SEO Tools and Resources

Google appears to be testing a new “Sponsored Shops” format in Google Shopping results that highlights entire stores instead of individual products — a potential shift in how brands compete in Shopping ads. What’s happening. Instead of displaying only single product listings, the new block groups multiple products from the same retailer into one sponsored unit. The format features the store name, several products from that shop, and signals such as ratings and brand presence, effectively creating a mini storefront directly inside the Shopping results. Why we care. The new “Sponsored Shops” format in Google Shopping could shift competition from individual produ…

Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said AI-powered search — especially Google’s AI Mode — is putting the open web’s core traffic model at risk and argues AI search engines must send users back to publishers. “I think that the LLMs are one big reason that they’re under threat, with AI Mode in Google being the biggest challenge.” “Those publishers deserve [traffic], and we’re not going to have the content to consume to give great answers if publishers aren’t healthy.” Why we care. Many websites are seeing less traffic from answer engines like Google and OpenAI — and I think it’ll only get worse. So it’s encouraging to see Yahoo trying to preserve the “search sends traffic” m…

Ahead of a slate of announcements coming next week, Microsoft Advertising says advertisers can now add up to 50 search themes to Performance Max campaigns — a significant increase from previous limits. Why we care. Search themes act as strategic signals that guide Performance Max toward the queries and intent patterns advertisers care most about. Increasing the cap gives marketers far more room to shape how automation interprets demand, especially for complex or multi-category businesses. Advertisers will also no longer have to collapse intent into a handful of themes or spin up multiple campaigns just to reflect different product lines or use cases. The big …

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…

Google Ads is rolling out a new Experiment Center, giving advertisers a single place to test, measure, and compare campaign performance. What’s new. Google has launched a new help page introducing the Experiment Center, a unified dashboard that brings together traditional Experiments and Lift Studies under one roof. Advertisers can now manage tests around bidding, targeting, and creatives alongside studies measuring brand, search, or conversion lift. Why we care. Experimentation in Google Ads has historically been fragmented, with A/B tests and lift studies living in different places. A centralized hub lowers friction and makes it easier for advertisers to validat…

Search today looks very different from what it did even a few years ago. Users are no longer browsing through SERPs to make up their own minds; instead, they are asking AI tools for conclusions, summaries, and recommendations. This shift changes how visibility is earned, how trust is formed, and how brands are evaluated during discovery. In AI-driven search, large language models interpret information, decide what matters, and present a narrative on behalf of the user. Table of contents The rise of conversational AI as a discovery layer Not all LLMs interpret brands the same way The challenge: LLM visibility is hard to measure How does Yoast AI Brand Insights help? …

Competitive research is a gold mine of insights in the world of organic discovery. Clients always love seeing insights about how they stack up against their rivals, and the insights are very easily translated into a multi-dimensional roadmap for getting traction on essential topics. If you haven’t already done this, 2026 needs to be the year when you add competitive research from answer engine optimization (AEO) (I’ll use this acronym interchangeably with AI search) into your organic strategy – and not just because your executives or clients are clamoring for it (although I’m guessing they are). This article breaks down the distinct roles of SEO and AEO competitiv…

In 2015, PPC was a game of direct control. You told Google exactly which keywords to target, set manual bids at the keyword level, and capped spend with a daily budget. If you were good with spreadsheets and understood match types, you could build and manage 30,000-keyword accounts all day long. Those days are gone. In 2026, platform automation is no longer a helpful assistant. It’s the primary driver of performance. Fighting that reality is a losing battle. Automation has leveled the playing field and, in many cases, given PPC marketers back their time. But staying effective now requires a different skill set: understanding how automated systems learn and h…

Eighty million people use Reddit search every week, Reddit said on its Q4 2025 earnings call last week. The increase followed a major change: Reddit merged its core search with its AI-powered Reddit Answers and began positioning the platform as a place where users can start — and finish — their searches. Executives framed the move as a response to changing behavior. People are increasingly researching products and making decisions by asking questions within communities rather than relying solely on traditional search engines. Reddit is betting it can keep more of that intent on-platform, rather than acting mainly as a source of links for elsewhere. Why we care…

