SEO Tools and Resources

Google is rolling out channel controls in beta for Demand Gen campaigns, giving advertisers more granular control over where their visual ads appear across Google’s ecosystem. The new controls, first announced in January and spotted in March, allow marketers to choose specific placements across YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and the Google Display Network — including the ability to target YouTube Shorts specifically. Between the lines. The beta release signals Google’s recognition that advertisers want more transparency and control over ad placements, especially as competition with social media platforms intensifies. The YouTube Shorts targeting option specifically app…

Meta’s text-based social platform is now monetizing its 300 million monthly active users Meta’s standalone app Threads is beginning a global rollout of advertisements within its feed starting Wednesday, expanding beyond the limited testing that began in January. What’s happening: Image-based ads will appear between content in users’ Threads feeds. All eligible advertisers will gain access to Meta’s inventory filler. Ad placement on Threads will be a default for new campaigns using Advantage+ or manual placements. Advertisers can opt out through manual placement settings. Why we care. The move signals Meta’s confidence in Threads’ growth and v…

Could ChatGPT launch an advertising product within the next year? The answer seems to be yes, based on internal OpenAI documents. OpenAI appears to forecast a billion dollars in new revenue from “free user monetization” in 2026. That figure is forecast to grow to nearly $25 billion by 2029 of OpenAI’s total $125 billion projection. The chart. Here’s a chart (shared by Juan González Villa on X) of OpenAI’s projection of rising revenues that includes “new products (including free user monetization).” Yes, that means ads: Why we care. ChatGPT has an estimated 600 million monthly users. The ability for advertisers to reach ChatGPT’s users represents a signif…

Meta introduced a small but potentially powerful tweak to its Advantage+ Catalog campaigns: dynamic overlays. Advertisers can now add price, discount, and shipping labels directly onto product images – styled like stickers – to make promotions pop in the Facebook Feed. How it works. You’ve got four label options now: Current price. A strikethrough sale price. Percentage off. Free shipping. You can turn each on or off, style them how you want, or let Meta choose what performs best. Each overlay can be toggled on or off, and you can customize the look – or let Meta decide what to show based on performance signals. The big picture. It’…

Even the best content is useless if it can’t be found or reused. And for too many marketing teams, Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems have become more burden than benefit — bogged down by manual tagging, inconsistent metadata, and time-consuming workflows. In Unlock Your DAM: Fuel Your Creative Process with Generative AI, we’ll show how marketers are integrating Generative AI into DAM systems to break through these barriers — streamlining asset discovery, automating tagging, and enabling faster ideation. You’ll learn how forward-looking teams are reducing repetitive work while surfacing the right content at the right time. What You’ll Learn How GenAI can g…

While Google still dominates local search, ChatGPT has made notable strides. Its local results, though not yet on par with Google’s, have improved significantly since we ranked it last among AI search tools less than a year ago. The key change? ChatGPT’s integration with Microsoft Bing’s search index last fall. While it now pulls web content from Bing, it applies its own algorithm to organize results. As a result, the best way to make your business visible in ChatGPT is to ensure it’s included in Bing’s index. However, ChatGPT processes local queries differently than Bing does. Here are several key differences I uncovered by running side-by…

The platform behind your site plays a bigger role than you might think. From site speed and mobile responsiveness to content scalability and technical SEO, the foundation you choose can make or break your organic performance. If your goal is seamless, secure, and engaging digital experiences that also support strong search visibility, it’s time to re-evaluate your CMS. Join MarTech’s Future-Proof Your Content Strategy with the Right CMS, and discover exactly what marketers need to consider when evaluating content management systems. You’ll learn: Must-have CMS features for delivering top-notch digital experiences. How to tackle security, compliance, an…

Google unexpectedly decided not to implement a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies in Chrome, allowing ad tech companies to continue using this targeting technology in the world’s most popular web browser. “We’ve made the decision to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies,” Anthony Chavez, VP of Privacy Sandbox at Google, wrote in a blog post. Between the lines. While Google is stepping back from the cookie prompt, a third party consent mechanism first mentioned in February, it isn’t abandoning Privacy Sandbox entirely. The company pl…

