SEO Tools and Resources

Google doesn’t build products with B2B marketers in mind. Its largest budgets and transaction volume come from DTC and B2C brands, so that’s where product development naturally starts. That’s why new Google products rarely work for B2B out of the gate. Over my 15+ years in advertising, I’ve seen this pattern repeat: initial release, poor B2B fit, then gradual improvement after about two years. We saw it with responsive search ads, broad match (yes, I thought it was the end of times, too), and dynamic search ads. Performance Max follows the same trajectory. Three years ago, I would have said “absolutely not” for B2B organizations. In 2026, that a…

Throughout 2025, SEO professionals reported the same story to leadership: organic traffic was down, clicks were declining, and attribution no longer made sense. AI-driven search experiences, zero-click results, and platform-level answers widened the gap between discovery and measurable visits, making it harder than ever to accurately report on organic performance. For many organizations, this showed up as double-digit, year-over-year declines in reported organic traffic and leads. The C-suite asked the obvious questions: Why are clicks down? Why does organic traffic look 25% lower than last year? Is SEO actually hurting the business? The problem wasn’t t…

Apple is expanding ads in App Store search results, giving advertisers more opportunities to reach users at the moment they’re looking to download apps. Starting March 3rd, Apple Ads will begin showing additional ads per search query in the UK, followed by Japan. The expansion is expected to roll out to all Apple Ads markets by the end of March. Why we care. More ad slots in App Store search results mean more chances to win installs—but also more competition for the same high-intent queries, which could push up costs. With no ability to choose placements, performance may vary by position, making creative relevance, keyword strategy, and conversion tracking more…

On episode 338 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Nick Handley Paid Media Lead at Impression, about one of the most formative mistakes of his career — and why those early errors often shape the strongest marketers. The podcast series focuses on PPC professionals’ biggest “F-ups,” but never without exploring how they recovered, who helped them, and what lasting lessons came out the other side. Nick’s story is a textbook example of how a single mistake can permanently change how you work — for the better. The Black Friday mistake that took everything down Nick takes listeners back nearly ten years, to the very start of his career at Tyres on the Drive (now owned…

Some Google Ads advertisers are seeing a bug that causes the option to add notes to disappear from the account change popup, making it harder to document optimizations and performance shifts. The issue was flagged by paid search consultant Odi Caspi, who says the problem has appeared intermittently over the past couple of weeks. What advertisers should be seeing: Caspi shares his view below: Why we care. Account notes are a key workflow tool for agencies and in-house teams tracking changes over time. Losing easy access to notes makes troubleshooting performance swings harder and weakens institutional memory across teams. What users are seeing. …

A new bug in Google Ads is preventing some advertisers from editing and saving existing Performance Max (PMAX) asset groups. Users report seeing error messages when attempting to make changes in the platform interface, blocking updates from being saved. Why we care. Performance Max relies heavily on asset freshness and iteration. If advertisers can’t update asset groups, campaigns risk running with outdated creative, messaging, or offers — directly impacting performance and efficiency. What advertisers are seeing. Affected users encounter an error message reading, “An error occurred. Please try again later. Value is required,” when attempting to edit asset grou…

TikTok has created a new U.S.-based joint venture designed to comply with federal national security requirements and keep the app operating for more than 200 million Americans. The new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, was formally established under an executive order signed by President The President on Sept. 25, 2025, according to an announcement released today. The big picture. TikTok USDS Joint Venture is majority American-owned and operates as an independent entity with responsibility for U.S. user data, content moderation, and algorithm security. ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake, below the threshold often cited by U.S. officials as a national security co…

Generative AI has become a practical tool in search, content, and analytical workflows. But, as adoption increases, so does a familiar and costly problem: confidently incorrect outputs. Also called “hallucinations,” the term implies that an AI model is malfunctioning. But here’s the truth: This behavior is often predictable and results from unclear instructions. Or, more accurately, unclear prompts. For example, prompt AI for a “cookie recipe,” and nothing more. Don’t offer details about allergies, preferences, or constraints. The result might be Christmas cookies in July, a peanut-packed option, or a recipe so bland and basic as to be unworthy of t…

