Optimizing for AI search is “the same” as optimizing for traditional search, Google SVP of Knowledge and Information Nick Fox said in a recent podcast. His advice was simple: build great sites with great content for your users.

More details. Fox made the point on the AI Inside podcast, during an interview with Jason Howell and Jeff Jarvis. Here is the transcript from the 22 minute mark:

Jarvis: “Is there guidance for enlightened publishers who want to be part of AI about how they should view, should they view their content in any way differently now?”

Fox: “The short answer is no. The short answer is what you would have built and the way to optimize to do well in Google’s AI experiences is very similar, I would say the same, as how to perform well in traditional search. And it really does come down to build a great site, build great content. The way we put it is: build for users. Build what you would want to read, what you would want to access.”

• This jives with what Danny Sullivan from Google said, that good GEO is good SEO.
• This echoes Google’s Gary Illyes advice from July – that all you need to do is normal SEO.

Why we care. Many of you have been practicing SEO for many years, and now with this AI revolution in Search, you should know you are very well equipped to perform well in AI Search with many, if not all, of the skills you learned doing SEO. So have at it.

The video. Is AI Search Hurting The Open Web? With Google’s Nick Fox // AI Inside #104

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Google Search Console appears to have fixed the weeks-long delay in Performance reports. After several weeks of 50+ hour lag times, the reports now seem up to date as of the past few hours.

Now up-to-date. If you check the Search Performance report now, you should see a normal delay of about two to six hours. Over the past few weeks, that delay had stretched to more than 70 hours.

This is what I see:

The delays began a few weeks ago and took roughly three weeks to fully clear, including the backlog of data.

Page indexing report. Meanwhile, the Page Indexing report delay we reported weeks ago is still unresolved. The report is now almost a month behind, and Google has not fixed it yet. Google posted a notice at the top of the report that says:

• “Due to internal issues, this report has not been updated to reflect recent data”

Why we care. If you rely on Search Console data for analytics and stakeholder or client reporting, this has been extremely frustrating. The Performance reports now appear to be updating normally, but the Page Indexing report remains heavily delayed and will continue to create reporting headaches.

Meanwhile, Google released a number of new features in the past few weeks, including:

• AI-powered configuration for the Search Performance report
• Social channels in the Insights report
• Weekly and monthly smoothing in the Performance report

Google has updated its JavaScript SEO basics documentation to clarify how Google’s crawler handles noindex tags in pages that use JavaScript. In short, if “you do want the page indexed, don’t use a noindex tag in the original page code,” Google wrote.

What is new. Google updated this section to read:

• “When Google encounters the noindex tag, it may skip rendering and JavaScript execution, which means using JavaScript to change or remove the robots meta tag from noindex may not work as expected. If you do want the page indexed, don’t use a noindex tag in the original page code.”

In the past, it read:

• “If Google encounters the noindex tag, it skips rendering and JavaScript execution. Because Google skips your JavaScript in this case, there is no chance to remove the tag from the page. Using JavaScript to change or remove the robots meta tag might not work as expected. Google skips rendering and JavaScript execution if the robots meta tag initially contains noindex. If there is a possibility that you do want the page indexed, don’t use a noindex tag in the original page code.”

Why the change. Google explained, “While Google may be able to render a page that uses JavaScript, the behavior of this is not well defined and might change. If there’s a possibility that you do want the page indexed, don’t use a noindex tag in the original page code.”

Why we care. It may be safer not to use JavaScript for important protocols and blocking of Googlebot or other crawlers. If you want to ensure a search engine does not rank a specific page, make sure not to use JavaScript to execute those directives.

Google released the December 2025 core update today, the company announced.

This is the third core update of 2025 and the fourth major Google algorithm update overall. Earlier this year, Google rolled out the August 2025 spam update, which followed the June 2025 core update and the March 2025 core update.

What Google is saying. Google updated its Search Status Dashboard to state:

• “Released the December 2025 core update. The rollout may take up to 3 weeks to complete.”

Google added on LinkedIn:

• “This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”

About core updates. Core updates roll out several times each year. They introduce broad, significant changes to Google’s search algorithms and systems, which is why Google announces them.

• Google also releases some smaller, unannounced core updates.
• It has been a long time since the last core update. While many expected Google to roll out core updates more frequently, that didn’t happen.

Video on this core update. I made this short video a few hours after publishing this story:

What to do if you are hit. Google did not share any new guidance specific to the December 2025 core update. However, in the past, Google has offered advice on what to consider if a core update negatively impacts your site:

• There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
• Google offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.
• Google said you can see some recovery between core updates, but the biggest change would be after another core update.

In short: write helpful content for people and not to rank in search engines.

• “There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page,” Google said previously.

For more details on Google core updates, you can read Google’s documentation.

Previous core updates. Here’s a timeline and our coverage of recent core updates:

• The June 2025 core update was on June 30 and ended on July 17.
• The March 2025 core update was on Mar. 13 and ended on Mar. 27.
• The December 2024 core update was on Dec. 12 and ended on Dec. 18.
• The November 2024 core update was on Nov. 11 and ended on Dec. 5.
• The August 2024 core update was on Aug. 15 and ended on Sept. 3.
• The March 2024 core update was on March 5 and ended on April 19.

Why we care. With any core update, we often see significant volatility in Google search results and rankings. These updates may improve visibility for your site or your clients’ sites, but some may experience fluctuations or even declines in rankings and organic traffic. We hope this update rewards your efforts and drives strong traffic and conversions.

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