SEO Tools and Resources

There’s a common misconception that GEO is a technical problem. Just scroll through LinkedIn or X for 30 seconds, and you’ll find the next viral GEO hack. Like “create an AI info page” so LLMs can easily understand your brand. Maybe “create markdown versions of your content” to skyrocket AI visibility. Perhaps “get an automated Claude audit” that scans your robots.txt and automatically generates an llms.txt file for you. But most of these tactics have limited impact because they don’t address how LLMs actually decide which brands to recommend. GEO performance is shaped less by technical tweaks and more by how consistently your brand is positioned…

Google updated its spam report page for the second time in the past week or so, this time to say that if you include personally identifying information, the spam report will not be processed or used. This comes just a week after Google said that information would be used and passed along to the reported site. What changed. Google posted on its spam report page a new highlight box which says two points: (1) Don’t include personally identifying information in your spam report. (2) If you do include personally identifying information, then Google won’t process your submission. The text block reads: “Don’t include any personally identifying information i…

Whether you lead a scaling brand or an established global enterprise, you already know the frustration. You’re watching massive digital budgets yield diminishing returns, while agile disruptors consistently beat you to the punch. When you audit the citations within AI Overviews, ChatGPT responses, and Claude summaries, the reality is stark. Smaller, faster competitors are claiming more of the most lucrative, bottom-of-funnel commercial queries. It’s time to challenge the outdated assumption that legacy domain authority is enough to protect your pipeline. We’ve entered an era where operational agility often beats legacy brand equity. AI models demand rapid, mac…

OpenAI is beginning to show ads in ChatGPT to users who aren’t logged in — a move that could significantly increase available inventory as demand from advertisers grows. What’s happening. Early reports suggest ads are now appearing seamlessly within conversations for unauthenticated users, even though OpenAI hasn’t formally announced the change. The ads are integrated into chat responses rather than displayed as traditional banners. Why we care. By expanding ads to logged-out users, OpenAI increases available inventory, making it easier to spend budgets and reach more high-intent users. If this continues, ChatGPT could quickly become a more viable and competit…

Google says AI isn’t killing Search — it’s changing how people use it and making them search more often. AI Overviews help filter out low-value clicks while driving more total searches, Google’s VP of Search Liz Reid said in a new Bloomberg podcast interview. On AI killing clicks. Reid said AI mostly cuts “bounce” clicks — when users click a page, grab a quick fact, and leave. “So clearly people sometimes want to spend a couple of seconds, and other times they’ll spend a whole hour listening to things. And so one of the things we see with the shift with AI Overviews is that, you get more of this pronouncement with what’s your goal? “If all you were going to d…

Traditional SEO metrics haven’t been good. We don’t need more studies to see what’s happening, but the data confirms it. Organic traffic is declining for most SEO clients right now. Seer Interactive found that organic CTR dropped 61% for queries with AI Overviews. Executives are watching their dashboards trend downward, often for months at a time. Most consultants I talk to aren’t prepared for the conversations that come with it. I’m not talking about the diagnostic part. Most of us can figure out why traffic dropped. I mean, the part where you sit across from a CMO and have to explain what’s happening, why, and what you think the company should do about it. That’…

Google is rolling out new Demand Gen updates in Google Ads, aimed at helping advertisers convert faster and capture more new customers across YouTube and beyond. What’s happening. Demand Gen is now integrated into Commerce Media Suite, allowing advertisers to tap into retailers’ first-party catalog and conversion data to reach high-intent shoppers across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. At the same time, new view-through conversion (VTC) optimization lets campaigns prioritize conversions that happen after an ad is viewed — not just clicked — speeding up performance. Why we care. these updates should make Demand Gen more effective at turning views int…

Google is quietly testing a new “App Labs” beta inside Google Ads, giving app advertisers early access to experimental campaign features before wider rollout. What’s new. A dedicated tab within the App advertising hub where advertisers can try limited-time experiments, provide feedback, and explore tools still in development. Why we care. Google is giving early access to experimental features in Google Ads before they roll out widely. That means a chance to test, learn, and optimize ahead of competitors. Those who adopt early can gain a performance edge and adapt faster as new tools become standard. Zoom in. Features in App Labs are not guaranteed to launc…

