SEO Tools and Resources

The conversation has shifted. We’re spending less time optimizing for clicks and more time trying to fix the AI ROI story. AI now sits at the center of discovery, shaping what gets seen, summarized, and cited. Here’s what’s working right now, what your peers are doing, and why SMX Advanced will feel different this year. The SparkToro wake-up call: Influence happens everywhere The foundation of any serious 2026 content strategy has to start with Rand Fishkin’s landmark March 2026 study, “Influence Happens Everywhere,” an analysis of the 5,000 most-visited sites on both mobile and desktop. The finding that rattled the industry: while Google still commands 73…

The other day, I was putting together my version of a Lumascape of answer engine optimization (AEO) tools — I’m kidding, my computer doesn’t have that kind of bandwidth. Instead of mapping every tool — which would be outdated in minutes — I’m focusing on the ones I actually use to grow clients’ AI search presence. This is a deliberately short list: four tools I rely on, plus three I’m testing before adding them to my team’s stack. 1. AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) Used thoughtfully, large language model (LLM) assistants are research and analysis tools in their own right. For AEO work specifically, they serve several distinct purposes: Com…

There’s a fundamental battle happening in search right now. On one side is topical authority — the darling phrase of every SEO consultant who needs to sell more content. On the other is brand authority — something marketers have talked about for decades, while much of search treated it as optional, vague, or something the brand team could handle after the sitemap was fixed. Now AI has walked into the room, kicked over the furniture, eaten half the traffic, and exposed the real problem. Search still matters. The global economy runs on people looking, comparing, buying, and solving problems through it. But the industry has a marketing problem. And it s…

Google said it has “resolved” an issue with logging data within Google Search Console reporting. The logging issue happened between May 13, 2025 through April 27, 2026, about 50 weeks. The resolution did not fix the past data, but it did fix the issue going forward. What Google said. Here is what Google posted: “A logging error prevented Search Console from accurately reporting impressions from May 13, 2025 until April 27, 2026. This issue has been resolved. As a result, you may notice a decrease in impressions in the Search Console Performance report. Only impressions and related metrics – CTR and average position – were affected; clicks were not affected by the…

In February 2024, Gartner predicted that traditional search volume would drop 25% by 2026. It didn’t. Google’s search revenue accelerated to 17% year-over-year growth, crossing $63 billion in Q4 2025 alone. But clicks per search are falling while query volume explodes. The pie got bigger. The slices got redistributed. And most search teams are still optimizing for the old pie. Are you still poring over spreadsheets full of organic keyword rankings like it’s 2003? Your customers don’t care where they’re getting their answers. They’re just looking for answers they can trust. And they’re finding those answers across more surfaces than your rank tracker knows exist. I…

In February 2025, the world watched as a small group of humanoid robots took the stage at the CCTV Chinese New Year show for the very first time. It was a charming performance, even if the steps were shaky and the movements were mostly limited to the arms. Just one year later, at the Spring Festival Gala, the shaky steps were gone and the humanoid robots were able to actually run and do standing somersaults and full kung fu routines with swords and nunchaku. The message was clear: in just one year, we have witnessed a decade’s worth of advancement. The 10-year leap in technology is real and not limited to robotics. Which raises a critical question for every digita…

One of the major reasons PPC practitioners hold onto syntax-oriented keyword strategies is the disconnect between “query intent” and “conversion intent.” For years, you’ve likely relied on keywords to show you understand what your customers want and to prequalify traffic using syntax-oriented signals. As user behavior shifts to more conversational queries and AI becomes an increasingly relevant part of the user journey, the distinction between these two intents becomes even more critical to understand and act on. Here, we’ll define query and conversion intent and explore strategies to apply them effectively. This isn’t prescriptive. You should make decisions based…

Google is trying a new method of bot authentication named Web Bot Auth. Google posted a new help document that explains that Web Bot Auth is a “new cryptographic protocol that helps websites to validate that bots are authentic.” The goal of Web Bot Auth is to help you automate the process of authenticating which AI Agent bots are authentic and which are fraud. Limited test. Google said the search compan is “testing the protocol with some AI agents hosted on Google infrastructure.” Not all Google user agents are using Web Bot Auth and Google is not yet signing every request of agents using the protocol. Thus Google recommends that in addition to Web Bot Auth yo…

