SEO Tools and Resources

Leading SEO platform Semrush – the company that acquired Search Engine Land, MarTech, and Third Door Media in October 2024 – is being acquired by software company Adobe. Adobe announced the acquisition today. The all-cash deal is valued at about $1.9 billion and is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. What Semrush is saying. Andrew Warden, Semrush’s chief marketing officer, shared this on LinkedIn: Big news: Semrush has agreed to be acquired by Adobe. It’s a winning combination: Adobe brings leading customer experience orchestration in the agentic AI era with its content supply chain and other solutions.…

Adobe will shut down the SEO feature in Marketo Engage at the end of March 2026, according to its February 2026 release notes. The tool will be deprecated on March 31, and you must export any existing SEO data before then. (This page includes links to the export instructions.) The SEO tile will be removed from the platform on April 1. What happened? Adobe’s Keith Gluck said deprecating low-use features lets the Marketo Engage team focus on other areas of the platform. For your SEO needs, Adobe announced in 2025 that it was acquiring Semrush, a full-featured SEO and visibility tool. (Reminder: Semrush owns Third Door Media, the publisher of Search Engine Land.…

For the first time, ads are appearing directly within Google’s AI Overviews on desktop search, marking a major expansion of monetization within generative search experiences. Driving the news. The Shopping ads, which appear within AI Overviews, Google’s AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of certain search results, were spotted and shared by independent SEO consultant Brodie Clark on LinkedIn. Hours earlier, Google announced ads would begin rolling out in both AI Overview and AI Mode. Why we care. This shift, confirmed at Google Marketing Live 2025, signals Google’s intent to fully integrate paid placements into its evolving AI search experienc…

Ads are now being tested in ChatGPT in the U.S., appearing for some users across different account types. For the first time, advertising is entering an AI answer environment – and that changes the rules for marketers. We’ve used AI as part of ad creation or planning for years across Google, LinkedIn, and paid social. But placing ads inside an AI system that people trust to help them think, decide, and act is fundamentally different. This is not just another channel to plug into an existing media plan. The biggest question is not targeting. It’s psychology. If advertisers simply replicate what works in search or social, performance will disappoint, and trust may s…

Google AdSense publishers are reporting sharp drops in earnings over the past 24 hours, with many seeing eCPM and RPM declines of 50–70%, according to widespread forum complaints. Why we care. For publishers that rely on AdSense to fund operations, sudden revenue swings can threaten sustainability — especially when traffic hasn’t changed and costs remain fixed. What’s happening. Complaints spiked late Jan. 14 into early Jan. 15. Publishers across the U.S. and Europe report severe drops in page RPM and eCPM. Multiple sites within the same accounts were simultaneously affected with some publishers saying ads partially or fully disappeared. What publishers are sa…

Adthena is bringing competitive visibility to ChatGPT ads — launching a new platform designed to track how brands show up across prompts, placements and competitors. What’s happening. Adthena has unveiled its ChatGPT Intelligence Platform, positioning it as the first tool to offer whole-market visibility into ChatGPT Ads — similar to what it already provides for Google Ads. The platform monitors more than 300,000 daily prompts, tracking which brands are advertising, where ads appear, and what messaging they use. Why we care. ChatGPT’s native ads tools currently show advertisers a limited, self-focused view of performance. Adthena is stepping in to fill tha…

As ad dollars begin shifting toward ChatGPT, ad tech firms have started working to make that transition as seamless as possible. What’s happening. Adthena launched a new tool, AdBridge, designed to convert existing Google Ads campaigns into formats ready for ChatGPT advertising. The pitch is simple: don’t rebuild from scratch — repurpose what already works. The tool analyzes advertisers’ search campaigns to generate keyword lists, negative keywords, and competitive insights that can be directly applied to ChatGPT campaigns. It also surfaces which brands are showing up in specific auctions, how often they appear, and which prompts are triggering those placements — …

Competitive research is a gold mine of insights in the world of organic discovery. Clients always love seeing insights about how they stack up against their rivals, and the insights are very easily translated into a multi-dimensional roadmap for getting traction on essential topics. If you haven’t already done this, 2026 needs to be the year when you add competitive research from answer engine optimization (AEO) (I’ll use this acronym interchangeably with AI search) into your organic strategy – and not just because your executives or clients are clamoring for it (although I’m guessing they are). This article breaks down the distinct roles of SEO and AEO competitiv…

