Fanatically Digital

05/28/2026

I am seeing something interesting is happening in marketing.

AI-generated content is everywhere. Every business can now produce blog posts, social updates, and email campaigns at scale. The tools are incredible.

And audiences are tuning it out. I talk with my gown kids, (20s and 30s) and they can't stand the AI content.

Brands that lead with authenticity and a genuine human voice are outperforming those pumping out generic AI content. People can FEEL the difference, even if they can't articulate it. Even if they think it's AI, it's dead to them.

This doesn't mean AI is bad. We use AI tools every day at Fanatically Digital. But we use them to amplify human expertise, not replace it.

The winning formula we're seeing:
→ AI handles research, drafts, and data analysis, verify my assumptions
→ Humans bring experience, opinion, and a genuine voice
→ The combination beats either one alone

If your marketing reads like it could have been written by anyone for anyone — it's probably not connecting with the people you actually want to reach.

The irony of the AI era is that being genuinely human is now your competitive advantage.

What's your experience? Are you seeing more engagement with authentic content vs. polished-but-generic stuff? Drop your thoughts below 👇

05/28/2026

Google quietly started killing FAQ rich results this month.

If your SEO strategy relied on those expandable FAQ snippets to grab extra real estate in search results — that's done. Google is phasing them out in three stages, and phase one already hit on May 7th.

Here's what SMB owners should do right now:

1. Don't panic-delete your FAQ pages. The content still has value for users who land on your site.
2. Shift that structured data effort to other rich results that still work — review stars, how-to markup, local business schema.
3. Focus on the content itself. Google's AI Overviews are pulling from well-structured, genuinely helpful content. Write for that.
4. Check your Search Console. If you saw a traffic dip in mid-May, this is probably why.

The businesses that adapt fastest win. The ones waiting for their "SEO guy" to notice will wonder why leads dried up.

We've been updating client strategies since the announcement. If you're not sure where you stand, that's worth fixing.

05/27/2026

Google I/O 2026 just dropped some big changes for advertisers, and most businesses aren't paying attention yet.

The headline: Gemini-powered AI ads are coming to Search. Google is rolling out ad formats that use AI to answer specific user questions and explain why YOUR product fits. Think of it as your ad copy getting a real-time AI wingman.

They also announced AI "shopping agents" that can browse, compare, and book on behalf of users. Plus AI Mode is getting its own ad placements.

Here's my take after 30+ years in this space:

This is Google betting that the future of ads is conversational, not just clickable. Your product feed data, your landing page content, your reviews — all of it becomes fuel for AI to sell on your behalf.

What this means for SMBs:
→ Clean, accurate product/service data matters more than ever
→ Your Google Business Profile is now AI training data — treat it that way
→ Competitors showing up in AI Overviews while you're not? That's a visibility gap you can't see in your normal reports

The agencies that understand this shift will thrive. The ones still optimizing like it's 2023 won't.

05/22/2026

Big news for anyone tracking where their traffic actually comes from: GA4 now breaks out AI assistant traffic as its own default channel group. You can finally see how much traffic ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are sending your way — instead of it getting lumped in with referrals. If you're not monitoring this yet, you're flying blind on one of the fastest-growing traffic sources.

https://ift.tt/z78dFqe

Google announced that GA4, Google Analytics, has a new AI Assistant traffic measurement. This allows you to track AI chatbot traffic, like from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. This is through a new AI Assistant channel in your Default Channel Group reports.

05/22/2026

Google quietly changed how search terms are reported for AI-driven queries in Google Ads — including AI Mode, AI Overviews, and Lens. Instead of showing what users actually typed, you may now see Google's "interpreted" version. This matters because your search term reports may no longer reflect real intent. We'd recommend auditing your reports now to understand the gap.

https://buff.ly/EYrGgvQ

Google quietly updated Search Terms reporting for AI Mode, AI Overviews, Lens, and autocomplete. Here’s why advertisers may be concerned about interpreted queries.

05/21/2026

Google just published an AI Search guide that says AEO and GEO are "still SEO" — and explicitly names tactics you can safely ignore, like llms.txt and special schema just for AI. This is exactly what we've been telling clients: the fundamentals haven't changed, even if the acronyms have. Focus on being genuinely useful, and both humans and AI will find you.

https://buff.ly/aG6eITv

Google's new AI Search guide says AEO and GEO are still SEO and names tactics site owners can ignore, including llms.txt, chunking, and special schema.

05/21/2026

Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added schema markup and found that AI citations barely moved. The takeaway isn't that schema is useless — it's that schema alone isn't a silver bullet for AI visibility. You still need strong content, topical authority, and brand signals. Don't let anyone sell you "one weird trick" for AI search rankings.

https://ift.tt/ixMJ9SL

We tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD and measured the impact on Google AIO, AI Mode, and ChatGPT citations. Here's what the data shows.

05/20/2026

AI in advertising is only as good as the data you feed it — and in 2026, weak inputs produce accelerated inefficiency. This piece from SEJ breaks down what "better signals" actually look like in practice. For our clients, we're seeing the biggest AI ad wins come from clean conversion data and smart audience signals, not just turning on automation and hoping.

https://buff.ly/CTwqPLS

AI is running more of your advertising than you realize. The question is whether you're steering it or just watching it spend your budget.

05/20/2026

Heads up for advertisers: after June 10, Google Ads will automatically link your YouTube channel to your ad account. This gives Google more data about your video performance. If you want control over what gets linked and how that data is used, review your settings now — don't wait for the auto-link to happen.

https://ift.tt/QbDtilr

05/19/2026

Adobe's Q2 2026 AI traffic report shows a 393% growth in AI-referred retail conversions. But here's the nuance: optimization and legibility aren't the same thing. Being readable by AI doesn't mean you're optimized for AI referral traffic. The brands winning are the ones treating AI search as a distinct channel with its own conversion path.

https://buff.ly/AnofwTm

Your dashboards don't show what GPTBot sees when it crawls your product page. Adobe's new data shows why that invisibility is now a revenue problem.

05/19/2026

Google just killed FAQ rich results. If you’re surprised, you haven’t been paying attention.

As of May 7th, FAQ structured data no longer generates rich results in Google Search. The report filters, testing tools, and API support are all getting phased out by August.

But here’s the real story nobody’s talking about: this isn’t just a feature removal. It’s Google telling you where search is going.

FAQ schema worked because it gave Google structured answers to display. Now Google’s AI Overviews do that job — pulling from your content, summarizing it, and presenting answers directly. Google doesn’t need your FAQ markup anymore because it has something better.

What this means for SMBs:

• Stop building content strategies around schema tricks
• Start building content that gets CITED by AI responses
• Focus on clear, authoritative, experience-backed content (E-E-A-T isn’t just an acronym — it’s the filter)
• Structure your pages with clear headings and direct answers — not for rich results, but for AI extraction

The businesses that win the next 3 years of search are the ones adapting now, not the ones mourning deprecated features.

Don’t remove your FAQ markup yet though — it can still help AI systems understand your content. Just stop expecting it to do anything in Google Search.