SEO Tools and Resources

Google Ads is testing a new “View-Through Conversion Optimization” feature in its Demand Gen campaigns. What’s new. This test was spotted last week. It adds a setting allowing advertisers to include view-through conversions (VTCs) in their bidding models. How it works. This applies to YouTube (Image + Video) traffic. More channels are “coming soon,” per the early beta. The feature could improve early-stage efficiency where clicks are scarce but influence is high. Why we care. View-through conversions reveal what happens when people see your ad, skip the click, but come back to buy. You can turn it on early to train algorithms faster, boost brand li…

Google introduced two AI-powered features: AI summaries in Discover and a Sports feed in Search. Google Discover. Users will now see AI-generated previews of trending topics they follow. The summaries cite multiple publishers and can be expanded to view more details and linked articles. The feature is available in the U.S., South Korea, and India, after earlier testing in the U.S. this summer. A Google spokesperson seemed to confirm the Discover AI summaries “officially” launched in the U.S. in July. At that time, the Discover AI summaries appeared on iOS and Android for trending lifestyle topics (e.g., sports, entertainment). TechCrunch reported this, but the…

ChatGPT performs a search in nearly one-third of prompts and averages more than two searches per query, each about 5.5 words long (roughly 60% longer than the typical Google search), according to a new study from marketing agency Nectiv. Why it matters: ChatGPT isn’t just answering questions – it’s searching like a power user. The model relies on longer, more specific, and more commercial-style queries than Google’s average searcher. That means SEOs could have more influence over ChatGPT’s answers, especially for local, product, and buying-intent searches where the model leans most heavily on external data. By the numbers. Some key findings from the report: S…

Microsoft Bing now supports the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. This gives brands and businesses more control over what content appears in search results and AI-generated answers, including in Copilot. Why we care. This gives you more control over how your content appears in Bing’s search results and AI answers. You can protect paywalled or experimental sections and shape how your brand is represented in AI summaries. How it works. The attribute lets webmasters mark sections of a page to exclude from snippets or AI summaries, without affecting indexing or ranking. Bing still crawls and ranks the page, but omits the marked content from previews. Use cases. You c…

Google Ads is rolling out a major policy change around how advertisers can use prescription drug terms, marking one of the biggest shifts in healthcare ad regulation on the platform in years. What’s new. Starting Oct. 29, Google will restrict the use of prescription drug terms in ads, landing pages, and keywords, with different rules depending on location. In the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand: advertisers may promote prescription drugs if compliant with local laws. Certification is now required to keyword-target prescription terms, applying to online pharmacies, telemedicine providers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Everywhere else: Promotion of prescriptio…

Google rolled out version 22 of the Google Ads API, introducing new automation and AI-powered tools designed to help advertisers build, optimize, and scale campaigns more efficiently. What’s new. The v22 update adds several key features across campaign types: Generative AI for asset creation: A new AssetGenerationService (beta) lets advertisers automatically generate text and image assets using generative AI. Smart Bidding Exploration: Advertisers using Target ROAS strategies on Search can now retrieve time-segmented diversity metrics to better understand bid performance. Demand Gen campaigns: Expanded support for automated asset generation and additional b…

Google is expanding ecommerce options in the U.S. by allowing merchants to sell physical goods through subscription models directly in Shopping ads. This move aims to boost convenience for shoppers and flexibility for sellers. What’s new. Starting this month, eligible U.S. Shopping ad merchants can offer physical goods on a recurring basis. The policy formally opens subscriptions in categories like apparel, coffee, healthcare (excluding prescription drugs), home and garden, personal care, pet supplies, prepared foods, and toys. To participate, merchants must update their product feeds with the subscription_cost attribute, including subattributes for the billi…

Some brands are watching their organic traffic – and revenue – slip away. Others? They’re optimizing for this new search channel and seeing theirs rise. That’s why Semrush Enterprise built the AI Visibility Index. It’s the definitive study into how brands perform across the world’s leading AI search engines. Leveraging Semrush Enterprise’s AI Optimization (AIO) platform, the Index analyzes 2,500 real-world prompts in both ChatGPT and AI Mode across five key verticals: Business & Professional Services Digital Technology & Software Consumer Electronics Fashion & Apparel Finance Revealing which brands are leading the AI search landsca…

Attribution shows who gets credit. Incrementality shows what your marketing truly caused. In an era of automation and privacy restrictions, understanding the real lift behind your campaigns is the only way to prove what’s working. This article breaks down what incrementality measures, why it matters, and how to test it across today’s major ad platforms. The problem with ‘great’ results that don’t actually drive growth Marketers love big numbers – CTR, impressions, and ROAS all sound great in a deck. But what if those results don’t represent real business growth? For example, a paid search campaign reports a 10x ROAS. It might sound amazing. But…

Marketers face AI news every day, and it’s almost impossible to keep up. AI agents are on the rise, but many are still in early development, beta testing, or lack real market adoption. So let’s skip ahead five years and look at what the future could hold. Picture this: You wake up in 2030 and check your phone. While you were sleeping, your AI agent optimized 50 campaigns, negotiated media buys with other agents, and earned $3,000 helping solve problems around the world. This isn’t science fiction – it’s where performance marketing is headed, and it may become reality soon. From scripts to personal AI assistants Today’s PPC automation still f…

On episode 328 of PPC Live The Podcast I speak to Susan Yen, PPC team lead at Search Lab, discussing everything from Performance Max pitfalls to the growing (and sometimes risky) role of AI in marketing. Susan’s biggest PPC f-up: Performance Max gone wrong Susan’s most memorable mistake came when she dove headfirst into Performance Max (PMax) campaigns too soon. At first, results looked incredible — traffic spiked, conversions multiplied, and reports looked great. But soon, the client noticed the leads were poor quality or fake. After investigating, Susan discovered that traffic was coming from low-quality placements, conversion tracking was misconfigured, and …

