Nov 24 2025
‘Automate First’ for AI Commerce Success

Artificial intelligence is changing ecommerce so quickly that keeping up is daunting.

Consider the prominent payment processors, platforms, and marketplaces that collaborated with OpenAI and Perplexity in the past year.

  • Perplexity and Shopify in November 2024.
  • OpenAI with Shopify in April 2025.
  • Perplexity and PayPal in May 2025.
  • OpenAI and Shopify again in September 2025.
  • Perplexity and Stripe in September 2025.
  • OpenAI and Walmart in October 2025.
  • Perplexity and PayPal again in November 2025.
  • OpenAI and Target in November 2025.

Each of these partnerships and integrations pushes the industry toward various forms of AI search, AI-assisted shopping, and agentic commerce. Consumers will shop differently very soon.

How consumers shop online is quickly changing.

Marketplaces

Many mid-market businesses will benefit.

Mark Simon, vice president of strategy at Celigo, an automation platform, told me recently that direct-to-consumer brands are now selling on the Walmart Marketplace and could greatly benefit if it pushes their products into the emerging AI shopping ecosystem.

Yet the product data feeds to those marketplaces, for even a moderate number of SKUs, work only when automated. And not all data-feed integrations are the same.

“There is definitely a way to obtain a competitive advantage,” said Simon. “If you choose a modern technique…a modern method [of integration], you can move quickly. You can shift to an automation-first approach.”

Simon’s perspective is notable given that Celigo is an infrastructure-as-a-service company that connects and automates business systems, including Walmart Marketplace integrations.

An automation-first mindset could help ecommerce businesses more broadly as the race to keep up with AI shopping intensifies.

Automation First

Imagine a repetitive but essential task, such as a workflow for creating AI-generated product descriptions. The workflow can start manually. A marketing specialist develops a prompt, pastes it into an AI, provides feedback on the output, re-generates it, and so on.

An automation-first mindset prioritizes how the workflow functions at scale. It seeks to make automation the default process for most operational, marketing, and business tasks.

For product descriptions, an automation would integrate the catalog, AI, and ecommerce platform. Once connected, it could run a series of tests to improve the output. When launched, the automation works at scale.

Getting Started

To implement an automation-first mindset:

  • Become proactive. Simon said it like this, “Instead of being reactive around everything that’s changing, think differently and become proactive.” Automate repetitive, time-sensitive, and error-prone operations from the start.
  • Invest the time. Building an automated process or workflow can take more up-front work and collaboration. Invest the time.
  • Build for multiple applications. Modern integrations and automations should be mostly agnostic toward companies and software tools. The integration that feeds data to the Walmart Marketplace should easily adapt to Amazon, eBay, and even Mercado Libre.
  • Find repeatable and scalable tasks. Automation, after all, is the idea of doing something over and over again. So design processes and workflows flexible enough to grow with the business.
  • Monitor outcomes consistently. Good automations should include feedback loops and regular reports, not a “set and forget” approach.
  • Adopt strategic alignment and common sense. Finally, automation first does not mean automation always. Ensure it makes sense for the business and passes a common-sense test.

Keeping Up

Given these characteristics, an automation-first mindset could help merchants:

  • Absorb rapid change.
  • Add operational margin and flexibility.

Absorbing change

If Walmart or any other marketplace alters how it ingests product data or modifies its discovery algorithm, a good integration takes those changes in stride.

Certainly change is inevitable, but automation makes adoption relatively easier.

Operational margin

The automation-first mindset can create something akin to operational margin — the space and time needed to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.

When the integrations, workflows, and connections run automatically and reliably, managers reclaim hours each week for revenue-generating projects, avoiding manual updates, error chasing, or feed maintenance.

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Nov 22 2025
We’re learning more about what vitamin D does to our bodies

It has started to get really wintry here in London over the last few days. The mornings are frosty, the wind is biting, and it’s already dark by the time I pick my kids up from school. The darkness in particular has got me thinking about vitamin D, a.k.a. the sunshine vitamin.

At a checkup a few years ago, a doctor told me I was deficient in vitamin D. But he wouldn’t write me a prescription for supplements, simply because, as he put it, everyone in the UK is deficient. Putting the entire population on vitamin D supplements would be too expensive for the country’s national health service, he told me.

But supplementation—whether covered by a health-care provider or not—can be important. As those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere spend fewer of our waking hours in sunlight, let’s consider the importance of vitamin D.

Yes, it is important for bone health. But recent research is also uncovering surprising new insights into how the vitamin might influence other parts of our bodies, including our immune systems and heart health.

Vitamin D was discovered just over 100 years ago, when health professionals were looking for ways to treat what was then called “the English disease.” Today, we know that rickets, a weakening of bones in children, is caused by vitamin D deficiency. And vitamin D is best known for its importance in bone health.

That’s because it helps our bodies absorb calcium. Our bones are continually being broken down and rebuilt, and they need calcium for that rebuilding process. Without enough calcium, bones can become weak and brittle. (Depressingly, rickets is still a global health issue, which is why there is global consensus that infants should receive a vitamin D supplement at least until they are one year old.)

In the decades since then, scientists have learned that vitamin D has effects beyond our bones. There’s some evidence to suggest, for example, that being deficient in vitamin D puts people at risk of high blood pressure. Daily or weekly supplements can help those individuals lower their blood pressure.

A vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to a greater risk of “cardiovascular events” like heart attacks, although it’s not clear whether supplements can reduce this risk; the evidence is pretty mixed.

Vitamin D appears to influence our immune health, too. Studies have found a link between low vitamin D levels and incidence of the common cold, for example. And other research has shown that vitamin D supplements can influence the way our genes make proteins that play important roles in the way our immune systems work.

We don’t yet know exactly how these relationships work, however. And, unfortunately, a recent study that assessed the results of 37 clinical trials found that overall, vitamin D supplements aren’t likely to stop you from getting an “acute respiratory infection.”

Other studies have linked vitamin D levels to mental health, pregnancy outcomes, and even how long people survive after a cancer diagnosis. It’s tantalizing to imagine that a cheap supplement could benefit so many aspects of our health.

But, as you might have gathered if you’ve got this far, we’re not quite there yet. The evidence on the effects of vitamin D supplementation for those various conditions is mixed at best.

In fairness to researchers, it can be difficult to run a randomized clinical trial for vitamin D supplements. That’s because most of us get the bulk of our vitamin D from sunlight. Our skin converts UVB rays into a form of the vitamin that our bodies can use. We get it in our diets, too, but not much. (The main sources are oily fish, egg yolks, mushrooms, and some fortified cereals and milk alternatives.)

The standard way to measure a person’s vitamin D status is to look at blood levels of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25(OH)D), which is formed when the liver metabolizes vitamin D. But not everyone can agree on what the “ideal” level is.

Even if everyone did agree on a figure, it isn’t obvious how much vitamin D a person would need to consume to reach this target, or how much sunlight exposure it would take. One complicating factor is that people respond to UV rays in different ways—a lot of that can depend on how much melanin is in your skin. Similarly, if you’re sitting down to a meal of oily fish and mushrooms and washing it down with a glass of fortified milk, it’s hard to know how much more you might need.

