Shalin Siriwardhana

Search, growth, and digital strategy notes.

Personal notes on SEO, AI search, content strategy, and durable organic growth.

A close-up of a single, glowing smartphone screen displaying a ChatGPT conversation, resting on a dark wooden table next to a discarded, old-fashioned printed phone book.

Notes / SEO / Sep 5, 2026

The Big Winners and Losers in U.S. Website Traffic Over the Past Year

The top of the list looks almost identical to how it looked a year ago. Google still ranks first in the U.S., with 25.3 billion. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

8 min read

A close-up of a high-end luxury watch resting on a velvet cushion, while in the background, a blurred computer screen shows a red "403 Forbidden" error message.

Notes / SEO / Sep 4, 2026

Getting Your Product into ChatGPT Isn’t the Hard Part, Getting It Through Checkout Is

Klyagin's framing is simple once you hear it: A human shopper browses at an inconsistent pace, gets distracted, abandons a cart,. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

A split screen view of a smartphone. One half shows a traditional Google search results page with blue links, the other half shows a conversational AI chat interface.

Notes / SEO / Sep 4, 2026

People Aren’t Leaving Google for AI. They’re Using Both

Overlap helps us determine if the same individuals are part of two different audiences during a specified time frame. For. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

8 min read

A close up of a smartphone screen displaying a detailed weather forecast, resting on a wooden table next to a set of car keys and a folded paper map.

Notes / SEO / Sep 4, 2026

Google’s New Weather AI in Search Continues Shift Away from 10 Blue Links

Weather is more than just data, it's data that users around the world depend on to make many of their most important decisions,. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

A close up of a printed company brochure resting on a table, while a smartphone screen next to it displays a confident AI response describing a completely different competitor's pricing and services.

Notes / SEO / Sep 3, 2026

When AI Has Nothing on Your Company, It Describes Someone Else

The mechanism is well documented, and I have leaned on Mallen and colleagues enough times in this newsletter that regular readers. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

8 min read

A close up of a human hand hovering over a mechanical keyboard, with a single physical red button sitting beside the keyboard, highlighting the tension between automated execution and manual control.

Notes / SEO / Sep 3, 2026

AI Works Best When It Removes Work, Not Judgment

This, personally, has been one of the most transformative areas of my consulting business. See, maybe it's my ADHD brain, but I. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

A close-up of a weathered hourglass resting on a wooden table, with a single small pebble blocking the flow of sand, symbolizing the agonizingly slow pace of algorithmic recovery.

Notes / SEO / Sep 3, 2026

Google Says Ranking Recovery Takes Months After SEO Issues Are Fixed

The person asking the question had two problems: 1: Google Business Profile Their Google Business Profile was suspended by Google. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

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Notes / SEO / Sep 3, 2026

Should I Block AI Crawlers at Robots.txt or Server Level?

Both of these approaches have their pros and cons. Let's start by examining how they work and the differences between the two. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

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Notes / SEO / Sep 3, 2026

Google Responds to Sitemap SEO Technique That Forces Daily Crawling

Websites have long used a technique called cache busting for CSS, JavaScript, and other files that may change. The purpose of. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

6 min read

A close-up of a single, outdated printed manual resting on a sleek, modern glass table, surrounded by several glowing, translucent digital tablets displaying fragmented code.

Notes / SEO / Sep 3, 2026

The Next AI Protocol Won’t Save Your SEO Strategy

In the previous article in this series, I introduced Decision Coverage as a way to measure how completely an organization has. The practical question is what this changes for SEO, content quality, and AI search visibility.

8 min read