Search performance is shifting across industries as AI systems increasingly answer first and link later, changing how brands earn visibility and attribution.  You now have to think beyond rankings and focus on how your brand is interpreted and cited inside AI-generated results. Answer engine optimization (AEO) has moved from emerging concept to required practice.  Structure, […]

Google announced new branded queries filters are rolling out gradually within Google Search Console reporting. You can filter your performance reports by branded or non-branded queries and Google can show you the percentage of branded versus non-branded traffic driven to your site from Google Search. This was first introduced at the Google Search Central event […]

Today’s consumers get pulled in a thousand different directions online: Scrolling YouTube Shorts. Tracking TikTok influencer content. Browsing Gmail promotions. Deciding whether the latest viral Facebook video is real or AI. And that’s all before lunch.  Once, the path between intent and conversion was nearly a straight line.  Now, in our new attention economy, constant […]

For much of its history, marketing thrived on creativity, intuition and an almost magical ability to connect with audiences. Campaigns were conceived in brainstorming sessions, executed over weeks or months and celebrated (or dissected) once the results rolled in.  Theodore Levitt’s “The Marketing Imagination” stays on most marketers’ bookcases alongside their team’s awards. Much of […]

Historically, Google Search has driven innovation by rewarding high-quality content with visibility and traffic. In the last article in this series, we talked about the risks of Google AI over-personalizing results and reinforcing filter bubbles.  In this article, we’ll look at the opposite risk. If Google’s new AI results skew away from diversity and towards […]

With AI Max for Search now widely available in beta, advertisers are debating everything from performance comparisons to how it plays with existing keyword structures. Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin is stepping in to clarify what AI Max is — and what it isn’t. What AI Max is designed to do. AI Max aims to […]

Automation has shaped PPC for decades, and the landscape keeps shifting. I’ve seen that evolution firsthand, from helping build the first AdWords Editor to developing early Google Ads scripts and writing about automation layering. Now we’re entering another major transition.  As AI changes how we search and get answers, it’s also transforming how automation itself […]

Leading SEO platform Semrush – the company that acquired Search Engine Land, MarTech, and Third Door Media in October 2024 – is being acquired by software company Adobe. Adobe announced the acquisition today. The all-cash deal is valued at about $1.9 billion and is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory […]

Google is rolling out new Google Maps features that will show searchers more information about nearby businesses and events. Plus, Google is allowing reviewers to use nicknames instead of their real names when leaving a review. Know before you go. Google is rolling out the “know before you go” feature within Google Maps. This is […]

LLM-driven discovery is reshaping how readers find and evaluate information, yet most teams still don’t know what actually gets cited by ChatGPT.  While early theories suggest that structure, freshness, or authority signals are the primary drivers, the actual drivers have remained unclear. To bring more clarity, I audited 15 domains in September across ecommerce, cybersecurity […]