Search News You Can Use - SEO Podcast with Marie Haynes

Google has just released a major update to Search Console, providing website owners with dedicated performance reports for Generative AI features including AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover AI. In this video, I walk through where to find this new report, why impressions matter even without click data, and the new regulatory changes that forced Google's hand.0:00 - Introduction: Google introduces new AI tracking data within Search Console.0:37 - Official Announcement: Google launches Search Generative AI performance reports.1:22 - Report Walkthrough: Looking at the new report, which tracks impressions only.1:58 - Google's Blog Post: Reviewing Google's updates on AI insights and best practices.2:23 - Links & Sources: Discussing inline citations and how to become a "preferred source."3:11 - AI Guidance: Discussing updated rules regarding LLM.txt and optimizing for AI agents.3:45 - The Opt-Out Toggle: Introducing the setting to block Google from using your site for AI.4:46 - The Risk of Opting Out: Why blocking AI might completely kill your search visibility.5:37 - Personal Story: How the speaker updated her site to correct inaccurate AI information.7:08 - UK Rollout: Explaining why the feature is currently limited to a subset of UK users.7:32 - Regulatory Pressure: How UK regulations forced Google to add these transparency tools.9:11 - Impression Counting: Explaining how unique URLs count as impressions in AI Overviews.11:12 - Missing Query Data: Why complex, multi-modal search inputs make keyword tracking impossible.12:53 - Missing Click Data: Analyzing what content earns clicks vs. ignored "commodity content."15:08 - Brand Value: Why being cited in AI answers is still valuable for brand awareness.16:33 - Analysis Strategy: How to pair impression data with standard metrics to optimize content.

Google just shared experimental documentation to help us get our websites ready for the agentic web. In this video, I walk through the new Lighthouse report, WebMCP integration, and why you might actually need an LLMS.txt file!Timestamps:0:00 - Google's new agentic readiness info1:00 - How to run the report in Chrome Canary1:45 - Why Cumulative Layout Shift matters for agents2:30 - Understanding the AI Accessibility Tree3:40 - WebMCP: Imperative vs. Declarative tools4:35 - Using Modern Web Guidance to code for agents5:10 - The LLMS.txt controversy explained6:10 - Why agents need Markdown files8:10 - How to stay updated in my communityRead more:https://www.mariehaynes.com/lighthouse-report-for-agents/Resources mentioned:Marie's Agent Readiness Tool: agent-readiness.mariehaynes.com Introduction to Lighthouse from Google: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overviewChrome Canary: google.com/chrome/canaryJoin the discussion in the Search Bar community: https://community.mariehaynes.comJoin the paid Search Bar Pro community: https://mariehaynes.com/join

You can now ask your readers to add you as a preferred source, even if you’re not a news site! This will increase the chances that your audience sees you in AI Overview and AI Mode answers.Google’s blog post on the recent changes to preferred source:https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/original-high-quality-content-search/Instructions from Google on how to do this:https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sourcesMy blog if you want to check out the preferred source widget at the bottom of any of my blog posts:https://mariehaynes.com/blog/?utm_source=youtubeMy newsletter:https://mariehaynes.com/newsletter/My community, the Search Bar:https://mariehaynes.com/join/

At I/O Google announced Information agents, a new Search Box, Antigravity within Search and Universal Cart which will let you put items in a cart from MULTIPLE merchants and then it will check behind the scenes to tell you if another merchant has a better price and more.Search is changing!Here is my Google doc with all of my notes on Google I/O and the Developer keynote:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y_lMum8Sd18Y_FII4yQJMZEqMEVi0Ep6g34ovkMTqhM/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0#heading=h.6dm1fxghyeyn

Lots of interesting stuff in this new Google document!In this chat we talk about:-the new role of the index-non commodity content-llms.txt and .md filesand my favourite part - the transition to agentic search.Hope you enjoy (and my apologies for the stutter in the video - not sure what happened there, but at least the audio is solid.)Marie