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What Is an SEO Consultant & What Services Do They Offer?

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Key Takeaways

  • SEO consultants handle audits, keyword research, on-page fixes, link building, and AI visibility across platforms like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews. 
  • Hire one when your traffic stalls, your rankings drop after a Google update, your in-house team is stretched, or you’re ready to scale. 
  • Look for proven case studies, several years of experience, data-driven reporting, and a clear grasp of AI search. 
  • Consultants cost less and work one-on-one. Agencies cost more but deliver faster with a full team behind your account. 
  • In-house teams know your business best. Consultants bring deeper SEO expertise and faster results.

Need a little help improving your rankings? An SEO consultant could be the answer.

Chances are you already know the basics of SEO, but getting your desired results can be tough with everything else on your plate, especially with the changes AI is throwing into the mix.

That’s where SEO consulting services come in. These experts provide a range of services to boost your traditional and AI SEO results.

SEO consultant is a multifaceted role that requires a range of skills. They wear many hats, and for businesses struggling to rank, they can be a perfect fit.

By the end of this post, you’ll know all about what an SEO consultant is and what they do.

What Does an SEO Consultant Do?

The primary role is to provide a range of SEO consulting services to clients to help them achieve better rankings. They implement various strategies and best practices, including:

  • SEO audits. An SEO audit is an in-depth analysis of a website’s ability to rank in search engines. It looks at your site’s content, technical SEO, backlinks, and competitor performance, among other factors. An SEO audit also highlights ways a site can improve its SEO and provides a strategy for achieving those improvements.
  • Keyword research. Keyword research means finding relevant keywords that a website should aim to rank for. If a business hasn’t done any SEO before, it may not target any keywords. Even if they have worked with an SEO specialist in the past, it may not be targeting the best keywords.
  • On-page SEO. On-page SEO means optimizing the site’s content and HTML elements of individual pages to meet Google’s best practices. This can include refining page content, optimizing title tags and metadata, structuring headers, and improving internal linking.
  • Technical SEO. Technical SEO focuses on the behind-the-scenes elements that help search engines crawl, index, and understand a website. This can include improving site speed, strengthening site security, fixing crawl errors, optimizing site architecture, and ensuring mobile-friendliness.
  • Link building. The more and better quality links a website has, the easier it is to rank for high-competition keywords. If a site’s authority is low, an SEO consultant may create one or more link-building campaigns to improve the site’s backlink profile.
  • AI or generative engine optimization (GEO). While traditional SEO still makes a significant impact, SEO consultants also need to understand GEO. That means knowing how long-tail, question-based keywords affect visibility within AI elements of traditional search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google’s AI Overviews. It also means knowing how to earn citations across major AI platforms like ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. 

In addition to these services, SEO consultants also typically provide monthly reporting services to clients. The report covers current rankings, the consultant’s work completed, and recommendations for actions they can take to improve results.

SEO Consulting Types

Countless factors affect your Google ranking, so before you begin, clarify exactly what you need help with.

An easy way to find that out is to ask, “Which part of my business brings the most sales?”

Got the answer? Good. From there, you can match your situation to one of these common SEO consulting service specializations:

  • Local SEO consultants help businesses rank in map packs and location-based searches. They’re a good fit if you have a brick-and-mortar store or serve a specific geographic area.
  • Ecommerce SEO consultants specialize in product page optimization, category structure, and the technical challenges that come with a large product catalog.
  • Content-focused SEO consultants specialize in topical authority, editorial strategy, and ranking through high-quality, in-depth content. They’re a strong fit for publishers and brands competing on expertise.
  • Technical SEO consultants dig into crawlability, site speed, schema, and infrastructure. They’re most useful when your content is solid but the site itself is holding rankings back.
  • Enterprise SEO consultants work with large sites that have complex architectures and significant existing traffic to protect.

Signs You Need an SEO Consultant

It’s usually pretty obvious when you need an SEO consultant. If your website isn’t generating leads or conversions from organic traffic and search engines and AI platforms are an important part of your marketing strategy, then working with an SEO consultant is a good idea.

Here are some other signs it’s time to consult a professional:

Your Website Traffic is Flatlining

Search engine traffic is the most basic indicator of whether an SEO strategy is working. If your traffic isn’t increasing (or decreasing) over time, you need to work with an SEO consultant or replace your existing one.

Search traffic won’t be important to some businesses, but that’s rare. Even if you don’t think search traffic is essential for your business, it probably is.

Although AIO and large language model optimization (LLMO) are changing where search happens, Google still accounts for almost 90 percent of the global search market. What’s also shifting is how these searchers interact with Google’s results.

With AI Overviews, customers are getting the information they need directly in the SERPs without clicking through to websites. That affects traffic numbers, but it doesn’t mean searchers are abandoning Google. Writing off traditional search means writing off a massive audience.

A line graph showing how Google dominates the search engine market share compared to other platforms like Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo

Source: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

You’re Struggling After a Google Update

Have your rankings tanked after a Google core update? You may have been hit by a Google penalty for falling out of step with its best practices. These penalties are notoriously difficult to overcome without the help of a search professional, and there’s a risk you could do even more damage if you try to fix the problem yourself.

Your rankings can also decline without a formal penalty. You may not be breaking any Google rules outright, but ignoring SEO best practices can still drag down your rankings. Working with a consultant with in-depth industry knowledge can help you avoid unintended SEO consequences and penalties.

Google may notify you directly through the manual action report in Search Console. Users receive these reports when a human reviewer has determined that their site violates one or more of Google’s spam policies. Expand the notification, and you’ll see a message like this:

A screenshot of Google documentation explaining which pages of a website are being referenced by a Manual Action Report

Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9044175?hl=en

More often, though, post-update drops are algorithmic. 

A good SEO consultant’s knowledge and guidance can be indispensable no matter the cause or scenario. They can help you navigate Google’s entire list of penalties and provide the most complete, efficient fixes available. 

Your In-House Team Needs Support

Some businesses try to build their own in-house SEO team or hire a marketing manager with experience across several areas of digital marketing. 

Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work out. An SEO consultant often brings more experience, and the engagement can cost less than a full-time hire. 

For example, Ahrefs puts the average SEO consultant engagement at about $3,250 per month, which is typically far below the total cost of salary and benefits for a full-time SEO role. That said, the cost can vary significantly depending on the type of SEO consultant and the level of service.

Even effective in-house teams can benefit from hiring an SEO consultant. You may even have some SEO experts on your in-house team. While they may have the knowledge, there’s no guarantee you’ll have time to implement strategies to improve your rankings. A consultant can also help you with unique strategies and spotting unforeseen challenges as you scale. 

SEO is an important marketing channel, but small teams can’t do it all. If you’re busy dealing with customers, suppliers, and shareholders, outsourcing the work to an SEO consultant is smart.

You Want to Grow Operations

Whatever business you’re in, there comes a time to level up.

You could market your business in several ways, like social media, newsletters, and sharing case studies. But it’s SEO that grows your online visibility and helps searchers find you.

While you could implement a strategy yourself, an SEO specialist has the knowledge you need to drive online discoverability. 

This is especially true given how search is evolving. We live in a “search everywhere” environment now. The customer journey is rapidly moving away from the traditional straight-down funnel approach, and businesses increasingly need to be visible everywhere.

What does that mean for you? You need to work with a professional who can not only get you ranking well in SERPs like Google but also understands how AI prompts and platforms play into your visibility. 

Sold on the idea of hiring an SEO consultant? Read on for some tips on how to find one.

Finding Your Next SEO Consultant

Finding an SEO consultant isn’t hard, but finding a good one is. First, let’s look at some of the most common ways to find an SEO consultant:

  • Ask your network. Speaking to people you know and trust is one of the best ways to find an SEO consultant. If a fellow business owner or manager knows of a great SEO consultant, they’re usually happy to recommend them. As a bonus, you’ll know they can deliver.
  • Run a Google search. Unsurprisingly, Google is a great place to find an SEO consultant. If a consultant is ranking well on Google, there’s a good chance they know what they’re doing. However, this shouldn’t be the only factor you use in your decision. Just because they rank high on Google doesn’t mean they can do the same for your business.
Sponsored Google search results for “SEO consultant”
  • Use online directories. Several online directories collect reviews about SEO specialists. Clutch is a great place to start, but take these reviews with a pinch of salt. Just because a consultant is topping the rankings doesn’t mean they are the best for you. Like Google, they are a great way to get a shortlist of suitable candidates rather than pinpoint one.
Screenshot of Clutch’s user reviews for the top 60 SEO consultants

Source: https://clutch.co/seo-firms/consultants

  • Look through SEO blogs. Popular SEO blogs like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and The Moz Blog can be a great source of potential SEO consultants. They don’t just host journalists’ opinions; SEO strategists also routinely write how-tos and thought pieces on these sites.
Screenshot showing the search bar from The Moz Blog’s homepage
  • Post on job boards. Job boards like Upwork, AngelList, and Dynamite Jobs are great places to post ads. The beauty of this method is that SEO consultants will come to you, meaning all you have to do is interview them. Moreover, many of these job boards vet applicants before they can even apply.
Screenshot of Upwork search results for SEO Experts

Source: https://www.upwork.com/hire/seo-experts/

Traits of a Good SEO Consultant

Want to know what a great SEO strategist is?

Several traits set great SEO consultants apart from the rest. I recommend you look for the following attributes when interviewing potential candidates.

  • Several years of experience. You don’t want a rookie SEO as your consultant. The more experience an SEO consultant has in the industry, the better. They’ll have worked on more sites, better understand what’s effective, and have more case studies to back up their success.
  • Proven resuts. Any SEO consultant worth their salt will have many case studies to support their work. They can show exactly what they did to improve a previous client’s rankings and the impact they had. They should also be happy to put you in contact with previous clients. Here are some examples from my agency, NP Digital:
A screenshot listing Neil Patel Digital’s clients
  • A long-term vision. You want an SEO consultant who’s in it for the long haul, not someone who is going to leave you for a new client after a couple of months; choose a consultant who explains the long-term benefits of SEO to your business and has a roadmap of how you can achieve them.
  • Sees the bigger picture. SEO is just one part of a holistic marketing strategy, and a good SEO consultant will appreciate that. They should help you fold your SEO strategy into other marketing initiatives and be willing to work with other team members and departments in your company to improve your broader marketing goals.
  • A data-driven business model. The consultant you work with should be focused on data. They should be providing regular reporting on how strategies are working, as well as ways to improve those that aren’t, grounded in factual numbers. 
  • Understands AI visibility. A good SEO consultant needs to understand AI visibility in today’s market. They should have knowledge of prompting and which strategies work well on these platforms, both on- and off-page. 
  • Certifications. Just remember that certifications aren’t everything; practical experience is equally important in SEO.

SEO Consultants vs. SEO Agencies

So far, we’ve talked about SEO consultants in broad strokes. However, there’s a meaningful distinction worth drawing before you start looking for one. Both consultants and agencies often offer consulting services, but they operate very differently.

Many SEO consultants consist of an independent professional or a small team. They work directly with you, usually wearing multiple hats while focusing on strategy and high-leverage execution. 

An SEO agency is a larger organization, sometimes with dozens or hundreds of employees, structured to execute at scale across many clients simultaneously.

Both can get you results. The right choice depends on what you actually need.

SEO Consultants May Require Your Help. SEO Agencies Won’t.

