SEO Tools and Resources

Google is broadening what counts as an eligible promotion in Shopping, giving merchants more flexibility heading into next year. Driving the news. Google is update its Shopping promotion policies to support additional promotion types, including subscription discounts, common promo abbreviations, and — in Brazil — payment-method-based offers. Why we care. Promotions are a key lever for visibility and conversion in Shopping results. These changes unlock more promotion formats that reflect how consumers actually buy today, especially subscriptions and cashback offers. Greater flexibility in promotion types and language reduces disapprovals and makes Shopping ads more…

Live sports advertising is getting more programmatic — and more measurable. Driving the news. Google is rolling out new biddable live sports capabilities in Display & Video 360, including programmatic access to NBCUniversal’s Olympic Winter Games inventory, ahead of a packed 2026 global sports calendar. Why we care. Live sports remain one of the few media environments that consistently deliver massive, attentive audiences. By bringing premium sports inventory into biddable CTV, Google is giving advertisers more control, better measurement, and easier activation — without sacrificing reach. What’s new. Advertisers can now combine Google audience signals wit…

News executives expect search referrals to drop by more than 40% over the next three years, as search engines continue evolving into AI-driven answer engines, according to a new Reuters Institute report. That shift is squeezing publisher traffic and accelerating a move away from classic SEO toward AEO and GEO. Why we care. Google’s AI Overviews and chatbot-style search are changing how people get information, often without clicking through. SEO visibility, attribution, and ROI models built on old playbooks are breaking fast. What’s happening. Publishers expect search traffic to nearly halve. Survey respondents forecast search engine traffic down 43% within three y…

Yoast AI Brand Insights now lets you track how your brand appears in Google’s Gemini. You can see your Gemini data alongside ChatGPT and Perplexity, all in one dashboard. With a single analysis, you can see how different AI platforms describe your brand with the Yoast SEO AI+ plan. You’ll see which sources they use and how sentiment compares across the tools your customers use most. Why this matters AI platforms use different methods to answer questions about your brand, often leading to different results. Seeing these results side-by-side helps you spot gaps or missed opportunities in your brand’s AI presence. ChatGPT is designed as a conversational a…

Remember when a handful of links from sites in your niche could drive steady organic traffic? That era is over. Today, Google’s AI Overviews and the rise of answer engines like ChatGPT raise the bar. You have to do more to stay visible. Hiring an experienced link building agency is one efficient way to meet that challenge. It’s also one of the most important investments you’ll make. The right partner doesn’t just build links. They position your brand as a trusted, cited source in the AI era. So how do you choose the right agency for your company? While the interface has changed, the core ranking signals remain largely the same. What’s changed is their prio…

If there’s one takeaway as we look toward SEO in 2026, it’s that visibility is no longer just about ranking pages, but about being understood by increasingly selective AI-driven systems. In 2025, SEO proved it was not disappearing, but evolving, as search engines leaned more heavily on structure, authority, and trust to interpret content beyond the click. In this article, we share SEO predictions for 2026 from Yoast SEO experts, Alex Moss and Carolyn Shelby, highlighting the shifts that will shape how brands earn visibility across search and AI-powered discovery experiences. Key takeaways In 2026, SEO focuses on visibility defined by clarity, authority, and trust rat…

As AI-led search becomes a real driver of discovery, an old assumption is back with new urgency. If AI systems infer quality from user experience, and Core Web Vitals (CWV) are Google’s most visible proxy for experience, then strong CWV performance should correlate with strong AI visibility. The logic makes sense. Faster page load times result in smoother page load times, increased user engagement, improved signals, and AI systems that reward the outcome (supposedly) But logic is not evidence. To test this properly, I analysed 107,352 webpages that appear prominently in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, examining the distribution of Core Web Vitals at the p…

Google’s AI Overviews feature has become the face of our search engine results. Type almost any question into your Google search bar, and the first answer you receive will be AI generated. Many are thrilled about this. Others are wary. Marketers and those in the online reputation management (ORM) field are among those urging caution. Why? Because Google AI Overviews are often littered with information stemming from online forums like Reddit and Quora. And oftentimes, this user-generated content can be inaccurate — or entirely false. Why Google AI Overviews heavily rely on content from Reddit and Quora But how and why have Google AI Overviews c…

