Explaining Performance Max
Performance Max is the Google Ads campaign type that buys every Google surface from a single object: its structure, its controls, and the disputes it started.
Google to fix citation bug with Gemini 3.8 Flash in AI Mode
The latests Gemini model was unlikely to link or cite its sources. Google has confirmed the issue and will push a fix soon.
WhatsApp adds bill payment in India
App owner Meta has been working to create a messaging platform similar to China’s WeChat, and this new functionality is a step toward that goal.
GTA RP Week returns to Twitch, with Rockstar promoting “the next evolution of the GTA 5 roleplay community”
Rockstar doesn’t put out games very often. Grand Theft Auto VI is about to debut a full thirteen years after GTA V arrived on scene.
Google’s New Weather AI In Search Continues Shift Away From 10 Blue Links
Google's latest Search integration is another step to a future where users get things done without traditional search results.
Explaining Advantage+
Advantage+ is Meta's suite of AI automation for sales, app and leads campaigns. The three automation levers, the API fields, the adoption and the disputes.
Pangram Review: Is It the Best AI Detector?
Read our Pangram review for hands-on accuracy results, pricing, features, pros, and cons to decide if it’s the right AI […]
YouTube updates branded content sourcing and disclosures
The platform is running a new local affiliate shopping test and clarifying some of its language around sponsored acknowledgments.
“All good dates must come to an end”: Amelia Dimoldenberg says goodbye to ‘Chicken Shop Date’
After 12 years and more than 100 episodes, Amelia Dimoldenberg is bringing her signature series to an end. On Instagram, the 32-year-old Brit announced that an upcoming run of interviews will serve as the swan song for Chicken Shop Date.
Product Pages Get 24% Of AI Citations, Reddit & YouTube 4%
Ten Speed's citation study shows product pages beating Reddit nearly six to one for B2B buyers, verified only after six pointed fact-check questions.
Explaining joint business plan
Joint business plan: a multi-year contract tying an advertiser's committed spend to a vendor's pricing, staffing and product access. How JBPs work, and fail.
12 best social media monitoring tools for 2026
Social media monitoring tools help you spot mentions fast. Compare 12 tools by price, coverage, alert speed, and sentiment, plus 4 pro tips.
TikTok adds voice and image carousel comments
The additional response options are being rolled out globally and could help to drive more engagement in the app.
Roblox paid creators $1.5 billion in 2025
Roblox says U.S.-based creators making games and purchasable items on its platform had a GDP impact of $752 million in 2025–a 69% jump from what they generated in 2024.
SMX Now: Find the entity gaps holding back your content strategy
See how to audit entity recognition, uncover competitor advantages, and strengthen your brand's visibility. Join us for the next SMX Now.
Explaining take rate
Take rate is the share of advertising spend an intermediary retains, the percentage that separates what a buyer pays from what a publisher is ultimately paid.
Study: How Keywords in Business Names Currently Impact Google Local Pack Rank and AI Search
How you name your company or organization is one of the most important business decisions you will ever make. The presence of either exact or partial-match keywords in your Google Business Profile business title field has a demonstrable correlation with local…
Reddit expands AI-powered Max campaigns
The platform is offering its automated promotions to all advertisers and rolling out new features to help brands get more out of their ad spend.
How to find your social media target audience in 2026
Social media target audience unclear? Use analytics, social listening, and personas to pick platforms and create content that converts.
After spending decades in Hollywood, UTA’s Co-Founder has a new gig: A call-in show on Twitch.
What do you do if you’re a Hollywood lifer who is without a full-time job for the first time in decades? That’s the situation UTA Co-Founder Jeremy Zimmer is currently facing, and he is using the opportunity to try something unique: At age 68, he has launched…
When AI Has Nothing On Your Company, It Describes Someone Else
Publishing more content won't fix AI substitution. Retrieval repeats the same popularity bias that thinned your presence in the weights.
Explaining total addressable market
Total addressable market is the annual revenue a product would earn at full market share. How ad tech calculates the figure, and why published totals disagree.
3 SEO priorities to win organic traffic in 2027
Prioritize commercial content, make your best answers easy to extract, and build authority signals for organic and AI search visibility.
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 3, 2026
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google has dodged being broken up for a second time on its monopoly ruling...
A fresh creative team will lead Skibidi Toilet into the future
It's been a while since we last checked in on the internet's favorite human-headed toilet creatures, but the company that owns the Skibidi Toilet IP just delivered an important update.
9 Best Reddit Marketing Agencies Compared
Reddit shapes what buyers believe before they ever reach your site. 1 in 6 users trusts community platforms, like Reddit, […]
Trade Desk cuts 15% of its global workforce effective today
Roughly 575 roles go from a 3,843-person base, hitting clients mid-Kokai migration. Green cites $1.5bn in cash and no debt. Can smaller pods restart growth?
What is a social media MCP? Everything marketers need to know
AI is more useful when it knows what’s happening on your social accounts. Here’s how MCP gives it that context.
The SEO warning signs before organic traffic falls
A healthy traffic graph can mask lost commercial visibility. Find the signals hiding in your rankings, queries, landing pages, and leads.
Should I Block AI Crawlers At Robots.txt Or Server Level? – Ask An SEO
Robots.txt relies on bot compliance, while WAF, CDN, and server-level blocks enforce it. A breakdown of which layer stops AI crawlers for good.
Publishers Noticing Google News Tab Content Disappearing
Over the past several days, I have been hearing from some publishers that while their content is being crawled, indexed, and served in Google Search results, some of it is missing from the news tab. It may then later show up in the news tab, much later.
Explaining SERP
SERP, the search engine results page, is what an engine returns for a query. How the page is assembled, who pays for position, and why its layout is contested.
Stop Restarting Your AI Initiatives
Stop Restarting Your AI Initiatives The model release calendar is not your project plan. You are not behind on AI. You are restarting on AI. I say that to leaders who tell me they feel behind, which is most of them right now.
What your Google Ads hour-of-day report doesn’t tell you
Smart Bidding sees the auction-level signals your hourly report can’t. Know what you’re giving up when you cut an hour.
Long-tail keywords: the ultimate guide
Use long-tail keywords to drive quality traffic to your site from search and AI. Here’s how.
Google AI Mode Gemini 3.8 Flash Not Link / Citation Friendly?
As you know, Google rolled out Gemini 3.8 Flash for subscribers to AI Mode and some have started to play with it. And the early feedback is that AI Mode running Gemini 3.8 Flash is not link or citation friendly.
Google Says Ranking Recovery Takes Months After SEO Issues Are Fixed
Google explains why fixing what caused a ranking drop doesn’t necessarily mean rankings will come back anytime soon.
Tesla loses bid to dismiss copyright claim over Musk repost on X
Credit line in the original caption supplied the knowledge element, and the order reaches brand and executive accounts alike. Willfulness heads to discovery.
Is AI Making It So Anyone Can Run Effective TikTok Ads?
Want to run TikTok ads but find the Ads Manager interface overwhelming and the learning curve too steep? Wondering how new AI-powered tools can help create, manage, and optimize TikTok ad campaigns without needing deep platform expertise?
AI works best when it removes work, not judgment
AI becomes risky when you delegate judgment. It becomes an “easy button” when you delegate tedious, repetitive, and mundane work.
13 Trending Sounds on Instagram in September 2026 (+ How to Use Them)
Stop chasing the tail-end of Instagram audio trends — here are the latest trending songs on Instagram in September 2026.
Google Expands Merchant Center AI Performance Insights
In July, Google began to roll out AI performance reports within Google Merchant Center to United States based merchants. Google said the AI reports are now available to merchants within Australia, Canada, India & New Zealand as well.
AI Slop Cleanup Job Listings Up 87%, Report Says
The Guardian reports AI cleanup listings are up 87%, while freelancers say clients lowball the work.
Explaining ARTF
ARTF, the Agentic Real Time Framework, is the IAB Tech Lab standard for running partner code inside an ad auction as a container. How the mutations work now.
Change Gems and GPTs Into Skills, Train Autonomous AI Employees, and Industry News
Friday is almost here! Before you unplug, here's one last round of insights and updates. Whether you read them now or save them for later, you won't want to miss these.
