Howdy,

Hold onto your hats — we’ve got some digital marketing news for ya!

• Can a fake brand win at AI search? Apparently, it can and did… in the first month of an experiment done by SE Ranking. Granted, most citations were for branded queries that the fake website explicitly answers. Lots of interesting insights:
  • Perplexity started citing them first, but not always their brand pages.
  • Deep guides (5,000–6,000 words), Review articles, and Comparison (“vs”) articles were the strongest performing content formats.
  • In this experiment, clustering topical articles on a page did not generate AI citations.

The wrap up: AI bots are working to provide the best answers, they just don’t always know when the sources are bogus. It’s up to us to provide the best answers by staying on top of AI optimization best practices.

• Scaling AI companywide is no small feat. McKinsey released some intriguing questions to ask your company before jumping onto the AI train.

• Brands that clearly use AI-generated content in their marketing — what do you really think about it? Pause while you think. Now, take a look at this recent EMARKETER Chart of The Day. The majority of respondents to that question were neutral. Those who said, “it would make them trust the brand less” (31%) far exceeded those who said “it makes them trust the brand more” (7%).

• YouTube is testing a “conversational search experience” for Premium users. Basically, YouTube’s lil AI bot is going to assemble info for you so you don’t have to pilfer it from a bunch of videos. YouTube SEO can only help here, y’all.

• Speaking of social SEO, here’s SocialFly’s article on TikTok SEO, including info on keywords, hashtags, engagement, and trending audio/formats. 

• Influencer marketing — what can your brand do to make the most of your campaigns? Offering creative freedom, clear communication, and growth opportunities are great places to start! What makes influencers stay includes compensation, audience feedback, and a positive brand relationship. 

• Creators… in the C-Suite? Oh yes, well, popular creators are naturally tapped into culture and trends. The key to making this work is alignment on compensation and having the brand/creator/audience fit.

Black Girls CODE is teaching thousands of young women to lead and innovate in the tech/science/math space. Since 2011, BGC has been helping to improve the pipeline for girls of color in tech. The organization has chapters across the globe, including New York, Seattle, and South Africa. Learn how and why this organization needs your support: Black Girls CODE.

I started doing a mindfulness breathing exercise from Thich Nacht Hanh.

“As you breathe in, count 1 in your mind, and as you breathe out, count 1. Breathe in, count 2. Breathe out, count 2. Continue through 10, then return to 1 again…. When the count is lost, simply return to 1 and keep trying until you can keep the count correctly.”

Simple, right? Well, when the pressures of life kick in, staying mindful long enough to get to 10 can be challenging.

I’ve found it to be a stress gauge. The lower my count is, before my mind wanders off into the woods of things past and upcoming, the more I restart the exercise. My goal is to get to 10 at least twice without restarting.

Days with more restarts signal when your mind needs mindfulness most. So, be especially patient, loving, and curious at those times — as they tend to be when we learn the most about ourselves.

You got this 😎

Natalie

It’s the season of the mosquitos. 

Here’s a super-easy, organic mosquito control method for your yard.

Ya welcome.

Hey y’all!

Come sit… we’ve got some digital marketing news to talk about.

• Google Search Console (GSC) has been reporting inflated impression data since May 13, 2025. Clicks and other metrics weren’t impacted, but you should watch your click-thru rate in addition to impressions in the coming weeks as they fix it.

• SEO platforms were the most replaced marketing tool in 2025. AI capabilities, cost pressures, and the changing needs in a shifting search landscape were the main drivers. The AI capabilities being integrated into SEO platforms include content generation and optimization, SERP analysis and intent modeling, and workflow automation. Two thoughts:
  • These AI capabilities are tactical and can not replace the need for a strategic approach to optimizing for traditional search and AI search engines; and 
  • Relying on solely AI to create content can actually be counter-productive to search visibility.

For my technical SEOs: Llms.txt, a Markdown file to help large language models (LLMs) understand and use website content, has limitations including the manual maintenance updates and the lack of relationship model. Duane Forrester in SEJ suggests having four layers of a machine-readable content stack on top of llms.txt.

