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What is Keyword Stuffing? How to Avoid Doing SEO Like It’s 2005

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Back in the early 2000s, keyword stuffing actually worked.

All you had to do was repeat the same phrases, and you could rank pretty well.

(Readability be damned.)

I’m not exaggerating here — these sites were literally littered with keywords.

Like this one from 2005.

The Wayback Machine – Online Casinos

Yes, this is a real site I found on The Wayback Machine.

And yes, “online casinos” was used enough times to make your eyes burn.

But that game is over.

Today, keyword stuffing makes your content unreadable and unrankable.

Google’s smarter. Users are pickier. And spammy tactics? They get flagged fast.

So, if you’re still stuffing keywords, you’re not just stuck in the past — you’re tanking your chances of ranking.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

  • What keyword stuffing looks like
  • How it harms your SEO and credibility
  • How to use keywords naturally to boost rankings and readability

Let’s start by examining how this tactic works and its rise to popularity.

What Is Keyword Stuffing?

Keyword stuffing is the practice of overloading your content with target keywords in an unnatural way to manipulate search rankings.

It’s considered a black hat SEO tactic, meaning it goes against Google’s guidelines and puts your site at risk.

So, what does it look like?

Here’s a keyword stuffing example straight from Google:

Google Search Central – Keyword Stuffing

No one talks like that.

And no one wants to read it, either.

You might think that SEO keyword stuffing only happens in blog content or sales copy.

But it shows up in other places, too:

  • Headings and subheadings
  • Meta titles and descriptions
  • Anchor text
  • Navigation menus
  • Page footers
  • URLs

URLs – Keyword Stuffing

Wherever it appears, the result is the same: stiff, awkward content that adds no value for the reader.

Google also considers the following to be keyword stuffing:

  • Lists of phone numbers with no context or purpose
  • Blocks of cities or regions to manipulate local rankings

Like this:

“We serve New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Hoboken, Jersey City…”

Then, there’s invisible keyword stuffing — which is exactly what it sounds like.

You don’t see it, but search engines do.

Some common examples:

  • White text on a white background
  • Text hidden behind an image
  • Fonts set to 1px or less
  • Keywords in HTML comments
  • Hyperlinking just one character (like a period or dash)
  • Alt text loaded with unrelated keywords

    Alt text with unrelated keywords

So, how did keyword stuffing become so widespread in the first place?

Let’s take a quick look back.

History of Keyword Stuffing

Back when E-E-A-T was just a gleam in Google’s eye, keyword stuffing reigned supreme.

Why?

Because early search engine algorithms relied heavily on keyword density to determine relevance.

The more times a keyword appeared on a page, the more relevant that page seemed to search engines.

For example, here’s another site I found on the Wayback Machine — this one from 2002.

As you can see, they used various tactics to manipulate their rankings.

The Wayback Machine – WeightLossGuide

Like blatantly adding a bunch of keywords into content blocks on their homepage.

I’m guessing this site sold “weight loss diet pills,” but I can’t be sure.

WeightLossGuide – A bunch of keywords in content

They also loaded their product pages with back-to-back keywords.

Like “antidepressants and antiaging supplements.”

(And made a bunch of bold medical claims without citing or linking to reputable sources.)

No E-E-A-T here, that’s for sure.

Content with no E-E-A-T

Thankfully, Google got smarter — and more serious about quality.

Over time, it rolled out various updates to detect manipulative tactics.

And rewarded content that actually helped users and met search intent.

This made it harder to cheat the system and easier for Google to flag spammy, keyword-packed content.

But it hasn’t stopped all site owners from engaging in this practice.

So, if your content reads like it was written for bots, don’t be surprised when Google treats it like spam.

How Keyword Stuffing Hurts Your Site

Using keywords is important for relevance.

But overusing them?

It carries more risk than you might realize.

Google Penalties

If Google detects keyword stuffing, it may lower your rankings or trigger a manual action.

Even worse, you may be wiped off the SERPs completely.

Google warns about this in its spam policies:

Google Search Central – Spam policies

Recovery can take months of hard work.

And some sites never fully recover their rankings.

Poor User Experience

Even if you escape Google’s penalties, keyword-stuffed content creates a terrible user experience.

Users who land on these pages typically:

  • Leave immediately (increasing bounce rate)
  • Spend less time on page
  • Rarely convert
  • Never return

GA – Average engagement time per active user

These negative engagement signals harm your overall site performance, too.

Damaged Brand Reputation

Keyword-heavy content can make your site appear spammy and unprofessional.

It signals to users that you’re more concerned with manipulating search engines than providing value.

Cheap Affordable Airfare

This damages trust – the foundation of any successful brand.

Once users and search engines label your site as “spammy,” rebuilding that trust becomes difficult.

Lower Rankings

The ultimate irony of keyword stuffing?

It’s likely to achieve the opposite of its intended purpose.

Instead of boosting your rankings, it can make them plummet.

Today’s search algorithms prioritize:

  • Relevant, natural content
  • Positive user engagement signals
  • Valuable information that satisfies search intent

As Google says:

While there is no guarantee that any particular site will be added to Google’s index, sites that follow the Search Essentials guidelines are more likely to appear in Google’s search results.

How to Identify Keyword Stuffing on Your Site

Not sure if your content crosses the line from optimized to overkill?

Here’s how to spot keyword stuffing before Google and your readers do.

Manual Calculation

Old-school, but it works:

Keyword Density

  1. Count how many times your target keyword appears in your content
  2. Divide by your total word count
  3. Multiply by 100 to get the percentage

Side note: AI tools can help you calculate keyword density, but their results may not be entirely accurate. I tested ChatGPT against a manual calculation and found it was off by 28%. After prompting it to recheck its work, ChatGPT was able to provide the correct answer. But this process actually took longer than just calculating it myself.


So, how do you know if your percentage is “good” or “bad”?

Keep in mind that the ideal keyword density doesn’t exist.

As Leigh McKenzie, Backlinko’s head of SEO, says:

You can’t fake relevance by jamming your target phrase into every heading. A natural, readable flow matters more. As a general rule, if your keyword density creeps above 2–3%, it’s worth taking a second look.

Use keywords intentionally. But write like you’re talking to real people, not search engines. That’s what both the algorithm and AI actually reward.

Manual Assessment

One of the most effective ways to identify keyword-heavy content is to read it aloud.

If something feels stiff, repetitive, or robotic, your readers will feel it, too.

Ask yourself:

  • Would I write this way if SEO wasn’t a factor?
  • Does this content feel valuable and informative?
  • Would real people enjoy reading this?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” it’s time to revise.

WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress?

Plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math can help flag potential keyword stuffing.

These tools provide readability scores and keyword density calculations.

Rank Math – High Keyword Density

But keep in mind that these tools may miss subtle issues.

And typically won’t flag anything until it’s really obvious.

So, it’s best to use them as a guide rather than a final verdict.

On Page SEO Checker

Want a smarter, more in-depth look at keyword usage on your pages?

Use Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker.

Instead of manually scanning your content, this tool benchmarks your keyword usage against top-ranking competitors.

Here’s how to use it:

Side note: A free Semrush account gives you limited access to the On Page SEO Checker. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.

Enter your domain into the tool and press “Get ideas.”

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Get ideas

Next, configure your settings.

(It’ll ask you to choose your location and preferred pages to analyze.)

When your report is ready, scroll to the “Top pages to optimize” section.

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Top pages to optimize

Click the blue “# Ideas” button next to any page to view detailed recommendations.

If keyword stuffing is detected, the On Page SEO Checker will call it out.

And show you exactly where the issue is.

Including the body content, meta tags, or headings.

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Optimization ideas

If your keyword usage is clean, you’ll see notes like:

“No keyword stuffing detected in <h1> tag.”

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – No keyword stuffing

You’ll also get recommendations for:

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Backlink Ideas

Use the recommendations to create higher-ranking content that search engines and readers love.

6 Keyword Optimization Best Practices

So, how do you avoid keyword stuffing?

And still optimize your content without sounding like a broken record?

Here are some do’s (and a few don’ts) to help you strike the right balance.

1. Write for Humans, Not Search Engines

Keyword density isn’t a ranking factor.

So, don’t worry about hitting a specific number.

Focus on creating helpful content instead.

Answer your audience’s questions. Solve their problems. And satisfy their search intent.

The 4 types of search intent

Google calls this people-first content — content made for readers, not algorithms.

Google Search Central – Focus on people-first content

Yes, you should use your target keywords.

But if you’re covering the topic thoroughly, they’ll appear naturally.

For example, if you’re writing about meal prep for beginners, you’ll probably mention:

  • Easy meal prep
  • Weekly food planning
  • Healthy lunch ideas

No keyword stuffing required.

Bottom line: If your content reads well out loud and actually helps someone, you’re on the right track.

Further reading: 6-Step Essential Guide to Choosing Keywords


2. Include Keywords in Key Elements

You don’t need to repeat your keyword 55 times.

But placing it in a few prominent spots helps Google (and readers) understand what your page is about:

  • URL
  • H1
  • First paragraph
  • Subheadings (minimally — mix it up with keyword variations)
  • Title tag
  • Meta description
  • Alt text

Always prioritize natural language over forced keyword insertion.

Further reading: On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide + Free Template

3. Use Secondary and Semantic Keywords

Secondary and semantic keywords make your content more engaging.

They also make it easier for Google to understand what your content is about.

Secondary keywords are terms that are closely related to your primary keyword.

They help your content rank for a broader range of relevant searches.

For example, if your primary keyword is “vegetarian recipes,” secondary keywords would include:

  • Vegetarian meal ideas
  • Meatless recipes
  • Vegetarian dinner recipes

Keyword research tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and others let you find secondary keywords.

Keyword Magic Tool – Vegetarian recipes – Keywords

Semantic keywords are contextually related words and phrases that help search engines understand the meaning behind your content.

These terms aren’t direct matches or synonyms.

For a vegetarian recipe article, semantic keywords would be “veggie burgers,” “tofu,” and “vegetarian chili.”

You’re likely to include these terms naturally.

But Google can also help.

Conduct a search for your primary keyword and check “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” for ideas.

People also search for – Vegetarian recipes

4. Avoid Irrelevant Keywords

Targeting irrelevant keywords won’t trick Google.

It’ll just confuse your audience — and dilute your topical authority.

For example, if your blog niche is fitness, don’t target irrelevant keywords like “top vacuum cleaners” or “best mattress.”

Keyword Overview – Best mattress – Overview

Even if you’re actually able to rank for these terms, it’s unlikely to do you any good past a bump in vanity metrics.

Aka — you might get clicks, but you won’t get conversions.

Plus, you’ll send confusing signals to Google about your site’s core purpose.

5. Don’t Use Grammatically Incorrect Keywords

During keyword research, you’ll inevitably run into terms that are misspelled yet somehow still get thousands of searches.

For example, “morgage calculator” gets 27,100 searches per month.

And “best morgage rates” gets 14,800.

Keyword Magic Tool – Morgage – Keywords

But using misspelled keywords isn’t worth the risk.

They make your writing less credible and can make your site look spammy.

Search engines are smart enough to know what users actually mean when they search for “morgage” instead of “mortgage.”

As Google says:

Our natural language understanding models look at a search in context, like the relationship that words and letters within the query have to each other. Our systems start by deciphering or trying to understand your entire search query first. From there, we generate the best replacements for the misspelled words in the query based on our overall understanding of what you’re looking for. For example, we can tell from the other words in the query “average home coast” that you’re probably looking for information on “average home cost.

Same goes for grammatically incorrect or just plain awkward keyword phrasing like:

  • “Running shoes cheap”
  • “How to train dog fast”

Yes, people search like this:

Keyword Overview – Running shoes cheap – Overview

But you shouldn’t mirror that phrasing word-for-word.

Or you risk lowering the readability and trustworthiness of your content.

6. Spread Out Keyword Usage

Don’t use a bunch of keywords in a single paragraph or section.

Keyword stuffing example

Distribute them naturally throughout your content, from the introduction to the conclusion.

This creates a more cohesive piece that flows naturally while still signaling relevance to search engines.

Further reading: Free Keyword Difficulty Checker + Free Guide

How to Recover from Keyword Stuffing Penalties

Worried your rankings declined from excessive keyword usage? Don’t panic.

Recovery is possible with the right approach.

Check for a Manual Penalty in Google Search Console

First things first: confirm whether you’ve received a manual penalty.

Log into Google Search Console (GSC) and follow this path:

“Security & Manual Actions” > “Manual Actions.”

GSC – Security & Manual Actions

If you don’t have any manual actions, you’ll see this message:

GSC – Manual actions – No issues detected

If you have a manual action, you’ll see a report with the number of issues detected.

And a description of each one.

Like unnatural links, cloaking, thin content, and — you guessed it — keyword stuffing.

GSC – Manual actions – Issues detected

If you received a penalty, you’ll need to address the issues and submit a reconsideration request.

Fix the Issues

Once you’ve identified the problem pages, it’s time for cleanup.

But this isn’t just about fixing one page. It’s about showing Google you’ve changed your approach.

Here’s what to focus on:

  • Rewrite keyword-stuffed content: Focus on clarity, depth, and user intent. Cut repetition and use natural phrasing and keyword variations.
  • Remove hidden keywords: If you used any black hat tactics, such as white text on white backgrounds, keyword-stuffed alt tags, or hidden links, remove them from your site
  • Upgrade the content: Check that each page meets search intent, thoroughly covers the topic, has meaningful information gain, and includes E-E-A-T signals. Like high-quality sources, author expertise, and expert insights.
  • Audit your site: For best results, consider following the above steps for every page on your site (if possible) — not just the ones Google flagged. This may improve your chances of getting the penalty removed.

What is E-E-A-T

Request a Review

Once your content is cleaned up, go back to Search Console and follow these steps:

Open the “Manual Actions” section and click “Request Review.”

GSC – Manual actions – Request review button

Next, you’ll be asked to check a box confirming you fixed all of the issues.

You’ll also need to explain what you fixed and how you did it.

GSC – Manual actions – Request review

Don’t copy and paste generic language. Be honest, transparent, and direct in your answer.

Explain the following:

  • What caused the issue
  • The exact steps you took to fix it
  • The outcome of your efforts

Expect to wait anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for a response.

You’ll get an email with Google’s decision when the review is complete.

If your first request is denied, you can try again.

Stop Stuffing. Start Optimizing.

Google doesn’t count keywords anymore.

Why should you?

Ranking in 2025 isn’t about gaming the algorithm — it’s about creating content that actually helps people.

So, leave the keyword stuffing to 2005 and focus on what modern readers and search engines want:

Helpful, trustworthy content.

Ready to write content that reads and ranks well?

Check out our SEO best practices guide. It’s packed with proven strategies for writing high-performing content without sacrificing quality or user experience.

The post What is Keyword Stuffing? How to Avoid Doing SEO Like It’s 2005 appeared first on Backlinko.

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6 Best Social Media Management Tools (Tried & Tested)

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There are many tools that let you schedule content across different social media platforms.

But:

Not all of them are built to match your unique workflow.

Some focus on collaboration, others on planning.

That’s why I’ve handpicked the best tools and highlighted the features that go beyond basic scheduling.

Here’s an overview of the best social media management tools included in this article:

Best for Pricing
Buffer Content creators and small teams that need help generating content ideas and staying consistent Starts at $6/month per channel; limited free plan available
Planable Marketing teams that need a centralized hub to collaborate on all types of content Starts at $39/month; limited free plan available
SocialBee Businesses that want a built-in AI assistant to help plan strategy and generate content Starts at $29/month; 14-day free trial
Canva Creators and small businesses that want to design and schedule content in one place Starts at $15/month; 30-day free trial available
Hootsuite Teams that need social selling tools and CRM integration Starts at $149/month; 30-day free trial available
Sprout Social Large teams or agencies that need unified analytics, collaboration tools, and social listening Starts at $249/month; 30-day free trial available

Note: This is not the most extensive list of social media management tools. Instead, I’m sticking to what the title says and only including the very best options.

