SEO Tools and Resources

As an SEO professional, you’re often asked to solve what appears to be a technical problem: organic traffic is declining. Standard procedure is a deep dive into technical performance, algorithm updates, technical debt, or content gaps. You review logs, crawl the site, and check Google Search Console. But what happens when the data reveals that the root cause isn’t found in the sitemap, the content, or the backlink profile — but is instead located in the boardroom, the warehouse, and the customer service department? Not long ago, I audited a portfolio of ecommerce properties in a highly regulated niche. These brands were pandemic-era superstars. They had performed …

Every year, Duane Brown’s PPC Salary Survey gives our industry one of the few honest looks at what practitioners are actually earning. The 2026 edition, with 445 responses across 50+ countries, is no different. This year, one pattern stands out above the rest: the middle of the salary curve is getting squeezed from both ends. PPC salaries aren’t falling, at least not uniformly. The gap between practitioners commanding top-end pay and those stuck at the baseline is wider than it’s ever been, and the trajectory of the two groups is now clearly diverging. AI is acting as an accelerant here, but the underlying shift runs deeper and has been building for years. Wha…

Maddie Lightening, head of paid media at Hallam, joined me to talk through the mistakes, lessons and mindset shifts that have shaped her career in PPC. With more than a decade of experience across search, social, programmatic, digital out of home and ABM, she shared a candid look at the realities of leading paid media in a fast-moving industry. The reporting mistake that doubled performance One of Maddie’s early mistakes involved misreporting performance due to account currency differences. Working with an Australian billing setup while reporting in GBP, she unknowingly halved the reported results because conversion values were being translated. The issue only surf…

Google is pushing advertisers toward a more modern, scalable infrastructure for Shopping integrations—bringing new capabilities (including AI tools) directly into scripting workflows. What’s happening. Google Ads scripts will begin supporting the Merchant API starting April 22nd, as Google prepares to retire the Content API for Shopping on August 18th. The new API will be available as an Advanced API in the scripts editor, while the existing Content API remains usable until its official sunset. What’s new: The Merchant API introduces a modular architecture, breaking functionality into sub-APIs that allow for faster updates, easier maintenance, and fewer disruption…

Google is removing complexity from one of its most important measurement tools. By merging enhanced conversions for web and leads—and allowing multiple data inputs at once—advertisers get more accurate tracking with less setup friction. What’s happening. Google Ads is consolidating its enhanced conversions features into a unified system with a single on/off toggle. At the same time, it’s eliminating the need to choose a single implementation method. Advertisers will be able to send user-provided data through multiple channels simultaneously—including website tags, Data Manager, and API integrations. The current split between “enhanced conversions for web” and “en…

There’s a broad consensus that online reviews — especially Google reviews — should be a top priority for businesses that rely on local customers. Four of the top 15 ranking factors in Google Maps were related to reviews (quantity, quality, recency, and consistency), according to a recent Whitespark survey. Other surveys report that more than 80% of consumers use Google reviews to evaluate local businesses. For most of these businesses, the solution is straightforward: ask more customers for reviews, and then reply to those reviews. However, if you work in healthcare, you’ll inevitably find that things aren’t that simple. From soliciting reviews to responding…

LLMs have become a starting point for nearly everything — work, play, consumerism, health, and more. But one thing gets overlooked: how they finish answering prompts. They don’t — and that matters. They operate in a “no, you hang up first” mentality. The prompts we enter don’t just end. LLMs “nudge” us to continue the conversation, offering to take the next step. “Would you like me to create that travel itinerary for you?” “Would you like me to compare the Nike and New Balance running shoes and tell you which is best for a marathon?” These nudges make it easy to keep going. Most of the time, I enter “sure” or “sounds good. Thank you,” and move to the nex…

We’re being pushed harder than ever — expected to hit bigger revenue targets with the same or smaller PPC budgets. Even with flat budgets, rising platform costs mean we’re effectively facing a budget cut. Average CPCs have risen by as much as 40%, with an average of 3.74%, per Wordstream. Certain periods, such as Black Friday, see much higher increases. Teams are experiencing budget cuts, with average marketing budgets flatlining at 7.7%, according to Gartner. Our own account audits show that 20-30% of most accounts’ spend is quietly underperforming. This is the reality of paid media in 2026. But it isn’t all bad news. Efficiency isn’t just about spending l…

