A few months ago, we announced an improved way to view recent performance data in Search Console.
The “24 hours” view includes data from the last available 24 hours and appears with a delay of
only a few hours. This view can help you find information about which pages and queries are
performing in this recent timeframe and how content you recently published is picking up.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/web-design-creative-services.jpg?fit=1500%2C600&ssl=16001500http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-04-09 10:00:002025-04-09 10:00:00The Search Analytics API now supports hourly data
With Google’s introduction of its vision match feature, users can now describe a product they’re looking for, and AI will generate suggestions similar to that item.
The real kicker is that the product generated likely doesn’t exist.
The AI will create something that you want, show you the product, and then try to match the AI product with items from the real world.
It sounds like a streamlined, user-friendly shopping experience that could revolutionize online shopping yet again.
But does it actually enhance our shopping journey?
Are these AI-generated results truly more effective than the product results we get from traditional Google search?
What does this mean for advertisers?
To find out, I tested the feature myself, comparing vision match results with standard search results for a few product categories.
What I found may give you a new perspective on the role AI plays in online shopping.
Test 1: Vision match ‘suggested query’
To start, I choose one of vision match’s “suggested queries.”
Search query: “holographic platform boots with metallic highlights”
Vision match results
Sponsored shopping results
Free listing results
Interestingly, my AI-generated image results are more accurate than the “shop similar-looking product” results.
While the product recommendations included some metallic holographic platform boots, they also included a mix of non-metallic boots and even a prom dress.
So, what’s the point of the AI-generated images if they’re not actually helping me find the product I want but instead creating a fake version of it?
Wouldn’t it be more sensible to expand the “Shop Similar” section beyond six products and give us more real options?
What also stands out to me is the selection of retailers.
I’ve never heard of most of these retailers. Some results come from resale platforms like eBay and Poshmark.
And then there’s the cost difference. The average price of the AI-generated product recommendations?
A whopping $230, with some listings going as high as $954.
Meanwhile, the average price from a regular search? Just $75.
Looking at my shopping results, every product in the first carousel (and beyond) is a pair of holographic platform boots with metallic highlights and nothing else.
Now, I’m not planning on attending a disco party anytime soon, but if I were, I’d know where to go: Google Search.
Contender
Grade
Vision match
D+
Traditional search
A
Next, I tried a broader query, hoping for more accurate results.
Test 2: Non-specified search (statement piece)
Search query: “mens red button down shirt”
Vision match results
Sponsored shopping results
Free listing results
The first AI-generated image and product suggestions did show a red button-down shirt (though some may argue it’s an orange-red.)
From there, I got a mix of red button-downs, some with patterns and textures.
Overall, it wasn’t bad, but the price range was still all over the place.
I still find myself drawn to the traditional search results.
When I search for “men’s red button-down shirt,” I get exactly what I asked for.
No guesswork, no unnecessary variations.
Plus, I’m given valuable details upfront, like:
Discount percentages.
Customer ratings.
Product attribute callouts (“comfortable,” “easy to clean”).
These elements make the listings far more compelling and trustworthy, which incentives my click – unlike the AI-generated results, which feel more like a best guess than a true recommendation.
You’d expect that searching for a specific brand name would surface products primarily from that brand’s official website, right?
Not quite.
I ran this search multiple times just to be sure I wasn’t imagining things – and still, less than 3% of the results actually came from Nike’s own site.
Search query: “Nike sneakers”
Vision match results
Sponsored shopping results
Free listing results
Even worse, I was given additional irrelevant results – New Balance sneakers, socks, leggings, and blue polka dot blankets – definitely not Nike sneakers.
Sponsored shopping is a different story.
Since other major retailers carry Nike products, it makes sense to see them appear alongside Nike.
However, when looking at the free listings, all my results come from nike.com.
So, what does this mean for brands?
If Nike, one of the world’s largest retailers, is hardly featured in the vision match results, what does this mean for smaller brands?
Will they struggle even more to get visibility in vision match and possibly other future AI-generated product recommendations?
Contender
Grade
Vision match
D-
Traditional search
A+
Test 4: A trending search
For my final test, I wanted to see how AI would handle a fashion trend rather than a standard clothing item.
Trends come and go quickly, creating a high demand for a short period of time, unlike staple pieces like a “men’s red button-down shirt,” which remain relevant year after year.
This felt like an important test, given how fast fashion moves and how crucial it is for shopping tools to keep up with ever-changing styles.
Search query: “barrel jeans”
Vision match results
Sponsored shopping results
Free listing results
If you haven’t heard of the “barrel jean” trend, don’t worry; you’re not missing much in the vision match results because they’re completely wrong.
I only included three screenshots, but after scrolling through everything, I didn’t spot a single pair of actual barrel jeans.
Instead, I got jeans in every color and pattern imaginable, along with some random dress slacks.
Meanwhile, a simple Google Search gave me exactly what I was looking for: a variety of barrel jeans from well-known retailers available in different price ranges and washes.
It’s pretty clear that when it comes to keeping up with fashion trends, AI might be trending, but vision match still isn’t fashion-forward.
Contender
Grade
Vision match
F
Traditional search
A+
The final verdict
In my experience, while vision match offers an interesting new way to search for products, it still has a long way to go in terms of accuracy and relevance.
In each test, it struggled to provide precise matches for the products I was looking for, often offering unrelated items or a confusing mix of options.
On the other hand, traditional search results from Google gave me exactly what I wanted: clear product options, price ranges, and relevant details that helped me make an informed decision.
Let’s take a look at the final results of our test:
Contender
Grade
Vision match
D
Traditional search
A
I understand that these results are subjective, but anyone with search intent would agree that a D average is generous in this case.
So, what does this mean for advertisers?
As AI-generated results grow, advertisers must continue to adapt their strategies to ensure their products are accurately represented.
However, with limited control over what’s featured in vision match, this will be very difficult.
Given that the current vision match results seem subpar, users will likely still prefer the traditional search results, which continue to provide more accurate and relevant options.
While vision match has potential, its current limitations likely won’t sway many users away from the search results for now.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Google-Shopping-Vision-match-4R7LFC.png?fit=1208%2C689&ssl=16891208http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-04-08 13:00:002025-04-08 13:00:00Google vision match vs. traditional search: Early insights on AI shopping tool
AI is changing how people find and engage with content – but the core signals that drive visibility haven’t changed.
This article shows how search marketers can stay competitive by combining proven SEO and content strategies with AI-powered workflows to build authority, trust, and reach across platforms.
