Google’s expanded candidate set and the selection crisis
Google’s expanded candidate set signals a deeper shift in how search systems evaluate content. As AI systems process larger pools of information, visibility increasingly depends on verification, relationships, and trust signals instead of traditional keyword targeting alone. That shift is pushing SEO beyond retrieval and ranking mechanics toward something closer to forensic architecture — systems […]
Google’s CEO Is Comfortable With AI Mode Replacing Classic Search
In a recent interview, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that sources and links will always be a part of the AI answers and when asked how he feels about a decline in the use of Classic Search in favor of AI Search, he mentioned that Google will survive on a blend of subscriptions and advertising. […]
GSC’s New AI Overview Reporting: How Can We Use This Information?
Google is giving us brand new information within our Google Search Consoles to tell us how our content is being used in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the AI features in Discover. If you have been wondering whether your SEO efforts are actually landing you in these generative features, we finally have a way to […]
Reactivated LSA After 6 Months: Losing Impressions and Rankings Every Day | Paid Search and Local Service Ads
I’m looking for some insights regarding a Google Local Services Ads (LSA) issue. I own a moving company in Germany and had excellent LSA performance until about 6 months ago. At that time, we were generating around 40 leads per day, with roughly 25–30 being high-quality moving inquiries. We have 120 Google reviews with a […]
Small UX Tweak That Led to an Instant Traffic Lift | Local Search
Sterling Sky has long tested ways to improve rankings and traffic for pages that already exist on a site, and one of the most under-utilized ways we do this that works so well is adding a table of contents (TOC) or TL;DR to existing blog pages. For this one client we did it for, they […]
brandname.com or brandnamecategory.com | Local Search
Hello, I just started with seo late last year but I’ve had a website for my print shop for the last 26 years. Let’s say the business is called “my brand name” and my domain is called “mybrandname.com” Will it help me rank better for local if I add the term printing to the end […]
Similar Intent Keyword Strategy
I have following high intent keywords to rank for. When i do Google search on each of them in my area, results vary by each queries.My questions is that when i am optimizing for them should i create individual pages for them or not? Priority Page 1 Fence Company Near Me 2 Fence Installation Near […]
Is google stopping at one page of local results on desktop?
I mean, not always (in theory… Like, I actually tried to find an example WITH more than 20 results and literally couldn’t!), but i am seeing a MASSIVE uptick of queries where clicking on “more results” never shows more than one page, and these are queries for sizeable cities (Including Montreal!) that should by all […]
Shopify outage disrupts stores, checkouts and admin access
A Shopify service disruption on Tuesday affected core commerce functions, potentially preventing merchants from managing stores and customers from completing purchases. The big picture. Shopify confirmed that some merchants and customers experienced issues across multiple services, including storefronts, checkouts, the Shopify admin dashboard and Retail POS. Access to Shopify Support was also impacted. What happened. […]
The new PPC skill set: From keyword manager to system optimizer
The old PPC skill set was built around control: define the keywords, choose the match types, set bids, write tightly aligned ad copy, and structure campaigns so the algorithm behaved the way you wanted. The best ad managers of the past were great at Excel and pivot tables. Execution was the product and the differentiator […]