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4 Best SEO Reporting Tools (Free & Paid Options)

April 10, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News/by

SEO reporting transforms raw data into actionable decisions. It shows clients and teams exactly what’s working — and what isn’t.

But here’s the painful truth:

You can waste hours each month collecting data from various platforms. Like copying numbers from Google Analytics, Search Console, and rank trackers into spreadsheets.

Then struggling to make it look presentable.

Oh, and this is for one website. If you’re managing many projects, reporting can get VERY tedious (and costly).

That’s why I’ve handpicked a list of four dedicated SEO reporting tools that:

Save time by automatically collating data from your favorite SEO and analytics platforms
Help you build client-ready reports without starting from scratch every time
Let you track and visualize SEO performance in a way that actually makes sense for you

Here’s a quick rundown of our favorite SEO reporting tools:

	Best for	Pricing
Google Looker Studio	Creating reports from 1,000+ sources like Google Sheets, Search Console, and other APIs	Free; Pro plan costs $9/month with a 30-day free trial
Semrush	SEO professionals who want an all-in-one solution to track, analyze, and report performance	Starts at $139.95/month; Backlinko-exclusive 14-day free trial available
AgencyAnalytics	Freelancers and SEO agencies who want to share real-time dashboards with clients	Starts at $79/month; 14-day free trial available
DashThis	Creating customizable SEO dashboards and helping clients understand what the data means with in-line notes	Starts at $49/month; 15-day free trial available

1. Google Looker Studio

Best for creating reports from various sources like Google Sheets, Search Console, and APIs

Pricing: Free; Pro plan costs $9 per month with a 30-day free trial.

Google Looker Studio is a free tool that helps you create SEO dashboards that are visually appealing and customizable.

Here’s what I love about Looker Studio:

Connect All Your Data Sources in One Dashboard

One of the biggest advantages of Google Looker Studio is how seamlessly it connects with 1,000+ data sources.

This lets you pull all your SEO, PPC, and marketing data into one clean, interactive dashboard.

Here’s how it works:

Connect your Looker Studio account to Google’s native platforms, including:

Google Search Console to pull in keyword rankings, impressions, clicks, and click-through rate (CTR)
YouTube Analytics if you’re reporting on YouTube SEO
BigQuery, Google Sheets, Google Cloud Storage if you’re managing large datasets
Google Ads if you want to compare paid and organic performance metrics in one place

These connectors are free to use and only need a few clicks to set up.

Beyond Google’s platforms, Looker Studio also integrates with 1,100+ third-party data sources via partner connectors.

For example, you can connect your Looker Studio to:

Semrush: Import keyword rankings, domain analytics, and backlink data
Shopify: Combine ecommerce sales data with SEO performance insights to see how organic traffic impacts your revenue
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok Ads: Combine all your social media ad metrics with SEO results in one report

Note: You can connect Semrush to Looker Studio for free. Many other third-party connectors need a separate paid subscription.

Report Fast with Templates or Build Custom SEO Dashboards

Looker Studio gives you the flexibility to choose how you want to set up your SEO reports. Whether that’s in a streamlined or more hands-on way.

Here’s how:

If you want a quick start, you can use pre-built templates from the gallery.

For example, you could choose a Google Search Console performance template.

It visualizes impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position:

Looker Studio – Template – Google Search Console

With this template, you simply need to connect your Search Console account, and you’re good to go.

But if you need something more tailored, you can easily build custom dashboards from scratch in three simple steps:

Choose exactly which metrics to show
Pull in multiple data sources (Google Analytics, Semrush, Shopify, etc.)
Design the layout to fit your team’s or client’s needs

Tip: If you’re showing these reports to clients, you can also fully customize your SEO dashboards to reflect your (or their) brand. Do this by adding logos, brand colors, and any visual elements specific to your projects.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Visualizes data with interactive charts, scorecards, and tables	It’s primarily a visualization tool that relies entirely on other data sources for its reports
Refreshes data in real-time — you can set up the report and forget about it
Option to embed interactive reports on your website

2. Semrush

Best for SEO professionals who want an all-in-one solution to track, analyze, and report SEO performance in one place

Pricing: Starts at $139.95 per month; Backlinko-exclusive 14-day free trial available

Semrush’s My Reports lets you build customizable SEO reports. It’s designed to help you merge data from across Semrush’s various tools and present it in an easy-to-understand format.

