Ecommerce Management Advisors
Ecommerce Management Advisors
Google announced Query groups in Search Console Insights. The AI feature clusters similar search queries, surfaces trends, and shows which topics drive clicks.
The French technology group Positive acquired Surfer, the popular content optimization tool. The acquisition helps Positive create a “full-funnel” brand visibility solution together with its marketing and CRM tools.
The acquisition of Surfer extends Positive’s reach from marketing software to AI-based brand visibility. Positive described the deal as part of a European AI strategy that supports jobs and protects data. Positive’s revenue has grown fivefold in the past five years, rising from €50 million to an expected €70 million in 2025.
Founded in 2017, Surfer developed SEO tools based on language models that help marketers improve visibility on both search engines and AI assistants, which have become a growing source of website traffic and customers.
The acquisition shows that search optimization continues to be an important part of business marketing as AI search and chat play a larger role in how consumers learn about products, services, and brands. This deal enables Positive to offer AI-based visibility solutions alongside its CRM and automation products, expanding its technology portfolio.
Positive Group, based in France, is a technology solutions company that develops digital tools for marketing, CRM, automation, and data management. It operates through several divisions: User (marketing and CRM), Signitic (email signatures), and now Surfer (AI search optimization). The company is majority-owned by its executives, employs about 400 people, and keeps its servers in France and Germany. Surfer, based in Poland, brings experience in AI content optimization and a strong presence in North America. Together, they combine infrastructure, market knowledge, and product development within one technology-focused group.
Lucjan Suski, CEO and co-founder of Surfer, commented:
“SEO is evolving fast, and it matters more than ever before. We help marketers win the AI SEO era. Positive helps them grow across every other part of their digital strategy. Together, we’ll give marketers the complete toolkit to lead across AI search, email marketing automation, and beyond.”
According to Mathieu Tarnus, Positive’s founding president, and Paul de Fombelle, its CEO:
“Artificial intelligence is at the heart of our value proposition. With the acquisition of Surfer, our customers are moving from optimizing their traditional SEO positioning to optimizing their brand presence in the responses provided by conversational AI assistants. Surfer stands out from established market players by directly integrating AI into content creation and optimization.”
The acquisition adds Surfer’s AI optimization capabilities to Positive’s product ecosystem, helping customers improve visibility in AI-generated answers. For both companies, the deal is an opportunity to expand their capabilities in AI-based brand visibility.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/GhoST RideR 98
Some GA4 users are reporting that a new conversational interface called Analytics Advisor is appearing inside Google Analytics.
The sighting comes from analytics consultant Himanshu Sharma, who posted screenshots on X:
📢 🥳 Google has begun rolling out ‘Analytics Advisor’ to standard GA4 properties, marking the most significant update in GA4’s history since its launch. This is the GA4 built-in Conversational AI Agent.
It displays intermediate reasoning to make its logic more transparent,… pic.twitter.com/4rv7BYF2Oj
— Himanshu Sharma (@analyticsnerd) October 10, 2025
A welcome card in the screenshot lists three functions:
The interface appears as a chat entry point inside a GA4 property.
Google hasn’t issued a help-center article or “What’s New” note for Analytics Advisor, and there is no formal announcement detailing availability, eligibility, or timelines.
At Google Marketing Live, Google described agentic AI tools coming to Ads and Analytics, including a “data expert” for Analytics that surfaces insights and helps troubleshoot issues.
Google said:
“In Google Analytics, the data expert will proactively show insights and trends, plus enable easy data exploration with simple visuals for improved decision-making and performance. These new capabilities will also help marketers troubleshoot campaign issues.”
The company also previewed a separate Marketing Advisor agent for marketers. Analytics Advisor in GA4 would be consistent with that direction, though Google hasn’t connected these names publicly.
If this interface rolls out broadly, it could lower the effort required to get quick answers from GA4, especially for teams still learning the product’s structure.
The transparent, step-by-step answers shown in the screenshot may also help you check how an answer was derived before acting on it.
Key details remain unclear, including:
We will update this story if Google publishes documentation or confirms details.
Check your GA4 properties for a new chat icon or welcome card labeled Analytics Advisor.
If it appears, test on non-sensitive questions first and compare responses to your existing reports before relying on it for decisions.
Featured Image: Mamun_Sheikh/Shutterstock
Google has released Lighthouse 13 with a broad audit consolidation that aligns Lighthouse reports with Chrome DevTools’ newer insight model.
The update is available now via npm and Chrome Canary. It will roll into PageSpeed Insights within about a week and is slated for Chrome’s stable channel with version 143.
Google says the update doesn’t change how Lighthouse calculates performance scores. This update targets non-scored audits only.
Lighthouse 13 replaces many legacy audits with “insights” that mirror DevTools.
Notable examples include:
layout-shifts becomes cls-culprits-insight for clearer identification of layout shift causes.document-latency-insight consolidates redirects, server response time, and text compression checks.image-delivery-insight replaces modern formats, optimized images, responsive images, and efficient animated content audits.lcp-discovery-insight and lcp-phases-insight. For interaction work, see interaction-to-next-paint-insight (INP).third-parties-insight replaces the older third-party summary to show external script impact.Additional replacements address DOM size, duplicated JavaScript, font display, legacy JavaScript, HTTP/2 and modern HTTPS, network dependency trees, render-blocking, caching, and viewport configuration.
