SEO Tools and Resources

Google announced new branded queries filters are rolling out gradually within Google Search Console reporting. You can filter your performance reports by branded or non-branded queries and Google can show you the percentage of branded versus non-branded traffic driven to your site from Google Search. This was first introduced at the Google Search Central event in Tel Aviv today, so this news leaked from there first. What are branded queries. Google defined what it considers a branded query. Google wrote: A branded query is a query that includes your brand name (for example, Google), variations or misspellings of the brand name (for example, Gogle), and brand-…

A surge of sophisticated phishing attacks is letting scammers take over full Google Ads Manager accounts (MCCs), giving them instant access to hundreds of client accounts and the power to burn through tens of thousands of dollars in hours without being noticed. Driving the news. Agencies across LinkedIn, Reddit, and Google’s own forums are reporting a rise in MCC takeovers, even among teams using two-factor authentication. The attackers’ preferred weapon is a near-perfect phishing email that mimics Google’s account-access invitations. Victims say hijackers add fake admin users, link their own MCCs, and begin launching fraudulent, high-budget campaigns. In some…

Demand Gen campaigns may be the newest addition to the Google Ads toolbox, but they haven’t received the same attention or hype as Performance Max. At the core is their divergence from Google’s long-standing focus on capturing existing demand – a model that makes attribution and ROI measurement straightforward. Two years after the public launch, we’ve transitioned from the campaign being in beta to testing additional controls, including inventory selection. Here’s what I’ve learned from being part of the initial release and using Demand Gen regularly over the past couple of years. How Google Ads Demand Gen campaigns work Like Performance Max, Demand Ge…

The latest benchmark results reveal a surprising drop in SEO accuracy from top AI models. TL;DR: The latest flagship AI models (Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro) have statistically regressed in performance for standard SEO tasks, showing a ~9% drop in accuracy compared to previous versions. This isn’t a glitch – it’s a feature of how models are now optimized for deep reasoning and “agentic” workflows rather than “one-shot” answers. To survive this shift, organizations must stop relying on raw prompts and move to “contextual containers” (Custom GPTs, Gems, Projects). The ‘newer = better’ myth is dead Last year, the narrative was linear: wait for the n…

Google is pushing AI Mode within Google Discover, with options to summarize, follow-up and dive deeper after you start reading a story from within the Google Discover feed. This is just one more avenue where Google is pushing its users into AI Mode. To clarify, I am told this is not just Google Discover, but the Google App on Android, for any webpage you are looking at. How it works. After you click into an article from the Google Discover feed, when you click on the three dots at the top right, there are options for: Summarize with Al Mode Ask a follow up with Al Mode Dive deeper with Al Mode Damien (adell) on X posted a video, here is a screenshot…

PPC for ecommerce operates differently from PPC for lead gen or SaaS. The way campaigns learn, the volume of conversion data, and the role each platform plays all require a distinct approach. After shifting into ecommerce, it became clear which fundamentals matter most. The guidance in this article reflects those lessons and can help whether you’re new to ecommerce PPC or building on existing experience. We’ll look at how the core differences between ecommerce and non-ecommerce models influence PPC strategy and how to use each platform’s strengths to support your products. 1. Performance Max is built for ecommerce Google Ads is a key platform for…

Evaluating SEO tools has never been more complicated. Costs keep rising, and promises for new AI features are everywhere. This combination is hardly convincing when you need leadership to approve a new tool or expand the budget for an existing one. Your boss still expects SEO to show business impact – not how many keywords or prompts you can track, how fast you can optimize content, or what your visibility score is. That is exactly where most tools still fail miserably. The landscape adds even more friction. Features are bundled into confusing packages and add-on models, and the number of solutions has grown sharply in the last 12 months. …

With generative AI tools attracting hundreds of millions of users and AI-enhanced results appearing in more search experiences, the way people discover brands is changing. Traditional SEO metrics alone no longer capture this full picture. Welcome to the era of generative engine optimization (GEO). If you aren’t tracking your brand’s visibility across AI search engines, you’re flying blind. The AI search revolution is already here The numbers are striking: 58% of consumers have replaced traditional search engines with generative AI tools for product recommendations, according to Capgemini research. Traditional organic search traffic is expected to decli…