AI in Social Media: 10 Powerful Ways to Grow Faster in 2026
AI takes the grind out of social media marketing by helping with captions, competitor insights, and SEO. Here's how to make it your edge in 2026.
Google Ads Under Re-Review Label Status
Google Ads is showing under the status of your ads a label that says "Under Re-Review." It says the ad is eligible but limited and "this ad is serving to a limited audience." It then breaks down where the ad may not be serving.
10 best YouTube analytics tools in 2026
Although YouTube’s native platform does a solid job, third-party YouTube analytics tools can go into a lot more detail, especially in terms of competitive analysis and SEO tracking.
AI agents now buy media, so agencies are metering them by the token
Media agencies are building audit logs and daily token caps as AI agents begin buying real campaigns, after one CTV test returned 5x on a $25,000 media spend.
Google AI Mode Prices Differ From Product Carousel For Same Items
Data finds Google AI Mode rarely shows the same products as the regular results carousel, and often lists a different seller when it does.
How to Create a Video for YouTube
You don't need to be a pro to create quality video content. Learn how to create a video for YouTube in 8 easy steps.
How To Build Site Authority and Multi-Channel Relevance in the Age of AI
Google Ads New Phone Call & Offline Conversions Details
Google added some new nuggets to its Google Ads help documentation on about conversion measurement, specifically on phone call conversions and offline conversions.
15 TikTok metrics you should track to measure content performance & improve engagement
Right now, TikTok is the place to be for potential customers. So, it’s a no-brainer for businesses to jump on the bandwagon and start reaching the target audience on the trending platform. But posting content on TikTok is one thing.
Explaining UCP
UCP, the Universal Commerce Protocol, is the open standard letting AI agents buy from merchants: how it works, its spec versions, adoption data and disputes.
Google signs MrBeast for a multiyear deal promoting Gemini, Google Health, Fitbit
MrBeast is having quite the week. Just a day after the debut of his and James Patterson‘s collab book The Most Dangerous Games, Google dropped the news: It has signed a multiyear deal with Donaldson to promote its AI chatbot Gemini, Google Health, and…
How to Use TikTok for Business in 2026
Learn how to use TikTok for Business to grow your audience, share authentic content, and connect with the right people. This guide covers strategy, posting, engagement, and tracking results so you can make your TikTok presence work for your brand.
X Money will be the only payout option for US creators
Creators taking part in the app’s Original Content Rewards and subscriptions programs will no longer be able to accept alternative cashout methods.
8 Facebook analytics tools for tracking performance metrics in 2026
Analytics are essential when it comes to optimizing your Facebook presence, but Meta Business Suite often makes getting the simplest information difficult. And sometimes downright frustrating.
Google Responds To Sitemap SEO Technique That Forces Daily Crawling
Google's Mueller comments on a sitemap SEO method that forces search engines to crawl and index web pages every day.
The job spans four disciplines that barely share a word
Sixteen terms, four groups of four. The grid leans on planning craft as much as platform knowledge, and one of the four groups is far tighter than it looks.
TikTok is bringing the battle for sports fan attention back to the NFL gridiron
Days before the start of the 2026 NFL season, TikTok has renewed its partnership with the most-watched sports league in the U.S. Football will be all over the U.S.
TikTok signs multiyear NFL deal
The platform will add new game day hubs and host more highlights and archival moments designed to lean into year-round storytelling for both fans and brands.
EP 272 - The Verification Loop: How People Really Find Local Businesses Now
Damian Rollison, Senior Director of Market Insights at SOCi, joins us to walk through SOCi's third annual consumer study whose headline finding is that local discovery no longer runs in a straight line, and that AI just posted the single biggest behavior jump…
Google Adds Gemini 3.8 Flash To AI Mode
Google added Gemini 3.8 Flash to AI Mode's model menu on release day.
How to set social media goals in 2026 [10 examples]
Social media goals feel fuzzy? Follow our SMART process, and goals-to-KPIs table to report reach, leads, sales, and support quarterly.
Want people to pay attention to your movie trailer? Turn it into a playable game.
Next month, a film titled Street Fighter will revive a franchise that began with a series of iconic arcade games in the late 80s and early 90s.
Google Search Using Gemini 3.8 Flash In AI Mode
Google's Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search, said on X, "Gemini 3.8 Flash has landed in Search." This comes only a couple of weeks after Google brought Gemini 3.7 Flash to AI Mode within Google Search.
YouTube adds mobile phone controls for CTV
Users can now manage their viewing experience without a remote control.
Gemini 3.8 Flash rolling out in Google Search
This too is first rolling out AI Mode for Google AI Pro & Ultra subscribers in English, like we saw with 3.7.
The Next AI Protocol Won’t Save Your SEO Strategy
Publishing a format is not the same as possessing the knowledge. Bill Hunt on why knowledge architecture outlasts every AI protocol.
Which AI Personal Agents Can You Trust With Your Data?
I compared Instinct, Grok Bot, ChatGPT, and Hermes to see what they can access, how they handle your data, and what can go wrong.
The internet is waxing nostalgic, so TikTok’s song of the summer is a blast from the past
Much has been said about the long-term decline of the "song of the summer." Once upon a time, universal bops like the "Macarena" brought the entire country together for dance parties that lasted the entire season.
Trending UK TikTok Songs
If you want to find out this week's trending songs on TikTok for the UK, and how to use them in your content, check out this list.
Pinterest promotes its role in teen well-being
The app’s latest report highlights an offline engagement push that has been central to its larger promotional efforts this year.
What are the latest Hootsuite product features? [July 2026]
Get deeper LinkedIn analytics, and clean up your notification center. Here's everything Hootsuite shipped in July.
Google avoids AdX breakup in ad tech antitrust case
Judge keeps the monopoly finding intact, but chooses behavioral remedies over a forced AdX sale, preserving Google's ad exchange.
Entities Are The Foundation Of Modern SEO
GEO is just entity SEO with a new name. The foundations haven't changed in 15 years, but most brands still ignore them.
Judge Rules Google Ad Tech Business Won't Be Broken Up
A federal judge in Virginia ruled against breaking up Google's ad tech business after Google was found to be a monopoly over its ad technology platforms.
How John Muscarello Built a $25K–$30K/Month Amazon Influencer Business
In this week's episode of the Niche Pursuits Podcast, John Muscarello and I discuss how he built an Amazon Influencer business generating roughly $25,000 to $30,000 per month. His journey started with a commitment to publish 500 videos before judging…
Social media image sizes for all networks [September 2026]
The most recent image sizes for different social media networks, including Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky, and more.
Creative targeting is quietly fragmenting your Meta audiences
Ten ads can behave like one when they make the same pitch. Give each buyer persona a distinct angle to expand your reach.
Lily Ray on why shortcuts rarely win in SEO or AI search
From buying links to AI search, Lily Ray shares why lasting visibility comes from E-E-A-T, real expertise and earning recommendations.
Prompts to programming: Vibe coding vs. traditional coding a website
Good vibes can spark great ideas, and now they can even help you build a website. With vibe coding, you don’t need to start by writing lines of code.
Google To Bring New Video Understanding Tech To Ask YouTube
Google says a new Gemini system that inspects frames, audio, and transcripts on demand will power Ask YouTube on video watch pages.
Google Trends Explore Page Adds Category Filtering
Google Trends now lets you filter your results by category, either with or without a query. This can give you a more refined view of the trends for a specific query or zoom you out more on category level trends within Google Search.
Social media marketing for CPG brands: A 2026 playbook
Social can turn everyday products into brands people remember. Here’s how CPG teams can build a strategy that works.
YouTube Says Bigger Thumbnails Drove More Long-Form Views
YouTube's Todd Beaupré says the desktop homepage redesign with larger thumbnails drove more long-form engagement despite showing fewer videos at once.
Evolving SEO for 2027: What still needs to change
Search visibility now extends from Google results to AI citations and community conversations. Here’s where to focus your SEO effort in 2027.
I Built an AEO Content Workflow That Finds LinkedIn Gaps and Fills Buffer With Writer-Ready Briefs
I wired AirOps, Peec AI, and Buffer's API into a weekly workflow that finds the LinkedIn questions in my client's niche and turns them into content briefs.
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 2, 2026
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...
What Happens To PPC When You Stop Managing Google Ads Through Google Ads
As agents and MCP connectors take over PPC management outside the Google Ads UI, this piece maps the risks and the governance needed to avoid.