• Improve AI content generation prompts by including more strategic directives with clearer direction on the desired output. One of the checkpoints offered for managing content is a “Human-in-the-loop (HITL)” protocol that is required at the strategic start and the editorial finish. Full guidance in this Martech article.

• Speaking of HITL, Tom Fishburne takes an ironic look at the concept. Some thought-provoking data included: “only 17% of workers believe AI is reliable without human oversight, 64% expect the need for human review to increase, and 20% said AI made customer situations worse.”

• The use of AI in marketing is “quickly becoming another test of brand values” that requires addressing, according to Quick Study’s recent survey of US customers. The use of AI needs to be justified and used in a way that morally aligns with your customers.

Protecting and preserving our nation’s national parks is their goal. With over 1.9 million members outside the organization, they advocate for conservation on the ground, in the courtroom and on Capitol Hill. Learn more about what they do: National Parks Conservation Association.

You finally made it. 

Stress that’s been perched on your shoulders like a spikey-toed hawk makes its long-awaited departure. While that stressful situation flaps away, something in you lets go….

A little cold snowballs into an achy, energy-draining ailment. 

Or a pain arises in a part of your body, as random as a bingo drawing.

This is called the “Let-Down” effect, and it happens right after something stressful unwinds. Your body tells you, “That was tough — I need a rest so urgently that I’m making you stay still for a while.”

While we may not fully prevent a let-down, taking care of ourselves amidst the inclement time may be key to preventing major bodily upheaval.

You got this 😎

Natalie

Did you catch the title reference?

Here are some of the show’s greatest moments!

Hi all!

We got your feedback on our LinkedIn poll, so here’s our take on tracking AI Visibility:

Tracking your visibility on AI platforms takes some sleuthing and, unfortunately, there is not yet a single source of truth. Here is a list of tracking tools and their limitations… all in one convenient place (you’re welcome:).

Free for all:

• Google Analytics
  Positives: GA4 tracks AI-driven traffic from Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.
  Negatives: AI Overviews or AI Mode cannot be tracked separately from all Organic Google Search traffic. Also, while you can track sessions and key events like any other session source, you’re not going to see the original prompts the users clicked to get there.

• Bing Webmaster Tools
  Positives: The AI Performance tracker that shows you CoPilot grounding queries used in prompts people used to click to your website and the number of citations gained for pages on your site.
  Negatives: Grounding queries are the shortened phrases the AI used to do its backend search and not the actual prompts entered, so they are directional at best. Bing Webmaster Tools does not show actual clicks on citations so you only have a sense of citations “impressions”.

• Temporary Chat Prompting
  Positives: Certain AI chatbots can give you a snapshot of example responses, without the bias of previous conversations. See rules on Perplexity Incognito Mode, ChatGPT Temporary Chat, and Claude Incognito Chats. (Note that there are data retention periods for safety purposes, but they shouldn’t influence future chats.)
  Negatives: It is unconfirmed whether Copilot and Gemini use previous chats to influence temporary chat options. There is no data on the number of times these prompts were used (like we can see with Google’s Keyword Planner for average keyword search volume).

• HubSpot AEO Grader:
  Positives: Analyze your presence on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini while seeing competitive and perceptive “topical” data.
  Negatives: AI Overviews, AI Mode, Claude, and other AI chatbots are not included in the analysis.

Paid Options:

• Answer the Public
  Positives: Known for long-tail traditional search query research, ATP has a newer AI Model research feature to show you how people are prompting AI bots around specific topics.
  Negatives: The charts are pretty, but this is another directional tool as there is no way to gauge the volume of usage for the suggested prompts.

• Moz
  Positives: The new AI Visibility feature (requires a medium subscription plan) may be interesting as it advances out of Beta. Their Prompt Suggestion and True Competing Content features are great places to research topics for content and how your content is faring from search and AI chatbot perspective, respectively.
  Negatives: We won’t know until the Beta rolls out.