Several audits were removed because they are outdated, inactionable, or low value in modern environments. Additionally, some audits were removed because they were costly to run.
Removed audits include:
first-meaningful-paintfont-sizeoffscreen-imagespreload-fontsuses-rel-preloadno-document-writeuses-passive-event-listenersthird-party-facadesGoogle kept non-composited-animations and unsized-images as separate diagnostics to help locate issues that don’t directly cause CLS.
Google also removed font-size and preload-fonts even though those were not in the initial removal list.
If you rely on Lighthouse for client reporting, you will see fewer line items and more consolidated insights that map to DevTools.
Your scores shouldn’t change just by upgrading, but any automation that keys off audit IDs will need to track the new insight identifiers.
For SEO context, the removal of the font-size audit reflects Google’s position that this is not a current SEO signal, even though legibility remains a UX consideration.
Expect Lighthouse and DevTools to stay aligned on the same insight model.
For reporting, consider mapping old audit IDs to the new insights now to avoid broken dashboards when PSI updates.
Featured Image: FotoField/Shutterstock
Google has launched a small-business resource hub, positioning it as a single starting point for setup, advertising, measurement, and support.
The page pulls together direct entry points for Business Profile, Merchant Center, Google Ads and YouTube Ads, plus a clear “get started” path into Google Analytics.
It also spotlights Workspace’s AI features and links beginner training and help resources in one place.
The hub serves as a gateway to Google’s small-business tools.
You can claim a Business Profile, list products in Merchant Center, launch Google Ads or YouTube Ads, and activate Analytics.
The layout makes it easier to move a client from “claim your profile” to “list products” to “launch ads” without hopping sites.
Screenshot from: business.google.com/us/essentials/, September 2025.For agencies and consultants, the practical use is straightforward: you can send new clients to a single URL for onboarding instead of assembling links across multiple Google properties.
It’s a navigational layer over tools you already use. What’s actually new is the packaging and emphasis.
Google has offered “Google for Small Business” destinations before, but this refresh lives on business.google.com, reflects today’s ads lineup, and puts AI-assisted workflows and starter website options in view.
That makes it more useful as a canonical link you can include in proposals, kickoff emails, and checklists.
The test for marketers is whether Google continues to keep this page fresh with the latest product updates, new partner offers, and up-to-date guides.
If it does, it can make onboarding smoother for small teams and give you more time to focus on strategy instead of worrying about URL management.
Featured Image: IB Photography/Shutterstock
Google is expanding its store widget program into three eligibility-based tiers that you can embed on your site to display ratings, policies, and reviews, helping customers make informed decisions.
Google announces:
“When shoppers are online, knowing which store to buy from can be a tough decision. The new store widget powered by Google brings valuable information directly to a merchant’s website, which can turn shopper hesitation into sales. It addresses two fundamental challenges ecommerce retailers face: boosting visibility and establishing legitimacy.”
Google now offers three versions of the widget, shown based on your current standing in Merchant Center: Top Quality store widget, Store rating widget, and a generic store widget for stores still building reputation.
This replaces the earlier single badge and expands access to more merchants.
Google’s announcement continues:
“It highlights your store’s quality to shoppers by providing visual indicators of excellence and quality. Besides your store rating on Google, the widget can also display other important details, like shipping and return policies, and customer reviews. The widget is displayed on your website and stays up to date with your current store quality ratings.
Google says sites using the widget saw up to 8% higher sales within 90 days compared to similar businesses without it.
You add the widget by embedding Google’s snippet on any page template, similar to adding analytics or chat tools.
It’s responsive and updates automatically from your Merchant Center data, which means minimal maintenance after setup.
Check eligibility in Google Merchant Center, then place your badge wherever reassurance can influence conversion.
Google first announced a store widget last year. Today’s update introduces the three-tier structure, which is why Google is framing it as a “new” development.
Bringing trusted signals from Google onto your product and checkout pages can reduce hesitation and help close sales that would otherwise bounce.
You can surface store rating, shipping and returns, and recent reviews without manual updates, since the widget reflects your current store quality data from Google.
Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
Google adds an Achievements report in Search Console so you can track click-based milestones, see in-progress goals, and jump to Insights and tips.
Google appears to have disabled or is testing the removal of the &num=100 URL parameter that shows 100 results per page.
Reports of the change began around September 10, and quickly spread through the SEO community as rank-tracking tools showed disruptions.
Google hasn’t yet issued a public statement.
The &num=100 parameter has long been used to retrieve 100 results in one request.
Over the weekend, practitioners noticed that forcing 100 results often no longer works, and in earlier tests it worked only intermittently, which suggested a rollout or experiment.
@tehseoowner reported on X:
Google has seemingly removed the ability to do &num=100, can anyone confirm?
