A living cheat sheet for AI, Spain puts platforms on notice, and the ever-evolving Search game

AI news needs rules, crawlers gone wild, the Wayback lockout, Google's antitrust saga continues, and listicles losing their edge - all in this week's Content Aware.

Published: 15:23, 05 February 2026

Steven Wilson-Beales on... the hidden cost of AI visibility  
Audience growth whizz SWB says the ABCs of SEO are going MIA for sites chasing AIO ASAP. Content Aware gets a celebrity takeover, as one of the leading minds in getting audiences interested in what you are creating lays out some simple reminders to site owners and editorial teams being told that AI visibility is the sole thing to worry about in getting people motivated to click.
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Build pages, not AI feeds
Owners experimenting with “pageless” feed-like versions of sites purely for consumption by AI are giving up a vast set of signals indicating more about the content than the words themselves, an expert warns. Removing layout and navigation while flattening might help bots with extraction, but you're also losing context, editorial judgement, and trust, all important things for a publisher. The hot tip? Don't have a site for people and another for bots - instead make sure your main site works properly. Jono Alderson discusses further why one well-built site is far better than two mediocre efforts.
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No free lunch for AI
UK thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research - a regular voice of reason in legislators ears - entered the AI chat with a list of clear demands: label, explain, pay. The IPPR states AI-generated news needs "nutrition labels", showing sources and information, and that tech companies should pay for content. They call for licensing rules, transparency, and public funding to stop independent and local news from being pushed out by AI firms becoming internet gatekeepers. One thing is clear: AI tools are already pulling the strings of what people are seeing, while playing favourites with licensing deals and draining traffic from the whole sector. If there are no guardrails, the news ecosystem will struggle more as trust erodes and smaller publishers get bullied out.
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Clicks drop, trust wins
Google Zero? UK publishing traffic experts aint buying it. While AI Overviews are harvesting your clickthrough rates, fact-based journalism is being crowded out by more ad-friendly branded, opinionated, and commercially appealing content. The trick according to those who have had to battle through is to focus on trusted content, smarter optimisation, and realising organic search is in managed decline rather than a dead pathway already. As the game of search evolves day to day, publishers are always learning how to play. Press Gazette shares more insight.
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Regulators take another swing at Google
The US Justice Department and 35 states are slamming the appeal button after a court allowed Google to walk away with Chrome still in their pockets, even after a ruling that said the company monopolised online search. The judge ruled on some light wrist slaps, such as contract tweaks, but no breakup in sight, which coloured regulators not impressed. Now they're coming for round two as the fight heads to appeals court later this year, where the government will come for Google again in order to try and clip it's grip on search, ads, and their tightly intertwined ecosystem.
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The AI bs filter
​The American Journalism Project just released a new guide for newsrooms inundated by too-good-to-be-true AI promises. With a little help from partner outlets and after a little stress testing, AJP goes straight in and spills the tea on what AI systems actually can and can't do, such as meeting transcriptions and pattern-spotting. It is living on Airtable and refreshes every few months, designed as a guide that is never really supposed to be finished, but serves as a living reality check for journalists who want to use AI tools but don't want to allow them to rule the newsroom.
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Spain vs social media: round one
Spain is turning up the heat on social media. Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez revealed his government is to ban under 16s from social media, following in the footsteps of Australia. He added that platform execs will be personally liable if algorithms amplify illegal content, calling social media a "failed state" where disinformation is king, highlighting Grok, TikTok, and Instagram. As you can imagine, AI overlords didn't like any of this, but that isn't stopping Spain from advancing with their plan: real age verification systems, criminal exposure for algorithmic mischief, as well as cross-border coordination with fellow European nations. Madrid is skipping fines altogether, and getting out the big guns: enforcement.
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CMS migrations done right
Struggling with slow workflows, rising costs, and underperforming content? Looking to do a CMS migration that isn't just an upgrade, but a chance to transform how your organisation works? We got you. With guidance from our partners Centralsoft, code.store, Versatile Content, as well as our own Professional Services, you'll focus on what's really important: cleaned-up content, reusable components, strategy, and smarter workflows. These tips will help your migration become a launchpad for long-term digital success.
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"Best of" bubble bursts
The trend of companies crowning themselves as No.1 with a little help of self-promotional "best of" listicles, as well as swapping friendly shout-outs with their industry buddies, might soon come to an end. Google is cracking down on self-dealing of trust and quality - somewhat ironic - making these self-referencing listicles seem like they're just a ticking SEO bomb. Lily Ray shares more details.
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Locking the Wayback door
Big publishers are slamming the door in The Internet Archives face, worried that AI companies will get its hands on archived pages and use them as a sneaky way in to hoover up content without asking, or paying. Publications such as The Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times, and even Reddit, all decided to limit or cut off what the Wayback Machine can access.
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Creative work under attack
Generative AI has thrown a wrecking ball at creators' wallets, and photographers are arguably feeling it the hardest. Cases such as Tim Flach, an award-winning photographer, who found out that AI scooped up his signature style - alongside thousands of others - without asking or paying. Figures show around 99% of creators have been scraped and 58% of photographers have lost gigs to algorithms. Read the entire report here [PDF].
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Training data FTW
Last week we reported on the first part of Information Retrieval; now SEO ninja Harry Clarkson-Bennett is coming in hot with Part 2, where he discusses how understanding AI isn't optional anymore, that the real champion is training data, and what you need to do to stay visible to both humans and AI engines.
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No more free snacking
Recently the UK's Competition and Markets Authority has stepped into Google AI's lawn, poking at how Google's gen AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode are casually snacking on publishers' content, and starving everyone else. According to Cloudflare Google's bots are running around the web like playtime bandits seeing far more content than any other AI firms' crawlers. They suggest "crawler separation" to allow publishers to decide who will get access to their content and how they will get it. This is a unique opportunity for the CMA to turn the UK into a global referee in the game of fair AI play.
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SCAM vs scammers
Bipartisan US Senators Ruben Gallego and Bernie Moreno are aiming at social media scammers with the appropriately named SCAM Act. With the rise of scam ads on social media, they've devised plans to force platforms to block fraudulent ads, verify advertisers, and make it easier for users to report shady stuff. It's backed by banks and consumer groups who point to $3 billion lost to online scams in 2024 alone.
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