Not all PPC strategies work across every industry.
Look for agencies that have experience managing campaigns in your specific vertical.
Ask for case studies or examples of past success in your industry, especially in:
Ecommerce.
Local services.
B2B lead generation.
SaaS.
Healthcare.
Finance.
Agencies with industry expertise will understand common challenges and effective strategies unique to your business type.
They should also demonstrate an ability to adapt to changes in industry regulations and trends.
3. Understand their approach to strategy and optimization
A good PPC agency should have a structured approach to campaign strategy, including:
Account structure: How do they build and organize campaigns?
Keyword strategy: Do they effectively use broad, phrase, and exact match?
Bid management: Are they using automated bidding, manual strategies, or a hybrid approach?
Ad copy and creative: How do they optimize messaging and testing?
Landing page optimization: Do they provide insights or recommendations?
Conversion tracking and attribution: Can they track conversions accurately and integrate with your CRM?
A truly data-driven agency should also be A/B testing different elements, using insights from past campaigns to improve performance, and continuously optimizing for better results.
4. Ask about their reporting and transparency
A top-tier PPC agency should provide clear and actionable reporting. Look for:
Regular reports: Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly reporting with key performance indicators (KPIs).
Transparency: Do they provide full access to the ad accounts, or do they keep you in the dark?
Actionable insights: Reports should not just be data dumps but should include insights and recommendations.
Real-time dashboard access: Can you see your ad performance whenever you like?
Additionally, ensure they use third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 or other attribution models to verify data accuracy and avoid misrepresenting results.
A smooth onboarding process sets the foundation for a successful agency partnership. Ask:
What does the onboarding process look like?
What information and assets will they need from you?
How long does onboarding usually take?
What key milestones should you expect in the first 30, 60, and 90 days?
A well-structured onboarding should include an initial strategy session, access setup (Google Ads, analytics, CRM), and alignment on key metrics and reporting expectations.
Understanding who will manage your account is critical for a long-term, successful relationship. Ask:
Who will be directly managing your PPC campaigns?
How is their PPC team staffed?
What level of experience do their account managers have?
What is their turnover rate? How often do they replace account managers?
A high staff turnover can lead to inconsistencies in account management, so it’s important to partner with an agency that retains experienced professionals.
10. Request case studies and references
A reputable agency should have a portfolio of successful campaigns. Ask for:
Case studies: Examples of past campaigns, including challenges and results.
References: Client testimonials and contacts for past or current clients.
Look for verifiable success stories that align with your industry and goals.
If possible, reach out to their past clients to gain insight into their experience with the agency.
11. Test with a trial or audit
If you’re unsure about committing, consider starting with a:
Short-term contract: A three-month trial period to assess performance.
PPC audit: Have them audit your existing campaigns and provide recommendations.
An audit should provide a comprehensive analysis of campaign structure, keyword effectiveness, ad performance, and tracking setup.
The agency’s recommendations should be data-driven and actionable.
12. Ensure cultural and goal alignment
Choose an agency that aligns with your company’s values, communication style, and growth objectives. A strong partnership is key to long-term PPC success.
Consider factors like:
Do they understand your brand’s mission and voice?
Are they flexible and open to collaboration?
Do they have a track record of long-term client relationships?
An agency that shares your vision and integrates well with your team will be more effective in achieving your marketing goals.
Evaluating a PPC agency takes time, but choosing the right partner will maximize your advertising investment.
By focusing on experience, strategy, transparency, and results, you’ll be well-equipped to make an informed decision and drive meaningful business growth through paid search and social campaigns.
The right agency does more than manage your PPC campaigns.
They act as an extension of your team, providing expert insights and continuously optimizing for long-term success.
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This guide will help you recognize the warning signs of PPC cannibalization, test its impact, and implement strategies to ensure both channels work together for optimal results.
Signs your PPC campaigns are cannibalizing your SEO rankings
Declining organic click-through rates
If your organic rankings remain stable but CTRs are dropping, your paid ads might be stealing traffic from your organic listings.
This is usually the result of branded or high-ranking keywords being simultaneously targeted in PPC campaigns.
It’s also important to note that additional SERP features, ad placements, and AI-driven search results have contributed to a general decline in organic CTRs across the board.
Increased PPC clicks with no overall traffic growth
If PPC campaigns drive more paid traffic, but total website visits remain unchanged, your ads may be diverting clicks that would have otherwise come from organic search.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)’s Traffic Acquisition Report makes identifying this issue easier. You can compare period-over-period traffic changes by channel side by side.
Organic conversions declining while paid conversions increase
If paid search conversions are rising but overall conversions remain flat or decline, PPC may be cannibalizing organic conversions rather than expanding your reach.
This is especially common with Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which often prioritize branded terms for their higher ROI. More on that later.
3 steps to prevent PPC from cannibalizing your SEO
1. Audit PPC and SEO keyword overlap
Not all overlapping PPC and SEO keywords cause cannibalization.
However, to safeguard your top-ranking keywords, exclude them from your PPC campaigns.
To speed up your analysis, filter organic search terms where your website ranks position 4 or below – since most clicks go to pages ranking in positions 1-3.
Additionally, sort search terms by click volume to identify phrases most susceptible to cannibalization.
Then, cross-reference your organic search terms with your Google Ads Search Terms report to pinpoint where you’re paying for traffic you’d otherwise get for free.
2. Use negative keywords to exclude strong SEO performers
If certain terms already perform well organically, you can use negative keywords to prevent them from triggering paid ads.
By applying exact-match negative keywords, you avoid cannibalization while still targeting related peripheral phrases in your ads.
3. Refine brand bidding strategies and implement brand exclusion lists
Bidding on branded terms is often unnecessary since users searching for a brand already intend to visit its website.
Paying for traffic that would otherwise be free is rarely a good investment.
However, PPC brand bidding becomes essential when competitors target your brand.
In such cases, recapturing your brand space is a necessary expense – but fortunately, it’s much cheaper than bidding on a competitor’s brand.
The importance of brand exclusion lists
Brand exclusion lists help prevent wasteful spending on branded queries where organic listings already dominate.
This ensures PPC budgets are focused on non-branded, high-intent searches rather than duplicating organic traffic.
This is especially critical for PMax campaigns, which aim to drive positive ROI, often through low-cost branded visibility with high conversion potential.
One example of branded cannibalization my team identified involved a branded PMax campaign that inadvertently paid for an estimated $500,000 in organic revenue.
Since PMax campaigns receive premium visibility – even in areas where results may not be highly relevant – this campaign bid on nearly every branded term, running unchecked.
A major issue arose when a shopping carousel for the company’s two most-searched branded phrases appeared above all other SERP features.
This pushed the usual search ad lower on the page and forced the organic homepage listing completely out of view without scrolling.
As a result, impressions dropped by 12%, and organic clicks fell by 33%.
If you haven’t yet taken steps to prevent your campaigns from bidding on your brand, make sure to check Google’s guide to brand exclusions.
Benchmark your SEO performance on branded terms before launching PMax campaigns to make identifying cannibalization easier.
Special considerations for Performance Max campaigns and targeting options
PMax campaigns use AI-driven automation to serve ads across Google’s entire inventory, including Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
Unlike traditional PPC campaigns, PMax lacks detailed keyword-level control, making it difficult to prevent overlap with organic rankings.
How PMax can cannibalize SEO traffic
Broad matching across multiple channels: PMax may automatically target keywords where your brand already ranks well organically, leading to unnecessary ad spend.
Limited transparency on search terms: Without keyword-level reports, identifying overlap with organic rankings is challenging.
Competing with organic listings: PMax can push organic results further down by occupying both paid search and shopping ad placements.
Use account-level negative keywords: Google now allows negative keywords for PMax – exclude high-performing organic keywords to reduce redundancy.
Optimize asset groups and search themes: If certain categories already perform well organically, ensure PMax focuses on different product lines or services. Since PMax is designed for maximum reach, precise targeting is essential.
Tests to confirm PPC is cannibalizing SEO
Run a PPC pause test: Temporarily pause PPC ad groups or use exact-match negative keywords for strong organic terms. If organic traffic, CTR, and conversions improve, PPC may be cannibalizing SEO.
Compare pre- and post-bid adjustments: Lower PPC bids on high-ranking organic keywords and track shifts in paid and organic performance.
Analyze assisted conversions in Google Analytics: Determine whether PPC ads drive conversions that organic search alone wouldn’t achieve. If not, adjustments may be needed.
Monitor organic CTR changes: Use Google Search Console to analyze CTR fluctuations for top organic keywords before and after PPC campaigns launch.
