Google Says: No Clicks, No Ranking.

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SEO

Google Core Update March 2025 - SISTRIX Data

Johannes Beus from SISTRIX shares early data and sector trends shaping the SERPs. While there are no dramatic shake-ups, domains like hulu.com gained visibility in the US, while primevideo.com saw a drop. The UK retail sector showed mild volatility, but no seismic shifts.

Google Says: More Indie Publishers in Search Results by Dec. 31st.

In a rare move, Google just committed to a deadline—December 31, 2025—to boost visibility for independent publishers. Matt G. Southern reports on an exchange on X that led to this moment of accountability. The pressure came from frustrated creators watching Reddit and VC-backed media climb the SERPs while their own rankings plunged. Google's Danny Sullivan confirmed improvements are already rolling out—but expect incremental changes, not a magic update. Publishers finally have a timeline. Now it’s up to Google to deliver—and for SEOs to keep receipts.

Mr. Jonathan Jones on X live-tweeted much of what was said by Googlers by Google Search Central Live in New York. Scroll down a bit and you can see various things that were discussed.

SEO Priorities for 2025: Your Guide to Search Success

Adam Heitzman lays out a playbook for surviving and thriving in SEO 2025. Forget ranking for one keyword, it’s about multi-platform visibility, zero-click optimization, and mastering AI search. He urges SEOs to audit where their traffic really comes from, build topic clusters with supporting content, and keep pillar pages fresh. He also stresses aligning content to user intent across platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and ChatGPT.

How Do You Explain the Value of SEO?

Bethan Vincent faces one of SEO’s toughest challenges: proving its worth. In this Whiteboard Friday session, she shares the IMPACT framework to help SEOs translate their efforts into business-aligned results. The formula: Map SEO metrics to KPIs, connect them to strategic goals (cost, uniqueness, or focus), and present realistic ROI forecasts with narrative clarity. Bethan also shares tactics for owning missed targets—because transparency builds trust.

SEO Ripples

• Google’s Martin Splitt says if users aren’t clicking your pages in Google Search, those pages may quietly vanish from the index. In classic Google fashion, they won’t confirm exactly what “interaction” means, but the takeaway is clear. If your content doesn’t attract attention, it’s at risk. Focus on content that’s genuinely helpful, engaging, and aligned with real user intent. Make people click, make them stay, and make them care.

• Matt G. Southern covers Google’s latest push into health search by expanding AI Overviews to thousands of new queries and more languages. The update also introduces a new feature, “What People Suggest,” which uses AI to show peer-shared tips from people with similar health conditions. For SEOs and health publishers, this is a clear signal: AI-first content experiences are evolving fast. To stay visible, ensure your content is accurate, emotionally resonant, and structured to feed both the AI Overviews and these emerging community-driven results.

• Google is testing AI Overviews in the middle of the SERP, rather no longer the default "position zero." Will this push more eyeballs back to organic links up top? Possibly.

• Fabrice Canel of Microsoft Bing urged marketers to stop chasing rankings and start chasing results. Barry Schwartz highlights the message: it’s time to optimize for conversion quality and click value, not vanity metrics. With AI-powered search evolving fast, the clicks that do come through are more intentional—and more valuable. Ask yourself: are your clicks actually doing anything? If not, it’s time to shift gears.

• Google Search Console’s API will soon let you pull hourly performance data from the past eight days—perfect for surfacing real-time trends, debugging traffic drops, and feeding your own dashboards. No more waiting for the daily data dump. You’ll get fresh insights from Search, Discover, and Google News reports with just a few hours' delay. Schwartz notes the data may still evolve post-capture, so validate before taking action. This update gives technical SEOs and tool builders more control, faster analysis, and a serious edge in speed-to-insight.

AI

Google’s AI Mode: Here’s What Matters for SEOs and Marketers

Britney Muller dives deep into Google’s AI Mode and what it means for your SEO playbook. Her analysis shows how AI Mode favors content with long-tail intent, citations with thumbnails, and hyperlocal cues - even when they make no sense. Blue links once buried on Page 2 now resurface as AI citations. She suggests to audit your content for thumbnail images, optimize for natural language queries, and monitor which citation types AI Mode rewards. This shift isn’t cosmetic—it’s structural. Brands that adapt now by studying AI outputs and refining their content accordingly will win tomorrow’s search visibility. Ignore it at your peril.

New Ways to Collaborate and Get Creative With Gemini

Google announced two major upgrades to Gemini that turn your workflow into a creative superpower. First up is Canvas (yes, just like OpenAI’s Canvas). It’s a collaborative editor for writing and coding. Second is Audio Overview, which turns dense docs into podcast-style summaries (yep, like NotebookLM). Upload your reports, slides, or class notes and listen to two AI hosts debate and discuss the key points. Try them at gemini.google.com.

Next-Generation OpenAI Audio Models in the API

OpenAI team unveiled new speech-to-text and text-to-speech models that don’t just listen better—they speak your brand’s voice. Developers can now control how an AI speaks (“sound like a sympathetic agent”), making voice agents feel more human and on-brand. The speech-to-text models outperform Whisper across every major language benchmark, especially in noisy or accented environments. They also released OpenAI.fm as an interactive demo for you to try how they sound.

Claude Can Now Search the Web

Anthropic just added real-time web search to Claude. It can now fetch the latest data directly from the internet, complete with source citations for easy fact-checking. To activate it, toggle web search on in your profile settings (paid US users only for now).

MARKETING

Crafting Your Brand Story: A Guide to Driving E-Commerce Success

Rejoice Ojiaku shows why great products aren’t enough. Your e-commerce brand needs a story. She breaks down how to humanize your business through brand archetypes, align your SEO with brand identity, and turn your About page into a magnet for loyalty. Actionable tips include using UGC to build trust, repurposing stories across channels, and embedding emotion-rich storytelling into your SEO strategy.

Why Brand-Owned Communities Are the Future of Growth

Eric Dates pulls no punches: if you’re building your audience on LinkedIn, Slack, or X - you’re renting, not owning. And when the landlord changes the rules, your audience vanishes. Eric urges brands to take control by creating owned communities that foster real relationships, not just reach. He shares tips like using social as a funnel, creating exclusive value-driven hubs, and building engagement that lasts. With platforms tightening visibility and CAC rising, brands that own the infrastructure and the conversation will win.

Search Engine Ads Explained in 10 Minutes (With Expert Tips)

Mateusz Makosiewicz gives an overview of search engine advertising: what it is, when to use it, and how to do it right. You’ll learn how to pick the best platform, spend wisely, and avoid beginner traps like default settings and broad match hell. He also gets other top marketers to share their hard-earned tips, like spying on competitor ads, separating branded from non-branded keywords, and why long-tail beats buzzwords.

Why Google Ad Costs Are Rising in 2025 (And What to Do About It)

Guy Philosoph discusses why your Google Ads budget is taking a hit—and what you can do to fight back. Costs per lead are up 25% and climbing, driven by tighter privacy rules, growing competition, and Google's Smart Bidding quirks. Guy delivers five tactics to cut your CPL: lean into first-party data, improve lead qualification, use AI wisely, tighten up your keyword strategy, and diversify with organic and lower-funnel channels.

CONTENT

h/t to Namya @ Supafast for this nice collection of CTAs because these are not: Learn More, Get Started, Discover More, See How It Works.

My Take: Time for me to review my CTAs!

SOCIAL MEDIA

Reddit SEO: Everything You Need to Know

Stephanie Wallace discusses why Reddit is dominating Google’s SERPs and how savvy SEOs can ethically ride the wave. Her guide dives into Reddit’s rising visibility, explains why threads outperform traditional content, and offers a blueprint for using Reddit as an SEO goldmine without getting torched by its protective users. She shows how to mine Reddit for long-tail keywords, uncover real user pain points, inform content strategy, and track sentiment and brand mentions.

Longer TikToks Get More Views — Data Shows Best TikTok Video Length

Kirsti Lang shows that short and snappy isn’t always the winner with TikTok videos. TikToks over 60 seconds consistently outperform their shorter rivals—earning 43% more reach and 63% more watch time. While 86% of creators still post sub-minute clips, longer videos face less competition and deliver deeper engagement. She advises to nail the hook, leverage on-screen text for accessibility and SEO, and don’t be afraid to go long if your content is solid.

TOOLS AND RESOURCES

Copilot in Bing Webmaster Tools Is Now Available to All Users

Microsoft launched Copilot inside Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) to help you cut through the noise with real-time, site-specific Q&A, deep data insights, and built-in learning tools. Whether you’re troubleshooting performance drops or optimizing content, Copilot can help deliver actionable answers tailored to your domain.

@GoogleSearchConsole - your turn.

CASE STUDY

SEO Case Study: $491K Revenue/Month by Building an AI SEO Genius

Matt Diggity shares how his agency took an eCommerce site from $166K to $491K/month in revenue with a fully automated AI SEO system that pumped out content, metadata, and backlinks at scale. Using ChatGPT, Google Sheets, and Make.com, they built a content engine that targeted keyword gaps and boosted topical authority. It’s an epic article with many detailed steps so you’re able to follow along.

EDUCATION

Blogging Laws: What Every Blogger Needs to Know

Neal Schaffer breaks down the must-know legal landmines every blogger should sidestep—think copyright traps, FTC disclosure rules, privacy regulations (hello, GDPR and CCPA), and the real risks of defamation and trademark infringement. He also shares practical ways to protect your content, your audience, and your business—from using Creative Commons to crafting airtight disclaimers, cookie consent notices, and terms & conditions. If you monetize, collect emails, or quote others, this is the checklist that keeps you safe, credible, and legally compliant.

My Take: You might be thinking “I ain’t no stinking blogger.” In this case though - if you publish content on a website, you’re blogging! That includes posting on a company’s blog.

🤩 OTHER NEWSLETTERS TO FOLLOW

• Shitty SEO Advice - Don’t believe the name of the newsletter because Alex Horsman provides useful tips with each newsletter, especially with link building.

WAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER

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Topical Maps Unlocked 2.0 - The blueprint for ranking dominance. Learn how to structure content the way search engines (and audiences) crave.

Topical Map Service - We handle the research, structure, and strategy—delivering a custom topical map that builds authority, so your content dominates its niche

Content Strategy and SEO Consulting – No guesswork, no gimmicks—just you and me, refining your strategy into a clear, proven roadmap for traffic, authority, and conversions.