Digital Marketing

YouTube has announced a suite of monetization updates designed to help creators diversify their revenue streams. Key updates include dynamic sponsorship for long-form videos, brand linking in Shorts, AI-powered product tagging for Shopping, and side-by-side live ads. The updates come as YouTube revealed it paid out over $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies […]

YouTube announces A/B title testing availability, along with AI-powered conversational analytics for YouTube Studio. Title tests are coming to YouTube Studio ‘Ask Studio’ lets you query analytics in plain language to surface actionable insights. YouTube also teased Veo 3 Fast for Shorts.

Google adds an Achievements report in Search Console so you can track click-based milestones, see in-progress goals, and jump to Insights and tips. Achievements now live inside Search Console. Report is divided into In progress and Achieved sections. Goals are based on clicks from Google Search.

New research from OpenAI and Harvard finds that “Seeking Information” messages now account for 24% of ChatGPT conversations, up from 14% a year earlier. This is an NBER working paper (not peer-reviewed), based on consumer ChatGPT plans only, and the study used privacy-preserving methods where no human read user messages. The working paper analyzes a […]

This post was sponsored by Visto. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Clients keep asking a new question: “Are we visible in AI search?” This is the reality: Google’s AI Overviews are reducing organic traffic by 30-70% for many businesses. In fact, we’re seeing that SEO agencies that incorporate GEO (Generative Engine […]

New data from the Audience Key content marketing platform indicates that Amazon’s visibility has suffered a significant drop. The decline follows two changes Amazon made to its presence in Google Shopping, although it is uncertain whether those changes are direct or indirect causes. The first change was the discontinuation of its paid Shopping ads, and […]

Google is testing a series of experimental AI-powered features that could change how people interact with search and digital discovery. Tools like Doppl, Food Mood, Talking Tours, and Learn About are not yet mainstream, but they give us a glimpse into where Google may be heading. Each experiment highlights a distinct way AI can influence […]

Ahrefs has acquired Detailed.com and the Detailed SEO Extension, bringing a widely used on-page auditing tool and its audience under the Ahrefs umbrella. As part of the deal, Detailed founder Glen Allsopp is joining Ahrefs full-time to work on marketing strategy, research, and product. What’s Included The acquisition covers the Detailed website and its browser […]

The Core Web Vitals Technology Report by the open source HTTPArchive community ranks content management systems by how well they perform on Google’s Core Web Vitals (CWV). The July update shows that every major platform has improved since June, but not all gains were equal. Joomla posted the largest month-over-month increase, while Duda ranked first […]

One of the strengths of WordPress is its extensibility. You can run everything from e-shops and booking systems to massive WordPress multisites from one instance of WordPress. Another is that it’s a database and robust PHP-based programming language, which means that running a bunch of updates on a site is remarkably straightforward. In this post, […]

Google published a new edition of its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. The update clarifies that the Your Money Your Life (YMYL) category now covers election and voting information, along with other government and civics topics that affect people’s lives. What’s New The YMYL framework now uses the label “YMYL Government, Civics & Society,” with the […]

Bias in search isn’t always negative. It’s easy to frame it as something sinister, but bias shows up for structural reasons, behavioral reasons, and sometimes as a deliberate choice. The real task for marketers and communicators is recognizing when it’s happening, and what that means for visibility, perception, and control. Two recent pieces got me […]

Google has announced that the CrUX Dashboard, the Looker Studio-based visualization tool for CrUX data, will be retired at the end of November 2025. The reason given for the deprecation is that it was not designed for “wide-scale” use and that Google has developed more scalable alternatives. Why The CrUX Dashboard Is Being Retired The […]

Google’s AI Max for Search campaigns is now available worldwide in beta across Google Ads, Google Ads Editor, Search Ads 360, and the Google Ads API. AI Max packages Google’s AI features as a one-click suite inside Search campaigns. New built-in experiments allow you to test the impact with minimal setup. Image Credit: Google What’s […]

Google’s Gemini app now accepts audio file uploads, answering what the company acknowledges was its most requested feature. For marketers and content teams, it means you can push recordings straight into Gemini for analysis, summaries, and repurposed content without jumping between tools. Josh Woodward, VP at Google Labs and Gemini, announced the change on X: […]

The way people find and consume information has shifted. We, as marketers, must think about visibility across AI platforms and Google. The challenge is that we don’t have the same ability to control and measure success as we do with Google and Microsoft, so it feels like we’re flying blind. Earlier this year, Google, Microsoft, […]

Anthropic agreed to a proposed $1.5 billion settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic over claims it downloaded pirated books to help train Claude. If approved, plaintiffs’ counsel says it would be the largest U.S. copyright recovery to date. A preliminary approval hearing is set for today. In June, Judge William Alsup held that training on lawfully […]

When Judge Amit P. Mehta issued his long-awaited remedies decision in the Google search antitrust case, the industry exhaled a collective sigh of relief. There would be no breakup of Google, no forced divestiture of Chrome or Android, and no user-facing “choice screen” like the one that reshaped Microsoft’s browser market two decades ago. But […]

This post was sponsored by NESS. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. For anyone who isn’t paying attention to news SEO because they feel it isn’t their relevant niche – think again. The foundations of SEO are underpinned by publishing content. Therefore, news SEO is relevant to all SEO. We are […]

This post was sponsored by Writesonic. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. AI search now makes the first decision. When? Before a buyer hits your website. If you’re not part of the AI answer, you’re not part of the deal. In fact, 89% of B2B buyers use AI platforms like ChatGPT […]

A sharp-eyed search marketer discovered the reason why Google’s AI Overviews showed spammy web pages. The recent Memorandum Opinion in the Google antitrust case featured a passage that offers a clue as to why that happened and speculates how it reflects Google’s move away from links as a prominent ranking factor. Ryan Jones, founder of […]

Ask a question in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Copilot, and the answer appears in seconds. It feels effortless. But under the hood, there’s no magic. There’s a fight happening. This is the part of the pipeline where your content is in a knife fight with every other candidate. Every passage in the index wants to […]

New research examining 16 million URLs aligns with Google’s predictions that hallucinated links will become an issue across AI platforms. An Ahrefs study shows that AI assistants send users to broken web pages nearly three times more often than Google Search. The data arrives six months after Google’s John Mueller raised awareness about this issue. […]

There’s a lot that goes into SEO. And, now, more broadly into being found online and online visibility overall, whether we’re talking about an organic result in a search engine, an AI Overview, or through a large language model (LLM). With SEO being a discipline that often takes a long time (compared to ads and […]

Google’s Search Relations team says generic login pages can confuse indexing and hurt rankings. When many private URLs all show the same bare login form, Google may treat them as duplicates and show the login page in search. In a recent “Search Off the Record” episode, John Mueller and Martin Splitt explained how this happens […]

