SEO Tools and Resources

Affiliate marketing drives billions in sales – and billions more in hidden losses. Brand bidding, ad hijacking, coupon abuse, and more subtle forms of affiliate fraud can quietly drain ROI and distort attribution. For performance leaders, the question isn’t if this happens, but how much you’re already losing. This article breaks down the most common types of affiliate marketing fraud and shows how modern monitoring tools like Bluepear help brands protect growth, reputation, and spend through smarter affiliate fraud detection strategies. Why affiliate programs are under threat Not all affiliate programs are created equal – and neither are their incentive…

Google DeepMind launched Nano Banana Pro, the next-gen version of its earlier Nano Banana image model and the image system powering Gemini 3 Pro. The upgrade brings sharper text rendering, richer world knowledge, higher consistency across edits, and more precise creative controls — all aimed at producing studio-quality visuals from even the roughest ideas. Why we care. Nano Banana Pro is built to help anyone — casual creators, designers, advertisers, developers, filmmakers — go from concept to polished visual with far more accuracy, reasoning, and control than previous models allowed. It can: Generate context-rich educational visuals, grounded in real-world d…

More users are now spotting Google Ads embedded directly in Google’s AI Mode results, a sign that Google’s months-long test is quietly accelerating. What we’re seeing. Google confirmed ad testing in AI Mode on desktop back in May, but sightings have jumped of late: Greg Sterling shared a screenshot of an HVAC repair query and said this was the first AI Mode ad he saw in the wild. Brodie Clark replicated the behavior soon after, noting “the time has come” as he shared multiple screenshots of ads inside generated answers. Barry Schwartz reported ongoing reports of people running into AI Mode ads on Search Engine Roundtable. Why we care. Ads sho…

In recent years, the open web has felt like the Wild West. Creators have seen their work scraped, processed, and fed into large language models – mostly without their consent. It became a data free-for-all, with almost no way for site owners to opt out or protect their work. There have been efforts, like llms.txt initiative from Jeremy Howard. Like robots.txt, which lets site owners allow or block site crawlers, llms.txt offers rules that do the same for AI companies’ crawling bots. But there’s no clear evidence that AI companies follow llms.txt or honor its rules. Plus, Google explicitly said it doesn’t support llms.txt. However, a new protocol is now emergi…

Pages on your website can be well written, well laid out, supported by backlinks, and even meet E-E-A-T expectations – yet still fail to rank. While there are many possible explanations, one common issue is a misalignment with search intent, and it’s often harder to spot than it sounds. When the focus is on content, optimization, and usability, intent can easily be missed or misjudged. This is where AI can become a useful review tool, helping guide things back in the right direction. Get back to basics Whether you’re starting work on a new page or updating something older, beginning with the basics of search intent can help set you up for success. …

Instacart today became the first retail media network to integrate directly with TikTok Ads Manager. This will allow CPG advertisers to use Instacart’s first-party retail data to target audiences, measure conversions, and drive shoppable experiences – all without leaving TikTok’s platform. The integration marks a major step in the convergence of retail media and social commerce. By embedding Instacart’s targeting and closed-loop measurement capabilities into TikTok, brands can connect with high-intent consumers at the exact moment of inspiration and track their impact through purchase. Why we care. For CPG advertisers, this partnership removes a friction point – t…

OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into more than a chatbot. The company’s latest update lets users access third-party apps (e.g., Spotify, Canva, Zillow, Expedia) directly inside conversations. Why we care. This shift could make ChatGPT a high-intent marketing channel, reaching 800 million users where they’re already engaging – in chat. How it works. Users can call apps by name (“Figma, turn this sketch into a diagram”) or ChatGPT can suggest them automatically based on context – like surfacing Booking.com when discussing travel. Apps act like actions, not separate tools, within ChatGPT’s conversational flow. OpenAI calls this a step toward a “conversational opera…

Google Search’s Danny Sullivan and John Mueller pushed back – yet again – on the idea that brands need a separate AI SEO strategy, during the latest Search Off the Record episode. Sullivan’s take is simple: the acronyms keep multiplying (GEO, AEO, etc.), but the advice stays unchanged: Write for humans, not for ranking systems, whether those systems are traditional search or LLM-powered experiences. Why we care. As AI search grows, a lot of publishers and SEOs are feeling pressured to try something new. Google’s take: chasing AI tricks can actually hurt and distract you from making content people actually like. Google says the north star hasn’t moved. Sullivan…

Generative AI has become a practical tool in search, content, and analytical workflows. But, as adoption increases, so does a familiar and costly problem: confidently incorrect outputs. Also called “hallucinations,” the term implies that an AI model is malfunctioning. But here’s the truth: This behavior is often predictable and results from unclear instructions. Or, more accurately, unclear prompts. For example, prompt AI for a “cookie recipe,” and nothing more. Don’t offer details about allergies, preferences, or constraints. The result might be Christmas cookies in July, a peanut-packed option, or a recipe so bland and basic as to be unworthy of t…

Meta tests paid subscriptions across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp to unlock premium features and AI across its apps. What is happening. Meta is testing new subscriptions that unlock exclusive features across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, while keeping the core experiences free. Rather than a single bundle, Meta plans to experiment with different subscription models and feature sets tailored to each app, spanning productivity, creativity and expanded AI capabilities. Subscriptions will introduce premium controls and tools for everyday users, creators and businesses — separate from Meta Verified. On Instagram, early tests could include unlimited audience …

On episode 326 of PPC Live The Podcast I sat down down with Aashna Makin, a senior paid ads specialist with more than eight years of experience, who has managed campaigns worth over $2 million a month across a wide range of industries. She takes us through the story of how a best practice she put in place led to poor results and how looking back she should have taking more care in adding unnecessary negatives. A Costly Keyword Error Aashna recalls one of her earliest career missteps: excluding the keyword “meet up” from a client’s dating events campaign. The impact was immediate and severe—leads dropped sharply, and performance tanked. Luckily, her client succ…

Google will update its Misrepresentation policy specific to the Dishonest Pricing Practices. Specifically, this will require advertisers to disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will incur before and after purchase, and clarify any false or misleading impressions of the cost of a product or service. What is changing. Google will update the policy specific to these changes: Advertisers must clearly and conspicuously disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will bear before and after purchase. Pricing practices that create a false or misleading impression of the cost of a product or service, leading to inflated or unexpected charge…

Google has been layering AI into Search campaigns for years through features like Smart Bidding, Responsive Search Ads, and Performance Max. In May 2025, it announced the next step: AI Max. The feature is now rolling out globally in beta and appearing in many advertiser accounts. (If you don’t see it yet, expect it soon.) Here’s what it is, how it works, and what it means for your campaigns. What is AI Max for Search? AI Max is a feature within your existing Search campaign that you can toggle on or off. Enabling it provides targeting and creative enhancements in an automated way. According to Google, AI Max: Improves search term match…

One of the major things we talk about with large language models (LLMs) is content creation at scale, and it’s easy for that to become a crutch. We’re all time poor and looking for ways to make our lives easier – so what if you could use tools like Claude and ChatGPT to frame your processes in a way that humanizes your website work and eases your day, rather than taking the creativity out of it? This article tackles how to: Analyze customer feedback and questions at scale. Automate getting detailed and unique information from subject matter experts. Analyze competitors. These are all tasks we could do manually, and sometimes still might, but they’r…

Google confirmed an ongoing issue with serving search results in Google Search. This is impacting some locales, Google added. Google said this is an “ongoing issue” and will update us again “witin 24 hours” with more details. What Google said. Google wrote: There’s an ongoing data center issue that may impact serving of some pages in some locales. We’re working on identifying the root cause. The next update will be within 24 hours. When? This was posted at 5:21 pm ET. What is a serving issue. A serving issue is when Google Search has issues showing some or all search results to the searcher. This is when Google is unable to show some or all search res…

The European Commission has formally opened new proceedings to spell out how Google must share key Android features and Google Search data with rivals under the Digital Markets Act. The Commission on Tuesday opened two formal “specification proceedings” to guide how Google must comply with key DMA obligations, effectively turning regulatory dialogue into a structured process with defined outcomes. Why we care. The European Commission is escalating its oversight of Google under the Digital Markets Act, with moves that could reshape competition in mobile AI and search — and limit how much advantage Google can extract from its own platforms. If Google is required to …