The AI engine pipeline has 10 gates between your content and a recommendation: Discovered. Selected. Crawled. Rendered. Indexed. Annotated. Recruited. Grounded. Displayed. Won. Confidence at each gate multiplies, which means your worst gate sets your ceiling, and a single near-zero anywhere in the chain drags the whole result down with it. That dynamic leads to a simple rule. The “Straight C” principle: in any multiplicative system, the weakest stage sets the ceiling for the entire system, and the highest-leverage fix is always the near-zero, not the near-perfect. Brent D. Payne nailed it in Sydney in 2019: “better to …

Initial reports from SimilarWeb indicate ChatGPT ads are outperforming traditional benchmarks on engagement — but with limited inventory and small-scale tests, it’s too early to call this a long-term trend. What’s happening. According to early analysis, ads appearing in ChatGPT conversations are generating strong click-through rates vs Display and Podcast channels, likely driven by high-intent user queries and the native way ads are integrated into responses. Unlike traditional search ads, these placements appear directly within conversational answers, making them feel more contextual and less disruptive. Why we care . If these early CTRs hold at scale, Ch…

Google is rolling out new tools to help advertisers better understand performance across increasingly complex customer journeys. What’s happening. As AI continues to transform campaigns, creatives and targeting, Google is introducing updates focused on data integration, experimentation and media mix modelling — all aimed at helping marketers turn fragmented signals into actionable insights. Why we care. Automation has made it easier to run campaigns, but harder to understand what’s actually working. These updates make it easier to connect data, prove what’s actually driving results, and make smarter budget decisions across channels. As AI handles more of the execu…

Earlier this year, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a protocol to allow AI-agents to buy directly from search. This went live only in Google’s AI Mode interface in February. But now, it seems to be rolling out in the main Google Search results where there are retailers that support UCP. What it looks like. Brodie Clark posted a screenshot, which I can replicate, of the UCP-powered “Buy” button in the product detail overlay within Google Search, specifically for the retailer Wayfair. Here is his screenshot: Clicking the Buy button will connect your Google checkout account with Wayfair and make the purchase without having to go to the Wayfa…

OpenAI is taking the next step in building its ChatGPT ads platform — introducing self-serve buying, CPC bidding and improved measurement to bring more advertisers into the ecosystem What’s happening. Ads in ChatGPT are moving beyond a limited pilot, with new ways for businesses to buy and manage campaigns. Advertisers can now access inventory through agency and tech partners — or directly via a new beta Ads Manager rolling out in the U.S. This marks a shift from a controlled test environment to a more scalable ad platform. Why we care. Until now, access to ChatGPT ads has been restricted and expensive, limiting participation to large advertisers. These update…

For over two decades, parked domains generated income for advertisers and publishers. Recent Google Ads policy changes restricting ads on parked, expired, or mistyped domains show that nothing lasts forever. If industry shifts have affected you, this article may interest you. Today, we’ll take a deeper look at domain monetization and whether you can still stabilize and optimize income from domain traffic. The domain market shake-up In 2025, Google began rolling out significant changes to its Search Partner Network to improve inventory quality. These updates tightened controls and limited ad delivery across parked, expired, and mistyped domains. That process…

Over the past few months, a growing number of users have reported being locked out of their Facebook accounts — often suddenly, and sometimes permanently. What used to feel like a rare inconvenience has become a widespread frustration, affecting everyday users, creators, and business owners alike. So what’s actually driving the increase? It’s a combination of AI moderation, security shifts, platform economics, and evolving user behavior. Here’s what’s really going on behind the scenes. The rise of AI moderation — and its tradeoffs At the center of the issue is Facebook’s parent company, Meta, which now relies heavily on artificial intelligence to monitor a…

Google announced five changes to how the search engine will show links and citations within its AI Search features – AI Mode and AI Overviews. These changes aim to make it “easy for you to connect with authentic voices and explore useful information across the web,” Google’s Hema Budaraju, VP, Product Management, wrote. Here are the five changes that are rolling out in AI Mode and AI Overviews: (1) Suggested angles at the end of the AI responses. Google may show suggestions for where to go next at the end of many AI responses within AI Mode or AI Overviews. This “section links to unique articles or in-depth analyses on different facets of your topic, making it ea…