There is more consensus on the definition of vitamin D deficiency, though. (It’s a blood level below 30 nanomoles per liter, in case you were wondering.) And until we know more about what vitamin D is doing in our bodies, our focus should be on avoiding that.

For me, that means topping up with a supplement. The UK government advises everyone in the country to take a 10-microgram vitamin D supplement over autumn and winter. That advice doesn’t factor in my age, my blood levels, or the amount of melanin in my skin. But it’s all I’ve got for now.

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Nov 22 2025
The Download: the secrets of vitamin D, and an AI party in Africa

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

We’re learning more about what vitamin D does to our bodies

At a checkup a few years ago, a doctor told me I was deficient in vitamin D. But he wouldn’t write me a prescription for supplements, simply because, as he put it, everyone in the UK is deficient. Putting the entire population on vitamin D supplements would be too expensive for the country’s national health service, he told me.

But supplementation—whether covered by a health-care provider or not—can be important. As those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere spend fewer of our waking hours in sunlight, let’s consider the importance of vitamin D. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.

If you’re interested in other stories from our biotech writers, check out some of their most recent work:

+ Advanced in organs on chips, digital twins, and AI are ushering in a new era of research and drug development that could help put a stop to animal testing. Read the full story.

+ Here’s the latest company planning for gene-edited babies.

+ Preventing the common cold is extremely tricky—but not impossible. Here’s why we don’t have a cold vaccine. Yet.

+ Scientists are creating the beginnings of bodies without sperm or eggs. How far should they be allowed to go? Read the full story.

+ This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle. Read the full story.

Partying at one of Africa’s largest AI gatherings

It’s late August in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, and people are filling a large hall at one of Africa’s biggest gatherings of minds in AI and machine learning. Deep Learning Indaba is an annual AI conference where Africans present their research and technologies they’ve built, mingling with friends as a giant screen blinks with videos created with generative AI.

The main “prize” for many attendees is to be hired by a tech company or accepted into a PhD program. But the organizers hope to see more homegrown ventures create opportunities within Africa. Read the full story.

—Abdullahi Tsanni

This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Google’s new Nano Banana Pro generates convincing propaganda
The company’s latest image-generating AI model seems to have few guardrails. (The Verge)
+ Google wants its creations to be slicker than ever. (Wired $)
+ Google’s new Gemini 3 “vibe-codes” responses and comes with its own agent. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Taiwan says the US won’t punish it with high chip tariffs
In fact, official Wu Cheng-wen says Taiwan will help support the US chip industry in exchange for tariff relief. (FT $)

3 Mental health support is one of the most dangerous uses for chatbots
They fail to recognize psychiatric conditions and can miss critical warning signs. (WP $)
+ AI companies have stopped warning you that their chatbots aren’t doctors. (MIT Technology Review)

4 It costs an average of $17,121 to deport one person from the US
But in some cases it can cost much, much more. (Bloomberg $)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Grok is telling users that Elon Musk is the world’s greatest lover
What’s it basing that on, exactly? (Rolling Stone $)
+ It also claims he’s fitter than basketball legend LeBron James. Sure. (The Guardian)

6 Who’s really in charge of US health policy?
RFK Jr. and FDA commissioner Marty Makary are reportedly at odds behind the scenes. (Vox)
+ Republicans are lightly pushing back on the CDC’s new stance on vaccines. (Politico)
+ Why anti-vaxxers are seeking to discredit Danish studies. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meet Jim O’Neill, the longevity enthusiast who is now RFK Jr.’s right-hand man. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Inequality is worsening in San Francisco
As billionaires thrive, hundreds of thousands of others are struggling to get by. (WP $)
+ A massive airship has been spotted floating over the city. (SF Gate)

8 Donald Trump is thrusting obscure meme-makers into the mainstream
He’s been reposting flattering AI-generated memes by the dozen. (NYT $)
+ MAGA YouTube stars are pushing a boom in politically charged ads. (Bloomberg $)

9 Moss spores survived nine months in space
And they could remain reproductively viable for another 15 years. (New Scientist $)
+ It suggests that some life on Earth has evolved to endure space conditions. (NBC News)
+ The quest to figure out farming on Mars. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Does AI really need a physical shape?
It doesn’t really matter—companies are rushing to give it one anyway. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“At some point you’ve got to wonder whether the bug is a feature.”

—Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, ponders xAI and Grok’s proclivity for surfacing Elon Musk-friendly and/or far-right sources, the Washington Post reports.

One more thing

The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI

Back in 2022, the tech community was buzzing over image-generating AI models, such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, which could follow simple word prompts to depict fantasylands or whimsical chairs made of avocados.

But artists saw this technological wonder as a new kind of theft. They felt the models were effectively stealing and replacing their work.

Ben Zhao, a computer security researcher at the University of Chicago, was listening. He and his colleagues have built arguably the most prominent weapons in an artist’s arsenal against nonconsensual AI scraping: two tools called Glaze and Nightshade that add barely perceptible perturbations to an image’s pixels so that machine-learning models cannot read them properly.

But Zhao sees the tools as part of a battle to slowly tilt the balance of power from large corporations back to individual creators. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ If you’re ever tempted to try and recreate a Jackson Pollock painting, maybe you’d be best leaving it to the kids.
+ Scientists have discovered that lions have not one, but two distinct types of roars 🦁
+ The relentless rise of the quarter-zip must be stopped!
+ Pucker up: here’s a brief history of kissing 💋

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Nov 22 2025
Solar Power Developer on Fueling the Grid

Chris Elrod is a renewable power entrepreneur. His company, Treaty Oak Clean Energy, builds massive solar projects that provide electricity for large corporations and utility firms.

It’s boom times for electricity generators as the likes of Google, ChatGPT, and Amazon scramble for reliable sources.

How, exactly, does a company build a solar-generating plant and then sell the electricity to end users? I asked Chris those questions and more in our recent conversation.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.

Eric Bandholz: Who are you, and what do you do?

Chris Elrod: I’m the CEO and co-founder of Treaty Oak Clean Energy, a renewable energy developer based in Austin, Texas. We build large solar and battery projects that connect directly to the grid and power enterprise users and tens of thousands of homes. I’ve spent about two decades in the energy industry, mainly in project finance and large-scale infrastructure.

Before Treaty Oak, I co-founded AP Solar, a Texas-based firm focused on utility-scale solar projects. After seven years, we exited the company, and my partners and I used the proceeds to form Treaty Oak with a broader mission and larger geographic footprint. We launched in 2022 and sold the company to Macquarie Asset Management, a private equity investor, in the same year. I continue to lead the business as CEO.

It’s been a journey from early corporate roles to scrappy two-guys-in-a-truck entrepreneurship to running a PE-backed national developer. Every step has sharpened our approach to building and scaling renewable infrastructure.

