SEO and AI search · Ottawa–Gatineau

SEO and AI search advice you can check.

Every claim on this site links to its source: Google's own documentation, its update dashboard, or a test we ran. Learn it yourself, or have us do the work.

Get a free visibility audit Start learning

Writing about search since 2015 · English and French

Claim check

“Add an llms.txt file to show up in Google's AI Overviews.”
Not true for Google Confirmed–Google

Google Search doesn't use llms.txt or AI-specific markup. Adding one neither helps nor hurts your visibility in Google.

Source: Google Search Central · AI optimization guide · updated Jul 10, 2026

What changed in search

Three facts worth knowing before you spend a dollar on SEO

8% vs 15%

People click results less when an AI summary appears

Share of Google searches with a click on a result, with and without an AI summary. 68,879 searches by 900 US adults, March 2025.

Pew Research Center · Jul 2025

May 15 2026

Gaming AI answers is now officially spam

Google's spam policies now cover attempts to manipulate its generative AI responses, including fake mentions and pages built for every query variation.

Google Search Central · Spam policies

Oct 14 2025

AI Mode answers in French in Canada

Google's AI Mode launched in Canada in English in August 2025 and in French two months later. Bilingual sites now compete in both.

Google Canada blog

Learn

Learn how search actually works

Ten topics, written so a business owner can follow them and a marketer can use them. Each one labels what Google has confirmed, what studies show, and what's only our view.

See all ten topics
Keyword research guideAn 8-step process that starts with your competitors, with a paid and a free route for each step. AI search and GEOHow AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Copilot choose the pages they cite. Is Google search going away?What Google and independent research show, and a 5-question test for pages people still click. Local SEO guideGet found in the map box on both sides of the river, in English and French. Interview: Martin Vassilev12 years of Ottawa SEO, and the three questions to ask before you hire anyone. Google updates logEvery confirmed Google core and spam update, with dates and what it targeted.

Updates

Latest confirmed Google updates

Full update log
StartedUpdateTypeRollout
Sep 24, 2026September 2026 spam updateSpam13 days, 16 h
Aug 18, 2026August 2026 spam updateSpam2 days, 16 h
Jun 24, 2026June 2026 spam updateSpam2 days, 1 h
May 21, 2026May 2026 core updateCore11 days, 21 h

Source: Google Search Status Dashboard · checked Oct 11, 2026

Services

When you'd rather we did the work

The same methods we teach, applied to your site by the person who wrote the guides.

See services
  • Search engine optimization
  • AI search visibility (GEO)
  • Schema markup
  • Local SEO
  • Bilingual English/French sites
  • Visibility audits

What you can hold us to

No guarantees we can't keep. Sources for everything we can.

  • No ranking guarantees. Nobody can honestly promise page one.
  • Every recommendation comes with its source or the test behind it.
  • A named person writes and signs every article and audit.
  • Mistakes get corrected in public, with a note on what changed.

Find out what's holding your site back.

A plain-language audit of how you show up in Google and in AI answers.

Get a free visibility audit

// three fields · no card · no contract