wordpress 7 + google “intelligent search”

In this email we’ll talk about WordPress 7 and Google’s new “intelligent search” which, on the face of it, looks to be a huge change to search, SEO and Google Ads. More below…

WordPress 7.0 released

In case you missed it, WordPress 7.0 got released this week. We’ve been seeing a number of customer sites have issues after the upgrade got rolled out automatically so keep an eye on your site – if it starts acting funny that might be why.

As you’d expect there’s some big changes but probably the biggest one is the ability to integrate with AI tools. If you’re already using ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude in your workflow then this would be worth checking out. Also important, if you’re running WooCommerce it has an MCP which will allow you to work with WordPress via AI tools.

If you’re on our WPAlpha hosting, our AI SmartUpdates system should test the update in advance to ensure your site is compatible with it and block the upgrade if it anticipates problems.

Learn more about WordPress 7 here at SearchEngineLand

Here’s more about the WooCommerce MCP and how to enable it: https://developer.woocommerce.com/docs/features/mcp/

Google Rolling Out “Intelligent AI Search”

This week Google is rolling out what its calling Intelligent Search – basically AI more heavily integrated into search.

Over the last 12 months we’ve seen click through rates drop dramatically from 15-20% CTR for a number one position to 1-2% CTR with the majority of clicks going to AI overviews.

The new intelligent search will see the trend likely continue.

One thing we’ve seen, that is particularly important with the rise of ChatGPT and AI search, is open graph images. This is the image that displays when the site is featured in AI search results and the same images that appear when a page is shared on the socials and on messenger apps.

I’ve repeatedly talked about “hidden SEO”, those simple, not obvious SEO improvements like Open Graph images that can make a huge difference to click through rate in some instances. It seems with this change they will continue to be important.

Here a link to one of the previous emails where we talked about this: https://app.bentonow.com/share/vWN7GRRVwGXeBk

You can learn more about “Intelligent Search” here.

Google has some new ad formats that go along with the new AI search – if you’re running Google Ads, make sure you read about them and are taking advantage of them – more here: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-marketing-live-search-ads/

Thats it for this email, any questions, just hit reply – if you’re stuck with site speed or need help with SEO, email me back with some background on the problem you’re looking to solve and we can send over some recommendations.