Cloudflare today announced a new feature that allows you signal via robots.txt whether your content can be used in Google’s AI Overviews (as well as for AI training). Cloudflare’s new Content Signals Policy is meant to give publishers more control over how crawlers and bots use their data, beyond traditional directives that only regulate crawling and indexing. How it works. The policy adds three new machine-readable directives to robots.txt: search: permission for building a search index and showing links/snippets (traditional search). ai-input: permission to use content as input for AI-generated answers. ai-train: permission to use content for traini…

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…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8AfAJUDFWY Search marketers are starting to build, not just optimize. Across SEO and PPC teams, vibe coding and AI-powered development tools are shrinking the gap between idea and execution – from weeks of developer queues to hours of hands-on experimentation. These tools don’t replace developers, but they do let search teams create and test interactive content on their own timelines. That matters because Google’s AI Overviews are pulling more answers directly into the SERP, leaving fewer clicks for brand websites. In a zero-click environment, the ability to build unique, useful, conversion-focused tools is becoming o…

Google is rolling out a new Data Manager API designed to help advertisers more easily connect their first-party data to Google’s AI-powered ad tools — aiming to boost measurement, targeting and performance without the complexity of juggling multiple systems. Why we care. The Data Manager API makes it easier to feed high-quality first-party data into Google’s AI, which directly improves targeting, measurement, and bidding performance. By replacing multiple APIs with one streamlined connection, it reduces engineering work and speeds up how quickly insights flow back into campaigns. As cookies fade, this becomes a key tool for getting better results from the data adverti…

Have you ever faced a critical media campaign error? You’re not alone. We’ve all been there. A budget that burns out in hours instead of weeks, a missing pixel that breaks tracking… And no one notices… until it’s too late. The consequences? Real. Costly. Stressful. Trust damaged. These aren’t strategic failures. They’re operational blind spots and they happen even in the best teams, with the best tools. Digital is full of setups and moves fast. Errors and risks aren’t exceptions, they’re systemic. So ask yourself: Is your media operation truly safe? If your answer isn’t a clear “yes,” it’s time for a game-changer. 1. The hidden risks behind every campaign …

Brand-agency partnerships look very different today than they did even a few years ago, and by 2026 that gap will only widen. Internal marketing teams are more sophisticated, digital channels are more specialized, and the role agencies play is no longer one-size-fits-all. As a result, the companies that get the most value from agency relationships aren’t always the biggest spenders. They’re the ones that are clear about what they need and what they don’t. That clarity starts with understanding the true role an agency should play inside your organization. Too many partnerships struggle because expectations and responsibilities were never properly al…

Consumers are increasingly using AI tools — not Google — as their first source of information. This is driven by frustration with traditional search and rising expectations that AI will play a much larger role this year, according to a new report from Eight Oh Two, an SEO and PPC marketing agency. Why we care. AI isn’t replacing search, but it’s reshaping where search begins, how people discover brands, and which options they consider. A hybrid journey is emerging: AI delivers the first answer, and traditional search confirms it. Brands now need consistency across both or risk losing credibility when users cross-check. As more consumers turn to AI, visibility, trust, …

Search behavior keeps tilting toward AI answers. People still click classic results, but more are starting with AI summaries and only clicking when they want depth, proof, or tools. Your job as an SEO is now twofold: Rank in traditional search. Get your pages cited or summarized inside AI experiences. How do you do both without doubling your workload? How AI-powered search surfaces and cites content Before diving into tactics, it’s worth grounding in what’s actually confirmed about how AI search experiences pull and cite results. AI-powered search engines ground their answers in indexed, high-quality pages Google AI Overviews and AI M…

Doing SEO well often means knowing what to focus on and when to do so. That is not always easy, especially when you are juggling content, updates, and day-to-day site management. That is why we are introducing a new SEO task list in the Yoast plugin. The Task List helps you improve your SEO step by step, directly inside your dashboard. It turns best practices into clear, actionable tasks, so you can make progress with confidence and without second-guessing your work. Why the SEO checklist matters: Turn SEO advice into clear actions Instead of vague recommendations or long documentation, the Task List shows you exactly what to do next. Each item fo…