Google has introduced new capabilities within its new customer acquisition goals, including high-value customer bidding and retention targeting. Most Google Ads strategies still treat new customers as inherently more valuable. That assumption breaks down quickly. Not every new customer is worth acquiring, and not every existing customer is worth ignoring. Just because someone buys once doesn’t make them a customer for life. Likewise, some past buyers are far more likely to convert again than a net-new user. This is where Google’s high-value customer and retention bidding goals start to matter. How high-value customer bidding works in Google Ads Google u…

Google has confirmed a bug with the Google Search Console performance reports that specifically impacts “Job listing” and “Job details” search appearance filter. Starting April 16th Google had an issue logging this data. So Google is reporting zero clicks and impressions for these jobs reports. What Google said. Google wrote: “A logging error is preventing Search Console from reporting impressions and clicks for “Job listing” and “Job details” Search appearance types from April 16, 2026 onward. We’re working to resolve this issue. This issue affects data logging only.” Complaints. We first began noticing the complaints trickling in earlier this week, with…

Most enterprise SEO strategies die in slide decks. Beautiful presentations, airtight data, and solid recommendations, all collecting dust because nobody bought in. I’ve watched it happen at companies with eight-figure marketing budgets. I’ve also watched a single SEO insight convince a company to create an entirely new business unit and make a multimillion-dollar investment. The difference had nothing to do with the quality of the SEO work. I’ve spent 17 years finding out what it actually comes down to. Let me walk you through how to build an SEO strategy that gets the attention it deserves. The two ways enterprise SEO strategies fail Before I get into wha…

For a long time, we defined SEO success by rankings and traffic. If you reached the top of the search results and brought people to your site, you did your job. That approach worked when discovery was linear, and search engines were the primary gatekeepers. But modern search behavior does not stop at discovery. Users want clarity, reassurance, and confidence before they make decisions. With so many options to choose from, users want to understand what a product does, how it compares to alternatives, and whether it fits their needs. There is a shift in SEO, one that pushes closer to product thinking and long-term value creation. Search engines reward content and experi…

Search campaigns often see strong early gains — more visibility, traffic, and conversions. But that growth doesn’t last forever. At some point, performance stalls, whether it shows up as a plateau, volatility, or rising costs. That slowdown isn’t necessarily a failure. More often, it signals limits in demand, targeting, conversion, or execution — the challenge is figuring out which one. Search performance doesn’t stay linear, and once early wins are exhausted, quick gains become harder to find. When growth stalls, the instinct is to do more — launch campaigns, publish content, increase spend. But without understanding the constraint, that effort can miss the mark.…

OpenAI is shifting its ad model inside ChatGPT from pure impressions to performance, a move that puts it in more direct competition with Google’s core business. What’s happening. OpenAI has begun testing cost-per-click (CPC) ads within ChatGPT, allowing advertisers to pay only when users click rather than when ads are shown. Early reports suggest clicks are being priced in the $3 to $5 range, and the feature is rolling out through a limited ads manager alongside the earlier CPM-based model. Why now. Pricing pressure appears to be a key driver. ChatGPT’s CPMs have fallen significantly since launch, dropping from around $60 to closer to $25 in some cases. Moving to …

Google is rolling out App Consent Insights in Google Ads, giving advertisers a clearer view into how consent signals impact app campaign performance. What’s new. The new diagnostics view breaks down consent data across apps, platforms, regions, and traffic sources, helping marketers pinpoint gaps in their setup. Zoom in. Advertisers can see an overall consent rating — like “Excellent,” “Good,” or “Poor” — alongside a live count of apps actively sending consented data. A detailed table also shows consent rates for conversions, including splits between EEA and non-EEA users. Why we care. As privacy regulations tighten, consent isn’t just a compliance box — i…

Advertisers are sharing their experience of a new Ads Manager interface for ChatGPT, signaling a shift toward a more mature advertising platform with real-time campaign control. What’s new. The Ads Manager is described as a dashboard where marketers can run, monitor, and optimize campaigns in real time — a major step up from current reporting and controls. Digital marketers Juozas Kaziukėnas and Glenn Gabe shared images of what they saw. Why we care. Until now, ChatGPT ads have been early-stage and limited, with advertisers reportedly relying on basic reporting like weekly CSV files. The move to a full Ads Manager suggests OpenAI is building infra…

Google is updating how Google Ads paces budgets for campaigns using ad schedules, shifting toward full monthly spend targets regardless of how many days ads actually run. What’s changing. Starting June 1, campaigns will pace toward the full monthly budget limit (30.4x the daily budget), even if ads are only eligible to run on certain days. Previously, pacing was typically based on the number of active days in the schedule. What’s not changing. Daily and monthly caps remain the same. Campaigns still won’t exceed 2x the daily budget in a single day or 30.4x over a month, and ads won’t serve on disabled days. Why we care. Advertisers using limited schedules —…

