SEO Tools and Resources

Wikipedia was once widely considered an unreliable source. Today, however, it’s often treated as a credible reference point because of its extensive citations and collaborative editing process. It’s also one of the primary sources AI search systems rely on. Alongside Reddit, Wikipedia heavily influences the information surfaced by ChatGPT and Google. The downside to this is that Wikipedia isn’t always foolproof. Negative or outdated information often persists on certain pages for months or even years. That information is then funneled back into AI search systems and relayed to users. This creates a feedback loop where outdated or negative narratives can gain l…

Cybercriminals are exploiting Google Search ads to steal Microsoft advertising account credentials, revealing a sophisticated phishing scheme that has potentially been active for years. The big picture. Attackers created malicious Google ads mimicking Microsoft Advertising’s official platform. The campaign redirects users through complex networks to steal login information. Researchers discovered potential infrastructure dating back multiple years How it works. Hackers use a multi-step process to bypass security: Create sponsored search results that look like legitimate Microsoft ads. Implement cloaking techniques to evade bot detection. Use Cloudflare …

Google is introducing a new generation of Gemini-powered ad formats across AI Mode and Search designed to make ads feel more conversational, contextual and helpful as unveiled today at Google Marketing Live 2026. Driving the news. The company announced several new ad experiences for AI-powered Search, including Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers, AI-powered Shopping ads and Business Agent for Leads. The updates are part of Google’s broader push to integrate Gemini deeper into Search and advertising experiences. Conversational Discovery ads are designed to answer a person’s specific question directly inside AI Mode. For example, someone searching for…

For over two decades, parked domains generated income for advertisers and publishers. Recent Google Ads policy changes restricting ads on parked, expired, or mistyped domains show that nothing lasts forever. If industry shifts have affected you, this article may interest you. Today, we’ll take a deeper look at domain monetization and whether you can still stabilize and optimize income from domain traffic. The domain market shake-up In 2025, Google began rolling out significant changes to its Search Partner Network to improve inventory quality. These updates tightened controls and limited ad delivery across parked, expired, and mistyped domains. That process…

SEO is at a crossroads. As AI reshapes the digital landscape and Google continues to drive less traffic to brands, marketers face a critical challenge: how to balance strategies that deliver results today with innovations that prepare for tomorrow. This article outlines eight key considerations to help you navigate these changes and stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of SEO. Why SEO feels overwhelming right now In 2024, five of the top 15 SEO stories on Search Engine Land were about AI, with several others covering major changes at Google that have led to less traffic being sent to brands. These shifts leave us with a lot to think about. Studies a…

The holiday season saw a significant increase in digital ad spending across retail media, paid search, and paid social channels according to the Q4 2024 Digital Marketing Quarterly Trends Report by omnichannel advertising platform for commerce media, Skai. Despite concerns over a shorter shopping season and ongoing economic pressures, advertisers doubled down on digital campaigns, driving a 20% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) increase in ad spend across all channels. Retail media emerged as the biggest winner, with remarkable year-over-year (YoY) growth. By the numbers: Paid search. While spending increased 20% QoQ, YoY spending dipped by 2%, with a decline in sta…

Over the past few decades, digital marketing has settled into a stable system. While it spans SEO, content marketing, social media, and digital advertising, many programs have relied on a predictable core that didn’t always use every available channel. This gave digital marketers a sense of predictability and comfort. For years, teams stuck with what worked and refined execution through the same familiar framework. AI search has disrupted that comfort and exposed our inconsistencies. To succeed with AI SEO, we need a much more comprehensive approach. AI SEO rewards strategic marketing Over the past 15 to 20 years, digital marketing settled into a predictable r…

Google acknowledged that Performance Max (PMax) campaigns can be controlled through API placement exclusions — contradicting months of its own documentation and support guidance, according to new research from ad tech firm Optmyzr. This revelation gives advertisers more programmatic control over their PMax campaigns than previously thought possible, potentially saving significant time and resources in campaign management. The big picture. Performance Max campaigns, Google’s AI-driven ad format, have been a source of frustration for advertisers seeking more granular control over where their ads appear. Lead up. Earlier this year we saw that despite Navah Hopkin…