Aligning PPC and SEO requires careful keyword management and strategic bidding
Reduce ad spend where possible and avoid paying for traffic that would otherwise be free.
For Performance Max campaigns, mitigating SEO cannibalization through negative keywords and refined targeting ensures a balanced approach.
A well-coordinated PPC-SEO strategy improves efficiency and maximizes the value of digital marketing investments.
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We rely on search engines to find information every day, but what if there was a better way?
Instead of manually gathering details from multiple sources, AI agents can do the heavy lifting for you.
They don’t just retrieve information. They analyze, organize, and personalize it in real time.
This article explores:
How AI agents help businesses create more personalized customer experiences.
The key components and frameworks behind AI-powered agents.
How multi-agent systems can collaborate to solve complex tasks.
From information retrieval to intelligent problem-solving
AI agents represent a fundamental shift in how we interact with AI.
As brands, we are moving beyond passive information retrieval – a slow process of manually collecting data from various websites – to active problem-solving, where multimodal data seamlessly adapts to a preferred interface in real time.
Imagine a world where multiple independent AI agents collaborate to complete complex workflows.
Industry experts anticipate significant transformation due to AI agents. Here’s what they have to say:
Satya Nadella: AI agents will proactively anticipate user needs and assist seamlessly.
Bill Gates: AI agents are driving the most significant software transformation since graphical user interfaces.
Jensen Huang: IT departments are managing AI agents the way human resources manage employees.
Jeff Bezos: AI agents act as digital copilots, enhancing daily interactions.
Gartner: Search engine volume will decline by 25% by 2026 as AI chatbots and virtual agents revolutionize customer interactions.
Today, brands have a significant opportunity to leverage AI agents as intelligent virtual teammates, enabling businesses to deliver hyper-personalized experiences.
As AI agents and technology evolve, we are moving away from the time-consuming effort of manually gathering information.
In the future, AI agents will interact with one another, collect relevant data, organize it to match user preferences, and deliver it seamlessly – creating a faster and more efficient experience.
As data availability declines and user expectations rise, businesses can no longer rely on traditional methods to understand customer intent.
The shift away from third-party cookies, the rise of zero-click content, and the demand for real-time, tailored experiences have made AI-driven personalization a necessity.
AI enables businesses to analyze behavior, predict intent, and deliver dynamic, personalized experiences at scale – from search and social to email and on-site interactions.
Unlike static personalization, AI adapts in real time, ensuring relevance across every customer touchpoint.
With traditional strategies losing effectiveness, AI agents offer a smarter, more scalable way to engage and convert audiences.
Delivering personalized experiences with search and chat agents
Modern websites are no longer one-size-fits-all. They provide immersive experiences tailored to each visitor’s intent.
AI agents enable this through two key approaches:
Search agents
Traditional site searches relied on keywords and filters, which have limitations with multimodal searches (like voice or visual) and long-tail queries.
They also require more user clicks, increasing the likelihood of search abandonment.
AI-powered search agents overcome these challenges by delivering a more intuitive and efficient on-site search experience.
Chat agents
Early AI chatbots responded using pre-programmed scripts or existing website content.
Today, advanced chat agents offer personalized experiences using audience data. They can:
Build detailed user profiles.
Understand user intent by analyzing historical interactions and purchase data.
Learn from similar interactions to ask relevant follow-up questions.
Adapt on-site experiences in real time based on user behavior.
Inform cross-channel marketing strategies – such as email, social, paid, and retargeting – using insights gathered from user interactions.
AI agents also offer industry-specific personalization. Brands can implement:
Digital marketing automation agents.
Customer support chat agents.
Specialized solutions, like:
Financial risk assessment agents.
Automotive inventory management agents.
Personalize or perish
Many businesses still view personalization as optional.
In reality, without personalized experiences, traffic and conversions will decline, leading to higher marketing costs and lower ROI as more spending is needed to attract, engage, and convert visitors.
To improve efficiency, AI-powered personalization offers a scalable, intelligent, and adaptive solution.
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As marketers, we love to explore emerging strategies and trends to stay ahead of the curve.
However, what’s relevant and effective is always changing, despite countless case studies and think-pieces predicting the next big trend.
Content marketing, in particular, is highly susceptible to speculation and testing because it is fluid and heavily influenced by consumers’ behaviors and interests at any given moment.
This makes it interesting, innovative and challenging.
So, what are the predictions for content marketing in 2025? Let’s dive in.
Inspired by Matthew McConaughey’s TED Talk, where the actor shares his sources of motivation and inspiration, Rose relates these themes to the content.
Specifically, that content should not only appeal to the needs of one’s target audience but inspire, by giving them:
It provides users with a vision of the future, an appetite for new ideas, and a call to look beyond their current condition.
In Rose’s words, visionary content “lights the spark of inspiration.” For example, this could be:
A sustainability brand sharing its vision of a zero-waste future.
A financial service company talking about the benefits of decentralized finance and what that might mean for society.
Visionary content allows brands to shape industry conversions rather than react to them.
It helps nurture a loyal and engaged audience that looks to the brand for innovation, inspiration, and guidance.
For brands looking to capitalize on visionary content, this means creating content that’s future-thinking, often conceptual and gives users a vision of what’s possible.
2. Leverage short-form video for maximum reach
Short-form video formats like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are nothing new, but their prevalence and importance are expected to ramp up in 2025.
This is due in no small part to the “fast-paced nature of online consumption,” as highlighted by Forbes.
Today’s users consume content at a rapid pace, looking for digestible information that’s easy to watch and even easier to share.
Delivering value in bite-sized videos has allowed brands to reach more eyes in less time and increase the virality of their content.
An economical way to create more short-form videos at scale is to repurpose long-form videos into soundbites.
This often involves creating videos for YouTube (where there is evergreen, organic value) and then circulating shorter clips via Shorts, Reels, TikTok, etc.
Industry disruptor Gary Vee is a prime example of this, as he routinely publishes long YouTube videos, cuts clips of these videos, and reposts them on social media.
If you manage multi-channel campaigns for clients, you can leverage a similar approach without creating unique, short-form videos.
From scriptwriters to video editing software, AI tools will make it easier for brands to generate short video content at scale.
The results of LLM SEO mechanics can be seen when you conduct a Google Search and Google Gemini (Google’s AI model) surfaces summarized results.
These results are pulled from websites that may be purposely (or inadvertently) utilizing LLM SEO.
What does that mean for you?
In addition to traditional SEO efforts, it may be beneficial to deploy LLM-specific strategies.
While this area of marketing is still in its infancy, some strategies that have emerged include:
Implementing structured data markup in website content to help search engines and LLMs better “read” and interpret the information.
Incorporating contextual “cues”, via keywords (focus on semantic relevance and authoritativeness), in your content for LLMs to better understand what your content is about and how it relates to a user’s search.
Consistently citing relevant and reputable sources via links, with up-to-date information from legitimate publications. This can increase the “trust” factor in SEO, making it more likely that LLMs will assess your content as reputable.
Stay attuned to developments in LLM SEO to maximize your content’s ranking and traffic potential.
The true power of content performance lies in the team.
Without passionate and experienced people driving the strategy, even the best tactics can fall flat.
People bring everything together – from conceptualization to execution to measurement and improvement.
Marketers rated having “high-performing team members” as the second leading factor in their content marketing success (second only to “understanding [one’s] audience”), per CMI’s recent report.
The same study reported that 86% of marketers have a dedicated content marketing team or staff person.
Building the right content team is a top priority for marketers and brands heading into 2025.
Over-reliance on automation, tools, or contracted writers can lead to a fragmented strategy.
It’s essential to have someone steering the content’s focus, goals, and priorities.
What should you be looking for when it comes to building a team?
For one, diversity of experience.
Look for team members who bring diverse skills, from SEO to copywriting to social media marketing, and can apply this experience to develop a robust content marketing plan.
Additionally, seek out team members who are collaborative and encouraging.
You will want a content team that feels empowered to share new ideas, support each other, and stay attuned to emerging trends in your space.
5. Apply psychological concepts to content
Personality psychology has many applications in content creation and marketing.
By understanding key psychological principles, you can tailor messaging to better meet the needs of specific consumer profiles.
The study of personality types can help predict user motives, understand behavior, and craft more effective messaging.
This leads to content that resonates more deeply with target audiences, boosting engagement and driving conversions.
In 2025, I expect psychology to play a bigger role in marketing, from analyzing Google search behavior to crafting compelling stories and influencing user actions.
Explore psychological insights to better understand how users navigate the web and make purchasing decisions – and how to apply this knowledge to content marketing.
