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CONTENT CREATORS

Google Creator Summit 2025: SEO, AI, and Why Your Blog Traffic Dropped

Tomiko Harvey shares her thoughts from inside the three days of the Google Creator Summit in D.C., where only seven creators were invited to talk directly with the Google Search team. Her traffic dropped 98 percent. She could’ve pointed fingers. Instead, she pivoted.

She also posted a 2nd video covering how she didn’t drink the Google Kool-Aid after receiving a lot of unfriendly comments.

My Take: One interesting thing that Google apparently mentioned to the Creators was that some Table of Contents plugins may confuse Google’s crawlers. But TOC is for users and not crawlers (at least for me), so that users can jump to where they need to in articles. But it’s nice of Google to think that it’s for them - and that they can’t figure out a way to get past TOCs.

But I do have to say, ever since I built Floyi and started scraping webpages, I’m seeing that some sites are really poorly made and do have so much weird code that makes it impossible for any crawler/AI to understand 😅 

Sad you didn’t get an invite? Before you say you want to get in front of Google, look at that chart below. That’s why you want to keep your sites private, don’t just announce them publicly. If you’re looking to get feedback on your sites (always highly recommended), just remember to only share sites with people you trust.

SEO

Google Searches in Apple’s Safari Fall for First Time in 22 Years

Danny Goodwin reports on Apple’s Eddy Cue revealing that Google searches on Safari dropped for the first time since 2003. The reason? AI. Cue says AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are changing how users find answers, and Safari may prioritize them in the future. Google downplayed the report and released a statement about “overall query growth in Search,” but analysts aren’t buying it.

My Take: I love how Danny Goodwin says that query growth is a vanity metric and asks “when Google links to its own search results via AI Overviews and in other search features – does that count as a query?” 😂 

Generative Engine Optimization Best Practices in 2025

Evan Bailyn discusses what it actually takes to get your brand recommended by AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. The advice is precise: GEO isn’t replacing SEO, it’s building on top of it. That means structured content, deep topical authority, and thought leadership are now non-negotiable. He breaks down exactly how to show up in AI responses and which platforms weigh what.

ChatGPT Shopping vs. Google Shopping [Early Review]

Brodie Clark dives into the new ChatGPT Shopping experience, offering an early comparison with Google’s free Shopping listings. While ChatGPT is now serving product recommendations inside search, the feature is still in its infancy and far from ready to rival Google's retail dominance. He notes that while some product data seems similar to Google's, ChatGPT’s results vary widely, lack consistency, and often miss key query cues. For brands and SEOs, it’s a feature to watch—but not yet one to optimize for at scale.

Is Google Really Getting Worse? (Actually, It’s Complicated)

Philipp Götza tackles the internet’s favorite SEO complaint with nuance and data: is Google getting worse, or are we just louder about our gripes? While Reddit is flooded with frustration, Google’s market share is stronger than ever. He dismantles myths, explores how pressure from Amazon, social platforms, and AI challengers reshaped the SERP, and argues that what feels worse might actually be a mix of user bias, shifting expectations, and yes, real friction.

SEO Ripples

• Heather Ferris recaps SEO Week 2025, organized by iPullRank. It’s an interesting overview at what’s next in search and hat people are talking about. From vector embeddings to agentic AI to entity-driven strategies, the message was clear: SEO is no longer about gaming search engines.

• Amy Irvine delivers a recap of the 2025 Digital PR Summit, covering brand building through PR. Speakers talked about how to pitch better, ditch vanity metrics, and future-proof your strategy in the AI era. Relevance, relationships, and results beat link volume every time.

AI

Similarweb shows GenAI Traffic Share Update May 7th

How AI Overviews Shift Traffic From Publishers to Google

Cyrus Shepard exposes how Google's AI Overviews are quietly siphoning traffic away from publishers and steering it toward paid ads. What once was a “Grand Bargain” — free content for clicks — is unraveling fast. He outlines how AI Overviews often link to other Google searches instead of actual sources, essentially reducing publisher visibility and monetization. Some of the data:

• Seer: CTR dropped 54.6% for queries with AIOs over 12 months

• Ahrefs: 34.5% CTR drop with AIO presence across 300K keywords

• Amsive: 15.5% CTR drop in AIO-triggered queries

• Only 24% of AIO queries result in website visits (vs. 28% without AIOs)

• Google now scrapes 6 pages for every 1 visit sent to publishers

• Publishers see less ROI while Google ad revenue rises (up 8% YoY in Q1)

My Take: I’ve always said — Google is going to keep it in the family.

Semrush Report: AI Overviews’ Impact on Search in 2025

Jana Garanko breaks down what 10 million keywords tell us about Google's evolving SERP. AI Overviews now appear in over 13 percent of searches. Some of the takeaways here:

• 13.14% of searches now show AI Overviews (up 72% since Feb)

• 88.1% of AI Overview triggers are informational queries

• Zero-click rates actually declined slightly post-AIO rollout

• Science, Health, and Law are most affected industries

• Real Estate and Retail now seeing rapid AIO inclusion growth

• Navigational queries showing AIOs doubled since Jan

• Most AIO-triggering keywords are under 100 searches/mo

• 95% of AIO keywords have low or no ad value

• Reddit, Quora, and YouTube dominate AIO source links

• High-opportunity keywords have CPC > $2 and KD < 30%

  

  source: semrush.com

Compare Semrush’s report above with SERanking’s below.