It is a wild job market right now, and if you’re applying for a PPC role, you’re probably feeling the pressure to stand out in interviews that are increasingly demanding and often unclear in their expectations. Whether you’re interviewing for a specialist, manager, or hybrid media role, one thing is certain: You need to be […]

Google raised ad prices incrementally through internal “pricing knobs” that advertisers couldn’t detect, according to federal court documents. Google raised ad prices 5-15% at a time using “pricing knobs” that made increases look like normal auction fluctuations. Google’s surveys showed advertisers noticed higher costs but didn’t realize Google was causing the increases. A […]

Some of the critical questions that are top of mind for both SEOs and CMOs as we head into a multi-search world are: Where is search going to develop? Is ChatGPT a threat or an opportunity? Is optimizing for large language models (LLMs) the same as optimizing for search engines? In this two-part interview series, […]

A federal judge outlined remedies in the U.S. search antitrust case that bar Google from using exclusive default search deals but stop short of forcing a breakup. Reuters reports that Google won’t have to divest Chrome or Android, but it may have to share some search data with competitors under court-approved terms. Google says it […]

WordPress is still the most popular open-source content management system (CMS) – by far – powering 43.5 % of all websites on the web, and still in my opinion the most adaptable CMS to work with. However, WordPress isn’t just a plug-and-play CMS. If you’re in the marketing team or the CMO, you may find […]

Google says AI Mode now handles complex STEM questions better and surfaces key details sooner, timed for back to school. Google rolled out an iterative update to AI Mode AI Mode now handles complex STEM questions and delivers more concise responses. The update arrives as students return to school.

“Stop trying to make GEO happen. It’s not going to happen.” With apologies to Gretchen Wieners and the writers of “Mean Girls,” the line feels like the only way to start this conversation about a buzzword making the rounds: GEO (which is now, allegedly, supposed to mean Generative Engine Optimization). This article grew out of […]

For years, marketers have asked for better visibility into how individual channels contribute to Performance Max results. Google has released a tutorial walking advertisers through its new Performance Max channel reporting. This reporting feature offers more transparency into how campaigns perform across Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover, and Maps. With this new report, you can […]

Google states that AI Max for Search can run in low-volume accounts, confirming there’s no minimum conversion recommendation. However, you must use a conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy for search-term matching to work. The clarification was provided during Google’s Ads Decoded podcast, where product managers discussed recent launches. What Google Said In the “Ads Decoded” podcast […]

An advisory was issued for the Ocean Extra WordPress plugin that is susceptible to stored cross-site scripting, which enables attackers to upload malicious scripts that execute on the site when a user visits the affected website. Ocean Extra WordPress Plugin The vulnerability affects only the Ocean Extra plugin by oceanwp, a plugin that extends the […]

Google is apparently having trouble identifying paywalled content due to a standard way paywalled content is handled by publishers like news sites. It’s asking that publishers with paywalled content change the way they block content so as to help Google out. Search Related JavaScript Problems Google updated their guidelines with a call for publishers to […]

A vulnerability in the TablePress WordPress plugin enables attackers to inject malicious scripts that run when someone visits a compromised page. It affects all versions up to and including version 3.2. TablePress WordPress plugin The TablePress plugin is used on more than 700,000 websites. It enables users to create and manage tables with interactive features […]

This post was sponsored by Cloudways. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Wondering why your rankings may be declining? Just discovered your WooCommerce site has slow load times? A slow WooCommerce site doesn’t just cost you conversions. It affects search visibility, backend performance, and customer trust. Whether you’re a developer running […]

New research from BrightEdge shows that Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, and ChatGPT recommend different brands nearly 62% of the time. BrightEdge concludes that each AI search platform is interpreting the data in different ways, suggesting different ways of thinking about each AI platform. Methodology And Results BrightEdge’s analysis was conducted with its AI Catalyst […]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the WordPress Foundation’s applications for trademarks on the phrases “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” But WordPress isn’t walking away just yet. The Trademark Office published the following notice for the “Hosted WordPress” trademark application: “A final Office action refusing registration has been sent (issued) because the […]

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about how many sitemaps to upload, and then said there are no guarantees that any of the URLs will be crawled right away. A member of the r/TechSEO community on Reddit asked if it’s enough to upload the main sitemap.xml file, which then links to the more granular sitemaps. […]

Over the years, I’ve worked with numerous companies that engaged me to create world-class Search organizations and win the global search game, only to block the majority of the initiatives required to achieve that goal. This disconnect often stems from how the C-suite perceives its website. In too many boardrooms, the site is still seen […]

Google released the August spam update, impacting search results worldwide. The rollout may take a few weeks to complete. The August spam update started August 26 and applies worldwide. Expect possible ranking and traffic swings during the multi-week rollout. Monitor trends in Search Console and stay aligned with Google’s spam policies.

Brave published details about a security issue with Comet, Perplexity’s AI browser, that enables an attacker to inject a prompt into the browser and gain access to data in other open browser tabs. Comet AI Browser Vulnerability Brave described a vulnerability that can be activated when a user asks the Comet AI browser to summarize […]

Many agencies and marketers believe that success in paid media is primarily down to the quality of your ads or the specificity of your landing pages. While those elements are important, they’re meaningless unless they sit on a foundation of alignment with client needs. The cleanest account structure and flawless creatives may hit every platform […]

In a post “growth-at-all-costs” era, B2B go-to-market (GTM) teams face a dual mandate: operate with greater efficiency while driving measurable business outcomes. Many organizations see AI as the definitive means of achieving this efficiency. The reality is that AI is no longer a speculative investment. It has emerged as a strategic enabler to unify data, […]

A vulnerability advisory was published for the Inspiro WordPress theme by WPZoom. The vulnerability arises due to a missing or incorrect security validation that enables an unauthenticated attacker to launch a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) A CSRF vulnerability in the context of a WordPress site is an attack that relies […]

This week’s Ask An SEO question is about whether small brands should prioritize TikTok over Google to grow their audience: “I keep hearing that TikTok is a better platform for small brands with an easier route to an audience. Do you think that Google is still relevant, or should I go all in on TikTok?” […]

Google is adding agentic booking features to AI Mode in Search, beginning with restaurant reservations for U.S. Google AI Ultra subscribers enrolled in Labs. What’s New Booking Reservations AI Mode can interpret a detailed request, check real-time availability across reservation sites, and link you to the booking page to complete the task. For businesses, that […]

Marketers today spend their time on keyword research to uncover opportunities, closing content gaps, making sure pages are crawlable, and aligning content with E-E-A-T principles. Those things still matter. But in a world where generative AI increasingly mediates information, they are not enough. The difference now is retrieval. It doesn’t matter how polished or authoritative […]

