SEO Tools and Resources

Google Ads will change how automatically created customer conversion goals are set as account-default starting Nov. 17, aiming to reduce wasted spend from campaigns optimizing toward irrelevant goals. How it works now. New conversion actions created via the API automatically generate customer conversion goals. Those goals are set as account-default by default, making them biddable across campaigns. The result: campaigns may target unnecessary goals, diluting performance. What’s changing. Under the new rules, a newly created goal will only default to account-level bidding if every other goal in that category is already account-default. Example: If an acc…

President Donald The President signed an executive order approving a proposed $14 billion deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S., with a new joint-venture company overseeing its U.S. business. ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent, would retain under 20% ownership if China signs off. Why we care. This deal ends a years-long national security fight that nearly got TikTok banned in the U.S., where it has more than 150 million users. For advertisers, that means continued access to one of the fastest-growing platforms for reaching younger audiences. But political and regulatory uncertainty still hangs over TikTok, leaving questions about ad budgets and brand safety. …

ChatGPT now processes 66 million “search-like” prompts per day, while Google still processes about 14 billion searches daily – roughly 210 times more. That’s the latest AI search reality check, via Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SparkToro. By the numbers. Google processes ~210x more searches than ChatGPT. Even DuckDuckGo outpaces ChatGPT in referrals, per estimates. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said ChatGPT handled 1 billion prompts per day in December. By July, that number was 2.5 billion prompts. Much of that growth comes from API calls (businesses plugging GPT into products). A Harvard/OpenAI study found 21.3% of prompts are “search-like.” That’s roughly …

Content has long been the fuel for SEO, and its importance continues as AI-driven search relies on rich, trustworthy information. I’ve always believed in doing the “good” and “right” things when it comes to creating content at scale – but even good things can become problems when overdone. Too often, SEO and AI visibility efforts get reduced to publishing more blogs, landing pages, or articles in the pursuit of quick wins that executives want to see. While content is critical, treating SEO as a production machine creates the illusion of progress. Activity without performance bloats sites with duplicative, commoditized, or low-value pages that both search…

Many still treat E-E-A-T as a box to tick in an SEO audit. But it’s more than that – it’s how search engines and AI systems decide which content to trust. The paradox? Global brands that dominate in one country often underperform in others. Without clear local trust and authority signals, even the strongest global reputation may not carry across borders. Why E-E-A-T breaks down across borders When Google or an LLM compares multiple content options, it must choose which is the most complete, accurate, and trustworthy. That decision once leaned heavily on backlinks. Now, advanced algorithms consider a richer mix – authorship, structured d…

For a decade, marketing strategy was engineered to master Google’s “messy middle.” Today, the customer’s exploration and evaluation journey has migrated from the open web (PPC, Reddit, YouTube, websites) into closed AI environments (ChatGPT, AI Mode, Perplexity), making direct observation impossible. Your marketing analytics stack faces funnel blindness. You must reconstruct customer journeys from fragmented data offered by LLM visibility tools. Funnel reconstruction relies on two primary data streams The rush to measure LLM performance has vendors promising dashboards to help you “Analyze your AI visibility right now.” This work requires reconciling two f…

Google Ads can now surface a recommendation to link your unlinked Google Analytics account to your Google Ads account. The neat part is that the linking of your Google Ads and analytics account can be done with a single click. How it works. Google will show this as a recommendation in the Recommendations section of the Campaigns page in the Google Ads console for eligible users. All you need to do is review the recommendation and click “Apply.” What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the recommendation: Why we care. Google said advertisers “who link their Google Ads or Google Marketing Platform accounts to a Google Analytics property are correlated …

OpenAI is hiring a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer to help develop tools for ad platform integration, campaign management, and real-time attribution. The role is part of a new ChatGPT growth team tasked with building the backbone of OpenAI’s in-house paid marketing platform. Why we care. OpenAI wants to monetize free users via ChatGPT ads by 2026, according to reports. It seems that OpenAI is now starting to build that ad-buying infrastructure so brands can run campaigns on ChatGPT. That would give advertisers access to a new platform with massive reach (700 million weekly users as of August). The details. The listing calls for building APIs, data pi…

Google will update its Misrepresentation policy specific to the Dishonest Pricing Practices. Specifically, this will require advertisers to disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will incur before and after purchase, and clarify any false or misleading impressions of the cost of a product or service. What is changing. Google will update the policy specific to these changes: Advertisers must clearly and conspicuously disclose the payment model or full expense that a user will bear before and after purchase. Pricing practices that create a false or misleading impression of the cost of a product or service, leading to inflated or unexpected charge…

