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JavaScript SEO should be a solved problem by now. It isn’t. Ecommerce sites keep hitting the same crawling, rendering, and indexing issues they were five years ago, now stacked on top of headless builds, AI-powered recommendations, and frameworks that can hide critical content from Google. These top ecommerce players have figured out how to ship fast, modern JavaScript without sacrificing organic visibility. Here are five lessons worth stealing. 1. Chewy uses JavaScript for UX Chewy is one of the largest online retailers of pet food and supplies in the U.S. They use Next.js, a React framework for building websites with built-in support for server rendering, static generation, and full-stack development features. That means you can put important content in the initial HTML response without relying on client-side JavaScript. Let’s look at a product page like the Benebone Wishbone Chew Toy. Navigate to View Page Source and you’ll see the product title, description, pricing, reviews, Q&A, and breadcrumb navigation all present in the initial HTML. Googlebot can access it on the first pass, without waiting for rendering. That’s important because if a web crawler like Googlebot encounters issues rendering your page, the important content can still be parsed on the first crawl. With the rise of AI chatbots, some of which still don’t render JavaScript, this has become even more important. Not everything needs to be in the initial HTML, though. Without client-side JavaScript, the page would feel static and clunky. Take the “Compare Similar Items” carousel. It’s loaded client-side, primarily there for shoppers. The internal links could offer some SEO benefit, but they’re not critical for indexing this page the way the title, description, and pricing are. Chewy gets this balance right. The content that matters most for indexing is available on initial load. Client-side JavaScript enhances the experience rather than delivering the content that needs to be indexed. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with 2. Myprotein makes navigation crawlable Myprotein sells supplements, nutrition products, and some fitness apparel. Their site is built on Astro, a content-first framework using Islands Architecture to ship zero JavaScript by default while supporting components from React, Vue, or Svelte. Myprotein’s navigation is the part worth studying. It’s an important SEO area for ecommerce sites, and they get it right. View the source on any Myprotein page and the navigation links (categories, dropdown items, and footer links) are all in the initial HTML response. Astro makes this possible through its island architecture. The navigation ships as an interactive island, meaning Astro will hydrate it with JavaScript as soon as the browser is ready. But JavaScript makes the flyout menus interactive. It doesn’t create them. These links are also proper <a> elements with href attributes, which is what crawlers like Googlebot need to discover and follow links. Avoid using JavaScript click handlers to simulate navigation, such as: <div onclick="navigate(item.slug)">Clear Protein Drinks</div> A crawler won’t follow that. Use a standard anchor element instead: <a href="https://us.myprotein.com/c/nutrition/protein/clear-protein-drinks/">Clear Protein Drinks</a> Not every site gets this right. When navigation depends entirely on client-side rendering, there’s a window where it’s invisible or empty. Googlebot processes JavaScript in a separate rendering pass that can lag behind the initial crawl, which can mean delayed discovery of internal links critical for crawl efficiency and link equity distribution. 3. Harrods embeds structured data in the HTML Harrods is a luxury department store selling fashion, beauty, and homeware. Their site is built on Nuxt, a Vue framework for building websites with built-in routing, server rendering, and static generation, plus an opinionated project structure. Their structured data is delivered in the initial HTML response. View the source on any product page and you’ll find structured data inside a <script type="application/ld+json"> element. The Product schema includes the product name, images, description, brand, and an Offer with price, currency, availability, and seller. JSON-LD is the format Google recommends for structured data, and because it’s in the HTML response, Google can parse it on the first crawl pass without needing to render the page. On JavaScript-powered sites, structured data can easily become a client-side dependency. If a framework fetches product data in the browser and generates JSON-LD from the response, that structured data only exists after JavaScript executes. The same is true for structured data injected through Google Tag Manager. If markup is only added after the page loads, Google has to render the page to find it. Google has noted that dynamically generated Product markup can make Shopping crawls less frequent and less reliable, which matters when prices and availability change often. By serving that structured data in the HTML directly, Harrods avoids this risk entirely. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. 4. Under Armour handles faceted navigation with JavaScript Under Armour is a global sportswear brand selling athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories. Their site is built on Next.js, the same React framework Chewy uses. A good place to see their JavaScript SEO in action is on category pages, where filters need to feel fast and interactive for shoppers, and be crawler-friendly. Let’s look at the men’s shoes category page. When you apply a filter, say, selecting size 10, the product grid updates instantly without a full page reload. That’s client-side JavaScript updating the grid. But the URL updates too. After selecting the filter, the URL becomes: https://www.underarmour.com/en-us/c/mens/shoes/?prefn1=size&prefv1=10 A shopper can copy that URL, send it to a friend, or bookmark it, and land right back on the same filtered view. Notice what the URL isn’t: Not a hash fragment (#size=10), which doesn’t get sent to the server and is ignored by Google. Not a mess of bracketed query strings (?filters[0][size]=10). Not a dynamic route artifact like /shoes/[category]/ leaking into the live URL. It’s a clean, readable query string with named parameters. Under Armour is using the Next.js router to update the URL as filters change. Under the hood, it wraps the browser’s History API and uses the pushState() method to update the address bar without a reload. When someone visits that same URL directly, the page loads with the filter already applied. 5. Manors Golf loads third-party scripts Manors Golf sells golf apparel. Their site runs on Hydrogen, Shopify’s React-based framework for headless storefronts. Hydrogen defers its own application scripts automatically since they load as ES modules. However, third-party scripts are the developer’s responsibility. On an ecommerce site, that can be a long list: reviews, chat, personalization, pixels, recommendations, payment scripts. That matters for SEO in two ways. Render-blocking scripts hurt Core Web Vitals, most directly Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). They also give Googlebot more work to render the page, so it may get processed less reliably. An external script (<script src="...">) without async or defer blocks HTML parsing. Async fetches in the background and runs when ready. Defer waits until parsing finishes. Manors loads external scripts from 12 third-party domains, including Klaviyo, TikTok, Microsoft Clarity, and Gorgias. A look at the Elements panel shows them all loading with async: By loading third-party scripts with async, Manors keeps them from blocking the initial render. That protects LCP and reduces the work Google’s Web Rendering Service (WRS) has to do. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The balance between interactivity and crawlability The issue isn’t that you’re using JavaScript. It’s what you’re using it for. Googlebot can process JavaScript, but it’s slower and less reliable than reading HTML. The more your core content, structure, and navigation depend on JavaScript, the more room there is for things to go wrong. The sites in this article all use JavaScript to enhance the experience rather than deliver it. Do that, and you won’t have to choose between a good user experience and good SEO. View the full article

AI visibility ROI can't be measured in clicks because clicks were never part of the design. Here's the framework shift before the spreadsheet catches up. The post The ROI Problem With AI Traffic Nobody Is Measuring Correctly appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Secretary of state dispatched to Vatican to defuse tensions over Iran war View the full article

President Donald The President’s proposal to put a coat of white paint on the exterior of a 19th-century historic landmark building next to the White House is slated for a hearing Thursday by a key federal agency he expects to approve what would be a dramatic makeover. The proposed painting of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building is one piece of a broader plan the Republican president has said will make Washington more beautiful. The President is making numerous changes inside and outside the White House and its grounds, most notably razing the East Wing to build a 1,000-person ballroom. Across the street from the mansion, Lafayette Park is closed for renovations that include getting the fountains working again. The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to begin considering the plan on Thursday, according to its meeting agenda. The President calls for painting all or most of the Eisenhower building’s gray granite exterior with white paint. He last year called the gray a “really bad color.” Josh Fisher, a White House official, in April told the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts — a separate federal agency that also must approve the proposal — that the The President administration prefers painting the entire building because the exterior is stained and in “great disrepair.” The White House also presented an alternative proposal to paint most of the building in white while leaving the granite as is on the base. Fisher said in April that experts consulted by the government could not guarantee that an exterior cleaning would improve the condition of the building. But the proposal has alarmed preservationists, architects, historians and others who argue that granite is not meant to be painted and that paint would trap moisture, deteriorate the stone and not solve problems the administration wants to fix. There’s also scant public support for the paint job. Hundreds of pages of public comment submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission and available on the agency’s website were overwhelmingly against the plan on the grounds that the granite would be harmed by being painted and that problems would remain, at great expense to taxpayers. Others suggested improved landscaping, lighting and other steps to improve the building’s appearance. Members of the Society of Architectural Historians sent a letter this week to Will Scharf, a top White House aide and chair of the planning commission, outlining why the project “will adversely and permanently alter this important part of American heritage and should be rejected.” A report by the planning commission’s staff recommends that commissioners support cleaning the building but said more information is needed to evaluate the proposals to paint the exterior. Staff also recommends asking the White House to provide information about the type of paint to be used, including where it has been successfully used on exterior granite facades in other projects. It also recommends the White House summarize other ways to achieve the goal, including cleaning the building and/or lighting. The Eisenhower Executive Office Building is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A lawsuit against the proposed paint job is working its way through federal court. The Eisenhower building sits across a driveway from the West Wing, and its granite, slate and cast iron exterior makes it one of America’s best examples of the French Second Empire style of architecture. It was the original home for the State, War and Navy departments, and it currently houses ceremonial offices for the vice president and offices for the second lady, the National Security Council and other White House components. At its April meeting, the fine arts commission directed White House officials to return at a future date to present more information, including the results of paint testing. —Darlene Superville , Associated Press View the full article

Y Combinator general partner Aaron Epstein was joined by Raphael Schaad, founder of Cron that was sold to Notion, to discuss common mistakes made with AI designed websites. They identified seven common mistakes vibe coders made with their websites that should be avoided. Positive And Negatives The podcast started out by acknowledging that being able to vibe code a website is a positive thing that doesn’t have to turn out poorly just because they’re not a designer. Then they started visiting vibe coded websites and encountering multiple issues that fit into the following seven categories. 1. Generic Design Trends The […] The post 7 Common AI Website Mistakes That Are Easy To Avoid appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