Attention is fragmenting further every day as the platforms providing information continue to multiply. There are new players on the scene, like AI search, while companies build proprietary spaces through social networks and communities. Smaller spaces pop up daily through vibe-coded apps. Many of these platforms are noisier than ever, with everyone demanding our attention at once. We’re drowning in information, and trust is eroding in sources like search engines and social media. We still use these platforms for research, but go elsewhere to validate what we find and make decisions. We’re shifting back to a source we’ve trusted since the beginning: other peop…

You can now do in 20 minutes what used to take a full afternoon. Feed two Semrush exports into Claude or ChatGPT, and you’ll get a polished competitor analysis – complete with topic clusters, gap tables, and prioritized briefs. The output looks convincing. The tables are clean. The recommendations sound confident. That’s the problem. AI can organize and summarize data quickly, but it can’t make strategic decisions. Without the right workflow, prompts, and validation, you risk acting on insights that sound right but lack depth. Used correctly, though, AI can surface meaningful patterns – revealing differences in topical depth, content coverage, and authority si…

As artificial intelligence integrates deeper into our workflows, understanding its vulnerabilities is critical. A recently exposed vulnerability known as Best-of-N (BoN) jailbreaking has redefined how we view AI safety. Here’s a breakdown of BoN jailbreaking, how the attack works, and why it creates real risk for your data, brand, and the AI tools you rely on. First, a quick vocabulary check Before getting into BoN, there are two terms you need to actually understand, not just nod at. Brute force attack: Imagine trying to crack a four-digit PIN by starting at 0000, then 0001, then 0002, all the way to 9999. No cleverness, no strategy, just trying every si…

You’ve been told to follow a familiar set of rules for years: always use high-quality creative, keep your brand polished, stay scripted, and follow platform-recommended formats. If you’ve been in ad accounts lately or browsing feeds, you may have noticed something. Attention-grabbing ads don’t always follow those rules. They’re scrappier, less polished, and sometimes even called “ugly ads.” The beauty is that they’re coming out on top. More brands are breaking best practices on purpose to stand out. After all, best practices are an average of what worked best for everyone else in the last six months, give or take. By the time a tactic becomes a platform-recommend…

Most SEO strategies are built with one goal: getting people through the door. That usually means driving traffic to the website, ranking for high-volume keywords, and bringing in new users. But what happens after someone signs up or makes a purchase? That part of the funnel often gets ignored. SEO doesn’t stop at acquisition. It can and should be used to support retention, improve onboarding or post-purchase experience, and make your product or offering easier to understand. So let’s break down the opportunity in post-conversion content, why it matters for SEO, and how to identify and optimize it effectively. Table of contents Most brands stop too early The opportun…

AI isn’t just changing search — it’s deciding which brands get ignored. At Adobe Summit today, Andrew Warden, CMO of Semrush, argued that visibility has fundamentally changed — and that brands now risk being systematically filtered out by AI systems. “The idea of standing out is no longer optional. There’s a real risk of sameness,” Warden said. Because AI systems decide what to surface and what to ignore, brands now must compete for visibility in answers. AI is changing how discovery works You can already see the shift in the data, as 60% of Google searches now end without a click to a website. Users are still searching, but they’re not always visi…

Google is upgrading Google Ads call campaign measurement with a new AI-qualified call leads feature, designed to optimize for lead quality — not just call length. What’s new. AI-qualified call leads use machine learning to analyze calls and determine whether they represent meaningful business opportunities. The system then feeds that higher-quality data into bidding and reporting. Zoom in. Advertisers will get AI-generated call summaries and tags, giving more transparency into what happened during each interaction. At the same time, smart bidding can prioritize higher-value leads based on these signals rather than simple time thresholds. Why we care. Call camp…

The industry has been building top-down for 30 years. Start with awareness, get in front of as many people as possible, and work them down through the acquisition funnel. The logic made sense in the broadcast era, and it wasn’t entirely wrong in the search era. In AI-driven environments, it’s simply wrong. Search engines, assistive engines, and agents build their ability to recommend your brand from the bottom up. They need to understand who you are before they can evaluate whether you’re credible. They need to evaluate your credibility before they recommend you to anyone. If you build from the top down, you’re wasting budget on awareness while the engi…