Automation has been reshaping PPC account management for years, from rules, scripts, and API-driven workflows inside Google Ads. Most marketers are already comfortable with automated bidding, data-driven optimization, and other AI-powered enhancements. The next shift goes further. Two developments in particular are changing how PPC campaigns are managed and optimized: AI agents and vibe coding. Together, they point to a more autonomous way of working, where execution increasingly moves to AI – while marketers focus on strategy, systems, and creative direction. This shift unlocks new levels of efficiency and flexibility, but it also changes what effective…

Google is asking a federal judge to pause enforcement of DOJ antitrust remedies, arguing that mandatory search and ad syndication would expose its proprietary technology and harm advertisers. The argument appears in a new affidavit from Jesse Adkins, Google’s director of product management for search and ads syndication, filed Jan. 16 as part of the company’s motion to stay Judge Amit Mehta’s Final Judgment while it appeals. The big picture. Adkins’ affidavit focuses on damage that cannot be undone: exposure of proprietary ad technology, advertiser harm, and loss of control over query and pricing data. Mehta’s Final Judgment requires Google to license search…

Google’s head of Search warned a federal court that forcing the company to share its search index, ranking data, and live results with competitors would cause “immediate and irreparable harm” to Google, its users, and the open web. The warning appears in a filed affidavit from Elizabeth Reid, Google’s vice president and head of Search, submitted with Google’s motion to pause key antitrust remedies while it appeals the final judgment in the DOJ search monopoly case. The filing spells out what Google sees as its most sensitive Search assets and why sharing them would expose proprietary systems, enable reverse engineering, and fuel spam. Disclosure of Google’s we…

Google is rolling out Campaign Mix Experiments (beta), a new testing framework that lets advertisers experiment across multiple campaign types, budgets, and settings within a single, unified experiment. How it works: Advertisers can create up to five experiment arms, each containing a different mix of campaigns. Campaigns can appear in multiple arms, with traffic split between them. Experiments support Search, Performance Max, Shopping, Demand Gen, Video, and App campaigns (excluding Hotels). Traffic splits can be customized (minimum 1%), with results normalized to the lowest split for fair comparison. What you can test: Budget allocation across…

Google is pushing more Demand Gen features (boosting shoppable and travel ads) into general availability, expanding its role as a full-funnel performance channel that blends discovery, video, and commerce across YouTube and Google surfaces. What’s new: Shoppable CTV via Demand Gen is now live, letting viewers browse and buy products directly from YouTube ads on connected TVs. Attributed Branded Searches are available for Demand Gen, giving advertisers visibility into how campaigns drive brand search activity across Google and YouTube (activation required via a Google rep). Travel Feeds allow advertisers to connect Hotel Center feeds to create dyna…

Personal Intelligence, which was introduced first on the Gemini app last week, is already rolling out to some users in AI Mode within Google Search. “Starting today, Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers can opt-in to securely connect Gmail and Google Photos to AI Mode,” Robby Stein, VP of Product, Google Search announced. Personal Intelligence in AI Mode lets Google Search give you a more personal response to your queries by connecting across your Google ecosystem, including Google Search, Gmail, Photos, and your YouTube history. This is rolling out over the next few days AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in English in the U.S. How to see it. This is a Labs feature…

The SEO versus GEO debate has dominated industry discourse over the past year. New acronyms appear weekly, sentiment swings quickly, and even trusted voices often contradict positions they held just months earlier. That volatility isn’t happening at the edges of the industry. It’s coming from a small group of highly visible SEO influencers whose framing of AI-era search shifts in response to news cycles, platform announcements, and branding pressure. To understand how widespread – and how unstable – this discourse has become, we analyzed how 75 leading SEO influencers discuss AI-driven search on LinkedIn. The goal wasn’t to decide which acronym woul…

You know that sinking feeling when you look at your organic traffic dashboard and see – nothing exciting. The line’s flat, and you’re dreading the conversation with your boss about why your SEO investment isn’t “working.” Here’s the thing: flat traffic doesn’t mean failure anymore. Some of the most successful SEO campaigns I’ve worked on recently had underwhelming traffic numbers but delivered incredible business results. Let me show you why that’s not necessarily a bad thing and how to communicate it effectively. Why flat traffic isn’t the red flag it used to be Last year, one of our clients in the home services space experienced organic traffic…

When Google launched Demand Gen campaigns in 2023, they were positioned as a way to build deeper engagement across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. At the time, they felt experimental, sitting between awareness and performance. Since then, Demand Gen has improved significantly. The creative flexibility and audience control now make it a campaign type I use regularly for ecommerce clients. It has helped us scale revenue in a controlled way, maintaining brand consistency and enabling creative testing while still driving conversions. In practice, Demand Gen converts best when it is set up strategically alongside Performance Max and Search. Choosing…