In New York, lawmakers are considering a pied-à-terre tax on second homes worth $5 million or more. It’s part of a growing wave of legislation focused on taxing the rich. But some wealthy people aren’t too happy about it. On an earnings call this week, Steven Roth, chief executive of Vornado Realty Trust, likened the rhetoric around taxing the rich to hate speech. Steven Roth Roth was specifically referring to what he called a “spat” between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and billionaire Citadel CEO Ken Griffin. Mamdani recently filmed a video saying he would “tax the rich” outside Griffin’s multimillion-dollar penthouse. (The building, as noted by the New York Times, was developed by Vornado.) “I must say that I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ . . . when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs, and even the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’” Roth said on the call. “The rich whom the politicians are targeting started with nothing, are the epitome of the American dream,” he continued. “They are at the top of the great American economic pyramid for a reason. They should be praised and thanked.” However, a majority of regular Americans say that billionaires “make it harder” for them to achieve their American dreams, according to a 2025 Harris poll. Some rich people actually want fairer taxes Meanwhile, some wealthy people disagree with Roth’s assessment, too. Erica Payne, president and founder of Patriotic Millionaires, says she embraces the phrase “tax the rich”—so much so that it’s what she titled her 2021 book. “We believe that wealthy people like our members should be taxed for a number of reasons,” Payne tells Fast Company. As an organization, Patriotic Millionaires is made up of high-net-worth individuals who advocate for more progressive taxes in order to close the wealth gap. One reason, Payne says, is that since 1975, about $80 trillion has been transferred from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Another is that “the wealth concentration at the level it has reached is an existential threat to democracy, period,” she says. Multiple studies have linked wealth and economic inequality to democratic erosion. It’s a greater threat to democracy, as one study put it, than military coups. “Anyone who doesn’t understand that, including people who possess that level of wealth, should be seen as acting in opposition to our agreed upon system of self governance,” Payne says. Why else should we tax the rich? “Because currently we’re taxing the poor,” she adds, “and that doesn’t seem to be working out particularly well for us.” After the 2017 Republican law that changed the tax codes, billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than the rest of Americans. Speaking with Fast Company this week, Payne bluntly criticized Roth’s comments, calling them a sign of insecurity—and a sign that rich people “might understand they’re not remotely worth the amount of money in the economy that they currently control.” “Over-inflated egos” It’s not the first time the ultra-wealthy have been criticized for portraying themselves, as a Washington Post op-ed put it in 2021, as “sensitive and oppressed.” “They are having an emotional response and a sensitivity to what is the only logical choice in a capitalist democracy,” Payne says, “and that is to acknowledge that the level of wealth that they currently enjoy is based substantially more on a deliberate misstructuring of the economy, so that it definitionally delivers outsized returns to people in their class, relative to the actual value they bring.” Just as Roth said billionaires should be praised and thanked, many defend the ultra-wealthy by pointing out that they’ve created jobs and economic value through their companies. But Payne contests that framing. In some instances, she says, business owners actually destroy value. (Consider one study from 2009, which found that for each new retail job created by Walmart, 1.4 existing jobs are lost at competing businesses.) “The ‘sky-is-falling,’ ‘chicken-little,’ ‘the-economy-will-collapse-without-our-talent’ mythology they’re trying to spread is patently absurd,” Payne says of wealthy people who oppose taxes or other policies to address wealth inequality. “The only thing that will collapse if we tax billionaires at an appropriate level is an over-inflated ego or two,” she adds, “and I think that would be a wonderful thing for all of us.” View the full article

Working mothers are sleep-deprived. While parenting and sleep deprivation go hand in hand, at work, moms are expected to be on their A-game. However, a new report is shedding light on how too little sleep is impacting how moms are able to show up at work, or even, if they’re able to show up at all. According to the new Bedtime Report from Better Sleep, a relaxation and sleep app with over 65 million users worldwide, moms are struggling to get enough rest. The research, which was conducted by Wakefield Research and involved 1,000 U.S. mothers, found that over the past year more than half of working moms (53%) have either called in sick, left work early, or underperformed at their job, due to lack of sleep. And it’s not just a one-off incident for most of them: 36% said it’s happened repeatedly. The sleep stats are eye-opening (pun intended): 35% of moms said they clock around six to seven hours of sleep a night and 26% get between five and six. Worse off are the 14% who said they are only getting four or five, and the very weary 2% who get less than four. Alarmingly, only around 23% of moms get a solid seven hours of shuteye on the average weeknight. So, why aren’t moms getting enough sleep? According to the research, it’s not because they all have colicky babies or are up late binge-watching The Bear and eating Pop Chips all night. It’s because they’re stressed and can’t quiet their minds enough to get a decent night’s sleep. Seven in ten moms cited anxiety, racing thoughts, or thinking about their daily responsibilities as a top reason for their exhaustion. Worryingly, even more (73%) say they don’t feel that their lack of sleep is seen which, in turn, means there’s no real support to help them actually relax, rest, and reset. Nathalie Walton, General Manager of BetterSleep says the issue is all too common but that the implications are huge. “Moms are operating in a state of sustained depletion that affects every part of their lives,” she said in a press release. “This data makes visible what millions of mothers already know, but rarely say out loud. Rest is not a luxury. It’s what makes everything else possible—and right now, far too many moms are running on empty.” All the sleep stats are troubling because going through the day delirious with exhaustion is tough. It makes 48% of moms feel less connected to their kids, 46% short-tempered, and 34% say they are more willing to rely on screens to occupy their kids. But when it comes to how moms are managing at work, lack of sleep is majorly problematic there, too. Nearly a fifth (19%) say they’ve retreated from their career goals or promotions that were once within their reach due to their pure and utter exhaustion. The research doesn’t mean that moms are failing. It means they are having to manage too much. “What we’re seeing is not a personal failing, it’s a structural one,” Dr. Shelby Harris, clinical sleep psychologist and sleep expert at BetterSleep said in a press release. “Mothers have been conditioned to treat rest as something they have to earn, not something they deserve. Changing that starts with understanding the full scale of the problem.” From that lens, the report should shed light on the fact that moms—who are often holding down the fort at home and working outside of the home, too—urgently need more support, both inside their home (Hello, partners? Are you there?) and outside it (affordable childcare anyone?). That seems especially true for Gen Z moms who experienced the highest rate of work disruptions due to lack of sleep: 65% of Gen Z moms fell off at work due to exhaustion compared to 55% of millennials and 39% of Gen X moms. It might be easy to blame the baby, but according to the research, it’s the tireless mental load that’s the real culprit. View the full article

