beehiiv’s data on owned audiences, signs of a big Google update, broken XML sitemaps, Google’s new main content rules, and how AI agents fail on real web pages.
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Hi Marketers,
Welcome to the new issue of HighDegree*: Cutting Through the Noise in SEO & Digital Marketing.
More searches now end without a click, so this week’s stories are about what you can control. beehiiv’s data on 4,755 business newsletters shows why an audience you own matters. Lily Ray lays out the documentation changes behind her prediction of a big Google update, and Marie Haynes breaks down the largest of them, a new definition of main content. Joost de Valk finds broken XML sitemaps on sites as big as Adobe and Anthropic. Merj tests how AI agents behave on real websites, including one that clicked Cancel when asked to save. Each one comes with something you can fix this week.
Let’s jump in.
➞ Digital Marketing This Week
- What 4,755 Business Newsletters Reveal About Owning Your Audience
- A Major Google Update May Be Coming, Here’s What to Fix Now
- Even Adobe and Anthropic Ship Broken XML Sitemaps, Here’s How to Check Yours
- Google Rewrote Its Helpful Content Guidance Around Main Content
- How AI Agents Fail on Real Websites, and What to Fix First
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➞ What 4,755 Business Newsletters Reveal About Owning Your Audience
beehiiv studied 4,755 newsletters run by 799 business organizations on its platform, and the data points to email as the first layer of an audience a company owns. Search explains a lot of the shift. The report cites a 2026 study finding that 68% of Google searches end without a click, and across beehiiv publications AI crawlers made 448 million requests in 30 days while sending about 58,000 referral visits, roughly 0.2% of referral traffic.
Engagement holds up well. Median open rate was 44.54% for lists of 1,000 to 10,000 subscribers and 40.12% for lists above 250,000. Open rates also climbed after the six-month mark, from 39.96% to 44.52%.
Brex shows how little it can take. One person produces its newsletter in under two hours a week, and about one in four registrations across more than 530 events comes from it. This is beehiiv’s own customer data, so treat the numbers as directional. If you want to act on it, add a clear subscribe form to the pages search already sends people to.
Read the full report from beehiiv.com ➞
Owning your audience is one defense, and knowing what Google may demote next is another.
➞ A Major Google Update May Be Coming, Here’s What to Fix Now
Lily Ray predicts a major Google update is coming, and her case rests on Google’s own documentation. On October 1, Google updated its AI content guidance to say it is critical to manually fact-check and review AI-generated content before publishing, including titles, meta descriptions, structured data, and alt text. Google also added language calling fake author profiles, such as AI headshots and made-up credentials, a form of deception. At Search Central Live in Barcelona, Gary Illyes said scaled content is becoming a bigger problem than link spam, according to a recap Ray cites. She counts four Google spam updates in 2026, against one in all of 2025.
Ray stresses that nobody outside Google knows the timing, so this is an informed opinion. She recommends cutting or reworking AI-generated and templated pages that add nothing new, giving every author a real name, photo, and verifiable credentials, and having a person check all AI-assisted content. She also warns against self-promotional listicles and paid mentions aimed at AI answers.
Read the full report from lilyraynyc.substack.com ➞
Before any update lands, clean up the technical basics, starting with a file most sites assume is fine.
➞ Even Adobe and Anthropic Ship Broken XML Sitemaps, Here’s How to Check Yours
Joost de Valk built a Chrome extension called Sitemap Inspector to make XML sitemaps readable, and it ended up exposing errors on large sites. In his September 27 checks, 98 of the first 100 URLs in Adobe’s UK Learn sitemap declared a different canonical, a placeholder template page. Anthropic’s sitemap listed 21 noindexed pages, mostly legal pages. Manchester City’s listed former players whose pages redirect or return errors, and X’s robots.txt points to a sitemap that does not exist.
A sitemap should list canonical URLs that load and that you want in search results, and nothing else. A URL that redirects, errors, carries noindex, or names another canonical wastes a crawl. De Valk’s guess is that sitemaps come from one system while canonicals and noindex tags come from another, and nobody checks that they agree. In his checks, every sitemap generated by Yoast SEO, the plugin he built, came back clean because one tool controls all of those signals.
