The SEOFOMO Newsletter​

May 24, 2026
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Your weekly SEO & AI Search News to Stop the FOMO, read by +44.9K SEOs.
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Google didn’t flip the AI Mode switch. It rebuilt the Search doorway.

This week’s takeaway

One of the biggest questions before Google I/O was whether Google would push Search fully into AI Mode by default.

That didn’t happen, at least not in the way many expected.

What Google announced is more nuanced: AI Mode is not replacing classic Search as the default destination, but Google is making the Search journey more AI-native at more entry points and surfaces.

They're leading this shift with the new intelligent Search box, which Google describes as the biggest upgrade to the Search box in over 25 years. It dynamically expands, supports multimodal inputs, suggests better ways to ask questions, and can move users from AI Overviews into AI Mode follow-ups while preserving context.

So no, the default toggle didn’t flip to AI Mode, but the entry point into Search is becoming a much stronger bridge between traditional Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode, multimodal inputs, personalization, and agentic actions.

Why it matters

This makes the transition messier than a simple “classic Search vs AI Mode” split.

Google’s own recently published AI Mode usage data shows why: AI Mode queries are longer, more conversational, more multimodal, and increasingly used for comparison, planning, shopping, and decision-making.

For shopping specifically, Google says people often begin in traditional Search and then click into AI Mode to dive deeper. That’s the important behavior shift: users don’t necessarily need to start in AI Mode for AI to become part of the journey.

For SEOs, this means AI Search visibility won’t only be about whether a query starts in a dedicated AI Mode experience. It can be influenced by AI Overviews, follow-ups, multimodal inputs, personalized context, generative responses, agents, and commerce surfaces like Universal Cart.

What to do

We will need to analyze how AI appears across different intents: when AI Overviews show, when follow-ups move into AI Mode, which pages and sources are cited, how your brand is represented, and whether visibility changes across them.

Also, if you haven't yet, it's now fundamental to update your prompt library to reflect the behaviors Google flagged: longer conversational searches, follow-up journeys, multimodal inputs, “which” comparison queries, planning queries, and shopping attributes such as price, availability, size, material, style, and quality.

For ecommerce brands, Universal Cart reinforces the need for clean, complete, and fresh product data. Product visibility will increasingly depend not only on whether a product page ranks, but whether Google can understand product attributes, availability, pricing, compatibility, merchant offers, and checkout options well enough to use them in AI-assisted shopping journeys.

Recommended read of the week

Read Google’s I/O Search announcement, the Universal Cart announcement, and the AI Mode U.S. Insights report together.

The important takeaway is the direction Google is taking: Search is becoming a more flexible AI-assisted journey.

Google has rebuilt the search doorway

​Google Search’s I/O 2026 updates: AI agents and more​

Elizabeth Reid / Google

Google unveiled the biggest change to its search box in 25 years. They’re calling it the “Intelligent Search box”, powered by the latest Gemini 3.5 Flash. This is rolling out in countries and languages where AI Mode is available. According to Google, it will dynamically expand so users can describe what they need in more detail, suggest better ways to formulate questions, beyond traditional autocomplete, and more.

Google keeps moving shopping from discovery to AI-assisted action

​Google Shopping introduces Universal Cart at Google I/O, an AI-powered shopping cart​

Vidhya Srinivasan / Google

Google announced Universal Cart, an AI-powered shopping cart designed to work across Google products, including Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail. The moment you add a product to your cart, it finds deals and price drops, provides price history insights, and alerts you when an item is back in stock. The feature is rolling out across Search and the Gemini app in the U.S. this summer, with YouTube and Gmail to follow.

First official AI Mode insights after a year

​How AI Mode is changing the way people search in the U.S.​

Shivani Mohan / Google

After a year of releasing AI Mode Google has shared interesting trends about how people are using it: Searches are longer and more conversational, AI Mode is being used to decide, not only to discover, local and availability intent is very visible, AI Mode is becoming a task layer... and more.

Remember to wait until the full roll out is done to assess full impact

​Google Confirms May 2026 Core Update Is Now Rolling Out​

Matt G. Southern / Search Engine Journal

Google released the May 2026 core update on May 21st, the second broad core update this year. It may take up to two weeks to complete. Google said, “This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites”.

Remember that there's more to websites than just SEO

​Google Adds Markdown Files To Help Docs, But Not Used For Search​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable

Google has added markdown files to the Google Search help documents. But John Mueller said: “This is added by the developer documentation site where we host our content. It's not done for search or for discoverability”.

• Related: llms.txt (Google I/O 2026) by Dan Taylor​

Great news for sites

​More traffic and engagement insights about the recent ChatGPT changes on May 7th, giving links more prominence​

Aleyda Solis

Similarweb shared ChatGPT data comparing one week before vs. after May 7 showing how referral visits from ChatGPT increased by ~150%, around 60% of referral traffic now lands on brand homepages with +24% uplift in pageviews per visit and +11% uplift in time on site.

• Related: ChatGPT referral traffic to brand websites increased ~60% starting May 7, I pulled 8+ million referral visits across thousands of sites to figure out what's going on - by Josh Blyskal​

Google is enhancing its AI search monetization layer

​Google Expands AI Mode With New Ad Placements For Advertisers​

Brooke Osmundson

Google unveils Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers in AI Mode, signaling how advertising may evolve inside conversational, AI-powered Search experiences.

