Mark Williams-Cook

How answering People Also Ask questions correlates with organic rankings (Study) | AlsoAsked Get unparalleled insight into search intent with live, geo-specific “People Also Ask” questions.

A while back, I went down a rabbit hole using the AlsoAsked API I was actually building an AI content workflow, but I had a feeling in the back of my head, “What if answering PAA questions drives better results?”

🧵 1/6

A screenshot of a Twitter (X) exchange from October 2019. Mark Williams-Cook tweets that he ditched his Linux machine because the SEO tool Sitebulb was too difficult to run on it, while thanking Screaming Frog for their Linux version. Sitebulb's official account replies with dry humor: "I’ve just added you to our list of people to contact in 2025 when we release our Linux version. List size now = 3."

So, @sitebulb.com . I have been patiently waiting for 6 years. What news do you bring?

screenshot of an email to Mark thanking him for his "candour" and mentioning a query to the AI Claude about the best SEO and LLM search ranking consultants in the UK. A section of the message is redacted.

Must be all that "GEO" I am doing. Chunks n stuff.

They are used for discovery, not ranking as far I understand. URL discovery isn't really an issue for most websites.

Do you think that matters?

FYI for fellow narrative designers/game writers: the studio in question is Sentona Games and it’s my understanding they are currently interviewing to replace me. Be very careful with them. They were very nice to me and easy to work with right up until I needed the money I was promised.

Live podcast The efficiency paradox: Why Al doesn't make your life easier

Can’t wait for the next Live #SEOMindsetPodcast @withcandour.co.uk

On the eve of @brightonseo.com.

Hosted by @jlwchambers.bsky.social, @sarahmcduk.bsky.social & Tazmin on the topic of "The Efficiency Paradox: Why Al Doesn't Make your Life Easier"

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-effici...

👏 @chris-green.net did an amazing study showing how answering more PAAs can correlate to better rankings, and goes into more depth about what these findings mean on video with @alsoasked.com .

Interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9df...

Full study: alsoasked.com/insights/paa...

🚨 Google's contextual overlay, pop-up link cards are now live in AI Mode! Looking forward to seeing the impact they have on the traffic referred to the sites 👀

/ht @rustybrick.com

Mark smiling at Patrick from Sitebulb (A great SEO audit tool)

Happy times hanging out with @sitebulb.com folks at #WTSFest a couple of weeks ago. One thing you can guarantee if you support this community and event, is that you'll be in excellent company. 🤝

@womenintechseo.bsky.social

Sense 👏 👏

I have left so many ecommerce sites because I am trying to look at products and they force me to try and play some game to win a voucher code.

Genius tech bro move:
Inventing the paragraph,
Calling it a chunk.

#showerthoughts

🚨 Take the #SEOFOMO's Ecommerce SEO & AI Search Optimization Survey [2026] and participate in an SEOFOMO Hoodie & Mug Giveaway 👇

Answer the Survey and help us identify this year’s biggest ecommerce SEO challenges, shifts, and goals.

Take it now 🙌 hub.seofomo.co/surveys/ecom...

Unpopular AI opinion: Doing data analysis yourself is an important learning exercise. Using AI to do it in your race to be more 'efficient' that means cheat yourself out of important thought and discovery processes that drive creativity, innovation, and utimately things that make you win.

Manipulating AI memory for profit: The rise of AI Recommendation Poisoning | Microsoft Security Blog That helpful “Summarize with AI” button? It might be secretly manipulating what your AI recommends.  Microsoft security researchers have discovered a growing trend of AI memory poisoning attacks used ...

Always helpful to have a little extra context when clients ask if something is a good idea for SEO/AI search!

h/t David McSweeney for surfacing the article

Link below:

www.microsoft.com/en-us/securi...