If you choose to work with an SEO consultant, you might be looking for a personal, one-to-one service. What you might not realize is that they will likely need your help to improve your rankings, too.

SEO consultants often have specific niches and work independently, so they may not have the resources to provide comprehensive services. That means they could ask your team to write additional content, change your website, or perform other SEO-related tasks.

That’s very different from an SEO agency that often can perform every SEO task in-house.

Agencies Cost More, but You Get More for Your Money

Agencies will usually charge more for their time than SEO consultants. That’s because they have staff to pay and overheads to cover, whereas SEO consultants typically work from home. For smaller businesses, that may mean an SEO consultant is the way to go.

Other businesses may want to pay more for a top-tier SEO agency because they know they’ll get more bang for their buck. That’s because an agency gives you access to dozens of experts rather than just one. 

Having more people working on your project also means you get work delivered more quickly. There’s a good chance you’ll see results faster, too.

At the end of the day, if you choose a good SEO consultant or SEO agency, you’ll still be receiving excellent advice. Most consultants and agencies are dedicated to their craft, attend the right conferences, and test cutting-edge tactics. 

You may get access to a few more experts when you work with an SEO agency, but that doesn’t make an SEO consultant any less professional.

SEO Consultants vs. In-House Teams

For many companies, deciding whether to go with an in-house team or work with external SEO consultants is a challenge. As you’d expect, there are pros and cons to both options.

Factor SEO Consultant In-House Team
SEO expertise Brings established knowledge from day one Needs time to build skills and stay current
Business knowledge Learns your company from the outside Knows your customers, products, and market
Speed to results Skips the learning curve Requires training before output ramps up
Resources Access to agency tools and a wider team Limited to what you can hire or buy
Communication Works through scheduled touchpoints Allows quick, informal updates and meetings
Control & flexibility You guide the strategy at arm’s length You manage the work directly, day to day
Focus Frees your staff for core business tasks Keeps SEO tied to broader operations
Best fit for Small teams or businesses scaling fast Companies with the budget to build long-term

The most obvious benefit of working with an SEO consulting service is avoiding the steep learning curve of search engine optimization.

If you run a small business and know it will take time before your staff can get up to speed with SEO complexities, you can save yourself time (and headaches) by outsourcing. Agency staff can lean on their expertise and resources to stand up effective strategies right away.

You could also use an agency to focus on growing your business. While your team focuses on the day-to-day tasks, SEO consulting experts can create a strategy that delivers results.

Doing SEO in-house has its advantages, too.

The most obvious benefit of going in-house is that the staff knows the business better than an outside consultant. They know the customers, the market, and what appeals to them.

You may also find it easier to collaborate and communicate when you keep your SEO in-house. Team meetings, sharing updates, and changing course when needed can all be a lot easier.

Then, of course, there’s the greater control and flexibility. After all, you’re working on your own terms.

The Top 3 Options for SEO Consulting

Detailed below are three of the top SEO companies for consulting.


<h3>1. NP Digital for the Best Blog and Website SEO Consulting</h3>

Screenshot of NP Digital’s landing page

I can’t write an article about SEO consulting without mentioning the award-winning NP Digital agency.

It recently won the AdAge Performance Marketing Agency of the Year award. Pretty awesome, right?

NP Digital has also received recognition for the impressive ROI it delivers to clients, its paid search, and its ability to boost your visibility across platforms, including AI or GEO search results.

I could go on, but I don’t like to boast.

Since the start, NP Digital has offered a proven system to get your readers coming back for more content while also converting a high percentage of them.

Book a call with NP Digital today if you’re looking to outgrow your competitors and work with a well-established SEO consulting firm that brings consistent results.

<h3>2. Louder.Online for Dedicated Sales Funnel SEO Consulting</h3>

Screenshot of Louder.Online’s homepage, displaying some of the marquis brands they’ve worked with.

Source: https://louder.online/

Are you more into sales funnels?

Do you want to optimize your sales pages for SEO while maintaining high conversion rates?

Then you should speak with an SEO consulting company that specializes in delivering consistent, trackable results for your sales funnels.

In our experience, Louder.Online has been an atomic weapon.

Its SEO consulting experts have years of experience, and more importantly, they get results.

If you’re looking to optimize your sales pages, you should check out what Louder.Online has to offer.

Coalition Technologies for Ecommerce SEO Consulting

Screenshot of Coalition Technologies homepage

Source: https://coalitiontechnologies.com/ecommerce-seo

If your focus is ecommerce SEO, consider Coalition Technologies. With more than 530 ecommerce projects translating into over 20 million ecommerce transactions, Coalition Technologies has the track record to back its standing as a top-tier SEO consultant.

It offers services like web design, paid advertising, traditional SEO, and AI SEO. Its niche services include social media and forum marketing, platforms essential for converting online sales today. 

Coalition boasts more than 500 SEO case studies. These success stories come from clients in a broad range of industries, from fashion to legal. 

FAQs

What is SEO consulting?

SEO consulting is an advisory service where an expert audits your online presence and builds a strategy to improve your search and AI visibility. Some consultants also handle implementation.

What does an SEO consultant do?

An SEO consultant researches keywords and competitor content. Using what they find, they will recommend strategies to fix on-page and off-page SEO issues. They’ll also provide regular metrics and reporting. Some will even manage execution alongside your team.

How do you find a good SEO consultant?

Look for case studies, client reviews, and industry experience. Ask for references and confirm that they follow white-hat practices.

What should you ask SEO consultants?

Ask about their process, reporting cadence, past results, and pricing. Find out which tools they use and how they’re handling the new AI search environment.

How do you hire an SEO consultant?

Shortlist your top candidates, request proposals, and compare pricing against scope. Sign a contract outlining deliverables, timelines, and reporting requirements before work begins.

Conclusion

SEO consultants can deliver incredible results to small businesses, helping them improve every facet of SEO. A good SEO consultant offers a wide range of services and has the proof and industry knowledge to back up their promises.

You’ll want to make sure you choose a consultant that uses hard data as their guiding light and knows how to navigate modern search. Google is still critical, but the use of AI is rapidly changing how SERPs function and how users behave.

You’ll also need to decide whether an SEO consultant or agency is the best fit for your goals. For some businesses, working with an SEO agency is a better choice. If you have the budget, an SEO agency will help you get more done in less time, supercharging your results in the process.

Whether you’re hiring an SEO consultant or an SEO agency, you can look in many of the same places and search for similar traits. Or you can ask my agency for help.

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Why proving technical SEO ROI is so difficult

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Technical SEO shield

Six months ago, there was a core update that would’ve tanked your website. But it didn’t.

It didn’t because your team fixed your canonicals, redirection issues, duplication issues, and JavaScript rendering eight months earlier. It was the kind of drudge work a technical engineer or developer got stuck with because the ticket was last on their list.

And you don’t have any proof of it, not really. Other than the experience that comes from years in SEO and recognizing that your site had all the hallmarks of sites hit by the update.

It could’ve cut your traffic in half. It didn’t.

There’s no parallel internet timeline where you didn’t do the work, so there’s no way to confirm it. There’s no record.

This is why technical SEO ROI resists proof. It’s an inference problem with no control group, and we keep pretending it’s a reporting problem we can tool our way out of.

The internet doesn’t stop

We are in two open systems when we work in digital, at least: the internet and the market. Three, if you count the maturity and expectations of internet users. Four, if you count our own website infrastructure. More than that, really, but we don’t have time to list them all. 

The long and short of it is this: the sea we swim in is always shifting, moving, growing, and shrinking. There’s no way to pin down a single, solid “before” state, and there’s no clean way to project all of those influences into “what would’ve happened if I didn’t do anything?” We try to do it with things like Bayesian forecasting, but that’s still an educated guess.

Technical work might have an immediate impact on visibility today. Make the same change six months later, and it might not. That could solely be because Google decided to shift its crawl budget or change how it reads websites. 

Cause and effect come unstuck in time. Google recrawls and reindexes on its own schedule, so any effect lands far from the change and is washed out across a recrawl cycle, defeating the before-and-after pairing every clean test needs.

Just like SEO as a whole, there’s a lot we can’t control. Trying to track all of the changes across the web that might influence our website would result in many gray hairs and sleepless nights.

Technical SEO adds another layer because we rarely ship in isolation. It’s never just “here’s this single change to the website.” It’s “here are about 30 fixes from five different teams going out on a Thursday, so if things collapse, we have people on Friday who can triage.” (Please don’t ship on Fridays.)

Much of the technical work is also done to keep our heads above water: managing technical debt, or doing the work needed to stay on top of updated regulations and new releases of codebases or frameworks. Enhancements and improvements are tough. 

Technical work is a lot more like insurance or public health. You only realize how important it was when it stops working. What we’re doing with technical SEO is often disaster prevention, not building new cities. We can’t write an invoice for an earthquake that didn’t happen.

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The control group was never there

Another reality of technical changes, SEO-led or not, is that most of them are sitewide and, by necessity, have to be sitewide. There’s no control group. Render pipeline, crawl budget, site speed. It touches everything at once, so there’s no untouched slice left to act as the control.

Two examples to consider:

  • Sunsetting 301 redirects more than a year old: The server stops reading every redirect line on every page load. The benefit is crawl and resource efficiency, which is invisible in analytics.
  • A migration done right: The win condition is “we didn’t lose traffic.” A flat line, maybe a slight uptick. Migration work only becomes visible when it fails.

Your only comparison becomes the past, which existed under different external conditions. Time itself is now the trick. The only things to compare are relative, over time, and incremental, and the results shift depending on which metrics you use to measure success and which assumptions you and your leadership bring to the conversation.

When possible, we do want to run a proof of concept. SEO A/B testing, essentially. Pick a segment, make the change there and nowhere else. Measure and decide. But that isn’t always possible, and it requires a different kind of buy-in.

We’re also at a point where LLMs make everything probabilistic. Every answer is personalized, and many of the measurements we rely on have become less deterministic.

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.

See terms.

So keep it relative

There are two levels of relative here:

  • How to prioritize work.
  • How to measure the impact.

How we prioritize the work helps determine the impact we want to make.

My approach to prioritizing technical work is to look at impact first. How much of the website does this issue affect, and how much of that impact lands on priority sections or pages? After that, it’s standard scoping and grooming discussions led by the development teams.

But for me, impact is what matters.

Now, when it comes to measurement and reporting, much of the SEO industry, myself included, is talking about how we actually measure everything now, not just technical work. We’re in a bit of a weird limbo because of everything LLMs have accelerated.

We don’t have the “what would’ve happened if…” for our own websites, but we do have our competitors. Observing how competitors’ websites respond to global events, such as Google updates, is probably the closest we’ll get to answering that question in technical SEO work. It’s an ROI-by-proxy adjacent to share of voice.

And the funding

Technical SEO is infrastructure. Insurance. If you’re having trouble getting it done or getting it funded, look at your framing.

At its core, technical SEO is insurance against the shocks of an open system. Treat it that way. It’s not a revenue driver.

Yes, it can deliver meaningful improvements and help that line go up and to the right, but the workhorse, the 80%, the majority of technical SEO, is keeping the engine running. The work doesn’t promise upside. It lowers the odds and the cost of getting tanked. The core update that didn’t sink you is the claim that paid out.

So do what I’ve recommended before and talk to finance. Learn how they quantify, value, and evaluate insurance, security, and infrastructure.

