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- Nobody posts "just finished a content audit" on LinkedIn"
Nobody posts "just finished a content audit" on LinkedIn"
Discover Core Update; Listicle Update; Best Tracking Prompts; More Ads in AIOs; 18 Qs for Agencies; New AI Models; Super Bowl Commercials; and Much More!
Yoyao
February 07, 2026 • Est. Learning Time: 14 minutes
In partnership with
FIRST …
The thing I avoided for months took less time than I spent dreading it.
Every builder has a list. The top half is things you're working on. The bottom half is things you've convinced yourself are complicated.
You don't touch the bottom half. You just let it sit there, growing heavier by the week.
For me, it was WordPress publishing for Floyi. Letting people go from content strategy to live site without leaving the platform. I'd filed it under "messy integration work" and moved on to more interesting problems.
Then I finally sat down and did it.
It wasn't messy. It wasn't complicated. It was straightforward.
Here's the thing about tasks we avoid: the dread compounds, but the work doesn't. Every week you don't start, your brain invents another reason to wait. The task itself hasn't changed. It's sitting exactly where you left it, no harder than it was the day you first flinched.
I see this in every SEO and marketer I talk to. They know what matters:
Run the content audit.
Fix the site structure.
Optimize what's already published.
Document the process so it's repeatable.
Measure what's actually working.
But what they (and I) actually do is:
"Let's just publish another article."
"We'll fix the structure later."
"We'll audit eventually."
"We'll document the process next quarter."
Not because the important work is impossible. Because publishing something new feels like progress. Fixing what already exists just feels like chores.
Nobody posts "just finished a content audit" on LinkedIn.
Pick one this week. The thing with the most imaginary weight. Don't give yourself a deadline. Give yourself 30 minutes.
You'll either discover it was easier than you feared, or you'll finally know exactly why it's hard.
The hardest part is never the work. It's opening the tab.
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SEO + GEO
John Mueller explains Google’s February 2026 Discover core update, which reshapes how articles surface for users. Expect more local results, less clickbait, and more original, timely work from proven experts. Traffic may swing, so audit depth, tone, and topical focus, and follow Discover guidelines as rollout expands globally this year. Thought this was an interesting paragraph to add here:
“Since many sites demonstrate deep knowledge across a wide range of subjects, our systems are designed to identify expertise on a topic-by-topic basis. So whether a site has expertise in multiple areas or has a deep focus on a single topic, there's equal opportunity to show up in Discover. For example, a local news site with a dedicated gardening section could have established expertise in gardening, even though it covers other topics. In contrast, a movie review site that wrote a single article about gardening would likely not.”
Lily Ray spots a pattern in January 2026 volatility: SaaS blogs stuffed with self-promotional “best” listicles are sliding. She shows how to find them with site: and intitle: searches, and why Google distrusts biased reviews. Fix by proving real testing, disclosing methods, avoiding fake updates, and building authentic authority fast.
If you prefer a video, Glenn Gabe takes a look at the same patterns of how a powerful Google algorithm update in late January likely targeted "self-serving listicles.” This update also impacted numerous review sites, suggesting a broader reviews system update. He advises against exploiting loopholes, as they "work until they don't," don't, often leading to significant visibility drops across Google search and AI platforms.
Matt G. Southern details how Google search revenue surged 17 percent to $63.07 billion. This financial boom proves that Google is keeping users locked in “engaged” on Google. AI Mode queries now run three times longer than traditional searches, giving Google fertile ground to plant new ad inventory directly below AI responses. They are even piloting Direct Offers for shoppers ready to pull the trigger. If you thought AI would kill the search giant, these numbers suggest it is only making the beast more evil effective at keeping customers within its walls.
Glen Allsopp explains how to track AI search visibility without chasing noisy single prompts. Cluster related questions, then pull ideas from Search Console, forum SERPs via udm=18, People Also Ask, Perplexity related queries, and pages already getting LLM traffic. Monitor accuracy, competitor gaps, and cited domains so you can act.
Sergei Rogulin explains how prompt research is keyword research for AI, but focused on decision prompts. Define personas and constraints, map product features to risks, use keyword tools as language input, then have an LLM generate comparison questions. Track fan-out variations, snapshot answers and watch patterns in mentions, framing and gaps.
Luke Harsel reports Semrush data showing Google Ads on AI Overview SERPs jumped from 5.17% in March to 25.56% by October 2025, a 394% surge. Most ads land at the bottom, though top and middle placements rose in September. As AIOs move down funnel, pair PPC with SEO for trust.
