SEO Tools and Resources

On episode 352 of PPC Live The Podcast, I spoke to Emina Demiri Watson, Head of Digital at Brighton-based Vixen Digital, where she to shared one of the most candid stories in agency life: deliberately firing a client that accounted for roughly 70% of their revenue — and what they learned the hard way in the process. The decision to let go The client relationship had been deteriorating for around three months before the leadership team made their move. The decision wasn’t about the client being difficult from day one — it was a relationship that had slowly soured over time. By the end, the toxic dynamic was affecting the entire team, and leadership decided culture h…

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…

Google is updating how it attributes conversions in app campaigns, shifting from the date of the ad click to the date of the actual install. What’s changing. Previously, conversions were logged against the original ad interaction date. Now, they’re assigned to the day the app was actually installed — bringing Google’s methodology closer in line with how Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) like AppsFlyer and Adjust report data. Why this helps: It should meaningfully reduce discrepancies between Google Ads and MMP dashboards — a persistent headache for mobile marketers reconciling two different numbers. Google’s default 30-day attribution window meant many co…

Data isn’t just a report card. It’s your performance marketing roadmap. Following that roadmap means moving beyond Google Analytics 4’s default tools. If you rely only on built-in GA4 reports, you’re stuck juggling interfaces and struggling to tell a clear story to stakeholders. This is where Looker Studio becomes invaluable. It allows you to transform raw GA4 and advertising data into interactive dashboards that deliver decision-grade insights and drive real campaign improvements. Here’s how GA4 and Looker Studio work together for PPC reporting. We’ll compare their roles, highlight recent updates, and walk through specific use cases, from budget pacing visua…

Google Ads is now displaying examples of how “Landing Page Images” can be used inside Performance Max (PMax) campaigns — offering clearer visibility into how website visuals may automatically become ad creatives. How it works. If advertisers opt in, Google can pull images directly from a brand’s landing pages and dynamically turn them into ads. Now when creating your campaigns, before setting it live, Google Ads will show you the automated creatives it plans on setting live. Why we care. For PMax campaigns your site is part of your asset library. Any banner, hero image, or product visual could surface across Search, Display, YouTube, or Discover placements — …

I stopped using press releases several years ago. I thought they had lost most of their impact. Then a conversation with a good friend and mentor changed my perspective. She explained that the days of expecting organic features from simply publishing a press release were long gone. But she was still getting strong results by directly pitching relevant journalists once the release went live, using its key points and a link as added leverage. I reluctantly tried her approach, and the results were phenomenal, earning my client multiple organic features. My first thought was, “If it worked this well with a small tweak, I can make it even more effective with a…

OpenAI is serving ads inside ChatGPT, and new findings suggest the experience looks quite different from what the company originally envisioned. What’s happening. Research from AI ad intelligence firm Adthena has identified the first confirmed ads appearing on ChatGPT for signed-in desktop users in the U.S. The big surprise. Early speculation suggested ads would only surface after extended back-and-forth conversations. That’s not what’s happening. When a user asked “What’s the best way to book a weekend away?”, sponsored placements appeared immediately — on the very first response. What they look like. The ads feature a prominent brand favicon and a clear “Spo…

Reddit is piloting a new AI-powered shopping experience that transforms its famously trusted community recommendations into shoppable product carousels — a move that could reshape how the platform monetizes its search traffic. What’s happening. A small group of U.S.-based users are seeing interactive product carousels appear in search results when their queries signal purchase intent — think “best noise-canceling headphones” or “top budget laptops.” The carousels sit at the bottom of search results and include pricing, images and direct retailer links. Products are surfaced from items actually mentioned in Reddit posts and comments — not just ad inventory. …

Google Analytics is adding AI-powered Generated insights to the Home page and rolling out cross-channel budgeting (beta), moves designed to help marketers spot performance shifts faster and manage paid spend more strategically. What’s happening. Generated insights now appear directly on the Google Analytics Home screen, summarizing the top three changes since a user’s last visit. That includes notable configuration updates, anomalies in performance and emerging seasonality trends — all without digging into detailed reports. The feature is built for speed. Instead of manually scanning dashboards, marketers get a quick snapshot of what changed and why it may matter.…