1. Buffer

Best for content creators and small teams that need help generating content ideas and staying consistent with posting

Pricing: Starts at $6 per month per channel; limited free forever plan available (for up to three channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel per month)

Buffer – Monthly Calendar

Buffer is a simple social media management tool designed to help you plan, create, and schedule content across platforms.

It has a simple layout, a Kanban-style board, AI tools to help you write posts faster, and many other features that let teams work together easily.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Buffer:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Threads
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • X/Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google Business Profile
  • Bluesky
  • Mastodon

Here’s what I love about Buffer:

Manage Your Content Workflow with a Built-in Kanban Board

Buffer gives you a simple, visual way to manage your entire content workflow. You don’t need a separate project management tool.

You can plan, track, and organize your social posts using a built-in Kanban-style layout. This makes it easy to track how your content moves from idea to publication.

Buffer – Built-in kanban board

You can drag and drop posts through each stage, tag them by type or campaign, and convert any idea into a live post when you’re ready to publish.

Each idea card acts like a mini workspace. You can add notes, upload images, assign tags, or even use AI to shape your post.

And when you’re ready to turn an idea into a real post, just click “Create Post”:

Buffer – Turning Idea into Post

From there, you can choose which social media platforms to post on, edit your text, and schedule it. All without leaving the ideas board:

Buffer – Choose Social Media Platform

This is a seamless workflow from idea to publishing. You don’t even need to switch tabs within the tool.

Create a Custom Link in Bio Page

Buffer’s Start Page lets you build a mini landing page to use in your social media bio.

On this page, you can add buttons to your blog, shop, podcast, or freebies — whatever you want people to check out. It’s like a custom homepage for your content.

There are templates to get you started:

Buffer – Choose a starting template

But you can also customize it with your brand colors, fonts, and layout:

Buffer – Start page – Customize template

When you publish your page, you can track views and clicks to see what your audience is interested in:

Buffer – Statistics

Whether you’re a creator, freelancer, or a small business, Start Page helps you lead your followers to the content you want them to see.

Stay Consistent with a Weekly Posting Goal

Buffer helps you build a sustainable content routine. It lets you choose a posting goal, like once, three times, or five times per week:

Buffer – Settings – Posting Goal

Once you select your frequency, Buffer will automatically recommend the best time slots and add them to your queue:

Buffer – Settings – Posting Times

The tool recommends time slots based on when your audience is active.

With this feature, you don’t have to guess when or how often to post.

Just pick a consistency level that fits your bandwidth and goals.

This is helpful if you’re overwhelmed or inconsistent. With your target already set, Buffer takes care of when to post so you can focus on what to post.

Useful resource: Step-By-Step Content Marketing Plan Template


Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
Use AI assistant to draft tailored post captions for different social media platforms Analytics doesn’t support creator accounts for Instagram and LinkedIn; it’s limited to business pages
Manage comments and replies from one dashboard

2. Planable

Best for marketing teams that need a centralized hub to collaborate on all types of content

Pricing: Starts at $39 per month; free plan available (limited to 50 posts)

Planable – Workspace

Planable is a tool built for social media teams to plan, collaborate on, and schedule content together — all in one place.

It’s designed to streamline approvals, keep your calendar organized, and make team (and client) communication seamless.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Planable:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X/Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • TikTok
  • Google Business Profile
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Threads

And here’s what I love about Planable:

Collaborate with Your Team in Real-Time

Planable makes it easy to work with others and communicate through every step of content development.

For example, your team can leave comments directly on each social media post. This removes the need to send the post back and forth:

Planable – Commenting feature

You can even invite your team members and clients and give each one a unique set of permissions. These include view, edit, publish, approve, or analyze.

You can also make multiple approval workflows and set collaboration levels.

Let’s say you’re part of an in-house marketing team working with an external copywriter. You could create a custom workflow like this:

  • Stage 1: Content team creates the post and adds a caption
  • Stage 2: Design team steps in to finalize visuals
  • Stage 3: The client gives final approval before the post goes live

Planable – Team Roles & Approvals

Once the client approves the content, you can:

  • Automatically schedule the post to publish at the assigned time (or keep manual control if you prefer)
  • Lock the content to prevent last-minute edits or accidental changes

What’s cool is that internal team comments won’t be visible to clients.

You can also hide certain posts from clients to prevent them from seeing unfinished drafts:

Planable – Hide from clients

And if anything ever goes off track, you can see the version history. It lets you see exactly who did what and roll back to a previous version if you need to.

Manage All Your Marketing Content in One Place

Planable helps you schedule, preview, and collaborate on posts for all major platforms in one place.

You can plan your content in a calendar view to visualize what’s going live, where it’s going, and when:

Planable – Calendar view & Connected Channels

But what sets Planable apart is its ability to go beyond just social. You can also write and organize blog posts, newsletters, and other content with the same team setup.

So if your team is posting on Instagram and TikTok, writing email newsletters, and posting on the blog, you can check and edit everything in one place.

Planable keeps it all in sync, so your team stays aligned and consistent — no matter how many channels you’re managing.

Note: While you can manage blog content in Planable using the same workflows as social posts, it doesn’t integrate directly with CMS platforms. So you’ll still need to copy and paste your final draft manually.


Organize Your Content into Campaigns

In Planable, you can group your social media posts into dedicated campaigns.

This makes it easy to plan, manage, and execute content around specific themes, product launches, or events:

Planable – Campaigns

Each campaign can act as a central hub for your content. You can add posts to different social media, work with others, and see how your posts are doing, all in one place.

For example, if you’re launching a new product, you can create a “Product Launch” campaign. Inside that campaign, you can:

  • Keep internal notes (like your campaign objective, key results, and what content the campaign should include)
  • Organize all launch-related posts and visuals for future posts
  • View when each post is scheduled to go live with the calendar view
  • Check consolidated analytics across multiple platforms

Planable – Header bar

This kind of campaign structure helps your team stay focused and aligned. It also ensures every piece of content supports a bigger goal, like driving signups for an event or promoting a product launch.

Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
Craft your social media captions with AI in the Planable post editor Currently no integration with CMS platforms to post blog content on your site directly
Import visuals directly from Canva into your posts; no need to download or re-upload designs Analytics is only available for business accounts, not creator profiles
Schedule the first comment on Instagram and LinkedIn posts
Get post and account performance insights with built-in analytics

3. SocialBee

Best for businesses that want a built-in AI assistant to help plan strategy and generate content

Pricing: Starts at $29 per month; 14-day free trial

SocialBee – Create your post

SocialBee is a social media management tool that helps you manage all your content in one place. One unique thing this tool offers is a built-in AI assistant that takes tasks off your hands (more on this later).

Here are the platforms you can manage with SocialBee:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • X/Twitter
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Google Business Profile
  • Bluesky
  • Threads

SocialBee also offers universal posting. This means you can collaborate with your team on content for a blog or newsletter for example. However, as is the case with Planable, there is currently no integration to post these directly on other platforms.

Here’s some more detail about a few of SocialBee’s best features:

Build a Content Strategy with AI Copilot

SocialBee’s AI Copilot is like having a creative assistant built into your social media tool.

It helps you build a personalized content strategy, come up with content ideas, and draft social media captions.

So, how does it work?

Let’s say you run social media for Tattly, a creative brand selling artist-designed temporary tattoos.

Copilot will ask you a set of questions about your brand, goals, and audience:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot

Based on your input, the AI Copilot recommends the best platforms to focus on and suggests a weekly posting frequency:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Posting frequency

Copilot also suggests content categories that match your business and tone:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Content categories

It then generates the posting plan based on your content categories:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Posting plan

And finally, it generates the posts. You can use the captions as-is or use AI suggestions as inspiration:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Generated posts

Create Evergreen Content Categories

SocialBee lets you recycle posts on autopilot by marking a content category as evergreen:

SocialBee – Re-queue after posting

This means any post you add to that category will automatically be re-added to your posting queue once it goes live. You don’t need to reschedule it manually.

But why would you want to post the same content over and over?

It’s a great way to keep your content calendar full without constantly creating new content. You can use it to reshare timeless posts like tips, customer testimonials, or motivational quotes:

SocialBee – Your content categories

For example, reposting a helpful blog tip every four to six weeks keeps it fresh in your audience’s feed without feeling repetitive. Especially if you’re recycling through a variety of other content in between.

Plus, new followers may miss these posts the first time around, but still get value from them.

This keeps your content calendar active, saves you time, and ensures your best posts continue delivering value long after they’re first published.

Turn Links Into Posts

SocialBee lets you import a bunch of links and instantly generate social media posts for them:

SocialBee – Content – Import links

Just paste in your links, assign them to a content category, and SocialBee will generate a basic post using the page title and link:

SocialBee – Import links – Created post

From there, you can edit the draft to boost engagement and tailor it to your audience. Like by adding a hook or takeaway.

This is especially helpful if you run a blog or regularly share curated content. It gives you a head start on posting, so you’re not starting from scratch every time.

Further reading: 21+ Proven Strategies to Promote Your Blog in 2025

Get Help from a Dedicated Social Media Concierge

If you’d rather outsource some of your social media tasks to a pro, SocialBee offers concierge services.

SocialBee – ConciergeBee Store

ConciergeBee connects you with a service provider who takes care of tasks like making content or talking to your followers.

You can choose from several service packages (starting at $129/month) based on your needs.

For example, options include:

  • Weekly content creation (graphics, captions, and videos)
  • Community management (inbox and comment replies)
  • LinkedIn lead generation
  • Blog content writing
  • Ads management

SocialBee – Service packages

Compared to hiring freelancers on your own, SocialBee’s concierge service saves you time and guesswork.

You get vetted specialists, ongoing 1:1 communication, and fixed pricing. And you don’t have to go through the process of scouting talent and managing contracts.

Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
Turn articles into social media posts in seconds The mobile app is very limited at this time, sometimes not even working at all
Use AI to enhance your social media strategy
Use Canva, Unsplash, and GIPHY integrations for visuals

4. Canva

Best for content creators and small businesses that want to design and schedule content from one place

Pricing: Starts at $15 per month; 30-day free trial available

Canva – Content Planner

With its built-in Content Planner tool, Canva lets you design, write, and schedule posts across multiple platforms in one place.

If you’re already using it to create visual content, it might be enough to handle your entire content workflow. Especially if you heavily rely on graphics in your social media posts.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Canva:

  • Instagram Business Page
  • Facebook Page
  • X/Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr

While more limited than some of the other tools on this list, there are still a lot of reasons to love it as a social media management tool.

Here are my favorite features:

Schedule Posts Right From the Design Dashboard

Canva makes it easy to go from designing a social media post to scheduling it for publishing. You can do it without even leaving the design screen.

Let’s say you run a small cafe and you’re launching a new seasonal breakfast menu. You design an Instagram post in Canva with a mouth-watering photo of your meals.

Once you’re happy with the design, you click “Share” > “Schedule” right from the top menu:

Canva – Schedule design

This built-in scheduling tool helps you post regularly on social media without making more work for yourself.

Instead of switching between tools, you can design, schedule, and publish all from one place.

This saves time and keeps your content calendar on track.

Fill Your Calendar with Holiday-Ready Templates

Canva’s Content Planner shows holidays, awareness days, and seasonal events from around the world:

Canva – Content planer shows holidays

You can click on any event, choose a ready-made template, make it match your brand, and schedule the post right away:

Canva – Ready made template

This is a simple and effortless way to fill your content calendar and engage your audience.

Useful resource: Content Calendar Template for 2025


Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
Design and schedule content without switching platforms Lacks advanced collaboration tools, such as content approvals, needed for larger teams
Pre-designed visuals tied to calendar events and holidays

5. Hootsuite

Best for teams that need social selling tools and CRM integration

Pricing: Starts at $149 per month; 30-day free trial available

Hootsuite – Dashboard

Hootsuite supports everything from collaborative content planning to lead generation and social selling.

It has tools that help your team save time and work efficiently. Like CRM integrations, a smart inbox, and auto-replies for Instagram.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Hootsuite:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X/Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • TikTok
  • WhatApp Business
  • Threads

Here are my favorite Hootsuite features:

Automate Instagram DMs with Comment Keywords

Hootsuite lets you send automated Instagram DMs to your audience:

Hootsuite – DM automation

You can use this feature to deliver lead magnets, coupon codes, or event registrations.

For example, if you’re a fitness coach offering a free meal plan, you could post a Reel with the caption:

“Drop the word MEAL below and I’ll DM you my 7-day meal plan.”

When someone comments “meal,” Hootsuite instantly sends them your custom message with the link.

Here’s how it works:

You choose a keyword and write a message you want to send when someone comments that word on your post.

This method keeps your audience engaged without the hassle of replying to everyone yourself. And because the response is instant, your followers get what you promised right away. No matter when they comment.

Cool, right?

Turn Social Conversations Into Sales

Hootsuite helps you move leads from social interactions to closed deals without leaving the dashboard.

You can reply to comments and DMs, save the conversation in your CRM, and follow up to turn that lead into a customer:

Hootsuite – Turn social conversations into sales

But how’s that possible?

Hootsuite integrates with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and SugarCRM to streamline this process.

This means your social media manager and sales rep can collaborate in real time. If a follower responds to a campaign or clicks on a product post, you can turn that engagement into a lead profile.

If your business relies on social selling, this feature is a game-changer.

Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
Manage inbound messages, engagement, and scheduling in one place DM automation is limited to Instagram only
Integrate Hootsuite with your CRM and project management platform

6. Sprout Social

Best for large teams or agencies that need unified analytics, collaboration tools, and social listening in one platform

Pricing: Starts at $249 per month; 30-day free trial available

Sprout Social – Dashboard

Sprout Social is a premium social media management platform. It combines publishing, engagement, analytics, and social listening all in one place.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Sprout Social:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X/Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest
  • Threads
  • YouTube
  • Google Business Profile

Now let’s talk about what I love most about Sprout Social:

Respond to Every Message in One Place

Sprout’s Smart Inbox pulls direct messages (DMs), comments, and mentions across all your connected platforms.

You don’t need to bounce between tabs or apps. Instead, your entire team can view and respond to each message or comment from one space:

Sprout Social – All Messages

Your team can even tag messages, assign them to teammates, and leave internal notes to add context:

Sprout Social – Internal comments

Sprout Social also tracks your inbox activity. This lets you check how your team handles audience engagement across different platforms.

For example, you can see metrics like:

  • Number of received vs. actioned messages and action rate
  • Response rate and average time to action
  • Performance trends across time or by platform

Sprout Social – Received Messages and Actions Summary

This helps you reply faster, keep your support organized, and make sure you don’t miss any messages. Even when you’re constantly receiving messages at scale.

Track and Visualize Performance Across the Channels

Sprout Social gives you two powerful ways to analyze your results:

  • Cross-network reporting: To track performance across all your social media channels
  • Profile-specific reporting: To dive deeper into individual accounts (like your Instagram or LinkedIn)

This dual setup helps you see the big picture while still being able to zoom in on the details.

View High-Level Metrics in One Dashboard

Its profile performance report shows key stats. Such as views, clicks, engagement, and interaction rate across all your social platforms:

Sprout Social – Profile Performance

You can also track how your audience has grown over time with the Audience Growth graph:

Sprout Social – Audience Growth

This makes it easy to see whether your efforts are growing your followers.

That way, you can identify which platforms are bringing the most momentum. And which ones might need a strategy tweak.

