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AI & SEO Trends Update – 10th July 2026

Daniel May
Daniel May Author
10 Jul 2026
8 min read
<span id="hs_cos_wrapper_name" class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_text" style="" data-hs-cos-general-type="meta_field" data-hs-cos-type="text" >AI & SEO Trends Update – 10th July 2026</span>

Since our last AI & SEO Trends Update, there have been several important developments across Google Search, Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and the wider AI search landscape.

This update is less about one major core update and more about how search visibility is being measured, reported and redistributed across different surfaces.

The main updates are:

  • Google has completed a new spam update
  • Search Console’s generative AI reporting is continuing to roll out
  • Bing has expanded its AI visibility reporting
  • Google has introduced new ways to track how social and video content performs in Search.

At the same time, the wider story around zero-click behaviour continues to build. More searches are being resolved inside the search results themselves, which means organic visibility may not always translate into organic clicks in the way it used to.

In short, SEO is becoming broader than website traffic alone. It is increasingly about being visible, cited, trusted and remembered across a more fragmented search journey.

Key Takeaway

Search visibility is becoming broader than website clicks. The most important theme from the past few weeks is measurement.

Google is beginning to show generative AI impressions in Search Console, Bing is expanding citation-led AI reporting in Webmaster Tools, and Google has introduced platform properties to help creators and publishers understand how social and video content appears in Search.

Together, these changes show that SEO reporting is expanding beyond traditional rankings, clicks and impressions.

Website traffic is still important. But it is no longer the only signal of whether SEO is working. Increasingly, we also need to understand:

  • Whether pages are appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode
  • Whether content is being cited in AI-generated answers
  • Whether social and video content is visible in Search
  • Whether branded and direct traffic are increasing as organic clicks become harder to win
  • Whether content is influencing users before they ever visit the website

This does not mean SEO is losing value. It means the way SEO creates value is becoming more layered.

June 2026 Spam Update Completed

Google released its June 2026 spam update on 24th June, and the rollout was complete by 26th June.

The update applied globally and across all languages. Google did not provide detailed information about the specific spam systems or tactics being targeted, which is typical for spam updates.

Unlike a broad core update, a spam update is more focused on reducing the visibility of content or tactics that Google considers to violate its spam policies. This can include manipulative, scaled, deceptive or low-value approaches designed to game rankings rather than help users.

What This Means For You

If you saw visibility changes between 24th and 26th June, it is worth reviewing whether they align with the spam update window.

However, not all movement during that period should automatically be treated as spam-related. Rankings can fluctuate for many reasons, especially in the weeks after a major core update.

The key things to review are:

  • Whether any drop was sudden and severe
  • Whether affected pages have thin, duplicated or scaled content
  • Whether pages were created mainly to capture search traffic rather than help users
  • Whether there are doorway-style pages, excessive automation or manipulative tactics
  • Whether content genuinely satisfies the user intent behind the query

For most legitimate business websites, this update may not require any specific action. But it is still useful to log the dates in reporting so late-June movement can be assessed in context.

Read more here:

Search Console AI Performance Reporting Continues to Roll Out

Google’s Search Generative AI performance reports remain one of the most important developments for SEO reporting.

These reports are designed to show impressions from generative AI features in Google Search, including:

  • AI Overviews
  • AI Mode
  • Generative AI features in Discover

The reports are still rolling out incrementally, so not every property will have access yet. Google has also confirmed that access may depend on whether the property is included in the rollout and whether it has enough generative AI impressions to report.

Google Clarified How AI Impressions Are Counted

A useful clarification came from Google’s John Mueller around how impressions are counted in the new AI performance reporting.

In simple terms, a page receives an impression when a link to that page is actually shown in an AI Overview or AI Mode result. If a link is only visible after a user expands or activates part of the result, the impression is counted only when that interaction happens.

This matters because it means AI impressions are not simply counted whenever an AI Overview appears. Your page needs to be visibly included as a linked source.

What This Means For You

This makes AI visibility more measurable, but there are still limits.

The reports focus on impressions, not full click-level reporting. That means we can start to understand when content is being surfaced in AI-led search features, but we still need to connect that data with other signals, including:

  • Organic clicks
  • Ranking movement
  • Landing page performance
  • Branded search
  • Direct traffic
  • Conversions
  • Enquiry quality

AI visibility is becoming a reporting metric, but it should not be looked at in isolation.

Read more here:

Bing Webmaster Tools Expands AI Visibility Reporting

Bing Webmaster Tools has continued to build out one of the more useful AI reporting views currently available.

Following its earlier AI Performance dashboard, Bing has now introduced additional AI visibility insights, including:

  • Intents: the user intent behind AI answers where your content appears
  • Topics: broader themes associated with your AI visibility
  • Citation Share: how often your site is cited compared with other sources
  • Compare: the ability to compare AI visibility across different time periods

This gives website owners a more detailed view of how their content is being used in AI-generated answers across Bing and Microsoft Copilot experiences.

What This Means For You

Bing is currently giving website owners a more citation-led view of AI search performance than Google. Google’s reporting focuses mainly on AI impressions. Bing is showing more around citations, topics, intents and comparative visibility.

These are different metrics, but both point in the same direction: SEO reporting is moving beyond classic rankings and clicks.

For SEO teams, this creates new questions to answer:

  • Which topics are generating AI visibility?
  • Which pages are being cited?
  • Are competitors being cited more often?
  • Which intents are most associated with our content?
  • Is AI visibility improving over time?