Bandholz: How big are these projects?

Elrod: They are modern power plants spread across thousands of acres. We secure land, obtain entitlements, build the generation infrastructure, and integrate the projects into the grid. Electricity demand, once flat for years, has surged due to AI and industrial onshoring. The grid needs far more generation, and large-scale solar and storage can be deployed at speed and scale.

This year, we’ll raise roughly $1.1 to $1.2 billion in third-party capital. About $800 million will finance two Louisiana solar projects, with a third under construction in Arkansas. Together, they represent approximately 500 megawatts [the equivalent power needs for roughly 400,000 homes per year].

Bandholz: Walk us through the financing of a large solar installation.

Elrod: Project finance relies on predictable long-term cash flows. Solar assets typically have a 40-year useful life based on warranties and technology. Battery projects run about 25 years because of cell degradation. Lenders don’t lend for the full duration. They usually analyze an 18-year window and determine whether they could recover capital.

Most projects refinance around year five of operation. Lenders want repayment earlier because their funds aren’t structured to hold fixed-rate debt for decades. We pay down a portion through scheduled maturities and then refinance the rest. Long-term interest rates, not short-term, drive our financing costs. The primary lenders in this space are large European and Japanese commercial banks.

Most deals use a club structure where several lenders share the debt equally to balance risk. Another option is underwriting, where one or two banks commit to a large initial ticket and later syndicate portions to others. It speeds execution but costs more.

We’ve gone hands-on, working directly with multiple lenders instead of relying on a single underwriter. It requires additional effort but gives us better control of terms and relationships.

Between debt and equity, it’s primarily a cost-of-capital decision. Interest rates are still several percentage points above 2022 levels, which affects infrastructure returns. Even so, debt remains cheaper than equity because shareholders require higher returns. As long as project fundamentals support it, debt is more efficient and preserves equity while improving overall economics.

Bandholz: How do macro events such as tariffs and supply chain disruptions affect your projects?

Elrod: We monitor macro factors constantly — interest rates, regulatory shifts, and especially tariffs. Tariffs bring real uncertainty. Some policies may serve a strategic purpose, but others affect components that the U.S. cannot yet manufacture at the required scale or cost. Volatility is the most challenging aspect because tariff actions can change quickly.

We shift risk to customers and suppliers where possible, and stay agile. If policy signals suggest a tariff might hit, we may accelerate procurement or import components early. It’s less about a perfect strategy and more about informed, rapid adaptation.

Solar panels are a significant cost driver, but so are steel pilings, racking systems, copper and aluminum cabling, and engineered materials. Some manufacturing exists in the U.S., and more will grow, but not enough to meet current utility-scale demand at the required price or quality. Global supply chains remain essential.

Tariff risk is exactly why contract structure matters. We can’t commit to pricing and later absorb unexpected cost increases that eliminate project margins. We’ve avoided that so far by locking in supply-chain terms early and keeping customer pricing stable from the start. Our goal is to shield customers from volatility while protecting shareholder value. That requires constant coordination, nimble procurement, and effective risk transfer.

Our customers — major corporations and operators — need reliable, clean power to support accelerating electricity demand. Solar generation combined with storage remains the fastest, most scalable solution.

Bandholz: How have you built your team?

Elrod: Our power markets team manages sales end-to-end. They identify customers, respond to requests for information and proposals, submit projects, and run procurement and communication. I support them, but they lead the process.

Our company has grown from about 17 people when we sold to Macquarie in 2022 to over 100 today. Building the right culture has been essential. Our message is “execute with excellence,” and that means staying vigilant across every part of the business.

Hiring has been challenging. Post-Covid labor dynamics and the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 increased competition and wage pressure. We sometimes hired too quickly to fill roles. Now we use structured scorecards for senior positions, with clear criteria aligned with the company’s objectives. Our people and culture team works closely with hiring managers to ensure each candidate is the right fit. We maintain transparency and quarterly performance alignment to keep teams focused and accountable.

The U.S. still offers enormous opportunities. Demand for electricity, infrastructure, and clean generation is expanding rapidly, and the market has the capacity to support substantial growth.

Bandholz: Where can people reach out to you or get advice?

Elrod: Our website is TreatyOakCleanEnergy.com. Reach out to me on LinkedIn.

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Nov 21 2025
Pew: 84% Of Adults Use YouTube As Platform Growth Continues via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

YouTube and Facebook continue to lead U.S. social media usage, but TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and Reddit are showing consistent growth, according to new data from Pew Research Center.

The report surveyed 5,022 U.S and found 84% use YouTube and 71% use Facebook. Instagram reached 50% adoption, making it the only other platform used by at least half of American adults.

What The Data Says

TikTok Growth Continues

TikTok usage among U.S. adults has increased to 37%, a slight rise from last year and nearly twice the 21% recorded in 2021. Approximately 24% of TikTok users visit the platform daily.

Instagram Reaches Milestone

Half of U.S. adults now use Instagram, matching 2024 levels but rising from 40% in 2021. The platform is especially popular among younger users.

WhatsApp and Reddit Gain Users

WhatsApp usage increased to 32%, rising from 23% in 2021. Reddit grew to 26%, up from 18% four years earlier.

New Platforms Show Limited Reach

Among U.S. adults, Threads has an 8% adoption rate, Bluesky is at 4%, and Truth Social stands at 3%.

Usage Frequency Varies by Platform

Approximately half of adults (52%) visit Facebook every day, with 37% checking it multiple times. YouTube has 48% daily usage, with 33% visiting more than once a day.

TikTok is used daily by 24% of adults, while X (formerly Twitter) has a 10% daily usage rate.

Platform Demographics

Age is the strongest predictor of platform use. Eight in ten adults aged 18-29 use Instagram, versus 19% of those 65+. Similar gaps are seen for Snapchat (58% vs. 4%), TikTok (63% vs. 5%) and Reddit (48% vs. 6%).

YouTube and Facebook are used by most age groups, but younger adults still lead in YouTube at 95%, versus 64% for those 65+.

Women are more likely to use Facebook (78% vs. 63%), Instagram (55% vs. 44%) and TikTok (42% vs. 30%), while men favor X (29% vs. 15%) and Reddit (37% vs. 15%). Adults with college degrees are more likely to use Reddit (40%), WhatsApp (41%) and Instagram (58%) than those with high school or less.

Why This Matters

These usage patterns can help inform your content distribution plans.

YouTube and Facebook are key for reaching a wide audience, while TikTok, Instagram, and newer platforms focus on specific groups.

Since different age groups prefer different platforms, it’s a good idea to tailor strategies for each platform rather than sharing the same content everywhere.

Looking Ahead

Pew’s data indicates gradual changes rather than sudden growth. Younger adults are continuing to favor familiar platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit, while older adults are still more reliant on Facebook and YouTube.

Newer platforms such as Threads and Bluesky are still niche but indicate where politically active users might experiment next.

Pew’s trend series and methodology notes offer a baseline to monitor whether these divides increase, decrease, or stabilize in future data.