Paid search professionals constantly debate the merits of running paid search campaigns bidding on competitor brand names. Questions such as the following may arise: Is bidding on your competitors ethical? Are the high costs-per-click (CPCs) worth spending the budget on? Are you actually reaching people with buying intent? In this article, I’ll talk through answers […]

Google just announced a new unifying identity for its Local Services Ads (LSAs) verification badges. Called Google Verified, the badge will replace several different trust signals that advertisers and consumers have been seeing over the years. This includes the Google Guaranteed, Google Screened, License Verified by Google, and the Money Back Guarantee program. Starting in […]

In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off the Record podcast, Martin Splitt and John Mueller discussed when lazy loading helps and when it can slow pages. Splitt used a real-world example on developers.google.com to illustrate a common pattern: making every image lazy by default can delay Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) if it includes above-the-fold […]

Patchstack published a case study that examined how well Cloudflare and other general firewall and malware solutions protected WordPress websites from common vulnerability threats and attack vectors. The research showed that while general solutions stopped threats like SQL injection or cross-site scripting, a dedicated WordPress security solution consistently stopped WordPress-specific exploits at a significantly higher […]

In B2B SEO, typically, the ultimate goal is to attract high-intent searchers who convert into qualified leads. But, not all high-intent visibility translates to sales-ready traffic, especially in long sales cycles or complex buying journeys. As we get deeper into an era of diminishing importance of keywords that translate directly into attributable clicks, a focus […]

There once was a time when digital marketers chased traffic. The more traffic a website attracted, the more marketers felt satisfied and closer to attaining their goals. But, this once golden metric is no longer a tell-tale sign of success. Gone are the days of forecasting growth solely on the number of visitors coming to […]

Ahrefs released a public dashboard that tracks how much referral traffic websites receive from Google Search versus ChatGPT, with monthly updates. The first dataset covers three complete months across 44,421 sites connected to Ahrefs’ free Web Analytics tool. The Early Numbers For July, the dashboard reports Google at 41.9% of total web traffic across the […]

OpenAI is rolling out a new subscription tier called ChatGPT Go, a competitively priced version that will initially be available only to users in India. It features ten times higher message limits, ten times more image generations, and file uploads than the free tier. ChatGPT Go OpenAI is introducing a new low-cost subscription plan that […]

Google says the new Trends API is opening to a “quite small” set of testers at first, with access expanding over time. The company formally announced the alpha at Search Central Live APAC. On Bluesky, Google Search Advocate John Mueller tried to set expectations for SEO professionals, writing: “The initial pilot is going to be […]

I’ve spent 30 years navigating the turbulent waters of what was once called “internet marketing” and is now called “digital marketing.” Based on my experience, the past year has been nothing short of a perfect storm for chief marketing officers (CMOs). As the Director of Corporate Communications for Ziff-Davis, I helped to launch Yahoo! Europe […]

Running iOS app campaigns in Google has never been straightforward. Between Apple’s privacy changes and evolving user behavior, marketers have often felt like they were working with one hand tied behind their backs. Measurement was limited, signals were weaker, and getting campaigns to scale often required more guesswork than strategy. Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, […]

AI tools can do a lot of SEO now. Draft content. Suggest keywords. Generate metadata. Flag potential issues. We’re well past the novelty stage. But for all the speed and surface-level utility, there’s a hard truth underneath: AI still gets things wrong. And when it does, it does it convincingly. It hallucinates stats. Misreads query […]

Using outdated and traditional SEO tactics centered around keywords and backlinks is not moving the needle anymore, as Google shifts toward AI-driven answers. Organic clicks are going down as a result of Google AI Overviews and the rise of zero-click searches, where users get answers directly on Google’s search results page without clicking through to […]

A Reddit thread about a sharp crawl drop prompted guidance from Google’s John Mueller. Here’s how to diagnose the cause. Sudden crawl drops are more consistent with 429/500/503 responses or timeouts than with 404s. Once issues are fixed, crawl rates should recover, though it can take time. There’s no defined timeline for recovery.

A new Yext analysis of 8.7 million Google search results suggests many common local SEO tactics don’t perform the same across industries and regions. The dataset, drawn from the company’s Scout Index, focuses on what correlates with visibility in Google’s Local Pack, not just overall map presence. What Yext Found Review Management Emerges As The […]

Google adds an AI “Flight Deals” tool to Google Flights, part of a broader push into vertical, conversational search experiences. Google launched Flight Deals in Google Flights. It’s rolling out in the U.S., Canada, and India next week. Google Flights adds a basic-economy exclusion in the U.S. and Canada.

OpenAI announced that it has added connectors to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts for ChatGPT Plus users, enabling ChatGPT to use data from those apps within ChatGPT chats. ChatGPT Connectors A connector is a bridge between ChatGPT and an external app like Canva, Dropbox, and Gmail, enabling users to connect those apps to ChatGPT […]

While industry professionals have debates over nomenclature of SEO, GEO, or AEO, and if ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews will replace traditional search, a more fundamental shift is happening that could disrupt the entire industry business model. To get a better understanding of this, I spoke to the 25-year veteran and SEO pioneer Duane Forrester […]

OpenAI has restored GPT-4o to the ChatGPT model picker for paid accounts and says it will give advance notice before removing models in the future. The company made the change after pushback over GPT-5’s rollout and confirmed it alongside new speed controls for GPT-5 that let you choose Auto, Fast, or Thinking. What’s New GPT-4o […]

Build the Authority You Need for AI-Driven Visibility Struggling to get backlinks, even when your content is solid?  You’re not alone. With Google’s AI Overviews and generative search dominating the results, traditional link-building tactics just don’t cut it anymore. It’s time to earn the trust that boosts your brand’s visibility across Google, ChatGPT, and AI […]

Google cites a 40% drop in invalid ad traffic from deceptive serving, helping protect budgets and keep billing clean for advertisers. Google reports a 40% reduction in invalid traffic from deceptive or disruptive serving. Google now reviews content, placements, and interactions more precisely. Advertisers are not charged for invalid traffic, with credits applied after detection.

Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed that AI content is fine as long as the quality is high. He said that “human created” isn’t precisely the right way to describe their AI content policy, and that a more accurate description would be “human curated.” The questions were asked by Kenichi Suzuki in the context of an exclusive […]

AI search is here. Are you ready for the new rules? The SEO game has changed. Traditional strategies are no longer enough, and some brands are getting lost in the shift to AI-powered search results. Join Wayne Cichanski on August 20, 2025 for an exclusive webinar sponsored by iQuanti. Learn how to adapt your SEO […]

Stop letting AI drain your budget. Learn how to make it work for you. Think AI can fully run your marketing strategy on autopilot?  Or that AI-generated content should deliver instant results?  It is time to bust the AI myths that are slowing you down and costing you money. Join Bailey Beckham, Senior Partner Marketing […]

Google’s latest blog post claims AI is making Search more useful than ever. Google says people are asking new kinds of questions, clicking on more links, and spending more time on the content they visit. But with no supporting data or clear definitions, the message reads more like reassurance than transparency. Rather than take Google […]

This post was sponsored by Market Brew. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. What if your client’s PPC budget could fund long-term organic growth instead? Why do organic results dominate user clicks, but get sidelined in budget discussions? Organic Drives 5x More Traffic Than PPC. Can We Prove It? The Short […]

Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4.1, an upgrade to its flagship model that’s said to deliver better performance in coding, reasoning, and autonomous task handling. The new model is available now to Claude Pro users, Claude Code subscribers, and developers using the API, Amazon Bedrock, or Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. Performance Gains Claude Opus 4.1 […]

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is on pace to reach 700 million weekly active users, according to a statement this week from Nick Turley, VP and head of the ChatGPT app. The milestone marks a sharp increase from 500 million in March and represents a fourfold jump compared to the same time last year. Turley shared the update […]

Cloudflare announced that they delisted Perplexity’s crawler as a verified bot and are now actively blocking Perplexity and all of its stealth bots from crawling websites. Cloudflare acted in response to multiple user complaints against Perplexity related to violations of robots.txt protocols, and a subsequent investigation revealed that Perplexity was using aggressive rogue bot tactics […]

As SEO evolves with AI optimization, generative engine optimization, and answer engine optimization, brands and marketers must rethink their SEO strategies to stay competitive. Instead of focusing solely on traditional SEO strategies and tactics, you need to be visible in AI-powered search and answer engines. Showing the value of SEO in this new world means […]

The Core Web Vitals Technology Report shows the top-ranked content management systems by Core Web Vitals (CWV) for the month of June (July’s statistics aren’t out yet). The breakout star this year is an e-commerce platform, which is notable because shopping sites generally have poor performance due to the heavy JavaScript and image loads necessary […]

Google Chrome is testing a new way to measure Core Web Vitals in Single Page Applications (SPAs), which is a long-standing blind spot in performance tracking that affects SEO audits and ranking signals. Starting with Chrome 139, developers can opt into an origin trial for the Soft Navigations API. This enables measurement of metrics like […]

Google announced that they will continue to support some links created by the deprecated goo.gl URL shortening service, saying that 99% of the shortened URLs receive no traffic. They were previously going to end support entirely, but after receiving feedback, they decided to continue support for a limited group of shortened URLs. Google URL Shortener […]

Google’s Gary Illyes answered questions during the recent Search Central Live Deep Dive in Asia about whether or not they use the new Multi‑Vector Retrieval via Fixed‑Dimensional Encodings (MUVERA) retrieval method and also if they’re using Graph Foundation Models. MUVERA Google recently announced MUVERA in a blog post and a research paper: a method that […]

New AI platforms, powered by generative technologies like Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Grok, and countless specialized chatbots, are rapidly becoming the front door for digital discovery. We’ve entered an era of machine-led discovery, where AI systems aggregate, summarize, and contextualize content across multiple platforms. Users today no longer follow a linear journey from keyword to […]

OpenAI has rolled back a feature that allowed ChatGPT conversations shared via link to appear in Google Search results. The company confirms it has disabled the toggle that enabled shared chats to be “discoverable” by search engines and is working to remove existing indexed links. Shared Chats Were “Short-Lived Experiment” When users shared a ChatGPT […]

Bing has updated its sitemap guidance with a renewed focus on the lastmod tag, highlighting its role in AI-powered search to determine which pages need to be recrawled. While real-time tools like IndexNow offer faster updates, Bing says accurate lastmod values help keep content discoverable, especially on frequently updated or large-scale sites. Bing Prioritizes lastmod […]

If you’ve layered audiences into your Google Ads campaign and weren’t sure if you should select “targeting” or “observation,” you’re not alone. While the Google and Microsoft platforms give decent explanations of the two modes, picking the wrong option can quietly sabotage performance. This setting controls how your audience selections influence who sees your ads […]

B2B marketers are taking a page from the B2C playbook and seeing real results. According to LinkedIn’s B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, strategies once considered too informal for business audiences, like short-form video and influencer collabs, are now central to building trust and driving growth. The study, based on responses from 1,500 senior marketers across six […]

This post was sponsored by Peec.ai. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. The first step of any good GEO campaign is creating something that LLM-driven answer machines actually want to link out to or reference. In This SEO Guide 1. GEO Strategy Components 2. Concrete Steps To Succeed With GEO 3. […]

Microsoft launches Copilot Mode in Edge, introducing multi-tab AI analysis, voice navigation, and more features in development. Copilot Mode brings AI tools to Microsoft’s Edge browser Available tools include multi-tab content analysis, voice navigation, and a unified search/chat interface. Features in development include task execution, topic-based organization, and a persistent AI assistant.

New research from Microsoft reveals that marketing and sales professionals are among the most affected by generative AI, based on an analysis of 200,000 real workplace conversations with Bing Copilot. The research examined nine months of anonymized data from January to September 2024, offering a large-scale look at how professionals use AI in their daily […]

In a recent Search Off the Record podcast, Google’s Search Relations team cautioned developers against using CSS for all website images. While CSS background images can enhance visual design, they’re invisible to Google Image Search. This could lead to missed opportunities in image indexing and search visibility. Here’s what Google’s Search Advocates advise. The CSS […]

I’ve spent years working with Google’s SEO tools, and while there are countless paid options out there, Google’s free toolkit remains the foundation of my optimization workflow. These tools show you exactly what Google considers important, and that offers invaluable insights you can’t get anywhere else. Let me walk you through the five Google tools […]

As SEO evolves with AI optimization, generative engine optimization, and answer engine optimization, brands and marketers must rethink their SEO strategies to stay competitive. Instead of focusing solely on traditional SEO strategies and tactics, you need to be visible in AI-powered search and answer engines. Showing the value of SEO in this new world means […]

A new SEO plugin called SureRank, by Brainstorm Force, makers of the popular Astra theme, is rapidly growing in popularity. In beta for a few months, it was announced in July and has amassed over twenty thousand installations. That’s a pretty good start for an SEO plugin that has only been out of beta for […]

A company founder shared their experience with programmatic SEO, which they credited for initial success until it was deindexed by Google, calling it a big mistake they won’t repeat. The post, shared on LinkedIn, received scores of supportive comments. The website didn’t receive a manual action, Google deindexed the web pages due to poor content […]

Most brands don’t know they’re wasting money on branded ads. Are you one of them? What if your Google Ads strategy is quietly draining your budget? In this data-backed session, you’ll learn: Why CPCs rise even without competitor bidding How to detect branded ad waste in your own account What this hidden flaw is costing […]