Google Discover is less aligned to Google Search ranking, Andy Almeida from the Google Trust and Safety team, said yesterday at the Google Search Central Live event in Zurich yesterday. A slide he posted on how existing systems help the Google Discover team solve problems, the slide says: “Minimal alignment to search ranking gives us the tools we need to combat emerging abuse.” What this means. It seems that this is an admission that Google Discover is not using Google’s search systems as tightly as it may have in the past for when it comes to combating abuse on that platform. I asked Andy Almeida at the event what this means, and he said it means …

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, admitted that Google “for sure messed up” by underinvesting in AI and failing to seriously pursue the opportunity after releasing the research that led to today’s generative AI era. Driving the news. Google didn’t take it seriously enough and failed to scale fast enough after the Transformer paper, Brin said. Also: Google was “too scared to bring it to people” because chatbots can “say dumb things.” “OpenAI ran with it,” which was “a super smart insight.” The full quote. Brin said: “I guess I would say in some ways we for sure messed up in that we underinvested and sort of didn’t take it as seriously as we should have…

We are navigating the “search everywhere” revolution – a disruptive shift driven by generative AI and large language models (LLMs) that is reshaping the relationship between brands, consumers, and search engines. For the last two decades, the digital economy ran on a simple exchange: content for clicks. With the rise of zero-click experiences, AI Overviews, and assistant-led research, that exchange is breaking down. AI now synthesizes answers directly on the SERP, often satisfying intent without a visit to a website. Platforms such as Gemini and ChatGPT are fundamentally changing how information is discovered. For enterprises, visibility increasingl…

Google has expanded Product Studio inside Merchant Center, rolling out three new creative features that go beyond its original image generation tool. What’s new. In addition to image generation, Product Studio now lets merchants animate static product images into short videos using suggested text prompts, a move aimed squarely at short-form ads and social-style creative. Google has also added one-click background removal to help isolate products and create cleaner, more consistent Shopping visuals. The third update increases image resolution, allowing advertisers to upscale older or lower-quality assets to meet modern visual standards. Why we care. P…

Pages on your website can be well written, well laid out, supported by backlinks, and even meet E-E-A-T expectations – yet still fail to rank. While there are many possible explanations, one common issue is a misalignment with search intent, and it’s often harder to spot than it sounds. When the focus is on content, optimization, and usability, intent can easily be missed or misjudged. This is where AI can become a useful review tool, helping guide things back in the right direction. Get back to basics Whether you’re starting work on a new page or updating something older, beginning with the basics of search intent can help set you up for success. …

Discovery now happens before search demand is visible in Google. In 2026, interest forms across social feeds, communities, and AI-generated answers – long before it shows up as keyword search volume. By the time demand appears in SEO tools, the opportunity to shape how a concept is understood has already passed. This creates a problem for how search marketing research is typically done. Keyword tools, search volume, and Google Trends are lagging indicators. They reveal what people cared about yesterday, not what they are starting to explore now. In a landscape shaped by AI Overviews, social SERPs, and shrinking organic real estate, arriving lat…

The evolution of search continued to accelerate in 2025. Between GEO and AI-driven discovery, agents, and new optimization frameworks and tools, SEO experienced another huge year of change. As always, Search Engine Land helped you make sense of the advances – what was happening, what was coming next, and what truly mattered. Below are the 10 most-read SEO columns of 2025, written by our outstanding group of subject matter experts. 10. Will GEO replace SEO – or become part of it? GEO isn’t the death of SEO. It’s what happens when search becomes multi-platform, multi-modal, and powered by AI. (By Roslyn Ayers. Published Aug. 8.) 9. Meet llms.txt, a…

PPC didn’t stand still in 2025. It adjusted. These articles resonated because they answered the real questions advertisers are asking: how to stay competitive, cut wasted spend, work with automation instead of against it, and prepare for what’s next. Below are links to the 10 most-read Search Engine Land PPC columns of 2025, written by our exceptional subject matter experts. 10. Can small businesses compete on Google Ads anymore? With the right strategy, even the smallest business can stand out, win customers, and make a lasting impact. Here’s how. (By Sophie Logan. Published Sept. 16.) 9. Google Ads optimization: What to stop, start, and continue in 2025 …

Advertisers digging through Google Ads change history often lose time hopping between reports, campaigns, and ad groups. A new “Go to…” button cuts out those extra clicks — a small UI tweak that can save meaningful time during audits and troubleshooting. What’s new. Google has added a “Go to…” dropdown in the Change history report. Advertisers can now jump directly from a logged change to the relevant campaign or ad group. The feature is especially useful when reviewing bulk edits, script-driven changes, or updates made in Google Ads Editor. How it works: Select one or more changes in the Change history report. Use the “Go to…” dropdown to navigate str…

