Research Shows Where Persona Prompting Works And When It Backfires
Research finds that persona prompts “reliably damage” factual accuracy in certain kinds of tasks but work well in others.
About
I have 25 years hands-on experience in SEO, evolving along with the search engines by keeping up with the latest research, patents and what’s happening in the search results.
Need a consultation? Contact me at roger@martinibuster.com or use the contact form at: Martinibuster.com
I recently presented at Pubcon Vegas in October and March 2024, and over the past 20 years have presented at search conferences across the United States: Pubcon, SMX, Affiliate Summit & SES (Search Engine Strategies) and have served as a Head Judge at the U.S. Search Awards .
Articles
Google Responds To Error That Causes Old Branding To Persist In SERPs
Google’s John Mueller responds to a question about search results that display outdated branding for a site that rebranded over ten years ago.
Is WordPress Too Complex For Most Sites?
Yoast SEO founder shares that most sites don’t need content management systems like WordPress anymore.
Google: 404 Crawling Means Google Is Open To More Of Your Content
Google’s John Mueller implies that Googlebot crawling 404 pages is a positive sign about that site’s content.
SEO Test Shows It’s Trivial To Rank Misinformation On Google
An SEO experiment shows how easily misinformation ranks in Google Search and spreads to other sites.
Google Explains Why HTTPS Migration May Negatively Impact SEO
Google’s John Mueller says why migrating a site to HTTPS may cause a site to lose all rankings.
Vibe Coding Plugins? Validate With Official WordPress Plugin Checker
The official WordPress Plugin Checker provides automated code review for security and best practices, perfect for checking vibe coded plugins.
Google Shares More Information On Googlebot Crawl Limits
Google shared that Googlebot’s crawl limits are flexible and can be increased or decreased depending on the need.
Google Says Hundreds Of Their Crawlers Are Not Documented
Google’s Gary Illyes offered a candid overview of Googlebot, explaining there are hundreds of crawlers that are not publicly documented.
Formidable Forms Flaw Lets Attackers Pay Less For Expensive Purchases
Formidable Forms WordPress vulnerability enables unauthenticated attackers to pay a small amount and have a larger purchase marked as paid.
Google Answers Questions About Search Console’s Branded Queries Filter
Google announced that Search Console’s brand queries filter is open to all eligible sites, spurring questions about the feature.
WordPress Gutenberg 22.7 Lays Groundwork For AI Publishing
Gutenberg 22.7 adds features that lay the groundwork for a role as an AI publishing platform and improve the editing experience.
WordPress Security Release 6.9.4 Fixes Issues 6.9.2 Failed To Address
WordPress issues second security release 6.9.4 to address vulnerabilities that version 6.9.2 apparently failed to patch.
WordPress Releases Updated AI Experiments Plugin
Official WordPress AI Experiments plugin enables users to get advance access to AI features right now.
Google: You Can Disavow Entire TLDs Like .XYZ With Domain Directive
Google’s John Mueller shared the Disavow File Domain Directive which disavows entire Top Level Domains (TLDs) but cautioned about using it.
Google Says Disavow Links If You’re Conflicted And Need To Be Sure
Google’s John Mueller confirmed that most sites don’t need to use a disavow file but if you need to be sure, do it.
WordPress Releases AI Plugins For Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, And OpenAI
WordPress releases three plugins for integrating Claude, Gemini, or OpenAI into websites
Google Updates AI Recipe Results To Send More Traffic
Google updated AI Mode recipe search results to change how it displays recipes and to send more traffic to recipe blogs
Yoast SEO’s New Schema Aggregator Improves Entity Disambiguation
Yoast SEO introduces a feature that consolidates site schema and disambiguates entities like authors, articles, products, and organizations.
Seraphinite Accelerator WordPress Plugin Vulnerabilities Affect 60K Sites
A warning was issued about two vulnerabilities affecting up to 60,000 installations of the Seraphinite Accelerator WordPress plugin.
Builderius WordPress Page Builder Integrates Claude AI
Builderius page builder announced an experimental AI integration that enables it to apply changes inside the builder.
WordPress Calendar Plugin Vulnerability Affects Up To 100k Sites
Up to a hundred thousands websites affected by WordPress calendar plugin vulnerability.
Page Builder by SiteOrigin WordPress Vulnerability Affects Up To 500k Sites
Page Builder by SiteOrigin WordPress vulnerability rated 8.8/10 affects up to 500,000 websites.
WordPress User Registration & Membership Plugin Vulnerability
Critical vulnerability in WordPress User Registration & Membership plugin enables unauthenticated attackers to obtain administrator role.
Google’s Titans And MIRAS: Significant Advancement In Long-Context AI
Google’s Titans architecture and MIRAS framework enable AI to handle massive amounts of data and work faster.
Google’s AI Generated Landing Page Patent Is Limited To Shopping & Ads
Google’s AI landing page generator patent is limited to low conversion shopping pages, product feeds and advertising.
Why Open Source Projects Are Run By Benevolent Dictators For Life
It might come as a surprise that some open source projects like WordPress are said to be run by benevolent dictators for life.
New “Voiceprint” Claude Plugin Clones Your Writing Style
Voiceprint Claude plugin clones your writing style based on five writing samples. Works with any SKILL.md-compatible tool.
Report Shows WordPress Sites Are Getting Hacked At Faster Rate
Patchstack’s state of WordPress Security report shows more sites get hacked within hours of vulnerability disclosure
Google AI Overviews Surges Across 9 Industries
Google AI Overviews shows fast growth across nine industries, now triggering AI Search in nearly half of all search queries.