Every few weeks, someone publishes a piece about AI agents taking over Google Ads, SEO, or social media. Inevitably, the agents look impressive — in theory, at least. But then you dig deeper to determine what data the agent is working with. Almost always, the answer is the same. These agents typically work with data that’s native to the platform. For Google Ads, that means impressions, clicks, conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS). This oversimplified approach is the reason AI agents in PPC often fail at the input layer, before they’ve made a single decision. An agent that has access to platform-native data only can’t truly manage your marketing. Why many…

Marketing teams often operate with a hidden skepticism tax. Because they don’t fully trust their data, they spend enormous amounts of time cleaning spreadsheets, reconciling conflicting reports, and second-guessing both attribution models and AI outputs. The result is slower execution, weaker alignment across teams, and decisions built on uncertain foundations. Take branded search. It often gets credit for conversions that were likely to happen anyway, like a revolving door taking credit for everyone who enters a building. That gap between correlation and causation points to a much larger problem in modern marketing: too many teams operate on incomplete, fra…

Advertisers are paying more for clicks in Google Ads — but they’re also getting better at turning those clicks into conversions, according to new benchmark data from WordStream by LocaliQ. The 2025 benchmark report, based on more than 16,000 campaigns, found the average Google Ads cost-per-click (CPC) rose to $5.42, up from $4.66 the previous year. CPCs increased in 87% of industries analyzed. At the same time, average conversion rates climbed to 8.18%, suggesting advertisers are getting more efficient even as traffic becomes more expensive. Why advertisers should care. The latest benchmarks reinforce a growing reality in paid search: cheap traffic is dis…

In February 2025, the world watched as a small group of humanoid robots took the stage at the CCTV Chinese New Year show for the very first time. It was a charming performance, even if the steps were shaky and the movements were mostly limited to the arms. Just one year later, at the Spring Festival Gala, the shaky steps were gone and the humanoid robots were able to actually run and do standing somersaults and full kung fu routines with swords and nunchaku. The message was clear: in just one year, we have witnessed a decade’s worth of advancement. The 10-year leap in technology is real and not limited to robotics. Which raises a critical question for every digita…

We love to say that SEO is always changing, and 2024 proved that true. There’s hardly been a year more challenging and exciting than that. But as we’re heading into 2025, we’re sure we have not seen the last of it. With everyone banking on AI, search, and the search industry are set for another sea change. In this post, we hear from seasoned SEO experts for their predictions on the future and how you can prepare. Table of contents A look back at SEO in 2024 The SEO experts in this article Main trends and SEO insights for 2025 AI’s role in SEO Adapting to zero-click searches The rising importance of video content E-commerce SEO shifts Local SEO trends for 2025 User …

Google announced its latest and greatest AI model, Gemini 3.5 Flash today at Google I/O. Google’s head of Search, Liz Reid, said Gemini 3.5 Flash is Google’s “newest Flash model delivering sustained frontier performance for agents and coding.” She added that is now being used to power AI Mode globally. Gemini 3.5 Flash. Not only is Gemini 3.5 Flash powering AI Mode in Google Search, but it is also powering the Gemini app, for all users, not just paid users. For developers, 3.5 Flash is now live in Google Antigravity, Gemini API for Google AI Studio and Android Studio and for enterprise users for Enterprise Agent Platform and Gemini Enterprise. Koray Kavukcuogl…

Google has published a new guide on how to optimize for Google’s generative AI features, like AI Mode, AI Overviews and more. A lot of this content is put together from previous communication from Google but all in a neat new help document named Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search. What’s in the document. The document covers the following topics: SEO is relevant for generative AI search, follow Google’s best practices for SEO. Create valuable, non-commodity content for your audience Provide a unique point of view Create non-commodity content that’s helpful, reliable and people-first Organize content in a way that helps yo…

Improving technical SEO on your site may not be enough to move the needle these days. Once a site reaches technical parity with its competitors — the point at which a proper infrastructure no longer gives you an advantage — Google shifts its ranking criteria toward relevance. And relevance is determined by aligning with search intent. Let’s talk about how to make your site more relevant. Why an intent mismatch may be suppressing your site’s performance An intent mismatch occurs when the copy on a page doesn’t match what the user is expecting to find on it. This happens when pages aren’t relevant to a topic or have mismatched signals. This generates po…

Google updates its search spam policies to clarify that those policies also apply to Google’s generative AI responses within Google Search. Google is saying that if you use these spam techniques to show your site or brand within AI Overviews, AI Mode or other AI responses, that would be considered spam and Google can take action. What changed. Google updated the introductory line to say: “In the context of Google Search, spam refers to techniques used to deceive users or manipulate our Search systems into featuring content prominently, such as attempting to manipulate Search systems into ranking content highly or attempting to manipulate generative Al responses i…