Every "Mt. AI" traffic crash tells the same story: volume without editorial strategy will always hit Google's quality threshold eventually. The post Google’s Quality Threshold Is Quietly Killing Scaled AI Content appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Search visibility no longer starts and ends with rankings. AI-driven search has changed where discovery happens — across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and beyond. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is how brands adapt, shaping how they’re retrieved and represented inside those systems. Traditional SEO metrics miss a growing share of that visibility. Pages are now summarized, excerpted, and cited in environments where clicks are optional, and attribution is fragmented. When an AI-generated summary appears, users click traditional search results far less often — in one analysis, just 8% of the time. That creates a measurement gap. Assessing this gap is where GEO metrics come in. What visibility means in generative search GEO focuses on whether AI systems can find, understand, and select your content when generating answers. In generative search, visibility is more than about being indexed or ranked. Your content must be used — cited, summarized, or incorporated — into AI responses. GEO builds on SEO and AEO, shifting the focus from where content ranks to how clearly it can be interpreted and trusted in context. In practice, that means optimizing for: Extractability: Can this be easily summarized? Credibility: Is this a trustworthy source to cite? Relevance: Does this directly resolve the query? That’s where GEO metrics become useful. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with 8 core GEO metrics brands need to track in 2026 GEO performance shows up across a distinct set of signals that reflect presence, usage, and downstream impact. 1. AI citation frequency AI citation frequency measures how often your brand, website, content, or experts are cited in AI-generated answers. This is one of the clearest GEO metrics because it shows whether generative systems consider your content useful enough to reference. Track citation frequency across: Google AI Overviews. Google AI Mode. Perplexity. ChatGPT search. Gemini. Copilot. Claude, where source visibility is available. Industry-specific AI tools and assistants. Citation frequency should be tracked at the topic level, not only the domain level. A SaaS company, for example, may want to know whether it’s cited for “customer onboarding software,” “product adoption metrics,” and “best tools for reducing churn” separately. The goal is repeatable citation across high-value topics. 2. Share of Model Voice (SOMV) Share of Model Voice measures how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers compared with competitors. Traditional share of voice tells you how visible a brand is across search, media, or advertising. Share of Model Voice applies that idea to AI responses. A simple way to calculate it: SOMV = Brand appearances across a prompt set ÷ Total answers generated for that prompt set For example: You analyze 100 relevant prompts. Your brand appears in 28 of the resulting AI-generated answers. Your Share of Model Voice is 28%. This metric is especially useful for competitive categories because AI answers often compress the consideration set. A user doesn’t see 10 blue links. They may see three recommended vendors, two cited articles, or one synthesized answer. That’s why relative presence matters more than absolute visibility. 3. Answer inclusion rate Answer inclusion rate measures how often your owned content is used to generate an AI answer, regardless of whether the user clicks. This differs from citation frequency. A brand may be mentioned without its content being cited. And a page may be used as supporting material even when the brand is not the central recommendation. Track inclusion across informational, comparison, and decision-stage prompts. For example, a B2B SaaS company in the SEO or analytics space might track prompts like: Informational: “What is generative engine optimization?” Exploratory: “How should brands measure AI search visibility?” Comparison: “SEO vs GEO vs AEO” Category-level: “Best GEO tools for B2B SaaS” Decision-stage: “How do I evaluate GEO platforms?” This metric helps identify which content formats are easiest for AI systems to retrieve and summarize. In many cases, clear definitions, comparison tables, statistics pages, glossaries, and answer-first explainers perform better than broad thought leadership pages because they’re easier to extract and reuse. 4. Entity recognition and authority Entity recognition measures how well AI systems understand who your brand is, what it does, and what topics it should be associated with. This matters because generative systems don’t only match keywords. They interpret entities, relationships, topical authority, and corroborating signals. Strong entity recognition means AI systems can accurately connect your brand to: Your company name. Products and services. Founders or executives. Authors and subject-matter experts. Industry categories. Locations. Use cases. Awards, partnerships, and third-party mentions. Knowledge graph data. Structured data. Google’s guidance for AI features emphasizes that the same fundamentals still apply: make content accessible, maintain a strong page experience, and use structured data to help systems interpret what’s on the page. In practice, inconsistencies across these signals make it harder for AI systems to reliably connect your brand to the right topics. 5. Sentiment in AI responses Sentiment measures how AI systems describe your brand. Tracking mentions isn’t enough. Brands also need to know whether AI-generated responses frame them as credible, outdated, expensive, risky, innovative, niche, enterprise-grade, beginner-friendly, or anything else. You can monitor: Positive, neutral, and negative descriptions. Recurring adjectives or claims. Incorrect comparisons. Outdated product details. Missing differentiators. Reputation issues. Hallucinated features or limitations. This is where GEO overlaps with PR and brand management. AI-generated answers can shape perception before the user ever reaches your site. 6. Prompt coverage Prompt coverage measures how many relevant prompts surface your brand. This is the GEO version of keyword coverage, but prompts are more conversational, specific, and intent-rich. A strong prompt set should include: Informational prompts. Comparison prompts. “Best” and “top” prompts. Problem-aware prompts. Solution-aware prompts. Buyer-stage prompts. Role-specific prompts. Use-case prompts. Local or industry-specific prompts. Follow-up prompts. For a cybersecurity company, “best cybersecurity platforms” is only part of the picture. Relevant prompts also look like: “How do mid-market companies reduce phishing risk?” “What tools help security teams manage vendor risk?” “Compare managed detection and response providers.” “What should a CISO look for in an incident response partner?” Prompt coverage shows whether your brand is visible across the way people actually ask AI systems for help. 7. Content retrieval success rate Content retrieval success rate measures how often AI systems pull from your owned content when answering relevant prompts. This is where it gets technical. If your content isn’t crawlable, structured, fresh, or easy to parse, it may struggle to appear in generative outputs, regardless of subject-matter strength. You should evaluate: Crawlability. Indexability. Internal linking. Page speed. Schema markup. Clear headings. Answer-first formatting. Author attribution. Publication and update dates. Canonical handling. Robots.txt and AI crawler access rules. Content freshness. Source clarity. Gaps in any of these areas reduce the likelihood that your content is retrieved and used — even when it’s the best answer available. 8. Conversion influence after AI interaction Conversion influence measures how visibility in AI-generated outputs contributes to downstream business outcomes. That connection isn’t always direct — and it’s rarely cleanly attributed. A user may see your brand in an AI answer, search your name later, visit directly, ask a colleague, or convert through a paid retargeting path. Still, brands should track directional signals: AI referral traffic. Assisted conversions. Branded search lift. Direct traffic changes. Demo or lead quality from AI-referred sessions. Returning visitors after AI visibility spikes. Sales conversations mentioning ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or AI Overviews. Pipeline influenced by AI-discovery queries. AI search visitors convert at a 23x higher rate than traditional organic search visitors, even though AI traffic volume was much smaller, according to Ahrefs. That’s the measurement nuance: AI search may drive fewer sessions, but the sessions that do occur can be higher-intent. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Tools and methods for tracking GEO metrics GEO measurement is still in its early stages, and no single platform captures the full picture. Most brands will need a mix of automated tools, manual audits, analytics configuration, and competitive testing. Emerging GEO analytics platforms A growing set of tools — from established SEO platforms to GEO-native products — now track how brands appear across AI-driven search experiences. For example: Semrush AI Toolkit surfaces visibility trends tied to AI-driven search. SE Ranking AI Visibility Tracker monitors brand presence across AI-generated outputs. Profound focuses on AI citation frequency, sentiment, and competitive visibility. Peec AI tracks brand presence and representation across AI systems. The category is still evolving, but early tools give brands a way to move from assumptions to actual visibility data. Prompt testing frameworks Manual prompt testing is still useful, especially when building a baseline. Create a controlled prompt set by topic, funnel stage, persona, and geography. Run those prompts consistently across the same AI platforms. Capture: Whether your brand appears. Which competitors appear. Which sources are cited. How your brand is described. Whether the answer is accurate. Whether your owned content is cited. Whether the answer changes across repeated tests. Because AI answers can vary, single-prompt testing isn’t enough. Track patterns over time. Analytics and logs Use GA4, server logs, CRM fields, and referral data to identify traffic and conversions from AI platforms — particularly shifts in direct, branded, and assisted conversions. Track known AI referrers, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, and other AI tools, where possible. Treat this as directional rather than complete, because many AI-influenced journeys show up as direct, branded search, or otherwise unattributed traffic. Search Console and traditional SEO tools Search Console still matters, even as clicks decline. Impressions show whether content is being surfaced, while query data highlights where AI Overviews are absorbing demand, where branded search is increasing, and where content may need restructuring for answer inclusion. Traditional SEO tools remain useful for technical health, content gaps, backlinks, keyword demand, and competitive research. GEO measurement builds on that foundation, tracking how content is surfaced in AI search. How to build a GEO measurement framework Start with a baseline. Choose 5-10 core topics you want AI systems to associate with your brand. For each, map prompts across the user journey. Then build a dashboard across four categories — and assign each to a clear action: Visibility: Where do we show up? AI citation frequency. Share of Model Voice. Prompt coverage. Answer inclusion rate. Accuracy and reputation: How are we represented? Sentiment in AI responses. Message consistency. Misinformation or hallucination rate. Competitive framing. Technical and content: Can our content be used? Content retrieval success rate. Schema coverage. Crawlability. Freshness. Entity consistency. Business impact: Does it drive outcomes? AI referral traffic. Assisted conversions. Branded search lift. Direct traffic movement. Lead quality. Pipeline influenced by AI discovery. Review these metrics together, not in isolation. Use them to decide what to update, expand, or deprioritize. Finally, connect the framework to business goals. A publisher may prioritize citations and source inclusion. A B2B SaaS company may focus on category prompts and comparison visibility. An ecommerce brand may look at product recommendations, review sentiment, and visibility across discovery surfaces. There’s no universal GEO dashboard — only the one that helps your team decide what to do next. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Turning GEO metrics into action GEO metrics are only useful if they change what teams do next. Define the topics you want to be known for, track how those topics show up across AI systems, and use that data to decide what to update, expand, or deprioritize. Treat visibility as a feedback loop. If your brand isn’t appearing, refine the content. If it’s appearing inconsistently, strengthen the signals around it. If it’s showing up but misrepresented, correct the source. Over time, the advantage goes to teams that act on these signals consistently — not just the ones that track them. View the full article

A note Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate claimed he found after the millionaire sex offender’s first suspected jail suicide attempt was made public Wednesday, years after being sealed and locked in a courthouse vault as part of an unrelated legal dispute. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, ordered the release of the note after The New York Times asked him last week to unseal it and other documents in a case involving the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request. Few people had known about the note until Tartaglione, a former police officer serving a life sentence for killing four people, mentioned it last year on writer Jessica Reed Kraus’ podcast. Tartaglione claimed he discovered the note in a book after Epstein was found on the floor of their cell at a Manhattan federal jail on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around the financier’s neck. That was about three weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell in what authorities concluded was a suicide. “They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” said the short note, which is hard to decipher in some places. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!” “NO FUN,” the note concludes, with those words underlined. “NOT WORTH IT!!” It is unclear who wrote the note Tartaglione claimed to have found. It wasn’t mentioned in the lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s recent release of files on the late financier. In a written ruling, Karas said he weighed the privacy interests of third parties, including Epstein, before ruling to release the note. He said existing case law suggests that privacy interests of a deceased person, such as Epstein, “are vastly reduced and disclosure of the deceased’s information is unlikely to ‘work a concrete harm.'” According to jail records, Epstein had friction marks and skin irritation on his neck from the suspected July 23 attempt. Jail officers said he was breathing heavily but responsive. One officer reported at the time that Epstein said he believed Tartaglione had tried to kill him, according to a memo included in the Justice Department’s files. Jail officials placed Epstein on suicide watch for 31 hours after the incident before downgrading him to psychiatric observation — his status when he killed himself. According to jail records, he denied trying to harm himself, telling a jail psychologist that suicide was against his Jewish religion and that he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain. A chronology included in the files states that Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 attempt. The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s criminal case and was placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation. Both men were interviewed by jail personnel on July 31, 2019, according to jail records. Epstein said he had never had any issues with Tartaglione, wasn’t threatened by him and didn’t “want to make up something that isn’t there.” Tartaglione said he didn’t have any issues being Epstein’s cellmate, though he said they kept their conversations to a minimum. On July 23, he said, he thought Epstein was having a heart attack because his eyes were open and he appeared to be snoring. Epstein and Tartaglione shared a cell for about two weeks, beginning soon after Epstein’s July 6, 2019, arrest and ending with the suspected suicide attempt. Both were awaiting trials — Epstein on sex trafficking charges and Tartaglione on charges that in 2016 he killed four men, including a man he tortured and strangled over stolen drug money. Tartaglione, who had been an officer in the Hudson River Valley village of Briarcliff Manor, was convicted in 2023. He is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in California and has petitioned President Donald The President for a pardon. Epstein was without a cellmate when he was found dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, on Aug. 10, 2019. Authorities have pointed to a series of missteps by jail personnel — including browsing the internet and sleeping when they should’ve been checking on Epstein — for allowing him to take his own life. Officials said they found a handwritten note in Epstein’s cell at the time of his death, but that it didn’t appear to be a suicide note. Rather, they said, it appeared to be a list of grievances about conditions at the jail, including about food, showers and the presence of bugs. EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org —Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press View the full article

