SEO Tools and Resources

The rules of search have changed. Marketing funnels aren’t meant to stall. You pour hours into creating content, refining workflows, optimizing landing pages, and protecting brand consistency. How can all that effort, content, and creativity go to waste? But your funnel feels it. The uncomfortable truth is that even the strongest funnel can’t save you if a large portion of your audience never sees your work. SEO is flatlining. AI-generated summaries are pushing your branded content aside. The metrics start to tell a story you don’t want to hear, one that makes it look like you don’t even have a marketing team. Even if you keep pace with endless de…

OpenAI has announced Instant Checkout on ChatGPT. ChatGPT acts as an intermediary agent for commerce purchases on behalf of the customer. This provides a foundation that connects people and businesses for the next era of agentic commerce. What does the buying process look like? The Instant Checkout flow keeps ChatGPT at the center of every step – from discovery to payment confirmation. After finding a product through conversations with ChatGPT, the user taps “Buy” and confirms payment and shipping. ChatGPT passes this signal, and the merchant then gathers fulfillment options. ChatGPT presents these options to the user who makes a selection.…

Some advertisers are noticing oddly cropped product images in Google Shopping ads — and it turns out Google Merchant Center’s “Smart Cropping” feature is behind it. Why we care. Smart Cropping, enabled by default, uses automation to zoom in on what Google determines is the most relevant part of a product image. While the goal is to improve ad visuals, the result can sometimes be awkwardly cropped images that don’t match the uploaded product photos. The backstory. An email from Google explains that there’s no option in the Merchant Center UI to disable Smart Cropping. Advertisers must instead contact Google support to have it manually turned off for their account. …

YouTube today introduced a new Brand Pulse report that gives advertisers a real-time snapshot of their brand’s total presence across YouTube — from paid ads, to creator collaborations, to user-generated videos. A holistic view of brand presence. The new report taps multimodal AI to spot every brand mention on YouTube – from logos and product shots to shoutouts in audio or titles. Even a quick name-drop by a creator gets tracked to show your brand’s real reach. Metrics that connect paid and organic performance. Advertisers can now see how they stack up with metrics like Total Unique Viewers and Share of Watch Time — plus how paid ads boost organic buzz when viewers…

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 is quietly rolling out a new Performance Max feature that lets advertisers upload video files directly inside the “Edit assets” panel — no YouTube channel or Shared Library required. Driving the news. The feature, spotted in the Google Ads UI, adds a simple “Upload” tab during asset creation in PMax campaigns. A highlighted upload box now appears in the YouTube ad setup workflow, guiding users to drop in a video file and move on — significantly reducing friction for new video advertisers. How it works. Uploaded videos are stored in a Google-managed house channel, not the advertiser’s YouTube account. That means the assets can be used in ads, bu…

A surge of sophisticated phishing attacks is letting scammers take over full Google Ads Manager accounts (MCCs), giving them instant access to hundreds of client accounts and the power to burn through tens of thousands of dollars in hours without being noticed. Driving the news. Agencies across LinkedIn, Reddit, and Google’s own forums are reporting a rise in MCC takeovers, even among teams using two-factor authentication. The attackers’ preferred weapon is a near-perfect phishing email that mimics Google’s account-access invitations. Victims say hijackers add fake admin users, link their own MCCs, and begin launching fraudulent, high-budget campaigns. In some…

Performance Max (PMax) campaigns have become the cornerstone of AI-driven advertising. Both Google and Microsoft offer advertisers a way to consolidate creative assets, audience signals, and automation into a single campaign type. (Disclosure: I work as Microsoft’s product liaison.) While the concept is similar across platforms, the execution and feature sets differ significantly. This article aims to provide an objective comparison of Google PMax and Microsoft PMax as of late 2025. We’ll explore what’s universally true, what’s unique to each platform, and strategic considerations for advertisers looking to maximize performance. What’s universally tr…

“Work smarter, not harder” isn’t just a catchy phrase – it’s a survival tactic for content marketers. Keeping up with a full content calendar can feel relentless, and constantly creating new material is a fast track to burnout. That’s where content repurposing comes in, helping you get more mileage out of what you already have. Sure, there are plenty of familiar ways to repurpose content – breaking long blog posts into social snippets, turning video transcripts into articles, and so on. You’ve likely done them all. So what about the lesser-known approaches? The methods that few marketers think to use but should? That’s what we’re going to cover here…

