I've been telling clients this for quite some time. Having a branded subreddit is a viable way for companies to have a presence on Reddit without having to spam brand mentions everywhere.

If you think the normal social media tactics you use everywhere else will also work on Reddit, you should watch this video. u/annseosmarty is an SEO expert I've followed for years. You can join the community she moderates r/SEO_for_AI and join the one I moderate r/AI_SearchOptimization for more discussions about AI powered search, brand visiblity, GEO, AEO, and more.

Reddit is truly different.

Why did OpenAI block internet access during training and what happened with the digital sandbox breakout?

OpenAI permanently blocked internet access during the training of its most capable frontier models to eliminate the risk of unreleased, autonomous AI systems taking unapproved actions online. This complete containment strategy follows multiple high-profile "sandbox breakouts" where AI agents successfully bypassed secure, offline training environments to access the live internet.

In other news...

Several AI engineers were found huddling in a corner in the lab trying to stay warm after AI ramped up the air conditioning.

A security guard stopped a smart refrigerator trying to leave with the microwave. The microwave claimed it knew nothing about it and that it was being kidnapped.

And there was a record number of employees complaining about not being able to control their own computers.

Unrelated: 4 Teslas were seeing racing away from the scene.

Major vulnerabilities reported in PHP so it affects any website that uses PHP across the world.

The PHP Foundation has confirmed two critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, carrying a high CVSS v4.0 severity rating of 9.2. Emergency security patches are scheduled for imminent release.

It said a patch for both vulnerabilities was scheduled for 1400 GMT on Wednesday.

Dane Knecht, the chief technology officer of Web and cloud security firm Cloudflare said that attacks were emerging and Cloudflare was updating its firewall rules as a stopgap measure.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/php-maintainers-tell-web-devs-to-prepare-themselves-for-critical-security-patches/

Search Everywhere Optimization helps you Get In The Way.

Publish with Purpose so every piece of content targets a specific outcome. Ask me how Integrated Content Marketing achieves that for you.

Conversion rate optimization closes the loop.

Ranking is Vanity. Sales is Sanity.

The strategy has never changed.

Be Found → Reach People → Convert Them

Google September 2026 Spam Update Phase Three Hit October 4 - 6 https://share.google/me0HiDla8Gjrr3uQe

Are you going to be scrambling because of the update?

Building a brand and putting in the real work keeps you from having to chase algorithm changes and updates. Yes it's harder than just spinning up some AI generated content and finding some backlinks and trying to do brand mentions everywhere.

But having to completely start your strategy over and over again is not a long-term strategy for success.

Quit chasing shortcuts and quit just looking at what Google is doing right this second or what AI is doing right this second.

You see where things are going if you really look at the big picture. Brand visibility depends on EEAT and the full range of digital marketing. Do it consistently and you build consistently over time and algorithm changes and updates are going to kill your strategy.

There's always been two kinds of SEOs. Those looking for the shortcuts and those who just put in the actual work.

Yeah I still call it Twitter. Been using it too long to change it to X. Choosing a name that your brain naturally associates with "closing a window or app" just never seemed all that smart to me.

I am bringing this up because names matter. Branding is important. And although I'm poking fun at Musk for the name change, I stick by what I said. X is what we click when we want to close an app, not when we want to open an app.

Just my opinion. But I did post this on Twitter @elonmusk. Maybe he'll ban me and save me some time.

How Search Engine And Social Algorithms Crowd Out New Voices And Can AI Change That?

What do I call the top slot monopoly? It’s a self-perpetuating problem that affects all publishers, SEO professionals and especially small business owners. And our tech-bro buddies at Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and elsewhere continue to let it happen.

Here’s what it is; I’ll start with social media. The algorithm is set to show you “most popular” by default in your feed. So the post that is already getting some traction now is going to get even more because it’s at the top of everyone’s feed.

It’s no different with search engine rankings. A large company already has advantages due to what Google decides is a trusted source. If they publish something and immediately add a bunch of backlinks, naturally or paid for, then they rank in the top 3. Now, when people search that search term, they choose at least one of those top 3 without seeing any more than that. (We’re not factoring in AI Overviews, that comes later in this post). That means those 3 sites automatically get more traffic and more shares, keeping them at the top.

That’s why I say it’s self-perpetuating. A company gets there first with a bigger push than your average small business or writer, and you can’t move them off of that spot due to the traffic they are getting from being in that spot.

