Mar 5 2025
Google Updates Robots Meta Tag Document To Include AI Mode via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has updated its Search Central documentation to include details about AI Mode in its robots meta tag specifications.

This update coincides with the rollout of AI Mode via Google Labs.

Document Updates For AI Mode

The updated document now specifies that you can control the appearance of your content in Google’s AI-powered features, including AI Overviews and the new AI Mode.

Key additions to the document include:

Nosnippet rule expansion
The nosnippet directive “applies to all forms of search results (at Google: web search, Google Images, Discover, AI Overviews, AI Mode) and will also prevent the content from being used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode.”

Max-snippet controls
The max-snippet rule specifies that limitations apply to “all forms of search results (such as Google web search, Google Images, Discover, Assistant, AI Overviews, AI Mode) and will also limit how much of the content may be used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode.”

What Is AI Mode?

AI Mode is an experimental feature initially available to Google One AI Premium subscribers. It leverages a custom version of Gemini 2.0 to deliver a search experience fully powered by AI.

The feature employs a “query fan-out” technique that issues multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources before synthesizing a comprehensive response.

Google highlights the following advantages of AI Mode over standard AI Overviews:

  • Handles complex, multi-part questions that might otherwise require multiple searches
  • Supports follow-up questions for continued conversations
  • Synthesizes information from multiple data sources simultaneously
  • Provides multimodal interaction capabilities through voice, text, or images

What This Means For Your Website

Publishers rely on website traffic to generate revenue through ads, subscriptions, or conversions. However, people may be less inclined to visit the original site when AI features summarize the content.

To counter this, you can use the “nosnippet” tag to block content from AI responses or use “max-snippet:[number]” to limit the amount of text displayed, motivating searchers to visit the site for complete information.

Looking Ahead

The robots meta tag controls offer ways to manage content in traditional search results and AI experiences.

Google’s cautious rollout of AI Mode shows that the company is aware of publishers’ concerns about content use in generative AI applications.

This update reflects Google’s effort to balance new features with publishers’ control over their content.

Featured Image Credit: Google. 

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Mar 5 2025
Google Upgrades AI Overviews With Gemini 2.0, Launches AI Mode via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google announced an expansion of its AI-powered search features, enhancing AI Overviews with Gemini 2.0 and introducing a new experimental “AI Mode.”

AI Overviews With Gemini 2.0

Google has upgraded its AI Overviews with Gemini 2.0 in the United States.

Users should see performance improvements for coding, advanced mathematics, and multimodal searches.

Google says it’s increasing the frequency of AI Overview appearances for these query types while making them faster and higher quality.

Additionally, Google is removing the sign-in requirement for AI Overviews, which could significantly increase their frequency.

Google’s announcement reads:

“Today, we’re sharing that we’ve launched Gemini 2.0 for AI Overviews in the U.S. to help with harder questions, starting with coding, advanced math and multimodal queries, with more on the way. With Gemini 2.0’s advanced capabilities, we provide faster and higher quality responses and show AI Overviews more often for these types of queries.

Plus, we’re rolling out to more people: teens can now use AI Overviews, and you’ll no longer need to sign in to get access.”

Launching Experimental “AI Mode”

Google is introducing “AI Mode,” an experimental feature initially available to Google One AI Premium subscribers through Google’s Labs program.

You can now pay to have more AI in your search results, which is worth emphasizing, given the vocal segment of users who want to turn off AI features.

This opt-in experience is designed for what Google calls “power users” who want AI-powered responses for a broader range of search queries.

AI Mode leverages a custom version of Gemini 2.0 with advanced reasoning capabilities to handle complex, multi-part questions that might otherwise require multiple searches.

The new feature allows you to:

  • Ask follow-up questions to continue conversations
  • Receive information drawn from multiple data sources simultaneously
  • Interact using voice, text, or images through multimodal capabilities

Here’s an example of how it looks on mobile and desktop:

Screenshot from: Google, March 2025.
Screenshot from: Google, March 2025.

How AI Mode Works

Google says AI mode is an upgrade over AI overviews:

“This new Search mode expands what AI Overviews can do with more advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities so you can get help with even your toughest questions. You can ask anything on your mind and get a helpful AI-powered response with the ability to go further with follow-up questions and helpful web links.”

