The SEOFOMO Newsletter​

January 25, 2026
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Your weekly SEO & AI Search News to Stop the FOMO, read by +40,600 SEOs.
Today's sponsor is Ahrefs Brand Radar. Want to advertise? Ask here.​

AI Mode is getting much more personalized

​Google brings Personal Intelligence (To Test) to AI Mode in Search​

Robby Stein / Google

Google is expanding Personal Intelligence to AI Mode in Google Search. The ability to connect AI Mode to your Gmail and Google Photos is rolling out as a Labs feature. Eligible Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in English in the U.S. This feature is available for personal Google accounts and not for Workspace business, enterprise, or education users.

Google says that:

• Personal Intelligence has been built with privacy in mind: "[it] doesn’t train directly on your Gmail inbox or Google Photos library. Training is contained to limited info, like specific prompts in AI Mode and the model’s responses, to improve functionality over time."
• You don’t have to constantly explain your preferences or existing plans, it selects recommendations just for you, right from the start.
• Personal Intelligence can also be particularly helpful for shopping, because AI Mode considers the types of items you buy and where you shop.

​Read more.​

So. Many. Bots.

​Google introduces a new GoogleBot: Google Messages​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable

Google added a new crawler called Google Messages, and it is "used to generate link previews for URLs sent in chat messages".

It’s no longer a zero sum game.

​Perplexity AI Interview Explains How AI Search Works​

Roger Montti

Roger spoke with Jesse Dwyer of Perplexity about SEO and AI search, about what SEOs should be focusing on in terms of optimizing for AI search: "As for the index technology, the biggest difference in AI search right now comes down to whole-document vs. “sub-document” processing."

Multiple appearances of a URL on one results page are aggregated

​Same URL in AI Overviews and blue links count as one Google Search Console impression​

Danny Goodwin / Search Engine Land

John Mueller confirms that when a URL appears in an AI Overview and as a blue link on the SERP, it won't count as two impressions. This happens because Google treats an AI Overview as a single position in the search results. All links within that Overview share the same position, and standard impression rules apply.

The numbers suggest early-stage adoption

​56% Of CEOs Report No Revenue Gains From AI: PwC Survey​

Matt G. Southern / Search Engine Journal

More than half of CEOs say they haven't seen revenue gains or cost reductions from AI over the past 12 months. Only 22% of CEOs report using AI to a large or very large extent for demand generation.

Track Brand Mentions Beyond Google

Ahrefs Brand Radar helps you track brand mentions where people actually discover products today — in YouTube videos (titles, descriptions, and transcripts), TikTok content, and Reddit discussions that appear in search results.

See how often your brand is mentioned, which competitors dominate attention, and how visibility changes over time.

Brand Radar combines search demand, mentions, and share of voice into one clear view, so marketing and SEO teams can understand real brand exposure — not just rankings.

If your brand lives in search, video, and communities, Brand Radar makes it measurable.

How Google knows you’re human

​Inside SearchGuard: How Google detects bots and what the SerpAPI lawsuit reveals​

Olivier de Segonzac / Search Engine Land

Olivier fully decrypted SearchGuard, the anti-bot system protecting Google Search. He goes through what he found and what this means for SEO.

AIO's decrease -35% CTR to organic results when present

​Debunking The Myth That Search Is Dying​

Ethan Smith / Graphite

Graphite partnered with Similarweb to analyze over 40k of the largest sites in the US to evaluate the trend in organic search traffic. “Organic traffic from Google to websites is down slightly (-2.5% YoY)”.

Why SEO is a product discipline

​Good SEO / Bad SEO: A simple guide to product-led SEO​

Björn Darko

Most SEO problems are not SEO problems. They are product problems. Björn shares a practical reference for modern, product and business-oriented SEO teams.

The 7 core components of an SEO brand guide

​SEO Brand Marketing: Create a Brand Guide That Drives Search Visibility​

Despina Gavoyannis / Ahrefs

Brand marketing is more important to SEO than ever, but most teams don't have a documented brand guide. Despina explains how to create one that improves your visibility in both search and AI results.

High CTR is key for success

​How To Analyze Google Discover​
​Harry Clarkson-Bennett / Search Engine Journal​
​Although Discover data is limited, some insights and resources can help us extract far more value from the platform. Harry goes through them.

The SXO testing workflow

​How to Make Every Click Count with Search Experience Optimization​

Celeste Gonzalez / Moz

Celeste explains that although we can't control the SERP chaos, but we can control what happens after someone clicks. That's where Search Experience Optimization (SXO) comes in.

All you need to know about Generative AI in a single place

​A Guide to Generative AI​

Gianluca Fiorelli / Advanced Web Ranking

A must read, comprehensive guide to LLM Architecture and Mechanics, AI agents, retrieval systems, and SEO strategies for optimizing content in AI search.

The Great Acronym Gold Rush & GEO Grift

​A Reflection on SEO & AI Search in 2025​

Lily Ray

Search transformed dramatically in 2025. Lily goes through the biggest changes in SEO & AI search, including her observations, hot takes, and thoughts about where search is headed in 2026.

Traffic and pipeline no longer move together.

​The Great Decoupling​

Kevin Indig, Amanda Johnson / Growth Memo

Kevin and Amanda go through why traffic and pipeline have decoupled, what brand strength actually means in AI search, and how to reframe SEO with executives.

• Related: How to explain flat traffic when SEO is actually working by Adam Heitzman​

Learn How AI crawlers work

​AI Crawlability: What SEOs Need to Know to Stay Visible in AI Search​

Shannon Vize / Women in Tech SEO

Shannon explains how AI crawlers work, what blocks them, and how to determine the extent to which your site is being crawled and understood by AI.

• Related: How do you manage bots in the age of AI and agents? By Chris Green​

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• ​SEO Specialist at Toptal​
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