SEO Tools and Resources

As AI chatbots become the go-to tools for travel planning, product recommendations, and more, marketers face a growing challenge: how do you make sure your brand appears in the answers? Semrush believes it has the answer – and it’s launching an award program to spotlight the brands leading the way. The newly announced AI Visibility Awards recognize the companies most often cited, recommended, and surfaced in AI-generated responses, using Semrush’s AI Visibility Index, a dataset built from more than 2,500 real prompts run through ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode. Andrew Warden, CMO at Semrush, said: “This year marks a turning point in how brands earn visibilit…

Google has been layering AI into Search campaigns for years through features like Smart Bidding, Responsive Search Ads, and Performance Max. In May 2025, it announced the next step: AI Max. The feature is now rolling out globally in beta and appearing in many advertiser accounts. (If you don’t see it yet, expect it soon.) Here’s what it is, how it works, and what it means for your campaigns. What is AI Max for Search? AI Max is a feature within your existing Search campaign that you can toggle on or off. Enabling it provides targeting and creative enhancements in an automated way. According to Google, AI Max: Improves search term match…

LinkedIn is making Reserved Ads generally available to all managed accounts, giving marketers the ability to lock in the first ad slot in the feed for premium visibility. What’s new. Reserved Ads let advertisers secure top-of-feed placement at a fixed rate, providing predictable delivery, consistent reach, and greater share of voice. Early results show the format drives up to 75% higher dwell time, 88% higher view-through rates, and delivers 99% of forecasted impressions, according to LinkedIn. How it works. Reserved Ads appear in the most visible ad slot on LinkedIn’s feed and support most Sponsored Content formats, including Video, Single Image, Carousel, Do…

Google Analytics is making it easier for businesses to compare themselves against industry peers by expanding its Benchmarking feature to include 20 new unnormalized metrics, such as New Users and Total Revenue. How it works. Google Analytics estimates benchmark ranges for absolute numbers by multiplying a peer group’s normalized metric by your property’s active user count. For example, benchmarks for Engaged Sessions are calculated as: Peer group’s engaged sessions per active user × your active users. Details: Benchmarks are offered in percentiles (25th, median, 75th) to show performance ranges. Peer groups are determined by industry categories, …

On episode 326 of PPC Live The Podcast I sat down down with Aashna Makin, a senior paid ads specialist with more than eight years of experience, who has managed campaigns worth over $2 million a month across a wide range of industries. She takes us through the story of how a best practice she put in place led to poor results and how looking back she should have taking more care in adding unnecessary negatives. A Costly Keyword Error Aashna recalls one of her earliest career missteps: excluding the keyword “meet up” from a client’s dating events campaign. The impact was immediate and severe—leads dropped sharply, and performance tanked. Luckily, her client succ…

Every week, new data highlights both the overlap and the divergence between effective organic search techniques across traditional SEO (Google SERPs) and GEO (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, etc.). It’s a lot to absorb. One week, headlines say traditional SEO tactics work fine for ChatGPT. The next, you’ll see reports that one platform is elevating Reddit while another is dialing it back. Given how quickly this landscape shifts, I want to break down the approach, process, and resources my team is using to tackle content in 2026. This goes far beyond a content calendar. It’s about combining audience understanding, the interplay of organic platform…

Semify acquired Dragon Metrics, a Hong Kong–based SEO, AI, and PPC reporting platform known for its international reach. The move boosts Semify’s reporting strength and AI optimization tools as the search landscape shifts more toward AI. Why we care. Dragon Metrics customers can expect business as usual, plus faster product updates. Co-founder Simon Lesser said on LinkedIn that the platform will stay a standalone brand with the same contacts and product experience. Customers also gain access to Semify’s growing AI optimization methodology and future software integrations. About the acquisition. Semify announced on Dec. 8 that it is acquiring Dragon Metrics: F…

Product pages. Ads. Emails. Headlines. Every word you publish either builds momentum or loses it. Great ecommerce copy does more than describe a product. It earns trust, sparks emotion, and clears doubt. Most importantly, it helps someone say yes with confidence. This guide includes 20 practical, proven tips to sharpen your copy across strategy, product pages, persuasion, and retention. They’re not theory. Just tested techniques from brands that convert. Table of contents How to choose the right copywriting framework and emotional trigger Copywriting frameworks Emotional triggers Strategies for clearer copy Product copy tips for conversion What most eco…

