SEO Tools and Resources

The start of a new year signals more than resolutions – it’s a critical moment for PPC professionals to reset, refocus, and strategically realign. As the digital marketing landscape evolves, success demands a clear-eyed approach to account management, client objectives, and personal growth. Here are five essential areas every PPC specialist must prioritize in 2025. 1. Master the fundamentals: Strengthen your foundation We often rush to tackle advanced strategies without solidifying the fundamentals, whether in client work or our personal development. No matter your experience level, revisiting the basics is essential for long-term success. Now is t…

SEO is widely recognized as a long-term investment, which creates pressure for businesses to translate performance into measurable revenue. Early on – or even over time – disconnects can emerge between expectations and actual ROI. One major disconnect lies in understanding what SEO truly means in terms of strategy and tactics. Another, often magnified if left unaddressed, is the time it takes to see meaningful results. If the goal of SEO (or any digital marketing effort) is to drive return on investment (ROI), then identifying and addressing the root causes of the SEO-to-ROI gap is critical. Failing to do so can lead to compounding issues, making it h…

Traditional SEO metrics haven’t been good. We don’t need more studies to see what’s happening, but the data confirms it. Organic traffic is declining for most SEO clients right now. Seer Interactive found that organic CTR dropped 61% for queries with AI Overviews. Executives are watching their dashboards trend downward, often for months at a time. Most consultants I talk to aren’t prepared for the conversations that come with it. I’m not talking about the diagnostic part. Most of us can figure out why traffic dropped. I mean, the part where you sit across from a CMO and have to explain what’s happening, why, and what you think the company should do about it. That’…

Many assume LinkedIn Ads is an easy-to-use platform: just set your budget, pick your audience, and let the leads roll in. But in reality, small mistakes can add up fast, costing your organization thousands with little to show for it. This article breaks down five of the most common LinkedIn Ads mistakes – from targeting missteps to overlooked settings – and how to fix them. 1. Using age as a targeting criterion You probably don’t remember this, but when you created your LinkedIn profile, you were never asked for your age or birth year. That means LinkedIn has no direct way of knowing how old you are (which, honestly, I don’t mind). Instead, it make…

Martech debt builds up through manual reporting, fragile integrations, and silos. These issues fragment customer data, break campaign attribution, and force teams to rely on shadow spreadsheets to fill gaps between platforms. Current maturity models focus on technology adoption (hello AI!) rather than business outcomes. This misses the structural shift required to escape this cycle.​ Semrush Enterprise evaluates maturity across five interconnected pillars: Search Traffic Behavior Social Brand Progress means moving from patchwork operations to a unified engine where insight, execution, and impact connect and scale together for strategic effect.…

User intent is evolving, and so are our habits around technology. With the rise of AI, the ways people search and find information are diversifying fast. Naturally, the way we think about SEO is shifting, too. But this isn’t a pitch for AI. Instead, I want to explore how we can treat AI as a collaborator, not a replacement for human expertise, to make our workflows more efficient and adaptive in this increasingly complex landscape. I see AI as a telescope, not the North Star. It helps us see farther and move faster, but we still need to navigate the path ourselves. With that mindset, I’ll walk you through a series of practical, low-barrier SEO ex…

Many of today’s PPC tools were designed to be easily accessible to ecommerce. That doesn’t mean lead gen can’t take advantage of them, but it does mean more intentional application is required. Lead gen with AI still requires a creative approach, and many conventional ecommerce tools still apply — but not always in the same way. Here are the priorities that matter most for succeeding with lead gen using AI. Disclosure: I’m a Microsoft employee. While this guidance is platform-agnostic, I’ll reference examples that lean into Microsoft Advertising tooling. The principles apply broadly across platforms. 1. Fix your conversion data first This is the single …

No SEO strategy is one-size-fits-all, but there are common practices we follow when helping websites recover from traffic losses or drive growth. We see these patterns across projects, making them best practices within our agency. While they may not apply to every situation, they consistently deliver results. Here are the SEO pitfalls to avoid if you want to regain lost traffic or get back on a growth trajectory. 1. Writing blog posts based on keyword search volume Search engines prioritize content written for people because it provides solutions to users’ needs. They might use sitewide classifiers and human reviewers to assess this. If every pag…

