🐹 Hamsterdam Part 113: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (8/23 to 8/29, 2025)
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
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! 🙌
- Good luck with the spam updating rolling out! You’ll be safe. 😉
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 …
🧑💻 Marketing word of the week: “R”
Revenue is literally the total income generated from sales before expenses. In SEO, revenue refers to the actual money generated from organic traffic. Rather than rankings or traffic, revenue is about conversions that lead to income (sales, leads, subscriptions, etc.)
SEO impacts revenue by driving qualified visitors through well-optimized content and CTAs.
Different types of revenue metrics SEOs might track include organic revenue (sales attributed to organic search traffic in GA4, Shopify, etc.), revenue per visitor (RPV) (average income generated per organic visitor), customer lifetime value (CLV) (long-term revenue impact of an organically acquired customer).
There are also different attribution models that determine how revenue is credited, such as first-click, last-click, or data-driven.
🤖 AI word of the week: “Reinforcement learning (RL)”
Reinforcement learning is a type of ML where an agent learns to make decisions by interacting with an environment. The agent takes action, the environment gives feedback (in the form of rewards or penalties), and over time the agent tries to maximize its cumulative reward.
Types of reinforcement learning include model-free RL and model-based RL. Model-free RL is where the agent learns directly from experience (trial and error). Model-based RL is where the agent builds a model of the environment to simulate outcomes, like planning a chess move using a learned environment.
Examples of RL include robotics, games, recommender systems, and self-driving cars.
😊 Introduction to week 113: “Shared domains”
I was recently working on a site where I wanted to optimize the titles of products in Merchant Center to influence free product listings. The challenge was that the paid media team is running shopping ads and had their own ideas about what the titles should be.
We collaborated and found common ground, but it’s a reminder of how marketing efforts can spread across shared domains and require give and take from multiple sides.
Had I changed the titles without checking, it would have interfered with their campaigns. Had they left the titles alone, organic shopping would continue to suffer.
Nothing better than compromise.
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 112 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
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. ⏬
📰 SEO news, Google updates, SERP tests & notable posts
Notable updates or news related to Google Search or related SEO topics.
🍟 SEO tips & tidbits
Actionable tips, cool tidbits, and other snackable findings and observations that can be teaching moments.
Essential information, concepts, or resources to learn about SEO or AI.
Longer-form content pieces shared on social, in newsletters, and elsewhere.
🧑💻 Technical SEO
Everything from basics to advanced moves (and also tools).
✍️ Content marketing
From what is helpful content to user journeys and beyond.
📍 Local SEO
From Google Business Profiles to reviews and more!
📊 Data analysis & reporting
Showing that what you’re doing is helping.
🤖 AI, machine learning, & LLMs
News related to models, papers, and companies.
🤔 General marketing & miscellaneous
This is for great content that isn’t necessarily SEO or marketing-specific. PPC, PR, dev, design, and social friends, check it out!
💎 Older stuff that’s good!
Not everything I find worth sharing is new as of this week, so these are gems I came across published in the past.
Great job making it to the end. You rock! 🪨
Let’s connect!
Hit me up anytime via text or call at 813-557-9745 or on social or email:
Cheers! ✌️
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