_{Day 116/100}

Hey—it’s Tim.

It’s 1am. I’m on a night bender again and I’m staring at a Penfriend keyword report that says we already win a bunch of AI-Overview citations…

and I have absolutely no clue why.

Cue mild panic
→ coffee
→ doom-scroll
→ Mike King’s 12 THOUSAND WORD thesis on Google’s brand-new AI Mode.
(I read the whole thing so you don’t have to; you’re welcome)

Why I cared enough to lose sleep:

1. Growth math: AI Mode adoption and use is growing ~4 % more queries every day.
   Pretending it’ll “calm down” is charming but delusional.
   

2. Ego: We rank, but I can’t explain the mechanics. That feels like driving a race car with the hood welded shut.
   Knowing how to rank in Google has be
   

3. Mission: If Penfriend’s promise is “content that wins tomorrow,” I’d better know what “tomorrow” looks like — and build the tools before you need them.

Below: the cleaned-up, highlight-reel version of Mike’s deep dive plus how we’re productising it.

📌 TL;DR — Clip & Keep

Old SEO vs. AI Mode (one swipeable table)

Five Moves to Make Right Now

1. Think constellations, not stars.
   Generate every micro-query your head term explodes into. Cover them or concede them.
   

2. Write snack-size, stand-alone paragraphs.
   Each block must win its own tiny cage match.
   

3. Know exactly who you are writing for
   And make your content just for that person.
   

4. Track new KPIs:

   • Citation share – how often Google name-drops you

   • Coverage % – micro-queries you actually answer

   • Passage win-rate – your paragraph vs. theirs
     

5. Answer with the fastest medium.
   If a chart beats a paragraph, give Google the chart (your logo in the corner, thanks).

From Blue Links to Star Charts

The mindset shift that finally clicked:

You don’t pick lanes; you map galaxies.
Our job: plot every star that matters - and make sure one of them spells your brand.

What We’re Doing About It (Penfriend, Sleeves-Rolled Edition)

We cleared our calendars, adopted a stray espresso machine, and told our social lives we’d see them in Q4.

Because if search just reinvented itself overnight, our editor has to follow suit—not in 18 months, but in, like, Tuesday.

Here’s how that looks in plain English:

1. Push a button → get a checklist of every “hidden” query Google’s AI Mode splinters your topic into.
   No mystic dashboards. Just: “Cover these angles or get outranked.”
   

2. Write a paragraph → watch a live “Will this survive the AI cage match?” bar rise or crash.
   Green = snippet-worthy. Red = rewrite. You’ll feel it in real time, not after launch-day tears.
   

3. Hit “compare” → see the best competitor passage side-by-side.
   If theirs is sharper, you’ll know exactly why—and how to steal the crown.
   

4. Toggle “Show me like a CFO / student / marketer” → preview how the answer card changes.
   Instant empathy goggles, built right into the editor.
   

5. Big friendly ship-light that flips from “Polish me” to “Send it” when your copy can out-punch the bots.

We’re slicing the work into weekly releases.
First slice ships in 2 weeks.
Beta invites will hit inboxes faster than Google can invent a new SERP feature.

We’re on it—weekends, evenings, questionable snack choices and all—so you can keep doing the fun part: making stuff worth ranking.

More questions? Hit reply; I’m probably online.

✌️ Tim "Vector Whisperer" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. If I miss a newsletter, it’s because I slept at my desk again…

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