AI-powered search isn’t coming. It’s already here: Google’s AI Overviews now reach 2 billion monthly users. ChatGPT serves 800 million users each week. Perplexity processed 780 million queries in a single month. As rankings and clicks matter less, citations matter more. Businesses now need content that AI engines trust and reference when answering questions. That’s the role of AI content optimization. Want to see where you stand? Get a free GEO audit of your website in under 60 seconds. What is AI content optimization? Generative engine optimization (GEO) adapts digital content and online presence to improve visibility in AI-generated answers.…

Between a teetering economy and AI tools rapidly replacing entry-level roles, marketing careers – and many others – can feel increasingly unstable. There is a silver lining for those willing and positioned to look for it. In marketing, it’s this: professionals who can adapt, think critically, and integrate AI thoughtfully into their work can accelerate workflows, sharpen strategy and targeting, and spend more time on initiatives that drive meaningful impact. It’s still early in the AI era, but more than a decade as a marketing leader has made certain patterns clear. Across my own team and the in-house teams we work with, some PPC marketers are better pos…

In 2025, the SEO industry debated whether AI required a strategy shift. In 2026, we are still debating, but we are moving further into the testing and execution phase. To navigate the new search landscape, we have to kill the channel silo and let the SEO team act as the strategic quarterback for brand authority. Organic search has always been a treasure trove of insights into consumer behavior, platform changes, brand presence, and organic influence. Right now, LLMs are binging on a diet of earned media. Press releases, social media content, UGC, your website, your retailers’ sites, YouTube videos, and Reddit threads all have a huge influence on th…

Google introduced a low-visibility setting that could impact brand control for location-based ads. Driving the news. In the Shared Library under Location Manager, Google Ads now includes an option called “Google Owned Location Data.” When enabled, Google can automatically pull imagery from its own library and use it in ads tied to your business locations. Why we care. While Google frames the setting as a way to support performance goals, it allows creative assets to appear in your ads that you didn’t upload, select, or explicitly approve — a potential issue for brand-sensitive advertisers. The big picture. Automation in Google Ads continues to expand beyon…

Google has introduced “Personal Intelligence” in the Gemini app as a beta which allows Gemini to give you a more personalized response by connecting across your Google ecosystem, including Google Search, Gmail, Photos, and your YouTube history. Google said this is “Launching as a beta in the U.S., this marks our next step toward making Gemini more personal, proactive and powerful.” This will also be coming to Search in AI Mode soon, Google told us. While Gemini could already retrieve information from these apps, with Gemini 3, it can now reason across your data to surface proactive insights. Here is how it looks. Here is a video of how it works: Avai…

Google is rolling out a new update for the Trends Explorer page that is powered by Gemini. The goal is to make it easier for users and researchers to find more search terms to explore. “The updated Explore page has a new side panel that uses Gemini capabilities to automatically identify and compare relevant trends for your area of interest,” Google wrote. What it looks like. There is this new layout and new “Suggest search terms” button at the top right of the page. Here is a screenshot: When you click on “Suggest search terms,” you can enter in a keyword or a natural language sentence and Gemini will help you break out all the terms and compare them to each o…

Key Takeaways Choosing an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO impacts your online presence and future growth. Yoast offers reliability with over 15 years of experience and millions of active installations, unlike newer competitors. Innovations such as AI integration and a unified schema graph set Yoast apart from other plugins. Yoast provides comprehensive support, education, and a multi-platform ecosystem tailored for long-term success. Trust industry leaders like Microsoft and Spotify who use Yoast SEO to enhance their online visibility. Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Table of contents What really matters when choosing an SEO plugin Why legacy and pr…

Spending on Google search ads rose 13% year over year in Q4 2025, up from 10% in Q3, based on Tinuiti’s latest benchmark report. Click growth for advertisers hit its strongest rate since early 2021, while average CPCs declined slightly for the second consecutive quarter. AI-driven results continue to expand overall query volume, including commercial searches. Why we care. Google search ad clicks are surging while CPCs remain flat, a trend fueled in part by Amazon stepping back from U.S. Google Shopping auctions. Advertisers are seeing both opportunity (CPC mostly stable) and disruption as spend patterns shift across search and shopping. Additionally, AI-driven que…

