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- Weekly SEO and Marketing Recap: July 15, 2025
Weekly SEO and Marketing Recap: July 15, 2025
Ali Akbar
July 15, 2025
What’s up, traffic hunters?
🏹 Your weekly dose of rankings, revenue, and ROI starts right now.
Lead Story — SERP Volatility Alert
Two weeks after Google rolled out its June 2025 core update, ranking volatility is still “heated,” with major swings recorded across industry tracking tools.
Good Morning Google Land! This is the July 12th edition of "Core Update Notes". Now that we are close to two weeks into the core update, I ran the visibility numbers for all of the sites I have documented so far that are seeing a lot of volatility. There are some massive surges
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe)
1:51 PM • Jul 12, 2025
Early partial recoveries seen after July 7 have propelled some sites into AI Overviews and other rich-result slots, yet many publishers continue to suffer sharp traffic drops.
WebmasterWorld chatter shows mixed fortunes: a few domains report 30–50% rebounds, while others remain down or see erratic fluctuations.
The roller-coaster underscores Google’s ongoing quality recalibrations and the heightened risk–and opportunity–for SEO teams monitoring daily movements.
SEO & Search
John Mueller stresses that websites will always need optimization because search engines and chatbots still depend on crawlable, well-structured pages to surface information.
Unlike the long-abandoned meta-keywords tag, the emerging llms.txt file points large language models to real URLs, so SEOs shouldn’t dismiss it as empty “keyword stuffing”.
Google reiterates that automation is fine only when content is original, high-quality, and meets its E-E-A-T standards—otherwise it risks ranking penalties.
Source: SELand
An in-depth explainer shows meaningful ranking gains typically appear after 3–6 months, can fluctuate for a year, and hinge on site age, content depth, and algorithm transition periods.
ChatGPT now pulls product data directly from Shopify’s merchant network, signalling a broader push into e-commerce discovery and richer shopping-style answers.
Affiliate & Content Marketing
Affiverse warns that low-effort AI articles may score fleeting wins, but sustainable rankings still demand originality, user value, and compliance with Google’s quality signals.
Advertising & PPC
Advertisers praise Gemini’s real-time intent modelling for smarter bids, yet tests reveal a 20% advice-error rate—underscoring the need to validate AI suggestions before acting.
Social Media & Platforms
The company refutes reports of a separate U.S. version with its own algorithm, reaffirming its single global feed and consistent creator reach.
New tools instantly animate photos into short clips, letting marketers produce eye-catching social posts without advanced editing skills.
Elon Musk’s firm unveils an on-premise Grok model tailored to U.S. agencies, pitching secure generative AI for sensitive workloads.
Creator Monetization & Policy
YouTube is cracking down on ‘unoriginal’ content with a major monetization change
Starting July 15, channels that do not meaningfully transform clips risk losing monetization. That includes reaction channels, compilation pages, and more
— Dexerto (@Dexerto)
9:03 PM • Jul 2, 2025
Channels mass-producing low-quality, generative videos now face demonetisation, pushing creators toward authentic, value-driven content.
Facebook and Instagram will downrank or demonetise recycled posts, tightening standards and rewarding truly original material.
✈️ Event Radar
Affiliate World Europe 2025 - Budapest, 4–5 September
Over two high-energy days, 7,000+ affiliates, ecommerce founders, ad-tech vendors, and traffic-source execs will trade playbooks, close deals, and network late into the night.
The agenda packs 35+ live talks across six tracks (Google Ads, TikTok, Meta, AI & more) plus a 300-booth marketplace and early-access networking app, all hosted at the brand-new MTK Sportpark venue.
Exclusive deal: Use our link to slice 50% off any ticket—limited allotment, first-come first-served.
🎯 Quick-Fire Quiz: Test Your Marketing Mojo
(Answers at the bottom—no cheating, Ninja!)
Google’s June 2025 core update is still causing SERP swings. What’s the best first step if your rankings tank overnight?
A) Panic and rewrite everything
B) Audit content quality and internal links
C) Add more ads above the foldTikTok just denied rumors of a U.S-only version. Which signal still matters most for getting on the “For You” page?
A) Hashtag count
B) Early watch-time and replays
C) Video length over 3 minutesYouTube’s July 15 “AI-slop” crackdown targets…
A) Duplicate, low-value generative videos
B) All AI-assisted edits
C) Gaming-livestream highlights
Reward: Nail all three and tweet your score with #AffNinja—top scorers get a shout-out in the next issue.
🛠️ Tool Spotlight
PayDo: A Game-Changer for Affiliate Payments
If you're juggling international payments or running affiliate campaigns across borders, don't miss this in-depth review of PayDo. This payment platform shines with multi-currency IBANs, 350+ payment methods, unlimited virtual/physical cards, and seamless mass payouts—perfect for Affiliates and media buyers.
Pros include top-notch security and competitive fees, though watch for limited support and regional restrictions. Rated 4.8/5, it's a solid pick for global hustlers
Read Full Review HERE!
📊 Stat-Snack: 60-Second Pulse Check
37% of SEOs plan to increase schema investments post-core-update volatility.
$92 B is the projected global media-buy budget for 2029—AI-driven spends lead the surge.
4× higher click-through rate on TikTok ads that feature user-generated clips versus polished brand spots.
Use these numbers to justify your next budget ask—screenshots welcome.
Quiz Answers
1-B | 2-B | 3-A
How’d you score? Hit reply and brag—or ask for help if you’re stuck.
That’s a wrap!
Got a win or facepalm to share? Hit reply—I read every story.
Ali, AFFNinja