Searchlight is Aztek's marketing news roundup that brings together the week’s most relevant developments in marketing, search, AI, and digital strategy, all in one place. We update this article throughout the week with news we think is worth your time, along with context to help you understand what changed, why it matters, and what it could mean for your business.
This week's topics:
10/6: Trying to Fake E-E-A-T for AEO? Google Is Paying Attention
As more businesses look for ways to improve their visibility in AI search, E-E-A-T has naturally become part of the conversation. If search engines and AI systems are looking for trustworthy, authoritative sources, it makes sense to show who created your content and why they know what they’re talking about. The problem starts when brands try to manufacture that authority instead of earning it.
Google recently updated its guidance to specifically warn against deceptive authorship information. That includes fake creator profiles, made-up names, AI-generated headshots, or false credentials designed to make content appear as though it was written by a human expert. Google says those practices make a page less trustworthy to both users and its automated quality systems.
Why AEO Creates More Pressure to Look Authoritative
AEO has put more attention on whether a brand looks like a credible source. That need for credibility can lead marketers to focus heavily on signals such as author bios, credentials, expert reviews, or first-hand experience. None of those things are a problem when they’re accurate, and Google encourages clear authorship information while emphasizing the importance of real expertise where appropriate.
The issue is treating those signals like shortcuts. Adding an impressive-sounding author bio doesn’t make weak content more useful, and calling something “expert reviewed” doesn’t help if no qualified expert actually reviewed it. Making up a persona to give an article more authority may create the appearance of E-E-A-T, but it works against the trust Google says is most important.
E-E-A-T for AEO Isn’t a Checklist
This idea is where E-E-A-T often gets misunderstood. Google says E-E-A-T itself isn’t a single ranking factor, and its systems use a mix of signals to identify content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Of those qualities, Google says trust is the most important.
That reality makes the idea of faking E-E-A-T for AEO pretty contradictory. If the goal is to appear trustworthy by using information that isn’t actually true, the strategy falls apart before it starts. It may look optimized on the surface, but it doesn’t give search engines or users a real reason to trust the content.
Make Real Expertise Easier to Find
A better approach is to look at the expertise your business already has and make it more visible. For many B2B companies, that expertise already exists inside the organization, whether it’s product knowledge, technical experience, customer insights, or years of working through the same problems their audience is trying to solve.
Marketing can turn that knowledge into stronger content without inventing an expert persona. These tactics an include:
- Connecting articles to real subject matter experts
- Including first-hand insight
- Clearly explaining where information came from
- Giving readers enough background to understand why an author is qualified to discuss the topic
Google’s broader guidance still comes back to the same idea: create content that offers original value, demonstrates real knowledge, and helps people accomplish what they came to the page to do.
AEO Still Comes Back to Trust
AI search may change how people discover information, but it hasn’t changed the basic requirement that the information needs to deserve their trust. That’s why Google’s authorship update is worth paying attention to beyond traditional SEO, especially as more businesses start thinking about E-E-A-T for AEO.
The goal shouldn’t be to manufacture more authority signals. It should be to make your real expertise clearer, easier to verify, and more useful to the people looking for answers, because that’s a much stronger foundation than trying to guess what an algorithm wants to see.
10/09: Facebook Is Limiting Link Posts: What Businesses Need to Know
Sharing a link to your latest blog post or product page on Facebook has been a pretty standard part of social media marketing for years. Write the content, publish it on your website, and share it with your followers. Simple enough.
Facebook has recently started experimenting with making that process a little more complicated. Meta has expanded a test that limits how many external links certain business Pages can share organically each month without paying for a subscription. The change isn't affecting every business just yet, but it raises some interesting questions about how much companies should rely on social media to drive website traffic.
How Facebook's Link Post Limits Work
Meta began testing restrictions on external link sharing in December 2025. The company expanded the test in September 2026 alongside the introduction of its Meta One for Business subscription packages.
Under the test, selected Facebook Pages without a qualifying subscription can share external links in just two organic posts or comments per calendar month. Businesses that want to share more links may need to subscribe to Meta One, which offers higher posting allowances.
There are some important exceptions. The restrictions don't apply to personal profiles or Facebook Groups, and paid advertisements aren't included in the limit. According to Sprout Social's Oct. 1 guidance, the restriction currently applies to Facebook's own publishing tools, with no observed impact on posts published through Sprout Social.
For now, these Facebook link post limits are still being tested, so businesses shouldn't assume their Pages are automatically affected.
Should Businesses Rethink Their Facebook Strategy?
Before making any major changes, businesses should first check whether their Page is included in the test. If it is, this is a good opportunity to evaluate how Facebook fits into their overall marketing strategy.
A few things worth considering:
- Look at your actual results. How much website traffic comes from Facebook? More importantly, does that traffic lead to inquiries or other meaningful actions?
- Be selective about what you share. Not every blog post or company update needs an external link. Prioritize the content that's most valuable to your audience and business goals.
- Make your Facebook content useful on its own. Instead of posting a short teaser that requires someone to click away, share more of the actual information directly in the post.
- Evaluate the cost before subscribing. If Facebook consistently generates quality leads, paying for additional link-sharing capabilities might be worth considering. If it doesn't, a subscription probably won't solve that problem.
Your Marketing Strategy Shouldn't Depend on Facebook's Rules
Facebook's latest test is another reminder that businesses don't control the platforms they use. Features can change, algorithms can shift, and something that was once free can eventually become a paid service.
Social media can still be valuable for building awareness and maintaining relationships with customers. However, relying on any single platform to consistently deliver website traffic leaves businesses vulnerable whenever the rules change.
Your website and the content you publish there remain assets you control. Email marketing can also help maintain direct connections with your audience without depending entirely on a social platform's distribution decisions.