My experience has shown one simple truth: clients stay or go based not on results alone, but on the service they receive. This holds true for the vast majority of clients we’ve worked with. You can deliver excellent outcomes, but if clients feel underserved, they’re likely to leave. Clients aren’t always rational, and that’s exactly why every touchpoint matters – especially reporting. Reporting is often your main connection with clients and can define how they perceive your service. That makes it one of the most important parts of your business. So, what makes a great report? This article tackles the key principles of building reports that …

Google AI Mode is search with a brain. It uses AI to answer questions directly, so it’s no longer about just blue links. Type, talk, or upload a photo, and it gives you a useful summary plus follow-ups. Here’s how it works and why it matters. Table of contents Say hello to Google’s AI Mode Search becomes a lot smarter How Google AI Mode works in practice The focus of content is changing What does Google AI Mode mean for SEO? Where it’s going How to access Google AI Mode Meet Google’s AI Mode Say hello to Google’s AI Mode Google AI Mode is a feature in Search that uses generative AI to deliver full, conversational answers instead of just showing a …

Table of contents How AI perceives your brand The new gatekeepers: LLMs & generative search What shapes your brand’s AI profile What you can do about it: building brand equity in the AI era The future of brand perception What does ChatGPT say about your brand? Or Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude? As AI agents emerge alongside traditional search engines as the starting point of discovery, the way they perceive and present your brand can directly shape customer trust and buying decisions. These models don’t know your brand the way people do. They learn it from the web, from structured data, citations, reviews, and the context you’ve built across digital touchpoint…

Having great product pages is important for your sales. After all, it’s where people decide to click that buy button. Besides optimizing your product pages for user experience, you also want to make sure these pages work for your SEO. You might think this is obvious. That’s why we’ll show you a few less obvious elements of product page SEO in this post. And we’ll explain why it’s so important to take these things into account. Let’s go! Table of contents 1. The basics of product page SEO 2. Add structured data for your products and get rich results 3. Add real reviews 4. Make your product page lightning fast 5. User test your product page Bonus: Build trust and show…

Table of contents How to make your content visible in the age of AI search What are LLMs and why should you care? The new way of searching SEO vs. GEO vs. AEO vs. LLMO: Are we just rebranding SEO? Key LLM SEO optimization techniques The bar has been raised on the quality of content Use structure, chunked formatting Be factual, transparent, and authoritative Optimize for summarization Use schema Bonus strategies for LLM optimization Use explicit context and clear language Leverage FAQs and Conversational Formats Enhance trust with freshness signals Prioritize author visibility and credibility Use internal linking strategically The role of llms.txt: Giving AI search …

Table of contents Why is driving traffic to your website important? Top 5 practical tips to boost website traffic Understand your target audience Focus on SEO basics Create quality content that provides value Leverage social media to share and increase the reach Keep your site fast & mobile-friendly Bonus tips for boosting traffic Build an email list Off-page SEO for link building Join online communities and forums Local SEO Ready to drive traffic to your website? Excited to launch your website, but how to drive traffic to your website? A beautifully designed site without visitors is like a shop with no customers; that’s why traffic matters. Wondering h…

We just introduced two new updates to Yoast SEO Premium that focus on clarity and speed. Yoast SEO Redirect Manager just got a cleaner, more user-friendly workspace. After heavy testing, Yoast AI Optimize is now available for the Classic Editor. It helps you optimize your copy for readability and SEO without disrupting your workflow or website performance. Redirects, made simpler The Redirect Manager helps you prevent errors like 404s and 410s by automatically prompting you to create redirects when you move or delete content. The core functionality remains the same. The new design makes redirect management easier and clearer. Here’s a quick reminder of what …

Table of contents How is Yoast SEO a game-changer for your Shopify store? Top Yoast SEO for Shopify Features to help maximize your Black Friday visibility Instantly generate SEO-friendly meta titles and descriptions with one-click AI SEO and readability analysis Automatic product structured data Optimize how your store appears on search and social media Other notable features Over to you… Before we know it, the winter hues will set in, and with them comes the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday. Black Friday 2024 was a goldmine for online businesses, clocking in record-breaking numbers. Online shoppers spent over $10 billion, marking a 10% jump fr…

