2025
From Google Traffic to AI Answers: The New Reality for Publishers
The deal between publishers and Google, at least implicitly, has been clear in the past: Google is allowed to capture content and use excerpts in its own search product. In return, publishers receive visitors via Google if the preview is interesting enough for users to click on. Google has already made efforts […]...
The Era of AI Charlatans
The GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) wave has fully swept the industry. My feed is filled with new GEO agencies, self-proclaimed GEO experts with supposedly years of experience, and a lot of obvious nonsense straight from the person’s favorite LLM. As in the early years of Google optimization, much remains unknown […]...
IndexWatch Q1 2025: UK Winners & Losers
The year started quietly for SEOs…but the calm didn’t last long. In February, Google ramped up the Search Generative Experience (SGE), with AI Overviews (AIOs) gaining prominence across UK SERPs, particularly for more specific and complex queries. Then, just weeks later, on 13th March, Google rolled out its first algorithm […]...
After Google I/O: SEO is changing, are we at risk of less traffic due to AI?
Google presented numerous new AI use cases and developments at its I/O conference this week. My SEO perspective on some of the key points: AI Mode. In the US, Google will offer AI Mode to all users in the future. This mode is essentially the chatbot version of Google Search. Similar […]...
AI search is not the same as AI search: how OpenAI sees the market
Documents and presentations published in competition proceedings provide a good insight into how OpenAI and Sam Altman view the market for AI search and AI chatbots. While the OpenAI CEO himself doesn’t believe OpenAI has a chance of replacing Google, the distinction between AI chatbots and AI search is interesting: In the “traditional” chatbot […]...
Google Antitrust Process: New Ranking Details Uncovered
After US courts have already ruled that Google abuses its monopoly position, the question that now follows is which conditions should be imposed in the future to prevent this. In this phase of the procedure, interesting insights for SEO are coming to light as well. Recently, the testimonials by Pandu […]...
Apple sees first decline in traditional search queries, AI takes over
Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of services (which includes the search deal with Google), has spoken out in court about AI search as part of the competition case against Google. Apple noted a decline in traditional search queries in the Safari browser for the first time last month. He attributes this […]...
From AI to API: the New Functions in SISTRIX from the First Quarter of 2025
Google said goodbye to to the year 2024 with a core and a spam update – and didn’t deliver much less during the first quarter of 2025 to keep the world of search engine optimisation on its toes. We weren’t idle either! Next to bigger changes that have already been […]...
The Top Domains and Content for CRM software in 2025
This month, SectorWatch is heading back into the world of CRMs to see whose pipeline is capturing prime positions in Google’s search results—and which ones still need a little nurturing to climb to the top. We’re looking for brands whose SEO strategy is truly connecting with both customers and search […]...
AIO frequency rises sharply. Featured Snippets dropping in UK.
Since introducing the AI overview (AIO) answer format, Google has experimented with various details and display options. Now, Mountain View seems to be confident about the outcome and has been rolling out AI Overviews for significantly more keywords in recent days....
Google Core Update March 2025
The March 2025 Core Update, announced on the 13th March 2025, rolled out over two weeks. This was the first major update of 2025. Helpful statistics and analysis are provided below. Data has been updated during the roll-out with examples and lists of affected domains below....
The Top Domains and Content for Spring Cleaning
This month, SectorWatch is dusting off the data to explore the spring cleaning market in the UK. We’re scouring the SERPs for brands with a spotless SEO strategy and shining the light on content that truly sparkles. Who’s sweeping up some top rankings? And who’s lacking the elbow polish required […]...
IndexWatch: SEO Losers in Google US Search 2024
Where there are SEO winners, there must also be losers. In 2024, many sites that had previously seen consistent success with driving SEO traffic and visibility saw staggering declines in Google’s U.S. search results. ...
Women’s Fashion Domain Winners of 2024
We’ve just published our IndexWatch 2024 reports. As part of that work I’ve been looking back at some of our sector data to find the new and rising domains. In this report you’ll find a list of domains from the fashion industry. The sortable list might help you identify blueprints […]...
IndexWatch 2024: Visibility Losers in Google UK Search
IndexWatch is our analysis of the top winning and losing domains. In this issue you can learn about the losers of 2024. Through SISTRIX’s Visibility Index, we have identified 200 websites with visibility drop-offs across the UK’s Google search results. 6 domains are analysed in detail....
The Top Domains and Content for Cosmetics (makeup)
To kick off 2025, SectorWatch is putting on its best face to explore the cosmetics search market in the UK. We’re uncovering which brands are nailing their search strategy and looking for content with a flawless finish. Who’s contouring their way to top rankings? And who’s missing the foundation for […]...
IndexWatch: SEO Winners in Google US Search 2024
2024 was a jam-packed year that brought major developments in the SEO space, largely driven by growing competition between traditional search engines and large language models (LLMs), including emerging challengers like ChatGPT and Claude. Here’s our annual review of the Winners in Google search....
IndexWatch 2024: Visibility Winners in Google UK Search
Another year has passed, bringing a new wave of domain fluctuations in 2024. We’ve seen a flurry of algorithmic changes, AI-driven roll-outs and some big, big changes in the top 10 domains. This report analyses some of the significant domain movements and includes searchable and sortable lists of 200 domain […]...