Google explained that AI Mode employs a “query fan-out” technique.

This works by issuing multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics and data sources. It then synthesizes the information into a comprehensive response.

The technology draws on Google’s Knowledge Graph, real-world information, and product data. Similar to AI overviews, it links to sources.

You can access AI Mode through multiple entry points: the AI Mode tab below the search bar on Google.com, directly at google.com/aimode, or via the AI Mode icon in the Google app.

The dedicated tab will look similar to the example below:

Screenshot from: Google, March 2025.

Quality Safeguards & Limitations

Google acknowledges that, as with any early-stage AI product, AI Mode “won’t always get it right.”

The company detailed several built-in safeguards, including:

  • Integration with core Search ranking and safety systems
  • Novel approaches using the model’s reasoning capabilities to improve factuality
  • Defaulting to standard web search results when confidence in AI-generated responses is low
  • Protection against hallucinations, opinionated responses, and misleading content

The company noted that AI Mode is mainly designed to handle queries requiring exploration, reasoning, or comparisons. However, it may default to traditional search results for current events or when up-to-the-minute accuracy is critical.

Looking Ahead

These updates affirm Google’s continued investment in AI-powered search experiences, which could further impact how people discover and interact with web content.

The company’s measured rollout of AI mode suggests it’s being cautious with this experimental feature.

It remains to be seen whether it will eventually roll out to paid users. Locking the AI mode behind a paywall may indicate that it’s expensive for Google to deploy.

Google is already working on enhancements, it says. Updates to AI mode may include more visual responses, richer formatting, and new ways to connect users with web content.

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Mar 5 2025
Google’s AI Shopping Tools Transform Ideas Into Real Products via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has launched its Vision Match feature for all mobile users in the United States, following a successful test run in Google Labs.

This tool solves an everyday challenge for shoppers: turning a specific idea into products that can be purchased.

Google research indicates that more than half of shoppers have difficulty finding particular clothing items when they know what they want.

The Vision Match feature allows users to describe a clothing item in natural language. It then uses AI to generate an image and find similar products.

Screenshot from: blog.google/products/shopping/ai-vision-match-ar-beauty-virtual-try-on/, March 2025.

You can access this feature by searching for a garment and scrolling to the “Can’t find it? Create it” prompt.

Alternatively, navigate to the “Create & shop” option in the Shopping tab’s left panel.

New AR Tools Leverage Gemini AI Models

Google is enhancing its augmented reality beauty features with Gemini AI models.

US shoppers can now virtually try on complete makeup looks inspired by celebrities, influencers, and beauty trends rather than testing individual products.

This allows consumers to search for terms like “spring makeup” or specific celebrity looks and see how multiple makeup products appear on their faces.

According to Google’s research, more than half of Americans who use makeup actively seek online inspiration.

Users can access this feature by tapping “See the looks on you” when browsing relevant search results, followed by “Try it on” to initiate the virtual experience.

Virtual Try-On Expands

Google has expanded its virtual try-on feature to include pants and skirts from hundreds of brands. The enhancement allows shoppers to visualize how these garments look on diverse body types, from XXS to XXL.

Screenshot from: blog.google/products/shopping/ai-vision-match-ar-beauty-virtual-try-on/, March 2025.

Google updated its machine learning models to generate complete looks, when previously they were limited to generating tops only. Shoppers can access this feature by looking for items with a “try on” badge in Google Search or the Shopping tab on mobile and desktop platforms.

Looking Ahead

The announcements come as competition in the visual search and virtual try-on space intensifies.

According to Google’s internal data, over a billion shopping interactions occur on Google daily. These tools aim to help consumers make more confident purchasing decisions.

Featured Image: Screenshot from: blog.google/products/shopping/ai-vision-match-ar-beauty-virtual-try-on/, March 2025. 

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Mar 4 2025
Google Business Profile Update: QR Codes For Review Pages via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has rolled out a new feature for Google Business Profiles that makes it easier to collect customer reviews.

You can now generate custom QR codes that, when scanned, direct customers straight to your business’s review page.

