SEO Tools and Resources

Search behavior is no longer just people typing keywords into Google. It’s people asking questions and, in some cases, outsourcing their thinking to LLMs. As Google evolves from a traditional search engine into a more question-and-answer machine, businesses need a robust, time-tested way to respond to customer questions. AI changes how people research and compare options. Tasks that once felt painful and time-consuming are now easy. But there’s a catch. The machine only knows what it can find about you. If you want visibility across the widest possible range of questions, you need to understand your customers’ wants, needs, and concerns in depth. That’s wh…

Microsoft Advertising is rolling out multi-image ads for Shopping campaigns in Bing search results, giving ecommerce brands a richer way to showcase products and capture shopper attention before the click. What’s new. Advertisers can now display multiple product images within a single Shopping ad, letting shoppers preview different angles, styles or variations directly in search. The format is designed to make ads more visually engaging and informative, helping consumers compare options quickly without leaving the results page. How it works: Additional images are uploaded through the optional additional_image_link attribute in the product feed. Adverti…

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. …

Automation has long been part of the discipline, helping teams structure data, streamline reporting, and reduce repetitive work. Now, AI agent platforms combine workflow orchestration with large language models to execute multi-step tasks across systems. Among them, n8n stands out for its flexibility and control. Here’s how it works – and where it fits in modern SEO operations. Understanding how n8n AI agents are deployed If you think of modern AI agent platforms as an AI-powered Zapier, you’re not far off. The difference is that tools like n8n don’t just pass data between steps. They interpret it, transform it, and determine what happens next. Getting star…

On episode 352 of PPC Live The Podcast, I spoke to Emina Demiri Watson, Head of Digital at Brighton-based Vixen Digital, where she to shared one of the most candid stories in agency life: deliberately firing a client that accounted for roughly 70% of their revenue — and what they learned the hard way in the process. The decision to let go The client relationship had been deteriorating for around three months before the leadership team made their move. The decision wasn’t about the client being difficult from day one — it was a relationship that had slowly soured over time. By the end, the toxic dynamic was affecting the entire team, and leadership decided culture h…

Google Merchant Center is investigating an issue affecting Feeds, according to its public status dashboard. The details: Incident began: Feb. 4, 2026 at 14:00 UTC Latest update (Feb. 20, 14:43 UTC): “We’re investigating reports of an issue with Feeds. We will provide more information shortly.” Status: Service disruption The alert appears on the official Merchant Center Status Dashboard, which tracks availability across Merchant Center services. Why we care. Feeds power product listings across Shopping ads and free listings. Any disruption can impact product approvals, updates, or visibility in campaigns tied to retail inventory. What to watch. G…

Google’s page indexing report within Google Search Console is missing a block of data earlier than December 15th. It seems like some sort of reporting bug that is impacting all users. Google has not yet commented on the reporting issue but again, it is widespread and impacting everyone. What it looks like. Here is a screenshot from Vijay on X but you can see it yourself by checking your page indexing report: Why we care. I’d check back in a day or two to see if this data returns or if Google posts a notice about the issue. Right now, no one is able to access that data, so everyone is in the “same boat.” Google will hopefully fix the data, and you can…

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…

Google confirmed it had an issue serving search results earlier this morning at around 1:30 am ET on Wednesday, February 25th. The issue seemed to be fixed very quickly and we didn’t see a huge number of complaints about the issue. Google posted a notice saying, “We fixed the issue with serving search results. There will be no more updates.” Why we care. If your website noticed a drop in traffic around midnight last night, it may be related to this serving issue. Again, it seems the serving issue was discovered and fixed very quickly but just because Google posted the issue and resolved it within a minute, it does not mean the serving issue was only a minute…

Every week, thousands of media buyers perform the same ritual, opening Meta Ads Manager, scanning metrics, and deciding which campaigns and ads were winners and which were losers. If ROAS is positive, they’re pleased. If not, the mouse quickly heads toward the toggle button to disable the asset. This is the scoreboard trap some advertisers fall into. When you treat metrics like a scoreboard, you’re looking at the outcome without understanding the full picture or how to improve going forward. The score of the game doesn’t include the fact that your strikers aren’t getting any passes from midfield. To scale performance, it’s important to move from reporting to diag…

