Search, AI search and
what impact that has on your business

Several posts a week, regular roundups, and live tests and experiments on paper. Written for people running a business, not for other SEOs.

All writing, filtered by topic

AI search1 Oct 2026

What AI Overviews actually are, and how Google builds them

Where AI Overviews came from, what Google says is happening underneath, what one actually looks like on a UK commercial search, and what the click research…

Ecommerce29 Sep 2026

Why your collection pages don’t rank, and what to put on them

Collection pages carry the commercial searches and are usually the thinnest pages on a store. What to put on them, and what to leave off.

SEO28 Sep 2026

How long does a new website take to rank? What happened in my first 88 days, and the weeks after

A new UK site tracked from day one: 535,290 impressions and 6,041 clicks in 110 days, with the Search Console screens and a month-on update.

Ecommerce27 Sep 2026

Is AI search taking your store’s traffic? How to check in your own data

The scare figures going round aren't measured on your store. Here's how to tell, in your own Search Console and GA4, whether AI is costing you…

AI search27 Sep 2026

Does llms.txt matter for SEO?

Google says its Search doesn't use llms.txt files. Here's what llms.txt is, what it can and can't do, and when it's worth a small business adding…

AI search27 Sep 2026

How ChatGPT decides which businesses to recommend

What OpenAI documents about how ChatGPT searches the web, what's observed but not confirmed, and what a small business can do to be recommended.

AI search26 Sep 2026

How to appear in Google AI Overviews

What Google says it takes to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, what you can ignore, and the practical steps that got a small business…

Tests and experiments26 Sep 2026

Does a direct answer at the top change AI Overview citation?

I tell clients to open every section with a 40 to 60 word answer. This is me testing whether my own advice actually does anything.

AI search26 Sep 2026

Is AI search taking your clicks? How to check your own data

What the research says about AI Overviews and clicks, why the studies disagree, and how to check in Search Console whether AI answers are affecting your…

AI search25 Sep 2026

How to track traffic from ChatGPT in GA4

Use GA4's AI Assistant channel to see visits from ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, build a report with conversions, and understand what it can't show.

SEO25 Sep 2026

SEO for a student letting agency: start with the calendar

Student lettings run to a local calendar, not a national one. How to find your own window from enquiry data, what groups search for, and what…

AI search25 Sep 2026

How to get traffic from Gemini

What Gemini is, the robots.txt setting that decides whether you can be a source in its answers, and how to find out what it currently says…

Search and AI change every week, and most of what gets written about it is aimed at big companies with big teams. Everything here is written for UK small businesses: what’s changed, what it means for you, and what I’d do about it.

Regular analysis

Four recurring series, each with its own job.

State of Search covers the Google updates, the AI Overviews and AI Mode changes, what the assistants are doing in search, and the things I’d act on. Content Marketing is about platform changes, what’s actually working in content, and where AI genuinely helps in producing it. State of AI picks out the releases that matter to a business rather than to a developer, and what I’m using and testing myself. Direction is the opinion one: where search, AI and content look to be heading, and what that means for how you prepare.

Deep posts by topic

Several posts a week, each answering one question properly. They’re organised by the same areas as my services:

  • SEO: audits, Search Console, schema, keyword research and strategy
  • AI search: AI Overviews, ChatGPT, citations and tracking
  • Content: content plans, refreshes and writing with AI
  • Google Ads: management, brand bidding and paid and organic planning
  • Site migrations: replatforming, redesigns and recovering lost traffic

Guides

For the bigger subjects, the guides are living resources that get updated rather than rewritten, starting with What is SEO?

What makes these posts different

Most search news is repeated from the same few announcements, often without anyone checking what was actually said. Every post here goes back to the primary source, whether that’s Google’s own documentation or the AI company’s announcement, and says clearly what’s confirmed, what’s reported and what’s my opinion.

Each deep post also includes something you won’t get from a news story: what I’ve seen in real data from client and own sites, a worked example, and what I’d do about it if it were my business. If a subject doesn’t deserve a full post, it goes into the weekly roundup instead of being stretched thin.

How it’s written

Every post is written and reviewed by me, with claims linked to their primary sources. The editorial policy explains how, and the AI use statement sets out where AI tools help.

Get started

Proof, not promises.

Tell me what's going on and I'll come back with what I'd do first. No obligation, and no report you need a translator for.

Over 925,000 impressions and 13,795 clicks in a year, from people asking one awkward question: what size do I need?condoms.uk, past 12 months

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Brands and sites I have worked on

Brands worked on across nearly twenty years, in agency roles and directly.