Nov 17 2025
Server Security Scanner Vulnerability Affects Up To 56M Sites via @sejournal, @martinibuster

A critical vulnerability was recently discovered in Imunify360 AV, a security scanner used by web hosting companies to protect over 56 million websites. An advisory by cybersecurity company Patchstack warns that the vulnerability can allow attackers to take full control of the server and every website on it.

Imunify360 AV

Imunify360 AV is a malware scanning system used by multiple hosting companies. The vulnerability was discovered within its AI-Bolit file-scanning engine and within the separate database-scanning module. Because both the file and database scanners are affected, attackers can compromise the server through two paths, which can allow full server takeover and potentially put millions of websites at risk.

Patchstack shared details of the potential impact:

“Remote attackers can embed specifically crafted obfuscated PHP that matches imunify360AV (AI-bolit) deobfuscation signatures. The deobfuscator will execute extracted functions on attacker-controlled data, allowing execution of arbitrary system commands or arbitrary PHP code. Impact ranges from website compromise to full server takeover depending on hosting configuration and privileges.

Detection is non-trivial because the malicious payloads are obfuscated (hex escapes, packed payloads, base64/gzinflate chains, custom delta/ord transformations) and are intended to be deobfuscated by the tool itself.

imunify360AV (Ai-Bolit) is a malware scanner specialized in website-related files like php/js/html. By default, the scanner is installed as a service and works with a root privileges

Shared hosting escalation: On shared hosting, successful exploitation can lead to privilege escalation and root access depending on how the scanner is deployed and its privileges. if imunify360AV or its wrapper runs with elevated privileges an attacker could leverage RCE to move from a single compromised site to complete host control.”

Patchstack shows that the scanner’s own design gives attackers both the method of entry and the mechanism for execution. The tool is built to deobfuscate complex payloads, and that capability becomes the reason the exploit works. Once the scanner decodes attacker-supplied functions, it can run them with the same privileges it already has.

In environments where the scanner operates with elevated access, a single malicious payload can move from a website-level compromise to control of the entire hosting server. This connection between deobfuscation, privilege level, and execution explains why Patchstack classifies the impact as ranging up to full server takeover.

Two Vulnerable Paths: File Scanner and Database Scanner

Security researchers initially discovered a flaw in the file scanner, but the database-scanning module was later found to be vulnerable in the same way. According to the announcement: “the database scanner (imunify_dbscan.php) was also vulnerable, and vulnerable in the exact same way.” Both of the malware scanning components (file and database scanners) pass malicious code into Imunify360’s internal routines that then execute the untrusted code, giving attackers two different ways to trigger the vulnerability.

Why The Vulnerability Is Easy To Exploit

The file-scanner part of the vulnerability required attackers to place a harmful file onto the server in a location that Imunify360 would eventually scan. But the database-scanner part of the vulnerability needs only the ability to write to the database, which is common on shared hosting platforms.

Because comment forms, contact forms, profile fields, and search logs can write data to the database, injecting malicious content becomes easy for an attacker, even without authentication. This makes the vulnerability broader than a normal malware-execution flaw because it turns a common user input into a vulnerability vector for remote code execution.

Vendor Silence And Disclosure Timeline

According to Patchstack, a patch has been issued by Imunify360 AV but no public statement has been made about the vulnerability and no CVE has been issued for it. A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is a unique identifier assigned to a specific vulnerability in software. It serves as a public record and provides a standardized way to catalog a vulnerability so that interested parties are made aware of the flaw, particularly for risk management. If no CVE is issued then users and potential users may not learn about the vulnerability, even though the issue is already publicly listed on Imunify360’s Zendesk.

Patchstack explains:

“This vulnerability has been known since late October, and customers began receiving notifications shortly thereafter, and we advise affected hosting providers to reach out to the vendor for additional information on possible exploitation in the wild or any internal investigation results.

Unfortunately there has been no statement released about the issue by Imunify360’s team, and no CVE has yet been assigned. At the same time, the issue has been publicly available on their Zendesk since November 4, 2025.

Based on our review of this vulnerability , we consider the CVSS score to be: 9.9”

Recommended Actions for Administrators

Patchstack recommends that server administrators immediately apply vendor security updates if running Imunify360 AV (AI-bolit) prior to version 32.7.4.0, or remove the tool if patching is not possible. If an immediate patch cannot be applied, the tool’s execution environment should be restricted, such as running it in an isolated container with minimal privileges. All administrators are also urged to contact CloudLinux / Imunify360 support to report potential exposure, confirm if their environment was affected, and to collaborate on post-incident guidance.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/DC Studio

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Nov 14 2025
ChatGPT Outage Affects APIs And File Uploads via @sejournal, @martinibuster

OpenAI is experiencing a widespread outage affecting two systems, APIs and ChatGPT. The outage has been ongoing for at least a half an hour as of publication date.

ChatGPT API Jobs Stuck Outage

The first issue is that batch API jobs get stuck in the finalization state. There are twelve components of APIs that are monitored for uptime and it’s the Batch part that’s experiencing “degraded” performance. The issue has been ongoing since 3:54 PM.

According to OpenAI:

“Subset of Batch API jobs stuck in finalizing state”

ChatGPT Uploads Outage

The other error pertains to ChatGPT file uploads are failing. This is described as a partial outage.

OpenAI’s official explanation:

“File uploads to ChatGPT conversations are failing for some users, giving an error message indicating the file has expired.

…File uploads to ChatGPT conversations are failing for some users, giving an error message indicating the file has expired.”

This issue has been ongoing since 3:53 PM.

Screenshot of OpenAI Uploads Outage

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Nov 13 2025
Google Sharpens Suspension Accuracy and Speeds Up Appeals for Advertisers via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Google account suspensions have long been one of the most stressful issues advertisers face. A single notification can pause revenue, disrupt campaigns, and leave teams scrambling to understand what went wrong, often at no fault of their own.

Over the past several months, Google has heard that feedback and is now rolling out measurable improvements aimed at reducing the burden on legitimate advertisers.

These updates should bring meaningful relief. Misapplied suspensions are down, appeals are moving faster, and Google is promising more transparency into why enforcement actions happen at all.

What’s Changed in Google’s Process

Google announced several updates aimed at preventing unnecessary enforcement actions and speeding up resolutions when mistakes happen.

Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin shared additional context in a LinkedIn video. She explained that advertisers often faced long, unclear appeal processes. Many of those advertisers were compliant, but still got caught in broad enforcement filters designed to protect users. The new improvements are meant to address that gap and create a smoother experience for legitimate businesses.

Screenshot taken by author, November 2025

According to Google’s data:

  • Incorrect account suspensions are down more than 80%
  • Appeals are being resolved 70% faster
  • 99% of appeals are reviewed within 24 hours

These numbers reflect improvements in Google’s automated systems, better internal checks, and more precise policy evaluation. The goal is to reduce the number of trusted advertisers who get suspended by mistake and to shorten the time it takes to recover when an account needs review.

Google also mentioned ongoing work to make enforcement decisions easier to understand. While full visibility into every signal is unlikely, these updates indicate an effort to give advertisers clearer direction when issues occur.

How This Helps Advertisers

These changes bring meaningful stability to daily operations. When incorrect suspensions drop by such a large margin, advertisers experience fewer unexpected pauses in performance.

That consistency matters for both in-house teams and agencies managing multiple accounts.

The faster appeal timeline also reduces the fallout from any suspension that does occur. Getting nearly all appeals reviewed within a day helps advertisers avoid extended downtime and protects campaign momentum.

Clarity matters as well. Advertisers have long asked for more detail when suspensions happen.

Even small improvements in transparency can save hours of troubleshooting and prevent repeated appeals that contribute to delays.

These updates should also improve confidence in Google’s enforcement systems. When advertisers trust the process, they can focus on optimization instead of worrying that a routine change will trigger a policy issue.

How This Shapes Future Enforcement

Google’s changes reflect a broader effort to balance user protection with a better advertiser experience. Automated enforcement will always play a significant role in preventing harmful behavior, but legitimate businesses need a system that treats them fairly and resolves issues quickly.

The latest results show encouraging progress. There is still room for improvement, especially in policy clarity and long-term consistency, but the direction is positive.

Google has stated that this work will continue and that advertiser feedback remains central to future updates. For marketers, this signals a more stable and predictable enforcement environment, which supports healthier performance and stronger planning across campaigns.