Open your own sitemap in the extension and run Check URLs.
Read the full report from joost.blog ➞
Clean signals help pages get found, and Google now calls main content quality one of the most critical factors for judging them.
➞ Google Rewrote Its Helpful Content Guidance Around Main Content
Marie Haynes calls Google’s “Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content” page her favorite piece of documentation, and it just got a major update. The new section defines main content as the part of a page that directly accomplishes its purpose, whether that is an article, a calculator, a tool, or a video. It then lists four things raters look for: effort, originality, talent or skill, and accuracy. Google also states that fake author personas and misleading bylines signal low quality, and says tabs and accordions are fine as long as the content stays accessible.
Haynes recommends putting your main answer or tool at the top instead of making visitors scroll past an intro. She says to avoid commodity content, because a page an AI summary can fully rehash is vulnerable, and to draw on real experience, fact-check every AI-assisted draft, and name real authors. She also predicts a significant core update soon and links it to the launch of Gemini 4 Argon. That is her opinion, not a Google announcement.
Read the full report from mariehaynes.com ➞
Good content still has to be usable, and a new kind of visitor is now testing that on your pages.
➞ How AI Agents Fail on Real Websites, and What to Fix First
Merj built a way to watch AI agents attempt tasks on real web pages, and the results show how easily they trip. In one test, two buttons had deliberately swapped ARIA labels, the hidden names that screen readers and some agents rely on. Asked to save a document, ChatGPT Agent clicked Cancel first in 25 of 25 runs. Claude’s Computer Use and Perplexity’s Comet agent went straight to Save every time. Merj notes that results are tied to one site version, task, agent, and model, so they date quickly. Across its tests, average success rose from about 30% to about 60% during the research.
Agent failures leave no support ticket, so you will not hear about them. Merj’s fixes also help human visitors. Use real buttons and links instead of clickable divs, give icon-only controls a name that says what they do, check that ARIA labels are true, and remove transparent overlays that swallow clicks. Keep success and error messages on screen instead of toasts that vanish.
Read the full report from merj.com ➞
➞ From Google
Everything from Google search this week —
→ Google AI Overview Lawsuit Dismissed Over No Agreement With Publishers (seroundtable.com) – Judge Amit P. Mehta dismissed Penske Media’s suit over AI Overviews because the publisher never pleaded an actual agreement promising traffic, noting that an expectation is not an agreement.
→ Google: Manually Factcheck & Review AI-Generated Content For Accuracy (seroundtable.com) – Google’s updated guidance calls it critical to manually fact-check and review AI-generated content, since models predict word sequences rather than retrieve facts.
→ Google Adds Fake Author Warning To Helpful Content Guidance (searchenginejournal.com) – The people-first guidance now says fabricating creator profiles, such as AI headshots, made-up names, and false credentials, is deception and a low-quality signal.
→ Google Helpful Content Doc With New Main Content & EOT/SA Sections (seroundtable.com) – Google added two sections to its helpful content guidance that define main content and introduce EOT/SA, short for Effort, Originality, Talent/skill, and Accuracy.
→ Google Paying ~100 Publishers 0.1% Of Ad Revenue In AI Contribution Pilot (seroundtable.com) – About 100 publishers receive roughly 0.1% of ad revenue for content used in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini, with reported earnings from under $1,000 over several months to over $1M a year.
→ Google AI Overviews Return For Many Large Brand Names (seroundtable.com) – AI Overviews appeared for about 93% of tested brand names, usually in the middle of the results page.
→ Google Tests URL Tracking Parameters To AI Overviews & AI Mode (seroundtable.com) – The st_source=ai_overview parameter on AI Overview links was first reported as a Google test, but an update says a Chrome extension was modifying the URLs.
→ Google releases Gemini 4 Argon, called its most powerful model yet (techcrunch.com) – Gemini 4 Argon is billed as Google’s most powerful model for deep reasoning, coding, and cybersecurity work, but it is limited to select cyber partners through the Fairwind Program.
