SEO Tools and Resources

Google Analytics just made it easier to get quick insights and more accurate attribution. The Reports snapshot section now includes pre-built templates focused on user behavior, sales and revenue, and marketing performance. That means less time building custom reports and more time actually using the data. Alongside the templates, the card library has been updated, making it easier to browse and add the visualizations that matter most to your business. These templates help users quickly surface relevant insights without needing to manually create or configure reports. On the attribution front. Google Analytics will now use aggregate identifiers to att…

Fact: Agentic AI is making humans indispensable. More than 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027. That is a prediction from Gartner published in June 2025, based on a poll of more than 3,400 organizations actively investing in the technology. The reason cited is not that the agents do not work. It is that the humans deploying them are making the wrong decisions. “Most agentic AI projects right now are early-stage experiments or proof of concepts that are mostly driven by hype and are often misapplied,” according to Anushree Verma, senior director analyst at Gartner. Organizations are deploying agents without a clear strategy, without unde…

Gemini 3 launched in AI Mode just a couple of weeks ago, but now Google is expanding it to about 120 countries and territories for English queries. Google’s Robby Stein said, “Gemini 3 is now available in AI Mode, across nearly 120 countries & territories in English.” What is AI Mode with Gemini 3. Google shared how AI Mode in Search is now using Gemini 3 to enable new generative UI experiences like immersive visual layouts and interactive tools and simulations, all generated completely on the fly based on your query. Gemini 3 is used in AI Mode in Search with more complex reasoning and new dynamic experiences. Just last week, Google automatically began u…

Google is now powering some of the responses you see in the AI Overviews and AI Mode using Gemini 3. We expected this to happen when Google announced Gemini 3 last week, and now it is live for some searchers in Google Search. Nick Fox, Google’s SVP of Knowledge and Information, wrote on X: “The rollout of Gemini 3 in Search continues! We’ve just shipped intelligent automatic model routing to Gemini 3 Pro for your toughest questions in AI Overviews and AI Mode.” Who sees it. “Currently available for Google AI Pro & Ultra subs in the U.S.,” Nick Fox added. You will know if you have it, if you have an option to select it from the carrot menu in the AI Mode…

Google is leaning harder on Gemini to police its ad ecosystem, saying the AI upgrade sharply improved scam detection while reducing false suspensions for legitimate advertisers. The numbers also show how fast ad safety is becoming an AI arms race. Driving the news. In its 2025 Ads Safety Report, Google said it blocked or removed 8.3 billion ads globally and suspended 24.9 million advertiser accounts last year. More than 99% of policy-violating ads were stopped before they were ever shown, according to the company. Google also said Gemini helped: cut incorrect advertiser suspensions by 80%, process 4x more user reports than the prior year, and catch scam…

As generative AI becomes more embedded in search and content experiences, it’s also emerging as a new source of misinformation and reputational harm. False or misleading statements generated by AI chatbots are already prompting legal disputes – and raising fresh questions about liability, accuracy, and online reputation management. When AI becomes the source of defamation It’s unsurprising that AI has become a new source of defamation and online reputation damage. As an SEO and reputation expert witness, I’ve already been approached by litigants involved in cases where AI systems produced libelous statements. This is uncharted territory – and while so…

Traffic from generative AI surged to U.S. retail sites over the holiday season and that trend has continued into 2025, according to new Adobe data. Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,300% compared to the year prior (up 1,950% YoY on Cyber Monday). This trend continued beyond the holiday season, Adobe found. In February, traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,200% compared to July 2024. The percentages are high because generative AI tools are so new. ChatGPT debuted its research preview on Nov. 30. 2022. Generative AI traffic remains modest compared to other channels, such as paid search or email, but the …

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of positioning your brand and content so that AI platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity cite, recommend, or mention you when users search for answers. If that sounds abstract, the results aren’t. For bootstrapped form builder tool, Tally, ChatGPT became the #1 referral source. They’re not alone. Across industries, the shift is already measurable. ChatGPT reaches over 800 million weekly users. Google’s Gemini app has surpassed 750 million monthly users. And AI Overviews are appearing in at least 16% of all searches (significantly higher for comparison and high-intent queries). Th…

