JB’s Digital Update 22nd June 2026

Zyrene Fernandez2026-06-22T15:27:09+10:00Categories: Analytics & Performance, CRO and Conversions, Digital Marketing & Strategy, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Social Media Management, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Advertising, AI, AI Search, Audience Targeting, Automation, data, Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy, Google, Google Ads, Google Maps, Local SEO, Meta, Paid Ads, PPC, SEO, SEO Tools, Social Media Strategy, Threads|

Google quietly opted advertisers into new customer list targeting, Maps became a little louder, Ad Manager gained an AI assistant, Threads crossed 500 million users, and trust in AI search slipped again. Different stories, same pattern: platforms keep asking for more trust while giving users more reasons to be cautious.

JB’s Digital Update 15th June 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-16T18:21:20+10:00Categories: Analytics & Performance, Digital Marketing & Strategy, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Advertising, Analytics, Attribution, Digital Marketing, Google, Google Ads, Google Maps, Local SEO, Marketing, Marketing News, Marketing Strategy, Meta, Paid Social Media, Performance Measurement, PPC, Reporting, Revenue, Search Marketing, Seasonal Marketing, SEO|

Google Analytics gets a little easier to work with, Google's AI Max migration slows down, attribution becomes harder to trust, Meta wants marketers thinking about Christmas already, and Local Services Ads keep expanding. Different stories, same theme: the platforms keep adding layers while marketers are left figuring out what actually matters.

JB’s Digital Update 8th June 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-10T11:15:38+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, Digital Marketing & Strategy, Email & Customer Relations, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Social Media Management, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: AI, Content Strategy, Customer Relations, Digital Marketing, Digital Skills, Google, Google Ads, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Open AI, Paid Ads, Search Marketing, SEO, SEO Strategy, Social Media, Social Search, TikTok, TikTok Ads|

Google is adding social profiles to Discover, AI still struggles with accuracy despite the money being poured into it, publishers remain uneasy about AI Overviews, TikTok wants a bigger role in real-world events, and Meta is expanding AI business messaging. Different stories, same trend: platforms are working hard to become the middleman in more of your customer relationships.

Schema and Structured Data for GEO: Beyond the Minimum

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-08T17:51:31+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, SEO, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer|Tags: AI Overviews, EEAT, Generative Engine Optimisation, GEO, Local SEO, Schema, Structured Data|

Most schema implementations validate and do almost no GEO work. The properties that build entity associations (knowsAbout, sameAs, about, mentions) are consistently empty. Here's what full implementation actually looks like.

AI Engine Crawlability: The GEO Problem Most Businesses Don’t Know They Have

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-08T17:48:08+10:00Categories: GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, SEO, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer|Tags: Crawling, Generative Engine Optimisation, GEO, Googlebot, JavaScript, Robots TXT|

If AI systems can't read your site, everything else in your GEO programme is built on a gap you haven't checked. Here's what blocks AI crawlers and how to find out if it's happening to you.

What Does It Actually Take to Appear in AI-Generated Answers?

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-08T17:43:21+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, SEO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer|Tags: AI Answers, AI Optimisation, AI Overviews, Authority Building, ChatGPT, Citations, Crawling, Generative Search, GEO, LinkedIn, Retrieval Augmented Generation|

Appearing in AI-generated answers requires specific work across six components, in a specific order. JB maps the full picture and explains the sequencing logic that most GEO content skips.

The Best Time to Start GEO Was a Year Ago. The Second Best Time Is Now.

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-08T17:44:10+10:00Categories: Digital Marketing & Strategy, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, SEO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Citations, Entity Research, Generative Engine Optimisation, GEO, GEO Audit, Mentions, Reporting|

Waiting is not a neutral position in GEO. JB makes the compounding advantage argument: why starting later means starting from behind, and what beginning now actually involves.