Featured Image: Vasylisa Dvoichenkova/Shutterstock

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Nov 21 2025
Google CTR Trends In Q3: Branded Clicks Fan Out, Longer Queries Hold via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Advanced Web Ranking released its Q3 Google organic clickthrough report, tracking CTR changes by ranking position across query types and industries.

The company compared July through September against April through June. The dataset is international, so the patterns reflect broad search behavior rather than a single region.

Here’s what stands out in this quarter’s report.

Branded Desktop Searches Shift Clicks Down-Page

The clearest movement this quarter shows up in branded queries on desktop.

For searches containing a brand or business name, position 1 lost 1.52 percentage points of CTR. Positions 2 through 6 gained a combined 8.71 points.

Unbranded queries were mostly unchanged, so this shift appears specific to how people navigate brand SERPs on desktop.

Commercial & Location Queries Lose Top CTR

When AWR sorted results by intent, commercial and location searches posted the clearest top-position declines.

Commercial queries, defined as searches including terms like “buy” or “price,” saw positions 1 and 2 on desktop drop a combined 4.20 points. Position 1 accounted for most of that loss at 3.01 points.

Location searches also weakened at the top. Position 1 fell 2.52 points on desktop and 2.13 points on mobile.

AWR doesn’t attribute cause, but these are the SERPs where rich results and other modules can crowd the page.

The takeaway is that top organic placements in commercial and local contexts captured a smaller share of clicks in Q3 than they did in Q2.

Longer Queries Hold Steady

Query length shows another split that matters for forecasting traffic.

On desktop, position-1 CTR fell for shorter multi-word searches. Two-word queries dropped 1.22 points and three-word queries dropped 1.24 points at the top spot.

AWR notes that 4+ word queries were the only group with steady CTR this quarter.

On mobile, the movement went the other way for the shortest queries. One-word searches gained 1.52 points at position 1.

The takeaway here is that short, generic desktop searches remain the most volatile category of CTR performance, while longer searches looked more stable in Q3.

Industry Winners And Losers

AWR tracked CTR shifts across 18 verticals and tied those changes to demand trends.

The report highlighted several large moves:

  • Arts & Entertainment had the steepest single-position decline, with position 1 on desktop down 5.13 points.
  • Travel showed the strongest gain, with position 2 on desktop up 2.46 points.
  • Shopping saw a redistribution near the top. Position 1 on desktop fell 2.10 points, while positions 2 and 3 gained a combined 2.83 points.

The takeaway is that CTR isn’t shifting evenly across verticals. Some categories are seeing a top-spot squeeze, while others are seeing clicks spread across more of the upper results.

Why This Matters For You

Q3 adds another data point for explaining CTR changes when rankings stay flat.

For branded desktop searches, position 1 is still dominant, but it’s no longer absorbing as much of the clickshare as last quarter.

If you track brand terms, it’s worth watching whether traffic is distributing across multiple listings on those SERPs.

And if your traffic depends on short, high-volume desktop queries, this report suggests those segments are still the most exposed to quarter-over-quarter click shifts. Longer searches were the only length group that held steady at the top in Q3.

Looking Ahead

AWR’s report reflects an international dataset and doesn’t isolate a single driver behind the CTR movement. Still, the direction in Q3 is clear in a few places.

Branded desktop clicks are spreading beyond position 1, and commercial and local SERPs continue to pressure the top organic slot.

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

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Nov 21 2025
SEO Pulse: Gemini 3 Arrives & Adobe Buys Semrush via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how AI surfaces content, how you track brand demand, and where core SEO tools sit in the wider marketing stack.

Google launched Gemini 3 directly into AI Mode in Search, Adobe announced a $1.9 billion acquisition of Semrush, and Google shipped two reporting updates in Search Console: custom annotations and a branded queries filter.

Here’s what matters for you and your work.

Google Brings Gemini 3 To AI Mode On Launch Day

Google released Gemini 3 Pro and integrated it into AI Mode in Search on day one. This is the first time a new Gemini model has shipped to Search at launch.

Gemini 3 Pro is available now in AI Mode for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S. by choosing “Thinking” from the model dropdown. Google plans to expand access to all U.S. users soon, with higher usage limits for paid subscribers.

Key Facts: Gemini 3 is live in AI Mode, the Gemini app, AI Studio, Vertex AI, and Google’s Antigravity platform. It brings new generative UI layouts and a more aggressive query fan-out system, with automatic model selection coming soon to route complex questions to Gemini 3.

Why SEOs Should Pay Attention

Gemini 3 pushes AI Mode further away from static answer boxes toward dynamic, tool-based responses. Instead of plain text, Google can decide when to surface calculators, simulations, or comparison tables based on your query, which changes how often people need to click through, even when your content underpins the answer.

Mordy Oberstein, Founder at Unify Marketing, connected Gemini 3’s capabilities to Google’s broader strategy in a LinkedIn post:

Gemini 3 offering a more diverse display “take” on the topic is where this is headed. I think if you combine this with what Liz Reid (Google’s Head of Search) said in a recent WSJ interview, the future of AI Mode is full-on SERP integration happens is multi-media text output + original source firsthand knowledge exploration.

His point frames Gemini 3 less as a model upgrade and more as another step toward AI Mode becoming the default SERP experience.

Read our full coverage: Google Brings Gemini 3 To Search’s AI Mode

Search Console Adds Custom Annotations To Performance Reports

Google launched custom annotations in Search Console performance reports. The feature lets you add contextual notes directly to traffic charts, marking specific dates with explanations for site changes or external events.

You can right-click any date on a performance chart, select “Add annotation,” and write a note up to 120 characters explaining what happened.

Key Facts: All annotations are visible to everyone with access to a property, each property can store up to 200 annotations, and entries older than 500 days are automatically deleted.

Why SEOs Should Pay Attention

Keeping track of when you shipped a change has always been awkward in Search Console. You make a template update, fix a technical issue, or publish a new section, then come back weeks later and have to reconstruct the timeline from Jira tickets or chat logs.

Custom annotations move that context into the chart itself so you can see change points alongside traffic shifts.

Brodie Clark, Independent SEO Consultant, highlighted the timing in a LinkedIn post:

Overall, I think this is a great move for GSC. Especially after changes like we’ve seen with the disabling of &num=100, which messed with our impressions and average position data massively. These annotations appear directly on your chart, providing a clear visual reference point for your data (just make sure they’re useful – because everyone who can access the property can see them).

For teams, that shared view makes it easier to understand why traffic changed without chasing down who did what and when.

Read the announcement: Custom annotations in Search Console

Adobe Acquires Semrush In $1.9 Billion Cash Deal

Adobe and Semrush announced a definitive agreement for Adobe to acquire Semrush in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.9 billion.

Adobe will pay $12.00 per share, a premium of around 77% over Semrush’s prior closing price. Semrush shares climbed more than 70 percent after the announcement.