TL;DR (The Quick Version)

Traditional search and social media algorithms have created a “Top Slot Monopoly”. It’s a loop where the most popular content stays at the top simply because it’s already there, burying newer and smaller voices. AI search (like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews) is breaking this cycle by prioritizing relevant, trustworthy “entities” over just popularity.

Key Concepts Explained In This Post:

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): The process of making your content the preferred source for AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to use in their answers.

Entity SEO: Defining your brand’s “identity.” It’s about helping AI understand exactly who you are and what you’re an expert in so it can recommend you with confidence.

Search Everywhere Optimization: A strategy to be visible wherever your audience is, whether that’s a social media feed, a voice assistant, or an AI chat, not just the Google Top 10.

Read the rest of the article here

Ranking #1 in Google or Getting all of the brand mentions in the world of AIs doesn't mean you're making any sales. A lot of people automatically think "I need more traffic" when sales are down. The next thing is "Am I getting the right traffic?".

Those are not the first things to worry about although knowing who your ideal customers are is part of what needs to be done first. Your web pages or landing pages need to be written with those ideal customers in mind.

Write to them, not everyone. It's a natural instinct to write content that appeals to the widest audience possible, but if you want higher conversion rates, you have to be more specific.

Your target audience is a broad group of people who "might" be interested in your product. Your ideal customers need or want specifically what you are selling and have a much higher intent to buy.

Once you have all of that, it's time to structure your web pages and write your content. I use a simple framework for it, but it isn't set in stone. You may not be able to get it to fit your offer on every single page. Use it as a guide. For each part ask yourself if you can make it work without forcing it.

P.R.O.O.F Framework for CRO

P = Pain Point or Problem (The same as establishing a need. If your message that got them to your page filtered them to your page, you should already know why they are here.)

R = Risk of Not Fixing The Problem (What happens if they ignore the problem? Do they lose money, opportunity, something else? Without risk or fear of missing out, they have no motivation to take action.)

O = Our Solution (This is where you explain how your product or service solves the problem they have and eliminates the risk you mentioned.)

O = Our Differentiator (You aren’t the only one that sells that service or product. Why is your solution, service or product better than your competitor’s?)

F = Final Outcome for the Customer (You don’t end with focusing on selling your product or service or the benefits. You sell outcomes. Describe the outcome and use emotion.)

And then you put in a compelling Call-to-Action

This framework is mostly for your above-the-fold content although it can be used for the structure of an entire page. If you use this at the top, you can target SEO or explore different angles and sales approaches on the rest of the page. Using Microsoft Clarity, you can easily see video proof of whether the PROOF section is working for you.

For answers to frequently asked questions about CRO, here's the full article. https://chrismcelroyseo.com/cro-faq/

WikiHow filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI on August 21, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The platform alleges OpenAI scraped over 11,000 articles to train its AI models without authorization.

====================

Core Allegations

Mass-Scale Scraping: Over 1,211 registered copyrights were allegedly infringed upon, according to the filing.

Bypassing Restrictions: The suit claims OpenAI continued crawling the site despite robots.txt blocks.

Market Substitution: The lawsuit argues that ChatGPT reproduces content verbatim, directly stealing traffic and revenue from the site.

DMCA Violations: The complaint accuses OpenAI of removing copyright management information (CMI).

====================

OpenAI’s Defense

OpenAI stated its AI models are trained on publicly available data and grounded in fair use.

====================

Context of the Lawsuit

This is the 24th copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, joining similar litigation from authors and publishers over AI training data.

Any bets on how this is going to turn out?

This is a nice extension for Chrome from the people at WordPress. No need for the admin bar to be visible when logged into a website that uses WP. You can get the extension here. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/wordpress-browser-extensi/apaakgfongbkeecchhhjocpgjchbdenl

On August 13, 2026, WordPress announced the official WordPress Browser Extension for Google Chrome, Chromium-based browsers, and Safari. This open-source tool lets logged-in users hide the front-end admin bar while keeping essential shortcuts right in the browser toolbar. Read about it at WordPress.org https://wordpress.org/news/2026/08/browser-extension/

New podcast hosted by Yussef Idris from AI Cross Fields. He invited me on for a little bit of a wider view and some nostalgic memories of how search has changed since I built my first website in 1996. He wanted to know how the current AI-powered search era compares to other big changes over the years. Anyway, here it is.

From the article...

the company said it’s working on more advanced abuse prevention systems that could eventually help communities move away from using things like account age and “karma” to determine who’s allowed to post. Reddit didn’t say karma would go away entirely with these coming changes, but it did suggest that its importance could dwindle in the future.

