Search News You Can Use - SEO Podcast with Marie Haynes

Hosted by Marie Haynes

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214

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Search News You Can Use is Marie Haynes' Weekly Podcast where she provides useful advice on Google Algorithm updates, tips and information to help you improve your website. During the podcast she breaks down the most interesting and important changes that have happened in SEO and the world of search!

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60 recent

June 16, 202618 min

Google's OKF - The New Way to Structure Your Knowledge for Agents

Google just announced the Open Knowledge Format (OKF), a new way to structure your knowledge for AI agents. This standard uses simple Markdown to make business and personal insights accessible to the agentic web. In this video, I break down why this changes SEO, how to build your first OKF bundle, and the potential for selling expert knowledge directly to AI systems.Google's blog post on okf:https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/how-the-open-knowledge-format-can-improve-data-sharing/The Spec.md file for OKF on Github:https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/knowledge-catalog/blob/main/okf/SPEC.mdAndrej Karpathy's LLM-Wiki:https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94fJoin me in my community at the Search Bar:https://community.mariehaynes.comhttps://mariehaynes.com/join - for more on the paid areas.0:00 - Introduction to Google's Open Knowledge Format (OKF)1:03 - How OKF changes SEO and makes businesses accessible to AI agents1:43 - Selling proprietary knowledge and OKF bundles2:21 - How to use NotebookLM and Gemini to learn the new standard3:02 - What is OKF? (Markdown files and the LLM Wiki pattern)4:01 - Breaking down the OKF spec (Human and agent-friendly format)5:03 - Terminology: Creating "Knowledge Bundles" and directories5:51 - Structuring concepts as single Markdown files6:30 - Understanding YAML front matter (Type, title, descriptions, tags)7:18 - Formatting the body, citations, and cross-linking7:40 - Organizing files: Index files, log files, and using Git/Obsidian9:11 - Practical examples: BigQuery data vs. triggered Playbooks11:12 - Andre Karpathy’s LLM Wiki pattern explained13:48 - Letting the LLM write and maintain your knowledge wiki14:34 - Why OKF is the "new schema" and future revenue streams17:15 - How agents discover your OKF (llms.txt) and "Semantic Unbaking"

June 11, 202651 min

How to build an agentic command center with Claude Cowork - with Laura Tobin

You can build an AI dashboard so easily - even if you don't know how to code! In this episode, Laura Tobin from the Search Bar community shares the incredible system of AI agents she built using Claude and Co-work. As a food blogger facing the shifts in AI changing Search, Laura decided to pivot from fighting the technology to using it to become a "one-person content machine."She walks us through her "Command Center," a custom dashboard that manages her entire workflow, from post pipelines to client shoots. We also discuss the "uncanny valley" of AI content and why her audience rejected AI avatars, teaching us a valuable lesson on where AI belongs in your business.The discussion following the webinar is so good. We share the different avenues we are exploring in building an AI brain. Where to connect with Laura Tobin:A free 30 minutes exploratory session:https://calendly.com/laura-tobinfooddigital/30minEmail:Laura@tobinfooddigital.comLaura's Bloghttps://yourguardianchef.com/Laura's youtube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@yourguardianchefLaura's Instagram account:https://www.instagram.com/yourguardianchefJoin Marie's community, the Search Bar for real time Search and AI News:https://community.mariehaynes.com/Join the Search Bar Pro area so you can join our weekly meetings:https://www.mariehaynes.com/join/Timestamps: 0:01 - Introduction: Meet Laura and her Claude-powered content system.1:02 - Laura's Pivot: Becoming a one-person content machine after Google's update.3:03 - AI Video Testing: Why human authenticity still beats AI avatars.6:07 - System Setup: Centralizing goals and workflows into a "Second Brain."8:34 - The AI Team: Meet Laura's specific agents (Kiara, Francesca, Julia, Rosella).10:25 - Command Center: Walkthrough of her custom dashboard and time-tracking tool.13:48 - Social Batching: Automating schedules and building a reusable content bank.17:04 - Photography Days: Managing recipes, shoot schedules, and client quotes.19:30 - Results: How the system saves time and improves audience engagement.21:46 - Q&A: Moving assets to Google Drive and republishing YouTube Shorts.24:04 - Q&A: Using Claude Co-work and why Notion acts as the system's memory.28:20 - Global Instructions: Using .md files to run agents and saving token costs.32:46 - Getting Started: How Laura built it all without a coding background.36:13 - Choosing an App: Debating Notion, Craft, and Obsidian for data storage.41:06 - The Future: Discussing open-source agents and auto-building systems.46:37 - AI Goals: Using agents for task execution vs. life optimization.48:45 - Conclusion: Wrap-up and how to contact Laura for consulting.

June 3, 202618 min

Big News! AI Overview & AI Mode stats in Google Search Console!