Google’s AI Overviews feature has become the face of our search engine results. Type almost any question into your Google search bar, and the first answer you receive will be AI generated. Many are thrilled about this. Others are wary. Marketers and those in the online reputation management (ORM) field are among those urging caution. Why? Because Google AI Overviews are often littered with information stemming from online forums like Reddit and Quora. And oftentimes, this user-generated content can be inaccurate — or entirely false. Why Google AI Overviews heavily rely on content from Reddit and Quora But how and why have Google AI Overviews c…

Google is quietly giving advertisers more granular control over how data flows when consent is limited. Driving the news. A new feature called Data Transmission Control is appearing in Google Ads, adding an extra layer on top of Advanced Consent Mode that determines how advertising, analytics and diagnostic data are actually transmitted. What’s new. Advertisers can now independently restrict advertising data, behavioral analytics and diagnostic data. When ad_storage consent is denied, there are two options: allow limited advertising data with identifiers redacted (while still enabling conversion modeling), or block advertising data entirely until consent is grante…

AI agents are poised to reshape how people buy online – not by helping users find where to convert, but by doing the work themselves. In ChatGPT’s Agent mode, I prompted more than 100 agentic actions – from shopping and booking travel to reserving restaurants, buying apartments, and finding jobs. A clear pattern emerged: agents are gradually edging out transactional search as they move beyond information retrieval to act on your behalf, dramatically reducing cognitive load. They handle the drudgery – searching, filtering, and comparing options to find the best fit – before handing off to a human at the decision gate, such as the point of conversion or a critic…

Google’s AI-powered Try On feature, which lets users see how clothing items look on them, is adding shoes and expanding to Australia, Canada, and Japan. How it works. The AI uses advanced shape and depth perception to show how items – now including sneakers and heels – fit your body. Users upload a full-length photo, tap “try it on,” and see themselves in the item in seconds. Why we care. For advertisers, this opens up a new frontier in online shopping. Brands can showcase products in a way that feels personalized and interactive, increasing engagement and the likelihood of conversions. Try On data also provides insights into which styles are popular and …

Google’s quiet retirement of the num=100 parameter might look trivial to the rest of the world, but for SEO professionals, it’s another step deeper into the dark. That small setting allowed us to see the full top 100 results at once, which made competitive research and rank tracking more complete. Its disappearance comes on the heels of Google requiring JavaScript execution for scraping (temporarily breaking many rank trackers) and alongside AI Overviews that steal clicks surface answers without disclosing sources. Piece by piece, the data we’ve relied on to measure SEO impact is slipping away. We are entering a black box era. Note: If your impressi…

Following OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT Atlas, software company Search Atlas flagged a major issue: the AI-powered browser can interact with websites in a way that looks indistinguishable from real human users, including clicking on paid advertisements. Why we care. Businesses running digital ad campaigns could unknowingly pay for clicks generated by AI agents, not real prospects. The technology also threatens to corrupt analytics data, making it harder to measure genuine traffic and user behavior. The problem. ChatGPT Atlas is built on Google Chrome, so ad networks and websites perceive its activity as a legitimate user. Every AI click on sponsored posts can tr…

As SEO grows more collaborative and data-driven, more teams are operating remotely – sometimes by choice, sometimes by necessity. But managing SEO remotely brings its own challenges. Drawing on eight years of leading fully remote SEO teams, here are 10 key aspects of your workflow, setup, and strategy to get right for long-term success. 1. Culture First, consider if you’re working with just a remote team or a fully remote company. An SEO consulting firm could easily decide to go fully remote. But if you’re leading an in-house SEO team working for a larger company, you may not have that option. Second, consider whether your team culture is remote-first …

Google Business Profiles has a form where you can report negative review extortion scams, the form launched a month ago. You can find access to the form in this help document and I believe you need to be logged into your Google account with access to the Business Profile you want to report. Review extortion scams. This negative review extortion scams are on the rise and a huge concern for local SEOs and businesses. A scammer will message you, likely over WhatsApp or email, and tell you that they left a one-star negative review and the only way to remove it is to pay them. Google wrote in its help document, “These scams may involve a sudden increase in 1-star and …