In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off the Record podcast, Martin Splitt and John Mueller clarified how CSS affects SEO. While some aspects of CSS have no bearing on SEO, others can directly influence how search engines interpret and rank content. Here’s what matters and what doesn’t. Class Names Don’t Matter For Rankings One […]

Questions about the methodology used by the Pew Research Center suggest that its conclusions about Google’s AI summaries may be flawed. Facts about how AI summaries are created, the sample size, and statistical reliability challenge the validity of the results. Google’s Official Statement A spokesperson for Google reached out with an official statement and a […]

Google has launched Web Guide, an experimental feature in Search Labs that uses AI to reorganize search results pages. The goal is to help you find information by grouping related links together based on the intent behind your query. What Is Web Guide? Web Guide replaces the traditional list of search results with AI-generated clusters. […]

When Performance Max launched in 2021, many advertisers weren’t sure what to expect. It promised access to all of Google’s inventory in a single paid search campaign, but gave us very few levers to actually influence performance. For brands used to having more control, that was frustrating. Since then, a lot has changed. Google has […]

Google has released an open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets you analyze Google Analytics data using large language models like Gemini. Announced by Matt Landers, Head of Developer Relations for Google Analytics, the tool serves as a bridge between LLMs and analytics data. Instead of navigating traditional report interfaces, you can ask questions […]

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about llms.txt related to duplicate content, stating that it doesn’t make sense that it would be viewed as duplicate content, but he also stated it could make sense to take steps to prevent indexing. LLMs.txt Llms.txt is a proposal to create a new content format standard that large language […]

A report finds that AI chatbots are frequently directing users to phishing sites when asked for login URLs to major services. Security firm Netcraft tested GPT-4.1-based models with natural language queries for 50 major brands and found that 34% of the suggested login links were either inactive, unrelated, or potentially dangerous. The results suggest a […]

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a common metric or key performance indicator for paid search campaigns. PPC managers and digital marketing executives have been using it for a long time. In fact, it isn’t even novel to just digital marketing. While calculating and connecting the dots with attribution for full end-to-end digital marketing is […]

Google’s June 2025 Core Update just finished. What’s notable is that while some say it was a big update, it didn’t feel disruptive, indicating that the changes may have been more subtle than game changing. Here are some clues that may explain what happened with this update. Two Search Ranking Related Breakthroughs Although a lot […]

There are many businesses relatively new to SEO that eventually face the decision to build or buy links because they are told that links are important, which, of course, links are important. But the need to buy links presupposes that buying them is the only way to acquire them. Links are important, but less important […]

Google’s John Mueller and Martin Splitt discussed making changes to a web page, observing the SEO effect, and the importance of tracking those changes. There has been long-standing hesitation around making too many SEO changes because of a patent filed years ago about monitoring frequent SEO updates to catch attempts to manipulate search results, so […]

The CEO of Conductor started a LinkedIn discussion about the future of AI SEO platforms, suggesting that the established companies will dominate and that 95 percent of the startups will disappear. Others argued that smaller companies will find their niche and that startups may be better positioned to serve user needs. Besmertnik published his thoughts […]

I’ve spent years working with Google’s SEO tools, and while there are countless paid options out there, Google’s free toolkit remains the foundation of my optimization workflow. These tools show you exactly what Google considers important, and that offers invaluable insights you can’t get anywhere else. Let me walk you through the five Google tools […]

OpenAI’s ChatGPT agent marks a change in how users interact with web pages and complete transactions. This could be the most consequential change to online interactions since the introduction of mobile browsing. ChatGPT agent will be available today to Pro subscribers. Plus, and Team subscribers will have access over the next few days while Enterprise […]

A former Google Search engineer is betting on the end of traditional SEO, and building tools to help marketers prepare for what comes next. Andrew Yan, who left Google’s search team earlier this year, co-founded Athena, a startup focused on helping brands stay visible in AI-generated responses from tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. The company […]

This post was sponsored by GatherUp. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. If your business has a great local, word-of-mouth reputation but very few online reviews, does it even exist? That’s the existential riddle facing local businesses and agencies in 2025. With Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) now reshaping the search experience, […]

Google has introduced a new AI-powered calling feature in Search that contacts local businesses on a user’s behalf to gather pricing and availability details. The feature, rolling out to all U.S. Search users this week, allows people to request information from multiple businesses with a single query. When searching for services like pet grooming or […]

Wordfence published an advisory on the WordPress Malcure Malware Scanner plugin, which was discovered to have a vulnerability rated at a severity level of 8.1. At the time of publishing, there is no patch to fix the problem. Screenshot Showing 8.1 Severity Rating Malcure Malware Scanner Vulnerability The Malcure Malware Scanner plugin, installed on over […]

Google has added a new metadata field to the Search Analytics API, making it easier for developers and SEO professionals to identify when they’re working with incomplete or still-processing data. The update introduces new transparency into the freshness of query results, an improvement for marketers who rely on up-to-date metrics to inform real-time decisions. What’s […]

Meta announced that it will implement stronger measures against accounts sharing “unoriginal” content on Facebook. This marks the second major platform policy update in days following YouTube’s similar announcement about mass-produced and repetitive content. Meta revealed it has removed approximately 10 million profiles impersonating large content creators, and taken action against 500,000 accounts involved in […]

A new report from Adobe states that 77% of Americans who use ChatGPT treat it as a search engine. Among those surveyed, nearly one in four prefer ChatGPT over Google for discovery, indicating a potential shift in user behavior. Adobe surveyed 800 consumers and 200 marketers or small business owners in the U.S. All participants […]

Paid media is often treated like a checklist item in a marketing plan: launch a few search ads, run a Meta campaign, maybe test YouTube if there’s budget left. But not all paid media is created equal, and treating every channel the same is a fast way to burn through budget with little to show […]

Google’s martin Splitt and John Mueller discussed how long it takes for SEO to have an effect. Google’s John Mueller explained that there are different levels of optimization and that some have a more immediate effect than other more complex changes. Visible Changes From SEO Some SEOs like to make blanket statements that SEO is […]

WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, arguably because of its ability to become virtually any kind of website users want it to be. This flexibility is made possible by thousands of third-party plugins that add the features needed to turn ideas into functioning businesses and platforms. The WordPress plugin community […]

Google has updated its structured data documentation to clarify how merchants should implement markup for return policies and loyalty programs. The updates aim to reduce confusion and ensure compatibility with Google Search features. Key Changes In Return Policy Markup The updated documentation clarifies that only a limited subset of return policy data is supported at […]