Google has just released a major update to Search Console, providing website owners with dedicated performance reports for Generative AI features including AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover AI. In this video, I walk through where to find this new report, why impressions matter even without click data, and the new regulatory changes that forced Google's hand.0:00 - Introduction: Google introduces new AI tracking data within Search Console.0:37 - Official Announcement: Google launches Search Generative AI performance reports.1:22 - Report Walkthrough: Looking at the new report, which tracks impressions only.1:58 - Google's Blog Post: Reviewing Google's updates on AI insights and best practices.2:23 - Links & Sources: Discussing inline citations and how to become a "preferred source."3:11 - AI Guidance: Discussing updated rules regarding LLM.txt and optimizing for AI agents.3:45 - The Opt-Out Toggle: Introducing the setting to block Google from using your site for AI.4:46 - The Risk of Opting Out: Why blocking AI might completely kill your search visibility.5:37 - Personal Story: How the speaker updated her site to correct inaccurate AI information.7:08 - UK Rollout: Explaining why the feature is currently limited to a subset of UK users.7:32 - Regulatory Pressure: How UK regulations forced Google to add these transparency tools.9:11 - Impression Counting: Explaining how unique URLs count as impressions in AI Overviews.11:12 - Missing Query Data: Why complex, multi-modal search inputs make keyword tracking impossible.12:53 - Missing Click Data: Analyzing what content earns clicks vs. ignored "commodity content."15:08 - Brand Value: Why being cited in AI answers is still valuable for brand awareness.16:33 - Analysis Strategy: How to pair impression data with standard metrics to optimize content.

May 29, 202619 min

Is your site Agent Ready? New Lighthouse report from Google.

Google just shared experimental documentation to help us get our websites ready for the agentic web. In this video, I walk through the new Lighthouse report, WebMCP integration, and why you might actually need an LLMS.txt file!Timestamps:0:00 - Google's new agentic readiness info1:00 - How to run the report in Chrome Canary1:45 - Why Cumulative Layout Shift matters for agents2:30 - Understanding the AI Accessibility Tree3:40 - WebMCP: Imperative vs. Declarative tools4:35 - Using Modern Web Guidance to code for agents5:10 - The LLMS.txt controversy explained6:10 - Why agents need Markdown files8:10 - How to stay updated in my communityRead more:https://www.mariehaynes.com/lighthouse-report-for-agents/Resources mentioned:Marie's Agent Readiness Tool: agent-readiness.mariehaynes.com Introduction to Lighthouse from Google: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/overviewChrome Canary: google.com/chrome/canaryJoin the discussion in the Search Bar community: https://community.mariehaynes.comJoin the paid Search Bar Pro community: https://mariehaynes.com/join

May 27, 202610 min

New from Google: How to become a preferred source in Google's AI answers

You can now ask your readers to add you as a preferred source, even if you’re not a news site! This will increase the chances that your audience sees you in AI Overview and AI Mode answers.Google’s blog post on the recent changes to preferred source:https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/original-high-quality-content-search/Instructions from Google on how to do this:https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sourcesMy blog if you want to check out the preferred source widget at the bottom of any of my blog posts:https://mariehaynes.com/blog/?utm_source=youtubeMy newsletter:https://mariehaynes.com/newsletter/My community, the Search Bar:https://mariehaynes.com/join/

May 20, 202627 min

The Google I/O announcements important for SEOs and website owners.

At I/O Google announced Information agents, a new Search Box, Antigravity within Search and Universal Cart which will let you put items in a cart from MULTIPLE merchants and then it will check behind the scenes to tell you if another merchant has a better price and more.Search is changing!Here is my Google doc with all of my notes on Google I/O and the Developer keynote:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y_lMum8Sd18Y_FII4yQJMZEqMEVi0Ep6g34ovkMTqhM/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0#heading=h.6dm1fxghyeyn

May 15, 202626 min

New from Google: How to Rank in AI Search

Lots of interesting stuff in this new Google document!In this chat we talk about:-the new role of the index-non commodity content-llms.txt and .md filesand my favourite part - the transition to agentic search.Hope you enjoy (and my apologies for the stutter in the video - not sure what happened there, but at least the audio is solid.)Marie

