Google’s Danny Sullivan and John Mueller spoke on the Search Off the Record podcast about whether hiring an AEO/GEO or buying an AI-optimization tool is any different than hiring an SEO or buying an SEO tool. In short, the advice is the same – both Googlers said.

Reddit simplifies campaign setup with Max Campaigns, Google enhances creator discovery inside Ads, and Microsoft expands audience targeting The post PPC Pulse: Reddit Max Campaigns, Google Creator & Microsoft Targeting Updates appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google’s Danny Sullivan said on the Search Off the Record podcast that was published yesterday that Google does not want you to turn your content into bite-sized chunks to rank well in LLMs. He said, “we don’t want you to do that” and he even spoke to Google engineers about this.

Microsoft announced its AI-agents agentic experiences under the names of Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents. Copilot Checkout lets you shop and checkout directly in the Copilot chat experience and Brand Agents lets you add AI-chat experience to your site, and the AI is trained on your product data.

In September, we posted about a number of local pack design tests from Microsoft Bing. But now, Bing might be testing a more retro, older-looking interface for the local pack in the Bing search results.

Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison, posted a reminder on LinkedIn, encouraging advertisers to ensure the email settings are all configured properly.

WordPress no longer your default choice? Get a clear breakdown of when Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify, Ghost, Drupal, and others are the smarter move

Google’s Robby Stein explains why AI Overviews appear for some searches but not others, describing an engagement-based system. The post Google: AI Overviews Show Less When Users Don’t Engage appeared first on Search Engine Journal

Similarweb’s January Global AI Tracker shows ChatGPT at 64.5% of gen AI chatbot site visits, while Gemini reached 21.5% and writing tools fell. The post Google Gemini Gains Share As ChatGPT Declines In Similarweb Data appeared first on Search Engine Journal

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…