How to prove paid social drives paid search demand
When attribution misses delayed and cross-channel influence, here’s how to measure the demand paid social creates and paid search captures.
INBOX INSIGHTS: Local AI Migration Part 1, Vibecoding 101 Part 5 (2026-09-02)
INBOX INSIGHTS: Local AI Migration Part 1, Vibecoding 101 Part 5 (2026-09-02) :: View in browser 👉 Take our new course, AI for Writers!
How to Bulk Upload, Schedule, and Review Content with Metricool
Posting by hand, one platform and one day at a time, is where a lot of the week quietly goes. Bulk uploading hands that job to Metricool's Planner instead, so you can set up a whole batch of content at once and let it publish while you get on with everything…
Google: The Disavow Tool Does Have Effects
Google's John Mueller said the Google disavow tool "does have effects," adding, "but it has its place & time." This was in response a complaint about a site dropping in the search results after adding links to the disavow link tool.
Google DeepMind Says Gemini Is Evolving From Chatbot To AI Agent
Interview with head of Google DeepMind explains how Gemini is moving beyond answers toward AI that can use tools and accomplish tasks.
The August 2026 SEO Update by Yoast recap
Each month, we host the SEO Update by Yoast, covering the latest in search and AI. In this edition, Carolyn Shelby and Alex Moss discussed Google’s new tools for publishers, the impact of AI on search visibility, and how to adapt to the evolving digital…
In-Ear Insights: How to Create New Content Ideas in a Sea of AI Sameness
In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss how you will overcome creative blocks while navigating information overload and create new content ideas.
Create an AI Brand Visibility Report [+ Template]
Pair AI share of voice, citations, and sentiment with GA4 conversions in one report leadership can act on. Free template and Semrush steps included.
Google Ads New Pre-Fill Asset Groups With Generated Assets
Google Ads added a new section to the how asset groups work help documentation for pre-fill asset groups with generated assets. This section goes over new features like in-construction callout and automatic pre-fill.
Buffer vs. Loomly (2026): Which Social Media Management Tool is Right for You?
Buffer and Loomly both help you stay on top of social media, but the experiences working within each one are very different. Here’s how to figure out which tool is the right one for you.
Authority in GEO: It’s A Filter, Not a Score
Authority can influence whether a source is considered in generative search, but its role varies depending on the query. Explore how authority appears to work in GEO, which signals may contribute to it, and what this means for where you focus your…
Getting a Pipeline Number You Can Defend to Finance
Ask a B2B team what paid media added to pipeline last quarter, in dollars, and the room goes quiet. Here's how to measure it and defend the number to finance. The post Getting a Pipeline Number You Can Defend to Finance first appeared on PPC Hero.
How to prepare your site for AI agents
AI agents browse, compare, and recommend on behalf of users. Learn how to make your site crawlable, readable, trustworthy, and easy to cite in AI-driven decision workflows.
10 LinkedIn analytics tools for tracking performance metrics in 2026
As a social media manager managing multiple social media accounts daily, I know the role LinkedIn analytics tools play in the job. It is unlike other social media platforms.
MonsterInsights vs Rank Math Analytics: Which WordPress Analytics Tool Is Right for You?
Choosing the right analytics solution for your WordPress website can make a huge difference in how effectively you understand your traffic, measure SEO performance, and make data-driven decisions.
MrBeast’s literary debut comes with a chance to win $1 million. Is that enough to make it a bestseller?
“The competition is a series of tests that are harder than anything you’ve seen. And unlike what I do, this will not be recorded, televised, streamed, or uploaded anywhere for the world to see. No audience. No clout.
LinkedIn increases push against inauthentic activity
Although the platform’s active user count in the EU has remained flat, its work to address AI slop has intensified, according to the latest reports.
This Week’s Trending Songs on Instagram Reels: Sept. 1st, 2026
Here's how to find trending songs on Instagram Reels in 2026, along with this week's top 10. Boost your video's chances of virality.
10 social media automation tools for agencies
Social media automation tools promise hours back and mostly hand you a scheduling queue. Agencies feel the gap around client five. The calendar is full, and someone is still chasing sign-off on a Monday morning while six client reports wait to be rebuilt by…
The Technical Signals AI Search Uses That Most SEOs Still Aren’t Optimizing
Getting cited in AI responses is the easy part. Our audit of 50 major websites shows where real AI readiness begins.
A new gamer on Twitch is so ‘OP’ that he’s taking on some of the biggest esports stars
Sandisk is challenging Twitch streamers to take on a masked gamer whose skills will shine across multiple titles. The tech company is promoting its Optimus line of solid-state drives by teaming up with the creative agency CALLEN to launch a campaign called…
Open Weights AI vs Big Tech: Why Western Giants Are Pushing for Bans
Western #AI companies: “Protect us from Chinese AI companies!” Also Western AI companies: “NO you can’t use our models for cybersecurity” Hugging Face ended up using Z.ai GLM-5.2 to defend itself from OpenAI rogue models:…
X continues to lose EU users
The app’s user base has once again declined, according to its most recent EU Digital Services Act disclosures.
Metricool Launches “Flows”: Turning Social Media Into a Sales Channel
Today, Metricool announced it is leading the trend with the launch of Flows, a new feature that automatically turns comments, DMs, and Story replies into the start of a sale.
9 Instagram analytics tools for easy metric tracking
If you manage Instagram business accounts, you’ve surely also had to deal with Instagram Insights and Meta Business Suite. Going through the complex interfaces and having to search through countless tabs for simple Instagram metrics, you’ve already felt the…
Google AdSense to change how it counts impressions: Begin-to-Render
This change is happening on February 17, 2027 and will result in a change in total impressions.
A rumored FTC complaint would accuse YouTube of misrepresenting its content moderation policies
Do YouTube users have a clear understanding of the platform's policies when they sign up? Or are the rules being applied differently from how they read?
Schema For AI Citations: How To Become A Trusted Source
Schema is not a magic ranking switch. Loren Baker explains how consistent structured data strengthens entity trust across local, ecommerce, and author-driven content.
Instagram’s New AI Label Rule: Comply or Lose Reach
Instagram is renaming its AI creator label and cutting reach for unlabeled AI profiles. Here's what changed and what creators need to do now.
Enterprise AI Part 4
In this week’s Data Diaries, we follow last week’s data-boundary thread into the harder question in Enterprise AI part 4: what happens when the model remembers a person it should forget, and who answers for the decisions that model then makes?
7 best TikTok analytics tools to maximize your strategy in 2026
With TikTok accounts still receiving among the highest average engagement rates out of all social media networks, this social media platform is the place to be to skyrocket your brand awareness.
Meta Introduces a New Automatic Events Feature
Meta introduced a new Automatic Events feature that uses AI to detect and create website events. Here's how it differs from the old version.
Google vs. Microsoft AI Max: What’s the same and what’s different
Learn where the platforms align, where controls and reporting differ, and how to test AI features without disrupting campaign performance.
How to Use AI to Dramatically Improve Your Quality
Want to improve AI output quality so your content, reports, and deliverables don't read like everyone else's? Wondering how to use AI personas and feedback loops to consistently produce better work?
Enterprise AI Part 4
In this week’s Data Diaries, we follow last week’s data-boundary thread into the harder question: what happens when the model remembers a person it should forget, and who answers for the decisions that model then makes?
45 AI Prompts for Social Media: Unlocking Creativity and Efficiency in 2026
AI is now part of the daily routine for most people who work in social media, and the difference between a generic post and one you can publish comes down to the prompt.
What’s new in Yoast SEO 28.4: find, fix, and generate at scale
The Yoast SEO Bulk Editor already helps you update titles, meta descriptions, and focus keyphrases across your whole site, filter by content type, and let Yoast AI draft metadata you approve before it saves.
10 Best Influencer Marketing Platforms With ROI Tracking to Use in 2026
A comparison of the 10 best influencer marketing platforms that offer ROI tracking, breaking down what each tool actually measures, its pricing, and who it's best suited for in 2026.
LinkedIn Discovery Strategy, Video Series Strategy, and Industry News
Here's a recap of the most important insights, trends, and updates you need to know about today! Catch up in minutes and go into the rest of the week prepared.