Generative search engines like ChatGPT have successfully used SEO as part of their growth strategy, even as the echo chambers of the web claim they’re killing this powerful marketing channel. Let’s take a look at how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude fare in SEO, and why ChatGPT’s investment in the strategy is paying off. Directional SEO ROI forecast A $600,000 annual SEO investment could generate outsized returns for generative AI platforms. Using Semrush-reported monthly organic traffic — 76.5 million visits for ChatGPT, 908,000 for Claude, and 1.7 million for Perplexity — plus a conservative 0.5% conversion rate and a $20/month entry price, projected return…

ChatGPT’s emerging ad ecosystem is gaining momentum, according to new monitoring from AI ad intelligence firm Adthena — with more brands appearing, clearer trigger patterns, and evolving ad placements. What’s happening. After initially identifying the first advertisers inside ChatGPT last week, Adthena now reports a noticeable ramp-up in advertiser participation and ad delivery behavior. Advertisers spotted so far: Best Buy AT&T Pottery Barn Enterprise Qualcomm Expedia How ads are triggering. Based on a sample of 1,500+ prompts analyzed over the past week: Most ads appear on the first prompt. Some only trigger on the third o…

A patent document published by Google hints that Google Search may take searchers from the search results page, to an AI-generated page which is super personalized to answer the query, as opposed to taking that searcher to a web page. Patent. The patent is named AI-generated content page tailored to a specific user and was filed by Google about a year ago and then granted last month. This patent describes a system that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically create a custom landing page for a business or organization when a user performs a search. Instead of just sending a user to a generic homepage, the system generates a page dynamically that is spe…

Google is rolling out VRC Non-Skip ads, expanding how brands reach connected TV audiences on YouTube. What’s happening. VRC (Video Reach Campaign) Non-Skips are now live globally in Google Ads and Display & Video 360. The format is built specifically for the living room experience, ensuring ads run as non-skippable placements optimized for connected TV (CTV) screens. Why we care. YouTube has become the No. 1 streaming platform in the U.S. for three consecutive years, making the TV screen a critical battleground for brand budgets. With guaranteed, non-skippable delivery, advertisers can ensure their full message reaches viewers in premium, lean-back environment…

Google Ads has launched a new Results tab inside its Recommendations section that shows advertisers the measured performance impact after they apply bid and budget suggestions. How it works. After an advertiser applies a bid or budget recommendation, Google analyzes campaign performance one week later and compares it to an estimated baseline of what would have happened without the change. The system then highlights the incremental lift, such as additional conversions generated by raising a budget or adjusting targets. Where to find it. Impact reporting appears in the Recommendations area of an account. A summary callout shows recent results on the main page, w…

Organic search clicks are shrinking across major verticals — and it’s not just because of Google’s AI Overviews. Classic organic click share fell sharply across headphones, jeans, greeting cards, and online games queries in the U.S., new Similarweb data comparing January 2025 to January 2026 shows. The biggest winner: text ads. Why we care. You aren’t just competing with AI Overviews. You’re competing with Google’s aggressive expansion of paid search real estate. Across every vertical analyzed, text ads gained more click share than any other measurable surface. In product categories, paid listings now capture roughly one-third of all clicks. As a result, seve…

Google is updating how it attributes conversions in app campaigns, shifting from the date of the ad click to the date of the actual install. What’s changing. Previously, conversions were logged against the original ad interaction date. Now, they’re assigned to the day the app was actually installed — bringing Google’s methodology closer in line with how Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) like AppsFlyer and Adjust report data. Why this helps: It should meaningfully reduce discrepancies between Google Ads and MMP dashboards — a persistent headache for mobile marketers reconciling two different numbers. Google’s default 30-day attribution window meant many co…