Analyze Content with Post Performance Reports

Sprout Social also gives you post performance insights across all your connected accounts. Or you can focus on a specific platform.

You can view and compare individual post metrics. Like total engagement, reactions, and comments:

Sprout Social – Post Performance

This helps you quickly spot top-performing posts and patterns behind them. This lets you replicate what’s working — without constantly jumping between dashboards.

Listen to What Your Audience Is Saying Online

Sprout Social helps you understand what people say about your brand, industry, or competitors across social media and the web.

You can track specific keywords, hashtags, or brand mentions in real time.

For example, if you manage social media for a coffee shop, you might track the keyword “espresso.”

The conversation breakdown shows the words and phrases people use when they talk about espresso. Such as “recipes,” “easy,” and “home.”

These terms are ranked from highest to lowest engagement:

Sprout Social – Keyword tracked

You can use these words to get content ideas or write relatable captions to match what your audience is saying.

It’s a quick way to spot trends and stay relevant.

Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
All-in-one place for managing publishing, engagement, and analytics across many social media platforms Can be overwhelming for solo users or small teams due to the number of tools included in Sprout Social
Advanced analytics to track cross-platform or profile-specific performance

Ready to Choose Your Social Media Management Tool?

The right social media management tool depends on your content needs and workflow:

  • Go with Sprout Social if you’re a large team or agency that needs everything in one place, including analytics, collaboration, customer care, and social listening
  • Pick Hootsuite if your team is focused on lead generation and social selling, and you want powerful CRM integrations and sales automations
  • Choose Planable if you need advanced collaboration features and want to manage all kinds of content in one place
  • Go with Buffer if you’re solo or on a small team and want to stay consistent with posting using a simple, organized workflow
  • Try SocialBee if you want extra help either from AI or a real human handling your strategy and content
  • Stick with Canva if you’re already using it for design and want a streamlined way to schedule your posts without switching tools

Want to explore new platforms to grow on? Check out our list of new social media platforms so you can stay ahead of the curve.

The post 6 Best Social Media Management Tools (Tried & Tested) appeared first on Backlinko.

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The 7 Best PPC Tools for Your Goals, Budget, and Workflow

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Running PPC campaigns isn’t for the faint of heart.

You’re constantly juggling dashboards, tweaking campaigns, and fielding requests from clients who wanted performance reports yesterday.

That’s why the best PPC tools don’t just offer features. They help you move faster.

In this guide, I’ve curated this list of the best PPC tools marketers swear by, organized by use case.

The goal?

To help you quickly find what fits your workflow and skip the ones that don’t.

What Are the Best PPC Tools?

PPC Tool Best for Price
Semrush Advertising Toolkit All-in-one PPC campaign management Starts at $139.95/month. 14-day Pro trial available.
Spyfu Competitor research Starts at $39/month. Free limited account available.
Google Ads Editor Bulk editing & offline ad campaign management Free
Optmyzr Enterprise-level PPC automation and tracking Starts at $249/month. 14-day trial available.
Adalysis Ready-to-go ad automation and tracking Starts at $149/month. 30-day free trial available.
Google Looker Studio Ad campaign visualization and reporting Free
ChatGPT Ideation, ad copywriting, and campaign analysis Starts at $20/month. Free plan available

1. Semrush PPC Advertising Toolkit

Best for all-in-one PPC campaign management

Tired of switching between five tools just to manage your paid search campaigns?

Call in the Semrush PPC Advertising Toolkit.

Domain Overview – Advertising Research

It covers everything from keyword research to competitor tracking for full campaign lifecycle visibility.

Perfect when you’re knee-deep in data but need insights fast. Like onboarding a new client or cleaning up a messy account.

Find High-Value PPC Keywords Fast

Keyword research shouldn’t feel like a full-time job.

Semrush’s Advertising Toolkit makes it simpler.

Start with the Keyword Magic Tool.

Type in a general term like “indoor planters.” You’ll get a full list of related long-tail keywords, complete with cost-per-click (CPC) and search volume.

Keyword Magic Tool – Indoor planters – Keywords

Within seconds, you’ll find high-potential keywords that fit your budget.

Now, if you want to know what your competitors are bidding on, use the Keyword Gap tool.

Let’s say you’re running campaigns for plantologyusa.com.

Add a few competitor URLs — like mygardyn.com and thesill.com — and Semrush will show keywords they’re targeting, but you’re not.

Plus, terms they’re outranking you for.

Keyword Gap – Plantologyusa – Paid Keywords

Instead of reinventing your keyword list, you see what’s driving results for others.

Keyword Gap – Plantologyusa – All keyword details for

And where you may be leaving money on the table.

Bonus: You can easily export your keyword lists from Semrush into Google Ads. Or, use them as the base for Meta campaign planning.

Side note: Google Keyword Planner also offers keyword data straight from Google. It’s solid for search volume, but it lacks Semrush’s competitive context.

Reverse Engineer Your Competitors’ PPC Strategy

Want a fast, clear read on what your competitors are spending in paid search?

Head to Semrush’s Advertising Research Tool and plug in their domains.

For example, if you’re running PPC for Toolstation, you might want to analyze Screwfix’s paid search strategy.

Enter “screwfix.com” and you’ll instantly see:

  • Their top-paid keywords
  • Landing pages tied to those keywords
  • Other domains bidding on the same terms
  • A timeline of their ad activity

Advertising Research – Screwfix – Paid Search Trends

That timeline is gold.

If you notice their ad spend consistently increases every April, it’s likely tied to seasonal demand. Or, a major promo push.

You can respond by launching earlier to capture traffic before everyone starts throwing money at the same keywords.

Or shift bids to lower-cost, related keywords that still convert.

(So you don’t get caught in a who’s-got-the-deeper-pockets contest.)

See What Ads Your Competitors Are Running

There’s no need to guess what copy your competitors are using to get clicks.

Go to the Ads Copies tab under Advertising Research.

You’ll see years of PPC history, including the keywords that triggered each ad, estimated CPC, and the exact ad copy.

Advertising Research – Screwfix – Ads Copies

From there, look at what benefits they lead with.

Free delivery? Next-day shipping? A 10% discount if you act by Thursday?

You’ll start to see patterns like how they position their offers, how they build trust, and where your own messaging might be falling short.

Sure, AI can create ad copy now.

But nothing beats learning from real ads that have been tested in the wild.

Especially ones that have been running for months.

Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Convinient for larger businesses that want to see how PPC performance connects to SEO, content, and broader marketing strategy Overkill for teams that only need a basic keyword tool or simple ad monitoring

Price

Semrush’s PPC Advertising Toolkit is included with a Semrush subscription.

  • Pro: $139.95/month. Best for freelancers and small teams.
  • Guru: $249.95/month. Ideal for agencies and mid-size businesses.
  • Business: $499.95/month. Built for large agencies and enterprise teams.

Note: Get a free Semrush account and start optimizing your PPC campaigns now.

2. SpyFu

Best for competitor research

SpyFu is one of the longest-running PPC tools.

SpyFu – Google Ads History

The platform’s foundation lies in this question:

“What are your competitors doing, and how well is it working for them?”

With up to 15 years of historical data, you get a full market view of paid search trends.

This allows you to evaluate what’s effective (and what’s not) in your competitors’ strategies so you can plan your own campaigns with a lot less guesswork.

Get Detailed Insights Into Your Competitors’ PPC Campaigns

SpyFu’s PPC Research tool gives you a full breakdown of any of your competitor’s paid search strategies.

All you need is their domain.

Let’s say Salesforce is a competitor. Enter its domain and you’ll instantly see:

  • The keywords they’re bidding on
  • Estimated monthly clicks and ad spend
  • Variations in their ad copy
  • The landing pages linked to each campaign

SpyFu – Monthly PPC Overview

This kind of competitive intel helps you see what’s working in your niche.

And what your competitors are betting on.

If you see that Salesforce has consistently targeted the keyword “customer service apps” for over a year, it’s not a test.

It’s likely delivering strong results.

SpyFu – Google Ads History – Keyword

With that context, you can build campaigns around keywords with proven performance.

Plus, refine your messaging based on how your competitors are framing the same offer.

Track Multiple Competitors at Once

Manually checking competitors one by one is tedious.

Plus, you’re bound to miss patterns.

SpyFu’s PPC Kombat tool makes it easier.

Enter a few competitors’ domains into the Kombat tool, and SpyFu gives you a side-by-side comparison.

Let’s say you’re managing PPC for Monday.com.

Enter salesforce.com, pipedrive.com, and zoho.com, and Kombat will show you:

  • A Venn diagram of shared vs. unique keywords
  • The “Core Keywords” all three are bidding on
  • “Potential Ad Waste,” which are keywords you’re paying for but no one else is

SpyFu – Salesforce – PPC research – Kombat

It’s one of the fastest ways to identify keyword gaps and wasted spend.

Plus, you’ll see where competitors are doubling down.

(And if you’re managing client accounts, it’s one of the fastest ways to deliver data-backed insights that make you look like the expert that you are.)

Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Affordable alternative to pricier PPC tools. Great for small agencies that need competitors’ insights without enterprise-level costs. It’s easy to rely too heavily on competitor data. And when you do, you stop spotting new trends and start sounding like everyone else.

Price

SpyFu offers two plans:

  • Basic: $39/month with limited searches and exports. Best for occasional use.
  • Professional: $79/month with unlimited access, full history, and API. Ideal for agencies and power users.
  • Free limited account available

3. Google Ads Editor

Best for bulk editing & offline ad campaign management

Google Ads Editor is a free desktop app.

Google Ads Editor – First message

You can use it to work on your campaigns offline and make bulk edits faster than the standard web interface allows.

If you’re managing large Google Ads accounts with lots of campaigns and hundreds of ads, this tool will keep you sane.

Work on Campaigns Offline

Once you install the editor, download your Google Ads account to your computer.

From there, you can build, edit, and review campaigns even without Wi-Fi.

You can:

  • Create or pause ads
  • Edit ad copy, targeting, bids, or URLs
  • Add new keywords or remove underperformers
  • Review performance data and account structure

Google Ads Editor – Campaign – Ad group

Then, when you’re ready, hit “Post.”

And the updates go live. Just like that.

It’s a great option if you’re on the go or stuck with bad Wi-Fi.

Or, if you just want to batch edits without Slack pinging you every 11 seconds.

Save Time with Bulk Edits

Making one change inside the Google Ads interface? No problem.

Making 100? Use the Google Ads editor.

Instead of tweaking each ad one at a time, you can apply changes across multiple campaigns, ad groups, or entire accounts.

All in one go.

One standout feature: Search and Replace.

It lets you update ad copy, URLs, headlines, or any other text-based field across your entire account.

Google Ads Editor – Advanced change

Need to swap “Spring Sale” with “Summer Sale” in 150 ads?

Do a quick search to find the ads, apply the change in bulk, and move on.

You can also import bulk changes using a spreadsheet.

Or, update bids, budgets, keywords, and schedules without the usual click-edit-repeat routine.

It’s a real time-saver for teams managing large accounts or agencies juggling multiple clients.

Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Saves hours on large-scale edits Has a bit of a learning curve, so it’s best for intermediate and advanced users

Price

Google Ads Editor is free to use.

4. Optmyzr

Best for enterprise-level PPC automation & tracking

Get Optmyzr when you’re ready to scale your campaigns without scaling your workload.

Optmyzr – Dashboard

This platform gives you the tools to automate PPC campaigns for Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Ads.

If you’re constantly chasing budget issues or fixing the same problems every week, Optmyzr helps you automate the checks, alerts, and tweaks that eat up your time.

So, you can finally stop doing all the repetitive stuff and make room for more important work.

Like watching that YouTube video you’ve had open in a tab since Tuesday.

Automate Campaign Management and Catch Problems Early

Optmyzr helps you eliminate tedious PPC tasks so you can stop doing things a robot would happily handle.

(And save your brainpower for decisions that actually need it.)

Use the Rule Engine to set up custom automation using if/then logic.

You can pause underperforming keywords, flag return on ad spend (ROAS) drops, or trigger emails when daily spend spikes.

Automate campaign management with Rule Engine

You can also automate trend monitoring, clean up low-CTR ads, and optimize ad groups for better conversions.

The Rule Engine is highly flexible. But it’s not plug-and-play.

You’ll need to be comfortable defining your own logic and setting up workflows.

The advantage?

That level of customization makes it especially powerful for high-stakes accounts where fast, automated reactions can protect performance and budget.

Find the Root Cause of Any PPC Performance Drop

When performance dips, your first question is usually: Why?

(After the panic and checking multiple dashboards a few too many times, that is.)

Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator helps you answer that fast with a visual cause-and-effect breakdown.

Pick a top-level metric like Conversions or ROAS. Then, use the “Why did [X] change?” dropdown to compare time periods (e.g., last 30 days vs. previous period).

The chart updates instantly to show how the other related metrics changed.

PPC Investigator

For example, if conversions dropped, PPC Investigator might show that clicks actually increased.

But, your budget was reduced during the same period.

Now, you’re not viewing the conversion dip in isolation. You’re seeing the bigger picture.

Instead of guessing, you can identify which metrics changed at the same time and start connecting the dots.

It won’t hand you the answer, but it gives you a starting point for figuring out what’s really going on.

And that makes digging into the “why” a whole lot easier.

Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Highly customizable, making it perfect for agencies and enterprise teams that want tailored workflows and automation Steeper learning curve for PPC teams unfamiliar with rule-based logic or scripting

Price

Optmyzr starts at $249/month for accounts spending up to $10K/month. Plans scale with ad spend.

14-day trial available.

5. Adalysis

Best for ready-to-go ad automation and tracking

If your PPC systems are already up and running, Adalysis helps keep them healthy.

Adalysis – Account Overview

It acts as a performance-monitoring layer for your Google and Microsoft Ads accounts with 100+ built-in audits.

You’ll get early alerts when performance is subpar. Plus, practical recommendations to fix issues.

Perfect for teams managing large accounts who want automation that’s ready to go. Not something they have to build first.

Get Alerts the Moment Your KPIs Go Sideways

Adalysis keeps a constant watch on your campaigns, scanning for issues before they turn into expensive surprises.

It flags issues the moment your metrics start drifting off course.

You can set alerts for:

  • CPA rising above target
  • Conversions dipping
  • Budgets maxing out too early
  • Campaigns suddenly losing impressions

Adalysis – Performance monitor

So, what does that actually mean?

It means you won’t be caught off guard by issues that could have been flagged days earlier. Like lost conversions.

You’ll know right away while there’s still time to fix it.

Adalysis – Audit alerts

Automate Budget Adjustments

Manually adjusting budgets across dozens of campaigns is a time suck.

Worse, one mistake can throw off your entire month.

Adalysis gives you two ways to manage your budget.

  • Manual pacing with alerts
  • Full automation based on performance goals

With manual pacing, you can set daily or monthly spend targets and monitor progress in a visual dashboard.

Color-coded indicators show whether you’re overspending, underspending, or on track.

Adalysis – Account target budget pacing

You can also set alerts — or auto-pause campaigns — when spending crosses custom thresholds.

Prefer a hands-off approach?

Switch to Full Automation, and Adalysis dynamically adjusts budgets based on your goals.

Whether that’s more conversions, a better CPA, or higher ROAS.

Adalysis – Automatic budget management

Just set your budget and goal, and the system takes care of the rest.

Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Significantly reduces time spent on PPC management, making it ideal for high-volume campaigns or managing multiple accounts It leans on its built-in structure, which may not offer as much flexibility as some advanced users want

Price

Adalysis starts at $149/month for up to $50K in monthly ad spend. Pricing increases in tiers based on ad spend.

Free trial available.

6. Google Looker Studio

Best for ad campaign visualization and reporting

If you’re managing multiple accounts across platforms, reporting can eat up your entire week.