Where does AI get its information? And how to get cited
AI gets information from channels like training data, live online information, and licensing partnerships.
9 best Sprout Social alternatives in 2026: Ranked & reviewed
Looking for alternatives to Sprout Social that justify the cost at scale? Most teams switch for the same reasons: per-user pricing that punishes growth, an interface that adds friction to simple approvals, and a tool built for enterprise reporting rather than…
Demystifying Grounding Queries with Real Data
What is user-generated content (UGC)? Guide for 2026
User generated content builds trust fast. In this guide, learn how to create a strategy, see examples, and discover permission + FTC checks.
Trending Songs on TikTok Right Now: Updated Weekly!
Here's a look at the top 10 trending songs on TikTok and how you might use them for your brand's content.
ChatGPT Is Now A “Very Large Online Search Engine” In The EU
ChatGPT is now a very large online search engine under the EU Digital Services Act after OpenAI reported about 159.1 million average monthly search recipients.
7 best Microsoft Word alternatives for 2026
As much as I love Microsoft Word, I must admit it — it’s pretty old-school. It’s not the best idea if you’re looking for something with solid content collaboration capabilities, while the platform’s image formatting has always been an issue.
Stop Silent AI Failures: Tell Your Model What Wins to Resolve Conflicting Instructions
Tell AI what wins. One of the things that will degrade AI performance the most – and silently – is conflicting instructions where the AI has to determine what you mean.
Microsoft Advertising rolling out new design for advertiser console
Microsoft says it has "redesigned the navigation and enhanced tables for a more intuitive, efficient experience."
Check Your Existing Customer Exclusions
What’s going on here? Meta introduced Customer Lifecycle Strategy a few months ago. It allows you to define whether you want to get conversions from all audiences or only acquire new customers.
Diggity Marketing News Roundup – August 2026
Matt Diggity The last few weeks have been big for search, paid advertising, and all forms of online marketing. You need to keep up to stay competitive, and we’ve got all the insights you need.
The 7 best Hootsuite alternatives in 2026
The search for robust Hootsuite alternatives is growing as the platform shows its age. In my testing, the same friction kept coming up: a dashboard that feels cluttered, social profiles that need reconnecting at the worst moment, and core features (analytics,…
Google’s August 2026 Spam Update – Scaled Content Abuse, AI Content, Programmatic Content, Thin Affiliates, And More [Case Studies]
Google rolled out yet another spam update on August 18, 2026 after rolling one out in late June. As a reminder, Google can roll out specific spam updates when it determines sites using spammy tactics are ranking well via its core ranking system.
Building an AI agent for ad management: The hard part isn’t the AI
Confident mistakes, noisy alerts, and conversion lag reveal what it takes to build an AI agent you can trust with paid media.
How to use AI tools for competitor analysis in 2026
ChatGPT alone won‘t cut it. See how to use AI tools for competitor analysis the right way, with Semrush MCP and a step-by-step workflow.
What makes a good listicle?
Author bios, schema markup, word count: all noise . Only freshness predicted top-three rankings.
The 11 Best Competitor Analysis Tools (Free + Paid) in 2026
Here’s a list of the 11 best competitor analysis tools to help you get detailed data on your rivals. Use them to find new content ideas and market gaps.
Lake Fiasco, Apple Ads, Websites Matter, Meta Settles, Google Wants It All
Lake Ontario Fiasco As trade negotiations with Canada fell apart, Trump issued an order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" A petty rebuke, it follows a similar episode in January 2024, when Trump took aim at another North American neighbor and renamed the…
Facebook Groups Are Google’s No. 2 Forum Source
Ahrefs data shows public Facebook Group posts appear in 38% of Google's Discussions and forums results, passing Quora and trailing only Reddit.
18 SEO KPIs to measure organic & AI search performance
Relevant SEO KPIs to track include AI visibility, keyword rankings, organic traffic, and brand mentions.
How Non-Coders Are Vibe Coding $100K+ Businesses With AI | Amol Jain
3 examples of vibe-coded apps that reached six figures in revenue, plus 4 steps to turn your prototype into a real business, including publishing, security, payments, and distribution.
Almost Timely News: 🗞️ What Would A Purely AI-Generated Newsletter Look Like? (2026-08-30)
_Almost Timely News: 🗞️ What Would A Purely AI-Generated Newsletter Look Like? (2026-08-30) :: View in Browser_ The Big Plug ✍️ Enroll in my new course, AI for Writers and learn how to make AI write better.
Social media optimization: 15 proven tactics for 2026
Social media optimization is harder now that platforms are search. Use these 15 tactics, from timing, keywords, hashtags, and more.
EP 271 - The Path of Enshittification: Apple Ads, Google's Toll Booth, and Meta's $18B Escape Hatch
We connect three stories that are really one story: Apple's launch of ads in Maps, Google's move to charge for more Local Services Ads leads and expand ads across the results page, and Meta's ~$18 billion youth-safety settlement with state attorneys general.
Enterprise SEO: What it is & how to build a winning strategy
Enterprise SEO involves optimizing a website’s visibility at scale, using templated and automated approaches.
Greg Finn on 20 years of PPC: From exact match to AI Mode
Greg Finn reflects on 20 years of PPC, from exact match and Smart Bidding to automation, AI Mode and why authenticity will matter more than ever.
P2P: The Idle-Period Advantage
Disclosure: 100% of this document is AI-generated, made by GLM-5.3-Flash on DeepInfra using the OpenCode harness. The silent stretch where your customers go dark Somewhere in your CRM right now sits a customer who bought from you almost a year ago.
How We Use AI for Every Article Without Making AI Slop
Yes, every one. We have even built a Letaido pipeline that can research, outline, draft, and fact-check a nearly publish-ready article in six to twelve minutes. In theory, it could produce tens of thousands of articles. (It could… but that’s…
The Buffer Team Shipped 57 New Internal Tools in 5 Days
72 people at Buffer stopped their regular work and spent the week building. Here's a full recap of everything we built, from customer features to a house-swapping app.
How to rank in ChatGPT search: 8 steps to improve visibility
Rank in ChatGPT search by making your content easy for AI systems to extract and by building off-site consensus.
Update to the Site Reputation Policy
In 2024, we introduced our site reputation policy to stop a practice where third-party content is published on a trusted website just to exploit that site's good reputation to rank higher in Search.
How AI Text Watermarking Actually Works and Why Original Writing Always Wins
Here’s how AI watermarking in text works, generally speaking. This holds true for Google’s SynthID as well as other systems like Anthropic’s announced system.
New Claude skill: Commodity Content Audit
Score how replaceable your content is
The latest jobs in search marketing
Land your next job in SEO or PPC. These brands and agencies are hiring to fill open search marketing positions right now.
Facebook ad targeting: The complete guide for 2026
Discover everything you need to know for Facebook ad targeting in 2026. From audience types, Ads Manager setup, tactics, and so much more!
Why is SEO important? 11 reasons it still matters.
SEO improves your online visibility + complements answer engine optimization. Here’s why it matters in 2026.
Analysis: Reddit Appears in 83.9% of Google’s Discussions and Forums Results
The most prominent domain was Reddit.com, which showed up in 87.8% of SERPs (83.9% worldwide), with an average of 1.29 link appearances. Along with Ahrefs’ data scientist Xibeijia Guan, I set out to uncover how prominent other sites were, whether…
Ditch the Detectors: The One Question That Exposes AI Slop
“Without pulling up the document, tell me what’s in it.” That one sentence tells you in seconds whether or not something is AI slop. You don’t need an AI detector. You don’t need fancy software. You don’t need to burn more tokens or waste more resources.
ChatGPT Searches Individual Subreddits By Name
Reddit still wins ChatGPT citations where a forum is the best source. Two captures, four days apart, show what actually decides the credit.
How to Set Up an Affiliate Program on Shopify in 7 Steps
Learn how to start an affiliate program on Shopify using discount codes, Shopify Collabs, or a third-party platform, plus seven steps to launch.
8 Best AI Content Marketing Tools for 2026 (Tried & Tested)
The best AI content marketing tools include Semrush‘s AI Visibility Toolkit and ChatGPT.
Land Before You Scale
Before You Scale, Land It Once The fastest path to everywhere goes through one place. Your AI strategy looks ambitious. That is the problem.