How We Use Them:

Our team integrates the Google Analytics AI-Source traffic data into our dashboards. Then, once a month, the Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance feature provides insight on which pages are being cited in Copilot and the grounding query topics that are driving clicks. Temporary chat prompting shows how a brand performs in specific, high-value prompts. To get a zoomed out perspective of how a brand is viewed by AI chatbots, HubSpot AEO Grader offers generalized insights. Answer the Public gives great ideas on prompts that can be helpful for fueling future content creation and refreshing previously published content. Moz features are also great directional tools to further enhance your content creation strategy against competitors.

Follow to stay tuned for the next LinkedIn poll, so we can answer your burning SEO/SAIO/digital marketing queries!

• We got a Google Spam update — the first of 2026! It’s relatively new, and you can peek at your rankings to see if you’ve been affected. If you’re following white-hat SEO best practices and releasing relevant content, you should be good, fam. ✌🏼
  • Also, we’ll keep you posted on the March 2026 Core Update that’s going live during the next 2 weeks.

• 🎥 OpenAI is shutting down ChatGPT’s video generator, Sora, and thus its $1b content partnership with Disney. As OpenAI has still yet to make a profit, Sora’s struggle with copyright violations, the public distaste of AI deep fakes, and vast competition influenced the decision.

• Fan-out queries tell us how people and Google/AI chatbots may be looking for your brand. Moz labels 10 fan-out query types to help with prompt research.

• Is AI ruining the job market? We need to flip that: how can AI enhance the job market? Catch this enlightening conversation between Erin McGoff, career advice creator, and LinkedIn CEO Ryan Rolansky.

• Speaking of using AI to enhance, let’s discuss using GenAI in high-trust industries (think healthcare, legal, etc.). Alexander Amatus in Marketing Profs lays the steps for use without jeopardizing trust:
  • Clearly deciding AI’s uses
  • Defining non-negotiables to AI
  • Creating content workflows with AI to upskill marketers
  • Setting boundaries with what AI can and can’t do/access

• It’s a 🎶”tale as old as time” (if you only go back to the 80s), but it is still lingering and languishing. What is it? The Sales vs. Marketing silo mentality. Only 56% of companies say they feel highly aligned across functions. Understand the challenges and solutions for those yearning for alignment via this Unbounce survey, MarketCharts visual, and Marc’s LinkedIn Musing.

• It’s not just Sales and Marketing either. Here’s a story about “Why CMOs struggle and how aligning with CFOs changes everything.” Bottom line: success lies in getting agreement on measurement values and the analytics attribution to prove it. It’s not the easiest of tasks, but improving the lines of communication is a good start.

Building supportive, stable communities by helping families build and improve their homes is what Habitat for Humanity is all about. Learn more, and consider a team project for your company that can help your community too!

“Perfectionism kills curiosity by telling us that we have to know everything or we risk looking “less than.” Perfectionism tells us that our mistakes and failures are personal defects, so we either avoid trying new things or we barely recover every time we inevitably fall short.”

~ Brené Brown Atlas of the Heart

You are more than your knowledge, your mistakes, your failures; you are the phoenix that rises from them to be the human you are.

Keep sparkling ✨

Natalie

Because we all deserve to laugh, here’s one of my favorite memes for ya.

We all know an adult like this in our lives — this kid’s performance 10/10.

Heyo,

I am still in the boat that we can trust AI… with a human babysitter. 

And the news is constantly reiterating this point. Catch the specifics below. ⬇️

• Prompt research: the next layer of SEO and GEO. SEL shares some insights on how prompt research can identify opportunities for new content with intent-based clustering to help map your current content strategy.

• Most consumers use AI, but few fully trust it — only 13% according to a MarTech study. Sorted into four AI personas: Enthusiasts, Evaluators, Skeptics, and Holdouts. Knowing the general buckets in which your audience falls can determine SAIO strategy.