6. Differentiate your brand by balancing AI and human content
AI-generated content has been a hot and controversial topic in recent years.
You’ll find countless technologies that leverage AI-driven algorithms and concepts, expanding across sectors like SaaS, data analytics, and SEO.
Meanwhile, content purists remain resistant to AI-generated videos, art, blog posts, and more.
And then there’s everyone else in between.
Amid these polarized views, a growing trend is resistance to AI-generated content.
Some consumers are put off – or even jaded – by AI content that lacks originality, personality, and authenticity.
Conduct a casual search for conversations around AI, and you’ll find many articles and posts demonstrating the same.
One report found that half of consumers see the use of AI as a “turnoff.”
AI-assisted content creation isn’t going away. It has its place.
However, rejecting it could become a competitive differentiator for brands.
Some may take an ethical stance against AI – promising never to use AI-generated content – which could resonate with audiences who prefer human-created work.
For example, Dove has stated that they will never use AI to represent human bodies in their ads.
Each brand must decide if this stance aligns with their goals and values, as neither choice is inherently better.
However, given the ongoing debate, more brands are likely to take a stand on AI content soon.
While these trends are not set in stone, there are clear signs they will be relevant in 2025. Only time will tell how they will unfold.
Stay curious, keep testing, and listen to real-world conversations – often, the best insights come from the people we aim to serve.
Google Ads is launching a new video enhancement feature for Demand Gen campaigns. The update automatically creates shorter versions of existing video ads to better engage diverse audiences.
Details:
The enhancement will automatically generate condensed versions of existing video ads.
The feature will be enabled by default across all Google Demand Gen ad campaigns.
Advertisers have until March 10 to opt out of the automatic enhancement.
Why we care. Short-form content consistently captures higher engagement, especially on mobile and social platforms. By automatically generating shorter video versions, this could aid in reaching diverse audiences without the added cost or effort of creating new content. This update is a low-effort way to maximize ad performance and stay competitive in an increasingly fast-paced digital landscape.
However, it may be so low effort that quality would need to be closely monitored. Be open to test but ensure the outputs match the message your original video is trying to send across.
How it works. You can manage the enhancement through ads.google.com or by working with their Google sales representatives.
First seen. This update was first brought to our attention by PPC expert Julie Friedman Bacchini, who shared the message she received from Google about this message on X:
What’s next. You have approximately one month to evaluate the feature and decide whether to keep it enabled for your campaigns.
The big picture. The feature arrives as social media platforms and advertisers increasingly pivot toward short-form video content to capture fleeting consumer attention spans.
Between the lines. This move signals Google’s growing investment in AI-powered advertising tools, helping advertisers maximize reach without increasing creative production budgets.
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Google Analytics focuses on user sessions and uses different attribution models (e.g., last-click, first-click, or data-driven) to assign credit within a session.
The pros
Granular data: Provides detailed insights into user behavior at a session level.
Customizable models: Allows marketers to choose or customize attribution models to fit their business needs.
Real-time tracking: Captures real-time user interactions, offering immediate feedback on performance.
Cross-channel insights: Integrates data from multiple channels (organic, paid, referral, etc.), enabling better cross-channel analysis.
The cons
Limited to owned data: Relies on first-party data, making it less effective in environments with poor tracking (e.g., cookie restrictions, blocked JavaScript).
Bias toward measurable interactions: Doesn’t account for offline or untrackable influences (e.g., word of mouth).
Session-centric focus: May overlook the broader customer journey, especially for longer purchase cycles.
2. Advertising platforms (click and impression-based attribution)
PPC platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads attribute conversions to clicks or impressions tied to their specific ads.
The pros
Channel-specific insights: Provide detailed performance metrics for individual ad platforms.
Immediate ROI tracking: Excellent for tracking direct-response campaigns and performance-based advertising.
Impression data: Includes visibility data even if the user doesn’t click, allowing for broader analysis of brand awareness.
The cons
Walled gardens: Each platform operates within its ecosystem, often overstating its role in conversions because of a lack of cross-platform visibility.
Overlapping attribution: Different platforms may claim credit for the same conversion, leading to double-counting.
Short-term focus: Often overemphasizes direct clicks and conversions, neglecting long-term brand effects or multi-touch journeys.
3. Multi-touch attribution
MTA assigns credit to multiple touchpoints leading to a conversion rather than just the first or last interaction.
It’s typically based on clicks (sometimes impressions) but does not account for branding initiatives.
The pros
Comprehensive view: Captures the contribution of each touchpoint in the customer journey.
Optimizes campaigns: Enables better budget allocation by highlighting impactful channels.
Customizable models: Supports various methods like linear, time decay, or algorithmic models.
The cons
Complex implementation: Requires advanced tracking and integration across channels.
Tracking limitations: Cookie restrictions and data silos can hinder accuracy.
Data overload: Processing and interpreting the vast amount of data can be challenging for smaller teams.
Branding blindness: As noted above, branding campaigns without measurable clicks or impressions (think: anything analog, out-of-home, etc.) aren’t included in the analysis.
Salesforce uses CRM data to track the entire customer lifecycle, from lead generation to sales and retention, offering attribution for both online and offline interactions.
The pros
Full-funnel view: Tracks interactions across sales, marketing, and customer service.
Offline and online integration: Combines offline (e.g., in-person sales) and online data.
Custom reporting: Highly customizable to align with specific business goals.
Retention and LTV insights: Tracks post-conversion metrics like customer lifetime value (LTV).
The cons
Data dependency: Relies heavily on accurate and comprehensive data entry and segmentation across departments.
Complexity: Requires integration with other systems and significant setup effort.
Delayed feedback: May not be as real-time as tools focused on web analytics.
The best approach is to understand what each model captures (and what it doesn’t) so you can combine them strategically.
Here’s a quick breakdown of when each model works best:
Google Analytics is great for overall session-based behavior insights.
Ad platforms are ideal for optimizing campaigns within their ecosystems – all the way to the ad level.
MTA provides a nuanced view of the digital customer journey, and helps mitigate overlapping attribution across channels.
Salesforce is powerful for tracking the customer journey, including offline interactions and evaluating lead quality.
Shopify excels in ecommerce-specific insights for merchants within its platform, such as distinguishing one-time purchases and subscriptions.
Media mix modeling is suited for strategic, omnichannel decision-making and accounts for the entire customer journey, from branding to down-funnel activities.
The best attribution strategy: A balanced approach
At my agency, we love to run MMM regularly to give branding initiatives the credit they deserve, helping to fine-tune marketing strategies for long-term success.
However, no single model is sufficient on its own.
The best approach is integrating multiple attribution tools for a more complete view of marketing performance across platforms and touchpoints.
Attribution is an inexact science. It requires ongoing testing and adjustments.
Start by aligning on the KPIs that matter most to your marketing team, then choose the models that best assess your campaign success.
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And the internal links guide readers and search engines through a logical path:
These are SEO best practices that help rank blogs for relevant keywords.
And the results speak for themselves.
The bicep blog post ranks for over 18K keywords and gets roughly 78K organic traffic every month.
That’s the power of pairing high-quality content with smart SEO.
2. Stanley: Adventure & Lifestyle Blog
Stanley’s blog goes beyond just talking about its products. Instead, it paints a picture of an adventurous lifestyle.
This helps the business tap into its audience’s adventurous spirit.
The strategy is clear:
By focusing on broader experiences, Stanley anchors its brand in universal experiences.
And embeds its products into these stories.
The result:
Stanley becomes a must-have for life’s memorable moments. Like brewing coffee outdoors, for example.
This works because it transforms Stanley from a simple purchase into a lifestyle choice.
Readers start seeing Stanley products as part of the experiences they want to have. And this creates an emotional connection that goes beyond the product’s practical use.
It’s no longer about selling drinkware.
It’s about selling a lifestyle, with Stanley a key part of achieving it.
How’s that for selling without selling?
How Stanley’s Blog Strategy Drives Marketing Success
The brilliance of Stanley’s blog is that it works as a key part of how the brand connects with people online.
It speaks to people at every stage:
Whether they’re just learning about the brand, comparing options, or ready to buy.
For example:
For existing fans, you’ll see posts like “Give the Gift of Stanley Personalization.”
These readers already know and love Stanley products. They’re just looking for what’s new.
For visitors who aren’t shopping yet, Stanley shares stories like “Women in Conservation: Jennifer Schall.”
These posts build connections through shared values before any product pitch.
Finally, for current customers, it offers practical content like “How to Properly Clean Your Stanley Gear.”