Creating a Video Series: Why Your Business Needs One
Want to stop chasing viral hits that bring views but no customers? Wondering how to create video content that builds real audience relationships and drives sales?
The 11 Best Social Media Analytics + Reporting Tools in 2026
Here are 11 social media analytics tools that pull all your metrics together, across all your platforms — and help you make sense of all the numbers.
10 TikTok Monitoring Tools To Keep Track Of TikTok Content
A comparison of the 10 best TikTok monitoring tools for 2026, evaluated on data accuracy, TikTok coverage, pricing transparency, and workflow depth.
Why Running YouTube Ads Like Search Will Burn Your Budget
Before funding YouTube Ads, businesses must fix attribution, build skip-proof creative, budget for algorithmic calibration, and simplify offers to one clear promise.
How to track AI Overviews with Semrush
AI Overviews are growing and impacting SEO campaigns. Learn how to track AI Overviews with Semrush.
The AI Advantage Is Dead: What Builds a Real Competitive Moat Today?
“when everyone’s super… no one will be!” – Syndrome, the Incredibles When everyone has access to state of the art models, your AI is no longer any kind of advantage, and depending on you or your team’s level of skill, might even be a disadvantage.
Reduce Token Usage, The Voice-Activated Content System, and Industry News
Last chance: 50% off all Social Media Marketing World and AI Business World tickets ends tomorrow. Save 50% on tickets → Friday is almost here! Before you unplug, here are the latest AI insights and updates for marketers.
What’s a Good GA4 Engagement Rate? 500+ Websites, Analyzed
We analyzed engagement rates across more than 500 websites and 16 billion sessions, and the median is 51%. However, determining […]
Affiliate Program Competitive Analysis: What to Analyze & How to Compete
ChatGPT vs. Claude vs. Grok vs. Gemini: The Best AI Across 10 Real Use Cases
My picks for the best AI models and tools across 10 everyday tasks, plus a preview of my upcoming course for paid subscribers
Why B2B Campaigns Built for One Buyer Keep Stalling
The average B2B deal now involves around ten buyers, and 40% stall on indecision, not a competitor. Here's how to build campaigns that win the whole group. The post Why B2B Campaigns Built for One Buyer Keep Stalling first appeared on PPC Hero.
How Aaron Steed Turned a High School Side Hustle Into an 8-Figure Moving Company
In this week's episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Aaron Steed and I discuss how he turned Meathead Movers from a high school side hustle into an eight-figure moving company. He started the business at 17 and has since grown…
INBOX INSIGHTS: (2026-08-26) Walking Back Productivity, Vibe Coding Part 4
INBOX INSIGHTS: (2026-08-26) Walking Back Productivity, Vibe Coding Part 4 :: View in browser 👉 Take our new course, AI for Writers! Watch This Newsletter 🎧 Listen to this newsletter as an MP3 How do you walk back your productivity?
How to Find Your Competitors' Affiliates? 7 Ways
Competitor affiliates already convert for brands like yours. Here's how to find them, using search, social, affiliate networks, and tools like Modash, and how to approach them the right way.
Bulk Upload: How to Turn a Spreadsheet Into Scheduled Posts in Seconds
Bulk upload lets you schedule a batch of posts from one CSV, on every Buffer plan, including Free. Here's how to build the file and upload it.
Google releases August 2026 spam update: What marketers need to know
Google‘s August 2026 spam update finished rolling out on August 21. Learn what changed, what didn‘t, and how to read your data.
What Is WebMCP? How to Prepare Your Website to Serve AI Agents
In-Ear Insights: Why Does AI Write Slop?
In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss how to stop AI from turning your writing into repetitive slop and replace it with authentic human voice.
A 3 Layer Framework to Measure AI Search Presence, Readiness and Business Impact [Workbook + Examples]
Get the 3 Layer AI Search Diagnostic & Measurement Matrix with Examples Updated on August 26, 2026 The old organic search measurement model, built largely around rankings, clicks, and sessions, is becoming less sufficient on its own in an AI search…
10 Influencer Analysis Tools To Check Influencer Audiences
Discover the best influencer analysis tools for assessing post performance and audience data. Find the insights you need for profitable influencer collabs.
How We’d Market a $400 Skincare Device Before Black Friday
I’ve been trying to streamline my skincare routine while still getting solid results. The 10-step Korean skincare routine? It’s lovely, but I no longer have the patience to fit that into my schedule… or into my budget.
DeepSeek v4 Flash vs. Claude Sonnet 5: Why Paying 17.8x More for AI Is a Mistake
This one hastily made slide explains pre-IPO jitters better than anything else when it comes to AI. DeepSeek released its v4 Flash model earlier this year, on April 24. At its release, it was widely regarded as pretty smart and stupid cheap for its size.
The 15 Best SEO Books Backed by Our SEO/GEO Team
We reviewed and fact-checked the best SEO books (including one written by our own CEO) so you know exactly which […]
Reply to Keywords Meta Ads Feature
Meta is testing Reply to Keywords, a feature that automatically sends an Instagram DM when someone comments with a specific keyword.
10 Influencer Tracking Tools To Track Influencer Campaigns
Influencer tracking tools can be used to collect content, monitor performance, and more. Here's 10 tools for various tracking use cases you can check out.
Enterprise AI Part 3
In this week’s Data Diaries, Enterprise AI part 3, last week’s governance-illusion frame leads straight here: the audit trail you owe the regulator starts with data you can actually account for. The cheapest piece of your 2026 AI stack is the model.
Blatant Sales Pitch: AI for Writers Course
Let's examine this pile of AI slop, generated by ChatGPT: If you’re a writer, you’ve probably noticed something changing fast: AI isn’t replacing the need for great writing. It’s changing how great writers work.
Buffer vs. Later: Which Social Media Management Tool is Right for You?
An in-depth look at Buffer vs. Later to help you decide which tool is a better fit for your needs.
How to Build AI Employees to Get Work Off Your Plate
Want to move beyond basic AI prompting and build AI employees that actually run parts of your business? Wondering how to train AI to match your standards and schedule it to work autonomously?
Affiliate Payout Models Explained (How to Choose the Right One)
From net-30 to performance-based thresholds — your affiliate payout model affects both your cash flow and affiliate satisfaction. Here's how to pick the right structure and build a process that scales.
+€200K in revenue in 3 months: No ads. No word of mouth. Just SEO.
Organic Pareto™ used SE Ranking to take OTPE from about 100 monthly visits to 1,100 and 8x its quote requests, generating €200K in the off-season.
Topic Discovery for AI Visibility using Oncrawl
The evolution of NLP methods and what that means for AI search Before AI,…
Local SEO That Actually Works: Some Assembly Required (AI Not Included)
Content Anchoring, New Instagram Tactics, and Industry News
Our half-price sale on Social Media Marketing World and AI Business World tickets is happening right now. 50% off all tickets — this week only.
Has Google demoted listicles?
What 5.32 million search results reveal about Google's actual stance on "best of" content.
Affiliate Conversion Tracking: Methods, Setup & Troubleshooting
Cookie tracking, promo codes, UTMs, affiliate conversion tracking has more moving parts than it looks. Here's how each method works, what breaks it, and how to build a setup that holds.
How Fifth-Generation AI Masters Time Budgeting for Smarter Workflows
Fifth generation AI models understand time. I discovered this morning, working in Claude Code with Sonnet 5, that it can have an awareness of time and work to a time budget.
20x leads and the first mentions in ChatGPT: How Organic Pareto™ rebuilt OKCroisiere’s SEO in 9 months
How Organic Pareto™ used SE Ranking to help OKCroisiere 2.7x organic traffic and 20x qualified leads in nine months, and earn its first leads from ChatGPT.
MBA Metrics for SEO: How to Speak Leadership’s Language
As an SEO professional, metrics like rankings, traffic, and clicks are meaningful to you, but to a leadership team trained on market share and return on investment, they’re noise. That’s not a bias against SEO. It’s just what happens when…
Black Friday 2026: A Uniquely High-Stakes Quarter
ChatGPT Ads, margin pressure, October launches and automation risk are leading to a perfect storm this Black Friday 2026. Here's how PPC teams should respond. The post Black Friday 2026: A Uniquely High-Stakes Quarter first appeared on PPC Hero.