Here’s what I love about My Reports:

Combine Multiple Semrush Tools in One Report

Semrush’s My Reports tool lets you pull data from across the platform’s entire SEO toolkit and present it in a single, cohesive report.

You can include insights from tools like:

Position Tracking to highlight keyword performance
Site Audit to showcase technical SEO health
Backlink Audit for link profiles

This feature is perfect if you want to avoid bouncing between separate dashboards. Or manually merging data sources.

With everything in one place, it’s also easier to spot patterns and draw connections. Like how ranking improvements might correlate with new backlinks. Or how technical issues could be holding your keyword performance back.

Create SEO Reports from 20+ Marketing Data Sources

You can go beyond just Semrush data by connecting 20+ other marketing data sources to further enhance your reports.

These include Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile, and more.

For example, you can pull keyword rankings and backlink data from Semrush. Then combine it with Google Search Console data to highlight clicks and impressions.

All in one report:

Semrush – My Reports – Backlinko – Semrush & GSC

This makes it easier to present a holistic view of your SEO performance. And show not only where you rank but also how those rankings translate into actual search traffic.

Save Time with Ready-Made Templates

If you’re short on time and don’t want to build your SEO reports from scratch, Semrush has you covered with ready-made templates:

Semrush – My Reports – Ready-to-use-templates

These templates help you quickly generate reports for common SEO tasks.

For example, you can select:

Monthly SEO Reports: Use these to update clients about your SEO performance
Site Audit: This gives you a quick overview of your domain’s technical health
Backlink Audit: This lets you analyze your website’s backlink profile and spot new link opportunities

You can use your selected template as is:

Or you can customize it further with the drag-and-drop tools.

Quickly Build SEO Reports with Drag-and-Drop Widgets

Semrush’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to build your own custom reports or build on templates.

Just drag the data widgets you need from the left panel and drop them wherever you need them.

Let AI Summarize Your Report

One of the standout features of My Reports is the built-in AI Summary tool.

Once you’ve built your SEO report, you can click “Add AI Summary,” and Semrush will automatically generate a clear, concise overview of the key takeaways:

Semrush – My Reports – Backlinko – AI Summary

You can also choose whether you want the AI to generate a brief or detailed summary, depending on your audience:

Semrush – My Reports – AI Summary in details

Note: A free Semrush lets you create one report for free. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Easily schedule recurring reports and receive them via email	You can’t edit the AI-generated summary
White label reports with your logo and branding
Share reports as a PDF or via dashboard link

3. AgencyAnalytics

Best for freelancers and SEO agencies to share real-time reporting dashboards with clients

Pricing: Starts at $79 per month; 14-day free trial available

AgencyAnalytics is a reporting platform built specifically for agencies managing SEO and digital marketing clients.

It lets you create customizable SEO reports by pulling data from 80+ tools, including:

Google Search Console
Google Analytics
Semrush
Moz
Bing Webmaster Tools

Here’s what I like most about Agency Analytics:

Choose From Four Report Starting Points

AgencyAnalytics gives you four ways to start building a report:

Blank report: Start fresh and create a fully customized SEO report
Smart report: Auto-generate a report with your connected integrations (like Semrush, Shopify, Google Search Console, and Salesforce)
Template: Use a pre-made reporting template
Clone existing report: Copy any report you’ve already created

AgencyAnalytics – Four Report Starting Point

If you manage multiple clients or create recurring SEO reports, cloning an existing report is a HUGE time-saver.

You can duplicate the layout, data sources, and widgets from any previous report. This way, you don’t have to start from scratch every time.

And if speed is your priority, the Smart Report option gives you a great baseline. It pulls in data from your connected tools automatically.

But if you’re building something new or one-off, starting with a blank report or a premade template still gives you all the flexibility you need.

Track Your Client’s SEO Goals

AgencyAnalytics lets you set and track specific SEO goals for each client. You can then keep track of the progress in your reports.

Whether it’s hitting a target number of organic sessions, ranking for priority keywords, or increasing revenue, you can define it as a goal.

Simply choose the metric you want to track and set your conditions.

Let’s say your goal is exceeding 100k sessions per month:

You just drag and drop that goal into your report to track it alongside your SEO performance:

And just like that, you can track your goal right next to your current performance.

Have Full Control of How Your Reports Look

AgencyAnalytics also lets you adjust the size and placement of each widget to fit your reporting style.

You can resize and rearrange your charts, tables, and graphs to fit your preferred style and showcase what’s most important to your audience.

This level of granularity lets you fully customize your SEO reports to make them visually appealing and easy to understand.