Measurement is the foundation for everything we do in performance marketing. Without accurate measurement, what we recommend, implement, and optimize is, at best, guesswork. Maintaining accurate measurement is more challenging than ever — and getting harder. Regulatory crackdowns and increased privacy concerns, alongside longer multi-touch journeys, are compounding to create a measurement crisis. Brands still using decade-old tactics won’t be able to overcome modern measurement challenges. If your brand falls into this category, it’s time to rebuild your measurement foundation — from integrating first-party data (crawl), to creating cross-channel reporting for ac…

Google is narrowing the scope of its Performance Planner tool, signaling a shift toward conversion-focused campaign types and away from impression-based planning. What’s happening. As of last month Performance Planner no longer supports planning for Display and Video campaigns, and removes access to plans using impression share, top impression share or absolute top impression share metrics. Why we care. Google is deprioritizing impression-based planning, making it harder to forecast and optimize upper-funnel campaigns like Display and Video within native tools. This could mean a shift toward conversion-focused strategies and automation, meaning advertisers may nee…

Metehan Yesilyurt’s SDK analysis revealed the pipeline names. We captured months of real Discover feeds to show what each pipeline actually does — volume, reach, timing, and which publishers dominate. Here’s what 42 million cards reveal about Discover’s internal architecture. What we did Over three months (December 2025 – February 2026), we observed real Discover feeds from hundreds of devices. The result: 42 million feed cards analyzed. We linked each card to the precise pipeline that selected it. Some of the names were already known from the SDK, You likely saw the SDK Analysis by Metehan Yesilyurt already. What was missing: what each pipeline does in practic…

Traffic from agentic AI sources is rising at Dell, but the impact remains minimal and inconsistent, according to the company’s ecommerce lead. The details. Dell is seeing increased visits from platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, according to Breanna Fowler, head of global consumer revenue programs. But the growth isn’t “earth-shaking,” and agentic shopping has yet to deliver meaningful results, Fowler told Digital Commerce 360. Dell is still testing how to integrate with LLM-driven shopping, with efforts in early proof-of-concept stages and internal debate over long-term strategy, Fowler said. Fowler expects agentic AI to function more like an aggr…

YouTube is pushing further into traditional TV-style advertising, signaling a shift that could reshape the viewing experience — and attract bigger brand budgets. What’s happening. Some TV viewers are being shown ads up to 90 seconds long before they can skip, a significant jump from the 30-second unskippable formats introduced recently. How it works. The longer ad blocks appear primarily on TV devices and may exceed 90 seconds in total length, with the skip option only becoming available after that initial window. Why we care. YouTube is creating more premium, TV-like ad inventory that allows for longer, more impactful storytelling on the big screen. This open…

There’s often a disconnect between what a webpage says it’s about and what its audience is actually searching for. This mismatch has always existed. But the stakes are higher now. If your page fails to match user intent, it won’t show up in AI-powered search surfaces. Search engines will find a page that delivers. You can see the mismatch, but it’s hard to quantify. The data to measure it is already in your Google Search Console account. Below, you can analyze your own pages to see how closely your content aligns with what your audience is searching for. Measuring the gap between positioning and demand Most web content today is designed to accommodate…

Many of us use various generative AI tools to generate marketing ideas and improve ad campaign outcomes. Prompting can be a powerful alternative to working solo or brainstorming with colleagues. It improves productivity and expands your options. In this article, I’ll cover some of my favorite marketing prompts for ad campaigns. Use these suggestions to spark ideas for your own prompts. Why use prompts for online ads? Prompts quickly give you a range of ad elements — triggers, emotions, actions, and audiences. You can often repurpose prompt outputs across channels and initiatives — ads, email, landing pages, social media, and offers. When you get clo…

PPC performance conversations often focus on best practices. Account structures should be clean. Match types controlled. Budgets scaled gradually. Campaigns should avoid overlap. Everything should be logical, efficient, and easy to explain. That foundation matters. It creates consistency and avoids obvious inefficiencies. But it’s not where the biggest gains come from. Looking back over the past 10 years, many of the most meaningful performance improvements didn’t come from refining those frameworks. They came from testing ideas that didn’t quite fit them — things that felt slightly uncomfortable but aligned with how platforms actually beh…