Pinterest attracts users who want inspiration and solutions, not passive browsing. The platform now reaches 600 million monthly active users, many of whom arrive with clear intent to research, plan, or purchase. That makes its ad formats especially valuable for marketers who want to appear in moments when people are actively looking for ideas and products. Here’s how each format works and when to consider it. Ad formats explained Pinterest Ads offers a variety of ad formats, many of which aren’t available on other social media platforms. Let’s take a look at what formats they offer and when you might want to consider using them. Carousel ads …

Google Ads is experimenting with a quicker way for new advertisers to get up and running. Driving the news. Over the past few weeks, some users have seen a new setup option in Google Ads: “Create an account with campaign for faster setup.” The feature surfaced publicly after being spotted by Anthony Higman on X, with others noting it only appeared recently. Why we care. Account setup can be a friction point for new advertisers. By bundling account creation with an existing campaign, Google can shorten time-to-launch — and reduce the chances that advertisers stall before spending. The big picture. Google has been steadily streamlining onboarding, nudging ad…

One of the biggest SEO challenges right now isn’t AI. It’s the irresponsible misinformation surrounding it. SEO isn’t dying — it’s evolving. That means it’s on us to understand how the industry is changing, and to be careful about who we listen to. I’m not easily shocked, but some of the AEO (or GEO) talks I’ve seen over the past year have been genuinely eyebrow-raising — even for someone with Botox. I still remember one speaker telling a room full of marketers they were “sorry for anyone still working in SEO,” then immediately recommending outdated tactics as the “secret sauce” for LLM visibility. It’s been… painful. Thankfully, the adults have entered …

Meta will stop running all political, electoral, and social issue ads across the European Union starting this week, citing the region’s new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulations that take effect Oct. 10. The details. The law requires platforms to gain explicit, separate consent from each user to use their data for political or issue-based targeting – a standard Meta says is unworkable at its scale. As a result, political ad delivery in the EU will end at 6 p.m. CET on Oct. 6. Why we care. For advertisers and campaigners, this means an immediate pause on EU political ad activity and necessary updates to API and campaign tools. This …

Instacart today became the first retail media network to integrate directly with TikTok Ads Manager. This will allow CPG advertisers to use Instacart’s first-party retail data to target audiences, measure conversions, and drive shoppable experiences – all without leaving TikTok’s platform. The integration marks a major step in the convergence of retail media and social commerce. By embedding Instacart’s targeting and closed-loop measurement capabilities into TikTok, brands can connect with high-intent consumers at the exact moment of inspiration and track their impact through purchase. Why we care. For CPG advertisers, this partnership removes a friction point – t…

Google Ads’ Demand Gen campaigns – once thought of as mid-funnel discovery tools – are evolving into full-funnel, conversion-focused campaigns, with YouTube at the core. Why we care. Marketers are under pressure to prove ROI across channels. Demand Gen now blends social-style ad formats with Google’s AI-driven targeting, giving advertisers new ways to drive sales, leads, and app installs from audiences they can’t reach elsewhere. What’s new: Target CPC bidding: Advertisers can now align Demand Gen with social campaigns for apples-to-apples budget comparisons. Channel controls. Run ads only on YouTube, or expand to Display, Discover, Gmail, and even Maps. …

While some SEO influencers are selling panic and “AI-proof” gimmicks, the data from Google’s front lines tells a different, more strategic story. The rapid integration of AI into search has created a wave of anxiety, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between durable strategy and distracting noise. The flood of information often leaves marketers unsure of where to focus their efforts. That’s the diamond in the rough that I discovered while attending the News & Editorial SEO Summit (NESS), which was held online Oct. 21-22. This article cuts through the hype to deliver clarity. I’ve distilled insights from technical SEO experts at Th…

