SEO Tools and Resources

SEO is something of a nebulous concept. To some, SEO is technical; to others, it is creative. Neither of these is 100% right or wrong. SEO is all of this and more, depending entirely on the unique situation and goals of the business looking to use SEO. This loose definition leads to some common and fairly troublesome issues. One of these issues, which we see repeatedly and completely derails the success of projects – even by experienced agencies – is the misunderstanding between SEO strategy and SEO planning. This article defines these terms and shows a simple way to ensure both strategy and planning are tackled with the rigor that the modern, h…

Google is now rolling out access to AI Mode to its second batch of users. Google first allowed Google One AI Premium subscribers access to AI mode, when it first launched on March 5th. If you opted into AI Mode and are based in the United States, you may now have access. How to access AI Mode. Once you again access then you should be able to access AI Mode – here is how: Go to www.google.com, enter a question in the Search bar, and tap the “AI Mode” tab below the Search bar. Go directly to the AI Mode tab on Google Search at: google.com/aimode. In the Google app, tap the AI Mode icon below the Search bar on the home screen. The initial bug. When Goog…

AI-powered search is drastically changing the way people find information. For years, ranking well in Google and Microsoft Bing has been the foundation of search visibility. But as AI-driven search gains traction, is that ranking priority shifting or staying the same? We’re in an era of uncertainty we haven’t seen since the early days of SEO – when search engines rose and fell in a battle for relevance. Time will tell which AI answer engine wins the game. SEO is still relevant, but AI is rewriting the rules. This article will break down: Six AI search players to watch and how they source content. Market share and usage trends that show where sear…

Google has dropped its AI while browsing feature, formerly known as SGE while browsing. Google didn’t say why it removed the feature but posted a note in its help documentation that the feature is no longer. What is AI while browsing. Google originally wrote: “SGE while browsing was specifically designed to help people more deeply engage with long-form content from publishers and creators, and make it easier to find what you’re looking for while browsing the web. On some web pages you visit, you can tap to see an AI-generated list of the key points an article covers, with links that will take you straight to what you’re looking for directly on the page. We’ll als…

Ad hijacking occurs when dishonest affiliates create ads almost identical to a brand’s official ads. They copy headlines, text, and display URLs so potential customers assume these ads are legitimate. In reality, these affiliates, often involved in affiliate hijacking and other affiliate program scams, send clicks through their own tracking links to earn commissions they haven’t really earned. When this happens inside an affiliate program, it’s called affiliate ad hijacking. Many hijackers use an affiliate link cloaker to hide the final redirect, preventing brands or ad platforms from seeing the trick. If someone clicks on one of these fake ads, they la…

Roblox unveiled a new immersive video advertising format on its platform and announced a strategic partnership with Google to expand its advertising business reach. Google will roll out these ads across AdMob and Ad Manager, creating significant new revenue opportunities for publishers while giving advertisers contextually relevant ways to reach engaged audiences. Big picture. The gaming giant is introducing rewarded video ads up to 30 seconds long that offer in-game benefits, marking a significant evolution of its business model beyond traditional gaming revenue. These ad formats are designed to blend seamlessly into virtual environments – appearing as billbo…

From answering complex queries to generating creative content, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others are becoming integral to how users seek and consume information online. This technology presents a paradox for brands and website owners: the potential for new avenues of traffic generation alongside the growing challenge of zero-click results. The initial excitement surrounding LLMs often focuses on their ability to simplify workflows and provide instant answers. However, for businesses that rely on website traffic for leads, sales, and brand visibility, the implications are far more nuanced. While LLMs can act as powerful referral…

Your online presence is a crucial part of your professional identity, and how you manage it can make all the difference. Personal branding helps build trust with colleagues, clients, and recruiters – and it all starts with personal SEO. While many focus on polishing their resume or LinkedIn profile, your digital footprint extends far beyond these platforms. This article will guide you through proven strategies to optimize your online visibility and ensure you stand out. What is personal SEO and why does it matter? Personal SEO involves optimizing your online presence so that your name appears at the top of search results for relevant queries. This…

