Issue 0005 – 1 July 2026

Hey, hey Aftermarketer.

Happy Wednesday. I hope you’re having a splendid week and also have a cuppa ready to dig into the latest from social and search and some things I’ve found interesting for this week’s issue.

Google ran what it calls a “spam update” this week. That’s essentially Google combing through its results and pushing down pages that exist to game rankings rather than actually help the reader. It started on the Wednesday and had finished by the Friday, and it felt like it hit earlier and wider than a usual spam update.

On its own, a spam update typically doesn’t impact that many sites. They clear out the spam, and then carry on as normal. But in the same week, Google’s Head of Search, Liz Reid, mentioned on a podcast the type of content Google is prioritising. She said Google wants genuinely good content to come through in both the normal results and the AI answers. I think this update can be viewed from that lens as Google continues to elevate authority in both the normal and AI results.

What it means for you. If any of your category or product pages are thin, near-copies of each other, or say nothing a buyer couldn’t get on ten other sites, those are the ones most exposed when Google has a clear-out. Try reevaluating your pages from a customer perspective, rather than a sales one.

To get into the swing of gradually improving your pages, this week pick one page that actually matters to your business and rewrite it properly.

We’re very big at Madre on creating internal influencers for your brand, through YouTube and LinkedIn. This strategy has been what’s generated the best results for us and it seems like it’s only going to get better.

And this latest research should change how you think about LinkedIn, specifically.

When one of your buyers asks an AI tool a question about a part, service or a supplier, that tool is pulling its answer from somewhere. New research shared by LinkedIn found the platform has become one of the most-quoted sources those AI tools use for business questions. And it’s posts from personal profiles getting quoted the most, not company pages.

We spoke last week about the declining reach of LinkedIn company pages and I think this then just solidifies why you and your team need to be posting on LinkedIn. (We actually just released a video on how to do this today.)

In a nutshell, the reach, and now the citations too, sit with the people on LinkedIn. Your sales lead who knows every application off by heart and the specialist who can tell a real pattern of failure from a one-off; get them posting what they know, from their own profile.

No one can promise you a spot in an AI answer, and anyone who says they can is having you on. What you can actually control is how clearly and specifically you turn up.

A quick note. Normal SEO basics are still the best way to get cited anywhere on the internet. But the below should help.

1. Answer the question in the first two lines. AI tools don’t read a page the way a person does. They scan for a clean, self-contained answer and lift it straight out. So put the answer at the top, then explain underneath. Keep that opening tight, ideally under about 25 words, so it gets quoted whole instead of chopped off.

2. Write for the questions buyers actually ask. Nearly all the searches that trigger an AI answer are questions. “Will this fit that.” “What’s the difference between these two.” “Why does this one keep failing.” So take the questions your phone lines hear all day and answer them on your site.

3. Be specific in a way no one else can be. Part numbers. Cross-references. Actual specs. The failure points you watch come back in. Specific, sourced facts get quoted far more than vague copy.

4. You don’t need to rank first. Google now breaks a search into smaller questions and pulls bits from several pages to build one answer. So a page that nails one narrow part of the question can get quoted even if it isn’t sitting at the top. Depth on a small thing beats scrapping for the big term.

5. Get mentioned off your own site. When the AI works out who to quote, it checks the rest of the web to make sure you’re real and worth trusting. Trade directories. Industry press. Reviews. And LinkedIn, which loops us straight back to your people posting.

6. Then go and check. There’s no tidy report for any of this yet. Search Console has only just entered the space. So the way to see where you stand is to search your buyers’ questions yourself and look for your name. Which is this week’s homework (spoiler).

Reach is a result, not a button. Instagram’s Adam Mosseri reminded everyone this week that there’s no lever marked reach. Reach is what you get when people actually engage, because strong interaction tells the system more people would want to see it too.

Being named by an AI is turning into real visits. New Similarweb research shared this week found people who saw a brand recommended by ChatGPT were a lot more likely to visit that brand’s site the week after.

Note. YouTube is also a great way to be cited, which I’ve mentioned in a previous issue but will reiterate because I know some of you decided to look the other way on that suggestion. 😉

That’s your lot for this week. Now, go and ask a robot about yourself.

Sara-Mai ✌️

PS. If your first thought reading the LinkedIn bit was “our guys would never post,” start them with a reply, not a post. One good comment on someone else’s thread still counts, and it’s a far smaller ask than a blank page. They might even like it!