Ryan Law and Xibeijia Guan reran Ahrefs’ click study with 300,000 keywords and fresh Google Search Console data. In December 2025, AI Overviews cut position-one CTR to 0.016, about 58% below expectation, and also dragged down positions 2 to 10. Use SERP-feature filters to spot where AIOs hit you hardest.
Nina Edwards lays out 18 questions that expose whether an SEO agency has process or gloss. Probe their first 90 days plan, success metrics, and AI-ready strategy. Demand technical prioritization, content that converts, PR tied to rankings and E-E-A-T, direct specialist access, forecasting, and a clear playbook when performance stalls.
My Take: Even if you don’t do client work, this can still be helpful with how you think about the SEO you’re doing for yourself. Can get you thinking and drum up ideas on your approach.
SEO + GEO Ripples
Barry Schwartz reports Google clarified crawl limits: Googlebot indexes only the first 2MB of most supported files and the first 64MB of PDFs, while Google crawlers stop at 15MB. Limits apply to uncompressed bytes. This won’t affect the majority of us.
John Mueller gave his blunt take on serving Markdown to LLM crawlers: “Converting pages to markdown is such a stupid idea” and it may be treated as plain text, links might not work, and you could lose navigation, headers, and internal linking signals. Fabrice Canel from Microsoft questions the need for “double crawl load.”
AI
Microsoft Advertising announced the Publisher Content Marketplace, a pilot that pays publishers based on AI-delivered value while giving Copilot and partners licensed access to premium content. Publishers set terms, keep ownership, and get usage reporting. It supports publishers of all sizes, from national brands to independent specialists. Early collaborators include AP, Business Insider, Condé Nast, Hearst, USA TODAY, Vox Media, and Yahoo testing demand.
OpenAI introduces GPT-5.3-Codex, a faster agent that codes, researches, and runs tools. It tops SWE-Bench Pro and Terminal-Bench, builds apps over days, and lets you steer work mid-task. The post shares examples, new cyber safeguards, and is available with paid ChatGPT plans and everywhere you can use Codex.
OpenAI also launched the Codex app for macOS for running multiple coding agents in parallel. It supports worktrees to avoid git conflicts, lets you review diffs, and adds reusable “skills” and scheduled automations. Codex is bundled with ChatGPT plans, with doubled rate limits and sandboxed permissions.
Anthropic announces Opus 4.6 with sharper coding, longer agent runs, and a 1M token context in beta. The post details top scores on Terminal-Bench 2.0, gains on long-context retrieval, and new API controls like effort, adaptive thinking, and compaction, plus Excel and PowerPoint upgrades for everyday work across teams today.
Anthropic also released Claude Code agent teams that can coordinate multiple sessions: a lead assigns tasks, teammates work in separate contexts, and everyone chats via a task list. Use for parallel research, reviews or bug hypotheses, but expect more tokens, tmux constraints and quirks; add hooks for quality gates.
My Take: I’ve tried to have a team discuss a part of Floyi from different viewpoints, not doing any coding. And it will eat up your tokens, but the output was good with multiple agents talking to each other and coming to a final proposal.
Perplexity announces Model Council, a Max feature that runs one query across three models like Claude Opus 4.6, GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3.0, then uses a “synthesizer” to merge results and flag disagreements. It’s built for higher-stakes research, complex decisions, brainstorming and verification.
My Take: This is similar to something that’s actually been in Floyi for quite some time, the AIRS Analyzer. Analyzes responses across 7 AI search platforms and ‘synthesizes’ a content brief based on similarities, differences, and information gain opportunities. It’s important to analyze responses across platforms and the SERPs if you want to understand how they work. Don’t just follow others blindly. Everyone’s got their own agenda, including me - use Floyi 😉
Super Bowl Ads - Google and Anthropic
Google’s created a series of ads before the Super Bowl. This is the in-game commercial they’re debuting. “New Home, a mother and son use Gemini to bring their new house to life, imagining how different spaces will look and feel.”
Anthropic’s “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude” - their jab at ChatGPT for including ads.
WAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER
Floyi - The only AI-powered tool that builds 4-level topical maps. Don’t just plan your content strategy - make it unstoppable.
TopicalMap.com Service - Let us do the heavy lifting. We handle the research, structure, and strategy. You get a custom topical map designed to boost authority and dominate your niche and industry.
Topical Maps Unlocked 2.0 - Unlock the blueprint to ranking success. Master the art of structuring content that search engines (and your audience) love - and watch your rankings soar.
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