Archive

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #226 :Calling Yourself "the Best" Is Handing the Win to Your Competitors in AI Search. Lily Ray's Study Shows Being Cited and Being Recommended Aren't the Same Thing

This week we dig into Lily Ray's study across 100 B2B queries: a listicle ranking your own brand as the best gets cited as a source in the AI answer, but doesn't get your brand recommended. Worse, 69% of the time the competitors you named in your own listicle get recommended in your place. So your own content becomes a vote for your rivals. Plus Google's new research on detecting AI "slop," OpenAI bringing improved health responses to free ChatGPT, Bing Webmaster Tools' new AI reporting panel, Peec AI's "intent vs. keywords" study across 37,804 AI responses, and the merging of paid and organic visibility under AI.

Mert Erkal

AI Visibility

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #225 :Being Visible in AI Isn't Enough Anymore — You Have to Be Believed. Burson's "Credibility Paradox" Study

Jun 15, 2026

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11 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #225 :Being Visible in AI Isn't Enough Anymore — You Have to Be Believed. Burson's "Credibility Paradox" Study

This week we dig into Burson and Profound's "Credibility Paradox" study, built on 85 companies and 55,000 believability forecasts: showing up in AI answers doesn't mean the answer is believed. Plus the YouTube video I shot with Claude Fable 5 and the US government shutting the model down, Google officially adding "optimizing for generative AI" to its SEO docs, Google's myth-busting list calling llms.txt and chunking "unnecessary," the traffic jump from ChatGPT's branded-link update, and citation-buying now counting as spam.

Mert Erkal

AI Visibility

Jun 8, 2026

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15 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #224 :Automate Your AI Visibility Audit — Build a Weekly Scheduled Task in Claude Cowork

This week I build, step by step, a Claude Cowork scheduled task that audits your brand visibility every week across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode, and AI Overviews. Plus: Google's authority claim over third-party SEO tools/AEO/GEO, the May 2026 Core Update's intent-and-market-fit analysis, the GA4 + Google Business Profile connection, Cloudflare's "bots are now 57% of traffic" data, Search profiles in Discover, and Manus' Shopify integration.

Mert Erkal

agentic engine optimization

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #223 : Become a Preferred Source in Google AI Answers — 345K Brands Already Added

Jun 1, 2026

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10 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #223 : Become a Preferred Source in Google AI Answers — 345K Brands Already Added

Google's Preferred Sources hit 345,000 sources and landed inside AI Overviews and AI Mode responses. This week I'll walk you through how to add the widget to your site in 30 minutes, a practical 6-step action list, and the strategy checks behind it. Plus: the May 2026 Core Update's final week, Peec.ai's 500K-prompt AI Overviews study, Gianluca Fiorelli's spam-in-AI-search map, Marie Haynes' Lighthouse "agent-readiness" report, OpenAI's conversion-focused ChatGPT ads, and Sundar Pichai saying "search, agents and tools will become one product."

Mert Erkal

Google I/O 2026

May 25, 2026

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11 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #222 : Google I/O 2026 — The Search Box Was Reborn After 25 Years, and SEO's New Name Is "Selectability"

Last week I touched briefly on Google I/O 2026 and Google Marketing Live 2026, and said the in-depth coverage would come this week. Here it is. The most fundamental redesign of the search box in 25 years, Gemini 3.5 Flash, information agents, Generative UI; the mechanics of "selectability" through a GEO lens, Stradiji's field observations from GeoGenie, expert opinions, and the post-I/O developments (May 2026 Core Update, Marketing Live, WordPress 7.0, Screaming Frog 24).

Mert Erkal

non-commodity content

May 18, 2026

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12 min read

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #221: After Helpful Content: The Non-Commodity Content Era, Google Says "AI Search Is Still SEO," Microsoft Clarity Citations Goes GA

Three big stories this week. First, Danny Sullivan's commodity vs. non-commodity content distinction has become the new content rule of 2026; HubSpot built a free grader for it on Perplexity. Second, Google's new guide says "AI search is still SEO," but that only holds for Google. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and the Gemini App still respond to different practices. Third, Microsoft Clarity's AI Citations dashboard went GA, free for everyone. Next week brings Google I/O 2026 and Google Marketing Live 2026 back to back.

Mert Erkal

AI Mode

May 11, 2026

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8 min read

🔥 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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🔥 SEOs Diners Club #226 :Calling Yourself "the Best" Is Handing the Win to Your Competitors in AI Search. Lily Ray's Study Shows Being Cited and Being Recommended Aren't the Same Thing

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #225 :Being Visible in AI Isn't Enough Anymore — You Have to Be Believed. Burson's "Credibility Paradox" Study

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #224 :Automate Your AI Visibility Audit — Build a Weekly Scheduled Task in Claude Cowork

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #223 : Become a Preferred Source in Google AI Answers — 345K Brands Already Added

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #222 : Google I/O 2026 — The Search Box Was Reborn After 25 Years, and SEO's New Name Is "Selectability"

🔥 SEOs Diners Club #221: After Helpful Content: The Non-Commodity Content Era, Google Says "AI Search Is Still SEO," Microsoft Clarity Citations Goes GA

🔥 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

The SEOs Diners Club

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