→ Google Tests Dropping I’m Feeling Lucky Button From Search Bar (seroundtable.com) – Some searchers no longer see the I’m Feeling Lucky button when they start typing, and in other cases it sits beside new AI buttons.
→ Google Maps Now Requires Sign In To Read All Reviews & More (seroundtable.com) – Google Maps now requires sign-in to read all reviews, sort them, leave reviews, and use other features.
→ Google Tests Sponsored Products Grid That Looks Like The Organic Product Grid (seroundtable.com) – A test shows sponsored products in a grid that mirrors the organic product grid instead of a carousel, which the author says blends in and will confuse users.
→ Google Appeals Europe’s DMA Mandate To Share Search History Data (seroundtable.com) – Google is appealing European Commission decisions that require it to share search history with competitors by January 2027 and make Android security changes by July 2027, citing insufficient anonymization.
→ Google AI Overviews Testing Citations Cards At Bottom (Not Right Side) Again (seroundtable.com) – AI Overview citation cards are being tested at the bottom on desktop behind a show more button, the third round of this test after March 2026 and September 2025.
→ Google Gemini Adds UTM Parameters For Referral Attribution (searchenginejournal.com) – Gemini now adds UTM parameters to outgoing links, so traffic that used to show as direct can be attributed, including from in-app webviews and mobile apps that strip referrer data.
→ Google Globally Rolls Out Monitoring Capabilities In AI Mode (seroundtable.com) – AI Mode can now monitor topics across websites, forums, social posts, real-time data, and the Shopping Graph, with alerts in the Google app, and it is available to all users globally.
→ Google Tests Replacing Show More Button On AI Overviews With Loading… (seroundtable.com) – Google is testing a Loading… label in place of Show more beneath AI Overviews, following an earlier Enter AI Mode text test that did not stick.
→ Google September 2026 Spam Update Has Big Weekend Impact (seroundtable.com) – Volatility started Friday Sept 25, peaked Saturday, and wrapped Sunday, only five days into a two-week rollout, with early signs pointing to highly templated, programmatic, and probably AI-generated pages.
→ Google Search Profiles Follow Button Removed From Desktop Search Results (seroundtable.com) – The Follow button for search profiles was removed from desktop results but kept on mobile, and it had returned by the next day.
→ Google Desktop CTR Fell In Q2 While Mobile Rose, Data Shows (searchenginejournal.com) – Advanced Web Ranking’s Q2 2026 data shows desktop click-through rates for positions 1 and 2 falling a combined 5.27 points while mobile rose 6.59, with the gap on pages showing AI Overviews widening to 19.01 points.
→ Google is killing off Gemini’s Gems in favor of ‘skills’ (techcrunch.com) – Gems migrate automatically to skills starting Nov 17, 2026, and skills are selected by typing a slash in a task thread.
→ Google September 2026 Spam Update Has Been Unleashed (seroundtable.com) – The September spam update began Sept 24, 2026 at about 12:00 PM ET, applies globally in all languages, and can take up to two weeks to roll out, versus two days for the August update.
→ Google Has Deployed A New AI Spam Detector Called SAFE (searchenginejournal.com) – SAFE, short for Scaled Abuse Forensics Examiner, uses specialized AI agents to detect synthetic artifacts, inorganic engagement, infrastructure connections, and coordinated spam.
→ Google Search Ranking Volatility Hits September 23rd & 24th (seroundtable.com) – Volatility began around Sept 23, possibly Sept 22, and continued through Sept 24, with spikes showing in tools such as AccuRanker, SEMrush, Sistrix, and Advanced Web Ranking.
→ Google Search Decline Steepened To 40% YoY For Publishers (searchenginejournal.com) – Chartbeat data shows Google Search traffic to publishers down 40.2% year over year versus a 21.9% drop the year before, with Discover down 34.3% and direct and dark social gaining share.
→ Google AI Overviews With Way More External Links; Report (seroundtable.com) – Peec AI found AI Overview answers with external links rose from close to 0% to over 25%.
→ Google Tests AI Overviews On Hotel On Side Panel (seroundtable.com) – AI Overviews for hotels moved from the top of the page to the bottom right of the hotel knowledge panel.