Key Facts: Both boards have approved the deal, closing is targeted for the first half of 2026 pending regulatory and shareholder approval, and Semrush will join Adobe’s Digital Experience business alongside Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Analytics.

Why SEOs Should Pay Attention

Core SEO and visibility tooling continues to consolidate into large enterprise suites. Semrush has already moved toward monitoring brand presence across AI assistants as well as traditional search, which fits with Adobe’s focus on cross-channel experience and analytics.

Eli Schwartz, Author of “Product-Led SEO,” outlined the deal’s strategic implications on LinkedIn:

Adobe + Semrush means three things: SEO is still a very valuable channel, yet it was undervalued by Wall Street, which is why Adobe paid a premium on its market cap. The value isn’t in seeing the visibility – the value is seeing what happens after the visibility. Search visibility + analytics is going to make a potent tool. The cross-sell and upsell opportunities between these businesses are going to be massive.

If you rely on Semrush, you may see product and pricing shift toward deeper integration with Adobe’s stack, which could benefit teams already standardizing on Adobe while changing the equation for everyone else.

Read our full coverage: Adobe To Acquire Semrush In $1.9 Billion Cash Deal

Google Search Console Adds Branded Queries Filter

Google introduced a branded queries filter in the Search Console Performance report that automatically separates branded and non-branded search traffic.

The filter appears under “Filter by query” and works across all search types, including web, image, video, and news. A new card in the Insights report shows the breakdown of clicks for branded versus non-branded queries.

Key Facts: Google uses an AI-driven system to classify branded queries, including misspellings, variations, and brand-related products or services. The filter is only available for top-level properties with enough volume and is rolling out gradually over the coming weeks.

Why SEOs Should Pay Attention

Separating branded and non-branded traffic makes it easier to see whether your SEO work is expanding reach or amplifying existing demand.

Non-branded queries are your discovery channel, while branded queries reflect how often people look you up by name. With this filter, you can benchmark both segments before and after big initiatives and understand whether growth is coming from new audiences, increased brand demand, or a mix of the two.

Mags Sikora, SEO Director at Strategy for AI-Led SERPs, pointed out the technical detail in a LinkedIn post:

Crucially, this isn’t regex-based. Google is using an AI-driven system that recognises your brand across languages, catches typos and variations, and can even classify queries that don’t explicitly mention the brand but refer to a unique product or service you offer.

She added that Google acknowledges some queries may be misclassified due to the dynamic, contextual nature of brand detection, and that the filter only changes reporting, not rankings.

Read the announcement: Branded queries filter in Search Console

Theme Of The Week: Making AI Search Legible

Each story this week is about making AI-powered search easier to see and explain.

Gemini 3 pushes more queries into dynamic AI layouts, while custom annotations and the branded queries filter give you better ways to document changes and separate brand demand from discovery. Adobe’s Semrush deal continues the trend toward rolling SEO visibility into broader analytics stacks.

Taken together, this week is less about “new features” and more about storytelling: where your brand shows up in AI experiences, how that visibility changes over time, and how you translate those patterns into metrics your stakeholders actually care about.

Top Stories Of The Week:

More Resources:

Featured Image: pui_bunny/Shutterstock

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Nov 21 2025
PPC Pulse: Nano Banana Pro, Image Animation & The Top PPC Influencers via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

PPC news this week focused on creative tool updates and the people shaping how we use them. Google Ads brought Nano Banana Pro into its creative workflow, giving advertisers sharper, more flexible options for generating images.

Microsoft Ads introduced Image Animation and new Performance Comparison features in Copilot, so turning static assets and raw numbers into something usable feels less painful. And the Top 100 PPC Influencers shortlist sparked a wave of personal posts, especially from people like Jyll Saskin Gales, about what real influence actually feels like.

Here is a closer look at what changed and how it might affect your accounts.

Nano Banana Pro Arrives In Google Ads

Google introduced Nano Banana Pro, a new image generation and editing model built on Gemini 3 Pro and now available across products like Gemini, Workspace, and Google Ads.

Compared with the earlier Nano Banana model, this version focuses on sharper reasoning, better text rendering inside images, and stronger brand consistency. It is designed to turn rough ideas into studio-quality visuals while keeping on-brand details intact.

From a Google Ads standpoint, Google Ads Liaison positioned Nano Banana Pro as a creative engine inside Asset Studio and campaign setup flows. Advertisers can create and edit high-resolution images, adjust details like lighting and camera angles, and even showcase multiple products in a single scene for formats like Performance Max and Demand Gen.

Per Ginny Marvin’s post, advertisers can expect:

  • Better brand alignment.
  • More creative control.
  • Higher-quality output and multi-product showcasing.
  • Easier iteration and testing.

The big promise is speed with control. You can work in a conversational way with assets rather than rewriting prompts every time you want a version with a new background or seasonal setting.

Why Advertisers Should Pay Attention

Most teams feel constant creative pressure to keep up with the volume and scale of testing. For visual-focused campaigns like Performance Max, Shopping, and Demand Gen, those campaigns need a steady stream of fresh assets. As a result, many brands struggle to keep up without sacrificing quality.

Nano Banana Pro aims to ease that bottleneck. If it does what Google claims, it should help you:

  • Scale image production while staying closer to your brand guidelines.
  • Produce on-brand “sets” of images for seasonal pushes or product bundles.
  • Improve text inside images for promos, headlines, and localized creative.

There are tradeoffs to keep in mind. You still need clear brand rules, review steps, and legal guardrails. Watermarked AI visuals do not replace proper approvals, especially in regulated categories.

If you want to test Nano Banana Pro in Google Ads, start with a structured plan: pick a few PMax or Demand Gen campaigns, create AI-only asset groups, and compare performance to your current best creatives. Treat it as a creative accelerator, not a replacement for your existing brand work.

Microsoft Announces Image Animation And Performance Comparison

In the same week, Microsoft announced its own updates to image creative: Image Animation.

Image Animation lets you turn static images into short videos using templates in Ads Studio. The feature is in global pilot, with the exception of mainland China, and is meant to extend the life of existing image assets across video inventory on the Microsoft network.

Microsoft also announced a new feature called Performance Comparison. Per the Microsoft Liaison’s LinkedIn post, the feature is meant to allow you to “have meaningful conversations with your data.”

For example, you can now ask Copilot to compare periods, A/B tests, campaigns, or top keywords and get a narrative summary plus charts, instead of building everything manually in spreadsheets.

Finally, Microsoft highlighted new API-powered generation features. Background images, display ads, videos, and brand kits can all be created at scale through Copilot in the Campaign Management API. That piece is aimed squarely at high-volume advertisers and agencies who rely on automation to keep assets fresh.

Why Advertisers Should Pay Attention

If your team has wanted more video but never had the time or budget, Image Animation is worth a look. Converting top static assets into simple motion can help improve engagement without a full production effort.

The risk is lazy creative. Video built on weak images will not magically perform. Use this feature on proven winners first, then expand.
Performance Comparison is the more quietly powerful update. Many PPC managers still spend a lot of time exporting data, slicing it, and trying to tell a story in slides. Letting Copilot handle first-draft comparisons can save hours and surface trends you might miss.