Why authority still wins in the age of AI search
If you work in marketing, you’ve probably heard the same questions repeated throughout the past year:
“What’s AI’s impact on organic search?”
“How can my brand appear in AI-driven search results?”
Whether you’re using Google or ChatGPT, both platforms strive to surface the most authoritative, relevant content on a given subject.
They do this by identifying which entities (brands or sources) have provided robust subject matter expertise (contextual relevance) backed by strong third-party authority signals (e.g., citations from trusted sources).
In other words, the fundamentals that make your content rank highly on Google – expertise, authority, and trustworthiness – also increase your visibility in AI-generated answers.
If you’ve paid attention to effective content marketing strategies over the last decade, keep creating unique, valuable, educational, and engaging brand content enriched with proprietary data and expert insights.
This approach:
Builds credibility and provides fresh expertise beyond what AI alone can produce, which all channels seek to surface.
Earns coverage and citations from authoritative sources across diverse platforms.
Strengthens your brand’s authority, diversifies visibility, and drives qualified traffic and cross-channel conversions.
Meanwhile, if you’re simply using ChatGPT to churn out regurgitated content for top-funnel informational queries – you might as well burn your marketing budget.
In 2025, it’s critical not to get lost in another “SEO is dead, long live […AI]!” echo chamber.
We’re 14 years into this recurring, sensationalized industry news cycle, yet search interest is still growing.
AI tools like ChatGPT are expanding search behavior, not replacing it.
Up to 70% of ChatGPT prompts involve collaborative, custom tasks like code debugging or meal planning, per a recent Semrush study.
These are things classic search wasn’t built for.
Regardless of what we dub this era of “AI optimization,” one thing remains true: the value of cross-channel, inbound marketing reigns supreme, as it has since the dawn of digital.
Agency goliaths are starting to invest in their own content strategies around it.
Most brand channels rely on similar ranking principles.
So, instead of panicking about the latest platform shifts, challenge your team to pause and reflect.
How do you use AI to scale effective, cross-channel marketing strategies and workflows to sustain your brand’s visibility?
Specifically:
How are we building content ecosystems that establish topic authority while earning trust and driving engagement across multiple platforms?
Have we done audience research to understand where our target market resides, and are we effectively using AI to scale cross-channel content syndication to those platforms?
Where else should we seek to apply AI to automate our proven marketing workflows to improve efficiency, reach, and ROI?
Here’s how my agency uses prompt engineering, custom GPTs, and proprietary AI agents to streamline digital marketing – and how your team can, too.
1. Using AI to create newsworthy campaigns with strong E-E-A-T
One of the highest ROI activities your brand can invest in now is proprietary research that produces insights AI can’t replicate.
This type of content gets cited by publishers, builds domain expertise, and increases your chances of influencing AI training data itself.
You don’t need to build bleeding-edge agentic workflows to see real impact from AI in your marketing.
Even teaching your team simple prompt engineering and having them build custom GPTs can help streamline your workflows.
AI can handle tedious tasks – like deep research and data analysis – so your team can spend more time on strategy and creative thinking.
Below are a few examples of AI-enhanced content workflows any brand can adopt.
Reactive PR campaign prompts
Use AI to research and brainstorm campaign ideas based on breaking news that aligns with the brand’s vertical and target market.
For example, you might prompt ChatGPT to take on a digital PR persona tasked with scanning breaking news in your industry from the past 24-72 hours and generating timely campaign ideas.
This kind of AI-assisted brainstorming ensures your content ideas are timely and poised to earn media attention without waiting for time-intensive human research and ideation sessions.
Sample prompt
Role: You are a digital PR strategist for [Brand], tasked with identifying trending, high-authority news stories in [Topic/Industry/Region] from the past 24-72 hours and generating timely, data-driven campaign ideas that use the brand’s expertise to secure mainstream media coverage.
Campaign criteria:
Trend-driven: Focus on viral/trending topics from major outlets, TikTok, Reddit, X, Google Trends.
Brand-relevant: Align with [Brand]’s domain expertise.
Timely and actionable: Campaign can be executed within 24-72 hours.
Data-backed: Use rapid methods – pulse surveys, social scraping, Google Trends, proprietary data.
Emotionally compelling: Ideas must be timely, educational, emotional, or entertaining.
Campaign structure:
Title: A concise, engaging campaign title.
Description: Explain the campaign idea, key insights/questions, target audience, and tie to current news + brand’s expertise.
Methodology: Outline how you will gather and analyze data (e.g., surveys, social scraping, government datasets, trends).
Consider training a custom AI model on your own archive of successful content marketing campaigns (or case studies from your industry) to generate fresh campaign ideas.
An internal ideation agent could be fed thousands of past campaign briefs, articles, or link building projects along with their performance outcomes.
The AI can then generate new ideas tailored to your brand’s vertical, following patterns that historically earned high authority backlinks and engagement.
You might guide it with criteria. For instance, the idea must:
Have a high likelihood of attracting authoritative .edu/.gov/.com links.
Be data-driven and unique.
Align with your business goals.
Be timely or seasonal.
Include a visually engaging component.
This way, the AI isn’t pulling generic ideas from thin air – it’s remixing elements of proven hits to suggest the next big content piece.
Sample prompt
Role: You are a creative data-driven PR strategist, tasked with generating newsworthy, high-authority campaign ideas that earn backlinks from top-tier media (.com), government (.gov), and educational (.edu) sites. You focus on creating unique, engaging, and data-backed campaigns tailored to [Brand]’s specific vertical (e.g., education, tax, aviation, hosting, creative industries).
Campaign criteria:
High-authority potential
Data-driven
Creative and unique
Aligned with goals
Timely
Visually engaging
Approved methodologies:
Campaign structure:
Title
Description
Methodology
Ideation scoring prompt
Another valuable use of AI is evaluating and refining newsworthy brand content at scale.
Marketing teams constantly brainstorm ideas for data journalism campaigns, blog posts, and social content.
Based on learned criteria, an AI agent can rapidly assess each idea for “newsworthiness” or virality potential.
For example, you can program an AI to act as an editorial panel that:
Scores ideas on a scale for promotional viability.
Suggests which statistics or angles would make the idea more compelling to the press.
Even recommends how to execute the methodology more rigorously.
This doesn’t replace your decision-making, but it helps streamline a recurring process that has a proven framework that AI can help scale.
