Behind the biggest change I made this year

I took a break from writing and sending newsletters in June because I was working on something exciting — moving my website to a new domain, Behind Rankings. 🚀

It meant saying goodbye to the domain name my younger self came up with almost five years ago, Self Made Millennials, 👋 and saying hello to a brand that better reflects who I am today, my vision, and where I want to take the site. ✨

What finally pushed me to make the move was another well-known brand with a very similar name.

While tracking my brand mentions, I noticed that AI tools and LLMs were getting confused and even attributing mentions to my website that had nothing to do with me. 😅

That was a big wake-up call.

If your brand name isn't unique, building a strong brand presence becomes much harder, especially now that people search across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI tools 🤖, not just Google.

Brand signals matter more than ever. And sometimes, making a difficult change today puts you in a much better position for the future. 💙

Before migrating the domain, I did a few things to prepare:

1️⃣ I created brand accounts on LinkedIn and Reddit, the two platforms where I regularly share content
2️⃣ I updated brand mentions on my Medium account with 21K followers
3️⃣ I used the same brand description across all channels
4️⃣ I updated all links pointing to the new domain as soon as the migration was complete
5️⃣ I started mentioning my website name, Behind Rankings, in my content to help AI tools better understand the brand

Looking back, I think building a brand around your website matters much more today than it did a few years ago.

Now my job is simple: Keep creating helpful content based on my own experience. 😊

And yes, I still write all of my content myself. AI helps me automate some parts of the process, but the writing is still done by me.

Lately, I've shared my thoughts on the future of SEO in the era of AI. If you are a site owner, take a look and learn how to prepare for industry changes. 👇

Every two weeks, I round up and share the biggest updates from the AI SEO world so you can stay on top of the latest changes and what's coming next. 👇

Google announced Platform Properties in Search Console, a consolidated view of how Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube posts perform on Google Search and Discover.

The new property type comes with performance, insights, and achievements reports and rolls out gradually to eligible creators over the coming weeks.

Why it matters: This is the first time content creators get first-party impression and click data for social posts appearing in Google Search and Discover, which changes how off-site content should be tracked against SEO performance.

My take: I’m still a bit surprised that Google hasn’t added Facebook yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens eventually.

Since I’m mainly active on LinkedIn, I haven’t added any new properties to my Google Search Console so far.

What about you? Have you added any new ones yet? 😊

Semrush published a new data study on July 7 showing AI Overviews are appearing on a wider share of commercial and transactional queries, not just informational ones.

The study covers query categories where AIOs were previously rare and documents shifting SERP composition around comparison, review, and product queries.

Why it matters: Commercial content pages that used to be safer from AI Overview cannibalization are now inside the disruption zone. Tool comparisons and best-of lists have already started showing up in AI Overviews (and they can take clicks away from your website).

Ahrefs published results of an internal AI SEO experiment on July 7 showing that inserting self-promotional mentions of your brand into content can lift AI citations in the short term.

The same technique starts to hurt visibility once it crosses a threshold. Ahrefs published the specific patterns that flipped positive to negative.

Why it matters: This is one of the first published tests of a specific GEO tactic that most content teams are now trialing. The finding argues for restraint. Aggressive self-mention is not free.

Semrush One combines Semrush's traditional SEO toolkit with new AI-driven search visibility into a single solution.

With Semrush One, you can track and improve your brand's visibility in AI search results, including AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and more. You can monitor up to 50 prompts and 500 keywords per day across five domains, which is pretty solid.

Here's what you can do with Semrush One:

Here's a little perk: My partner link gives you a 14-day free trial to Semrush One instead of the usual 7 days. Just a small way to get more time to explore and see if it's a good fit! 😊

For $9.99, my ebook shows you how to create content that aligns with Google's E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust) and gets cited — your biggest edge in the AI era.

Inside, you'll learn:

If you want your content to perform over the long term, not just exist, this is for you.

That’s all for now!

Talk soon,
Victoria

P.S. To learn more, check my full collection of newsletters for free: Behind Rankings.