Monday Marketing Shift: How to Stay Ahead in SEO This Week

Welcome to the Monday Marketing Shift! ☕

If you’re like me, you start Monday morning full of motivation—laptop open, coffee in hand, ready to write. But somewhere along the way…

“Let me Google this real quick…”

“Oh no, my competitor covered this already—should I even bother?”

“There are so many articles on this topic. Will mine even rank?”

“Maybe I should change my topic…”

Sound familiar? Writing for SEO can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.

🚀 Struggling with Writing? Try This AI-Powered SEO Tool

Instead of battling distractions and second-guessing yourself, imagine having a tool that:

• Outline your topic for you.
• Analyzes competitors and tells you what they’re doing right (and wrong).
• Provides target keywords and internal link recommendations to boost SEO.

And the best part? It saves hours.

🔗 Check it out here:

AI-Powered Content Brief Generator

🔍 The Big Problem with AI Chatbots: Fake Links & Misinformation

A recent Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) study revealed a major issue:

👉 AI chatbots are confidently wrong 60% of the time.

❌ The Citation Crisis: Fake Links Everywhere

One of the most alarming findings? AI chatbots frequently generate fake citations.

• They make up URLs that don’t exist.
• Some URLs are structured to look real but lead to dead pages.
• Businesses relying on AI for research may unknowingly spread misinformation.

🔥 Why This Matters for Businesses & SEO

Google’s John Mueller has warned that AI hallucinations will be a growing problem. His recommendation? Make sure your 404 pages are optimized so that if users land on a broken link, they get useful navigation instead of a dead end.

✅ What You Should Do:

• Check if AI-generated content in your niche is fabricating citations.
• Design a helpful 404 page that includes:
  • 🔗 A link to your homepage
  • 📌 A short message explaining why they landed there
  • 📂 Links to related content or categories

📌 More on this here: Google’s Mueller Predicts Hallucinated Links: What You Should Know

🤖 AI Chatbots Are Ignoring Robots.txt (And That’s a Huge Problem)

You’d think AI would respect robots.txt, the universal standard that tells bots which pages they can or can’t crawl.

🚨 Turns out, they don’t.

AI chatbots are ignoring these rules, meaning:

• News publishers and paid newsletters with restricted content may have their paywalled material exposed.
• Businesses could lose revenue if AI scrapes premium content and shares it for free.

Even more surprising? Paid AI models are more confidently wrong than free ones. The CJR study found that premium chatbots give incorrect information with more confidence, without disclaimers like “I’m not sure”.

📌 Read more: AI Chatbots Ignoring Robots.txt

🚨 Google’s March 2025 Core Update: What We Know So Far

The latest Google Core Update is rolling out, and early signs show:

✅ Some sites are gaining traffic.

❌ Others are losing visibility.

So...not much. Keep posted, I'll report more!

🔍 Google Assistant Is Being Replaced by Gemini

Google also announced that its Assistant on mobile will be replaced by Gemini, one of the chatbots found to be confidently wrong in the CJR study.

📌 What This Means for Small Businesses:

• AI-powered search results could spread misinformation about your brand.
• Now is the time to monitor your online presence across Google My Business, Yelp, and other directories.
• Alternative traffic sources (beyond Google) are becoming more important than ever.

📌 More details on this update: Google AI Takes Over Search – Here’s What’s Changing

📈 Small Businesses need to get started with Local SEO

If you’re a local business, you’re probably wondering: "How do I make sure people still find me?"

Here’s what ranks for “barbershops near me” in Levittown, NY:

• Google My Business
• Yelp
• Local booking platforms (Fresha, Booksy, DailyBarber.com)
• Instagram & Facebook pages
• Personal business websites

Takeaway: If your business isn’t listed in multiple places, you could be missing out on customers.

📌 More local SEO insights: How Google’s AI Update Impacts Local Businesses

🛍️ E-Commerce Update: New Structured Data Requirement

If you run an eCommerce store, Google now requires structured data for return policies.

🛒 What You Need to Do:

• Add returnPolicyCountry to your MerchantReturnPolicy schema.
• If you don’t use schema markup yet, hire an SEO expert or use available tools.

💡 Would you find a tool that helps with structured data markup useful? If so, reply and let me know—I might build one!

📌 More on Google’s structured data update: Google Updates Structured Data Requirements

🚀 Final Thoughts: What’s Your SEO Plan This Week?

A LOT is happening in SEO and AI right now.

• AI chatbots are still making huge mistakes.
• Google’s March 2025 Core Update is shifting rankings.
• Local SEO & alternative traffic sources are more important than ever.
• Google requires more structured data for eCommerce sites.

👉 What’s your game plan?

Reply and let me know:

1️⃣ What’s your biggest SEO challenge right now?

Looking forward to your thoughts!