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…

It’s the festive season! Or it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, or the start of summer, or… You get the drift. People love to celebrate, which is why seasonal content tends to do well during those periods. So, should you put effort into creating content for the holidays? We think so! But you should be smart about it. Here are five tips to help you create good-quality seasonal content. Why should you create seasonal content? A big benefit of creating seasonal content is that you’ll stay top of mind. After all, your customers are probably looking for content to give them ideas for gifts, services, or events. By participating in the trend, you’ll show your audience that your…

Third-party tools have always been valuable in B2B PPC, but in 2025, they’re essential. With third-party cookies fading, cross-channel attribution still a mess, and competitors constantly pivoting, advertisers who rely only on platform-native tools are leaving massive optimization opportunities on the table. To stay ahead, you need the right external tools. This article breaks down five I recommend testing or doubling down on ASAP to level up your PPC strategy, including: My favorite CDP. My ace in the hole for non-browser tracking. My preferred competitive research tool. My choice for a multi-channel attribution tool. Google Ads Editor (includin…

I always ask the same hypothetical question to friends and coworkers: If you were 20 years younger with the hindsight you have, what career path would you take differently? It’s fairly easy to look back. But what’s (much) harder is to look forward in time and identify areas that will increase in value in the next few years. Here are five marketing skills I believe will only increase in value in the next few years to expand your expertise and your career path options. 1. Creative generation Everybody seems to think creativity is dying, especially since the rise of AI over the past two years. However, AI is the exact reason why I think the skill of cr…

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how marketing teams operate—but not through vague promises or futuristic scenarios. In 5 Ways Marketers Are Using AI to Increase Efficiency from Acoustic, marketers will find five tangible, proven ways AI is being applied to improve segmentation, enhance personalization, monitor performance, support content creation, and retarget audiences more effectively. This resource is designed for marketing professionals seeking to reduce manual workload, streamline campaign execution, and deliver more relevant, timely experiences—without compromising quality or oversight. Download the guide to explore how AI is being used to make everyda…

Are you spending hours on client reporting every month, only for your stakeholders to skim it, dismiss the numbers, or ignore your recommendations? When reports don’t drive action, you lose more than time. Budget approvals, strategic influence, and client trust are all compromised. Here are five ways to make sure your PPC report doesn’t just get read, but actually moves your audience to take action. 1. Start with your audience, not the data When building a report, it’s easy to get lost in the data – dozens of metrics, multiple platforms, endless ways to slice performance. The instinct is to ask, “What data can I show?” But that approach creates rep…

AI is changing search and rewriting the rules. If your brand isn’t visible in AI-generated answers, you have a bigger problem than just traffic. You’re missing out on trust, credibility, and customers who now expect AI to recommend the best options everywhere. Table of contents Why modern SEO is about AI visibility AI search is a blind spot for most Controlling the narrative of your brand Yoast AI Brand Insights is here to help Understanding the AI visibility metrics 5 Ways to improve your AI brand visibility How to influence LLMs to mention your brand The future of brand visibility is AI-driven Ready to take control of your AI brand visibility? We see that …

Google Business Profile (GBP) may be getting shoved down the SERPs by ads and AI Overviews more than ever, but it’s still a top source of inbound leads for local businesses — and one of the fastest ways to improve rankings with simple fixes. Here’s a five-step audit to find and fix the gaps most businesses miss. 1. Evaluate Google review velocity and recency It’s a common misconception that the business with the most Google reviews wins in Google Maps ranking. While a high review count provides social proof, Google’s algorithm has more of a “what have you done for me lately?” attitude. The number of reviews you get a month, and how recent your last review w…