Google’s legal troubles over its search and ad tech businesses are entering a new phase — one that could expose the company to billions in payouts from advertisers seeking damages after U.S. courts found it illegally monopolized key digital ad markets. Driving the news. A growing group of advertisers is preparing to file mass arbitration claims against Google, according to attorney Ashley Keller, who said the first filings are expected this week. Keller says he has already signed up a “significant number” of advertisers. He estimates potential claims tied to online search and display advertising could exceed $218 billion, based on economic analysis his firm co…

OpenAI is emerging as a new advertising channel, but early advertiser sentiment is mixed as brands grapple with limited data, unclear performance, and a rapidly evolving product. Driving the news. Two months after launching ads in ChatGPT, advertisers are experimenting — but still lack clear measurement tools and performance benchmarks. Early campaigns are largely impression-based, with little insight into outcomes. CPMs have reportedly been high, with initial minimum spends in the six figures. Some advertisers say the product feels early and slow to mature. The vibe check. According to Ad Age reporting, advertiser sentiment sits somewhere between cauti…

Google’s latest update to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns—featuring Channel Reporting, Asset Reporting, and Search Term Reports—has triggered a wide range of responses from marketers. From cautious optimism to pointed critiques, advertisers are weighing in on how these long-awaited features may reshape their campaign strategies. Deeper insight arrives – finally Optmyzr Brand Evangelist Navah Hopkins celebrated the newfound visibility: “Google just announced some really important updates to PMax and I think it’s important we talk about just what they mean for us as we continue to market in the AI world. Google is FINALLY giving transparency into where budget i…

Advertisers are sharing their experience of a new Ads Manager interface for ChatGPT, signaling a shift toward a more mature advertising platform with real-time campaign control. What’s new. The Ads Manager is described as a dashboard where marketers can run, monitor, and optimize campaigns in real time — a major step up from current reporting and controls. Digital marketers Juozas Kaziukėnas and Glenn Gabe shared images of what they saw. Why we care. Until now, ChatGPT ads have been early-stage and limited, with advertisers reportedly relying on basic reporting like weekly CSV files. The move to a full Ads Manager suggests OpenAI is building infra…

Automation has been reshaping PPC account management for years, from rules, scripts, and API-driven workflows inside Google Ads. Most marketers are already comfortable with automated bidding, data-driven optimization, and other AI-powered enhancements. The next shift goes further. Two developments in particular are changing how PPC campaigns are managed and optimized: AI agents and vibe coding. Together, they point to a more autonomous way of working, where execution increasingly moves to AI – while marketers focus on strategy, systems, and creative direction. This shift unlocks new levels of efficiency and flexibility, but it also changes what effective…

Addy Osmani, a director of engineering at Google Cloud AI, published new guidance on Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO), a model for making content usable by AI agents. He positioned this AEO (not to be confused with Answer Engine Optimization) as parallel to SEO, built for systems that fetch, parse, and act on content autonomously. What he’s seeing. AI agents collapse multi-step browsing into a single request. They don’t scroll, click, or engage with UI — they extract what they need instantly. That makes most traditional engagement metrics irrelevant. The token problem. Osmani highlighted token limits as a core constraint shaping content performance. Large pag…

Marketers face AI news every day, and it’s almost impossible to keep up. AI agents are on the rise, but many are still in early development, beta testing, or lack real market adoption. So let’s skip ahead five years and look at what the future could hold. Picture this: You wake up in 2030 and check your phone. While you were sleeping, your AI agent optimized 50 campaigns, negotiated media buys with other agents, and earned $3,000 helping solve problems around the world. This isn’t science fiction – it’s where performance marketing is headed, and it may become reality soon. From scripts to personal AI assistants Today’s PPC automation still f…

Ask any paid search manager who has tried to get an AI agent to do something genuinely useful with a Google Ads account and you will hear a version of the same story. They exported performance data, pasted it into a chat window, got a solid answer, and then did the exact same thing the next day. Exporting, pasting, repeating — that isn’t automation. That’s the same manual work you were doing before, performed in a different window. The AI tools are not the problem. Any of the major ones can do solid analysis when the right data is in front of them. The problem is getting that data to them live, current, and without a human in the middle copying it across. It’…

