SEO Tools and Resources

We’ve all been there. A client wants to scale their Google Ads account from €10,000 per month to €100,000. So, you do what any good PPC manager would do: Refine your bidding strategy. Test new ad copy variations. Expand your keyword portfolio. Optimize landing pages. Improve Quality Scores. Launch Performance Max campaigns. Three months later, you’ve increased ad spend by 15%. The client is… fine with it. But you know you should be doing better. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most pay-per-click (PPC) optimization work is sophisticated procrastination. What the theory of constraints teaches us about PPC The theory of constraints, develop…

Cloudflare yesterday announced its new Markdown for Agents feature, which serves machine-friendly versions of web content alongside traditional human-facing pages. Cloudflare described the update as a response to the rise of AI crawlers and agentic browsing. When a client requests text/markdown, Cloudflare fetches the HTML from the origin server, converts it at the edge, and returns a Markdown version. The response also includes a token estimate header intended to help developers manage context windows. Early reactions focused on the efficiency gains, as well as the broader implications of serving alternate representations of web content. What’s happen…

On episode 341 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Andrea Cruz, Head of B2B at Tinuiti, to unpack a mistake many senior marketers quietly struggle with: freezing when clients demand answers you don’t immediately have. The conversation explored how communication missteps can escalate client tension — and how the right mindset, preparation, and culture can turn those moments into career-defining growth. From hands-on marketer to team leader As Cruz advanced in her career, she shifted from managing campaigns directly to leading teams running large, complex accounts. That transition introduced a new challenge: representing work she didn’t personally execute day to …

Over two months ago, Google began testing its AI-powered configuration tool. It allows you to ask AI questions about the Google Search Console performance reports and it would bring back answers for you. Well, it now seems like this tool is rolling out more broadly, maybe to everyone. AI-powered configuration. AI-powered configuration “lets you describe the analysis you want to see in natural language. Your inputs are then transformed into the appropriate filters and settings, instantly configuring the report for you,” Google said. Rolling out now. If you login to your Search Console account and click on the performance report, you may see a note at the top that s…

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…

OpenAI is serving ads inside ChatGPT, and new findings suggest the experience looks quite different from what the company originally envisioned. What’s happening. Research from AI ad intelligence firm Adthena has identified the first confirmed ads appearing on ChatGPT for signed-in desktop users in the U.S. The big surprise. Early speculation suggested ads would only surface after extended back-and-forth conversations. That’s not what’s happening. When a user asked “What’s the best way to book a weekend away?”, sponsored placements appeared immediately — on the very first response. What they look like. The ads feature a prominent brand favicon and a clear “Spo…

Search Console is a free gift from Google for SEO professionals that tells you how your website is performing. It’s the closest thing to X-ray vision we can get. With data-packed amenities, SEO professionals can scavenge through to locate stashes of hidden nuggets like clicks and impressions from search queries, Core Web Vitals, and whatever other surprises lie within your website. Custom regex filters take you around your million-page website. And while all SEO professionals hope to avoid any catastrophic SEO-related events with Google’s AI Overview, all we can really do is be prepared. For starters, keep reading this guide below on Search Console. …

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…

If you head to Tools → Planning in Google Ads, chances are you’re clicking into Keyword Planner. Most advertisers stop there. But two other planners sit in the same menu — often overlooked — that can directly influence how you forecast budgets, model performance shifts, and scale campaigns. Performance Planner and Reach Planner offer deeper insight into how spend changes affect your key metrics across channels. Here’s a practical breakdown of how each tool works and when to use them to forecast growth more accurately. Why Performance Planner matters for scaling search and display Performance Planner helps you model how metrics could change if you adjust ad…

AI-based discovery offers a new level of sophistication in surfacing content, without relying solely on keywords. Beyond keyword-string-first approaches, contextual and semantic elements are now more important than ever. Optimization is no longer about just reinforcing the keyword. It’s also about constructing a retrievable semantic environment around it. This impacts how we write, create, and think about content. It applies whether you write every word yourself or employ automated workflows. Reframing your publishing strategy around context Much has already been written about the concepts covered here. This discussion focuses on tying them together into a…

Self-serve negative keyword lists are now live in Microsoft Advertising, according to Ads Liaison Navah Hopkins — giving advertisers long-requested control without submitting support tickets. What’s happening. Advertisers can now create and manage shared negative keyword lists directly in the UI. Lists support up to 5,000 negative keywords (one per line) and can be applied at either the campaign or account level. Match types function the same way in Performance Max as they do in traditional Search campaigns. Lists can also be edited, exported as CSV files, or removed from campaigns as needed. Microsoft notes that match type formatting requires brackets for ex…

Google is expanding its recurring billing policy to allow certified U.S. online pharmacies to promote prescription drugs with subscriptions and bundled services. What’s happening. Certified merchants can now offer: Prescription drug subscriptions — recurring billing for prescription medications. Prescription drug bundles — combining drugs with services like coaching or treatment programs, as long as the drug is the primary product. Prescription drug consultation services — recurring consults to determine prescription eligibility, either standalone or bundled with medications. Requirements for eligibility. Merchants must maintain certified status, submit…

Google Ads is set to enhance the viewer experience of Performance Max video ads with an innovative asset optimization feature. Leveraging advanced AI voice models, this update aims to infuse video ads with realistic voice-overs, ultimately enhancing user engagement and ad performance. Why we care. Advertisers who don’t actively opt out by March 20, will have their video ads automatically enhanced with Google’s AI voice models, changing how their ads sound to viewers without requiring any creative production work. How it works. The feature only activates on videos that don’t already contain a voice track Google’s AI selects text from advertiser-provided hea…