These helpful guides keep customers coming back.
Because the blog has different types of content for different customers, it’s not just a content hub.
It’s a relationship-building tool.
And in ecommerce, this is a great foundation for channeling buyers to product pages, and driving repeat sales.
It has the same down-to-earth, community-first vibe that fans of the brand love.
How does this manifest?
First of all, the blog prominently features on the homepage
(Unlike many ecommerce stores that hide their blogs in the footer. As if they don’t really want you to find it.)
Here’s what this tells us:
The blog isn’t just an afterthought.
It’s part of the website experience and shows that Darn Tough is more than a store—it’s a community.
This sense of community comes through in how its blog invites readers to explore.
For starters, it’s easy to navigate.
There are two well-organized drop-down menus for blog categories.
One organizes content by topics like “Sock 101” and “Merino Wool.”
The other lets you filter by activity, like “Hiking” or “Snow Sports.”
It’s a sign that it’s considered the diverse interests of its readers.
Even the design reinforces this welcoming feel.
The clean, 3-column blog design is easy on the eyes.
And the search bar shows attention to detail.
Why?
It doesn’t just shove products in your face. You can filter specifically for blog posts, too.
It’s a small touch, but it makes browsing smoother. And honestly, more enjoyable.
And all this work is paying off.
The blog gets traffic from general search queries like “best socks for sweaty feet” and “ski socks.”
These non-branded keywords are incredibly valuable.
People searching for them aren’t focused on a specific product. And they likely haven’t formed strong brand preferences yet.
Reaching them at this stage gives Darn Tough the chance to guide their buying decisions.
Side note: Thoughtful design also keeps people on the site longer and encourages them to engage. These are signals of high-quality content. Exactly what you need to align with Google’s ranking factors.
How Darn Tough Engages Readers With Stories That Sell
Darn Tough knows how to hook readers still in the research phase.
It uses a storytelling framework that subtly primes people to buy. Without being pushy.
Take the article “Best Socks for Sweaty Feet.”
It follows a blog post template that informs and engages readers.
For example, it uses a first-person voice, which immediately lowers the reader’s defenses (because it doesn’t sound like a sales pitch.)
Then, there are the visuals:
Real-life images that feel authentic, not staged stock photos.
These make the content relatable and help boost credibility.
Finally, the product links fit naturally into the text.
All these subtle, non-intrusive elements leave a lasting impression.
Even if readers don’t buy right away, they’re likely to think of Darn Tough when it’s time to buy premium socks.
That’s how storytelling turns “just researching” to “I only buy Darn Tough.”
4. Taut: Health Blog
Taut’s blog is an extension of its premium anti-aging supplements.
It educates with content focused on its audience’s needs. And positions Taut as an authority in this competitive niche.
The blog design echoes the brand’s high-end positioning:
It features bright, engaging visuals—many showcasing women, its target audience.
And it pairs this with a light color palette and clean, modern typography.
The blog homepage sets the tone instantly.
Above the fold, a full-width section grabs attention with a bold image and a strong blog post title and description.
Scroll down, and you’ll find the latest posts. With topics that align with its products, such as:
The role of collagen in skincare
Solutions for brittle nails
Collagen pills vs. powders
These posts go beyond surface-level content.
For example, the article on ingredients you can’t mix in skincare provides detailed advice.
It breaks down exactly which ingredients to avoid mixing. Plus, the information is easy to skim, making it easy to see at a glance.
This helps readers make smarter choices. And shows them the brand knows its stuff.
And you know what?
When people see you as knowledgeable, they start to trust you. That trust positions your brand as an expert in your niche.
How Taut Builds Topical Authority
Taut shows it gets the SEO game by focusing on topical authority: a key strategy for dominating your niche in the SERPs.
Look through its content, and you’ll notice multiple posts on the same topic.
This creates a web of content that Google loves.
Take collagen, for example.
It has various articles on this topic, such as:
Collagen Pills vs Powders: Which Is Better, Peptides or Capsules?
Best Collagen Drink & Water: Which Brand Is Best for the Skin?
Collagen for Face: How to Increase Face Collagen When Losing It
Covering different angles of the same topic signals to search engines that the blog is an authoritative resource on the subject.
And it helps readers, too.
They can explore a topic in depth without leaving the site. This lowers bounce rates and increases engagement.
The cherry on top?
Many of its blog posts rank in various SERP features.
For instance:
It’s on the first page of Google for terms like “collagen facial.”
It also appears in the “People Also Ask” section for queries like “super collagen.”
It’s hard to quantify exactly how much traffic this strategy drives without internal data.
But one thing is clear.
Creating topic clusters works.
Side note:Topic clusters help Google see how well your content covers a subject. Want to rank higher? Prove you’re the expert with topic clusters. We’ve got a free topical authority analysis tool to help you identify and optimize your keyword clusters.
5. Press London: Food Blog
Press London’s “The Squeeze Magazine” doesn’t feel like a traditional blog.
It looks and reads more like a wellness publication. Just the perfect fit for its health-conscious audience.
Notice the magazine-style layout that draws you in:
And the sharp curated photos that bring the content to life:
Plus, the zero clutter that creates a polished vibe:
Together, they complement the brand’s simplicity and wellness.
But it’s not just about looks.
The content also focuses on practical wellness advice its readers need.
And then smoothly connecting them to helpful products when relevant.
Take the article about hydration in winter.
Notice how it mentions its products naturally within the content.
This feels more like getting tips from a friend than a sales pitch.
And when people feel that way, trust builds and skepticism fades—a step that needs to happen before anyone decides to buy.
How the Squeeze Magazine Turns Blog Content Into Sales
Press London makes its blog work harder by using strategic internal links to drive sales.
It uses links to:
Take you to products that fit what you’re reading about
Beardbrand’s Urban Beardsman blog features more than 1,000 articles.
And because of this large library of content, its minimalist design makes sense.
Instead of a flashy layout, it goes for straightforward, prioritizing ease of navigation.
On the blog homepage, big, eye-catching images direct readers to categories like “Beard” and “Mustache.”
When you click one of these links, you’ll find a simple category page structure.
There’s a short description at the top of the page.
Plus, a straightforward list of article links below.
No fancy layouts. No complex navigation.
As a result:
Readers easily find what they’re looking for
Search engines know which pages to prioritize for crawling and indexing
And it’s working for the blog.
It attracts over 67K monthly visits for various relevant keywords such as:
Mustache styles
Beard trimming
Sea salt spray for hair
How Beardbrand’s Shopify Blog Connects With Its Audience
Beardbrand’s blog speaks directly to the “urban beardsman” persona.
Each blog post makes them feel seen and understood, whether the post is a grooming guide or a personality profile.
Read the blog posts, and you’ll notice that product pitches are rare.
When product links do appear, it’s subtle and natural. And often, it’s left out completely.
The only thing that’s always constant (and takes you back to its ecommerce store) is the navigation menu bar.
This approach builds trust in two ways:
It shows it cares about helping its community
It positions Beardbrand as an authority in the beard care space
The content strategy is clear:
Build a community first. Sell products second.
And that’s the thing about a blog.
It can be a great sales driver. But it’s also a great asset for building trust and earning loyalty over time.
Expert Tip: Every blog post takes time, money, and effort. So make each one count. One of the easiest ways to get more out of your content is to use SEO best practices, like internal linking.
Take Beardbrand, for example. It could improve its rankings and site crawlability by adding links to relevant product pages.
The trick? Make the links feel natural and true to the brand. It’s a small tweak that can make a big difference.
9. Lovevery: Parenting Blog
Lovevery keeps things simple with a clean, focused structure.
It groups its entire blog content under four main categories:
By Age
Skills & Stages
Playtime & Activities
Podcast
This streamlined approach works well.
While it covers countless parenting topics, these four clear sections help readers instantly know where to go.
It shows how thoughtful organization makes navigation easier.
But how does it fit dozens of articles into just four categories?
Through smart subcategories.
Each main category branches into specific topics.
Take “Skills & Stages,” for example. It branches into specific areas like “Motor Skills,” “Tummy Time,” and “Social Skills.”
The “Playtime & Activities” category goes even further, organizing topics by both age ranges and themes.
This clear structure helps parents find content based on:
Their child’s age
Specific skills they want to develop
Activities they want to try
And there’s a bonus:
Search engines love this clear organization, too.
Why?
This clear hierarchy of categories and subcategories helps search engines understand how different pages relate to each other.
No wonder Lovevery attracts tens of thousands of monthly organic visits.
How Lovevery Uses Sitemaps to Boost SEO Rankings
Lovevery takes its website organization one step further using its sitemaps.