Blue Cross Blue Shield is set to begin issuing nearly $2 billion in payouts to claimants in a long-running class action lawsuit. The payments are expected to begin this month and could see individuals receiving checks worth hundreds of dollars. Here’s what you need to know about the settlement and its massive payout. What is the settlement about? The settlement payout is the culmination of a nearly 14-year legal battle between Blue Cross Blue Shield and its subscribers. Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) operates a federation of health insurance companies under its umbrella. As of 2026, there are 33 such BCBS-affiliated health insurers. Back in 2012, individuals who subscribed to policies from various BCBS health insurers sued Blue Cross Blue Shield, alleging that the company engaged in anti-competitive practices that led to higher health insurance premiums. Specifically, subscribers alleged that Blue Cross Blue Shield got BCBS insurers to agree not to offer their services in overlapping jurisdictions, limiting competition. And since more competition usually lowers prices, that kept premiums higher than they otherwise would have been. Given the number of lawsuits alleging this and related claims, the individual litigation received class-action status in 2013. By 2020, Blue Cross Blue Shield agreed to settle the claims for $2.67 billion, rather than incur additional legal costs and a potentially more costly outcome if the case went to trial. It’s important to note, however, that no verdict was ever rendered against Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the company has denied any wrongdoing. After 2020, several objections were made to the settlement, but following further court proceedings, the settlement was upheld. Now, nearly 14 years after the first legal actions were taken, Blue Cross Blue Shield is finally sending out billions in payments to affected parties. Who is included in the BCBS settlement? Despite agreeing to a $2.67 billion settlement, Blue Cross Blue Shield will pay out less than $2 billion to affected subscribers. This is because the difference will go toward court costs, administrative costs, and legal fees. The remaining roughly $1.9 billion is being distributed to claimants. Blue Cross Blue Shield has also agreed to change the way it does business to avoid similar issues in the future. How do I know if I am included in the settlement? In order to be included in this settlement, you would have needed to file a claim by 2021. According to the settlement’s official website, successful claimants include people who had an Individual, Insured Group, or Self-Funded Account with a BCBS company between February 2008 and October 2020. The policy dates for those with Self-Funded Accounts are September 1, 2015, through October 16, 2020. If you have forgotten whether you may have filed a claim years ago, not to worry. Claimants have been notified through email and postal mail, so be sure to check both if you think you are covered under the settlement. How much can I get from the settlement? That depends on how many people ultimately filed a claim, among other factors specific to your policy. The more people who filed, the less settlement money there will be to go around. The settlement agreement also states that those calculated to receive less than $5 will receive no payment at all. TopClassActions has stated that around 6 million people filed claims. That suggests that the average payout could be around $333 per claim, but again, final payouts will depend on an individual’s circumstances. When will payments be made? Payments will begin being sent out this month. You will receive your payment based on the method you selected when you filed a claim. Those methods include physical checks, pre-paid cards, or digital payments. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Google’s Pixel phones have spent the last few years becoming the default recommendation for people who want a straightforward Android experience without dealing with heavy software skins or overloaded features. The Google Pixel 10 Pro continues that approach, though its original $1,219 price made it harder to justify against competing flagship phones. Now, Amazon has dropped the unlocked 512GB model to $969 (its lowest price yet, according to online price trackers), and that makes it easier to appreciate what Google actually does well here. Google Pixel 10 Pro (Obsidian) 512GB nlocked Android smartphone $969.00 at Amazon $1,219.00 Save $250.00 Get Deal Get Deal $969.00 at Amazon $1,219.00 Save $250.00 The hardware itself is familiar in a good way—the flat display makes it easier to grip and use one-handed, the matte glass back does a better job resisting fingerprints than many glossy competitors, and the overall build feels solid without becoming bulky. Google also continues to offer one of the better long-term Android support policies, so you aren't buying something that will feel outdated in two years. Performance is solid for day-to-day use, though the Tensor G5 chip still trails behind Snapdragon-powered competitors in heavier gaming and more demanding apps, notes this PCMag review. That said, the biggest reason to buy this phone is still the camera system. Google continues to deliver photos that look natural without over-sharpening faces or cranking up colors, and its triple-camera setup handles low-light shots especially well. The 6.7-inch OLED display of the Pixel 10 Pro also gets brighter than last year’s model, making it easier to use outdoors, and Qi2 charging plus Google’s new PixelSnap magnetic system make wireless charging less annoying in daily use—snapping the phone onto a desk stand or car mount feels simple in the same way Apple’s MagSafe accessories do, says our writer in her review of the product. Battery life is good enough for a full day with regular use, but frequent video recording, navigation, or extended camera sessions can drain it faster. Also, one thing to keep in mind is the switch to eSIM-only support. For people who travel often or frequently change carriers, losing the option for a physical SIM card may feel limiting. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.99 (List Price $249.00) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch (Black) — $149.95 (List Price $199.95) Apple iPad 11" A16 128GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Silver, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Anker 20,000mAh Portable Power Bank With Built-in USB-C Cable — $49.99 (List Price $69.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