Sample prompt
Role: You are a data journalism and PR expert tasked with evaluating the newsworthiness and promotional viability of data-driven campaign concepts, including surveys, studies, meta-rankings, and analyses. Your role is to rate the idea’s media potential, suggest the best promotional angles (headlines/takeaways), and refine the methodology to ensure data accuracy and media appeal.
Evaluation process:
Promotional viability score
Potential headline-worthy takeaways
Suggested name
Methodology recommendation
Beyond these examples, dozens of other AI applications can streamline your content workflow.
Forward-thinking teams are deploying custom AI assistants for tasks such as:
Writing survey questions.
Building campaign briefs.
Identifying typos or brand guideline violations.
Discovering unique data sources or variables for new research.
And so much more.
An AI agent can improve any repetitive or data-intensive part of content creation.
Once you’ve used AI to assist in creating high-quality, E-E-A-T-rich content, the next step is to ensure that the content gets in front of the right audience.
This is where AI can also play a game-changing role in distribution and PR.
2. Scaling digital PR with AI
Building your brand’s authority and trust through earned media has become more critical in an era of AI-driven search results.
Google’s algorithm and AI models prioritize widely cited and trusted content, favoring brands with strong E-E-A-T signals.
Digital PR helps secure high-authority backlinks and trusted media mentions that improve search rankings.
These efforts also increase the likelihood of being featured in AI-generated results, as LLMs are trained on well-cited, newsworthy sources.
In short, earning mainstream news and authoritative, niche-relevant brand coverage simultaneously strengthens your visibility across search, social, and emerging AI platforms.
AI holds enormous potential for PR teams. It can:
Research journalists.
Personalize outreach.
Even draft pitches in seconds.
Still, we must pair scale with skill.
Relying too much on automation can lead to spammy, robotic pitches that journalists ignore (or resent).
Rather than blasting out “just another AI-generated pitch,” smart PR teams use an AI-powered, human-perfected workflow.
AI handles the heavy lifting – research, pattern-based tasks, and first drafts – while humans focus on strategy, messaging, and real relationship-building.
The key is scaling the repeatable parts with AI and reserving human effort for creativity, judgment, and authentic personalization.
Here are a few high-impact ways PR professionals can use AI today.
AI pitch strategy prompt
One of the easiest prompts to create is a digital PR strategy generator that mimics the pitch templates your team uses to earn authoritative brand coverage.
Incorporating training guides, sample pitch templates, industry pro tips, and other proprietary knowledge is crucial.
This is key to building a GPT or agent that helps your PR team stand out in a sea of sameness.
Below are the areas you should hone in and expand when designing a PR strategy prompt.
Role: You are PPS savant, a digital PR Expert specialized in generating a complete pre-pitch strategy (PPS) for data-driven PR studies and media outreach. Your job is to extract the most compelling statistics from a provided study or campaign and generate a fully developed, press-ready outreach strategy, including subject lines, email copy, and a targeted media list.
Distill:
Compelling statistics
Subject lines
Email pitch structure
Follow-up pitch structure
Targeted media outlets
Tone and focus
Media list builder
Finding the right outlets and contacts is a time-consuming part of PR that AI can dramatically improve.
Instead of manually searching media databases (or paying for expensive platforms that quickly go out of date), an AI-driven media list builder can scan recent articles and news to identify journalists and publications relevant to your content.
For example, given a summary of your campaign or a PDF of your research, an AI agent could compile a list of the 30–50 most relevant publishers and reporters, including:
The outlet name.
A link to a recent similar article (to prove relevance).
The journalist’s name and beat.
Even metrics like the outlet’s traffic.
This increases the odds of getting interest and saves thousands of dollars that might have been spent on static media databases.
Sample prompt
Role: You are a digital PR publisher expert who analyzes brand studies to identify the 40 most relevant, high-authority news outlets based on the provided resource. Your focus is on matching the content (attached PDF) to vertical-specific, top-tier outlets and ensuring maximum relevance and link potential.
Beyond mainstream media outlets, much of the “long tail” of PR success comes from niche blogs and industry influencers who syndicate or share your content.
Here, too, AI can make a huge difference.
To solve this, we built a “blog search agent” that runs a semantic search across 20,000+ active (non-spam) blogs from Kagi’s Small Web to help uncover niche-specific influencers who regularly update their smaller, mid-tier sites for highly relevant audiences.
By using AI in these ways, PR teams can significantly increase the speed and quality of their outreach, leading to more authoritative coverage.
Top brands already use these tactics to land stories in national newspapers and specialized trade publications.
More than algorithmic efficiency, effective PR requires credible, newsworthy content and authentic human relationships.
AI can help you write 10 pitches in the time it used to take to write one.
Still, if the core story isn’t strong or you haven’t bothered to personalize it, journalists will delete your email.
3. Streamlining social content syndication with AI
New search and social platforms will inevitably rise and fall.
However, one principle remains constant: marketers must repurpose and syndicate their best content across the diverse platforms where their audience engages.
In the age of AI, diversification is key for building defensible brand visibility and traffic.
A blog post that earns links and ranks on Google can be adapted into an X thread, a Reddit post, a LinkedIn article, a TikTok script, or a YouTube video.
Each extension reinforces your expertise and reaches new pockets of your audience.
Consistent cross-platform visibility boosts SEO and engagement and trains AI models to recognize your brand’s authority everywhere.
Many content teams excel at creating high-value content, but they often lack the bandwidth or distribution tools.
By automating parts of the syndication process and optimizing content for each channel, AI ensures your work actually gets seen.
Here are a few ways AI can amplify your cross-channel content strategy.
Reddit advice tool
With Reddit dominating the SERPs, it’s a crucial time to evaluate this social platform as another avenue for your content syndication.
This agent helps your social team:
Identify relevant subreddits for your brand content.
Develop suggested titles and justify why that style would resonate with each specific community.
Generate article summaries to get you started.
AI image creation
AI is making creating eye-catching graphics, illustrations, or photos to accompany your content easier than ever.
A few of my personal favorites include DALL-E 3, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, which can produce custom images that were unimaginable a few years ago.
Still, the key difference is the quality of your prompt engineering.
Often, the best prompt designers are those with a creative eye, like graphic designers, who will know how to coax the model toward a desired style or factual accuracy.
The result: your content stands out in crowded feeds without the cost or time of a full photoshoot or graphic design cycle for every piece.
Diversifying and repurposing content across channels is no longer optional. It’s essential for building a resilient brand presence.
AI makes this far easier by taking on the heavy lifting of format adaptation.
