Jun 17, 2025

This issue of the newsletter is sponsored by those amazing SEO tools: Ahrefs, SE Ranking, and Cora SEO Tool​

Hi there!

New SEO & AI updates inside, plus a gift for you (below).

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My toughest year = Your biggest opportunity

My SEO Audit Mastery course reopens June 26, and the full course drops on our 1-year anniversary - July 15th.

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Top SEO & AI news

Google Search Console Now Tracks AI Mode

Barry Schwartz reports Google confirmed AI Mode data is now counted in Search Console, starting when it went live in the US last week. The data combines with regular web search metrics rather than being separated, making it difficult to distinguish between regular results, featured snippets, AI Overviews, and AI Mode in reports.

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ChatGPT Adds UTM Parameters for Better Analytics Tracking

OpenAI updated ChatGPT to include UTM parameters on links in the "more" section, enabling better tracking in Google Analytics and other tools. Glenn Gabe spotted the change, noting these links now contain utm_source=chatgpt parameters, which should increase visible ChatGPT traffic levels in analytics platforms since these clicks were previously untracked.

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Google AI Mode Launches for All U.S. Users

​Barry Schwartz reports that Google AI Mode, announced at I/O three weeks ago, is now rolling out to all U.S. users including those signed out or in incognito mode.

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OpenAI Updates ChatGPT Search Capabilities

OpenAI quietly updated ChatGPT search to better understand queries and handle longer conversations. The update enables ChatGPT to provide more comprehensive answers, run multiple searches automatically for complex questions, and search the web using uploaded images.

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Google Drops Support for 8 Structured Data Types in Search

​Google is phasing out support for several lesser-used structured data types—including Book Actions, Course Info, and Estimated Salary—to simplify the search results page. This change won’t affect rankings but will remove certain visual enhancements from results. According to Google, these features added little value and cluttered the interface.

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Exclusive FREEBE for Newsletter Subscribers (SE Ranking)

Get 1 month of SE Ranking free—full access to its insanely powerful SEO toolset.

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Interesting stuff ↓

Norzer Local SEO City Service Page Generator

​Ryan McCain built a Custom GPT for Local SEO City Service Pages—a specialized content generator designed to produce high-performing, conversion-ready landing pages tailored to any city, any service.

The AI Search Content Optimization Checklist [With Google Sheets]

​Aleyda Solis released an in-depth AI Search Content Optimization Checklist, focused on helping SEOs adapt to Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. She outlines 8 key areas—like chunk-level optimization, citation-worthiness, and multi-modal support—that improve a site's chance of being included in AI-generated answers.

New stuff from Olga Zarr ↓

SEO Thieves Inspired the Best Thing I Ever Made

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Crawled - Currently Not Indexed. A reason to worry?

Seeing lots of pages under "Crawled - Currently Not Indexed"? Don't panic. Just watch this video.
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Discovered - Currently Not Indexed. What does it mean?

Seeing "Discovered - currently not indexed" pages in Google Search Console and panicking? You're not alone.

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Does your website really need backlinks? (Quick test)

In this video, I show you exactly how to check if you actually need backlinks for your keywords - or if you're just burning money.

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What SEOs should know about devs

This is an evergreen topic for SEOs in the most recent episode of the SEO podcast from Google.

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Brand Radar from Ahrefs [Sponsor]

AI search is on the rise—is your brand keeping up?

​Ahrefs’ Brand Radar helps you:

✅ See how AI presents your brand in search results
✅ Compare your brand’s visibility against competitors
✅ Identify key topics driving AI search traffic to your site

From brilliant SEOs ↓

Websites Using AI Content Grow 5% Faster [Ahrefs]

​Ahrefs surveyed 879 marketers and found that websites using AI content grew 5% faster than those not using AI, despite 65% of respondents believing human content is higher quality.

While AI users faced slightly more manual penalties from Google (3.8% vs 2.7%), human content was actually 4% more likely to be negatively impacted by Google algorithm updates.

This suggests Google isn't effectively targeting AI content—or that the AI content being used isn't as low-quality as many assume.

Google Search Console Now Tracks AI Mode Data

​Brodie Clark ran an SEO experiment proving that Google Search Console started tracking AI Mode data on June 13th, 2025, with clicks and impressions now grouped under 'Web' data in performance reports.

His test with hundreds of SEOs searching the same query in AI Mode yielded only 1 click and 13 impressions due to US-only availability and VPN/incognito exclusions, but confirmed tracking is working.

AI is Reshaping SEO Through Search Behavior Fragmentation

​Kelsey Libert's SMX Advanced research reveals that while 66% of consumers believe AI will replace traditional search within five years, AI chatbots currently capture only 2.96% of search traffic. The study found 82% of users find AI-powered search more helpful than traditional SERPs, yet only 22% of marketers track LLM brand visibility.

AI Mode is the future of Search. How will you adapt?

In an interview with Lex Fridman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that AI Mode is the future of Search. New features will be tested in AI mode, and as they figure out what works well, those features will be transported over to Google’s "main experience."

How to Find ChatGPT's Hallucinated URLs on Your Site

​Dan Hinckley reveals that 3.35% of ChatGPT-referred traffic goes to non-existent URLs based on analysis of 18,000+ visits.

To identify these hallucinated URLs: filter GA4 landing pages for chatgpt.com traffic since August 2024, export the list, add your domain to paths, then crawl with Screaming Frog to find 404 errors.

Fix these phantom pages with 301 redirects to capture lost AI-driven traffic.

140K Ranking Factors. Zero Guesswork. Meet Cora.

That's all I have for you today!

See you in the next episode!

Best,

P.S. Do you want me to share a specific article or resource in the newsletter? Interested in sponsoring this newsletter? Let me know by replying to this e-mail!

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