Give Clients Real-Time Access to SEO Dashboards

AgencyAnalytics also lets you create custom logins for your clients. This gives them real-time access to their SEO dashboards any time they need.

You can also adjust permissions for each user individually to control exactly what each client sees:

AgencyAnalytics – New user – Customized access

This gives clients a transparent view of their performance. And it cuts down on back-and-forth reporting requests.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Set and track specific SEO goals for clients	A bit of a learning curve
Schedule reports and track delivery history
Give clients real-time dashboard access with custom permissions

4. DashThis

Best for creating customizable SEO dashboards and helping clients understand what the data means

Pricing: Starts at $49 per month; 15-day free trial available

DashThis lets you create SEO reports fast, or fully customize them when you need more control.

In other words: it’s suitable for those that want a streamlined solution OR a highly tunable one.

You can also pull data from 30+ tools. These include the usuals like Google Analytics, Search Console, and Semrush. But also the likes of Google Ads, CallRail, and YouTube.

Here’s what I love about DashThis:

Build an SEO Report Your Way

DashThis gives you multiple widget types to build exactly the kind of SEO report you want.

Whether you’d like to craft a report quickly or need full control, DashThis gives you this flexibility:

For example:

You can drop in preset widgets that auto-populate common SEO key performance indicators (KPIs):

But if you need something specific, you can use custom widgets to pick your graph type, tweak the settings, and fully control how your data looks:

DashThis – SEO Report – Tweak the settings

You can also use static widgets to add context or structure to your report.

For example, you can:

Add a custom header
Write comments
Upload a CSV to add more data to your report
Manually enter numbers

You can also use widget bundles to quickly add a group of related widgets at once.

For example, you can add a bundle of five related widgets that give you an overview of your image or organic search performance:

This makes it easy to quickly set up important reports.

Leave Notes in Your SEO Dashboards

DashThis lets you add notes right inside your dashboards. This way, you can explain what’s happening without sending a separate email to your client:

You can use notes to:

Call out key wins
Clarify sudden traffic drops
Guide your client through the data

Comments live right next to your charts. So clients can see your notes in context as they review their performance:

Add Formatted Insights

At the end of your report, you can drop in a rich text comment block.

Here, you can write your own notes, style the text, add images, and even structure sections with bullet points:

It’s perfect for:

Summarizing key takeaways
Highlighting recommendations
Making your report easier for clients to act on

Group Dashboards to Stay Organized

If you manage lots of SEO dashboards, you can organize them into groups. These work like folders for easier navigation.

For example, you could create a group for each client (e.g., “Client A — Monthly Reports”).

Or you could create them for different report types. Like “Local SEO” and “Ecommerce SEO.”

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
In-line notes and comment blocks to add insights and context for clients	Somewhat outdated overall design
White-label your reports
Plenty of flexibility

Ready to Choose Your SEO Reporting Tool?

The best SEO reporting tool for you really comes down to how much flexibility you need, and how quickly you want to get things done.

If you’re comfortable with a bit of setup, Looker Studio gives you endless customization.

But if you prioritize speed and being able to work with just one tool for many key SEO tasks, Semrush’s My Reports is the better option.

Note: A free Semrush lets you create one report for free. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.

The post 4 Best SEO Reporting Tools <br> (Free & Paid Options) appeared first on Backlinko.

Read more at Read More

Google vision match vs. traditional search: Early insights on AI shopping tool

April 8, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

Vision match vs. traditional search: Early insights on Google’s AI shopping tool

With Google’s introduction of its vision match feature, users can now describe a product they’re looking for, and AI will generate suggestions similar to that item.

The real kicker is that the product generated likely doesn’t exist.

The AI will create something that you want, show you the product, and then try to match the AI product with items from the real world.

It sounds like a streamlined, user-friendly shopping experience that could revolutionize online shopping yet again.

But does it actually enhance our shopping journey?
Are these AI-generated results truly more effective than the product results we get from traditional Google search?
What does this mean for advertisers?

To find out, I tested the feature myself, comparing vision match results with standard search results for a few product categories.

What I found may give you a new perspective on the role AI plays in online shopping.

Test 1: Vision match ‘suggested query’

To start, I choose one of vision match’s “suggested queries.”

Search query: “holographic platform boots with metallic highlights”

Vision match results

Vision match - holographic platform boots with metallic highlights

Sponsored shopping results

Free listing results

Interestingly, my AI-generated image results are more accurate than the “shop similar-looking product” results.