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Nov 13 2025
Google Reminds Websites To Use One Review Target via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google updated its review snippet documentation to clarify that each review or rating in structured data should point to one clear target, reducing ambiguity.

  • Google updated its review snippet docs to clarify how review targets should be specified
  • You should avoid attaching the same review or rating to multiple different entities
  • A quick audit of templates and plugins can catch confusing nesting.
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Nov 13 2025
Lazy Link Building Building Strategies That Work via @sejournal, @martinibuster

I like coming up with novel approaches to link building. One way to brainstorm an approach is to reverse a common method. I created a couple of approaches to link building, several are passive and two others are a little more active but have very little to do with email outreach. I wrote about these tips back around 2013, but I’ve polished them up and updated them for today.

Passive Link Building

Someone asked that I put together some tips for those who are too lazy to do link building. So here it goes!

Guilt Trip Copyright Infringers

Check who’s stealing your content. Be  hard on scrapers. But if it’s an otherwise legit site, you might want to hold off asking them to take down your content. Check if they’re linking to a competitor or similar sites, like from a links page.

You can ask them nicely to take down the content and after they email you back to confirm the link is down, email them back to thank them. But then say something like, “I see you are linking to Site-X.com. If my content was good enough to show on your site, then I would be grateful and much obliged if you considered it good enough to list from your links page.”

I heard a keynote speaker at an SEO conference once encouraging people to come down hard on people who steal your content. I strongly disagree with that approach. Some people who steal your content sometimes are under the impression that if it’s on the Internet then it’s free and they can use it on their own site.  Some think it’s free to use as long as they link back to your site.

If they are linking to your site, tell them that you prefer they don’t infringe on your copyright but that you would be happy to write them a different article they can use as long as they link back to your site. You can be nice to people and still get a link.

Reverse Guest Posting

Instead of publishing articles on someone else’s site, solicit people to publish on your site. Many people tweet, promote, and link from their sites to sites that they are interviewed on. An interesting thing about doing this is that interviewing people who have a certain amount of celebrity helps to bring more people to your site, especially if people are searching for that person.

Relationship Building

Authors of books are great for this kind of outreach. People are interested in what authors and experts say. Sometimes you can find the most popular authors and influencers at industry conferences. I’ve met some really famous and influential people at conferences and got their email address and scored interviews by just going up and talking to these people.

This is called relationship building. SEOs and digital marketers are so overly focused on sending out emails and doing everything online that they forget that people actually get together in person at industry events, meetups, and other kinds of social events.

Giveaways

This is an oldie and I get it that many SEOs have talked about this. But this is something that I used successfully from way back around 2005. I did an annual giveway to my readers and website members.

The way I did it was to contact some manufacturers of products that are popular with my readers and ask for a discount if I buy in bulk and tell them I’ll be promoting their products to my subscribers, readers, and members. I’ve been responsible for making several companies popular by bringing attention to their products, elevating them from a regional business to a nationwide business.

Leverage Niche Audience For Links

The way to do this is to identify an underserved subtopic of your niche, then create a useful section that addresses a need for that niche. The idea is to create a compelling reason to link to the site.

Here is an example of how to do this for a travel destination site.

Research gluten free, dairy free, nut-free, raw food dining destinations. Then make a point to visit, interview, and build a resource for those.

Conduct interviews with lodging and restaurant owners that offer gluten free options. You’ll be surprised by how many restaurants and lodgings might decide on their own to link to your site or maybe just hint at it.

Summary

Outreach to sites about a niche topic, not just to businesses but also to organizations and associations related to that niche that have links and resources pages. Just tell them about the site, quickly explain what it offers and ask for a link. This method is flexible and can be adapted to a wide range of niche topics. And if they have an email or publish articles, suggest contributing to those but don’t ask for a link, just ask for a mention.

Don’t underestimate the power of building positive awareness of your site. Focus on creating positive feelings for your site (goodwill) and generating positive word of mouth, otherwise known as external signals of quality. The rankings will generally follow.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/pathdoc

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Nov 13 2025
The Quid Pro No Method Of Link Building via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Expressly paying for links has been out for awhile. Quid Pro No is in. These are some things you can do when a website asks for money in exchange for a link. During the course of building links, whether it’s free links, publishing an article or getting a brand mention, it’s not unusual to get solicited for money. It’s tempting to take the bait and get a project done. But I’m going to suggest some considerations prior to making a decision as well as a way to turn it around using an approach that I call Quid Pro No.