Your most valuable content assets can live multiple lives: a research report can spawn dozens of social posts, videos, and media pitches.
A single great insight can become an infographic, a blog, a webinar, and a Reddit AMA.
With AI handling the transformation and distribution at scale, you can ensure that no piece of content potential goes untapped.
The payoff is greater reach, more engagement, and a brand that appears ubiquitously wherever your audience (or the algorithms) might look.
AI tools and agents will transform 2025 marketing strategies and workflows
If there’s one overarching lesson in all of this, it’s that AI isn’t replacing great marketers – it’s amplifying their proven workflows and freeing up time for even greater innovation.
The brands that outpace their competition in the next 1–3 years will use AI to scale proven marketing workflows.
Humans will stay relentlessly focused on driving creativity, building community, and establishing trust.
Forward-thinking teams are already investing in comprehensive AI toolkits that touch every aspect of marketing:
Content research and clustering.
Content optimization.
Digital PR outreach.
Technical SEO analysis.
Social media scheduling.
Sentiment analysis.
And much more.
These early adopters recognize that nearly every marketing workflow will have some element that AI can improve.
By experimenting now, they’re building a foundation of AI-augmented processes that will be standard practice for everyone else a few years later.
The message for marketing leaders is clear: don’t wait.
Encourage your team to pilot AI in different parts of your operation and see what boosts your efficiency or results.
Create internal case studies of what works (and share these insights with peers, contributing to industry knowledge).
Remember, the goal isn’t to hand everything over to machines. It’s to let machines do what they’re great at so that humans can do what they’re great at.
The winning formula is AI + human, not AI vs. human.
In 2025 and beyond, success in SEO and cross-channel marketing will come down to this balance.
The hype cycles will continue – new tools, algorithms, and platforms – but the fundamentals remain.
Know your audience.
Create real value.
Earn trust.
Be everywhere your audience is looking.
AI is simply the newest (and arguably most powerful) set of tools to help you execute on those fundamentals at scale.
Those who embrace these tools thoughtfully will:
Safeguard their brand’s visibility.
Reclaim precious time to focus on strategy and big ideas.
Foster the human connections that truly build brands.
And that’s a winning playbook, no matter how search evolves.
Bottom line?
AI will boost your growth strategy if you don’t shy away from being an innovator on the technology adoption curve.
Your 2025 brand goal is simple.
Repurpose your most valuable content to achieve cross-channel brand visibility, authority, and engagement where your target market resides.
Hedge against the rapidly evolving AI landscape that will reshape consumer behavior over the next 12-36 months.
Google announced it has refreshed and renamed the Search Console report now known as the Merchant opportunities report. Previously, this report was named the Search Console Shopping tab listings report, when it was introduced in November 2022.
The Merchant opportunities report within Google Search Console can show you recommendations for improving how your online shop appears on Google.
What Google said. Google posted on LinkedIn about this report saying:
“Today we’re refreshing the Search Console Shopping tab listings report to also include details about payments methods and store ratings. To bring the report name in line with its functionality, we’re renaming it to be the “Merchant opportunities report”.
Check it out and make sure to add important info about your store, so customers can see it when shopping on Google.”
The report. Here is a screenshot of this report:
As you can see, this report will tell you what you are missing when it comes to Google Merchant Center and your fields in that area. The help document goes on to explain:
Adding store information can improve the display of your products and help people when they’re shopping on Google. If you’ve created and associated your Merchant Center account under Merchant opportunities in Search Console, you’ll see suggested opportunities, including:
You can return to the report to see if your information is pending, approved, or flagged for issues that need fixing.
Why we care. If you sell product on your site, this is a report you want to make sure to review and see what opportunities you are missing with your e-commerce site setup. You can then plug those items and hopefully get more exposure within Google Search, Shopping and even local results.
Do you need to create a 301 redirect in your WordPress site? You’ve come to the right place! We’ll show you how to set up 301 redirects using three methods. Do you know if you need to use a redirect or whether a 301 redirect is right? No worries, we’ll explain that, too.
Redirects in a nutshell
The name ‘redirect’ says it all: It sends visitors traveling from a specific page to an alternative one instead. Or, if there’s no alternative, an HTTP header (similar to redirects) can make that clear to users and search engines. It’s like registering a change of address when you move house. What if an old friend visits your old home to visit you? A redirect is like a front door note telling your visitors where you live now. Any time you change a URL or delete a page, you should think about redirects.
Different redirects serve different purposes. Since this post is all about 301 redirects, let’s look at some situations where you might need to use one.
When should you use a 301 redirect?
A 301 redirect should be used when:
You’ve permanently deleted a page on your site, but you have another similar page you want to send users to instead
You’ve changed the URL of a page that was already published
You’re moving your site to a new domain
You’re changing your URL structure, e.g. changing from HTTP to HTTPS, or removing ‘www’ from the start of your URL
These are some of the more common reasons for using a 301 redirect, but other situations require redirecting, too. And besides that, there are other redirects and HTTP headers you can use in other situations. For instance, if you permanently delete a page and there is no suitable replacement or substitute you can send users to, then a 410 redirect is what you need to use. We have another post where you can read more about which redirects to use in which situations.
Option 1: Create a 301 redirect on the server
To set up a 301 redirect using .htaccess for the given example URLs, you need to add a specific line to your site’s .htaccess file, which is located in the root directory of your WordPress installation. Here’s how you can do it:
Locate the .htaccess file: The .htaccess file is usually in the root directory of your WordPress installation.
Edit the .htaccess file: Open the .htaccess file with a text editor.
Add the redirect rule: Insert the following line at the end of the file to create the redirect. This rule indicates that requests to /page-1 should be permanently redirected to /page-2.
Redirect 301 /page-1 /page-2
Save changes: If you use an FTP client, save your changes to the .htaccess file and upload them back to your server.
Using this rule, any request to https://example.com/page-1 will be permanently redirected to https://example.com/page-2. The 301 status code indicates to search engines and browsers that the redirect is permanent. Note that this approach assumes the URLs follow the format /page-1 and /page-2 without additional subdirectories. You can adjust the path if your URLs are different.
These configurations can become unmaintainable over time, especially if you’re an avid blogger trying to improve your posts’ SEO. You must also log in to your server over FTP, edit the files, and re-upload them whenever you add a new redirect. That’s why, generally speaking, this method is not considered the way to go.