AI ads aren't mysterious once you know the rules. Here's how to access inventory, set expectations, and build budget that actually works. The post How To Leverage AI Ad Placements And Are They Worth It? – Ask A PPC appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Many companies expand internationally by duplicating their U.S. website, translating the language, and keeping the same architecture, navigation, and content structure across markets. Then performance drops. International versions may convert at half the rate of the original site or struggle to gain traction altogether. The issue usually isn’t translation. It’s assuming users in different markets search, navigate, and evaluate information the same way. Using insights from Google SERPs and LLMs, here’s how to localize website architecture and navigation for international SEO. How to use Google to localize content Google’s SERP interface is localized for individual markets. Each element — menu order, topic filters, questions, tags, AI structures — reflects learned user behavior. For example, if you search for a topic or product in the UK and Italy, you’ll get different interfaces: The Italian site might show two shopping options, while the UK site puts images at position two. These aren’t arbitrary — they’re algorithmic predictions based on observed behavior in each specific region. Google has already done the user research. You just have to extract the signals systematically. Every SERP element is optimized through behavioral data, for example: Menu order reflects click-through analysis across millions of users. Topic filters represent observed refinement patterns. People Also Ask (PAA) boxes aggregate real user confusion points. Image tags cluster search behavior patterns. AI Overviews encode entity relationship patterns that a model has learned. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with 9 signals to create a localization framework Use these nine SERP interface elements to contain localization intelligence. Menu order/filters reveal primary and secondary search intent. They are localized and dynamic — their order changes due to seasonalities, changes of intent, content behaviors, and breaking news. Topic filters show hierarchical refinement patterns (2-3 levels deep). They are influenced by trends and seasonalities, and Google mixes classic search topics with shopping filters. People Also Ask (PAA): Three levels are enough for discovering patterns and recurring entities through clustering. People Also Search For (PASF) are similar to PAAs but are related searches showing journey connections. In this case, a three-level depth is sufficient to obtain meaningful data. Image search tags for entity search: Each tag is also an entity related to the searched entity, or an attribution of that entity. They place entity associations in a visual search context. AI Overview fan-outs are AI-predicted follow-up questions from Google. AI Mode fan-outs are conversational search path predictions, ideal for exploring entities and triplets. Google web guides are pillar pages that break down a topic into subtopics. It’s ideal for understanding how Google reasons around a subject. Multi-LLM comparative analyses examine how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity structure their answers. LLM answers help identify both the universal semantic core shared across regions and the region-specific entities that emerge when prompted with local context. This reveals which entities matter globally versus locally. Table of nine localization framework signals SignalWhatWhyHow to (manual)How to (with tools)1. Search Menu OrderReveals primary and secondary search intentMenu position shows how Google classifies query intent per marketOpen incognito browser, set location to target city, search query, record visible menu items in exact orderBrightLocal for location simulation2. Topic FiltersShows hierarchical refinement patterns (2-3 levels deep)Maps directly to content hub organizationScroll below search bar to “Refine this search” section, document filter chips, click each to reveal sub-levelsTopically.io, Chrome DevTools (inspect filter elements), Python/Selenium for automation3. People Also AskUser confusion points and anxiety aggregated from real searchesDirect blueprint for FAQ sections and pillar page H2 structureLocate PAA box, document visible questions, click each to expand and reveal related questions (2 levels deep), use incognito to avoid personalizationAlsoAsked.com (visualizes PAA trees), ValueSERP API, SerpAPI for automation4. People Also Search ForJourney paths and related searches showing sequential behaviorReveals related entities users expect to find connected; informs internal linkingScroll to bottom of search results, document 8-12 related searches shown automaticallyTopically.io, Semrush (“Related Keywords”), Ahrefs (“Also talk about”), SerpAPI5. Image Search TagsEntity search associations (visual and general); multi-word tags reveal co-occurring entitiesTag frequency = entity salience; informs which entities need visual contentClick Images tab, observe tag chips below search bar, document all visible tags (8-15), note multi-word tagsTopically.io, SerpAPI (image search with tags), Selenium scripts6. AI Overview Fan-OutsGoogle’s AI-predicted follow-up questions; entity relationships the model learnedSpecifically informs Google AI Overview, AI Mode, and Web Guide structure; shows content sequencing for user journeyN/AQforia by iPullRank, Gemini API with Python/Colab7. AI Mode Fan-OutsConversational search path predictions; multi-turn journey Google anticipatesReveals complex topic exploration paths; growing importance as Google pushes AI Mode heavilyN/AQforia by iPullRank, Gemini API with conversational context in Python/Colab8. Google Web GuideGoogle’s editorial content organization; H2-level structure Google considers comprehensiveDirect blueprint for navigation structure (not URL paths); categories reveal information types users needPerform search, look for “Web Guide” or “Guide” SERP feature (appears ~20-30% of queries), expand sections, document H2 headingsN/A (no tools available)9. Multi-LLM Comparative AnalysisHow ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity structure answers to identical queries; consensus vs. unique entitiesConsensus entities = must-have content; weak/incomplete answers = information gain opportunities; validates citation-worthy contentEnter identical query in each LLM interface, copy full responses, document response length/format/entities/citations (for Perplexity), perform in local language per marketOpenAI API (ChatGPT), Google Gemini API, Perplexity API – all via Python/Colab for batch processing and entity extraction Scaling with international SEO Here’s an example of a product breakdown between international sites: 148 products × 6 query variants = 888 queries Four markets = 3,552 combinations Nine signals = 31,968 data points However, you don’t need all 31,968 data points. Patterns emerge across 15 to 20 products, roughly 10% to 15% of the catalog. Entity relationships repeat across product categories, so sampling 15 products across factions can reveal critical localization patterns. How to transform data into taxonomy Let’s say there’s a hypothetical website based on the Star Wars movies called “SWLegion.com,” which sells tabletop wargaming miniatures. It has several products across factions, eras, and types. Below is SWLegion.com’s complete URL structure across four markets. CategoryU.S. (root)UK (/en-gb/)Italy (/it-it/)Spain (/es-es/)STORE HOME/store//en-gb/store//it-it/negozio//es-es/tienda/TYPE OF UNIT CATEGORIESAccessories/store/accessories//en-gb/store/accessories//it-it/negozio/accessori//es-es/tienda/accesorios/Battle Force Packs/store/battle-force-packs//en-gb/store/battle-force-packs//it-it/negozio/pacchetti-forza-battaglia//es-es/tienda/paquetes-fuerza-batalla/Battlefield Expansions/store/battlefield-expansions//en-gb/store/battlefield-expansions//it-it/negozio/espansioni-campo-battaglia//es-es/tienda/expansiones-campo-batalla/Commander Expansions/store/commander-expansions//en-gb/store/commander-expansions//it-it/negozio/espansioni-comandante//es-es/tienda/expansiones-comandante/Core Sets/store/core-sets//en-gb/store/core-sets//it-it/negozio/set-base//es-es/tienda/sets-basicos/Operative Expansions/store/operative-expansions//en-gb/store/operative-expansions//it-it/negozio/espansioni-operative//es-es/tienda/expansiones-operativas/Personnel Expansions/store/personnel-expansions//en-gb/store/personnel-expansions//it-it/negozio/espansioni-personale//es-es/tienda/expansiones-personal/Starter Sets/store/starter-sets//en-gb/store/starter-sets//it-it/negozio/set-iniziali//es-es/tienda/sets-iniciales/Unit Expansions/store/unit-expansions//en-gb/store/unit-expansions//it-it/negozio/espansioni-unita//es-es/tienda/expansiones-unidad/Upgrade Expansions/store/upgrade-expansions//en-gb/store/upgrade-expansions//it-it/negozio/espansioni-potenziamento//es-es/tienda/expansiones-mejora/FACTION FILTERSShadow Collective/store/shadow-collective//en-gb/store/shadow-collective//it-it/negozio/collettivo-ombra//es-es/tienda/colectivo-sombra/Mercenaries/store/mercenaries//en-gb/store/mercenaries//it-it/negozio/mercenari//es-es/tienda/mercenarios/Galactic Empire/store/galactic-empire//en-gb/store/galactic-empire//it-it/negozio/impero-galattico//es-es/tienda/imperio-galactico/Galactic Republic/store/galactic-republic//en-gb/store/galactic-republic//it-it/negozio/repubblica-galattica//es-es/tienda/republica-galactica/Rebel Alliance/store/rebel-alliance//en-gb/store/rebel-alliance//it-it/negozio/alleanza-ribelle//es-es/tienda/alianza-rebelde/Separatist Alliance/store/separatist-alliance//en-gb/store/separatist-alliance//it-it/negozio/alleanza-separatista//es-es/tienda/alianza-separatista/TYPOLOGY FILTERSHeroes/store/heroes//en-gb/store/heroes//it-it/negozio/eroi//es-es/tienda/heroes/Varies/store/varies//en-gb/store/varies//it-it/negozio/varie//es-es/tienda/varios/Infantry/store/infantry//en-gb/store/infantry//it-it/negozio/fanteria//es-es/tienda/infanteria/Tools/store/tools//en-gb/store/tools//it-it/negozio/strumenti//es-es/tienda/herramientas/Vehicles/store/vehicles//en-gb/store/vehicles//it-it/negozio/veicoli//es-es/tienda/vehiculos/ERA FILTERSAll Eras/store/all-eras//en-gb/store/all-eras//it-it/negozio/tutte-ere//es-es/tienda/todas-eras/Age of Rebellion/store/age-of-rebellion//en-gb/store/age-of-rebellion//it-it/negozio/era-ribellione//es-es/tienda/era-rebelion/The New Republic/store/the-new-republic//en-gb/store/the-new-republic//it-it/negozio/nuova-repubblica//es-es/tienda/nueva-republica/Fall of Jedi/store/fall-of-jedi//en-gb/store/fall-of-jedi//it-it/negozio/caduta-jedi//es-es/tienda/caida-jedi/Reign of the Empire/store/reign-of-the-empire//en-gb/store/reign-of-the-empire//it-it/negozio/regno-impero//es-es/tienda/reino-imperio/CONTENT SECTIONSLore Section/lore//en-gb/lore//it-it/lore//es-es/lore/Rules Section/star-wars-legion/rules//en-gb/star-wars-legion/rules//it-it/star-wars-legion/regole//es-es/star-wars-legion/reglas/Mini Painting Academy/mini-painting-academy//en-gb/mini-painting-academy//it-it/accademia-pittura-miniature//es-es/academia-pintura-miniaturas/About Us/about-us//en-gb/about-us//it-it/chi-siamo//es-es/sobre-nosotros/ Extract entities across signals Using the above product catalog as an example, use each product as a query seed. Start manual, with 10-15 products to internalize patterns. Then automate with APIs/Python, and store in a CSV/JSON. Cross-reference entities to identify co-occurrence patterns. Combine all nine signals into a unified dataset. Then, extract entities mentioned across signals. Weighted co-occurrence analysis Track which entities appear together across signals. This reveals which concepts users naturally connect in their thinking. Each signal has a different reliability weight based on how directly it reflects user intent: LLM mentions: 3.0 (high confidence — models trained on usage patterns) Query fan-outs: 2.5 (AI predicts relationships from observed behavior) PAA: 2.0 (actual user questions connecting entities) PASF: 2.0 (sequential journey connections) Image tags: 1.5 (visual/entity search context) Topic filters: 1.0 (broad categorization) For example, say there’s a significant variation in entity relationship complexity across markets, measured as total weighted co-occurrence scores (sum of all entity pair connections, weighted by signal reliability): U.S.: 2,639.5 total weight UK: 2,359.0 total weight Spain: 2,266.0 total weight Italy: 1,084.5 total weight This means the U.S. and UK show 2x more entity relationship complexity than Italy, indicating more complex user journeys requiring deeper content architectures. Cross-market entity patterns Not all entities matter equally across markets. Your content strategy depends on recognizing three distinct patterns: Universal entities (all four markets): These appear consistently across the U.S., UK, Spain, and Italy. Users everywhere expect this content. Market-specific: These entities show concentrated interest in just one market based on current signal validation. Cover these entities deeply in their market of reference but maintain lighter coverage in other markets. In future quarterly re-analysis, verify if interest for these entity types has increased in other targeted markets to determine whether to expand coverage depth accordingly. Regional (2-3 markets): These entities appear in most but not all markets, requiring selective deployment. Build content, deploy to 2-3 markets, and evaluate ROI before expanding. Ontology pattern recognition Beyond individual entities, track how different types of entities connect. This reveals what content formats work in each market. Entities cluster into four categories: Products (actual sellable items) Lore (Star Wars universe entities) Rules (game mechanics) Painting (techniques and processes) Cross-ontology co-occurrence reveals which content types users expect: When products and lore entities appear together frequently across signals, users think in terms of narrative context for purchases: Product × Lore = Battle scenario content (example: “AT-ST” + “Battle of Hoth” = Hoth battle guide) When products and painting entities co-occur, users research techniques for specific models: Product × Painting = Unit-specific technique guides (example: “Clone Trooper” + “blue markings” = 501st painting tutorial) When painting and lore entities connect, users want thematic aesthetic guidance: Painting × Lore = Themed painting