Nick LeRoy, a longtime SEO consultant, is turning his platform into a fundraising engine. He’s offering consulting in exchange for donations to Minnesota-based immigrant support efforts amid escalating ICE activity in the state. LeRoy said recent events in Minnesota crossed “every ethical line” he had drawn professionally, prompting him to act rather than comment from the sidelines. He announced the initiative yesterday on LinkedIn and in a blog post. What’s happening. LeRoy is trading his services for donations to GiveMN, a Minnesota-based fundraising platform that distributes funds to individuals and families impacted by recent ICE raids and related unrest. …

Meta is rolling out ads on its Threads app to all users worldwide, starting next week, with a gradual rollout expected to take months. Threads, Meta’s X rival, has grown rapidly since its July 2023 debut, now surpassing 400 million monthly active users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly praised the app as a potential “next big hit,” projecting it could reach 1 billion users in a few years. Advertiser access. Advertisers have been able to test Threads ads in the U.S. and Japan over the past year, and last April the platform opened ad access to global advertisers. Meta is making it easy to expand campaigns to Threads via its Advantage+ program or manual campaigns, …

If the same URL appears in both a Google AI Overview and the classic 10 blue links, Google Search Console counts it as a single impression, not two. That clarification comes directly from Google’s John Mueller. The background. Mark Williams-Cook, director at SEO agency Candour and founder of AlsoAsked, shared it publicly on LinkedIn after a discussion sparked by Jamie Indigo. The question emerged as SEOs try to understand how AI Overviews affect visibility metrics when a page appears multiple times on the same results page. Williams-Cook initially assumed the URL might generate two impressions. That assumption was based on how older SERP features, such as tw…

OpenAI is preparing to launch impression-based ads inside ChatGPT as early as February, marking a faster-than-expected step into advertising. What’s happening. According to a report, OpenAI is already testing ads with select advertisers and plans to charge on a pay-per-impression (PPM) basis, rather than the more familiar pay-per-click model. The test is expected to be limited, with advertisers committing under $1 million each and no self-serve buying tools available yet. Why we care. Ads inside ChatGPT could create an entirely new ad surface tied to conversational AI — but the initial model favors OpenAI’s revenue certainty over advertiser measurement. While this…

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says Gemini won’t get ads — at least for now — as Google prioritizes trust and core assistant quality over monetization. What’s new. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Hassabis said Google has “no plans” to introduce ads into Gemini, emphasizing a focus on building a better, more capable assistant across use cases and form factors. He suggested that monetization can wait while the technology matures. The contrast. The comments come just days after OpenAI announced it would begin testing ads in the free and low-cost tiers of ChatGPT. Hassabis called the move “interesting,” suggesting it may reflect revenue pressure rat…

There’s a common assumption across the SEO industry that people no longer search for local services the way they once did. As tools like ChatGPT become more common starting points, that assumption often takes the form of keyword-style searches giving way to longer, more conversational prompts. To test it, we observed everyday users as they used ChatGPT to find local service providers, including healthcare and aesthetics practices. Participants were asked to begin their search on ChatGPT and behave as they normally would, whether that meant visiting websites, checking social profiles, or reading reviews. That observation was guided by a set of core question…

Most businesses don’t fail to rank in the local pack because they lack reviews, links, or proximity. They fail long before that because Google never considers them eligible in the first place. This is a recurring pattern in local search that almost everyone overlooks. Google decides what you are before it decides how relevant you are. From exact matches to broad intent: How eligibility shifts In a niche query, Google is looking for a 1:1 match. They want high-confidence entities that leave zero room for interpretation. However, once you zoom out to a broader search like “restaurants,” that lockdown disappears. Suddenly, the Map Pack opens u…

For more than a decade, international SEO has followed a familiar playbook: Create dedicated country- and language-specific URLs. Localize the content. Deploy hreflang. Let search engines rank and serve the correct version. In the AI-mediated search environment, that playbook is no longer enough. In 2026, consistent global visibility is determined less by traditional ranking mechanics and more by how effectively content is retrieved, interpreted, and validated. What still works in 2026 The following fundamentals continue to shape international SEO outcomes in 2026. Market-scoped URLs with real differences still win One of the clearest…