SEO Tools and Resources

A new creative feature has been spotted inside Google Ads Performance Max campaigns — and it could change how advertisers without video budgets approach animated display advertising. What was found. Vice President of Search at JumpFly, Inc. Nikki Kuhlman spotted an option to generate animated video clips directly within PMax asset groups, using AI to enhance and animate a single source image. How it works. Upload a source image — a logo, a product shot, a property photo AI generates several “enhanced” versions of that image Each enhanced image produces two animated clips Select up to five animated clips per asset group Note: faces cannot be us…

Heidi Sturrock, a paid search consultant with 24 years of industry experience, joined me on a recent episode of PPC Live The Podcast. The episode covers a broad match mistake with an unexpected silver lining, and Heidi’s experience testing AI Max across 50+ accounts. The broad match mistake — and the unexpected silver lining Early in her career, Heidi ran a competitor conquest campaign for a high-spending B2B SaaS client using broad match — without adding negative keywords — and launched it on a Friday with a large daily budget. Over the weekend, the client’s call centre was flooded with angry calls from the competitor’s customers looking for refunds and tech suppo…

AI search engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity are changing how consumers discover and purchase products online. If your product pages aren’t optimized for these AI assistants, you could be missing out on a growing source of traffic and revenue. The challenge? AI assistants don’t evaluate product pages in the same way traditional search engines do. They need to fully understand your products so they can confidently recommend them to different users with different needs. To help you assess how well your product pages are optimized for AI search, here’s a simple scorecard covering the six most important factors. 1. Product specifications Does…

For a long time, links were the primary signal of authority in search. If you wanted visibility, you built backlinks. If you wanted credibility, you earned placements. That still matters — but it’s no longer enough. In AI-driven search, authority is shaped by how often your brand is mentioned, cited, and clearly associated with a topic. Visibility comes from being referenced in AI-generated answers. With that shift in mind, the goal is to create content that earns consistent brand mentions and citations — the signals that now drive AEO visibility. The philosophy driving content that fuels AEO growth In 2026 organic discovery, authority incorporates entity r…

When a client calls about a damaging search result, you might typically default to one of two responses: “we can suppress it” or “there’s nothing we can do.” Both skip the middle ground — where Google’s removal tools live. Google provides tools to remove or deindex content from search results. They’re underused, frequently misunderstood, and often conflated. This guide breaks down what each tool does, when to use it, and what it can’t do — so you can triage client situations accurately and set expectations that hold. The distinction that changes everything: removal vs. deindexing Before you use any tool, get one thing right with clients: the difference betw…

At midnight on Jan. 5, hackers took over our Google Ads Manager Account (MCC). We weren’t alone. While it’s hard to get an exact count, hundreds, if not thousands, of agencies have been affected by the hacks, in turn affecting tens of thousands of accounts. While I wouldn’t wish this experience on our worst enemy, having been through it, I have some insights that I hope can help you prevent the same experience from happening to your MCC account. How we were hacked Despite having two-factor authentication (2FA) and allowed domains enabled, the hackers were able to get into our account via an employee’s email address. It was clearly a targeted hack: the night of…

A major shift is underway in digital advertising: Meta Platforms is projected to generate more ad revenue than Google in 2026, signaling how marketers are increasingly favoring automated, performance-driven platforms. Driving the news. According to Emarketer, Meta is expected to bring in $243.46 billion in global ad revenue this year, narrowly topping Google’s projected $239.54 billion. Meta is forecast to capture 26.8% of global ad spend. Google is projected to take 26.4%. It would be the first time Google has lost the top spot in digital ad revenue. Why we care. Meta’s growth suggests brands are getting more value from automated, performance-focused t…