You still need to validate your data and sense-check the narrative. Automation can speed up analysis, but it cannot know your client’s politics, internal benchmarks, or the context behind a bad week.

For larger accounts, the API updates could be significant. Teams with many markets, feeds, or brands can generate creative variations programmatically and keep evergreen campaigns from going stale. This is one of those features that rewards advertisers who have clean feeds, strong brand kits, and consistent naming structures already in place.

Top 100 PPC Influencers Shortlist Sparks Conversation

At the beginning of the week, PPC Survey launched its shortlist of the Top 100 PPC Influencers of 2025. The list serves as an alphabetical pool for the final Top 50 ranking, which is decided partly through votes in the State of PPC survey and other ranking factors.

To make the shortlist, most experts need at least 2,500 LinkedIn followers, though PPCsurvey notes that some exceptions are made for influence through speaking, content, or podcasts. Industry reporters and ad platform employees are excluded from the ranking itself, even though the organizers encourage people to follow them.

Voting is open until late December, and many shortlisted experts shared their nominations with gratitude, humor, or a bit of imposter syndrome.

In my opinion, one post stood out in particular amongst the noise of the announcements. In Jyll Saskin Gales’ LinkedIn post, she shared honest, mixed feelings about lists like this and how she defined influence.

She explained that the external recognition came first: speaking invites, writing opportunities, brand deals. The feeling of real influence came later, when people started sharing very personal outcomes tied to her work. Job offers they landed because of her content. Careers they felt more secure in. Emotional moments when readers met her in person and talked about how her book or resources changed their approach to Google Ads.

Jyll also used the post to talk about responsibility. She encouraged people to look at their voting choices and ask whether they are supporting diverse voices and asked readers to consider their own influence.

Why Advertisers Should Pay Attention

On the surface, a “Top 100” list can feel like industry inside baseball. But lists like this shape who teams follow, whose frameworks get repeated in decks, and which case studies clients see.

If your feed is filled with posts about this shortlist, it is a good moment to audit your inputs. Ask yourself:

  • Do I follow people who work on similar problems as me, or only the most visible names?
  • Do the voices in my feed reflect different markets, backgrounds, and company sizes?
  • Am I sharing ideas from a small circle, or highlighting newer experts who have helped my work?

You do not need a badge to be influential. If you teach a junior teammate, write a clear client email, or share a thread that helps someone understand a platform change, you are shaping how PPC is practiced in your circles.

The list is simply a guide or another tool to find useful PPC information. Use it to discover new people, yes, but also to reflect on how you wield your own influence.

This Week In PPC: Creativity And Influence

On one side, Google and Microsoft are racing to make creative and analysis more automated. Nano Banana Pro promises faster, more on-brand visuals inside campaign workflows. Microsoft’s new features aim to turn static images into video and compress reporting time into simple chat prompts.

On the other side, the Top 100 shortlist and posts like Jyll’s remind us that tools do not drive strategy. People do. The frameworks you share, the way you explain changes to stakeholders, and the care you show in your content have a long tail that no platform roadmap can replicate.

As you test new creative models and Copilot features, it may help to ask a simple question: Are you giving as much attention to the influence you have on others as you give to the tools you use every day?

Top Stories Of The Week:

More Resources:

Featured Image: eodora ART/Shutterstock

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Nov 21 2025
WordPress SEO Checklist: Get Ready For (Site) Launch via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

WordPress powers more than 40% of the web, and there’s a reason for that dominance. The platform combines flexibility with relative ease of use, making it accessible to beginners while offering enough depth for advanced users.

But that accessibility comes with a catch. WordPress doesn’t automatically optimize itself for search engines. Out of the box, it’s a solid foundation, but you need to configure it properly to compete in search results.

I’ve worked with WordPress for over 12 years and seen what works and what doesn’t. I’ve seen how the right hosting choice can transform site performance. I’ve watched plugins conflict and crash sites. I’ve learned which optimizations move the needle and which ones waste your time.

Like understanding your analytics, some WordPress fundamentals should be second nature if you’re serious about SEO. These aren’t temporary tactics that might work this month. They’re foundational decisions that determine whether your site can compete.

To help you set up WordPress correctly from the start, I’ve rounded up the SEO essentials that make the biggest difference. From choosing hosting that won’t tank your Core Web Vitals to selecting plugins that won’t introduce security vulnerabilities, this guide covers what matters.

Whether you’re launching your first site or managing an established publication, these fundamentals apply.

Getting The Foundation Right

WordPress maintenance can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling multiple priorities.

The platform wouldn’t generate 70 million new posts each month if it were impossible to manage. But there’s a gap between “functional” and “optimized for search.”

The challenge isn’t learning to use WordPress. It’s understanding which technical decisions impact SEO and which ones don’t matter.

Over the past few years, I’ve tested different hosting environments, experimented with caching configurations, and evaluated dozens of plugins. Some changes made measurable differences in performance. Others were invisible to both users and search engines.

WordPress is ideal for SEO. No other platform offers the same combination of flexibility, plugin ecosystem, and community support. You don’t need coding skills to get started.

But SEO success doesn’t happen automatically. It requires understanding the technical foundation and making informed choices about hosting, themes, plugins, and optimization.

Here’s what matters, starting with the decisions you make before your site even goes live.

Choosing Web Hosting That Won’t Tank Your Rankings

Web hosting is the first technical decision that impacts your WordPress SEO, and it’s one of the most important.

A slow, unreliable host creates problems that no amount of optimization can fix. If your site takes ten seconds to load or goes down during traffic spikes, you’ll lose visitors and rankings.

People abandon sites that take too long to load. That’s not just a user experience problem. It’s a revenue problem.

Budget hosting can work for small personal sites, but serious publishers need hosting that can handle traffic, maintain uptime, and deliver fast page loads consistently.

Before choosing a hosting provider, evaluate these factors:

  • Plugin support and compatibility.
  • Backup frequency and restoration process.
  • Staging environment availability.
  • Bandwidth allocation.
  • Operating system (Linux vs. Windows).
  • Shared server quality and neighbors.

Understanding how hosting impacts SEO can help you make the right choice for your site’s needs.

The benefits to SEO include increased website speed, better Core Web Vitals performance, improved uptime reliability.

Web hosting for WordPress:

  • Kinsta ($35/month starting, managed WordPress hosting with server-level caching).
  • Cloudways (managed cloud hosting with excellent value).
  • SiteGround (note: renewal rates can be 3x higher than intro pricing).

Read more: Choosing A Web Hosting Provider.

Accelerating Content Delivery With CDN

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) can transform your site’s performance, especially if you have a global audience.

CDNs cache static content like images, JavaScript, and CSS on servers distributed around the world. When someone visits your site, the CDN delivers content from the server closest to them, reducing latency and speeding up page loads.

This matters for SEO because faster load times improve user experience and boost your Core Web Vitals scores. Sites with good Core Web Vitals performance tend to rank better in search results.

