Matt Barnes Digital Marketing

Matt Barnes Digital Marketing Freelance Digital Marketing Consultant
| Technical SEO | PPC specialist based in North Yorkshire, UK.

05/07/2026

Google's World Cup coverage this year has been really good.

Follow a team in Search and live scores show up on your lock screen. Ask Maps to find somewhere to watch and it'll sort you a table. Waze showing scores when you're stopped at the lights is a nice touch too.

It all just works together, which isn't always the case.

The bit that caught my eye as an SEO person is that football is one of the last categories where AI Overviews barely show up.

Only around 5% of World Cup searches trigger one, so publishers covering the tournament are actually still getting their clicks.

Small win. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Enjoying the tournament? 🏆

03/07/2026

Google just added something new to its spam policy.

Trying to manipulate AI responses in Google Search is now officially spam.

This is the first time Google has named it directly. And it matters more than most people realise.

For the past year there's been a growing cottage industry around "GEO", getting your content cited in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Some of it is legitimate. Create clear, structured, genuinely useful content and you stand a better chance of being referenced.

But some of it has drifted into manipulation. Biased listicles designed to push a brand into AI answers. Content engineered to game citations rather than serve users.

Google's drawn the line.

What's interesting is the timing. This policy change dropped in May, and the June spam update followed weeks later. Whether the two are directly connected isn't confirmed, but the direction of travel is clear.

The rules for traditional SEO are now extending into AI search. Spam is spam, whatever surface it appears on.

Honestly, this shouldn't change anything for sites doing things properly. Build content that genuinely helps people make decisions, and you don't need to worry about which system is evaluating it.

The businesses that will lose out here are the ones that treated AI search as a loophole rather than an opportunity.

Is anyone else seeing the GEO space get a bit murkier lately?

Search used to be simple.Type a query. Get ten blue links. Click one. Done.That model's gone.The journey now looks more ...
30/06/2026

Search used to be simple.

Type a query. Get ten blue links. Click one. Done.

That model's gone.

The journey now looks more like it does in the image below than a straight line. A trigger sparks the need. Then people scatter across Google, AI Overviews, social search, paid ads, often all in the same session.

From there it's not about finding an answer anymore. It's about evaluating one.

Comparing options. Reading reviews. Watching a video review on TikTok. Checking pricing on a landing page. Then circling back to validate trust before they commit. About pages. Case studies. Reviews. Credentials.

Only then does conversion happen, and even that looks different depending on the business. Buy now. Book a call. Send an enquiry. Get a quote.

This is the bit most SEO strategies still miss.

We're optimising for step two when the real battle is happening across all five.

If your content only shows up at "search and discovery" but disappears the moment someone wants to compare, validate or convert, you're leaving the rest of the journey to someone else.

Search isn't a single touchpoint anymore. It's a web of them.

Which stage of the journey is your content weakest at?

24/06/2026

The biggest SEO mistake I see ecommerce brands make is chasing keywords they have absolutely no chance of ranking for (at least in the very short term).

It usually happens because they target the most obvious term for their product.

The one that comes to mind immediately. The one every competitor has been fighting over for years.

Say you sell outdoor furniture.

"Garden chairs" seems like the obvious place to start.

It's relevant. People are searching for it. The intent is clearly commercial.

But realistically? Unless you're Argos or John Lewis, you're not ranking for that anytime soon.

The smarter move is to think about what makes your product specific.

- Is it the material? Rattan, teak, powder-coated steel?
- Is it the use case? Small balconies, dining sets, sun loungers?
- Is it the buyer? Contract hospitality, garden designers, homeowners doing a full renovation?

Terms like "rattan bistro set for small balcony" or "teak garden dining set UK" are far less competitive. They're also searched by people who know exactly what they want, which means they convert better too.

New brands especially need to think this way. You're not going to out-rank established players on broad terms. But on the right long-tail keywords? You've got a real shot.

Stop competing where you can't win. Find the corners of the market where you can.

22/06/2026

Every few weeks someone posts that SEO is dying because people are using AI instead of Google.

I don’t buy it.

People haven’t stopped searching. They’ve changed how they search.

A few years ago, most searches looked like this:

🔍 best running shoes
🔍 seo agency london
🔍 tesla model y review

Now I’m seeing more of this across the sites I manage:

🔍 What’s the best electric SUV for a family?
🔍 How do I improve my Google Ads ROAS?
🔍 Is SEO still worth investing in?

The intent is identical. The format is completely different.

Transactional searches are still incredibly valuable. But question-based, conversational searches are growing fast, and a lot of businesses aren’t ready for that shift.

Modern SEO can’t just be about keywords and rankings anymore. It needs to capture users who know exactly what they want, and it needs to serve users who are still figuring it out.

The businesses I see doing well aren’t picking a side between SEO and AI search. They’re adapting their content to serve both.

Search isn’t dead. It’s just grown up.

How are you seeing search behaviour change in your industry?

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