Google’s Search Off The Record podcast discussed when a business should hire an SEO consultant and what metrics of success should look like. They also talked about a red flag to watch for when considering a search marketer. Hire An SEO When It Becomes Time Consuming Martin Splitt started the conversation off by asking at […]

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a common metric or key performance indicator for paid search campaigns. PPC managers and digital marketing executives have been using it for a long time. In fact, it isn’t even novel to just digital marketing. While calculating and connecting the dots with attribution for full end-to-end digital marketing is […]

OpenAI has quietly added Shopify as a third-party search partner to help power their shopping search, which shows shopping-rich results. The addition of Shopify was not formally announced, but quietly tucked into OpenAI ChatGPT search documentation. Shopify Is An OpenAI Search Partner Aleyda Solís (LinkedIn profile) recently noticed that OpenAI had updated their Search documentation […]

TikTok has denied a Reuters report claiming it’s building a standalone U.S. app with a separate algorithm. TikTok strongly denies it is developing a separate U.S.-only version of the app. Reuters cites anonymous sources claiming such a project exists, under the codename “M2.” The report highlights the uncertainty around TikTok’s future in the U.S.

The last few years have fundamentally transformed how businesses and consumers discover, evaluate, and engage with brands. What began as a digital acceleration in 2020-2021 has evolved into an AI-driven revolution that’s reshaping the entire search landscape in 2025 across every industry vertical. Where organizations once relied on monthly snapshots and historical data, today’s market […]

Yoast SEO announced a new feature that enables SEO and readability analysis within Google Docs, allowing publishers and teams to integrate search marketing best practices at the moment content is created instead of as an editing activity that comes after the fact. Two Functionalities Carry Over To Google Docs Yoast SEO is providing SEO optimization […]

It’s been suggested that agentic AI will change SEO from managing tools to managing intelligent systems that manage SEO tools, essentially turning an SEO into a worker who rides a lawn mower, with the machine doing all the work. However, that prediction overlooks a critical fact: user behavior remains Google’s most important ranking factor. Those […]

This post was sponsored by Vehnta. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Why isn’t Google Ads working for my B2B marketing campaigns? How do I improve lead quality in B2B Google Ads campaigns? What’s the best way to scale Account-Based Marketing (ABM) using Google Ads? The good news: Google Ads isn’t broken […]

As more companies race to adopt generative AI tools, some are learning a hard lesson: when used without oversight or expertise, these tools can cause more problems than they solve. From broken websites to ineffective marketing copy, the hidden costs of AI mistakes are adding up, forcing businesses to bring in professionals to clean up […]

An SEO shared on social media that his SEO tests proved that not using a meta description resulted in a lift in traffic. Coincidentally, another well-known SEO published an article that claims that SEO tests misunderstand how Google and the internet actually work and lead to the deprioritization of meaningful changes. Who is right? SEO […]

Paid media is often treated like a checklist item in a marketing plan: launch a few search ads, run a Meta campaign, maybe test YouTube if there’s budget left. But not all paid media is created equal, and treating every channel the same is a fast way to burn through budget with little to show […]

Something important is happening in Google Search. If you’ve looked at your website data in Google Search Console, you may have noticed something odd. Your pages are showing up more often, but fewer people are clicking through. These two signals – impressions and clicks – are used to rise and fall together. Now, they’re drifting […]

As emerging technologies, particularly AI, reshape B2B marketing strategies, many organizations are shifting resources toward digital transformation to remain competitive. However, sidelining traditional marketing tactics to prioritize innovation can be a costly misstep. Traditional channels such as print, direct mail, billboards, and events have considerable value, particularly when they are thoughtfully integrated with digital strategies […]

YouTube is rolling out a new audience analytics feature that replaces the “returning viewers” metric with more detailed viewer categories. The update introduces three viewer types: new, casual, and regular. This is designed to help creators better understand who’s engaging with their content and how often. Breaking Down The New Viewer Categories YouTube now segments […]

A new study analyzing 10,000 keywords reveals that Google’s AI Mode delivers inconsistent results. The research also shows minimal overlap between AI Mode sources and traditional organic search rankings. Published by SE Ranking, the study examines how AI Mode performs in comparison to Google’s AI Overviews and the top 10 organic search results. “The average […]

A recent discussion on Google’s Search Off the Record podcast challenges long-held assumptions about technical SEO, revealing that most top-ranking websites don’t use valid HTML. Despite these imperfections, they continue to rank well in search results. Search Advocate John Mueller and Developer Relations Engineer Martin Splitt referenced a study by former Google webmaster Jens Meiert, […]

Google confirms the June 2025 core update is now rolling out and may take up to three weeks to complete. Google’s June 2025 core update began rolling out on June 30. It may take up to three weeks to complete. Ranking volatility is expected throughout the rollout period.

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Rachel P., who wants to find the middle ground between conversion-focused pages and authority-building content: “How do I balance content that converts with content that builds brand authority? It feels like my CRO pages don’t rank well, and my blog posts don’t convert.” It’s hard not to […]

Google’s transformation into an AI-driven search platform represents more than just a technological advancement. It’s a fundamental shift in how the search giant views itself as a company and the value it provides to users. Cindy Krum has spoken at several events this year about her theory that Google might merge AI Overviews, Discover, and […]

Paid media offers one of the fastest ways to promote a business event and get the right people to take action. Event campaigns are not just regular ads with a date added. They need a dedicated strategy, setup, budget, and audience targeting to succeed. From webinars and product launches to open houses and local promotions, […]

YouTube is rolling out two AI-driven features designed to enhance content discovery and deepen user engagement. The experimental tools include an AI-powered search results carousel for Premium users and a conversational AI assistant now expanding to some non-Premium accounts in the U.S. AI Search Results Carousel (Premium Only) Premium subscribers in the U.S. can now […]

Google announced a new multi-vector retrieval algorithm called MUVERA that speeds up retrieval and ranking, and improves accuracy. The algorithm can be used for search, recommender systems (like YouTube), and for natural language processing (NLP). Although the announcement did not explicitly say that it is being used in search, the research paper makes it clear […]

The travel and tourism industry thrives on inspiration, discovery, and experience. While increasingly being challenged by social media and friend & family referrals, the first point of discovery for many travelers is still a search engine. For operators in this competitive sector, ranging from boutique hotels and niche tour providers to vacation rental property owners […]

Google is testing a new feature that allows you to customize the Top Stories section in search results by selecting preferred news sources. Currently available through Search Labs in the U.S. and India, the experiment gives people more influence over which publishers appear in their news-related queries. How It Works Those who opt into the […]

Google has launched Offerwall, a new feature in Google Ad Manager designed to help publishers diversify their revenue beyond traditional ads. The tool, now generally available after testing with over 1,000 publishers, allows audiences to choose how they access content, including watching short ads, completing surveys, or making micro payments. According to Google, early adopters […]