While the product recommendations included some metallic holographic platform boots, they also included a mix of non-metallic boots and even a prom dress.

So, what’s the point of the AI-generated images if they’re not actually helping me find the product I want but instead creating a fake version of it?

Wouldn’t it be more sensible to expand the “Shop Similar” section beyond six products and give us more real options?

What also stands out to me is the selection of retailers.

I’ve never heard of most of these retailers. Some results come from resale platforms like eBay and Poshmark.

And then there’s the cost difference. The average price of the AI-generated product recommendations?

A whopping $230, with some listings going as high as $954.

Meanwhile, the average price from a regular search? Just $75.

Looking at my shopping results, every product in the first carousel (and beyond) is a pair of holographic platform boots with metallic highlights and nothing else.

Now, I’m not planning on attending a disco party anytime soon, but if I were, I’d know where to go: Google Search.

Contender	Grade
Vision match	D+
Traditional search	A

Next, I tried a broader query, hoping for more accurate results.

Test 2: Non-specified search (statement piece)

Search query: “mens red button down shirt”

Vision match results

Vision match - mens red button down shirt

Sponsored shopping results

Sponsored shopping - mens red button down shirt

Free listing results

Free listing - mens red button down shirt

The first AI-generated image and product suggestions did show a red button-down shirt (though some may argue it’s an orange-red.)

From there, I got a mix of red button-downs, some with patterns and textures.

Overall, it wasn’t bad, but the price range was still all over the place.

I still find myself drawn to the traditional search results.

When I search for “men’s red button-down shirt,” I get exactly what I asked for.

No guesswork, no unnecessary variations.

Plus, I’m given valuable details upfront, like:

Discount percentages.
Customer ratings.
Product attribute callouts (“comfortable,” “easy to clean”).

These elements make the listings far more compelling and trustworthy, which incentives my click – unlike the AI-generated results, which feel more like a best guess than a true recommendation.

Contender	Grade
Vision match	C
Traditional search	A

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.

Business email address

See terms.

Test 3: Brand search

You’d expect that searching for a specific brand name would surface products primarily from that brand’s official website, right?

Not quite.

I ran this search multiple times just to be sure I wasn’t imagining things – and still, less than 3% of the results actually came from Nike’s own site.

Search query: “Nike sneakers”

Vision match results

Sponsored shopping results

Free listing results

Even worse, I was given additional irrelevant results – New Balance sneakers, socks, leggings, and blue polka dot blankets – definitely not Nike sneakers.

Sponsored shopping is a different story.

Since other major retailers carry Nike products, it makes sense to see them appear alongside Nike.

However, when looking at the free listings, all my results come from nike.com.

So, what does this mean for brands?

If Nike, one of the world’s largest retailers, is hardly featured in the vision match results, what does this mean for smaller brands?

Will they struggle even more to get visibility in vision match and possibly other future AI-generated product recommendations?

Contender	Grade
Vision match	D-
Traditional search	A+

Test 4: A trending search

For my final test, I wanted to see how AI would handle a fashion trend rather than a standard clothing item.

Trends come and go quickly, creating a high demand for a short period of time, unlike staple pieces like a “men’s red button-down shirt,” which remain relevant year after year.

This felt like an important test, given how fast fashion moves and how crucial it is for shopping tools to keep up with ever-changing styles.

Search query: “barrel jeans”

Vision match results

Sponsored shopping results

Free listing results

If you haven’t heard of the “barrel jean” trend, don’t worry; you’re not missing much in the vision match results because they’re completely wrong.

I only included three screenshots, but after scrolling through everything, I didn’t spot a single pair of actual barrel jeans.

Instead, I got jeans in every color and pattern imaginable, along with some random dress slacks.

Meanwhile, a simple Google Search gave me exactly what I was looking for: a variety of barrel jeans from well-known retailers available in different price ranges and washes.

It’s pretty clear that when it comes to keeping up with fashion trends, AI might be trending, but vision match still isn’t fashion-forward.

Contender	Grade
Vision match	F
Traditional search	A+

The final verdict

In my experience, while vision match offers an interesting new way to search for products, it still has a long way to go in terms of accuracy and relevance.

In each test, it struggled to provide precise matches for the products I was looking for, often offering unrelated items or a confusing mix of options.

On the other hand, traditional search results from Google gave me exactly what I wanted: clear product options, price ranges, and relevant details that helped me make an informed decision.