Even if Bing is not the largest source of organic traffic for every business, its reporting is useful because it gives an early view of how AI search measurement may evolve more widely.

Read more here:

Search Console Adds Platform Properties for Social and Video Content

Google has also introduced platform properties in Search Console, which are currently being rolled out gradually. This means the feature may not be available to all users yet.

Once available, platform properties allow creators, publishers and businesses to track how content from social and video platforms performs in Google Search. Supported platforms currently include Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.

This is a useful development because SEO visibility is no longer limited to traditional website pages. Google increasingly surfaces social posts, videos, creator content and platform profiles within Search and other search experiences.

However, it is important to note that platform properties only show how this content performs on Google Search. They do not show native platform performance, such as how many times a TikTok video appeared on TikTok or how many impressions an Instagram post received inside Instagram itself.

With platform properties, Google says users can monitor how people find their platform content through Search and see performance data more clearly inside Search Console.

What This Means For You

This reinforces a broader point: SEO is becoming more connected to wider digital visibility.

For brands, useful social and video content may contribute to search visibility even when it does not sit directly on your website. But this should be viewed as Google Search visibility for platform content, not a replacement for native social or video analytics.

This could be particularly relevant for:

  • Thought leadership content
  • Short-form video
  • YouTube content
  • Personal brand content
  • Product demonstrations
  • Educational posts
  • Social proof and experience-led content

For businesses investing in social or video, this gives another reason to treat those channels as part of the wider search ecosystem, not just separate brand awareness activity.

Read more here:

Zero-Click Behaviour Remains a Key Reporting Challenge

Zero-click search continues to be one of the biggest challenges for SEO measurement.

SparkToro research, based on Similarweb clickstream data, found that 68.01% of Google searches in the US ended without a click in the first four months of 2026. Search Engine Land also reported that the share of searches generating at least one click fell between 2024 and 2026.

This matters because search visibility may still influence users even when it does not result in an immediate website visit.

A user may:

  • See your brand in an AI Overview
  • Read an answer directly in Search
  • Notice your content cited by an AI system
  • Watch a video or social post surfaced in Google
  • Search your brand later
  • Return directly to your website
  • Convert through another channel

In that scenario, SEO has still played a role, but the visit may not be attributed to organic search.

What This Means For You

Traditional organic clicks are still important, but they are no longer the whole story.

As more answers are surfaced directly in search results, we need to look at a wider set of signals, including:

  • Branded search demand
  • Direct traffic
  • AI visibility
  • Search Console impressions
  • Bing citation data
  • Assisted conversions
  • Enquiry quality
  • Visibility across social and video search results

This does not mean organic search is becoming less valuable. It means organic search is becoming harder to measure using clicks alone.

The brands that are most resilient will be those that build visibility, trust and recall across multiple touchpoints.

Read more here:

AI Overviews Continue to Change How Users Interact With Search

There is also growing evidence that AI Overviews are changing user behaviour.

A recent large-scale study of Google AI Overviews found that they appeared far more often for question-led searches than for other query types. This supports what many SEO teams are already seeing: informational queries are more likely to be answered directly within the search interface.

The same study also highlighted that AI Overviews can cite sources that do not always match the standard first-page organic results. This suggests that AI visibility and traditional ranking visibility are connected, but not identical.

What This Means For You

Ranking well still matters, but it may not always be enough.

For informational content especially, we need to consider whether the page is:

  • Clear enough to be summarised
  • Authoritative enough to be cited
  • Specific enough to answer the user’s question
  • Useful enough to stand out from generic content
  • Structured enough for search systems to interpret easily

AI Overviews make the quality and clarity of content more important, not less.

They also make it more important to track visibility beyond standard ranking positions.

Read more here:

Conclusion: What to Look Out For

Over the next few weeks, the biggest thing to monitor is how AI visibility reporting develops across Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

You may notice:

  • More properties gaining access to Search Console generative AI reports
  • More discussion around AI impressions rather than just organic clicks
  • Bing becoming a useful early indicator for AI citation visibility
  • Social and video content becoming easier to track in Search Console
  • Rankings staying stable while organic clicks fluctuate
  • Direct and branded traffic becoming more important in overall reporting
  • More pressure on generic informational content as AI answers become more common

The key thing is not to treat any single metric as the full picture.

Rankings, clicks, AI impressions, citations, direct traffic, branded demand and conversions all need to be considered together.

What We’ll Be Monitoring

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be keeping a close eye on:

  • Whether any late-June movement aligns with the June 2026 spam update
  • Which properties gain access to Search Console generative AI reports
  • How AI impressions are distributed across pages, devices and countries
  • Whether AI visibility correlates with changes in organic clicks or direct traffic
  • Bing Webmaster Tools citation, intent and topic data where available
  • Social and video performance through Search Console platform properties
  • Direct traffic, branded search and AI referral patterns
  • Whether informational content is seeing fewer clicks despite stable rankings
  • Opportunities to improve content so it is clearer, more useful and more likely to be surfaced in AI-led search experiences

The main takeaway is simple: SEO is no longer just about driving the click from a traditional results page.

It is about being discoverable, trusted and visible across a wider search ecosystem — from organic listings and AI Overviews to social content, video, citations, branded search and direct traffic.

If you have any questions about how these changes may affect your SEO strategy, get in touch with us today.
Daniel May

About the Author: Daniel May

Author

Daniel May is an SEO Executive at Angelfish Marketing, specialising in SEO content optimisation, technical and link building.

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