Less than 200 years ago, scientists were ridiculed for suggesting that hand washing might save lives. In the 1840s, it was shown that hygiene reduced death rates, but the underlying explanation was missing. Without a clear mechanism, adoption stalled for decades, leading to countless preventable deaths. The joke of the past becomes the truth of today. The inverse is also true when you follow misleading guidance. Bad GEO advice (I don’t like this acronym, but will use it because it seems to be the most popular) will not literally kill you. That said, it can definitely cost money, cause unemployment, and lead to economic death. Not long ago, I wro…

With generative AI tools attracting hundreds of millions of users and AI-enhanced results appearing in more search experiences, the way people discover brands is changing. Traditional SEO metrics alone no longer capture this full picture. Welcome to the era of generative engine optimization (GEO). If you aren’t tracking your brand’s visibility across AI search engines, you’re flying blind. The AI search revolution is already here The numbers are striking: 58% of consumers have replaced traditional search engines with generative AI tools for product recommendations, according to Capgemini research. Traditional organic search traffic is expected to decli…

Generative engine optimization (GEO) platform Lorelight, is shutting it down – not because it failed, but because the problem it solved didn’t need solving, according to its founder Benjamin Houy. “Customers were churning because the product didn’t change what they needed to do. They would pursue the same brand-building fundamentals whether they had the data or not,” Houy wrote in a blog post. The big idea. Launched in April, Lorelight pitched itself as a “proactive AI brand monitoring” tool. Lorelight promised real-time alerts when large language models, such as ChatGPT or Claude, misrepresented a brand. The goal: To help marketers control their brand narra…

Table of contents How is Yoast SEO a game-changer for your Shopify store? Top Yoast SEO for Shopify Features to help maximize your Black Friday visibility Instantly generate SEO-friendly meta titles and descriptions with one-click AI SEO and readability analysis Automatic product structured data Optimize how your store appears on search and social media Other notable features Over to you… Before we know it, the winter hues will set in, and with them comes the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday. Black Friday 2024 was a goldmine for online businesses, clocking in record-breaking numbers. Online shoppers spent over $10 billion, marking a 10% jump fr…

With the new Yoast SEO Dashboard, you can see how your site is doing at a glance. Instead of hunting through pages, you’ll find all your key metrics in one place. It’s easy to spot which posts need attention, see where you can improve, and figure out what to tackle first so you can spend more time refining your content and less time searching for data. We know it can be challenging to improve your content when you have to dig through every post and page. That’s why we created a dashboard that instantly shows your site’s SEO Performance. It streamlines the process so you can focus on what matters: making your content shine. What you get from the Yoast SEO Dashboard…

Watch this video on YouTube Ginny Marvin didn’t get into PPC because she had a grand plan. She got into it because she was ready to start again. After years working in print publishing and ad sales marketing, Marvin found herself at a career pivot point. A startup magazine she had helped launch folded, and she decided it was time to move fully into digital. That meant going from marketing director to entry-level applicant. “I don’t know what I’m doing, so I’ll start from the beginning,” she recalled. That reset eventually led her into search marketing, Search Engine Land, and later Google, where she is now Google Ads Liaison. In this inte…

Google’s unified video manager inside Merchant Center is no longer empty. After months of appearing in accounts without visible content, the Video Assets section is now automatically populating with sourced videos. Driving the news. The feature — first introduced at Google Marketing Live 2025 — was designed to centralize video content inside Google Merchant Center. It began rolling out in September, but many advertisers were seeing a blank interface with no assets displayed. That’s changed. Videos are now being pulled in automatically, including content from external sources like YouTube. Why we care, This confirms Google is moving ahead with its plan to make …

Thanks to AI-generated answers, CTRs are failing fast, and even page-one rankings no longer guarantee clicks. Google’s top organic results saw a 32% CTR drop after AI Overviews launched, plummeting from 28% to 19%. Position #2 fared even worse, with a 39% decline. Meanwhile, 60% of searches in 2024 ended without clicks; also, the projections show zero-click searches could surpass 70% by 2025. What does this mean for measuring success? Table of contents How does this disrupt traditional SEO? Evidence of a drastic CTA decline AI Overviews are the zero-click accelerator What CTRs miss in the AI search era? Six AI LLM optimization metrics 1. AI brand mention rate 2…

Representatives from both the Google Search and Bing Search teams are recommending against creating separate markdown (.md) pages for LLM purposes. The purpose is to serve one piece of content to the LLM and another piece of content to your users, which technically may be considered a form of cloaking and against Google’s policies. The question. Lily Ray asked on Bluesky: “Not sure if you can answer, but starting to hear a lot about creating separate markdown / JSON pages for LLMs and serving those URLs to bots.” Google’s response. John Mueller from Google responded saying: “I’m not aware of anything in that regard. In my POV, LLMs have trained on – rea…