Automation has long been part of the discipline, helping teams structure data, streamline reporting, and reduce repetitive work. Now, AI agent platforms combine workflow orchestration with large language models to execute multi-step tasks across systems. Among them, n8n stands out for its flexibility and control. Here’s how it works – and where it fits in modern SEO operations. Understanding how n8n AI agents are deployed If you think of modern AI agent platforms as an AI-powered Zapier, you’re not far off. The difference is that tools like n8n don’t just pass data between steps. They interpret it, transform it, and determine what happens next. Getting star…

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about AI agents lately – whether in your workplace conversations or scrolling through your social feeds (hopefully both). While there’s no shortage of articles discussing their general benefits, there’s surprisingly little coverage on what they mean specifically for SEO – where their impact is not just significant, but amplified. Before we dive into the two key reasons AI agents are so important for SEOs to understand (and yes, you’re probably already using them – even if you don’t realize it), let’s first get clear on what AI agents actually are. What are AI agents? At their core, AI agents are autonomous systems equippe…

From automating review responses to suppressing negative search results, AI is making online reputation management (ORM) faster, smarter, and more effective. But while AI offers powerful tools, businesses must use them strategically to maintain authenticity and trust. Here’s how AI is reshaping ORM – and what brands need to do to keep up. Online reputation management in the age of AI In today’s digital-first world, a brand’s online reputation is more than just a reflection of its customer service. It’s a key driver of success or failure. A single negative news story, an influx of bad reviews, or even an outdated piece of content ranking high on Googl…

AI tools now generate 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide — about 56% of search engine volume, according to a study by Graphite.io CEO Ethan Smith. The analysis combines web traffic and mobile app usage across major AI tools and estimates AI activity equals 56% of global search usage and 34% in the U.S. Much of this growth is occurring in mobile apps such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude. Why we care. AI is expanding discovery, not shrinking search demand. Total usage across search engines and AI assistants has grown 26% globally since 2023. In other words, it’s not SEO vs. GEO — you need both LLM visibility and traditional rankings. The …

AI bot activity surged 300% in 2025, with media and publishing among the most targeted sectors, according to a new Akamai report. Why we care. AI bots are reshaping how content is discovered and consumed, shifting users from search clicks to instant answers in chat interfaces. Publishers are seeing fewer visits from organic search and often don’t get attribution in AI-generated answers. It’s also eroding ad and subscription models. The threat is real. Publishers now face two threats: Training bots that ingest content for models. Fetcher bots that extract real-time content for immediate answers. These pose the bigger risk because they capture value as it’s…

Over the past year, a new feature has started appearing across food, lifestyle, and travel blogs: AI buttons. You’ve probably seen them already. Buttons labeled things like: “Summarize with AI” “Save this recipe to ChatGPT” “Remember this site” “Ask AI about this recipe” Plugins from Feast, Hubbub, Shareaholic, and others now make these buttons easy to deploy, and hundreds of bloggers have started experimenting with them. But as adoption has grown, so has the pushback. Microsoft recently published research warning about something it calls AI recommendation poisoning, and some SEOs have begun saying these buttons could be seen as a form of prompt …

Search marketers know that visibility doesn’t always equal traffic—and with Google’s AI Overviews gaining traction, the gap is growing. Users are now getting answers directly in the SERP, often without clicking through. That means your content strategy must evolve to stay relevant. In Building a Smarter Content Strategy in the Age of AI, MoreVisibility breaks down how marketers can adapt for a zero-click future, use AI as a strategic tool (not just for content creation), and measure performance beyond CTR. Inside the guide you’ll find: Why traditional SEO tactics aren’t enough in AI-driven SERPs How to make content discoverable—even when users never land on y…

Every few weeks, a new study drops declaring that Reddit (or YouTube, or Wikipedia) is the most important source for AI citations. Marketers share it. Clients ask about it. Someone starts drafting a Reddit strategy. Because it does. These analyses often flatten the nuance of prompt intent, model differences, and vertical context into a single headline number, and brands jump to start building strategies and teams around benchmarks that have nothing to do with their actual category or customer journey. The shiny object problem in AI search is real, and it’s getting more expensive. Tinuiti’s Q1 2026 AI Citation Trends Report (Disclosure: I’m the senior director …