To my fellow marketers, I first wrote this title in the summer of 2020, back when I thought, “Wow, surely things couldn’t get worse.” Needless to say, I was wrong. Here’s the actual quote I started with last time: “If you’re reading this, then it is early July, you’ve made it this far in the […]

This edited excerpt is from Human-Centered Marketing by Ashley Faus ©2025 and is reproduced and adapted with permission from Kogan Page Ltd. Mapping content to the traditional funnel adds no value, since the journey behaves more like a playground than a linear progression. Pitfalls of the traditional funnel include assuming that every person in the […]

AI is being rapidly implemented, but that doesn’t mean it’s being used effectively. The current lack of clear benchmarks and data about AI usage has meant that everyone has been operating in the dark. This led us to create our first State Of AI In Marketing report, so that chief marketing officers and marketing decision-makers […]

Jill Whalen, a true SEO pioneer, recently passed away. Although she has been retired for over ten years, her influence continues in the content-first SEO practices she advocated that are gradually gaining ground thirty years after she first championed that approach to ranking websites. Contributions To SEO As part of the first wave of SEO, […]

Google AI Mode, which officially launched in May 2025 and is now available to all U.S. users without a waitlist, represents a significant step forward in how we engage with search. Powered by Gemini 2.5, this new interface moves beyond AI Overviews by introducing a persistent, conversational assistant that blends AI-generated insights with traditional search […]

Marketers and business owners are spoiled for choice when it comes to the many social media platforms available for growing an online audience. From BlueSky to TikTok, LinkedIn to Patreon, social media marketing has never been more robust, or, arguably, time-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be. Fortunately, you don’t have to be everywhere at […]

Paid media offers one of the fastest ways to promote a business event and get the right people to take action. Event campaigns are not just regular ads with a date added. They need a dedicated strategy, setup, budget, and audience targeting to succeed. From webinars and product launches to open houses and local promotions, […]

The most exciting moment of your new WordPress project is right at the beginning. You have an idea that one day, you hope will soon be shared with the world. But it can also be overwhelming. WordPress has countless plugins that do pretty much everything under the sun. In fact, the WordPress ecosystem has doubled […]

When it comes to enterprise SEO, you need more than just the basics. You need tools that scale, provide deep insights, and plug seamlessly into your WordPress ecosystem. Enterprise businesses require a scalable, credible, and reliable website. While many organizations invest in expensive platforms that consume a significant portion of their budget and come with […]

Google’s Martin Splitt and Gary Illyes recently addressed a common question in search marketing: how technical do SEO professionals need to be? In a Search Off the Record podcast, they offered guidance on which technical skills are helpful in SEO and discussed the long-standing friction between developers and SEO professionals. Splitt noted: “I think in […]

If your brand doesn’t resonate on a deep level with your target audience, then pouring time and energy into aesthetics and clever messaging is a waste of resources. Real brand power is based on your brand’s identity: knowing who you are as a company, and how your ideal customer experiences life in relation to your offering. […]

TikTok will remain operational in the U.S. through September 17, as negotiations over a potential ownership deal continue. President Donald Trump issued a third executive order delaying enforcement of the TikTok ban, giving the Chinese-owned platform another 90 days to operate in the U.S. The move was confirmed in a White House briefing and TikTok’s […]

As AI search redefines visibility, brands must shift from ranking to relevance. This is where leadership must step up. The post Aligning The CIO, CFO & CMO For Search‑Driven ROI appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Keeping up-to-date on industry Google Ads benchmarks is crucial to help answer questions you might get from clients or exec such as: “Is this a good CTR?” “Why is our CPA so high?” “What’s a good conversion rate, anyway?” Questions like these come up all the time, especially when budgets are tight and performance dips […]

Building on our previous exploration of Agentic SEO’s ideation capabilities, this article takes a closer look at the second pillar: Audit. As promised, we’ll look at how AI agents can transform the SEO audit process by providing corrections and thorough analysis that would otherwise take hundreds of hours of manual work. Traditional SEO audits are […]

Today’s Memo is a download straight from my brain about the current state of Search and AI. So much happened in the last few weeks, and I haven’t had a chance to sort out my thoughts. Until now. I’m finishing this Memo with exclusive insight into the KPIs I measure for search right now for […]

Google has updated its Search Console documentation, confirming it includes AI Mode data in Performance reports. This is a change to note when reviewing your metrics, as it may impact traffic reporting patterns. Understanding AI Mode and What’s Changed AI Mode is Google’s interactive AI-powered search experience, which builds on AI Overviews to provide more […]

To my fellow marketers, I first wrote this title in the summer of 2020, back when I thought, “Wow, surely things couldn’t get worse.” Needless to say, I was wrong. Here’s the actual quote I started with last time: “If you’re reading this, then it is early July, you’ve made it this far in the […]

The launch of ChatGPT blew apart the search industry, and the last few years have seen more and more AI integration into search engine results pages. In an attempt to keep up with the LLMs, Google launched AI Overviews and just announced AI Mode tabs. The expectation is that SERPs will become blended with a […]

Google’s Search Relations team has explained why their SEO advice often sounds vague or comes with conditions, such as “it depends.” In a recent Search Off the Record podcast, team members Martin Splitt and Gary Illyes shared the challenges that prevent them from providing clear-cut answers. The discussion was part of what the team referred […]

Google has confirmed an ongoing disruption that is preventing some results from appearing in Google Lens, Discover, and Voice Search. According to the company’s Search Status Dashboard, the incident began on June 12 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. A follow-up entry posted at 1:16 p.m. states: “There’s an ongoing issue with serving Google Lens, Discover, […]

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, responded to concerns about the impact of recent changes in Search and was repeatedly asked to clarify his position on the web ecosystem and how it fits into what he calls the next chapter of search. Pichai’s responses were given in the context of a recent interview on the Lex Fridman […]

Google has launched Audio Overviews, a new test feature in Search Labs. It creates audio summaries of search results using Google’s latest Gemini AI models. How Audio Overviews Work Audio Overviews turn Google Search results into audio content. When Google thinks an audio overview might help, you’ll see an option to create a short audio […]

Marketers and business owners are spoiled for choice when it comes to the many social media platforms available for growing an online audience. From BlueSky to TikTok, LinkedIn to Patreon, social media marketing has never been more robust, or, arguably, time-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be. Fortunately, you don’t have to be everywhere at […]

Google retires seven structured data features including Book Actions, Course Info, and Claim Review to streamline search results. Rankings unaffected. Google is removing seven structured data features from search results. This change will not affecting rankings. There’s no immediate action needed.

