[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-publishers-blocking-google-crawler":3},{"message":4,"data":5},"Blogs retrieved successfully",{"blog":6,"latest_blogs":35},{"id":7,"author_id":8,"title":9,"slug":10,"content":11,"short_summary":12,"featured_image":13,"status":14,"meta_title":9,"meta_description":15,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":19,"published_at":20,"created_at":21,"updated_at":22,"deleted_at":16,"author":23,"categories":28},393,9,"Publishers Are Threatening to Block Google","publishers-blocking-google-crawler","\u003Ch1>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Publishers Are Threatening to Block Google\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh1>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Twenty years of digital publishing ran on one assumption. You want Google to crawl you, because Google sends the traffic that pays for everything. That assumption is now being questioned out loud by some of the biggest names in media, and the reason is arithmetic rather than principle.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Who’s threatening what\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Reddit has discussed cutting off Google’s access to its content for AI use, even though Google pays it a reported 60 million dollars a year for exactly that. Reddit isn’t alone. USA Today, Politico, Reuters, The Economist, and People Inc. have all been reported as weighing whether to block Google’s crawlers.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The numbers behind the anger come from Semrush, which measured organic Google search traffic from United States users between June of last year and June of this one. Business Insider was down more than 85%. USA Today lost close to half. CNN fell around 25%, Politico about 23%. Mike Reed, chief executive of the company that owns USA Today, said it’s time to take a stand and that enough is enough, and confirmed the company is prepared to block Google’s crawlers outright if the slide continues.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">One thing to keep straight, though. Nobody has actually blocked anything yet. Read the coverage closely and this reads as a negotiating position, publishers using the threat to win better terms and paid access, rather than a coordinated walkout. The threat has value precisely because carrying it out would hurt.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The bundle is the whole problem\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Why is turning off a crawler such a drastic step? Because Google’s crawler does two jobs with one visit. The same crawl that indexes you for regular search results also feeds your content into AI answers.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Google offers a control called Google-Extended that lets you opt out of having your content train its AI models. What it doesn’t cleanly do is keep you out of AI Overviews while leaving your blue-link rankings intact. To stay out of the AI summaries, you’re looking at tags like nosnippet, which hurt your normal search visibility too. Block the crawler outright and you vanish from both. Access is bundled, and the bundle is the leverage.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">That arrangement may not last forever. A United Kingdom court ruled in June that Google must let publishers opt out of AI features without damaging their traditional search performance. Google has around nine months to comply, so the separation exists on paper and not yet in practice. Publishers are also skeptical of the existing controls, with executives telling trade press they expect using Google-Extended to cost them search visibility anyway.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The blocking nobody meant to do\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">While the media giants argue about whether to shut the door on purpose, a lot of ordinary sites have already shut it by accident.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">A study published this month tested the top 1,000 websites and found that 40.9% of them are unreadable to GPTBot, the crawler behind ChatGPT. Nearly one in five, 18.4%, is completely dark to every AI crawler tested. The finding that should worry any marketer is the third one. About 17.6% of these sites allow GPTBot in their robots.txt file and then return a 403 error when it actually requests a page. Their stated policy says come in. Their firewall or content delivery network says no.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Those brands aren’t making a strategic choice about AI visibility. They don’t know they’re invisible. Somebody enabled bot protection, or a security default flipped on, and the AI systems stopped being able to read the site. No alert fires. Rankings look normal. The brand simply stops appearing in AI answers with no explanation.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Check before you strategize\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">There’s a useful order of operations in all this. Debating whether to appear in AI answers is a real strategic question, and it’s also completely academic if a crawler can’t reach your pages in the first place.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">So verify before you theorize. Look at your robots.txt file and confirm which AI crawlers you allow. Then check your server logs or your content delivery network settings to see whether those same crawlers are getting 403 errors anyway, because the gap between stated policy and actual behavior is where most of the damage lives. Bot protection rules, firewall settings, and rate limiting all block AI crawlers by default in plenty of setups, and none of them announce it.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The publishers threatening to block Google have leverage most brands don’t. Reddit can negotiate because Google needs its forum data. USA Today can threaten because its brand carries weight. Everyone else has the opposite problem, which is getting seen at all in a system that cites only a handful of sources per answer. Being one of those sources comes from earned authority and the coverage that \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fdigital-pr\">\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">digital PR\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"> is built to produce. Make sure the crawlers can actually read the pages you worked to make citation-worthy, because right now a lot of them can’t, and almost nobody has checked.