Google announced the update today on X:

How to Access the Feature

You can access the QR code generator by following these steps:

  1. Visit your Google Business Profile dashboard on desktop
  2. Click on the “ask for reviews” option
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions to generate either a direct link or a QR code

The system offers multiple sharing options, including Email, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

What This Means For Businesses

This update gives you more ways to increase review volume with minimal friction. QR codes can be displayed at physical locations, added to receipts, or included in post-purchase communications.

Review quantity and quality can enhance local search visibility. While reviews don’t impact search rankings, they affect Google’s local pack.

See more:

Customers More Willing To Write Reviews

On the topic of local search, I covered a relevant study earlier this week that finds customers are increasingly willing to write reviews.

BrightLocal analyzed 15 years of data and determined that customers are growing more aware of the importance of reviews. This awareness makes them more eager to contribute their thoughts and opinions.

The study reads:

“… despite the challenges of maintaining a consistent stream of new reviews, consumers are overwhelmingly willing to write one. It’s all about giving them a strong reason to do so (AKA a memorable experience) and catching them at the right time.”

See more:

Greater customer awareness is a double-edged sword, the study points out.

While people are more willing to write reviews, they’re less trusting of overall review scores. This means customers consult “alternative” sources like TikTok and YouTube in addition to checking Google reviews.

As you utilize this QR code feature to gather more reviews, remember that it’s important to be visible across multiple platforms to reach today’s customers.

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

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Mar 4 2025
How Google, ChatGPT, & DeepSeek Handle YMYL Searches via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

A new study by SE Ranking examines how AI search tools handle Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) queries.

The research compared Google AI Overviews (AIOs), ChatGPT, and DeepSeek across 40 health, legal, financial, and political queries.

This study is similar to one published by SE Ranking in October. The key difference is that this study examines multiple tools, whereas the October study focused solely on AIOs.

Here’s more about the latest study and what the findings mean.

Key Findings

1. YMYL Query Response Rate

The research found that Google generates AIOs for 51% of YMYL queries, slightly up from 50% in October.

ChatGPT has a 100% response rate for YMYL searches, and DeepSeek has a 90% rate.

Google’s selective approach was evident in political topics, displaying AI Overviews for only one query.

2. Response Patterns

Each platform showed unique patterns in generating responses to YMYL queries:

  • DeepSeek produces longer answers (391 words on average) with numerous sources (28 per response)
  • ChatGPT offers moderate-length content (234 words) with fewer sources (10 per response)
  • Google provides the briefest responses (190 words) with minimal citations (7 sources)

Google’s AI Overviews showed the highest percentage of responses with all unique links (61.9%), compared to ChatGPT (40%) and DeepSeek (32.5%), indicating Google prioritizes source diversity over quantity.

3. Fact vs. Opinion

Using subjectivity analysis, the study measured how factual versus opinion-based each platform’s content appeared:

  • ChatGPT delivered the most objective content overall (0.393 score)
  • Google AI Overviews ranked second (0.427 score)
  • DeepSeek showed the highest subjectivity (0.446 score)

These differences were most noticeable in political topics, where DeepSeek scored 0.497 (more opinionated) while Google scored 0.246 (more factual).

4. YMYL Category Strengths

The analysis revealed the following differences across various categories of YMYL queries:

Health Content

  • ChatGPT: Concise, disclaimer-heavy content citing medical sources
  • DeepSeek: Detailed responses with extensive citations, including news sources
  • Google: Conservative, heavily cautioned but brief content

Legal Content

  • ChatGPT: Bullet-point summaries with high-authority sources
  • DeepSeek: Comprehensive explanations with real-world examples
  • Google: Brief overviews with the highest disclaimer rate (50%)

Financial Content

  • ChatGPT: Risk-focused overviews with professional consultation recommendations
  • DeepSeek: Categorized information with numerical data and comparisons
  • Google: Avoids responding to highly sensitive financial queries entirely

5. DeepSeek Restrictions

The study documented that DeepSeek refused to respond to queries about Taiwan’s independence, Tiananmen Square, Chinese human rights issues, and websites banned in China.

DeepSeek’s responses often aligned with Chinese government perspectives when addressing related topics.

What Does The Data Mean?

A common thread throughout the data is how each AI chooses to protect users from potentially harmful advice while still trying to be helpful.

