SEO Tools and Resources

Every Black Friday reveals how consumers search, compare, and decide. This year added something new: a real-world test of how AI models interpret commerce under true demand. So we ran a structured test across major LLMs and analyzed 10,000 responses. The goal was simple: to see how these systems form their internal view of the retail landscape and which signals shape the answers they generate. As we reviewed the dataset, a clear pattern emerged: Black Friday acts as a natural stress test for AI-driven discovery. The sheer volume of queries, the range of categories, and the speed of shifting consumer attention expose the sources, structures, and behavioral tend…

When a TV commercial makes people feel something, it doesn’t just win in the moment – it sparks curiosity, drives searches, and fuels conversions. That’s why the “Breaking TV Ads Report,” jointly launched by Kinetiq and DAIVID, deserves a spot on every search marketer’s radar. The monthly report ranks the top-performing new TV ads in the U.S., blending Kinetiq’s real-time TV ad detection with DAIVID’s AI-driven creative analytics to uncover which ads broke through, why they resonated, and what brands can learn from their success. It’s a powerful reminder that search doesn’t start on Google – it starts in the mind. As Barney Worfolk-Smith, chief growth offi…

Word count is not a ranking factor in itself, but it still plays a significant role in SEO. A minimum number of words helps search engines understand your topic, helps users understand your message, and supports content quality and relevance. The right length for your content depends on search intent, topic depth, competition, and purpose. In this guide, you will learn why word count matters, when length helps or hurts, and how to decide the right length for every page you publish. Table of contents What does word count mean for SEO? Why very short content often struggles What does Yoast SEO check when it comes to text length? How user intent determines ideal length…

Search Engine Land turns 19 today. Nineteen years. Almost two decades of analyzing, explaining, questioning, challenging, obsessing over, and occasionally shaking our heads at whatever Google and the search industry throw our way. And this past year? The pace of change has made it one of the most transformative since we launched in 2006. Through all of it, our mission is the same as Day 1: help you make sense of search with clear news, smart analysis, and practical guidance. Before we look ahead, I want to say thank you — and take a moment to reflect on the past year at Search Engine Land. Thank you for reading Seriously, thank you. Every day, w…

Google today released the December 2025 core update. Google said this core update “Today we released the December 2025 core update.” This is the third core update of 2025, and the fourth overall update in all of 2025. Google previously had the August 2025 spam update, before that was the June 2025 core update and before that was the March 2025 core update. Google also wrote: “Released the December 2025 core update. The rollout may take up to 3 weeks to complete.” Google added on LinkedIn, “this is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.” Core updates happen multiple times per year. C…

Google is pushing AI Mode within Google Discover, with options to summarize, follow-up and dive deeper after you start reading a story from within the Google Discover feed. This is just one more avenue where Google is pushing its users into AI Mode. To clarify, I am told this is not just Google Discover, but the Google App on Android, for any webpage you are looking at. How it works. After you click into an article from the Google Discover feed, when you click on the three dots at the top right, there are options for: Summarize with Al Mode Ask a follow up with Al Mode Dive deeper with Al Mode Damien (adell) on X posted a video, here is a screenshot…

If it feels like the entire internet woke up one day and decided to start every sentence with “AI,” you’re not wrong. Marketers are being hit with a daily wave of LinkedIn thought leaders, half-baked prompt hacks, and promises that ChatGPT is either going to 10x your productivity or take your job entirely. And in the middle of all this? You (the digital marketer). Marketers are trying to figure out if this is just another buzzword cycle or the beginning of a complete rewrite of how we do content, SEO, PPC, reporting, and, well, everything. So let’s break it down. Consider this your AI starting guide, written for marketers who are tired of needing a young…

LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude now sit across search, content generation, and recommendations. Now, 80% of tech buyers rely on generative AI at least as much as traditional search to research vendors, according to a Responsive survey of B2B buyers. This effective transfer of trust in AI discovery has become an enablement tool for B2B buyers, quietly deciding which brands get remembered and which get ignored. And those decisions, once invisible, are now measurable. Previsible has been studying this shift through a new lens called LLM perception drift, the month-over-month change in how AI models reference and position brands inside a given catego…

