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 announces the launch of new Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console to track AI-specific impressions and clicks.
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Google introduces a new control in Search Console that allows publishers to opt-out of appearing in AI Mode and AI Overviews independently of regular Search.
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Google's May 2026 broad core update completes its rollout after 12 days of significant ranking volatility.
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Best of the week
Topical Authority: What It Is, How Google Measures It, and How to Build It: Google no longer ranks just a page; it ranks the source. To survive algorithm updates and AI search, you have to move past individual keywords and own entire topics. A small site with deep, niche-specific content can easily outrank a giant like Amazon.
The Great Flattening, Part 2: the Data is Worse Than the Anecdotes: AI models from around the world are gravitating toward a single "Artificial Hivemind." Recent data shows that different tools now produce nearly identical outputs, regardless of your prompts. To keep your brand from sounding like everyone else, you have to actively fight the tools' default settings.
I Tested Claude SEO Agents so You Don't Have to: Claude's new "SEO Agents" promise to replace expensive agencies, but the reality is just a glorified checklist. These tools often flag non-critical issues like missing sitemaps while offering meaningless health scores. For now, AI remains an auditor, not a strategist.
Beyond RAG: Why Every AI Search Platform is Now Agentic and What That Means for Your Content: Standard RAG is dead. In its place, AI search platforms have adopted agentic RAG, a recursive system that plans, routes between tools, and critiques its own work. If you are still optimizing for single-shot retrieval, you are invisible to the multi-step reasoning chains now powering search.
Inimitable Product is the New "Make Great Content": Google used to reward great content, but now it’s just stealing it to train AI models and kill your traffic. To survive, you must stop being a content creator and start building inimitable products. Focus on physical goods, unique services, or experiences that a chatbot can't replicate.
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Latest from our podcast
This week’s podcast guest is Glen Allsopp, Head of Marketing Strategy & Research at Ahrefs.
Glen Allsopp leads Ahrefs' marketing strategy while dedicating his days to experimenting with AI agents and automation. He's built dozens of custom applications using Agent A (Ahrefs' AI agent platform) and shares his workflows with the Ahrefs community to help marketers work smarter, not harder.
In this episode, you'll discover how to build custom AI applications without coding experience, automate SEO research that typically takes hours, and create personalized tools that adapt to your specific workflow. You'll also learn why 90% of marketers haven't tried AI coding yet, and how to get started in minutes.
Listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
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Latest from our YouTube
Why I Switched from ChatGPT to Claude
Sam ditched ChatGPT because "agreeable" AI is actually a liability. Claude wins for marketers because it provides genuine pushback and masters nuance without the typical robotic fluff. If you need a partner that challenges your thinking, it is time to make the switch.
Mateusz vs Louise: Ahrefs Use Case Showdown
Generic SEO workflows are officially dead. Mateusz and Louise are going head-to-head to prove how AI can actually supercharge your content marketing. Watch them push Ahrefs to the limit and decide who builds the better strategy.
See you next week,
Si Quan
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