Author: Ryuzaki

Ranking No. 1 is still an accomplishment, but by now, most SEO professionals understand that it doesn’t mean what it once did.  Search in 2026 is messy, multi-surface, and sometimes more passive than active: Jim Yu, Founder and CEO of BrightEdge, shared with me: “In the early days of search, success was simple: earn rankings, get clicks, grow traffic. But search has evolved through quick answers, featured snippets, maps, and knowledge panels – each reducing the need for a user to click. AI is now adding an entirely new layer.” With rankings shifting toward just a leading indicator, the real…

Publishers and search engines have long depended on ad placements and affiliate marketing to make money. Search engines rely on pay-per-click (PPC) models, while publishers blend display ads, affiliate links, and sponsored content. But with chat-based AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity on the rise, that foundation is starting to crack.  If users get the information they need directly from AI, why would they keep clicking search ads or publisher display links? And as search engines push further into AI-driven results – including features like Google’s AI Mode – what incentive remains for users to engage with traditional ad…

Search Engine Land is expanding its contributor roster in 2026 – and we’re looking for seasoned experts in SEO, PPC, AI, and analytics to join us. Why we care. Search Engine Land is not just our publication – it’s yours. For 20 years, Search Engine Land has been the go-to source for search marketing insights, reaching more than 1 million professionals every month. We’re growing again and want to amplify a trusted and diverse set of voices across the industry – whether you’ve been doing it for 5 years or you’re old enough to remember the Google Florida update. The…

Food bloggers say this Thanksgiving is a breaking point. Google Search and AI Overviews, powered by Gemini 3, are rewriting recipes, stealing clicks, and in some cases serving dangerously wrong cooking instructions, Bloomberg reported. Why we care. For more than a decade, food bloggers could predict and rely on holiday traffic. Not this year. AI answers are replacing vetted recipes, cutting off creators’ main revenue streams, and confusing home cooks with stitched-together instructions that don’t always make sense. What’s happening. Google’s AI Overviews now surface blended cooking steps from multiple bloggers, often above the links/sources they draw from. Many food…

For years, marketers measured digital success through impressions, backlinks and clicks. If you ranked high in search results and won the click, you had visibility and control of the funnel. But that landscape is already shifting. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity are rapidly becoming the first place decision-makers go for answers. These systems don’t return a page of links; they generate a synthesized response. Whether your brand is included, or ignored, in that answer increasingly determines your relevance in the buying journey. This changes the marketer’s playbook. Visibility is no longer only about ranking on…

In the last 24 hours, ChatGPT and Perplexity have introduced new AI-driven shopping experiences that aim to deliver more personalized product discovery and guidance. Both experiences are meant to help users find, compare, and purchase products through conversational queries informed by preferences and past behavior. ChatGPT Shopping research. OpenAI introduced shopping research, a guided buying experience that turns ChatGPT into a personalized product researcher. Users describe what they need (e.g., “quiet cordless vacuum,” “compare these strollers,” “gift for my art-obsessed niece”). ChatGPT asks clarifying questions, pulls price/spec/review data from the open web, and produces a tailored buyer’s guide in minutes.…

A wave of sophisticated phishing attacks is letting scammers hijack full Google Ads Manager Accounts (MCCs), giving them instant access to hundreds of client accounts — and the ability to spend tens of thousands in hours, undetected. Driving the news. Agencies across LinkedIn, Reddit and Google’s own forums are reporting an uptick in MCC takeovers, even among teams using two-factor authentication. The attackers’ weapon of choice: near-perfect phishing emails that mimic Google’s account-access invitations. Victims say hijackers add fake admin users, link their own MCCs, and begin launching fraudulent, high-budget campaigns. In some cases, support tickets take days to escalate…

Staying Sexy and Connected After 60: The Timeless Power of Self-Love and Intimacy As we age, the narrative surrounding intimacy and romance can often feel daunting. Yet, figures like Raquel Welch serve as a vibrant reminder that embracing our sensuality and self-identity is not limited by age. Welch, who gracefully stepped into her 78th year, exemplifies that confidence and allure are timeless qualities that transcend decades. Many seniors today find themselves navigating the complex waters of intimacy, often wondering how to keep the spark alive or engage in new romantic adventures. Aging brings about significant changes, not only physically but…

As shopping becomes more visually driven, imagery plays a central role in how people evaluate products. Images and videos can unfurl complex stories in an instant, making them powerful tools for communication.  In ecommerce, they function as decision tools.  Generative search systems extract objects, embedded text, composition, and style to infer use cases and brand fit, then  LLMs surface the assets that best answer a shopper’s question.  Each visual becomes structured data that removes a purchase objection, increasing discoverability in multimodal search contexts where customers take a photo or upload a screenshot to ask about it. Shoppers use visual search…

Canonicalization has long been a core SEO practice, yet it’s still one of the easiest to overlook. At its simplest, canonicalization helps search engines identify the original source of content and prevents duplicate versions from competing with each other. Large sites rely on solid canonical structures to stay organized, and small sites benefit by avoiding duplicates that can dilute rankings and visibility. As we move into 2026, canonicalization is becoming even more important as generative engine optimization (GEO) rises alongside traditional SEO.  With AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other generative systems shaping how content is selected, summarized, and attributed, these…