• If you’re thinking about jumping on the mass-produced, AI content bandwagon, please read this article first: “You’re Not Scaling Content. You’re Scaling Disappointment.” It includes a historical timeline of how volume-content plays have consistently failed for one basic reason: the “qualitative wall.” Quality always matters over quantity. A-L-W-A-Y-S.

• Google is testing regenerating page titles through AI in traditional search results. This could be a real eeeek if the new title doesn’t accurately represent what the article is about. If that’s the case, Google could be causing clickbait, something it has been actively fighting against with each Google Core Update.

• Meta’s content moderators are being replaced by AI. As there weren’t enough human moderators to the amount of flagged content, this makes sense in a way. This does not come without risks, as a rogue AI agent exposed sensitive Meta employee data. I’m curious to see how human oversight will be implemented, because it seems we still need that. 

• Meta’s Horizon Worlds, their virtual reality social network, is shutting down on VR to be just a standalone mobile app. It seems Meta is shifting focus from the metaverse to AI. Honestly, it may have been too early to introduce Ready Player One, sci-fi concepts and may stay a dream for when VR is more readily used and available.

Habitat loss is the single largest threat to birds. For 30 years, the American Bird Conservancy has been championing the bird conservation movement throughout the Americas. They innovate and build on rapid advancements in science to halt extinctions, protect habitats, eliminate threats, and build capacity for bird conservation. Check them out: American Bird Conservatory.

Flow state – complete immersion in the moment.

If I could sum up total presentness, it would be in the band Jungle’s music videos.

From each coordinated dancer to the camera person running around to get it all in one take — they are all completely engrossed in their art.

What things in your life cause you to forget time and live mindfully? And can you do more of them?

For your viewing and listening pleasure: Busy Earnin’, Keep Moving, & Heavy California.

Sending good vibes your way, ✌🏼

Natalie

In case you’re a new Jungle fan, find more funky fun music here!

Your favorite digital marketing newsletter with a mindful twist has arrived!

You have permission to get pumped!

• AI Recommendation POISONING? 😲 AKA a new SAIO black-hat technique — it’s when “an external actor injects unauthorized instructions or “facts” into an AI assistant’s memory. Once poisoned, the AI treats these injected instructions as legitimate user preferences, influencing future responses,” as Microsoft wrote. Because Microsoft wrote that, it means all the major search/AI platforms are catching on and it won’t work much longer.

• If you are using AI to create your content, you may be falling into a “sameness” trap that won’t differentiate your content enough to gain competitive visibility advantages in SEO and AI. How to make your content stand out in the age of AI explains this issue in greater detail and offers solutions that may not sound new. One of the solutions we leverage is “refresh before you create”. Even small adjustments to existing content can attract reindexing by search engines and AI crawlers to improve visibility!

• Updates on the ChatGPT Ads test from SEL (originally from Ashley Fletcher’s LinkedIn post):
  • Note that ChatGPT ads are being piloted with a select group of brands and are not available to everyone yet (ChatGPT statement).
  • Placements seemed to fire on the first queries.
  • Ads appeared on simple prompts with strong commercial intent such as “I need to buy a new phone.”
  • Brands appearing in this test included Best Buy, Enterprise, Expedia, and Pottery Barn.

• “Most people will agree that the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” That’s the magic of well-written copy, according to VP of Corporate Marketing at Later, Kira Klaas. In this piece, she shares some ingenious copy from campaigns and even microcopy that connects, engages and entertains!

• In that vein, Cyndi Zaweski breaks down the art of storytelling content for brands in 3 steps: (1) How to find ideas, (2) The 4 essential must-haves, (3) how to actually write the content. Because people don’t want random facts without context. Stories are the glue that connects the facts and holds your listener’s attention.

• 10 social media myths that need to die. This newsletter post by Jack Appleby mythbusts popular beliefs on Instagram shadowbanning (not real), posting too much (you can’t), hashtags (doesn’t increase reach), and more.

The International Rescue Committee’s goal is to help those affected by conflict and disasters with high-impact and cost-effective solutions. They focus on health, safety, economic wellbeing, education, and empowerment. Learn more about who they are and what they do: The International Rescue Committee.