Let me guess: you just spent three months building a perfectly optimized product taxonomy, complete with schema markup, internal linking, and killer metadata. Then, the product team decided to launch a site redesign without telling you. Now half your URLs are broken, the new templates strip out your structured data, and your boss is asking why organic traffic dropped 40%. Sound familiar? Here’s the thing: this isn’t an SEO failure, but a governance failure. It’s costing you nights and weekends trying to fix problems that should never have happened in the first place. This article covers why weak governance keeps breaking SEO, how AI has raised the stakes…

Microsoft today launched AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools in beta. AI Performance lets you see where, and how often, your content is cited in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, Bing’s AI summaries, and select partner integrations, the company said. AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools shows which URLs are cited, which queries trigger those citations, and how citation activity changes over time. Search Engine Land first reported on Jan. 27 that Microsoft was testing the AI Performance report. What’s new. AI Performance is a new, dedicated dashboard inside Bing Webmaster Tools. It tracks citation visibility across supported AI surfaces. Inst…

Google Ads is rolling out recommended experiments on the Experiments page, surfacing test ideas based on an account’s setup and performance data. How it works: The platform suggests experiment opportunities — such as testing bidding strategies, creative variations, or new campaign features — and presents them directly inside the Experiments dashboard. Each recommendation includes a preconfigured experiment setup Advertisers can launch immediately or customize settings Suggestions appear alongside the standard Create Experiment workflow Why we care. By removing the need to build tests from scratch, Google is lowering the barrier to experimentation. A…

In her third annual letter, Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM of Ads & Commerce at Google, lays out how AI is transforming shopping and advertising in 2026 — making experiences faster, more personal, and more seamless for both consumers and businesses. Key trends: Creators to commerce: YouTube continues to be a discovery hub, with creators acting as trusted tastemakers. AI is helping match brands to the right creators, turning influence into measurable business impact. Search ads evolve: With conversational and visual queries on the rise, AI Mode is reimagining ads as part of the discovery journey. New formats, like sponsored retail listings and Direct Offers…

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of positioning your brand and content so that AI platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity cite, recommend, or mention you when users search for answers. If that sounds abstract, the results aren’t. For bootstrapped form builder tool, Tally, ChatGPT became the #1 referral source. They’re not alone. Across industries, the shift is already measurable. ChatGPT reaches over 800 million weekly users. Google’s Gemini app has surpassed 750 million monthly users. And AI Overviews are appearing in at least 16% of all searches (significantly higher for comparison and high-intent queries). Th…

Local search remains one of the strongest drivers of consistent lead flow for service businesses. Outdated SEO tactics are losing impact as Google’s algorithm updates reshape local visibility. Success now depends on disciplined tracking and consistent execution. This 90-day sprint plan shows how to do both. Why local visibility is more volatile in 2026 Many service businesses aren’t current on how local search has changed or how Google Maps now determines visibility. They have a Google Business Profile (GBP) and a website, yet the phone is quiet. If a GBP isn’t visible, local prospects won’t find the business when they search for its services. That may…

Hiring an SEO agency can be a game-changer for brands looking to outshine the competition in search results. That said, an SEO agency is only as good as its partnership with its clients. That’s when SEO’s true value can be realized. What this looks like practically is working together towards shared goals and keeping momentum high. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. Here’s what you can do to ensure you get the most from your SEO agency partnership. Because when you’re aligned, you make progress faster and, in turn, can better prove ROI. Align SEO with what moves the business Your company sets the business goals, and SEO’s job is to ge…

Google Ads now surfaces Performance Max (PMax) campaign data in the “Where ads showed” report, giving advertisers clearer insight into placements, networks, and impressions — data that was previously unavailable. What’s new. The update makes it possible to see exactly where PMax ads are appearing across Google’s network, including search partners, display, and other placements. Advertisers can now track impressions by placement type and network, helping them understand how campaigns are performing in detail. Why we care. This update finally gives visibility into where PMax campaigns are running, including Google Search Partners, display, and other networks. Wi…