Roll the clock back five, 10, or 15 years, and a PPC practitioner’s value was directly tied to tactical proficiency. Not anymore. Today, Google and Microsoft automate much of the tactical work. Machine learning and AI manage bids, test creatives, and find audiences faster and more efficiently than any human could. Unfortunately, this reality has left many veteran practitioners in a mid-career identity crisis. If algorithms pull the levers, what exactly are we getting paid to do? Where is our sustainable value to the business? Here’s what that evolution looks like in practice and how the hard skills in your playbook have changed. PPC shifted from tactical e…

Google is retiring legacy Search automation tools, including Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), in favor of AI Max, its broader AI-powered campaign suite. This will affect you if you use DSA, automatically created assets (ACA), or campaign-level broad match settings. Driving the news. AI Max for Search campaigns is exiting beta after adoption by “hundreds of thousands” of advertisers globally, Google said. Starting in September, eligible campaigns using DSA, ACA, or campaign-level broad match will be automatically migrated to AI Max. Google will stop allowing advertisers to create new DSA campaigns through Google Ads, Ads Editor, and the Ads API once automatic upgrades…

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 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…

Google announced updates to Chrome that let searchers use AI Mode in a more “engaging” and “deeper” way. Chrome lets you do all of this without switching tabs and potentially losing your place. What is new. Chrome added these new features: (1) Search side-by-side: When you’re using AI Mode in Chrome desktop, clicking a link will open the webpage side-by-side with AI Mode. This makes it easier to visit relevant websites, compare details, and ask follow-up questions while maintaining the context of your search. Here is what it looks like: (2) Search across your tabs: On Chrome desktop or mobile, you can tap the new “plus” menu on the New Tab page (or t…

For 20 years, Google Ads management has followed the same basic model: you log in, review performance, make changes, and hope they work before the next check-in. Agencies, freelancers, and in-house teams all work this way, even as the tools have changed. Spreadsheets gave way to scripts, and scripts gave way to automated bidding, but the core loop never changed — someone still had to sit in the account. groas aims to change that model by introducing a system designed to automate campaign execution end-to-end. Our company announced today it has developed a fully end-to-end autonomous system that’s designed to match or exceed PPC performance benchmarks observed…

Picture this: Your company relies on Data Studio for SEO reporting. It’s right before your next big meeting when you’re planning to present results… but Data Studio has an outage (again) and suddenly you have nothing to show. That’s embarrassing. And it happens more than it should. It wasn’t even a year ago that I touted the benefits of Looker Studio (now Data Studio) for SEO reporting. Now the platform feels archaic compared to the agentic coding tools available today. Here’s how rigid SEO dashboards like those produced in Data Studio are holding you back and why code-driven SEO reporting is the only way to remain efficient and competitive. The pr…

Creating video content takes time and budget, so understanding how it performs is critical. YouTube’s native analytics in YouTube Studio are robust, but they’re locked behind account access. That can make reporting difficult — especially when you need to share data or don’t have direct login access. Moving that data into Google Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) makes it easier to analyze and distribute. With Data Studio, you can: Pull YouTube data into reports you already use. Schedule automated updates for stakeholders. Customize dashboards around the metrics that matter. Track performance without relying on backend access. Here’s how to …

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…

Most SEO strategies are built with one goal: getting people through the door. That usually means driving traffic to the website, ranking for high-volume keywords, and bringing in new users. But what happens after someone signs up or makes a purchase? That part of the funnel often gets ignored. SEO doesn’t stop at acquisition. It can and should be used to support retention, improve onboarding or post-purchase experience, and make your product or offering easier to understand. So let’s break down the opportunity in post-conversion content, why it matters for SEO, and how to identify and optimize it effectively. Table of contents Most brands stop too early The opportun…

As artificial intelligence integrates deeper into our workflows, understanding its vulnerabilities is critical. A recently exposed vulnerability known as Best-of-N (BoN) jailbreaking has redefined how we view AI safety. Here’s a breakdown of BoN jailbreaking, how the attack works, and why it creates real risk for your data, brand, and the AI tools you rely on. First, a quick vocabulary check Before getting into BoN, there are two terms you need to actually understand, not just nod at. Brute force attack: Imagine trying to crack a four-digit PIN by starting at 0000, then 0001, then 0002, all the way to 9999. No cleverness, no strategy, just trying every si…

