🐹 Hamsterdam Part 142: Weekly SEO/GEO News Recap (8/22 to 8/28, 2026)

By Ethan Lazuk

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

Opening notes, thoughts, and musings:

• My website is now eligible as a Preferred Source in Google! I’d be grateful if you added me!

• Welcome to another week of Hamsterdam! 🐹 If you’re new here, this is a weekly summary of hand-curated SEO/GEO news and tips shared on social media.
• Curious what I’ve been up to? Check out my latest blog posts from the past week:
  • Examining New Research, “AI in Search Reduces Publisher Referrals Without Improving User Experience: Experimental Evidence,” for SEO/GEO Insights (Hamsterdam Research)
  • SEO Still Remains A Viable Marketing Strategy For Anyone: A Hamsterdam History Lesson
  • Let’s Talk About “Mental Availability” in the Context of SEO/GEO: A Hamsterdam Marketing Lesson
  • Query Fanout as an Entity Optimization Strategy for AI Search
  • Findings from 2,594 ChatGPT Fanout Queries
  • How to Optimize for a Knowledge Panel on Google (And Why That’s Only the Beginning)
• I appreciate you being here and look forward to sharing the week’s SEO/GEO news below! 🙌

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: “Category Entry Points”

Category entry points (CEPs) are the situations, needs, occasions, or problems that prompt someone to think about a product category and potentially a brand within it.

In short, a category entry point is essentially the reason or situation that puts a category into someone’s mind.

For coffee, CEPs might be:

• “I need energy before work.”
• “I want somewhere to meet a friend.”
• “I need an afternoon pick-me-up.”
• “I want something warm on a cold morning.”

Brands try to become mentally associated with as many relevant CEPs as possible.

Interestingly for SEO/GEO, search queries and AI prompts can reveal category entry points. A query like “best AI visibility tool for enterprise SEO teams” is more than a keyword, but rather it reflects a situation, audience, need, and buying context.

If keywords tell you what people search for, category entry points help explain why that search is happening.

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🤖 AI word of the week: “Tool Use”

Tool use is when an AI system calls external tools to perform tasks or get information it does not have on its own.

Examples include:

• searching the web
• using a calculator
• querying a database
• running code
• calling an API
• checking a calendar or email account

With tool use, the model is not “knowing” or “doing” everything itself, but rather it can decide when an outside tool is needed, use that tool, and then incorporate the result into its response.

In short, tool use lets an AI model extend beyond its built-in capabilities by interacting with external systems and information sources. For SEO/GEO, web search is particularly relevant, meaning your content may need to be retrieved before it can influence the final answer.

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✌️Introduction to week 142: “Hamsterdam Gets Love from ChatGPT”

I’ve built several spinoff projects to Hamsterdam, including Hamsterdam History, a project for the analysis of vintage SEO articles and historical topics related to SEO/GEO.

I track a prompt or two related to that project, just for fun. Recently, I observed the history project started getting some visibility in ChatGPT:

This is notable given the query fanouts, which are heavily skewed toward known brands.

I also observed that Hamsterdam itself got a little visibility recently:

This was also an uphill battle, because the query fanouts mention “newsletter,” which this is not.

I guess my takeaway is to examine the query fanouts because they’ll tell you a lot of why you’re achieving visibility or not, but sometimes you can get mentioned despite them.

Thank you for supporting Hamsterdam and the cause of SEO/GEO learning. 🙏

Enjoy the vibes:

Missed last week? Don’t worry, I got you! Read Part 141 to catch up.

🌟 Other great sources of weekly SEO/GEO 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
• Core Updates – Mark Williams-Cook, Candour Agency Ltd.

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Time for our weekly review of SEO/GEO 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

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