How to use YouTube Shorts to drive sustained growth, engagement

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How to use YouTube Shorts to drive sustained growth and engagement

With YouTube Shorts now reaching 2 billion monthly users and generating approximately 70 billion daily views, this rapidly growing format represents an untapped opportunity for many brands.

When used effectively, Shorts unlock multiple benefits that other platforms can’t match:

  • Faster channel growth.
  • Higher engagement rates.
  • New monetization streams.
  • A massive established user base of over 122 million daily viewers.
  • Powerful cross-promotion between short and long-form content.
YouTube Shorts - Avg daily views and YoY growth

Plus, YouTube’s established reputation provides a level of stability that newer platforms like TikTok can’t guarantee.

But despite all this potential, many marketers fail with YouTube Shorts.

Why?

Because they struggle to adapt their budgets and strategies to YouTube’s evolving ad products – especially when it comes to:

  • Reallocating TikTok spend.
  • Implementing product feeds.
  • Choosing between Shorts Select and auction.
  • Leveraging YouTube’s new multi-format ad system.

This article will explain why you need to implement Shorts ASAP and the tangible strategies you can use to get started today.

Why YouTube Shorts?

Take this for example: 

One organic Short generated 2 million views, 90,000 likes, and 2,900 comments – with a 4.5% like rate, delivering an earned media value of around $6,000. 

This is the kind of growth YouTube Shorts can drive for your brand.

Why does this matter? 

Because Shorts isn’t just another video format. 

It’s an accelerator for rapid channel growth, offering benefits traditional video can’t match. 

Creators are seeing massive reach through Shorts content, and brands are already seeing results.

Here are five key reasons why you need to jump on the Shorts bandwagon now.

Unique audience

Shorts tap into YouTube’s 122 million daily user base, reaching beyond TikTok’s primarily Gen Z audience. 

YouTube’s established reputation means less regulatory risk than TikTok.

Fast growth 

Shorts drives rapid channel growth, with reach volume taking off via Shorts.

High engagement

Shorts are easily shareable and often earn higher engagement, feeding viewers into full-length videos.

YouTube Select Shorts ads are viewed 90% longer than ads on other platforms. 

Influencer-led Shorts ads have seen view-through rates as high as 15.9%.

Monetization and ads 

New monetization (YouTube Partner Program for Shorts, Super Thanks) encourages creators. 

For brands, Shorts now integrates into ad products like Demand Gen and YouTube Select lineups.

Cross-promotion

Shorts can funnel viewers to a brand’s long-form videos or other channels, creating multi-platform touchpoints. 

One platform houses both short and long content, boosting subscriber growth and retention.

Take a look at Mr. Beast.

He has mastered the art of repackaging long-form content into 60-second Shorts that generate millions of views, creating a seamless funnel from short to long content. 

Even the Voice produces Shorts featuring judges in playful Q&As to promote season premieres, driving measurable increases in fan engagement and viewership.

A few more big names who are jumping on shorts:

  • Graza shares quick recipe Shorts featuring their olive oil, combining valuable content with product awareness in a natural, non-intrusive way.
  • ESPN keeps younger fans engaged between games through quick sports highlights and player updates in Shorts format.
  • Satori Graphics uses animated Shorts to teach design principles in a visually compelling, highly shareable format.

Big brands are embracing Shorts because they deliver results.

YouTube itself has stated: 

  • “As the creator community continues to invest in Shorts, this will only grow.”

But here’s the big mistake I see a lot of brands making.

Dig deeper: 3 YouTube Ad formats you need to reach and engage viewers in 2025

Shorts vs. TikTok vs. Instagram Reels

They go wrong by treating all short-form video platforms identically. 

They miss the fundamental differences in content purpose and audience behavior across platforms. To fix this, you need to understand how these platforms work:

TikTok and Instagram

  • Thrives on viral challenges and trending skits.
  • Their algorithm is interest graph-based and great for broad virality.
  • Instagram Reels often mirror TikTok trends and influencer content.

YouTube

  • Shorts often serve as teasers, driving traffic to longer YouTube content.
  • YouTube’s algorithm also favors engaging Shorts, but when combined with Google’s targeting data, it offers better precision to reach specific audiences when combined with paid media.
  • The platform also uniquely positions Shorts prominently in-app (high visibility, even on TV apps).

YouTube subscribers are incredibly valuable. 

Any new video (short or long) reaches 100% of subscribers’ feeds, whereas TikTok/IG only shows content to a fraction of followers. 

This means repeat engagement (and remarketing) is stronger on YouTube.

Product feeds can now be integrated into Shorts for dynamic product ads. 

While Shorts Select reservation buys are primarily for major budgets, most advertisers should focus on auction-based campaigns with targeted audience parameters. 

YouTube’s 2024-25 multi-format ad system now enables simultaneous deployment across Skippable In-Stream, In-Feed, and Shorts formats to align with specific marketing objectives (massive win for media buyers).

Dig deeper: YouTube’s triple threat: Mastering Feed, Shorts and Skippable ads

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Now that you understand the why behind YouTube Shorts and the fundamental differences between similar social platforms, let’s dive into short strategies you can start using right away.

Content strategy for Shorts

High-level overview: Use shorts for entertainment.

This continues to prove itself as one of the highest performing categories when it comes to the Shorts placement. 

I like to focus on these six creative aspects when building Shorts to entertain audiences.

Nail the first 5 seconds

Use lots of motion, a bold statement, or an intriguing question. Short-form viewers love to scroll fast.