When OpenAI switched default models on March 4, the number of websites cited per response dropped by a fifth, and never recovered. But the citation drop is only part of the story. We also reverse-engineered ChatGPT’s internal browsing tools, ran a honeypot experiment, reconstructed its system prompt, and released a new version of our ChatGPT Search Capture plugin. What happened On March 4, ChatGPT switched its default model from GPT-4o/5.2 to GPT-5.3 Instant. The result: the average number of unique domains cited per response dropped from 19 to 15, a decline of more than 20%. Unique URLs per response followed the same trajectory, falling from 24 to 19. We…

Microsoft is rolling out a slate of new advertising updates aimed at simplifying campaign management and improving AI-powered optimization across its ad platform. What’s new. Microsoft introduced a new Import Center designed to simplify importing campaigns from Google Ads and Meta Ads into Microsoft Advertising. The new hub allows advertisers to: Search and filter imports Edit or pause imports Access imported campaigns View troubleshooting guidance Get performance recommendations after imports complete Microsoft says the goal is to reduce manual troubleshooting and simplify cross-platform campaign management. Bidding capabilities. AI-power…

Google is enforcing a hard cutoff for older API versions, meaning advertisers and developers who don’t upgrade risk losing access to critical campaign management tools. What’s happening. Google Ads API v20 will officially sunset on June 10, 2026. From that date onward, all requests to v20 will fail, requiring migration to a newer version to maintain uninterrupted API access. Why we care. If you rely on the Google Ads API and don’t upgrade in time, automated workflows — including reporting, bidding and campaign management — could suddenly stop working. This could lead to data gaps, performance issues and operational disruption. Migrating early ensures continuity an…

Last week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search — a new way to search the web using AI inside a chatbot interface. Thanks to the integration of Microsoft Bing real-time data and other interesting sources, this could challenge traditional search engines. Table of contents What is ChatGPT Search? ChatGPT Search vs. Google’s AI Integration with Microsoft Bing What does this mean for SEO? Future developments Conclusion on ChatGPT Search What is ChatGPT Search? ChatGPT Search is a helpful tool that makes it easier to find information with a little help from AI. It is connected to the web in real time and uses Bing’s index and other sources to show up-to-date results…

HubSpot’s SEO collapse has been the talk of the SEO world for the last several days. As a reminder, here’s a screenshot of HubSpot’s organic traffic drop, based on Semrush data: Among the endless reactions and perspectives, two former HubSpot employees shared five good reminders about SEO strategy. 1. SEO takes time Pruning content and focusing on E-E-A-T were among the many obvious remedies SEOs pointed out following the news of HubSpot’s apparent organic traffic decline. Well, these aren’t simple tweaks for a brand the size of HubSpot. They’re massive undertakings, according to this LinkedIn post by Bianca Anderson, HubSpot’s former SEO strategis…

Google released the May 2026 core update today, the company announced. This is Google’s second core update of 2026. It follows the March 2026 core update, and then the March 2026 spam update and the February 2026 Discover update. What Google is saying. Google updated its Search Status Dashboard to state: Released the May 2026 core update. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete. Google posted on LinkedIn saying: This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete. About core updates. Core updates roll out several times each ye…

AI adoption appears to be diverging between professional and consumer audiences, according to Rand Fishkin’s new analysis of Datos desktop-panel data and SparkToro audience comparisons. The data highlights a sharp divide in how people talk about AI use: broader consumer adoption may be slowing, while professional and B2B audiences appear far more likely to use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini. Why we care. There’s no one-size-fits-all AI strategy. Your audience may behave very differently from broader AI trends, so you need to understand whether your audience is actually using these tools — and which ones. ChatGPT desktop growth slowed. Fishkin, SparkTor…

Google recently gathered influential voices in the food industry to unveil the latest trends shaping restaurant search and digital marketing. From skyrocketing search terms to drone deliveries and the power of YouTube Shorts, here’s everything you need to know from the Restaurant Industry Influencer Summit. Sizzling search trends: What’s cooking in 2025? Google’s latest search data offers a glimpse into what today’s diners are craving – both in terms of food and digital experiences. Here are some of the hottest trends shaping restaurant searches right now: “Hot honey pizza” is up 232% year-over-year (YoY). And if that doesn’t give you insight into the…