SEO Tools and Resources

Google has added a new user agent to its help documentation named Google-CWS. This is the Chrome Web Store user agent that is a user-triggered fetchers. More details. Google posted about the new user agent over here, it reads; “The Chrome Web Store fetcher requests URLs that developers provide in the metadata of their Chrome extensions and themes.” What are user-triggered fetchers. A user-triggered fetchers are initiated by users to perform a fetching function within a Google product. The example provided by Google was “Google Site Verifier acts on a user’s request, or a site hosted on Google Cloud (GCP) has a feature that allows the site’s users to retri…

Search is changing faster than ever – and 2026 may be the year it fully breaks from the past. Over the last year, AI has reshaped how people discover, decide, and convert, collapsing the traditional customer journey and cutting touchpoints in half. AI-powered assistants and large language models (LLMs) will handle roughly 25% of global search queries by 2026, per Gatner, replacing many traditional search interactions. We’re already seeing the effects. Traffic from LLMs is climbing at a hockey-stick pace, signaling a massive shift in how users find information. To stay competitive, marketers need to build strong content and experience flywheels, as ans…

John Mueller from Google posted an SEO tip and reminder for those who use cloud services, such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or others, to host images, videos or other content. John explained that you should probably verify those within Google Search Console. This will give you the ability to track the performance of those files in Google Search, including any debugging information when necessary. Of course, in order to do this, you need to be able to control the DNS and most give you the option to do that through DNS CNAME. So you can set up your DNS to control those files in that cloud environment. For examples, it can be images.domain.com or videos.domain.com and …

Google gives local businesses two main ways to generate PPC leads online: Local Services Ads (LSAs) and Search campaigns. LSAs are pay-per-lead campaigns – for actions such as calls, messages, or booked appointments – with a quick setup process that involves verifying your business. After that, Google automates most of the ad and keyword setup. Search campaigns are more complex but offer far greater control over ad copy, keywords, and optimization. Understanding how each format works – and when to use them – can help you get more qualified leads and make smarter use of your ad budget. Most advertisers use both and shift budgets based on which delivers bet…

Google’s AI Overviews are for research, not buying. A new BrightEdge analysis of thousands of ecommerce keywords (Sept. 1-Oct. 15) found that AI results appear for research and evaluation, while bottom-funnel queries still belong to traditional search. Why we care. Google’s AI Overviews appear to shape discovery, while traditional search continues to drive sales. So ecommerce brands can set themselves up for success by being visible, helping users learn, and guiding them to buy during these key moments. By the numbers. AI Overview coverage spiked to 26% in September before retreating to 9% in October. 30% of keywords were retained after the pullback. Ther…

Search Engine Land is expanding its contributor roster in 2026 – and we’re looking for seasoned experts in SEO, PPC, AI, and analytics to join us. Why we care. Search Engine Land is not just our publication – it’s yours. For 20 years, Search Engine Land has been the go-to source for search marketing insights, reaching more than 1 million professionals every month. We’re growing again and want to amplify a trusted and diverse set of voices across the industry – whether you’ve been doing it for 5 years or you’re old enough to remember the Google Florida update. The details. We’re seeking contributors with 5+ years of hands-on experience in their field who can share …

Google’s AI Overviews continue to disrupt search as we know it. For advertisers, the landscape is shifting fast, with AI-generated answers now appearing on more queries and across more industries. Early Adthena data shows Paid Search click-through rates could decline by 8–12 percentage points (roughly a 20–40% relative drop) as AI-generated answers take up more space on the SERP. To understand the real impact of Google’s AI Overviews, Adthena’s data science team analyzed over 21 million indexes across two four-week periods (April – May and August – September) spanning five key industries: Retail, Travel, Finance, Healthcare, and Automotive. Our goal was to uncover…

Want your business to show up in Google’s AI-driven results? The same principles that help you rank in Google Search still matter – but AI introduces new dimensions of context, reputation, and reasoning, according to Robby Stein, VP of Product, Google Search. PR for AI. In an interview with Marina Mogilko of Silicon Valley Girl, Stein said AI “thinks a lot like a person would,” and agreed with her assessment that you’re investing in PR not for people to see it, but for AI. Stein said: “If you’re a business and you’re mentioned in top business lists or from a public article that lots of people end up finding, those kinds of things become useful for the AI to find…

