SEO Pulse: Core Update Favors Niche Expertise, AIO Health Inaccuracies & AI Slop
This week’s SEO Pulse highlights the tensions emerging as search engines tighten quality standards for sites while defending their own AI outputs.
About
Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, Matt specializes in gathering details, checking facts, and making complex subjects easy to understand. In addition to writing articles, Matt oversees strategy development for SEJ’s news department.
Articles
Google: AI Overviews Show Less When Users Don’t Engage
Google’s Robby Stein explains why AI Overviews appear for some searches but not others, describing an engagement-based system.
Google Gemini Gains Share As ChatGPT Declines In Similarweb Data
Similarweb’s January Global AI Tracker shows ChatGPT at 64.5% of gen AI chatbot site visits, while Gemini reached 21.5% and writing tools fell.
Most Major News Publishers Block AI Training & Retrieval Bots
BuzzStream analyzed robots.txt files for 100 top news sites. 79% block training bots, but 71% also block retrieval bots that affect AI citations.
Google’s Mueller Weighs In On SEO vs GEO Debate
Google’s John Mueller says businesses relying on referral traffic should consider the ‘full picture’ of AI and prioritize based on actual usage data.
Google’s Mueller Explains ‘Page Indexed Without Content’ Error
Google’s John Mueller says “Page Indexed without content” errors typically indicate server or CDN blocking of Googlebot, not JavaScript issues. Here’s what to check.
The Guardian: Google AI Overviews Gave Misleading Health Advice
A Guardian investigation says health experts found misleading information in Google’s AI Overviews for some medical searches. Google disputes the findings.
Microsoft CEO, Google Engineer Deflect AI Quality Complaints
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella urges moving beyond “slop vs sophistication,” while Google engineer Jaana Dogan frames AI criticism as burnout.
December Core Update: More Brands Win “Best Of” Queries
Early analysis of Google’s December core update points to gains for specialized sites over generalists. News publishers saw heavy volatility across surfaces.
The 7 Best Landing Page Builders For 2026
When conversions matter, these landing page builders give you the flexibility and optimization features to capture more customers.
Track Santa On Christmas Eve 2025 (Via NORAD & Google)
Real-time Santa tracking returns for 2025, with Google and NORAD offering interactive maps, games, and global arrival updates.
Google Reveals The Top Searches Of 2025
Google’s Year in Search reveals trending actors, movies, athletes, games, recipes, and travel destinations that captured attention throughout 2025.
Do Faces Help YouTube Thumbnails? Here’s What The Data Says
A new dataset of 300K viral YouTube videos suggests that faces in thumbnails perform about the same as without them, with larger differences by niche.
Google Files DMCA Suit Targeting SerpApi’s SERP Scraping
Google sued SerpApi under the DMCA, alleging it circumvented SearchGuard to scrape and resell licensed copyrighted content from Google Search results at scale.
Microsoft Explains How Duplicate Content Affects AI Search Visibility
Microsoft published guidance on how duplicate content affects AI search visibility, explaining that AI systems cluster similar pages and may surface unintended versions.
SEO Pulse: AI Mode Hits 75M Users, Gemini 3 Flash Launches
This week’s SEO Pulse covers the signals that matter most as AI search moves from experimentation to core infrastructure.
Google’s AI Mode Personal Context Features “Still To Come”
Google SVP Nick Fox says AI Mode’s personal context features, including opt-in Gmail connections teased at I/O, are still in internal testing.
Google Gemini 3 Flash Becomes Default For AI Mode In Search
Google launches Gemini 3 Flash and makes it the default in the Gemini app. It’s rolling out as AI Mode’s default model.
Google Updates JavaScript SEO Docs With Canonical Advice
Google updated its JavaScript SEO docs with new guidance on canonical URLs for JavaScript-rendered pages. Keep canonicals consistent before and after rendering.
The Click Economy Is Over: How AI Search Is Forcing Publishers To Rethink Revenue
Publishers navigating the collapse of the search-to-traffic model need clarity on how emerging AI payment structures are reshaping value, leverage, and long-term strategy.
Google AI Mode & AI Overviews Cite Different URLs, Per Ahrefs Report
Ahrefs data suggests Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews often align on meaning while citing different URLs.
Google Warns Noindex Can Block JavaScript From Running
Google updated its JavaScript SEO documentation to clarify that noindex tags may prevent rendering and JavaScript execution, blocking changes.
Cloudflare Report: Googlebot Tops AI Crawler Traffic
Cloudflare’s sixth annual Year in Review reveals how AI crawlers, security threats, and traffic patterns changed in 2025.
How People Use Copilot Depends On Device, Microsoft Says
Microsoft analyzed 37.5 million Copilot chats and found differences in how people use the assistant on mobile versus desktop.
SEO Pulse: December Core Update, Preferred Sources & Social Data
Google’s December 2025 core update leads this week’s SEO Pulse, alongside Preferred Sources expansion and social insights in Search Console.
Google Releases December 2025 Core Update
Google has released the December 2025 core update, its third of the year. The rollout began December 11 and may take up to three weeks.
YouTube Adds Comments To Shorts Ads, Expands To Mobile Web
YouTube adds comment sections to eligible Shorts ads, lets creators link to brand websites, and expands Shorts ads to mobile web browsers.
Google Expands Preferred Sources & Publisher AI Partnerships
Google expands Preferred Sources to English users worldwide and launches pilot AI partnerships with publishers.
Google Confirms Smaller Core Updates Happen Continuously
Google updated its core updates documentation to say smaller core updates happen on an ongoing basis, so sites can improve without waiting for named updates.
YouTube AI Enforcement Questioned As Channels Get Restored
YouTube creators report sudden channel bans for spam policies, with some restored after public outcry. YouTube claims the vast majority of terminations are correct.