Start looking at your technical SEO that way. Start talking about it that way.

Technical SEO is growth resilience your flywheel can’t move without, not an investment you can’t justify.

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The Ultimate  Content Marketing Guide in 2026

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Key Takeaways

  • Content marketing is how you turn attention into trust, and trust into business outcomes. Every section of this guide covers a piece of that pipeline. 
  • The majority of top-performing B2B marketers credit audience understanding as their top success factor. Define who you’re reaching and what problem they’re solving before producing anything. 
  • One well-researched piece outperforms 10 thin ones. Cornerstone content keeps earning attention for years. 
  • A blog post that performs can fuel a video or social carousel. Repurposing extends reach without doubling the work. 
  • Use AI for research and outlining. Protect original perspective and first-hand experience as the work only you can do. 

Many people feel like AI means the end of content marketing as we know it.  

That couldn’t be further from the truth.  

The strategy is strong as ever, even if it’s not a new idea. What’s changed are the tools we use and the factors that set good content marketers apart.  

Unsurprisingly, the playbook that worked even three years ago no longer holds up.  

This content marketing guide is built to prepare you for that reality. I’ll walk you through what strategies and formats will shape the future of content marketing, plus where AI fits without dragging down your quality. 

What Makes Content Marketing Work

The content that drives real results does three things consistently: 

  • It addresses a problem someone is actually trying to solve. 
  • It reaches that person at a moment when they’re looking for help, and it doesn’t show up as a pitch. 
  • It nudges them one step closer to a decision, whether that’s signing up for a newsletter or making a buying decision. 

If a piece of content doesn’t check all three, it’s filler. Only 22 percent of B2B marketers say their content marketing is extremely or very successful. Of that group, 82 percent credit audience understanding as the top driver of their results, not publishing volume or chasing trends. 

All that to say: Keep your audience top of mind in all your content marketing efforts. 
 

Bar graph showing the factors that B2B marketers say contribute to their content marketing success 

Source: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/content-marketing-strategy/content-marketing-statistics 

The audience focus also reframes the old paid vs. organic debate.  

You can’t just pick one. Paid advertising drives instant visibility, while content compounds in value over time.  

Smart teams use them together. Start by building assets organically and identifying the pieces that resonate. Then put paid dollars behind the ones that strike a chord with your audience.  

Content marketing for small businesses runs on this principle, since tighter budgets mean every dollar has to pull more weight. 

How to Do Content Marketing: Building Your Strategy

Most content fails because there’s no strategy behind it. Nearly half of B2B marketers with only moderately effective strategies point to unclear goals as the reason.  

These four steps give your campaigns the kind of direction that drives real business results. 

1. Define Your Audience and Goals

Every content strategy starts with two questions: Who are you trying to reach, and what do you want them to do?  

Vague goals like “build brand awareness” are a wish. “Add 500 email subscribers this quarter” or “double trial signups from organic search by the end of the year” are quantifiable goals you can shoot for. 

Start defining your target audience by the problem they’re trying to solve, not just by demographic data. For example, a 45-year-old chief marketing officer (CMO) at a SaaS company and a 45-year-old founder of a brick-and-mortar shop look identical in a spreadsheet, right? Chances are, though, they gravitate toward completely different content. 

2. Choose Your Formats and Channels

Pick formats that match your audience and goals.  

  • Blog posts still dominate for SEO and lead generation.  
  • Podcasts may be a good pick if your audience isn’t full of big readers 
  • Social keeps you top of mind between site visits. 

The trick is not trying to master everything all at once. Focus on one or two channels and expand only once they start performing. 

3. Build a Publishing Cadence

Consistency beats volume. A weekly post you follow through on publishing is worth a lot more than a daily schedule you ditch after a month.  

Use an editorial calendar to plan topics and publish dates a month or quarter at a time. You don’t need fancy software for this. Asana, Trello, Monday.com, or even a shared spreadsheet will do the job.  

The fanciest format doesn’t win here. Stick to whatever you can come back to time and time again. 

An editorial calendar plans content deliverables and helps establish a consistent cadence. 

 
Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/create-editorial-calendar/ 

4. Plan for Distribution

Hitting “post” puts content on your site, but distribution is what gets it in front of people.  

Most great pieces of content need at least two distribution channels working to gain traction. 

Think about your distribution plan from the beginning of your content process. So, dig into where your target audience is spending the most time.  

If LinkedIn is where your audience lives, you could repackage each blog post as a carousel and a long-form post after publishing. If they’re on YouTube, you might cut a 60-second clip from the supporting video.  

Match the repackaging to the channel. 

Paid promotion fits into this plan, but only after content has proven it can resonate organically.  

Put budget behind the pieces that are already earning attention. That signal tells you they’ll perform when amplified. 

Content Marketing Tips That Actually Move the Needle 

The fundamentals above are enough to get you started, but these content marketing tips are what separate teams that hit their numbers from teams that publish and pray. Each one is a lesson learned from our work with hundreds of clients at NP Digital. 

Map Content to the Buyer Journey

Each content type has its own purpose. The classic three funnel stages (awareness, consideration, and decision) still apply, though AI is collapsing the traditional funnel and changing the buyer journey.  

A how-to blog post still works for readers trying to understand a problem, and its instructional, question-based format is great for AI visibility. A comparison guide or case study is perfect for someone mid-funnel in their journey, weighing solutions. A free trial offer or pricing page is perfect for someone who is near the bottom of the funnel, ready to buy. 

AIDA framework funnel showing four customer journey stages: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. 

Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/content-marketing-and-beyond/ 

One callout worth its own line: Question-based, instructional blog posts now double as your best shot at AI visibility. Their format matches how large language models pull and cite information, so a well-structured how-to can earn you both Google traffic and LLM citations. 

A common beginner mistake is publishing only top-of-funnel content and wondering why none of it converts. Audit what you have. If you’re heavy on awareness pieces and light on decision-stage content, that could be why leads are dropping off. 

Prioritize Depth Over Volume 

One comprehensive, well-researched piece will often outperform 10 thin ones.  

Orbit Media’s 2025 survey found that marketers publishing 2,000-plus-word articles were nearly twice as likely to report strong results, 39 percent vs. 21 percent across all respondents.  

That can translate to a huge business impact. A cornerstone guide written today can still drive traffic and generate leads three years from now, something a paid ad can never do.  

Think of content as an asset. It’s not just output that fills a calendar. Use it to build a library that keeps working long after you publish it. 

Repurpose What’s Already Working

A blog post that performs well is the seed for a dozen other pieces. The same post can become several other content assets, from video scripts to email series.  

Content repurposing saves 60 to 80 percent of the time it would take to create from scratch. That goes a long way for smaller teams. 

Just don’t repurpose mindlessly, though. Your top organic blog post, your highest-engagement webinar, or a LinkedIn post that overperformed are all strong candidates. Pull the core insight, then rebuild it in the format and channel where your audience consumes content. 

That might mean a 1,500-word how-to becomes a five-email nurture sequence or a 90-second explainer video. 

Here’s an example from my own site. I took a blog post on [topic] and turned it into a companion YouTube video covering the same ground for viewers who prefer to watch rather than read. Same insight, two formats, two different segments of the audience reached. 

Neil Patel blog post titled “YouTube Marketing Strategy: Grow Your Channel.

Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/youtube-marketing-guide/ 

Alt txt: YouTube video titled “Why YouTube Is the Best Place to Find Customers Right Now.” 

A YouTube video.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAKFpSgJY9o 

Use Paid Promotion to Amplify Organic Wins

This is where a lot of teams leave money on the table.  

If you have a blog post ranking on page two and pulling steady traffic or a video that’s getting unusually high watch time, that’s a glaring sign to amplify it with paid social or search dollars.  

The organic performance has already proven that the content resonates. Paid dollars just accelerate the reach. 

Running this kind of integrated paid-and-organic workflow takes coordination that a lot of internal teams just aren’t built for. Content marketing companies handle this kind of work daily. 

Track the Metrics That Matter 

Page views and social likes feel good, but they rarely tell you whether content is working. The metrics that matter depend on your goals from the start, but most content programs should be tracking some version of these: 

  • Organic traffic to commercial pages 
  • Time on page for in-depth pieces 
  • Conversions from content (email signups, demo requests, free trial activations) 
  • Return visits from the same user 
  • Pipeline or revenue attributed to specific pieces 

Tie every metric back to the goals you set in step one of your strategy. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) handles the traffic and behavior measurement. Your marketing platforms (HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or whatever stack you run) handle the conversion side.  

If you can’t draw a line from a piece of content to a business outcome, you can’t make the case to keep funding it. 

How AI Fits Into a Content Marketing Strategy 

About 94 percent of marketers plan to use AI in content creation in 2026. AI has changed how content gets made, but it hasn’t changed what makes content work. The question is how you use it. 

Three places where AI genuinely helps: 

  • Research and ideation. Use these tools to discover new, refreshing ways to cover popular industry topics and find gaps in what’s already ranking. AI can compress hours of background work into minutes. 
  • Drafting and outlining. Use AI to generate a structural skeleton or rough first draft you can then refine. About 61 percent of marketers use AI for outlining, which is exactly the kind of structural work it does well. 
  • Repurposing existing content. AI can quickly adapt a blog post into a LinkedIn carousel or a video script. The original thinking is already done. The platform just splices the original content into the format necessary to generate ROI on other platforms.  

Where AI comes up short is on original perspective and real expertise. These platforms draw on what already exists, so they’re structurally limited when it comes to fresh insight. That matters for SEO, too. 

Google has been clear that it doesn’t penalize AI-generated content as a category, but it does penalize  scaled, low-effort content that exists only to game rankings.  

The teams excelling with AI use are the ones taking the time to edit and humanize content output. They also enhance their assets by adding firsthand experience and treating AI output only as a starting point.  

Use AI and other content marketing tools to move faster on the parts that don’t need a human and protect the parts that do.  

FAQs

 

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the practice of creating and distributing valuable content (blog posts, videos, podcasts, email, social) to attract and retain a defined audience, to drive profitable customer action. 

Why is content marketing important?

It’s a cost-effective way to drive sustained traffic, leads, and revenue. A single piece of strong content can generate returns for years, whereas paid ads stop the moment you stop paying.

What is a content marketer?

A content marketer plans, creates, distributes, and measures content tied to business goals. The role spans strategy and writing workflows, as well as strategy and performance analytics, depending on the team’s size. 

How does content marketing help SEO?

Search engines reward sites that publish helpful, in-depth content. Each well-optimized piece is another opportunity to rank for relevant keywords and build topical authority over time.

Why is content marketing important for B2B?

B2B buyers research independently before talking to sales. Content meets them in that research phase, builds trust, and shortens the sales cycle. The majority (87 percent) of B2B marketers say content marketing helped create brand awareness. 

Conclusion

Content marketing is a high-ROI strategy, but only when you build it on a defined audience and content that genuinely helps those people. The teams pulling ahead in 2026 are publishing with clearer goals and a tighter strategy. 

Playing the volume game won’t get you anywhere. 

Pick one strategy from this content marketing guide and act on it this week. Maybe that’s writing down three specific goals you didn’t have before. Maybe it’s auditing your content against the buyer journey.  

If you implement and have patience, your marketing will start to gain traction. From there, you’ll see the light at the end of this wild marketing tunnel.  