Regular audits are one of the foundational workflows in any paid media strategy. Whether you’re investigating account anomalies, evaluating growth opportunities, or preparing to transition strategies or vendors, audits are an essential pillar of PPC success. Here’s the thing: Not every audit strategy fits every account. A one-size-fits-all checklist won’t account for platform quirks, business […]

Google removes robots.txt guidance for blocking auto-translated pages. This change aligns Google’s technical documents with its spam policies. Google removed guidance advising websites to block auto-translated pages via robots.txt. This aligns with Google’s policies that judge content by user value, not creation method. Use meta tags like “noindex” for low-quality translations instead of sitewide […]

Global advertising expenditure has surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time. Digital advertising continues to dominate this growth, with digital channels encompassing search and social media forecast to account for 72.9% of total ad revenue by the end of the year. From a platform perspective, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Alibaba are expected to […]

Google is offering voluntary buyouts to employees across several of its core U.S.-based teams, including Search, Ads, engineering, marketing, and research. The offer provides eligible employees with at least 14 weeks of severance and is available through July 1, according to reporting from The Verge and The Information. The buyouts are limited to employees in […]

Last week, I sent out an update on my marketplace SEO issue, and it would be a complete miss if I didn’t do the same for the topic of product-led SEO, because they’re directly related. In this issue, you’ll get: A thorough look at what product-led SEO is, what it isn’t, and where it’s valuable. Three […]

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about a site that received millions of Googlebot requests for pages that don’t exist, with one non-existent URL receiving over two million hits, essentially DDoS-level page requests. The publisher’s concerns about crawl budget and rankings seemingly were realized, as the site subsequently experienced a drop in search visibility. NoIndex […]

The Linux Foundation recently announced the FAIR Package Manager project, an open-source, distributed WordPress plugin and theme repository that decentralizes control of the repository. A distributed theme and plugin repository became a priority for many in the WordPress community after Matt Mullenweg took control of certain paid premium plugins and created free versions from them, […]

Google has started rolling out interactive charts in AI Mode through Labs. You can now ask complex financial questions and get both visual charts and detailed explanations. The system builds these responses specifically for each user’s question. Visual Analytics Come AI Mode Soufi Esmaeilzadeh, Director of Product Management for Search at Google, explained that you […]

WordPress security company Patchstack announced a new security tier called managed Vulnerability Disclosure Program platform (mVDP), which offers both human and advanced AI plugin reviews to help plugin developers keep their software resistant to vulnerabilities and provide greater trustworthiness. One of the biggest problems with WordPress is vulnerabilities from third-party plugins. An enormous amount of […]

Every tweet, direct message, and comment holds weight. Social media has long been a connectivity platform, where users engage with friends, colleagues, and family. In recent years, it’s also evolved to become a feedback mechanism for businesses. In many industries, customers are communicating with a business on social media. It’s a key customer service channel, […]

BrightEdge Enterprise SEO platform released new data showing distinctive patterns across major AI search and chatbot platforms and also called attention to potential disruption from Apple if it breaks with Google as the default search engine in Safari. Desktop AI Traffic Dominance One of the key findings in the BrightEdge data is that traffic to […]

Google updated the Recipe Schema.org structured data documentation to reflect more precise guidance on what the image structured data property affects and where to find additional information about ranking recipe images in the regular organic search results. Schema.org Structured Data And Rich Results The SEO and publisher community refers to the text results as the […]

One of the SEO industry’s SEO Rockstars recently shared his opinion about SEO for generative AI, calling attention to facts about Google and how the new AI search really works. Greg Boser is a search marketing pioneer with a deep level of experience that few in the industry can match or even begin to imagine. […]

WordPress interviewed a member of the newly formed WordPress AI Team who shared how AI can be integrated into WordPress, outlining a future in which the platform supports AI agents and content consumption while enabling new kinds of functionality. To achieve this, the team is focusing on developer tools that allow third-party developers and services […]

Google Marketing Live 2025 was a whirlwind of announcements, with over 30 new product updates and features unveiled, most of them powered by AI. The event highlighted Google’s commitment to transforming advertising through AI across four key pillars: Search, Creativity, Measurement, and Agentic Capabilities. Here’s a breakdown of the major announcements and how marketers can […]

Microsoft Clarity announced their new Model Context Protocol (MCP) server which enables developers, AI users and SEOs to query Clarity Analytics data with natural language prompts via AI. The announcement listed the following ways users can access and interact with the data using MCP: Query analytics data with natural prompts Filter by dimensions like Browser, […]

As paid media marketers, we often default to the “big” platforms: Google, Meta, and increasingly, TikTok. However, there’s a quiet powerhouse in the app marketing world that too many advertisers overlook: Apple Search Ads (ASA). If you work with apps or even if your business uses an app as a secondary conversion point, ASA is […]

A patent recently filed by Google outlines how an AI assistant may use at least five real-world contextual signals, including identifying related intents, to influence answers and generate natural dialog. It’s an example of how AI-assisted search modifies responses to engage users with contextually relevant questions and dialog, expanding beyond keyword-based systems. The patent describes […]

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from a medium-sized ecommerce site manager who’s run up against a common problem: “Our product pages rank well, but our category pages rarely appear in search results. What specific optimization strategies would you recommend for category pages to improve their visibility?” Thanks for the question! It’s a common […]

WordPress announced the formation of an AI Team that will focus on coordinating the development and integration of AI within the WordPress core. The team is to function similarly to the Performance Team, focusing on developing canonical plugins that users can install to test new functionality before a decision is made about whether or how […]

Many companies approach SEO reactively – chasing rankings, responding to algorithm updates, being distracted by AI, or focusing on quick wins – without a long-term plan. But successful SEO strategies start with a structured roadmap that aligns with business objectives, technical priorities, and content planning. Planning isn’t an exciting term, and many planning processes are […]

The question for this edition of Ask An SEO comes from a reader who’s trying to make their rebrand stick in search: “Our company recently went through a rebrand with a new name. We’re seeing our old brand name still dominating search results, while our new brand barely registers. What’s the best approach to transition […]

A Google engineer has warned that AI agents and automated bots will soon flood the internet with traffic. Gary Illyes, who works on Google’s Search Relations team, said “everyone and my grandmother is launching a crawler” during a recent podcast. The warning comes from Google’s latest Search Off the Record podcast episode. AI Agents Will […]

WordPress has dominated the content management system (CMS) space since launching in 2003, and while it’s still the leader, the market is shifting in ways worth paying attention to. As of May 2025, WordPress powers 43.5% of websites surveyed and holds a 61.2% share among sites that use a CMS, according to W3Techs. That’s still […]

Reddit Karma has evolved far beyond a simple upvote tally. It plays a central role in how content spreads, how trust is earned, and how visibility is gained, especially for brands. With Reddit’s monetization programs and algorithmic surfacing now tightly tied to karma, it has become a built-in vetting system that shapes who gets seen, […]