Google has released several new AI powered AI shopping search features across AI Mode, the Gemini app and Google Search. “Today we’re introducing a major AI shopping update across Google, just in time for this holiday season,” Google announced. What’s new. Here are quick bullet points on what is new: In AI Mode, you can describe what you’re looking for just as you’d say it to a friend and get an intelligently organized response that brings together visuals and all the details you need (like price, reviews and inventory info), helping you quickly and confidently decide what to buy. Simplify your shopping in the Gemini App . Now Gemini can brainstorm gift ideas,…

Link building is an essential part of SEO. It helps search engines find, understand, and rank your pages. You can write the perfect post, but if search engines cannot follow at least one link to it, your content may stay hidden from view. Table of Contents What is link building? What is a link? Internal and external links Anchor text and why it matters Why we build links Link building as digital PR Link quality over quantity Avoid shady link-building tactics How to earn high-quality links Link building in the era of AI and LLM search Examples of effective link building In conclusion TL;DR For Google to discover your pages, you need links from other websites. T…

Generative AI is no longer a single thing. Ask, “What is the best generative AI tool for writing PR content?” or “Is keyword targeting as impossible as spinning straw into gold?,” and each engine will take a different route from prompt to answer. For writers, editors, PR pros, and content strategists, those routes matter – every AI system has its own strengths, transparency, and expectations for how to check, edit, and cite what it produces. This article covers the top AI platforms – ChatGPT (OpenAI), Perplexity, Google’s Gemini, DeepSeek, and Claude (Anthropic) – and explains how they: Find and synthesize information. Source and train on data. Use…

Google Ads and Meta Ads make campaign management look easy. Their interfaces simplify daily work – adjusting budgets, reviewing performance, launching new creatives – but that simplicity also hides much of the data and automation potential that drives real impact. That’s where APIs come in. Just as BigQuery revolutionized how data is stored and analyzed, APIs extend what can be measured, connected, and optimized within ad platforms. They bridge systems, surface insights dashboards can’t show, and enable automations that elevate PPC performance and creative strategy. With AI lowering the technical barrier, APIs are no longer just for developers. They’…

Google is globally launching a new “Sponsored results” label across desktop and mobile, grouping text and Shopping ads under a clearer header. The update marks one of Google’s most visible ad labeling changes in years. It allows users to hide groups of ads directly on the search results page. How it works. Text ads will now appear under a larger Sponsored results header. The same label will apply to other formats, like Shopping ads. Users can choose to hide entire groups of sponsored results for a more personalized browsing experience. Why we care. Clearer ad labeling and the option for users to hide sponsored results could influence ad visibil…

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…

Adviso once again is leading the way in the 11th annual Search Engine Land Awards. The Canadian agency is a finalist in six categories in 2025. This is the second year in a row that Adviso has topped our list of finalists. In 2024, the Canadian agency was a finalist in five Search Engine Land categories and won two Search Engine Land Awards. Two other agencies earning finalist status five times are: Razorfish LocalIQ Meanwhile, four agencies earned finalist status three times in the 2025 Search Engine Land Awards: Amsive. ATRA Bloom Digital. Digital Hitmen. The competition was once again stiff in nearly all of our categories. A…

In a recent study, Search Engine Land and Fractl found that 82% of consumers find AI-powered search more helpful than traditional SERPs. While the emergence of generative engine optimization (GEO) has marketers in a frenzy to own the latest industry keyword, agency thought leaders are finding common ground. Whether it’s Google or generative AI, brand visibility still comes down to two things: The depth of your original subject matter expertise. The breadth of your brand mentions. Together, these build a digital footprint of authority that both algorithms and knowledge graphs use to surface your brand. Here’s the rub: most brands are still playing…

Advertisers are spotting a fresh Google Maps ad format featuring scrollable light blue sitelinks beneath promoted pins. The new layout gives brands more clickable real estate directly inside Maps. Update confirmed. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin confirmed the rollout, saying the feature is now fully launched. The update allows sitelinks — already common in Search ads — to appear in Maps ads, linking users to specific pages on an advertiser’s website. How it works. These sitelinks can show from Search or Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. To enable them you’ll need at least two sitelinks for both desktop and mobile. Sitelinks can be added at the acco…

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…