Google Looker Studio helps you build reporting dashboards using data from Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, BigQuery, Google Sheets, and more.

Google Looker Studio – Templates

The result?

One central place where your team (and your clients) can track campaign performance.

See the Full PPC Picture

Google Looker Studio’s biggest strength is turning raw data into clear visual dashboards.

So, you can stop sending spreadsheets to numbers-averse clients. And start telling a story they can follow.

You can pull in data from Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Facebook Ads (via partner connectors).

Then, layer in insights from Google Analytics, your CRM, ecommerce platform, or email tools.

Google Looker Studio – Ecommerce PPC Dashboard

This gives you a single view of your paid campaigns.

Plus, how they connect to everything else happening in the funnel.

Create Shareable, Client-Ready Reports in Minutes

Whether you’re a freelancer, agency lead, or in-house PPC manager, someone always wants to “see the numbers.”

Google Looker Studio makes it easy to turn Google Ads data into interactive reports that highlight performance and campaign impact.

Google Looker Studio – Top Paid Keywords

Once you’ve set up your dashboard, you can:

  • Share it via a link or scheduled email
  • Embed it into webpages, client portals, or internal platforms
  • Set access permissions (view-only, comment, or edit)

Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Completely free to use with no limits on users, reports, or connected platforms Some PPC connectors (like Facebook Ads) require paid third-party tools

Price

Google Looker Studio is free to use.

7. ChatGPT

Best for ad copy and campaign analysis

ChatGPT is quickly becoming a must-have for PPC marketers.

ChatGPT – PPC Ad Writer

You can use it to brainstorm headlines, write ad copy, refresh underperforming creative, and even analyze landing pages.

The catch? It’s only as good as your prompt.

But once you know how to guide it, the possibilities open up fast.

Generate Creative Ad Copy Faster

Need new ad copy ideas?

ChatGPT can help you brainstorm faster than you can type “A/B test.”

You can ask it to:

  • Write multiple ad variations in seconds
  • Refresh underperforming copy with a new tone
  • Explore different angles or CTAs

But the real magic happens when you feed it your brand’s data.

If you’re on the Pro Plan, you can create a project and upload your brand voice and tone guide, product descriptions, audience insights, offers, and more.

ChatGPT – PPC Strategy for example.com

Once those are added to your Project files, ChatGPT starts responding like it actually knows your business.

Goodbye lifeless B2B buzzwords.

Break Down Competitor Messaging for Strategic Insights

ChatGPT can help you reverse-engineer competitor landing pages and ad copy so you can learn from them.

Here’s how:

First, find a competitor’s ad or landing page.

Next, use a tool like WebtoPDF to convert the page into a PDF. Upload that file to ChatGPT.

From there, it’s all about how you prompt it.

Skip the generic “analyze this” request.

Instead, ask for specifics:

  • What benefit is this page emphasizing most?
  • What emotional triggers are being used?
  • What objections are they trying to overcome and how?

ChatGPT – Marketer prompt

This turns ChatGPT into a strategic analyst.

It helps you understand what’s working for others and how you can do it better.

Pros and Cons

Pros Cons
Extremely versatile. Whether you’re writing ad copy or planning campaigns, ChatGPT adapts to what you need You’ll still need to double-check tone, facts, and fit. Especially for client-facing work

Price

ChatGPT has three tiers:

  • Free Plan: Includes GPT‑4o mini with limited features
  • Plus Plan: $20/month with access to its most advanced models
  • Pro Plan: $200/month for unlimited access to all models and much higher usage limits

Note: Never used ChatGPT before? I’ve put together an in-depth guide on “How to Use ChatGPT” with practical tips to help you get started right away. And if you’ve been using it for a while, you’ll still find a few advanced tricks you probably didn’t know it could do.

Find the Right PPC Tool for Your Goals

The fastest way to waste money on ad tech? Choosing a tool that doesn’t solve your specific problem.

Whether you’re trying to outsmart competitors, automate time-consuming tasks, or finally get reporting off your plate, the best PPC tool depends on what you’re trying to fix.

Choose the statement that sounds most like you to find the best tool for your needs.

Use the table below to quickly find the PPC tool that fits your needs.

Just look for the challenge you’re facing and see the tool that can help you solve it.

You can pick one or a few, depending on what you need most.

PPC Pain Point Recommended Tool(s)
I want to see what my competitors are doing Semrush: Find missed keywords + ad history
SpyFu: Spot keyword gaps + spend patterns
My ad copy is getting stale ChatGPT: Rewrite fast + extract insights
Bonus: Combine with Semrush/SpyFu for real campaign ideas
Managing campaigns eats up my time Optmyzr: Automate tasks + flag metric shifts
Adalysis: KPI alerts + budget pacing
I need to make changes quickly Google Ads Editor: Offline, bulk edits at speed
I need client-ready reports Looker Studio: Live dashboards, easy to share
I’m on a tight budget SpyFu Free: Basic keyword + competitor data
ChatGPT Free/$20: Low-cost copywriting help
Ads Editor + Looker: Free tools for edits + reports

The Best PPC Tools Are Just Step One. Here’s Step Two.

You’ve got the tools. You know what they’re best at.

Now, it’s time to make them work even harder.

Before you launch your next campaign or tweak your bids, make sure you’re not throwing money at overpriced keywords.

This PPC keyword cost guide shows you how to find high-intent keywords that convert.

It’s the next step if you want smarter results from the tools you’re already using.

The post The 7 Best PPC Tools for Your Goals, Budget, and Workflow appeared first on Backlinko.

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19 Sitemap Examples for Any Type of Website (+ Best Practices)

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Your sitemap is exactly what it sounds like: a map of your site’s pages.

A good sitemap organizes all your most important pages logically, and it can help Google crawl and understand your site.

Sitemap Example

Free template: Want to create your own visual sitemap like the example above? Download our free Canva template here.

Below, I’ll go through 19 example sitemaps and explain the key best practices to help you build your own.

Beyond XML, HTML, and visual sitemaps, I’ve categorized the examples below by site type. This way, you can find examples of sitemaps from websites like yours.

We’ll cover sitemaps for:

Note: If you haven’t created a sitemap yet, or you want to learn more about optimizing them, check out our dedicated sitemap guide first.

Which Type of Sitemap Do You Need? (XML vs. HTML)

Before jumping into examples, you need to know which type of sitemap is right for your website.

There are two main types: XML and HTML. Each one serves a different purpose.

Note: I’ll also provide an example of a visual sitemap below, but XML sitemaps (the kind you submit to Google Search Console) are the focus here.

XML Sitemap Examples

XML sitemaps are designed specifically for search engines, not humans.

They use a structured format that tells Google and other search engines about the pages on your site and when they were last updated. (This means they can affect your site’s SEO.)

You’ll usually find them at URLs like “yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml” or “yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml” (if you have multiple sitemaps).

XML sitemaps won’t directly improve your rankings. But they can help search engines find and then index your content.

Important: You don’t need an XML sitemap. But honestly, as long as you set it up properly, there’s no reason not to have one.

There are a few ways you can implement XML sitemaps. Below are three examples showing the most common styles you’ll come across.

HTTPStatus.io

Sitemap URL: https://httpstatus.io/sitemap.xml

The sitemap for HTTPStatus.io is fairly simple. The site offers a tool for checking the HTTP status of your URLs. But it also has some pages explaining integrations and what different status codes mean.

HTTP Status – XML Sitemap

Beyond the main tool and some knowledge base style articles, there aren’t that many pages on the site to map.

If you also have a simple site, don’t overcomplicate your sitemap.

Forbes

Sitemap URL: https://www.forbes.com/sitemap_index.xml

Forbes uses an XML sitemap index, found at forbes.com/sitemap_index.xml.

Forbes – XML Sitemap

This is an index of multiple sitemaps, like /forbes_2008_sitemap.xml and /news_sitemap.xml.

In this case, the 2005 sitemap contains URLs published in 2005:

Forbes – 2005 Sitemap

While the news sitemap contains news-themed URLs:

Forbes – News sitemap – News themed URLs

You’ll see that Forbes includes various different attributes in its sitemap. Most of these aren’t essential. Google also ignores many of them, like <changefreq> and <priority>.

But if you use the <lastmod> value and it’s “consistently and verifiably accurate,” Google may use it to understand how often to crawl your pages.

In other words: don’t use this to try and pretend you’ve significantly updated your content when you’ve just changed the date.

Backlinko

Sitemap URL: https://backlinko.com/sitemap_index.xml

We’ve used Yoast (a WordPress plugin) to create our sitemap index. That’s why it looks like a more styled page than the previous two examples.

Backlinko – XML Sitemap

If you have a WordPress site, plugins like Yoast and RankMath can create sitemaps for you.

In our case, we’ve split our sitemap up into different categories like posts, pages, tools, and hub resources.

Here’s what the /post-sitemap.xml looks like:

Backlinko – XML Sitemap – URLs

Best Practices for XML Sitemaps

Follow these best practices when creating your XML sitemap:

  • Each sitemap file should contain no more than 50,000 URLs and be smaller than 50MB (for larger sites, use multiple sitemaps and a sitemap index)
  • Don’t include duplicate content, redirected pages, or non-indexable pages in your sitemap — this can confuse search engines and waste crawl budget
  • Only adjust the “lastmod” attribute when you make significant updates to pages (and don’t use it to “fake” content freshness)
  • Configure your CMS or server to automatically update your sitemap when you make content changes

Note: Many content management systems like WordPress, Shopify, and Wix automatically update your sitemap when you add, move, or adjust pages.

HTML Sitemap Examples

HTML sitemaps, unlike XML sitemaps, are designed for your human visitors.

These are actual pages on your website that list all your content in a hierarchical structure. You’ll typically find them at URLs like “yourdomain.com/sitemap” (although it can vary depending on the site’s URL structure).

They help visitors find what they’re looking for when they can’t access what they need via your navigation menus.

However:

Your users should be able to find what they need via your navigation menus and internal links. An HTML sitemap is not a substitute for good UX design.

(But it can supplement it.)

You should consider creating an HTML sitemap if:

  • Your website has deep content hierarchies
  • You run an ecommerce store with many product categories
  • Users frequently search for specific pages on your site
  • Your website caters to less tech-savvy audiences who might need navigation help

You don’t need to choose between XML and HTML sitemaps. You can use both simultaneously.

Forbes

Sitemap URL: https://www.forbes.com/sitemap/

I showed you Forbes’ XML sitemap above, but the site also has an HTML sitemap for users.

Forbes – Sitemap

The HTML sitemap sorts Forbes’ main pages into categories like Newsletters, Leadership, and Lifestyle.

These don’t cover all of Forbes’ categories though, which you can see in their navigation menu:

Forbes – Navigation menu

So this is an example of a site likely just using their HTML sitemap to highlight specific important pages.

Lovevery

Sitemap URL: https://lovevery.com/pages/sitemap

Lovevery’s HTML sitemap sorts its products into categories like Play Kits and Course Packs. It also highlights two of their main products right at the top: The Play Gym and The Montessori Shelf.

Lovevery – HTML Sitemap

It also subdivides the Play Kits by age. This makes it easy for users to find products they need for their child.

Best Practices for HTML Sitemaps

Here are best practices to follow if you want to create an HTML sitemap:

  • Logically structure your HTML sitemap to mirror your site’s actual architecture
  • Use anchor text to describe the linked page and avoid generic labels like “click here” or “read more”
  • Use consistent indentation, typography, and spacing to show hierarchies
  • Place a link to your HTML sitemap in your site’s footer so it’s accessible from every page
  • Update your HTML sitemap when you add or remove content

Visual Sitemap Example

Visual sitemaps represent your site’s architecture graphically. They use shapes, colors, and lines to show how pages are connected.

They’re helpful during site planning and development, but you won’t submit these to Google, and your users won’t see them either.

Here’s an example of a visual sitemap for a website that sells coffee products:

Sitemap

Don’t forget: You can try our free Canva visual sitemap template to map out your own website’s pages.

Best Practices for Visual Sitemaps

Follow these tips to create a useful visual sitemap:

  • Limit your visual sitemap to core pages and pathways to avoid clutter
  • Establish a clear key for what each shape, color, and connector represents (like categories and products, or levels in the hierarchy)
  • Cluster similar pages together visually to show content relationships (and opportunities for internal links)
  • Show the intended user pathways through your site to identify potential navigation issues before they become problems
  • Share your visual sitemap with team members and clients early — it’s much easier to revise a diagram than to restructure a fully-built website

Next, I’ll go through examples of XML sitemaps for different types of websites. While HTML and visual sitemaps have their place, it’s your XML sitemap that matters most for SEO.

Blog Sitemap Examples

A well-structured blog sitemap ensures all your content remains discoverable. This includes older posts that may have fallen off your main navigation or recent posts list.

For sites that regularly publish new content, an automatically updating blog sitemap can help maintain your search engine visibility across your entire content archive.

Cup of Jo

Sitemap URL: https://cupofjo.com/sitemap_index.xml

Cup of Jo’s sitemap is generated by Yoast.

Cup of Jo – XML Sitemap

It organizes the blog’s pages into the following categories:

  • Posts (with 8 individual sitemaps covering posts going back 10+ years)
  • Pages
  • Products
  • Authors

But there are also some extra sitemaps in there that I wouldn’t recommend you include.

For example, there’s a sitemap for affiliate links…

Cup of Jo – XML Sitemap – URLs

…that just links to pages with a single image on them:

Cup of Jo – Affiliate links

(This one’s URL was /pillow/, but the image is a jacket.)

Your sitemap should contain only your important pages you want Google to index. So you should avoid including any links to pages that don’t add value for users.

NerdWallet

Sitemap URL: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/wp-sitemap.xml

NerdWallet has a main sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml. It contains further sitemaps of posts, reviews, other types of posts, authors, and more.

NerdWallet – XML Sitemap – URLs

But there are also other sitemaps for specific region versions of the site:

  • /uk/sitemap.xml
  • /ca/sitemap.xml
  • /ca/p/sitemap.xml
  • /au/sitemap.xml

While NerdWallet generates its main sitemap either via a custom setup or plugin, it generates its region-specific ones with Yoast:

NerdWallet – XML Sitemap – 998 URLs

All of these sitemaps follow a simple structure, listing the URL and date it was last modified. (The Yoast ones also include the number of images on the page — a small and not super important detail.)

Considering NerdWallet has tens of thousands of pages and multiple regional versions of the site, this is an impressively straightforward example of a blog sitemap.

Best Practices for Blog Sitemaps

If you have a blog, follow these best practices for your sitemap:

  • List your blog posts in reverse chronological order (newest first) to highlight your most recent content
  • Group posts by their primary categories to create logical content clusters that search engines can understand
  • If you substantially update a post, reflect this in your sitemap’s “lastmod” parameter (WordPress plugins like Yoast often do this for you)
  • Unless your category and tag pages contain unique content, keep them out of your sitemap to avoid duplicate content issues
  • Ensure the URLs in your sitemap exactly match the canonical URLs of your published posts

Related article: Top 8 Sitemap Generator Tools

Local Business Sitemap Examples

A well-structured sitemap for your local business website can help Google find and index all of your location pages and other important content. This is especially true for businesses with lots of locations or complex service offerings.

The Wild Rabbit

Sitemap URL: https://thewildrabbit.co.uk/sitemap_index.xml

The Wild Rabbit is an inn with one single location in the UK. It uses Rankmath, another popular WordPress SEO plugin, to generate its sitemaps.

The Wild Rabbit – XML Sitemap

Its sitemap index is fairly straightforward, with further sitemaps for:

  • Posts
  • Pages
  • Events
  • Menu
  • Categories

If you also have a single location with a simple website, a clean sitemap like this is a good example to follow.