Let’s take a look at the final results of our test:

Contender	Grade
Vision match	D
Traditional search	A

I understand that these results are subjective, but anyone with search intent would agree that a D average is generous in this case.

So, what does this mean for advertisers?

As AI-generated results grow, advertisers must continue to adapt their strategies to ensure their products are accurately represented.

However, with limited control over what’s featured in vision match, this will be very difficult.

Given that the current vision match results seem subpar, users will likely still prefer the traditional search results, which continue to provide more accurate and relevant options.

While vision match has potential, its current limitations likely won’t sway many users away from the search results for now.

Read more at Read More

Your 2025 playbook for AI-powered cross-channel brand visibility

April 8, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

Search Engine Land - Fractl Agents Header

AI is changing how people find and engage with content – but the core signals that drive visibility haven’t changed.

This article shows how search marketers can stay competitive by combining proven SEO and content strategies with AI-powered workflows to build authority, trust, and reach across platforms.

Why authority still wins in the age of AI search

If you work in marketing, you’ve probably heard the same questions repeated throughout the past year:

“What’s AI’s impact on organic search?”
“How can my brand appear in AI-driven search results?”
“Is it safe to use AI in my content workflow?”

While many agencies and experts are rushing to stake a claim in the new frontier of “AI brand visibility,” industry leaders are aligning around the idea that search engine and AI optimization rely on similar signals.

Whether you’re using Google or ChatGPT, both platforms strive to surface the most authoritative, relevant content on a given subject.

They do this by identifying which entities (brands or sources) have provided robust subject matter expertise (contextual relevance) backed by strong third-party authority signals (e.g., citations from trusted sources).

In other words, the fundamentals that make your content rank highly on Google – expertise, authority, and trustworthiness – also increase your visibility in AI-generated answers.

If you’ve paid attention to effective content marketing strategies over the last decade, keep creating unique, valuable, educational, and engaging brand content enriched with proprietary data and expert insights.

This approach:

Builds credibility and provides fresh expertise beyond what AI alone can produce, which all channels seek to surface.
Earns coverage and citations from authoritative sources across diverse platforms.
Strengthens your brand’s authority, diversifies visibility, and drives qualified traffic and cross-channel conversions.

Meanwhile, if you’re simply using ChatGPT to churn out regurgitated content for top-funnel informational queries – you might as well burn your marketing budget.

In 2025, it’s critical not to get lost in another “SEO is dead, long live […AI]!” echo chamber.

We’re 14 years into this recurring, sensationalized industry news cycle, yet search interest is still growing.

If we slow down and look at the facts, Google now processes over 5 trillion searches per year (with a 20%+ YoY growth).

AI tools like ChatGPT are expanding search behavior, not replacing it.

Up to 70% of ChatGPT prompts involve collaborative, custom tasks like code debugging or meal planning, per a recent Semrush study.

These are things classic search wasn’t built for.

Regardless of what we dub this era of “AI optimization,” one thing remains true: the value of cross-channel, inbound marketing reigns supreme, as it has since the dawn of digital.

While we don’t always need a new industry buzzword, generative engine optimization (GEO) has grown in interest significantly over the last 12 months.

Agency goliaths are starting to invest in their own content strategies around it.

Generative engine optimization - Google Trends

Most brand channels rely on similar ranking principles.

So, instead of panicking about the latest platform shifts, challenge your team to pause and reflect.

How do you use AI to scale effective, cross-channel marketing strategies and workflows to sustain your brand’s visibility?

Specifically:

How are we building content ecosystems that establish topic authority while earning trust and driving engagement across multiple platforms?
Have we done audience research to understand where our target market resides, and are we effectively using AI to scale cross-channel content syndication to those platforms?
Where else should we seek to apply AI to automate our proven marketing workflows to improve efficiency, reach, and ROI?

Here’s how my agency uses prompt engineering, custom GPTs, and proprietary AI agents to streamline digital marketing – and how your team can, too.

1. Using AI to create newsworthy campaigns with strong E-E-A-T

One of the highest ROI activities your brand can invest in now is proprietary research that produces insights AI can’t replicate.

This type of content gets cited by publishers, builds domain expertise, and increases your chances of influencing AI training data itself.

You don’t need to build bleeding-edge agentic workflows to see real impact from AI in your marketing.

Even teaching your team simple prompt engineering and having them build custom GPTs can help streamline your workflows.

AI can handle tedious tasks – like deep research and data analysis – so your team can spend more time on strategy and creative thinking.

Below are a few examples of AI-enhanced content workflows any brand can adopt.