Read more at Read More

Best Backlink Analysis Tools: Compare Free and Paid Options

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Key Takeaways

  • The right backlink analysis tool depends on the job: Ahrefs or Semrush for deep data, Pitchbox or BuzzStream for outreach, Linkody for monitoring, and Whitespark for local SEO.  
  • Referring domains carry more weight than total backlink count. One link from 100 different sites beats 100 links from a single source. Backlink tools help you target the most impactful ones. 
  • Every tool in this guide includes a competitor link gap report, which surfaces sites linking to your competitors but not to you.  
  • A quarterly link audit catches toxic links, broken backlinks pointing to your site, and outreach wins worth replicating.  
  • Monthly pricing spans $14.90 to over $500. Match the tool to the scale of your work, not to what an enterprise SEO team would buy. 

What comes to mind when you think about creating a “good” link profile? 

Search “What are backlinks,” and Google returns plenty of information, including the  steps  you can take today to improve your link profile and boost your rankings. 

In the past, I’ve provided a lot of advice on building quality links, where to find the best links, and tools that can help. 

Those tips can get you far, but there’s something else you need to do first: Examine your link profile. 

If your website is brand new, this won’t always be a big deal. That’s because you probably don’t have links pointing to your website yet. 

Conversely, if your website’s been around for a few months or longer, there’s a good chance you have some links pointing to it. Some may be good. Some may be bad. Others may not move the needle in either direction. 

It’s important to understand your link profile, as this will give you a clear idea of whether you’re on the right track. 

In a perfect world, you’d see nothing but high-quality, relevant links  pointing to your site. That’s rarely the case in the real world, though. 

Need help conducting a link audit and reviewing the results? If so, this post is for you. Below, you’ll find 14 backlink tools packed with features that shed light on your link profile.  

Backlink Analysis Tools: The Basic Comparison

Pages with backlinks get more organic traffic than pages without, according to Ahrefs research.  

A good backlink analysis tool tells you who links to you, who links to your competitors, and which links are helping your rankings. That way, you know where to target your outreach efforts next. 

The 14 tools I cover in this guide differ in several ways. Some are all-in-one SEO suites with strong backlink modules. Others focus narrowly on a single job, such as outreach or local citations. The right pick depends on your linking strategy and your budget. 

Here’s a side-by-side look at every tool covered below. Pricing reflects entry-level paid plans at the time of writing and may have shifted, so check the vendor’s site before committing. 

Tool  Best For  Standout Feature  Starting Price (Monthly) 
Ubersuggest  Small businesses and solopreneurs  Affordable lifetime plans  $29 
Semrush  Agencies and in-house marketing teams  Backlink gap analysis  $139 
Ahrefs  SEO professionals who need deep link data  Largest live backlink index  $129 
BuzzSumo  Content marketers and PR teams  Content + influencer discovery  $199 
AIOSEO  WordPress users running on-site SEO  Native WordPress integration  $49.50/year 
Linkody  Solo SEOs monitoring a few sites  Real-time disavow management  $14.90 
Cognitive SEO  Mid-sized teams cleaning toxic links  Unnatural link detection  $129.99 
Majestic SEO  Researchers focused purely on link metrics  Trust flow and citation Flow  $49.99 
SEOptimer  Agencies producing white-label audits  Customer-facing reports  $29 
Moz Link Explorer  Marketers who rely on domain authority (DA)  DA, page authority (PA), and spam score  $99 
Pitchbox  Outreach-heavy link-building teams  Automated outreach sequences  $300 
Whitespark  Local SEO specialists  Local citation discovery  $39 
Linkstant  Real-time backlink alerts (legacy)  Instant new-link notifications  $7 
BuzzStream  Outreach and digital PR teams  Built-in customer relationship management (CRM) for prospects  $24 

1. Ubersuggest 

A screenshot of the Ubersuggest homepage telling brands they can get mentioned in Google and Gemini. 

Ubersuggest is my own tool, and I’ve designed it to make serious backlink analysis accessible without an enterprise budget.  

You get a full backlink overview for any domain, including new and lost links, referring domains, anchor text breakdowns, and a domain authority (DA) score.  

The Backlink Opportunity feature is the one I use most. Plug in two or three competitor URLs, and Ubersuggest gives you every site linking to them but not to you. That’s a ready-made outreach list. 

  • Pricing: Plans start at $29 per month for individuals, $49 for small teams, and $99 for agencies. Unlike most competitors, Ubersuggest offers lifetime plans. 
  • Best for: Solopreneurs, small business owners, and in-house marketers who want a solid backlink workflow without paying enterprise rates. If you’re new to SEO, the interface is easier to navigate than that of Ahrefs or Semrush. 
  • Considerations: The link index isn’t as deep as Ahrefs or Majestic, but that won’t matter as much for most small to midsizedsites, that won’t matter. 

2. Semrush 

A screenshot of Semrush’s backlink checker homepage tells readers they can win backlinks that move rankings and offers a free trial.  

Semrush says it runs one of the largest backlink databases in the industry, with more than 43 trillion backlinks indexed. It earns its place on this list for that data depth alone. 

The free Backlink Checker is good for quick checks. You can see a site’s top backlinks, Authority Score, total backlinks, referring domains, dofollow percentage, anchor text, link attributes, and whether links are new or lost. That’s useful if you just want a snapshot of your site or a competitor. 

The paid tools are where Semrush gets more useful for serious backlink work.  

Backlink Analytics gives you fuller backlink and referring domain data, more reports, filters, and tracking. Backlink Gap lets you compare your link profile against up to four competitors in a single view.  

Semrush also includes Backlink Audit, which scores toxic links and flags candidates for the disavow file.  

Both pair well with Semrush’s keyword and traffic data, which is why many agencies consolidate on this platform. 

  • Pricing: Semrush’s SEO + AI Search plans start with the SEO plan at $139. The Pro+ plan is $299. The Business plan ($549) adds AI visibility tools and other functionality. Discounts for annual billing are available, and Semrush also offers a seven-day free trial. 
  • Best for: Marketing agencies and in-house teams that need backlink data alongside full SEO, PPC, and competitive intelligence. If backlinks are one of five or six things you analyze regularly, Semrush is hard to beat. 
  • Considerations: Semrush’s free backlink tools are fine for quick checks. You’ll need a paid plan for serious backlink work, though. 

3. Ahrefs 

Ahrefs Backlink Checker homepage offering a free trial version. 

Ahrefs is one of the strongest backlink tools for SEOs who need more than a quick link count. Its free Backlink Checker is useful for spot checks, but its Site Explorer tool is where serious backlink work happens.  

Ahrefs says its backlink index updates with fresh data every 15 minutes and includes 35 trillion external backlinks in historical records.  

Site Explorer shows referring domains, backlinks, domain rating, anchor text, followed vs. nofollowed links, backlink growth, and “best by links,” which helps you find the pages attracting the most links.  

Content Explorer helps surface link-worthy content ideas, while Link Intersect finds sites linking to competitors but not to you.  

Ahrefs does have free access, but there’s a catch. The free account gives verified site owners limited Site Explorer access for their own websites, including backlinks, referring domains, anchors, and “best by links.” Competitor research, larger reports, Content Explorer, and more advanced link-building workflows require a paid plan.  

  • Pricing: Lite is $129 per month, Standard is $249, Advanced is $449, and Enterprise starts at $1,499 per month. Discounts for annual billing are available. 
  • Best for: SEO consultants, agencies, and in-house specialists who live on backlink data daily. Ahrefs may be overkill for someone publishing one blog post a month but invaluable for anyone running active outreach or technical SEO audits. 
  • Considerations: Lite works for basic backlink monitoring, but Standard is the better fit for most serious users. 

4. BuzzSumo

A screenshot of the BuzzSumo homepage. 

BuzzSumo started as a content discovery tool, and that’s still its strongest trait. Its backlink data is built around content, not just domains, so you can see which articles in your niche earned the most links and where they came from. 

The Content Analyzer pulls the top-shared and top-linked content for any keyword. Pair it with the influencer search, and you have a workflow for finding the writers and publications most likely to link to a similar piece on your site. The link-building use case here is digital PR, not technical backlink audits. 

  • Pricing: Content Creation starts at $199 per month; PR & Comms at $299; Suite at $499; and Enterprise at $999. Annual billing knocks roughly 20 percent off. 
  • Best for: Content marketers and PR teams who build links through earned media rather than direct outreach. If you want to know what’s working in your space and who to pitch, this is the tool. 
  • Considerations: It’s not a replacement for Ahrefs or Semrush on raw backlink data. 

5. AIOSEO

A screenshot of AIOSEO’s homepage. 

AIOSEO (All in One SEO) is a WordPress plugin first and an SEO suite second. It’s not a dedicated backlink checker, but it can help WordPress users manage the links they control inside their own site. 

Its Link Assistant shows internal links, external links, affiliate links, orphaned posts, and top domains you link to. That makes it useful for improving internal linking and cleaning up outbound links, but it won’t replace a backlink database like Ahrefs or Semrush. 

Broken Link Checker is another useful add-on. It scans your content for broken links and images, then lets you address issues. The free version includes 250 internal and external link checks per month. 

  • Pricing: Annual plans range from $49.50 for Basic to $299.50 for Elite. 
  • Best for: WordPress site owners who want on-page SEO, sitemaps, and lightweight backlink data in one plugin. If you already pay for a dedicated backlink tool, AIOSEO is more of a complement than a replacement. 
  • Considerations: AIOSEO is not a true backlink analysis tool. Use it to manage links on your WordPress site. 

6. Linkody

A screenshot of Linkody’s homepage. 

Linkody is a tool built for backlink monitoring. Add your domain, and Linkody tracks discovered links and alerts you when links go live or drop. The platform even handles marking links for disavow with a built-in file generator. 

The dashboard provides backlink status, anchor text, follow/nofollow data, landing pages, Moz DA, spam score, majestic trust flow and citation flow, and other link-quality signals.  

The disavow workflow is what sets Linkody apart, though. You can flag toxic links inside the dashboard and export the file for Google Search Console in a couple of clicks. 

  • Pricing: Webmaster starts at $14.90 per month, Advanced at $24.90, Pro at $49.90, Agency at $99.90, and Agency XL at $153.90. Free trials and discounts for annual billing are available. 
  • Best for: Solo SEOs, freelancers, and small agencies who want backlink monitoring and disavow management without paying for a full SEO suite. The price-to-feature ratio is the main draw. 
  • Considerations: Linkody is great for monitoring and managing backlinks, but it’s not as deep as some of the other tools on this list for large-scale backlink research. 

7. CognitiveSEO

A screenshot of CognitiveSEO’s homepage. 

cognitiveSEO gets its reputation from the Unnatural Link Detection tool, which scores links in your profile for risk and flags candidates for disavow. If you’ve inherited a site with a messy link history or recovered from a penalty, this is the platform for you. 

Beyond toxic link cleanup, you get rank tracking, content optimization, and competitive backlink analysis.  

The main draw is the link-quality workflow. cognitiveSEO aggregates backlink data from trusted link databases, then crawls and analyzes links on demand, so it’s better framed as an audit and recovery tool than a pure backlink index play. 

  • Pricing: Starter is $129.99 per month, Premium is $199, and Elite is $499. Annual billing offers a discount. A free trial is available. 
  • Best for: Mid-sized teams and consultants who handle penalty recovery, link audits, or sites with risky historical link profiles. 
  • Considerations: cognitiveSEO is strongest for backlink cleanup and risk review. It’s less compelling if you only need everyday backlink discovery or broad SEO reporting 

8. Majestic SEO

A screenshot of Majestic SEO’s homepage suggesting they’re specialists in backlink analysis. 