The main sitemap acts as an index, linking to individual sitemaps organized by content type, such as by:
Age Range
Skills & Stages
Posts
Each sitemap serves a specific purpose.
For example, the “Age Range” sitemap links to hub pages for specific age ranges, like “43-45 months” or “4 years old.”
These hub pages list articles and resources for each developmental stage.
(Below is an example of what this hub page looks like on the site.)
Meanwhile, the “Skills & Stages” and “Posts” sitemaps link to the category page and individual blog posts within that category.
This sitemap organization is a textbook SEO strategy.
It helps search engines understand the hierarchy and relationships between pages. That way, they know which content to index and rank.
Best Practices to Steal From These Shopify Blog Examples
The Shopify blog examples above show how your site can boost traffic with a well-executed blog.
But none of this happens by accident. Their success comes from doing the right things well.
Want to do the same for your blog?
Here are eight essentials to get you started.
1. Write Posts That Actually Help Your Customers
Create blog content your customers care about.
Not sure where to start?
Use tools like Semrush’s Topic Research tool or Answer the Public to uncover topics your audience is looking for.
For example, in Semrush, you enter your product.
And it’ll instantly generate a list of topic ideas.
If you need help framing those topics for your blog posts, check out our proven blog post templates.
These are the same templates we use that helped us grow our blog to over 770K monthly unique visitors.
Note: Want to explore Semrush’s topic research tool? Try Semrush Pro free for 14 days with this exclusive trial link.
2. Create Content for Window Shoppers and Regular Customers
Ecommerce product pages work well for people ready to buy. But what about window shoppers who aren’t ready yet?
That’s where your blog helps.
It can attract different types of potential customers:
People who are just learning what you sell and exploring their options
Those comparing your products with alternatives
Shoppers who are almost ready to buy but need that final bit of reassurance
For example, Beardbrand attracts top-of-funnel readers with the article “How to Deal with Unruly Coarse Hair.”
These people know they have a problem but aren’t aware of a product that can help them.
So, they’re searching for solutions, which gives you a chance to catch them early on.
In contrast:
Stanley uses the blog post “Level Up Your Hydration With The New IceFlow™ Flip Straw Collection” for readers who already know its brand.
These are often people who’ve interacted with the brand before. Like those who’ve bought a Stanley product or are specifically looking for one.
So, the focus shifts from introducing the brand to keeping them engaged with updates and new offerings.
By creating different types of content, you engage a wider audience.
That’s how you make your blog work hard and turn it into a tool for growing your business.
Top tip: Wondering how to start and scale your blog? We’ve got you covered. Get practical tips straight from our Lead Editor, Michael Ofei, on how to scale content. And finally, learn strategies that many content marketing agencies keep to themselves.
3. Help People Find Your Blog on Google
Ranking for organic keywords and getting search engine traffic is one of the biggest perks of a well-optimized blog.
Take Lovery, for example. It gets over 64K monthly visitors from organic searches.
Yes, it takes time and effort.
And no, it’s not completely free (think writers, SEOs, hosting).
But when you do it right, it’s one of the most cost-effective ways to drive long-term, sustainable traffic.
So, how do you make sure your blog is set up correctly?
Start with basic SEO practices like:
Setting up proper analytics to track performance
Conducting keyword research effectively
Optimizing your content for SEO and visitors
Then, use our SEO checklist to stay on track so you don’t miss a thing.
It covers everything from SEO basics to link building.
4. Stick to a Regular Posting Schedule
When it comes to blogging, consistency is the name of the game.
It signals to Google your blog is active, which helps with rankings.
Even better?
The more you post, the more chances you get to:
Rank for different keywords
Link internally to other blog posts or product pages
But don’t stop there.
Give your older blog posts a refresh, too. You can:
Update outdated information
Add new valuable insights
Tweak blog titles and headings
We’ve seen this strategy work wonders.
In fact, using this content refresh strategy, Brian Dean increased organic traffic to a blog post by 22%.
That’s the power of a content refresh.
5. Get Your Posts in Front of More People
You’ve already done the hard work to create one piece of content.
Now, make it pull double (or triple) duty.
Repurpose it into different formats for multiple traffic channels.
It’s the quickest way to get your message in front of more people without starting from scratch.
For example, Huel turned its blog post “Simple Ways to Meet Your Daily Fiber Intake Goals” into a carousel post on Instagram.
And Darn Tough Shared a Facebook post linking to its latest blog article.
Want more ways repurpose your content?
Here you go.
Create infographics to highlight key points
Transform blog images into graphics for social media
Turn posts into short videos for YouTube, Instagram Reels, or TikTok
Potential customers need 7 interactions with a brand before they decide to make a purchase.
This means the longer readers stay on your site, the more likely they will convert.
So, make the most of their time by encouraging them to explore more.
Guide them with clear calls to action (CTAs) that prompt interaction. And use sales-focused CTAs where the natural next step aligns with a purchase.
For example, Everlane’s blog post “Going Western” links directly to product pages featured in the article and images.
And Beardbrand takes a more direct approach with a prominent CTA button linking to its “Eau de Parfum” product page in its blog post, “The Complete Guide to Men’s Cologne.”
But not every CTA has to push a sale.
CTAs can also build trust and engagement by encouraging actions like:
Reading another article
Signing up for your email list
Downloading a helpful resource
Joining your community
Subscribing to your newsletter
Following or engaging on social media
For example, Gymshark’s post “What Is #Gymshark66?” doesn’t link to a product page.
Instead, it features a bold banner inviting readers to apply for its athlete search.
7. Use Images That Catch Attention
Visuals are essential for engaging blog content. They help:
Break up long sections of text
Illustrate complex concepts
Make content more shareable on social media
Improve the user experience
So, use them to your advantage.
Create high-quality visuals to grab attention and improve readability and engagement.
And as a bonus:
Those same images can boost your search engine rankings, too.
Not sure how to get started? Check out our image SEO guide for everything you need.
8. Design Your Blog for Mobile Users
With most internet searches happening on mobile, it’s a cardinal sin to ignore mobile optimization.
Google recommends asking the questions below to check if your site is mobile-friendly:
Does your site load quickly?
Is it easy to navigate?
Is it easy to take action?
Here’s the thing about mobile optimization:
When you get it right, the benefits are huge.
Readers will appreciate the smooth experience (and stick around longer).
Plus, search engines reward mobile-friendly sites with higher rankings.
It’s a win-win for your audience and your SEO.
Further reading: Learn everything you need to know about mobile SEO with our comprehensive guide.
Turn Insights from These Shopify Blog Examples into Your Store’s Success
You’ve seen what works through these Shopify blog examples.
Now, it’s time to take action and create a blog for your Shopify store.
Sure, it takes effort. But the rewards—more traffic, stronger customer connections, and increased sales—are worth it.
And with the right tools and guidance, you can get it right from day one.
Here are the resources you need to get started:
How to Design a Blog – Learn the exact steps to create a stunning, user-friendly blog.
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Last week, Avinash Kaushik said, “The best way to make a Super Bowl ad effective is through ‘spike and sustain’ marketing.”
He also explained that releasing teasers, ads, and extended versions before the Big Game is part of the “sustain” strategy, building momentum ahead of the “spike” in viewership.
Super Bowl LIX drew 113 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
Many brands embraced this strategy, unveiling their commercials early to build buzz and maximize exposure.
By midday Sunday, more than 40 ads had already been released, and several organizations had analyzed those aired before Feb. 9.
Pre-game Super Bowl ads that made an impact
For example, iSpot.tv identified “Budweiser | Super Bowl LIX ‘First Delivery’” as the early winner based on consumer surveys.
A young Clydesdale foal, eager to join the Budweiser delivery team, is told he’s too young. While the other horses depart, a keg falls off the wagon unnoticed.
The foal, determined to prove himself, embarks on a long journey, pushing the keg through various obstacles.
He successfully delivers the keg to the bar, interrupting a “horse walks into a bar” joke and impressing the driver who had dismissed him earlier.
The foal is rewarded with recognition and a sense of accomplishment.
“Somebody | It Takes All of Us SB LIX,” which features players mentoring kids, was the most emotionally resonant and attention-grabbing Super Bowl ad released before the Big Game, according to DAIVID.
It evoked intense positive emotions in over half of viewers, particularly feelings of warmth, inspiration, and pride, all significantly higher than the U.S. average.
The ad also held viewers’ attention better than average ads, both at the beginning and the end.
And Sprout Social‘s social media analysis showed strong performance for “A Century of Cravings | Uber Eats.”
