Clicks. Code. Coffee. Repeat.

ClickLife Monthly Roundup - Summer SEO Highlights

Buckle up, the search industry gave us a wild ride in the last month. AI continues to rewrite the rules: Google's generative results are gobbling up clicks, Bing's AI bet is finally paying off, Instagram posts are now showing up on Google, and ChatGPT is becoming a go-to search tool. We even saw a beloved SEO company start a new chapter after 17 years with Pubcon.

Let's dive into the top ten stories from search engine world making waves in July 2025:

Top 10 Search & Marketing Stories (July - August 2025)

• Common Crawl Indepth. Ever wonder how AI chatbots seem to know so much? Meet Common Crawl - a nonprofit that openly archives billions of web pages each month. It's one of the most influential (yet overlooked) data sources on the web, and many site owners don't even realize their content is in it. Common Crawl's massive database is used to train LLMs and fuel search research, so if your site is public, chances are it's already part of the AI learning mix.
• Cloudflare vs. Perplexity. The Cloudflare CEO threw a flag on Perplexity's stealth crawling, accusing the AI search app of sidestepping robots.txt by using a generic Chrome user-agent. Seasoned webmasters mostly shrugged - we've been battling rogue bots for decades.
• Bing Gains Ground. Microsoft's latest earnings report shows Bing's AI bet is paying off. Search and news ad revenue jumped 21% year-over-year, and Bing's global search market share inched up from about 3.1% to 3.4% while Google dipped slightly (from ~91.6% to 90.9%) - a small percentage change, but that's tens of millions of searches shifting away from Google! The takeaway: it's time to give Bing some love in your SEO/SEM strategy (especially with all its new AI-powered features driving traffic).
• Google's AI Generates 50% Fewer Clicks. A new study by the highly respected Pew Research confirmed what many have suspected: Google's AI summaries in search results (SGE/SOT, aka "Slop On Top") are dramatically cannibalizing clicks. When an AI answer was present, only 8% of users clicked a traditional result, versus 15% click-through when no AI box appeared - roughly a 46% drop in organic CTR! Worse, only about 1% of searches led to a click on the AI-generated answer itself. In other words, those long-tail question queries that used to drive traffic are now getting answered directly by Google's AI, with users bypassing our websites entirely. Ouch.
• Bing: Sitemaps are Back. Bing made waves among SEOs by declaring that XML sitemaps are now critical in the age of AI search. Unlike old-school crawling (where bots tried to fetch everything), AI-powered search is more selective and relies on signals. Bing says keeping your sitemap fresh (with accurate <lastmod> dates, etc.) can directly influence what gets indexed and shown in AI answers. In short: if you update your site content, update that sitemap ASAP.
• Google Doubles Down on Generative SERPs. Google rolled out a batch of updates to its experimental AI Search mode (still opt-in via Search Labs). The new features include smarter multi-part answers for complex queries, interactive follow-up questions, and even AI-driven planning tools (e.g. "Plan a 3-day trip to Paris" - all displayed right at the top of the results. It's yet another step toward search-as-destination rather than an index of sites. As the article notes, Google is transforming from a web discovery engine into an answer engine. If you rely on Google traffic, start checking how your key queries look in the AI results - this "experiment" is likely a preview of Google's next big shift (brace yourself - all signs point to this happening before the Christmas season 2025).
• Instagram Posts Now Indexable. In a win for social media marketers, Google and Bing have started indexing Instagram content as of July 10. Public posts from Business and Creator accounts (since 2020) can now appear in search results - think photos, Reels, captions, and hashtags showing up for relevant Google queries. This opens a new SEO channel for brands and creators, especially in visual niches like travel, food, fashion, etc. (Just don't expect a tidal wave of traffic yet; most clicks still open in the Instagram app, but hey, it's great for visibility and branding.)
• Ahrefs Study: AI Content ? Penalty. Worried that AI-written content will tank your rankings? According to a new Ahrefs study, you can relax (a bit). Ahrefs set up two test sites with 100% AI-generated articles - one with raw, unedited GPT-3 content and one with human-edited AI content. The result: Google indexed and ranked pages from both sites. The fully raw AI site saw some rankings/traffic, and the lightly edited AI site performed even better (mainly because the content was more helpful, not because Google "detected" AI). The upshot: high-quality content is high-quality content, regardless of who (or what) writes it. Google's ranking systems care about usefulness and relevance, not whether a human or an algorithm penned the text.
• Adobe Survey: ChatGPT vs. Google. Is ChatGPT really rivaling Google? An Adobe survey of 1,000 Americans found that 77% of people who've used ChatGPT now utilize it as a search engine, and nearly 24% actually go to ChatGPT before Googling. ?? Even more surprising, this trend spans generations (roughly 75 - 80% adoption across Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X *and* Boomers).
• Internet Marketing Ninjas Sold. On a personal note, we want to congratulate our friends at Internet Marketing Ninjas (IMN) on their acquisition by Previsible. IMN, founded by SEO legend Jim Boykin in 1999, has been a Pubcon fixture (and sponsor) for 17 years! Jim's team will join Previsible to combine decades of SEO expertise with new AI-driven strategies. It's the end of an era and the start of a new one - we wish Jim, Chris Sullivan and the whole IMN crew the very best in this next chapter!
• Googles Final Solution? OpEd : Brace Yourself - is it about to Get Real? The next act out of Google isn't going to be business as usual. It is time someone cautiously suggested to you what is coming from the plex.

New Sponsor : Brick Marketing

About: Brick Marketing is a Boston-based B2B digital marketing agency that helps mid-sized companies grow through personalized, goal-aligned strategies. With over 20 years of experience, we specialize in solving marketing challenges by offering SEO, content marketing, social media management, PPC, email marketing, AI marketing solutions, website development, and Fractional CMO services. Our senior-led team takes the time to understand your business and audience, creating data-driven campaigns that deliver measurable results. Unlike larger firms, we offer a hands-on, customized approach without the bureaucracy. At Brick Marketing, success means aligning strategy with your goals - and helping you grow in a complex digital landscape.

Thank you to Nick Stamoulis and the team at BrickMarketing for jumping on board.

Top WebmasterWorld SEO Community Discussions July 2025

• June - July 2025 update (announced June 30 and completed by July 17) sparked a bit of upheaval, with webmasters reporting sharp shifts in rankings beginning around July 2. The update appears to have reversed some of the long-lasting effects from the September 2023 Helpful Content Update. Many site owners, particularly in affiliate-heavy and small business verticals, saw traffic drops or severe dips in conversions despite steady visitor numbers. The big takeaway for SEOs and site owners: prioritize quality and user-first content. Avoid generic pages or scalable low-value templates, and instead focus on originality, usefulness, and real topical depth.
• AdSense Angst: The montly AdSense post on Webmaster World discusses a user's frustration with Google AdSense's new policy requiring a privacy policy page on websites that display AdSense ads, even if the site doesn't collect personal data. The discussion thread includes various perspectives from webmasters and SEOs, with some arguing that the policy is an overreach by Google, while others see it as a necessary step to comply with evolving data protection regulations.

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We'll have an update about Pubcon within the next week. In the meantime, still a few shirts left - at the right.

Until next time, keep innovating and adapting - the only constant in this industry is change. See you soon.

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