Tag: google

Digital illustration showing AI content licensing agreements between publishers and technology companies with data streams and contract symbols

How AI Licensing Deals Determine Search Visibility in 2025

On By Will ScottIn ai, internet marketing, seo1 Comment

The AI content licensing landscape transformed dramatically in September-October 2025, shifting from bilateral agreements to systematic marketplace infrastructure. This comprehensive analysis examines the major deals shaping AI search results, including OpenAI's $250+ million News Corp partnership, Reddit's $60-70 million annual agreements with Google and OpenAI, and the groundbreaking Real Simple Licensing (RSL) protocol. The $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright settlement—the largest in history—established a $3,000-per-work baseline that fundamentally changed licensing economics. With 60% of major publishers now blocking AI crawlers and Cloudflare's Pay Per Crawl marketplace launching, the industry faces a critical inflection point. This deep dive reveals how licensing deals directly impact which content appears in AI search results reaching 800 million weekly users, the 93% zero-click problem threatening publisher revenues, and strategic implications for content creators navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

Header image by DALL-E inspired by the sub-head: Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Robot.

Passage Rank, Retrieval Augmented Generation, and The Future of SEO

On By Will ScottIn internet marketing

I have come to believe that understanding Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), structured data, e.g., Schema.org, and the way that LLMs retrieve and store data is critical in the future of SEO.

Live Q&A On Tiered Link Building With Chris Palmer SEO

On By Will ScottIn business, internet marketing, will scott

I've been testing a number of link building services including some from Chris Palmer SEO. He and I were chatting by phone and he asked if I'd be willing to go live with him. Chris is a big fan of "tiered link building" and so I asked him for some ideas on strategy, pacing of …

Continue reading Live Q&A On Tiered Link Building With Chris Palmer SEO

Whatever Happened to Hard Hat SEO

On By Will ScottIn internet marketing1 Comment

Forever ago, I came across a blog post that used the phrase "Hard Hat SEO." I've gone looking for that piece a few times. There's an abandoned URL and LinkedIn profile, but not the post. I always love that phrase - Hard Hat SEO. The author says, "I'm not a black hat; I'm not a …

Continue reading Whatever Happened to Hard Hat SEO

Over at Search Influence: Learnings from Local U Advanced in Denver

On By Will ScottIn business, internet marketing

I had the good fortune to take part in Local U Advanced in Denver on September 19th. I wrote about it on the Search Influence blog. The bullet points: Sterling Sky is buying Local U We've been wrong all along about <title> tag length Google is whomping Yelp in reviews, even in Yelp's typically strong …

Continue reading Over at Search Influence: Learnings from Local U Advanced in Denver

Google Places Guideline Enforcement Plan – from @mblumenthal

On By Will ScottIn internet marketing

Mike Blumenthal of commissioned this funny cartoon about the Google Places Guidelines Enforcement. It doesn't look good for the B&B owner. "Google Places Enforcement Plan"by Margaret Shulock is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at blumenthals.com.