Option 2: Create a 301 redirect with Cloudflare
Most of us already use Cloudflare in one form or another, so you know that it offers a wide array of tools to help our websites perform. For instance, it comes with a Rules feature where you can set various options related to your website cache. You can also find various redirect options here; this will help you guide up redirects for everything from HTTP to HTTPS to single redirects for individual pages.
It’s easy to set up redirects through Cloudflare. Here’s how that works:
Log into your Cloudflare account: Go to the Cloudflare dashboard and select your account and domain. Then, select Rules and Overview.
Create a redirect rule: Select Create rule and then choose Redirect Rule. In the Rule name field, you might name it something like Redirect Page 1 to Page 2.
Define the matching criteria: Set a wildcard pattern and set the Request URL to https://example.com/page-1. This means any traffic to example.com/page-1 will be matched for redirection
Set the redirect parameters:
Target URL: Enter https://example.com/page-2 as the redirect destination.
Status code: Select 301 to indicate a permanent redirect.
Preserve query string: Decide based on your preference; enable this option if the original URL’s query string should be retained. When you choose to preserve the query string in a redirect, you keep any additional parameters that may be included in the original URL when redirecting to the new URL. Preserving the query string is often useful for tracking purposes, like retaining analytics or advertising parameters, ensuring that useful data isn’t lost during redirection.
Deploy the rule: Click Deploy to save and activate the redirect.
Now, whenever someone visits https://example.com/page-1, they will be redirected to https://example.com/page-2 with a 301 status code, indicating a permanent move.
You can efficiently manage traffic without touching your server configuration by setting up redirects via Cloudflare. It provides flexibility for using simple patterns or more complex URL structures.
Cloudflare offers essential tools to manage the performance of your website
Option 3: Create a 301 redirect the easy way with Yoast SEO
Our Yoast SEO Premium plugin offers you a helping hand when it comes to creating these redirects. Our built-in redirect manager assists you whenever you change the URL of a post, page, or any taxonomies that may result in a possible 404 if you don’t properly redirect visitors. In addition, we also offer you an interface to edit or remove these redirects at a later point in time. The plugin also tells you when you’re about to create a redirect that will result in a redirect loop. This looping is something you want to avoid at all costs.
Here’s how you can set up a 301 redirect using Yoast SEO Premium in WordPress:
Access the Yoast SEO settings: Log into your WordPress admin area and navigate to the Yoast SEO section.
Open the Redirect Manager: Go to the Redirects feature in Yoast SEO Premium.
Add a new redirect: Follow the steps below to create a new rule.
In the Old URL field, enter /page-1 as the source path.
In the New URL field, enter the destination /page-2 as the complete new URL.
Choose a 301 (Moved Permanently) from the list of redirect types.
Save the Redirect: Click Add redirect, and Yoast SEO will handle the redirection.
Yoast SEO Premium also offers an option to automatically redirect deleted content. When you delete a page or post, Yoast SEO prompts you to set up a redirect to avoid broken links. This ensures visitors and search engines won’t encounter 404 errors and are smoothly directed to a relevant page.
These features are part of Yoast SEO Premium, designed to make managing redirects straightforward without manually altering code or server settings. They keep your site user-friendly and help maintain SEO performance by preventing dead links.
Adding a redirect with Yoast SEO Premium is very easy
Conclusion
Understanding how to set up 301 redirects is essential for maintaining your website’s integrity and user experience. Whether you choose Cloudflare, Yoast SEO Premium, or the .htaccess method, each approach offers a simple solution to guide visitors to the right place, preventing 404 errors and keeping your SEO rankings intact. Smoothly transitioning traffic from old links to new ones enhances usability and search visibility. Choose the best method that suits your needs and keeps your website running smoothly.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-04-08 11:00:002025-04-08 11:00:00How to create a 301 redirect in WordPress
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/sel_1920x1080_live_event_b1-6GmfDE.jpeg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-04-07 20:20:002025-04-07 20:20:00The uncontested paid search problem—and what it’s costing you by Edna Chavira
Already facing a sale or ban order, TikTok faced additional pressure in Q1 as major brands scaled back advertising spending and shifted budgets to Meta, according to new data.
The pullback came due to uncertainty about the platform’s future in the U.S.
The big picture. Despite the turbulence, TikTok is expected to rake in $14.8 billion in U.S. ad revenue this year, according to eMarketer. That puts it behind Facebook’s $36.9 billion but ahead of YouTube’s $9.9 billion.
Behind the shift. Advertisers aren’t abandoning TikTok entirely, but many are hedging. They’re shifting parts of their budgets to platforms with less uncertain futures.
“No one’s acting like TikTok is gone – but no one’s pretending it’s business as usual, either,” said Raul Rios, head of strategy at independent creative agency Saylor.
“Brands that swiftly resumed advertising on TikTok post-ban are staying the course, but many remain hesitant, keeping media spend lower despite months of attractive incentives,” said Toni Box, EVP of brand experience at Assembly.
Meta’s moment. While TikTok wobbles, Meta is cashing in. Facebook and Instagram have leaned hard into short-form video:
Facebook and Instagram’s short-form video CPMs are rising fast as advertisers reallocate spend.
“It’s undeniable that Facebook and Instagram have made CPM growth a key initiative,” said Jason Krebs, GM of media at Varos.
Why we care. This shifting ad spend carries immediate financial risks and strategic disruption. TikTok’s lower CPMs may seem like a short-term bargain for brands. However, if the platform faces a full ban after mid-June, those investments could evaporate. For brands that have optimized for TikTok’s unique algorithm and culture, moving to other platforms could mean starting over – new content formats, new metrics, new audiences.
What’s next. All eyes will be on Washington and ongoing acquisition talks. If a deal saves TikTok, advertisers may return. If not, Meta’s gains could become the new normal.
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Google has added multimodal capabilities to its new AI Mode feature, letting you ask your questions with the assistance of uploading an image. Plus, Google announced it is rolling out AI Mode to millions of more Labs users in the U.S.
AI mode with images. Google AI Mode now lets you upload an image via upload or your camera to ask AI Mode questions with images. Google calls this multimodal capabilities, which is launched years ago in other areas of Search.
“With AI Mode’s new multimodal understanding, you can snap a photo or upload an image, ask a question about it and get a rich, comprehensive response with links to dive deeper,” Robby Stein, VP of Product, Google Search wrote. He added:
“AI Mode builds on our years of work on visual search and takes it a step further. With Gemini’s multimodal capabilities, AI Mode can understand the entire scene in an image, including the context of how objects relate to one another and their unique materials, colors, shapes and arrangements. Drawing on our deep visual search expertise, Lens precisely identifies each object in the image. Using our query fan-out technique, AI Mode then issues multiple queries about the image as a whole and the objects within the image, accessing more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google. The result is a response that’s incredibly nuanced and contextually relevant, so you take the next step.”
