Hey SEO fam, Manikandan here 👋 — bringing you this week’s SEO Weekly Radar (Sep 8–14, 2025).
If you caught last week’s edition, we unpacked Google’s spam update tremors and the rising chatter around AI search shaping user habits. This week, things escalated fast: from publishers suing Google to Perplexity moving aggressively into action-driven answers. Let’s dive in.
Penske Media (Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety) sued Google, arguing that AI Overviews are scraping journalism and killing traffic. This marks the first big legal battle we’ve seen against AIO.
Internal Google docs claimed the “open web is in decline” — a sharp contrast to their PR line that AIO drives more clicks. If you remember, last week we discussed how SEOs were already skeptical about AIO’s traffic promises.
No new updates this week, but we’re still in the aftershock zone of the June 2025 Core Update and August 2025 Spam Update. Thin/AI-rewritten content remains at risk.
Google PM Logan Kilpatrick confirmed AI Mode will become the default search view “soon”, and new languages like Japanese are already live. For those of us in India, I’m closely watching when Hindi support joins the list.
Rolled out OpenTable bookings, travel/shopping filters, and a finance redesign. At the same time, Britannica & Merriam-Webster slapped them with lawsuits — déjà vu from the Google situation above.
A fresh SparkToro report shows monthly search engine usage is still robust, even as AI tools grow. A good reminder for clients who panic that “Google is dead.”
Glenn Gabe shared a workflow combining GSC data with third-party AIO presence tracking to measure how much traffic AI Overviews are eating. I highly recommend testing this on your priority pages.
Google refreshed its documentation (LCP ≤2.5s, INP <200ms, CLS <0.1). With INP being a ranking signal, I’d say now is the time to get devs back on page speed tickets.
Restaurants, cafes, and bars can now surface event-driven local content more easily. Last week we saw Google experimenting with small business boosts — this fits right into that narrative.
Search Engine Land: doubling down on coverage of AI Mode’s default push + the “open web” debate.
Lily Ray: shared her 2025 trends talk — worth a read if you’re crafting Q4 content strategy.
Glenn Gabe: still leading the practical playbook on AIO impact measurement.
Legal pressure: If publisher lawsuits (Google + Perplexity) gather steam, expect changes in AIO presentation/citations.
AI Mode default: Start testing how brand vs. non-brand queries render in Hindi and Japanese, since that’s where rollouts are expanding.
Spam update fallout: If you’re still using aggressive AI rewrites — now’s the time to clean house.
If you missed last week’s edition, check it out here — it pairs perfectly with this one to give you a two-week picture of spam update impact and AI search rollouts.
See you in next week’s radar,
— Manikandan N
Published by: Manikandan Nagappan
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