Most marketing teams still treat SEO and PPC as budget rivals, not as complementary systems facing the same performance challenges. In practice, these relationships fall into three types: Parasitism: One benefits at the other’s expense. Commensalism: One benefits while the other remains unaffected. Mutualism: Both thrive through shared optimization and accountability. Only mutualism creates sustainable […]

Google DeepMind researchers have developed BlockRank, a new method for ranking and retrieving information more efficiently in large language models (LLMs). BlockRank is detailed in a new research paper, Scalable In-Context Ranking with Generative Models. BlockRank is designed to solve a challenge called In-context Ranking (ICR), or the process of having a model read a […]

AI tools can help teams move faster than ever – but speed alone isn’t a strategy. As more marketers rely on LLMs to help create and optimize content, credibility becomes the true differentiator.  And as AI systems decide which information to trust, quality signals like accuracy, expertise, and authority matter more than ever. It’s not […]

Google has expanded the What’s happening feature within Google Business Profiles to restaurants and bars in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is now available for multi-location restaurants, not just single-location restaurants. The What’s happening feature launched back in May as a way for some businesses to highlight events, deals, and specials […]

Marketing, technology, and business leaders today are asking an important question: how do you optimize for large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude?  LLM optimization is taking shape as a new discipline focused on how brands surface in AI-generated results and what can be measured today.  For decision makers, the challenge is separating […]

The conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) has been dominated by “replacement theory” headlines. From front-line service roles to white-collar knowledge work, there’s a growing narrative that human capital is under threat. Economic anxiety has fueled research and debate, but many of the arguments remain narrow in scope. Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab found that since generative […]

Google added Query groups to the Search Console Insights report. Query groups groups similar search queries together so you can quickly see the main topics your audience searches for. What Google said. Google wrote, “We are excited to announce Query groups, a powerful Search Console Insights feature that groups similar search queries.” “Query groups solve […]

Every year, Search Engine Land is delighted to celebrate the best of search marketing by rewarding the agencies, in-house teams, and individuals worldwide for delivering exceptional results. Today, I’m excited to announce all 18 winners of the 11th annual Search Engine Land Awards. The 2025 Search Engine Land Awards winners Best Use Of AI Technology […]

Many PPC advertisers obsess over click-through rates, using them as a quick measure of ad performance. But CTR alone doesn’t tell the whole story – what matters most is what happens after the click. That’s where many campaigns go wrong. The problem with chasing high CTRs Most advertisers think the ad with the highest CTR […]

The web’s purpose is shifting. Once a link graph – a network of pages for users and crawlers to navigate – it’s rapidly becoming a queryable knowledge graph.  For technical SEOs, that means the goal has evolved from optimizing for clicks to optimizing for visibility and even direct machine interaction. Enter NLWeb – Microsoft’s open-source […]