Majestic predates most of the tools on this list and remains a go-to for pure link metrics. Its proprietary metrics, trust flow and citation flow, are highly regarded across the SEO industry and shown inside other tools, like Linkody. Trust flow estimates link quality, while citation flow reflects link quantity. 

Majrestic’s Site Explorer report shows referring domains, anchor text, and a topical trust flow that breaks down which niches link to you. The Link Context feature displays the surrounding paragraph for any backlink, helping you judge link quality at a glance. 

  • Pricing: Lite is $49.99 per month, Pro is $99.99 per month, and API access is $399.99 per month. Annual billing is available at a discount. 
  • Best for: SEO researchers, link prospectors, and analysts who care more about link metrics than the full SEO suite experience. Trust flow and citation flow are the reasons most people sign up. 
  • Considerations: Majestic is strong for backlink analysis, but it does not replace all-in-one SEO tools. 

9. SEOptimer 

A screenshot of SEOptimer’s homepage. 

SEOptimer is best known for white-label site audits, and its backlink research module fits into that broader reporting workflow. The dashboard pulls referring domains, anchor text, and link quality scores you can drop straight into client-facing reports. 

The embeddable audit tool is a nice touch for agencies. You can install a lead-generation form on your site that runs a free backlink and SEO audit for prospects, capturing the lead. 

  • Pricing: DIY SEO starts at $29 per month, White Label at $39, and White Label & Embedding at $59. Annual billing discounts are available, as is a free trial. 
  • Best for: Small agencies and consultants who need affordable, brandable reports for clients. If you’ve been using a tool called Monitor Backlinks, that product has now been merged into the SEOptimer platform. 
  • Considerations: SEOptimer is stronger for audits and lead generation than deep backlink research. 

10. Moz Link Explorer

A screenshot of the landing page for Moz Link Explorer. 

Moz Link Explorer is built around domain authority, the metric many SEOs still use as a quick read on site strength. The tool provides DA, page authority (PA), spam score, and a full backlink profile with link-quality filters. 

The Link Intersect report shows pages linking to your competitors but not to you, similar to Ahrefs and Semrush. Moz also tracks new and lost links over time, which helps spot outreach wins or drops in your link profile. 

  • Pricing: Standard starts at $99 per month, Medium at $179, and Large at $299. Annual billing is discounted, and a free trial is available. Free Moz access is useful for occasional DA checks and light backlink research, but it’s limited. 
  • Best for: Marketers and content teams who already work with DA and want a familiar backlink dashboard alongside keyword and rank tracking tools. 
  • Considerations: The link index is smaller than Ahrefs, but Moz’s data quality and reporting are reliable for everyday work. 

11. Pitchbox

A screenshot of Pitchbox’s homepage also showing a snapshot of their SEO campaign dashboard. 

Pitchbox is an outreach platform with backlink prospecting built in. You can create prospect lists, find contacts, run outreach sequences, manage follow-ups, track replies, and monitor links from one dashboard. 

Integrations with Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush, and Majestic let you filter prospects by link metrics before reaching out, shortening the time from finding a prospect to sending a personalized pitch. 

  • Pricing: Pro is $300 per month, Advanced is $600 monthly, and Scale is $1,200 monthly. Enterprise pricing is custom. Annual billing discounts are available, and a free trial is available. 
  • Best for: Agencies and in-house teams running serious outreach programs. If link building is a primary channel and you’re sending hundreds of pitches a month, Pitchbox pays for itself quickly.  
  • Considerations: For occasional outreach, Pitchbox is probably overkill. 

12. Whitespark

A screenshot of Whitespark’s homepage. 

Whitespark focuses on local SEO, and its backlink-adjacent work centers on citations—the mentions of your business name, address, and phone number across local directories and review sites. 

The Local Citation Finder identifies high-value citation opportunities for any business or competitor. Whitespark also offers done-for-you citation building and cleanup, as well as a local rank tracker. The toolset is deliberately narrow. It’s built for local businesses, not enterprise SEO. 

  • Pricing: Local Citation Finder has a free starter plan. Paid plans start at $39 per month for Small Business, $49 for Specialist, $59 for Agency, and $149 for Enterprise. Annual billing is available at a discount. 
  • Best for: Local businesses and agencies serving multi-location clients. If you serve a geographic market and rely on Google Business Profile rankings, Whitespark is the tool for you. 
  • Considerations: Whitespark is not a backlink research tool in the Ahrefs or Semrush sense. Use it for citations, listings, Google Business Profile visibility, and local rank tracking. 

13. Linkstant

A screenshot of Linkstant’s homepage explaining why it’s powerful to discover your new backlinks instantly.  

Linkstant carved out a niche around one promise: instant alerts when a new link points to your site. While most tools poll for new backlinks once a day or once a week, Linkstant ran on near-real-time detection, enabling users to thank the linker, share the content, or correct a broken link within minutes. 

  • Pricing: Linkstant’s small business package is $7 per month, and its enterprise pricing is $27 per month.  
  • Best for: Anyone building outreach workflows around instant backlink notifications.  
  • Considerations: Linkstant is not a replacement for a backlink analysis platform. 

14. BuzzStream 

A screenshot of BuzzStream’s homepage. 

BuzzStream is an outreach customer relationship management (CRM) platform with link research baked in. You research prospects, find their contact info, send personalized pitches, and track every conversation from a single dashboard. The backlink piece comes from integration with Moz and built-in link metrics that help you qualify prospects. 

The list-building features make it easy to import prospects from a Google Sheet or scrape them directly from search results. From there, the CRM handles the rest of the outreach cycle. 

  • Pricing: Starter is $49 per month, Growth is $174, Professional is $424, and Custom starts at $999. A free trial is available. 
  • Best for: Digital PR and link-building teams that prioritize relationship management over raw link data.  
  • Considerations: BuzzStream is best paired with a dedicated backlink tool if you need deep competitor link research or large-scale backlink audits. 

Finding the Right Backlink Tool for You (and Getting the Most Out of It)

The right backlink analysis tool depends on three things: what you do with backlink data most often, how many sites you manage, and what you can spend. A solopreneur running one blog doesn’t need the same setup as a large agency. 

Start with your goals and the task at hand.  

  • If you mostly research competitors and prospect for new links, Ahrefs or Semrush makes sense.  
  • If outreach is the bottleneck, Pitchbox or BuzzStream pays for itself.  
  • For budget-friendly monitoring and disavow management, choose Linkody or CognitiveSEO.  
  • Local businesses should look at Whitespark first. 

Once you’ve picked a tool, get the most out of it by following a few rules. 

  • Audit your link profile quarterly. Look for new toxic links, broken backlinks pointing to your site, and outreach wins worth replicating. 
  • Track referring domains, not just total backlinks. One link from 100 domains beats 100 links from one domain. If the difference between referring domains and backlinks is fuzzy, start there. 
  • Pay attention to link attributes. A lot of people get hung up on dofollow vs. nofollow backlinks when creating their strategy, but these attributes don’t change much. A toxic dofollow link can hurt your rankings, while a high-quality nofollow link still drives referral traffic. Your energy is better spent on routinely auditing and maintaining your profile. 
  • Use competitor gap reports. Every tool in this guide offers some version of a competitor link intersect. That report alone justifies the subscription for most users. 

If picking and running a backlink strategy still feels like a lot, my team handles this work for businesses every day. NP Digital builds custom link strategies, and I offer SEO consulting for businesses that want a more hands-on approach. 

FAQs

What is a backlink profile?

A backlink profile is the full picture of external links pointing to your site, including referring domains, anchor text, dofollow or nofollow attributes, linking-site authority, and link velocity. A healthy profile draws from varied, authoritative sources. Backlink tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, and Moz can help you pull yours in seconds. 

What is a backlink analysis tool?

Backlink analysis tools help website owners analyze their website’s backlink profile. It provides information on the links pointing to their website from external sources, including the number, quality, and relevance of the links. You can use this information to identify areas for improvement in the website’s link-building strategy and improve its search engine rankings. 

How to check backlinks of a website?

Open Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, Moz Link Explorer, or Semrush and run the report for your target site’s root domain. You’ll see total backlinks, referring domains, anchor distribution, top-linked pages, and a domain authority score. Focus on referring domains rather than raw link count, and watch for unnatural anchor patterns to weed out bad links. You should also study top-linked pages for you and your competitors to see which content is working for specific keywords in your industry.  

How to check competitor backlinks?

Run three to five competitor domains through a tool with a link gap or link intersect report (most, if not all, of the tools in our list offer one). The report surfaces sites linking to your competitors but not to you. Sort by domain authority, then prioritize relevant high-authority targets for outreach.  

Why use a backlink monitor tool?

Manual tracking can’t keep up. The average site gains and loses dozens of links each month, and Search Console won’t catch a toxic link spike or a competitor pulling ahead. A monitoring tool automatically runs alerts for new links, lost-link notifications, toxic scoring, and trend data.  

Conclusion

Your link profile is one of the strongest signals Google uses to rank your site, making picking the right backlink tool an important decision for your business. 

The 14 options above cover virtually every budget and use case, so the right one for you is the one that fits the work you actually do and teaches you how to build backlinks correctly. Pick the tool that matches your goals, then commit to using it regularly. 

A tool you check once is wasted money. A tool you check weekly drives real results. 

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Shopify launches AI-powered marketing automation tool

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Shopify is introducing Campaign Autopilot, a new AI-powered marketing tool that automatically creates, manages and optimizes campaigns across multiple channels, reducing the need for merchants to manually manage advertising and email marketing.

The feature is launching in early access and is available directly within the Shopify admin.

What’s happening. Campaign Autopilot uses AI to plan and run marketing campaigns on behalf of merchants across channels including Meta, Shop Campaigns and email.

Additional channels are already on the roadmap, including ChatGPT Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Snapchat.

Rather than requiring merchants to build campaigns manually, the system handles campaign creation, budget allocation and ongoing optimization automatically.

Why we care. Campaign Autopilot lowers the barrier to running multi-channel marketing campaigns by automating much of the work traditionally handled by agencies or in-house specialists. Instead of managing separate campaigns across Meta, email and other channels, merchants can set a budget and goals while Shopify handles campaign creation, optimization and budget allocation.

How it works. Merchants set a monthly budget, choose which channels to connect and define approval rules and guardrails.

From there, Campaign Autopilot:

  • Creates and launches campaigns.
  • Allocates budget across channels.
  • Adjusts spending based on performance.
  • Recommends email automations.
  • Monitors results and makes ongoing optimizations.

Merchants can approve campaigns before launch, modify budgets or pause activity at any time.

What’s different. Shopify is positioning Campaign Autopilot as an alternative to traditional campaign management tools and agency-led marketing.

The company says the system leverages performance data and patterns across millions of Shopify stores to inform recommendations and budget decisions.

Campaign Autopilot also operates separately from existing campaigns, meaning merchants already running Meta or Shop ads won’t see those campaigns altered.

The bigger picture. Shopify is increasingly embedding AI into merchant workflows, moving beyond ecommerce infrastructure and into growth and customer acquisition.

The launch reflects a broader industry trend toward autonomous marketing systems that can execute campaigns with limited human involvement while continuously optimizing performance.