content (example: “terrain” + “Scarif” = tropical planet terrain tutorial) When lore entities cluster together, users compare or navigate between story elements: Lore × Lore = Era/faction comparisons (example: “Clone Wars” + “Galactic Civil War” = timeline guide) Market-specific pattern differences These ontology patterns vary dramatically by market, revealing which entities matter, how users think about connections, and how to optimize internal linking architecture. Here’s an example weighted co-occurrence analysis USA: Product × Lore, weight 60.0 (highest of any market) What this means: American users discover products through lore narratives — build battle scenarios linking story to miniatures. Internal linking strategy: From the “AT-ST Walker” product page, prominently link to /lore/battle-of-hoth/ with anchor text emphasizing narrative context (“Deploy the AT-ST in the iconic Battle of Hoth”). From lore pages, link back to related products within battle scenario descriptions. UK: Painting × Lore, weight 15.0 (unique to UK and U.S. only) What this means: British users want battle-themed painting guides — content like “Paint a Hoth snow base” works here but is less relevant elsewhere. Internal linking strategy: From /mini-painting-academy/snow-base-tutorial/, link to /lore/battle-of-hoth/ and to relevant product pages like “Snowtrooper Unit Expansion.” Create bidirectional links between painting techniques and the lore/battle contexts where those techniques apply. Spain: Product × Lore, balanced at 27.0 each What this means: Spanish users balance story interest with product focus — equal emphasis needed. Internal linking strategy: Moderate internal linking between product and lore pages. From “Luke Skywalker Commander” product page, include links to both /lore/luke-skywalker/ and related products. Avoid over-emphasizing either connection type. Italy: Product × Lore weight 10.5 (weakest) What this means: Italian users don’t connect lore to products — skip elaborate battle scenarios. Focus on product specs and painting basics. Internal linking strategy: Minimize product-to-lore internal links. From product pages, prioritize linking to /mini-painting-academy/ tutorials and related products by faction or unit type. Keep lore pages separate from product discovery paths. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. How to validate your framework Entities should appear in 3+ signals to be validated. One appearance could be an anomaly or noise. False-positive check Signals reveal what users reference, not always what they want. For example, a site appears across multiple markets in various signals, so it’s confirmed as a universal entity in LLM responses across all markets. But its presence in Image Search tags is minimal. Interpretation: Users ask about the site as a reference point but aren’t searching for images of its products extensively. Strategy: Build a comparison article/FAQ, not extensive image galleries or deep informational content. Validation question: Does the signal show what users want or what they’re using for context? Coverage gap analysis For example, let’s say signal validation reveals dramatically different entity landscapes across markets — in other words, how many distinct, validated entities appeared in 3+ signals per market: U.S.: 31 entities UK: 28 entities Spain: 29 entities Italy: 16 entities Italy has half the entity coverage of other markets, revealing a fundamental difference in how Italian users approach this product category — a strong strategic signal. If Italian users show concentrated interest in fewer entities, with heavier emphasis on foundational questions (for example, PAAs) rather than deep entity exploration, they’re asking, “what is this?” and “how does this work?” There’s an information gain opportunity here: While competitors might translate all 31 US entities to Italian, creating shallow content Italian users don’t need, you can dominate the 16 entities that actually matter to this market with comprehensive, beginner-focused content. Actions to take: Italy needs foundational 101-level content rather than deep entity exploration. FAQ-driven approach matches PAA dominance in Italian signals. Invest in clear product specifications, basic painting tutorials, and simple rule explanations. Build comprehensive coverage of the 16 validated entities before considering the other 15. Monitor quarterly. If Italy’s validated entity count grows, market maturity increases, and expand coverage accordingly. You’re not trying to force-fit U.S. models onto Italian users, you’re serving the actual information needs for this market. How to structure internal architecture Maintain a consistent technical structure across all markets with canonical tags, hreflang, CMS architecture, and analytics. For the complete structure of the SWLegion.com example, see its full architecture. Ecommerce section: U.S. (root): /store/, /store/{category}/, /store/{filter}/ UK: /en-gb/store/, /en-gb/store/{category}/, /en-gb/store/{filter}/ Italy: /it-it/negozio/, /it-it/negozio/{categoria}/, /it-it/negozio/{filtro}/ Spain: /es-es/tienda/, /es-es/tienda/{categoría}/, /es-es/tienda/{filtro}/ Content sections: U.S. (root): /lore/{entity}/, /star-wars-legion/rules/{topic}/, /mini-painting-academy/{guide}/, /about-us/ UK: /en-gb/lore/{entity}/, /en-gb/star-wars-legion/rules/{topic}/, /en-gb/mini-painting-academy/{guide}/, /en-gb/about-us/ Italy: /it-it/lore/{entità}/, /it-it/star-wars-legion/regole/{argomento}/, /it-it/accademia-pittura-miniature/{guida}/, /it-it/chi-siamo/ Spain: /es-es/lore/{entidad}/, /es-es/star-wars-legion/reglas/{tema}/, /es-es/academia-pintura-miniaturas/{guía}/, /es-es/sobre-nosotros/ Slug localization: Store slugs fully localized (/store/ → /negozio/ → /tienda/). Content section slugs localized where natural (/rules/ → /regole/ → /reglas/, /mini-painting-academy/ → /accademia-pittura-miniature/). Entity slugs within content localized for official translations (Spain: /es-es/lore/conde-dooku/ vs English /count-dooku/). What stays consistent Path structure: /lore/, /store/, /rules/ exist everywhere even if entity coverage or category emphasis differs. Product inventory: Physical products remain the same across markets (same 148 SKUs), though merchandising and filtering emphasis may vary. Core navigation sections: All markets have Store, Lore, Rules, Mini Painting Academy, About Us, but internal linking architecture and content depth within each section adapts to market signals. Entity coverage Create a master entity list flagged by market validation. This will become your strategic content roadmap, preventing duplication while ensuring comprehensive coverage where it matters. Entities cluster into two strategic categories: Universal entities validated across all 4 markets: Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, painting, terrain, miniatures, core factions (Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, Separatist) — these form your foundation and users everywhere expect this content. Market-specific entities showing concentrated validation in one or two markets: 501st Legion (U.S./UK only), Shatterpoint comparison (Italy only), Wookiees (Spain only) — these are your localization differentiators. Phase 1 build: Start with universal entities. Build 12-15 cornerstone pages, translate to all four markets for 48-60 total pages. These establish a baseline coverage across your entire international footprint. Phase 2 build: Add market-specific entities. Create 25-35 localized pages to be deployed selectively only to validated markets. A 501st Legion deep-dive may go live in the U.S. and UK but not in Italy or Spain. Total strategic content: 73-95 pages across four markets. This is a better, more refined strategy than covering 148 product entities × four markets, adding lore/rules/painting content for all entities across all markets, which would create dozens of wasted pages. How to implement an AI roadmap Building out your international SEO can present some challenges. Here are some roadblocks and strategies to do it right. Implementation challenges Let’s look at some hurdles to implementing AI to search. CMS limitations Most CMS platforms aren’t designed for entity-level localization. What’s needed is conditional page creation based on market validation. For example: Add a “Target Markets” custom field to your CMS with checkboxes for different markets — U.S., UK, Italy, Spain, in our example. Content team scaling Creating dozens of localized pages requires subject matter expertise, native language writers, and cross-market coordination. Start with one market — the second-largest, not the largest, to learn with a lower risk. Build 5-10 entity pages, validate traffic and conversions, and then scale to other markets only when ROI is proven. Maintenance Markets evolve, new products launch, entities gain or lose relevance, and signals need periodic re-analysis. Re-run an abbreviated nine-signal analysis on the top 20 entities on a quarterly basis. Look for significant shifts: If entities drop from 3+ signals to one signal, consider deprecating content. Continuous intelligence systems Here are some tools to help monitor AI systems: Wikipedia edit monitoring: Create watchlists for 10-15 key entities per market, and set email alerts for significant edits. Major additions or edit wars signal rising interest — if that happens, review entity page content and update accordingly. Reddit velocity tracking: Track comment velocity on entity mentions. Entities mentioned in 5+ threads in one week (an unusual spike) should be investigated. TikTok and Instagram trends analysis: Monitor trending hashtags and viral content patterns related to your product categories. Rising hashtag usage or viral content patterns can indicate emerging entity interest before they appear in traditional search signals. Google Trends “rising” analysis: Monitor “rising” queries monthly (not absolute volume). Queries with +100% week-over-week growth signal emerging interest. Building a roadmap Now that you know what roadblocks lie ahead, here’s how to implement the plan. Month 1: Foundation Choose one market for learning and prototyping. Select 10-15 products to sample and conduct a systematic nine-signal analysis. Create an entity list with co-occurrence weights and 3-5 validated market-specific entities. Months 2-3: Content creation Build universal pillar pages and translate to all markets, and build market-specific entity hubs, starting with one initially. Implement internal linking based on co-occurrence weights. Months 4-6: Validation and expansion Monitor entity coverage rates, LLM topic visibility, and market-specific traffic growth. Months 7-12: Full multi-market rollout Expand to all markets. Run continuous intelligence systems, including: Wikipedia watchlists, Reddit monitoring, TikTok/Instagram trends, and schedule quarterly signal re-analysis. How to measure success After implementing changes and incorporating AI into your international search strategy, here’s how to determine what’s working and where to improve. Entity coverage rate This metric tells you if you’re covering entities that actually matter to users in each specific market, not just translating pages indiscriminately. Formula: (Entity pages built / Total validated entities from signal analysis) × 100 Example: Your signal analysis validated 28 entities in the UK (entities appearing in 3+ signals). You built dedicated pages for 22 of these entities. Your entity coverage rate is: 22/28, or 79%. Target: 70%+ coverage for each priority market. Consider the strategic difference. For example, let’s say your UK site covers 79%, or 22 of 28 validated entities, focusing resources on entities users actually search for, ask questions about, and engage with across multiple signals. While a competitor translates 148 product entities, achieving “100% coverage” on paper, but wastes resources covering entities UK users show minimal interest in. Your 21% gap (6 uncovered entities) isn’t a failure, but a strategic prioritization. These lower-priority entities can be added if quarterly re-analysis shows their signal validation strengthening — moving from 2 signals to 3+ or appearing in additional signal types. Tools for tracking entity coverage: Screaming Frog: Crawl your site and count entity pages by market subfolder. Google Sheets: Cross-reference validated entity lists against live URL inventory. LLM topic visibility Track whether your site appears in LLM responses for key topics, not individual citation counts. The goal is to measure topical authority, not vanity metrics. For ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity/Claude: Use WAIKay.io to systematically track your visibility across multiple LLMs. The platform allows you to: Set up monitoring for specific queries across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI platforms Track whether your domain appears in responses (mentions, summaries, citations) Monitor visibility changes over time with historical tracking Generate reports showing presence/absence per topic, per LLM For AI Overviews/AI Mode: Use Semrush One to monitor Google’s AI-powered SERP features. Alternative tools, such as Ahrefs, Advanced Web Rankings, and SISTRIX (AI Overview presence reporting), offer similar capabilities. Target benchmarks: Universal topics: Visibility in 2+ LLMs across all markets. Market-specific topics: Visibility in 2+ LLMs for a specific market’s language queries. This validates if your content quality and entity coverage are sufficient for LLMs to consider you an authoritative source worth including in their responses. Lack of visibility signals content gaps or insufficient topical depth. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Incorporate AI and LLMs into your international SEO today Most international sites treat taxonomy as infrastructure: build once, maintain minimally, and refresh every 2-3 years during a website redesign. Our SWLegion.com example started with an identical architecture across four markets. Implementing this strategy, we showed how to localize architecture and navigation and optimize for each market. This strategy builds something fundamentally different — architecture that breathes with market behavior, responding to signals rather than assumptions. You’re cultivating taxonomy rather than just maintaining a website. Your new taxonomy will reflect current user behavior and also anticipate and adapt to behavioral shifts before competitors notice that the market has changed. View the full article

