The SEOFOMO Newsletter​

December 28, 2025
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Your weekly SEO & AI Search News to Stop the FOMO, read by +40K SEOs.
Today's sponsor is Advanced Web Ranking. Want to advertise? Ask here.​

Top Challenges, Expectations & Actions for 2026

​SEOFOMO’s Key Organic Traditional & AI Search Trends for 2026 Based on +60 Survey Answers of Senior Search Specialists​

SEOFOMO

Over 60 experienced SEO professionals responded to SEOFOMO’s 2026 Organic Search Trends Survey, and the results paint a pretty clear (and refreshingly pragmatic) picture of where organic is heading, across both traditional search and AI-powered discovery, and what it’s going to take to stay competitive.

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If there’s one takeaway that shows up again and again, it’s this: AI search isn’t “killing SEO”. The real problem is the amount of confusion (and hype) around what AI search actually changes, especially when it comes to visibility, attribution, and how people make decisions online.

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Looking at 2026, the expectations are consistent: more AI blended into the SERP, fewer informational clicks, heavier monetization inside AI experiences, and intensifying competition around quality. Which is why the fundamentals that actually compound -technical clarity, authority, originality, and stakeholder communication- are showing up as the most durable advantages for SEO teams next year.

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Featuring comments by experienced SEOs like Lily Ray, Mark Williams-Cook, Barry Adams, Kevin Indig, Gianluca Fiorelli, Judith Lewis, Jono Alderson, and more!

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​Read it all here.​

Are ads coming to ChatGPT soon?

​ChatGPT Ads May Prioritize Sponsored Content In AI Responses​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable

A report from The Information outlined a number of avenues OpenAI is looking at for ad formats in ChatGPT. The main one that is reportedly being thrown around at the AI company is to show sponsored content within the AI responses given by ChatGPT.

SEOs are still waiting for a Discover rollout in Desktop

​Traditional Google Web Search Traffic to News Publishers has plummeted from 51.10% to just 27.42% in Q4 2025​

John Shehata

The Great Flip: Google Discover's share has nearly doubled in two years, climbing from 37.03% in 2023 to 67.51% today.

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• Related: Google's December Core Update is Still Rolling Out​

OpenAI Local mirrors your Google Business Profile

​ChatGPT Gains Local Knowledge Panels​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable

OpenAI has added local knowledge panels to the ChatGPT results. When you ask for local information and then click on a business name, ChatGPT will load a local knowledge panel on the right side.

"Gemini" was the top trending search globally

​Google Reveals The Top Searches Of 2025​

Matt G. Southern / Search Engine Journal

Google's Year in Search reveals trending actors, movies, athletes, games, recipes, and travel destinations that captured attention throughout 2025.

It's about branding

​Google: Pick A Reasonable Site Name To Rank For In Search​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable

John Mueller said when picking a site name, make sure to pick something that you can reasonably expect to rank for.

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Your competitors are winning qualified AI visitors. Are you?

Close the gap. Map your AI search visibility with Advanced Web Ranking.

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Get a clear, real-world picture of your brand’s presence in Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews across 170+ countries. AWR gives you the metrics that matter:

• AIO Citation Rank: Know exactly when your pages become top sources in AI Overviews.
• AI Citations Rate: Measure how often your URLs are used as AI sources.
• AI Brand Mentions: Track every reference to your brand: what’s said, how often, and where it links.
• AI Visibility: Understand your true share of AI exposure.
• AI Traffic Potential: See how much traffic AI results could realistically drive.
• Brand Share of Voice: Compare your AI footprint with competitors.

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Budgeting for Capacity, Not Output

​SEO Budgeting for Capacity: A Practical Framework for 2026​

Gianluca Fiorelli

Paying for "5 articles and 10 links" is obsolete. SEO budgets should buy capacity, aka strategic agility to build influence across search, AI answers, and LLMs, not factory-produced deliverables. Gianluca goes through a practical budgeting framework by business size.

Use testimonials

​4 Ways to Solve Duplicate Content Issues with Location Pages SEO for Multi-Location Businesses​

Joy Hawkins / Sterling Sky

It can be difficult for businesses with multiple locations to craft unique, rich content for each individual location page. Here are four tips for putting together rich, unique location page content.

A good use of OpenAI Integration

​How to Audit E-E-A-T at Scale with Screaming Frog and OpenAI API​

Ian Sorin

Ian shares how to audit EEAT and content quality at scale to know if your actual content is good enough. A practical, step-by-step process you can implement today.

In some ways, SEO in 2025 was “quieter” than SEO in 2024

​The Biggest SEO Updates in 2025 (+What They Mean for 2026)​

Tom Demers

There weren’t as many major algorithm updates in 2025 as in 2024, and the biggest stories in 2025 were essentially around the continued evolution of things that started in 2024. Tom goes through it and shares the takeaways for 2026.

Spam is back in search. And in a big way.

​Why Google's Spam Problem is Getting Worse​

Harry Clarkson-Bennett

Google’s algorithms appear to be rewarding the very abuse they were designed to stop in the most basic of forms.

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The narrative of “traffic is simply coming from a new source” is not accurate

​AI’s impact on search isn’t a secret (How to talk to execs about the new era of search)​

Nick LeRoy / Search Engine Land

Organic traffic is falling as AI reshapes search. Here's how to brief leadership with data, reset expectations, and adapt your SEO strategy for AI visibility.

Why is time to shift to product-led, experience-driven content

​Future Search for SaaS: A New Era of Growth and Discovery​

Gianluca Fiorelli, Gaetano DiNardi

Gaetano goes through client concerns about SEO’s value, the evolving role of SEO, use of subdomains, and content strategy in SaaS, and much more in this insightful interview with Gianluca.

Avoid these 5 mistakes that waste time

​Fresh Content: Why Publish Dates Make or Break Rankings and AI Visibility​

Mateusz Makosiewicz

Mateusz explains why fresh content matters for rankings and AI citations, which types of content need the most frequent updates, and how to systematically identify and refresh your outdated pages for maximum impact.

Quick SEO wins are still delivering outsized gains

​AI search is growing, but SEO fundamentals still drive most traffic​

Rob Tindula / Search Engine Land

AI is changing search, but traditional SEO still drives most traffic. Real-world data shows which tactics continue to perform. Learn about them here.

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• ​SEO Manager at Adobe​
• ​SEO Strategist at Tinuiti​
• ​SEO Lead - UK at Typeform​
• ​Local SEO Specialist at Venveo​
• ​SEO/GEO Content Manager at Life360​
• ​SEO Content Writer at KadoBar Official​
• ​SEO Marketing Coordinator at CharterUP​
• ​Senior SEO & GEO/AEO Strategist at Photoroom​

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Unpacked is a monthly newsletter from NeoMam Studios that covers digital PR campaigns, methodologies, and approaches to creativity.

Presented as a conversation between two of our team members, it's designed for anyone looking to strengthen their outreach, link building, ideation and content production skills, whether working in an agency, in-house, or as a freelancer.

Our first few issues have covered using academic studies to gain links, how to create unique ways to stand out in a journalist's inbox, and in-house marketers sharing their favourite campaigns of the year.

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