SEO Tools and Resources

Domain extensions have been a core part of the web since its early days. In SEO, debates have continued for decades about how a domain extension, such as a TLD (top-level domain) or ccTLD (country-code top-level domain), affects rankings. The discussion often concerns whether search engines like Google, Baidu, or Microsoft Bing prefer specific domain extensions when ranking websites in different countries. Some aspects are clearly outlined in official documentation, while others rely more heavily on anecdotal evidence and testing. Do domain extensions directly impact rankings? One of the most common SEO questions is whether a domain extension directly i…

The traditional marketing funnel doesn’t reflect how users actually search and engage with content today—and it’s hurting your SEO. With access to more data than ever before, marketers now have a better framework for driving organic traffic: the spiderweb. By structuring your content strategy around interconnected, high-value pages, you can drive faster rankings, more organic traffic, and better user experiences. Join Think Spiderwebs, Not Funnels For Remarkable SEO Results with Ryan Brock to learn: Why traditional funnels waste organic traffic opportunities What Gartner and leading researchers say about the modern buyer’s journey How to shift your cont…

Most PPC marketers still default to static landing pages, whether it’s one catch-all page or a growing library of customized versions. You might already have dozens of static pages built for different campaigns, audiences, and offers. This is a proven approach: Create a page. Personalize it. Launch it. Optimize it. Repeat. The question isn’t whether to customize – it’s whether managing 60 static pages is more effective than running 12 dynamic ones that adapt in real time. Dynamic landing pages offer a different solution by adapting headlines, calls to action, visuals, and offers based on signals from the campaign itself. In theory, this…

Product pages. Ads. Emails. Headlines. Every word you publish either builds momentum or loses it. Great ecommerce copy does more than describe a product. It earns trust, sparks emotion, and clears doubt. Most importantly, it helps someone say yes with confidence. This guide includes 20 practical, proven tips to sharpen your copy across strategy, product pages, persuasion, and retention. They’re not theory. Just tested techniques from brands that convert. Table of contents How to choose the right copywriting framework and emotional trigger Copywriting frameworks Emotional triggers Strategies for clearer copy Product copy tips for conversion What most eco…

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…

There is so much you can do to optimize your online store, whether for users or Google. To help you cover all your bases, we’ve written this ecommerce SEO checklist. It doesn’t cover absolutely everything, but if you at least start by optimizing all the aspects in this post, you will definitely be doing a great job! Table of contents Site-wide ecommerce checklist Homepage Product search and categories Product pages Shopping cart and checkout Search and social appearance One last thing… Site-wide ecommerce checklist The first part of our ecommerce checklist is all about changes you can make site-wide to make sure your online shop is up to scratch. Some of …

People are making more purchases online, whether from home on a laptop or on their mobile phone while on the go. In 2025, retail e-commerce sales are estimated to exceed 4.3 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide, and this number is expected to go up in the following years. Naturally, this rise in online shopping has come with a surge in online stores worldwide. How can you make sure your online store stands out and reaches the right people? Ecommerce SEO can help drive up those sales numbers. In this guide, we’ll explain every aspect and help you get started! Table of contents What is ecommerce SEO? Branding is key Technical ecommerce SEO User experience improves conversi…

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…

Leaked internal emails from Google executives show that the company’s heavily promoted “Power Pair” campaign (using broad matched kywords and PMax) push at Google Marketing Live 2024 failed to resonate with advertisers who were frustrated about being forced into automated solutions. Key points: Internal emails show Google executives acknowledged advertiser frustration with the company’s aggressive push toward Performance Max automation The “Power Pair” campaign from Google Marketing Live 2024 became symbolic of Google’s all-in strategy on automated solutions Executive concern: “There was some real frustration that Google isn’t listening and pushing ‘full au…

More than a decade ago, I coined the term brand SERP – the result you get when someone searches for your name or company. I called it the “digital business card” because I saw firsthand how a messy one could cost a business trust and revenue. That idea shaped how many people think about online reputation and visibility, but the landscape has shifted again. \In the age of assistive and conversational AI – from ChatGPT to Perplexity to Google AI – a new and far more powerful asset has emerged: the AI resume. Unlike a brand SERP, which reflects what Google shows, the AI resume reveals what the machines themselves understand about your brand. It’s a liv…

In SEO, using top tools is key. Yoast and Semrush have joined forces to combine their technologies. This integration benefits WordPress and Shopify users by improving their SEO work. Yoast SEO offers easy-to-use SEO features, while Semrush brings solid data that can be used for keyword research. This article will explore the Related Keyphrase feature, which uses Semrush’s keyword data. Table of contents Why integrate Yoast SEO with Semrush? Using Semrush for related keyphrases Better keywords with Semrush and Yoast SEO Why integrate Yoast SEO with Semrush? SEO involves more than just content optimization; it requires understanding the search landscape and…

The world of SEO keeps evolving and changing, which is why it’s important to keep developing your own skills. An excellent way to do this is via hands-on experimentation. In this post, I’ll share three valuable lessons I’ve learned from my previous ventures. Note that this blog post was inspired from my talk at BrightonSEO in October 2024. Where it all started A bit of background information: I started experimenting with SEO in 1999 without realizing it, when I created a South Park fan website. This was done via my early foray into the fundamentals of HTML and having fun with the site through different experiments. I discovered that by manipulating meta keyword…

Inside most enterprise organizations, SEO isn’t just battling Google’s AI Overviews. It’s battling its own structural weaknesses that are bleeding SEO revenue drier than Google’s AI would have otherwise. Yes, traffic is down. Yes, the economy is squeezing budgets. But SEO revenue doesn’t have to be down this much. Across the companies I work with, one pattern is clear: Internal execution gaps are quietly amplifying losses beyond what external market shifts actually dictate. Even in 2025 – the era of declining clicks, AI Overviews, and tougher competition – companies are leaking more SEO performance than the market alone would force them to lose…

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…

Table of contents What are backlinks? What are AI citations? Why AI citations matter for visibility? How are AI citations and backlinks different? How to earn both? Create deep, original, and useful content Write for real questions, not just keywords Leverage structured data Build relationships for natural backlinks Focus on clarity and quotability Monitor, analyze, and adapt Exploring Yoast’s AI features Backlinks or citations: What truly matters for visibility? For years, backlinks have been the gold standard for building authority, driving link juice, and climbing up the SERPs. But with the rise of Generative AI, the search landscape is shifting. Instead of…

Welcome to our weekly Search Engine Land series, Everything you need to know about Google Ads in less than 3 minutes. Every Wednesday, I’m highlighting a different Google Ads feature, and what you need to know to get the best results from it – all in a quick 3-minute read (or, you can scroll down to watch the video). Let’s explore Target CPA bidding, one of the four Smart Bidding strategies in Google Ads. If you’re looking to gain more control over your Google Ads campaign costs, Target CPA may be the right bidding solution for you. I’ll cover: What is Target CPA bidding? How does Target CPA bidding work? How to set up Target CPA bidding in your Google…

A new profile of Elizabeth Reid, the head of Google Search, confirms that Google is moving away from its longstanding model of sending its users to websites. As one former unnamed senior executive put it: “Giving traffic to publisher sites is kind of a necessary evil.” As for the iconic Google Search bar? It will slowly lose prominence in the Google Search experience, due to the continuing growth of voice and visual search, Reid said. Necessary evil. Google has been increasingly focused on keeping users inside Google properties, reducing the need to click through to external sites. A former Google senior executive told Bloomberg that supporting publishers was inci…