You are introduced to someone at a meeting, the coffee shop, the gym. The banter’s been friendly, and you look at their face and curse to yourself. How in the course of 3 minutes did I forget their name?

Hot take 🔥: We (not just you) weren’t listening in the first place. The person’s mouth moved — breathing the shape of their name, but our brains weren’t paying attention.

The next time you meet someone new, truly listen when their name is said and repeat it back three times in your conversation with them. Validate you’re listening and make a connection while you’re at it!

Best Wishes ✨

Natalie

Psychology Today tricks to remembering names for name-challenged individuals…

Hiya,

Just a few stories for you today, but they’re good ones!

• Bing Beta Bulletin: Bing Webmaster Tools launched a new “AI Performance Dashboard” section in beta last week. It’s a good step forward in AI citations measurement but it comes with some caveats in this early stage:
  • Data is limited to Copilot and Bing Search platforms — no ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.
  • November 2025 is the farthest the data goes back.
  • Only citation appearances are reported — no clicks, CTR, or Avg. Position. Also, citations may be acknowledgment of sources for the content presented and not necessarily links to that content.
  • It shows which pages on your website were cited.
  • The data shows “Grounding Queries” that Copilot used to retrieve the cited content — not the actual user prompts.
  • Still, we’re very excited by this new tool and are already exploring ways it can be used to track SAIO success as well as guide future optimizations. Here are links to more coverage from Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Roundtable.

• It’s been over a week since the Super Bowl. Which ads do you remember, and do you remember the brands the ads were for? Chances are the ad had a celebrity (or more) in it. Tom Fishbourne’s Marketoonist has an amusing take and the accompanying story is a good read about the importance of “fluency” — the accuracy and speed of brand recognition.

• Turning articles into short-form videos sounds like a great idea. (But how do you do it?) Here are some hot tips from SEJ:
  • How-tos, listicles, FAQs and case studies naturally lend themselves to videos.
  • Some tried-and-true hooks include a surprising stat, question, or direct stake.
  • Don’t forget to include related keywords in captions, on-screen text, hashtags, etc. for SEO purposes!

• When you hear the word “elite,” how do you react? What connotation do you glean? In her recent Fortune article, Alexa Beck, co-founder and managing partner of Quick Study, dives into American culture’s paradoxical love-hate relationship with elitism. She gives practical advice on how luxury brands should be marketed to signal status through confidence and authenticity instead of pretense. Luxury brand marketers… you should read this!

Their mission is to “provide free coats to children and adults in need while promoting volunteerism and environmental sustainability.” One Warm Coat is a national nonprofit that holds coat drives and donations to protect people from the cold. They repurpose used outwear to stay as sustainable as possible. We’re sure you’ll warm up to their mission. Visit their website: One Warm Coat.

Scientists still don’t agree on how the sport of curling works.

How and why do the stones curl the opposite direction of their launch? Regular stones don’t do that. Over a hundred years of research cannot explain it.

My perspective? This is modern magic. We’ve explained so many things in our world. We know the sun rises from the rotation of planets. We know deciduous trees unfurl their leaves based on the amount of daylight they receive.

A little mystery is good for us… keeps us wondering… keeps us discovering… keeps us creative. 💭

Keep on swimmin’ y’all!

Natalie

Did you catch the 2 sprinklings of a movie reference throughout the lower half of this edition? 

Well, here are some fun facts about the film!

Hello!

How goes it in the land of digital marketing? So glad you asked!

• How do you know if Google is indexing all the content on a longer page? Google’s John Mueller confirmed you can paste a quote from the bottom of a website page into Google. If a result pops up, you’re in the clear!

• Firefox will let you block GenAI features. Yes, they are still investing in AI features, but they know some people are not on board with AI. That’s a broader lesson in itself — How can you accommodate the people in your brand’s audience who are not thrilled with AI?

• The Feb 2026 Discover Core Update will be prioritizing locally relevant content while reducing clickbait. You may see some fluctuations or you may not… as always, we’ll keep an eye on it.

