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)
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
Google AI Overview Study: Link Selection Based on Related Queries
This study is the result of a joint effort between Rich Sanger and Authoritas. Understanding how Google AI Overviews source links is necessary for establishing visibility for your content. This year, multiple studies have taken the first step in identifying how links in AI Overviews correlate with existing search results. After reviewing these studies and … Continue reading Google AI Overview Study: Link Selection Based on Related Queries
WordCrafter: Setting New Standards in AI Content Creation
WordCrafter AI assistant for SEO represents the next level in high-quality AI content creation. If you’re a content creator, you’ve probably used or at least experimented with large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Meta AI, and others to generate content. These tools can be incredibly useful when used correctly. However, it’s easy to fall into … Continue reading WordCrafter: Setting New Standards in AI Content Creation
How Does Google AI Overview Work? Insights From the Patent
Google’s AI Overview has officially gone live and and I'm here to answer the question on everyone’s mind: How Does Google AI Overview Work? This feature, which evolved from Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) previously only available in Google Labs, has now been rolled out to all Google users across the United States. As of … Continue reading How Does Google AI Overview Work? Insights From the Patent
Will we still “Google It” in 2 years? Search in the AI Era
The digital search landscape is changing right before our eyes. The way we seek out information is changing. We are increasingly less likely to go to Google. Now, with the introduction of AI, we have more options than ever to find what we are looking for. We can find answers much quicker without having to … Continue reading Will we still “Google It” in 2 years? Search in the AI Era