If you use the parameter, only 2 pages show. This “2 pages” filter has been tested for a year, but usually if you clicked to page 2 they have the rest the top 100. Now it shows nothing after page 2.
— SEOwner (@tehseowner) September 11, 2025
Keyword Insights wrote:
‼️ Google has killed the n=100 SERP parameter. Instead of 1 request for 100 SERP results, it now takes 10 requests (10x the cost). This impacts Keyword Insights’ rankings module. We’re reviewing options and will update the platform soon.
— Keyword Insights (@keywordinsights) September 14, 2025
Clark and others documented tools showing missing rankings or error states as the change landed.
Some platforms’ search engine results page (SERP) screenshots and daily sensors briefly stalled or displayed data gaps.
Multiple SEO professionals saw sharp declines in desktop impressions in Google Search Console starting September 10, with average position increasing accordingly.
Clark’s analysis connects the timing of those drops to the &num=100 change. He proposes that earlier desktop impression spikes were partly inflated by bots from SEO and AI analytics tools loading pages with 100 results, which would register many more impressions than a normal 10-result page.
This is a community theory at this stage, not a confirmed Google explanation.
Over the past year, many teams reported rising impressions without matching clicks and associated that pattern with AI Overviews.
Clark argues the &num=100 change, and the resulting tool disruptions, offer an alternate explanation for at least part of that decoupling, especially on desktop where most rank tracking happens.
This remains an interpretation until Google comments or provides new reporting filters.
Clark wrote about the shift after observing significant drops in desktop impressions across multiple accounts starting on September 10.
He wrote:
“… I’m seeing a noticeable decline in desktop impressions, resulting in a sharp increase in average position.
“This is across many accounts that I have access to and seems to have started around September 10th when the change first begun.”
Keyword Insights said:
“Google has killed the n=100 SERP parameter. Instead of 1 request for 100 SERP results, it now takes 10 requests (10x the cost). This impacts Keyword Insights’ rankings module. We’re reviewing options and will update the platform soon.”
Ryan Jones suggests:
“All of the AI tools scraping Google are going to result in the shutdown of most SEO tools. People are scraping so much, so aggressively for AI that Google is fighting back, and breaking all the SEO rank checkers and SERP scrapers in the process.”
Take a closer look at recent Search Console trends.
If you noticed a spike in desktop impressions in late 2024 or early 2025 without clicks, some of those impressions may have been driven by bots. Use the week-over-week changes since September 10 as a new baseline and note any substantial changes in your reporting.
Check with your rank-tracking provider. Some tools are still working with pagination or alternative methods, while others have had gaps and are now fixing them.
Google has been reached out to for comment, but hasn’t confirmed whether this is a temporary test or a permanent shift.
Tool vendors are already adapting, and the community is reevaluating how much of the ‘great decoupling’ story stemmed from methodology rather than user behavior.
We’ll update if Google provides any guidance or if reporting changes show up in Search Console.
Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
Ahrefs has acquired Detailed.com and the Detailed SEO Extension, bringing a widely used on-page auditing tool and its audience under the Ahrefs umbrella.
As part of the deal, Detailed founder Glen Allsopp is joining Ahrefs full-time to work on marketing strategy, research, and product.
The acquisition covers the Detailed website and its browser extension, along with several smaller domains and extensions.
Launched in 2020, Detailed.com is known for long-form, data-driven SEO research and practitioner tips (including its analysis of how a small number of companies operate large networks of ranking sites). Over the past 12 months, Detailed.com recorded 970,000 unique visitors.
The Detailed SEO Extension reports over 450,000 weekly users on Chrome and approximately 7,000 on Firefox.
The extension speeds up page-level checks SEO professionals perform during audits and competitive reviews by surfacing title and meta tags, heading structure, robots directives, and schema markup in a single panel.
It also offers options for highlighting nofollow links, inspecting hreflang, viewing status codes, extracting People Also Ask results, switching the user agent to Googlebot, and jumping the current URL into popular research tools for deeper analysis.
Allsopp told SEJ that the extension and all current functionality will remain free for all users.
If premium capabilities are ever added in the future, they would be additions rather than moving existing features behind a paywall. There are no current plans to introduce paid tiers.
On branding and distribution, the extension will keep the Detailed SEO Extension name. Detailed will operate as “Detailed, an Ahrefs brand.”
Users don’t need to take any action, and updates will continue as normal through existing Chrome and Firefox listings.
Allsopp told Search Engine Journal:
“At a time when so much is happening in SEO and digital marketing as a whole, I want to be at the forefront of the work that helps companies reach more of their target audience. Ahrefs provides tools, data and insights I’ve used in my own business for years, so to be joining the team behind that is really exciting.”
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The move adds a high-usage browser utility and a research-driven content brand to Ahrefs’ portfolio.
If Ahrefs integrates or expands the extension’s capabilities over time, practitioners could see faster iteration on features that support day-to-day site audits, on-page reviews, and competitive analysis.
Featured Image: Screenshot from Detailed.com, September 2025.
Google will stop reporting six deprecated structured data types in Search Console and remove them from the Rich Results Test and appearance filters.