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>","Major publishers are considering blocking Google’s crawler after steep AI-driven traffic losses. Google bundles search indexing and AI answers into one crawl, which is what makes the threat so drastic. Meanwhile a fifth of top sites are already blocking AI crawlers by accident.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fnobs-403-contradiction-1080-1-20260727070737-j8OANshr.webp","published","Reddit and USA Today are weighing blocking Google’s crawler over AI traffic losses. The bundling problem behind it, and the blocking nobody checks for.",null,"blog",false,808,"2026-07-27T06:54:20.000000Z","2026-07-27T06:55:27.000000Z","2026-07-27T07:07:44.000000Z",{"id":8,"name":24,"email":25,"about":16,"avatar":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":16,"deleted_at":16},"Rasit Cakir","rasit@nobsmarketplace.com","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Frasit.webp","2026-01-26T11:10:22.000000Z",[29],{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":32,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":34},3,"SEO","seo","2025-10-26T11:10:22.000000Z",{"blog_id":7,"category_id":30},[36,41,83,99],{"id":7,"author_id":8,"title":9,"slug":10,"content":11,"short_summary":12,"featured_image":13,"status":14,"meta_title":9,"meta_description":15,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":19,"published_at":20,"created_at":21,"updated_at":22,"deleted_at":16,"author":37,"categories":38},{"id":8,"name":24,"email":25,"about":16,"avatar":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":16,"deleted_at":16},[39],{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":32,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":40},{"blog_id":7,"category_id":30},{"id":42,"author_id":30,"title":43,"slug":44,"content":45,"short_summary":46,"featured_image":47,"status":14,"meta_title":43,"meta_description":48,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":49,"word_count":50,"published_at":51,"created_at":52,"updated_at":52,"deleted_at":16,"author":53,"categories":58},392,"Remembering the Father of SEO and His Lessons","bruce-clay-seo-lessons","\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Widely considered the “father of SEO,” Bruce Clay made significant contributions to the discipline and the wider industry.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Despite the rise of AI in search, Clay’s decades of experience remain instrumental in the current SEO doctrine.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">The SEO community lost an important colleague—no, teacher.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Bruce Clay, known for coining the term search engine optimization (SEO), passed away in late June. Widely considered the “father of SEO,” his contributions built the SEO playbook that’s been used for decades. Everything from link building to content marketing owes its existence to Clay’s knowledge of the craft.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">He will be missed, but his teachings won’t because they’re still worth learning. If anything, they’re more important today with the huge shift toward AI-powered search and marketing. Brands and marketers have been so focused on AI that they’ve all but forgotten (or ignored) the fundamentals. As such, let’s take a look at which of his lessons still apply.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Beat the Competition, Not the Algorithm\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>“The algorithm has as many flavors as there are keywords, and every keyword essentially is a new algorithm. The question is, for that keyword, what’s best? And then for that other keyword, what’s best? So we’re not going to be able to outdo the algorithm. The best we can do is determine who ranks, determine what they’re doing right, are there any common characteristics, are there any common words, and then \u003C\u002Fem>\u003Cstrong>\u003Cem>\u003Cu>we use them better\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003Cem>.”\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: right;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>~Excerpt from “6 Fundamental SEO Truths to Live By”\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Any SEO expert worth their salt always insists against tricking the algorithm to gain the edge in search visibility. Search engines don’t like it, and the consequences of getting caught are not worth the effort. However, Clay adds another reason.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">You may read that Google, for instance, uses over 200 ranking factors in its algorithm. That idea is grossly outdated, as it was conceived back in 2009 (and only a handful can actually move the needle). But even if that were still the case, optimizing content for every ranking factor for unguaranteed gains is impractical—and even harmful. (1)\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Each optimization you make to your content carries the risk of it being seen as unnatural, even white-hat ones. The reasons search engines aren’t penalizing SEO wholesale range from detection lag to keeping the harm to a minimum. That’s why Google doesn’t go after every instance of link buying (i.e., using \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fblog\u002F2019\u002F09\u002Fevolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>proper attributes\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> is fair game).\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">And as if worrying about ranking factors is impractical, AI made sure it doesn’t matter at all. The list of such factors, if search engines maintain one, has changed dramatically because of the nature of AI search. Search engines change too fast to rely on a list set in stone.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">For this, Clay stressed greater focus on studying the competition and how they rank well in search results or get cited in AI summaries. Unlike ranking factors, content performance is there for everyone and their grandma to see.