Link building, digital pr, brand mention building can often lead to solicitations for a paid link. There are many good reasons for not engaging in paid links and in my experience it’s possible to get a link without doing it their way when someone asks you for money in return for a link.

Red Light Means Stop

The first consideration is that someone who has their hand out for money is a red light is because it’s highly likely they have done this before and are highly likely linking to low quality websites that are in really bad neighborhoods, putting the publisher’s site and any sites associated with it into the outlier part of the web graph where sites are identified as spam and tend to not get indexed. In this case consider it a favor that they outed their site for the crap neighborhood it resides in and walk away. Quid pro… no.

Getting solicited for money can be a frequent occurrence. Site publishers, some of them apparently legit, are publishing Guest Post Submission Guidelines for the purpose of attracting paying submissions. It’s an industry and overly normalized in certain circles. Beware.

Spook The Fish

A less frequent occurrence is by the newb who’s trying to extract something. If the site checks out then there may be room for some kind of concession. If they’re asking for money, in this case, Quid Pro No means to FUD them away from this kind of activity THEN turn them around to doing the project on your terms.

When angling on a river fish that’s on the hook might make a run downstream away from you which makes it tough to land the fish because you’re fighting the fish and the current. Sometimes a tap on the rod will spook them into changing position. Sometimes a sharp pull can direct them to turn around. For this character I have found it efficacious to spook them with all the bad things that can happen and turn them around to where I want them to be.

Very briefly, and in the most polite terms, explain you’d love to do business, but that there are other considerations. Here’s what you can trot out:

  • FTC Guidelines
    FTC guidelines prohibit a web publisher from accepting money for an unlabeled advertisement.
  • Google Guidelines
    Google prohibits paid links

Land The Link

What’s in it for me is a useful concept that can be used to convince someone that it’s in their interest to do things your way. It’s important to convince the other party that there’s something in it for them. They want something so sometimes it’s worthwhile to make them feel as if they’re getting something out of the deal.

The approach I take for closing a project, whether it’s a free link or an article project is to circle back to asking for an article project by focusing on communicating why my site is high quality and ways that we can cross-promote. It’s essentially relationship building. The message is that your site is authoritative, well promoted and that there are ways that both sites can benefit without doing a straight link buy.

But at this point I want to emphasize again that any site that’s asking for money in exchange for a link is not necessarily a good neighborhood. So you might not actually want a link from them if they’re linking out to low quality sites.

Or Go For A Labeled Sponsored Post

However, another way to turn this around is to just go ahead and pay them as long as it’s a labeled as a sponsored post and contains either multiple no-follow links and or brand mentions. Sponsored posts get indexed by search engines and AI platforms that will use those as validation for how great your site is and recommend it.

What’s beautiful about a labeled sponsored post is that they give you full control over the messaging, which can be more valuable than a tossed-off link in a random paragraph. And because everything is disclosed and compliant, you reduce the long-term risk while still capturing visibility in AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity through the citation signals.

Quid Pro No

Quid Pro No is about negatively responding to a solicitation and turning it around and getting something you want without actually saying the word no.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Studio Romantic

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Nov 13 2025
Google Defends Parasite SEO Crackdown As EU Opens Investigation via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has defended its enforcement of site reputation abuse policies after the European Commission announced an investigation into whether the company unfairly demotes news publishers in search results.

The company published a blog post stating the investigation “is misguided and risks harming millions of European users” and that it “risks rewarding bad actors and degrading the quality of search results.”

Google’s Chief Scientist for Search, Pandu Nayak, wrote the response.

Background

The European Commission announced an investigation under the Digital Markets Act examining whether Google’s anti-spam policies unfairly penalize legitimate publisher revenue models.

Publishers complained that Google demotes news sites running sponsored content and third-party promotional material. EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said:

“We are concerned that Google’s policies do not allow news publishers to be treated in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner in its search results.”

Google updated its site reputation abuse policy last year to combat parasite SEO. The practice involves spammers paying publishers to host content on established domains to manipulate search rankings.

The policy targets content like payday loan reviews on educational sites, casino content on medical sites, or third-party coupon pages on news publishers. Google provided specific examples in its announcement including weight-loss pill spam and payday loan promotions.