• LinkedIn posts (not just articles) are ranking on Google now, so keep optimizing your posts, y’all!

• Why isn’t leadership as thrilled with social meda results as you are? Have you tried really telling the story… picking out the most important metrics without being granular… leading with patterns instead of volume? This article from Later is a delightful refreshed take on data storytelling.

• YouTuber Modern Millie released an excellent 2026 social media trends breakdown with predictions. One of which was how the algorithm reset/preferences function may become more widespread. WHAT THIS MEANS: Creators and brands must be clear what their content is and who they are creating it for. How do you do that? *cough cough* Social SEO.

• Super Bowl 2026 Ads. Some were okay. Others were meh. In terms of the social scoreboard, Pepsi got the most mentions. What was your favorite ad?

Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) “promotes affordable housing with supportive services to ensure everyone has a safe home.” They are working to solve homelessness nationwide with supportive housing solutions including offering low-cost loans to affordable housing developers and consulting to communities in launching supportive housing. Check them out: Corporation for Supportive Housing.

AI can’t experience a warm cookie given to a weary traveler at a hotel.

Nor can AI fully understand the impact that moment had on the traveler’s mind for years after.

Generosity goes far for brand loyalty, and leadership has to trust in its power without knowing the exact ROI. Reid Holmes describes this beautifully in their Martech article “The brand moments algorithms will never understand.”

Zoom out of marketing for a bit: Generosity goes a long way (period). Helping someone, paying for another’s coffee or holding the door, could have profound impacts on how another’s day unfolds. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of kindness to reset another’s mood. 😊

Ciao!

Natalie

Tell someone that they’re doing a good job today, and see how it impacts their mood 🙂

Hiya,

⏰ Time for your update on SEO, SAIO, and digital marketing.

• While many companies are optimizing their content to be found and cited by AI platforms, others are trying to protect their content from being crawled by AI bots (as we reported last week). So much so that Google is exploring letting “sites opt out of AI search features” like its AI Overviews and AI Mode. Will other AI platforms follow suit? Too soon to tell.

• It’s not only about optimizing for AI chatbots… it’s also making sure your onsite search function is also running at peak performance! As search evolves, people will demand enhanced ability to search on the sites they visit as well. It’s all a part of the user experience — a critical piece of SEO success!

• What is LLMs.txt? Well, it’s “a proposal to standardize using an /llms.txt file to provide info to help LLMs use a website at inference time.” For websites trying to get citations from AI platforms, this file is a big, glittery arrow telling LLMs where to read on your website. Proposal is the key word here — it is not standardized yet. If you have someone on your team able to implement the file, then great. If not, it might not be worth the time yet.

• “How smart leaders use marketing metrics to navigate uncertainty.” Marketers need to stop thinking about analytics reporting dashboards as pass/fail tests. Rather, they should be directional guides to spot trend shifts for course correction. The iceberg analogy used by the author provides a framework for this approach to data, and the article includes a chart of data types and how to spot issues that need navigating.

• What’s the buzz in consumer research for Winter 2026? I’m glad you asked! Provoke Insights has a plethora of insights set in 15 industry-/topic-specific reports (like The Generations, Sustainability, and Home Improvement). Here are some top insights:
  • Discretionary spending: 62% of Americans are spending on apparel, while 59% are spending on vitamins and supplements.
  • Sustainability: 3 in 4 Americans are willing to pay more for brands that take sustainability seriously.
  • Fitness Gear: GenZ, Millennials, and Parents are all 17% more likely to purchase fitness gear products.

• Are you using AI agents to make purchases via channels like Amazon, Google, and ChatGPT? If so, you are among the ~30% of consumers who trust AI for this purpose. Conversely, 71% of marketers surveyed said “establishing ethical and privacy standards is the top step for preparing for AI agent-led commerce.” Read the full story for more on what marketers are thinking as AI agents grow in popularity.