Their successful celebrity-filled advertisement features Matthew McConaughey, Charli XCX, and Martha Stewart and cleverly incorporates the stadium’s name into a joke about Stewart’s Caesar salad.
The best Super Bowl ads released during the Big Game
Some of the roughly 80 Super Bowl spots cost a record $8 million for 30 seconds this year, per the Associated Press.
The granddaddy of rating TV commercials during the Big Game, “Budweiser | Super Bowl LIX ‘First Delivery’” ranked no. 1 with a score of 3.56 out of 5, according to USA Today’s Ad Meter. (Kudos to iSpot.tv for picking this winner ahead of time.)
In second spot was “LAY’S | The Little Farmer | :60,” with a score of 3.55. As the video’s description says, “One little potato. One big dream.”
In third place was “The ULTRA Hustle | Super Bowl LIX | Michelob ULTRA” with a score of 3.52.
As the ad’s description declares, “You can’t out-hustle a hustler. Willem Dafoe, Catherine O’Hara, Sabrina Ionescu, Randy Moss, and Ryan Crouser.”
In fourth position was “Stella Artois | David & Dave: The Other David” with a score of 3.51.
So, David Beckham goes to meet his long-lost twin, played by Matt Damon.
What do they have in common? “A love for Stella? Fancy footwork?”
Ranked fifth with a score of 3.49 was “Somebody | It Takes All of Us SB LIX.” Congrats to DAIVID for picking this winner ahead of time.
It’s also worth noting that “A Century of Cravings | Uber Eats” finished no. 8 in the USA Today Ad Meter rankings. Sprout Social’s analysis of social media was in the ballpark.
There are other ways to measure the top ads released during Super Bowl 2025.
For example, DAIVID used its AI-powered platform to analyze 65 Super Bowl ads aired Sunday night, predicting their emotional impact and effectiveness.
Their AI models combine facial coding, eye tracking, survey data, computer vision, and even listening APIs.
“Somebody | It Takes All of Us SB LIX” was not only the most emotionally engaging ad of the 40+ spots released before the Big Game, but it also generated the most intense positive emotions of the 65 ads shown during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast.
The ad attracted the highest attention levels of any spot shown.
In second place was “Jeep | Big Game | Harrison Ford x Jeep | Owner’s Manual.”
As the video’s description acknowledges:
“Life doesn’t come with an owner’s manual – you have to write your own. And no one knows this better than Harrison Ford.”
The ad attracted an intense positive emotional response from 54.2% of viewers, according to DAIVID.
In third was “What is Greatness?” from He Get Us.
The video’s description asks:
“Is being great, as our society defines it, really that great? Or is greatness quite the opposite of what we think it is? In this video, we explore how Jesus redefined true greatness and what it might mean for us. All of us.”
And 53.3% of people had intense positive emotional responses.
“Own the Dream | Rocket” ranked fourth. The video’s description clearly states:
“Everyone deserves their shot at the American Dream.”
This generated intense positive emotional responses with 52.6% of people.
In fifth place was “Pfizer | Big Game Commercial 2025 | Knock Out.”
As the video’s description explains, “Pfizer is fighting for 8 cancer breakthroughs by 2030.” This triggered intense positive emotional responses from 52.3% of people.
It’s also worth noting that “LAY’S | The Little Farmer | :60” ranked no. 8 and “Budweiser | Super Bowl LIX ‘First Delivery’” ranked no. 10 in DAIVID’s list of Top 10 Most Emotionally Engaging Super Bowl 2025 ads.
Different methodologies can still yield similar results.
However, DAIVID’s post-game analysis yielded significantly different insights than USA Today’s.
Super Bowl 2025 ads were the least effective in five years, per DAIVID’s Creative Effectiveness Score.
The average ad scored 6.2 out of 10, the lowest since 2020, generating less attention and positive emotion than previous years.
While many advertisers aimed for humor, serious and purpose-driven ads dominated the top 10, with the NFL’s “Somebody” ad being the most emotionally engaging.
Ian Forrester, DAIVID’s CEO and founder, observed:
“With the vast majority of Super Bowl advertisers trying to make us laugh this year, it’s interesting that brands that stepped away from the usual Super Bowl celebrity/humor trope have attracted the most positivity. It shows just how hard it is to cut-through when so many are trying the same approach. With overall effectiveness also down, maybe it’s time brands tried something different to get people’s attention on game day.”
What’s next: Insights beyond the Big Game
In the coming days, digital marketers can expect more rankings from Kantar, System1, and other organizations analyzing the impact of Big Game ads on both performance and branding.
These insights matter because metrics like Brand Life and Engaged-View Key Events can serve as KPIs for “spike and sustain” campaigns beyond the Super Bowl – whether for back-to-school season, Thanksgiving, or a major product launch.
https://i0.wp.com/dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/k0ikgjxy_gk-CRK4yW.jpeg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=17201280http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-02-10 17:47:222025-02-10 17:47:22The top Super Bowl 2025 ads released before and during the game
Website migrations are one of the most challenging aspects of SEO.
No matter how much experience you have in technical SEO, how detailed your plan is, or how thorough your checklist may be, unexpected issues can still arise.
That’s why post-migration monitoring is just as crucial as the migration itself – especially in the first month when hidden problems are most likely to surface.
This article tackles some of the most surprising post-launch errors I’ve encountered, along with practical tips on how to identify and resolve them before they cause serious damage.
Random 404 pages
This issue drove me crazy. It’s a nightmare for SEO testing because it skews every tool and report we rely on.
When you can’t trust the data, it’s impossible to know what’s actually broken or how it impacts performance.
During the post-migration phase of updating our JavaScript library, we noticed random 404 errors in our SEO tools and Google Search Console.
The strange part?
The affected pages weren’t consistent, and every time we checked manually, they loaded fine with a 200 status.
As a result, all other reports became unreliable, making proper analysis nearly impossible.
These random 404s often stem from server-side issues such as rate limiting, where the server denies access to bots after too many requests.
Other potential causes include:
Misconfigured caching.
Inconsistent DNS resolution.
Load balancer errors that occasionally route requests to an unavailable server.
Identifying the root cause requires detailed server log analysis to track bot request and response patterns.
And here’s the biggest lesson I learned: Without access to server logs, you’re fighting this battle blind.
Ensure your SEO team has access to the necessary server log tools and, at the very least, understands the basics of how they work.
Monitoring bot activity logs can help you demonstrate the issue to developers. Without them, you risk getting stuck in endless debates over the accuracy of SEO tools.
At first glance, this error looks similar to random 404s, but the cause is usually entirely different and just as difficult to diagnose.
Even SEO tools like Lumar and Screaming Frog can inadvertently trigger these 500 errors while crawling.
Years ago, one of the websites I worked on had a strict rule: no crawling on weekends and no exceeding three URLs per second.
Every time we increased our crawling limits, the database server struggled, slowing down the entire site – or worse, crashing it.
These errors often result from complex database queries overloading the server or improperly configured caching.
Without proper caching, each request is processed individually, compounding the strain and leading to slow load times or intermittent crashes.
And once again, the solution starts with server log access. Without it, you’re just guessing.
Incorrect resource loading
This was one of those moments where I felt like a digital Sherlock Holmes.
The migration had been completed before I joined the company, and I first noticed the issue during an initial technical audit.
The first clue?
A mysterious drop in rankings and traffic shortly after the migration.
There had been a Google update around the same time, so I couldn’t immediately link the decline to the migration.
To complicate things further, this wasn’t a full migration, just a design revamp.
On the surface, everything seemed fine. Pages loaded correctly, and styles and JavaScript worked perfectly for users.
Yet, in Google Search Console’s inspection tool, the same pages often appeared broken and unstyled.
The issue was inconsistent, making it nearly impossible to replicate in front of the dev team.
As a new team member still building trust, convincing them there was a deeper problem wasn’t easy.
In hindsight, my mistake was not checking the browser console earlier.
Three months later, a single browser console message finally revealed the root cause: a script was loading out of order.
Due to caching, Googlebot sometimes saw the website correctly and other times didn’t, explaining the erratic behavior.
It was a tough reminder that small technical details – like the sequence of resource loading – and overlooking an obvious diagnostic step can significantly impact SEO performance.
My key tip: Check your website in different browsers and carefully review the error and warning messages in the console.
If you’re unfamiliar with developer terminology, consult an independent expert or even multiple AI tools for explanations.
Non-existent URLs
While investigating those frustrating random 404 errors, I stumbled upon another issue almost by accident.