Privacy laws are tightening, browser extensions are blocking data, and ad platforms are demanding cleaner data. As a result, how you track user behavior online is changing fast. Server-side tagging can help you reduce data loss while collecting cleaner, privacy-compliant data. Here’s what server-side tagging is, when it makes sense to implement it, and our experience with providers like Elevar and Littledata. What is server-side tagging? Traditionally, tracking scripts like Meta Pixel or Google Analytics run in the browser. This is client-side (browser-side) tagging. With server-side tagging, those scripts run on a server you control instead of the visitor’…

If you shelved your inbound strategy this past year, you can shelve your Inbound conference mugs and swag with it. HubSpot renamed its annual Inbound conference in Boston this September to Unbound. A note on the event site explains the thinking: “This evolution is our response to that reality. INBOUND is becoming UNBOUND because growth no longer fits within a single framework or function. Today, it covers marketing, sales, service, and operations across the full customer journey in an AI-driven environment. UNBOUND reflects that expanded reality and the mindset required to lead through it.” Inbound is outbound. HubSpot pioneered inbound marketing, which uses…

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…

Google may be making local search ads more interactive, potentially changing how advertisers showcase multiple locations and capture nearby demand. What’s happening. Google Ads appears to be testing a new format that displays multiple business locations in a swipeable carousel within search ads, allowing users to browse options directly in the ad unit. How it works. Instead of listing locations separately, the new format groups them into a horizontal carousel with business details like ratings and proximity, enabling users to swipe through locations without leaving the search results page. Zoom in. Early comparisons show a shift from static, stacked locati…

Google is consolidating its advertising and measurement resources into a single destination, aiming to make it easier for developers and technical marketers to build, automate and scale campaigns. What’s happening. Google has introduced a new Advertising and Measurement Developers Hub, a centralized site designed to help users access tools, documentation and support across its ad ecosystem. The hub brings together resources for products like the Google Ads API, Google Analytics and publisher tools such as AdMob and Google Ad Manager, all organized into categories including advertising, tagging and measurement. How it works. The site offers a streamlined homep…

Most agencies present prospective clients with an account audit as part of their sales process. The purpose is twofold: To provide immediate value (usually without strings attached). To demonstrate that they know their stuff. But how often do brand marketers turn the tables and audit their agencies in their RFP? I’m the head of performance marketing at a marketing agency, so I’m clearly writing from a biased perspective. However, over my decade-plus in the industry, I’ve seen too many brands settle for “good enough” because they didn’t know which questions would reveal the cracks in a potential partner’s strategy and approach. If I were a brand lookin…

Google is laying the groundwork for “agentic commerce,” where users can complete purchases directly inside AI-driven search experiences. What’s happening. Google has published a new onboarding guide for its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) in Merchant Center, outlining how merchants can integrate with the system and enable checkout directly from product listings in AI Mode and Gemini. The big picture. As AI search evolves from discovery to transaction, Google is pushing to keep users within its ecosystem by embedding shopping and checkout into conversational experiences. How it works. Merchants must first complete a technical integration, then submit an inter…

Meta Platforms is making it easier for advertisers to implement tracking, reducing technical friction for teams running campaigns across platforms. What’s happening. Meta released an official Pixel template inside Google Tag Manager, replacing the need for third-party or community-built workarounds. How it works. The new template allows advertisers to reuse their existing GA4 dataLayer, meaning events already configured for Google Analytics 4 can be leveraged without rebuilding tracking from scratch. It also automatically maps enhanced e-commerce events such as purchases, add-to-cart actions, content views and checkout initiations, eliminating the need for dup…

Ask most ecommerce brands who owns their product feed, and the answer is almost always the same: the paid media team. Maybe a feed management tool sits under PPC. Maybe the shopping team built the feed years ago, and nobody’s touched the titles since. Either way, SEO rarely has a seat at the table, and it’s often forgotten as part of the broader feed management strategy. Whether you’re worried about AI search or traditional clicks, you’re missing out on opportunities by excluding SEO from your feed management strategy. AI shopping results are grounded in Google Shopping data Up to 83% of ChatGPT carousel products match Google Shopping’s organic results, ac…