Looking back, I find it strange how Max and the Numo team first picked up on those searches—searches that appeared to come to a complete stop. No actions were taken; no taps, clicks, or even unintentional visits to webpages. Just over half of users seemingly getting what they required from the search results. Certain observers noted this phenomenon a few years ago during industry forums. Back then, this phenomenon felt like background noise—until it decided to reveal itself. Visibility? The concept began transforming long before anyone could concretely identify when.Max begins by examining what Numo’s site already has, sifting through older articles to see if they meet the vague SGE-ready standard. Sometimes, that means throwing in author credits or those little entity markers cited in early agency memos. It’s unclear how widely regarded those markers are and what value, if any, they add. Midway through, he will add some paragraphs for greater insight and rework the polish and body of the text as well. In a way, both receive some beautification, but it’s impossible to tell which change is most important. Some colleagues at Ipso shared frameworks last year, and you’d find echoes of those ideas floating around LinkedIn threads, though it feels like details change from conversation to conversation every few months. Analytics? Checks those every once in a while. Not religiously, but just often enough to notice any peculiar breaks or signals others claim could matter down the line.

So, does GEO really work? I remember reading through some large Reddit SEO threads and LinkedIn groups, and this question kept popping up. “Success” appeared to be different for everyone and no one seemed to agree on the definition. Several people said that they noticed a brand mention increase in SGE results, but whether that translated into anything meaningful was another question. There’s some back and forth about how some changes initially made it look like certain people’s visibility was improving, but if you ask three different people if it improved measurable results, I bet two of them would disagree. It’s still up in the air entirely, but the initial testimonials are saying that there’s some benefit in a few scenarios. That said, there’s still a lot of unknown already quite a lot of things we just have to wait to find out about.

Max is not the only person that compares SEO to nurturing a backyard garden. He mentions how there needs to be some sort of maintenance such as pruning old thoughts, refreshing them, pulling out tangled but irrelevant ideas, and more. The work he describes is far from simple. In fact, it may take a week for someone to identify the root cause of some pages budding while others blossom. It is still not clear whether Google bots act as bees or worms. What’s clear is “freshness,” along with clarity, is often neglected until changes in results are noticed. These are the main reasons why many practitioners consider those as main guidelines from search platforms, regardless of the ongoing debates.

The nights tend to flow into one another. I find myself replaying old blog drafts in my mind. When I finally snap back to reality, the sun is on the verge of rising and my screen is littered with unfinished rewrites. For a while, it felt like trying to understand how SGE was impacting our numbers was a futile attempt at understanding Google Search Console. Every attempt to revise the surface layers of the content felt like it took ages, two or three times longer than we had assumed at the beginning. Now, I wonder if the early obstacles that were encountered were unusual or if many people face the same challenges in digital marketing in the modern world.

Max occasionally finds himself blankly staring at the spreadsheet and rubbing his eyes when the clock strikes past midnight. He focuses on a single report while scrolling through discussions that he vaguely remembers from last week. The browser window is cluttered with reminder notes that get checked off as soon as they’re jotted down in a half-read blog window. Noting source credibility tells him to check schema tags or rewrite reminders with checklists that have become repetitive. Analytics graphs fade out in the blur past eight, so deciphering business metrics becomes irrelevant now that search results don’t make sense anymore. He focuses on agency blogs that contradict each other, scribbling notes that blend with source notes. The usual melody of notifications adding up ebbs and flows but a split-up rhythm is in sync between him and the spreadsheet.

What happens if Google decides to change everything again and we are all left wondering how to rank? What if one more change happens, maybe a sudden Panda or BERT, and everything we relied on for the past several months just vanished? Has anyone really tried figuring out how to track those changes before everyone else joins in? Some early buzz on sites like industry blogs, suggest there is some order to chaos, but so far, nothing concrete. Would it make sense to try and spread out where we get traffic from right now just in case search sends over less traffic than it did, let’s say… seventy months ago? Or is that being too cautious? Sometimes, it is hard to figure out if we are bracing for a downpour or we are simply reading too much into early indications.

Here’s an unexpected turn—not everyone is relying on click rates anymore. As some marketers began talking about their brands appearing as sources within those generative answers in forums and Slack channels, it felt like months of nothing changing. As things started turning up, it didn’t feel like a giant wave, but rather a combination of small victories accumulating over time. Watching agency summaries or scrolling through LinkedIn gives us clues indicating these changes, but if this will remain the case for all users is still open for debate.

See 40DAU’s insights on this topic, based on early spring reports and scattered conversations around the industry, there seems to be a rough optimization pattern. Workflows that previously received consistent streams have been slashed to vaguely around 35 percent. Mobile optimization may be a deeper hole; analytics teams are reporting that branded query click-throughs are down by what seems to be a couple handfuls from last year. Generative AI does have the capability to brand blast answer boxes more frequently, but the net gain remains ambiguous at best. A couple agencies tried tracking visibility through betas like BrightEdge. Author schema changes leading to increases of dozens mentions over time is interesting, but not quite actionable especially when it comes to conversions and leads. Partial coverage insights from Search Engine Land this winter suggest the new visibility signals most likely will not translate with the organic metrics. Most consider these changes a “wait and see” approach.

Something you could try: once every quarter, reviewing drafts might give room for updating outlines of overarching topics, which may bring a brand some exposure in search generated results. “Draft until Google changes the algorithm” seems to be the floodgate of proper work post major overhauls. Visibility mentions are known to fluctuate sharply—it seems some people prefer overshares while others fall under the shy umbrella while trying to maintain branded mentions. A hands-off approach to EEAT elements and refreshing email lists might not yield results right away, but during these times when nearly half of searches hide clicks, framing can help steady traffic.