Las Carettas Mexican Restaurant

Sitemap URL: https://www.lascarretasmexicanrest.com/pages-sitemap.xml

Las Carettas Mexican Restaurant’s sitemap is as simple as it gets.

Las Carretas Mexican Restaurant – XML Sitemap

The sitemap just contains all of the site’s URLs within one single sitemap file.

Pimlico Plumbers

Sitemap URL: https://www.pimlicoplumbers.com/sitemap_index.xml

Pimlico Plumbers is London’s largest independent plumbing company. But even with lots of service areas all around the city, Pimlico’s sitemap is simple and organized.

Pimlico Plumbers – XML Sitemap

The most notable sitemap here is the location-sitemap.xml file:

Pimlico Plumbers – XML Sitemap URLs

This is a useful way for Pimlico to organize all of its locations in an easy-to-find way. This potentially helps Google find and index its location pages.

Best Practices for Local Business Sitemaps

Sitemaps for local businesses don’t require too much in the way of dedicated best practices.

But you should:

  • Include your location pages if you have multiple
  • If you have lots of locations, you may want to categorize them in a separate sitemap file
  • Make sure to update any key page URLs and add a “lastmod” parameter when you do

Ecommerce Store Sitemap Examples

With potentially thousands of products, categories, and filters, ecommerce sites can end up with pretty complex sitemaps.

But with a bit of logical organization, you can ensure your sitemap helps (rather than hinders) your ecommerce site’s SEO.

Gymshark

Sitemap URL: https://www.gymshark.com/sitemap.xml

Gymshark’s sitemap is a useful example to follow for ecommerce sites.

Gymshark – XML Sitemap – Ecommerce example

Its sitemap index splits URLs across pages, collections, and products.

Here’s what the collection sitemap looks like:

Gymshark – XML Sitemap collections

And since Gymshark is a global brand, there are also sitemaps for hreflang and the Spanish-speaking US variants of the site’s pages:

Gymshark – Language variants – XML Sitemaps

Then, on Gymshark’s region-specific domains, there are separate sitemap files. Like this one for the French version of the site:

Gymshark – XML Sitemap for the French version

Ruggable

Sitemap URL: https://ruggable.com/sitemap.xml

Ruggable XML Sitemap

Ruggable offers thousands of products. But its sitemap index just consists of four simple individual sitemaps covering:

  • Products
  • Pages
  • Collections
  • Blog posts

Here’s what the extensive product sitemap looks like:

Ruggable – Extensive product sitemap

This single sitemap contains 1,000+ individual product URLs.

This creates a simple overall sitemap setup, while still being well below the limit of 50,000 URLs per sitemap.

Best Practices for Ecommerce Sitemaps

Follow these best practices for your ecommerce sitemap:

  • Every available product should have an entry in your sitemap
  • Remove or deprioritize permanently discontinued products to avoid wasting crawl budget
  • Exclude filter combinations that create duplicate content issues (like sorting options or non-essential URL parameters)
  • If you serve multiple countries or languages, include hreflang attributes to help Google understand which version to show users in specific regions
  • For stores with thousands of products, consider creating separate sitemaps for different categories and linking them with a sitemap index

Large Website Sitemap Examples

Large websites with thousands or millions of pages face unique challenges when it comes to sitemaps. Sitemaps have a URL limit of 50,000 per individual sitemap. So it’s often impossible to keep every page within just a single file.

This means sitemap indexes and automated updating are essential for larger websites.

Weather.com

Sitemap URL: https://weather.com/en-US/sitemaps/sitemap.xml

Weather.com is a HUGE site. Like 50+ million pages huge.

Google SERP – site:weather.com – Results

(This is just Google’s estimate and it’s not always that accurate. But there’s no doubt there are A LOT of pages on Weather.com.)

The site will tell you the weather pretty much anywhere on earth with its own dedicated page. So it needs a robust sitemap setup that goes beyond simple categories.

Weather XML Sitemap

In fact, it needs several sitemaps:

  • /en-US/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /pt-PT/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /de-DE/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /fr-FR/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /es-US/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /es-ES/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /en-IN/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /en-GB/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
  • /en-CA/sitemaps/sitemap.xml

Within each of these, there are yet more sitemaps:

Weather – More sitemaps

These categorize URLs by things like:

  • Videos
  • News
  • Articles
  • Forecast types (ten-day, weekend, today etc.)

And within these, there are individual URLs:

Weather – Individual URL within sitemaps

This leads to an extensive but essentially well-organized sitemap that covers millions of potential locations.

Note: For obvious reasons, I can’t verify if Weather.com’s sitemap contains every one of its indexable URLs. For sites at this scale, what’s key is just ensuring your sitemap contains all of your most important pages.

eBay

Sitemap URL: https://www.ebay.com/lst/BROWSE-0-index.xml

The eBay marketplace is home to 2+ billion live listings.

So it’s no surprise that the site needs a massive sitemap. So massive in fact that eBay needs to compress its many sitemaps. You can tell because its sitemap URLs end in .xml.gz, with .gz referring to “gzip” (a compressed file format).

eBay – Massive XML Sitemap

You need to download these and then decompress them to view them. But when you do, you’ll find they often have 40K+ URLs in them.

I downloaded a few just out of curiosity, and I found 48K URLs in one of the “browse” sitemaps:

Sitemap with 40K+ URLs

Another had 40K URLs, so the average is likely somewhere between those numbers. On the .com domain, I found at least 1,600 individual sitemaps in total across:

  • /PRP-0-index.xml (this contains links to individual listings)
  • /VIS-0-index.xml (this contains individual listing links along with image links)
  • /NGS-0-index.xml (this contains all the store pages)
  • /BROWSE-0-index.xml (these links are for search pages — hence “browse”)

eBay – Types of sitemaps

If they all have at least 40K URLs in them (I’m not manually verifying that), we can assume there are at least 64 million URLs in eBay’s sitemap in total. But I imagine it’s more like 70-80 million.

And that’s just the .com domain. There are similar sets of sitemaps for its regional domains:

eBay – Sets of sitemaps for regional domains

So this is an example of a truly massive sitemap. And you can see eBay sorts it into just four broad sitemap indexes, each one with hundreds of individual, compressed sitemaps.

Best Practices for Large Site Sitemaps

Follow these best practices for large sitemaps:

  • Use a sitemap index file to organize multiple child sitemaps, keeping each under the 50,000 URL and 50MB size limits
  • Configure your system to automatically generate and update sitemaps when content changes, as manual management becomes impossible at scale
  • Only include canonical versions of pages
  • Consider compressing your sitemaps to save bandwidth if you have lots of large sitemap files

SaaS Sitemap Examples

A well-structured SaaS sitemap encourages Google to index your most important pages.

SaaS websites are often complex, and so sitemap indexes are usually the go-to for this kind of website.

ClickUp

Sitemap URL: https://clickup.com/sitemap.xml

ClickUp’s sitemap is clean and simple — even though the SaaS site has tens of thousands of pages and 10+ regional versions.

ClickUp XML Sitemap – Clean & simple

ClickUp’s main sitemap index splits into:

  • /sitemap-landing.xml: Landing pages
  • /blog/sitemap.xml: Blog posts
  • /sitemap-next.xml: Various types of pages, including feature pages, events, and resources
  • /sitemap-programmatic.xml: Pages ClickUp has generated programmatically

Then there are a bunch of sitemaps for templates, more programmatic pages, and region-specific blog posts.

Like this one for Spanish speakers in Spain:

ClickUp Sitemap – Blog for Spanish speakers in Spain

It’s worth noting that many of these sitemaps exist on a cdn.web.clickup.com subdomain. (The individual URLs within the sitemap aren’t on this subdomain.)

This might provide a small performance boost in terms of how fast Google can crawl the sitemaps, along with a bit of server load reduction. But I don’t imagine it would be a game changer for most sites.

It’s also not something you absolutely need to do for large sitemaps. But it could still be worth considering.

Further reading: Page Speed and SEO

Docusign

Sitemap URL: https://www.docusign.com/sitemap.xml

Docusign’s sitemap index contains individual sitemaps for things like blog posts and PDFs.

Docusign – XML Sitemap

But what makes it an interesting sitemap example is the way it implements hreflang for its language and regional variants.

For example, here’s the /en-gb/ sitemap for English speakers in the UK:

Docusign – EN for GB Blog Sitemap

But this actually highlights one of the reasons many site owners stick with just one form of hreflang implementation (often putting it in each individual page’s code). When you have lots of URLs and different language versions of them, it can be tough to keep them updated.

(Even Google warns that this can become an issue.)

Including hreflang attributes in multiple locations (like the page’s source code and in your sitemap) means you have two sets of alternate URLs to manage.

Let’s look at the first example in the screenshot above (/docusign-iris-agreement-ai). We see the sitemap tells search engines there are five variants of the URL:

  • en-au
  • en-ca
  • en-gb
  • en-sg
  • en-us

But the page’s source code (see below) suggests there is also a variant for Spanish speakers in Mexico (es-mx):

Docusign – Page source code

And in fact it doesn’t explicitly include en-us. Instead it opts for just en for the English/US version (/blog/docusign-iris-agreement-ai).

Perhaps the sitemap or page code just hadn’t updated yet (other pages don’t all show the same issue).

But if you have widespread cases like this, it could lead to Google having trouble knowing which versions of your site to serve to users. Or it might ignore your hreflang tags altogether.

Best Practices for SaaS Sitemaps

If you run a SaaS site, do the following to optimize your sitemap:

  • Prioritize feature and landing pages that target your primary conversion keywords
  • Include your knowledge base and technical documentation
  • Organize pages based on where they fit in the customer journey, from awareness to consideration to decision
  • Exclude pages like dashboards that are behind a login
  • Remove tracking parameters and unnecessary URL variations to prevent duplicate content issues
  • Consider implementing hreflang if you target a global audience — but make sure you don’t create any conflicts

Corporate Sitemap Examples

A well-designed corporate sitemap makes it easier for Google to index high-value pages. These could include pages about investor relations and press releases, along with leadership profiles.

TSMC

Sitemap URL: https://www.tsmc.com/english/sitemap.xml

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is Taiwan’s largest company. It’s also one of the world’s most important manufacturers of computer chip components.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – XML Sitemap

So it’s no surprise that it has sitemaps covering important pages like:

  • Annual reports
  • Business contacts
  • Policies
  • Declarations

TSMC uses Drupal to create its sitemap. This automatically adds change frequency and priority values, but Google ignores these.

Deloitte

Sitemap URL: https://www.deloitte.com/sitemap_index.xml

Deloitte is another major firm with a huge global presence. Its sitemap index primarily contains sitemaps for all of its regional variants.

Deloitte – XML Sitemaps – For regional variants

Like this German variant:

Deloitte – XML Sitemaps – German variant

These sitemaps contain everything from staff profiles to services and events.

Best Practices for Corporate Sitemaps

If you’re creating a sitemap for a corporate or business website, follow these best practices:

  • Include important quarterly reports, annual statements, and shareholder information pages to make them more discoverable for search engines like Google
  • Prioritize press releases, media kits, and company news to support your PR efforts and media visibility
  • If you have a large global presence, consider using different sitemaps for each regional variation
  • Don’t include any internal portals or pages that are behind a login

How to Find Issues with Your Sitemap

Putting together a sitemap is fairly straightforward. But it’s still easy to make mistakes (as some of the examples above show).

To make sure your sitemap is valid, use a sitemap validator, like this one:

XML Sitemaps – Validate XML Sitemap

But just because your sitemap is valid doesn’t mean it’s error-free.

To check for the most common sitemap issues, use a tool like Semrush’s Site Audit.

Just enter your domain, run the audit, and head to the “Issues” tab. Then type “sitemap” into the search bar:

Site Audit – Backlinko – Issues – Sitemap

The tool will highlight issues like:

  • Sitemap formatting errors
  • Incorrect pages in your sitemap (like pages with redirects, non-canonical URLs, or URLs with errors)
  • Sitemap files that are too big
  • Missing sitemaps
  • Sitemaps missing in your robots.txt file
  • Unsecure URLs in your sitemap
  • Orphaned pages in your sitemap

Note: Use Semrush Site Audit to find issues with your sitemap by using this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.

The post 19 Sitemap Examples for Any Type of Website (+ Best Practices) appeared first on Backlinko.

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How to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools

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As AI-driven search engines rewrite the rules of content visibility, one thing is clear: optimization isn’t dead — it’s evolving. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity AI don’t just retrieve web pages; they synthesize answers. And your content? It only gets included if it’s clear, relevant, and easy to extract. The good news? If you’re already using the Yoast SEO plugin, you have some of the most critical tools for this new era baked right into your workflow.

Table of contents

Learn how to structure content for AI

In this post, I’ll walk through how LLMs evaluate and extract content — and how Yoast SEO’s content analysis features, particularly the Flesch Reading Ease score and green light checks, can help you structure your writing for AI retrieval, not just human readers.

And more importantly, I want to clarify a common misconception: Yoast SEO isn’t about “chasing green lights.” It’s about helping you become a better, clearer communicator. Green lights aren’t the end goal—they’re indicators that you’re aligning your content with the kinds of clarity and structure that serve both readers and AI systems. In a world where LLMs decide what gets surfaced and summarized, being a better writer is your best competitive advantage.

Even if AI search doesn’t dominate your vertical today, it will. The best time to prepare was years ago. The second-best time is right now. Consider this your SEO shade tree: start planting.

What AI search wants from your content

Forget rankings — AI search is about retrievability and clarity. LLMs ingest and parse content based on:

  • Literal surface-level term matching (yes, keywords still matter)
  • Structural formatting cues like headings, lists, and bullet points
  • Clarity of ideas — one idea per paragraph, one purpose per section
  • Prompt alignment — using the same terminology your audience would use

Even the smartest LLM will skip your content if it’s overly complex, meandering, or fails to mention the query terms directly. That means no more hiding your key points in paragraph five. No more cute, clever intros that never get to the point. The models are pulling excerpts, not reading for nuance.

This is where Yoast SEO shines. Its features, often seen as basic hygiene, are perfectly aligned with what makes content usable by AI.

The Flesch Reading Ease score is more important than ever

In a world of AI Overviews and synthesized summaries, readability is a superpower.

The Flesch Reading Ease score — included in the Yoast SEO content analysis — doesn’t just help human readers skim your content. It helps machines parse and interpret it.

LLMs prefer:

  • Shorter sentences
  • Simple phrasing
  • One idea per paragraph

These are the exact factors the Flesch score evaluates. So when Yoast flags your content as difficult to read, it’s not nitpicking — it’s showing you what might keep your article out of an AI Overview.

Pro tip: When possible, aim for a Flesch score above 60, especially for top-of-funnel or FAQ-style content you want to be quoted or summarized.

And let’s be clear: this doesn’t mean your content has to be simplistic or dumbed down. It just needs to be accessible. Plainspoken, not generic. Direct, not dull. Think of it as writing for a global audience — or a machine that doesn’t have time for interpretive poetry.

an example of the flesch reading ease score in Yoast SEO for this specific post. it shows a score of 68.4
You can find the Flesch reading score in Yoast SEO Insights in your sidebar — this is the score for the post you are reading now

Don’t ignore those green lights (Even when you think you know better)

I’ll be honest: I’ve been one of the worst offenders when it comes to ignoring those green lights. I like long sentences. I enjoy prose that meanders a little if it means delivering a point with style. And I’ve spent enough of my career writing professionally that being told how to write by a plugin occasionally rubbed me the wrong way.

But here’s the thing I’ve come to accept: it’s not that the plugin is trying to replace your voice or artistry. It’s that it’s trying to ensure your work can be understood, parsed, and surfaced—especially by machines.

