SEO Tools and Resources

Meta unveiled new AI products – including a “Business AI” concierge, generative video, and creative tools – designed to help advertisers scale faster and more efficiently. Driving the news. The centerpiece is Business AI, an always-on sales agent that guides customers from discovery to purchase across Meta ads, messaging apps, and websites. It learns from posts and campaigns to deliver personalized responses. No coding or setup is required. Meta also introduced new generative AI tools for video that help advertisers create more immersive content, including AI-generated music, multilingual dubbing, and HDR video. Shoppers may soon be able to upload a ph…

Spotify is expanding access to its ad inventory through new partnerships with Amazon DSP and Yahoo DSP, marking a major step in broadening brands’ programmatic buying options. The big picture. Amazon DSP users can now buy Spotify’s ad inventory across nine markets: the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. Also: Yahoo DSP buyers gain direct access to Spotify Ad Exchange, the platform’s programmatic marketplace. In Europe, Spotify is teaming with ID5 to boost addressability for programmatic campaigns. Spotify also previewed: A new Split Testing tool for creative experiments. A partnership with Smartly to expand inventory …

Meta will soon begin factoring in how people interact with its generative AI tools to personalize the content and ads they see across Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. More than 1 billion people use Meta AI monthly, according to their internal data. By turning AI chats and prompts into signals, Meta is making its recommendation engine more data-rich, potentially boosting ad relevance for brands and personalization for users. Why we care. By adding this new signal to it’s recommendations engine, this could reveal real-time interest and intent, making ad targeting sharper and potentially more effective. By tapping into these AI-driven signals, brands can rea…

AI-powered search is moving fast. The latest shift? ChatGPT Shopping. Since April, OpenAI has been rolling out a shopping experience that surfaces product cards directly inside ChatGPT. Instead of sending users to a long list of search results, the interface now provides curated recommendations with images, labels, and “buy” links. For ecommerce SEOs, this is a new channel with very different rules. Placement isn’t driven by ads or bids, at least not yet. Instead, visibility depends on the quality of product data, structured markup, and external signals like reviews and mentions. The implications are significant. Results are condensed to just a handf…

More than a sales tool, a product demo can be the moment your brand earns credibility and converts prospects. A strong demo proves value in real time, turning curiosity into confidence. Too often, though, demos fall flat – sounding like a scripted feature list instead of a compelling, conversational story. This article shows how to create demos that resonate with real customer needs and differentiate your brand through empathy, consistency, and competitive insight. Know your product, know the problem it solves A demo isn’t about memorizing features. It’s about mastering the problem your product solves. Without this deep understanding, you’re just…

Google sends publishers 831x more visitors than AI systems, according to TollBit’s State of the Bots Q2 2025 report. Even though AI referrals barely register next to Google’s, bots are hammering publisher sites — pushing costs higher, scraping more content, and often ignoring rules meant to limit them. Scraping up, referrals down. AI is scraping the web, but it still isn’t sending meaningful visitors back. Google referrals dropped from 90%+ of all external traffic in Q2 2024 to 84.1% in Q2 2025. AI apps sent just 0.102% of referrals. For every visitor from an AI system, Google delivered 831. Click-through rates from AI interfaces were weak – 91% lower th…

Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) have been around for many years now, but for some reason, so many Google Ads practitioners still find them confusing. RSAs can be incredibly powerful if you know how to use them correctly. What is a Responsive Search Ad? A Responsive Search Ad, or RSA, is the default ad type for Google Search campaigns. When you create an RSA, you must provide three things: Final URL: The landing page where you want users to go after clicking on your ad. Headlines: The clickable part of your search text ad. Minimum 3, Maximum 15. 30-character limit each. I generally recommend having 8-10 headlines in your RSA. We previously covered ad headlines …

Google Ads will launch a new Message asset requirements help center and begin enforcing stricter policies for message assets. Why we care. Advertisers relying on message assets risk having them blocked if they don’t meet the updated requirements. Ensuring compliance will be critical to maintaining campaign reach and performance. The details. Enforcement begins Oct. 30 and will ramp up over four weeks. Message assets that fail to comply or can’t be verified will no longer serve. Disapproved assets can be fixed by following Google’s policy guidance. Bottom line. Advertisers should review and update their message assets ahead of the deadline to avoid disr…

Most B2B marketers know LinkedIn Ads for its strong prospecting capabilities. But one of its most powerful features – retargeting – is often overlooked. Beyond website visitors, LinkedIn offers creative retargeting options to keep prospects moving through the funnel. This article shows how to structure retargeting across every stage and what to offer audiences along the way. Top of funnel: Awareness and trust-building Even in the earliest stages, retargeting has a role. Prospects who have lightly engaged with your brand need reinforcement and education before they’ll move further down the funnel. Types of retargeting to use at this stage: Vide…

Traditional search engines rely on countless ranking signals to deliver the most relevant answers to users. In the age of AI, signals appear to be simpler – at least for now. Court documents from Google’s antitrust case reveal that AI Overviews rely on lighter signals and fewer documents in the index. However, content clarity and topical connections are more important than ever. To be visible in the era of AI search requires content that is: Well-structured, so that relationships between topics are clear. Expertly written, so that the meaning and depth are obvious. Machine-readable, so entities and relationships are easy to interpret. In…

We’re excited to announce the beta release of Yoast AI Brand Insights, available as part of the Yoast SEO AI+ package. This new tool helps you understand how your brand appears in AI-powered answers, and where you can improve your visibility. Ideal for bloggers, marketers, and brand managers, Yoast AI Brand Insights gives you an overview of your brand presence across tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. For years, Yoast has helped you get found in search engines. Recently though, search is changing. People aren’t just using Google anymore, they’re turning to AI tools like ChatGPT for answers. Those answers often mention brand names as recommendations. So here’s…

YouTube is cited 200x more than any other video platform in AI search results, according to new data from enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge. YouTube was: Cited 200 times more than any other video platform by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI products. Present across all platforms and essentially the only video source that matters. Competitors barely registered: Vimeo (0.1%), TikTok (0.1%), Dailymotion (0%), Twitch (0%). A top information authority, rivaling Mayo Clinic and Investopedia. By the numbers. YouTube had a 200x advantage over its nearest rival (Vimeo at 0.1%). Even platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT, which have no incentive to favor Goo…

Table of contents What is content summarization? Manual or human-driven content summarization AI-driven content summarization What are some of the core benefits of content summarization? Why summarization matters in the modern content landscape? Information overload People scan and skim, so clarity wins Trust and clarity for readers and systems Faster decision-making Prominent use cases of content summarization Business reports Educational content Marketing strategies and reporting Everyday consumption: news digests, newsletters, podcast notes Content Summarization & SEO: Does it Benefit in Boosting Organic Visibility? Boosting click-through rates Improving…

AI is reshaping how billions of people find information, but it isn’t killing the blue link. That’s according to Liz Reid, Google’s head of Search, in a new The Economic Times podcast interview. Why we care. We’re in a massive transitional period. If you believe Google, AI isn’t shrinking the pie – it’s expanding opportunities for brands, businesses, and creators. Perhaps AI Overviews are killing shallow traffic, but the big question remains whether Google can find ways to reward rich, engaging content. The future of search. AI is a layer, not a replacement. Some quotes from Reid: “I think we’re still really at the beginning. I think there’s still [a] huge wa…

New asset and channel reporting improvements are rolling out to Google Ads Performance Max. This update should make it easier to optimize budgets, identify underperforming elements, and maximize ROI across Google’s full network – Search, Display, Discover, Gmail, YouTube, and Maps. Why we care. These updates make Performance Max feel a lot less like a black box. You should get a clearer view of what’s actually driving results. With new segmentation options and ROI metrics, it’s easier to see how different assets and channels impact conversions, costs, and returns. Asset reporting segmentation. You can now break down asset performance by device, time, conversions, …

Google is piloting a Labs section inside the Google Ads platform, giving advertisers a centralized place to access early-stage experiments and tools. Why we care. Instead of quietly testing features across scattered accounts, Google appears to be consolidating experiments into a single hub, making it easier for advertisers to discover and try new features before full rollout. Details. The Labs section shows up at the bottom of the left-hand menu in select accounts. Early tests include features like “missed growth opportunities,” which highlight potential campaign improvements through bid or budget adjustments. Not all advertisers will have access to it.…

Google is enhancing Meridian, its open-source Marketing Mix Model (MMM), to help marketers make smarter, more precise budget decisions. Why we care. Understanding ROI across channels is increasingly critical. These new Meridian updates allow for a more precise understanding of what drives sales, factoring in both media spend and non-media variables like pricing and promotions. The big picture. Here’s what’s new: Non-media variables: Marketers can now include pricing, promotions, and other business levers to measure their impact on sales more accurately. Channel-level contribution priors: New features let you guide the MMM with your own business knowledge,…

The history of search offers clues about where we’re headed in the AI era – but there’s more to learn and more to do to move forward with practical steps. AI changes the way people search. Instead of short queries that once required digging through blended results, users can now ask complex questions and get direct answers. Much of the work to optimize for AI, though, overlaps with what SEO professionals have been doing for years. Our community is already adapting and well-positioned to take on this shift. This article outlines practical steps to navigate the evolving landscape. SEO, AEO, GEO: Defining the new terms Before diving in, it’s worth addressi…

Google’s AI Max for Search campaigns is changing how we run search ads. Launched in private beta as Search Max, the feature began rolling out globally in late May, with full availability expected by early Q3 2025. But will AI Max actually drive incremental growth or simply take credit for conversions your existing setup would have captured anyway? This article: Breaks down the key metrics to track in AI Max. Shares early results from travel, fashion, and B2B accounts. Includes a Google Ads script to make analysis faster and easier. Understanding AI Max Think of AI Max as Google combining the best parts of Dynamic Search Ads and Performance…

Google AI Mode is getting more visual by providing a more graphical response to some of your queries, including your shopping search queries. Google can do this by using its new visual version of the query fan-out technique it has used with AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google AI Mode, for certain queries, particularly those related to shopping, will respond with images and graphics. These are aimed at sparking inspiration, Robby Stein, VP of Product Management at Google Search, told Search Engine Land. AI Mode will be able to not just understand your query in a text-based manner, but also understand your query visually and respond with both textual and visual resp…

Engineering teams usually have a quality assurance (QA) process. Without it, they risk releasing work that hurts the user experience and creates unforeseen technical issues – including major SEO problems. That’s where SEO QA comes in. Adding SEO-specific checks to existing QA protocols helps teams catch and fix issues before they go live. But this step is less common than you’d think. Too often, it’s overlooked. This article outlines what it takes to build an effective SEO QA discipline and provides a checklist SEOs and QA engineers can use to cover their bases. Why SEO QA gets overlooked Unless SEO is fully integrated with engineering, SEO-specific…

We know that most readers skim. We also know that search engines prefer clear and easy-to-understand content. Luckily, a good summary can help with both. A summary gives your reader the core ideas quickly, while also helping your chances of ranking your content. Learning how to write a summary helps you give your content the love it needs. Table of contents What is a summary? Why are summaries important? How to write an effective summary Dos and don’ts of writing summaries Examples of weak vs. strong summaries Summaries vs. intros, conclusions, titles, and meta descriptions Benefits and pitfalls of using AI for summaries Key takeaways A summary provides a c…

Pinterest is rolling out Top of Search ads, a new ad format that places brands directly in the first 10 slots of search results and Related Pins, where nearly half of user clicks occur. Shopping on Pinterest is inherently visual, and most searches on the platform (96%) are unbranded according to Pinterest. That makes the top of search results a prime spot for discovery – and for brands to reach consumers who are open to new products. Why we care. Pinterest’s Top of Search ads put your products in front of shoppers at the most valuable moment: when they’re actively browsing but not yet brand-committed. With nearly all searches unbranded, the format offers a powerfu…

OpenAI is launching Instant Checkout inside ChatGPT to Plus, Pro, and Free users in the U.S. Users will be able to buy products from Etsy sellers. Purchases are powered by the new Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), co-developed with Stripe. How it works. Users search in plain language (e.g., “gifts for a ceramics lover”). Then: ChatGPT returns product recommendations ranked by relevance, not payment. If an item supports Instant Checkout, users tap “Buy,” confirm shipping and payment details, and complete the order without leaving chat. Orders, payments, and fulfillment run through the merchant’s existing systems; ChatGPT just passes information secure…

TikTok is introducing a new ad solution, Travel Ads powered by Smart+, designed to help brands connect with travelers during the discovery and booking phases. Why now. Travel is one of TikTok’s fastest-growing verticals. According to internal TikTok data: 66% of users say the app is their most helpful source of travel inspiration. Users are 2.6x more likely to book after searching on TikTok. How it works. Travel Ads leverage TikTok’s travel intent model and catalog integration to automatically serve personalized creatives at scale. Smart+ AI powers campaign setup, creative generation, and delivery optimization, aiming to convert discovery into bookings…