einstein 1 applies the same discipline to campaigns. Low-code copilots spin creative variants from a single brief, while Data Cloud unifies service, commerce, and marketing signals into one profile. A replayed demo instantly informs an email subject line or ad headline, lifting message relevance and conversion by 15 to 20 percent. Google enforces the final pillar with strict spam policy compliance. De-indexing thin subdomains and consolidating duplicates concentrates authority. Adapted sites report 200 to 300 percent rebounds in impressions and clicks, while laggards fade from view.

“Einstein 1 Studio makes it easier than ever to customize Copilot and embed AI into any app.” — Salesforce News

The connective tissue is not the feature list but the workflow. A video segment that earns replays informs CRM targeting. CRM targeting informs creative variants. Creative variants live or die by the same spam policy guardrails that determine whether they rank or sink. Factics prove the alignment: chapters lift average watch time and CTR, Einstein 1 accelerates personalization across channels, and policy compliance drives authority concentration. Together they form a cycle where attention, personalization, and trust compound into measurable advantage.

Best Practice Spotlights

Gucci personalizes clienteling with Einstein 1.

Gucci unifies client data across Marketing Cloud and Data Cloud so advisors access a single customer view and send tailored recommendations in the right moment. Engagement strengthens, follow-up time shrinks, and generative AI scales the process so quality and tone remain consistent across messages.

B2B SaaS recovery through policy-aligned cleanup.

A SaaS firm conducts a deep audit tied to Google’s spam policies, removing more than 100 thin or duplicative posts and consolidating others. Within a year, impressions surge by 310 percent and clicks by 207 percent, proving that substance over scale drives lasting search performance.

Creative Consulting Concepts

B2B Scenario

Challenge: A SaaS platform publishes feature videos but loses prospects before conversion.

Execution: Map beats clearly, apply auto-chapters, and sync segments to Einstein 1 so campaigns link viewers directly to the problem-solution moment.

Expected Outcome (KPI): 18–25 percent higher CTR to demo pages, 10–15 percent lift in MQL-to-SQL conversion.

Pitfall: Over-segmentation risks fragmenting watch time.

B2C Scenario

Challenge: A DTC brand drives reach but inconsistent add-to-cart rates.

Execution: Use auto-chapters to split reels into try-on, materials, and care segments. Feed engagement signals into Einstein 1 to optimize product copy and ad creative.

Expected Outcome (KPI): 12–20 percent uplift in video-driven sessions, 5–10 percent improvement in conversion rate.

Pitfall: Inconsistent chapter naming can break the scent of intent.

Non-Profit Scenario

Challenge: A conservation nonprofit produces compelling stories but donors skim past proof points.

Execution: Chapter storytelling around outcomes—hectares restored, community jobs, species return—and personalize follow-ups by donor interest in Einstein 1.

Expected Outcome (KPI): 8–12 percent increase in donation completion, stronger repeat-donor engagement.

Pitfall: Overloading chapters with jargon reduces clarity and trust.

Closing Thought

When YouTube sharpens navigation, Einstein 1 scales personalization, and Google enforces quality, the entire content engine accelerates with clarity, consistency, and measurable trust.

References

YouTube Blog. (2024, May 14). Made by YouTube: More ways to create and connect.
Search Engine Journal. (2024, June 25). YouTube Studio adds new generative AI tools & analytics.
The Verge. (2024, May 14). YouTube is testing AI-generated summaries and conversational AI for creators.
Salesforce News. (2024, April 25). Salesforce launches Einstein 1 Studio, featuring low-code AI tools to customize Einstein Copilot and embed AI into any app.
Google Search Central Blog. (2024, March 5). New ways we’re tackling spammy, low-quality content on Search.
Diginomica. (2024, June 12). Connections 2024: Gucci gets personal at scale with Salesforce, as it plans a GenAI future.
Amsive. (2024, May 16). Case study: How we helped a B2B SaaS site recover from a Google algorithm update.