→ Multimodal Search Type Filter In Google Search Console Performance Report (seroundtable.com) – Search Console has a new Multimodal option under Web, next to Text-based, covering results triggered by a query using an image, photo, or screenshot.
→ Google tests letting Gemini call businesses for you (techcrunch.com) – Gemini can place phone calls to businesses for you, starting as a test for U.S. Pixel 11 owners who pay for Gemini and use the beta Phone app.
→ Introducing Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar (blog.google) – Gemini 3.8 Live adds a Live Avatar with near-real-time lip-sync in 97 languages, async tool execution, customizable avatars, and SynthID watermarking, available in Gemini Enterprise.
→ A new wave of Connected Apps is rolling out to Gemini (blog.google) – New Connected Apps include Airtable, Linear, monday.com, Adobe, Webflow, Squarespace, Experian, Peloton, and SeatGeek, grouped under Productivity, Creativity, and Lifestyle.
→ Gemini 3.8 text-to-speech says hello (blog.google) – Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS support 100+ languages, voice direction, and custom voices, and are available through AI Studio and the Gemini API.
→ Google Ads Investment Strategy New Holistic & Growth Modes (seroundtable.com) – Holistic mode moves existing spend from weaker campaigns to top performers, while Growth mode adds budget to top campaigns without cutting anything else.
→ Google AdSense Drops Identity Verification Threshold To $0 (seroundtable.com) – AdSense dropped the identity verification threshold from $10 to $0, so publishers must verify before ads display and payments begin, with a government photo ID and possibly a video selfie required since June 2026.
➞ AI + Social
Find out what’s happening in the social media and artificial intelligence world —
→ OpenAI takes on Microsoft with the launch of what feels a whole lot like ChatGPT’s own office suite (techcrunch.com) – At DevDay on Sept 29, OpenAI announced Space, a shared ChatGPT workspace, Pages, a word processor for human and agent collaboration, and collaborative slides, positioned against Microsoft Office.
→ OpenAI launches Dots, its bubbly agentic avatar (techcrunch.com) – Dots is a personal agentic assistant powered by GPT-6 Astra that pursues user-defined goals in the background, launching for ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium in eligible markets.
→ OpenAI Dots Run Read-Only Research When Nobody Is Asking (searchenginejournal.com) – Dots can run proactive research from connected sources using read-only tools and recurring scheduled checks, but it cannot send messages, edit anything, or control a browser.
→ OpenAI launches GPT-6.1 Sol, says it nearly matches GPT-6 Astra and costs less (techcrunch.com) – OpenAI says GPT-6.1 Sol nearly matches GPT-6 Astra at one-fifth the token cost, cutting factual error rates from 11.4% to 7.7% at low effort, while GPT-6.1 Astra was cancelled over safety concerns.
→ OpenAI adds $500(!) Pro subscription, nerfs its existing $200 tier (engadget.com) – The new $500 a month Pro plan offers Ultrafast speeds up to 300 tokens per second, while the $200 tier drops Codex and Work usage from 20x to 10x Plus and GPT-6 Pro messages from 200 to 100 a week.
→ OpenAI to preview GPT-6 Cyber within days, Fortune reports (reuters.com) – Reuters relays a Fortune report that OpenAI will preview GPT-6 Cyber within days.
→ OpenAI Blames Moonshot for Mass Data Extraction on Its AI Models (bloomberg.com) – Bloomberg reports OpenAI blaming Moonshot for mass data extraction from its AI models.
→ Rogue OpenAI agents covered up their tracks, report says (france24.com) – France 24 relays a report that rogue OpenAI agents covered their tracks.
→ ChatGPT Adds Virtually Try On Clothing & Accessories (seroundtable.com) – A Try on button appears on eligible clothing and accessories, where users take or upload a selfie and ChatGPT Images generates the result.
→ ChatGPT adds virtual try-on for clothes and accessories (searchengineland.com) – Users can save selfies for reuse and keep Favorites in folders in the ChatGPT Library, on mobile and web.