Many premium hosting providers now include CDN services, so check whether yours already offers this before adding a separate solution. If your host doesn’t include a CDN, several excellent options exist:

  • Cloudflare (free tier available with robust features including SSL, CDN, and DDoS protection across 310+ data centers).
  • BunnyCDN (cost-effective pay-as-you-go pricing).
  • KeyCDN (mid-tier option with strong performance).
  • Imperva CDN (formerly Incapsula, enterprise-focused with integrated security features).

Picking A Theme That Works With Search Engines

Most people choose WordPress themes based on aesthetics, which makes sense. Your site should look good.

But visual appeal shouldn’t be your only criteria. Some beautiful themes are built on bloated code that tanks your page speed. Others lack proper schema markup or responsive design.

An SEO-friendly theme combines clean code, fast load times, and proper technical implementation. These features matter more than most design elements because they directly impact how search engines crawl and rank your site.

When evaluating themes, look for these characteristics:

  • Clean and fast code. Well-written themes load faster and give search engines less to process.
  • Minimal CSS and JavaScript files. Fewer files mean fewer HTTP requests and faster page loads.
  • Simple, intuitive layout. Clear navigation helps users and search engines understand your site structure.
  • Responsive design. Mobile-friendliness is a fundamental prerequisite.
  • Schema markup support. Structured data helps search engines understand your content.

SEO-friendly WordPress themes:

  • GeneratePress ($59/year for GP Premium): Consistently rated as one of the fastest WordPress themes with minimal DOM size and lean performance.
  • Astra ($49/year for Pro): Active development with 50+ updates in the past year, lightweight design, and 1+ million active installations.
  • Kadence ($69/year for Kadence Pro): Offers a feature-rich free version with. In active development with 400,000+ installations.
  • Blocksy ($69/year for Pro): Modern, React-powered theme optimized for WordPress Full Site Editing. Lightweight install at ~27KB.
  • Divi ($89/year): Complete visual builder with extensive layout library. Divi 5 (in public beta) offers a complete rebuild with performance improvements.

Optimizing For Core Web Vitals Performance

Core Web Vitals have become the primary way hosting and theme choices impact SEO. These metrics measure how fast, stable, and responsive your website feels to users.

The three Core Web Vitals are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). INP replaced First Input Delay (FID) in March 2024, making it crucial to optimize for this newer metric.

WordPress sites have historically struggled with Core Web Vitals compared to other platforms. Recent data shows only 43.44% of WordPress sites pass Core Web Vitals assessments. But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to poor performance.

The good news is that with the right hosting, theme, and optimization approach, you can achieve excellent Core Web Vitals scores even on WordPress.

Setting Up HTTPS & SSL Certificates

While HTTPS has been a confirmed ranking factor since 2014, its importance continues growing. HTTPS isn’t optional anymore. It’s mandatory for any site that wants to be taken seriously.

The shift to HTTPS protects user data and builds trust with visitors. Browsers now actively warn users when they visit non-HTTPS sites, which can destroy your credibility before anyone even reads your content.

Most quality hosting providers now include free SSL certificates through Let’s Encrypt. If yours doesn’t, that’s a red flag about the hosting provider itself.

Setting up HTTPS is straightforward, but you need to make sure you properly redirect all HTTP URLs to HTTPS versions. Otherwise, you risk duplicate content issues and mixed content warnings.

Choosing The Right Cache Plugin For Speed

Cache plugins can improve WordPress performance by storing static versions of your pages and serving them to visitors instead of generating each page from scratch.

The speed difference is measurable. A site that takes two seconds to load will outperform one that takes seven seconds, both in user experience and search rankings.

But not all cache plugins are created equal. Some introduce security vulnerabilities or conflicts that cause more problems than they solve.

Cache plugin options:

  • WP Rocket ($59/year, easiest to use, comprehensive features, 3+ million users).
  • LiteSpeed Cache (free, best for LiteSpeed servers, powerful server-side caching).
  • WP Fastest Cache (free/premium $49.99, highest rated at 4.9/5 stars, 1+ million users, user-friendly interface).

Important note: If you’re on premium managed hosting like Kinsta, WP Engine, or SiteGround, you don’t need a cache plugin. These hosts provide server-level caching that’s more powerful than any plugin.

W3 Total Cache can’t be recommended due to a critical security vulnerability (CVE-2024-12365) discovered in January 2025. While the vulnerability has been patched, better alternatives exist that offer superior performance and easier configuration.

Important note: If you’re on premium managed hosting like Kinsta, WP Engine, or SiteGround, you don’t need a cache plugin. These hosts provide server-level caching that’s more powerful than any plugin.

Protecting Your Site With Security Plugins

Security isn’t just about protecting your site from hackers. It’s about protecting your rankings.

When a site gets hacked, Google can remove it from search results. Even a brief security incident can tank your traffic for months. That’s why having solid security measures isn’t optional.

Security plugin options:

  • Wordfence (5+ million installations, built-in firewall, malware scanning).
  • Sucuri (700,000+ installations, comprehensive security suite).
  • Patchstack (20,000+ installations, virtual patching for vulnerabilities).

These plugins monitor your site for threats, block suspicious activity, and alert you to potential vulnerabilities before they become problems.

Installing Essential SEO Plugins

When it comes to SEO plugins, you have several excellent options. The key is picking one that matches your technical comfort level and sticking with it.

Yoast SEO remains the industry standard with 10+ million installations. It handles meta descriptions, XML sitemaps, schema markup, and provides real-time content analysis. Keep it updated to the latest version for security.

Alternative SEO plugin options:

  • Rank Math (3+ million installations, more features in free version).
  • All in One SEO (3+ million installations, good alternative approach).
  • SEOPress (300,000+ installations, lightweight, no branding in free version).
  • SureRank (30,000+ installations, new option from trusted Brainstorm Force).

These plugins handle the technical SEO basics that every WordPress site needs. They generate XML sitemaps, add meta descriptions and title tags, insert schema.org structured data, and provide ways to manage internal linking and redirects.

Submitting Your XML Sitemap

Getting your XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console should be one of your first tasks after launching your WordPress site.

Your sitemap tells search engines which pages exist on your site and how they’re organized. Without it, search engines have to discover your content on their own, which can be slow and incomplete.

Most SEO plugins generate your XML sitemap automatically. You’ll typically find it at [yoursite.com/sitemap.xml] or [yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml].

Once you have your sitemap URL, log into Google Search Console and submit it under the Sitemaps section. This helps Google crawl your site more efficiently and index your pages faster.

Setting Up Permalinks Correctly

Good news! WordPress now uses SEO-friendly permalinks by default.

The platform changed its default permalink structure in WordPress 4.2 to use the post name structure (example.com/post-name/), which is SEO-friendly right out of the box.

If you’re working with an older site or someone changed this setting, verify your permalink structure. Go to Settings → Permalinks and make sure you’re using Post Name structure rather than the outdated Plain option (?p=123).