Top 7 Influencer Search Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
From overfitting to relying on follower count alone – fix these 7 mistakes in your influencer search process to build collaborations that perform well.
15 Discontinued Features From 15 Years of Facebook Ads
Here are 15 discontinued features from 15 years of Facebook ads… 1. Power Editor. 2. Facebook Exchange (or FBX). 3. Partner Categories for targeting based on buying habits from data mining partners. 4. Separate offsite conversion and targeting pixels. 5.
Chunkability: Why Some Content Gets Cited, and Most Doesn’t
Welcome back to our GEO series! Your content can be highly relevant to a query and still never make it into an AI-generated response.
Control Groups and Causal Impact for AI-Visibility ROI
Control groups prove causal impact. Assisted-conversion language is what gets it funded. Here's how to use both.
7 Best Affordable SEO Services: Get More Traffic Without Breaking the Bank
SEO can feel expensive, especially for small businesses, new websites, and companies working with a limited marketing budget. Many SEO packages cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month, but effective SEO does not always require a large budget.
22 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes That Are Holding Your Program Back
Discover the most common affiliate marketing mistakes across strategy, recruitment, tracking, commissions, payments, onboarding, and retention – and how to avoid them.
How to Build Better AI Evals with Claude Code in 5 Steps | Shreya & Hamel
Watch my favorite eval experts do a live audit of the evals that I built for my skills and I promise you’ll learn something new. Plus, their new free skill to build evals in Claude Code.
So What? How to Set Up Your Own Claude Marketplace
So What? Marketing Analytics and Insights Live airs every Thursday at 1 pm EST. You can watch on YouTube Live. Be sure to subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode!
The Performance Max Brand Leak Audit: Measuring the Spend You Would Have Won Anyway
Performance Max often reports your best return because it is quietly buying your own brand. Here is the audit that sizes the leak, and the levers that plug it.
Semantic Relevance Isn’t One Metric — It Has Three Jobs
Welcome back to our GEO series! In the previous article, we explored candidate page selection and how AI systems determine which pages are eligible for retrieval. Semantic relevance helps inform that decision, but its role extends beyond candidate selection.
Affiliate Marketing Automation: The Complete Guide to Scaling Your Program
A practical breakdown of what affiliate marketing automation looks like at every stage – from finding affiliates to paying them – and which tools make it possible.
Buffer vs. Hootsuite (2026): Which Social Media Management Tool Is Better For You?
A deep dive into the differences between Buffer and Hootsuite, including pricing, features, and who each social media tool might be the best fit for.
6 Biggest Conversion Killers on Modern Websites and What to Do Instead
How do you measure your site’s effectiveness at supporting your business goals? The easiest method is to track your conversion rates.
10 Fan-Outs for Prompt Research — Whiteboard Friday
EP 270 - The Hidden Advantage: How Brand Awareness Decides the Click in Legal Search
We end the brand-building series with Greg walking through our original research: the "Choosing a Lawyer" study of the Atlanta personal lawyer market.
What Is Information Gain in SEO? (and How To Add It to Your Content)
Whether Google runs a literal information gain score is still unconfirmed. But whether or not it improves your ranking is almost irrelevant. You should care about information gain because it’s your differentiator.
How to Get More Followers on Instagram in 2026 (13 Tried & Tested Tactics)
I have over 15,000 followers on Instagram, and I've helped grow Buffer's Instagram account to over 100K. Here are tried-and-tested tactics that worked for me.
Growth Intelligence Brief #23
ZipRecruiter gives back July spike, YouTube slides 6th straight week, dictionaries surge, NYC.gov and StreetEasy crash, TheKitchn hits all-time high, Amazon climbs, Reddit stands still
Meta Is Removing Placement Controls From Ad Sets
Meta is removing placement controls from ad sets, including exclusions by placement, platform, device, and operating system.
Stop Hiding in AI Pilot Purgatory
You’re Not Stuck in AI Pilot Purgatory. You’re Hiding In It. A pilot is not a commitment, and that is the whole problem. You haven’t been stuck in pilot purgatory. You have been hiding in it. I want to say that as plainly as I can.
Third-Party Citation Optimization Prioritization in an AI Search Era: A Framework + Worksheet
Which third-party citations and platforms are actually worth investing in when the sources used by AI search platforms can change by vertical, prompt, market, platform and model release?
New Ways to Expand Reach and Engagement on Instagram
Wondering how to get more eyes on your Instagram carousels and posts without creating extra content? Curious which of Instagram's latest features can help small businesses reach new audiences? In this article, you'll discover how to use Instagram's newest…
Should We Stop Writing With AI?
7 Website Marketing Strategies for 2026
Website marketing in 2026 no longer works the way it used to. Traditionally, it meant promoting your site to attract visitors and turn them into customers. Your website is still central. But much of the customer journey now happens beyond it.
Triple-Comparison Pages: The GEO Play That Two-Way Pages Miss
The two-way versus page is the strongest predictor of AI search traffic, but the three-way page is the opening most […]
Everything You Need to Know About Hero Conf US 2026
Our must-attend event for PPC and Paid Social professionals returns to San Diego on 15 and 16 September 2026. Here’s some of what you can expect to see at Hero Conf US 2026.
How Tom Szaky Turned a College Dorm Idea Into a Nearly $100 Million Company
In this week's episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Tom Szaky and I discuss how he grew TerraCycle from a college dorm room idea into a global company with nearly 500 employees and just under $100 million in annual revenue.…
My Mom Survived Breast Cancer Three Times. Now We're Fighting It Again With AI's Help
My mom’s story and how I’m using AI to navigate the healthcare system
Brand Mentions in 2026: How to Earn and Track Them Across the Web
You can have an impressive website, great content, and a seamless user experience. But you might still be invisible to search engines and AI tools. That’s because Google and ChatGPT don’t just look at your website.
INBOX INSIGHTS: Skills Governance, Vibe Coding Part 3 (2026-08-19)
INBOX INSIGHTS: Skills Governance, Vibe Coding Part 3 (2026-08-19) :: View in browser 👉 Read our newest paper on what jobs AI can actually take!
We Tested Ads in ChatGPT: Here’s What the Channel Actually Does
ChatGPT advertising is live: blunt targeting, opaque pricing, thin measurement. Here's what our testing found about formats and cost before you spend a dollar. The post We Tested Ads in ChatGPT: Here’s What the Channel Actually Does first appeared on PPC Hero.
Are Reviews Shaping What LLMs Say About My Local Business?
How Google AIOs Use Facebook, Instagram & TikTok From 300 Million US Searches
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok earn AI citations for different queries, rewarding precise answers over large audiences.
AI Overviews just launched in France, and they already appear on more than 52% of searches
Our analysis of 100,000 French searches found that AI Overviews appear on 1 in 2 queries, with YouTube and Facebook among the top cited sources.
15 Years of jonloomer.com
Fifteen years after a layoff led me to start jonloomer.com, I look back at how the website became a business and changed my life.
The Silver Lining of August 17: How Google’s Bidding Change Solves Budget Scaling Fluctuations
Google’s August 17 bidding change pulls budget-limited campaigns back to their set targets. Which campaigns are affected, and how to prepare before the date.
Building an AI Creative Director: From Ideas to Finished Content With Claude
Struggling to create consistent content across platforms without a creative team? Want to build an AI-powered system in Claude that drafts threads, newsletters, video scripts, and carousels from a single source?
The Best Social Media Scheduling Tools in 2026 (+ How to Find the Perfect Fit)
Schedule smarter. Compare the top social media scheduling tools of 2026, see side-by-side features and pricing, and learn how to choose the right scheduler for your workflow.
Announcing the Final Batch of Speakers for MozCon London
The Best Persona Tool On the Web Is Now Live
Starting today, SparkToro’s persona-generation tool is now live and available to all our business and agency-tier subscribers, and it really is the best product in the space for solving this problem.
YouTube Changes How It Counts Views On Long-Form & Live
YouTube is changing how it counts views on long-form videos and live streams.
What is Predicted Lifetime Value (pLTV)?
Predicted Lifetime Value (or pLTV) value optimization helps you acquire high-value customers using your own long-term value predictions.
