🐹 Hamsterdam Part 122: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (11/1 to 11/7, 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! 🙌
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: “Awareness”
Awareness is the stage where people first discover your brand. They’re probably not ready to buy yet but are still learning basic facts like what you are, why you matter, and what problem you solve.
Classically, awareness was generated by marketing like ads, billboards, TV, and even flyers. Today it comes from Google, Reddit, YouTube, and increasingly AI tools.
In SEO, awareness comes from ranking for certain types of queries, like informational, problem-based, and/or top of funnel.
With AI, awareness has evolved a bit. Models like ChatGPT don’t just pull from a single webpage but from patterns, authority signals, and brand footprints across the entire web. AI also prefers lived experience because it adds credibility and matches what users want. In our AI world, awareness thus now includes conversational presence through mentions and citations, even if you don’t get the click.
🤖 AI word of the week: “Algorithm”
An algorithm is like a recipe for machines. It’s made of rules, patterns, and math and tells a system how to think, step by step. You can think of data as the ingredient and the algorithm as the chef.
In simple terms, an algorithm is a set of instructions that processes input to produce a specific output. Examples might include sorting shoes by size or how your GPS avoids traffic.
In SEO, search engines use algorithms to find the best answer to a user’s query, such as by understanding the meaning of the query, the quality of individual webpages, the credibility of the source, the user’s intent, the freshness of content, and many other factors. There can be crawling algorithms, indexing algorithms, and, of course, ranking algorithms.
AI models also use algorithms, but not like search engines do necessarily. These are neural network algorithms that read text, learn patterns, store meaning in latent spaces, predict the next best word or idea, combine context, and generate full answers. In AI, the algorithm doesn’t rank webpages; it summarizes knowledge and synthesizes the answer.
😊 Introduction to week 122: “Chunks”
Standard advice today is to write content in chunks. It’s something we’ve already kind of been doing for a loooong time in SEO, called atomic content, but it’s caught on more with the rise of AI search.
Something I advise my team to do is check the highlighted chunks or segments of text that Google identifies in its citations from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
It’s often interesting to see which sections of a page get cited for the overall answer, and, of course, it can vary between AIOs and AI Mode or from query to query.
Try it yourself, either for your own content or competitors and see what insights you can pull out for chunking your own content.
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 121 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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