Nothing fancy

Avoid high-polish “TV commercial” looks, and use styles common to UGC. 

Selfie camera monologues, everyday people in real settings.

Leverage popular audio

Sound is a huge part of the Shorts experience. 

Using trending music or audio clips can boost engagement. Just ensure you have rights via YouTube’s library or licensed tracks.

Keep it fun

Short-form content skews toward humor and entertainment. 

Ads that are positive, high-energy, or witty tend to perform better. 

Even if you have a serious message, find a creative angle to deliver it in an engaging, light way. 

Quick cuts, visual effects, or text overlays help maintain a dynamic feel.

Use a clear CTA

Stick to one key message or product per Short ad. 

Too many points can overwhelm the user. 

While Shorts ads themselves may have limited click options, you can prompt viewers to visit your channel or search your brand.

Test and iterate

Use YouTube Analytics to see completion rate, likes, shares, and click-through. 

If one Short ad outperforms, ask why. Was it the hook, music, or topic? 

Produce more variants around that formula. Then repurpose a winning creative across formats (Stories, Reels, TikTok) to refine its performance.

Track how your Shorts support subscriber growth and discover their long-tail discovery potential via YouTube search. 

Unlike TikTok or Reels content that may generate quick virality but lack staying power, YouTube Shorts benefit from the platform’s built-in advantages for continued discovery and engagement.

It’s a more sustainable investment in your brand’s digital presence.

The Anatomy of a Viral Short per Adobe

Dig deeper: Short-form, big impact: What creators can teach performance marketers

TL;DR: You can win with Shorts

YouTube Shorts offers unique advantages over other short-form video platforms, including:

  • Unmatched reach and stability: Tap into YouTube’s massive user base and established platform.
  • Superior engagement: Shorts viewers watch ads 90% longer than on other platforms.
  • Growth engine: Drive rapid channel growth and subscriber acquisition.
  • Cross-promotion power: Create a seamless funnel between short and long-form content.
  • Monetization opportunities: Access YouTube’s partner program and ad integration.

For success, focus on entertaining content with strong hooks, authentic style, trending audio, and clear CTAs. 

Implement promotion strategies including optimized metadata, cross-platform sharing, audience engagement, creator collaborations, and consistent posting.

Unlike TikTok or Instagram trends that quickly fade, YouTube Shorts benefit from long-term discoverability through YouTube’s search functionality, making your ads and audience stay for the long run. 

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Google Ads to show ads in the top ads position, also in the bottom ads position

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GoogleAds_1920

Google will now allow relevant Search ads from advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also participate in the bottom ads auction. As a reminder, the definition of top ads changed about a year ago, as Google began mixing ads in various organic positions throughout the search results.

With this change, Google also reminded us that it updated its unfair ads policy (i.e. double serving) to say this is not double serving. Google added the words, “in a single ad location,” as an exception to the policy last March after Google was caught double serving ads under its old definition.

What Google said. Google wrote:

Today, we’re sharing more about a recent change we made to deliver more relevant Search ads at the bottom of the search results page. When someone searches on Google, we run different auctions for each ad location where we show Search ads—for example top ads are selected by a different Search ad auction from ads that show in other ad locations. Until now, Search ads from a given advertiser were generally restricted to a single ad location on a given page.

Recently, we started looking deeply at the user experience with ads lower down the page and observed something interesting. Often, users would scroll past the top results to review content lower down the page, but then scroll back up if they found top results more relevant relative to content further below.

To help reduce this friction and improve ad relevance lower down the page, we will now allow relevant Search ads from advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also participate in the bottom ads auction. This means a user scrolling lower down the page might see a highly relevant ad from the same advertiser, but not necessarily the exact same content they saw earlier.

We tested this for several months and found that allowing advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also compete in the bottom auction increased rates of highly relevant ads by about 10%1 and increased bottom ad conversions by about 14%2, improving both the user experience and advertiser value lower down the page.

Google’s FAQ. Google also posted a Q&A on these changes:

1. Is Google Ads changing its policy around double serving for Search Ads?

No. The unfair advantage policy for Search ads applies to ads that compete with each other to show in a single ad location and we recently updated our language to make this clearer. With this change, we are allowing advertisers who show up in the top ad location to also be eligible for ad locations further down the page. However, within a single ad location (either top or bottom), we will continue to apply and enforce the existing policy. 

2. How will this change affect the Search ads auction?

With this change, we will now allow relevant Search ads from advertisers who showed amongst top ads to also participate in the bottom ads auction. There are no changes to the auction that we run for top ads. Advertisers will continue to never bid against themselves with this change either in the top or bottom auction.

3. Will the same ad always appear at both the top and bottom of the search results?

No. We show the most relevant Search ad for each specific placement on the Search results page, whether it’s at the top or the bottom. The specific ad content shown to the user may be similar or different from the top to best suit the context of the bottom placement. 

4. Does this change loosen query matching or ad load constraints?

No, our query matching systems and controls remain the same, as do our guidelines around the number of top ads we show on the page. This change is solely focused on the bottom of the page.

5. How can I understand the impact of this change?

This change, which will provide more opportunities for relevant Search ads at the bottom of the page, may impact your overall metrics. To understand the impact on your campaigns, we recommend that you segment your metrics by “Top vs. other” if you’re interested in understanding performance for different ad locations. The search terms report will continue to show query-level clicks, whether your ads are clicked on in top or bottom locations.  