• Marketers are using GenAI to make fun of GenAI. Adam Singer, VP of marketing at AdQuick said, “Because marketers are rewarded outsize for following trends early…the whole sector is conditioned to be early to things, whether that’s good or bad,” he said, citing the metaverse as an example of an early tech trend that resulted in “dollars lit on fire.” Marketers using GenAI as an intentional tool instead of an efficiency play — that’s when GenAI becomes a valuable tool, according to Omid Amidi, chief creative officer at McKinney. Thoughts to brew on as GenAI becomes part of our creative lives.

Since 1997, Dress for Success has been empowering women toward self-sufficiency by providing a network of support, professional attire, and development tools. This not-for-profit has chapters in communities across the globe and has helped over 1.3 million women. Learn about this organization and how to get involved: Dress for Success.

Pandas falling… It’s cute, for sure. Funny, definitely. How about inspirational?

Those rotund, clumsy fluffballs seem to make it their business to flop about. What I think is motivational is that they always get up… eventually. 

They take their time, explore the scenario in which they’ve fallen, and maybe find an exciting new diversion.

We can take a lesson from this: when life pulls you somewhere unexpectedly, explore your surroundings and take the time you need to get back up.

Have a splendiferous rest of your week!

Natalie

Toronto Zoo’s Giant Panda Fall Compilation.

You’re welcome. 😉

Hey y’all,

Digital marketing news going live in 3, 2, 1…

• Which AI-driven shifts in consumer behavior will most impact digital advertising over the next 2-3 years? EMARKETER offers survey results that puts “Reduced use of traditional search engines like Google” at the top of the list. Note it’s only saying reduced use not that AI is going to replace search. It’s really just more reinforcement of the need to have a complementary SEO/SAIO strategy.

• How are in-house marketers preparing for AI search? “Creating content designed for AI and conversational search” tops the list. One other thing popped out to us — “Agency professionals are likewise preparing for AI changes to search, to an even greater extent than their in-house marketer counterparts.”

• Did ya hear “Apple is finally upgrading Siri, and Google Gemini will power it“? Can you say “Siri search SAIO” 3x fast?

• The “TikTok Next” report predicts 2026 will be ruled these 3 trends:
  • Reali-TEA – it’s not about perfection, but real experiences
  • Curiosity Detours – people will try to learn and grow their knowledge/skills on TikTok
  • Emotional ROI – brands will need to give consumers more of a “why to buy” that is conscious of emotional ROI as well as financial cost
  • Get the summary or the full report. 

• Another trends report? You betcha! This one is for PPC in 2026. The big takeaway is “pairing rapid AI advancements with strong fundamentals and human oversight,” which seems to be a broader echo of business initiatives. Keep the user in mind and AI features in control.

• “71% of US marketers say establishing ethical and privacy standards should be the top priority when preparing for a future where consumers delegate tasks to AI agents.” Makes sense, does it not? In the same survey 53% of marketers are optimizing content for conversational AI. (Who’da thunk?)

Their vision: a world without type 1 diabetes (T1D). Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) is the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and has been actively searching for a cure since 1970. In addition to research, they offer many resources to those affected by the disease. See how you can help: Breakthrough T1D.

🌳 Deciduous trees lose their leaves for dormant periods, protecting themselves from cold damage.

🦔 African hedgehogs and crocodiles stay inactive in a cool spot during hot, dry seasons.

🐸 Wood frogs freeze solid for up to 8 months of the year.

Nature knows the kind of rest she needs for recovery.

This is proof enough that you need rest, too. And by rest, I don’t just mean sleep. (Learn about the other types of rest in the P.S.)

Good [insert the time of day you’re reading this] and good luck with it all!

Natalie

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith defines 7 types of rest: 

1. Mental
2. Spiritual
3. Emotional
4. Social
5. Sensory
6. Creative
7. Physical

To be your most productive, not-burned-out self, you need to first figure out your rest deficit. If you’re solving problems at work and home, you can schedule breaks throughout the day to close your eyes and breath for mental and sensory reprieve.

The TED Talk is worth a watch.