SEO Tools and Resources

In 2026 and well beyond, a core part of the performance marketer’s charter is learning to leverage AI to drive growth and efficiency. Anyone who isn’t actively evaluating new AI tools to improve or streamline their PPC work is doing their brand or clients a disservice. The challenge is that keeping up with these tools has become almost a full-time job, which is why my agency has made AI a priority in our structured knowledge-sharing. As a team, we’ve honed in on favorites across creative, campaign management, and AI search measurement. This article breaks down key options in each category, with brief reviews and a callout of my current pick. One ove…

In 1997, Apple launched a campaign that became cultural gospel. “Think Different” celebrated the rebels, the misfits, the troublemakers. The ones who saw things differently. The ones who changed the world. Apple understood something fundamental: the constraints that limited imagination weren’t real. They were inherited. Accepted. Assumed. And the people who broke through weren’t smarter or more talented. They simply refused to believe the constraints applied to them. Twenty-eight years later, marketing faces its own Think Different moment. The constraints are gone. Technology has removed them. AI can generate infinite variants. Data platforms deliver real-t…

Google announced new weekly and monthly views within the Google Search Console performance reports adds weekly and monthly views. This gives you more granular data and analysis of your reports over a longer period of time, and not just the 24-hour view. What it looks like. Here are photos I took from the announcement which took place at the Google Search Central event in Zurich this morning: Why we care. This is a small update but it gives SEOs, publishers and site owners access to more granular data. It may help you dive in and see why you saw a change in your performance data on a specific month, week or day. View the full article

Google is being forced to cap all default search and AI app deals at one year. This will end the long-term agreements (think: Apple, Samsung) that helped secure its default status on billions of devices. Just don’t expect this to end Google’s search dynasty anytime soon. Driving the news. Judge Amit Mehta on Friday called the one-year cap a “hard-and-fast termination requirement” needed to enforce antitrust remedies after his 2024 ruling that Google illegally monopolized search and search ads, Business Insider reported. In September, Mehta ruled on Google search deals: “Google will be barred from entering or maintaining any exclusive contract relating to the dist…

A report from AdWeek claimed Google privately told clients it plans to introduce ads in its Gemini AI chatbot in 2026 — but Google’s top ads executive is publicly denying it. Driving the news. AdWeek reported that Google reps, in recent calls with major advertisers, suggested that Gemini would get ad placements in 2026, separate from the company’s existing ads in AI Mode, the AI-powered search experience launched in March. Buyers said no prototypes, formats, or pricing were shown. The conversations were described as exploratory and lacked technical detail. Google says that’s wrong. Dan Taylor, Google’s VP of Global Ads, disputed the report directly on X, w…

Google is quietly testing a new way to make Shopping ads feel more local. Select ads using local inventory feeds now display the merchant’s city or town directly above the product title — think “London” or “Tonbridge” — giving shoppers a clearer sense of where the store is based. Why we care. The new location labels make Shopping ads feel more local and trustworthy, helping nearby retailers stand out in crowded results. Clear city or town indicators can increase click-through rates and drive more in-store visits from shoppers who prefer buying close to home. It also gives merchants using local inventory feeds a competitive edge by highlighting proximity without n…

If it feels like the entire internet woke up one day and decided to start every sentence with “AI,” you’re not wrong. Marketers are being hit with a daily wave of LinkedIn thought leaders, half-baked prompt hacks, and promises that ChatGPT is either going to 10x your productivity or take your job entirely. And in the middle of all this? You (the digital marketer). Marketers are trying to figure out if this is just another buzzword cycle or the beginning of a complete rewrite of how we do content, SEO, PPC, reporting, and, well, everything. So let’s break it down. Consider this your AI starting guide, written for marketers who are tired of needing a young…

LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude now sit across search, content generation, and recommendations. Now, 80% of tech buyers rely on generative AI at least as much as traditional search to research vendors, according to a Responsive survey of B2B buyers. This effective transfer of trust in AI discovery has become an enablement tool for B2B buyers, quietly deciding which brands get remembered and which get ignored. And those decisions, once invisible, are now measurable. Previsible has been studying this shift through a new lens called LLM perception drift, the month-over-month change in how AI models reference and position brands inside a given catego…

OpenAI is trying to reassure paying users after ChatGPT surfaced what looked like ads from brands like Target and Peloton – and said those prompts weren’t ads at all. What happened. Paying ChatGPT users shared screenshots of promotional-style prompts, including a message urging them to “Shop for home and groceries. Connect Target.” In response, OpenAI said those prompts were recommendations for apps built on the ChatGPT platform, with “no financial component.” Users saw a brand logo and a call to action – and drew the obvious conclusion: these were ads. Users were not pleased. One response: “Bruhhh… Don’t insult your paying users.” What OpenAI is sayi…

Google Search Console will be gaining social channel data in the Insights report tab. This is a new “experiment” that “unified view of their Google Search performance across their websites and social channels,” Google wrote. The Insights report will show performance data for some of your social channels, including YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram. What Google said. Google said: “Today, we are excited to announce a new experiment in Search Console that offers site owners a unified view of their Google Search performance across their websites and social channels.” “With this update, we are expanding the Search Console Insights report to include performance data no…

Long sales cycles, low conversion volume, and multi-stage purchase journeys make measurement and attribution harder, creating real obstacles to campaign optimization. For B2Bs and brands selling high-ticket items, this is the reality. A campaign launched today may take weeks or even months to show revenue, retention, or lifetime value – delaying your ability to use those measurements to refine bidding and targeting. That’s where proxy metrics – also known as soft metrics, or micro-conversions – can come into play. Let’s dig into proxy metrics. What are proxy metrics? Proxy metrics are early indicators of future outcomes. They give you a way to …

SMX Advanced – the premier conference for senior-level search marketers – returns to Boston June 3 to 5, 2026 at the Westin Boston Seaport. We want to bring the most advanced strategies in SEO, PPC, and AI to our community – and we need your help to make it happen. Search is changing faster than ever. SEOs are scrambling to master AI SEO, navigate a SERP now dominated by AI Overviews, and make sense of Google volatility and algorithm updates. For PPC advertisers, making smart, data-driven decisions is getting harder. And on top of that, you’re expected to adopt new AI tools while still applying the right human touch. SMX Advanced is looking for speak…

On episode 333 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Nils Rooijmans, a renowned Google Ads script expert and top 10 PPC influencer, where she shares the experience of a costly error that serves as a valuable lesson for anyone managing paid search campaigns. The Setup: A quick account onboarding gone wrong The trouble began when one of Rooijmans’ existing clients acquired another company in the airport parking services industry. The acquired company was already running a small Google Ads account, and the client wanted Rooijmans to manage it without paying additional fees for proper onboarding. Against his better judgment, Rooijmans agreed to a compromise: they wou…

Google rolled out a beta that lets merchants display different loyalty-member prices by region in Shopping ads — giving retailers a new way to localize promotions without managing separate offers. Why we care. The feature gives merchants more flexibility to tailor pricing to local markets and highlight loyalty perks directly in ads, potentially boosting conversion and membership sign-ups. How it works Merchants must join Google’s loyalty add-on, set up regions in Merchant Center, and add loyalty_program attributes — including program label, tier, and price — to their regional inventory feed. When a shopper clicks an ad, Google appends a region ID to the UR…

Cloudflare has blocked 416 billion AI bot requests for customers since July 1, according to CEO Matthew Prince. To highlight Google’s massive edge in AI, Prince revealed that Google can see 3.2x more pages on the web than OpenAI. Why we care. Generative AI systems are consuming huge amounts of web content, and many publishers have no way to push back. Cloudflare’s numbers show how aggressively AI bots are scraping the web – and how uneven access is for the big AI companies. Driving the news. Cloudflare customers have been automatically blocking AI crawlers since the company launched its pay-per-crawl initiative July 1, Prince said yesterday at WIRED’s Big Intervie…

PPC for ecommerce operates differently from PPC for lead gen or SaaS. The way campaigns learn, the volume of conversion data, and the role each platform plays all require a distinct approach. After shifting into ecommerce, it became clear which fundamentals matter most. The guidance in this article reflects those lessons and can help whether you’re new to ecommerce PPC or building on existing experience. We’ll look at how the core differences between ecommerce and non-ecommerce models influence PPC strategy and how to use each platform’s strengths to support your products. 1. Performance Max is built for ecommerce Google Ads is a key platform for…

Search has moved far beyond blue links and basic ranking signals. People now discover information on Google, TikTok, Pinterest, Amazon, YouTube, and an expanding layer of generative AI platforms that synthesize answers from trusted sources. As SERPs shift toward rich results and AI summaries, users often get what they need without needing to click at all. In this environment, brand authority isn’t just tied to your domain. It spans platforms, formats, and the systems that learn from your content. Modern off-page SEO must support both search engines and the AI models that evaluate and surface your expertise. This off-page optimization guide breaks down …

The European Commission is asking industry players to weigh in on Google’s proposal to resolve sweeping antitrust charges tied to its advertising technology business — a case that has already triggered nearly €3 billion ($3.5B) in fines. What’s happening. The Commission is circulating a non-confidential version of Google’s proposal to roughly 200 industry stakeholders, including publishers, advertisers, and ad tech rivals. Officials say the feedback will inform the final assessment of whether Google’s commitments restore fair competition in the EU’s digital ad market. The backstory. Google was fined €2.95B and ordered to stop favoring its own ad tech services…

Social media now drives more traffic to small and medium-sized businesses than search, and many SMBs are beginning to track AI-generated referrals. They also see competitors showing up in AI summaries as an emerging threat, according to new survey data published today by WordStream by LocaliQ. Why we care. Small businesses now see AI summaries as an emerging and important channel. These summaries shape buyers’ early decisions and can steer them toward competing products. AI referrals have also become clear and trackable, convincing businesses that they can – and should – optimize for them. Google traffic losses rise. Forty percent of SMBs say they’ve lost traffic …

Google announced new “AI-powered configuration” within the Search Console Performance report that lets you ask Search Console to show you a specific report, and Google will “instantly” configure a report for you. This feature is “experimental” and won’t show up for everyone today. This is a lot like AI-powered advisors in Google Ads and Google Analytics but for Search Console. AI-powered configuration. Google said 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.” What it looks like. Here is a GIF of…

AI is changing how people discover and understand brands. It’s also reshaping how they search, with users turning to tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews for answers instead of clicking through pages. They interact with synthesized summaries, not traditional results. That shift forces marketers to rethink how visibility is built. SEO still matters, but it now extends beyond on-page content or rankings. Visibility depends on how often a brand is cited, referenced, and discussed across the digital ecosystem, and how those signals are interpreted by large language models. Enter the PESO model. Long used to balance paid, e…

Google is pushing AI Mode within Google Discover, with options to summarize, follow-up and dive deeper after you start reading a story from within the Google Discover feed. This is just one more avenue where Google is pushing its users into AI Mode. To clarify, I am told this is not just Google Discover, but the Google App on Android, for any webpage you are looking at. How it works. After you click into an article from the Google Discover feed, when you click on the three dots at the top right, there are options for: Summarize with Al Mode Ask a follow up with Al Mode Dive deeper with Al Mode Damien (adell) on X posted a video, here is a screenshot…

The latest benchmark results reveal a surprising drop in SEO accuracy from top AI models. TL;DR: The latest flagship AI models (Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro) have statistically regressed in performance for standard SEO tasks, showing a ~9% drop in accuracy compared to previous versions. This isn’t a glitch – it’s a feature of how models are now optimized for deep reasoning and “agentic” workflows rather than “one-shot” answers. To survive this shift, organizations must stop relying on raw prompts and move to “contextual containers” (Custom GPTs, Gems, Projects). The ‘newer = better’ myth is dead Last year, the narrative was linear: wait for the n…

Link building is the practice of earning links from other websites to your own. These links act as signals of trust and authority for search engines, helping your pages rank higher in search results. Quality matters more than quantity. A few relevant, high-authority links are far more valuable than many low-quality ones. Modern link building focuses on creating genuinely useful content, building genuine relationships, and earning links naturally, rather than manipulating rankings. Table of contents What is link building? What is a link? Why do we build links ? How to earn high-quality links Link building in the era of AI and LLM search Examples of effective link bui…

Google today released its 2025 Year in Search list, but don’t mistake it for a ranking of the “top searches” or the “most searched” terms. This year’s recap focused on trending queries – the topics that grew the fastest compared with 2024. That shift reveals a lot about where Google Search is heading, and how it’s been evolving for years. Why we care. Google chose to spotlight fast-rising, emerging queries. Freshness has long mattered in search, but the 2025 top trending queries list underscores an accelerating shift: the biggest AI search and SEO opportunities will come from new, developing topics – not evergreen informational ones. Your strongest wins may hinge on q…