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CONTENT CREATORS

YouTube Says Its Ecosystem Created 490K Jobs and Added $55B to the US GDP in 2024

Amanda Silberling spotlights YouTube’s blockbuster impact report: the platform’s ecosystem supported over 490,000 full-time jobs and pumped $55 billion into the US economy last year. That’s a jump from the 390k jobs and $35 billion in a 2022 report.

SEO + GEO

We Studied the Impact of AI Search on SEO Traffic

Rachel Handley unpacks a Semrush study showing AI search could outpace traditional SEO traffic by 2028. AI search visitors convert at more than four times the rate of organic search, making every click count. The research finds ChatGPT and other AI tools often cite content from lower-ranked pages, not just the usual top results. Quora and Reddit dominate Google’s AI Overviews, so brands should get active where real questions happen. Want citations in AI responses? Focus on LLM-friendly content, entity mentions, and clear value props. Get ready—AI search is rewriting the SEO rulebook.

86% of Top Mentioned Sources Are Not Shared Across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews

Patrick Stox digs into Ahrefs data and finds a surprising split: only 7 out of 50 top-cited websites appear in the results of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Each AI system brings its own recipe, from partner deals to how they handle blocked bots and source selection. Google sticks to authority and its own properties, ChatGPT leans on publishers, and Perplexity taps local brands you’d never see elsewhere.

My Take: I’m seeing similar lack of overlap in our AI search results analysis in Floyi. I’m including Claude, Gemini Grounding, and Bing Copilot into our GEO analysis. It’s interesting how different they can be sometimes.

In my tests - it’s very rare to find any single source shown across the Google SERPs, Bing SERPs, and all 6 AI search engines. But then again, a lot of it depends on the queries and industries. That’s why studies can vary significantly. Here are recent study releases from the last couple of weeks:

• Ahrefs Study of ~76.7M searches

• Profound Study of 30m citations

• Semrush Study of 500 SEO-related topics and subtopics

Numbers with a ‘ ~ ’ are estimated based off charts because exact numbers weren’t given.

That’s why you want to be sure you look at where the numbers are coming from when making plans with your content, SEO, and GEO strategies. Don’t blindly take numbers.

• Look for specific studies in your industry or do your own (soon on Floyi!)

• See if they give the raw data. ‘what’s SEO’ and ‘what is SEO’ are technically 2 searches, but are the same.

LLM Visibility: The SEO Metric No One Is Reporting On (Yet)

Leigh McKenzie shares a guide to tracking LLM-driven brand discovery. Leigh explains how to spot invisible LLM growth, why deep expertise beats keyword games, and how smaller brands can win citations by dominating overlooked niches. He suggests to focus on quality, target long-tail queries, and measure your influence with new tools like Semrush’s AI Toolkit.

Google’s AI Mode: The Way We Think About SEO Needs To Change

Ross Simmonds breaks down Google’s AI Mode and urges marketers to invest in real author profiles, credible sources, and precise technical content. Keep your site fresh, skimmable, and packed with original data. Get cited everywhere your audience hangs out: Quora, Reddit, integration marketplaces. The new game is about inclusion, not ranking. Future-proof your SEO by building trust, expertise, and visibility across every channel where AI looks for answers.

Search Everywhere Optimization Guide

Leigh McKenzie reveals why showing up everywhere is the new standard for SEO success. The guide maps out how brands like Truly Beauty win by managing both their owned content and the reviews, mentions, and conversations they can’t control. Audit every search touchpoint, upgrade trust signals, repurpose content across platforms, and engage with real users everywhere your audience is searching. The included checklist turns this strategy into clear next steps, helping you shift from “just ranking” to being chosen wherever buying decisions happen.

SEO + GEO Ripples

• John Mueller points out that lots of unrelated content sends confusing signals to both users and search engines, which can trigger indexing problems or ranking drops. If your website jumps from SEO advice to random recipes, don’t be surprised if Google gets suspicious. The big takeaway: use Floyi to build a topical map to stay on-brand and on-topic 😁 

• Barry Schwartz explains how Google has changed its tune on automated translation. Once, using tools like Google Translate to create indexable pages risked a penalty. Now, as AI translations improve, Google is fine with it - as long as your translations are actually helpful and add real value for users. Basically, quality matters more than the process. If your AI-translated pages are accurate and useful, you can expand your reach into new markets with confidence.

• Roger Montti spotlights a wild case where Googlebot hammered a site with millions of requests for non-existent URLs, triggering a sudden drop in rankings. The site owner, after serving up 410 Gone codes to signal the pages were intentionally removed, still faced relentless crawling and plummeting visibility. John Mueller stepped in to explain that Google will keep checking missing pages, and that blocking with robots.txt is fine - just be sure you’re not accidentally blocking critical resources.

• Google just rolled out Audio Overviews in Search Labs, making search results talk to you. Powered by Gemini, this experiment gives you a quick, conversational audio summary for tricky queries - great if you’re multitasking or while running. You’ll need to opt-in to Labs, look for the new audio option in your search results if it’s available. If it is, tap to listen.