Eight in ten Performance Max advertisers are receiving connected TV (CTV) impressions via YouTube, as reported by Smarter Ecoommerce’s Mike Ryan. Google has expanded the channel’s reach over the past year — and the trajectory is only accelerating. The timeline of how we got here: Q2 2025: Google began serving CTV ads using standard product feed images, meaning advertisers with no video assets were suddenly generating TV impressions from their existing catalog photos January 2026: Google announced shoppable CTV ads — letting viewers browse products and scan QR codes to purchase directly from their TV screen, pulling directly from Google Merchant Center prod…

We’ve tested Google AI Max over the past nine months, analyzing 23 individual tests across 16 already mature advertisers operating within a range of verticals. This article reveals what we did to maximize success with this campaign type. Your experiments and observations may vary. If so, we’d welcome the debate. This is intended to be just one voice among many in the conversation around AI Max. All the analyses we discuss are replicable within your own accounts, so you can ratify or dispute the findings based on your own data. The ground rules for AI Max Before launching an AI Max test, consider several factors. Two are particularly significant: Your c…

Google is launching Ask Maps, a conversational AI feature that lets users ask Google Maps complex, real-world questions and get personalized, actionable answers — powered by the company’s Gemini AI models. What’s new. Users can now ask Maps questions like “Is there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?” or “My phone is dying — where can I charge it without a long wait?” and get a conversational answer with a customized map view. Key capabilities include: Personalized recommendations — Results are tailored based on your search and save history, so Maps already knows, for example, that you prefer vegan restaurants before you ask. …

Google’s AI Overviews may be reducing traditional search clicks, but publishers still have meaningful growth opportunities in breaking news and Google Discover, according to new data from Define Media Group. Organic search clicks have fallen 42% since AI Overviews began expanding in Google Search, according to Define Media Group’s analysis of Google Search Console data across its portfolio of 64 sites. Why we care. AI-generated answers are reshaping search traffic. Evergreen content is losing clicks, while real-time news coverage and Discover distribution are emerging as stronger traffic channels for publishers. By the numbers. Across Google Search, Discover,…

If you’re a content strategist, you might feel this isn’t your territory. Keep reading, because it is. Everything you build feeds these five gates, and the decisions the algorithms make here determine whether the system recruits your content, trusts it enough to display it, and recommends it to the person who just asked for exactly what you sell. The DSCRI infrastructure phase covers the first five gates: discovery through indexing. DSCRI is a sequence of absolute tests where the system either has your content or it doesn’t, and every failure degrades the content the competitive phase inherits. The competitive phase, ARGDW (annotation through won), is a sequence o…

For a long time, a nonprofit’s digital presence hasn’t been a “nice-to-have.” It’s the central hub for mission delivery, donor engagement, and advocacy. Many organizations struggle with the technical and strategic foundations needed to turn a website and a few social accounts into a high-performing digital ecosystem. The goal isn’t simply to “be online.” It’s to build reliable infrastructure, so your organization owns its narrative, protects its assets, and measures the impact of “free” digital efforts. Here’s a practical look at the critical elements of managing a nonprofit’s digital presence — and the common pitfalls to avoid — based on my experience helping…

Although Google continues to test ads in AI Mode, users who connect apps to enable Personal Intelligence won’t see ads — and that isn’t changing right now, a Google spokesperson confirmed. What’s happening. Google has been testing ads inside AI Mode in the U.S. Early results: users find these business connections “helpful,” per Google. But there’s a clear carveout: no ads for users who opt into app-connected, highly personalized experiences. The details. Google today expanded Personal Intelligence in AI Mode as a beta to anyone in the U.S., allowing Gemini to generate more tailored responses by connecting data across its ecosystem, including Google Search…

A new version of the Google Ads API is out, bringing a handful of targeted updates across video, app campaigns, and audience planning tools. Key changes in this release. A new VideoEnhancement resource that surfaces whether a video ad is Google-generated or advertiser-provided — giving developers clearer visibility into auto-enhanced creative A new AppTopCombinationView resource providing read-only insights into top-performing asset combinations in App campaigns The ability to disable the hotel feed in Demand Gen campaigns via HotelSettingInfo.disable_hotel_setting A new conversion metric for indirect first in-app installs across Campaign, Customer, and …

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. …

AI Overviews, which place generated answers directly at the top of search results, are improving the search experience for users. For businesses that rely on content to drive traffic from search engines, the impact is far less positive. Google has been moving toward more “helpful” results for years, and zero-click searches are nothing new. AI Overviews accelerate that shift, absorbing much of the traffic opportunity that search has historically provided. How AI changes the work of search For years, search followed a familiar pattern: A user entered a short query, such as “team building companies.” Google returned a page of paid and organic res…

Yahoo has launched its first version of its AI-based answer engine named Yahoo! Scout. Yahoo! Scout is available at scout.yahoo.com and is also embedded through Yahoo’s massive network of sites; Yahoo News, Finance, Mail and of course, Yahoo Search. Think of it as a Yahoo-branded AI companion for Yahoo users, that is there to help you along the way within those specific properties. What is Yahoo Scout. Yahoo Scout is Yahoo’s take at an AI search engine and companion, much like Google’s AI Mode or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but with a flare from Yahoo. Yahoo told me that they wanted Yahoo Scout to have personality, to make it fun and engaging for users to interact with and allo…

We are excited to announce an update to our Offer schema within Yoast SEO for Shopify. This update introduces a more robust way to communicate pricing to search engines, specifically introducing sale price strikethroughs. What’s new? Previously, communicating a “sale” was often limited to showing a single price. With this update, we’ve refined how our schema handles the Offer object. You can now clearly define: The original price: The “base” price before any discounts. The sale price: The current active price the customer pays. Why this matters When search engines understand the relationship between your original and sale prices, they can bette…