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In memory of Nick Wilsdon, SEO industry leader and dear friend
Today’s SEOFOMO newsletter is dedicated to Nick Wilsdon, SEO industry leader and wonderful, supportive SEO friend, who passed away a few days ago.
Nick was an outstanding, highly experienced SEO consultant, speaker and an incredibly generous contributor to our community, mentor of many, always willing to share his knowledge and help others. He was as well known for his in-depth SEO know-how, as he was for his kindness, warmth and smile he brought always with him. I was very lucky to also call him a friend.
My heartfelt condolences go to his amazing wife, beautiful children, and awesome team at Torque, the successful SEO consultancy he proudly founded after a long-time career as an SEO specialist at Ebay, Vodafone and many other companies.
Thank you for your all your contributions, friendship and everything you shared with us, Nick. You’ll be greatly missed. A big hug to heaven 🙏
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🗞️ The Latest Updates from Search Engines
More prominent links in AI answers. Let's see how it impacts traffic...
Google announces updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews to explore the web
Hema Budaraju / Google
Google is increasing the visibility of inline links, expanding timely article carousels to more locations and languages, and making related article links more prominent. It’s also testing dedicated sections for official sites and clickable creator names in AI Mode.
Shopping carts now extend across Search and Gemini
Google launches Universal Cart in the U.S.
Suresh Ganapathy / Google
Google is rolling out Universal Cart across Search and the Gemini app in the US, allowing shoppers to save products from multiple retailers, track price and stock changes, and find promotions. Supported checkout experiences let users purchase through Google Pay or continue on the retailer’s website, with the merchant remaining the seller of record.
If you had noticed a decrease in ChatGPT traffic ... this is the reason
ChatGPT had stopped and then started again tagging its links with utm_source=chatgpt(.)com
Cedric Huesler
Cedric reports that ChatGPT has started adding its UTM source parameter again after an interruption that began with the release of GPT-6 for free users on October 8, 2026.
Double-check unexpected ranking shifts before changing anything
Poisoned Google SERPs
Nozzle
Nozzle reports that 8% of the SERPs it could assess since September 13 showed what it calls “poisoned” results: normal looking pages with many of the usual ranking sites replaced. The research highlights a potential source of misleading rank-tracking data.
See the thematic shape of your AI Search footprint at a glance
Microsoft introduces Topics Portfolio (Beta) in Bing Webmaster Tools
Krishna Madhavan, Saral Nigam, Vivek Jain / Microsoft
Bing Webmaster Tools’ new Topics Portfolio groups AI grounding queries into topics and shows approximate citation volumes, cited sites, and query counts. For sites with enough data, it also highlights opportunity queries where other websites appear but yours doesn’t.
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⭐️ Sponsor Highlight: Semrush
Semrush AI Visibility Index: 180 million+ prompts and 9 markets
AI visibility diverges sharply across models, industries, and markets. A strategy built for one will underperform in another.
Semrush’s AI Visibility Index now tracks 180 million+ prompts across 22 industries, 4 platforms, and 9 English-speaking markets: US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, Singapore, New Zealand, and Pakistan.
Benchmark against the best in multiple markets, then build your targeted strategies that win.
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👌 This week's Top SEO Resources
The Google dependent affiliate playbook is dead
Build something so valuable that Google looks stupid for not ranking it
Nick LeRoy / SEO For Lunch
The affiliate playbook that made me money in 2010 is dead. Nick shares how he would invest $100K to build something better in 2026.
Your SEO strategy needs audience loyalty and distribution too
Why SEO Isn’t Enough Anymore - And Why That’s A Good Thing
Harry Clarkson-Bennett / Leadership in SEO
Harry explains why search performance needs to sit within a broader marketing strategy built around trust, audience habits, and distribution. He recommends strengthening your presence where your audience is influenced and measuring loyalty, engagement, and incremental impact along with traffic.
Zero reported search volume doesn’t mean zero search opportunity
Finding High-Value Converting Queries That Mainstream Tools Miss
Dan Petrovic / DEJAN
Dan goes through how to identify high converting, commercial search queries that show zero volume in mainstream SEO tools.
