The SEOFOMO Newsletter​

June 14, 2026
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Your weekly SEO & AI Search News to Stop the FOMO, read by +45.1K SEOs.
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"Using a service or tool doesn't guarantee ranking success."

​Google adds guidance on third-party SEO tools, services, advice and updates hiring an SEO doc​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land

Google has updated its documentation around hiring SEOs and evaluating third-party SEO tools, services, and advice, including mentions of generative AI optimization. The guidance reinforces that Google doesn’t endorse specific SEO tools, metrics, or providers, and that site owners should validate recommendations against Google’s own documentation, actual site data, and business goals.

An important precedent on AI search answers ruling

​Google can be directly liable for false AI Overview claims: German court​

Danny Goodwin / Search Engine Land

A German court ruled that Google can be directly liable for false claims shown in AI Overviews, treating AI-generated summaries as Google’s own content rather than protected traditional search results. The case focused on AI-generated accusations that associated two publishers with scams despite the linked pages not supporting those claims. Google plans to appeal, but the ruling is a major signal for how regulators and courts may treat AI-generated search answers going forward.

The press releases don’t address what websites get back

​Apple introduced Siri AI at WWDC this week: What Apple’s Gemini-Powered Siri Means For Search Visibility​

Matt G. Southern / Search Engine Journal

Apple’s WWDC announcements brought Siri AI closer to a real shipping product, with AI-powered assistant experiences becoming more integrated across Apple devices and apps. Although the Apple Intelligence release credits the new capabilities to Apple Foundation Models “custom-built in collaboration with Google and its Gemini models.” The dedicated Siri AI release doesn’t name Google at all.

• Related: ​Apple Updates Applebot Docs To Include Siri AI & AI Features by barry Schwartz​

More features for local businesses needing AI assistance

​Google is adding Google Business Profile connection and Business Notebooks to Gemini​

Vishnu Sivaji / Google

Google is rolling out new Gemini features for small businesses, including a Google Business Profile connection that gives Gemini access to business-specific context such as reviews, customer questions, and performance data. Google also announced Business Notebooks to help organize chats, sources, websites, and Business Profile information in one place. This should make Gemini more useful for local business operations, content creation, customer understanding, and reputation management.

Anthropic’s response is that they already have strong safeguards in place

​Anthropic Forced To Shut Down Fable 5 By U.S. Government Order​

Roger Montti / Search Engine Journal

Anthropic reportedly suspended access to Fable 5 after a U.S. government export control directive connected to national security concerns. The company disputes the underlying security rationale, but the situation highlights how quickly AI product availability, model access, and platform ecosystems can be affected by regulation, export controls, and geopolitical risk.

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Similarweb’s panel is far from the only data source telling this story.

​In 2026, Less than one-third of Google Searches Still Send a Click​

Rand Fishkin / SparkToro

Rand Fishkin shares SparkToro and Similarweb data showing that in early 2026, only a minority of Google searches still resulted in a click. SEO measurement needs to expand beyond website sessions and include visibility, influence, brand demand, and engagement across platforms.

• Related: What The Future of Google Looks Like by Harry Clarkson-Bennett​

The branding and loyalty search era

​Google is building an Audience Loyalty ecosystem​

Barry Adams / SEO for Google News

Barry analyzes how features like Preferred Sources, Search Profiles, Discover, and other Google surfaces point toward a broader audience loyalty ecosystem. For publishers, this means success is increasingly tied to being recognized, followed, remembered, and repeatedly surfaced across Google’s ecosystem, not only ranking for isolated queries. The shift makes loyalty, direct audience relationships, original reporting, and retention much more important SEO priorities.

What pixel depth data reveals about visibility.

​The SERP is sinking: What pixel depth data reveals about visibility [Presentation]​

Tom Capper / Moz

Tom shares pixel-depth analysis showing how SERP features affect actual organic visibility across different intents. The presentation highlights which search features dominate visible space, where organic results tend to appear, and why traditional ranking reports can miss the reality of what users actually see. Check it out.

Avoid schema, feed and website misalignment

​Why Your Product Feed Is An SEO Asset (And Who Should Own It)​

Emina Demiri-Watson / Search Engine Journal

Emina shares why product feeds are no longer only a PPC or Merchant Center concern. Google increasingly reconciles multiple product data layers, and inconsistencies between feeds, on-page content, structured data, and merchant information can hurt ecommerce visibility and trust. She makes the case for shared SEO and PPC ownership of feed quality, especially as shopping visibility becomes more data-driven and AI-assisted.

