The SEOFOMO Newsletter​

September 14, 2025
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Your weekly SEO & AI Search News to Stop the FOMO, read by +39K SEOs.
Today's sponsors: Semrush and SiteGuru. Want to advertise? Ask here.​

AI Mode is now multilingual

​AI Mode is now available in five new languages around the world​
​Hema Budaraju / Google​
​Google announced AI Mode availability in 5 new languages worldwide (in those countries where it's available already): Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Interesting that Spanish is not there yet ... too many nuances across too many country markets?

You can try AI Mode in google(.)com/ai in case is available in your country (not yet in the EU).

But, how's AI Mode Usage Going so far?

In a Similarweb event last week, they shared that in late August, it still had only 3% of daily usage in the US, and 3.5% in the UK, and the UK usage had actually slightly dropped compared to the one seen in launch week.

AI platforms only account for 0-5% of sites' revenue

​The State of AI Search Optimization in 2025 From +200 Experienced SEOs​

SEOFOMO

For the majority, AI platforms account for 0-5% of site revenue, however, AI visibility is now a concern for almost everyone, with 91% of SEOs reporting that decision-makers or clients have asked about their company’s AI search visibility in the past year. Here are the top learnings from the survey’s answers:

• Most SEO teams (~75%) own AI Search Optimization, but dedicated strategy is still uncommon. However, most have already re-prioritized or expanded SEO processes to include AI search work.
• Key focus areas / tactics for optimizing for AI search are emerging: Schema & structured data, content restructuring for retrieval, enhancing technical accessibility, brand mentions / citations, improved tracking / measurement, amont others.
• AI search optimization goals SEOs have agreed with decision makers are: Visibility & citations as the most consistent near-term goal and traffic & conversions as the ultimate business outcome, but fewer have concrete targets yet.
• Challenges & implications: The revenue impact of AI search remains small, so ROI measurement and expectations are key; overpromising may lead to disappointment. Measurement is the bottleneck.
• The most used AI Search Tracking and Optimization tools are: Ahrefs, Google Analytics, Semrush, Google Search Console, SE Ranking.
• Much more, including commentary from experienced SEO specialists.

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​Learn about the state of AI Search Optimization here.​

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PS: A big thank you to all who took the survey and participated in the giveaway, and congratulations to the winner: Yordan Dimitrov.

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Stop. Saying. SEO. Is. Dead.

​AI Bros: "SEO is dead because people are now searching via LLMs". Here's the data/facts backed reality​​
​Aleyda Solis​
LLMs are expanding and evolving (not killing) search as a discovery/marketing channel, here's the data:

• ChatGPT had 5.8B visits in August 2025 vs Google 83.8B visits. Yes, ChatGPT traffic is growing but still far away to what Google drives.
• Even if ChatGPT continues to grow like crazy: The reality is that it shares 95% of its audience with Google. People use ChatGPT along with Google (instead of replacing it) and for many other use cases than the ones they use Google (eg. task oriented requests).
• LLMs answers also rely on grounding (retrieving real-time external information via their search integration beyond its static memory) when current, factual information is needed, this means SEO is vital for it.
• The principles and pillars of SEO remain when optimizing for AI Search: Crawlability, indexability, content relevance, EEAT and popularity towards the relevant audience behavior ... what changes are criteria we use to optimize based on the specific platforms characteristics.
• Let's also not forget that SEO goes beyond optimizing for Google. SEO is about optimizing for any platform used as a search channel.

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​More data to send to your boss or clients asking about this.​

If you see strange Google rankings fluctuations... this might be why

​Google tests forced pagination on SERPs​​
​Ray Grieselhuber / Demandsphere​
​This makes much more difficult for rank trackers to provide clients with the 100 results that they are used to seeing in their reporting, since most SERP analytics SaaS providers rely on the &num=100 parameter to provide the best view on the SERP index.

Ray shares it's not clear yet if this is a permanent change but he predicts that it is likely here to stay and guesses that Google is doing this as a further preventative measure against OpenAI and other competing LLM companies using their SERPs.

They will be also removed from the Rich Results Test

​Google Drops Search Console Reporting For Six Structured Data Types​
​Matt G. Southern / Search Engine Journal​
​Google announced it will stop reporting on six previously deprecated structured data types in Search Console: Course Info Claim Review Estimated Salary Learning Video Special Announcement Vehicle Listing. Book Actions isn’t included in this reporting change.

Updated YMYL definitions

​Google updates search quality raters guidelines adding AI Overview examples & YMYL definitions​
​Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land
​Google updated the YMYL definitions and added additional examples for new features like AI Overviews. Google also fixed some typos and other textual issues in the document.

It's time to start using CrUX Vis instead

​Google deprecates the CrUX Dashboard
​Barry Pollard / Chrome for Developers​
​Google is planning on deprecating the CrUX Dashboard after the end of November 2025. They highly recommend switching to CrUX Vis, a newer tool that visualizes historical CrUX data that has many advantages over the older CrUX Dashboard.