AI may be reshaping search, but ads aren’t going away, according to Google VP of Product, Search Robbie Stein. What he’s saying. Asked by Marina Mogilko of Silicon Valley Girl whether Google Ads will go away in the future, Stein replied: “Don’t see them going away.” He added that user behavior is “really expanding” with AI, not shifting away from search. Google is already experimenting with ads inside AI experiences: “And so we started some experiments on ads within AI Mode and within Google AI experiences.” “We’ve been really focused on building great consumer products first and foremost… but I think users are starting to see some ads experiments there, too.…

FAQ schema is no longer a quick SEO win. In August 2023, Google reduced the visibility of FAQ rich results in search, restricting them to authoritative government and health websites. The update effectively rendered the tactic useless for marketers who once relied on it to expand their SERP real estate. Google also clarified that FAQPage markup should never be used for advertising or promotional purposes. It belongs only on genuine FAQ pages created to answer user questions. For years, many SEOs – including myself – added structured FAQ data to marketing pages as a best practice. It’s time to rethink that habit. Google’s shifting guidance isn’t new.…

Your website is live – now it’s time to measure what matters. To sustain traffic growth, you need to track performance, collect meaningful data, and make informed, data-driven decisions that shape your site’s success. Here are the key areas to monitor and the tools that can automate much of the work. How to monitor your website for SEO performance Website performance and uptime alerts When a page loads slowly, conversions drop, engagement falls, and the user experience suffers. Visitors expect pages to respond instantly, whether they’re comparing products or just beginning their research journey on your blog. Monitor site speed with PageSpeed Ins…

For years, I told bloggers the same thing: make your content easy enough for toddlers and drunk adults to understand. That was my rule of thumb. If a five-year-old can follow what you’ve written and someone paying half-attention can still find what they need on your site, you’re doing something right. But the game has changed. It’s no longer just about toddlers and drunk adults. You’re now writing for large language models (LLMs) quietly scanning, interpreting, and summarizing your work inside AI search results. I used to believe that great writing and solid SEO were all it took to succeed. What I see now: Clarity beats everything. The blog…

Regex is a powerful – yet overlooked – tool in search and data analysis. With just a single line, you can automate what would otherwise take dozens of lines of code. Short for “regular expression,” regex is a sequence of characters used to define a pattern for matching text. It’s what allows you to find, extract, or replace specific strings of data with precision. In SEO, regex helps you extract and filter information efficiently – from analyzing keyword variations to cleaning messy query data. But its value extends well beyond SEO. Regex is also fundamental to natural language processing (NLP), offering insight into how machines read, parse, an…

Advertisers are currently unable to access the Microsoft Advertising console right now. Microsoft confirmed there is an issue and that its engineering team is working to resolve it. This is impacting the web user interface to manage your Microsoft Advertising campaigns. What Microsoft said. Navah Hopkins, the Microsoft Ads Liaison, posted: “Confirming Microsoft Advertising UI is down. Our engineering team is investigating this issue with priority and we apologize for the inconvenience this may be causing. We will share more as we receive more updates.” How to check the status. You can go to status.ads.microsoft.com to check the status of Microsoft Advertisin…

SerpAPI said it will “vigorously defend” itself after being sued by Reddit for allegedly scraping and reselling data from the platform via Google Search results. The response. SerpAPI called Reddit’s language “inflammatory” and said it was “extremely disappointed” to learn of the lawsuit without prior communication. “Our work is guided by a simple principle: public search data should be accessible,” the company said. SerpAPI argued its position is backed by the First Amendment and called Reddit’s actions a threat to “the free and open Web we all enjoy.” What they’re saying. According to SerpApi: “For eight years, SerpApi has operated transparently and…

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holiday season fast approaching, you’re probably knee-deep in holiday account planning. Today, we’re zeroing in on a Google Ads feature that you can use all year ‘round, but may be particularly useful to you and your customers during the holidays: Promotion assets. What are promotion assets in Google Ads? Promotion assets (formerly known as promotion extensions) are an optional addition to your Search or Performance Max campaigns. They allow you to highlight special deals, sales, and discounts your business is currently running, alongside your standard ad headlines and descriptions. Promotion assets can show on Goo…