Searchers are twice as likely to click on a brand they know than a top-ranked result, according to a survey from link building agency Page One Power. 59% of Americans click on search results of brands they know. Less than one-third click on the top-ranked result. Why we care. Trust remains critical for brands in SEO. Yes, “build a brand” has become a cliche, but it’s also true. You need to build a brand that your audience recognizes and connects with. But that doesn’t mean you must be a global brand the size of Apple or Google. Paid vs. organic. 49% of Americans trust organic search results more than paid results, while another 46% trust organic and paid r…

SEO hiring is shifting toward senior, strategy-led roles as AI reshapes search and expands the scope of the job. A new Semrush analysis of 3,900 listings shows companies now prioritize leadership, experimentation, and cross-channel visibility over pure technical execution. Why we care. SEO hiring, career paths, and required skills are changing. Entry roles focus on execution, while most demand sits at the leadership level — owning strategy across search, AI assistants, and paid channels, with clear revenue impact. What changed. Senior roles dominated, accounting for 59% of listings. Mid-level roles, such as specialists (15%) and managers (10%), trailed far behind.…

With the rise of AI-powered search and steady increases in monthly LLM referral traffic, many of our SEO clients are asking how they can improve their visibility and brand sentiment in AI responses. One of the biggest challenges, though, is that most marketing teams don’t have a dedicated generative engine optimization (GEO) budget or team members with the bandwidth to fully support large-scale AI search optimization initiatives. The good news? There are several strategies that can benefit both your traditional SEO and AI visibility. These optimizations can help make your content digestible for search engines, relevant for AI-generated responses, and mor…

PPC marketing isn’t easy. Juggling campaigns across Google, Microsoft Bing, and social platforms while maximizing every click is a challenge – and those clicks aren’t cheap. That’s why Chrome extensions are PPC game-changers. They sit in your browser, ready to help without the hassle of switching tools. Imagine this: you’re analyzing competitors, tweaking ad copy, and tracking keywords – all without juggling tabs or draining your focus. The best part? Most top extensions are free. No budget approvals, no learning curve – just click, install, and start optimizing faster. Whether you’re a PPC pro or just starting out, the right Chrome extensions ca…

Your paid social operation is on fire. You know how your audience thinks, the creative process is dialed in, and the results get better every year. Leadership greenlights an expansion to Google Ads — a new channel and, critically, a new source of revenue. As it turns out, applying that same strategy really just buys you an express ticket to a very difficult conversation. Google rewards a different kind of thinking. Intent signals and campaign logic are different, and the mistakes that eat at your budget don’t always make themselves clear. Brands that apply their existing Meta playbook often find themselves looking at shiny dashboards and dull balance sheets. T…

“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…

SEO has always involved a lot of manual, repetitive work. Keyword research, writing title tags and meta descriptions, parsing GA4 exports, auditing massive content libraries – it’s all important, but it’s also time-consuming. Now, we have tools that can help lighten the load. From accelerating content ideation to pulling insights from performance data, AI can be a powerful (and efficient) part of your daily SEO workflow. The real question isn’t if you should use AI – it’s how to use it well. 1. Build a custom AI assistant A custom GPT is a tailored version of the AI language model that you can create to perform specific tasks or provide particula…

PPC automation has always been about efficiency. We’ve relied on scripts, rule-based optimizations, and APIs to manage campaigns at scale. These tools have been essential, but they all share a common limitation: they follow strict, pre-programmed logic. So people are still needed, even with simple and boring tasks. But now we’re on the cusp of a new type of automation that can further reduce our workloads and free up our brains for more engaging and strategic work. We’re close to the end of the days when a scraper breaks when a website changes its layout or a PPC script fails because it can’t determine all ways that a company’s brand might be misspe…

Most AI chats have no commercial intent, users usually ask short questions, and most conversations end after just two turns. Those findings come from a recent analysis by Dan Petrovic, director of AI SEO agency Dejan, who examined millions of conversational turns to show how people actually use AI assistants. Why we care. As SEOs and marketers race to “optimize for AI,” Petrovic’s analysis suggests the industry is misreading how people actually use AI assistants. Most chats function as multi-step tasks, not keyword-style queries. And users aren’t flooding AI with “buy” queries – they’re exploring problems and comparing options. By the numbers. Petrovic analyzed 4.…