OpenAI is trying to reassure paying users after ChatGPT surfaced what looked like ads from brands like Target and Peloton – and said those prompts weren’t ads at all. What happened. Paying ChatGPT users shared screenshots of promotional-style prompts, including a message urging them to “Shop for home and groceries. Connect Target.” In response, OpenAI said those prompts were recommendations for apps built on the ChatGPT platform, with “no financial component.” Users saw a brand logo and a call to action – and drew the obvious conclusion: these were ads. Users were not pleased. One response: “Bruhhh… Don’t insult your paying users.” What OpenAI is sayi…

Google Search Console will be gaining social channel data in the Insights report tab. This is a new “experiment” that “unified view of their Google Search performance across their websites and social channels,” Google wrote. The Insights report will show performance data for some of your social channels, including YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram. What Google said. Google said: “Today, we are excited to announce a new experiment in Search Console that offers site owners a unified view of their Google Search performance across their websites and social channels.” “With this update, we are expanding the Search Console Insights report to include performance data no…

Long sales cycles, low conversion volume, and multi-stage purchase journeys make measurement and attribution harder, creating real obstacles to campaign optimization. For B2Bs and brands selling high-ticket items, this is the reality. A campaign launched today may take weeks or even months to show revenue, retention, or lifetime value – delaying your ability to use those measurements to refine bidding and targeting. That’s where proxy metrics – also known as soft metrics, or micro-conversions – can come into play. Let’s dig into proxy metrics. What are proxy metrics? Proxy metrics are early indicators of future outcomes. They give you a way to …

SMX Advanced – the premier conference for senior-level search marketers – returns to Boston June 3 to 5, 2026 at the Westin Boston Seaport. We want to bring the most advanced strategies in SEO, PPC, and AI to our community – and we need your help to make it happen. Search is changing faster than ever. SEOs are scrambling to master AI SEO, navigate a SERP now dominated by AI Overviews, and make sense of Google volatility and algorithm updates. For PPC advertisers, making smart, data-driven decisions is getting harder. And on top of that, you’re expected to adopt new AI tools while still applying the right human touch. SMX Advanced is looking for speak…

On episode 333 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Nils Rooijmans, a renowned Google Ads script expert and top 10 PPC influencer, where she shares the experience of a costly error that serves as a valuable lesson for anyone managing paid search campaigns. The Setup: A quick account onboarding gone wrong The trouble began when one of Rooijmans’ existing clients acquired another company in the airport parking services industry. The acquired company was already running a small Google Ads account, and the client wanted Rooijmans to manage it without paying additional fees for proper onboarding. Against his better judgment, Rooijmans agreed to a compromise: they wou…

Google rolled out a beta that lets merchants display different loyalty-member prices by region in Shopping ads — giving retailers a new way to localize promotions without managing separate offers. Why we care. The feature gives merchants more flexibility to tailor pricing to local markets and highlight loyalty perks directly in ads, potentially boosting conversion and membership sign-ups. How it works Merchants must join Google’s loyalty add-on, set up regions in Merchant Center, and add loyalty_program attributes — including program label, tier, and price — to their regional inventory feed. When a shopper clicks an ad, Google appends a region ID to the UR…

Cloudflare has blocked 416 billion AI bot requests for customers since July 1, according to CEO Matthew Prince. To highlight Google’s massive edge in AI, Prince revealed that Google can see 3.2x more pages on the web than OpenAI. Why we care. Generative AI systems are consuming huge amounts of web content, and many publishers have no way to push back. Cloudflare’s numbers show how aggressively AI bots are scraping the web – and how uneven access is for the big AI companies. Driving the news. Cloudflare customers have been automatically blocking AI crawlers since the company launched its pay-per-crawl initiative July 1, Prince said yesterday at WIRED’s Big Intervie…

PPC for ecommerce operates differently from PPC for lead gen or SaaS. The way campaigns learn, the volume of conversion data, and the role each platform plays all require a distinct approach. After shifting into ecommerce, it became clear which fundamentals matter most. The guidance in this article reflects those lessons and can help whether you’re new to ecommerce PPC or building on existing experience. We’ll look at how the core differences between ecommerce and non-ecommerce models influence PPC strategy and how to use each platform’s strengths to support your products. 1. Performance Max is built for ecommerce Google Ads is a key platform for…

Search has moved far beyond blue links and basic ranking signals. People now discover information on Google, TikTok, Pinterest, Amazon, YouTube, and an expanding layer of generative AI platforms that synthesize answers from trusted sources. As SERPs shift toward rich results and AI summaries, users often get what they need without needing to click at all. In this environment, brand authority isn’t just tied to your domain. It spans platforms, formats, and the systems that learn from your content. Modern off-page SEO must support both search engines and the AI models that evaluate and surface your expertise. This off-page optimization guide breaks down …