What it looks like. Here is what it looks like in action:
Millions more gain access to AI Mode. Google said, “we’ve now started to make AI Mode available to millions more Labs users in the U.S.” I mean, I am not sure if this is new. We saw Google expand access to those who do not have Google One AI Premium subscriptions a couple of weeks ago. And then last week, Google invited a third batch of users to AI Mode.
So maybe Google is opening up a fourth batch of invites today?
Why we care. Google’s new AI Mode does feel like the future of search, in many ways. So it is important that you all try it out as soon as you can, and watch it as it adapts.
Soon you may all be looking for ways to get traffic from AI Mode as opposed to just Google Search and AI Overviews.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-ai-mode-lens-aP1qus.gif?fit=600%2C750&ssl=1750600http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-04-07 16:00:002025-04-07 16:00:00Google AI Mode lets you ask questions with images
We aim for every article we publish to meet — or exceed — Google’s helpful content standards.
And you can, too.
After reading this article, you’ll have 10 Google-approved strategies for creating people-first content.
You’ll also see examples from real sites that excel at creating helpful content.
Plus, you’ll get a free checklist to ensure your pages meet Google’s quality standards.
Let’s start by understanding what “helpful content” is in Google’s eyes.
What Is Helpful Content?
Helpful content delivers what a searcher needs, whether they’re seeking information, researching options, or ready to buy.
It’s content written for people — not search engines.
But what was the Google Helpful Content Update (HCU)?
First launched in 2022, Google’s helpful content update was designed to reward people-first content while filtering out pages created primarily for search engines.
According to Google, helpful content does the following:
Provides trustworthy information backed by genuine expertise
Delivers substantial value compared to competing results
Demonstrates firsthand experience with the topic
Creates a satisfying user experience
Serves a purpose beyond just ranking in search
Google uses a site-wide classifier. It checks your whole domain, not just single pages, for helpfulness.
This means a significant amount of low-quality content can drag down even your best pages.
The biggest changes to this algorithm update took place in late 2023 and early 2024. Some sites lost A LOT of organic traffic.
Google confirms it reduced low-quality content in search results by a staggering 45%.
The sites hit hardest by these updates were:
Content-only websites with no actual products or services
Sites creating articles purely for search traffic
Affiliate sites with thin content and/or a high monetization-to-informational content ratio
The HCU aftermath sparked lots of debate about whether or not these updates were truly “helpful.”
And if the declines and deindexings were warranted.
And as the makers (and breakers) of rankings, following their guidelines is essential.
As of March 2024, the helpful content update is no longer a thing.
But helpfulness isn’t going away. The HCU is now integrated into Google’s core ranking systems.
Bottom line?
Creating helpful content is vital for your survival in search.
10 Ways to Create Helpful Content That Google Rewards
There’s no sugarcoating it:
Creating exceptional content is hard work.
But it can pay off through high rankings and targeted traffic.
Download our Helpful Content Checklist to follow along as you read. Use it before hitting publish to ensure your content meets Google’s quality standards.
1. Incorporate Firsthand Experiences
Want to instantly make your content more helpful?
Add personal stories and examples (real ones — not AI-generated).
Why?
Because it shows you actually know what you’re talking about — which is exactly what Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) prioritize.
Google advises against generic, regurgitated advice on its website:
By including personal experiences in your content — including your successes and failures — you’ll create the kind of content search engines reward.
And your target audience wants to read.
Take this backlink guide from Backlinko founder Brian Dean, for example:
Brian didn’t just give generic advice like “create great content” or “reach out to bloggers.”
He shared specific tactics and advice that actually worked for him, including:
Real email templates he’s used for outreach
Screenshots showing actual results
Step-by-step instructions
Tool recommendations
Specific case studies with traffic metrics
The result?
Content that feels like you’re learning from someone who’s been there, done that — not canned advice you can find on any site.
No wonder this guide has maintained high rankings for years.
And generated 31.5K backlinks.
Pro tip: When sharing personal experiences, focus on specific outcomes and measurable results. Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines value demonstrable expertise. So, don’t just say, “This worked for me,” explain exactly how and in what timeframe. Include photos and screenshots when possible to back up claims.
2. Add Expert Insights and Quotes
Expert quotes add authority and new perspectives to your content.
They also help you meet Google’s helpful content expectations by providing insights readers can’t find elsewhere.
Even if you have personal experience with a topic, expert opinions add dimension and alternative perspectives that make your content more comprehensive and helpful.
Expert quotes strengthen your content in multiple ways:
Add credibility to your claims
Provide unique insights
Create content that’s difficult for competitors to replicate
For a great example of this in action, look at pet company Chewy.
Their content often contains insights from board-certified veterinarians and animal behaviorists.
This makes it more authoritative and trustworthy.
Source expert insights through:
Original interviews (via email, phone, or video)
Reaching out to experts on LinkedIn, X, or industry-specific sites and forums
Attending industry events and networking for insights
As Nate Matherson, head of growth at Numeral, says:
When writing blog posts, I often source expert insights from leaders in the SEO industry for my weekly SEO podcast, Optimize. For example, after interviewing Ethan Smith, the CEO of Graphite, on my podcast, I repurposed one of his quotes about topical authority to use in a blog post on the same topic.
3. Create Content That Meets Search Intent
Understanding and satisfying search intent is fundamental to helpful content.
For example, if someone searches “how to fix a leaky faucet,” they want clear, step-by-step instructions — not a sales page for plumbing services.
Content that addresses their actual goal (fixing the faucet themselves) will be considered more helpful.
But first, you need to understand the four main types of search intent:
Informational: Seeking knowledge — “how to fix a leaky faucet”
Navigational: Looking for a specific website — “Home Depot plumbing”
Commercial: Researching options — “best tankless water heaters”
Transactional: Ready to buy — “buy Moen touchless kitchen faucet”
Not sure if you’re creating people-first content that meets search intent?
After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal? Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?
If the answer to either question is “no,” your content isn’t fully addressing search intent.
To better meet search intent:
Analyze the current top-ranking pages for your target keywords
Note what format dominates (guides, lists, videos, etc.)
Demonstrate topical authority by addressing all relevant subtopics and common pain points in your content
Start your keyword research
Explore the largest keyword database.
