Treating Reviews As Business Infrastructure, Not Marketing, Drives Real Business Results
A study found star ratings alone didn’t predict small business performance. Active ORM did. Here’s what that means as AI narrows local visibility.
About
See short video versions of news stories on YouTube and TikTok. Matt G. Southern is the Senior News Writer at Search Engine Journal, where he’s covered Google, SEO, and AI for over 13 years.
Articles
Google’s I/O Demos Reveal The New Business Visibility Problem
Many Google I/O demos ended in transactions, bookings, or task completion. The consumer path is clear, but business visibility isn’t.
Google AI Overview Data Looks Different For Commercial Queries
AI Overview tracking can tell very different stories depending on the prompts, query types, and markets included in the sample.
Google Expands Preferred Sources, Pichai Addresses AI Overviews
Google brings Preferred Sources into AI Overviews and AI Mode, iPullRank measures Gmail’s pull on AI Mode brand visibility, and new ad formats arrive.
Google Preferred Sources Hit 345K, Expand Into AI Search
Google says users have selected 345,000 Preferred Sources, which now appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode alongside new link carousels.
YouTube Adds Auto-Detection For AI-Generated Content
YouTube is moving AI disclosure labels to more visible spots and adding automatic detection for undisclosed photorealistic AI content on videos.
Gmail Content Shows Brand Visibility Boost In AI Mode
iPullRank tested Gmail and Photos signals in opted-in AI Mode Personal Intelligence accounts. Gmail showed the strongest brand visibility lift.
Google CEO Admits AI Overviews ‘More Opinionated Than It Should Be
Pichai reviewed a live AI Overview and called it “more opinionated than it should be.” He also addressed bounce clicks and publisher traffic.
Google Says AI Mode Can Now Scale Faster Across Languages
In a post-keynote interview, Google’s Liz Reid told NDTV that AI Mode’s multilingual models have made it easier to expand across countries and languages.
Reddit CEO Says LLMs ‘Would Not Exist’ Without Reddit Data
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman calls user content “modern oil” for AI, discusses deals with Google and OpenAI, and outlines why some companies face lawsuits.
Pichai Says Google Is ‘A Bit Behind’ On Agentic Coding
Sundar Pichai says Google is “a bit behind” in agentic coding, citing a lack of developer-facing products as one reason for the gap.
Google I/O Didn’t End SEO. The Risk Is Somewhere Else
Google I/O triggered panic about the death of Search. The risk is economic, not technical, and both sides of the debate are getting it wrong.
Google Launches Core Update Amid I/O AI Search Overhaul – SEO Pulse
Google launched the May core update, redesigned Search around AI at I/O, released its first AI Mode usage data, and sent mixed signals on llms.txt.
Google Confirms May 2026 Core Update Is Now Rolling Out
Google began rolling out the May 2026 core update, the second broad core update this year. It may take up to two weeks to complete.
Mueller Explains Why Google Uses Markdown On Dev Docs
Google’s John Mueller says markdown pages can help developer documentation, but most sites should focus on current SEO needs before agentic traffic.
Google Reveals First AI Mode Usage Numbers After One Year
Google released first-party data on how people use AI Mode in the U.S. after one year.
Google’s llms.txt Guidance Depends On Which Product You Ask
Google Search says llms.txt isn’t needed for AI features, while Lighthouse now checks the file for agentic browsing readiness in an experimental audit.
Google Brings AI Content Verification To Search
Google expands SynthID verification to Search, allowing users to check whether content was AI generated.
Google’s New Search Box Hands Queries To AI Agents, I/O Reveals
Google made Gemini 3.5 Flash the default model in AI Mode, redesigned the Search box, and announced Search agents coming this summer.
SERP FAQ Removal & New Data Challenge Schema’s AI Search Value
Google’s FAQ removal and new Ahrefs research challenge schema’s value for SERP visibility and AI citations.
Google’s New AI Search Guide Calls AEO And GEO ‘Still SEO’
Google’s new AI Search guide says AEO and GEO are still SEO and names tactics site owners can ignore, including llms.txt, chunking, and special schema.
GA4 Tracks AI Assistant Traffic, FAQ Results Gone – SEO Pulse
Google adds AI assistant traffic to GA4, FAQ rich results are gone, Ahrefs tests schema, and Condé Nast plans around near-zero search forecasts.
Google Analytics Adds AI Assistant As Default Channel Group
Google Analytics now separates AI assistant traffic from referrals with a new default channel group for recognized chatbot referrers like ChatGPT and Gemini.
Condé Nast CEO: Plan As If Search Traffic Will Be Zero
Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch told teams to plan as if search traffic will be zero after three years of forecasts that underestimated actual declines.
Schema Markup Didn’t Move AI Citations In Ahrefs Test
An Ahrefs report tested whether adding schema markup to pages already cited by AI improved their citation rates.
Google Drops FAQ Rich Results From Search
Google deprecated FAQ rich results, completing a removal that started years ago. FAQ rich results were already restricted for most sites.
Google Adds More AI Search Links, Still No Click Data For SEOs
Google added more link surfaces to AI Search, but not new reporting for publishers. Studies continue to show lower clicks when AI responses appear.
Google Core Update Reshuffles Winners, AI Search Expands Links – SEO Pulse
Google adds subscription labels and inline links to AI Search. Amsive maps core update winners and losers. Plus Mueller on vibe coding and Preferred Sources.
Google’s Mueller On Why AI-Built Websites Miss SEO Basics
AI tools can build websites fast, but Mueller says they won’t set up your canonicals, sitemaps, or robots.txt unless you tell them to.
Bing Reveals What Grounding Means For AI Search Visibility
Microsoft’s Bing team published a framework describing how grounding for AI-generated answers differs from traditional search across five measurement areas.