I Had 200+ Unread Articles in My List — So I Built a macOS App That Shares Them via Buffer
I had 200 unread articles and no time to read or write about them. Until I vibe-coded a macOS app that summarizes 10 at a time and queues them using the Buffer API.
How Small Businesses Are Really Using AI: 5 Eye-Opening Findings
Two years ago, about a third of marketers used AI every day. Today, nearly three out of four do. That's not a trend. That's a transformation.
Slop Antibodies
The connection between Slop, watermarking and Commodity Content shows us the blueprint for successful content in the AI era
The 5 Best Google Search Console Plugins for WordPress You Should Try
If you run a WordPress website, Google Search Console is probably one of the first tools you should connect to it. Why? Because it tells you what Google actually sees.
How I Run My 1.5M+ Follower Content Business With Codex | Riley Brown
Riley revealed his full AI stack including how he uses Codex to research topics, write video hooks, and create viral thumbnails.
YouTube Measures Creator Video on Branded Search Lift, But The Attribution Gap Still Exists
Google's creator playbook proves creator campaigns lift branded search, but omits attribution windows, baselines, and controls.
EP 269 - Tactics for Building a Local Brand in the Age of AI Search — An Agency Panel
We close the run of solo interviews with a working session on what "brand" means for a local business and which tactics move the needle now that answers are generated, not just ranked.
Claude Now Watermarks Everything It Writes. Here’s What It Means for Marketers
For most marketers, I don’t think so. Google has said for years that it doesn’t care how content is produced, only whether it exists to manipulate rankings. And our own research shows that AI-generated content already performs in search: 5.3%…
Reddit Is Where Search & Social Collide. Is Your Paid Strategy Ready for the Impact?
Reddit isn't just social or search marketing; it’s both. See why its audience and targeting options make it a paid media opportunity you can't ignore. The post Reddit Is Where Search & Social Collide. Is Your Paid Strategy Ready for the Impact?
Multiply your brand authority
4 tools that work together for brand authority multiplication
Does Your Website Still Matter in the Zero-Click Era?
Scholars are divided, but we’re still believers. The website may be visited less, by fewer people, but it’s the only place to give your content efforts a permanent home, to own and control the brand experience, and to thoroughly and correctly inform search,…
In and Out of Model Responses Explained — Whiteboard Friday
Prompt Tracking: How to Find (and Fix) Your AI Visibility Gaps
Your brand could be ranking #1 on Google, but still be invisible to AI. Absent from conversations your customers are having with large language models (LLMs) about your category.
The Facebook SEO Playbook: From Organic Optimization to Performance Creative Testing
When people hear SEO, they usually think about Google. But users now increasingly turn to social platforms to discover brands and information. People now use Facebook Search to find local businesses, products, creators, and communities.
iPullRank Named to the 2026 Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies
NEW YORK, NY, August 11, 2026 – After 12 years of innovation, determination, and solving client challenges of all sizes, enterprise AI Search agency iPullRank is thrilled to announce its inclusion on the Inc.
The Best PPC Decisions Start Before You Even Open Google Ads
Every day, your customers tell Google exactly what they want. They describe problems in their own words. They compare products, ask questions, explore ideas and look for businesses they can trust.
What are log files and why are they important for SEO?
If you want to know how search engines and AI systems really move through…
Content Prioritization in an AI Search Era: A Framework + Worksheet
What type of content is still worth creating when AI platforms can answer queries without sending a click? AI answers are much more likely to fully satisfy the user’s need when they only want a quick explanation, and less likely when they still need proof,…
The BRAND New V3 of SparkToro Is Here
A new version of SparkToro, our 3rd major iteration since the product’s first launch in 2020, just went live today! In this new version you’ll find: A completely overhauled interface, design, branding, and navigation system for the website and the audience…
The Black Box Problem: Why AI-Visibility Buyers Don’t Trust Their Own Reporting (Yet)
AI-visibility buyers keep reaching for the same complaint: the reporting feels like a black box. This article breaks down why that happens, why it is not always bad faith, and the five things a transparent reporting framework should show you before you trust…
What 13 Billion Google Searches Reveal About Zero-Click Behavior
Most clicks go to sites the searcher never named, Google absorbs about a third of Wikipedia’s would-be traffic but barely dents Reddit’s, and ChatGPT now pulls more of its clicks from ads than any other top destination.
Platform properties roll out globally, plus a new social and video performance guide
Earlier this month, we announced platform properties for Search Console, allowing you to track how your social and video posts on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube perform on Google Search, Discover, and Google News.
AI Search Is a 3rd-Party Citation Problem With an On-Page Corroboration Base: The Data Across SaaS, Ecommerce and Finance
AI search is largely a 3rd-party citation problem, supported by an on-page corroboration base: your site owned pages establish accurate, accessible facts while social, community, publisher, review, marketplace and competitor sources validate, demonstrate,…
How to find and fix crawl budget waste with log files
Googlebot does not crawl every page on your site every day. It works within…
Why AI Recommends Your Competitors and Not You (and How to Fix It)
Ranking well on Google no longer guarantees you get recommended when someone asks an AI system the same question. This article breaks down the three concrete reasons AI systems pick competitors, and a practical, budget-free checklist to close the gap.
NEW: Brand Affinity is Now Live in SparkToro Reports
Starting today, SparkToro audience research reports now contain brand affinity data, showing the companies, products, and brand names an audience is most familiar with and/or purchases from.
The future of Search & AI: What I learned from Google’s latest earnings call
Google shared some interesting information about the future of Search and AI in their most recent earnings call. While many are focusing on the first negative cash flow since their IPO 20 years ago, I think Google is well on track for massive improvements.
Beyond the Blue Links: Deciphering the Architecture of Generative Search Visibility
For nearly three decades, search engine optimization followed a predictable, binary contract. A user entered a query, an engine compared it against an index of crawlable documents, and a ranked list of hyperlinks appeared. Today, that paradigm is collapsing.
Best Email Delivery Platforms for High Volume Sending in 2026
Most email platforms hold up fine at 10,000 sends a month. At 500,000 sends a month, the gaps show up as failed deliveries, missing 2FA codes, and a support queue full of users asking where their email went.
AI Visibility, GEO, AEO: A Guide to the Terms Your Team (and Your Boss) Keep Hearing
AI visibility, GEO, and AEO now show up in the same meeting, often meaning three different things to three different people. This field guide defines each term, shows how they connect, and flags the vocabulary trap most teams fall into.
6 Digital PR Strategies to Boost AI Visibility
Digital PR is the single most important strategy to win in AI search. A study by Muck Rack found that 84% of AI citations come from earned media, third-party sources like editorial coverage, reviews, and forums.
7 Reasons Every Marketing Team Should Monitor Brand Mentions
Wait a minute… are you telling me you’re only doing brand monitoring for reputation management?! What is this, 2004? It’s time for an upgrade, not necessarily to your tools (though if you’re still using Google Alerts, OMG stop; Alertmouse is free and 100X…
Single-serving effort is why the Red Queen is going to catch you
Here's what to do instead
Why your pages are stuck in crawled-currently not indexed. And what to do about it.
I have had a number of site owners reach out to ask for help with indexing issues lately. In most cases, I am finding that Google has classified their pages as “crawled-not currently indexed” in the page indexing report in Google Search Console.
How to Report SEO & AI Visibility ROI to Leadership Who Do Not Care About Rankings
Rankings don't win budget conversations, outcomes do. Here's how to translate AI-visibility tracking into the four KPIs leadership actually cares about, and how WordLift's reporting engine builds that case for you automatically, causal-impact analysis…
What It Takes for SaaS Brands to Win in AI Search: 5 Data-Backed Findings and Actions
Which pages help ChatGPT and Google AI Mode build their SaaS related answers? Which third-party sources reinforce those answers? And once a user (or increasingly an AI agent) decides to continue, where does the measurable referral actually go?
Creating and Promoting Were Never the Same Decision
I’ll admit I’m kind of a thinkboi (gender neutral). I’m often more interested in the philosophies behind marketing — how we pick our campaigns, which ideas are worth exploring — than in the campaigns themselves.
