You probably put a third-party traffic chart in a client deck this month. A Similarweb screenshot showing a competitor’s monthly visits, a Semrush visibility graph, an Ahrefs backlink count. I have done it hundreds of times. [Continue reading]
131 SEO Experts Just Ranked Google’s Ranking Factors. Backlinks Did Not Die.
Cyrus and Dawn Shepard published the 2026 Google Ranking Factors Expert Survey this morning. One hundred thirty-one SEO professionals scored more than 100 possible ranking factors on a seven-point scale, from strongly positive to strongly negative, producing 13,665 data points and about 43 hours of collective work.
AI Local Business Recommendations Went From 6% To 45% In A Year. The Bigger Number Is 88%
Forty-five percent of U.S. consumers used an AI tool to get a local business recommendation in the past twelve months. Last year that figure was 6 percent. … [Continue reading]
IAB: 56% Want Creator Voices In AI Shopping Advice, But Nobody Can Verify Which Creators Are Honest
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released research this morning showing that 56 percent of consumers prefer AI-generated shopping recommendations that include creator or influencer perspectives. Sixty-five percent say they feel more confident … [Continue reading]
Semrush Says Showing Up Once In A ChatGPT Category Is Worse Than Not Showing Up
Semrush released a second study of ChatGPT topic behavior on August 3, and it answers the question the first one left hanging. The July research told us that domain-level SEO metrics do a poor job of predicting who owns a topic. This one identifies … [Continue reading]
Semrush Studied 1,094 ChatGPT Categories. The Number That Matters Is Not 53.7%.
Semrush has published a study that puts real numbers behind an argument the search industry has been having since ChatGPT started answering buying questions. Does any brand actually own a topic inside an AI (artificial intelligence) assistant, or do … [Continue reading]