Manual enforcement began shortly after. Google issued penalties to major publishers including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Time and CNN in November 2024.

Google later updated the policy to clarify that first-party oversight doesn’t exempt content primarily designed to exploit ranking signals.

Google’s Defense

Google’s response emphasized three points.

First, Google stated that a German court dismissed a similar claim, ruling the anti-spam policy was “valid, reasonable, and applied consistently.”

Second, Google says its policy protects users from scams and low-quality content. Allowing pay-to-play ranking manipulation would “enable bad actors to displace sites that don’t use those spammy tactics.”

Third, Google says smaller creators support the crackdown. The company claims its policy “helps level the playing field” so legitimate sites competing on content quality aren’t outranked by sites using deceptive tactics.

Nayak argues the Digital Markets Act is already making Search ‘less helpful for European businesses and users,’ and says the new probe risks rewarding bad actors.

The company has relied exclusively on manual enforcement so far. Google confirmed in May 2024 that it hadn’t launched algorithmic actions for site reputation abuse, only manual reviews by human evaluators.

Google added site reputation abuse to its Search Quality Rater Guidelines in January 2025, defining it as content published on host sites “mainly because of that host site’s already-established ranking signals.”

Why This Matters

The investigation creates a conflict between spam enforcement and publisher business models.

Google maintains parasite SEO degrades search results regardless of who profits. Publishers argue sponsored content with editorial oversight provides legitimate value and revenue during challenging times for media.

The distinction matters. If Google’s policy captures legitimate publisher-advertiser partnerships, it restricts how news organizations monetize content. If the policy only targets manipulative tactics, it protects search quality.

The EU’s position suggests regulators view Google’s enforcement as potentially discriminatory. The Digital Markets Act prohibits gatekeepers from unfairly penalizing others, with fines up to 10% of global revenue for violations.

Google addressed concerns about the policy in December 2024, confirming that affiliate content properly marked isn’t affected and that publishers must submit reconsideration requests through Search Console to remove penalties.

The updated policy documentation clarified that simply having third-party content isn’t a violation unless explicitly published to exploit a site’s rankings.

The policy has sparked debate in the SEO community about whether Google should penalize sites based on business arrangements rather than content quality.

Looking Ahead

The European Commission has opened the investigation under the Digital Markets Act and will now gather evidence and define the specific DMA provisions under examination.

Google will receive formal statements of objections outlining alleged violations. The company can respond with arguments defending its policies.

DMA investigations move faster than traditional antitrust cases. Publishers may submit formal complaints providing evidence of traffic losses and revenue impacts.

The outcome could force changes to how Google enforces spam policies in Europe or validate its current approach to protecting search quality.

Featured Image: daily_creativity/Shutterstock

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Nov 13 2025
Secrets Of A Wildly Successful Website via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Back in 2005 I intuited that there are wildly successful Internet enterprises that owed nothing to SEO. These successes intrigued me because they happened according to undocumented rules outside of the SEO bubble. These sites have stories and lessons about building success.

Turning Your Enthusiasm Into Success

In 2005 I interviewed the founder of the Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, which at the time had a massive Page Rank score of 7. The founder explains how promotion was never part of a plan- in fact he denied having any success plan at all. He simply put the visual material out there and let people hotlink the heck out of it at the rate 40GB/day back in 2005.

The site is controversial because it was created in response to an idea called Intelligent Design, which is an ideology that believes that aspects of the universe and life are the products of an unseen intelligent hand and not products of undirected processes like evolution and natural selection. This article is not about religion, it’s about how someone leveraged their passion to create a wildly successful website.

The point is, there was no direct benefit to hotlinking, only the indirect benefits of putting his name out there and having it seen, known and remembered. It’s the essence of what we talk about when we talk about brand and mindshare building. Which is why I say that this interview is wildly relevant in 2013. Many of my most innovative methods for obtaining links are located within the mindset of identifying latent opportunities related to indirect benefits. There is a lot of opportunity there because most of the industry is focused on the direct-benefits/ROI mindset. Without further ado, here is the interview. Enjoy!

Secrets Of A Wildly Popular Website

The other day I stumbled across a successful website called, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster that does about 40 GB of traffic (including hotlinks) every single day. The site was created as a response to a social, cultural, political, and religiou issue of the day.