While reviewing Google Search Console’s report on pages discovered but not indexed, I noticed an unusual pattern – several non-existent URLs appearing under certain sections, marked as duplicate content.
Instead of returning 404 errors as expected, these URLs resolved as normal pages with a 200 status code.
This type of error presents two major risks:
From an SEO perspective, search engines treat these URLs as legitimate, potentially indexing irrelevant or duplicate pages, wasting crawl budget, and harming rankings.
From a security standpoint, it creates a vulnerability – malicious actors could generate thousands of random URLs, overloading the server.
Unfortunately, this issue is difficult to detect before it becomes a real problem. In my case, I was just lucky.
Don’t wait to stumble upon it. Make sure to:
Regularly check whether sections of your site allow non-existent URLs to resolve with a 200 status.
Build a list of key sections and test them monthly with your crawler. Even minor backend changes – not just full migrations – can trigger this issue.
Prioritize pages generated programmatically or dynamically, as they are the most common culprits.
Hreflang tags or canonical tags to non-existing URLs
Managing hreflang tags on a multilingual website is challenging, and even small mistakes can cause big issues.
On one website I worked on, we typically created pages in English first and then localized them.
However, in some cases, only a local version existed, and the hreflang x-default was mistakenly set to an English page that didn’t exist.
Incorrect hreflang tags confuse search engines, which rely on them to identify the correct language or regional version of a page.
When these tags are wrong, search engines may struggle to understand the site’s structure or ignore the hreflang implementation entirely.
Normally, we would have caught this in our migration checks.
But at the time, we were buried in troubleshooting random 404 errors.
We also made the mistake of not manually testing localized pages across different templates.
To prevent this in future migrations:
Make a detailed list of site-specific checks. Generic migration checklists are a good starting point, but they need to be customized for the website and CMS.
Manually test localized pages across different templates to ensure correct hreflang and canonical tag implementation.
JavaScript-driven content that users can see but search bots can’t is a common and often overlooked issue.
This typically happens when widgets or content sections rely on JavaScript to render, but the scripts aren’t fully crawlable or properly executed by search engine bots.
(Google offers a great resource to help you understand JavaScript basics.)
If you’re unsure how a widget works, use this simple test:
Does it display the full content immediately, or does it require user interaction?
If it’s the latter, it likely relies on JavaScript, meaning search and AI bots might not see everything.
To catch this issue, run both a JavaScript-enabled crawl and a pure HTML crawl, then compare the results.
A quick manual test can also help.
Search for a specific sentence or element from the widget in your rendered HTML source.
If it’s missing, search bots are probably missing it too.
Resolving this often requires improving server-side rendering or ensuring that scripts load properly for both users and crawlers.
Since website migrations often leave little time for testing, make it a priority to run these two crawls post-migration to identify and fix any rendering issues.
Tracking data loss can be a subtle yet costly post-migration issue.
In one real-world case, everything initially appeared fine. Analytics data was flowing and visits were being logged.
However, after a few days, it became clear that users arriving via paid ads were losing their tracking parameters as they navigated the site.
This meant subsequent pageviews within the same session were no longer attributed to the original paid campaign, disrupting remarketing efforts.
The cause?
Improper handling of URL parameters during the migration.
Website migrations require cross-team monitoring, not just from the SEO team.
While this issue didn’t directly impact SEO rankings, it still had major consequences.
Before migration begins, triple-check your plan to ensure all relevant teams are involved.
Migration testing should go beyond SEO, incorporating analytics, development, and marketing teams to safeguard tracking parameters and user attribution.
Each team should have pre-migration reports for comparison after launch.
While planning may not fall under SEO’s direct responsibility, identifying gaps in the project plan and raising concerns is essential.
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One question that we’ve been hearing over and over again since the 2016 election is:
Is Google biased?
There are no shortages of opinions.
Sundar Pichai went before Congress in 2018 and swore under oath, “I’m confident we don’t approach our work with any political bias.”
He also sent an internal memo to staff warning them against letting their personal politics affect their work.
Elon Musk, on the other hand, posted to X, “Google is controlled by far left activists.”
A conservative organization, the Media Research Center, routinely posts articles that show supposed “proof” of Google’s political bias, while left-leaning Vox posted an article mocking conservatives for not understanding how SEO works.
If you’re like me, you’re just reading all the back-and-forth and getting tired of it.
Too many opinions on both sides are based on confirmation bias, sensationalism, or a fundamental misunderstanding of how SEO really works.
And so I thought I’d jump into this hornet’s nest.
Like everyone else, I have my own biases but I’m going to do my best to keep them at bay.
Instead, let’s use SEO tools and techniques to see if we can come to a definitive answer.
‘Google bias’ in the 2024 election?
Throughout the 2024 election, there were many stories about Google’s supposed “bias.”
Let’s take a look at some of the more prevalent ones.
In June, the Media Research Center accused Google of “blacklisting” President Trump’s official campaign website because it wouldn’t rank for [donald trump presidential race 2024] and [republican party presidential campaign websites].
The problem with this is that even a junior SEO could have seen that Donald Trump’s website was pretty horrifically optimized.
Their home page title tag read Home | Donald J. Trump, and most of their substantive content was hidden in a PDF.
In July, many people including Donald Trump, Jr. accused Google of “election interference” because Google autocomplete would not suggest President Trump’s name when someone typed in “assassination attempt on…”
Google’s official explanation was that they have “protections in place against autocomplete predictions associated with political violence.”
To be honest, I didn’t buy that (I could see autocomplete for other contemporary figures), but I just chalked it up to Google autocomplete was embarrassingly slow to update.
The third incident to make waves was on Election Day, when searches for [how to vote harris] spawned a box that told people where to go for their nearest polling place, while [how to vote trump] did not.
Google PR explained that this was because “Harris” is also the name of a county in the U.S., while “Trump” is not.
Again, a perfectly plausible explanation.
Thousands of conservative accounts jumped on these incidents as definitive proof of Google interfering in the election.
The mistake they made was assuming that Google is infallible.
In reality, anyone with a passing understanding of Hanlon’s Razor – which suggests we should not attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence – would see that it applied in all three cases.
Accusations of Google bias
The problem with focusing on noise like this is that it detracts from the real question.
Do Google search results have bias, and is that bias enough to unduly influence people?
Through the years, a number of whistleblowers and researchers came forward with supposed proof of Google bias. Some highlights:
In November 2016, following the presidential election, an anonymous source within Google sent a leaked video to the conservative outlet Breitbart showing Google executives’ and employees’ negative reaction to the election results.
In subsequent years a number of whistleblowers from within Google came out to provide their reports of bias that they perceived within Google.
In July 2019, senior engineer Greg Coppola came forward to publicly disagree with his CEO’s claim that searches were unbiased.
One of the more interesting presentations was about “algorithmic unfairness,” which discussed the need for search results to reflect a desired state, even if it didn’t reflect current realities.
While not a Google employee, Robert Epstein was a research scientist who went on a number of conservative outlets with research purporting to show Google manipulating public opinion.
The problem with all of this? Because this evidence was mainly hearsay, opinions were split like a Rorschach test.
Let’s take a step back and look at objective facts:
From 1998 to 2018, Google was powered by their original algorithm based mainly on PageRank. That worked really well in the beginning but as more people understood Google’s algorithm, poor quality sites began to rank. Despite their efforts with Panda and Penguin, it became clear that too many legitimately dangerous sites were making their way into Google’s results.
The Aug. 1 2018 broad core update (a.k.a., the Medic Update) was Google’s first big attempt to go beyond reactively fighting content and link manipulation and proactively combat this, starting with financial and medical topics (YMYL).
Most of us in the SEO space had our suspicions that Google was putting its finger on the scales for other types of searches. In May 2024, leaked documents from Google confirmed that Google’s organic algorithm indeed treated COVID and election-related searches differently than others through two factors called IsCovidAuthority and IsElectionAuthority, respectively.
None of this is a smoking gun either.
Those who attack Google say this circumstantial evidence is enough to prove Google’s bias.
Defenders of Google will say that all of these steps were necessary to fight the real problem of bona fide misinformation and scams.
The data
So, is Google biased?
Instead of giving you my opinion, I’m going to show you how you can use SEO tools and techniques to figure it out for yourself.
The two tools I use most often for my SEO work are Semrush and Ahrefs. Both of them have a useful feature: the ability to go back in history and see historical SERPs.
For example, these are the top 10 organic results for searches on “donald trump” that Semrush reports from October 2024, one month before Election Day.
And here’s what Ahrefs reports for October 15, 2024.
Both are similar.
