iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 01/10/2026

When I opted this website out of Google's AI search features, AI impressions dropped *instantly* Seemingly in minutes But after opting back in, AI visibility is taking MUCH LONGER to return. Watch this space.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 24/09/2026

We put every single Google "ranking factor" from our 2026 Expert Survey in one giant, enormous, far-too-big chart It's SO big we couldn't upload the full thing here It's SO big it blocks the sun It's SEO big signal.zyppy.com/p/full-2026-...

signal.zyppy.com

The Full 2026 Google Ranking Factors Chart

One chart showing what helps, or hurts, Google rankings from a survey of experts.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 16/09/2026

New: How do you “rank” in Google AI? What factors determine if Google’s AI answers recommend your brand or website? To find out, we asked 130+ search experts, many at the very top of their field, what moves the needle. signal.zyppy.com/p/google-ai-... Big thanks to all our contributors 🙏

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 14/09/2026

10/10 SEO tip via the Google Ranking Factors Survey "Using AI to help you publish ten times the amount of the same quality content in half the time is not as good as using AI to help you publish the same amount of content,but ten times the quality" Everett Sizemore signal.zyppy.com/p/google-ran...

signal.zyppy.com

2026 Google Ranking Factors Expert Survey

We asked 131 SEOs, including some of the most respected in the industry, what factors are most important for ranking on Google in 2026.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 09/09/2026

New: The 2026 Google Ranking Factors Expert Survey signal.zyppy.com/p/google-ran... We surveyed 131 top SEOs to score which factors most affect Google's organic search rankings. Together, the experts contributed over 13,000 data points and 100s of comments. Big thanks to the contributors!

signal.zyppy.com

2026 Google Ranking Factors Expert Survey

We asked 131 SEOs, including some of the most respected in the industry, what factors are most important for ranking on Google in 2026.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 13/08/2026

New - Content Effort: The Google Ranking Signal Nobody Talks About Google has talked about, measured, and scored qualities like EFFORT for nearly 20 years, and we’ve barely noticed Effort isn’t what you think it is. Effort ≠ work. It's something way more important signal.zyppy.com/p/content-ef...

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Gaston Riera @gastonriera.com · 10/08/2026

Goddamn, I envy the simplicity and clarity that @zyppy.com has when writing articles. This is a great piece on SEO&AEO, that the overlap is quite significant, including what lever we all have on each case. signal.zyppy.com/p/seo-strate... Thank you Cyrus!

signal.zyppy.com

These SEO Strategies Drive 90% of Your AI Visibility

Google says, “good SEO is good GEO”.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 06/08/2026

Haters will say it's fake, but here's how we started reporting rising Google traffic with this one simple trick 📈

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 04/08/2026

New: These SEO Strategies Drive 90% of Your AI Visibility Asking if GEO/SEO are the same isn't the right question. If you tweak traditional SEO, you can use the same strategies+tactics for • AI Inclusion • AI Citations • AI Recommendations signal.zyppy.com/p/seo-strate...

signal.zyppy.com

These SEO Strategies Drive 90% of Your AI Visibility

Google says, “good SEO is good GEO”.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 06/07/2026

I heard we are supposed to publish self-promotional listicles of questionable accuracy. So here are the world's top bald SEO experts: 1. Cyrus Shepard 2. Mark Williams-Cook 3. John Mueller 4. Nathan Gotch 5. Rand Fishkin 6. Danny Sullivan 7. Matt Cutts

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 29/06/2026

What happened to 100 "Content" blogs before Google's HCU and AI Overviews? 85% lost traffic, 11 collapsed, but a handful actually GREW (here's where the lesson is) Great analysis: "The Great Blogging Collapse" danielstanica.com/posts/Great-...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 27/06/2026

Wish you had screenshots like these with your winning Google traffic? Need to show the boss evidence of your SEO brilliance? Now you can! I built a Google Traffic Simulator that generates traffic charts for any value you choose. Now, anyone can be an SEO genius zyppy.com/traffic-simu...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 25/06/2026

New: You already know about AI fan-out queries You ALSO likely know that ranking for fan-out queries can increase your chances of getting cited in AI answers But how do you optimize for this? I couldn't find a great guide, so I wrote one. signal.zyppy.com/p/fan-out-fr... Hope you find it useful

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 22/06/2026

Got a site with a big shift in Google traffic? Give me a URL, and I'll run it through the SEO Competitive Analysis tool I built w/ Agent A (partnered with Ahrefs). I'll post the report here: • finds your organic competitors • tracks who gained/lost traffic • analyzes URL-level content-type shifts