Google Ad Manager and other ad services, including Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360, are experiencing technical issues, causing disruptions for advertisers and publishers. What’s happening. Google Ad Manager. Users have reported error messages, high latency, and other unexpected behavior since 10:00 UTC on Feb. 12. Some hosted video creatives are stuck in “Transcoding in progress.” Campaign Manager 360 & Display & Video 360. Issues began earlier, at 06:00 UTC on Feb. 11, affecting advertisers using these platforms. Why we care. Google’s ad platforms are critical for digital advertising, and any downtime can impact campaign perfo…

Google search ad spending grew 9% year over year in Q1 2025, according to new data from digital marketing agency Tinuiti. Increasing costs, rather than click volume, drove most of that growth. Google Search overall: Google Search spending grew by 9% YoY in Q1 2025 (down slightly from 10% in Q4 2024). Click growth was stable at 4% YoY. Whilst average cost per click (CPC) increased by 5% YoY. Google Shopping Ads: Shopping ad had a 8% YoY spending growth (however down from 10% in Q4 2024). Click volume improved by 9% YoY (up from just 1% in Q4). CPC remained stable at 1% YoY decrease. Competitive landscape. Amazon maintained a s…

Google quietly rolled out a new Sources column in its AI Max Search Term Reports – giving advertisers their first real look at where AI Max traffic is coming from and how Google’s automation is matching queries. What’s new. The new Sources data reveals how AI Max is driving traffic through: Landing pages and URL inclusions — showing which of your pages Google used to match search intent. AI Max expanded matches — indicating when traffic came from Google’s algorithmic expansions beyond your set keywords. Why we care. Until now, advertisers had limited visibility into how AI Max decides which searches trigger ads. This new data helps clarify whether traff…

Google is rolling out new AI-driven bidding and budgeting features across Search, Shopping and Performance Max — aimed at helping advertisers capture more demand without increasing manual effort. What’s happening. Google is expanding its automation stack with updates like Journey-aware Bidding, Smart Bidding Exploration and demand-led budget pacing. Together, these changes are designed to help campaigns respond more dynamically to shifting consumer behaviour. The focus: letting AI identify and act on opportunities advertisers may not see themselves. Why we care. These updates aim to capture more conversions without increasing manual work, using AI to find new …

Google is upgrading Google Ads call campaign measurement with a new AI-qualified call leads feature, designed to optimize for lead quality — not just call length. What’s new. AI-qualified call leads use machine learning to analyze calls and determine whether they represent meaningful business opportunities. The system then feeds that higher-quality data into bidding and reporting. Zoom in. Advertisers will get AI-generated call summaries and tags, giving more transparency into what happened during each interaction. At the same time, smart bidding can prioritize higher-value leads based on these signals rather than simple time thresholds. Why we care. Call camp…

Google has expanded Product Studio inside Merchant Center, rolling out three new creative features that go beyond its original image generation tool. What’s new. In addition to image generation, Product Studio now lets merchants animate static product images into short videos using suggested text prompts, a move aimed squarely at short-form ads and social-style creative. Google has also added one-click background removal to help isolate products and create cleaner, more consistent Shopping visuals. The third update increases image resolution, allowing advertisers to upscale older or lower-quality assets to meet modern visual standards. Why we care. P…

Google is rolling out asset-level reporting for Display campaigns, giving advertisers a clearer view of how individual creative assets perform — a move that brings Display closer to the transparency already seen in Performance Max campaigns. Why we care. Until now, Display campaign insights have been limited to overall ad performance. With this update, advertisers can analyze results at the asset level — images, headlines, descriptions — to pinpoint what’s driving engagement and what’s not. How it works. A new Assets tab in Google Ads will let users: Compare performance of each creative asset. View when assets were last updated to track iteration history. …

Google Ads is rolling out auto end screens — a new feature that appends an interactive, auto-generated card to the end of eligible video ads to nudge viewers toward a conversion. How it works. An interactive screen appears for a few seconds immediately after the video finishes playing. Content is auto-populated from campaign data — app name, icon, price, and a direct install link for app campaigns End screens appear by default on eligible ads, requiring no setup from advertisers Why we care. Advertisers no longer need to manually build post-roll calls-to-action. This feature is on by default and changes the end of your video ads — and if you’ve already…