Google Ads appears to be testing an automatic assignment of New Customer Value within New Customer Acquisition (NCA) campaigns — and it’s doing so without advertisers’ explicit consent. The change, first spotted by performance marketer Bilal Yasin, has led to unexpected reporting shifts and frustration among advertisers. “Without any heads-up, and without it being in the change history, a new customer value has suddenly been applied to a customer,” Yasin wrote on LinkedIn. “It was set to 200 DKK… One thing is that Google has assigned a value, but another is that I can’t remove it again!” Why we care. Advertisers rely on New Customer Value settings to determin…

Google Search Console’s performance report is stuck and has not shown an update in the main report since Sunday, October 19th. Google confirmed the issue and said it will catch up. What it looks like. As I said on the Search Engine Roundtable, before Google confirmed the issue, the performance reports for all Search Console profiles are stuck on Sunday. Here is a sample chart: More details. The weird thing is that when you dive in to 24 hour data, you do get recent data. So it does seem like the data is being collected and stored but it just isn’t being rendered in most of the reporting. In addition, when you click on the by date breakdown under the chart…

The web’s purpose is shifting. Once a link graph – a network of pages for users and crawlers to navigate – it’s rapidly becoming a queryable knowledge graph. For technical SEOs, that means the goal has evolved from optimizing for clicks to optimizing for visibility and even direct machine interaction. Enter NLWeb – Microsoft’s open-source bridge to the agentic web At the forefront of this evolution is NLWeb (Natural Language Web), an open-source project developed by Microsoft. NLWeb simplifies the creation of natural language interfaces for any website, allowing publishers to transform existing sites into AI-powered applications where users and intelligen…

Many PPC advertisers obsess over click-through rates, using them as a quick measure of ad performance. But CTR alone doesn’t tell the whole story – what matters most is what happens after the click. That’s where many campaigns go wrong. The problem with chasing high CTRs Most advertisers think the ad with the highest CTR is often the best. It should have a high Quality Score and attract lots of clicks. However, in most cases, lower CTR ads usually outperform higher CTR ads in terms of total conversions and revenue. If all I cared about was CTR, then I could write an ad: “Free money.” “Claim your free money today.” “No strings attached.” …

Every year, Search Engine Land is delighted to celebrate the best of search marketing by rewarding the agencies, in-house teams, and individuals worldwide for delivering exceptional results. Today, I’m excited to announce all 18 winners of the 11th annual Search Engine Land Awards. The 2025 Search Engine Land Awards winners Best Use Of AI Technology In Search Marketing 15x ROAS with AI: How CAMP Digital Redefined Paid Search for Home Services Best Overall PPC Initiative – Small Business Anchor Rides – Post-Hurricane PPC Comeback (AIMCLEAR) Best Overall PPC Initiative – Enterprise ATRA & Jason Stone Injury Lawyers – Leveraging CRM Data to…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

AI search isn’t killing SEO. It’s forcing it to evolve into a new, multi-platform discipline called search everywhere optimization, where social and user-generated content (UGC) are the new trust engines driving discoverability. When I presented this concept at brightonSEO San Diego, what stood out wasn’t just the excitement around AI. What stood out was the unexpected convergence of ideas across sessions. You might expect every talk to center on AI, yet a broader shift was quietly taking shape. Five standout voices – Wil Reynolds, Josh Blyskal, Samanyou Garg, Ross Hudgens, and Ashley Liddell – all surfaced similar insights about where search is headed. …

PPC automation is now the standard in 2026. We’ve evolved from simple automated rules to Smart Bidding, scripts, budget pacing, and now AI-driven creative. The systems running our campaigns are, for the most part, surprisingly capable – even if it pains us to admit it. With that progress, the role of the PPC expert has undergone a significant transformation. But even the smartest systems can fail spectacularly when left alone. Over-reliance on automation brings real risks: poor lead quality, algorithmic bias, platform quirks, and strategic misalignment. We’ve all been there – watching things unravel and having to explain why. The irony is tha…

ChatGPT started mentioning more brands and websites over the past three months, while Google’s AI Mode narrowed its focus, according to new data from Semrush’s AI Visibility Index. Reddit, in particular, stood out: it dropped sharply as a source in ChatGPT but became one of the most frequently used sources in Google’s AI Mode. The big picture. ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode are changing in different ways. ChatGPT is experimenting more while Google’s AI Mode seems more stable: ChatGPT mentioned about 12% more brands in September, then dropped back in October, suggesting it’s experimenting with answers. Google’s mentions fell 4% over the same period, suggesti…

Google Ads is now prompting advertisers to create “investment strategies” when campaign budgets are limited — a fresh addition to the budget recommendations interface. How it works. When Google detects a budget-limited campaign, a new section appears with the message: “Grow your account by creating your own Google investment strategy.” Advertisers can click “Create investment strategy” to model potential budget increases and preview possible gains in conversions, value, or clicks. Why we care. The feature encourages advertisers to think beyond daily caps and model how increased spend could impact performance. It lets advertisers model how incremental budget in…

Google has updated its Circumventing Systems policy to include a new example explicitly warning advertisers that submitting false information during the Advertiser Verification process violates its rules and will lead to account suspension. The details: The update was added to the Circumventing Systems section of Google’s Ads policies in November 2025. It specifies that providing false or fraudulent information during verification is treated as an intentional attempt to bypass Google’s compliance systems. Violations will result in immediate account suspension. Why we care. This clarification reinforces Google’s zero-tolerance stance on misinformation wi…