How We Reorganized our Agency Around AI Search
Let’s be honest about where most marketing teams are right now. Traffic is disappearing in ways that are hard to explain in a report, attribution is getting confusing, and AI platforms are recommending competitors in categories where you’ve spent years…
Conversion Rate Optimization Services: What They Include, What They Cost, and How to Find the Right Agency
You’re spending real money to drive traffic. Paid ads, SEO, content—the whole stack. But if the people landing on your site aren’t converting, you’re basically filling a leaky bucket.
Can AI Agents Actually Use Your Website?
A website can be crawlable, structured, and still unusable to an AI agent. Across 17 runtime records we found that "AI-readable" is not a page property: it is a compatibility relationship between the site, the runtime, and the retrieval path.
How to adapt your SEO architecture for a query fan-out world
For years, site architecture served its purpose and served it well: help search engines…
The SparkToro API is Live: Audience Research as Infrastructure
I have a confession. For years, my least favorite customer question was “Does SparkToro have a public API?” Not because it was a bad question.
A Scammer Is Using Our Name: Here’s What You Need to Know
If someone has reached out to you offering a part-time job with “ipullrankwork” or “ipullrankstart” (or any other similar name) paying a few thousand dollars a month for completing a list of daily “tasks,” please stop and read this before you send anyone…
See how content from social and video platforms performs on Google Search
Content creators and publishers use many channels beyond their own websites to reach their audiences. As people gravitate toward firsthand perspectives and different content formats, we want to make it easier for site owners and creators—even those without…
Codified Operations: Building the Knowledge Layer AI Agents Need
Learn why AI agents need structured evidence packs, not better marketing copy, and how to build the knowledge layer that makes your brand verifiable, trustworthy, and actionable for machines.
The questions behind the question: Rethinking content quality at scale
Not long ago, content strategy and keyword strategy were almost the same thing. You…
Why Blog Writing Services Are a Great Investment
I talk to marketing leaders every day, and I frequently hear the same story: They’re stuck on the “content treadmill.” They know they need a steady stream of high-quality blog content to drive organic traffic and build brand authority, but they can’t seem to…
New Research from Similarweb: How AI Brand Mentions Influence Direct Visits & Traditional Search Queries
If my brand shows up in AI answers, does that have real impact on my marketing? Do people search more for my brand? Do I get more traffic? Do I make more sales?
Search Central Deep Dive Europe 2026: Apparently we're going to Barcelona
We're excited to officially announce the next stop for Search Central Live Deep Dive Europe 2026! Mark your calendars: based directly on your feedback, we're headed to Barcelona, Spain, from September 30 to October 2, 2026.
Build an OKF brain like mine!
Standardizing knowledge for the future of AI agents My last piece on Google’s Open Knowledge Format (OKF) was one of the most popular I’ve ever published. Since then, I have been heads down working on my own OKF structure.
Your Product Pages Are Making Promises Your Feed Can’t Keep
Google just tightened the rules on merchant listing structured data. Here's what changed, why it matters for every online store — not just the technical SEO team — and how WordLift already handles it.
Playing the hand you’re dealt: Takeaways from our AI search roundtable
There’s a lot of noise when it comes to AI search, visibility, how it’s…
How To Acquire Brand Mentions for SEO
If people aren’t talking about your brand online, you’re missing out on authority, visibility, and trust. That’s where brand mentions for SEO come in. Mentions show search engines that your business matters.
Help Us Pick the Next Stop in Europe for Search Central Live Deep Dive 2026!
As we mentioned a few months ago, we are bringing the Search Central Live Deep Dive format to the EMEA region. This SCL format requires finding the absolute best home for the event—a place where all of you can truly connect, learn, and enjoy.
When Your Audience Isn’t Who You Think They Are
Picture the audience for commercial backup power, and you probably see an electrician on a ladder, hard hat and all. And if you were to describe that audience in three numbers, it would be this: 67-93K reachable people, an estimated $4.2-$5.8B in annual work,…
The Open Knowledge Format (OKF) from Google is a new layer for agents
Google just published documentation on what they're calling the Open Knowledge Format (OKF). It represents a standardized way for agents to access knowledge via very simple directories of Markdown files.
From Travel Website to Agentic Storefront
How alpina.travel becomes an agentic storefront: a KG-first alpine travel site on Astro, GitHub, and WordLift, made for AI agents to discover, read and query.
BILD improves performance in Google Discover
Spotlight on BILD Our “spotlight case studies” give you a quick look at a…
SEO Week 2026 in Review | Day 4: The Future
By Day 4, we were all feeling the week in the best possible way – especially after the Algorhythms Afterparty the previous night! Nothing like a little Method Man and The LOX to get our blood flowing.
Query Fan-Out: What It Is and How It Affects AI Visibility
Your content can rank on the first page of Google and still never be cited or mentioned by LLMs. This makes sense once you understand query fan-out, a background process AI systems use to build answers.
How to Build a Representative AI Search Prompt Library for Better AI Visibility Measurement
Get the Representative AI Search Prompt Library Workbook Updated on June 17, 2026 One of the biggest mistakes I see with AI search tracking is using a non-representative prompt library to assess a brand’s AI search visibility.
How to Get Cited in Google AI Overviews: The SEO Playbook
Impressions climbing, clicks falling? That's not a broken SEO strategy — it's the shape of AI citation. Here's the four-step framework technical SEO leaders are using to become a source AI engines trust
GSC’s new AI Overview reporting – How can we use this information?
Tracking your performance in Google’s AI Overviews & AI Mode Google is giving us brand new information within our Google Search Consoles to tell us how our content is being used in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the AI features in Discover.
Mastering SEO in a query fan-out world
The SEO playbook is changing. Optimize for AI search and query fan-out. For years,…
Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console
Today, we're excited to announce the launch of new Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console, including dedicated reports for Search and Discover, to help you understand your site's visibility within generative AI features on Search.
How to Build Topical Authority in the AI Search Era (7 Steps)
You can be a strong brand, publish high-quality content, and still not have topical authority. Just look at Great Jones, a kitchenware company.
The AI Search Optimization Checklist – With Worksheet [Updated May 2026]
I’ve created an AI Search Content Optimization Checklist, going through the most important aspects to take into account to optimize your content for AI search answers along with their importance and how to take action. Check it out.
How to use the new Lighthouse Report to see if your website is agent ready
Google just shared more information to help us get our websites ready for agents. There is a new report from Lighthouse which anybody can run. You do not need external software to run it. You can do it right from within your Chrome browser.
Python scripts for structured data validation and gap analysis
Schema has been a constant topic in SEO for years. Recently, though, the conversation…
The Barbell Content Strategy
How I'm thinking about my content strategy in 2026.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider Update – Version 24.0
We’re delighted to announce Screaming Frog SEO Spider version 24.0, codenamed internally as ‘bolus’. In this release we have introduced a number of much demanded new features, as well as smaller quality of life improvements and updates.
Google May 2026 Core Update Analysis: Intent, Market Fit and Source Type Drove the Biggest Visibility Shifts
I’ve analyzed the biggest domain level visibility shifts in Sistrix for the US and UK during the May 2026 Core Update, with a measured window from May 26 to June 2, 2026. The rollout itself took place from May 21 to June 2.
A new resource for optimizing for generative AI in Google Search
As people increasingly gravitate to generative AI experiences and find information in new ways, we're publishing a new resource to help website owners, SEOs, and developers understand how to optimize their content for appearance in generative AI features in…
Google Discover is interest-led, not query-led: Here’s how to audit it
Working in the search industry means we have all spent a lot of time…
Rise in Crawled – currently not indexed, preparing websites for agents, and how I’m using Antigravity.
Search News You Can Use May 12, 2026 Here are the topics I have been discussing with my clients recently. 1. A rise in crawled - currently not indexed pages There has been significant chatter on social media about Google showing more pages in the Page…
Joins, alerts, and multi-MCP: 4 advanced prompts to extend Oncrawl with Claude Code
This article is a follow-up to the first part, in which we introduced a…
AI Traffic vs AI Citations: What Clicks and Cited Pages Show About the AI Search Journey
There’s a tempting way to talk about AI search right now: AI traffic is growing, organic search is declining, and everything is shifting. It’s simple and dramatic but it’s not the most useful way to understand what’s actually happening.
Oncrawl MCP: Connect your crawl data to Claude Code to automate your SEO audits
When a technical SEO audit involves tens of thousands of pages, the constraint is…