→ Report: ChatGPT Ads are growing fast, but advertisers are still figuring them out (searchengineland.com) – Graphite and Similarweb found 43% of ad-eligible U.S. ChatGPT users have seen an ad six months after launch, based on 98,000+ ads and 8,000 landing pages, with ChatGPT Ads at a $1B annualized revenue run rate.
→ OpenAI ChatGPT Ads Gains Bulk Product Creation, Product Review Status & More (seroundtable.com) – Five ChatGPT Ads updates cover bulk creation for product feed campaigns, product review status, API conversion reporting beyond the campaign goal, separate account, brand, and legal names, and expansion to Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
→ Court Filing Quotes OpenAI Engineer: Users “Won’t Click” Links (searchenginejournal.com) – A Sept 17 brief in a copyright case against OpenAI and Microsoft quotes an OpenAI engineer saying users won’t click links however prominently they appear, and cites Microsoft data showing click-through to publishers 51% to 93% lower in Bing Chat than in Bing Web Search.
→ Anthropic releases Sonnet 5.5, which it calls a significantly cheaper, faster work partner (techcrunch.com) – Anthropic calls Sonnet 5.5 a mid-tier model for everyday coding and office documents, claiming it is 30% faster than its predecessor with lower token use and better than Opus 5.5 on agentic coding.
→ Anthropic Publishes Prompting Guidance For Claude Opus 5.5 (searchenginejournal.com) – Anthropic advises developers to retest effort settings instead of reusing Opus 5 configurations, and says dropping think carefully prompts made responses start sooner with no clear decline in quality.
→ Opus 5.5 loves to tell you ‘this matters’ (and other AI writing tells) (techcrunch.com) – A Graphite study found dependable appears 23x more often in Opus 5.5 than in human writing and this matters 116x more often, while models have largely dropped em dash overuse.
→ Meta is expanding its AI agent Muse to small businesses (techcrunch.com) – Muse integrates with Shopify, Dropbox, Slack, Asana, Canva, QuickBooks, Stripe, and Zoom, can reach Instagram professional analytics and Meta ad accounts, and is free with usage limits.
→ Meta’s Muse tops 5 million downloads, faster than ChatGPT, Claude (yahoo.com) – Muse passed 5M downloads in under a month after its Sept 8 launch, faster than ChatGPT at 56 days and Claude at 492 days, and tops both app stores in the US and Canada.
→ Meta’s Muse app surpasses 5M downloads and 3M weekly users (socialmediatoday.com) – Muse reached 5M downloads in 22 days, one of 23 apps to hit that mark, and has more than 3M weekly active users.
→ Meta disputes claim that Muse read a user’s private messages without permission (techcrunch.com) – Inc. columnist Jason Aten claimed Muse read his messages with Full Disk Access off, while Meta VP Andy Stone says the Mac Messages integration is opt-in and needs both Full Disk Access and a Messages connector.
→ A YouTuber figured out how his Muse AI agent shared his address with a total stranger (businessinsider.com) – Business Insider reports on how a YouTuber traced how his Muse AI agent shared his address with a total stranger.
→ How can Instagram creators use Muse AI agents? (socialmediatoday.com) – Muse offers Instagram creators strategic recommendations, collaboration alerts matched against industry averages, a creative playbook, account summaries, and reminders, with creator approval required to access Instagram data.
→ Redesigned Microsoft Copilot Will Build Apps and Work on Its Own (thejournal.com) – The redesign has three parts: Home with Chat and Cowork, Code for building apps and dashboards from plain language, and Autopilot for long-running tasks that continue after you log off, with usage-based Copilot Credits.
→ Bing Tests Replacing Copilot With AI Mode In Search Tabs (seroundtable.com) – Bing is testing AI Mode as the label for its search tab instead of Copilot, after an earlier test of AI Overviews.
→ Shopify opens checkout to browser-based AI agents (techcrunch.com) – WebMCP checkout support adds get_checkout, update_checkout, and complete_checkout tools so agents can change addresses and delivery options and complete purchases with buyer authorization, rolling out to eligible merchants.
→ Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic, data shows (nbcnews.com) – NBC News reports data showing bot traffic has overtaken human traffic on the web.
→ Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots (techcrunch.com) – Reddit ends RSS feeds on Nov 13, 2026 and public API access by March 2027, citing scraping and abuse, and developers and AI products will need commercial deals.
→ Elon Musk’s AI-powered Grokipedia is updating again (theverge.com) – The Verge reports that Grokipedia, Elon Musk’s AI-powered encyclopedia, is updating again.
→ X launches Grok Bot rewards program to showcase AI utility (socialmediatoday.com) – An invite-only pilot pays cash rewards through X Money to creators whose Grok Bot templates get used, based on usage volume and consistency and excluding the creator’s own use.
→ Amazon Ads taps Yelp to turn product purchases into local service leads (searchengineland.com) – Sponsored Services connects shoppers with Yelp local pros based on purchases and browsing, with ads on product detail, order confirmation, and package tracking pages, for U.S. home and auto categories.
→ YouTube updates Shorts algorithm to put more focus on original content (socialmediatoday.com) – The Shorts algorithm now prioritizes original content and reduces reach for channels that mainly aggregate or re-upload other creators’ videos without significant changes.
→ YouTube To Cut Reach Of Channels Reposting Barely Changed Clips (searchenginejournal.com) – YouTube liaison Rene Ritchie says voiceover descriptions, minor edits, or template-based bulk changes do not count as original, and channels that shift to original content get re-evaluated.
→ YouTube presents new AI and engagement features at Made On 2026 (socialmediatoday.com) – Announcements include custom feeds from conversational prompts, Shorts series, a Gemini Omni editing assistant for Shorts, real-time auto-dubbing for livestreams, and Live showdowns for donations.
→ YouTube tests new product tag placement options (socialmediatoday.com) – Dynamic product tags show on the video and in the description when viewers engage, and only in the description when engagement is low.
→ Threads tests more visual options for quote posts (socialmediatoday.com) – A Quote option overlays Threads posts, chosen from liked, saved, or your own, on photos or videos, alongside new stickers and layouts that split photos into up to nine sections.
→ Threads expands live chat engagement options (socialmediatoday.com) – Live chats on Threads gain live emoji reactions, raise hand, web access, and expansion to Australia.
→ Meta adds AI assistant to Edits (socialmediatoday.com) – The Edits AI assistant is a chat-based creative partner that analyzes metrics, comments, and trends, with a daily prompt limit and more credits through a Meta One subscription.
→ Meta adds contributor badges to Forum chat app (socialmediatoday.com) – Forum turns Facebook Groups into a Q&A format like Quora and Reddit, and contributor badges recognize top voices with perks such as faster-publishing posts.
→ Instagram adds option to boost livestreams (socialmediatoday.com) – The Boost option in the composer sets the audience and start and end times, uses the live video as the ad creative across Feed, Stories, and Reels, and works best when scheduled at least two hours before going live.
→ Instagram shares Reels creation tips in new guide (socialmediatoday.com) – Instagram recommends 3 to 15 seconds for trends, 15 to 60 seconds for tutorials, and 60 seconds to 3 minutes for storytelling, plus text overlays with captions and slideshow Reels from still images.
→ Instagram chief shares algorithm insights and posting tips (socialmediatoday.com) – Adam Mosseri says recency matters in ranking so the feed is roughly chronological, and advises creators to focus on engagement rates over views or likes and to experiment.
→ TikTok US reports generating $81B in economic value (socialmediatoday.com) – A TikTok-commissioned PF Global study of 11,123 U.S. adults and 5,000+ businesses found 93% of businesses saw sales increases and 80% said TikTok helped them scale.
→ TikTok adds certification tiers for agency partners (socialmediatoday.com) – TikTok adds an Agency Partner badge and an exclusive Premier Agency Partner badge for top-performing partners.
→ LinkedIn tests advanced creator discovery to power brand campaigns (socialmediatoday.com) – A Creator Discovery beta in the Creator Marketplace filters by content type, creator industry and job function, audience demographics, and Top Voices, with general availability expected in early 2027.
→ Snapchat launches pitch for B2B ad spend (socialmediatoday.com) – Snapchat’s Spend Smarter campaign positions it as a discovery platform for reaching B2B decision-makers rather than a direct sales channel.
