Ranking on the Google SERP isn't enough anymore
đ° NoGood News Vol. 103 | SEO metrics that ACTUALLY matter for AI Search (that no one told you about)
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Welcome to NoGood News, your bi-weekly pulse on all things growth. We break down successful brand campaigns, provide you with the best guides for all things growth marketing, and share emerging trends and insights to keep you ahead of the curve. Plus, exclusive interviews with some of the best in the game.
Here's a quick TL;DR of what's below:
What SEO metrics matter in the era of AI search: The traditional SEO playbook, once centered on keyword rankings and organic clicks, is being rewritten. Unless marketers understand and stay on top of these shifts, theyâll be left behind, missing opportunities for organic growth.
TikTok SEO is more real than you think: Brands and content are now being discovered not through blog posts or web pages, but through socially-native search queries, all of which play into the emerging practice of TikTok SEO.
The 5120 x1080 trend everyone is obsessed with: IG feeds were flooded with panoramic strips from small creators to brands. A trend that blew up just as quickly as it fizzled out.
Ready? Let's get into it.Â
đ What SEO metrics matter in the era of AI search
Learn how to be a trusted source for LLMâs to pull from
3 SEO Metrics That Still Matter in AI Search (& How To Track Them)
If youâre feeling overwhelmed by the rapid change in search, remember, this opportunity is a call for action, not a reason for despair.
The foundational SEO metrics remain, but their application must evolve. To truly measure success, marketers need to start focusing on metrics that reflect their brandâs presence and influence within AI.
Engagement & Conversion Metrics
Since traffic coming from AI search is higher quality, marketers need to start focusing on metrics that measure the value of this high-intent traffic.
Traffic Quality & Conversion Rates: Focus on the number of visitors and what those visitors actually do on the site. (think: conversions like sales, sign-ups, and downloads)
User Engagement Signals: User engagement signals such as time on page, pages per session, and engaged sessions provide a deeper understanding of how well your content resonates with this valuable audience.
Assisted Conversions: Tracking assisted conversions in tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) allows you to see how your content contributes to a conversion even when itâs not the final step.
On-Site User Journey Analysis: By analyzing user flows and click paths, you can identify which pages are most effective at guiding users toward a conversion as they navigated to your page after they saw your brand in an AI search result.
Audience Behavior Metrics: Beyond the typical engagement metrics, look for shifts in audience behavior. These behavioral patterns can help you create more of the content that resonates most with this audience.
đą TikTok SEO is more real than you think
Read our complete guide to increase your contentâs visibility
Why Is TikTok SEO Important?
The mechanics of search are changing.
Where discovery once began with a typed query on Google, itâs now initiated through short-form video, creator reviews, and algorithmically surfaced content on TikTok.
Understanding and applying SEO within this context is critical for staying visible in the places where consumer decisions now begin.
Gen Z Is Reshaping the Discovery Funnel: TikTok is now the starting point for search for a large segment of Gen Z. Whether theyâre looking for a new restaurant, researching a product, or solving a problem, theyâre searching within TikTok first; not Google.
Traditional Search Channels Are Losing Consumer Trust: Users are increasingly skeptical of content that is optimized for SEO, appearing to prioritize rankings and click-through rates over actual value.
TikTok Is Engineering Its Platform Around Search & Commerce: The launch of TikTok Shop in 2023 marked a deliberate move toward becoming a full-funnel eCommerce platform. As search queries increasingly center on product reviews, demos, and recommendations, the brands that win are those that surface content aligned with these intent signals.
TikTok Content Is Now Indexable by Google: TikTok videos are now appearing on Google SERPs for intent-driven queries, particularly in lifestyle, how-to, and trend-based categories.
đˇ The 5120 x1080 trend everyone is obsessed with
Find out what jumping on trends really means for brands
NO ONE would have expected this to go viral.
This is the 5120 x 1080px trend.
Itâs a panoramic strip that completely cuts out the top and bottom of a frame and chances are, youâre squinting to see the video.
Itâs dramatic, catches you off guard, and makes you wonder âhow did legal approval of this?â
What started off as a trend for cinematographers to show off landscape clips soon became a viral trend that almost every major brand jumped onto.
But hereâs what these brands need to keep in mind: jumping on every trend isnât a strategy.
Reacting quickly to trends and cultural moments is important, but that shouldnât come at the expense of strategic direction.
KitKatâs version was a clever play â they posted a single KitKat bar strip that fit perfectly into a 5120 x 1080px post.
E.L.F lined up all of their lip oils but leveraged the timing of this trend to promote their plumping lip oil drop (which got over 700k views).
Set Active zoomed in on their fabrics to show off quality.
Then we have brands like Poppi and Levain Bakery who just posted their products without telling their viewers anything new.
Itâs easy to jump onto a trend by just replicating what everyone else is doing.
But the best brands turn a trend into something that feels fresh, original, and true to their values.
In other words: a trend is the format, not a strategy.
Which brand had your favorite 5120 x 1080px reel?
đď¸ Q&A with an expert
A bi-weekly interview series with the best in the game
Q: What triggered the disruption in search rank and position tracking recently?
A: The impress-ageddon was triggered by Google removing the &num=100 parameter, which controlled the number of results displayed per page. This lead to significant drops in reported impressions and disruptions for SEO and data-scraping tools that relied on it to view up to 100 search results at once. This change occurred the course of the weekend of September 12th, 2025.
Q: What new approaches or workarounds are you developing to maintain accuracy and trust?
A: Since Google has chosen to represent their data in a new way, we must work to reset our baselines and expectations around what impression shares will look like. Thereâs good news thoughâin all likelihood, Googleâs new tracking is more accurate than it used to be. The impression traffic generated by bots and scrapers is now much lower than it used to be, signaling that the new counts are more representative of human traffic. As long as this phenomenon is clearly explained to anyone reviewing past performance, it should be understood that there will be a ânew normalâ with impression traffic moving forward.
âď¸ We wish we wrote this
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đ Keeping up on the socials
Because IYKYK is better than FOMO:
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Are Labubus facing the same fate as Beanie Babies?
Blank Street isnât your favorite coffee shop anymore
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đĽ Trend Radar: Blow up or fall behind
The trending topics, sounds, and formats to keep an eye on:
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