Search is no longer a blue-links game. Discovery increasingly happens inside AI-generated answers – in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other LLM-driven interfaces. Visibility isn’t determined solely by rankings, and influence doesn’t always produce a click. Traditional SEO KPIs like rankings, impressions, and CTR don’t capture this shift. As search becomes recommendation-driven and attribution grows more opaque, SEO needs a new measurement layer. LLM consistency and recommendation share (LCRS) fills that gap. It measures how reliably and competitively a brand appears in AI-generated responses – serving a role similar to keyword tracking in traditiona…

Digital marketing teams have long debated the balance between SEO and PPC. Who owns the keyword? Who gets the budget? Who proves ROI most effectively? For years, the division felt clear. SEO optimized for organic rankings, while paid media optimized for auctions. Both fought for visibility on the same results page, but operated under fundamentally different mechanics and incentives. ChatGPT ads are beginning to erase that line. The separation between organic and paid isn’t just blurring, it’s breaking down inside conversational AI. The new battleground isn’t the SERP. It’s the prompt. The intersection of PPC and SEO now lives inside ChatGPT ads. From SERP-…

Google is launching Scenario Planner, a no-code tool that lets you test budget scenarios and forecast ROI using its Meridian marketing mix model without needing data science expertise. What’s new. Scenario Planner turns complex MMM outputs into actionable marketing insights: Intuitive, code-free interface: You can test different budget allocations and view ROI estimates without writing any code. Forward-looking planning: The tool lets you simulate investment scenarios and stress-test strategies, moving beyond retrospective reporting. Digestible insights: Technical model outputs are visualized in clear, easy-to-understand formats so you can leverage them for…

You’re tracking the wrong numbers – and so is almost everyone else in SEO right now. We’ve all been there. You present a chart showing organic traffic up 47%, only to get blank stares from the CMO who wants to know why revenue hasn’t budged. Or you celebrate a top-three ranking for a keyword nobody’s actually searching for anymore. The metrics that made you look good in 2019 are actively misleading your decision-making in 2026. With AI Overviews dominating search results, zero-click searches becoming the norm, and personalized SERPs making traditional rankings less meaningful, sticking with outdated measurements puts your strategy and budget at risk. Let’…

In the early days of SEO, authority was a crude concept. In the early 2000s, ranking well often came down to how effectively you could game PageRank. Buy enough links, repeat the right keywords, and visibility followed. It was mechanical, transactional, and remarkably easy to manipulate. Two decades later, that version of search is largely extinct. Algorithms have matured. So has Google’s understanding of brands, people, and real-world reputation. In a landscape increasingly shaped by AI-powered discovery, authority is no longer a secondary ranking factor – it’s the foundational principle. This is the logical conclusion of a long, deliberate evolution in search. …

Google Ads now surfaces Performance Max (PMax) campaign data in the “Where ads showed” report, giving advertisers clearer insight into placements, networks, and impressions — data that was previously unavailable. What’s new. The update makes it possible to see exactly where PMax ads are appearing across Google’s network, including search partners, display, and other placements. Advertisers can now track impressions by placement type and network, helping them understand how campaigns are performing in detail. Why we care. This update finally gives visibility into where PMax campaigns are running, including Google Search Partners, display, and other networks. Wi…

Organic search clicks are shrinking across major verticals — and it’s not just because of Google’s AI Overviews. Classic organic click share fell sharply across headphones, jeans, greeting cards, and online games queries in the U.S., new Similarweb data comparing January 2025 to January 2026 shows. The biggest winner: text ads. Why we care. You aren’t just competing with AI Overviews. You’re competing with Google’s aggressive expansion of paid search real estate. Across every vertical analyzed, text ads gained more click share than any other measurable surface. In product categories, paid listings now capture roughly one-third of all clicks. As a result, seve…

Microsoft Advertising is rolling out multi-image ads for Shopping campaigns in Bing search results, giving ecommerce brands a richer way to showcase products and capture shopper attention before the click. What’s new. Advertisers can now display multiple product images within a single Shopping ad, letting shoppers preview different angles, styles or variations directly in search. The format is designed to make ads more visually engaging and informative, helping consumers compare options quickly without leaving the results page. How it works: Additional images are uploaded through the optional additional_image_link attribute in the product feed. Adverti…