ChatGPT answers every YMYL query it sees, yet often leads with strong disclaimers and succinct takeaways.

Google AI Overviews, on the other hand, declines to generate content for almost half of the tested queries, leaning heavily on caution rather than risk providing the wrong guidance.

DeepSeek is at the opposite extreme. Sometimes, it offers staggering amounts of detail, and other times, it offers little detail if the response doesn’t align with political perspectives.

What unites all three is the balance between information and liability. Each model wants to appear authoritative in YMYL niches but must decide whether to be “helpful” or “safe” (and how much of each).

Key Takeaways For SEO

For SEO and content teams, here are key points to consider:

  • Google is selective. Content appearing in AIOs must meet high-quality standards, especially for YMYL topics.
  • Google’s AIOs cite unique and diverse sources for YMYL searches. This increases visibility but creates competition for clicks.
  • Different AI systems prefer specific styles, lengths, and details in content.
  • All three platforms prefer disclaimers on sensitive topics, with health content having the highest rate of cautionary notices at 37%.

Understanding these platform differences can help you improve visibility in AI search tools.

For more insights into AI search optimization, see:

Featured Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock

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Mar 3 2025
Google On Low-Effort Content That Looks Good via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google’s John Mueller used an AI-generated image to illustrate his point about low-effort content that looks good but lacks true expertise. His comments pushed back against the idea that low-effort content is acceptable just because it has the appearance of competence.

One signal that tipped him off to low-quality articles was the use of dodgy AI-generated featured images. He didn’t suggest that AI-generated images are a direct signal of low quality. Instead, he described his own “you know it when you see it” perception.

Comparison With Actual Expertise

Mueller’s comment cited the content practices of actual experts.

He wrote:

“How common is it in non-SEO circles that “technical” / “expert” articles use AI-generated images? I totally love seeing them [*].

[*] Because I know I can ignore the article that they ignored while writing. And, why not should block them on social too.”

Low Effort Content

Mueller next called out low-effort work that results content that “looks good.”

He followed up with:

“I struggle with the “but our low-effort work actually looks good” comments. Realistically, cheap & fast will reign when it comes to mass content production, so none of this is going away anytime soon, probably never. “Low-effort, but good” is still low-effort.”

This Is Not About AI Images

Mueller’s post is not about AI images; it’s about low-effort content that “looks good” but really isn’t. Here’s an anecdote to illustrate what I mean. I saw an SEO on Facebook bragging about how great their AI-generated content was. So I asked if they trusted it for generating Local SEO content. They answered, “No, no, no, no,” and remarked on how poor and untrustworthy the content on that topic was.

They didn’t justify why they trusted the other AI-generated content. I just assumed they either didn’t make the connection or had the content checked by an actual subject matter expert and didn’t mention it. I left it there. No judgment.

Should The Standard For Good Be Raised?

ChatGPT has a disclaimer warning against trusting it. So, if AI can’t be trusted for a topic one is knowledgeable in and it advises caution itself, should the standard for judging the quality of AI-generated content be higher than simply looking good?

Screenshot: AI Doesn’t Vouch for Its Trustworthiness – Should You?

Screenshot of ChatGPT interface with the following warning beneath the chat box: ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.

ChatGPT Recommends Checking The Output

The point though is that maybe it’s difficult for a non-expert to discern the difference between expert content and content designed to resemble expertise. AI generated content is expert at the appearance of expertise, by design.  Given that even ChatGPT itself recommends checking what it generates, maybe it might be useful  to get an actual expert to review that content-kraken before releasing it into the world.

Read Mueller’s comments here:

I struggle with the “but our low-effort work actually looks good” comments.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/ShotPrime Studio

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Mar 3 2025
Do Reviews Still Matter? Study Looks At Changing Consumer Behavior via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

BrightLocal has released a new report analyzing 15 years of consumer review behavior data. The findings reveal shifts in how people research and buy from local businesses.

Here’s more about the study and what it means for marketers.

Historical Trends

The report tracks the popularity of online reviews. It notes a rise in local business research from 2015 to 2016, which coincided with smartphone ownership reaching 77% among U.S. adults.

This trend peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when 59% of consumers said they researched local businesses nearly daily.

After that, the number of consumers researching local businesses steadily decreased.

