🐹 Hamsterdam Part 90: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (3/16 to 3/21, 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! 🙌
- Twitter embeds are still a little buggy. Hopefully they load for you!
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: “Year-over-year”
Year-over-year refers to performance reporting for a time period vs. that same time period in the prior year.
Often in SEO, we look at comparative time periods for metrics, like in GSC, GA4, or now Bing Webmaster Tools.
While it’s helpful to compare, say, the last 28 days to the previous period, looking year-over-year is also helpful for accounting for phenomena like seasonality.
🤖 AI word of the week: “Y-axis”
In machine learning, the Y-axis refers to the vertical axis in data visualization. It often represents the dependent or target variable, meaning the value you’re trying to predict or explain.
😄 Introduction to week 90: But what about our traffic?!
I’m working on a site with a lot of historical blog posts. It appears to have been bitten by the March Core Update.
At first, I was a little freaked out, as anyone would be seeing traffic decline.
Then I checked the site’s revenue from organic search in GA4. It was up 90%!
Impressions were also up, and as I dug into the pages that lost clicks, I realized it wasn’t always a rankings change but a SERP layout change, including featuring more videos or AIOs.
This may be our new reality, where traffic continues to decline but other business-related metrics stand strong.
Either way, we’ve got more work cut out for us.
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 89 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 or 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! 🪨
🤝 Want help with your SEO strategy?
I’m an independent SEO consultant focusing on custom audits and holistic strategies for brands. Don’t hesitate to reach out, or visit my about page for more information.
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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