AI Overviews Research: A State-by-State US Comparison

Anna Postol digs into 100,000+ keywords across five US states and uncovers a fascinating truth: AI Overviews are largely standardized across regions, but still leave clues for SEO strategy. They cover these areas: Colorado (Denver), New York (New York), California (Los Angeles), Texas (Houston), and Washington, DC. Some of the takeaways:

• AI Overviews appear in about 30% of queries across states

• Each AIO cites an average of 13.34 sources

• 43.42% of responses contain links back to Google search results

• Long-tail queries (10+ words) are 5.4x more likely to trigger AIOs than 1-word queries

• Keywords with $2–$5 CPCs show the highest AIO appearance rate at 32.02%

• The most common AIO length is 254 words or 1,766 characters

• People Also Ask appears alongside AIOs 98.54% of the time

• Google.com is cited in nearly 44% of AIOs, followed by YouTube and Reddit

• Domain overlap between states is high, with 47.05% of AIOs citing identical sources

ChatGPT Usage Recommendations on Models and Limits

OpenAI’s updated guide to ChatGPT Enterprise models helps you match the right engine to the right task, whether you’re brainstorming launch plans or reverse-engineering an algorithm. Recap:

• GPT-4o is the real-time, do-it-all model with full multimodal support

• GPT-4.5 is best for creative writing, tone control, and collaboration

• o4-mini handles fast technical and STEM tasks, with 300 daily uses

• o4-mini-high offers deeper, more accurate reasoning for 100 requests/day

• o3 is built for complex, multi-step strategy, coding, and forecasting

• o1-pro is legacy-tiered for long-form, high-stakes analysis

AI Ripples

• Google released an upgraded Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview earlier than expected. Lots of good feedback online for it with coding, so you may want to try it out yourself in the Gemini app, AI Studio or Vertex AI.

• With the launch of Cursor for Students, verified university students get one full year of Cursor Pro for free. That means faster debugging, cleaner boilerplate, AI-powered sandboxes, and contextual help tied to your code, notes, and assignments.

• Web search is now on the Anthropic API. It lets Claude tap into real-time, internet-wide knowledge to answer queries with fresh, sourced information. Developers can now build AI agents that research live stock data, analyze court decisions, or pull the latest GitHub docs. Claude will decide itself if web search is needed or not.

• The San Antonio Spurs have turned ChatGPT Enterprise into their sixth man. They use custom GPTs to cut 1,800 staff hours per month and boost global fan engagement. From flagging counterfeit merch to tailoring leadership workshops, the Spurs built dozens of GPTs to solve real problems. Some interesting things in here to possibly kick off ideas for your use cases.

• Google has a nice 68-page paper on Prompt Engineering. If you’re wondering about all the different types of prompting, this is a good read. Or if you just use AI chats at any point and want to get better at prompting, this is helpful.

LINK BUILDING

How Long Does it Take to Get Email Outreach Replies?

Vince Nero’s latest study for BuzzStream gives us a reality check on email outreach: response rates are low, patience is key, and your strategy better be sharp. After analyzing over 51 million emails, Vince breaks down how long it really takes to hear back and what you can do to increase your odds. Some of the key insights:

• 57% of link-building replies come within 6 hours

• Digital PR replies come even faster at 69.4% in under 6 hours

• Average reply time: 12.85 hours (link building), 11.4 hours (digital PR)

• Education and Fashion sectors respond the quickest

• Travel is the slowest sector to respond

• Most digital PR emails get ignored entirely

• Campaigns under 100 emails have better reply rates

• Double-touch outreach (social + email) boosts visibility

SOCIAL MEDIA

The Pinterest Annual Wedding Trends Report

Pinterest released their 2025 Wedding Trends report saying goodbye to minimalism, hello bold personality. From chocolate brown everything to surrealist florals and glowy no-makeup makeup, Gen Z is leading a wedding style revolution. City Hall is in, as courthouse ceremonies become Instagram-worthy events. Expect maximalist ring stacks, colorful tuxedos, vintage silhouettes, and editorial wedding photos worthy of Vogue. This report is a goldmine for brands and creatives working in weddings, fashion, content, and commerce.

My Take: If you’re an affiliate or in a Pinterest-heavy industry, you should add Pinterest Trend reports to your feed. They don’t do them a lot, every 2-3 months, but could be useful for sure. Always keep up with the trends in your industry to get fresh content ideas.

Pinterest predicts that people will start living dollhouse lives - or go medieval castlecore. That’s going to pair well with the sardine tattoos that are trending 😯 

Introducing Gen AI Labels: Pinterest Is Taking a New Step in Transparency

In a smart move toward clarity, Pinterest is labeling AI-generated images with a simple “AI modified” tag, visible when users click on a Pin. This new transparency initiative will roll out globally, backed by proprietary classifiers that detect Gen AI content, even without metadata.

My Take: And there are a number of people heavy in Pinterest who have seen algorithm changes him them. There have been bugs too, but it’s not surprising to see Pinterest trying to deal with AI spam and taking down pins.

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