What to watch. Shopify plans to expand channel support in the coming months, including integrations with ChatGPT Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Snapchat.

The company also says merchants can use its AI assistant, Sidekick, to review recommendations, trigger actions and monitor campaign performance.

Dig deeper. Introducing Campaign Autopilot: AI-powered Marketing Built into Shopify

First spotted. The update was spotted by Digital Marketing Consultant Susan Richards-Benson who suggested this feature for smaller ecommerce brands on Linkedin.

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Straight from the source: 2026 Search Engine Land Awards judges reveal what makes an application award-worthy

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search engine land awards winners
search engine land awards winners

Since its inception in 2015, the Search Engine Land Awards have recognized exceptional marketers on an annual basis — showcasing outstanding work, providing well-earned exposure in coverage and interviews, and bestowing upon them the highest honor in search.

While there’s no single formula for creating a winning entry, our judges have seen enough submissions over the years to know what separates the truly exceptional from the merely good. The strongest applications don’t just share results, they tell a story. They provide context, demonstrate strategic thinking, and clearly communicate why the work mattered.

And because great advice shouldn’t be gatekept, we thought we’d bring some of those insights directly to you.

We asked several of this year’s Search Engine Land Awards judges to share their best advice for prospective entrants. From common mistakes to avoid to the elements that consistently stand out, their insights offer a valuable look inside the judging process and can help you build a stronger, more compelling submission.

Keep reading for a roundup of fresh insights from some of our judges. (And see the complete list of 2026 judges here!)

“A great entry is a story with a goal, an action, and a measurable outcome that ties back to it. Tell that story as well as you can, and include a deck that makes it easy to see exactly what you accomplished.”

– Amy Hebdon, Founder, Paid Search Magic

“Explain your tactics. Many entries just say “we used best practices”. Everyone’s best practices and tactics differ. Explaining the process that lead to your results will highlight your creative thinking, problem solving, and uniqueness. Showing your insights and thought processes helps your entry standout and showcase your company’s competitive edge.”

– Brad Geddes, Co-Founder, Adalysis

Brad Geddes

“I look for SAY which stands for: Situation, Action and Yield.
Applicants should write a clear example of the situation, what they did and the result achieved over the time period,”

– Jo Juliana Turnbull, Growth Marketing Senior Manager, Holafly

“Show me the humans behind the metrics. We’re in a time where AI is reshaping search at a pace none of us have seen, and that shift matters…but the applications that rise to the top will lead with empathy, not just analytics. I want stories where I can see how your work built genuine trust with real people, not simply visibility in search and AI engines. I’m especially drawn to entries that embrace a wellness-based approach to their craft, and to teams who pair their quantitative wins with qualitative insight: the quote, the aha moment, the change in how someone felt about a brand or experience. Tell me how you held the human at the center – as strategy. If your project made people feel seen, understood, or genuinely helped, lean into that. Those are the stories I’ll be looking for.”

– Danita Smith, Founder & CEO/Chief Innovation Strategist, Adanis Design

“Clearly state the challenge you solved, and back it up with data. Explain the strategy behind the tactics you used and the results they drove. Tell me not just what happened, but what impact did it have on your campaigns? What did you do differently as a result?”

– Melissa Mackey, Director of Paid Search, Compound Growth Marketing

“Evidence: charts, analytics, screenshots. Be detailed, specific, and share data.”

– Barry Schwartz, Editor, Search Engine Land

“Tell a story. Numbers get you in the room, but the story is what stays with the judges. I want to know what the problem was, why it was hard, what you tried, and what finally worked. That arc, the messiness of real work, is what separates a memorable entry from a forgettable one. The submissions that stick with me are the ones where I can feel the thinking behind the decisions, not just the outcome. You did great work this year; now, make the judges feel the weight of what you solved before you show them the numbers.”

– Ameet Khabra, Founder, Hop Skip Media

“The two main things all award-winning entries share are that they explain the whys behind the hows, and they bring receipts (data to back up claims). If you can’t share the data behind your entry (budgets, revenue, etc.), you are putting yourself at a distinct disadvantage and may end up wasting the entry fee. A lot of people submit the same practices – if you can distinguish yourself by showing innovative thinking, you’ll do well!”

– Navah Hopkins, Product Liaison, Microsoft

“Give me all the data you can. Show the numbers and the real impact of whatever you did; conversions, ROI, and whatever monetary increases you were able to cause.”

– Celeste Gonzalez, Content Implementation and Product Specialist, Lastmile Retail

“Show me something I haven’t seen before, then prove it worked. The applications that land are the ones with a genuinely unexpected approach backed by numbers that make the result undeniable.”

– Adam Tanguay, Head of Growth, Jordan Digital Marketing

“I am looking for an approach or strategy that challenges the norm of SEM. A unique approach that focuses on achieving the business goals by way of campaign structure across Brand, Non-Brand, Performance Max, Conquesting, and general upper-funnel tactics. An advanced way of thinking about the target audience, messaging, conversion goals, etc. that helps show a sophisticated way of managing the campaigns & overall strategy to exceed business goals.”

– Matt Devinney, Director, Client Partner, Tinuiti

“I am looking for projects that break new ground with innovative takes on SEO, and are backed up by data and numbers-driven insights every step of the way.”

– Olya Ianovskaia, Founder and Lead Consultant, MycoMinds SEO

“Make your entry easily readable. We are going to need to go through several entries – I know the entries could be quite technical (and the quality of that will take precedent), but I am more likely to vote for you if I enjoyed reading your entry.”

– Anu Adegbola, Paid Media Editor, Search Engine Land

“My #1 piece of advice is to showcase strategy that truly breaks new ground. Award-winning applications demonstrate innovation that anticipates where SEM is heading, whether that’s leveraging AI in novel ways, pioneering audience-targeting approaches, or developing unique cross-channel integration. But innovation alone isn’t enough. The most compelling entries connect these forward-thinking strategies directly to measurable business outcomes, providing clear evidence of how your work translated to client growth metrics that matter. We’re looking for that perfect balance: creative execution that pushes boundaries while delivering documented ROI that proves your approach wasn’t just innovative—it was transformative.”

– Joseph Kerschbaum, Senior Vice President, Search & Growth Labs, DEPT

And there you have it! Submit your entry today to be considered by this year’s esteemed judges. Early Bird rates expire July 10… so get a move on!

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YouTube rolls out new Gemini-powered insights tools

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YouTube is expanding its suite of creator marketing and campaign intelligence tools with new Gemini-powered features designed to help brands identify trends, understand creator audiences and improve campaign performance.

What’s happening. Google is introducing several new insights and optimization tools across YouTube and Google Ads that give marketers more visibility into trends, creator performance and audience behavior.

The company says the new capabilities are intended to help advertisers make better creative and media planning decisions in an increasingly AI-driven marketing landscape.

Why we care. These updates provide deeper visibility into what’s trending on YouTube, which creators are resonating with audiences, and how their brand is performing across both paid and organic content. That can help marketers make smarter decisions about creator partnerships, campaign planning and creative strategy.

What’s new:

More detailed trend insights.

Google Ads’ Insights Finder is gaining expanded trending insights in the U.S., providing advertisers with a more granular view of what’s gaining traction on YouTube.

Brand Pulse data comes to Insights Finder.

Select Brand Pulse metrics are now being integrated into Insights Finder, allowing brands to evaluate both their paid and organic presence in a single location.

New creator insights API.

The new Content & Creator Insights API gives agencies and partners deeper information about YouTube creators and their audiences, helping improve media planning and creator selection.

Gemini-powered creative recommendations.

Google says Gemini will soon provide creative optimization tips for Demand Gen campaigns, including recommendations on visuals and creative elements that may improve performance.

The bigger picture. As creator-led content becomes increasingly influential in purchase decisions and brand discovery, advertisers are looking for better ways to identify emerging trends and measure creator impact.

Google is betting that AI can help marketers surface those insights faster and make campaign planning more efficient.

Bottom line. YouTube is giving brands and agencies more data on trends, creators and campaign performance, while using Gemini to help turn those insights into stronger creative and media decisions.

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How to make Performance Max focus on net new customers

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How to make Performance Max focus on net new customers

There’s a trap door waiting for DTC brands that invest in Google Ads that makes your dashboards look amazing, but absolutely wrecks your P&L.

It’s the danger of recycling traffic from Meta.

Thanks to the overlap between paid search and paid social traffic, running Google as a standalone channel is incredibly difficult if you don’t know how to set it up. Ad platforms refuse to share data with one another, and they love to claim credit for the same conversion — even if those sales would’ve happened without the influence of ads.

The DTC brands I speak to are often proud to show off their new customer numbers: month-over-month growth, a steady upward trend, and a fantastic dashboard. But when we go deeper into the data, we often find that a big chunk of those “new” customers are:

  • Conversions that would’ve happened because of brand or content efforts.
  • Customers who aren’t truly incremental because they consumed ads on multiple platforms.
  • The same people signing up with multiple email addresses.

You could argue that these overlapping sales still count as revenue, and they do. But when you look at the contribution margin from those sales, they cost far more than they should and erode actual profit.

In other words, you lose money when you run ads on both platforms without guardrails.

But that doesn’t mean you need to stop or limit yourself to one channel. Instead, you need a better system for measuring actual customer acquisition.

Why the new exclusions matter

If you’re spending five figures or more on Meta, TikTok, AppLovin, or any other top-of-funnel channel, you’ll want to minimize overlap with other channels to drive actual new customer acquisition.

Here’s what that looks like:

  • Someone sees your ad on Facebook or Instagram.
  • They visit your site, browse, and leave without buying.
  • A while later, they search for your brand on Google or get retargeted on YouTube.
  • Performance Max swoops in, grabs the conversion, and reports strong ROAS.
  • You may have won that order anyway, but now Google and Meta both want credit for it.

Now you’re paying two or more platforms to recycle a conversion that you might have earned with just one.

Ever since Performance Max launched, there wasn’t much you could do about this. It’s been a bit of a black box that automatically goes after the warmest traffic it can find: branded search, site visits, email subscriptions, and existing customers.

It lets you bid more for new customers, but you can’t really stop the campaign from defaulting to easy mode.

A while ago, Google began letting you exclude people searching for your brand on Search and Shopping. Performance Max still targeted warm audiences through YouTube, Gmail, and the Display Network.

The latest round of updates from Google has finally addressed this problem. You can now force Performance Max to focus on net new customer acquisition through a combination of brand exclusions, audience exclusions, and Customer Match data. 

First-party audience exclusions, announced in March, are the final piece that makes this possible (though not foolproof – customer list matching is never perfect).

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A four-step framework for net new customer acquisition

Here’s a four-step framework we’re using at my agency to help clients maximize incrementality.

Step 1: Exclude your brand

This one has been around for a while, but it’s the foundation, so we have to start here.

For smaller brands, brand exclusions usually aren’t necessary. But once you’re spending real money and seeing more than 15% to 20% of your cost or revenue coming from brand searches, it’s time to take action. 

There are two parts to this.

Go into your campaign settings and add a brand exclusion. If your brand isn’t already on the list, click New brand list, create one, and add your brand. Google will do its best to block branded queries from this list.

Because brand exclusions aren’t foolproof, go to the Keywords tab inside the campaign and add your brand name as a phrase match negative keyword. Add a few common variations, too. This catches anything the brand list misses.

