Cyrus and Dawn Shepard published the 2026 Google Ranking Factors Expert Survey this morning. One hundred thirty-one SEO professionals scored more than 100 possible ranking factors on a seven-point scale, from strongly positive to strongly negative, producing 13,665 data points and about 43 hours of collective work.
Forty-five percent of U.S. consumers used an AI tool to get a local business recommendation in the past twelve months. Last year that figure was 6 percent.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released research this morning showing that 56 percent of consumers prefer AI-generated shopping recommendations that include creator or influencer perspectives. Sixty-five percent say they feel more confident … [Continue reading]
Semrush released a second study of ChatGPT topic behavior on August 3, and it answers the question the first one left hanging. The July research told us that domain-level SEO metrics do a poor job of predicting who owns a topic. This one identifies … [Continue reading]
Semrush has published a study that puts real numbers behind an argument the search industry has been having since ChatGPT started answering buying questions. Does any brand actually own a topic inside an AI (artificial intelligence) assistant, or do … [Continue reading]
Home Service Companies That Track Profit Instead of Leads Get 38% More From Their Ad Spend, Study Finds Home service companies may have a bigger advertising measurement problem than an advertising budget problem. … [Continue reading]