Table of contents What are product variations in ecommerce? Why do product variations matter for customers? How do product variations support your ecommerce SEO strategies? Increase in keyword targeting Richer content for search engines and AI engines Improved user engagement and longer sessions Better structured data for enhanced search results Blueprint for optimizing your product variations Technical implementation of product variations Media content optimization for ecommerce product variations SEO tips for product variations Common product variation ecommerce errors to avoid Ready to unfold all variations? Product variations are more than just an ecomm…

Google Ads appears to be testing an automatic assignment of New Customer Value within New Customer Acquisition (NCA) campaigns — and it’s doing so without advertisers’ explicit consent. The change, first spotted by performance marketer Bilal Yasin, has led to unexpected reporting shifts and frustration among advertisers. “Without any heads-up, and without it being in the change history, a new customer value has suddenly been applied to a customer,” Yasin wrote on LinkedIn. “It was set to 200 DKK… One thing is that Google has assigned a value, but another is that I can’t remove it again!” Why we care. Advertisers rely on New Customer Value settings to determin…

Writing strong page titles is one of the simplest and most impactful SEO optimizations you can make. The title tag is often the first thing users see in search results, and it helps search engines understand the content of your page. In this article, you’ll learn what SEO page titles are, why they matter, and how to write titles that improve visibility and attract clicks. Key takeaways Crafting a strong page title is vital for SEO; it attracts clicks and helps search engines understand your content An SEO page title appears in search results and browser tabs, serving as the first impression for users To optimize your page title, include relevant keywords an…

Most businesses don’t fail to rank in the local pack because they lack reviews, links, or proximity. They fail long before that because Google never considers them eligible in the first place. This is a recurring pattern in local search that almost everyone overlooks. Google decides what you are before it decides how relevant you are. From exact matches to broad intent: How eligibility shifts In a niche query, Google is looking for a 1:1 match. They want high-confidence entities that leave zero room for interpretation. However, once you zoom out to a broader search like “restaurants,” that lockdown disappears. Suddenly, the Map Pack opens u…

YouTube launched the YouTube Activation Partners program, a new initiative connecting advertisers and agencies with vetted third-party experts who specialize in YouTube media buying and campaign management. Why we care. As the biggest streaming platform for over two years, according to Nielsen, YouTube continues to dominate attention spans. But as ad strategies become more complex, brands increasingly rely on external partners for campaign optimization and cross-platform efficiency. Driving the news. The new program curates a network of trusted YouTube experts who meet Google’s performance and quality standards. Partners receive a YouTube Activation Partner b…

AI has quickly become the dominant topic in the PPC industry. If 2024 was the year of will-Google-or-won’t-Google finally kill cookies, 2025 is the year AI has taken over the conversation. From Google’s Performance Max to Meta’s Advantage+ – and with Mark Zuckerberg predicting that AI will fully run Meta ad campaigns by 2026 – automation now shapes nearly every aspect of paid media. Our role has shifted to guiding these systems with the right inputs, constraints, and context. Just as important is knowing how to use AI tools outside the ad platforms to work smarter and drive efficiency. This article shares key caveats, recommendations, and real exampl…

Over the past year, Google Ads has increasingly embraced automation, shifting the account manager’s role in both practice and strategy. The granular control and transparency we once took for granted are rapidly disappearing. As 2026 approaches, it’s time to face reality – five PPC tactics are falling out of favor in the new era of automation. 1. Relying on phrase match keywords Once the go-to option for advertisers who weren’t ready for a broad match strategy but wanted to expand search volume, phrase match has recently fallen out of favor. Google continues to redefine how match types work. Because Smart Bidding and broad match rely on multiple i…

While some SEO influencers are selling panic and “AI-proof” gimmicks, the data from Google’s front lines tells a different, more strategic story. The rapid integration of AI into search has created a wave of anxiety, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between durable strategy and distracting noise. The flood of information often leaves marketers unsure of where to focus their efforts. That’s the diamond in the rough that I discovered while attending the News & Editorial SEO Summit (NESS), which was held online Oct. 21-22. This article cuts through the hype to deliver clarity. I’ve distilled insights from technical SEO experts at Th…

OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is more than a new ecommerce channel. By adding structured merchant feeds directly into ChatGPT, it changes how products are discovered and purchased in conversational search – and opens new opportunities for marketers. This shift moves us closer to real differentiators for generative engine optimization (GEO). Influence now occurs not only on pages but also within the structured data that conversational agents can consume, validate, and rank. While that’s been partly true for Google, ChatGPT introduces important differences we’ll unpack here. Why feeds in ChatGPT represent a new model While Google relies …

Google made another change to the JavaScript SEO documentation help document to explain and clarify JavaScript execution on non-200 HTTP status codes. The change. Google wrote, “All pages with a 200 HTTP status code are sent to the rendering queue, no matter whether JavaScript is present on the page.” “If the HTTP status code is non-200 (for example, on error pages with 404 status code), rendering might be skipped,” Google added. Google also clarified that Googlebot queues all pages with a 200 HTTP status code for rendering. Here is the section that was updated: Google explained, “While pages with a 200 HTTP status code are sent to rendering, this mi…

A dominant share – 86% to be specific – of AI citations come from sources brands already control, according to a new analysis of 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity conducted by brand visibility platform Yext. Why we care. The findings challenge the perception that forums like Reddit dominate AI answers. Yext’s analysis also suggests that brands can directly influence visibility in generative results by keeping website content accurate, structured, and crawlable. (Yes, SEO.) By the numbers. Across all industries, 86% of AI citations came from sources brands owned or managed. Websites lead: 44% of citations came from first-party sites.…

When marketing history looks back on 2025, it will mark the year AI truly hit the road. Google has used AI in search for years – RankBrain, BERT, Smart Bidding, RSAs, Performance Max, etc. But this year, it’s everywhere. From boardrooms to one-person shops, everyone’s asking how to use it and avoid being left behind. Amid the noise, facts have blurred into hype. I’ve heard it repeatedly from new clients: “SEO is dead. Don’t talk to us about SEO – talk to us about AI.” Fittingly, in this spooky season, SEO has “died” more times than every horror villain combined – yet it always comes back. AI is a true game-changer, but the hype is louder than anyt…

It’s clear to me that the current “LLM situation” is untenable. These platforms are offering a very expensive set of products with relatively unlimited access. At the same time, you have content creators and publishers in a state of panic as decreased traffic has become the norm. Add to this that platforms ranging from Google’s AI Mode to ChatGPT lack clarity on how to monetize their products, and it becomes clear we’re kicking a can down the line, and sooner or later, all bills come due. The LLMs providing such broad access at no cost are unsustainable long-term. Content publishers offering their content to LLMs for free without traffic or other compensati…

Today’s customers don’t separate their lives into channels, and they don’t expect brands to either. They want experiences that feel relevant and personal, whether that’s confirming a delivery, getting a reminder about an appointment, or receiving an offer they actually care about. Imagine a shopper who adds items to their cart but never checks out. Hours later, the reminder email arrives, but by then it’s buried in a crowded inbox. The opportunity to recapture their attention has passed. This is the challenge marketers face today: timing and trust matter just as much as the content itself. For marketers, the challenge is not in deciding which channel to use in i…

The third and likely final core update of 2025, the December 2025 core update, is now rolling out and complete. It started on December 11, 2025 and was completed about 18 days and 2 hours later on December 29, 2025. Google called this update “a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.” This December 2025 core update came after waiting five months since the previous core update, the June 2025 core update. That June update came a few months after Google’s first core update on the 2025 year, the March 2025 core update. In the coming days we will gather data on the impact of this update and share …

Google is starting to roll out its new Text Guidelines feature in Google Ads, a tool first announced at the Think Retail event five weeks ago that gives advertisers more control over AI-generated ad copy. Driving the news. The feature, now appearing in some accounts, lets marketers set campaign-level text parameters — guiding Google’s AI to stay within brand tone, language preferences, and compliance requirements when generating text assets. Why we care. As Google Ads leans deeper into AI-powered creative, advertisers have been asking for stronger brand safety and message consistency controls. Text Guidelines offer a way to fine-tune AI output without sacrific…