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Understanding your competitors involves understanding yourself first, even in the age of AI. Ask yourself a few questions about your brand, such as:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> (2)\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">In what niche or industry does it need to be visible?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">What products or services matter the most to your business goals?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">How often are your rivals’ content getting cited compared to yours?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">If you can find satisfactory answers here, the ideal strategy will eventually fall into place. It may even yield content that checks out a lot of factors by chance, all while staying natural. Each quality piece of content published builds a brand’s authority, which is instrumental in getting cited or mentioned by AI.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Guest Posting Isn’t a Long-Term Strategy\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>“Link-worthy content is created with expertise, demonstrates authority and comes from a trustworthy source. Link-worthy content is \u003C\u002Fem>\u003Cstrong>\u003Cem>\u003Cu>best published on your site\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003Cem> to reap the rewards of rankings and traffic, not on anyone else’s site.”\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: right;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>~Excerpt from “The New Link Building Manifesto: How to Earn Links That Count”\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Guest posting is nothing short of traditional. For most of SEO history pre-AI, this technique has been the mainstay of content strategies. Guest posts are easier to create and publish, primarily due to their low bar of entry. Depending on the publisher site, a decent guest post that adheres to content guidelines can be published.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Clay said he doesn’t downplay the value of sharing your content with other communities. But he also advised against publishing your best pieces off page, as it’s akin to giving the other site the clicks and leads that \u003Cem>your\u003C\u002Fem> site needs.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">He added that guest posts risk being flagged as link spam. As publishers charge a fee to run a guest post, Google may penalize the content for link buying\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 0.6em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">3\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">. It might not find and flag the post right away, but when it does, you might not notice the penalty at all.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">I think this is one of Clay’s debatable takes. Established websites can afford to self-publish to build credibility, but new ones can’t. The latter need the visibility of well-known publisher sites to gain enough clicks and leads. Without them, it’s a steeper climb to brand visibility.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">So let me put it this way: don’t expect guest posting to carry your site forever.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">If you can’t afford to let go of off-page publishing, \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fdigital-pr\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>consider digital PR\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">. This is a step up—or several—from guest posting for the following reasons:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Fpicture63-20260724021135-ETly54KX.webp\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">That said, digital PR has its downsides. For starters, getting a reputable site to run an article about your content is much harder. You’re up against dozens of brands vying for an editorial team or content creator’s attention. Nevertheless, it should push you to come up with topic ideas better than “X Tips for Doing This or That.”\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">GEO, AIO, LLMO, etc. is Just SEO\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>“I believe that the majority of the terms that are being created are just inventions to. It’s a marketing term. It has nothing to do with the practicality of doing optimization. They just invented a marketing term and said, ‘I do this now. Nobody else does this, you better hire me.’ And I think that every one of them is nothing more than an extension of SEO.”\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: right;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>~Excerpt from a podcast with Rob Garner, fall 2025\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Clay lived long enough to see the AI disruption in search. Featured snippets and rich results gave way to AI-generated summaries, all while the “blue links” gradually fade into obscurity. Not to mention the industry underwent an upheaval, as marketers promoted terms such as GEO, AIO, LLMO, etc.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">And just like that, SEO changed forever.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">But if there’s one thing that stayed the same, it would be “SEO.” The term Clay coined (or helped coin) still defines the discipline’s evolution, stating that the new terms aren’t any different from SEO in practice. After all, we’re still optimizing content for search engines, whether or not they’ve adopted newfangled tech.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">I wrote a piece \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Fblog\u002Fgeo-is-seo\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>on the topic\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> a while ago, so check that out to learn more. It’s likely that the term “SEO” will still be around for as long as search engines exist. It may even be the most prominent legacy Clay has left behind.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Rest in peace, father of SEO. We’ll keep your lessons to heart.