• AFF.Ninja
  • Posts
  • Weekly SEO and Marketing Recap: July 08, 2025

Weekly SEO and Marketing Recap: July 08, 2025

Author

Ali Akbar
July 08, 2025

Hey There, Marketing Mavens! 👋

Hope your week is off to a solid start! It's that time again—time to catch up on what's been happening in our fast-paced world of digital marketing.

Let's get into it!

This Week’s Big Shift

Core Update, AI Mode, and the “Great Decoupling”

June brought major turbulence to Google Search: the June 2025 core update rolled out alongside unconfirmed ranking shifts, AI Mode expanded in the US and India, and the “Great Decoupling” of clicks and impressions confused SEOs. Google also tweaked adult content signals, changed removal thresholds, and began lumping AI Mode data into Search Console reports, sparking industry debate.

New features like audio overviews and site names in AI Overviews are being tested, making this a month of rapid—and sometimes chaotic—change for webmasters

Cybersecurity

A major malware campaign is targeting small and medium-sized businesses by using SEO poisoning. Attackers create fake sites that mimic popular AI and productivity tools, tricking users into downloading malware. Over 8,500 SMB users have been affected, with threats including credential theft and phishing scams.

Google has pulled 352 Android apps from the Play Store after uncovering a scheme called IconAds. These apps generated up to 1.2 billion ad bid requests daily by displaying hidden ads, mostly impacting users in Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S. The fraud led to significant wasted ad spend for advertisers.

SEO & Search

A recent SEO test found that removing meta descriptions led to a small but consistent traffic lift, challenging the long-held belief in their importance. However, critics argue that such tests can be unreliable due to the complex nature of search ranking factors and uncontrollable variables.

Cloudflare’s CEO announced efforts to get Google to allow site owners to block their content from being used in AI Overviews and Answer Boxes, without affecting classic search indexing. Currently, there’s no clean way to prevent content from appearing in these features without impacting overall search visibility.

A new analysis reveals that 12.6% of Google’s “People Also Ask” answers are now generated by AI, especially when no suitable webpage exists to cite. This shift creates both opportunities and challenges for publishers seeking visibility through informational queries.

Google’s AI Overviews are under legal scrutiny in the UK and EU after publishers filed antitrust complaints. They argue that these AI-generated summaries harm their traffic and revenue by using content without permission and reducing visibility of original sources in search results.

A study by Ahrefs, analyzing 600,000 webpages, found no clear evidence that Google penalizes AI-generated content. Most top-ranking pages contained a mix of human and AI writing, suggesting that Google’s algorithms remain neutral toward AI content, focusing instead on overall quality and relevance.

Social Media & Creator Economy

YouTube now allows creators to share detailed channel and audience data with brands, opening new partnership and monetization opportunities. This update helps brands discover relevant creators and enables more transparent collaborations, strengthening YouTube’s position as a top platform for influencer marketing.

Advertising & Industry

As AI tools become more common in advertising, ad agencies are seeing a drop in entry-level and staff-level positions. Automation is streamlining campaign management and reporting, reshaping career paths and prompting agencies to focus on creative and strategic roles for human talent.

Event Spotlight

Connect with top minds in affiliate marketing at TES Prague 2025. This event is your chance to build valuable partnerships, exchange ideas, and sharpen your strategies in a friendly, high-energy setting.

  • Meet industry leaders and network with peers from around the world

  • Join practical sessions focused on real results and actionable insights

  • Explore the latest trends in affiliate marketing, traffic, and monetization

  • Enjoy exclusive access to workshops, panels, and networking lounges

Special Offer: Save 10% on Premium passes with code: r123affninja10

Ready to level up your affiliate game?

Quick Quiz
Test Your Marketing Smarts!

Which search feature now uses AI for 12% of its answers?

A) Featured Snippets
B) People Also Ask
C) Knowledge Panels
D) Image Search

Reply with your guess—winner gets a shoutout next week!

Affiliate Marketing Spotlight

Looking for fresh ways to scale your iGaming campaigns? This new guide breaks down how one affiliate used EVADAV’s ad network to achieve a 325% ROI. Learn how flexible ad formats, fast moderation, and high-quality, engaged traffic helped deliver real results—without the usual headaches of compliance bans or account restrictions.

The case study covers actionable tips, campaign data, and a special ad credit offer for new advertisers.

Hot Take Tuesday
Sometimes we need to say it

This week's hot take: Stop obsessing over perfect content. Your audience wants helpful, honest information—not a novel. That blog post you've been "perfecting" for three weeks? Hit publish. Done beats perfect every single time.

Agree or disagree?
Hit reply and let's debate!

Pro Tip Level up in 30 seconds.

Struggling with low CTR? Try rewriting your meta titles as questions—many readers can’t resist clicking for answers.

That's a wrap for this week, marketing warriors! 🚀
Keep testing, keep optimizing, and keep crushing it out there!

Talk soon,
Ali

P.S. - Forward this to a fellow marketer who needs to stay in the loop. They'll thank you later!