Avoid drawing conclusions your test can’t support
Test Like A Scientist: 6 Mistakes That Undermine Your SEO Experiments
Giulia Panozzo / Search Engine Journal
Learn six common SEO testing mistakes and how scientific thinking can help you design better experiments, interpret results, and make more reliable decisions.
Why does Next.js feel so fast in development but easy to break in production?
Next.js: The final boss of Web Performance [Presentation]
Estela Franco
Estela analyzes Next.js performance using HTTP Archive and Chrome User Experience Report data, comparing its performance features with real-world website results. A useful resource to share with development teams when assessing framework choices!
How is AI changing the way you feel about your SEO career?
SEOJobs.com AI Career Anxiety Survey
Nick LeRoy
Take the SEOJobs.com's AI Career Anxiety Survey to share how AI search shifts have impacted your career and what are your expectations in the upcoming months.
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🤖 Latest AI Search Insights
Follow-up questions are rising from a small base
AI Mode queries in Search Console: what 155 sites show
Jan-Willem Bobbink / GSC Wizard
Jan-Willem goes through Search Console query data across 155 sites to assess AI Mode related search behavior. A must-read resource to see how conversational searches may be reflected in your own query reports.
The PR tactics that have definitive crossover value
PR for Machines: Earning Coverage That LLMs Repeat [Presentation]
Ross Hudgens
Ross shows how digital PR can support both SEO and AI search visibility, including how to assess whether it fits your business, get more value from your data, and pursue “best X” placements, among other tactics.
What happens to rank tracking when the results page keeps changing?
How Do We Move Forward if the SERP Is Generative?
Mike King / iPullRank
Mike examines Google’s generative UI research and its potential implications for search measurement. He argues that increasingly dynamic results require repeated observations and distributions of outcomes, rather than relying on a single ranking snapshot.
Where do vendors’ own lists dominate, and whose lists get cited most?
Self-Promotional Content Data Study
Minuttia, Convex Works
Minuttia and Convex Works analyzed 18,084 software questions across six search and AI platforms. For “alternatives to” questions, self-promotional pages accounted for 34%–47% of listicle citations, depending on the platform. Learn about these and more insights in the research!
What does schema add beyond the information already visible on a page?
Schema markup gives AI assistants nothing plain text doesn’t
Rick Ramos / Serptwerker
Rick questions whether schema markup provides AI assistants with information they can't obtain from plain text. The article addresses a relevant question for technical SEO prioritization: what additional value does the markup provide for the specific systems you’re targeting?
Click the Network tab, filter to Fetch/XHR, and you get a list of requests
Wiretapping the SERP: Reverse Engineering Network Data
Mark Williams-Cook
A beginner’s guide to exploring browser network data to find exploits and figure out how systems like Google and ChatGPT are working behind the scenes.
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⭐️ Special Offer for SEOFOMOers
💸 SEO & AI Search Jobs
🛠 Free(mium) SEO & AI Search Tools
LLM Inspector Chrome Extension
Jean-Christophe Chouinard
Track ChatGPT conversations for search queries, ranked source domains, citations, and models used.
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🎙️ Upcoming SEO & AI Search Events
Search ’n Stuff x SEOFOMO: London Holiday SEO Meetup
Search ‘n Stuff, SEOFOMO / London, UK / £16.96 / November 24, 2026
Join Aleyda Solis, Yagmur Simsek, Chris Green, Areej AbuAli, Chima Mmeje, Tom Capper, Mark Williams-Cook, and more for SEO and AI search panels, an open mic, festive food, drinks, karaoke, and giveaways.
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Search Africon Kenya
Search Africon / Nairobi, Kenya / $45 / November 7, 2026
Join Boluwa Olojo, Mikael Araújo, Laura Iancu, Anu Adegbola, and more to build skills, rethink internet marketing strategies, and connect with like-minded people.
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🎁 Refer SEOFOMO and Get the Chance to Win
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Refer fellow search marketers to the free SEOFOMO newsletter and each verified new subscriber you bring in gives you one additional eligible entry in The SEOFOMO Global Search Community Giveaway - The Road to 50K Challenge. Learn more and start referring now.
Get your unique SEOFOMO referral link below and see how many referrals you have to participate in the giveaway:
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I hope you've liked today's edition of SEOFOMO. Do you have any comments or feedback? Don't hesitate to let me know over here!
Until the next edition,
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