🐹 Hamsterdam Part 127: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (12/5 to 12/12, 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: “Focus group”
A focus group is a small, structured discussion, usually with 6 to 10 people, led by a moderator to understand their opinions, motivations, frustrations, and preferences about a product, message, or idea.
You might use focus groups to test messaging, validate product-market fit, get language directly from real users, or uncover needs people won’t say in surveys.
As far as SEO is concerned, focus groups have value. they can reveal the exact language users use (to boost relevance), uncover pain points that work well for content topics, provide first-party experiential data (the first E in EEAT), show you what confuses your users (so you can fix it), validate product or topic intent, and more.
In short, focus groups give you raw human truth, and SEO is built around understanding human intent through searches. The better you understand human behavior, the stronger your SEO strategy will be.
🤖 AI word of the week: “Feature extraction”
Feature extraction is the process of turning messy, raw data into meaningful signals that an AI model can use to understand something. It might include turning pixels into shapes, edges, or objects, turning text into sentiment, entities, or topics, or turning user behavior into patterns like “likely to convert.”
Search engines extract features from content (entities, sentiment, topics, keywords, reading level, structure, author signals, etc.), user behavior (click patterns, scrolling, dwell time, bounce behavior, etc.), links (anchor text, link content, topical alignment between pages), and multimedia (image objects or text, product photos and attributes, etc.).
Why should SEOs care about feature extraction? In short, AI doesn’t rank keywords, but rather it ranks features. Content must clearly express entities, steps, outcomes, expertise, product attributes, comparisons, etc. so the model can extract and use those features. This is why it’s important to nail the fundamentals around structured data, clean DOM structure, clear headings, FAQs, etc.
Think of feature extraction as how can I package my content so an AI can easily recognize, label, and trust the important parts.
😊 Introduction to week 127: “Arrived in NY”
I’m officially a “New Yorka.” Currently I’m in Albany, New York staying with my sister in law, but next week I’ll be venturing down to “the city” to start the next leg of my journey in life.
I’m looking forward to all the new adventures that await, but adjusting to the cold hasn’t been easy. My first step was to buy a thick jacket and pack a space heater.
We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto.
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 126 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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