How often do you review your PPC ad copy? Not just analyzing the performance of each asset within the ad platform, but also reviewing your ads in the context of how they appear next to competitor ads? Are you using the exact same messaging as your competitors? Does your offer stand out from theirs? Which ads are bland and generic, and which provide concrete calls to action and compelling selling points? Let’s walk through several tips for writing paid search copy that stands out in search results and converts customers for your brand. 1. Think about how assets will appear together, not just individually When you’re writing Responsive Search Ads, it’s easy t…

When you hear the term “contact page,” you probably think of a simple page containing contact info and maybe a form. I’m here to tell you why that’s a big miss from a local SEO perspective and show you how to build a contact page that builds your prominence with Google and helps you convert more leads. Google pays special attention to your contact page The former head of Google Business Profile Support, Joel Headley, once told me that Google specifically crawls and parses your contact page to gather information about your business. This led me to realize that most businesses have awful contact pages. They list their name, address, and phone number (NAP), e…

Google Ad Grants accounts can now optimize for real-world foot traffic. Advertisers using the nonprofit program are able to set “shop visits” as an account-level goal — a move that enables campaigns to optimize toward in-person visits. Driving the news. Previously, attempting to mark shop visits as a goal inside Ad Grants would trigger an error. That restriction appears to have been lifted, allowing eligible accounts to include store visit conversions in their primary goal configuration. The update means nonprofits and local organizations can now align bidding and optimization with physical visits — particularly impactful for visibility in Maps placements and …

The web has strong opinions about what “AI-written” content looks like, and even stronger ones about what’s supposedly wrong with it. Scroll any content marketer’s LinkedIn feed, and you’ll find confident claims that em dashes and other AI “tells” signal bad, automated writing. The problem with these debates is that they often confuse taste with performance. What counts as “bad writing” will always be subjective. But if the goal for content marketers is to communicate clearly and compete in the information marketplace, the practical question should be: which LLM habits actually turn readers off? To find out, we analyzed a large dataset of content marketing pages t…

Google is expanding beta access to text guidelines for all advertisers globally in AI Max, giving brands more control over how AI-generated ad copy aligns with their standards. What’s happening. Text guidelines are now available worldwide across AI Max for Search and Performance Max campaigns, with full language and vertical support. The feature lets you shape AI-generated creative using natural-language instructions — such as excluding certain terms or avoiding specific phrases — to ensure messaging stays on-brand. Why we care. As AI-powered creative becomes central to your performance marketing, brand safety and tone control are top concerns. Text customiz…

ChatGPT ecommerce traffic converted 31% higher than non-branded organic search across 94 ecommerce sites in 2025, but it still drove a small share of revenue. That’s based on a 12-month GA4 analysis by Visibility Labs covering January through December 2025. Why we care. This data shows that AI referral traffic converts at a higher rate than traditional non-branded search traffic, but the volume remains small. This signals emerging value, not a replacement channel. Higher conversion rate. ChatGPT traffic converted at 1.81% vs. 1.39% for non-branded organic (31% higher). It outperformed organic in 10 of 12 months. Visibility Labs attributes the higher rate to i…

Google’s AI Overviews now appear across search results with varying frequency. However, in certain categories, they dominate entirely. According to Adthena: Finance queries see AI Overviews on 79% of longer searches with five or more words. Retail shows 84% visibility for comparison and product discovery queries in the 9-10 word range. Healthcare also triggers high AI Overview penetration even when users are searching short medical questions of 1-3 words. You know organic traffic faces headwinds. What you might underestimate is how severe the downstream impact on paid search can be. Here’s what that looks like in practice. AI Overviews’ impact on paid…

The last year has had many of us trying to understand how to report on AI visibility and understand what it takes to be seen and cited by AI. But Rand Fishkin’s latest study on AI response variability has emphasized that LLM outputs aren’t as stable and predictable as search rankings, making this KPI an inconsistent piece of the puzzle. The study found there’s less than a 1 in 100 chance that ChatGPT or Google AI will return the same list of brands across two responses. They analyzed thousands of prompts across multiple LLMs to highlight just how varied they are. This has left some of the SEO community questioning the value of rank tracking at scale. But, rank…