6. How do I best prepare for this change?

Since this update provides more opportunities for relevant Search ads to be seen, ensure your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages are well-themed with what users are searching for. As more opportunities become available at the bottom of the page, you will likely see higher conversion volume at your current targets. We recommend using bid simulator tools to explore potential performance changes and adjust your bids or targets strategically. 

Why we care. Google has been testing various changes to ad positions within its search results for the past couple of years. Google has been happy with the results of those tests and thus continues to allow the same or similar ad, from the same advertiser, in multiple ad locations throughout the search results.

I believe many advertisers are happy about this new policy but some may not be. Either way, you need to be aware of these newish Google Ads rules.

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DOJ unveils plan to end Google’s illegal search monopoly

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The U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states unveiled their proposed remedies today aimed at dismantling Google’s illegal monopoly in search and search advertising. These include breaking off Chrome and banning default search payments.

The remedies. They break down into five categories meant to enable and increase competition:

  • Distribution remedies. This would mean ending payments that “freeze the ecosystem in place,” including Google’s multi-billion-dollar payments to Apple and Android device makers.
  • Chrome divestiture. This would separate Chrome from Google – organizationally and financially. Chrome accounts for 35% of all Google search queries and drives “billions in Search revenue” (the actual number is redacted). The DOJ also pointed out that Google “underinvests” in Chrome.
  • Data remedies. This would require Google to share user-side data, search index coverage, and ad performance data – essential tools that help competitors train models, improve search results, and better compete.
  • Advertising remedies. This would increase transparency and control for advertisers, while helping rival ad platforms compete more effectively. Specifically, Google would be forced to:
    • Provide more information to advertisers in search query reports.
    • Let advertisers opt out of broad and automated keyword matching.
  • Anticircumvention provisions. This would establish a technical committee to monitor Google’s compliance.
    • This section includes a “contingent Android divestiture.” If competition hasn’t improved within five years, Google could be forced to spin off Android.

Why we care. If these remedies move forward, it could profoundly reshape how people access Google, how advertisers spend, and how competitors evolve in the search and generative AI markets.

Catch up quick. U.S. vs. Google antitrust trial: Everything you need to know

The opening slides. United States & Co-Plaintiff States v. Google LLC (redacted public version) (PDF).

What Google is saying. As you’d expect, Google called the DOJ’s proposed remedies “unnecessary and harmful” in a blog post.

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New data: Google AI Overviews are hurting click-through rates

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Two new studies agree: Google’s AI Overviews steal clicks from organic search results.

While Google told us that AI Overviews citations result in higher-quality clicks, the introduction of AI Overviews correlates with a measurable decline in organic visibility and clicks, particularly for top-ranking, non-branded keywords. That’s according to two new data studies from SEO tool provider Ahrefs and performance agency Amsive.

By the numbers. Here’s how AI Overviews have decreased click-through rate (CTR) for traditional organic listings, according to the two studies:

  • Ahrefs: A 34.5% drop in position 1 CTR when AI Overviews were present, based on an analysis of 300,000 keywords.
  • Amsive: An average 15.49% CTR drop, with much larger losses in specific cases (e.g., -37.04% when combined with featured snippets), based on an analysis of 700,000 keywords.

Non-branded keywords. AI Overviews are much more likely to trigger on non-branded queries, and these terms showed the largest CTR drops:

  • Amsive: -19.98% CTR decline on non-branded keywords.
  • Ahrefs: Focused exclusively on informational intent (99.2% overlap with AI Overviews).

Lower rankings = bigger CTR hits. Google’s AI Overviews push organic results further down, minimizing visibility even for solidly ranking pages.

  • There was a -27.04% CTR drop for keywords not in the Top 3 positions, according to Amsive:

AI Overviews benefit branded queries. Branded keywords are less likely to trigger AI Overviews (only 4.79%) – but when they do, they get a +18.68% CTR boost. This is possibly due to greater user intent and brand familiarity, according to Amsive.

Why we care. These two studies (as well as data from Seer Interactive, which we covered in Google organic and paid CTRs hit new lows: Report) call into question Google’s claim that AI Overviews get more clicks than traditional listings. Google’s claim may or may not be true, but these studies show that overall clicks have gone down – and many websites ranking well in Classic Search aren’t included in AI Overviews.

About the data:

  • Ahrefs: Used Ahrefs + Google Search Console (GSC) data to analyze CTR changes before (March 2024) and after (March 2025) the U.S. rollout of AI Overviews.
  • Amsive: Pulled data from 700,000 keywords across 10 websites and 5 industries to isolate patterns by keyword type, industry, and SERP feature overlap.

The studies. You can read them here:

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Meta tags for SEO: What you need to know

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Meta tags for SEO: What you need to know

Remember when meta keywords were all the rage? 

Fast forward to 2025, and while search engines have evolved dramatically, meta tags remain crucial building blocks of your SEO foundation, just not the ones you might remember.

You’re juggling countless priorities, so it’s tempting to view meta tags as “set it and forget it” HTML snippets.

But here’s the truth: properly optimized meta tags are still conversion-driving assets that both search engines and potential customers use to understand your content.

This guide cuts through the noise to spotlight the meta tags that actually move the needle – on rankings, click-through rates, and visibility.

Before we dive deep, here’s what you need to know:

  • Title tags and meta descriptions remain your most powerful meta elements in 2025.
  • With AI Overviews now prominent in search, robots meta tags have become crucial content governance tools.
  • Mobile optimization through viewport tags directly impacts your rankings.
  • Social meta tags drive significantly higher engagement when properly implemented.