You can now do in 20 minutes what used to take a full afternoon. Feed two Semrush exports into Claude or ChatGPT, and you’ll get a polished competitor analysis – complete with topic clusters, gap tables, and prioritized briefs. The output looks convincing. The tables are clean. The recommendations sound confident. That’s the problem. AI can organize and summarize data quickly, but it can’t make strategic decisions. Without the right workflow, prompts, and validation, you risk acting on insights that sound right but lack depth. Used correctly, though, AI can surface meaningful patterns – revealing differences in topical depth, content coverage, and authority si…

Some advertisers say ad reviews are taking more than seven days — far beyond normal timelines. What’s happening. Matthew Skelton, a senior PPC specialist, has flagged a pattern many advertisers are now recognizing: Demand Gen campaigns stuck in “in review” status for days at a time. The delays are showing up across multiple accounts and industries, with no obvious policy violations or warnings to explain the holdup. Notably, the issue doesn’t appear to be affecting other campaign types. Search and Performance Max campaigns are still moving through review as expected, pointing to a problem specific to Demand Gen. Why we care. For advertisers using Demand Gen t…

We launched the Yoast SEO Task List in December to give you a clear, actionable to-do list for your site’s SEO. In this update, we’ve added two new tasks, improved how you navigate to fixes, and resolved a bug that was showing tasks in the wrong language. A quick recap: what does the Task List do? The Task List scans your site and surfaces specific content that needs attention, ranked by priority with an estimated time to fix. Instead of guessing what to work on next, you click a task and Yoast takes you directly to the right place to make the improvement. Think of it as a personal SEO assistant that knows your site. What’s new in this update New task: i…

Sometimes the keywords you need to rank for are the ones you’re not allowed to use. Whether it’s trademark restrictions, brand guidelines, or industry stigma, you might be asked to capture demand without using the exact terms people search. Here’s how to navigate that challenge, align with search behavior, and still build visibility. When the keyword you need is off-limits It’s a common scenario in SEO: “We want to rank for (insert super competitive search term),” and, in the next breath, “Don’t use (that exact same phrase) on the page.” My very first SEO job, over 10 years ago, set the goal of ranking in the top 3 for the term “custom koozies.” I’ve…

An ecommerce company hires your PPC agency to explore paid search. A solid plan follows, and after approval, the campaigns go live. Soon, you’re seeing stellar results: high conversion volumes and a healthy ROAS. On the surface, the strategy is a resounding success. But look closer. Some of these conversions might have occurred anyway via direct or organic search traffic — meaning the campaigns may not be driving real growth. Too often, this goes unmeasured. To truly understand performance, you need to look at incremental lift and marginal ROAS. The truth about ROAS Perhaps you’ve heard about eBay’s paid search experiment? They were spending hea…

Google is tightening security across its ads ecosystem, requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) for API users — a move that could impact how developers and advertisers access and manage accounts. Driving the news. Google will begin rolling out mandatory MFA for the Google Ads API starting April 21, with full enforcement expected over the following weeks. The update applies to users generating new OAuth 2.0 refresh tokens through standard authentication workflows. What’s changing. Users will now need to verify their identity with a second factor — such as a phone or authenticator app — in addition to their password when authenticating. Existing OAuth r…

AI isn’t just changing search — it’s deciding which brands get ignored. At Adobe Summit today, Andrew Warden, CMO of Semrush, argued that visibility has fundamentally changed — and that brands now risk being systematically filtered out by AI systems. “The idea of standing out is no longer optional. There’s a real risk of sameness,” Warden said. Because AI systems decide what to surface and what to ignore, brands now must compete for visibility in answers. AI is changing how discovery works You can already see the shift in the data, as 60% of Google searches now end without a click to a website. Users are still searching, but they’re not always visi…