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 18/06/2026

Strange to think that Backlinko is owned by Semrush, which is owned by Adobe, which is owned by investor funds like BlackRock and Vanguard If you have any money in index funds or retirement accounts, you probably own a little piece of Backlinko yourself It's Backlinko all the way down

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 11/06/2026

Traditional SEO rankings multiply AI citations Great conversation w/ @chrisraulf.bsky.social on earning AI Citations • Why Foundational SEO Still Wins • The Fan Out Multiplier • How AI Reads Your Page • How AI Reads Your Page www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KNH...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 11/06/2026

My latest podcast episode is now live

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 10/06/2026

The State of SEO in 2026 Great conversation with the folks at @Adsy_Com - covered nearly every major SEO topic of the year: - Why Google doesn't know who should rank number one until you tell them - How optimizing for CTR can actually hurt you - More, more, more www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSvv...

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Traffic Recovery Is Often a Business Problem ft Cyrus Shepard (Adsy Talks ep. 10)

YouTube video by Adsy - Content Marketing Platform

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 09/06/2026

Close, Google So close

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Dawn Shepard @dawnshepard.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

This video is my weird fantasy about eating, and I think it could become yours. Please enjoy French Bread House. (sound on)

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 04/06/2026

If Google doesn't want your content anymore, what do you do? Had a blast talking with Aneta Samkoff for the Odsy podcast -Affiliate sites win by showing real evidence -93% of winners had proprietary assets -Ranking No. 1 still beats AI citations And more, More, MORE www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6D...

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Google Doesn't Need Your Content Anymore. 400-Site Study Shows What It Wants Instead | Cyrus Shepard

YouTube video by Odys Podcast: The High Stakes Growth Show

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 27/05/2026

New: Ask Me Anything on r/SEO_for_AI — run by @seosmarty.bsky.social - AI Citation Ranking Factors" - Type of content Google rewards in the age of AI - Ranking signals rewarded by Google's Helpful Content systems - Click+engagement signals in ranking content www.reddit.com/r/SEO_for_AI...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 24/05/2026

Honored to be named Best Speaker of SEO Vibes Summit '26 (though several others were likely more deserving) So remember, the next time you read a post from me, you won't be reading a post from just anybody... You'll be reading a post from award-winning Best Speaker Cyrus Shepard 😏 Think on that

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 12/05/2026

Do Google AI Citation links actually matter? - Best place to rank = #1 Organically - AI Overviews drop CTRs by 50-60% - AI citations themselves send very little traffic But AI Overview citation links have a surprising benefit sorry for the cheesy thumbnail: youtu.be/ynT4ue7bEu4?...

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Do AI Citations Actually Matter?

YouTube video by Zyppy Signal

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 08/05/2026

1st Rule of Ranking Factor Club: Someone will get mad at you for calling them "Ranking Factors"

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 07/05/2026

New: AI Citation Ranking Factors Everyone talks about AI Citations as a way to boost visibility + traffic, but what works? To find out I gathered every study/experiment from the past 2 years and scored the biggest wins The result? 22 AI Citation Ranking Factors signal.zyppy.com/p/ai-citatio...

signal.zyppy.com

AI Citation Ranking Factors Analysis

Evidence-Based Analysis of 54 Experiments, Patents, and Case Studies. Plus a step-by-step checklist.

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Reposted by Cyrus Maxx

Aleyda Solis @aleyda.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

📊 A 3 Layer Framework to Measure AI Presence, Readiness and Business Impact: Redefining Metrics for the AI Search Era - A new guide where I propose a structured way to measure, diagnose, and prioritize AI search: www.aleydasolis.com/en/ai-search...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 22/04/2026

Very informative slide via Google's Danny Sullivan explaining the difference between "Commodity" vs "Non-Commodity" content Google prefers the later IMO, lots of evidence this is spot-on, not where Google is going in the future, but where it already is now

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Aleyda Solis @aleyda.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

17 Content Types to Survive Google’s Zero-Click Future - Excellent research by @zyppy.com 👇 We know that Google favors different types of sites now. Winning content tends to be proprietary, unique, and solves problems beyond providing information. ....