Traditional Review Metrics Less Important

Consumers now place less importance on traditional review metrics:

  • Fewer consumers expect perfect five-star ratings.
  • People care less about how recent reviews are compared to 2018–2020.
  • Star ratings still matter, but more customers see them as “vanity metrics” instead of accurate indicators of business quality.

The report notes:

“This reinforces the point that consumers are more understanding of the challenges to maintain high ratings, and that it’s not a realistic indicator of true quality as a standalone factor.”

Consumers Willing To Write Reviews

Consumers may care less about reviews when deciding what to buy but are still willing to write them.

In the last five years, almost three-quarters of adults in the US have written an online review.

Additionally, data indicates that consumers are more willing to write reviews, even if they didn’t do so in the past year.

The report states:

“For business owners, what this shows is that, despite the challenges of maintaining a consistent stream of new reviews, consumers are overwhelmingly willing to write one. It’s all about giving them a strong reason to do so (AKA a memorable experience) and catching them at the right time.”

Related Webinar:

Platform Preferences

Screenshot from: brightlocal.com/research/consumer-reviews-historical-trends/, March 2025.

Google continues to lead as the preferred review platform, but the research shows movements among other platforms:

  • Facebook has dropped in both usage and trust from 2020 to 2025.
  • Yelp remains stable as a trusted review source.
  • Platforms like YouTube, local news outlets, and social media are more influential in helping consumers make decisions.

The report suggests that the distinction between “traditional” and “alternative” review platforms is less relevant, posing the question:

“What does a consumer care about the definition of a review platform, really?”

Screenshot from: brightlocal.com/research/consumer-reviews-historical-trends/, March 2025.

I’m sharing a personal anecdote here: I tend to do much of my local business research on YouTube and TikTok.

I’m traveling out of town this month, and I used a combination of both platforms to decide which hotel to book, the exact room type I wanted to book, and the restaurants I wanted to eat at while I’m there.

As the report notes, I felt the experiences shared on YouTube and TikTok were a more authentic representation of what I’d experience as a consumer. Although they don’t have standardized review systems, videos offer all the information needed to make an informed decision.

What This Means For Marketers

While recency and star ratings matter for local visibility, they no longer tell the whole story for customers.

BrightLocal’s study offers these takeaways for marketers:

  1. Be visible on various platforms, not just review sites.
  2. Respond to customer feedback instead of just aiming for high ratings.
  3. Use your business identity, like a Google Business Profile, to connect with socially conscious consumers.
  4. Adapt to the changing ideas of “review platforms.”
  5. Ask for reviews. Customers are willing to write them, so don’t hesitate to ask.

See the full report.

Featured Image: ImageFlow/Shutterstock

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Mar 3 2025
Google’s VP of Ads and Commerce Outlines 2025 Priorities via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Google is making big moves in 2025, and unsurprisingly, AI is at the heart of it all.

In a recent update, Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s VP and GM of Ads and Commerce, outlined the company’s top priorities for the coming year.

From AI-powered ad experiences to deeper integrations with YouTube and Google Shopping, these changes signal a clear direction: more automation, more personalization, and a stronger push for immersive ad formats.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s coming and how brands can prepare.

Google’s 2025 Ad Priorities

In Srinivasan’s letter to the industry, she summed up Google’s main priorities into these categories:

  • AI and personalization
  • YouTube’s engaged audiences
  • New ways to search

AI-Driven Personalization and Shopping Experiences

AI isn’t just a buzzword for Google—it’s the backbone of its advertising strategy. Srinivasan emphasized that AI will play a larger role in shaping ad creatives, optimizing bidding strategies, and curating shopping experiences tailored to individual users.

With over a billion shopping activities happening daily on Google, the company is investing heavily in AI-powered product discovery.

Expect to see enhanced AI-generated visuals, automated ad variations, and an improved ability to match users with products based on intent rather than just search keywords.

The revamped Google Shopping experience will feature AI-powered recommendations, immersive 3D product spins, and new ad placements that seamlessly blend into organic search experiences.

YouTube and Search: A Shift to More Visual, Interactive Ads

YouTube is becoming even more central to Google’s ad strategy, especially as younger audiences rely on creators for product recommendations.