Everything looked normal in the SEO data. Google Search Console, traffic, and indexing — no red flags. Then I opened Scrunch, our AI citation monitoring tool, and looked at platform-by-platform presence for searchinfluence.com over the prior 30 days: Google AI Mode: 37.8% Copilot: 22.2% Google Gemini: 16.3% ChatGPT: 9.6% Perplexity: 7.8% Claude: 0.0% Meta AI: 0.0% Two platforms at zero. Every crawler reads the same site, so content quality and topical authority can’t account for that gap. They’re identical for every platform on the list. What varies is access — whether each platform’s crawler is allowed in. Nothing else explains how Google …

Watch this video on YouTube Generating high-quality leads from Google Ads often comes down to one unexpected factor: speed. If potential customers have to jump through hoops to reach you, you’ll lose business fast. That’s why Google Ads offers a trio of what I call “Contact Us assets.” Instead of sending users to a landing page, Call Assets, Lead Forms, and Message Assets let customers call you, fill out a form, or start a conversation directly from your search ads. Let’s dive into how to set up and optimize these three essential assets to simplify your funnel, capture valuable personally identifiable information (PII), and turn an expensive click into a…

Negative keywords aren’t a checklist anymore. In 2026, they’re a series of strategic decisions — and how you make them shapes how the algorithm interprets your account. If you’re still treating negatives like maintenance, you’re missing the point. Every exclusion is a signal: who you want to reach, what you’re willing to pay for, and how your campaigns should perform. Here are six decisions that define modern negative keyword strategy — and why they matter more than ever. How negative keywords shape campaign performance Negative keywords are how you sculpt a campaign so the right ad shows up for the right person. The user’s query should match the ad. The ad…

Google is expanding its Analytics Data API to include cross-channel conversion reporting — giving developers programmatic access to paid and organic performance data. What’s happening. The new feature, currently in alpha, allows Google Analytics and Google Ads users to pull conversion data across channels via the API — mirroring what’s available in the Conversion performance report in the Analytics interface. This means developers can now access the same insights without relying on manual reporting. Why we care. As measurement becomes more complex, advertisers need unified views of performance across paid and organic channels. This update enables teams to auto…

The search index is evolving from ranking pages to supporting AI-generated answers. In a technical blog post “on the evolving technical characteristics of the index,” published today, Microsoft Bing explained why AI search needs a different indexing system than traditional web search. Traditional search vs. grounding systems. Microsoft said traditional search can rely on users to self-correct, while AI systems need stronger evidence because they generate committed answers. Traditional search is built around documents. Users get ranked links, scan the results, and decide what to trust. Grounding systems are built around supportable facts with clear sourcing. Th…

Over the past few decades, digital marketing has settled into a stable system. While it spans SEO, content marketing, social media, and digital advertising, many programs have relied on a predictable core that didn’t always use every available channel. This gave digital marketers a sense of predictability and comfort. For years, teams stuck with what worked and refined execution through the same familiar framework. AI search has disrupted that comfort and exposed our inconsistencies. To succeed with AI SEO, we need a much more comprehensive approach. AI SEO rewards strategic marketing Over the past 15 to 20 years, digital marketing settled into a predictable r…

Many companies expand internationally by duplicating their U.S. website, translating the language, and keeping the same architecture, navigation, and content structure across markets. Then performance drops. International versions may convert at half the rate of the original site or struggle to gain traction altogether. The issue usually isn’t translation. It’s assuming users in different markets search, navigate, and evaluate information the same way. Using insights from Google SERPs and LLMs, here’s how to localize website architecture and navigation for international SEO. How to use Google to localize content Google’s SERP interface is localized for …

Search visibility no longer starts and ends with rankings. AI-driven search has changed where discovery happens — across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and beyond. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is how brands adapt, shaping how they’re retrieved and represented inside those systems. Traditional SEO metrics miss a growing share of that visibility. Pages are now summarized, excerpted, and cited in environments where clicks are optional, and attribution is fragmented. When an AI-generated summary appears, users click traditional search results far less often — in one analysis, just 8% of the time. That creates a measurement gap. Assessing this gap is where G…

JavaScript SEO should be a solved problem by now. It isn’t. Ecommerce sites keep hitting the same crawling, rendering, and indexing issues they were five years ago, now stacked on top of headless builds, AI-powered recommendations, and frameworks that can hide critical content from Google. These top ecommerce players have figured out how to ship fast, modern JavaScript without sacrificing organic visibility. Here are five lessons worth stealing. 1. Chewy uses JavaScript for UX Chewy is one of the largest online retailers of pet food and supplies in the U.S. They use Next.js, a React framework for building websites with built-in support for server rendering,…