What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
Structured Data for Google AI Overviews: The One Signal Nobody's Doing Right
Everyone's obsessed with stuffing schema everywhere, but Google’s AI overviews gulp down your markup like it’s a cocktail of noise and bullshit. Here’s why nobody’s nailing the one signal that actually matters.
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AI Content Detectors in 2026: Why They're Still Garbage and How They Ruin Real SEO
AI content detectors remain a useless, broken joke in 2026, wrecking legit SEO efforts while boosting lazy content farms and grift agencies. Here's why.
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LLMS.txt and Perplexity: Why Your Site's Crawlability Is Still a Hot Mess
If you think tossing in an LLMS.txt file or preaching “perplexity reduction” is going to magically fix your crawlability problems, you’re dead wrong. This is SEO cargo cult 2.0.
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Applebot-Extended Visibility? Spoiler: Apple Is Still Ghosting Publishers Who Actually Work
Apple’s much-hyped Applebot expansion is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Publishers bust their asses creating quality content—and Apple’s crawler still acts like a flaky Tinder match.
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Google Search Console Discover Traffic Attribution: A Peak Nothingburger for SEO ROI
Google’s Discover traffic metrics in Search Console are a misleading distraction, not a silver bullet for proving SEO ROI. Here’s why you should stop wasting time on it.
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Core Web Vitals Are Dead Weight - Here's What Google Really Cares About in 2026
Core Web Vitals were the SEO world’s sacred cow—until they became a bloated distraction. In 2026, Google isn’t chasing your LCP or FID anymore; it’s playing a far different game.
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Schema.org Adoption: The Lazy Publisher's Excuse for Invisibility in Google's AI-First Era
Relying on schema markup as a shortcut to SEO glory is the new lazy publisher hustle. In 2024, it’s not your golden ticket—it’s your invisibility cloak.
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The IndexNow Myth: Why Instant Indexing Is Mostly Bullshit for Publishers in 2026
Instant indexing promises the moon but delivers a slow trudge — here’s why IndexNow is a glorified notification system, not a game-changer for publishers.
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Why Yoast and Rank Math’s AI Features Are SEO Grift 2.0 — And How They Sabotage Your Content
Yoast and Rank Math’s latest AI gimmicks aren’t innovation. They’re lazy, self-serving cargo cult designed to keep you locked in a cycle of mediocre content and endless plugin dependency.
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Core Web Vitals Worship Is Peak SEO Cargo Cult - Here's the Data
Stop falling for Google's Core Web Vitals snake oil. The obsession with these metrics is the biggest distraction in SEO right now — and the data proves it.
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The Lazy SEO Agency Playbook: How They Sell You Snake Oil with AI Buzzwords
The “AI-powered SEO revolution” is a scam. Lazy agencies slap GPT-3 outputs on your site and call it strategy. Here’s how they game you — and why you’re paying for digital snake oil.
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The Lazy SEO Agency Playbook: How They Sell You Snake Oil with AI Buzzwords
The “AI-powered SEO revolution” is a scam. Lazy agencies slap GPT-3 outputs on your site and call it strategy. Here’s how they game you — and why you’re paying for digital snake oil.
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Core Web Vitals Worship Is Peak SEO Cargo Cult - Here's the Data
Stop falling for Google's Core Web Vitals snake oil. The obsession with these metrics is the biggest distraction in SEO right now — and the data proves it.
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Skittles and Claire’s Campaigns Prove Creativity Still Beats Algorithmic Garbage
Skittles, Claire’s, and Budweiser’s latest campaigns prove creativity still wins over algorithmic ad factory churn. Here’s why these ads caught our attention.
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USA Today Co.’s AI Licensing: A Rare Win Amidst Programmatic and Traffic Meltdown
USA Today Co. bucks the industry trend with AI licensing deals driving real revenue growth in Q1, even as traffic and programmatic ad sales tank.
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Taboola’s AI Answer Engine: Publisher Engagement or Another Content Monetization Mirage?
Taboola’s new AI answer engine promises to boost publisher engagement but is really just another slick layer of ad-driven content monetization dressed up as innovation.
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YouTube’s Creator Data Gambit: A Half-Baked Gift Wrapped as a Game-Changer
YouTube’s new creator data access is being hailed as a breakthrough, but it’s really a half-measure designed to keep marketers locked in, not truly empowered.
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The AI Visibility Tool Circus: Why Marketers Are Waking Up to Overpriced Snake Oil
Marketers are dumping cash into AI visibility tools that promise clarity in a zero-click world, but inconsistent data and lack of standards expose them as costly gimmicks.
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