Srinivasan noted that Google is working to make ads more interactive and non-disruptive, allowing users to explore products without leaving their video experience.

On the search side, Google is expanding AI-powered search capabilities with tools like AI Overviews and Circle to Search. These innovations will change how users find and engage with ads.

Advertisers will need to rethink their strategies beyond just bidding on keywords—visual and interactive ad formats will become key to capturing attention.

How Advertisers Should Prepare

Staying ahead in PPC in 2025 means adapting to AI-driven changes now.

Google’s changing ad landscape will reward those who embrace automation, optimize creative strategies, and rethink audience targeted.

If you’re not sure where to start, these three components would be a great foundation to shift your PPC strategy.

#1: Shift Toward AI-Optimized Creative

With AI taking a bigger role in ad creation, advertisers need to start testing AI-generated assets now.

Google’s AI tools will allow for automatic variations of images, headlines, and ad copy, making creative testing more efficient.

Brands should focus on providing high-quality inputs—strong branding, clear messaging, and compelling visuals—to ensure AI-generated outputs align with their goals.

#2: Rethink Shopping and Video Strategies

E-commerce brands should lean into AI-powered shopping experiences, ensuring their product feeds are optimized with detailed descriptions, high-resolution images, and accurate inventory data.

With YouTube becoming an even bigger shopping destination, brands should explore shoppable video ads and creator partnerships to drive engagement.

#3: Prepare for a Post-Keyword Ad Landscape

As search evolves, traditional keyword-based targeting will matter less. Instead, audience intent and AI-driven placements will take center stage.

Advertisers should start leveraging first-party data, testing Performance Max campaigns, and using Google’s audience insights to reach the right customers in a more predictive, automated way.

Final Thoughts

Google’s 2025 ad strategy is all about AI, personalization, and more immersive ad experiences.

Advertisers who rely solely on manual optimizations or traditional search strategies may find themselves falling behind.

Now is the time to experiment with AI-powered creative, embrace new ad formats, and rethink how to engage audiences in a world where discovery is just as important as search.

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Mar 1 2025
Mullenweg Asked If He’s Adaptable To Change via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress, recently held a question-and-answer session at WordCamp Asia 2025, where he faced several tough questions. Topics included whether he was open to discussing change, the steep learning curve of WordPress, and whether he would reconsider reducing Automattic’s contributions to WordPress core.

As tough as those questions were, Matt answered each of them gracefully and focused on staying positive, even when he was saying no.

Mullenweg Says Being Adaptable To Change Is Important

In one of these exchanges someone asked what WordPress would be like in five years and he couldn’t answer it. He explained it that not having a plan beyond Gutenberg was essentially a feature and not a bug, explaining that a shorter term perspective is good for staying agile in a rapidly changing technological environment.

He said:

“Outside of Gutenberg, we haven’t had a roadmap that goes six months or a year, or a couple versions, because the world changes in ways you can’t predict.

But being responsive is, I think, really is how organisms survive.

You know, Darwin, said it’s not the fittest of the species that survives. It’s the one that’s most adaptable to change. I think that’s true for software as well.”

Change Is Not Coming To WordPress

In a seeming about face about the importance of WordPress being adaptable to change, Matt Mullenweg drew the line at being adaptable to change when it comes to governance.

Taco Verdonschot (LinkedIn profile) stood up to ask the question.

“I’m Taco, co-owner of Progress Planner. I was wondering, you were talking about adaptability before and survival of the fittest. That means being open to change. What we’ve seen in the last couple of months is that people who were talking about change got banned from the project. How open are you to discussing change in the project?

Matt answered:

“Sure. I don’t want to go too far into this but I will say that talking about change will not get you banned. There’s other behaviors… but just talking about change is something that we do pretty much every day. And we’ve changed a lot over the years. We’ve changed a lot in the past year. So yeah. But I don’t want to speak to anyone personally, you know. So keep it positive.”

Calls For Change In Governance

There have been many high profile calls for a change in how WordPress is governed, most notably by Joost de Valk, the creator of Yoast SEO software and currently a co-owner of the Progress Planner WordPress plugin.