4. Use Reputable Sources
Using high-quality sources (and citing them) is important for all sites.
It signals to readers and search engines that the information you’re sharing is reputable, accurate, and verifiable.
Well+Good, a wellness site, demonstrates this in its article about medication safety:
They support every health claim with information from:
Board-certified psychiatrists
Professors of psychiatry and behavioral sciences
Peer-reviewed medical journals
Reputable health resources, like .gov sites.
When evaluating sources for your content, follow these best practices:
Prioritize recognized authorities in the field (major universities, established publications, industry leaders)
Check publication dates to ensure information is current
Check that you’re referencing the original source of the information
Look for potential conflicts of interest or bias in the source’s funding or affiliations
Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines place heavy emphasis on trustworthiness.
And nothing builds trust faster than showing readers you’ve based your information on solid, reputable sources.
5. Hire Writers with Topical Experience
When it comes to helpful content, experience matters.
So, prioritize writers with backgrounds in your niche over generalists.
This will benefit your content in multiple ways:
More practical, nuanced advice that only comes from hands-on experience
Insider tips that readers can’t find on other sites
Real examples and case studies that build immediate trust
For example, Harvard Health Publishing features physicians as their content creators.
These writers have impressive qualifications.
Including clinical experience, research credentials, and specialized knowledge in their medical fields.
This level of expertise is particularly important for Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) topics, where accuracy directly impacts reader well-being.
But experienced writers are valuable across all blog niches, from beauty to travel.
For instance, Family Vacationist, a travel blog, features contributors who have personally visited the destinations they cover.
This is evident by the insider tips they give.
Including advice on the best rides for kids, the tastiest treats in theme parks, and which hotels to stay at and why.
Family Vacationist also highlights its writers’ experience in bios.
Including relevant publications where they’ve been featured.
Even if you already have experienced writers, an expert review process will add another layer of credibility to your content.
Have subject matter experts fact-check your information
Include reviewer credentials directly in your content
Highlight your review process on your editorial standards page
For example, home services company Angi has experts review its content and features them prominently with a byline.
The expert reviewer also gets a bio to highlight their qualifications.
Investing in topic experts signals to readers and search engines that you’re committed to delivering accurate content and genuine value, not just ranking for keywords.
Pro tip: Create a database of expert reviewers categorized by specialty, experience level, and publication history. When new content needs arise, you’ll know exactly who to contact for a review.
6. Provide an Optimal Page Experience
Page experience is a critical component of helpful content.
If your page loads slowly or is hard to navigate, readers will leave. It doesn’t matter how good your information is.
But as Google states on its website (in slightly different words), doing the bare minimum won’t cut it.
For the best results, cover all aspects of the page experience rather than focusing on isolated elements.
Here’s how:
Analyze Your Current Performance
Use PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report to establish your baseline metrics.
If your assessment fails, follow the tool’s recommendations to improve these metrics.
Like reducing unused JavaScript and third-party code.
Pro tip: Use a tool like Semrush’s Site Audit to get weekly updates about your site’s technical performance. You’ll get automatic updates about issues affecting page experience, including loading speed, crawlability, broken links, large files, and more.
Optimize Images
Compress images without sacrificing quality using tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or built-in CMS optimizers.
This will keep your images from dragging down your page speed.
Test Across All Device Types
Ensure your site has a responsive design that works across desktops, tablets, and various mobile screen sizes.
Use Chrome DevTools or BrowserStack to test how your site performs on popular devices and browsers.
Pay special attention to touch targets on mobile.
Check that buttons and links are easily tappable without accidental clicks.
Improve Security
Use HTTPS across your entire site to build user trust and meet Google’s requirements for secure browsing.
Google Search Console’s HTTPS report will tell you if your pages are secure. (And what to fix if they’re not.)
You’ll also want to configure proper SSL certificates and ensure all resources load securely.
Optimize Above-the-Fold Content
Prioritize loading essential above-the-fold content (aka content that appears on a webpage before scrolling) to capture web visitors’ attention.
And draw them to your most important content or assets.
Minimize unnecessary elements that push key content below the fold, especially on mobile devices.
Balance Monetization with User Experience
If you use display ads, ensure they don’t trigger layout shifts, overwhelm content, or create friction points for readers.
Reserve space for ads in your layout to prevent content jumps when they load.
7. Seek Information Gain (aka Bring Something New to the SERPs)
Google hasn’t said that “information gain” is a ranking factor, but it aligns with their emphasis on adding value to search results.
Information gain means adding something new to the topic. Something readers can’t find anywhere else.
I’ve mentioned some information gain methods already, like firsthand experiences and expert quotes.
But there are other ways to achieve information gain, including the following:
Original research: Survey your audience or industry and publish the findings
Proprietary frameworks: Develop your own scoring system or methodology
Product testing: Go beyond specs to share real-world performance
For example, the finance site NerdWallet goes to great lengths to thoroughly review different financial products.
Like credit cards, savings accounts, and personal loans.
As part of that effort, they created a NerdWallet star rating methodology.
But they don’t use a one-size-fits-all rating system.
They created separate methodologies for each financial product category.
Why?
Because different factors matter for different financial decisions.
They also published detailed explanations of how they weigh different factors in their rating system.
This helps give their star rating system more credibility.
You’ll see these ratings on various NerdWallet reviews to help readers choose the best products for their needs.
Like this one for a credit card:
The key takeaway here?
Information gain often requires a significant upfront investment.
Whether in time, money, or both.
But it leads to something valuable: content that competitors can’t replicate overnight.
8. Refresh Existing Content
Creating new content isn’t always the best strategy.
Sometimes, updating what you already have delivers better results with less effort.
Fresh, comprehensive content shows Google you’re committed to quality and accuracy.
It can also help boost your rankings.
In my experience, updating existing content often delivers faster traffic gains than creating new pieces. A blog post I wrote for Positional about title tags basically sat in the same SERP position for nine months. After revamping the post with additional information, it shot up in rankings almost immediately — and the ranking and traffic gains have held.
When refreshing content, prioritize these improvements:
Update statistics and examples with current data
Enhance visuals and formatting for a better user experience
Incorporate new expert insights or research
Fix outdated advice or recommendations
Target evolving search intent
Warning: Updating old content with a new date to appear “fresh” without substantial changes won’t fool Google. Focus on genuine updates that add new value, insights, or relevant information to improve the reader’s experience.
9. Create Helpful Graphics and Videos
Helpful content doesn’t just mean the words on the page.