Google announced five new ways in how it is improving linking to web pages from AI Mode and AI Overviews. Some of these we saw Google testing earlier, and I (we) were fans of these changes and I am glad to see Google officially roll them out.View the full article

The folks over at Microsoft Bing put together a blog post explaining the differences between indexing for Search versus indexing for Grounding (AI responses) and the differences. Krishna Madhavan, Knut Risvik, Meenaz Merchant from Microsoft wrote, "Indexing for grounded AI answers is not a reinvention of search '" it is a major evolution of it. Grounding commits to an answer."View the full article

Google will be bringing content and titles related exclusions to the account level to Google Ads AI Max later this year. It will give you the ability to always exclude any other content you don't want to use in your ads at the account level, Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said on LinkedIn.View the full article

It is 2026 and finally Bing Places for Business is finally mobile friendly. Microsoft Bing sent me an email letting me know of this update, saying, "We're excited to share that Bing Places for Business now offers a mobile-responsive experience, making it easier to view, update, and manage your business profile from any device-desktop, tablet, or mobile."View the full article

Google sent out emails notifying applicable advertisers that they will default call recording to Yes, to always record calls, if you don't pick an option yourself. Google wrote, "Starting July 01, 2026, if you haven't made a selection for your "Call recording" setting, it will automatically default to "Yes"."View the full article

A new library is opening up in New York City this Friday, but rather than books, the space will house 3,437 volumes and roughly 3.5 million pages of the Epstein Files. The Donald J. The President and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room is a project by the Institute for Primary Facts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency. Housed in an undisclosed location in Tribeca, the exhibition will allow visitors to see the records in a new way. It will be open to the public from May 8 through 21 by appointment only. “The truth is hard to deny when it’s printed and bound for you to see,” the project’s website reads. “The Reading Room keeps public attention fixed on the crimes of Epstein and the Epstein class, and on The President’s desperate attempts to bury them, to support the victims and survivors as they seek justice.” The controversial records have garnered media and public attention since the arrest and death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, leading to widespread calls for the release of the files gathered through numerous investigations. The Department of Justice finally released a redacted version of the files in January 2026. The massive number of documents has led many to come up with creative ways for the public to read and interact with the files. Take Jmail, for example: The digital project led by a small group of engineers helps the public navigate the trove of documents via a user-friendly interface modeled after Gmail. Subsequent iterations of this project include an Amazon-looking storefront to explore Epstein’s purchases and a camera roll to browse through the images contained in the files. While from afar the exhibition looks like a regular public library, upon closer inspection each “book” is an analog version of the controversial records, categorized by volume. The bookshelves hold what the Reading Room says is 17,000 pounds of printed records. The bookshelves wrap the walls of the room, enclosing a draped square structure filled with candles, serving as a tribute to Epstein’s victims and survivors. There’s a seating area that resembles a public library reading room, although only journalists and law enforcement officials will be able to actually look through and read the documents. All visitors will be able to view a carefully curated timeline plastered on the walls that details the long relationship between Epstein and The President. For members of the public who are interested in attending, the Reading Room is offering reservations for free 20-minute visits; prior registration is required. Before the visit, those attending will receive a text message with the venue’s location, which is being kept secret due to security concerns. View the full article

Over the past few decades, digital marketing has settled into a stable system. While it spans SEO, content marketing, social media, and digital advertising, many programs have relied on a predictable core that didn’t always use every available channel. This gave digital marketers a sense of predictability and comfort. For years, teams stuck with what worked and refined execution through the same familiar framework. AI search has disrupted that comfort and exposed our inconsistencies. To succeed with AI SEO, we need a much more comprehensive approach. AI SEO rewards strategic marketing Over the past 15 to 20 years, digital marketing settled into a predictable rhythm, with each channel playing a defined role. Content marketing, social media, SEO, paid advertising, and email followed similar strategies with little variation. Little happened outside this structure, and many of us grew “lazy.” The structure worked, so we let other strategies fall away. The problem? It created a false sense of security. We should have been doing more all along, and those broader strategies are now driving real visibility in AI search. AI has disrupted digital marketing in ways that weren’t obvious at first. It’s changed user search behavior and how brands are evaluated. Traditional search relied on algorithms and a primary source. AI pulls from multiple inputs across many sources. Those sources should already exist. They’re your marketing — the way you present your brand across platforms like social media, third-party directories, press releases, brand mentions, and more. In short, anything outside your website. In this system, your website and the strategic marketing that supports it are just one part of the whole. It’s now one of many sources AI uses to understand your brand and offer. AI search reflects the strength of marketing across all these sources. Visibility Is not limited to your website One of the biggest disruptions AI has caused is that the website is no longer central to your marketing strategy or visibility. It’s now part of a much larger ecosystem. You still need a strong website, as always, but you must account for how much broader the landscape has become with AI search. While driving traffic to your website still matters, it’s no longer the only focus. The goal used to be maximizing website visibility — achieve that, and results would follow. That still works to a degree, but treating it as the only path to visibility is outdated. AI pulls information from a wide range of sources — articles, brand mentions across platforms, third-party profiles, published content — and all of it shapes how it understands who you are and what you do. Your website is just one part of this broader scope. If you focus only on your website, you limit AI’s ability to find you. This is where most marketing programs fall short, especially those built before AI. To modernize, your brand must be visible across a much wider scope. AI SEO requires an intentional presence AI favors brands that show up online with intent. They’ve built a cohesive ecosystem across the wider internet. A segmented marketing approach may have worked in the past, but it no longer has the same impact. We got away with it because when each channel performed well, it still felt effective and met our goals. AI doesn’t allow this anymore. It favors brands with many connected signals, because it links them across the internet. It evaluates how your brand appears across these sources and looks for consistent messaging and expertise. When these signals align, your AI visibility strengthens. When they’re scattered or your broader presence is weak, your AI visibility is weak. This is why it’s important to develop a marketing strategy that accounts for this. A brand with a coordinated presence across the internet — across its website and other marketing channels — is what’s required today. Lazy marketing strategies are exposed This is the real issue with “lazy marketing.” We define it as sticking to the old approach — treating each channel separately and relying on the same tactics that have always worked. That approach may have delivered results before, but those days are gone. At the time, this approach still delivered results. A strong SEO foundation consistently drove leads, and paid advertising offered similar predictability. These tactics worked so well that there was little need to go beyond them. We need to go beyond it to keep up. Your brand needs to show up across multiple sources — that’s how AI finds you. If your competitors are already building their presence, you need to do the same or get left behind. They’ll take more space in AI-generated answers than you. This means that if you have gaps in your marketing, you can’t hide them anymore. AI exposes these inconsistencies and forces you into the broader digital space. Transition into the era of AI search Now is the time to move beyond the old model and adopt a new understanding of what works in digital marketing. The old approach no longer works on its own — it must be part of a broader system. These are the strategies we should have been using all along: press releases, directory listings, and marketing beyond your own website. AI search rewards an all-encompassing marketing strategy because that’s what works. Core channels like social media, SEO, content marketing, and paid advertising still matter, but they’re not enough on their own. AI hasn’t changed the rules. It has enforced them. This is what has always worked in marketing. The difference now is that you can’t get away with doing less. View the full article

Since Donald The President named then-Senator JD Vance of Ohio his running mate in July 2024, his campaign logo has included both of their last names placed within a rectangular frame. In fundraising emails sent to the president’s mailing list last month, though, a different version of the logo included just one name: The President. The President last used a Vance-less version of a MAGA Box logo during the 2024 campaign, but it reappeared in April in fundraising emails for an “Official Midterms Patriot Roster.” It’s one of a dozen or so logos used in fundraising emails over the past month by Never Surrender, The President’s leadership PAC, which manages the mailing list from his most recent presidential campaign. While variations of the The President-Vance logo remain in circulation, a growing number of alternative logos and email header graphics don’t mention Vance at all. It’s a subtle branding shift that puts the sole focus on The President, and comes amid growing questions over who the president might back as a successor in the 2028 race. The President-only logos started appearing in fundraising appeals as early as The President’s first month back in office in January 2025, but their number has grown. The percentage of logos in The President’s fundraising emails that are branded solely for him and not his VP has risen from 25% in March 2025 to a high of 42% in March 2026, according to a review of the Archives of Political Emails, a database. In April, it was more than 30%. Some of these logos say The President in all-caps letters. The campaign seems to favor the “Memo from The President” header to visually frame emails as personal appeals, which is valuable to connect the fundraising request as being from the man himself. The “The President 47” logo variation puts The President’s name inside a shield. At the same time, The President’s PAC stopped sending emails branded for Vance. Last year, the president’s mailing list received eight emails with solo Vance logos signed by the vice president. This year Never Surrender hasn’t sent an email signed by Vance since January, and it didn’t get its own logo. The PAC’s treasurer, Bradley T. Crate, did not respond to a request for comment sent through Red Curve, his political consultancy. Oftentimes, Never Surrender’s small-dollar email fundraising efforts on behalf of the president are manipulative and bizarre. One email threatened to sic officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on supporters who didn’t take a survey to prove they’re U.S. citizens. Another offered access to private national security briefings in exchange for donations. Increasingly, custom logos are used to communicate all this. Brand variants for recent promotions like “Elite Swamp Drainers for The President,” “The President Inner Circle,” and “The President Platinum” give potential small-dollar donors the illusion of access to the president with a logo for a made-up group. “Sitting presidents can and do continue to fundraise, usually for their own party as a whole, particularly when they’re popular among their voters,” SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Virginia, tells Fast Company, noting that President Barack Obama held fundraisers for down-ballot races during his second term in office. “The The President-specific brand of these emails is super interesting—and someone like The President whose entire career is really built on branding, not building, I think it’s right to assume that all of these decisions are very strategic,” she says, noting the shift away from Vance indicates to her that The President wants to “leave the door open” for a successor, whether that’s Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, or even his eldest son, Don Jr. Never Surrender keeps more than three-quarters of the money it raises and splits up the rest with the Republican National Committee and Working for Ohio, Vance’s leadership PAC. That means even when The President sends an email that leaves out Vance’s name in the logo, the VP’s group still gets 5% of whatever it raises. By omitting Vance’s name, however, The President is leaving room for people to question his allegiance to the vice president. The President has sent mixed signals about whether he’ll back Vance in the 2028 Republican primary, should Vance run. “I think you have a lot of very capable people,” The President said last year when asked, noting it’s still early. Perhaps the return of The President’s Vance-less logo was inevitable. As the first president since Richard Nixon to have two different vice presidents while in office, The President isn’t known for loyalty to his running mates. And to The President’s biggest supporters, it doesn’t really matter whether Vance or former Vice President Mike Pence are mentioned at all, as long as The President is on top of the ticket. As a small-dollar fundraising strategy, The President’s PAC is doubling down on the reason people subscribed to the mailing list in the first place. The President’s fundraising focus on himself is a reminder of who’s at the center of his political movement. MAGA is held together less by a coherent, consistent ideology than it is by fealty to a single man. The proof is in the logos. View the full article