• Google just added loyalty program details to your Organization and Product structured data, you can showcase benefits like member discounts and reward points right in Google’s shopping results. Start making loyalty rewards visible to shoppers searching for your products.

• And with the one addition, Google is removing support for 7 others: Book Actions, Course Info, Claim Review, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement, and Vehicle Listing markups are all being retired.

• Gary Ilyes and Martin Splitt candidly share the real-life challenges SEOs and developers face when they try to work together. Martin urges SEOs to focus on context and avoid blanket advice. Build real bridges between teams, learn the language of your tech peers, and always ask for context before you copy a tactic.

AI

Amazon Ads Launches Enhanced AI-Powered Video Generator

Amazon Ads just took a big leap with its enhanced AI-powered Video Generator, now open to all U.S. advertisers. Jay Richman details how brands can instantly turn product images into multi-scene, high-motion video ads, complete with text, music, and branded logos. The tool even summarizes existing videos for quick ad creation. You get six video options per product, making it easier than ever to create engaging, action-focused ads at scale. This upgrade levels the playing field for smaller brands, slashes production time, and helps campaigns convert with video ads built in minutes, not weeks.

Wikipedia Considers Machine-Generated Summaries, Community Pushes Back

The Wikimedia Foundation recently tested machine-generated summaries on Wikipedia’s mobile site, aiming to make complex topics easier for readers. Editors and longtime contributors, though, are not buying it. Most argue that Wikipedia’s hand-crafted article leads already distill information better than any AI. Concerns center on accuracy, loss of trust, and putting Wikipedia’s brand at risk by surfacing unvetted summaries. The AI generation testing is now on hold.

AI Ripples

• OpenAI just launched o3-pro for ChatGPT Pro users. O3-pro is slower but shines when accuracy matters, consistently outperforming its predecessors in evaluations. The release notes also highlight major upgrades to Advanced Voice Mode, with more natural intonation, seamless language translation, and improved expressiveness.

• Disney and Universal Sue Midjourney for Copyright Infringement. Charlotte Colombo reports the studios allege Midjourney scraped their copyrighted content and enabled users to generate art using iconic characters like Darth Vader, Elsa, and Shrek. Despite requests to curb this, Midjourney doubled down, releasing more advanced tools. Disney and Universal argue this is clear piracy, while both studios stress they’re pro-AI - just not at the expense of artists and original work. This lawsuit could set the standard for how courts handle copyright and AI-generated media.

• China’s top AI companies hit pause on features like image recognition in popular chatbots from Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, and others, all to keep students from using them to cheat during the ultra-competitive gaokao exams (like US SATs). Over 13 million students are vying for limited college spots, so the stakes are sky-high. These apps disabled or limited access to photo and text recognition for several days, citing fairness. The crackdown is so strict that even viral tools like DeepSeek joined in. Just one of the many reasons I don’t use Chinese apps for anything other than tests.

CONTENT

13 Copywriting Frameworks You Need to Know: How to Write Content That Converts

Ellie Wraith takes you behind the curtain at Digitaloft to reveal thirteen copywriting frameworks proven to boost conversions. This guide isn’t just theory — you’ll get step-by-step breakdowns of AIDA, PAS, FAB, BAB, and more, plus five custom Digitaloft formulas for SEO-driven results. Ellie shows how to match frameworks to content types, audit your writing with the “So What?” test, and structure content for both people and search engines. The big takeaway: clear, credible, audience-first writing turns skimmers into buyers and makes Google take notice. This one’s packed with practical moves you can use right away.

Lead Generation 101: How to Increase Conversion Rates on Your B2B Website

Andy Crestodina cuts through the clutter with a two-part playbook: clarity and persuasion. He reveals how answering real visitor questions and handling objections right on the page can keep the dreaded back button at bay. Andy shows you why proof points like testimonials and case studies should be visible everywhere, not hidden. Tap into psychology with bias triggers and craft calls to action that actually get clicks.

LINK BUILDING

Do Certain Sites Engage More With PRs? [Study]

Vince Nero digs into eight million emails and finds that freelancers using Gmail reply most, while big newsrooms get swamped but rarely write back. If you want more replies, focus on finding personal email addresses, not just newsroom patterns. UK and Australian journalists are more responsive, especially to stories with local hooks or exclusives. National news dominates outreach volume, but local and niche sites often yield higher engagement.

TOOLS AND RESOURCES

How to Calculate Cosine Similarity of Vector Embeddings in Google Sheets (w/ Free Sheet Template & Apps Script)

James Brockbank gives us a hands-on guide to bringing advanced semantic analysis straight into Google Sheets. His step-by-step method shows how to import, generate, and compare vector embeddings for your pages, links, and keywords, all using a free template and a simple Apps Script.

My Take: Cosine similarity and embeddings are useful for quick semantic relevance comparisons. But remember not to use it as a replacement for your keyword and topic clusters when planning content for search intent. Semantic clustering doesn’t come close to SERP clustering. If you still want to use AI for search intent clustering, you can do that. You can ask them to cluster via search intent, which comes closer to SERP-based clustering.

WAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER

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

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

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