Most marketing teams still treat SEO and PPC as budget rivals, not as complementary systems facing the same performance challenges. In practice, these relationships fall into three types: Parasitism: One benefits at the other’s expense. Commensalism: One benefits while the other remains unaffected. Mutualism: Both thrive through shared optimization and accountability. Only mutualism creates sustainable performance gains – and it’s the shift marketing teams need to make next. Mutualism: Solving joint problems One glaring problem unites online marketers: we’re getting less traffic for the same budget. Navigating the coming years requires more t…

Something’s shifting in how SEO services are being marketed, and if you’ve been shopping for help with search lately, you’ve probably noticed it. AI search demand is real – but so is the spin Over the past few months, “AI SEO” has emerged as a distinct service offering. Browse service provider websites, scroll through Fiverr, or sit through sales presentations, and you’ll see it positioned as something fundamentally new and separate from traditional SEO. Some are packaging it as “GEO” (generative engine optimization) or “AEO” (answer engine optimization), with separate pricing, distinct deliverables, and the implication that you need both this and traditi…

Google DeepMind researchers have developed BlockRank, a new method for ranking and retrieving information more efficiently in large language models (LLMs). BlockRank is detailed in a new research paper, Scalable In-Context Ranking with Generative Models. BlockRank is designed to solve a challenge called In-context Ranking (ICR), or the process of having a model read a query and multiple documents at once to decide which ones matter most. As far as we know, BlockRank is not being used by Google (e.g., Search, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews) right now – but it could be used at some point in the future. What BlockRank changes. ICR is expensive and slow. Models …

Google has expanded the What’s happening feature within Google Business Profiles to restaurants and bars in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is now available for multi-location restaurants, not just single-location restaurants. The What’s happening feature launched back in May as a way for some businesses to highlight events, deals, and specials prominently at the top of your Google Business Profile. Now, Google is bringing it to more countries. What Google said. Google’s Lisa Landsman wrote on LinkedIn: How do you promote your “Taco Tuesday” in Toledo and your “Happy Hour” in Houston… right when locals are searching for a place to …

Marketing, technology, and business leaders today are asking an important question: how do you optimize for large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude? LLM optimization is taking shape as a new discipline focused on how brands surface in AI-generated results and what can be measured today. For decision makers, the challenge is separating signal from noise – identifying the technologies worth tracking and the efforts that lead to tangible outcomes. The discussion comes down to two core areas – and the timeline and work required to act on them: Tracking and monitoring your brand’s presence in LLMs. Improving visibility and performanc…

AI tools can help teams move faster than ever – but speed alone isn’t a strategy. As more marketers rely on LLMs to help create and optimize content, credibility becomes the true differentiator. And as AI systems decide which information to trust, quality signals like accuracy, expertise, and authority matter more than ever. It’s not just what you write but how you structure it. AI-driven search rewards clear answers, strong organization, and content it can easily interpret. This article highlights key strategies for smarter AI workflows – from governance and training to editorial oversight – so your content remains accurate, authoritative, and unmistakab…

Structured data helps search engines, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI assistants, and other tools understand your website. Using Schema.org and JSON-LD, you make your content clearer and easier to use across platforms. This guide explains what structured data is, why it matters today, and how you can set it up the right way. Table of contents What is structured data? A simple example of structured data Why do you need structured data? Is structured data important for SEO? Structured data can lead to rich results Different kinds of structured data Which structured data types matter most? Structured data for voice assistants The technical details Structured data shou…

The conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) has been dominated by “replacement theory” headlines. From front-line service roles to white-collar knowledge work, there’s a growing narrative that human capital is under threat. Economic anxiety has fueled research and debate, but many of the arguments remain narrow in scope. Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab found that since generative AI became widespread, early-career workers in the most exposed jobs have seen a 13% decline in employment. This fear has spread into higher-paid sectors as well, with hedge fund managers and CEOs predicting large-scale restructuring of white-collar roles over the next decade…

Google added Query groups to the Search Console Insights report. Query groups groups similar search queries together so you can quickly see the main topics your audience searches for. What Google said. Google wrote, “We are excited to announce Query groups, a powerful Search Console Insights feature that groups similar search queries.” “Query groups solve this problem by grouping similar queries. Instead of a long, cluttered list of individual queries, you will now see lists of queries representing the main groups that interest your audience. The groups are computed using AI; they may evolve and change over time. They are designed for providing a better high level…