Because “best practice” is not the same as proof

​How to Accelerate SEO Traffic Growth with SEO Testing​

Kaitlin McMichael / Women in Tech SEO

Kaitlin goes through how SEO testing can help validate ideas before rolling them out more broadly. The guide covers SEO split testing, common testing pitfalls, implementation options, and how to use testing principles to improve both traditional SEO and AI search visibility. It’s especially useful for teams that want to prioritize SEO changes based on evidence rather than opinions.

It's reputation, entity understanding, and community visibility combined

​The New Rules of Local Search: Reviews, Community Signals, and Brand Prominence ​

Gianluca Fiorelli, Darren Shaw / Advanced Web Ranking

Gianluca Fiorelli and Darren Shaw discuss how AI Overviews, “Ask Maps,” reviews, community signals, and brand prominence are reshaping local search. The conversation explores how local SEO pillars are evolving, how multilingual audiences can be approached in Google Maps, and how businesses can fight outdated or inaccurate “zombie information” that may be repeated by search and AI systems.

AI tracking needs better sampling, not random prompt screenshots

​How to Build a Representative AI Search Prompt Library for Better AI Visibility Measurement​

Aleyda Solis

I go through a practical framework to build a representative AI search prompt library that supports real measurement and optimization. The guide explains how to select prompts across audience needs, markets, journey stages, products, and intent types, then use them to identify visibility gaps, source patterns, brand representation issues, and optimization opportunities. Prompt tracking should help teams move from reporting AI visibility to improving it.

Understand the retrieval layer behind AI answers

​Exploring the Future of AI-Driven Agentic Search Architecture and RAG [Presentation]​

Dawn Anderson

Dawn shares an in-depth presentation on Retrieval-Augmented Generation, agentic search architecture, context graphs, and how AI-powered systems retrieve, connect, and act on information. The presentation is useful for SEOs who want to better understand how AI search systems may evolve beyond answers into tasks, commerce, and agent-driven workflows.

It's about publisher survival in the AI search era

​Publishers of the World, Unite​

Shahzad Abbas / Define Media Group

Shahzad argues that publishers need stronger defenses against AI crawlers and unlicensed content extraction. He proposes a multi-layered bot defense approach to help publishers protect their content, manage crawler access, and push back against AI systems that extract value without fair attribution or compensation.

Structured meaning is becoming infrastructure for agents.

​Ontologies for the Agentic Web​

Andrea Volpini

Andrea explains how ontologies are evolving in the context of LLMs and the agentic web, shifting from static shared conceptual models toward more actionable, machine-usable memory and reasoning structures. The guide is especially relevant for SEOs working on entity understanding, structured data, knowledge graphs, and AI-ready content ecosystems.

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• ​SEO Manager at Cision​
• ​Interim SEO Manager - Remote​
• ​SEO Specialist at Honest Digital​
• ​SEO Account Manager at Inhabit​
• ​SEO & GEO Manager at Seer Interactive​
• ​Senior Content Marketer, SEO at Animalz​
• ​Digital Marketing Specialist at Ziff Davis Shopping​
• ​Technical SEO Executive at Twinkl Educational Publishing​

SEOFOMO x StudioHawk SEO Padel Open London

Join us for the first SEOFOMO x StudioHawk SEO Padel Open London, a fun free SEO networking event featuring padel, drinks and food at Powerleague Shoreditch on Saturday, June 27, 2026, from 10am to 3pm.

Whether you’re new to padel, already experienced, or just want to watch and cheer, there will be something for everyone:

• New to padel? Join beginner-friendly matches for new players.
• Experienced in padel? Take part in a mini-tournament for experienced players.
• Just want to watch others play and cheer? You can do that too.
• We’ll wrap up the matches with networking, free drinks and food.

This is a special event focused on SEO networking while playing (or learning) padel.... no formal SEO sessions, or talks.

When you register, we will ask you if you want to play or just watch, and if you want to pay: your level of experience to organize the matches accordingly.

SEOFOMO is less than 5K subscribers away to reaching the big 50,000 subscribers milestone and we’re celebrating by giving back to the search community helping us get there.

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 giveaway to win:

• 1 Grand Prize Winner who will choose one eligible SEO conference experience worldwide from the available options, including a conference ticket, SEOFOMO swag, and a private SEO / AI Search Q&A session with Aleyda Solis.
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  Partner conferences include MozCon, Search n' Stuff, BrightonSEO, Shenzhen SEO Conference, SEO Sydney Conference, Athens SEO, SERP Conf, SearchNorwich XL, Belgrade SEO Conference.
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• 5 Community Experience Winners who will join an exclusive virtual SEO & AI Search group Q&A session with Aleyda Solis and WTSFest London 2027 Recording Ticket.

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The campaign started on May 31st, 2026 and will end when SEOFOMO reaches 50,000 verified subscribers, or on December 31st, 2026, whichever comes first.