It is absolutely still possible to create highly visible content that doesn’t earn a green light for sentence structure or reading ease. I’ve done it. But those pieces need to be intentional. They need to be structured so that the core ideas—the “meat” of the argument—aren’t buried in the longest paragraph of the article or expressed only in dense, lyrical blocks of text.

If you want to break the rules, fine. But make sure you know where the lines are before you step over them. The art is still welcome—it just has to be thoughtfully placed.

Yoast’s content checks aren’t arbitrary — they’re aligned with how both humans and machines understand text. In fact, many of the green-light criteria align shockingly well with what LLMs are known to favor:

  • Subheadings every 300 words = easier segmentation and extraction
  • Introductory paragraph present = good for AI frontloading
  • Paragraph length = one idea per chunk, which is LLM-friendly
  • Sentence length limits = fewer chances for parsing failure

In other words: the green light checklist is not just “SEO best practice.” It’s an LLM comprehension checklist in disguise.

And while experienced writers might feel tempted to override these warnings with “but this sounds better to me,” it’s worth considering how much clearer your writing becomes when you follow them. Especially when writing for an audience that might include an algorithm.

an example of the Yoast SEO sidebar showing three overall green traffic lights for a post
Not every traffic light for individual checks has to be green — just make sure the overall lights are

Structuring for LLMs: A Yoast-assisted framework

If you want your content to get pulled into AI-generated answers, try this simple structure — and let Yoast SEO help enforce it:

  1. Start with a TL;DR or definition: Use short, declarative sentences. Bonus if you can bold the key phrase or structure it as a definition. LLMs love to latch onto clear, answer-style content.
  2. Use subheadings to divide your points: Make sure each section answers one specific question or explains one concept. Headings serve as cues for both readers and models.
  3. Use bulleted or numbered lists: Yoast SEO will warn you if a list is too long without proper formatting. LLMs love well-structured lists because they can be directly extracted.
  4. Echo the query language: Use the exact phrases people search for. This helps the AI match your content to user prompts. Literal matching still matters.
  5. End with a clear summary or CTA: AI often pulls from intros or conclusions. Don’t waste them. Reinforce your main point and point readers toward next steps.

Even if you’re writing complex thought leadership content, this structure ensures your brilliance is actually understood and surfaced.

You don’t need Schema if your structure is clear — but it helps

Structured data is still valuable, especially for establishing context and disambiguating entities. But Yoast SEO users should remember: if your page is poorly written or confusing, schema won’t save it.

LLMs cite content that is:

  • Logically segmented
  • Written in plain, direct language
  • Free of interruptions, overlays, or unrelated diversions

Yoast SEO helps you get there — not just with schema tools, but with live readability feedback during writing.

It’s also worth noting that while structured data might support AI understanding, it’s the structure of the writing that matters most for inclusion in AI responses. LLMs pull paragraphs and list items, not rich snippets. If you want to be quoted, you have to be quotable.

TL;DR: Use Yoast SEO to make your content AI-ready

In the age of AI search, optimization means:

  • Writing like a human, formatting like a machine
  • Saying things plainly
  • Echoing how people phrase questions
  • Structuring content so it can be lifted and used

Yoast SEO’s content analysis isn’t just a checklist — it’s an AI visibility strategy. That little green light might be your ticket to being the source LLMs choose to summarize.

Don’t fall into the trap of writing for the plugin. Use the plugin to write better for people and machines. That shift in mindset makes all the difference.

And as LLMs continue to power more and more of the search experience, from Google AI Overviews to tools like ChatGPT Browse, that visibility is worth more than position #1 ever was. Start now. You’ll be glad you did.

The post How to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools appeared first on Yoast.

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6 Proven Steps to Master Ecommerce Keyword Research

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Strategic ecommerce keyword research can help you reach the right audience and directly impact your bottom line.

Just look at Cosmetify’s success.

This beauty retailer was struggling with an all-too-common challenge: no traffic on its revenue-generating pages.

The team identified and mapped transactional keywords to these money pages.

Dorothy Edgar, SEO Manager at Cosmetify, shares more about her strategy:

“We also created new money pages to fit customer needs and gaps in our current website hierarchy. For example, we segmented the fragrance category page into ‘women’s perfume discounts.’ Then, we added optimized content to all these pages.”

The result?

A 12.6-position average keyword boost and a 250% jump in organic revenue in 2024.

Cosmetify – Monthly SEO Report – UK

That’s just one example of the impact you can create with strategic keyword research.

Want these results for your business?

Use this 6-step framework to find revenue-driving keywords — without wasting time or budget.

Get started with our free Keyword Research Planner Template for ecommerce brands.

Why Ecommerce Brands Need Keyword Research

Keyword research reveals how your customers search, think, and make buying decisions online.

These rich audience insights can benefit your ecommerce business in many ways.

Why Ecommerce Brands Need Keyword Research

Understand the Buyer Journey

Keyword research helps you meet buyers where they are.

You get an insider’s view of your buyers’ psyche and willingness to purchase.

For instance, when people search for “benefits of running,” they want to learn more about this topic.

When they search for “best running shoes for flat feet,” they’re comparing different products.

In short: Choose keywords to target potential customers across the buyer journey and drive conversions.

Discover Micro-Seasonal Trends

The peak shopping season around holidays and festivals is ultra-competitive.

But ecommerce keyword research reveals micro-seasonal trends that your competitors might overlook. These less-competitive opportunities can drive more revenue with less effort.

Keep in mind that micro-seasonal trends differ across geographies and occasions.

For example, “back to school” is a trending topic in the United States from July to August.

If you run an online stationery store, target relevant keywords to tap into this demand.

Google Trends – Back to school – Interest

Validate Product Opportunities

You can also use this research to gauge your buyers’ interest in a new product idea.

A surging search volume for certain terms signals emerging consumer preferences.

For example, more people searching for “plastic-free activewear” could show growing interest in this product.

Analyze your keywords to find an untapped market for a new product category or niche.

Types of Keywords You Should Focus On for Ecommerce

Before I break down our 6-step framework for ecommerce keyword research, let’s cover the basics.
Ecommerce brands can target several types of keywords.
But, three stand out for driving customers through the buying funnel: informational, commercial, and transactional keywords.

Informational

Informational terms drive top-of-funnel traffic to your website.

These keywords make your brand more discoverable, especially when shoppers are looking to solve specific problems.

Target these search terms to provide helpful context about your products and put your brand on potential customers’ radar.

Informational keyword examples:

  • How to choose running shoes
  • Best skincare routine for oily skin
  • Budget-friendly styling tips for small living room

Pro tip: Don’t just go after “best” and “how to” keywords. Use tools like AnswerThePublic or Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to find hidden gems in your niche.

Commercial

Commercial keywords bridge the gap between research and purchase.

Shoppers use these keywords to compare different products’ features that match their needs.

Commercial keyword examples:

  • Best laptops for gamers
  • Top-rated eco-friendly winter jackets
  • Rothy’s vs. Allbirds everyday shoes

Transactional

Transactional keywords lead searchers to purchase and drive revenue.

These terms show a clear buying intent because shoppers use terms like “buy” and “book” or other strong purchase signals like pricing.

Transactional keyword examples:

  • Running shoes under $100
  • Buy a memory foam mattress
  • Buy noise-canceling headphones

Here’s how these three keyword types map to the ecommerce funnel:

Keywords in the Ecommerce Funnel

While these three keyword types map directly to the ecommerce funnel, they’re not the only ones worth targeting.

Navigational

Navigational keywords help searchers find a specific ecommerce brand, product, or page.

These queries also include category-specific navigation patterns people use to find specific products.

For example, “Under Armour men’s joggers” shows clear intent to find a specific brand and product.

Navigational keyword examples:

  • Peloton treadmill
  • Zara winter collection sale
  • Lululemon Align leggings size chart

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer phrases searchers use for a highly specific need or niche topics.

Take the keyword “best running shoes for women with flat feet” as an example.

It’s longer than usual and searches for a hyperspecific product.

That level of detail can still bring in meaningful traffic — especially if it aligns with strong purchase intent.

Keyword Overview – Best running shoes for women with flat feet – Overview

Long-tail keyword examples:

  • Top-rated camping tents for families with kids
  • Affordable stainless steel cookware sets for small kitchens
  • Best organic baby food brands for sensitive stomachs

How to Conduct Effective Ecommerce Keyword Research

Buy a keyword tool → Find high-volume search queries → Add to landing pages.

That’s the outdated approach to finding keywords for ecommerce brands.

It’s a recipe for draining your time and money.

Let me break down a 6-step ecommerce keyword research process to drive sales and rewrite your growth trajectory.

Step 1: Identify Your Core Terms and Customer Language

Before you sign up for a keyword research tool, build some groundwork for your strategy.

Your first step? Listen to your customers.

The way people search for your products can be very different from how you describe them.

This misalignment could mean missed opportunities.

But when you speak your customers’ language, your content hits home.

Let’s look at the difference:

A skincare brand markets one of its products as a “10% niacinamide serum with zinc PCA.”

On the flip side, its target buyers search for “best serum for large pores” or “how to reduce facial oiliness.”

Same product. Completely different language.

Here are some more before (brands’ language) and after (customers’ language) examples:

Align Keyword Research with Customer Language

Here’s how to fix this language gap:

  • Check product reviews: Notice how customers share their experience with your products. Find patterns in their language.
  • Read support tickets: Note down questions or concerns customers frequently ask. Check your support center and email to find these questions.
  • Monitor social media: Track comments on your social posts, especially questions. Learn how customers talk about your products.
  • Analyze on-site search: See the terms a prospective buyer searches for on your ecommerce site. These direct queries show exactly what they’re looking for.

Let’s understand this with an example from Made In, a cookware brand.

Made In describes its Carbon Steel Wok with this product description. It talks about the wok’s weight, bottom, seasoning time, and more.

Carbon steel wok – Description

But customer reviews echo praise for one unique feature: the wok’s heat distribution.

Now, re-read the description.

You’ll realize it misses the one value proposition that most customers are raving about.

Carbon steel wok – Customer Review

Step 2: Generate a Broad List of Seed Keywords

Once you’ve ticked off Step #1, it’s time to expand your keyword universe.

Most ecommerce sites limit themselves to product-related keywords — like a coffee maker brand targeting “single-serve coffee maker” or “burr grinder with timer.”

The result? Missing out on valuable traffic opportunities.

Customers search for your products in dozens of different ways based on:

  • Their awareness level
  • Their unique pain points
  • Their budget preferences
  • The features they care about

Go beyond your product-specific terms and find seed keywords that match your customers’ search habits.

One way to do this is by listing your products, alternative names, categories, and use cases.

For a product like “coffee maker,” you can start with seed terms like:

  • Coffee maker
  • Coffee brewer
  • French press

Here’s a more detailed matrix for this brand:

Core product Alternative names Product categories Use cases
Coffee maker Coffee machine Drip coffee maker Brewing coffee
Espresso machine Coffee brewer Single-serve coffee maker Morning routine
French press Coffee pot Pour over coffee Office coffee
Cold brew Percolator Coffee grinder Entertaining guests
Moka pot Coffee system Coffee accessories Specialty drinks

When this exercise is complete, add all the keywords to your planner.

As we go through the next steps, gather more details about each keyword and add insights in different columns.

Ecommerce Keyword Research Template by Backlinko

Step 3: Categorize Keywords by Buyer Journey

Not all keywords are created equal.

A person searching for “how to set up a camping tent” is in a completely different mindset than those searching for “buy a lightweight camping stove.”

The first searcher needs educational content. Show them a product page, and they’ll bounce.

The second one is ready to buy. Send them a how-to guide, and you’ll lose the sale.

Take a quick look at the search results and you’ll see this in action:

  • For the “how to” query, Google serves up helpful blogs and videos.
  • For those looking to buy, the search results are filled with different product options.

Google SERP – Collage – Long-tail keywords

Knowing these differences allows you to target people across the entire buyer journey.

Follow this process to map keywords to varying search intents.

Mapping Keywords to Search Intent

Awareness Stage

Keyword type: Informational

In the awareness stage, your buyers are simply discovering their needs.

They want to better understand their problems and find solutions. They’re not ready to buy yet.

Take Andy, for example.

He struggles with a small, messy closet.

So, he searches for “how to organize a small closet” and “closet organization ideas.”

Andy can discover your furniture brand if you have educational content on this topic.

Ecommerce Buyer Journey Stages 1

Consideration Stage

Keyword type: Commercial

In the consideration stage, people want to do their research before buying something.

They evaluate many products and weigh their options for making an informed decision.

At this point, Andy searches for “IKEA vs Target closet” and “best closets for small apartments.”

Ecommerce Buyer Journey Stages 2

Decision Stage

Keyword type: Navigational and transactional

In the decision stage, your prospects are ready to buy.

They’ll search for high-intent keywords that shorten the path to purchase.

So, Andy will search for “buy PAX closet” to access the IKEA product page directly.

Ecommerce Buyer Journey Stages 3

Map Your Keywords to Website Pages

Once you’ve identified a broad set of terms, map them to relevant pages on your site.

Use our planner template to define the content format for each keyword.

Ecommerce Keyword Research Template by Backlinko – Content Format

Keyword mapping gives each page a clear purpose and aligns keywords to these pages.

Nicola Hughes, Head of SEO at TAL Agency, shares how this benefits ecommerce brands.

Her team worked with a premium food and beverage brand to revamp its organic SEO performance and drive more sales.

“We listed all the collection and product pages on the site to define a purpose for every page. From there, we conducted in-depth keyword research to learn what our audience was searching for.

We mapped 1-3 high-intent keywords per page to align content with search queries across every stage of the funnel.”

This tactic, along with a few more, improved the brand’s click-through rate from 17.1% to 22.1%. It also led to 620% quarter-over-quarter growth.

Step 4: Research Your Competitors’ Keywords

Competitor keyword research tells you what’s working in the market — without blowing your budget on trial and error.

Look at direct and indirect competitors to find high-potential keyword opportunities.

An ecommerce keyword research tool like Semrush makes it easy to perform a keyword gap analysis.

Go to the Keyword Gap tool and add your competitors to discover the terms they’re ranking for.

I added three skincare brands and hit “Compare.”

Keyword Gap – Kobaskincare – Compare

In the analysis, I could see how many search terms each brand targets.

This Venn diagram shows that Koba has the smallest share of keywords out of the three.

The tool also curates a set of missing and weak terms that Koba should target.

Keyword Gap – Kobaskincare – Keyword Overlap

Keyword Gap analysis presents a list of 14.1K untapped keywords for Koba. Other competitors are already targeting and
ranking for these search terms.

I can select relevant phrases from this data and add them to a new list of competitor-specific terms.

Keyword Gap – Kobaskincare – Keyword – Untapped

But only finding competitor keywords isn’t enough.

You have to analyze how competing brands target these terms.

Hover over any term in a competitor’s column. You’ll see the page where they use this specific phrase.

Keyword Gap – Kobaskincare – Keyword – Missing

Further reading: Free Competitor Analysis Tool (Analyze SEO & PPC)

Step 5: Prioritize Keywords Based on Data

Now, you’re looking at this long list of target keywords and wondering, “Where do I even start?”

If your first instinct is to go for high-volume queries, pause and hit reset.

A keyword with 10,000 monthly searches might look tempting. But it’s probably difficult to rank for.

For example, we have two queries:

  • “Wireless headphones” with 50,000 monthly searches
  • “Best noise canceling headphones for airplanes” with 1,200 monthly searches

The second keyword is much more attainable since it targets a specific need.

That’s why our planner has space to note the search volume and ranking difficulty for each phrase and choose the right terms.

Ecommerce Keyword Research Template by Backlinko – Volume & Ranking Difficulty

You can use Semrush to prioritize the right keywords.