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Publications:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Bruce Clay, Inc. “6 Fundamental SEO Truths To Live By,” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=bkarqtQVi0s\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=bkarqtQVi0s\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Bruce Clay, Inc. “The New Link Building Manifesto: How to Earn Links That Count,” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fresources.bruceclay.com\u002Fhubfs\u002FPDFs\u002FNew-Link-Building-Manifesto-ebook-by-BruceClay.pdf\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Fresources.bruceclay.com\u002Fhubfs\u002FPDFs\u002FNew-Link-Building-Manifesto-ebook-by-BruceClay.pdf\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Garner, R. “In memoriam: A tribute to Bruce Clay,” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fin-memoriam-bruce-clay-481412\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fin-memoriam-bruce-clay-481412\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Other references:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">1.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;\">  \t\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">“Google Algorithm - What are the 200 Variables?” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.webmasterworld.com\u002Fgoogle\u002F4030020.htm\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Fwww.webmasterworld.com\u002Fgoogle\u002F4030020.htm\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">2.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;\">  \t\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">“GEO Isn’t a Tactic, It’s a Competitive Visibility Battle (Here’s How Brands Can Win),” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Flbbonline.com\u002Fnews\u002FGEO-Isnt-a-Tactic-Its-a-Competitive-Visibility-Battle-Heres-How-Brands-Can-Win\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Flbbonline.com\u002Fnews\u002FGEO-Isnt-a-Tactic-Its-a-Competitive-Visibility-Battle-Heres-How-Brands-Can-Win\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">3.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;\">  \t\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">“Spam policies for Google web search,” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fdocs\u002Fessentials\u002Fspam-policies#link-spam\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Fdevelopers.google.com\u002Fsearch\u002Fdocs\u002Fessentials\u002Fspam-policies#link-spam\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>","Bruce Clay was an important figure in establishing the SEO doctrine we use today. In memory of his passing last June, let's take a look at his lessons that still bear weight in today's search.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fbruce-clay-20260724020610-ABSG3djs.webp","In this post, we commemorate Bruce Clay’s contributions to SEO through some of his most important lessons in the craft.",true,1226,"2026-07-24T10:13:00.000000Z","2026-07-24T02:13:47.000000Z",{"id":30,"name":54,"email":55,"about":56,"avatar":57,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16},"Jonas Trinidad","jonas@nobsmarketplace.com","","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fblog-authors\u002F2023\u002F05\u002Fjonas-trinidad.jpg",[59,63,65,71,77],{"id":60,"name":61,"slug":17,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":62},1,"Blogs",{"blog_id":42,"category_id":60},{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":32,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":64},{"blog_id":42,"category_id":30},{"id":66,"name":67,"slug":68,"created_at":69,"updated_at":69,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":70},11,"Content","content","2025-10-26T11:10:27.000000Z",{"blog_id":42,"category_id":66},{"id":72,"name":73,"slug":74,"created_at":75,"updated_at":75,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":76},23,"AI","ai","2026-03-10T11:18:29.000000Z",{"blog_id":42,"category_id":72},{"id":78,"name":79,"slug":80,"created_at":81,"updated_at":81,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":82},16,"Educative Content","educative-content","2026-02-10T11:18:29.000000Z",{"blog_id":42,"category_id":78},{"id":84,"author_id":8,"title":85,"slug":86,"content":87,"short_summary":88,"featured_image":89,"status":14,"meta_title":85,"meta_description":90,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":18,"word_count":91,"published_at":92,"created_at":93,"updated_at":94,"deleted_at":16,"author":95,"categories":96},391,"Google Put a Number on AI Clicks. You Can’t Check It.","google-ai-search-billions-clicks","\u003Ch1>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Google Put a Number on AI Clicks. You Can’t Check It.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh1>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">For more than a year, the anxiety around AI search has come down to one question. When Google answers something at the top of the page, does anyone still click through to the sites underneath? Google’s head of Search has now given the most direct answer the company has offered yet, and it lands as a big, round, reassuring number that nobody outside Google can actually verify.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">What Google said\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Nick Fox, Google’s senior vice president of knowledge and information, laid it out in a post on LinkedIn, with a shorter version on X. He was answering the fear directly, that AI in Search would mean people stop clicking to websites. His response was that the opposite is happening. In his words, Google is now sending billions of clicks to websites every week through its AI features in Search alone, and he framed the whole thing as deliberate, since Google designed those features to connect people to sites.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">He stacked that next to a figure Google has repeated for a while, that Search overall sends billions of clicks to the web every day. His argument, in short, is that people are using Google more than ever now that they can ask anything in their own words, and that AI search is adding traffic rather than taking it away.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The number without a denominator\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The claim sounds decisive, and then you try to do anything with it. The daily figure for Search overall is one Google has said before. The weekly number tied specifically to AI features is new, and Google has never documented it anywhere. Both are rounded to billions, and that rounding is the problem.