🐹 Hamsterdam Part 104: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (6/21 to 6/27, 2025)

By Ethan Lazuk

A weekly look-back at SEO & AI news, tips, and other content shared on social media & beyond.

Opening notes, thoughts, and musings:

• Welcome to another new week of Hamsterdam! 🐹
• I appreciate you being here, and look forward to sharing the week’s news! 🙌

If you’re in a rush, hop down to the news portion. 📰

Or continue reading for two vocabulary lessons plus an introduction.

And we’re off …

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🧑‍💻 Marketing word of the week: “Impression”

An impression occurs when a link to your website appears in search results. In short, impressions tell you how often your content is being seen.

Google has different rules for impressions depending on the type of SERP features present, but generally the link doesn’t need to be put into the user’s view to count, unless the search feature requires clicking to view more.

In the age of AI search, impressions matter even more. AI Mode, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and other platforms are reshaping how people consume information, often getting synthesized answers without any clicks. That said, visibility still drives value, shaping SEO as a branding channel vs. a performance one.

The more your content surfaces, the more it signals credibility to users (as well as machines).

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🤖 AI word of the week: “Inference”

Inference is the process where a trained AI model makes predictions or decisions based on new data. In other words, it’s what happens when an AI model uses what it already learned to make a decision or generate an output.

If training is like studying, inference is like taking the test.

When you type a query or prompt into Google or ChatGPT, the AI doesn’t go and learn something new in that moment. Instead, it uses what it already knows to infer the best answer based on your query/prompt.

While you can’t control the inference directly, you can shape what AI learns and remembers by being consistently visible, clear, and credible across the web.

As ChatGPT says, “Inference is where decisions are made — and where your brand either shows up, or gets left out.”

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😄 Introduction to week 104: “Shaping the narrative”

We all know how important brand mentions from around the web are becoming in light of AI search.

I’ve felt a little disingenuous reporting on clicks and sessions from organic as SEO KPIs lately, all the while knowing that our world is shifting toward one of brand visibility to influence LLM outputs at inference time.

Fortunately, my team is onboarding Profound, a tool that should help us understand how the brands we do SEO for are being discussed in zero-shot AI responses, which is the best shot we’ve got at the moment toward getting clarity into model perception.

Influencing earned media seems like it’s becoming a bigger piece of the SEO puzzle in terms of responsibilities. Time to adapt.

Thank you for supporting Hamsterdam and the cause of SEO & AI learning. 🙏

Enjoy the vibes:

Missed last week? Don’t worry, I got you! Read Part 103 to catch up.

🌟 Other great sources of weekly SEO news:

• The SEO Weekly – Garret Sussman, iPullRank
• SEOFOMO – Aleyda Solis
• Weekly Video Recaps – Barry Schwartz, SER
• Weekly SEO News YouTube channel – Olga Zarr, Seosly
• Niche Surfer – Yoyao Hsueh

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Time for our weekly review of SEO social posts, articles, & more …

Now, let’s step inside the white flags of Hamsterdam …

⏩ Jump to a section:

• News, Google updates, & SERP tests
• SEO tips & tidbits
• Fundamentals & resources
• Articles, videos & case studies
• Local SEO
• Technical SEO
• Content marketing
• Local SEO
• Data analysis & reporting
• AI, LLMS, & machine learning
• Miscellaneous & general posts
• Older stuff that’s good!

Or keep scrolling to see it all. ⏬

Let’s connect!

Hit me up anytime via text or call at 813-557-9745 or on social or email:

• Bluesky
• X
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• TikTok
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• Instagram
• Threads
• Facebook
• Mail

Cheers! ✌️

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Past recaps