Google Ads has begun rolling out channel control for select Demand Gen campaigns. This feature will let you specify where your ads appear across Google’s properties. Yes, but. While the feature is live, segmentation by individual channel (e.g., YouTube, Discover, Gmail) is not yet available. This will limit your ability to make data-driven adjustments. Why we care. This update, first announced in January, gives advertisers more control over campaign placement, but the full impact remains unclear since performance data is still aggregated under “Google-owned channels.” What they’re saying. Greg Kholer, director of digital marketing at ServiceMaster, shared see…

Andriana18, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons W. Edwards Deming’s 14 principles transformed manufacturing by emphasizing quality, efficiency and continuous improvement. His ideas weren’t just about improving production lines—they were about creating a culture of adaptability and excellence. Today, marketing faces its own shift. The traditional, assembly-line model of campaign execution—where data, creative, and deployment are handled in rigid steps—is no longer fast enough for real-time customer engagement. Positionless Marketing builds on Deming’s legacy by enabling marketers to act independently, collaborate fluidly and use AI-powered tools to engage custome…

Detailed and specialized content that lives deeper within your website may be key to winning citations and brand visibility in Google’s AI Overviews, according to enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge. By the numbers. Based on a new analysis of millions of URLs cited by Google’s AI Overviews, BrightEdge found that: 82.5% of citations linked to deep content pages (two or more clicks away from the homepage) 0.5% of citations linked to homepages. 86% of citations appeared for only one keyword. Why we care. The homepage historically has been considered the most important page on a website, with primary category, product, or service pages not far behind (those …

If you’re managing multiple campaigns for your brand or your clients, you know how hard it is to scale landing page creation without sacrificing performance. This guide breaks it down—with real examples, tactical insights, and repeatable strategies from a designer who helped generate 14.8 million conversions using Unbounce. Inside, you’ll get: 5 high-performing landing page designs from SaaS, education, and entertainment industries Conversion-driven tactics you can apply to your own campaigns Smart tips for building faster, designing for mobile, and increasing results without reinventing the wheel Whether you’re designing in-house or outsourcing to …

Using transition words in your writing can help you enhance the readability of your content. They help your text flow and show readers the relationship between phrases and paragraphs. That’s why the readability checks in Yoast SEO provide feedback on your use of transition words. But what are transition words, and why are they so important? And how should you use them? Table of contents What are transition words? Why you should use transition words Types of transition words Why are they important for SEO? What does the transition word check in Yoast SEO do? How to improve your usage Conclusion What are transition words? Transition words like ‘and’, ‘but’,…

With the rise of AI-powered search and steady increases in monthly LLM referral traffic, many of our SEO clients are asking how they can improve their visibility and brand sentiment in AI responses. One of the biggest challenges, though, is that most marketing teams don’t have a dedicated generative engine optimization (GEO) budget or team members with the bandwidth to fully support large-scale AI search optimization initiatives. The good news? There are several strategies that can benefit both your traditional SEO and AI visibility. These optimizations can help make your content digestible for search engines, relevant for AI-generated responses, and mor…

The first core update of the 2025 year, the March 2025 core update, is now done rolling out and complete. It started on March 13, 2025 and completed about 7 days later on March 27, 2025. This update was a typical core update where Google updates its core ranking system to make search results more relevant and helpful. This update followed the December 2024 core update. It took a few months for Google to release a new core update despite expecting the core updates to be more frequent in 2025. What Google said. Google said about this core update: “The rollout was complete as of March 27, 2025.” What we saw. The initial rollout seemed to kick in within a …

Reddit Ads is introducing a suite of new tools aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) streamline campaign management, optimize ad performance, and improve data accuracy. Easier Campaign Setup and Management: Campaign Import. Reddit Ads now allows advertisers to import campaigns directly from Meta in just three steps. After signing into their Meta account within Reddit Ads Manager, users can select an ad account and campaign to import, then customize it to fit Reddit’s platform. This seamless process enables advertisers to leverage high-performing Meta ads on Reddit quickly. Simplified Campaign QA. A new review page in the Reddit Ads Manager …

Search is dead, long live search! Search isn’t what it used to be. Search engines no longer simply match keywords or phrases in user queries with webpages. We are moving well beyond the world of lexical search, which is simply text-based with no understanding of the semantic connections between not only things but multimedia representations of things/concepts. Today, AI can understand, contextualize, and generate information in response to user intent largely utilizing probabilistic prediction and pattern matching. This transformation is being driven by generative information retrieval. Generative information retrieval is a fundamental shift in how sy…