Go to the Keyword Overview tool and add your seed keyword. I added “exercise bike for home gym” and hit “Search.”

Keyword Overview – Exercise bike for home gym – Overview

Keyword Overview’s comprehensive analysis tells me that this keyword:

  • Has a low search volume in the United States and globally
  • Is fairly competitive with a commercial search intent
  • Has a low cost-per-click (CPC) value, which indicates the average price advertisers pay for this keyword

So, searchers use this keyword to explore different brands and products.

Pro tip: Look for keywords with a high CPC, which signals a strong commercial intent. If advertisers are willing to pay top dollar for a keyword, it probably converts well.

Keyword Overview also gives me a handy list of pages ranking in the search results.

I can analyze metrics like backlinks, traffic, and more to see what I’m competing against.

Keyword Overview – Exercise bike for home gym – SERP Analysis

Once you’ve captured this data, go to Keyword Magic Tool to expand your list of target keywords.

Filter related terms by volume, difficulty, intent, and other metrics to shortlist the most relevant terms.

Keyword Magic Tool – Exercise bike for home gym – Filtered keywords

When you have a set of shortlisted keywords, do an effort-impact analysis.

For each keyword, assess the effort required to create content and rank well. Then, determine its overall impact on your marketing strategy.

This analysis will clarify the order of priority:

  • Low Effort, High Impact: Your quick wins
  • High Effort, High Impact: Long-term investments
  • Low Effort, Low Impact: Fill-in opportunities
  • High Effort, Low Impact: Avoid these

Let’s see this in action with the example of a fitness equipment retailer.

High Effort Low Effort
High Impact best home gym equipment

  • High search volume
  • High competition
  • Valuable for brand authority
 workout bench reviews

  • Good search intent
  • Relatively easy to create comparison content
commercial gym equipment

  • Valuable B2B opportunity
  • Requires extensive content
 home gym setup ideas

  • Popular topic
  • Easily create inspiring content
Low Impact vintage exercise equipment

  • Niche audience
  • Requires specific expertise
 gym equipment maintenance tips

  • Useful for supporting content
  • Good to build credibility
olympic weightlifting equipment

  • Very specific audience
  • Highly technical content needed
 how to clean resistance bands

  • Simple instructional content
  • Supports post-purchase experience, not revenue growth

As a result, the retailer should prioritize phrases like “workout bench reviews” and “home gym setup ideas” to get quick wins.

The brand should also invest effort into terms like “best home gym equipment” and “commercial gym equipment.”

Step 6: Build a Keyword-Focused Content Strategy

In the final step, you’re all set to build a content strategy around your keywords.

Each keyword serves a specific purpose — to educate, convince, or convert buyers.

When building your content strategy, match keywords to a specific phase of the buying process.

Then, align each keyword cluster with the right content format, like:

  • Blog posts for information searches
  • Product pages for transactional intent
  • Videos or landing pages for commercial terms

Use the “Content Format” column in the planner.

This lets you organize keywords well for each term in your strategy.

Ecommerce Keyword Research Template – Content Format

Finally, consolidate your strategy for various keyword opportunities in a content calendar. Focus on quick wins, seasonal trends, and more.

Let’s see how this would work for a dog food and clothing brand.

Buyer Journey Stage Keyword Goal Content Format
Awareness “best dog food for puppies” Educate buyers on options Blog post, guide
“how to measure a dog for a coat” Educate buyers on sizing Blog post with visuals or infographic
Consideration “wet dog food pros and cons” Help buyers compare options Blog post, comparison video
“best dog raincoats” Help buyers decide Video or blog comparing products
Decision/Conversion “buy organic dog food online” Drive conversions Product landing page
“dog jacket sale” Drive conversions Promotional landing page or email

2 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Ecommerce Keyword Research

Even with good keyword research, you can still make costly mistakes.

Your SEO growth can fall flat if you’re stuffing keywords, targeting very broad terms, ignoring search intent, or overlooking long-tail queries.

Watch out for these bigger missteps that can hurt your SEO and sales performance.

Poor Keyword Mapping

Many ecommerce sites target similar keywords across multiple pages, leading to keyword cannibalization.

This internal competition prevents search engines from ranking any page.

Plus, it confuses shoppers by showing them irrelevant pages from your site.

Prevent this by mapping these terms to varying search intent and your product hierarchy.

For instance, a camping equipment retailer can follow this map:

  • “Camping tents” is mapped to a category page with a commercial intent
  • “Foldable 8-person cabin tent” is mapped to a product page with a transactional intent
  • “How to choose the right camping tent” is mapped to a blog page with an informational intent

Here’s what correct and incorrect keyword mapping looks like:

Keyword Mapping for Ecommerce

Each page on your website serves a different purpose in the conversion funnel. Keyword mapping reflects this hierarchy.

Prepare better: Use our free Keyword Mapping Template to prevent any costly mistakes.

Focusing Solely on One Keyword Type

Many ecommerce brands make the rookie mistake of using only transactional keywords.

Sure, “buy board games for children under 10” sounds like a great keyword.

But you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t target other search terms across the buyer journey.

Optimize your website to take buyers from discovery to purchase.

This would include:

  • Informational queries like “what are the top strategy board games”
  • Commercial phrases like “best cooperative games”

Turn Ecommerce Keyword Research into Long-Term Growth

Keyword research helps you understand exactly what buyers want and meet them where they are.

The result?

More qualified traffic, easier conversions, and, ultimately, higher revenue for your ecommerce store.

Use our free Keyword Research Planner Template to follow this guide effortlessly and create a strong strategy.

And when you’re ready to level up your SEO strategy, check out our in-depth guide on ecommerce SEO to make your store search-ready.

The post 6 Proven Steps to Master Ecommerce Keyword Research appeared first on Backlinko.

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15 years of Yoast: 15 SEO tips for 2025 and beyond

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We’re celebrating 15 years of Yoast, and we can’t celebrate without offering some SEO insights. So, here are 15 SEO essentials to focus on in this year and beyond. Whether you are a beginner or an SEO expert, these tips will help you focus on what’s important right now.

In collaboration with our Principal SEO, Alex Moss

Table of contents

1. Embrace AI-powered SEO tools

Artificial intelligence is making every part of SEO faster and more efficient, from keyword research to real-time performance tracking. Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs help you plan content quickly and uncover opportunities you might have missed. These platforms use data in new ways to help you improve your strategy based on live trends and competitor changes. Use tools like ChatGPT or Gemini for research, inspiration, coding, and data analysis.

Thanks to AI tools, you can automate time-consuming tasks like technical audits, site crawls, and content analysis. The time you win by doing that helps your team focus on the bigger picture, from setting the strategy, building authority, and creating content that connects with audiences and brings something new to the world.

Yoast SEO’s AI features offer guidance to help your content succeed.

Did you know?

Yoast is 15 years old!

We’re celebrating 15 years of Yoast this year and have all kinds of nice stuff planned. Of course, we’re also offering a deal on our SEO products. Use coupon code yoast15_gift4you at the checkout for a 15% discount!

Shop our products

2. Optimize for zero-click searches

In 2025, Google shows more quick answers than ever. You’ll see AI overviews, featured snippets, knowledge panels, People Also Ask boxes, and more. To be featured in those places, your content has to be high-quality and unique, above all, unique – regurgitating what’s already out there won’t cut it. But, it also has to be easy to read and scan. Don’t forget to use lists, highlighted snippets, and concise definitions at the top of your articles.

Keyword research helps you to find the questions your audience is asking. Write clear answers to those questions, making them as concise as possible. Use tools like AlsoAsked to find opportunities to rank even when a user doesn’t click through to your site.

3. Invest in video content

Video dominates search results and offers a good way to diversify traffic sources. The growth of a platform like TikTok shows that many people prefer consuming video content. Create videos that answer questions, demonstrate your products, or explain complex topics. Optimize the videos to make them easy to find, and don’t forget to add a transcript and timestamps to help with indexing and user experience. 

Depending on your video strategy, hosting them on YouTube and embedding them on your site can boost engagement and dwell time. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, and building a solid presence there can reach a massive audience.

4. Improve e-commerce SEO

SEO for your products is not just about rankings, but also about conversion. Your product titles and descriptions should naturally include your most important keywords while also sounding persuasive. Don’t forget your category pages! Proper optimization helps customers find what they need. At the same time, you are building a strong internal linking structure. 

Structured data is essential for e-commerce stores because it can trigger rich results, highlighting reviews, pricing, and stock status. When done well, these show up nicely in Google, boosting your visibility. Rich snippets make your SERP listings more trustworthy and clickable. Do everything you can to get more traffic and, eventually, more sales. Our Yoast SEO for Shopify app can help your business succeed.

5. Prioritize local SEO

If your business is locally oriented, local SEO should be at the top of your strategy.  Keep your Google Business profile updated with opening hours, services, and nice photos. Post regularly about special offers, events, or published blog posts to show you are active and encourage engagement. 

Build citations in trusted local directories and get high-quality local backlinks. You should publish high-quality, localized content or case studies from regional customers. This signals that you are active in a geographic area, which could help local search visibility — Yoast Local SEO helps you do this.

6. Improve user experience (UX)

UX and SEO are deeply connected; we all know that. If people can’t use your site, they won’t stick around. Focus on a clean layout with plenty of whitespace and add clear call-to-actions for the user to click on. Make your site load quickly and test it regularly on mobile devices. 

Heatmaps, scroll maps, and user recordings made with tools like Hotjar can show where people get stuck on your site. Friction could occur with long loading times, confusing menus, missing CTAs, or other similar issues. Solving these can help reduce bounce rates, increase engagement and conversion.

7. Participate in SEO communities

Joining SEO communities isn’t just about asking for help when facing issues; it’s about much more. Platforms like LinkedIn, X, Reddit, Facebook groups, or SEO forums sometimes offer insights and advice you can’t get anywhere else. Sharing wins, failures, and experiments helps you stay connected to the SEO community and lets you build a name for yourself.

These platforms often surface research, news about Google core updates and warnings about issues some time before becoming common knowledge. News might be shared just early enough for you to take advantage of it before your competitor does. Building relationships can help you get business opportunities, collaborations, or friendships. 

8. Optimize for AI discovery

AI tools and chatbots are trained on information from the web, so it’s important to understand how your content is surfaced by large language models (LLMs). These systems, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, reshape how users uncover information. The results are often served without a way to click to your site. If your brand is not visible in these generated answers, you could be missing out in a growing share of visibility. 

Research your topics and content to see how the system responds to your queries and if your content appears in the answers. Audit your content to see if you structured it so LLMs can understand it. Use clear language, be factual, build your topical authority, and use easy-to-understand layouts. Most of all, be sure that the crawlers of the AI services can reach your site without issues. 

9. Focus on content pruning

Sometimes, ranking higher isn’t about adding more content to your site; it’s often about cleaning up what you have. Content pruning means removing, merging, or updating poorly performing content. Ancient blog posts that no longer get any traffic, outdated product pages, and thin articles with no value may impact your site’s overall performance. 

Start with a content audit using Semrush, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs. Find pages with limited traffic, few backlinks, and poor engagement. You can update these posts if you have enough insights to add. If they’re no longer relevant, merge them into a single, more authoritative page. If nothing works, delete and redirect. Keep your site lean and focused to improve the overall quality and authority, which also helps you fix keyword cannibalization.  

10. Implement structured data markup

Part of SEO is making your site easy for crawlers and search engines to understand. Structured data markup is one of the best ways to tell Google what your pages are about. With the correct schema items, you can highlight things like product prices, event dates, business locations, recipes, and more. 

Plugins like Yoast SEO make this process much easier. Start with your most important pages and products, select the proper schema, and fill in the details needed. Once you have the basics done, you can expand it to more complex structured data if needed.

11. Keep focusing on mobile

If you’ve been living under a rock, you might have missed that today’s world is all about mobile. We’ve been spending more and more hours glued to our mobile phones. So, having a perfect mobile site is no longer an option. Make sure that it adapts to all screen sizes, that the buttons work, and that no nasty pop-ups overlay the screen. 

Test your site often in various browsers on Apple and Android devices. See if it offers a great user experience. If not, fix it. Fixing even small accessibility issues or loading performance can greatly impact user satisfaction.

12. Create helpful, people-first content

Google is no longer just rewarding keyword-optimized pages, but genuinely helpful, people-first content. Your articles should satisfy user intent by providing clear, trustworthy and actionable information. Instead of writing the same things everyone has already done, create unique content that informs, solves problems, and adds value for your readers. 

When thinking about your content, ask yourself the questions that Google recommends: “After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?” and “Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and depth of knowledge?” If your content doesn’t do any of these things, you might need to rethink it. Focus on things you know well, avoid clickbait and write for your readers, not search engines. 

13. Optimize for Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals gives you a sense of your site’s health, especially with speed, responsiveness, and visual stability. They measure three main things: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which looks at loading performance. The second is Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which shows how quickly your site responds to user actions. The third one is Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which checks for unexpected layout shifts when your page loads. Google uses these metrics to determine whether your site gives a good user experience. 

You can monitor your Core Web Vitals in Google PageSpeed Insights, Search Console, or Lighthouse. Improvements you can often make include optimizing images, using faster hosting, reducing reliance on JavaScript, and setting proper dimensions for media. Test your site often to see if your improvements improve the user experience. 

14. Diversify content formats

Not everyone wants to read a 2000-word blog post. Some people enjoy graphics, videos, or podcasts. You can quickly repurpose your content in various formats, instead of starting over every time. 

Doing so makes your site more interesting for readers and search engines alike. Adding helpful videos to articles or offering downloadable checklists or research reports makes your content more appealing.

15. Always stay updated

In SEO, change is a constant. There are algorithm updates, new AI features emerge, and best practices change. It’s a lot, so staying up to date with the news is essential. Follow reliable sources like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Roundtable, the Yoast SEO newsletter, or our monthly SEO update to get the needed insights.

Plan some time every week to read up on SEO news. Join the conversation whenever you feel like it. Use the new insights to improve your strategies. Sticking to last year’s strategy will not cut it if your competitors are faster to adapt!

15 SEO tips for 15 years of Yoast

Here’s to 15 years of Yoast and 15 more years of helping the world rank better. Whether you’re launching your first site or revamping your SEO strategy for the AI age, it doesn’t matter — we’ll help you succeed.

Which SEO tip do you swear by in 2025? Please share it with us on our social media platforms (X, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram), or in the comments below.

The post 15 years of Yoast: 15 SEO tips for 2025 and beyond appeared first on Yoast.

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Keyword and content cannibalization: how to identify and fix it

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If you optimize your articles for similar terms, your rankings might suffer from keyword or content cannibalization: you’ll be ‘devouring’ your chances to rank in Google! Especially when your site is growing, your content could start competing with itself. Here, we’ll explain why keyword and content cannibalism can harm SEO, how to recognize it, and what to do about it.

Table of contents

What is keyword cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on your website target the same or very similar keywords. This often occurs unintentionally, especially as your site grows and more content accumulates. Pages that are too similar in focus might confuse search engines, which may struggle to decide which to rank higher. As a result, your pages compete with one another, and all of them can rank lower.

For example, if you publish two posts — one optimized for “does readability rank” and another for “readability ranking factor” — Google may see them competing for the same query. Instead of one strong result, both might hover around lower positions, weakening your site’s overall performance.

What is content cannibalization?

Content cannibalization is closely related but centers on the issue of multiple articles covering the same topic, regardless of whether they’re optimized for the same keyword. It’s a broader issue that affects thematic overlap more than exact keyword matching.

Where keyword cannibalization focuses on duplicating keywords, content cannibalization involves too many pages delivering overlapping value. This undermines user experience, spreads authority thin, and can make your content performance uneven.

Is cannibalization harmful?