“This call is being recorded for Google algorithm optimization purposes.” On April 22, Google Ads notified Local Services Ads (LSA) advertisers of a significant update to its Terms of Service, asserting the right to use, modify, and analyze all content within an advertiser’s LSA profile, including phone calls from prospective customers. These rights extend not only across Google’s platforms, products, and services, but also to its affiliates. And yes, Google has already been digitally eavesdropping on LSA phone calls. In July 2024, they replaced the previously manual (and relatively accurate) lead dispute process with an automated, AI-driven system. …

Google Analytics just made it easier to get quick insights and more accurate attribution. The Reports snapshot section now includes pre-built templates focused on user behavior, sales and revenue, and marketing performance. That means less time building custom reports and more time actually using the data. Alongside the templates, the card library has been updated, making it easier to browse and add the visualizations that matter most to your business. These templates help users quickly surface relevant insights without needing to manually create or configure reports. On the attribution front. Google Analytics will now use aggregate identifiers to att…

Link building is often 40% of an SEO budget – sometimes more in competitive industries. But here’s the problem: most companies aren’t calculating ROI before building links. That’s a fast way to burn through your budget without knowing what you’re getting in return. If you spend $5,000, $10,000, or even $50,000 a month on link building, you should know what kind of return to expect. This guide will show you how to calculate link building ROI before sending a single outreach email. We’ll cover how to assess a page’s revenue potential, estimate the cost of link building, and determine whether the investment pays off. You’ll know exactly how to forecast ROI, avoid…

Marketers love a good line graph that goes up and to the right, but with overwhelming data, graphs alone can’t communicate complex data effectively. A good data display should do more than convey information – it should reveal insights, guide decisions, and prioritize actions. In 2025, marketing data must evolve from reporting to storytelling, because effective charts don’t just show data; they help us understand what it means and what to do next. Why traditional reporting is no longer good enough One of the most common formats for SEO and PPC reporting is the classic, tried-and-true line graph. Even Google – in Search Console and Google Ads – defaults…

Many articles detail the top-level costs of SEO. While the fee you will pay an SEO consultant or agency is part of the cost to do SEO, getting results also requires a contribution in time and effort from the business. This article will look beyond the surface at the full spectrum of costs associated with doing SEO well, enabling you to approach 2025 well-prepared for SEO success. SEO costs: The basics If you are just looking for a straightforward overview of SEO costs, several studies have answered the question. Exact costs vary depending on factors such as business size, goals, industry, geographical location, and the overall complexity of the proje…

Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified today that the U.S. government’s proposed remedies could upend how the company handles search and how users experience the web. Why we care. A judge ruled that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in search. Now, the court is deciding how to fix it. If the court adopts the DOJ’s proposals, it could reshape the search landscape. What Pichai said. Today, Pichai called the data-sharing requirements “so far-reaching, so extraordinary” that it amounts to a “de facto divestiture” of Google Search itself. Also: Pichai argued that forcing Google to share search data compromises user privacy. “People search in their most v…

More than a third of consumers – including nearly 4 in 10 Gen Z users – have ditched Google Search in favor of Pinterest’s visual-first search experience, according to a new Adobe survey. And businesses are following their lead to capture traffic and engagement. By the numbers. Thirty-six percent of consumers said they start searches on Pinterest instead of Google. That includes 39% Gen Z users. Other findings: 39% of consumers use Pinterest as a search engine. 24% of business owners use Pinterest – and nearly a quarter of those businesses plan to boost ad spending on Pinterest this year. 80% of businesses say Pinterest drives more engagement than other sea…

LLMs and AI tools have transformed nearly every industry, including marketing. We’ve become accustomed to AI’s ability to: Generate text, images, and video. Summarize articles. Transcribe audio. Write code. Access webpages. But as these models evolve, their capabilities are entering a new phase with the introduction of Model Context Protocol (MCP) – a development that will also reshape how we think about search visibility. MCP allows LLMs and AI systems to connect more easily to external data sources and tools, giving organizations a new way to deliver meaningful content to both AI systems and their users. What is Model Context Protocol? …