How Google AI Overviews Work and Why It Matters for Your Business

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-08T17:39:55+10:00Categories: Digital Marketing & Strategy, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, SEO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: AI Optimisation, AI Overviews, Authority Building, EEAT, FastSearch, Gemini, GEO, Google Search, RAG, Trust, User Intent, User Journey|

Google AI Overviews use a retrieval system called FastSearch that prioritises semantic relevance over traditional authority signals. JB explains the selection mechanism, what E-E-A-T means in practice, and which queries actually trigger AIOs.

How ChatGPT Decides What Businesses to Recommend

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-08T17:42:15+10:00Categories: GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, SEO, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer|Tags: AI Overviews, AI Search, ChatGPT, Entity Search, GEO, LLMs, RAG, Retrieval Augmented Generation|

ChatGPT doesn't search. It generates. JB explains training data, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, and what businesses need to understand about how LLMs decide whose name comes up.

JB’s Digital Update 1st June 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-06-01T13:25:38+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, CRO and Conversions, Digital Marketing & Strategy, Email & Customer Relations, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: AI, AI Marketing Tools, AI Optimisation, AI Overviews, AI Search, B2B Marketing, Brand Management, Brand Visibility, Content Creation, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Customer Relations, GEO, Google, Google AI Mode, Marketing Strategy, Open AI, Paid Ads, Search Marketing, SEO, Trust, UX|

Google keeps giving itself a larger role in deciding what people see, OpenAI is building an advertising business, YouTube wants recommendations to feel like conversations, and email marketers are being reminded that strategy still matters. Different stories, same theme: platforms are becoming stronger gatekeepers, while marketers have less control than they used to.

VCDO in 2026: Why Your Organisation Needs a VCMO

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-20T09:26:09+10:00Categories: Digital Marketing & Strategy, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer|Tags: AI, AI Governance, Digital Leadership, Digital Strategy, Digital Trends 2026, Platform Dependency, Stack Simplification, VCDO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer|

Most organisations do not struggle because they lack tools or data. They struggle because no one is clearly accountable for how everything works together. The Virtual Chief Digital Officer role exists to solve exactly that — and in 2026, it has never been more necessary.

JB’s Digital Update 25th May 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-25T12:20:06+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, Digital Marketing & Strategy, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Social Media Management, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: AI, AI Marketing Tools, AI Optimisation, AI Overviews, AI Search, B2B Marketing, Content Creation, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Customer Relations, Google, Google Ads, Google I/O, Marketing Strategy, Paid Ads, Paid Social Media, Reddit, Search Marketing, SEO|

AI search keeps absorbing Reddit, Google wants ads inside conversations, nearly half the web may already be AI-written, and B2B buyers trust automation far less than marketers hoped. The common thread is fairly obvious. Platforms keep compressing discovery into AI systems while audiences become steadily more suspicious of what they are being shown.

Social Media in 2026: Less Forgiving, More Powerful

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-20T09:23:22+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, Digital Marketing & Strategy, Social Media Management, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Creator Content, Digital Trends 2026, Discovery, Engagement, Facebook, Instagram, Meta, SMM, Social Commerce, Social Media Management, Threads, TikTok|

Social media has not become less important — it has become less forgiving. Brands that still treat it as a content queue are quietly falling behind, while those that understand its role as a discovery surface and trust layer are gaining durable advantage.

Why Your Website Gets Visitors But No Calls or Enquiries

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-12T15:25:27+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, CRO and Conversions, Digital Marketing & Strategy, PPC & Paid Social, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Conversions, Google, Google Ads, Google Search, Mobile First, Mobile Friendly, Trust, UX, Website Strategy|

Traffic without enquiries is one of the most frustrating places to be. The interest is clearly there - people are finding you. Something between that first click and the phone ringing is broken. Here is what it usually is.

