When 60k+ Impressions Becomes a Problem

Bing AI Performance Tool; Markdown for Agents; Grounding vs Fan-Out Queries; Give Google Your ID Numbers; WebMCP is here; ChatGPT Ads are Here; and Much More!

Author

Yoyao
February 14, 2026 • Est. Learning Time: 15 minutes

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FIRST …

Who says Friday the 13th is bad luck?

Not if you own this site.

Floyi user’s Google Discover chart

60,000+ impressions in 48 hours. February 11th through 13th. A Floyi user running a case study hit the Google Discover jackpot.

Now here's what nobody talks about after a spike like this: the fear.

  • What if this doesn't continue?

  • What if I can't figure out how to keep it going?

  • What if tomorrow it drops back to 200 impressions and I never see this again?

That fear is rational.

Discover spikes rarely sustain. Google tests your content, measures engagement, then decides if you earned it.

Most sites screenshot the spike and watch it collapse within a week.

Here's why: they try to reverse engineer the moment.

They analyze what made this article go viral. They try to replicate the formula. They abandon their content plan to chase more spikes.

That's the trap.

You can't reverse engineer Discover traffic. The algorithm is too opaque. The timing is too random.

But you know what you can build? Sustainable topical authority.

Your topical map isn't what caused this spike. It's what survives after the spike fades.

Systematic topical coverage. Filled gaps. Deep authority across your topical map — that's your moat. That's what Google can't ignore long-term, whether Discover picks you up or not.

So yes, be afraid. The fear is warranted.

Just don't let it pull you off the plan.

The spike is a bonus. The topical map is the business.

Follow the map.

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SEO + GEO

Microsoft unveils AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, showing how often your pages get cited in Copilot, Bing AI summaries and partners. Track citations, cited pages, grounding queries, and URL-level activity, then tighten structure, evidence and freshness using IndexNow and Bing Places.

Danny Goodwin reports Cloudflare now auto-converts HTML to Markdown when crawlers request text/markdown, claiming up to 80% fewer tokens and adding a token-estimate header. SEOs worry it could enable AI cloaking via the Accept header. Google’s John Mueller and Microsoft’s Fabrice Canel discourage bot-only formats and will verify similarity too.

Dan Taylor says AI visibility is shaped by two invisible systems: grounding, which pulls trusted sources to verify facts, and fan-out, which expands into related comparisons before an answer is written. He ties it to Bing’s new AI Performance reporting and gives concrete plays for travel, SaaS, and ecommerce: build structured comparison pages, publish measurable specs and policies, and invest in docs, trust centers, and integration detail so you win both trust and breadth.

Patrick Stox crunches the numbers: ChatGPT handles about 2.5B prompts daily, and he sees 65% look like traditional searches. Yet ChatGPT drives only 0.21% of site traffic while Google sends 190x more. His estimated CTR gap is brutal: ChatGPT clicks are 96% lower.

Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt from Google Search Relations debate the question on Search Off the Record and land on a practical answer: it depends on what you need to control. They explain when a full site still makes sense for monetization, analytics, custom tools and long-term visibility, and when a platform page, a shop, or even a form can do the job. The episode breaks down audience behavior, distribution tradeoffs, and how AI and feeds change discovery, with clear advice on choosing the lightest setup that still supports your business goals.

Barry Schwartz explains Google’s “Results about you” tool: you can submit passport, driver’s license, or Social Security numbers so Google can detect them in Search and notify you, then request removal. Google says it uses encryption and security protocols. He also highlights the new explicit-image removal flow, including proactive filtering.

SEO + GEO Ripples

  • Barry Schwartz reports John Mueller's reminder: give links visible anchor text, not just title attributes or aria-labels. Make it obvious what users will get on the other end. Audit your navigation and buttons. Replace vague “click here” and icon-only links with descriptive phrases. Context helps accessibility and search engines alike.

  • Grokipedia’s January visibility spike is fading fast. Sistrix and Semrush show sharp drops over the past week, and even a branded search can put Wikipedia above Grokipedia. Peec.AI data suggests fewer mentions in AI Mode, AI Overviews, and ChatGPT.

  • John Mueller’s Reddit take: a one-year-old site can beat a four-year competitor if the older site coasted and yours builds genuine usefulness. Audit the real value gap, then invest in users, marketing, functionality, business fundamentals, and promotion, not vanity scores or link counts. Consistency beats domain-age mythology. Fast.

AI

ByteDance Seed Team unveils Seedance 2.0, a unified audio video model that takes text plus up to nine images, three clips, and three audio tracks. Expect sharper physics, steadier action, 15 second multi shot outputs, stereo sound, plus video editing and extension. The article is in Chinese, but you can read about it on Verge.

Barry Schwartz reports Google is rolling out Universal Commerce Protocol checkout inside AI Mode, letting US shoppers buy Etsy and Wayfair items without leaving Search or the Gemini app. Watch for a Buy button on listings, then a checkout flow. Ecommerce teams should prep feeds, policies, and conversion for purchases.

Google is testing sponsored retailer cards inside AI Mode answers, starting with shopping and expanding to travel. Advertisers can now use Veo 3 in Asset Studio to turn images into video fast. Google says Gemini-made assets tripled in 2025 and hit 70 million in Q4 alone, too.

Google introduces WebMCP, a preview that lets sites expose structured tools so AI agents act reliably for users. It adds declarative form actions and imperative JavaScript actions, reducing DOM clicking. Use it for support tickets, ecommerce checkout, and flight booking. Join the Early Preview Program to prototype today.

OpenAI is testing ads in ChatGPT for logged-in U.S. adults on Free and Go. Ads are clearly labeled, kept separate and never change answers. Targeting uses chat topics plus past chats and ad interactions, but advertisers see only aggregated clicks. Users can dismiss ads, manage personalization and delete ad data. Learn more in an OpenAI interview with Asad Awan, one of the ad leads.

Z.ai’s research team introduces GLM-5, a 744B-parameter model built for long-horizon agent work. It pairs DeepSeek Sparse Attention with an async RL stack called slime to boost training throughput. It scored the highest open-source scores on Vending Bench 2 and strong benchmark lifts - all for 5-8x cheaper than Opus. Try it via Hugging Face or api.z.ai for free.

AI Ripples

  • Gemini 3 Deep Think just got an upgrade and is now in the Gemini app for Google AI Ultra subscribers and, for the first time, available via the Gemini API through early access. They share early use cases, plus benchmark jumps like 48.4% on Humanity’s Last Exam, 84.6% on ARC-AGI-2, and a 3455 Codeforces Elo.

  • OpenAI introduces GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, a smaller version of GPT-5.3-Codex and a research preview model built for real-time coding inside Codex. Pro users get it first in the Codex app, CLI, and VS Code, with a 128k text-only context window and separate rate limits.

MARKETING

Google’s AdSense team says vignettes will soon fire on more user actions, not just page changes. A new Auto ads toggle controls all triggers, including tab unhide, nav bar clicks, scroll-to-article-end pauses, inactivity re-engagement, and back button use. It appears Feb. 9, activates Mar. 9 unless you manually opt out.

Brooke Osmundson shows why low conversions are small leaks: messy tracking, drifting keywords, mismatched landing pages, weak CTAs, and mobile friction. Tighten match types, add negatives, test RSA copy one change at a time, lean on assets and audiences, retarget abandoners, fix location settings, and schedule ads where buyers click.

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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