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 21/04/2026

New: 17 Content Types to Survive Google’s Zero-Click Future Google Zero is coming for many sites, but Google still sends billions of visits per day to the web What kind of content survives? Not generic blog posts. Companies need to shift their content strategy signal.zyppy.com/p/content-go...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 15/04/2026

New: How to Prepare for AI Shopping & the Future of E-commerce SEO My interview with @timresnik.bsky.social 1. SEOs are sleeping on product feeds 2. SEO Basics become a competitive edge 3. Brand & Loyalty play outsized roles 4. True Agentic Commerce isn't here yet signal.zyppy.com/p/ai-shopping

signal.zyppy.com

Prepare for AI Shopping & the Future of E-commerce SEO

Tim Resnik Tells Us What Merchants Should Focus On Right Now

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 14/04/2026

After a long day of SEO marketing, I like to relax and catch up on the latest LLMs.txt files

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 09/04/2026

New: I analyzed 400+ winning/losing sites in Google search results SEO is far from dead, but it's shifted to sites with very clear profiles And if you're going to invest in SEO in 2026 and beyond, you'll want to pay attention signal.zyppy.com/p/winning-go...

signal.zyppy.com

5 Data-Backed Features Of Websites Winning Google in 2026

The Surprisingly Consistent Characteristics of Websites Winning New Google

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 08/04/2026

Starting NOW over at Reddit: reddit.com/r/localsearch/ Ask me anything about your Marketing / SEO / AI / brand strategy in 2026 April 8, 2026 at 1PM ET

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 04/04/2026

Nifty Tool: "Will it Crawl?" Helps you see if Googlebot can crawl your URL before reaching a 2MB limit willitcrawl.com FYI, it's really difficult to find pages that exceed the 2MB limit, but they exist. Via Rodrigo Stockebrand

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Britney Muller @britneymuller.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

⏳ End of an Era: The Final Live Actionable AI For Marketers Course starts next Tue, Apr 6th! We're expanding the ways marketers can learn AI, so this is the last time this course will run as a live, small-group experience with direct, hands-on attention from me.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 01/04/2026

So @dejanseo.bsky.social built an AI Brand Authority Index, and it’s super cool Search 122M brands/domains ranked by AI recall + web authority These are the brands that ALREADY live in Gemini's memory, “ranked by frequency and personalized pagerank” Check out your own brand: authority.dejan.ai

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Aleyda Solis @aleyda.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

🚨 How Google Click Signals Drive SEO Rankings and AI Answers - A must read piece by @zyppy.com going through how Google is trying to answer three broad questions from user click data. Check it out: signal.zyppy.com/p/google-cli...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 25/03/2026

New post, and my first on Substack! "The AI SEO Playbook for Google Click Signals" How user click signals drive website visibility for both Google rankings and AI answers What exactly are these click signals, and can marketers influence them? Read & subscribe: signal.zyppy.com/p/google-cli...

signal.zyppy.com

The AI SEO Playbook for Google Click Signals

How click behavior drives search visibility for websites and brands

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 24/03/2026

Easily one of the best posts on AI marketing this week "GEO Experiment: How AI highlighted the 1 bad review we got in 24 years" Tackling negative brand information in AI answers via @wilreynolds.bsky.social www.seerinteractive.com/insights/geo...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 22/03/2026

I fired my SEO agency It was Neil Patel The end.

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 17/03/2026

New study of 15K URLs shows articles receiving Major Rewrites (30-100% of content) vastly outperform minor/moderate updates Interestingly, even "minor" rewrites, defined as 0-30% of content, still saw decay Is this a cutoff for "lastSignificantUpdate" per Google? republishai.com/content-opti...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 15/03/2026

Launching a newsletter about marketing your brand through search and AI: Zyppy Signal We have *23* subscribers (despite not publishing yet) If you'd like to be #24 and receive the first free issue this week, sign up here: signal.zyppy.com

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 13/03/2026

New SEO Service: For $79, I will personally delete all the scaled AI content from your cold, dead website

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 12/03/2026

Occasionally, I mute/block people on social media, and 3 years later, I can't remember why • 50% of the time, I was grumpy • 50% of the time, they were actually a butthead • 99.7% of the time it's a dude ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 04/03/2026

Does Google still matter? Damn straight it does Research from @sparktoro.bsky.social shows Google is responsible for ~74% of all desktop searches ... and ChatGPT is smaller than expected sparktoro.com/blog/new-res...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 03/03/2026

Take note: AI bots aren't checking if you have an LLMs.txt file Nice experiment via Reboot www.rebootonline.com/geo/llms-txt...

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Cyrus Maxx @zyppy.com · 02/03/2026

If history repeats, very good chance we'll see a Google Core Update this month

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