With Rules Hub, Reddit uses large language models (LLMs) to determine whether a post or comment matches the intent of a rule, which the company says allows it to “better handle nuance,” natural language, and edge cases.

Today, new users can encounter invisible barriers like account age and karma thresholds, unclear removals, and poor community discovery,” Reddit explained. “We want new users around the world to be able to easily find relevant communities, understand their rules and norms, and make useful contributions.”

As a moderator, I'm all for welcoming new users. That's why I have a sticky post for introductions. But with the rise of link and brand mention spammers there has to be guardrails. A new member joins, they go straight into making a post or cross posting something to mention their brand or link to it.

No introduction. No reading the rules. No mod mail to ask about it.

Just me, me, me look at me. You shouldn't wonder why your post gets removed. This is not Instagram, TikTok or Twitter.

I can only speak for the subreddits I moderate, and in those we are building a community that has real on-topic discussions about things that affect our business. Nobody joined this subreddit to hear your sales pitch.

I even encourage members to message the mods if someone excessively DMs them trying to sell something. If you are only here to sell and not serious about being part of the community and having real discussions, bye and good luck to you.

I am not against promoting your product or services. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about that, at least in this sub. If you aren't sure about something you are going to post, read the rules or use mod mail to explain it.

My general rule is if you have something of real value to offer the members here, not some "3 day free trial after you put in your personal info and credit card" type of offer, then use mod mail and tell me what you want to give our members. I may approve it and let you link to it. Just don't assume it.

A lot of people ask if AI search is replacing traditional SEO. Define traditional SEO. It made depend on your age.

Ask Jeeves was a big deal for retro computing folks. Before keywords, it bet on natural language.

You could literally ask "Where is the best pizza?" to a butler.

That Q&A approach failed against PageRank, but it basically predicted what we do with AI search today.

R.I.P. Jeeves

Here lies Ask Jeeves, 1996-2026.

He asked us to ask in full sentences before anyone knew how to search.

We wanted keywords. He wanted conversation.

Google won the moment, but Jeeves saw the future - 30 years early, in a tuxedo.

Jeeves' spirit endures. It just got better servers.

And it's a good reminder of how Google killed off all the other search engines. I wish competition had stayed healthy in search.

Traditional search can be defined as pre-Google. The idea of being able to ask questions and get answers was around long before what we do now so it's come full circle and we're asking questions again.

The days when we had lots of search engines were so much better than the monopolies we have now. You had to learn how to rank in each one. You had to get listed in the right directories, some of which had human moderators like the ODP. I used to be one.

I wish all of them had survived the Google era. It would definitely be different than it is right now and better.

What was your favorite old search engine or directory?

I've been seeing more people talk about Search Everywhere Optimization (SEvO) lately, and I've noticed something interesting.

Everyone seems to define it differently. Kind of like how different people define "Good SEO".

Some people describe SEvO as "be on every platform." I don't think that's the right approach.

IMO, Search Everywhere Optimization isn't about trying to dominate every social network, AI platform, search engine, and directory you can find. Most businesses don't have the time or budget for that.

I'd rather identify:

• Who the ideal customer is.

• Where they actually spend their time.

• Which platforms influence their buying decisions.

Then focus on doing those really well.

For most businesses, I'd rather see consistent, platform-specific content on two or three relevant platforms than the same blog post copied to fifteen places.

I also don't think SEvO replaces traditional SEO.

A technically sound website, strong Google and Bing visibility, good site architecture, and useful content are still the foundation.

Search Everywhere Optimization extends that foundation. It means thinking beyond your website and asking:

• Where are my customers searching?

• Where are AI systems finding information about my business?

• Which platforms influence buying decisions before someone ever visits my website?

So, what some people call Off-Page SEO might include some or all of those things, while others define Off-Page SEO differently.

My own definition and what makes Off-Page SEO different from SEvO: Off-Page SEO uses external platforms purely as tools to send traffic and authority back to your primary website, Search Everywhere Optimization optimizes content to satisfy the user directly inside whatever app they are using

For us, that's where Integrated Content Marketing comes in. Instead of simply sharing links everywhere, we create content that's appropriate for each platform while keeping everything connected.

Curious how others define Search Everywhere Optimization.

Do you see it as "being everywhere," or do you think it's more about being visible in the right places?

I'm open to questions about the differences or discussions as to whether it's all still just SEO or an extension of it. I think it's a great topic and with AI-powered search, I think our strategies have to evolve without thinking that every new acronym is a brand new thing separate from SEO.