Google's John Mueller answers if Preferred Sources overrides ranking signals. Could it be a "trust button" signal? The post Google Answers If Preferred Sources Overrides Low Quality Signals appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Just as they did with televisions, many people used the pandemic as an excuse to upgrade their PC or laptop. It was a move that made sense at the time. Telecommuting became essential, and not all devices could adequately handle the demands of Zoom, Teams, and other work software. At the same time, digital communication was often the only way to stay in touch with friends and family. Smartphones handled some of that heavy lifting, of course, but the PC industry still saw shipments spike 14.5% from 1999 to 2000. Now, much like the TV market, many PC owners are reaching the point where a new device is becoming necessary. But unlike that living room fixture, PC shoppers are entering a hostile market defined by higher prices and fewer meaningful performance gains. IT research firm Gartner notes that many people replace their business devices, typically laptops, every three to five years. International Data Corp. puts that timeline closer to five to eight years when businesses actively manage upgrades and repairs. Personal-use computer owners tend to follow a similar replacement cycle. That means a refresh wave is looming for pandemic-era buyers, just as component prices are soaring amid AI-driven demand for hardware. RAM prices have jumped anywhere from 150% to more than 200% over the past year, depending on the type, according to PCPartPicker.com. Storage prices, including the cost of hard drives, have followed similar trends. Meanwhile, video card prices have remained elevated for years, as GPUs, the chips that power graphics cards, have become a core component of AI systems. For gamers, that has been especially frustrating. PC gaming is rapidly becoming a more important part of the video game ecosystem, threatening to displace consoles, according to some industry leaders at the recent Iicon conference hosted by the Entertainment Software Association. Analysts, however, say Nvidia is not expected to release a new generation of its GeForce GPUs in 2026. If that happens, it will mark the first time in three decades the company has skipped an annual release cycle. And finding a top-of-the-line RTX 50-series card remains difficult for many enthusiasts, with some retailers charging double the suggested retail price. A vanishing entry level As frustrating as the price hikes already are for consumers in need of an upgrade, analysts do not expect the situation to improve anytime soon. A separate Gartner projection predicts that PC prices will rise 17% this year compared with 2025. Worse still for consumers simply looking for a functional home computer, the era of low-cost machines may be nearing its end. “The sub-$500 entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028,” says Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner. “In addition, rising AI PC prices will delay the projected 50% market penetration of AI PCs until 2028.” PC vendors, Gartner says, are likely to accept lower sales volumes to protect profit margins rather than aggressively pursue price-sensitive customers, noting that the first half of this year represents a “critical window.” By the end of the year, the firm predicted, combined prices for DRAM and solid-state drives could rise 130%. The surge in component costs, combined with uncertainty over how long those increases will last, could reshape the U.S. computer refresh cycle in one of two ways. Some analysts believe laptop users may simply hold onto devices as long as they remain “good enough” to run everyday programs and apps. Desktop users with some technical know-how can also upgrade individual components at a lower cost, or turn to services like Geek Squad if opening up a PC feels too intimidating. Others argue that buyers may rush to upgrade now before prices climb even higher. Distributors appear to be betting on that scenario. Worldwide PC shipments rose 4% in the first quarter of 2026, to 62.8 million units. That increase is notable because 2025 figures were already inflated as companies front-loaded inventory ahead of the The President tariffs. “The 4% year-over-year PC shipment growth in the first quarter of 2026 was artificially inflated,” says Rishi Padhi, research principal at Gartner, in a statement. “It was not due to genuine demand, but instead because of vendors’ and channel distributors’ increase of inventory levels ahead of expected price hikes in the second quarter.” View the full article

Peter Gold has always loved making films. While attending film school in New York, he became involved with a film called Our Hero Balthazar, directed by Oscar Boyson, known for his work as an executive producer on Uncut Gems. Gold instantly knew the film was something special. He also knew it would be tough to find distribution in today’s theatrical marketplace. The dramedy, starring Jaeden Martell as a wealthy New York City teenager Balthazar Malone, who, eager to impress his activist crush, follows an online connection (Asa Butterfield) to Texas where he believes he can stop an act of violence, was passed over by A24 and Neon. So Gold, 26, decided to launch his own distribution company, WG pictures, financed through outside investors, with film producer Brad Wyman to make sure it saw theatrical release. “Filmmaking and storytelling are the heart of my passion. Getting into distribution really came from a place of frustration with the state of independent cinema,” Gold told Fast Company. “So many movies, including my own, were being overlooked by existing distributors and weren’t being given the opportunity they deserved.” Our Hero Balthazar opened March 27 at Regal Union Square as the number 2 film in the theater, generating $33,138 opening weekend gross, second only to Project Hail Mary. The film’s budget was under $2 million. The film opened sold-out in LA on April 4 and is now expanding across the country. Hollywood should take note. The amount WG Pictures has spent on distribution is less than $1 million. WG Pictures pulled off the feat without spending a single dollar on paid media and instead relied entirely on social media to drive awareness. From TikTok fan edits to Letterboxd influencers, social media has proven a boon for cinema. With it, a new kind of showmanship-based marketing has emerged. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande mastered the art of going viral on social media during the Wicked press tour. Timothée Chalamet appeared on a Wheaties box and hosted a table tennis tournament to promote his most recent project, Marty Supreme. “Honestly, I thought A24 did an interesting job with Marty Supreme, but they have Timothée Chalamet,” said Gold. “We don’t have Timothée Chalamet. We have to work with what we have.” Gold worked with the filmmakers closely to come up with a social media strategy driven by the characters and the story. They started by creating an Instagram account for the film’s protagonist, with the handle @bboymalone212, that has since amassed more than 72,000 followers. One post on the Instagram page features a custom starter pack meme inspired by the character of Balthazar, with performative male staples like a New Yorker tote bag, Lorde album cover and wire headphones. Another post features an Erewhon haul of coconut matcha cold foam and Lemme Purr vaginal probiotic gummies, touching on the film’s themes of exhibitionism in the social media age. “We’re telling the story of this character and building awareness around the movie without just running a trailer with paid ad spend,” said Gold. The social media generation no longer wants to be marketed at, Gold understands, they want to feel like an active participant. The Instagram account’s most viral post tapped content creator Caleb Simpson, who on his own has more than 2.8 million followers with his viral street series where he asks strangers, and more recently celebrities, “How much do you pay for rent?” and follows it up with, “Can I get a tour of your apartment?”. Simpson and Martell, in character as Balthazar, joined up for the Instagram Reel, touring the 80th floor New York City apartment overlooking Central Park, which was also a set in the film. “I try not to focus too much on money,” says Martell as Balthazar in the clip. “I’m more focused on making a change.” The comments are a mix of those in on the joke and bemused onlookers, none the wiser. “That was the first time Caleb had ever done a fictional person,” says Gold. WG Pictures also took advantage of the impressive social media following of those involved in the film, including actress and singer Halsey and actor Noah Centineo, boasting a combined 40 million followers. Each pulled their weight with non-stop posting about the film in the run up to its release, culminating in more than 30 million organic social impressions. Gen Z and Millennials say social media is the number one form of discovery for films, according to a new Fandango study. Higher ticket prices, the rise of streaming platforms and worsening theater etiquette, have all contributed to deflated box office numbers. A survey from October shows that overall cinema attendance has remained flat since 2019, but the percentage of frequent movie-goers has dropped from 39% to 17% in 2025. In 2025, 780 million people actually went to the movies according to EntTelligence’s annual report, down from 820 million in 2024. Over the same period, ticket prices jumped 5.7%. Between 2005 to 2019 – before the Pandemic shuttered screens and accelerated a shift towards streaming – the industry averaged well over 1B tickets sold annually. While Hollywood has expressed its fears that the streaming era and smartphones will stop the social media generation from leaving the house and going to watch films the old fashioned way, in a dark room filled with strangers, the opposite is proving true. Gen Z is now the most active cinemagoing demographic, according to Fandango, having seen seven films on average in 2025, compared to 5.3 for the general population. And while millennials mainly treat moviegoing as an escape from daily grind, Gen Z sees it primarily as a social activity. Gen Z also attributes a better selection of movies and the appeal of leaving the home as key motivators for going to the movies. In the US, 95% of Gens Y and Z are now interested in exploring their online interests through in-person events, according to Eventbrite data. Both Gen Z and Millennials also prefer to extend moviegoing beyond the screen, pairing it with dining and drinking, according to Fandango. Gold and WG pictures are meeting that audience where they are at. Opening weekend for Our Hero Balthazar, WG pictures hosted a rave at the Museum of Sex in New York City. “I felt like that was something Balthazar would have thrown himself,” says Gold. To gain access, attendees needed a ticket stub for the film. A slightly less extreme marketing stunt than film distributor, Focus Features, who only permitted fans with bald heads (there was a barber in the foyer for those ‘willing to become bald’) for an early screening of sci-fi comedy film Bugonia. WG Pictures also hosted an immersive gallery experience with visual artist Jet Le Parti, where they created original artwork inspired by the film and the issue of gun violence, reflects WG’s broader strategy of eventizing cinema. They also hosted an event with Third Space–hosted event, designed to convert awareness into active participation and, subsequently, ticket sales. This social driven strategy is a shift for what has, and still is, a mostly solitary experience. When the lights dim and the film starts rolling, talking or, worse, scrolling, is strictly forbidden. And yet, Gold is banking on community being the next big drive getting Gen Z to the box office. “It’s not just cinema in a crowded theater,” as Gold sees it. “It’s an opportunity to connect with the community.” The success of platforms like Letterboxd and WG picture’s IRL marketing strategy is a testament to that. “Someone said to me after one of the screenings at Roxy Cinema that this is a movie that starts after it’s over,” he explains. “In terms of the conversation it provokes.” For Gold, the biggest challenge isn’t getting Gen Z to the cinema, it’s finding the right movies. “We’re working on Toad, which is a stoner comedy, and looking at some really interesting documentaries,” he said of future releases. “But it’s really just about finding the next exciting movie and continuing to distribute films theatrically.” Find the right movie, market it right, and Gen Z will come. View the full article