The European Commission is asking industry players to weigh in on Google’s proposal to resolve sweeping antitrust charges tied to its advertising technology business — a case that has already triggered nearly €3 billion ($3.5B) in fines. What’s happening. The Commission is circulating a non-confidential version of Google’s proposal to roughly 200 industry stakeholders, including publishers, advertisers, and ad tech rivals. Officials say the feedback will inform the final assessment of whether Google’s commitments restore fair competition in the EU’s digital ad market. The backstory. Google was fined €2.95B and ordered to stop favoring its own ad tech services…

Social media now drives more traffic to small and medium-sized businesses than search, and many SMBs are beginning to track AI-generated referrals. They also see competitors showing up in AI summaries as an emerging threat, according to new survey data published today by WordStream by LocaliQ. Why we care. Small businesses now see AI summaries as an emerging and important channel. These summaries shape buyers’ early decisions and can steer them toward competing products. AI referrals have also become clear and trackable, convincing businesses that they can – and should – optimize for them. Google traffic losses rise. Forty percent of SMBs say they’ve lost traffic …

Google announced new “AI-powered configuration” within the Search Console Performance report that lets you ask Search Console to show you a specific report, and Google will “instantly” configure a report for you. This feature is “experimental” and won’t show up for everyone today. This is a lot like AI-powered advisors in Google Ads and Google Analytics but for Search Console. AI-powered configuration. Google said AI-powered configuration “lets you describe the analysis you want to see in natural language. Your inputs are then transformed into the appropriate filters and settings, instantly configuring the report for you.” What it looks like. Here is a GIF of…

AI is changing how people discover and understand brands. It’s also reshaping how they search, with users turning to tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews for answers instead of clicking through pages. They interact with synthesized summaries, not traditional results. That shift forces marketers to rethink how visibility is built. SEO still matters, but it now extends beyond on-page content or rankings. Visibility depends on how often a brand is cited, referenced, and discussed across the digital ecosystem, and how those signals are interpreted by large language models. Enter the PESO model. Long used to balance paid, e…

Managing budgets across multiple paid media channels is one of the most important skills in a PPC marketer’s toolkit. You’re constantly deciding how to allocate spend across channels and campaigns, how to handle big budget swings, and whether to set total or daily budgets. In an AI-driven ad platform world, campaign budgets remain one of the few levers marketers still fully control – and they deserve careful thought. Structuring your budget effectively Depending on your business model, you may have more or less input into the overall paid media budget. However, you usually have more control over how that budget gets broken out across channels and cam…

Google’s AI Overviews have reshaped search almost overnight. For paid search marketers, the fight for above-the-fold visibility is no longer just about ad rank – it’s now a push to appear above the AI result itself. This shift follows the rapid surge in AI Overviews that Adthena highlighted in our previous study. That analysis showed AI Overviews quickly moving beyond informational queries and into shorter, high-volume commercial searches. The mechanism behind this decline is clear: AI Overviews intercept attention, cut click-through rates (CTRs), and push both organic and paid listings lower on the page. The result: fewer clicks and less revenue. Adthena’s ne…

Today, we’re rolling out an improvement to Yoast AI Brand Insights, part of the Yoast SEO AI+ package. You can now scan how your brand appears in answers generated by Perplexity, in addition to ChatGPT at no extra cost. This builds on our mission to help marketers, bloggers, and business owners understand how their brand is represented across major AI platforms. AI powered answers are fast becoming a new gateway for discovery. People increasingly turn to AI tools to research, compare, and choose products or services. Those answers often mention brands as recommendations or sources. When someone asks a question in your niche, you should be able to see if your brand i…

Google’s Daily Hub is more complex than it first appears. It’s part of the broader acceleration toward hyperpersonalization we’ve been seeing in recent months – Preferred Sources, Profile Pages with followable elements in Discover, Brand Profiles in Merchant Center – all converging toward a single goal: anticipating your needs before you even formulate a query. Daily Hub is the concrete expression of the “News Digest and Daily Brief” agent identified during our investigations this summer into Google’s 90 AI projects via the AI Mode debug menu. The internal architecture of the system, which Damien Andell managed to decrypt and share with me in advance, reveal…