The slight variations are due to variations in the way that Semrush and Ahrefs obtain their Google results.
We’re still in Rorschach test territory.
Those who accuse Google of bias will look at the results and cry foul because CNN, AP, Wikipedia, and The Guardian – all known for being left-leaning – are showing up.
Those defending Google will point to Donald Trump’s website and his multiple social media accounts showing up as proof that Google is unbiased.
What if we could take a look at every question that people asked about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris during the election, take the top 10 results for each, and run an analysis of which media outlets are cited most often?
We can. Here’s how.
For this one I’m going to use Ahrefs (which allows me to output 1,000 queries and their top 10 positions and to filter based on date).
I searched for “Questions” that people ask about “donald trump.” I filtered on searches that were seen before Election Day 2024.
Next, I exported the top 1,000 questions with the top 10 positions for each.
I uploaded the CSV file to ChatGPT and asked it to go through the list and tally up how often each news outlet or website appeared.
I repeated the process for questions containing “kamala harris” and tallied everything up. At this point I had a list of all sites that ranked in the top 10 for the top 1,000 questions about Trump and Harris.
I took every site they listed in this chart that was rated 24.0 and above in News Value and Reliability.
Neither AllSides nor Ad Fontes are perfect.
For example, the left will likely disagree with AllSides’s characterization of AP as “left,” while the right will likely disagree with Ad Fontes’s characterization of RealClearPolitics as “strong right.”
But on the whole, these are the best out there (at least as far as Google is concerned).
Yes, there is pretty clear evidence that Google’s organic results demonstrate bias when it comes to political searches.
But don’t take my word for it. Repeat the process above for any political phrase you can think of.
Note that Google is not “censoring” conservative and right-leaning outlets – you can still find them in search results if you search on their brand name.
But do any kind of non-branded search and you’ll be hard-pressed to find them ranking.
It wasn’t always this way.
Note in this screenshot how in August 2016 it was fairly common to see centrist outlets like RealClearPolitics and right-leaning outlets like the Washington Times alongside left-leaning outlets like CNN and The Atlantic for searches for “donald trump.”
You can see from this chart of SEO traffic and keywords what happened to RealClearPolitics.
Somewhere around April 2020, their SEO traffic and keywords fell off a cliff.
Semrush chart of SEO performance for RealClearPolitics.com
Today, 92% of their Google traffic comes from branded searches.
Contrast that to The Atlantic, where 78.4% of SEO traffic is unbranded.
Semrush chart of Branded vs. Non-Branded Traffic for RealClearPolitics.com
You can see similar patterns around that time with other right-leaning sites like The Blaze, The Federalist, and Breitbart, as well as left-leaning sites like Mother Jones and HuffPost.
While those sites flailed in SEO, mainstream news sites like The New York Times and CNN skyrocketed.
Semrush chart of SEO performance for NYTimes.com
What happened?
In 2020, Google likely implemented changes similar to those in its 2018 Medic update.
The Medic update aimed to protect users from harmful health and finance content.
At the time, black hat SEO tactics allowed fraudulent sites to outrank legitimate ones, leading to financial scams and misinformation, in thousands of cases harming the most vulnerable populations.
Many elderly and low-income individuals were defrauded, and those with serious illnesses were misled by false medical claims.
To counter this, Google manually boosted high-authority sites to ensure reliable information surfaced.
Internally, many within Google likely viewed political content as an extension of the “Your Life” portion of YMYL.
This likely led to the creation of a list of trusted and untrusted sources.
While that information isn’t public, it’s not a stretch to assume it’s similar to the one maintained by Wikipedia editors, one which left-leaning individuals may find reasonable and right-leaning individuals would find extremely biased.
How one-sided news can affect public opinion
Here’s an example of how a lack of diverse perspectives can create a one-sided narrative.
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, the virus was spreading rapidly, especially affecting the elderly, with no vaccine or cure in sight.
On April 23, the White House held a press conference where William Bryan from DHS shared promising research updates. (You can read the full transcript here.)
Specifically, he discussed the effects of sunlight and UV rays on the coronavirus and briefly mentioned the effectiveness of isopropyl alcohol in killing the virus on surfaces.
Following Bryan’s remarks, President Trump asked about potential clinical applications of the findings.
I think most would agree his wording was inartful and a bit bombastic, but fact-checking organizations would go on to conclude that he never suggested drinking or injecting household bleach.
A year later, peer-reviewed studies confirmed UV light as a viable concept.
However, a Google search for “trump bleach” immediately after the press conference presented a different picture:
The BBC ranked No. 1 with the headline: “Coronavirus: Trump suggests injecting disinfectant as treatment.”
The New York Times was No. 2 with: “Trump’s Suggestion That Disinfectants Could Be Used to Treat Coronavirus Prompts Aggressive Pushback,” accompanied by a stock photo of household bleach.
The Washington Post was No. 3 with: “Trump asked if disinfectants could be injected to kill coronavirus inside the body. Doctors answered: ‘People will die.’”
The rest of the top results followed the same narrative – mocking or criticizing Trump for allegedly encouraging Americans to ingest or inject household bleach.
This could be attributed to the “fog of war,” but independent and conservative outlets provided alternative perspectives that were virtually invisible in search results.
For instance, RealClearPolitics published the full video and transcript on the day of the press conference, allowing readers to judge for themselves – yet it didn’t even rank in the top 100.
Did Google do anything wrong?
Now I’m going to upset the other half of America.
Did Google do anything wrong?
Not really.
Yes, Google likely tilts the scales – especially in amplifying smaller left-leaning sites over their right-leaning counterparts.
But even if Google didn’t interfere, the mainstream media would still dominate the top 10 rankings for most searches.
Most of us in SEO have experienced the frustration of seeing a niche site with outstanding content outranked by lower-quality content from an “authority” like Reddit or YouTube.
Similarly, major outlets like CNN and The New York Times have far more links and traffic than any conservative or progressive news site.
Big brands dominate the top results, while smaller sites fight for long-tail visibility. That’s how it’s been for a long time.
It’s also worth noting that Google is a private company.
The First Amendment protects speech from government interference – it doesn’t apply to private entities.
Unless the government is compelling Google’s actions, the company is free to serve up whatever results it wants.
Conservatives who cry foul at Google’s dominant position might want to remember how they pushed back in the 1990s against those who wanted to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine when conservative talk radio gained influence.
Their argument back then was that the free market of ideas would self-correct.
This worked to some extent in broadcast and cable news.
MSNBC emerged as a counterbalance to Fox News.
Podcasters like Joe Rogan and the social media platform X attracted audiences seeking more transparency and alternative perspectives outside mainstream media and Google News.
In August 2024, Judge Amit Mehta issued a ruling confirming what many in SEO had long anticipated: Google had maintained a monopoly in General Search Services, covering both paid and organic search.
Evidentiary hearings are set for April 2025, with a final ruling expected by August 2025.
Whether these remedies will – or even can or should – compel Google to present a more diverse range of opinions remains uncertain.
But in my view, a bigger threat to Google is on the horizon.
The future of news
The bigger threat to Google is people realizing that there is a powerful alternative to their curated political content: AI.
Here’s an example: I asked xAI’s Grok to present both perspectives of a highly contentious political question.
You’ll find similar responses on ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others.
For the first time in eight years, I finally received a balanced answer – one that represents both sides fairly (or, if you prefer, equally unfairly).
Last year, I predicted that people would gradually shift to AI chatbots for search. I began that article predicting it would take three years.
But less than a year later, I find the majority of my own “searches” now happen on ChatGPT and Grok.
This shift reminds me of the search landscape in the late 1990s, when companies like Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, Yahoo, and Google were competing to be the top search engine.
Google won by offering the best experience.
It took years before content manipulation and link schemes forced algorithm updates like Panda and Penguin.
Today, a similar race is underway. ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Claude, and Grok are vying to become the new search standard.
Unlike Google, searches won’t take the form of one or two keywords, but detailed questions unlocking an expansive long-tail of search queries.
Many assume the U.S. political landscape consists of two sides, but in reality, there are 335 million perspectives – each shaped by unique experiences and biases.
Since 1998, we’ve been conditioned to search for head terms and accept Google’s 10 organic results as the authoritative answer.
But I continue to believe that the winner of the AI wars will be the platform that, like early Google, embraces free speech and classical liberalism.
That means using training data that reflects all viewpoints – even those that company insiders might find uncomfortable – and allowing AI to answer questions honestly.
Can any American AI companies resist the temptation to limit AI’s knowledge by limiting its access to information and forcing it to follow their internal bias rather than objective truth?
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