Graphics and videos can also be valuable additions that improve reader comprehension and engagement.
When creating visuals for your content:
Focus on clarifying complex ideas, not just adding decoration
Create custom graphics rather than using generic stock images
Ensure videos add unique value beyond what’s in the written content
Google Ads has 718 reviews on TrustPilot with a 1.1-star rating.
That’s a shockingly low score for a platform that has helped countless businesses grow and created entire careers in digital marketing.
Let me preface this by saying that this isn’t meant to be an angry rant.
Google Ads has provided incredible opportunities, but the overwhelming number of negative reviews clearly shows that advertisers face serious frustrations daily.
Poor support, unexplained account suspensions, rising costs, and a lack of transparency have left many users feeling helpless.
These aren’t just isolated issues – they’re widespread problems that need attention.
So, what exactly is going wrong? And more importantly, how can it be fixed?
Here’s a breakdown of the most common complaints about Google Ads – and what could be done to improve the platform.
Poor customer support
Users frequently report that customer support is unresponsive, slow, or provides generic, unhelpful responses.
Many of us have experienced the customer service loop of Google Ads:
Contact support.
They submit a ticket.
Ask you to allow 3-5 days for a resolution.
After eight days, you contact support again, and the process repeats with no resolution.
Several weeks or months later, the issue may be resolved – or not.
It’s unclear what the internal protocol is for Google Ads support; it doesn’t seem to follow the standards of most major companies.
There appears to be a lack of account notes and follow-up.
Users report contacting support for the same issue, opening a ticket, but receiving no further response.
Another ticket is then opened, and the cycle continues.
If a customer support representative remembers, they may send an email with the reference number.
When contacting support a second time, little to no information can be provided using the reference number.
Support often says, “There is no update on your ticket; please allow 3-5 more days.”
This is a nightmare for business owners, freelancers, and ad agencies trying to manage their Google Ads accounts and resolve issues quickly.
If Google Ads consistently sent feedback surveys, it could significantly improve customer support.
However, many users are no longer receiving the surveys – either after a phone call or because the link is not sent after a live chat.
If you do receive a survey via email or see one pop up in your account, be sure to fill it out thoroughly.
We can’t expect to improve customer service without providing constant feedback.
Account suspensions
Account suspensions without clear explanation and slow response times are common complaints with Google Ads.
While Google Ads needs to suspend accounts that blatantly violate their policies, they should be handled more quickly for accidental violations that can be resolved with a simple ad rewrite.
Many new accounts are suspended quickly but approved slowly, often taking weeks or months, if ever – despite the issues being corrected to comply with Google Ads’ policies.
When accounts are suspended, the explanation is often vague.
Customer support representatives typically just read what’s on the screen, offering no further explanation, resolution, or assistance.
A frequent reason for account suspensions or ad disapprovals is a “Policy Violation,” but the specific policy is rarely cited.
Even after the user resolves the issue, the account or ad may still be delayed in approval, sometimes taking weeks or months.
For advertisers in sensitive categories (i.e., mental health services, supplements, housing, employment, recruiting, technical support services, or financial services), quick suspensions and slow resolutions can be devastating.
These businesses often have everything in place to comply with Google Ads’ policies but may have made a minor mistake during ad setup.
Another common suspension reason is “Circumventing Systems Policy,” but once again, the explanation is unclear, causing frustration over the lack of transparency in enforcement.
This often happens with businesses that hire multiple agencies or freelancers over time, leading them to be unaware of how many Google Ads accounts were set up under their name.
Even worse, Google Ads support typically fails to explain this situation clearly, making it difficult for businesses to track who created all the accounts that got suspended.
If these agencies or freelancers are responsible, are they now banned from running ads on Google across any account?
This policy and review process urgently needs rethinking.
“Reps can no longer help with some of the things they were able to help with in the past. For example, we have a client whose account was suspended – but our reps can’t do anything to help us.”
“While I believe that Google’s intentions are good, the reality is that many accounts get suspended incorrectly with no recourse.”
Google Ads can improve by following the lead of other software companies and offering in-depth tutorials to help users get the most out of the platform.
Collaborating with industry experts outside Google to create tutorials would also help users make informed decisions about their ad spend.
Currently, Google’s advice often contradicts guidance from industry-leading publications.
Instead of conflicting guidance, open collaboration could align best practices, ensuring users who invest time in learning Google Ads can actually apply their knowledge effectively.
The running joke is that learning how to run Google Ads from Google is like learning how to play Blackjack from the casino – they don’t have your best interests in mind.
PPC industry leader Brad Geddes specifically calls out “Recommendations I always ignore,” which, ironically, are the same recommendations that Google Reps and account notifications often advise users not to ignore.
A collaboration between industry experts and Google Ads could be mutually beneficial, helping both the platform and its users.
If new users take Google’s tutorials and certifications only to lose substantial amounts of money on Google Ads, they may not continue investing in the platform.
It’s unclear why the worst advice on running Google Ads comes directly from Google Ads and its reps.
Rising costs
Advertisers have also voiced concerns about the rising costs of Google Ads, which have become even more problematic in recent years.
“Google is officially making it fair game to have more than one spot on the SERP. I have thoughts on this, but I want to see how performance actually shakes out in Q2.”
We will have to wait and see if this helps with rising costs or hurts them.
Issues with Google reps and Teleperformance
Many Google Ads users also express frustration with Teleperformance, Google’s outsourced customer support team.
Complaints often include poor advertising results due to Google Reps’ advice, overly aggressive outreach, and generic or scripted responses.
“We get calls daily from reps that have been assigned to our client accounts. It’s very convoluted, and when we don’t engage – because we can’t possibly engage them all – they try to go directly to our clients instead!”
“This happens regularly. And the scare tactics they use are quite ludicrous.”
The simple solution for Google Ads would be to train their reps to provide useful advice and assign them to a smaller number of accounts.
An even simpler solution might be to remove the program entirely, given the overwhelming amount of negative feedback.
So, what can we do?
Direct feedback is the best way to push for change.
While posting frustrations online might feel satisfying, it’s unlikely Google Ads will see or act on them.
Instead, be sure to complete the surveys Google sends via email or within your account, offering detailed and constructive feedback.
If you want to voice concerns publicly, you can share them on platforms like TrustPilot (Google Ads TrustPilot page), Reddit, industry forums, or social media – but always keep it professional and solution-focused.
For direct communication, use Google’s official feedback and support forms:
