Glenn Gabe
Every SEO Weekly story that cites Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe), newest first. 55 stories since September 2026.
On X: SEO and AI Search Consultant at G-Squared Interactive focused on Google algorithm update recovery and AI Search visibility. Podcast: "SEO From The Front Lines".
- Google rankings are swinging harder again today
Google has still not announced anything, so nobody knows yet what is causing the movement.
- AI tools still send almost no visitors next to Google
Three studies landed this week saying AI search visibility may not be worth paying for yet.
- Google fed rank trackers results for one word of your query
A week of frozen, scrambled and heated search results means your keyword chart probably lied to you.
- Ahrefs says it is deleting bad rank tracking data
A statement shared by Glenn Gabe says past affected results are being cleaned up, but nobody has said yet whether old charts get fixed.
- Some sites vanished from Google, then came back a week later
Glenn Gabe confirmed the drops with both site owners and says the cause sits on Google's end.
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- Google is dropping the "AI Overview" label from some answers
Unlabelled AI answers may be why tracking tools suddenly show fewer of them.
- Google adds more links to its AI answers, again
Nick Fox of Google laid out five changes to how AI answers link out, including a new section at the top for the one or two pages that finish the job.
- Google is putting more links inside its AI answers
Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode will link out more often, and place some of those links higher in the answer.
- ChatGPT traffic has now disappeared from analytics
The tracking tags that told your analytics a visitor came from ChatGPT are now gone from every link, one SEO reports.
- Wikipedia and news sites win most Gemini citations
A large look at how Google's AI assistant picks the sources it credits.
- Moving your site to a new domain keeps going wrong
Barry Schwartz asked why Google still showed an old domain four months after a move, and two SEOs said they see the same thing all the time.
- Claude now bans using it to fake AI search answers
The penalty for breaking the new rule is losing access to Claude altogether.
- Google penalties are now hitting ordinary businesses
Several SEOs say the wave of hand-issued Google penalties is landing on normal companies, not just obvious spam sites.
- Google's Gemini can now answer questions about a map area
One SEO tested a new Map tool that lets people point at a spot on a map and ask about it, instead of typing the place name.
- Google's AI answers now show up on weather and sports searches
One SEO says the AI answer box is spreading to the quick, everyday searches that used to get a simple direct answer.
- Sites hit by the August spam update are bouncing back
Google appears to be recalculating its spam scores, and some sites that lost rankings in August are winning them back.
- Google now emails you when readers favorite your site
Several SEOs got the new emails this week, and nobody can see the number inside Search Console yet.
- Cloudflare now blocks Google by default
A September 15 change means some sites behind Cloudflare may be shutting Google out without the owner knowing.
- AI answers now appear on 93% of brand name searches
Four SEOs now say Google's AI answer box has spread across searches for company names, and it can point to other companies.
- Google calls hand-checking AI writing "critical"
Three well known SEOs have now pointed at the same line in Google's refreshed AI content guidance.
- Google plans more spam crackdowns, staff say
Google is adding new spam thresholds as it deals with what staff call a growing flood of AI slop.
- Made-up authors now count as deception to Google
Google updated its helpful content document with new language on fabricated creator profiles.
- Google now says bulk AI pages count as low effort
Google's own documentation now spells out what its human reviewers treat as real work on a page.
- Spam update hit a second time on September 30
Sites that came through the first wave untouched are now reporting sudden drops.
- Google's pay-for-content test pays almost nothing
Small sites in Google's AI payment pilot are earning less than one tenth of 1% of their ad revenue.
- Strangers can change your Google listing in four days
Google gives you a short window to reject a suggested edit before it may go live on its own.
- Spam update hit hardest over the weekend
Friday looked quiet, then rankings moved sharply across several countries.
- Google built a new detector for AI written spam
Glenn Gabe says the system predates both the August and September spam updates.
- Paying for mentions in AI answers may now backfire
Glenn Gabe says the new Google spam update could land on the businesses buying AI search visibility, though Google has not said that.
- Links inside Google's AI answers may be rising again
A fresh report points to another jump in outbound links, and one well known SEO says his own checks match.
- Google pulled the spammy AI notebook pages from search
Shared pages from Google's own AI notebook tool are gone from search results after spammers filled them with junk.
- Some AI answer links now open more AI, not your site
A link inside Google's AI answer can now lead to another Google AI answer.
- Spammers are flooding Google search with its own AI notebooks
Public pages from Google's own AI notebook tool are being filled with junk and ranking in search results.
- Google is testing payments for content used in AI answers
The pilot runs through Search Console, and Barry Schwartz says it was first spotted back in April.
- Same rankings, less traffic, as Google adds more boxes
Google's first page now splits roughly in half between normal results and its own features, according to one SEO's comparison.
- Google is testing an AI summary inside its news feed
A new button in Google's phone feed sends readers to a summary page first, and it starts with videos.
- Google is dropping free product listings in Europe
Unpaid Google Shopping results are vanishing across the European Economic Area, and comparison shopping sites are taking the space.
- Your rank tracking tool may be showing old numbers
Two well known SEOs say Google is blocking the bots that rank tracking tools rely on, and the three big tools now disagree.
- Google's business info box is turning into an AI answer
Three well known SEOs say the box that shows your hours and reviews is starting to include an AI summary.
- Google search profiles now open at 10,000 followers
Google cut the bar for getting a Search profile by 90 percent, and added a few other changes for publishers and creators.
- Google is testing ads that look like normal links in AI answers
Sponsored links written as plain text inside AI Mode answers blend in with the rest of the answer.
- 131 SEO experts name relevance and links as top factors
It is expert opinion rather than data from Google, and one SEO says parts of it are nonsense.
- Nearly every "people also ask" answer is now AI
The related questions under Google's results now open into AI written summaries instead of links to sites.
- Sites that vanished from Google came back nine days later
Glenn Gabe says sites that lost nearly all search visibility around September 4 have fully recovered, and nobody outside Google knows why.
- Some sites lost nearly all Google traffic in early September
Two well known SEOs report near total traffic losses, and bulk-made pages may be the link.
- Traffic estimates from popular SEO tools may be wrong now
Several well known SEOs say the numbers in Ahrefs and Semrush do not match Google's own click data right now.
- Missing June data in Search Console is a Google bug
Two well known SEOs saw the same gap in the same report on the same morning, so it is not your site.
- Your Google position number may not mean what it used to
Google's John Mueller says the old idea of ranking one to ten is hard to map onto search results now.
- That scary homepage warning in Google was just a bug
Search Console briefly told site owners their homepage was not in Google. It was wrong.
- AI answers may skip brands that plant their own praise
One SEO watched ChatGPT drop his brand from a citation after it spotted a self-recommendation.
- Google's AI search briefly stopped linking to websites
A new Gemini model went live in AI Mode with almost no citations, and Google called it a bug.
- Google is building simple free tools into its answers
A working character counter now appears inside Google's AI answer box, and SEOs say any simple tool site could be next.
- Google puts comparison sites above hotels in Europe
Hotels, airlines and restaurants get pushed below three comparison engines in EU results, and Google says quality drops because of it.
- Google can lose faith in a site for months over bulk pages
Three SEOs are now showing sites that dropped after publishing pages at scale, and Google has put the reason in writing.
- Two Google reports are stuck, and it is not your site
Barry Schwartz flagged both gaps, and Glenn Gabe says the lag is nothing new.
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