Hello Reader!

Google just announced a new feature that lets users personalize the news they see in Search’s "top stories" by selecting their preferred news outlets.

Here are my thoughts on what this means for search and content marketers:

🔹 Trust will matter a ton🔹

If users start curating their news sources, being featured won’t only depend on SEO.

It will depend on brand reputation and the quality of your content, or being one of the outlets people actually choose.

Content marketers will need to think more about brand credibility and long-term trust.

🔹 Personalization changes everything 🔹

This change shifts the focus from broad visibility to relevance. TOFU will matter less.

🔹 Smaller publishers could benefit 🔹

Niche outlets with loyal audiences may have a better chance of showing up, which means content strategies focused on community and authenticity could win big.

🔹 Less reliance on algorithmic ranking 🔹

We may see a slow shift away from trying to "beat the algorithm" toward content that’s valuable, shareable, and aligned with what audiences want.

Overall, this is a big nudge from Google toward a more curated, user-driven experience.

Get to know your audience. Give 'em what they want.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley R. Cummings

Partner | Techpresso

Drowning in tech + AI news?

I used to feel lost—until I found Techpresso.

Now I get the only updates that matter in one 5-minute read. If you’re not on it, you’re behind.

Check it out

Upgrade to a Content Connect VIP membership

$7.00 / month

Content Connect VIP

Content Connect VIP members get:
Industry intel—early. Weekly updates 24 hours before anyone else.
Expert interviews.... Read more

Get it now!

Industry Trends

Trends to watch: What’s changing in content marketing, search, and social — and what it means for your work.

💡 GPT-5 hype is here—better results still come from how you use existing tools, not chasing the latest launch.

💡 Cluely’s lo-fi, human-sounding Times Square ad went viral because authenticity stands out in a world of AI-polished sameness. Do we love it? Hate it?

💡 Google is rolling out a new feature that allows users to personalize the news they see in Search's "top stories" by selecting their preferred news outlets.

Must-Read Industry Content

Think smarter, faster: Each week, I share the articles that are shaping where content marketing is going, so you don’t have to dig.

1/ The Great Diversification: How 8 Companies Are Evolving Their SEO Strategies

As AI-driven search tools eat into organic traffic, companies are rapidly diversifying away from traditional SEO strategies. Brands like Seer Interactive and Customers.ai are leaning into thought leadership, gated content, owned media, and conversion-focused programmatic content to protect visibility, own audience relationships, and maintain revenue.

2/ The feedback fallacy of writing on the internet

Alex explores how creators often misinterpret feedback online—mistaking appreciation (likes, comments) for evaluation—which fuels anxiety and obsession over metrics. Inspired by Thanks for the Feedback, he realizes the need to create his own internal system for evaluating his writing before publishing. By developing a personal checklist grounded in honesty, creativity, and control, he aims to reclaim joy in the process and receive post-publication responses as appreciation, not judgment.

3/ What editors are really looking for

Editors care far less about degrees or flashy bylines than they do about tailored, well-written, and engaging pitches that show clear understanding of the publication’s audience. Communication, professionalism, and genuine care for the story throughout the process are what turn one-off assignments into lasting editorial relationships.

4/ Survey opportunity

Now is a great time to make your voice heard. Fill out this quick survey from Gotham Ghostwriters about AI & the writing profession.

AI Updates + Tools To Watch

Don't get left behind: The most useful AI updates and content tools worth paying attention to this week.

One

✅ Claude Sonnet 4 adds a 1M-token context window with fast, accurate results—but Gemini is better for detail.

Three

🤖 AI adoption fuels sharp decline in advertising’s youngest workers, according to Adweek.

Two

🤖 iPullRank put out their AI search manual and it's a must for anyone in content and search to nail AI search.

Four

⚙️ YouTube will start using AI to guess your age.

Expert Interview | Pawel Tatarek

Free consulting: One smart expert, one focused conversation that you can apply to your work.

1. Tell me about your journey into content.

Writing has been a part of my life since I can remember.

First, as a student. I’ve got three post-grad qualifications, including a Master's in English and Linguistics, and I had to write a lot to get these.

Later, I worked as an English teacher for 20 years, teaching people to write, among other things.

And it was a friend I used to work with at Southampton uni who suggested I give content marketing a go, and that’s how it all started.

Initially, it was just a side hustle. An opportunity to do something else, learn new things, and use my brain in different ways, so to speak.

As my articles required fewer and fewer revisions, their SERP performance improved, so did my efficiency, gradually scaled up, and it became my main focus after a year or so.

It was a crazy time because I was still teaching full-time and writing up to 4-5 pieces a week. I eventually handed in the notice last year and have been freelancing full-time since then.

2. You’ve written over several long-form pieces ranking in the top 3 on Google—what’s your personal framework for consistently creating content that performs well in search without sacrificing quality?

In 2025, high quality and top performance in SERPs go hand-in-hand. It’s difficult to rank with mediocre content.

Here’s a 5-step process.

One: Find the search intent: the questions readers want to answer and the problems they want to solve.

Analyzing the top-ranking articles is a good start, but we can’t outperform them by repeating what’s already been said. I use Reddit and Quora a lot at this stage because that’s where people go when they can’t find what they need in SERPs.

Two: Answer the questions competently and authoritatively.

Sometimes, it involves in-depth secondary research, sometimes, testing the tool I write about and applying it to specific use cases, and sometimes, asking SMEs — internal and external ones — for help.

And usually, a combination of all these.

Three: Organize the content in a logical and accessible way.

For example, by front-loading the most important information, writing high-concept headers to make the article skimmable.

Four: Make the content compelling and visually pleasing.

To keep visitors on the page. For example, with engaging copy that meets the reader at their level and quality visuals, especially videos.

Five: Optimize for search.

I run the content through optimization tools like Surfer or Clearscope to include all relevant secondary keywords, write the meta descriptions and image alt texts, add internal links, and so on.

A couple of years ago, this step alone may have been enough to rank. Now, it’s just final touches.

So, that’s what has worked for me so far.

But it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for everyone.

The content is just one piece of the puzzle. An important one, but still only one of many.

I’ve been lucky to write for websites with strong topical authority and powerful backlink profiles. Ranking without these is hard, especially in the super-competitive niches, like SaaS, e-commerce, or SEO.

That’s why I never promise a client top rankings.

3. What’s your take on AI in content?

AI is here and it’s not going anywhere, so there’s no point resisting it. And people who resist adopting it are putting themselves at a disadvantage. Just like a carpenter would by not using power tools.

How to use it for content creation? That’s another story.

For certain tasks, it’s a no-brainer.

For example, I use Sembley AI for automatic transcriptions, NotebookLM to build custom knowledge bases for my articles, or Napkin AI to create visual prototypes.

For things like research or editing, it requires more consideration and care. For example, I would never trust the data ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity comes up with. And the bots regularly hallucinate mistakes in my work that were not there in the first place.

I’m still reluctant to use AI for actual writing. I know folks do it, and it works for them, but I’m a bit cautious.

Partly, because the LLMs aren’t there yet quality-wise, and partly, because readers can be biased against AI-written content. It’s easy to lose audience trust if they suspect AI use. Even if the content is insightful, well-written, and accurate.

And I can see how it works because I often find myself questioning the legitimacy or originality of someone’s ideas or claims just because I see they used AI.

Funnily enough, my work often gets flagged up as AI-written by detectors. That’s why I’m not a good fit for clients who insist on using them to keep their writers accountable. The results are too random.