Category: SEO Advice
Google’s February 2026 Discover core update is not a search update – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise
Google dropped something unexpected today. The SEO world has been watching SERP volatility for days, bracing for a standard core update. Instead, Google announced the February 2026 Discover core update – a core update targeting only Google Discover. This is the first time Google has released a core update specifically… Read More
Google updated its crawl file size limits and you probably don’t need to care
Google recently updated its documentation about how much of your web page it will crawl. Of course the SEO community started arguing about this on social media, and the ever dependable hustlebros started preparing their “URGENT: Your website might be too big for Google” posts designed to scare you into… Read More
January volatility, search intent mistakes, and the heading hierarchy hardly anyone checks
Hey hey! January lasted approximately seven years, and now February’s here with 28 days and somehow twice as much to do. Awesome. NP HQ feels this week: In non-wanky SEO news, Ascend is going brilliantly. Some of the members have already pitched their first SEO retainer clients (we’re only in… Read More
Why your website headings are confusing Google (and how to fix them)
I see it in almost every website audit I do. Headings (also called Headers in some website builders) used for design instead of structure. H3s chosen because someone liked the font size. H1s that say something clever but explain nothing about what the business does. If Google’s struggling to understand… Read More
The SEO search intent problem hiding in your website copy
Your website might be brilliant. Your services might be exactly what people need. But if you’re using the wrong words to describe what you do, Google won’t show your pages to the people searching for them. I’m not talking about keywords in the bollocky “stuff them everywhere” sense that people… Read More
Google wobbles, zero-traffic pages, and why I’m disappointed in SEOs
Hey hey! Google’s been having another wobbly week. Rankings jumping around, visibility shifting, the usual chaos that happens more often than not these days, so we should be used to it, and yet it still has everyone check their analytics seventeen times a day. This comes off the back of the… Read More
Freelancer Masterclass Live could be the best freelancer event of 2026
I’ve been a Freelancer Magazine member for a while now, and honestly, the community aspect alone is worth it. The co-working sessions, the support, the general vibe of being surrounded by people who “get it”. So when they announced Freelancer Live – a two-day virtual masterclass on 4th and 5th… Read More
When SEOs add GEO to their headlines, they become part of the problem
Related podcast episode (it’s a bit sweary): I had a conversation with a potential client recently. They’d found me on ChatGPT and wanted to know what I’d done to get there. “SEO,” I said. “Yeah, but what did you do specifically to be on AI Search?” “SEO.” “Yeah but you… Read More
Zero SEO traffic, maximum value – two pages I’ll never delete
There are two pages on my website that would make any traffic-obsessed marketer twitch. They rank for nothing. They bring in precisely zero organic search traffic. Google Search Console shows them as virtually invisible. And I will never, ever remove them. Not every page needs to earn its keep through… Read More
When did your SEO last experiment with something new?
Think about the mechanic you take your car to. Now imagine they’ve been using the same diagnostic tools since 2008. They’ve never bothered learning about hybrid engines, dismiss electric vehicles as a fad, and still insist on checking your points and condenser even though your car hasn’t had those since… Read More
AI hypocrisy, professional flaws, and “SEO-friendly” misunderstanding
Hey hey! 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… Read More
ChatGPT ads prove AI search isn’t killing Google – it’s copying it
Remember when ChatGPT was going to kill Google? When we’d all abandon search engines because AI would just give us the answers without all those annoying ads cluttering up our results? Yeah, about that… OpenAI announced recently that ads are coming to ChatGPT. Free users and the new $8/month “Go”… Read More