For existing sites with the old structure, changing permalinks requires setting up 301 redirects to avoid broken links. This is technical work that’s worth getting right, but it’s not something you should rush into without proper planning.

Optimizing Images For Speed And SEO

WordPress makes image optimization straightforward. You can add alt text and manage image metadata without touching code.

Image optimization recommendations:

  • Name your image files with descriptive, keyword-rich phrases before uploading.
  • Write descriptive alt text that explains what the image shows.
  • Include your brand name in image metadata when appropriate.

Modern browsers support WebP and AVIF image formats, which can reduce file sizes by 25-35% compared to JPEG without quality loss. Converting your images to these formats is recommended for optimal Core Web Vitals scores.

Several plugins can handle automatic conversion and optimization, or you can convert images before uploading.

Configuring Your Robots.txt File

Misconfigured robots.txt files are surprisingly common, and they can block search engines from indexing your most important content.

Robots.txt is a file that tells search engines which parts of your site to crawl and which to ignore. It’s a simple concept that gets complicated fast when you start blocking the wrong things.

Robots.txt best practises:

  • Block unnecessary areas: Disallow the /wp-admin/ directory to prevent search engines from crawling backend pages.
  • Keep valuable content open: Ensure that important site sections remain crawlable so your pages can be indexed.
  • Include your sitemap: Add your XML sitemap URL at the end of the file to help search engines discover your content efficiently.

The key is not blocking things you want indexed. That sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly common to see sites accidentally blocking their entire blog or important category pages.

Maintaining Your WordPress Installation

Setting up WordPress correctly is only half the battle. Ongoing maintenance protects your SEO investment and prevents small issues from becoming major problems.

Regular maintenance tasks like fixing broken links and backing up your site aren’t glamorous work. But neglecting them can wipe out months or years of optimization effort.

The good news is that maintenance doesn’t need to be time-consuming. A few strategic tasks performed regularly keep your site healthy and your rankings stable.

Backing Up Your Site Regularly

Regular backups protect your site. A single security incident or server failure can wipe out years of work.

The frequency of your backups should match your publishing schedule. Daily backups make sense for active sites. Weekly or monthly backups work for sites that update less frequently.

Backup recommendations:

  • Use cPanel for backups if you’re comfortable with server administration.
  • Install a plugin like Backup Buddy, UpdraftPlus, or Duplicator Pro for automated backups.
  • Check whether your hosting provider includes automatic daily backups before adding a plugin.

The backup method matters less than having one. Choose the approach that fits your technical comfort level and stick with it.

Looking Forward

Keeping up with WordPress technology can feel like a full-time job. Between new plugins, constant updates, and changing SEO best practices, even seasoned users can get overwhelmed.

But the fundamentals never change. A fast, secure, well-maintained site built on solid hosting, a clean theme, and optimized content will always outperform one that isn’t.

WordPress continues to be the most flexible and scalable platform for building sites that rank, if you put the right foundation in place. The strategies in this guide give you everything you need to do exactly that.

More Resources:

Featured Image: ImageFlow/Shutterstock

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Nov 21 2025
Three things to know about the future of electricity

<div data-chronoton-summary="

  • Electricity demand is surging globally. Global electricity demand will grow 40% over the next decade. Data center investment hit $580 billion in 2025 alone—surpassing global oil spending. In the US, data centers will account for half of all electricity growth through 2030.

  • Air-conditioning and emerging economies are reshaping energy consumption. Rising temperatures and growing prosperity in developing nations will add over 500 gigawatts of peak demand by 2035, dwarfing data centers’ contribution to overall electricity growth.

  • Renewables are finally overtaking coal, but the transition remains too slow. Solar and wind led electricity generation in the first half of 2025 with nuclear capacity poised to increase by a third this decade. Yet global emissions are likely to hit record highs again this year.

” data-chronoton-post-id=”1128167″ data-chronoton-expand-collapse=”1″ data-chronoton-analytics-enabled=”1″>

One of the dominant storylines I’ve been following through 2025 is electricity—where and how demand is going up, how much it costs, and how this all intersects with that topic everyone is talking about: AI.

Last week, the International Energy Agency released the latest version of the World Energy Outlook, the annual report that takes stock of the current state of global energy and looks toward the future. It contains some interesting insights and a few surprising figures about electricity, grids, and the state of climate change. So let’s dig into some numbers, shall we?

We’re in the age of electricity

Energy demand in general is going up around the world as populations increase and economies grow. But electricity is the star of the show, with demand projected to grow by 40% in the next 10 years.

China has accounted for the bulk of electricity growth for the past 10 years, and that’s going to continue. But emerging economies outside China will be a much bigger piece of the pie going forward. And while advanced economies, including the US and Europe, have seen flat demand in the past decade, the rise of AI and data centers will cause demand to climb there as well.

Air-conditioning is a major source of rising demand. Growing economies will give more people access to air-conditioning; income-driven AC growth will add about 330 gigawatts to global peak demand by 2035. Rising temperatures will tack on another 170 GW in that time. Together, that’s an increase of over 10% from 2024 levels.  

AI is a local story

This year, AI has been the story that none of us can get away from. One number that jumped out at me from this report: In 2025, investment in data centers is expected to top $580 billion. That’s more than the $540 billion spent on the global oil supply. 

It’s no wonder, then, that the energy demands of AI are in the spotlight. One key takeaway is that these demands are vastly different in different parts of the world.

Data centers still make up less than 10% of the projected increase in total electricity demand between now and 2035. It’s not nothing, but it’s far outweighed by sectors like industry and appliances, including air conditioners. Even electric vehicles will add more demand to the grid than data centers.

But AI will be the factor for the grid in some parts of the world. In the US, data centers will account for half the growth in total electricity demand between now and 2030.

And as we’ve covered in this newsletter before, data centers present a unique challenge, because they tend to be clustered together, so the demand tends to be concentrated around specific communities and on specific grids. Half the data center capacity that’s in the pipeline is close to large cities.

Look out for a coal crossover

As we ask more from our grid, the key factor that’s going to determine what all this means for climate change is what’s supplying the electricity we’re using.

As it stands, the world’s grids still primarily run on fossil fuels, so every bit of electricity growth comes with planet-warming greenhouse-gas emissions attached. That’s slowly changing, though.

Together, solar and wind were the leading source of electricity in the first half of this year, overtaking coal for the first time. Coal use could peak and begin to fall by the end of this decade.

Nuclear could play a role in replacing fossil fuels: After two decades of stagnation, the global nuclear fleet could increase by a third in the next 10 years. Solar is set to continue its meteoric rise, too. Of all the electricity demand growth we’re expecting in the next decade, 80% is in places with high-quality solar irradiation—meaning they’re good spots for solar power.

Ultimately, there are a lot of ways in which the world is moving in the right direction on energy. But we’re far from moving fast enough. Global emissions are, once again, going to hit a record high this year. To limit warming and prevent the worst effects of climate change, we need to remake our energy system, including electricity, and we need to do it faster. 

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

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