What are meta tags?

You’ve heard about meta tags, but what exactly are they? 

Think of them as your website’s elevator pitch to search engines, invisible to visitors but critical for rankings.

These HTML snippets live in the <head> section of your code, quietly working behind the scenes to tell Google, Bing, and other search engines what your page is about, who should see it, and how it should appear in search results.

Meta tags remain one of the few direct communication channels between marketers and search engines. 

Despite all the algorithm changes we’ve seen, properly implemented meta tags still provide clear ranking signals.

Unlike the early 2000s when you could stuff keywords into meta tags and call it a day, today’s meta tags work as part of a sophisticated system that impacts not just rankings but also user behavior and conversion rates. 

They’ve become even more crucial with the widespread adoption of AI-driven search features like Google’s AI Overviews.

Meta tags every site must have

Title tag

If I could only optimize one meta element, it would be the title tag every single time. 

It’s the heavyweight champion of meta tags, appearing as the clickable headline in search results and significantly influencing both rankings and click-through rates.

Here’s what actually works in 2025:

  • Optimal format: Primary Keyword | Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
  • Character limit: 50-60 characters (Google typically displays about 600 pixels worth)
  • Psychology hack: Numbers and power words can entice clicks

I recently worked with a SaaS client who changed their homepage title tag from “Cloud-Based Project Management Software” to ” #1 Project Management Software for Remote Teams | Save 5hrs/Week”

The result? 

A 27% increase in click-through rate and a jump from Position 4 to Position 2 for their primary keyword. That’s the power of a well-crafted title tag.

But here’s what most marketers miss: your title tag doesn’t exist in isolation. 

It needs to work in harmony with your meta description to tell a compelling two-part story.

Meta descriptions

Think of meta descriptions as free advertising space. 

While they don’t directly impact rankings, they’re your best opportunity to convince searchers to click your result instead of the competition.

The most effective meta descriptions follow this proven formula:

  • Open with a benefit or promise that addresses search intent.
  • Include specific details that build credibility (numbers, stats, features).
  • End with a clear call-to-action that creates urgency.

For example, compare these two meta descriptions for the same article about email marketing:

❌ “This article discusses email marketing best practices for small businesses. Learn how to improve your email marketing strategy and get better results from your campaigns.”

✅ “Boost your open rates by 37% with these 7 proven email templates designed for small businesses. See how brands like yours are driving 2X conversions with our step-by-step approach.”

The second example is specific, benefit-focused, and creates urgency. 

Tip: Google now dynamically adjusts meta descriptions based on the search query, but don’t leave this to chance! Write compelling descriptions for your key pages, or Google might pull random text from your page that doesn’t convert.

Dig deeper: SEO for page titles and meta descriptions: How to win more clicks

Robots meta tag

The robots meta tag has evolved from a simple indexing control to a sophisticated governance tool for how your content appears in search, particularly in AI-generated results.

The most important directives you need to know:

  • index/noindex: Controls whether a page appears in search results at all.
  • follow/nofollow: Determines if Google should follow links on your page.
  • nosnippet: Prevents your content from appearing in featured snippets and from being used as input for AI Overviews.
  • max-snippet:[number]: Limits how much text can be used in snippets and AI Overviews.

This last point deserves special attention. 

With Google’s AI Overviews now answering many queries directly at the top of search results, you face a strategic decision: 

  • Do you want your content to be cited (potentially gaining visibility)?
  • Or do you want to drive direct traffic to your site?

For high-value content that answers specific questions, using max-snippet:50 can be a smart compromise.

You provide enough information to be cited in AI Overviews, but not enough for the AI to give a complete answer without the user clicking through.

Viewport meta tag 

With mobile-first indexing now the standard, the viewport meta tag is non-negotiable. 

This simple line of code ensures your site displays correctly on all devices:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

This tag is so important because mobile usability is a direct ranking factor. 

Sites that force users to pinch and zoom on mobile can be impacted in search rankings, regardless of how valuable their content might be.

The strategy behind effective meta tags

Meta tags as the first impression

Your meta tags create the first impression in search results, before users reach your website. 

This first impression needs to accomplish three things:

  • Signal relevance: Clearly show that you’re answering the user’s query.
  • Build trust: Demonstrate expertise and credibility.
  • Create urgency: Give users a compelling reason to click now.

The most successful meta tags address all three of these elements simultaneously. 

Aligning meta tags with search intent

One of the biggest shifts in meta tag optimization is focusing on search intent rather than just keywords. 

Today’s successful meta tags specifically address one of these four intent types:

Intent type What users want Meta tag approach Example
Informational Learn something Educational tone, promise of insights “What is Growth Marketing: 7 Essential Strategies Explained”
Navigational Find a specific site Brand-forward, direct “Netflix Official Site – Stream Movies & TV Shows”
Commercial Research before buying Comparison terms, benefits “Best Running Shoes 2025: Compare Top Brands & Features”
Transactional Make a purchase Action terms, urgency “Shop iPhone 16 – Free Shipping & Returns Until Friday”

The key is matching your meta tags to what users actually want at this moment in their journey. 

This alignment signals to both Google and users that your content is precisely what they’re looking for.

Advanced meta tag techniques for 2025

Social meta tags

Social meta tags (Open Graph and X card tags) control how your content appears when shared on social platforms. 

With social platforms driving significant traffic, these tags are essential for comprehensive visibility.

The minimum social tags you should implement on every page:

Canonical tags

The canonical tag might not be visible to users, but it’s crucial for preventing duplicate content issues and consolidating ranking signals:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://yourdomain.com/definitive-url">

This tag is particularly important for:

  • Ecommerce sites with product pages accessible through multiple category paths.
  • News sites that publish similar content across different sections.
  • Sites with both www and non-www versions (or HTTP and HTTPS variants).

Data-nosnippet

One of the newest and most valuable tools in your meta tag arsenal is the data-nosnippet attribute. 

This HTML attribute lets you mark specific sections of content that you don’t want included in either traditional snippets or AI Overviews:

<div data-nosnippet>This content won't appear in snippets or AI Overviews</div>

This offers control, allowing you to protect your most valuable content, like executive summaries, key conclusions, or proprietary data, while still allowing other parts of your page to appear in search results.

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Measuring meta tag performance

How do you know if your meta tags are actually working? 

Here’s my three-step process for measuring and optimizing meta tag performance:

  • Track click-through rate (CTR): Use Google Search Console to identify pages with lower-than-expected CTR for their position. These are prime candidates for meta tag optimization.
  • A/B test critical pages: For high-value pages, create variations of your title and description tags to see which combinations drive the highest CTR. Even small wording changes can yield significant improvements.
  • Monitor impressions in AI Overviews: Track when your content is cited in AI Overviews and measure the impact on both direct traffic and brand awareness. This helps inform your robots tag strategy.

One test for a retail client of ours discovered that adding product prices directly in their title tags (“Men’s Leather Wallet – $49.99”) increased their CTR by 23% compared to titles without pricing information.

Common meta tag mistakes

Even seasoned marketers make these meta tag mistakes that can hurt visibility:

1. Duplicate meta descriptions across multiple pages

I recently audited a site where 62% of their product pages shared the same generic meta description. 

Google was forced to create its own snippets, resulting in inconsistent messaging and poor CTR.

The fix? Create unique, specific meta descriptions for each page, focusing on the unique value proposition of that particular content.

2. Keyword stuffing in title tags

It’s 2025, but I still see sites trying to cram every possible keyword variation into their title tags:

❌ “Best SEO Services, SEO Agency, SEO Company, Search Engine Optimization Services”

This approach looks spammy to users and triggers Google’s title rewriting algorithm, giving you even less control over your SERP appearance.

3. Missing or improper robots directives

With AI Overviews now prevalent, misconfigured robots directives can lead to either:

  • Valuable content being completely excluded from AI citations.
  • Proprietary information being fully exposed in AI summaries.

Review your robots directives quarterly to ensure they align with your current content strategy and business goals.

4. Ignoring mobile meta tag optimization

Title tags and meta descriptions appear differently on mobile devices, with even tighter character limits. 

Yet many marketers still optimize exclusively for desktop display.

Mobile optimization means:

  • Front-loading the most important information in titles and descriptions.
  • Keeping mobile meta descriptions under 120 characters.
  • Ensuring your viewport meta tag is properly implemented.

Meta tags and AI search: Preparing for what’s next

The rise of AI in search has fundamentally changed how we approach meta tags. 

Here’s how to position your content for success in this evolving landscape:

Strategic decisions about AI content usage

Every site now faces a critical decision: Do you want your content to appear in AI-generated summaries? 

There are valid arguments on both sides:

Allowing AI usage:

  • Gains visibility as a cited source in AI Overviews.
  • Positions your brand as an authority.
  • Creates multiple entry points to your content.

Restricting AI usage

  • Preserves direct traffic to your site.
  • Protects proprietary or premium content.
  • Maintains control over how your information is presented.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Every brand should decide for themselves which aligns or take a hybrid approach.

Enhanced structured data integration

While not technically meta tags, structured data (schema.org markup) works alongside your meta tags to provide context to search engines. 

In 2025, implementing relevant schema markup is essential for:

  • Qualifying for rich results (ratings, FAQs, how-tos).
  • Providing clear entity signals to AI systems.
  • Enhancing the appearance of your content in both traditional and AI search results.

The sites seeing the most success in AI-driven search are those that provide both strong meta tag signals and comprehensive structured data.

Your 15-minute meta tag audit

Ready to put these insights into action? Here’s a quick audit process you can run right now:

  • Check your top 5 landing pages in Google Search Console for CTR outliers.
  • Verify that each page has a unique, compelling title and meta description.
  • Ensure your robots meta directives align with your AI content strategy.
  • Confirm proper canonical tags are in place, especially for similar content.
  • Validate that viewport and social meta tags are correctly implemented.

This simple process can help you identify quick wins to increase organic traffic within weeks, not months.

Smart meta tags power search performance

In 2025, meta tags are no longer just technical SEO elements; they’re strategic marketing assets that require thoughtful optimization.

The most successful marketers approach meta tags with three principles in mind:

  • User-first thinking: Write for humans first, algorithms second.
  • Strategic control: Make deliberate choices about how and where your content appears.
  • Continuous testing: Regularly measure performance and refine your approach.

As search continues to evolve with AI at the forefront, your meta tags will remain one of your most powerful tools for visibility, engagement, and control. 

The time you invest in optimizing them today will pay dividends in traffic and conversions tomorrow.

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WordPress 6.8: The highlights you should know about

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On April 15th, 2025, ​WordPress 6.8 was released. This release, named Cecil, is aimed at bringing more control when it comes to the design of your website. It also comes with features that improve performance and enhance security for users and developers. Let’s dive into a few of the highlights in this latest release.

The Style Book for Classic themes

The Style Book, previously exclusive to block-based themes, is now accessible for Classic themes that have editor-styles or a theme.json file. It also comes with a new look and a few new settings to play around with. You can find this feature, or see if you have access to this feature, by going to Appearance > Design > Styles in your vertical navigation bar on the left side.

The Style Book in WordPress 6.8
The Style Book shows the design elements of your site.

This tool gives you an overview of your site’s design elements, including colors, typography, and block styles. Just scroll down to have a look at all the design elements and whether you’re happy with everything design-wise.

Increasing performance with speculative loading

WordPress 6.8 introduces speculative loading, a feature that leverages the Speculation Rules API to prefetch or prerender pages based on user interactions. When someone clicks on a link, this page can now be preloaded. This anticipatory loading results in faster page transitions and a smoother browsing experience.

Of course, WordPress will not load everything as this would compromise performance if it becomes too much. This feature aims to keep a balance between speed and efficiency in choosing which pages to load. Developers can customize this behavior by using a plugin or writing code if they want it to act differently. It’s also good to know that this feature only works in newer browsers.

This feature is part of a longer list of enhancements focused on performance and speed, for both editing and browsing. Without going into too much detail, this update comes with improvements to the block editor, query caching and shorter interactions thanks to the Interactivity API.

Improved design and editing tools

WordPress 6.8 brings a few new enhancements to the design and editing experience. We’ll go into a few of them, such as the improved global styles panel, the option to turn image blocks into featured images and new density settings in table layouts.​

Global styles panel

The Global Styles Panel in the full site editor has had an update, making it easier than ever to give your website a cohesive and polished look. Now, users can tweak typography, colors, and layout settings for their entire site — all from one convenient place. Whether you’re adjusting heading sizes, setting your brand colors, or fine-tuning spacing, this central hub helps you manage your site’s design without having to dive into custom CSS or theme files.

Set image blocks as featured images

One of the most welcome little updates in WordPress 6.8 is the ability to turn any image block directly into a featured image with a single click. No more uploading the same image twice — once in the content and once for the featured image. If you’ve already added a perfect image to your post, you can now designate it as the featured image straight from the block editor, which simplifies your workflow and saves time.

WordPress 6.8 feature: setting image block as featured image
Simply select any image in your post and click ‘Set as featured image’

Density options for your tables

WordPress 6.8 introduces new density settings for table-based layouts, particularly useful when you’re managing data-heavy content like tables in the admin or Data Views. With these new controls, you can choose how compact or spacious you want your table rows and cells to appear, depending on your personal preference or the type of content you’re handling. Whether you prefer a minimal, airy look or a dense, info-packed table, WordPress now gives you the flexibility to adjust it to suit your needs.

Under-the-hood improvements

Beyond the user-facing features, WordPress 6.8 includes a lot of enhancements under the hood. Let’s check out a few highlights.​

Higher security with bcrypt

Although less visible, this feature is one to get excited about as well. As it brings a significant boost to security. The system is moving away from the MD5-based system for password hashing and transitioning to bcrypt. This change improves overall password security and requires no action from you or your users. It’s automatically implemented and will make it a lot harder to crack passwords.

Efficient block type registration

The new release introduces a new function that makes registering multiple block types much easier for developers. Instead of writing separate code for each block, plugin and theme creators can now register a whole collection of blocks in one go. This not only reduces repetitive code but also helps keep projects organized and easier to maintain, making life simpler for developers and creating fewer opportunities for bugs.

Internationalization improvements

With WordPress powering sites across the globe, internationalization is always a priority. This release ensures that error messages generated by PHPMailer (WordPress’s email handling system) are properly localized, so users see helpful and understandable messages in their language. Additionally, any plugin update notifications sent via email will now respect the site administrator’s selected language, making routine updates more user-friendly for non-English speakers.

Accessibility enhancements

WordPress 6.8 continues the platform’s commitment to making websites more inclusive by improving accessibility across the board. One of the key changes in this release is the removal of redundant title attributes, which were often unnecessary and could cause confusion for users relying on screen readers.

This small but meaningful update helps streamline the browsing experience for people using assistive technology, ensuring that WordPress websites are more welcoming and accessible to all visitors. Other than that, there are over 100+ accessibility fixes and enhancements in this release.

Update your site to WordPress 6.8

Those are a few of the features that you’ll find in this latest release. There’s a lot of focus on enhancing the overall user experience and refining existing functionalities. Whether you’re a developer or website manager, this update is meant to make your life a bit easier and your website more secure and performant. Read the official WordPress release post for more information on this newest version of WordPress. Or, if you’re curious to see these features in action, update to the newest version and try them out yourself!

Read more: Learn how to use WordPress without touching any code »

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Google Search Console: A simple guide for SEO beginners

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Google Search Console is an essential SEO tool. Yet, some people find it a little bit scary and complicated at first sight. In this guide, we’ll cover all the…

The post Google Search Console: A simple guide for SEO beginners appeared first on Mangools.

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Google sends personalized growth plans to advertisers, pushing AI-driven solutions

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Google Ads logo on smartphone

Advertisers are receiving step-by-step guidance emails from Google Ads aimed at improving campaign performance over a three-month period.

The details. Google Ads is sending emails with the subject line “Personalised action plan for growth” to business advertisers, according to an X post from Govind Singh Panwar.

The email contains:

  • A three-month structured improvement plan delivered through weekly emails.
  • A progress tracker showing completed and pending actions.
  • Clear calls to action focused on ad strength improvements.
  • Claims that improving ad strength from “Poor” to “Excellent” results in an average 12% increase in conversions.

AI suggestions. The guidance pushes advertisers toward Google’s preferred strategies, including:

  • Enabling “personalized recommendations” (Google’s AI suggestions).
  • Adding broad-match keywords (which typically increase ad spend).
  • Creating Performance Max campaigns (Google’s black-box AI campaign type).

Why we care. The email campaign essentially represents Google’s effort to standardize advertiser behavior while framing it as personalized guidance. These “personalized” plans appear somewhat templated, potentially leading to more homogenized advertising approaches across competitors.

However, as more advertisers follow these guidelines, those who don’t may see performance impacts as Google’s algorithms increasingly favor accounts aligned with their recommended practices.

Bottom line. While positioned as personalized guidance, the recommendations follow Google’s standard playbook for increasing advertiser adoption of its automated solutions and broader targeting options, which typically require larger budgets.

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Google Search to redirect its country level TLDs to Google.com

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Google will begin redirecting its country code top-level domain names (ccTLD) versions of its Google domain to Google.com. That means if you frequent google.fr (in France), google.ng (in Nigeria) and so on, you will be redirected to Google.com.

Why the change. Google said, “Over the years, our ability to provide a local experience has improved. In 2017, we began providing the same experience with local results for everyone using Search, whether they were using google.com or their country’s ccTLD.” “Because of this improvement, country-level domains are no longer necessary,” Google added.

Google said, “we’ll begin redirecting traffic from these ccTLDs to google.com to streamline people’s experience on Search.”

The impact. For the most part, most searchers should not notice any difference. When you are redirected, there is a chance you may have to login to Google again and also reconfigure some of your search settings.

But overall, there won’t be any significant changes. Google wrote, “It’s important to note that while this update will change what people see in their browser address bar, it won’t affect the way Search works, nor will it change how we handle obligations under national laws.”

Timing. This change will begin today but “will be rolled out gradually over the coming months,” the company said.

Why we care. You may notice slightly different referral traffic from Google Search, related to this change.

This may also impact your signed in experience with Google.com in the short term.

But outside of that, there should be no other large changes with these ccTLD changes for Google Search.

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AI agents in SEO: What you need to know

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AI agents in SEO: What you need to know

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about AI agents lately – whether in your workplace conversations or scrolling through your social feeds (hopefully both). 

While there’s no shortage of articles discussing their general benefits, there’s surprisingly little coverage on what they mean specifically for SEO – where their impact is not just significant, but amplified.

Before we dive into the two key reasons AI agents are so important for SEOs to understand (and yes, you’re probably already using them – even if you don’t realize it), let’s first get clear on what AI agents actually are.

What are AI agents?

At their core, AI agents are autonomous systems equipped with access to external tools, data, functions, and more. 

They operate with a clear understanding of an end goal and are provided with the resources needed to achieve it.

In some cases, they’re also given instructions on how to use those tools. In others, they’re left to figure it out on their own.

Rather than diving into a chart or technical diagram of a sample agenting system, I think a simpler – and surprisingly accurate – illustration can be found in one of nature’s most complex yet overlooked lifeforms: the humble ant.

Ant colony and AI agents

Imagine an ant colony: the queen, much like a master AI algorithm, sets the overarching goal. The worker ants – each equipped with their own specialized tools – are the individual agents tasked with specific functions.

Consider the parallels:

  • Queen = Agent operator: Directs and adjusts the overall strategy.
  • Worker ants = Sub-agents: Each has a specialized tool or function, whether it’s gathering data, analyzing content, or communicating findings.
  • Colony efficiency = System optimization: As ants work together, the system optimizes resources and information flow, mirroring how AI agents coordinate to achieve complex tasks.

The queen communicates the goal to each “tool,” which each ant then tries to accomplish. 

They return with their requested resource, communicate and assess their status, share information to accomplish their macro goal faster and report back. 

An overall status is reported to the queen, who communicates adjusted commands to her tools.

This is not all that different from an AI agent, other than being generally more sophisticated (though not as impressive to us, as it only sustains a species and doesn’t automatically make a stock trade 56 nanoseconds faster after catching a new trend and applying the sentiment as positive).

I’ll poorly parallel this to AI agents below.

But before I do that, let me answer why one of my assertions above is true. 

Why the impact of AI agents in SEO is multiplied many times over most other professions

I can’t think of an industry that won’t be touched by agents, at least indirectly. 

  • Lawyers will use agents to look up and summarize judgments and analyze loopholes used for their clients.
  • Software engineers will use them to assist in developing code and systems, referencing their internal docs, repos, and external knowledge.
  • Bakers will receive their ingredients through shippers coordinated using agents.
  • SEOs will use them as tools to do their jobs faster and better – as I’ll illustrate below.
A cartoon ant holding a microphone

On top of that, we also need to learn and adapt to marketing into agentic systems.

Generative engine optimization (GEO) entered the scene not that long ago. 

But what it is evolving into is something different — something far more powerful. 

Something that takes us past optimizing for an algorithm, even one driven by an LLM like AI Overviews or ChatGPT, and into optimizing for agents, their functions, and their tools.

We’re seeing this evolution in its toddler years right now, and if you’re on the ground floor, that’s a great place to be. 

While there are exceptions, for the most part, generative engines are performing a lot like search engines in their presentation of solutions.

  • The user enters a query.
  • The user receives a reply.
  • That reply might have a few links in it.