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">A daily total for all of Search and a weekly total for AI features, both expressed in the same vague unit, can’t be lined up against each other. You can’t work out what share of clicks actually come from AI features, because there’s no denominator to divide by. Billions of clicks a week sounds enormous, but its real meaning depends entirely on the total it lives inside. If overall clicks are vastly larger, the AI slice could be modest. The number tells you AI features send some traffic. It doesn’t tell you how much, relative to everything else.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The gap gets more frustrating when you go looking for your own version of the figure. Search Console still doesn’t show it. The generative AI reports Google added earlier this year give you impressions, how often you appeared in an AI feature, but no click-level attribution for those features on your specific site. So the one company that can measure this precisely shared a platform-wide number you can’t break down, while the tool it gives you for your own data leaves that exact box empty.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">What the outside studies show\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Independent research keeps pointing the other way on the metric that reaches individual sites. A randomized field experiment run by researchers at the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University, covering more than a thousand people in the United States, found that AI Overviews cut organic clicks to outside websites by 38% on the queries where they showed up. What’s striking is the second half of that result. When the summaries were removed, people’s own reported satisfaction barely moved, which suggests the answer on the page was doing the job the click used to do.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The apparent contradiction resolves once you see both things can be true at once. Google’s billions-per-week is an absolute count across an enormous number of searches. The studies measure the click rate on individual result pages. Total clicks can stay gigantic while the odds that any single search sends a visit to any particular website keep falling. A rising tide of total volume and a shrinking per-page click rate are not in conflict, and most site owners are living in the second number, not the first.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">What to actually do with this\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The fair way to read Fox’s post is as a morale note, not a measurement. It’s Google defending a narrative, that the web is fine and AI search is traffic-positive, and it may well be right in aggregate. It simply can’t be checked, and it says nothing about your site in particular. Treating a denominator-free platform number as evidence about your own traffic is how teams end up reassured by data that was never about them.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">So measure your own reality instead of anyone’s headline. Watch your actual visits in analytics, segment the queries where AI features appear against the ones where they don’t, and track where you’re cited rather than only where you rank. And keep doing the work that earns a click in a world with fewer of them to go around. When an AI answer only links to a handful of sources, being one of them is the entire game, and that comes from the same authority and citation-worthy content that \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002Flink-building\">\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">link building\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"> and earned coverage have always built. Google can send billions of clicks a week and your site can still be losing them, and the only way to know which is true for you is to stop reading the aggregate and read your own numbers.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>","Google’s head of Search says AI features now send billions of clicks to websites weekly, the first number Google has named. It has no denominator and no site-level data to verify, while a study found AI Overviews cut clicks 38%. Both can be true, so measure your own traffic.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fbillions-vs-your-chart-nobs-20260723064740-oU79nHWE.webp","Google says its AI features send billions of clicks to sites weekly. Why the figure can’t be verified, how it squares with the studies, what to measure.",859,"2026-07-22T15:35:44.000000Z","2026-07-22T15:36:41.000000Z","2026-07-23T06:47:48.000000Z",{"id":8,"name":24,"email":25,"about":16,"avatar":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":16,"deleted_at":16},[97],{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":32,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":98},{"blog_id":84,"category_id":30},{"id":100,"author_id":30,"title":101,"slug":102,"content":103,"short_summary":104,"featured_image":105,"status":14,"meta_title":101,"meta_description":106,"canonical_url":16,"keywords":16,"blog_type":17,"is_featured":49,"word_count":107,"published_at":108,"created_at":109,"updated_at":109,"deleted_at":16,"author":110,"categories":111},390,"Is Opting Out of Google Search a Good Idea?","google-gemini-opt-out","\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">A growing number of publishers are considering pulling out of Google. This comes amid the search engine giant scraping their content without compensation.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">These publishers are refocusing their efforts on other channels, particularly social media and newsletters. Still, these won’t be enough to fill the gap.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Google is expected to remain dominant in the long term, even as its competitors are intensifying efforts to make the market less one-sided.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">More publishers have just about had it with Google—and they’re taking action.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Adweek last week reported that major publishers are preparing to \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.adweek.com\u002Fmedia\u002Fpublishers-opt-out-google-search\u002F\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>pull their content\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> from Google search results. Among the leading efforts comes from Cloudflare, which hosts a fifth of all websites on the Web. Effective September 15, new free and paid accounts will have bot management set to block multipurpose crawlers by default.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Stephanie Cohen, Cloudflare chief strategy officer, made her company’s stance clear.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>“We’ve been clear about what we want. We want a technical solution that allows you to be discoverable without having to give your content away for free.”\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">This ultimatum comes amid publishers’ concerns about Google scraping their content for AI training without compensation. With zero-click search a reality driven by AI summaries, they’re forced to either accept the data scraping or give up being visible on search results.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">There are as many reasons to love Google as to hate it. That said, does removing yourself from the world’s largest search engine make business sense? Is there a way to break free from this rock-and-a-hard-place situation?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">It’s Hard To Deny The Giant\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Despite recent challenges, Google remains the giant of the search engine market. As of last month, it owns more than 90% of the global market. The second-largest, Bing, doesn’t even come close to challenging it.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Fpicture65-20260722022413-J504FHBF.webp\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>Data source: \u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fgs.statcounter.com\u002Fsearch-engine-market-share\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>\u003Cu>Statcounter Global Stats\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">However, it’s not necessarily because Google is the best at what it does.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">In a study led by Wharton professor of business economics and public policy Leon Musolff, his team discovered that most users tend to stick with the default. This lack of an “active choice has benefited Google over the long term, at least in devices where it’s the default.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 0.6em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">1\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Even \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">after over half of respondents were paid $10 to switch to Bing\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">, only a third stayed with it. Musolff argued that simply removing the Google default function won’t work, as users have little to no incentive to try the alternatives.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 0.6em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">1\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">It also helps that Google revolutionized search. While not the first search engine in history, it introduced PageRank that laid the foundation for the modern search algorithm and, later, SEO. It benefited from innovations ahead of its time, cementing its status as a household name in the search engine market.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">However, it’s this status that makes opting out of Google no less than commercial suicide. Roughly half of the globe uses it to start their day on the Web, making it the largest source of leads. Disappearing from its search results is a risk not many would normally take.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Can Other Media Fill The Gap?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">The businesses considering walking away from Google are well aware of the ramifications. USA Today, a well-known American daily, is reportedly considering bolstering its visibility in other areas, such as social media and newsletters. CEO Mike Reed told Adweek that USA Today still managed to hit its pageview goals for the past three years.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">But can they make up for a brand’s absence in search? Not really.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">For one, your content will still be at the mercy of an algorithm—maybe a more ruthless one. Unlike search engine algorithms designed to favor relevance, social media algorithms favor engagement. A person’s interests and preferences determine which post or video shows up at the top of their feed, and it won’t always be relevant.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Even if your content goes viral, know that attention on social media dies down as quickly as it builds up. For example, a Facebook post has an average half-life (the time required to get half of its total engagement) of 1.43 hours. That means its engagement is expected to taper off after almost three hours since going live.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure data-type=\"image\" data-align=\"left\" style=\"display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: auto;\">\u003Cimg class=\"max-w-full h-auto rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Fblog-images\u002Fscott-m-graffius-lifespan-halflife-of-social-media-posts-update-for-2026-summary-visual-v26012207-png-hires-20260722022603-mKvhtcdZ.webp\" data-align=\"left\">\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Cp style=\"text-align: center;\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>Source: \u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.scottgraffius.com\u002Fblog\u002Ffiles\u002Flifespan-halflife-of-social-media-posts-update-2026.html\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cem>\u003Cu>Scott Graffius\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Maintaining engagement on Facebook requires consistently posting interesting content, at least eight times a day if the math checks out. This isn’t much of a problem for, say, general news brands, but it can be hard for retailers or service providers.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">What about newsletters? They’re a viable alternative to social media posts, given that some platforms have a character limit (e.g., 280 characters per post for free X users). Sadly, these pieces of content also can’t fill the gap for several reasons.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">For one, creating a newsletter is a major project in its own right. Guest posting still requires planning, but at least you have platforms like \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fnobsmarketplace.com\u002F\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>NO-BS Marketplace\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> making the process easy. With newsletters, there’s a wider range of factors to consider, from the target audience to the delivery method.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">If you plan on monetizing your newsletter, expect to be up a creek. In \u003Cem>Escape the Cubicle, \u003C\u002Fem>Wes Pearce outlined the downsides of several models.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 0.6em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">2\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Paid subscription: \u003C\u002Fstrong>Generates decent income provided you keep pumping out high-quality content every period. Missing one increases the risk of unsubscribing.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Sponsorships:\u003C\u002Fstrong> Not worth it unless your newsletter has at least 10,000 subscribers. Also, sponsors will often require you to put their brand in a positive light.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Affiliate marketing: \u003C\u002Fstrong>Like sponsorships, the gains are too little to justify the effort. If you aren’t selling anything, this method may feel like you are.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>High-ticket coaching: \u003C\u002Fstrong>Great for earning money, but you’ll still be just as exhausted as with other methods. Not worth it unless you hate yourself.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Partnerships:\u003C\u002Fstrong> Good for reputation building but not for making money. Pearce said it’s “just a hobby with added pressure.”\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cstrong>Donations: \u003C\u002Fstrong>Work that deserves a tip can vary in interpretation. Not to mention that people typically don’t expect to tip for free content.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Pearce mentioned a seventh method that worked for him: selling online courses. That said, you need to ask yourself if offering such products makes sense for your brand. It’s sensible for niches that rely on thought leadership (e.g., SEO) but not for generic ones.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 1.5em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Can Anyone Beat Google?\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">As much as we want to see a David rise to this occasion, it won’t happen anytime soon. The gap between Google and its competitors is too huge to change in the short or medium term. Antitrust lawsuits against it may have gained ground, but it’s fighting tooth and nail.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Musolff also cited that antitrust efforts alone won’t be enough because the real problem lies with consumer behavior. Other search engines—and policymakers to some extent—need to step up their game if they hope to dent Google’s dominance.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Until that time comes, however, exiting Google is ill-advised.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">References:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">1.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;\">  \t\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">“Why Google Dominates the Search Engine Market,” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fknowledge.wharton.upenn.edu\u002Farticle\u002Fwhy-google-dominates-the-search-engine-market\u002F\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Fknowledge.wharton.upenn.edu\u002Farticle\u002Fwhy-google-dominates-the-search-engine-market\u002F\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">2.\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;\">  \t\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">“I Tried 7 Ways to Monetize my Newsletter. Six Flopped, One Brings Me $5K+ Monthly.” Source:\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"text-primary-blue-600 hover:underline\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fescapethecubicle.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Fi-tried-7-ways-to-monetize-my-newsletter\">\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 12px; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u003Cu>https:\u002F\u002Fescapethecubicle.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Fi-tried-7-ways-to-monetize-my-newsletter\u003C\u002Fu>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cbr>\u003C\u002Fp>","Major publishers have recently announced plans to opt out of Google Search, citing the search engine's scraping of their content without compensation. While it may seem like the beginning of the end for Google, the harsh reality is that it isn't.","https:\u002F\u002Fwebsite-cdn.nobsmarketplace.com\u002Fuploads\u002Ffeatured-images\u002Fsimon-search-engine-76519-1280-20260722020615-XQ8G31vA.webp","Google’s continued push toward AI search has pushed publishers to pull out of its search results. But is it a good idea?",1113,"2026-07-22T10:39:00.000000Z","2026-07-22T02:39:13.000000Z",{"id":30,"name":54,"email":55,"about":56,"avatar":57,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16},[112,114,116,121],{"id":60,"name":61,"slug":17,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":113},{"blog_id":100,"category_id":60},{"id":30,"name":31,"slug":32,"created_at":33,"updated_at":33,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":115},{"blog_id":100,"category_id":30},{"id":117,"name":118,"slug":119,"created_at":81,"updated_at":81,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":120},15,"Industry News","industry-news",{"blog_id":100,"category_id":117},{"id":72,"name":73,"slug":74,"created_at":75,"updated_at":75,"deleted_at":16,"pivot":122},{"blog_id":100,"category_id":72}]