In the early days of SEO, authority was a crude concept. In the early 2000s, ranking well often came down to how effectively you could game PageRank. Buy enough links, repeat the right keywords, and visibility followed. It was mechanical, transactional, and remarkably easy to manipulate. Two decades later, that version of search is largely extinct. Algorithms have matured. So has Google’s understanding of brands, people, and real-world reputation. In a landscape increasingly shaped by AI-powered discovery, authority is no longer a secondary ranking factor – it’s the foundational principle. This is the logical conclusion of a long, deliberate evolution in search. …

SerpApi is asking a federal court to dismiss Google’s lawsuit, arguing the company is misusing copyright law to restrict access to public search results. The motion was filed Feb. 20, according to a blog post by SerpApi CEO and founder Julien Khaleghy. Google sued SerpApi in December, alleging it bypassed technical protections to scrape and resell content from Google Search. The details: SerpApi argues Google is improperly invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). According to Khaleghy: The DMCA protects copyrighted works, not websites or ad businesses. Google doesn’t own the underlying content displayed in search results. Accessing pub…

Demand Gen marks a shift in Google Ads toward visual advertising beyond keywords and text. Relying on traditional strategies when testing it wastes budget, hurts performance, and limits opportunity. To succeed, you have to think more like a social advertiser than a search advertiser. At SMX Next, Industrious Marketing owner Jack Hepp explained why many businesses struggle with demand gen campaigns — especially in B2B and lead generation — while also sharing insights relevant to ecommerce. Understanding the Shift: From Intent to Interruption Demand Gen reflects Google’s shift from intent-first search advertising to visual, discovery-based campaigns. I…

AI has made publishing faster and easier than ever. And the result is saturation. As AI lowers the barrier to production, the web is filling with content that is technically sound, reasonably optimized, and increasingly indistinguishable. When everything looks polished and competent, standing out becomes harder. AI has changed content output, but users still arrive with intent. They scan headlines, page titles, and descriptions before choosing what to click. They reward clarity, relevance, and usefulness. On a saturated results page, those fundamentals matter more than ever. Keeping content fresh in the age of AI isn’t about chasing novelty or abandoning prov…

ChatGPT now has more than 900 million weekly active users, OpenAI announced. This is the first time OpenAI has publicly cited the 900 million weekly active user mark. Why we care. User behavior continues to fragment beyond traditional search. If 900 million people use ChatGPT weekly, discovery, research, and product comparisons are increasingly happening within AI interfaces. That said, many of those actions tend to lead users to traditional search for confirmation. The details. OpenAI shared the figure of 900 million weekly active users while announcing a new $110 billion funding round. The company also reported more than 50 million consumer subscribers and over …

A good XML sitemap serves as a roadmap for your website, guiding Google to all your important pages. XML sitemaps can be beneficial for SEO, helping Google find your essential pages quickly, even if your internal linking isn’t perfect. This post explains what they are and how they help you rank better and get surfaced by AI agents. Table of contents What are XML sitemaps? Why do you need an XML sitemap? Do XML sitemaps matter for AI search? Adding XML sitemaps to your site with Yoast Frequently asked questions about XML sitemaps Check your own XML sitemap! Key takeaways An XML sitemap is crucial for SEO, as it guides search engines to your important pages, …

Search visibility isn’t what it used to be. Rankings still matter, but they’re no longer the whole story. Today, discovery happens across traditional search results, local listings, brand knowledge panels, and increasingly, AI-driven experiences that surface answers without a click. For marketers, that makes visibility harder to measure — and easier to lose. SEO teams now operate in a landscape where accuracy, consistency, and trust signals matter as much as keywords. Business information, reviews, and brand authority determine whether a brand shows up at all, especially as AI-powered search reshapes how results are generated and displayed. As a result, many bran…

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…