Archive

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #220: Five Major Updates to Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode received five major updates this week: Reddit and forum-sourced "Expert Advice," inline links, hover previews, news subscription highlights, and follow-up question suggestions. FAQ rich results were retired on May 7, the back button hijacking penalty kicks in on June 15. GPT-5.5 Instant became ChatGPT's default with 52.5% fewer hallucinations. Anthropic shipped Claude Opus 4.7, ChatGPT Ads Manager opened in beta, and Perplexity's Personal Computer rolled out to all Mac users. Mert's note: in 2026, the SEO goal is recognition, not rankings.

Mert Erkal

SEO WEEK 2026

May 4, 2026

•

12 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #219: SEO Week 2026: Search in the Age of Agents, Hybrid Engine Optimization, and the "Earned Visibility" Trifecta

We're unpacking the most critical takeaways from SEO Week 2026 in New York: Mike King's Hybrid Engine Optimization (HEO) framework, Lily Ray's "SEO in the Age of Agents" vision, Google's official "build agent-friendly websites" guide, inside ChatGPT CPC ads, Google's Preferred Sources going global, AI Overviews auto-surfacing negative reviews, and Seer Interactive's CTR recovery data. Plus: Alphabet hits $109.9 billion in revenue, and the Musk-Altman trial begins.

Mert Erkal

AI Visibility Checklist

Apr 27, 2026

•

10 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #218: The AI Visibility Checklist: A Comprehensive GEO Roadmap Compiled from 4 Weeks of Research

Over the past four weeks we examined every piece of the AI visibility puzzle, from AEO science to Agentic Engine Optimization, from a 98,000-row data analysis to Google's "we raised the indexing bar" admission. This week we put the pieces together: AirOps, Indig, Osmani, Barnard, and Google Toronto data consolidated into a nine-category GEO checklist. Plus: ChatGPT ads shift to CPC, and OpenAI releases GPT-5.5.

Mert Erkal

agentic engine optimization

Apr 20, 2026

•

9 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #217: Agentic Engine Optimization: The Roadmap for Optimizing Content for AI Agents

Google Cloud AI engineering director Addy Osmani defines Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO). Token count becomes the primary optimization metric, llms.txt is the sitemap for AI agents, AGENTS.md is the entry point for codebases. HubSpot and Webflow launch AEO tools. Google adds AI Mode and Skills to Chrome. Lily Ray documents the AI slop loop. Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.7.

Mert Erkal

Google Search

Apr 13, 2026

•

16 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #216: Sundar Pichai: "Google Search Will Become an AI Agent Manager"

Google's CEO says Search will evolve into an "agent manager" within the next decade. The March 2026 core update is complete: SISTRIX data shows 4 losers for every winner in Germany. Akamai reports a 300% surge in AI bot traffic hitting publishers hardest. OpenAI launches a $100 ChatGPT Pro plan. Google quietly ships an offline AI dictation app. Anthropic brings Claude to Microsoft Word.

Mert Erkal

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #215: Why Is AI Ignoring You? 98,000 Citation Rows Have the Answer

Apr 6, 2026

•

17 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #215: Why Is AI Ignoring You? 98,000 Citation Rows Have the Answer

What does AI actually reward when it reads your content? Kevin Indig analyzed 1.2 million ChatGPT responses and 98,000 citation rows, debunking most "universal" SEO/GEO advice. Meanwhile, Lily Ray published a 70+ branded questions checklist for AI search visibility. This week: the data-driven truth about AI citations.

Mert Erkal

AEO

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #214: Why AI Can't See You: AEO — The Science of Getting Your Content Into AI Responses

Mar 30, 2026

•

21 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #214: Why AI Can't See You: AEO — The Science of Getting Your Content Into AI Responses

AI search engines don't rank pages — they select fragments. According to research from Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Toronto, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) techniques can boost AI visibility by up to 40%. So how do you get your content into ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity responses? This week's headline: the science and practice of AEO.

Mert Erkal

AI Visibility

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #213: Google Just Launched the Apocalyptic Feature: Personal Intelligence + AI Mode Ads = The End of Many SEO Strategies

Mar 23, 2026

•

11 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #213: Google Just Launched the Apocalyptic Feature: Personal Intelligence + AI Mode Ads = The End of Many SEO Strategies

Google's Personal Intelligence feature just brought personalized search to AI Mode. After ChatGPT, AI Mode is turning into an ad machine too. Different results for every user, plus ads on top. When AI Mode becomes the default search experience (my prediction: Google I/O, May 2026), the impact of AI Overviews will look like a tiny blip on a chart. Are you ready?

Mert Erkal

AI Visibility

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #212: How to Measure AI Search Visibility — "Being Visible" Is No Longer Enough

Mar 16, 2026

•

13 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #212: How to Measure AI Search Visibility — "Being Visible" Is No Longer Enough

This week at SEOs Diners Club, we're discussing how to measure AI search visibility with KPIs that actually matter, why ChatGPT's default and premium models cite almost entirely different sources, Claude's 1 million token context window going free for everyone, and Google Discover's Core Update stripping local publishers of their national reach.

Mert Erkal

schema markup

Mar 9, 2026

•

12 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #211: Local Visibility and Schema Markup in the AI Era

This week at SEOs Diners Club, we're discussing the importance of local SEO and Schema Markup in the age of AI, Google's removal of its JavaScript warning, Discover's opportunities for e-commerce sites, and AI Mode's source citation habits.

Mert Erkal

AI Visibility

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #210: Why LLM Referrals Are Your Most Valuable Audience?

Mar 2, 2026

•

8 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #210: Why LLM Referrals Are Your Most Valuable Audience?

This week at SEOs Diners Club, we’re diving into the surprising 18% conversion rate of AI referral traffic, why this "small but mighty" audience might be your most valuable, and how to shape your GEO strategies accordingly.

Mert Erkal

AI Mode

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #209: The Google AI Overviews Preparedness and Strategy Guide

Feb 23, 2026

•

11 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #209: The Google AI Overviews Preparedness and Strategy Guide

Google's AI-powered search results (AI Overviews) are now active in 53 new languages, including Turkish. In this week's newsletter, we delve into how to adapt to this new era, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategies, and the latest digital marketing news.

Mert Erkal

1 2 3 4...20

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #220: Five Major Updates to Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #219: SEO Week 2026: Search in the Age of Agents, Hybrid Engine Optimization, and the "Earned Visibility" Trifecta

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #218: The AI Visibility Checklist: A Comprehensive GEO Roadmap Compiled from 4 Weeks of Research

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #217: Agentic Engine Optimization: The Roadmap for Optimizing Content for AI Agents

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #216: Sundar Pichai: "Google Search Will Become an AI Agent Manager"

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #215: Why Is AI Ignoring You? 98,000 Citation Rows Have the Answer

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #214: Why AI Can't See You: AEO — The Science of Getting Your Content Into AI Responses

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #213: Google Just Launched the Apocalyptic Feature: Personal Intelligence + AI Mode Ads = The End of Many SEO Strategies

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #212: How to Measure AI Search Visibility — "Being Visible" Is No Longer Enough

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #211: Local Visibility and Schema Markup in the AI Era

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #210: Why LLM Referrals Are Your Most Valuable Audience?

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #209: The Google AI Overviews Preparedness and Strategy Guide

The SEOs Diners Club

Home