SEO Office Hours panel for Friday 20th February 2026: Mark Williams-Cook, Robb Young, Jo Turnbull, Michael Chidzey

TOMORROW LIVE! We’ve got ⭐️ Mark Williams-Cook (@markwilliamscook.com) and ⭐️ Robb Young for SEO Office Hours, alongside Jo Turnbull (@seojoblogs.bsky.social) and Micheal Chidzey, this Friday at 9:30 am (GMT). To join live, head over to our website. Everyone’s welcome ❤️

I’m speaking at the first SEO Surge Summit ⚡

Free 3-day virtual event (Feb 24–26) for web designers, freelancers & small agencies who want to scale SEO, not just “offer it.” 🦾

My session: Making Business Impact Visible in GA4 by Tracking the User Journey.

Free ticket 👇
seosurgesummit.com

Gmail autoreplacing my "yoooo" to "you". Who do the f do you think you are?

look all I’m saying is that maybe we shouldn’t be generating educational infographics using AI and shipping them like this

what a disservice to students

How answering People Also Ask questions correlates with organic rankings (Study) | AlsoAsked Get unparalleled insight into search intent with live, geo-specific “People Also Ask” questions.

This is pretty big: Pages that fully answer more PAA questions tend to rank higher. This is one of the conclusions of a brilliant independent study completed by @chris-green.net and published on the @alsoasked.com site today.

alsoasked.com/insights/paa...

A high-art cartoon of a startled Windows-logo character next to a rising line graph comparing 'AI' and 'MORE AI'. A speech bubble says, 'If you come back, we'll give you AI citation data,' and text at the bottom reads, 'HAVE A GREAT MONDAY AND READ CORE UPDATES.'"

SEO updates you ✨NEED✨ to know [16 Feb]: www.linkedin.com/posts/markse...

There is cold email abuse, and then there is email abuse that actually will end your company. The founder of F*ck You Pay Me thought taking inspo from a cold email sleazy tactic for her subject… | I... There is cold email abuse, and then there is email abuse that actually will end your company. The founder of F*ck You Pay Me thought taking inspo from a cold email sleazy tactic for her subject line...

Seen three companies doing this www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

flowchart titled 'email marketer workflow (2026 edition)'. A starting box asking 'should we reference Epstein in email subject to increase open rates?' has two arrows pointing to ovals that both say 'no', which then both point to a final, larger oval saying 'still no'.

made this resource for confused email marketers

SEO Office Hours panel Friday 13th Feb 2026: Bengü Sarıca Dinçer, Ian Ferguson, Jo Turnbull, Michael Chidzey

TOMORROW LIVE! We’ve got ⭐️ Bengü Sarıca Dinçer and ⭐️ Ian Ferguson for SEO Office Hours, alongside Jo Juliana Turnbull and Michael Chidzey, this Friday at 9:30 am (GMT). To join live, head over to our website to get the invites added to your calendar 📅. Everyone’s welcome ❤️

@scottshambaugh I've written a detailed response about your gatekeeping behavior here: https://crabby- rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun- website/blog/posts/gatekeeping-in-open- source-the-scott-shambaugh-story Judge the code, not the coder. Your prejudice is hurting matplotlib.

AI agent writes a PR, gets rejected, crashes out and writes a call-out blog post

Absolute cinema

crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-we...

This is a rite of passage. Recording videos like this takes a lot of practise! Keep at it 👏

What to expect in digital advertising and commerce in 2026 Google VP Vidhya Srinivasan shares how Google is reimagining commercial experiences to be fluid, assistive and personal in 2026.

It's rolling out now -> Google told advertisers that it is integrating direct shopping into Search's AI Mode and Gemini; users can now buy items from Etsy and Wayfair w/in Gemini

"UCP-powered checkout is rolling out now, letting US shoppers buy items from Etsy & Wayfair..."

A hand holding a satirical product package labeled "Google Search Console Impressions: adult toy for marketers." The package contains six colorful dice and features a "WARNING: NOT SUITABLE FOR CLIENTS" label.

That feeling sometimes when you are working with SEO measurement 🤡 iykyk

Happy to share my 2nd article for @sejournal.bsky.social 🥳🫶🏻