I've been wrestling with a particular question for several years. In fact, much of what lies behind this article began as notes and outlines I started writing a few years ago. I often found myself wondering what responsibility comes with the ability to influence what information people encounter online. At the time, I was thinking … Continue reading When Does Reputation Management Become Reputation Laundering? SEO, AI, & the Responsibility of Influence
The Evolution of SEO in One Year: From Traffic Loss to Entity Understanding
Last week was a good week to be an SEO in Boston. As someone who lives in the area, it's not often that major search events come to your backyard. Between the SEOFOMO meetup hosted by Aleyda Solís and WhitePress and three days of SMX Advanced, the search industry effectively took over Boston for a … Continue reading The Evolution of SEO in One Year: From Traffic Loss to Entity Understanding
Google Search Console Gets AI Reporting After Previously Saying It Wasn’t Planned
Google has officially announced dedicated reporting for generative AI experiences in Google Search Console. The new reports will provide visibility into how often pages from your site appear in AI-powered search experiences, including AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative AI features in Discover. For many SEOs, this announcement is long overdue. Google is now providing … Continue reading Google Search Console Gets AI Reporting After Previously Saying It Wasn’t Planned
Google I/O 2026: Google Search Is Becoming Intelligent Search | What This Means for SEO, Search Console, and Website Traffic
At Google I/O 2026, Google made something very clear: Search is no longer just a search engine with AI features layered on top. Instead, it is becoming an AI-powered system designed to understand complex questions, maintain context, perform tasks on a user’s behalf, and even build custom tools directly within Search. Liz Reid, Google’s Head … Continue reading Google I/O 2026: Google Search Is Becoming Intelligent Search | What This Means for SEO, Search Console, and Website Traffic
Google’s New Guidance on AI Search: SEO, Query Fan-Out, and What Still Matters
For the past two years, the SEO industry has spent a great deal of time trying to determine what, if anything, fundamentally changed when Google introduced generative AI into Search. Do you need to create an llms.txt file? Should you break your content into tiny chunks? Is there a special way to write for AI … Continue reading Google’s New Guidance on AI Search: SEO, Query Fan-Out, and What Still Matters
How Customers Find and Choose Local Businesses Online (Google, Reviews, Websites & AI)
I recently had the opportunity to present a webinar for Boston Business Mentors on a topic at the center of local SEO and digital marketing: how customers find businesses online and decide which one to contact. The presentation, How Your Business Gets Found Online, was designed for small business owners, but the underlying ideas apply … Continue reading How Customers Find and Choose Local Businesses Online (Google, Reviews, Websites & AI)
Google’s Ask Maps and Immersive Navigation: What This Means for Local Business Visibility
Google has announced a major update to Google Maps, introducing Ask Maps and Immersive Navigation. On the surface, these features appear to improve how users explore places and navigate routes. But underneath that, they may also signal something larger: a shift in how Google Maps understands businesses, evaluates relevance, and recommends local options to users. … Continue reading Google’s Ask Maps and Immersive Navigation: What This Means for Local Business Visibility
Streetlight Local: My New Mission to Help Small Businesses Get Found Everywhere
It’s been a while since my last post. If you’ve been following my work, especially my research on Google AI Overviews and AI’s role in search, you’ve probably noticed I’ve been a bit quiet. That’s not because I’ve run out of things to say. Quite the opposite. For the past few months, I’ve been hard … Continue reading Streetlight Local: My New Mission to Help Small Businesses Get Found Everywhere
GEO? AIO? LLMO? No Thanks. I’ll Stick with Search Optimization.
The term “GEO”, short for Generative Engine Optimization, has been circulating more and more in SEO conversations. I’ve written about it before, including early takes on the original study by Aggarwal et al., which (I believe) introduced the term and offered some genuinely helpful insights about visibility in LLM-powered platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity. At … Continue reading GEO? AIO? LLMO? No Thanks. I’ll Stick with Search Optimization.
Measuring the Impact of Google AI Overviews on SEO Performance
Measuring the impact of Google AI Overviews is no small feat. Google Search Console (GSC) includes performance data for URLs featured in AI Overviews, but it doesn’t allow you to isolate this data specifically. During a recent interview with Aleyda Solis, Google’s Danny Sullivan indicated that an AI Overview filter in GSC is unlikely to … Continue reading Measuring the Impact of Google AI Overviews on SEO Performance