'The Great Decoupling' in Search Console, What the Claude Leak Tells us About SEO & How AI Is Helping Ecommerce Boost Conversions by 20%
SEO TL;DR #74 09/06/2025
Technical SEO
The Great Decoupling
Since the rollout of AI Overviews, I’ve seen a familiar pattern in several client accounts: impressions are stable or rising, but clicks are falling away.
Barry Schwartz covered how SEOs are calling this the “Great Decoupling” (as coined by Larry Engel). This is a direct result of AI Overviews and AI mode, which answers queries directly within the results.
💡Takeaway: At the moment, we’re in the recalibration and education phase. Clicks are becoming a less reliable matric for performance, but it’s important to remember that the overall goal in SEO is to help your conversions, not your traffic (in my opinion anyway).
Metrics still matter, but they need context. The brands that thrive will be the ones who don’t jump on the AI hypetrain, think long-term, and diversify their influence instead of chasing LLM visibility. That means creating better content, not just more of it. Focus on helpful, brand-led content that earns attention beyond Google.
Content SEO
Video Shorts Sneak into AI Answers
Google and Bing are now embedding short-form videos directly within AI Overviews and Copilot answers, spotted by Sachin Patel via SER. These videos appear alongside summaries, offering users quick, tappable content.
💡 Takeaway: I’ve always found marketers are the most reluctant to create video content, and I get it: too much faff, not enough time, you hate the sound of your own voice. But the inclusion of Shorts in AI Overviews shows just how important video is to Google’s understanding of the web (and your product).
Every year, video content becomes more essential to include as part of your overall content strategy, not just for YouTube, but now for visibility across AI-powered results too. In the age of AI-generated everything, video helps you stand out. It puts your personality front and centre, builds trust, captures attention, and drives engagement, all things that support good SEO.
Image SEO
Google Confirms Ranking Factor for Images
A recent update to Google’s recipe structured data guidance has (accidentally) clarified that high-quality images are more likely to rank.
If you want your images to appear more in search, you’ll need to rely on proper HTML markup, image sitemaps, and Google’s image SEO best practices, which include using clear, high-quality visuals.
SEO X AI
Claude Leak Reveals What Makes AI Cite Your Content
A leaked breakdown of how Anthropic’s Claude decides when to use external content has surfaced, and it gives us a rare look into how AI systems choose what to pull from the web.
In short, Claude only searches when it needs to. If it already knows something, it won’t bother. But when it does reach out, the content that wins the citation is structured, query-matching, easy to parse and not necessarily from a big brand.
Rather than chasing rankings, Hanns Kronenberg suggests we need to start thinking about ‘citation optimisation’. Tools, data tables, and genuinely useful pages that fill a knowledge gap are far more likely to get picked up by AI, especially for more complex queries where the system needs to “research.”
Ecommerce SEO
Amazon Tests Audio Product Summaries Powered by AI
Amazon is piloting generative AI audio summaries on select product pages in the US. A new “Hear the highlights” button lets you listen to a short audio overview, pulling from product descriptions and customer reviews.
It’s the latest in Amazon’s AI push, following review summaries and its Rufus shopping assistant rollout. The idea is to make product discovery easier for multitaskers or users browsing hands-free, using language models to simulate helpful, human-like recommendations.
💡 Takeaway: If you're in e-commerce, this is another cue that content needs to work beyond just reading. Whether it's audio, video, or AI-enhanced formats, your product information must be structured, high-quality, and accessible to fuel these new interfaces.
Accessibility and SEO often overlap because they’re both about helping users (and bots) understand and navigate your site. For example:
Clear headings help screen readers and improve crawlability.
Descriptive alt text helps visually impaired users and image search rankings.
Fast, mobile-friendly design helps everyone and directly impacts SEO.
I’m dead against ‘doing it for SEO’, but there is definitely a correlation between how easy a site is to use and how well it performs. Optimise for the user first (content for people, not for Google) and focus on clarity, speed, and simplicity: better UX = better SEO.
Ecommerce SEO
E-commerce & AI: More Than Just Hype
A recent study shows Vietnam and Indonesia are leading Southeast Asia in AI adoption in retail, with 42% already applying it.
The study found that even basic AI usage cases like automated messaging and product recommendations are helping sellers respond faster, improve conversions and boost operational efficiency. In some cases, AI has lifted conversion rates by up to 20%.
💡 Takeaway: Customers are no longer swayed by discounts alone. They're looking for brands that are responsive and transparent. AI can help deliver on that, from personalisation to speed, but it works best when paired with strong brand values and a clear content strategy.
AI-powered recommendations now account for up to 35% of Amazon’s sales. At the same time, Marks & Spencer say their AI-based style quizzes helped them increase online revenue by 7.8% (although the recent cyber attack has somewhat counteracted that 😬). M&S have also incorporated AI into their product description workflow:
The automation of product descriptions using AI has risen to 80% from almost nothing in the past year, although Langford added: “We still need a human in the process” to sense-check the output.
Whether it’s chatbots, smart assistants or personalisation engines, AI is fast becoming an essential tool for driving conversions, improving customer experience, and standing out in a crowded market. Don’t wait for it to be perfect; start where it helps your customers today.
PS: If you want to talk about your next project, use the link below to book a 20-minute discovery call: