SEO Tools and Resources

Google’s YouTube Insights Finder tool, launched to help advertisers understand intent-based audience insights, is now available in over 20 markets worldwide. How it works: Explore interests and trends: Find out what your audience is searching for and interested in. Discover top creators: Identify trending creators by topic, category, or audience segment. Measure engagement: Access detailed metrics on viewer engagement and content preferences. Understand device usage: Analyze how audiences watch across devices, including Connected TV. Why we care. The tool taps into YouTube’s trove of viewing behavior and trending topics, helping you tailor c…

Search traffic is down. AI Overviews are pushing results lower. Budgets are being slashed. Is this the end of SEO as we know it? Not so fast. I interviewed SMX Advanced speaker Eric Enge about the future of search, the rise of generative AI, and how SEOs can still win big in a rapidly changing landscape. Some of the topics covered: Why 35% traffic drops aren’t the end of the world. How AI-driven search changes what it means to “rank.” Why user engagement and brand signals matter more than ever. What to expect at SMX Advanced 2025 in Boston. Reminder: SMX Advanced returns June 11-13 in Boston. Get your tickets now! This transcript has b…

If you’re running video ads on YouTube, you know there are a lot of factors to consider. But one of the most crucial elements is often overlooked: where your ads actually show up. This article explores the different kinds of video ad placements in Google Ads, helping you distinguish between them and understand how each one impacts your campaign performance. I’ll cover: What are the 3 main types of YouTube video ad placements? In-Stream Ads: The familiar YouTube pre-Roll Shorts Ads: Vertical video in the feed In-Feed Ads: Discovery-driven placements How to measure success of in-stream, Shorts and in-feed ads How to choose your video ad pla…

When you work on your site’s SEO, reflecting on those efforts should be part of your ongoing strategy. Whether it’s for a client, your manager, or your team, creating an SEO report is the best way to do so. This helps you justify your efforts, keep track of performance and figure out what needs to be tackled next. And it’s not as hard as you would think. In this blog post, we’ll explain what SEO reporting is and take you through the process step by step. Table of contents What is SEO reporting exactly? What to include in your SEO report A general data overview Data on (content) performance Activities previous period A summary with recommendations Creating an SEO …

AI-powered search won’t kill the web, according to Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai. This despite the growing evidence that AI Overviews and AI Mode are cannibalizing traffic and content, according to multiple publishers and SEOs. Why we care. Google is transforming its core search product into a more conversational, AI-driven experience. Critics like the News/Media Alliance called AI Mode “theft,” while Cloudflare’s CEO said AI is killing the business model of web. Search is growing. Pichai told The Verge’s Nilay Patel that AI Overviews are fueling more and longer queries – including on Apple devices and platforms. That news about Safari traffic falling for the …

Google updated its Google Tag Manager (GTM) conversion tag, removing the ability to configure user-provided data for Enhanced Conversions directly in the tag. What’s new. The Enhanced Conversions setup option has been removed from the standard Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag in GTM. Instead, Google has introduced a dedicated tag specifically for Enhanced Conversions for Google Ads. The big picture: The move separates the main conversion tracking functionality from Enhanced Conversions, likely to streamline setup and reduce confusion. Why we care. Enhanced Conversions help advertisers improve conversion measurement by sending hashed first-party custo…

Think about how people ask about sunglasses. In the old search model, someone queries “best smart sunglasses” and scans the links in a SERP. In the new model, they ask, “What’s the deal with Meta Ray-Bans?” and get a synthesized answer with specs, use cases, and reviews – often without seeing a single webpage, including the SERP. That shift defines the new frontier: your content doesn’t have to rank. It has to be retrieved, understood, and assembled into an answer. The game used to be: write a page, wait for Google/Bing to crawl it, hope your keywords matched the query, and pray no one bought the ad slot above you. But that model is quietly collapsing. …

If you want the lowdown on Google’s I/O hoedown, look no further than… 2013. Or maybe 2014. 2016 works too. Honestly, take your pick because it barely matters. Most of the coverage I’ve seen this year reads like AI-generated summaries written by folks with more letters after their names than a prescription bottle. Bless their hearts. But remember—Google’s founders didn’t show up with alphabet soup credentials. They showed up to solve a problem. A big, fascinating one that demanded thinking, tinkering, troubleshooting, and a lot of stops and starts. It wasn’t about polish; it was about the ridiculous drive to solve a problem. And have your own personal 767, but l…