Many of you are interested in developing strategies to creating massively popular sites, so the following story of this hyper-successful website (PR 7, in case you were wondering) may be of interest.

Creating a website to react to controversy or a current event is an old but maybe forgotten methods for receiving links. Blogs fit into this plan very nicely. The following is the anatomy of a website created purely for the passion of it. It was not created for links or monetary benefit. Nevertheless it has accomplished what thousands of link hungry money grubbing webmasters aspire to every day. Ha!

So let’s take a peek behind the scenes of a wildly successful site that also makes decent change. The following is an interview with Bobby Henderson, the man behind the site.

Can you give me a little history of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster website?

“The site was never planned. “the letter” had been written and sent off – with no reply – for months before it occurred to me to post it online.”

Have you ever built a website before, what is your web background?

“I made a website for the Roseburg, Oregon school district when I was in high school.

With the Fly Spaghetti Monster (FSM) site, I want things to be as plain and non-shiny as possible. Screw aesthetics. I don’t want it to look slick and well-designed at all. I prefer it to be just slapped together, with new content added frequently. I love it when people give me tips to make the site better. It’s received well over 100 million hits at this point, so maybe there’s something to this content-instead-of-shiny-ness thing.”

What made you decide to build your website?

“The idea of a Flying Spaghetti Monster was completely random. I wrote the letter at about 3am one night, for no particular reason other than I couldn’t sleep. And there must have been something in news about ID that day.

After posting the letter online, it was “discovered” almost immediately. It got boingboing’ed within a couple weeks, and blew up from there. I’ve done zero “promotion”. Promotion is fake. None of the site was planned, it has evolved over the months. Same with the whoring-out, the t-shirts,etc. None of that stuff was my idea. People asked for it, so I put it up. I can remember telling a friend that I would be shocked if one person bought a t-shirt. Now there have been around 20k sold.”

To what do you attribute the support of your site from so many people?

“I believe the support for the FSM project comes from spite…

I get 100-200 emails a day. Depends on the news, though. I got maybe 300 emails about that “pirate” attack on the cruise-ship. Incidentally, the reason we saw no change in global weather was because they were not real pirates. Real pirates don’t have machine guns and speedboats. (editors note: The FSM dogma asserts a connection between pirates and global warming)”

Were you surprised at how the site took off?

“Yes of course I’m surprised the site took off. And it blows my mind that it’s still alive. Yesterday was the highest-traffic day yet, with 3.5 million hits (most of those hits were hotlinked images).

What advice do you have to others who have a site they want to promote?

“Advice. . . ok .. here’s something. A lot of people go out of their way to stop hotlinking. I go out of my to allow it – going so far as paying for the extra bandwidth to let people steal my stuff. Why? It’s all part of the propaganda machine. It would be easy enough to prevent people from hotlinking FSM images. But I WANT people to see my propaganda, so why not allow it?

It’s like advertising, requiring zero effort by me. I am paying for about 40GB in bandwidth every day in just hijacked images – and it’s totally worth it, because now the Flying Spaghetti Monster is everywhere.”

Seeing how your deity is a flying spaghetti monster, I am curious… do you like eating spaghetti?

“No comment.”

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Elnur

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Nov 13 2025
Data Shows How AI Overviews Is Ranking Shopping Keywords via @sejournal, @martinibuster

BrightEdge’s latest research shows that Google’s AI Overviews are now appearing in ways that reflect what BrightEdge describes as “deliberate, aggressive choices” about where AI shows up and where it does not. These trends show marketers where AI search is showing up within the buyer’s journey and what businesses should expect.

The data indicates that Google is concentrating AI in parts of the shopping process where it gives clear informational value, particularly during research and evaluation. This aligns AI Overviews with the points in the shopping journey where users need help comparing options or understanding product details.

BrightEdge reports that Google retained only about 30 percent of the AI Overview keywords that appeared at the peak of its September 1 through October 15, 2025 research window. The retained queries also tended to have higher search volume than the removed ones, which BrightEdge notes is the opposite pattern observed in 2024. This fits with the higher retention in categories where shoppers look for explanations, comparisons, and instructional information.

