Mark Williams-Cook
@markwilliamscook.com
💌 Core Updates SEO newsletter: https://coreupdates.com
💻 Director at Candour https://withcandour.co.uk
💬 Founder at AlsoAsked https://alsoasked.com
Once called “by far the least annoying voice in a very annoying field”
💻 Director at Candour https://withcandour.co.uk
💬 Founder at AlsoAsked https://alsoasked.com
Once called “by far the least annoying voice in a very annoying field”
Pinned
Mark Williams-Cook
@markwilliamscook.com
· Jan 14
🎉 Happy to announce for 2025 that @withcandour.co.uk will be working with local charity Norfolk Clubhouse, who support persons facing mental health challenges.
Charity Trustee and Head of Search Tabby Farrar presented June Webb with our initial £10,000 donation 😇
Charity Trustee and Head of Search Tabby Farrar presented June Webb with our initial £10,000 donation 😇
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
I have made many many notes this year as I work through my ideas about the state of independent content creation. Here's my summary.
www.hiblue.com/five-pillars...
www.hiblue.com/five-pillars...
Five Pillars of Independent Content Creation and Monetisation in 2026 – HiBlue
www.hiblue.com
December 26, 2025 at 9:49 PM
I have made many many notes this year as I work through my ideas about the state of independent content creation. Here's my summary.
www.hiblue.com/five-pillars...
www.hiblue.com/five-pillars...
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
12YO girl signed up to do “stand up comedy” at the talent show. 13YO boy decided to heckle her. Teacher started to tell the boy to leave her alone, but the 12YO comedian said “no, no, let him go, this is the closest he’s ever going to get to having a conversation with a girl.”
What's an insult you'll never forget?
December 26, 2025 at 4:43 PM
12YO girl signed up to do “stand up comedy” at the talent show. 13YO boy decided to heckle her. Teacher started to tell the boy to leave her alone, but the 12YO comedian said “no, no, let him go, this is the closest he’s ever going to get to having a conversation with a girl.”
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
One more speaker spot left and a few sponsors spots still available.
December 27, 2025 at 12:25 PM
One more speaker spot left and a few sponsors spots still available.
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
Image SEO in 2026 is about machine readability.
FDA font sizes (0.9mm) fail AI OCR.
Glossy packaging causes data hallucinations.
Weird facial expressions = unreliable sentiment scores.
I have some thoughts and advice here:
FDA font sizes (0.9mm) fail AI OCR.
Glossy packaging causes data hallucinations.
Weird facial expressions = unreliable sentiment scores.
I have some thoughts and advice here:
Image SEO for multimodal AI
Images are now parsed like language. OCR, visual context and pixel-level quality shape how AI systems interpret and surface content.
searchengineland.com
December 23, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Image SEO in 2026 is about machine readability.
FDA font sizes (0.9mm) fail AI OCR.
Glossy packaging causes data hallucinations.
Weird facial expressions = unreliable sentiment scores.
I have some thoughts and advice here:
FDA font sizes (0.9mm) fail AI OCR.
Glossy packaging causes data hallucinations.
Weird facial expressions = unreliable sentiment scores.
I have some thoughts and advice here:
Bad week for the MAGA 'alpha' males. Woke is back 😅
December 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Bad week for the MAGA 'alpha' males. Woke is back 😅
Jaw broken in two places ✅
December 20, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Jaw broken in two places ✅
If you're not involved in scraping, you won't know about some massive changes Google made a couple of weeks ago to make it harder to scrape some parts of their SERP. This latest legal action in another brick in the wall Google is building to make life hard to competitor LLMs using their index.
December 19, 2025 at 11:25 PM
If you're not involved in scraping, you won't know about some massive changes Google made a couple of weeks ago to make it harder to scrape some parts of their SERP. This latest legal action in another brick in the wall Google is building to make life hard to competitor LLMs using their index.
Shame the murder isn't on until 3:30am 😴
December 19, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Shame the murder isn't on until 3:30am 😴
On 15th January, I'll be talking to @yagmursimsek.bsky.social and @bngsrc.bsky.social about one of the most tricky areas of SEO: "Content quality". It's a free webinar you can join, and we'll try and field your questions too!
You can register here: www.duda.co/webinars/win...
You can register here: www.duda.co/webinars/win...
Defining, Measuring & Winning With Quality Content in 2026
www.duda.co
December 19, 2025 at 2:21 PM
On 15th January, I'll be talking to @yagmursimsek.bsky.social and @bngsrc.bsky.social about one of the most tricky areas of SEO: "Content quality". It's a free webinar you can join, and we'll try and field your questions too!
You can register here: www.duda.co/webinars/win...
You can register here: www.duda.co/webinars/win...
Every year, instead of sending Christmas gifts to clients, @withcandour.co.uk make a £2,000 donation to Future Projects who provide for the thousands of local households that are struggling to afford food and daily essentials over Christmas. 🎄
December 17, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Every year, instead of sending Christmas gifts to clients, @withcandour.co.uk make a £2,000 donation to Future Projects who provide for the thousands of local households that are struggling to afford food and daily essentials over Christmas. 🎄
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
Cheers to my very first article on @sejournal.bsky.social 🥂Posting this with a very proud smile 🥳
SEO teams can tie organic performance to revenue by mapping full user journeys in GA4 and uncovering hidden conversion opportunities.