Le Sigh

​Google can’t decide if the web is thriving – or dying
​Danny Goodwin / Search Engine Land​
​In a recent court filing, Google’s lawyers wrote: “The fact is that today, the open web is already in rapid decline”. That line directly contradicts what Google executives and representatives have been saying for months.

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The Definitive AI Search Rankings Are Here

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Until now, there was limited data to show what really drives AI visibility.

Introducing Semrush Enterprise’s AI Visibility Index.

It’s an interactive experience that reveals the brands leading in AI search, as well as a downloadable study that gives you the blueprint for growing your own visibility.

Get a data-backed exploration of:

• Which brands lead in 5 key industries
• Who gets mentioned in AI vs. who it cites (and how to optimize for each)
• How Patagonia, Garmin, and others are scoring AI search wins

The AI Visibility Index is completely free, giving you the proven tactics for thriving in AI search.

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Branded queries were more heavily impacted than the unbranded ones

​Google CTR Stats – Changes Report for Q2 2025
​Dan Popa / Advanced Web Ranking​
​Dan calculated the CTR averages for each position for Q2 2025 and compared them against the ones retrieved for Q1 2025. “The first two positions’ clickthrough rates for desktop queries decreased by a combined 3.75 pp”. Learn more about this and more CTR changes per device across industries in this research.

Core brands shape trust in AIOs

​Trust Still Lives in Blue Links​
​Kevin Indig, Amanda Johnson / Growth Memo​
​Kevin and Amanda share brand new insights about how users interact with AI Overviews showing that they're mostly an information shortcut, but not a conversion killer.

Backlinks still strongly correlate with top SERP rankings

​Is Link Building Dead? (15 Data Studies Behind the Clickbait)​
​Vince Nero / BuzzStream
​Is link building dead? Or is it just more of the same? Vince shares 15 studies to help you decide: “Digital PR now outperforms traditional link tactics, earning authoritative links and unlinked mentions from trusted publications”.

Let's learn from Yagmur

​SEO Meets Community: Blending Growth, AI, and Networking​
​Yagmur Simsek, Gianluca Fiorelli / Advanced Web Ranking​
​Yagmur shares about SEO KPIs, metrics, and client expectations, content collaboration with AI, how community building works in our industry, local events offering deeper connections compared to global ones, and much more!

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It's time to reasonably address AI search optimization challenge

​The AI Search Optimization Roadmap​
​Aleyda Solis
​SEO is not dead, just evolving. In this presentation, Aleyda goes through the 5 key areas of difference with traditional search, the impact on optimization actions, while sharing key questions to ask to align AI search optimization with your current SEO actions, goals impact vs efforts, with a roadmap to go through to answer these questions, along with tools and resources.

PDPs were n𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝗶𝗻𝗴

​𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 (𝗣𝗗𝗣𝘀)?​​
​Andrea Volpini​
​If your PDPs aren’t machine-readable, rendered server side, AI won’t see your products — but it might see your competitors’. Andrea tested it and shared the results.

Introducing the RSL Protocol

​RSS co-creator launches new protocol for AI data licensing​
​Russell Brandom / Techcrunch ​
​A new system called Real Simple Licensing would allow AI companies to license training data at a massive scale... if they're willing to pay for it. A host of web publishers have already joined the collective, including Yahoo, Reddit, Medium, O’Reilly Media, Ziff Davis, and more.

• Related: Anthropic Agrees To $1.5B Settlement Over Pirated Books by Matt G. Southern​

Aggregate AI answers to find out your actual visibility

​You Can’t Track AI Like Traditional Search. Here’s What to Do Instead.​
​Louise Linehan / Ahrefs ​
​Louise explains how “AI rank tracking” is a misnomer, since you can’t track AI like you do traditional search. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t track it at all. You just need to adjust the questions you’re asking, and the way you measure your brand’s visibility. She explains how here.

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Track SEO Performance Across Keyword Groups with SiteGuru's new Search Topics

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SiteGuru’s new Search Topics feature makes it easy to monitor your SEO performance for groups of keywords, not just individual terms.

Instead of juggling endless spreadsheets, you get a clear overview of visibility, traffic, and competitor performance in one place.

Quickly spot gaps, identify winning pages, and uncover new content opportunities to grow your rankings.

Built for marketers who want actionable insights without the complexity, Search Topics helps you focus on what truly matters: creating content that drives results.

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• ​Senior AEO Strategist - International Growth at Hubspot (Remote, UK)​
• ​Content and SEO Specialist at Cahoot​
• ​Senior SEO Manager at Ferocious Media​
• ​Sr. Manager, Social SEO at Achieve​
• ​Organic Growth Strategist at Omniscient Digital ​
• ​SEO Content Writer/Editor (Edit AI-Generated Content) at OnrampLab​
• ​SEO Lead at Insight Timer​
• ​Jr SEO Analyst at Ziff Davis ​