BrightEdge explains:

“The numbers paint an interesting story: Google retained only 30% of its peak AI Overview keywords. But here’s what makes 2025 fundamentally different: those retained keywords have HIGHER search volume than removed ones—the complete opposite of 2024. Google isn’t just pulling back; it’s being strategic about which searches deserve AI guidance.”

The shifting behavior of AI Overviews shows how actively Google is tuning its system. BrightEdge observed a spike from 9 percent to 26 percent coverage on September 18 before returning to 9 percent soon after. This change signals ongoing testing. The year-over-year overlap of AI Overview keywords is only 18 percent, which BrightEdge calls a “massive reshuffling” that shows “active experimentation” and requires marketers to plan for change rather than stability. The volatility shows Google may be experimenting or responding to user trends and that the queries shown in AI Overviews can change over time.
My opinion is that Google is likely responding to user trends, testing how they respond to AI Overviews, then using the data to show more if user reactions are positive.

AI Is A Comparison And Evaluation Layer

BrightEdge’s research indicates that AI Overviews aligns with shopper intent. Google places AI in research queries such as “best TV for gaming,” continues support for evaluation queries like “Samsung vs LG,” and then withdraws when users show purchase intent with searches like “Samsung S95C price.”

These examples show that AI serves as an educational and comparison layer, not a transactional one. When a shopper reaches a buying decision, Google steps back and lets traditional results handle the final step. This apparent alignment with comparison and evaluation means Google is confident in using AI Overviews as a part of the shopping journey.

Usefulness Varies Across Categories

The data shows that AI’s usefulness varies across categories, and Google adjusts AIO keywords retention based on these needs. Categories that retained AI Overviews such as Grocery, TV and Home Theater, and Small Appliances share a pattern.

Users rely on comparison, explanation, and instruction during their decisions. In contrast, categories with low retention, like Furniture and Home, rely on visual browsing rather than text-based evaluation. This limits the value of AI. Google’s category patterns show that AI appears more often in categories where text-based information (such as comparison, explanation, and instruction) guides decisions.

Google’s keyword filtering clarifies how AI fits into the shopping journey. Among retained queries, a little more than a quarter are evaluation or comparison searches, including “best [product]” and “X vs Y” terms. These are queries where users need background and guidance. In contrast, Google removes bottom-funnel keywords. Price, buy, deals, and specific product names are removed. This shows Google’s focus is on how useful AI serves for each intent. AI educates and guides but does not handle the final purchase step.

Shopping Trends Influence AI Appearance

The shopping calendar shapes how AI appears in search results. BrightEdge describes the typical shopping journey as consisting of research in November, evaluation and comparison in early December, and buying in late December. AI helps shoppers understand options in November, assists with comparisons in early December, and by late December, AI tends to be less influential and traditional search results tend to complete the sale.

This makes November the key moment for making evaluation and comparison content easier for AI to cite. Once December arrives, the chance for AI-driven discovery shrinks because consumers have moved on to the final leg of their shopping journey, purchase.

These findings mean that brands should align their content strategies with the points in the journey where AI Overviews are active. BrightEdge advises identifying evaluation and transactional pages, ensuring that comparison content is indexed early, and watching category-specific retention patterns. The data indicates two areas where brands can focus their efforts. One is supporting AI during research and review stages. The other is improving organic search visibility for purchasing queries. The 18 percent year-over-year consistency figure also shows that flexibility is needed because the queries shown in AI Overviews change frequently.

Although the behavior of AI Overviews may seem volatile, BrightEdge’s research suggests that the changes follow a consistent pattern. AI surfaces when people are learning and evaluating and withdraws when users shift into buying. Categories that require explanations or comparisons see the highest retention in AI Overviews, and November remains the key period when AI can use that content. The overall pattern gives brands a clearer view of how AI fits into the shopping journey and how user intent shapes where AI shows up.

Read BrightEdge’s report:
Google AI Overview Holiday Shopping Test: The 57% Pullback That Changes Everything

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Nov 13 2025
Overcoming Skepticism In Brand Mention And Link Building Campaigns via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Successful link and brand mention building is strongly about overcoming skepticism and building relationships with the people behind the websites that you want to acquire a link or brand mention from.  It can be as simple as showing what you have in common or inspiring a sense of goodwill towards your site.