How To Track User Journey In GA4 To Make SEO Wins More Visible
SEO teams can tie organic performance to revenue by mapping full user journeys in GA4 and uncovering hidden conversion opportunities.
www.searchenginejournal.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Cheers to my very first article on @sejournal.bsky.social 🥂Posting this with a very proud smile 🥳
December 14, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
... But does it run Doom?
Yes, yes it does.
Yes, yes it does.
Robots.txt - Can it run doom? Turns out it can:
doom.wunsch.dk/robots.txt (html)
doomxml.wunsch.dk/robots.txt (xml - Firefox only, due to inline xslt not supported in webkit based browsers)
More:
www.wunsch.dk/blog/robots-...
Inspired by @johnmu.com: bsky.app/profile/john...
doom.wunsch.dk/robots.txt (html)
doomxml.wunsch.dk/robots.txt (xml - Firefox only, due to inline xslt not supported in webkit based browsers)
More:
www.wunsch.dk/blog/robots-...
Inspired by @johnmu.com: bsky.app/profile/john...
December 14, 2025 at 7:04 PM
... But does it run Doom?
Yes, yes it does.
Yes, yes it does.
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
Linus Torvalds calls a spa... - @Leander | Loops.video
Linus Torvalds calls... • 619 likes • 38 comments
loops.video
December 10, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Google’s December 2025 Core Update has started rolling out, and may take 3 weeks to complete. May the odds ever be in your favour! 🪄
December 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Google’s December 2025 Core Update has started rolling out, and may take 3 weeks to complete. May the odds ever be in your favour! 🪄
Very happy to say @withcandour.co.uk is a Scholarship Sponsor for @womenintechseo.bsky.social Fest in London next year. This helps cover the cost of tickets for those that otherwise might not be able to attend 🫶
December 11, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Very happy to say @withcandour.co.uk is a Scholarship Sponsor for @womenintechseo.bsky.social Fest in London next year. This helps cover the cost of tickets for those that otherwise might not be able to attend 🫶
📖 Date for your diary: 24th September 2026: We found a venue for SearchNorwichXL. 250 people ✨
December 10, 2025 at 1:14 PM
📖 Date for your diary: 24th September 2026: We found a venue for SearchNorwichXL. 250 people ✨
The @majestic.com SEOin2026 is out today. There is a launch livestream at 14:00CET at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WOM...
117 leading SEOs and Digital Marketers to help you stay one step ahead of your competitors.
Grab your copy on Amazon👇
UK: maj.to/48FVO0S
US: maj.to/44TaVCM
117 leading SEOs and Digital Marketers to help you stay one step ahead of your competitors.
Grab your copy on Amazon👇
UK: maj.to/48FVO0S
US: maj.to/44TaVCM
December 10, 2025 at 11:02 AM
The @majestic.com SEOin2026 is out today. There is a launch livestream at 14:00CET at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WOM...
117 leading SEOs and Digital Marketers to help you stay one step ahead of your competitors.
Grab your copy on Amazon👇
UK: maj.to/48FVO0S
US: maj.to/44TaVCM
117 leading SEOs and Digital Marketers to help you stay one step ahead of your competitors.
Grab your copy on Amazon👇
UK: maj.to/48FVO0S
US: maj.to/44TaVCM
AIOs starting to trend down? Very interesting data from @alsoasked.com: An analysis of 24 million PAA questions shows a significant drop in AI-generated answers by Google in the last 4 weeks. Was this an experiment? Do users prefer real website answers over AIOs?
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
AIOs starting to trend down? Very interesting data from @alsoasked.com: An analysis of 24 million PAA questions shows a significant drop in AI-generated answers by Google in the last 4 weeks. Was this an experiment? Do users prefer real website answers over AIOs?
Halifax trying to do a “Wrapped” in their banking app got me cringing so hard it hurts
December 7, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Halifax trying to do a “Wrapped” in their banking app got me cringing so hard it hurts
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
🚨 YouTube drop alert! Our brilliant hosts Simon Cox (@simoncox.com) and Mike Chidzey were joined by two SEO legends - Bengü Sarıca Dinçer (@bngsrc.bsky.social) and Geoff Meakin - for #SeoOfficeHours.
📺 Catch the full episode now on our website, and 📅 add SEO Office Hours invites to your calendar!
📺 Catch the full episode now on our website, and 📅 add SEO Office Hours invites to your calendar!
December 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM
🚨 YouTube drop alert! Our brilliant hosts Simon Cox (@simoncox.com) and Mike Chidzey were joined by two SEO legends - Bengü Sarıca Dinçer (@bngsrc.bsky.social) and Geoff Meakin - for #SeoOfficeHours.
📺 Catch the full episode now on our website, and 📅 add SEO Office Hours invites to your calendar!
📺 Catch the full episode now on our website, and 📅 add SEO Office Hours invites to your calendar!
Reposted by Mark Williams-Cook
When you go to Down Detector to see if LinkedIn is down and then find out that the site itself is down because of Cloudflare.
December 5, 2025 at 8:58 AM
When you go to Down Detector to see if LinkedIn is down and then find out that the site itself is down because of Cloudflare.
With no malice, I will say the common denominator between the vast majority of "SEO is dead, let me tell you how to GEO" people I have noticed is: they have zero professional SEO experience 🙃
December 4, 2025 at 9:15 PM
With no malice, I will say the common denominator between the vast majority of "SEO is dead, let me tell you how to GEO" people I have noticed is: they have zero professional SEO experience 🙃