🐹 Hamsterdam Part 93: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (4/5 to 4/11, 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 appear to be working. Hopefully, they load for you!
- Enjoy the Masters this week! ⛳
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: “Brand”
A brand is the overall perception and emotional connection that consumers have with a company, product, or service. It encompasses elements like visual identity, messaging, customer experience, and reputation.
Customers today are inundated with choices, so having a well-defined brand helps a company stand out and resonate with its target audience.
In the context of modern SEO, branding has become increasingly significant. Search engines like Google likely consider brand signals, such as brand mentions, search volume for branded terms, and overall online presence, as indicators of credibility and authority.
A strong brand can also lead to higher click-through rates, more backlinks, and better user engagement, all of which are factors that can improve search rankings.
🤖 AI word of the week: “BERT”
BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. It’s a type of AI developed by Google to help computers better understand human language.
Unlike earlier models that read text in one direction, BERT reads words in both directions at the same time. This helps it understand the context of words more accurately. The classic example is the word “bank,” which means something different in “river bank” than “bank account.” BERT can figure that out by looking at all the words around “bank.”
BERT plays a big role in improving how Google interprets search queries, especially longer, more conversational ones. When a user types in a query (or these days, a prompt) that’s unclear or nuanced, BERT helps Google better understand what the person really means.
BERT doesn’t reward keyword stuffing but instead favors content that reflects genuine expertise and answers real questions clearly. When writing SEO content today, focus on creating genuinely helpful, well-written content that mimics how people naturally speak and/or search.
😄 Introduction to week 93: The Masters
This week is the Masters in Augusta, GA, perhaps the premier golf event of the year.
As a long-time golfer (on and off but back on lately), I enjoy watching the competition. It’s both exciting and therapeutically calming at the same time.
Whether you’re into golf or just looking for something fun to watch this week/end, check out the Masters. You can watch it online here.
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 92 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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