Overcoming Skepticism: Try Non-Link Brand Building

One of the biggest barriers to acquiring a link, particularly a free link, is skepticism. For example, I recall that one of my campaigns repeatedly received rejections from non-profit type organizations and associations because the client site was commercial in nature, even though this particular client site lacked the overt signals of commercial intent like ads or products, associations and organizations were resistant.

This is how I discovered there are other opportunities for building top of mind brand awareness with brand mentions. Although these organizations were skeptical about linking to commercial client sites they were way okay with accepting contributions to their email newsletters and magazines that were sent out every month to thousands of potential customers.

Lessons To Learn From The Broken Link Outreach

The broken link outreach is an old approach that works (Hi, I saw you have a broken link on your page/And btw would you consider adding example.com?). One thing that doesn’t get discussed is why it works.

The reason why broken link building works is instructional on crafting an outreach with a high conversion rate. Ever see a supermarket shopper drop a few boxes and subsequently be assisted by a stranger? Most people typically welcome help. Most people generally smile. Why is that? How do you feel when someone helps you?

I feel good and believe most others do, too. Not only that, there is a temporary bond between us in the form of a good feeling. That’s called goodwill. Goodwill is a general feeling of kindness and friendliness to someone else. When someone does something kind to someone else, the other person thinks, “Oh, this is a nice person.” That’s goodwill.

I believe that is the reason why the broken link outreach works so well. The normal skeptical distance is temporarily bridged by an amount of goodwill that is earned by helping someone else out. The approach bridges the skeptical distance between strangers.

Knowing this, don’t limit yourself to broken links. The approach should be renamed from Broken Links Outreach to simply the Goodwill Outreach because it works for anything that is broken on a site and leads to building goodwill.

For example:

  • Typos
  • Broken code
  • Spam comments
  • Hacked web pages
  • A dangerously out of date CMS installation

During the course of your free link campaign, keep your approach flexible by keeping an eye out for hidden opportunities for bridging the distance of skepticism. This means having the flexibility to alter your approach to fit the typo, broken code, out of date CMS installation, etc. This is the challenge facing those who are scaling up or outsourcing to a third party, they simply cannot pivot to acting on an unexpected opportunity.

For example, you might review a site and discover that they have a resources page or you might discover that they have a monthly newsletter that goes out to ten thousand potential customers. Being flexible to brand building or alternative helpful approaches helps to create a better sense of authenticity and build goodwill that can turn into a link or a valuable brand mention.

Social Affinity

Social Affinity is a subtle signal that works. Like it or not, people still tend to think in tribal terms. They feel better about you if they know you share the same values and interests. Sharing work, geographic, and social similarities work to bridge the distance between you and the site publisher handing out links.

Doing this can be as simple as having a badge on your site that shows you donate to a specific charity or that you’re a member of an organization. A powerful way to signal social affinity is to mention that you’ve published an article in a sister-chapter of an organization or association.

This can be an aspect of the outreach persona. The word persona literally means a mask, it has etymological roots in the Latin word persōna, which meant a mask that was used in a theatrical production. I’ll discuss outreach persona at another time. For the time being, it’s just how you represent yourself in your outreach through subtle cues.

For example, many years ago I was working on a client’s free link campaign and noticed that success rate went up when there was a geographical/regional affinity between the outreach persona and the link acquisition target. What this means is that the success rate went up when the outreach came from a domain where a state or city name in the outreach domain was geographically close to the organization or association that I was outreaching to.

This is similarly true with my personal link campaigns, where my persona shares a topical affinity, especially when there is a shared hobby or vocation. It’s an “Oh, they’re a part of my tribe”  type of reaction. They can be trusted. These are social signals that can be useful for overcoming inherent skepticism.

Social signals when applied in the right context can help overcome skepticism and build that bridge by presenting evidence in your outreach or website of your social membership. For example, if your outreach is related to the outdoors, then being a member, sponsor, or contributor to wildlife conservation groups can help bridge the skeptical distance with the publishers you are contacting for a link.

Link Building Is About Goodwill And Social Affinity

A great  deal of link building is built on the premise of scale where people send out tens of thousands of emails (spray) and then “pray” that a small percentage of respondents will convert and provide a link. In my experience, being careful, planning ahead for social affinity and being aware of opportunities to be helpful can open doors of opportunities for both brand mention and link building.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Roman Samborskyi

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