User intent is evolving, and so are our habits around technology. With the rise of AI, the ways people search and find information are diversifying fast. Naturally, the way we think about SEO is shifting, too. But this isn’t a pitch for AI. Instead, I want to explore how we can treat AI as a collaborator, not a replacement for human expertise, to make our workflows more efficient and adaptive in this increasingly complex landscape. I see AI as a telescope, not the North Star. It helps us see farther and move faster, but we still need to navigate the path ourselves. With that mindset, I’ll walk you through a series of practical, low-barrier SEO ex…

As we are approaching the halfway point in the year, you want to ensure your PPC campaigns are in the best shape possible going into peak season for many advertisers Whether you’re getting great results, struggling to perform, or somewhere in between, below is a checklist of 12 features to help set your campaigns up for success. 1. Align and reassess client objectives Campaign performance is only as good as its ultimate objective. Just because you see year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth or improved return on ad spend (ROAS) doesn’t mean you can get the party poppers out. What is the client’s priority objective? Has this changed? Is it still revenue growth…

Google has confirmed that you will be able to see AI Mode performance data in the Search Console performance reports but you won’t be able to break out that data individually to see how AI Mode is performing compared to web search or other Google surfaces. Last week, Google rolled out AI Mode to all US searchers and when AI Mode launched in labs in March, Google told us then that since it was in Labs, it would not be reported in Search Console. Now that it is out of Labs, the data will come to Search Console. What Google said. As I reported and also mentioned in my story on the future of SEO and search, John Mueller from Google confirmed on my LinkedIn post sayin…

Discord has started testing unskippable, reward-based video ads — marking its most aggressive move yet into monetization outside of its Nitro subscriptions. The ads pause if users tab away, guaranteeing full impressions for brands. Details. Discord has begun rolling out In-Game Rewards — branded video ads tied to game-related perks. While these ads appear for everyone, users can opt into more personalized promotions via their privacy settings. Discord originally gained traction as a “safe space” for gamers and niche communities. With over 200 million monthly active users, it has quietly become one of the largest social platforms. Until now, monetization was limite…

Tuesday, at Google I/O, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai keynote led with how AI is transforming Google Search, Liz Reid, Google’s head of Search, called AI Mode the future of search (see video). With all this change to Google Search quickly approaching, SEOs are wondering where this leaves them. Will SEO die again? Are we all out of jobs? What changes do we need to make to adapt to the future of Google Search, AI search engines and new AI experiences? The video. A number of search marketers asked my thoughts, so I thought I’d put together a video with my thoughts on all of this and them summarize it below: After attending Google I/O, watching the keynote, s…

Google reduced the minimum audience size requirement for customer match lists in Search campaigns from 1,000 to just 100 users — a significant update for small and midsize businesses. The big picture. This update makes precision targeting more accessible to SMBs, who often struggle to meet high list-size minimums. According to Google’s documentation, the new threshold applies only to customer match lists — not to remarketing lists or other audience types. It also mirrors YouTube’s recent customer list minimums, signaling a broader push for consistency across Google’s platforms. Why we care. Previously, advertisers needed at least 1,000 users to qualify a c…

The world of generative AI is evolving rapidly, with breakthroughs in image and video generation, multimodal capabilities, and – crucially for marketers – data analysis. For PPC professionals, these tools offer a new level of speed and depth in uncovering insights and optimizing performance. One standout capability is ChatGPT’s Advanced Data Analysis, which allows users to upload raw data, ask natural language questions, and receive clear, actionable insights – fast. What once took hours can now happen in minutes. Advanced data analysis in ChatGPT: Access and availability Originally launched in July 2023 as a beta feature for Plus and Enterprise user…

Search intent is easy to define but harder to truly understand. It’s more than just categories like informational or transactional. It’s about: What someone is trying to do in a moment. How that action fits into a larger journey. How your content and brand meet them there. If you’re still thinking in linear funnels or rigid personas, it’s time to go deeper. Rethinking the journey: Why search intent demands more nuance Before we dive in, let’s step back and ask a few questions: Do you have audience personas? A customer journey map? Funnels? And more importantly, are those tools still accurate? Are they as linear or predictable as the…

Modern SEO is all about data. Rankings can change overnight, user behavior as well, and search engines increasingly use AI to power the search results. To be able to respond, your decisions should be dictated by real, measurable insights. This article offers a practical way to turn SEO data into actionable insights. Table of contents The role of data in modern SEO Turning data into insights An example: Addressing brand performance in LLMs Tools and techniques to get data insights Iterative optimization and reporting Towards a data-driven SEO strategy The role of data in modern SEO The search landscape is more complex than ever, so you need all the help yo…

Google’s AI Overviews and large language models (LLMs) have severely eroded clicks, click-through rates, and organic traffic to websites. But a new Siege Media report may have found a silver lining: even if your sitewide traffic is down, your homepage may be increasing. By the numbers. For the websites examined in this study, homepage clicks increased: Overall: 10.7% B2C: 8% B2B: 15% Why we care. As the report put it: “The sky isn’t falling. It’s shifting.” Because homepage traffic tends to convert better, brands with strong visibility in AI Overviews and LLM-generated results can reap the rewards. Yes, but. Not all brands win. If your website isn’t…

For the first time, ads are appearing directly within Google’s AI Overviews on desktop search, marking a major expansion of monetization within generative search experiences. Driving the news. The Shopping ads, which appear within AI Overviews, Google’s AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of certain search results, were spotted and shared by independent SEO consultant Brodie Clark on LinkedIn. Hours earlier, Google announced ads would begin rolling out in both AI Overview and AI Mode. Why we care. This shift, confirmed at Google Marketing Live 2025, signals Google’s intent to fully integrate paid placements into its evolving AI search experienc…

PPC best practices come from a variety of places. Some of those sources are: Google Ads reps. The Help Center. Official certifications. Auto-apply and manual recommendations. Ad strength recommendations. And even automated assets to an extent. However, depending on those sources, you could end up with highly different answers. So, how do you know when to apply or be critical of a “best practice”? Many PPC professionals can relate: You see “Google” on your caller ID, and you momentarily feel a boost in ego. But reality sets in when you realize it’s often a junior Google representative or even a third-party service who needs to tick som…

Just like most other website owners, you want your website to attract customers. But how can you see who visits your website? And how can you use this knowledge to increase website traffic over time? Luckily, there are loads of tools that can help you. Let’s get you started with the right one for your website without the need to become a data expert! What is website traffic? The term website traffic refers to the number of internet users visiting your website. Traffic can arrive from wide-ranging sources, such as directly typing in your website address, through other websites that link to your site, organic traffic (meaning they come to your site from the search re…

Google’s newly launched AI Mode in Search isn’t passing referral data. That means it’s impossible to know how many clicks you got from AI Mode in Google Search Console (GSC) or other analytics tools. Why we care. You have no way of knowing how much traffic you’re getting from AI Mode. Google continues to tell us its AI answers drive higher-quality clicks, without proof. We have no data to verify this. Frustratingly, Google continues to take away helpful data, making it impossible for us to make data-driven decisions. Driving the news: Tom Critchlow, EVP audience growth at Raptive, first raised the issue on LinkedIn. Testing from Patrick Stox, product advisor, tech…

The fundamentals of SEO haven’t changed. You still need technical access, content clarity, and external credibility. But the requirements inside those pillars are evolving fast. AI-driven discovery systems are now shaping how your brand is surfaced, trusted, and recommended. And for many enterprise teams, the response has been: A content brainstorm. A wait-and-see approach. Or nothing at all. That’s not a strategy gap. It’s an execution problem in the making. Is your company preparing for what’s coming after ‘SEO’ fades away? Your SEO team may be running efficiently – protecting rankings, publishing content, and salvaging what they can from G…

Now that AI Mode is fully live in the U.S. and Google is even testing ads within AI Mode, I noticed that the AI Mode tab under the Google Search bar is consistently on the left side. It even comes before the “All” tab that serves the primary search results. Generally, Google will dynamically show search modes and tabs under the search bar based on the query. So if Google thinks you will want to see the video tab, Google may show that closer to the “All” tab. But with AI Mode, that tab is shown before the “All” tab and always on the left, consistently, for all queries. What it looks like. Here are a few screenshots showing how the AI Mode tab is always on the lef…

If you see “Discovered – currently not indexed” in Google Search Console, it means Google is aware of the URL, but hasn’t crawled and indexed it yet. It doesn’t necessarily mean the page will never be processed. As their documentation says, they may come back to it later without any extra effort on your part. But other factors could be preventing Google from crawling and indexing the page, including: Server issues and onsite technical issues are restricting or preventing Google’s crawl capability. Issues relating to the page itself, such as quality. You can also use Google Search Console Inspection API to queue URLs for their coverageState status (as …