It’s been a while. Almost two years, actually, since I last published here.
Life happened — client work picked up, I went deep into a few big projects, and somewhere along the way, the blog quietly slipped down my priority list. I’m not going to pretend otherwise or bury it in corporate language. I just stopped writing for a bit. It happens.
But I’ve missed this. I’ve missed sitting down every week and thinking through what I’m seeing in client accounts, what’s working, what’s changing, and sharing it honestly instead of polishing it into something generic. So I’m back — and I want to start by catching you up on what’s actually changed in digital marketing since I last hit publish.
Search doesn’t look like it used to
The biggest shift, by far, is how people search. When I wrote my last post in October 2024, “ranking #1 on Google” was still the gold standard everyone chased. That’s no longer the full picture.
Today, AI-generated answers — what Google calls AI Overviews — show up at the top of a huge share of searches, especially branded ones. People are getting their answer right there on the results page, without clicking through to any website at all. That’s a real shift, and it means the old playbook of “just rank higher” isn’t enough anymore.
I’ll be writing a full post about this next week, because it deserves proper attention. But the short version is: visibility now matters more than just ranking position, and being the source that AI tools quote and cite is becoming just as important as being the blue link someone clicks.
Google Ads is leaning harder into automation
On the paid side, Google has pushed automation much further. Features like AI Max and an expanded Performance Max are doing more of the targeting, bidding, and even ad creation than ever before.
That sounds convenient, and in some ways it is. But automation without oversight can also burn through a budget fast. I’ve seen it happen. The accounts that do well are the ones where someone is still watching closely, feeding the system good data, and stepping in when something looks off. I’ll cover this properly in Month 2.
Local SEO has gotten more precise
For businesses here in Mississauga and across the GTA, there’s good news — local targeting has become far more granular. Instead of just targeting a city, you can now zero in on specific neighbourhoods. For a local service business, that’s a real opportunity to spend smarter and reach the people actually nearby.
Why I’m telling you all this
I could have just quietly started posting again and pretended there was no gap. But that’s not how I want to do this. DiGeetal Diary has always been about honesty over polish — sharing what’s real, including the messy parts, like simply going quiet for a while.
So here’s my commitment: a new post every Tuesday, starting now. I’ve already mapped out the first three months, and it’s going to focus heavily on what’s actually changed — AI search, the new shape of Google Ads, and how small businesses and consultants like me can adapt without losing our minds (or our budgets).
If you’ve been reading for a while, thank you for sticking around. If you’re new here, welcome — I think you’ve arrived at a good time, because there’s a lot worth talking about.
See you next Tuesday.
— Geeta