🐹 Hamsterdam Part 95: Weekly SEO & AI News Recap (4/19 to 4/25, 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! 🙌
- Enjoy the remaining rounds of the NFL draft! 🏈
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: “Dwell time”
Dwell time is the interval between a searcher’s click on a result and their return to the SERP. It acts as a direct proxy for how well the page matched intent.
Recent public disclosures (like the 2024 Search API leak) confirmed that Google logs “long clicks” and other engagement signals to refine rankings. This means that pages that consistently earn longer dwell times may signal relevance and quality, while short dwell times suggest the opposite, though not always. (A short dwell time could indicate the user found their answer quickly, a sign of a good visit.)
Engagement logs flow into Navboost, a ranking system Google uses to re-rank results based on 13 months of aggregated click-stream data. Navboost likely up-weights URLs that earn frequent, satisfied clicks (i.e., longer dwell times) and downgrades those that users abandon quickly for other results.
🤖 AI word of the week: “Deep learning”
Deep learning is a way of teaching computers by stacking many “neuron-like” layers that each learn to spot patterns a little more complex than the last. This can range from simple edges in an image to whole faces or from letters to entire ideas in text.
During training, the model looks at huge amounts of labeled data and keeps tweaking its internal connections until its guesses match the answers provided.
Because the layers build on one another, deep learning can automatically discover the right features instead of relying on hand-crafted rules. This is why it powers voice assistants, image search, self-driving perception, and generative tools like ChatGPT.
In short, deep learning is the modern recipe for letting computers learn directly from raw data and improve as that data grows.
😄 Introduction to week 95: “Build a brand”
I’m going through this exercise right now where we’re updating all of the backlinks for an old domain to a new one.
This old domain had existed for like 20 years. It’s quite incredible to see the variety of legitimate (and suspicious) backlinks and mentions the brand has all throughout the web.
It made me realize that when it comes to establishing a brand’s online presence, this can’t be faked overnight. It’s about years of community engagement to establish E-E-A-T.
From “influencers” writing about the brand to other service providers mentioning it in a professional context, there’s no shortage of ways this brand has been mentioned and linked to over the years.
If you’re building a brand, engage with your community. It won’t be an overnight thing, but that’s the way forward when it comes to SEO and GEO.
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 94 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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