The AEO Handbook:
Everything You Need to Improve AI Visibility

AEO isn't a replacement for SEO—it's the next evolution of it. But knowing where to start, what to prioritize, and how to operationalize AEO at enterprise scale is where most teams get stuck.

Conductor's Enterprise AEO Handbook gives you a clear, actionable framework for advancing your AEO strategy, whether you're just starting to prioritize AI visibility or executing agentic workflows at scale. Inside, you'll learn:

• How to assess your AEO maturity and set realistic benchmarks for your stage
• The four pillars of a winning AEO strategy: content, technical, authority, and measurement
• How to operationalize agentic AEO with LLM apps, agents, and a human-in-the-loop approach

Stop guessing where to invest. Get the strategies the brands winning in AI search are already implementing.

Clean structured entity data still helps

​The Schema Question, Reframed or Trying To Clarify What It Is For​

Gianluca Fiorelli

Gianluca explains how clean, structured data serves as permanent business registration for Google's Knowledge Graph and AI search.

Can AI scale usefulness?

​Scaling AI Content Is The #1 Enterprise Priority: How Do You Scale Without Penalty?​

Shelley Walsh / Search Engine Journal

Enterprise brands want to scale AI content, but data shows penalties and quality issues are real. Shelley goes through what to understand to scale it in the right way.

Useful to explain and prioritize tech SEO efforts

​4 ways to strengthen buy-in for technical SEO work​

Helen Pollitt / Search Engine Land

Technical SEO projects gain traction faster when you communicate their value in terms that executives and developers understand. Helen outlines four approaches that can help stakeholders better understand, support, and prioritize technical SEO work.

A few of the excellent Athens SEO presentations

Check out some of the decks presented at Athens SEO:

• ​Ecommerce AI Search Trends & Wins: How to optimize the evidence-to-click layer across AI Search by Aleyda Solis​
• ​Automating Technical SEO with Screaming Frog CLI and n8n by Chris Lever​
• ​Taming the Bots: AI Crawler Management for the Modern SEO by Jamie Indigo​
• ​From Rankings to Recommendations: Closing the Measurement Chasm by Jonathan Moore​
• ​Multi-Platform Search: When ‘Everywhere’ Still Isn’t Enough by Bengü Sarıca Dinçer​
• ​Do !think like a robot by Mark Williams-Cook​
• ​Unlocking the potential of vector embeddings by Frank van Dijk​

AI search doesn't replace, but expands what SEOs need to influence

​The New Rules of AI Visibility and How To Prepare for It​

Aleyda Solis / Moz

Aleyda goes through why AI search should be treated as an evolution of SEO, not a disconnected discipline, the biggest changes affecting AI search optimization, and more in this comprehensive guide.

Personal context can change AI recommendations

​Your Inbox Might Be the Next AI Search Signal​

Garrett Sussman, Michael Tandoh, Cate Dombrowski / iPullRank

The iPullRank team tested whether Google's Personal Intelligence layer could influence brand recommendations across 1,922 AI Mode responses. The results point out that brand signals added to personal context in a Google Personal Intelligence connected account changed AI Mode recommendations; a recommendation sitting in Gmail mattered more than a brand sitting in Google Photos, among other insights. Check it out.

AI is accelerating a search dependency problem that was already there

​Is AI Killing Publisher Search Traffic? What The Guardian and Telegraph Think​

Jojo Furnival, Jessie Willms, Harry Clarkson-Bennett / Sitebulb

In publishing SEO circles "AI did it" has become the default explanation for a lot of traffic decline. But the audience was already leaving, AI just made it harder to ignore. Jessie Willms and Harry Clarkson-Bennett go through the shifts and how the economics don't work anymore.

Be careful with fast AI visibility wins that don’t hold up strategically or ethically

​The Problem & The Fix on GEO case studies promising results in 1 week​

Wil Reynolds / Seer Interactive

AI visibility results in one week is tempting. But here are 3 steps to make sure you're not putting your brand at risk and 3 weeks of sustainable GEO updates that hold up.

Webinar - Quill in Action

Stop running AI like it's 2023.

Most SEO teams are stuck in the prompt era: one-off requests, scattered workflows, systems no one maintains. AI is in the stack, but the work still feels manual.

The next step is agentic playbooks: always-on, self-improving systems that make execution faster and more consistent.

On June 11, growth leaders from Chime, Bitly, and Udemy will show how real teams use Quill's agentic Playbooks to win AI search.

You'll learn:

• The path from prompts to workflows to agentic Playbooks
• Live demos of Quill in action
• How to add guardrails and approvals without bottlenecks
• Which use cases deliver the best first wins
• How to get leadership buy-in

June 11, 2026 · 12pm ET · Live on Zoom (recording sent after)

• ​eCommerce SEO Strategist at DigitlHaus Agency​
• ​SEO Manager (AI Search) at ViewEngine​
• ​SEO Specialist at Eneba​
• ​SEO Strategist at Geeky Tech​
• ​Director of SEO & AEO at Masse​
• ​Sr. SEO Specialist at Searchbloom​
• ​Senior SEO Strategist at StubGroup​
• ​Senior SEO Specialist at Nover Marketing​

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