If you’re excluding brand terms from Performance Max, you need a dedicated brand Search campaign and a brand Shopping campaign to capture those searches. Otherwise, you’re just leaving money on the table for competitors.

Step 2: Exclude website visitors and email subscribers

Even if you blocked brand searches, Performance Max would still retarget people who visited your website, opened your emails, or interacted with your brand on YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Display. So even with brand exclusions in place, a big chunk of your spend still went to warm traffic.

Now you can change that. Go to your campaign settings and find the new audience exclusions option. Then build a few remarketing lists:

  • All website visitors: Set this up through the Google Ads pixel or Google Analytics. It captures anyone who has visited your site.
  • Email subscribers: Connect Klaviyo (or whatever ESP you’re using) directly to Google Ads. The benefit of the Klaviyo integration is that the audience updates in real time, so new subscribers are added automatically.

Once you exclude these audiences, Performance Max can only go after people who haven’t interacted with your brand in any meaningful way. What we typically do, and what I recommend, is to come up with an engagement metric that fits each account’s business goal, such as cart adds rather than visitors from the past seven days.

What a change from how this campaign type used to work.

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Step 3: Exclude existing purchasers

Same idea as Step 2, but specifically for people who have already bought from you. You can do this two ways.

  • Through a pixel-based audience that captures anyone who has triggered the purchase event. 
  • By uploading your customer list directly. Shopify now lets you set up Customer Match lists right inside the Google Shopping app, and Klaviyo can do this, too.

Add these audiences to the exclusions section of your campaign, and you’re done.

A small caveat to keep in mind: audience matching is never 100%. If you upload a customer list of 1,000 people, Google might only match 900 of them. So you’ll still see some level of bleed. But going from “the campaign is targeting all my existing customers” to “the campaign is targeting maybe 10% of them” is still a huge win.

Step 4: Use ‘New Customer Bidding’ in campaign settings

The last piece is to tell the campaign explicitly that you want new customers.

In your campaign settings under customer acquisition, you’ll see two options: bid only for new customers, or bid higher for new customers. Both require you to connect a customer list (which you’ve probably already done by Step 3).

The “only new customers” option is the most aggressive setting. The campaign simply won’t bid on existing customers. Combined with the audience exclusions from Steps 2 and 3, this gets you as close to pure new customer acquisition as Performance Max will allow.

The “bid higher for new customers” option is more flexible. You set a dollar value that represents the additional value of a new customer, and the system bids more aggressively when it thinks an auction will result in one.

Here’s where you need to be careful. If you tell Google a new customer is worth an extra $100, and you get a $200 sale from a new customer, Google will report it as $300 in revenue. That extra $100 is a fictional reporting value, not real revenue. It will inflate your ROAS numbers and distort your target ROAS bidding.

Our recommendation is to use a small placeholder value, such as a penny or a dollar, when you want to nudge the system toward new customers without distorting your reporting. Or use a number that genuinely reflects the lifetime value premium of a new customer to your business.

What to expect from this approach

It’s still early, so we can’t draw firm conclusions yet. But based on my experience managing PPC for ecommerce brands, here’s what I expect to happen.

Many advertisers who walked away from Performance Max did so because it was simply recycling Meta traffic. By splitting it out, you force it to go after net new traffic.

This will likely benefit brands that don’t have a ton of video creative for YouTube, which is another platform where brands try to drive net new acquisition at the awareness stage.

One of the big differences between Performance Max and Demand Gen is that the former is much more conversion-focused. Any brand considering excluding branded Search and Shopping from Performance Max should also consider this tactic, as it tends to over-index on hot traffic.

In terms of outcomes, I expect the reported ROAS attributed to Performance Max to be lower than what you may have seen in the past.

But when you look at the breakdown of new versus returning customers, it should align much more closely with new customer acquisition. Without advanced configuration, it might be a 60/40 split, even in the best situations.

Limitations and realistic expectations

Nothing about this is foolproof. Audience exclusions don’t match perfectly. Brand exclusions don’t catch every variation. Customer Match has its gaps. So even with all four steps in place, some percentage of your spend will still hit warm audiences.

But for the first time, you actually have the levers to push Performance Max into upper-funnel territory. You can make it work like a real prospecting channel instead of a retargeting channel that takes credit for demand created elsewhere.

This matters most for brands spending heavily on Meta, TikTok, or other channels and wanting Google to actually grow the customer base rather than recycle the traffic those channels generate. If you’re seeing strong ROAS in Performance Max but flat new customer numbers month over month, this framework is for you.

If you’re a smaller brand still trying to find product-market fit or build initial momentum, this is probably overkill. Let Performance Max do its thing and pick up conversions without too many restrictions.

But once you’re scaling and the question is no longer “Can we be profitable?” but “Can we be profitable while growing the customer base?” these settings become some of the most important levers you have.

Every click they win is a customer you lose.

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Google’s giving you more control over PMax. Use it.

The conversation around brand versus non-brand is everywhere. You can’t throw a dart at a paid media conference without hitting someone with a strong opinion on it. But for some reason, almost no one seems to be testing this new option.

I just finished auditing an account spending $100,000 a month on Search with no Performance Max or Shopping, so they get purely new customer acquisition. We looked at their numbers and said maybe now’s the time to try this, exclude all these segments, and let it rip.

So here’s when I recommend implementing this test: if your ad spend is high enough (it doesn’t need to be $100,000 a month or anywhere near it), or you’re revisiting Performance Max. Your hypothesis should be that this approach increases the proportion of actual new customer conversions.

I think you’ll find that the needle moves further than you think.

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How to approach build-versus-buy decisions for SEO

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How to approach build-versus-buy decisions for SEO

AI has made SEO teams ambitious about what they can automate. Tasks that previously required engineering support can now be solved with the help of Claude or ChatGPT.

That’s exciting, but it also creates a new problem: thinking you can automate everything. In modern language, that often comes down to one question: Should we build or buy this new tool?

This build-versus-buy dilemma has never been simple, and AI has made it even more complicated. The challenge goes beyond cost. It involves security, maintenance, data access, internal capabilities, workflow fit, and whether a custom solution will remain maintainable, reliable, and useful six months from now.

How AI lowers the barrier to building

AI has lowered the barrier to experimentation. Even without technical knowledge, you can now create a custom GPT, build a workflow, connect data sources, or create an internal AI assistant.

But that doesn’t mean the same person can build and maintain a tool that will remain reliable over the next few years.

In most cases, AI can help SEO teams analyze data, identify patterns, summarize information, and recommend actions. It can save a lot of time, and teams that ignore AI are clearly falling behind.

But, at least for now, AI isn’t doing truly creative work in the same way humans do. It works from existing patterns and predicts likely outputs. That may change in the future.

AI also comes with hidden costs. Internally built tools are often treated as free because the invoice usually doesn’t sit with the SEO team. But that doesn’t mean token usage, API calls, infrastructure, engineering time, security reviews, and maintenance don’t cost money.

We are already seeing this effect. Reuters has described it as “corporate AI sticker shock,” with companies struggling to forecast usage-based AI costs. TechCrunch also reported that Uber introduced AI spending caps after blowing through its annual AI budget in four months.

Today, marketing teams aren’t the heaviest AI users, especially compared with engineering teams. But that can change quickly.

And when usage grows, the bills will grow too. That will naturally make companies ask which AI tools and AI-powered workflows create value and which ones only consume budget.

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Start by defining what you need

Before deciding whether to build or buy, SEO teams need to define what they really need.

Different ways to use AI and automation

Many teams group these solutions together, but they vary significantly in cost, complexity, and maintenance requirements.

  • A custom tool: A more complex internal system that usually needs engineering support. It is often more about automation, but it can have an artificial intelligence aspect.
  • A custom workflow: A repeatable process built with different tools, such as a custom GPT, Claude project, spreadsheet, reporting template, and so on. It often includes automation, for example, a scheduled task in an AI tool, and it usually has an artificial intelligence layer.
  • A custom layer on top of SaaS: Using data from existing tools and shaping it into your own reporting, prioritization, or recommendation workflow.
  • A true AI agent: A system that can take more autonomous actions. For example, it can scan your Slack and follow up with people you are still waiting on.

These aren’t the same, but people often label them incorrectly. Calling everything an “AI agent” creates confusion and can lead to wrong estimates about cost and complexity.

Look for repetitive, context-rich tasks

We’re still experimenting. Most of what our team has built focuses on daily tasks that require a lot of manual work.

For example, we’ve created a custom GPT that evaluates whether our content matches our personas and their pain points. The goal is not to replace the human copywriter or reviewer. It is to determine whether a piece remains generic and whether a few additions can make it more relevant.

We are also using AI for translations, monthly reporting, and a weekly summary that combines meeting notes, Slack, and Jira, and helps me see whether I have missed adding a task to Jira or where I still need to follow up.

One of our latest workflows transforms recorded internal meetings into organized landing page briefs.

These types of tasks are good candidates for AI-powered custom workflows because they rely on internal context, repeatable processes, and company-specific knowledge.

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Not everything should be built

One example from our team was a prompt tracking tool that my colleague vibe-coded. It worked well as a starting point. But the data presentation was not perfect, and it was hard to create a trend graph without additional manual steps.

Soon, it became a maintenance burden because every external change in any of the LLM tools required fixes, for which we needed engineering help.

The real issue was reliability. For AI visibility and prompt tracking, we needed consistent data in one place, presented in a way we could analyze over time. That is why we moved to a specialized platform like Peec AI instead of continuing to maintain our own version.

That experiment was still valuable. It helped us understand the problem, the complexity, and the features we actually needed from an external vendor.

And this is one of my pieces of advice: whether you want to build a tool internally or buy one, always test what is already available on the market. Only then will you really understand what you actually need. You may think you need 10 features, only to realize you use only three.

For business-critical tools such as rank and AI visibility tracking, and website crawling, small SEO teams without dedicated technical support should usually be careful about building from scratch. If the data is fundamental to decision-making, reliability should be your main decision factor.

Use AI where your data already lives

Buy the crawler, rank tracker, or AI visibility platform. Then focus your internal efforts on connecting data from these tools to custom information, such as your GA and GSC accounts or even CRM data. Once connected, create reports that combine all these sources and enable you to analyze everything in one place.

MCP connections are also worth considering. The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI applications to external systems, data sources, tools, and workflows. With MCP servers, you can analyze data from your primary tools directly using AI, taking your current workflows to the next level.

This doesn’t mean you’re required to learn how to code. But they need to know enough to ask the right questions.

If a tool connects to an internal knowledge base, customer data, or proprietary research, you should be aware that this could pose a security risk. And it might turn out that it is better for the company to dedicate an engineer to support you rather than risk exposing sensitive information.

You should also understand what the final cost will be for your company when you decide to go with a custom tool. Custom tools aren’t free just because the invoice doesn’t sit with SEO. Engineering time, security reviews, AI tokens, and API usage are all part of the cost.

Before asking leadership for a tool, SEO teams should be able to explain the workflow problem, the expected value, the cost of buying compared with the estimated cost of building, and what might happen if nothing is done.

The best requests don’t start with: “We need this tool.”

They start with: “Here is the problem, here is why it matters, here is what we’ve tested, and here is the best way we think we can solve it.”

How to prioritize what to build first

There’s no single prioritization matrix that will work for every situation.

A website crawler, a content evaluation tool, a report builder, or a competitive intelligence system can’t be judged by the same criteria.