A new applied learning path from Microsoft Advertising is designed to help marketers get more value from Performance Max campaigns through hands-on, scenario-based training — not just theory. What’s happening. The new Performance Max learning path bundles three progressive courses that focus on real-world setup, optimization and troubleshooting. The structure is meant to let advertisers learn at their own pace while building practical skills they can immediately apply to live campaigns. Each course targets a different stage of expertise, from beginner fundamentals to advanced strategy and credentialing. What’s included: Course 1: Foundations Introduci…

ChatGPT heavily favors the top of content when selecting citations, according to an analysis of 1.2 million AI answers and 18,012 verified citations by Kevin Indig, Growth Advisor. Why we care. Traditional search rewarded depth and delayed payoff. AI favors immediate classification — clear entities and direct answers up front. If your substance isn’t surfaced early, it’s less likely to appear in AI answers. By the numbers. Indig’s team found a consistent “ski ramp” citation pattern that held across randomized validation batches. He called the results statistically indisputable: 44.2% of citations come from the first 30% of content. 31.1% come from the midd…

Google Ads has launched a new Results tab inside its Recommendations section that shows advertisers the measured performance impact after they apply bid and budget suggestions. How it works. After an advertiser applies a bid or budget recommendation, Google analyzes campaign performance one week later and compares it to an estimated baseline of what would have happened without the change. The system then highlights the incremental lift, such as additional conversions generated by raising a budget or adjusting targets. Where to find it. Impact reporting appears in the Recommendations area of an account. A summary callout shows recent results on the main page, w…

We need to have a talk about KPIs and AI search. I’ve observed numerous SEO professionals on LinkedIn and at conferences talking about “ranking No. 1 on ChatGPT” as if it’s the equivalent of a No. 1 ranking on Google: On Google, being the first result is often a golden ticket. Going from No. 2 to No. 1 in Google search will often result in 100%-300% increases in traffic and conversions. This is almost certainly not the case with AI responses – even if they weren’t constantly changing. Our team’s research shows AI users consider an average of 3.7 businesses before deciding who to contact. Being the first result in that list on ChatGPT isn’t the g…

Perplexity is abandoning advertising, for now at least. The company believes sponsored placements — even labeled ones — risk undermining the trust on which its AI answer engine depends. Perplexity phased out the ads it began testing in 2024 and has no plans to bring them back, the Financial Times reported. The AI search company could revisit advertising or “never ever need to do ads,” the report said. Why we care. If Perplexity remains ad-free, brands lose paid access to a fast-growing audience. The company previously reported that it gets 780 million monthly queries. With sponsored placements gone, brands have no way to get visibility inside Perplexity’s answ…

Search behavior is no longer just people typing keywords into Google. It’s people asking questions and, in some cases, outsourcing their thinking to LLMs. As Google evolves from a traditional search engine into a more question-and-answer machine, businesses need a robust, time-tested way to respond to customer questions. AI changes how people research and compare options. Tasks that once felt painful and time-consuming are now easy. But there’s a catch. The machine only knows what it can find about you. If you want visibility across the widest possible range of questions, you need to understand your customers’ wants, needs, and concerns in depth. That’s wh…

With more than two decades in SEO, I’ve lived through every major disruption the industry has faced — from stuffing meta keywords to rank on AltaVista to Google reshaping search, to mobile-first indexing, and now AI. What feels different today is the speed of change and the emotional weight it carries. I see growing pressure across teams, even among seasoned professionals who have weathered every major shift before this one. Many have a legitimate concern: If AI can do this faster, where do I fit in? That’s not a technical question. It’s a human one. That uncertainty affects morale and adoption. Productivity slows. Experimentation stalls. Teams either overuse …

Google is rolling out new more visibile links within AI Overviews and AI Mode. These new link cards appear in a pop-up window when you hover over them on desktop. They also show more prominent details about the website. Google was testing these earlier and now this new style is live. What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of these new link pop up menus on hover: What Google said. Google’s Robby Stein posted on X saying: “New on Search: In AI Overviews and AI Mode, groups of links will automatically appear in a pop-up as you hover over them on desktop, so you can jump right into a website to learn more. And we’ll show more descriptive and prominent…