Welcome to the July 2025 edition of “SEO Last Month”—your monthly digest of the most important SEO updates, Google Ads changes, and AI developments shaping the digital marketing world. Whether you’re a business owner, marketer, or strategist at Soft Market Solution, these insights will keep your strategies future-ready.
🔒 Cloudflare’s Bold Move: Pay for Crawl AI Blocking
Cloudflare has rolled out the “Pay for Crawl” initiative, a proactive step to block AI crawlers from accessing websites unless they pay. This is seen as a move to protect content creators from unconsented data harvesting.
⚠️ Key Insight: AI tools like Perplexity’s Comet and ChatGPT agents can still bypass these blocks, making enforcement tricky.
Why it matters for marketers at Soft Market Solution: Content ownership and traffic attribution are becoming more critical in an AI-dominated search environment.
📞 Google Ads Update: Phone Number Verification Required
Starting August 1, all phone numbers in Message Assets must be verified. Unverified assets are already being disabled.
Action Point: Check your Google Ads dashboard immediately to ensure all numbers used in your campaigns are verified to avoid drops in CTR.
📊 AI Max Campaign Reporting in Google Ads
Google Ads has now enabled AI Max campaign reporting in the performance tab. It’s a hybrid between traditional Search and Performance Max—offering automation with more control.
Ideal for Soft Market Solution clients who want scalability without losing customization.
📈 Keyword Planner Forecast Gets Granular
Advertisers can now filter Keyword Planner forecasts by:
Device Type (mobile, desktop, tablet)
Location (city, state, pincode)
New pie chart visualizations make insights more digestible.
✅ SEO takeaway: Improved targeting = better ROAS.
🇮🇳 Google AI Mode Goes Public in India
On July 8, Google rolled out AI Mode across India, even in incognito mode. AI-generated answers now appear in SERPs by default.
Impact for websites:
Clicks are dropping while impressions stay steady—a phenomenon called decoupling.
Informational websites will feel the burn.
Business sites may maintain revenue for now but must optimize for visibility.
🧰 Google Ads Editor 2.1: New Features Unleashed
Released on July 8, Editor 2.1 includes:
Campaign-level negative keywords for PMax
OS-level targeting
Portrait image support in Demand Gen
QR/barcode support
Export ad previews
Streamlined search theme editing
Pro Tip: Use it to optimize Soft Market Solution’s bulk ad strategies quickly and efficiently.
🧵 Google Search Console: New Filters + API Update
Two key updates:
Discussion Forum Traffic Filter in performance reports
New API endpoint showing if imported data is incomplete
If you’re using APIs for SEO automation, this is a significant upgrade.
📧 Google Ads + Gmail Integration
Now, Gmail users receive interactive ad recommendations with clickable buttons to apply changes directly.
⚠️ Warning: These changes may not align with your strategy. Disable auto-apply features for better control.
⏱️ 24-Hour Performance Comparison in Search Console
Compare daily performance data across timeframes—a useful feature for high-traffic websites.
🚨 For smaller sites: Fluctuations may cause misleading data.
🧠 Gemini 2.5 Pro in AI Mode
Google’s new AI, Gemini 2.5 Pro, is now embedded in Search for better logic, math, and content generation.
Also being tested: AI-powered calls to local businesses for availability checks.
💡 India context: Still early-stage; human calls often work better locally.
🔁 July 2025 Core Update Concludes
The Core Algorithm Update, which ended on July 17, helped recover websites penalized in previous updates. It also prepped Google infrastructure for AI Mode rollout in India and the UK.
🔗 Reddit Ads Now Integrates with Google Analytics
From July 23, you can:
Track Reddit ad spends
Import metrics into GA
Use lead-gen templates
🎯 This makes cross-channel campaign analysis smoother for marketers.
🇹🇭 Google Search Central Deep Dive – Thailand Event
Held from July 23–25, this event covered:
Indexing
Rendering
Ranking systems
Crawling
Google also introduced a beta API for Google Trends (excluding the last 48 hours).
👗 Virtual Try-On for Clothes Goes Live
Google’s Virtual Try-On feature is now live in the U.S.—upload your image and see how clothes look on you.
Though basic, it hints at the future of AI-based immersive eCommerce.
📹 Live Video Search Launched (U.S. Only)
You can now ask Google a live video question, and it will respond in real time.
🔧 Best for hands-on tutorials like bike repair or product fixes.
🧠 Final Thoughts: What This Means for You
July 2025 saw the deepest integration of AI into search so far—from Google’s Gemini to AI Mode rollouts, along with ad automation upgrades and new SEO tools.
✅ For Soft Market Solution and digital marketers:
Focus on visibility beyond blue links—optimize for AI interactions.
Protect your content from unauthorized AI crawlers.
Adapt your PPC workflows to new tools like AI Max and Editor 2.1.
Stay skeptical about auto recommendations in Gmail.
The digital marketing landscape is evolving fast. Stay updated, stay prepared.
💬 Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
Did we miss any major update? Drop your comments or suggestions below. And don’t forget to subscribe to “SEO Last Month” to stay ahead of the curve.
📍Brought to you by Soft Market Solution – your partner in strategic digital marketing.