SEO Tools and Resources

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…

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…

Search strategy once meant ranking on Google. We optimized websites and invested heavily in organic visibility. Entire marketing strategies were built around capturing demand from Google search results. But search behavior doesn’t live on a single platform. Today, people search on TikTok for recommendations, YouTube for tutorials, Reddit for honest opinions, and Amazon for product validation. Search behavior now spans a much wider set of platforms, creating one of the most overlooked opportunities in digital marketing. Search behavior is diversifying Recent research from SparkToro and Datos analyzed search behavior across 41 major platforms, including tradi…

Google is expanding capabilities in Google Ads Editor to give advertisers more creative flexibility, automation control, and budget precision — especially as AI-driven campaign types continue to evolve. What’s new. The 2.12 release introduces a wide set of updates across Performance Max, Demand Gen, and video campaigns, with a clear focus on scaling creative assets and improving workflow efficiency. Creative expansion. Performance Max campaigns now support up to 15 videos per asset group, allowing advertisers to feed more variations into Google’s AI for testing. The addition of 9:16 vertical images also reflects growing demand for mobile-first formats, particularl…

As Google rolls out AI Overviews, AI Mode in Search, and the Gemini ecosystem, we face a growing challenge: what happens when users get answers — and soon complete purchases — without leaving Google’s interfaces? Enter Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), now in beta. UCP is designed to help brands to sell to consumers without leaving the Gemini or LLM experience. Consumers can check out within the LLM, add rewards points, and fully execute the transaction. Here’s an example flow: How Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol works At its core, UCP standardizes how consumer AI interfaces communicate with merchant checkout systems. When a user tells G…

OpenAI is beginning to build the infrastructure for a formal advertising business around ChatGPT — but early performance signals suggest the company still has work to do to match established search platforms. What’s happening. OpenAI started testing an Ads Manager dashboard with a small group of partners, according to confirmation shared with ADWEEK. The tool allows marketers to launch, monitor, and optimise campaigns in real time, similar to the campaign management platforms used across digital advertising. Why we care. OpenAI is beginning to build a self-serve ads ecosystem around ChatGPT with a dedicated Ads Manager, as they prepare for AI assistants becoming a…

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…

The words “incremental” and “incrementality” get thrown around in affiliate marketing, but they might not mean what they sound like. There may be no increase in actual sales, new customers, or revenue. Affiliate marketers who refer to incrementality often look at it only within the affiliate channel, not across your company as a whole. To determine whether affiliates are truly incremental, ask a simple question: Would the sale have happened without the affiliate program? The answer determines whether the partner is bringing you new customers and revenue or simply intercepting customers already in your checkout flow. Why high-intent traffic doesn’t always mean…

LinkedIn is launching a new AI-powered feed ranking system that uses large language models and GPUs to analyze post content and surface more relevant updates to its 1.3 billion members. Why we care. Understanding how LinkedIn surfaces content is critical if you want your posts — or your brand’s — to be discovered. The new system prioritizes topical relevance and engagement patterns, LinkedIn said. Posts that demonstrate expertise and align with emerging professional conversations may travel farther across the network — even without existing connections. The details. LinkedIn rebuilt much of its feed recommendation system using large language models, transformer mo…

The webpage is no longer the unit of digital visibility. For years, we’ve built our digital presence on a foundation of URLs and keywords, but that infrastructure was designed for a highway that AI has now bypassed. In the search everywhere revolution, the most powerful atomic unit is the entity — a well-defined, machine-readable representation of a concept, product, organization, or person. The brands establishing AI-era dominance are engineering entity authority. To survive the shift from traditional search to generative discovery, we must move beyond the page and focus on entity linkage to build a foundation of AI visibility. The e…

The rules of organic content are shifting from a “publish more” to a “prove more” mindset. Search results increasingly answer questions directly through AI summaries, shopping features, and other SERP integrations. Visibility alone doesn’t resolve buyer uncertainty. For ecommerce brands, organic visibility now requires recognition and trust amid the noise on the SERPs. The 2026 game is both simpler and more demanding. Invest in organic assets that: Reduce buyer uncertainty. Are machine-readable. Compound across multiple discovery surfaces. The forces shaping organic content’s ROI in 2026 Today’s search is defined by three forces changing how cont…

Over the past decade, I’ve reviewed hundreds of resumes, conducted countless interviews, and led numerous technical tests for SEO candidates. Along the way, I’ve met many exceptional professionals — but I’ve also noticed a recurring pattern of common interview mistakes that can hold even the most talented candidates back. Below are 11 common mistakes I’ve observed in SEO interviews — and how you can easily avoid them. 1. Projecting arrogance instead of confidence Confidence is great! While imposter syndrome is common in SEO, it’s important to maintain realistic confidence in your skills and experience. However, there is a fine line between projecting conf…

Are you watching your team’s creative operations buckle under mounting pressure? You’re not alone. As project complexity skyrockets and client demands intensify, creative leaders face an unprecedented challenge: scaling operations without sacrificing quality or burning out teams. The solution isn’t working harder, rather, it’s working smarter with technology that transforms your entire content lifecycle. Here’s how forward-thinking creative operations leaders are building resilient, scalable workflows that thrive in 2025’s demanding landscape. The perfect storm facing creative operations Creative teams are caught in a maelstrom of expectations and pressure…