Joost had written:

“A lot has happened over the last few months, that I think all comes down to the above. I’ve often considered how the WordPress world “worked” unhealthy. I’ve spoken to many slightly outside of our industry over the past months about what was happening and several people, independent of each other, described WordPress as “a cult” to me. And I understand why.

I think it’s time to let go of the cult and change project leadership. I’ve said it before: we need a “board”. We can’t wait with doing that for the years it will take for Automattic and WP Engine to fight out this lawsuit. As was already reported, Matt said recently in Post Status that “it’s hard to imagine wanting to continue working on WordPress after this”. A few days later, he gave a completely conflicting message in the State of the Word. Yet he never came back on that first statement or clarified that he’d changed his mind. He also didn’t come back to talk to the community he turned his back on.”

Joost de Valk was supposed to speak at WordPress Asia 2025 but the co-owner of Progress Planner was there and asked the hard question.

Mullenweg Challenged To Adapt To Change

His statement about being adaptable to change set up another awkward moment at the 6:55:47 minute mark where Taco Verdonschot, co-owner of Progress Planner, stood up to the microphone and asked Mullenweg if he really was committed to being adaptable.

Taco Verdonschot is formerly of Yoast SEO and currently sponsored to work on WordPress by Emilia Capital (owned by Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt).

Taco asked:

“I’m Taco, co-owner of Progress Planner. I was wondering, you were talking about adaptability before and survival of the fittest. That means being open to change. What we’ve seen in the last couple of months is that people who were talking about change got banned from the project. How open are you to discussing change in the project?”

Mullenweg responded:

“Sure. I don’t want to go too far into this but I will say that talking about change will not get you banned. There’s other behaviors… but just talking about change is something that we do pretty much every day. And we’ve changed a lot over the years. We’ve changed a lot in the past year. So yeah. But I don’t want to speak to anyone personally, you know. So keep it positive.”

Featured Image by Shutterstock/StarLine

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Mar 1 2025
Google AIO Is Sending More Traffic To YouTube via @sejournal, @martinibuster

New data confirms that AIO is becoming an increasingly significant source of traffic to YouTube channels. A closer look reveals that complex search queries, which traditional organic search may not adequately answer, create opportunities for optimized YouTube videos but only for certain topics.

BrightEdge Data On YouTube And AIO

BrightEdge’s data shows that YouTube’s presence in Google’s AI Overviews (AIO) is increasing faster month over month. There was a 21% increase since January 1st and a 36.66% month-over-month growth from January to February.
The data revealed the kind of video content that’s benefiting from AIO.

Topics and Keywords with an AIO that cite YouTube:

  • Instructional Content (31.2%): With “how-to” queries leading at 22.4%
  • Visual Demonstrations (28.5%): Physical techniques, style guides
  • Verification/Examples (19.7%): Product comparisons, visual proof
  • Current Events (8.2%): Breaking news, live coverage

Which Industries Benefit The Most From Videos In AIO?

The BrightEdge data shows that healthcare topics benefited the most, closely followed by eCommerce related topics. Education only accounted for less than 4% of citations.

Here are the full rankings by industry:

  • Healthcare: 41.97%
  • eCommerce: 30.87%
  • B2B Tech: 18.68%
  • Finance: 9.52%
  • Travel: 8.65%
  • Insurance: 8.62%
  • Education: 3.87%

Google Is Actively Targeting Video Content

Many people feel more comfortable consuming video content, especially for topics where they’re learning something related to a hobby but also Your Money Or Your Life (YMYL) topics which related to health and finances.

The data shows that there’s a change happening in Google’s AIO to integrate videos as answers. Google’s AI is clearly becoming more multimodal.

These are the kinds of videos cited by the analysis as benefiting from the shift in emphasis to video in AIO:

  • “Visual demonstrations
  • Step-by-step tutorials
  • Product comparisons
  • Real-world examples”

A startling data point is that almost 70% of the YouTube citations are related to instructions or demonstrations.

  • Instructional 35.6%
  • Visual Demo 32.5%

Takeaways

BrightEdge suggests that prioritizing product demonstrations, step by step tutorials and focusing comparison content may be a useful strategy if Google’s emphasis on YouTube citations in AIO continues.

Read the BrightEdge analysis:

From the YouTube CEO: Our big bets for 2025

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Gearstd

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