Should Advertisers Rethink The ‘For Vs. Against’ Stance On Performance Max?
Performance Max has become one of the most talked-about campaign types in PPC for a number of reasons. Some advertisers swear by it, while others remain skeptical, and opinions are…
Google’s Free SEO Tools, Explained
Google provides a solid set of free SEO tools. From simple keyword research to performance tracking, you can stitch together a full workflow without spending a dime. Every SEO—whether beginner…
Operationalizing Your Topic-First SEO Strategy
Last week, I walked through the shift from keyword-first to topic-first SEO – and why that mindset change matters more than ever for long-term visibility in both search and large…
WP Engine’s AI Toolkit Vectorizes WordPress Sites For Smart Search
WP Engine announced the release of its AI Toolkit, a way to easily integrate advanced AI search and product recommendations into WordPress websites, plus a Managed Vector Database that enables…
How To Get Your Content (& Brand) Recommended By AI & LLMs
The game has changed, and quite recently, too. Generative engine optimization (GEO), AI Overviews (AIOs), or just an extension of SEO (now being dubbed on LinkedIn as Search Everywhere Optimization)…
Google CTRs Drop 32% For Top Result After AI Overview Rollout
A new study from GrowthSRC Media finds that click-through rates (CTRs) for Google’s top-ranking search result have declined from 28% to 19%. This 32% drop correlates with the expansion of…
Google Says It Could Make Sense To Use Noindex Header With LLMS.txt
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…
DuckDuckGo Adds Option To Filter Out AI-Generated Images
DuckDuckGo now lets you filter AI-generated images out of your search results. The new setting appears in image search and aligns with the company’s effort to make AI features “private,…
Does Ranking Higher on Google Mean You’ll Get Cited in AI Overviews?
If you rank well in traditional search results, does that mean you’ll get cited in AI Overviews? We decided to find out. We pulled one million keywords that triggered AI…
AI Chatbots Frequently Get Login URLs Wrong, Netcraft Warns
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…
PPC Audience Strategy: Targeting Vs. Observation
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…
Potential SEO Clients May Want To Discuss AI Search And Chatbots
There was a post on social media about so-called hustle bros, and one on Reddit about an SEO who lost a prospective client to a digital marketer whose pitch included…
76% of AI Overview Citations Pull From Top 10 Pages
How much do traditional and AI search results overlap? AI models draw on search engine indexes to enrich their static training data in a process known as retrieval augmented generation…
How To Calculate Your ROAS & Ways To Use It
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…
Why It’s Okay To Not Buy Or Obsess Over Links Anymore
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…
Google Discusses If It’s Okay To Make Changes For SEO Purposes
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…
The Great Decoupling of Clicks and Impressions — Whiteboard Friday
3. Impressions are good data Thirdly, impressions are just good data. There are a lot of things in SEO that we don’t have good data for. Impressions, we do have…
Can AEO/GEO Startups Beat Established SEO Tool Companies?
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…
Google’s June 2025 Update Analysis: What Just Happened?
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…
Google’s Top 5 SEO Tools
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…
8.64% of AI Overviews Appear Outside Position #1 (And as Low as Position #6)
Get the week’s best marketing content AI Overviews aren’t always in the first position in the SERPs. For example, here’s an AI Overview in the 2nd position. See where AI…
CMOs Need To Rethink Attribution In AI Search
I was asked recently to take a closer look at the data for a website in Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This was for “Measurement Queen” Katie Delahaye Paine, a pioneer…
Brave Search API Now Available Through AWS Marketplace
Brave Search and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the availability of the Brave Search API in the new AI Agents and Tools category of the AWS Marketplace. AI Agents And…
Perplexity Looks Beyond Search With Its AI Browser, Comet
Perplexity has launched a web browser, Comet, offering users a look at how the company is evolving beyond AI search. While Comet shares familiar traits with Chrome, it introduces a…
OpenAI ChatGPT Agent Marks A Turning Point For Businesses And SEO
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…
Google’s John Mueller Clarifies How To Remove Pages From Search
In a recent installment of SEO Office Hours, Google’s John Mueller offered guidance on how to keep unwanted pages out of search results and addressed a common source of confusion…
Ex-Google Engineer Launches Athena For AI Search Visibility
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…
Is It Time To Remove Focus From Average Position In GSC?
Average position has been a cornerstone metric in SEO reporting for years. It provides a simple, at-a-glance sense of where a site typically ranks in Google’s search results. That sense…
Brand Bias For Visibility In Search & LLMs With Stephen Kenwright
I recently saw Stephen Kenwright speak at a small Sistrix event in Leeds about strategies for exploiting Google’s brand bias, and a lot of what he said still feels as…
Google Thinks AI Mode Is Good for Users, but the Content Isn’t Good Enough to Rank in Google
I set up some tests over a month ago to see if Google would rank content generated by Google AI Mode in the organic search results. Spoiler: it did not…