Happy 2026! Hope your January’s going well and you’ve recovered from whatever festive chaos December threw at you.
I’m trying something different with the newsletter this year – shorter updates here, with links to the longer pieces if you want to dig deeper. Less scrolling, more reading what actually interests you.
It’s been a busy start to the year. The first Ascend cohort kicked off in January and we’re having a lot of fun. Plenty of learning, a few lightbulb moments, and some serious business in-roads already being made. If you’re a copywriter curious about adding SEO to your services, the July waitlist is open.
Right, onto the good stuff. Let’s dig in, shall we?
ChatGPT is adding ads (yes, really)
Remember when ChatGPT was going to kill Google because AI would give us answers without all those annoying ads?
OpenAI just announced ads are coming to ChatGPT. Free users and the $8/month tier will see sponsored content at the bottom of their answers.
Sam Altman called advertising “uniquely unsettling” in 2024. Turns out principles get flexible when you’re burning through $8 billion a year and only 5% of users are paying.
The AI search revolution is starting to look a lot like the old search reality – just with more hype and worse economics.
I may be feeling smugly superior…
Why your “SEO-friendly” website isn’t ranking
I’ve lost count of how many discovery calls start the same way: “My web designer said the site was SEO-friendly, so it should just need a few tweaks, right?”
No. No it should not.
There’s a massive gap between a website that Google can find and a website that Google wants to show people. Your web designer built the first one. That’s their job. They did it well.
But “SEO-friendly” means the foundations are there. It doesn’t mean anyone’s done the SEO.
I wrote a full breakdown for This Demanding Life explaining what “SEO Friendly” really means.
An A-Z of my SEO weaknesses
Thirty-odd years in SEO has given me plenty of material for self-reflection. So I wrote an A-Z of all my professional flaws – the habits I can’t break, the rabbit holes I fall down, and the things I tell clients not to do while doing them myself.
Highlights include: checking Search Console like other people check their horoscope, arguing with strangers on LinkedIn who are confidently wrong, and owning seventeen SEO tools I haven’t logged into since 2023.
Consider it a confession. (Thanks to Andrew Boulton and Bill Hinchen for the inspiration.)
That’s it for this one. Short and sweet. Let me know if you prefer this format or if you miss the longer rambles.
Always non-wanky
Nx
P.S I’ve got a whole load of #SEOFuckups2026 on LinkedIn – worth a look if only to feel a little relieved that you haven’t made those mistakes yourself. This link should take you there.