Sure, the system might check on the web for additional references outside of its current knowledge base, but nothing revolutionary. 

Again, it functions a lot like traditional search with a better user experience. 

I expect the next steps in this evolution will be gradual, as tools like Google and ChatGPT add new capabilities – such as the recently announced feature where an AI-driven system can call a store to gather additional information for you.

However, new pieces will gradually fall into place until we reach a point where providing your agent with insights into your goals or needs will trigger actions in ways we likely can’t fully understand yet.

Here’s a simple example.

You give the Google agent (for example) your goal, want, or need. 

Let’s say you need new shoes for a wedding. The agent can then:

  • Check your calendar for the wedding date.
  • Check the weather in that city on that date, or likely weather based on the time of year if specifics are unavailable.
  • Ask what you’ll be wearing.
  • Knowing your size, general style, and preferred brands and stores – source options that will arrive in time for the wedding.
  • Source and store a local backup, in case something goes wrong with the delivery or fit, to have that information ready in case it detects a problem.
  • Ask if you would like to see the options:
    • If yes, send them to a display of your choosing.
    • If not, move on to the next step.
  • Once the shoe is selected, complete the order.
  • Check what other common items might be needed for weddings, based on your status at it (guest, best person, bride or groom, etc.), and optionally send an email list of these to you if it doesn’t have evidence these are completed.

Imagining this world, I have a couple of questions for you:

  • How do you attribute that to Google?
  • Was it their crawler that surfaced the information to them? What kind of optimization does that take with LLMs?
  • Was it a product feed through Google Merchant Center?
  • Did they use an operator to navigate your site to get to it? Is there optimization you need to apply to filters to simplify that?
  • If you sell umbrellas, how do you ensure you’re part of those emailed suggestions from earlier in the event that it’s going to rain.
  • Oh, and how do you even get attribution for that?

This simple example highlights the immense complexity of what lies ahead. 

New technologies will emerge that companies and teams will need to adopt and optimize. 

Additionally, with the development of new protocols like Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), adding your store’s feed to a marketplace – or even creating your own tools for other agents to use – will become much easier. 

This opens the door to greater distribution, though it may come with challenges like difficult attribution and untested effectiveness. 

The question is: 

  • Do you really want to wait and see if your competitors dive in first, or will you seize the opportunity now?

While I can’t predict the exact shape of the marketing world in the next two weeks, let alone a year from now, I can confidently say that we’ve already entered the agentic era. 

The rate of adoption and development in this space is unlike anything I’ve seen in over two decades of online marketing.

It’s even more disruptive than the changes brought on Google’s Panda and Penguin updates.

A red ant plus small pandas and penguins

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SEOs and GEOs use agentic AI, too

And on the other side of the coin, we also have SEOs using their own agentic systems.

As an example, I’ll share an agenting system I created to help generate article outlines for authors at Weights & Biases. 

What started as a simple replacement for a script I had previously written for the same task has since evolved. 

I’ll also highlight a few upcoming expansions to better illustrate the potential of AI agents.

This agentic system begins by asking the user for five things:

  • The primary phrase they are hoping to rank for with an article.
  • Any secondary terms.
  • The type of article they were writing.
  • The title (if they have one in mind).
  • The author.

It uses this information to inform the other agents within the system what to do and what data to access.

I’ve created several agents and data sources for the agent to access. 

The main ones (including a few still being finished after some testing) are:

A search agent

This agent has access to Google search and removes social platforms, which tend to block our web scrapers.

An analysis agent

This agent does a few things:

  • Extracts the entities from the pages using Google’s Natural Language API.
  • Summarizes content.
  • Extracts questions from the content.

I’ll likely separate these into their own agents as I expand the capabilities, but combining them works well in the current iteration.

A data store of examples

For each author, I created a folder with 10 markdown files that include:

  • The inputs they provided (primary phrase, secondary terms, title, etc.).
  • The outlines generated by the system.
  • The final outlines I handed off after manual editing.
  • The first paragraphs from the published articles, based on my criteria for how section intros should read.

This collection trains the agentic system to understand each author’s preferred structure and tone. It also helps suggest first paragraphs that align with their writing style.

I log all of this – inputs, extracted entities, questions, and outlines – to W&B Weave to monitor performance and guide improvements.

An outline agent

This agent takes in the information from the user, the search results, entities, questions, and summaries and generates an article outline.

Coming soon

Some agents I’m adding in presently are:

  • A keyword agent that will have access to the Google Ads API to get additional keyword ideas and search volumes.
  • A social listening agent that will monitor social channels for trending topics and auto-generate and outline when one crosses a threshold of likely importance.
  • A Slack/email agent: When an article outline is generated automatically, the agentic system will inform me – including a list of notable people talking about the topic and a summary.
  • A competitor agent that will check to see if known competitors are ranking for the content and send them to me with the outline.

I’m sure there’s more to come. (I considered waiting until everything was finished before writing this, but new ideas keep popping up, and this article would never get written.)

You should (and can) build agents too

I’m not alone in developing agents, and while some SEO tools claim to be agentic, I haven’t found any worth paying for yet. 

The real benefit of building agents is that they help me understand the environment I’m marketing in. 

If you want to try developing one, I’ve used obot.ai, which is simple and great for creating basic, useful agents for various tasks.

Big thanks to Marc Sirkin, CEO of Third Door Media, for introducing me to it. 

At the very least, it’ll give you a feel for how agents work, which is a big advantage over competitors who don’t understand what’s happening behind the scenes.

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