Black Friday isn’t just a sales event; it’s a battle for attention. Whenever product, price, and promotion fight for a click, visibility becomes a battle for dominance, not just survival. Are you a WooCommerce store owner pouring your energy and budget into paid ads, but not getting the required results? But what about organic traffic? That’s free traffic, compounding over time. Does it often get ignored, just when it matters most? This Black Friday, Yoast WooCommerce SEO offers a more innovative way to boost visibility in search engines. It’s built to help ecommerce teams and SEO beginners optimize product listings at scale, improve product rankings, and get their p…

Writing the right SEO title or meta description can be time-consuming, especially when unsure what works best. That’s where Yoast AI Generate comes in. Now, all Yoast SEO users can try it with 10 free Sparks. What does Yoast AI Generate do? Yoast AI Generate suggests SEO titles and meta descriptions based on your content and keyphrase to help your content stand out in search results and attract more visitors. It analyzes your post and offers tailored suggestions that are clear, relevant, and optimized for search, without starting from scratch. Use Yoast AI Generate to: Speed up your workflow Improve your search snippet quality Feel mor…

Table of contents Choose what AI sees Why this matters Built for the future of SEO AI tools are changing how people discover your website, and not always in the way you’d want. They might surface old blog posts, low-priority pages, or content that no longer reflects your brand. That can confuse users, damage trust, and dilute your expertise. That’s where llms.txt comes in. And now, you can personalize it. Choose what AI sees The llms.txt file points large language models to the content on your site that deserves attention. With the latest update, you’re in control: Manual mode: Pick the exact pages you want to include. Automatic mo…

If you’re running video ads on YouTube, you know there are a lot of factors to consider. But one of the most crucial elements is often overlooked: where your ads actually show up. This article explores the different kinds of video ad placements in Google Ads, helping you distinguish between them and understand how each one impacts your campaign performance. I’ll cover: What are the 3 main types of YouTube video ad placements? In-Stream Ads: The familiar YouTube pre-Roll Shorts Ads: Vertical video in the feed In-Feed Ads: Discovery-driven placements How to measure success of in-stream, Shorts and in-feed ads How to choose your video ad pla…

Google’s YouTube Insights Finder tool, launched to help advertisers understand intent-based audience insights, is now available in over 20 markets worldwide. How it works: Explore interests and trends: Find out what your audience is searching for and interested in. Discover top creators: Identify trending creators by topic, category, or audience segment. Measure engagement: Access detailed metrics on viewer engagement and content preferences. Understand device usage: Analyze how audiences watch across devices, including Connected TV. Why we care. The tool taps into YouTube’s trove of viewing behavior and trending topics, helping you tailor c…

Search traffic is down. AI Overviews are pushing results lower. Budgets are being slashed. Is this the end of SEO as we know it? Not so fast. I interviewed SMX Advanced speaker Eric Enge about the future of search, the rise of generative AI, and how SEOs can still win big in a rapidly changing landscape. Some of the topics covered: Why 35% traffic drops aren’t the end of the world. How AI-driven search changes what it means to “rank.” Why user engagement and brand signals matter more than ever. What to expect at SMX Advanced 2025 in Boston. Reminder: SMX Advanced returns June 11-13 in Boston. Get your tickets now! This transcript has b…

Search marketers know that visibility doesn’t always equal traffic—and with Google’s AI Overviews gaining traction, the gap is growing. Users are now getting answers directly in the SERP, often without clicking through. That means your content strategy must evolve to stay relevant. In Building a Smarter Content Strategy in the Age of AI, MoreVisibility breaks down how marketers can adapt for a zero-click future, use AI as a strategic tool (not just for content creation), and measure performance beyond CTR. Inside the guide you’ll find: Why traditional SEO tactics aren’t enough in AI-driven SERPs How to make content discoverable—even when users never land on y…

When you work on your site’s SEO, reflecting on those efforts should be part of your ongoing strategy. Whether it’s for a client, your manager, or your team, creating an SEO report is the best way to do so. This helps you justify your efforts, keep track of performance and figure out what needs to be tackled next. And it’s not as hard as you would think. In this blog post, we’ll explain what SEO reporting is and take you through the process step by step. Table of contents What is SEO reporting exactly? What to include in your SEO report A general data overview Data on (content) performance Activities previous period A summary with recommendations Creating an SEO …