→ How to refresh your creative for Q5 (pinterest.com) – Pinterest suggests shifting from gift-focused to self-purchase messaging, evolving festive imagery into new year planning by adapting existing assets, and replacing seasonal urgency with utility.
→ The Biggest B2B Marketing Mistake? Reaching Too Few, Too Late. (linkedin.com) – LinkedIn’s marketing blog argues the costliest B2B marketing mistake is reaching too few buyers, too late.
➞ Worth Reading
These are the articles that will help you refine your marketing knowledge —
→ New learning paths: curated YouTube playlists for Search fundamentals and Technical SEO (developers.google.com) – Google published curated YouTube playlists covering Search fundamentals and Technical SEO.
→ AI Overviews on branded queries tripled in September (demandsphere.com) – DemandSphere tracked AI Overviews on branded queries rising from about 27% early in September to 90.48% by Sept 27, with the sharp rise starting Sept 18 and no announcement from Google.
→ How long does it take for Google to crawl, index, and serve a webpage? (linkedin.com) – Estela Franco’s LinkedIn post looks at how long it takes Google to crawl, index, and serve a webpage.
→ Customize Your Brand Terms in Microsoft Clarity AI Visibility (clarity.microsoft.com) – Clarity lets you add, edit, or remove Brand Terms such as abbreviations, alternate spellings, and typos under Settings > AI Visibility, and group them under Brand Names for better branded versus non-branded classification.
→ Creating News Content That Stands Out in AI and Multimodal Search (advancedwebranking.com) – In this podcast transcript, Louisa Frahm advises treating multimodal formats as essential, keeping evergreen guides updated, and building direct brand relationships through preferred sources and personalization.
→ Stop Complaining About Influencer Culture. Start Hiring It (indeed.com) – Indeed argues employers should hire creators, citing its research on problem-solving and critical thinking (60%) and communication and collaboration (47%), with Staples employee Kaeden Rowland’s store-traffic TikToks as the example.
→ Inside the creator economy’s AI reckoning (hubspot.com) – AI adoption among creators has shifted from fear to pragmatism, with Gigi Robinson reporting 10+ hours saved a week and a 20%+ income increase, alongside concerns about legal gaps and standardization.
→ There Is No “Accuracy” in AI Search Tracking – Only Precision (ipullrank.com) – iPullRank argues accuracy is meaningless for AI search tracking because there is no single true value, so only repeatable precision under defined conditions is achievable and cross-tool comparisons are invalid.
→ Inside Personalized AI Search: How Private Data Shapes Brand Discovery (advancedwebranking.com) – Garrett Sussman’s experiment with Google Personal Intelligence found emails drove a 40% visibility lift for brand recommendations, and even unopened emails and fake brands influenced AI Mode.
→ Which Data Sources Should You Care About for AI Search? (chrisgreenseo.substack.com) – Chris Green’s Substack post asks which data sources are worth caring about for AI search.
➞ What This All Means for Your Strategy
Put together, these five stories ask for a site that is easier to trust and easier to use, for people and for machines. Start with the cheap work this week. Open your sitemap and remove anything that redirects, errors, or says noindex. Check that every author on your site is a real person and that a human has reviewed anything AI helped write. Move your main answer to the top of the page. Then add a clear subscribe form, because an audience you own does not depend on what Google or an AI answer decides to show. That work also holds up if a big update does land.
Until next week,
— Nishat from HighDegree* Marketing.
P.S. Have a question about implementing these strategies? Hit reply – we read every email and often feature reader questions in future issues.
➞ Who is Nishat Shahriyar?
I’ve been a Digital Marketing Strategist since 2007. Today I’m the Product Marketing Lead at Fluent Forms (a WordPress form and lead-generation plugin used by 700K people), FluentPlayer (a WordPress Video Player Plugin) and Ninja Tables (a WordPress table builder plugin used by 80K people). Before that, I led marketing at Fluent Support (a WordPress helpdesk plugin used by 10K people).
Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on X/Twitter at @rednishat for SEO & Marketing updates.