HubSpot’s SEO collapse has been the talk of the SEO world for the last several days. As a reminder, here’s a screenshot of HubSpot’s organic traffic drop, based on Semrush data: Among the endless reactions and perspectives, two former HubSpot employees shared five good reminders about SEO strategy. 1. SEO takes time Pruning content and focusing on E-E-A-T were among the many obvious remedies SEOs pointed out following the news of HubSpot’s apparent organic traffic decline. Well, these aren’t simple tweaks for a brand the size of HubSpot. They’re massive undertakings, according to this LinkedIn post by Bianca Anderson, HubSpot’s former SEO strategis…

Welcome to our weekly Search Engine Land series, Everything you need to know about Google Ads in less than 3 minutes. Every Wednesday, I’m highlighting a different Google Ads feature, and what you need to know to get the best results from it – all in a quick 3-minute read. Today, we’re discussing exact match keywords – the intuitive and the not-so-intuitive facts you need to know about how keyword match types work today. I’ll cover: What are keywords? Keyword match types in Google Ads: Broad, Phrase, Exact The evolution of exact match keywords When to use exact match keywords The power of negative keywords What are keywords in Google Ads? …

The idea of starting an article series about AI in a time when so many articles are being at least partially generated by AI and potentially primarily consumed by AI might cause one to pause and consider the value of the effort. All of us digital marketers hope to find a future where we can still add value and find fulfillment in a world where our efforts and careers are increasingly at risk of being replaced by AI every day. Sometimes, it all feels a bit empty and potentially useless, but here we are. In case it is not already obvious, I am a bit of a doomer when it comes to AI. So inevitably, I have labored over this article like a true human, almost exactly li…

You’ve probably heard the saying: Fast, cheap, or good – pick two. The concept goes something like this: If you want something fast and cheap, don’t expect it to be good. If you want it good and fast, it’s going to cost more. And if you want it good and affordable, well, you’ll need to give it time. It’s a simple way to explain how tradeoffs work in projects. In SEO, these tradeoffs are especially important to understand because you’re often creating problems that will cost more to fix later. This article looks at variations of this project management concept and how it applies to SEO. Then I’ll explain why a quality-first approach l…

Favicons are those little icons you see in your browser tabs. When you have many open tabs in your browser, they help you recognize and find the page you were looking for. They are important for your branding because Google shows them in the mobile and desktop search results. So, let’s take a closer look at those little icons and your branding here! What is a favicon? A favicon is a tiny, square image that represents a website. You see it in your browser’s address bar, open tabs, and bookmarks. Its main job is to help users quickly identify and find a site among many open tabs or results. Often, these match a website’s logo or theme, making it instantly recognizabl…

Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP) offers more than just a list of links. Its layout can change based on what you’re searching for, presenting various SERP features tailored to your needs. You might see different elements like featured snippets, shopping options, or local listings and also AI Overviews. Understanding these can help you navigate the results more effectively. This guide will help you identify and differentiate between the paid and organic results you encounter. Table of contents What are SERP features? A new SERP feature: Google AI Overviews It depends on what you’re searching for Browsing through the result page Sponsored results and ads Orga…

Journalists have been using the inverted pyramid writing style for ages. Using it, you put your most important information upfront. Don’t hedge. Don’t bury your key point halfway down the third paragraph. And don’t hold back; tell the complete story in the first paragraph. Even online, this writing style holds up pretty well for some types of articles. It even comes in handy now that web content is increasingly used to answer every type of question a searcher might have. Find out how! Table of contents What is the inverted pyramid? The power of paragraphs The pyramid, SEO, and AI Answering questions Summaries vs. the pyramid How to write with the inverted pyramid in…

ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity: these are the new operating environments. Your content must be invokable inside them, or no one will see it. At SMX Advanced, I broke down how to build an AI visibility engine: a system for making your net-new facts reusable by humans and agents across synthesis-first platforms. It goes beyond publishing to show how teams can deploy structured content that survives LLM compression and shows up for buyers during their purchasing decisions. It’s what we’re building with clients and inside XOFU, our LLM visibility GPT. Here’s how it works. Find the FLUQs (Friction-Inducing Latent Unasked Questions) Friction-Inducing L…