When it comes to keyword research, SEO professionals often rely on expensive tools to find the right keywords. However, Google Search Console (GSC) provides a completely free way to access insights straight from Google itself. GSC is a powerful and often underused tool that shows exactly what is working on a site and where improvements can be made. Unlike other keyword research tools that provide generic suggestions and estimated data, GSC delivers real-life search data based on actual searches leading to a website. It can often uncover interesting insights. Here’s how to use GSC to find valuable keyword opportunities and improve rankings. Why use Goo…

Microsoft Bing appears to be testing an aggressive new ad display format that dramatically reduces organic search visibility in favor of sponsored content. The details: Users are reporting search result pages with at least seven paid advertisements. One or two organic results are visible on the first page. The format has been independently verified by multiple users. What they’re saying. The original poster, Red Leaf Web Design, expressed shock at the format, stating “BING Ads Gone Wild!” on X. Several of the Search Engine Land staff were also able to replicate the ad-heavy results, seeing as many as nine ads: Bing Ads Gone Wild! ONE organic result…

Reddit’s presence in Google Search has surged over the last year, largely thanks to the Google-Reddit content licensing deal. As a result, Reddit threads are claiming prime real estate in search results, often outranking brand websites and even original content sources. While Reddit isn’t new, its growing influence has put it back in the spotlight. Yet many marketers either overlook Reddit entirely or mishandle it – resulting in missed opportunities or even backlash from its notoriously protective community. This guide covers everything you need to know about leveraging Reddit for SEO – finding ranking opportunities, engaging authentically, and boosting …

SEO keeps evolving faster than most of us can handle. If you’re finding it hard to keep up with all the changes in search, you’re not the only one. I’ve talked to dozens of marketing teams this quarter, and they all tell me the same thing: the old SEO playbook just isn’t working anymore. Whether you’re running your company’s search strategy or working with clients, you need a smarter approach that puts users first and works across all the places people search online. This guide shows you key areas that are driving SEO success right now in 2025. It’s based on what’s working for the most successful marketing teams I work with. You’ll get practical ti…

In December Google added 24-hour data to the Search Performance report in Google Search Console. Now, that data will soon be available in the Search Console API, and you get not just the past 24-hours of that 24-hour data, you can get the hourly data for the past 8 days. Announcement. This was announced by Daniel Waisberg, from the Google Search team, at the Google Search Central Live event in New York City just a minute ago. 24-hour data. When Google announced this originally, Google said this “view includes data from the last available 24 hours and will appear with a delay of only a few hours.” Google added: “The ’24 hours’ view includes hourly granula…

If you try to add a new business to Google Business Profiles today, you may run into difficulties. When you get to the screen where you add your phone number and website address, Google won’t let you proceed to the next step. It is unclear if there is an issue with phone numbers in general, which may be causing this bug, or not. But there are also businesses reporting their phone numbers are being removed and also rejected from their Google Business Profiles. More details. As noted, on this screen, the “Next” button, simply won’t take you to the next screen: Google product expert, Vinay Toshniwal, wrote in the Google Business Profile forums: I’ve com…

There has been a striking drop in remote SEO role listings — down to just 34% — as well as SEO content job listings – down 28%. That’s according to The 2025 Previsible State of SEO Jobs Report, released today. Meanwhile, SEO job listings for leadership positions (e.g., vice president of SEO) grew by 50% in 2024, while SEO manager positions increased 58%. Why we care. It may be too early to know whether this is a blip or a trend, but this data indicates that companies are looking to hire SEOs skilled in strategy, technical, and AI. Although content-focused roles are being squeezed by generative AI, leadership and technical skills remain as valuable as ever. Job…

Sick of seeing the error “Discovered – currently not indexed” in Google Search Console (GSC)? So am I. Too much SEO effort is focused on ranking. But many sites would benefit from looking one level up – to indexing. Why? Because your content can’t compete until it’s indexed. Whether the selection system is ranking or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), your content won’t matter unless it’s indexed. The same goes for where it appears – traditional SERPs, AI-generated SERPs, Discover, Shopping, News, Gemini, ChatGPT, or whatever AI agents come next. Without indexing, there’s no visibility, no clicks, and no impact. And indexing issues…