If you are in a situation where you think you need more than one tool, start by mapping your current workflow and what your ideal situation looks like.

Once you do that, the patterns will be clear. Often, your strongest priorities will fall into two groups.

The first are tools that can support revenue creation. SEO teams are usually part of the marketing organization, and marketing is expected to bring visibility or leads. If a tool can help identify content opportunities, improve conversion rates, increase AI visibility, or surface gaps versus competitors, it can be seen as a priority.

The second group is workflows and tools that can help you minimize repetitive manual work. This category may not create revenue, but it will give your team time back to focus on more strategic work.

Don’t forget that quick wins also matter. Stakeholders don’t want to wait three months before seeing results. A smaller project that can bring value in three weeks will help you build trust and make it easier to get support for bigger initiatives.

Cross-team value should also be part of your decision.

SEO problems are often not just problems for your team. Competitive intelligence, for example, matters to PPC, ABM, content, product marketing, and sales, too. If several teams share the same pain, the business case becomes stronger.

So don’t be afraid to act as a cross-team synchronization layer when needed. Talk to the same teams you have already worked with, and try to understand their workflows and pain points, and where your needs overlap.

And remember, the best tool is not always the most ambitious one. Starting with something small is often the smartest move.

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Good decisions start with proper scoping

AI has made it easier to build, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to think about what really needs to be built.

Before deciding whether to build, buy, or customize, take the time to properly scope the work.

  • Understand the problem, the value you expect, who will use the solution, and who will maintain it after launch.
  • Talk to your team and other teams. Determine whether this is only an SEO problem or a wider business problem.
  • Don’t build because AI makes it possible. Don’t buy because a demo looks impressive.

Without proper scoping, you can end up with an expensive SaaS tool that doesn’t fit your workflow or an internal tool your team can’t maintain.

Always think first. Dedicate enough time to scope properly. Then decide whether to build, buy, or customize.

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Why some channels reward breadth and others require commitment

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Why some channels reward breadth and others require commitment

Many budget allocation strategies assume that every channel follows the same pattern: the first dollar is the most productive, and each additional dollar yields a slightly lower return.

The charts below show what that pattern looks like.

The log shape means that the first dollar is the most productive, and each subsequent dollar is worth a little less. When every channel looks like that, the game plan is to spread the budget to as many channels as possible and equalize the marginal CPAs to maximize profit.

But not every channel looks like that. Some have a warm-up region where the early spend is the least efficient, not the most. On those channels, the logic above breaks, and so does the “test small, scale the winners” playbook that most of the industry runs on autopilot. 

The difference comes down to one question about the channel: Is the response curve C-shaped or S-shaped?

The answer can change how you approach channel testing and channel measurement, including any MMM analysis. Moreover, Google has been incorporating more S-shaped campaign types, and after its Google Marketing Live announcements, this trend seems set to continue.

The two shapes — and the only part that matters

The response curve plots output (conversions, revenue) against input (spend). This generally results in two types of curves in marketing.

  • C-shaped (concave): Diminishing returns from the very first dollar. A log or power curve. Picture the top-left quarter of a circle: steep at the start, flattening as you go.
  • S-shaped (sigmoid): A slow, inefficient start, then an inflection point where it gets steep, followed by a flattening into saturation. A logistic curve.

The response curve itself isn’t what you allocate against. You allocate against the marginal curve, the derivative, which answers the question: “What did the next dollar buy me?” That’s where the shapes diverge in a way that matters.

  • For a C-curve, marginal return is highest at the first dollar and falls in only one direction. Marginal CPA rises from the first dollar onward. If conversions are a*ln(s), marginal conversions per dollar are a/s, so marginal CPA is s/a, climbing in a straight line as you scale. There’s no warm-up. The cheapest conversion you’ll ever buy is the first one.
  • For an S-curve, marginal return starts low, rises to a peak at the inflection point, then falls. Marginal CPA is U-shaped. It’s expensive at the start, bottoms out around the inflection point, then climbs into saturation.

That region of increasing marginal returns is the whole story. It’s the difference between a channel where small budgets are productive and one where they are wasted.

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How this looks in a marketing campaign

Say your CPA goal is $50. Here is an S-shaped channel, modeled as Conversions = 1000 / (1 + e^(-0.25(s – 20))), with spend in the thousands and the inflection at $20,000/month:

Run the $10,000 test that a sane person runs before committing real budget. Average CPA comes back at $132, marginal around $94. If those two metrics are all you look at, you conclude that this channel can’t hit $50, so let’s kill it.

That verdict is wrong. At $20,000 to $25,000, the channel is running at an average of $32 to $40, and the marginal dollar in the $15,000 to $25,000 band costs $18. That’s not “barely viable.” In that band, it’s the best marginal buy you have. The small test fell within the warm-up and reversed the conclusion.

In a C-shaped channel, the small test would have shown you the best the channel can do. On an S-shaped channel, it shows you the worst.

This is the trap. The standard playbook is “test small, scale what works.” On S-curves, small tests systematically condemn channels that would’ve worked at scale because the test is structurally stuck in the inefficient region.

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The allocation logic, restated

C-shaped channels, go wide

The optimization is convex. There’s one global optimum, the equimarginal rule from the marginal-CPA post applies cleanly, and the solution is usually interior, meaning lots of channels get funded.

Even a small allocation is productive because the first dollar is the best dollar. Run many channels lean, reallocate continuously at the margin, and pull back the instant marginal CPA crosses your goal.

S-shaped channels, go deep or skip

The optimization is non-convex. A small allocation can be strictly worse than zero because below the inflection your marginal return sits under your target, and you’ve sunk money to get nowhere.

The decision isn’t “how much.” It is binary: commit past the threshold, or don’t fund it at all. There’s a real minimum viable budget, and it’s often above normal test budgets. You can’t sprinkle an S-curve and expect efficiency, and you can’t evaluate one on an underfunded test.

Those two rules can look like they fight each other, but that’s only true to a certain point. Past the inflection, an S-curve is concave, so the equimarginal rule governs it exactly as it governs a true C. The S-specific instruction — commit a block instead of sprinkling — is only about the trip from zero to past the inflection.

Shape is therefore mostly a launch-and-evaluation problem. Getting a new prospecting channel into its efficient range requires a committed block and patience with ugly early numbers. Once it clears the inflection, you manage it at the margin like everything else, right up until you consider cutting it hard, where shape matters again because the downside is a cliff, not a ramp.

This is the part that’s genuinely counterintuitive, and it echoes the original marginal-return point: The right move isn’t always the one that looks most efficient at a small scale.

Which channels are which?

The historical default was concave. Simon and Arndt reviewed more than 100 studies and concluded that advertising follows the law of diminishing returns, a concave response. 

The dissent came later: Vakratsas, Feinberg, Bass, and Kalyanaram found that threshold effects do exist and that response is not necessarily globally concave. Their explanation for why thresholds were so hard to find is the useful part. Mature accounts already operate inside the effective range, so the warm-up never shows up in the data, and most studies fit a concave model (the double-log) that can’t reject an S-curve even when one is present.

The platform shift has made the threshold visible again. Here is a fuller map, ordered roughly from C to S. The shape column is an inference from how each system targets and learns, not a measured constant, and the right shape for your account still has to be measured.

Two rows do most of the work.

AI Max is the live example of a channel migrating from C toward S. Swapping explicit keywords for broad and keywordless matching means it needs conversion volume to learn which queries convert, so below a data threshold, it explores badly.

The mixed independent results fit that: Google reports about 14% more conversions on average and up to 27% for exact-match-heavy campaigns, while independent testing reports 84% of advertisers seeing neutral or negative results. Much of that spread is accounts that turned it on without the conversion volume to clear the learning region.

Performance Max is the trap, because its curve is a composite. It blends a harvesting layer (branded, retargeting, Shopping against existing intent) with a prospecting layer (keywordless expansion across surfaces). The harvesting layer is a cheap C that pays off on the first dollar. The prospecting layer is the S underneath.

Blended, the early efficiency looks great, because you are mostly skimming demand you already had, and the average hides the prospecting warm-up entirely. That is also why the platform is glad to optimize it for you: the blend flatters the headline number. You can’t read PMax or run the shape analysis on it until you split the harvesting from the prospecting.

The throughline runs in two layers. Rules-based auctions capture the best inventory first, which yields concavity; machine-learning systems must be fed before they are efficient, which introduces a threshold. Underneath both, harvesting existing demand is concave and mostly non-incremental, while creating new demand is the S-shaped part where the real growth and the real warm-up cost both sit.

Average versus marginal: total over spend, or the slope where you stand.

What you allocate against is marginal incremental return, the slope of the incremental curve at your operating point. A holdout fixes the first axis only. Time-sliced marginal CPA on attributed data fixes the second only. A multi-cell scaling test gets both, at a cost. 

MMM (method 1) estimates the whole curve from aggregate data and sidesteps click attribution entirely, but pays in identifiability and modeling assumptions instead. Most arguments about ‘what is working’ are two people standing on different axes.

There are two major cautions, and I would flag both as genuinely unsettled rather than settled facts. 

  • Separating a true S-curve from “concave with a high half-saturation point” is hard, because a concave model will fit S-shaped data well enough to hide the inflection (this is the Vakratsas point, and it applies to your own dashboards as much as to academic studies). 
  • The learning phase may be a one-time fixed cost to train the model rather than a permanent feature of the steady-state curve. If it is transient, the channel may behave concavely at the margin once it is trained, and the S you measured was a startup artifact. The truth is probably a mix: a one-time training cost, plus an ongoing minimum-volume requirement to stay efficient. Treat every shape call as provisional and re-check it.

One more failure mode, and this one is not unsettled science but a matter of where you are standing on the curve. An S only looks like an S if your data spans the inflection. 

Above the inflection, an S is concave, mathematically identical to a C. Look at only the $20,000-and-up rows of the table above: marginal CPA rises monotonically from $18, a textbook C-curve, and the convex warm-up is invisible because you are no longer operating in it. 

Established accounts usually sit past the inflection, which is exactly why Vakratsas found thresholds so hard to detect, and why you can run an S-shaped channel for years, correctly, while believing it is concave. The tell arrives the day you cut hard and fall off the inflection instead of easing down a slope.

When to go wide and when to go deep

The marginal-return post told you to equalize marginal CPAs across the program. That rule is still correct, but the shape of the curve tells you how you’re allowed to get there. 

  • On C-shaped channels, you can get there by sprinkling, because every dollar is productive and breadth is the natural answer. 
  • On S-shaped channels, you have to commit a block of budget past the inflection before the channel earns its place, and then concentrate rather than spread.

Lay the harvest-versus-create cut on top. Harvesting channels (branded, retargeting, non-brand search) are your C-curves: fund the first dollars, then cap them early, because they saturate fast and most of the tail isn’t incremental, no matter how strong the attributed ROAS looks. 

Prospecting channels (Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn, the expansion half of PMax) are your S-curves and your only real source of incremental growth: commit past the warm-up or don’t start, and judge them on incremental lift rather than attributed CPA, or you’ll kill the thing that was working.

Classic search rewards going wide. PMax, AI Max, and Meta prospecting reward going deep on fewer bets and giving each enough volume to clear the warm-up. Run an S-curve like a C-curve and you’ll starve it, read the underfunded result, and kill a channel that would’ve been one of your best.

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