Chloe Varnfield, a digital marketing specialist at Atelier Studios with nearly eight years in PPC, joined me to share the mistakes that shaped her career — and the lessons every advertiser should take from them. When Google sneaks settings past you Chloe’s first story centers on Google’s account-level automated assets setting — a feature so well hidden that many advertisers don’t know it exists until a client sends a screenshot asking why their headline looks completely wrong. The setting, buried behind a three-dot menu, defaults to on, meaning Google can automatically generate and serve headlines advertisers never wrote or approved. The takeaway: always audit your…

SerpApi is asking a federal court to dismiss Reddit’s lawsuit over alleged scraping of Reddit content from Google Search, saying Reddit is trying to use copyright law to control user posts and public search results. The motion follows Reddit’s amended complaint filed in February. SerpApi says the filing still fails to show copyright ownership, circumvention of technical protections, or concrete harm. SerpApi’s argument. SerpApi CEO Julien Khaleghy, in a blog post today, argued the lawsuit fails for several reasons: Reddit doesn’t own most of the content at issue. Its user agreement states that users retain ownership. Reddit holds only a non-exclusive …

The days of building campaigns around long lists of keywords are fading. Today, AI-powered Google campaigns and features like Performance Max (PMax) and AI Max are changing the rules. These keywordless campaigns lean on automation, audience signals, and machine learning to find new opportunities, often faster and at greater scale than humans can. At SMX Next, three PPC pros — Nikki Kuhlman, VP of search at Jumpfly; Brad Geddes, founder of Adalysis; and Christine Zirnheld, director of lead gen at Cypress North — explained where PMax and AI Max fit into your broader campaign strategy, where humans still make the difference, and how to strike the right balance betwee…

A recent Harvard Business Review piece echoes the shift we’re sseeing in the SEO industry: at a macro level, LLMs and Google’s AI-powered SERP features, such as AI Overviews, aren’t just creating a zero-click environment, but also changing user journeys and behavior. They’re collapsing what used to be multi-touch customer journeys into a single synthesized answer. For a more visual and emphatic metaphor, the monolith of “Search” is crumbling. When that happens, brands lose many of the touchpoints they once owned, and your marketing strategy must change accordingly. HBR captures this moment well, arguing that marketing now has a new audience and that algori…

ChatGPT retrieves far more webpages than it cites. A new AirOps analysis found that 85% of discovered sources never appear in the final answer. Why we care. If you want your content cited in AI-generated answers, discovery isn’t enough. Most retrieved pages never become visible to users. Key finding. In AI answers, retrieval doesn’t equal citation. Your page can rank and be retrieved yet still lose the citation to a source that better matches the prompt or supporting context. This shifts optimization toward earning selection inside the AI synthesis process—not just appearing in search results, per the report. By the numbers: 82,108 citations appeared…

The standard agency reporting call is broken. Budgets are under extreme scrutiny, yet you still invest in vendors that celebrate arbitrary traffic gains while your sales pipeline stays flat. Optimizing for raw traffic volume is a legacy mindset that hides real commercial performance. The new mandate is to build an acquisition engine that influences buyers and protects your profit and loss (P&L) long before the transaction. To survive as a marketing leader today, you must ruthlessly challenge your internal teams and external agencies. Stop accepting reports on operational output and demand hard financial accountability: pipeline contribution, customer lifetime …

For years, SEO followed a fairly predictable playbook: create valuable content, optimize it for search engines, and compete for rankings on Google. But the way people discover information online is changing quickly. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are introducing a new layer between users and search engines, where answers are generated and synthesized rather than simply retrieved. In a recent episode of the Get Discovered podcast, Joe Walsh, CEO of Prerender.io, sat down with Yoast’s Principal Architect Alain Schlesser to discuss what this shift means for SEO and online discoverability. Their conversation explores how AI answer engines are reshaping the sea…

Brandon Ervin, Director of Product Management for Google Search Ads, recently discussed campaign consolidation, AI Max, and what advertiser control looks like in 2026 on Google’s Ads Decoded podcast. The conversation was serious and informed, and reflected a product team that understands advertiser concerns and is actively working to address them. But the podcast is also incomplete. The gap between what Google said and what advertisers actually experience from their sales organization is large enough to warrant a direct response. Ervin’s team is doing genuinely good work, but the platform’s structural incentives haven’t changed. Google’s evolving product is creati…

Google is leaving the door open to advertising in its Gemini AI app, with a senior executive telling WIRED the company is “not ruling them out” — a notable shift from the flat denials made just months ago. What’s changed: In January, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told reporters at Davos that Google had no plans to put ads in Gemini. Now, SVP Nick Fox is saying otherwise — noting that learnings from ads in AI Mode will “likely carry over” to Gemini down the road. The current strategy. Rather than rushing into Gemini, Google is using AI Mode — its Gemini-powered Search product — as a testing ground for ad formats in AI experiences. Ads are kept separate fr…

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,…

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 redesigned the Asset Optimization section in Google Ads for Demand Gen campaigns, consolidating AI-powered creative controls into a single, cleaner interface. Why we care. Advertisers managing creative at scale now have a centralized panel to toggle automated features on or off — making the process less manual and time consuming. What’s new. The redesigned layout groups three key automation capabilities together: Auto-generated shorter videos — AI trims existing video assets into shorter cuts to qualify for additional placements. Automatic video resizing — Videos are adapted across multiple aspect ratios to maximize inventory coverage. Landi…