On episode 337 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Amy Hebdon, an international paid search expert and founder of Paid Search Magic. The show focuses on the real stories behind paid media work, including mistakes, surprises, and lessons learned, rather than just tactical advice. Amy’s breadth of experience spans multiple industries and digital marketing disciplines, making her insights particularly valuable for marketers navigating complex campaigns. Early career mistakes and learning experiences Amy shares a formative experience early in her career managing a fitness client’s creative assets that were incompatible with Google Ads. Despite her intention to protect …

Google Ads is running a limited test that allows some advertisers to A/B test different product titles and images within Shopping Ads. The feature appears as “product data experiments” and promises results within three to four weeks. Who gets it. The test is currently live for a small number of merchants, according to Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin. Broader availability is expected later. Why we care. Product titles and images can make or break Shopping ad performance, but advertisers have had limited ways to test changes without risking live results. This update could bring much-needed experimentation to product feeds. What it does. Advertisers can compar…

OpenAI will begin testing ads in ChatGPT in the U.S. in the coming weeks. Ads will appear at the bottom of chatbot responses, be clearly labeled, and will only show when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service tied to the conversation. Who will see ads: Logged-in adult users on the free tier Users on ChatGPT Go, OpenAI’s $8/month low-cost subscription Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans will remain ad-free Users under 18 will not see ads Why we care. Ads inside ChatGPT open a new, high-intent placement where users are actively asking questions and making decisions. Unlike traditional search or social ads, these placements appear directly with…

Google Ads simplified access to Manual CPC during campaign setup. Instead of navigating through the “Select a bid strategy directly (not recommended)” option, advertisers now see “Manually set bids” directly under the Conversions goal. The change: Manual CPC is surfaced within Google’s primary bidding flow. Advertisers no longer need to bypass Google’s recommended strategies to access it. The update is visible in campaign bidding settings across the UI. Why we care. Manual CPC remains a go-to bidding strategy for advertisers who want hands-on control, but Google’s setup flow has increasingly nudged users toward automated bidding. This update lowers …

Most of the health advice summarized in Google’s AI Overviews relies on non-medical sources, a new analysis shows. This follows fresh concerns about users receiving misleading or unsafe guidance on sensitive health topics. What’s happening. The Guardian recently reported that Google’s AI Overviews sometimes surface incorrect or dangerous health advice. The reporting drew on reviews by medical charities and experts. Examples included flawed guidance on pancreatic cancer diets and misleading explanations of liver blood test results. Google disputed the findings. The company said the examples were taken out of context and argued that most AI Overviews are accurat…

Over the last 12-18 months, the rhetoric across Search Engine Land has shifted. There’s now broad agreement that people don’t just “Google” to discover brands anymore. Audiences are finding brands on TikTok, researching on Reddit, watching YouTube, and increasingly asking AI to summarize everything for them – determining whether a brand is found or ignored. Discoverability is no longer about ranking first on a single platform. It’s about showing up consistently across the touchpoints that make up your audience’s search universe, wherever decisions are actually being made. In this new landscape, two tactics are quietly doing much of the heavy lifting…

In 2026, AI is no longer something marketers are debating. It’s actively shaping nearly every part of digital advertising and creative. Because the human brain processes visuals far faster than text, video ads are becoming more important and more effective, especially as creative costs continue to fall. The question is no longer whether PPC teams should use AI for video advertising. It’s how to use it to drive better results, produce stronger creative, and avoid issues like hallucinations and governance gaps that can undermine performance. Why AI adoption alone no longer drives PPC performance Nearly 90% of advertisers now use generative AI to build o…

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is often treated as a static metric. In practice, it is shaped by how different types of customers behave – and churn – over time. One of the most important dynamics to understand is the “shakeout effect,” where early churn removes lower-value customers from a cohort, leaving a smaller, more stable group with higher engagement and more predictable purchase behavior. This article takes a closer look at the shakeout effect in CLV analytics, why it happens, and how marketers should account for it when evaluating churn, retention, and long-term profitability. What is the shakeout effect in the context of CLV analytics? Imagine…

Microsoft Advertising is starting 2026 with a broad set of updates aimed squarely at search-first marketers, with a focus on better controls, clearer insights, and easier campaign management across the platform. Driving the news. In its latest product roundup, Microsoft is rolling out new Performance Max capabilities, expanding audience targeting options, improving imports from Google, and automating more creative elements in search ads. The big picture. Performance Max continues to be the centerpiece. Microsoft is introducing a new customer acquisition goal in open beta, allowing advertisers to either prioritize net-new customers or exclusively target them within…