April 17, 202641 min

Google admits that Search is becoming agentic

Search is becoming agentic, task-oriented, and deeply integrated with AI that learns, improves, and even negotiates on our behalf. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by how quickly AI is reshaping everything from SEO to web development, you're not alone! In this episode I share about Gemini in Chrome, how I built a plant journal with Antigravity, UCP, WebMCP, WordPress' EmDash, Shopify's AI Toolkit, Andrej Karpathy's autoresearch and more.This episode goes with this issue of Search News You Can Use: The Agentic Web is here0:00 - Introduction & Marie's experience with Gemini in Chrome 1:25 - Sundar Pichai interview: Search is becoming agentic 3:32 - Why SEO clicks are dropping (AI Overviews & AI mode) 6:21 - Google's internal use of Antigravity (Agent manager/coding tool) 8:19 - Building a plant journal app using Anti-gravity 11:03 - Liz Reid (Head of Search) on agents taking over web interactions 12:08 - The rise of Agent-to-Agent protocols 13:07 - UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) and the future of e-commerce checkout 15:35 - What is MCP (Model Context Protocol)? 17:53 - WebMCP: Enabling agents to interact directly with your website's front end 19:55 - Demo: Diagnosing a traffic drop using Gemini in Chrome on a specific webpage 22:56 - EmDash: Cloudflare's new AI-native CMS (the "spiritual successor to WordPress") 26:13 - Shopify's AI Toolkit demo (Automating SEO updates and applying discounts) 29:32 - Andrej Karpathy's auto-research and AI recursive self-improvement 32:42 - Project Mythos, Project GlassWing, and cybersecurity concerns 34:43 - Timeline predictions: 2027 as the major inflection point for agentic systems 38:13 - Demis Hassabis on the expanding opportunity space and final thoughts on learning AI tools

April 14, 202658 min

What business owners need to know about UCP: Andrea Li & Marie Haynes

If you sell products online, the way your customers buy from you is about to fundamentally change. We are moving toward a future where buyers will check out directly inside of Google or ChatGPT, without ever visiting your website.It's called Universal Commerce Protocol, or UCP. And while platforms like Shopify are starting to integrate it , if you don't structure your site's data correctly right now, your products are going to become completely invisible to the AI agents doing the shopping.In this video, I sit down with Andrea Li, an SEO and ecommerce expert who actually taught herself how to build AI agents using Claude Code to audit sites for this exact shift. We discuss exactly what UCP is, how to prepare your site for it, and why the era of traditional software might be over. Let's dive in.Links mentioned:The Search Bar free SEO & AI news feed:https://community.mariehaynes.com/spaces/11879397/feedSearch Bar Pro paid community:https://community.mariehaynes.com/collections/1050374?sort=by_hosts Reach Andrea Li:https://redpingeek1.substack.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreali-redpingeek/https://www.redpingeek.com/Andrea's book recommendation: Prediction Machines: https://amzn.to/3OcbBOJ Reach Marie:https://mariehaynes.com/contact/00:00 - Introduction 01:00 - Meet Andrea: From Pinterest Expert to SEO03:15 - What is Agentic Commerce and UCP?06:45 - The Threat of Unconsented AI Scrapers10:00 - Why Shopify Users Have an Advantage13:30 - Building Custom SEO Agents with Claude Code18:15 - The Best Way to Learn AI Coding23:45 - Is SaaS Dead? The Rise of Custom AI Tools28:00 - The Future of Shopping & Google Disco32:15 - Preparing Your E-Commerce Site for UCP35:30 - Rapid Fire: Best AI Advice & Book Recommendations39:00 - Where to Find Andrea & The Search Bar

March 24, 20261 hr 2 min

AI protocols that marketers need to know about - with Liz Micik & Marie Haynes

In this episode of the "Real People Using AI" series, host Marie Haynes sits down with SEO content strategist and AI transition consultant Liz Micik to discuss the massive shift from a chat-based internet to the "Agentic Web." They break down Google's latest developer protocols—including MCP, A2A, UCP, and AP2—and translate what these highly technical concepts mean for everyday business owners and marketers. If you are wondering how AI agents will discover, consume, and negotiate with your website in the future, and what actionable steps you can take right now to prepare your brand (like cleaning up your schema and structured data), this conversation is your roadmap.Google’s blog posts on the agentic protocols:https://developers.googleblog.com/developers-guide-to-ai-agent-protocols/Reach Liz Micik:https://lizmicik.com/Reach Marie:https://mariehaynes.com/contactThe Search Bar:https://mariehaynes/comBecome a member of Marie’s paid community:https://community.mariehaynes.com/collections/10503740:00 – Welcome to the Agentic Web: Moving beyond chat interfaces and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to prepare for AI agents.2:16 – The Evolution of the Web: Why the current shift mirrors the early days of e-commerce and how bots are consuming websites (discussing Cloudflare's markdown feature).11:00 – The 3 C's of AI Readiness: Why your website must be clear, complete, and consistent for AI agents to trust it.13:50 – What is MCP & WebMCP?: Exploring the Model Context Protocol and how AI applications connect to external systems and tools.25:20 – Agent to Agent Protocol (A2A): How agents discover and communicate with one another using JSON Agent Cards.27:50 – Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): The future of AI shopping, building carts across multiple sites, and protecting your business's "moat."38:00 – Agent Payments (AP2) & MPP: How agents will handle transactions, negotiate payments, and the security hurdles of an agentic economy.46:15 – Actionable Advice for Businesses Today: Why Schema and Structured Data are the most important tools you can implement right now.52:00 – Agent to User Interface (A2UI): The potential for AI to generate unique web pages, UIs, and interactive tabs on the fly.56:50 – Summary & Rapid Fire Questions: A quick recap of all the protocols, plus Liz's advice on learning AI, financial planning with Claude, and the importance of reading analog books to kids.