Google’s AI Search Guide, the Ahrefs Schema Study, and the AI Content Panic: What’s Actually Worth Your Attention

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-25T16:10:25+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, Digital Marketing & Strategy, GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation, SEO, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: AI Content, AI Overviews, AI Search, Google Updates, Schema, search strategy, Structured Data|

Google's AI optimisation guide and the Ahrefs schema study both dropped this week, triggering the usual tribal warfare. Before you pick a side, read a 20-year SEO veteran's breakdown of what the evidence actually supports, what's commercially motivated, and the contradiction in Google's advice that nobody is talking about.

JB’s Digital Update 18th May 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-18T20:56:23+10:00Categories: Analytics & Performance, Content Strategy & Creation, Digital Marketing & Strategy, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Social Media Management, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: AI, AI Marketing Tools, AI Search, B2B Marketing, Content Creation, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Google, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Marketing Strategy, Paid Ads, Paid Social Media, Search Marketing, SEO, TikTok, TikTok Ads|

Search is getting fuzzier, LinkedIn wants to own B2B discovery, TikTok keeps building a bigger ad machine, and Google still rewards structure over “great content” alone. Underneath all of it, platforms keep adding abstraction while marketers quietly return to commercial basics. Funny how often the industry ends up back there.

SEO in 2026: Why Rankings Are No Longer the Goal

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-12T16:40:33+10:00Categories: SEO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: AI Search, Answer Engine Optimisation, Authority Building, Content Planning, Digital Trends 2026, Generative Engine Optimisation, GEO, Marketing Analytics, Search Visibilty, SEO, Structured Data|

Search has fundamentally changed — and measuring SEO success by traffic alone is no longer enough. In 2026, visibility means being understood, trusted, and included in the moments that matter.

JB’s Digital Update 4th May 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-05-04T15:19:13+10:00Categories: Analytics & Performance, Content Strategy & Creation, Digital Marketing & Strategy, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Social Media Management, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Brand Management, Branded Search, Content Marketing, Content Planning, Content Quality, Content Strategy, Google Ads, Local SEO, Measurement, Paid Ads, Paid Social Media, Search Marketing, SEO, Short Form Video, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, Vine|

Vine returns in a limited way, SEO shifts toward trust over rankings, “helpful” content gets another nudge, paid social measurement stays murky, and branded search slips further from marketer control. Different angles, same direction: platforms tightening their grip while asking you to trust the system a little more than you probably should.

JB’s Digital Update 27th April 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-04-27T15:49:41+10:00Categories: Content Strategy & Creation, CRO and Conversions, Digital Marketing & Strategy, JB's Digital Update, SEO, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Agentic AI, AI Marketing Tools, AI Search, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Conversions, Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy, eCommerce, Generative Engine Optimisation, Generative Search, GEO, Local SEO, Marketing Strategy, SEO, SEO Strategy, Trust|

Conversion gains still come from fixing friction, brands now need to appear in AI search, ecommerce must adapt to AI shopping assistants, trust is becoming visible again, and IBM has given GEO a corporate stamp. New interfaces, same pressure: be clear, credible, and easy to choose.

JB’s Digital Update 20th April 2026

Jeremy Beckett2026-04-20T12:16:43+10:00Categories: Analytics & Performance, Content Strategy & Creation, CRO and Conversions, Digital Marketing & Strategy, JB's Digital Update, PPC & Paid Social, SEO, Technology & Development, Virtual Chief Digital Officer, Virtual Chief Marketing Officer|Tags: Ad Strategy, Advertising, Agentic AI, AI Content, AI Marketing Tools, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Content Marketing, Conversions, Dynamic Search Ads, GEO, Google Ads, Google Business Profile, Google Maps, Google Search, Local SEO, Marketing Strategy, Paid Ads, Paid Social Media, PPC, SEO, Technical SEO|

ChatGPT citations favour longer, structured content. Google introduces the idea of agentic optimisation for AI agents. Dynamic Search Ads are heading for retirement. PPC strategists are talking about profit instead of clicks. And Google Maps is now answering recommendation questions. Different announcements, same pattern. Discovery is slowly being filtered by machines first.

Strategic Leadership: Virtual Chief Digital Officer Insights