Welcome to a new edition of the Ahrefs’ Digest.
Here's our meme of the week:
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Quick search marketing news
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Google launches Merchant Center for Agencies, a dedicated dashboard for managing multiple client portfolios in the U.S. and Canada.
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Google adds a new visual presentation for recipes in AI Mode.
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Google rolls out a new branded queries filter in Search Console to help site owners quickly isolate brand-driven traffic.
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Google expands AI Max brand controls and launches non-skippable Video Reach Campaign ads globally on YouTube CTV.
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Cloudflare announces the general availability of AI Security for Apps to protect AI-powered applications from prompt injection and data leakage.
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Google introduces a quick toggle in Google Photos to let users switch between the Gemini-powered "Ask Photos" and classic search.
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WordPress releases Gutenberg 22.7, introducing new infrastructure to support AI-driven content publishing within the editor.
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Google reveals an undocumented method for disavowing entire Top-Level Domains (TLDs) while cautioning against its general use.
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Best of the week
State of Digital PR Report (2026): Digital PR is maturing into a high-stakes authority play. Budgets are climbing as brands ditch cheap link-building for press releases and expert commentary to feed AI models. If you aren't aligning your narrative with what LLMs crave, you're missing the next era of search.
Is AI Mode Now Dominated by Google’s Self-Referencing Links?: Google is essentially cannibalizing its own AI citations to keep you in its ecosystem. A new study shows that Google.com is now the most-cited source in AI Mode, with self-referencing links tripling in less than a year. Expect more loops back to Google search results instead of external sites.
AI Chatbots and the Illusion of “Reading an Image ” - Is It Worth the Risk?: AI chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT often ignore text buried inside images when summarizing webpages. They prioritize cheap HTML parsing over expensive visual rendering. If your pricing or offers live only in pixels, consider them invisible to AI discovery.
Google Zero is a Lie: Pundits are obsessed with "Google Zero," but the data tells a different story. While some sites blame algorithm shifts for their tanking traffic, many publishers are actually seeing growth. Falling for the doom-and-gloom narrative is a dangerous distraction from the real work of optimizing for modern search.
New Research: Search Happens Everywhere; an Analysis of 41 Websites with Significant Search Activity: Forget the "AI is killing Google" hype. New clickstream data shows Google still owns nearly 75% of all desktop searches. ChatGPT is actually smaller than Amazon, Bing, and YouTube, proving that most people still find what they need on traditional platforms.
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See you next week,
Si Quan
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