Both keyword and content cannibalization can hurt SEO.

  • Lower rankings: Google often limits the number of results from a domain per query. When several of your pages try to rank for the same keyword, they could all underperform. This is especially true when neither page is clearly better in content depth, backlinks, or relevance.
  • Diluted backlinks: Instead of one strong page getting all the backlinks, multiple weaker ones split the attention. If many pages discuss a similar topic, other sites may link to each inconsistently. As a result, no one page accumulates strong authority. This fragmentation makes it harder for your content to rank competitively.
  • Confused crawlers: Search engines can’t always easily figure out which page they should prioritize. As a result, this could lead to inconsistent rankings. These days, Google is better at understanding topical relationships and can often see their differences. If content overlap is too high and intent is unclear, prioritization issues can still arise, especially on sites with thin or low-quality pages.
  • Reduced Click-Through Rate (CTR): Spreading clicks across several similar listings may lower the collective performance. If multiple similar titles from your domain show in results, users may split clicks between them. Worse, one strong CTA title might appear further down the page than a weaker or outdated one. This can impact user engagement and CTR for both pages, especially if they fall further down the SERPs.

In short, cannibalization limits your content’s potential by weakening each page’s authority and clarity.

How to identify cannibalization issues

As your site grows, you’ll have more and more content. Some of these articles are going to be about a similar topic. Even when you’ve always categorized it well, your content might compete with itself. You’re suffering from keyword or content cannibalization. Finding and fixing keyword cannibalization issues should be part of your content maintenance work to prevent all this.

Identifying keyword cannibalization

Start with a site search. Use site:yourdomain.com “keyword” in Google to surface all pages relevant to a particular term. If you see two or more of your URLs targeting the same term, they may be in conflict.

Next, use tools like Google Search Console. Look under the Performance tab. Filter by query to view keywords that bring in impressions and clicks, then see which pages receive traffic from those terms. Then, use SEO tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush to track keyword rankings and expose overlapping URLs targeting the same terms.

Look especially for pages that rank beyond the top five positions for the same term. When two of your URLs rank closely together outside the top spots, it’s often a sign that neither is performing optimally.

A Google site search with a domain and keyword showing post keyword cannibalization results
A simple site search with your domain and keyword will show all the pages ranking for that term

Identifying content cannibalization

Content cannibalization is subtler. You might not see overlapping keywords, but you may notice thematic overlap.

Review URL structures and tags to catch duplicates

Start by scanning your site’s URLs and content categories to catch pages covering the same topic in different formats. Look for similar slugs, repeated folder structures, or articles under the same tag or category. This quick check often reveals duplicate coverage, especially on larger sites or those with multiple writers.

Use keyword/topic mapping tools

Trace what each page is targeting. Create a list of your key pages and their target keywords or main topics. This helps you spot when multiple pages aim for the same term or cover the same subject. It doesn’t matter whether you use a tool or a spreadsheet, but keyword mapping helps explain the purpose of content. It also helps avoid overlap and ensures that all pages on your site have a place in your strategy.

Use the page filter

In Google Search Console, use the Page filter to see how each URL performs. The data gives insights into impressions, clicks, and average position. Look for pages that are getting traffic from similar queries. Multiple pages appearing for the same or closely related terms could signal content cannibalization. You can also use the Query filter to search by keyword and review which pages compete for it.

How to fix cannibalization issues

You should know your content, its performance, and where overlaps exist. Fixing keyword or content cannibalization means auditing, evaluating, and restructuring your pages. It doesn’t mean you should delete content blindly. Every page on your site should have a purpose and support your site’s overall SEO strategy. Below are practical ways to resolve both types of cannibalization.

Fixing keyword cannibalization

In many cases, solving keyword cannibalization means deleting and merging content. We will run you through some of that maintenance work as we did it at Yoast to show you how to do this. In particular, we’ll show you some thinking around a cluster of keywords related to keyword research.

Step 1: Audit your content

The first step is finding all the content on the keyword research topic. Most of that was simple: we have a keyword research tag, and most of the content was nicely tagged. This was also confronting, as we had many posts about the topic.

We searched for site:yoast.com "keyword research" and Google showed all the posts and pages on the site that mentioned the topic. We had dozens of articles devoted to keyword research or large sections mentioning it. Dozens or so mentioned it in passing and linked to other articles.

We started auditing the content for this particular group of keywords to improve our rankings around the cluster of keywords related to keyword research. So we needed to analyze which pages were ranking and which weren’t. This content maintenance turned out to be badly needed. It was surely time to find and fix possible cannibalization issues!

Step 2: Analyze the content performance

Go to Google Search Console and find the Performance section. In that section, click the filter bar. Click Query and type “keyword research” into the box like this:

A Google Search Console keyword query filter helping you find which articles rank for terms
Google Search Console helps you find which articles rank for certain terms

This makes Google Search Console match all queries containing keyword and research. This gives you two very important pieces of data. A list of the keywords your site has been shown in the search results for, and the clicks and click-through rate (CTR) for those keywords. A list of the pages that were receiving all that traffic, and how much traffic each of those pages received.

Start with the total number of clicks the content received for all those queries, then look at the individual pages. Something was clear: just a few posts were getting most of the traffic. But we knew we had loads of articles covering this topic. It was time to clean up. Of course, we didn’t want to throw away any posts that were getting traffic not included in this bucket of traffic, so we had to check each post individually. 

We removed the Query filter and used another option: the Page filter. This allows you to filter by a group of URLs or a specific URL. On larger sites, you might be able to filter by groups of URLs. In this case, we looked at the data for each post individually, which is best if you truly want to find and fix keyword cannibalization on your website.

Step 3: Decide on the next steps

After reviewing each post in this content maintenance process, we decided whether to keep it or delete it. If we deleted a post (which we did for most of them), we decided which post we should redirect it to.

For each of those posts, we evaluated whether they had sections to merge into another article. Some posts had paragraphs or sections that could be merged into another post. When merging posts entails more work (and time) than adding one paragraph or a few sentences, we recommend working in a new draft by cloning one of the original posts with Yoast Duplicate Post plugin. This way, you can work on your merged post without making live changes to one of your original posts.

Step 4: Take action

We had a list of action items: content to add to specific articles, after which each piece of content could be deleted from the articles it came from. Using Yoast SEO Premium, it’s easy to 301 redirect a post or page when you delete it, so that process was fairly painless.

With that, we’d removed the excess articles about the topic and retained only the most important ones. We still had a list of articles that mentioned the topic and linked to one of the other. We reviewed them and ensured each was linked to one or more of the remaining articles in the appropriate section.

Another example of fixing cannibalization by merging

Another example: We once had three separate articles covering how to do an SEO audit, split into parts 1, 2, and 3. Each post focused on a different section of the audit process, but none of them ranked well or brought in meaningful traffic. On their own, the articles felt incomplete, and splitting the topic likely made it harder for users (and search engines) to find everything they needed in one place. We decided to take a step back.

After reviewing performance data and gathering insights on what users were actually searching for, we merged the three posts into a single, more useful SEO audit guide. We rewrote outdated sections, expanded key points, added a practical checklist, included tool recommendations, and tightened up the structure. Since updating and combining the content, that article now ranks for more keywords than the separate posts ever did, draws more consistent traffic, and performs better overall. It’s a good example of how merging overlapping content, when done thoughtfully, can give users more value and improve SEO at the same time.

This shows three old seo audit articles that were merged in a much better, more comprehensive guide
Merging three simple posts into one big, much-improved SEO audit guide helped boost performance

Yoast Duplicate Post is a great free plugin

Ever wanted to quickly make a copy of a post in WordPress to work on some changes without the risk of ruining the published post?

You need Yoast Duplicate Post!

Fixing content cannibalization

Even if keywords differ slightly, topics may still overlap, and there are things you can do to improve that.

Create a cornerstone/pillar or landing page

Create a main page — a cornerstone article — that covers the broad topic in depth, then link to more specific articles that explore subtopics. This helps define a content hierarchy, improves internal linking, and signals which page should rank for the core topic to search engines. Supporting content can still rank independently, but will pass relevance and authority back to the pillar.

Consolidate underperforming content

If you have several pages covering similar ideas, but none are ranking well, combine them into one stronger, more complete resource. Prioritize the page with the most traffic or links, and bring valuable sections from the others. This helps reduce redundancy, improve content quality, and give search engines a clear page to index for that topic.

Use 301 redirects

Redirects are an important tool for your cannibalization actions. After deleting content, remember to use 301 redirects to send visitors from the old URLs to the updated one. Of course, you can also send them to the most relevant page as an alternative. This keeps existing rankings, backlinks, and traffic from the original pages intact. Plus, it also helps to avoid broken links or indexing issues. 

Preventive measures

Another way to avoid future keyword or content cannibalization issues is to prevent them, of course. 

Audit your content regularly

Analyze the content for your most important topics regularly. Look for overlapping pages, outdated posts, or content that doesn’t fit your keyword strategy. Regular audits will help you find issues early, which can help keep your site focused and maintain search visibility.

Assign a unique target keyword to each page

Before creating new content, please ensure no existing page targets the same keyword. Giving each page a clear, unique focus prevents internal competition and helps search engines understand which page to rank for a given query.

Write with a clear content brief

Start every piece with a brief that outlines the target keyword, search intent, key points to cover, and how it supports your existing content. Such a strategy helps your articles stay focused and avoids topic overlap. In addition, it ensures that the new content you add is truly unique to your site.

Keep a keyword and topic map

Maintain a simple record of which topics and keywords are already covered on your site. This makes it easier to spot gaps, avoid duplication, and plan new content that fits your overall strategy. A keyword map also helps when updating or pruning existing pages.

Also, if you’re running an e-commerce site with many similar product pages, make sure category pages are well-optimized and that your products clearly support them through internal linking.

Common mistakes in addressing cannibalization

Cannibalization happens, and many site owners have tried to address it in one way or another. Of course, there are right and wrong ways to do this.

Deleting pages without checking their value

Don’t delete content because you think it no longer serves a goal. Before you do that, look at traffic data, backlinks, and search performance before taking drastic measures. For instance, a page may look outdated, while in reality, it still drives traffic or has solid external links. Simply deleting it could lead to unwanted ranking losses.

Relying on canonical tags without checking content

Adding a canonical tag isn’t always the right fix. If two pages are too similar, merging or redirecting them may be better. Canonicals help when content overlap is minimal and both pages still serve a purpose, not as a quick workaround for duplication without analysis.

Merging pages that target different search intent

Just because two pages cover a similar topic doesn’t mean they should be combined. If each one is aimed at a very specific audience or answers a different question, merging them could hurt relevance and rankings. Always consider the intent behind each page before deciding to consolidate.

Overlooking internal linking opportunities

Internal links help search engines understand which pages are most important. If you skip this step, you may weaken page authority and miss chances to guide crawlers — and users — to your key content. Linking related pages strategically can reduce confusion and support stronger rankings.

Final thoughts on keyword and content cannibalization

A growing website means a growing risk of content overlapping. This could be a risk to the visibility of all that content. To prevent this, perform regular content audits and carefully plan and structure your content. 

Whether you’re fixing overlapping blog posts or aligning product pages under a clear hierarchy, regularly addressing cannibalization helps search engines — and users — find the most relevant, valuable pages on your site.

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Google Ad spend continues to outpace traffic volume: Report

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Google search ad spending grew 9% year over year in Q1 2025, according to new data from digital marketing agency Tinuiti. Increasing costs, rather than click volume, drove most of that growth.

Google Search overall:

  • Google Search spending grew by 9% YoY in Q1 2025 (down slightly from 10% in Q4 2024).
  • Click growth was stable at 4% YoY.
  • Whilst average cost per click (CPC) increased by 5% YoY.

Google Shopping Ads:

  • Shopping ad had a 8% YoY spending growth (however down from 10% in Q4 2024).
  • Click volume improved by 9% YoY (up from just 1% in Q4).
  • CPC remained stable at 1% YoY decrease.

Competitive landscape.

  • Amazon maintained a strong presence in Google shopping auctions with roughly 60% impression share against the median retailer, similar to Q1 2024 levels.
  • Target held steady at 24% impression share (down marginally from 25% in Q1 2024),
  • Walmart maintained 22% impression share year-over-year
  • Temu dramatically reduced its Google shopping presence in early April following news of U.S. tariff changes, dropping to zero impression share by mid-April.

Performance Max:

  • 93% adoption rate among retailers running Google shopping ads
  • Accounts for 53% of Google shopping ad spending (down from 69% in Q4 2024)
  • Has 10% lower conversion rate than standard Shopping
  • Has 13% higher CPC than standard Shopping
  • Delivers 7% lower ROAS (return on ad spend) than standard Shopping

Microsoft Search:

  • 17% YoY spending growth (up from 7% in Q4 2024)
  • 5% YoY click growth (improved from a 3% decline in Q4)
  • 11% YoY increase in CPC

Brand: Brand keywords saw particularly aggressive CPC increases, with costs for text ads containing an advertiser’s own brand name rising 19% compared to just 3% for non-brand keywords.

Why we care. The latest trends show search platforms continue to extract more revenue per click, putting pressure on advertisers’ margins even as competition ramps up between Google and Microsoft. With Microsoft growth rate (+17% YoY) being higher than Google’s growth (+9% YoY), suggesting Microsoft continues to be a strong contender for marketing strategy.

Political factors have also made a big impact, with Temu dropping out of shopping ads, therefore it’s likely there will be further shifts in Shopping traffic and costs in Q2 of 2025.

What we’re watching: Performance Max adoption remained high at 93% of retailers running Google shopping ads, though its share of spending fell from 69% in Q4 2024 to 53% in Q1 2025 as some advertisers shifted budget back to standard shopping campaigns for greater control.

Key takeaways.

  • Shopping ads demonstrate resilience amongst fluctuating political mandates.
  • PMax adoption remains high despite a decrease in spending due to performance deterioration compared to standard shopping.
  • Major retailers maintain dominant positions in shopping ad impressions.
  • Microsoft is seeing positive growth, which should help improve advertisers’ confidence and add the platform to their marketing strategy.
  • Major retailers maintain dominant positions in shopping ad impressions.

The report. Tinuiti’s Q1 2025 Digital Ads Benchmark Report.

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ChatGPT releases Memory with Search

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ChatGPT can now personalize searches using your memories.

Memory with Search is a new addition to ChatGPT search, and was quietly added as an update in its changelog.

What is Memory with Search. ChatGPT said it can “use memories to inform search queries when ChatGPT searches the web using their-party search providers.”

Not a lot of detail there. But OpenAI’s ChatGPT search page offers more information:

‘If you have ‘Memory’ enabled, when ChatGPT search rewrites your prompt into a search query it may also leverage relevant information from memories to make the query better and more useful. For example, if the user has ‘Memory’ turned on and asks ChatGPT ‘what are some restaurants near me that I’d like,’ and has memories is that the user is vegan and lives in San Francisco, then ChatGPT may rewrite the user’s prompt to ‘good vegan restaurants San Francisco.’ You can learn more here about Memory, including how to disable it or control individual memories.

ChatGPT Memory. OpenAI announced the official launch of Memory on April 11. ChatGPT Memory consists of saved memories (memories users ask ChatGPT to remember) and chat history (insights gathered from past chats to improve future ones). Access to ChatGPT Memory is still rolling out now.

Why we care. ChatGPT’s use of memories and rewriting prompts into search queries (to be more nuanced, contextual, and user-specific) means AI search is shifting toward being more deeply personalized. This could impact how and when your brand or business appears in AI-generated answers.

Opt out. Users who don’t want to use Memory can head to Settings > Personalization > Memory and turn off the slider for Reference saved memories.

The announcement. ChatGPT – Release Notes (April 16)

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