Google’s latest update to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns—featuring Channel Reporting, Asset Reporting, and Search Term Reports—has triggered a wide range of responses from marketers. From cautious optimism to pointed critiques, advertisers are weighing in on how these long-awaited features may reshape their campaign strategies. Deeper insight arrives – finally Optmyzr Brand Evangelist Navah Hopkins celebrated the newfound visibility: “Google just announced some really important updates to PMax and I think it’s important we talk about just what they mean for us as we continue to market in the AI world. Google is FINALLY giving transparency into where budget i…

Google has doubled down on its automation-first strategy with a key update to Performance Max (PMax) campaigns: some advertisers can now add up to 50 Search themes. Why we care. This update gives advertisers more flexibility and control in guiding Google’s AI-powered targeting. Search themes, which help steer PMax toward relevant search traffic, are increasingly critical for advertisers looking to influence automation without relying on traditional keywords. Catch up quick. Search themes act as keyword-like signals to help Performance Max campaigns align with user intent. The limit started at 10, was raised to 25 in late 2023, and now sits at 50. Between …

Google is facing a new class action lawsuit in the UK that accuses the search giant of abusing its market power and driving up search ad prices. By the numbers: £5 billion ($6.6 billion U.S.): The potential damages Google faces. 90%: Google’s share of UK search advertising revenue, according to a 2020 CMA study. 13+ years: The period covered by the lawsuit (January 2011 to present). The details. Competition law academic Or Brook filed the lawsuit today in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging Google has: Restricted competing search engines. Created a monopolistic position in search advertising. Forced businesses to use its ad services …

Remember when meta keywords were all the rage? Fast forward to 2025, and while search engines have evolved dramatically, meta tags remain crucial building blocks of your SEO foundation, just not the ones you might remember. You’re juggling countless priorities, so it’s tempting to view meta tags as “set it and forget it” HTML snippets. But here’s the truth: properly optimized meta tags are still conversion-driving assets that both search engines and potential customers use to understand your content. This guide cuts through the noise to spotlight the meta tags that actually move the needle – on rankings, click-through rates, and visibility. Before we …

If you’ve tried to figure out how your brand shows up in ChatGPT or Gemini, you aren’t alone – and you’ve probably realized there’s no easy answer. With new AI visibility tools hitting the market, knowing which one to trust is half the battle. Vetting AI visibility platforms: Trial, error, and endless demos As AI search becomes a growing part of how consumers find information, brands face a new challenge: understanding and managing their presence in these AI answer engines. Unfortunately for marketers, many tools promising to help are as new as the challenge itself. Information is sparse, comparison is tricky, and reliability with many of these tools…

OpenAI is rolling out shopping features within ChatGPT Search, starting with fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics categories. The shopping features will guide users to find the right product for their query or questions. What is shopping in ChatGPT. ChatGPT will offer recommendations for products, show product images and product reviews that it thinks you might be interested in. Plus, ChatGPT will link directly to webpages where users can buy the products. These shopping results are not paid ads, nor does OpenAI make a commission on any sales. The data comes from structured metadata from third-party websites and data feeds. What it looks like. Here is…

Yelp announced 15 new features and updates to make it faster and easier for users to hire service professionals and for restaurants to manage their front-of-house operations. Many of these upgrades are powered by AI. Details. Yelp Assistant, launched in 2024, now uses AI-powered photo recognition to identify project needs. Users can simply upload a photo (e.g., a leaking pipe, car damage) and Yelp will quickly match them with the right service pro. Alongside smarter matching, Yelp is debuting AI-driven “response quality badges” to spotlight service providers who give clear, helpful replies. Businesses are rated based on whether they quote pricing, …

Earlier this month, we reported that Google will be bringing Discover to the desktop version of Google’s home page. We don’t know exactly when that will roll out but Google has been testing it. Google Search Console has Discover performance reports that let you track how well your site is performing within Google Discover. And over the past day or so, there was a hack to see the Discover performance report broken out by desktop and mobile. But that hack was quietly disabled this morning. How it worked. Brodie Clark first spotted the hack and posted about it on LinkedIn, and then John Shehata shared some early data of mobile vs desktop Discover performance with t…