Reactive PR campaign prompts

Use AI to research and brainstorm campaign ideas based on breaking news that aligns with the brand’s vertical and target market.

For example, you might prompt ChatGPT to take on a digital PR persona tasked with scanning breaking news in your industry from the past 24-72 hours and generating timely campaign ideas.

This kind of AI-assisted brainstorming ensures your content ideas are timely and poised to earn media attention without waiting for time-intensive human research and ideation sessions.

Sample prompt

Role: You are a digital PR strategist for [Brand], tasked with identifying trending, high-authority news stories in [Topic/Industry/Region] from the past 24-72 hours and generating timely, data-driven campaign ideas that use the brand’s expertise to secure mainstream media coverage.
Campaign criteria:
- Trend-driven: Focus on viral/trending topics from major outlets, TikTok, Reddit, X, Google Trends.
- Brand-relevant: Align with [Brand]’s domain expertise.
- Timely and actionable: Campaign can be executed within 24-72 hours.
- Data-backed: Use rapid methods – pulse surveys, social scraping, Google Trends, proprietary data.
- Emotionally compelling: Ideas must be timely, educational, emotional, or entertaining.
Campaign structure:
- Title: A concise, engaging campaign title.
- Description: Explain the campaign idea, key insights/questions, target audience, and tie to current news + brand’s expertise.
- Methodology: Outline how you will gather and analyze data (e.g., surveys, social scraping, government datasets, trends).

Dig deeper: Reactive PR and AI: How to capitalize on trending topics faster

Data journalism campaign prompts

Consider training a custom AI model on your own archive of successful content marketing campaigns (or case studies from your industry) to generate fresh campaign ideas.

An internal ideation agent could be fed thousands of past campaign briefs, articles, or link building projects along with their performance outcomes.

The AI can then generate new ideas tailored to your brand’s vertical, following patterns that historically earned high authority backlinks and engagement.

You might guide it with criteria. For instance, the idea must:

Have a high likelihood of attracting authoritative .edu/.gov/.com links.
Be data-driven and unique.
Align with your business goals.
Be timely or seasonal.
Include a visually engaging component.

This way, the AI isn’t pulling generic ideas from thin air – it’s remixing elements of proven hits to suggest the next big content piece.

Sample prompt

Role: You are a creative data-driven PR strategist, tasked with generating newsworthy, high-authority campaign ideas that earn backlinks from top-tier media (.com), government (.gov), and educational (.edu) sites. You focus on creating unique, engaging, and data-backed campaigns tailored to [Brand]’s specific vertical (e.g., education, tax, aviation, hosting, creative industries).
Campaign criteria:
- High-authority potential
- Data-driven
- Creative and unique
- Aligned with goals
- Timely
- Visually engaging
Approved methodologies:
Campaign structure:
- Title
- Description
- Methodology

Ideation scoring prompt

Another valuable use of AI is evaluating and refining newsworthy brand content at scale.

Marketing teams constantly brainstorm ideas for data journalism campaigns, blog posts, and social content.

Based on learned criteria, an AI agent can rapidly assess each idea for “newsworthiness” or virality potential.

For example, you can program an AI to act as an editorial panel that:

Scores ideas on a scale for promotional viability.
Suggests which statistics or angles would make the idea more compelling to the press.
Even recommends how to execute the methodology more rigorously.

This doesn’t replace your decision-making, but it helps streamline a recurring process that has a proven framework that AI can help scale.

Sample prompt

Role: You are a data journalism and PR expert tasked with evaluating the newsworthiness and promotional viability of data-driven campaign concepts, including surveys, studies, meta-rankings, and analyses. Your role is to rate the idea’s media potential, suggest the best promotional angles (headlines/takeaways), and refine the methodology to ensure data accuracy and media appeal.
Evaluation process:
- Promotional viability score
- Potential headline-worthy takeaways
- Suggested name
- Methodology recommendation

Beyond these examples, dozens of other AI applications can streamline your content workflow.

Forward-thinking teams are deploying custom AI assistants for tasks such as:

Writing survey questions.
Building campaign briefs.
Identifying typos or brand guideline violations.
Discovering unique data sources or variables for new research.
And so much more.

An AI agent can improve any repetitive or data-intensive part of content creation.

Once you’ve used AI to assist in creating high-quality, E-E-A-T-rich content, the next step is to ensure that the content gets in front of the right audience.

This is where AI can also play a game-changing role in distribution and PR.

2. Scaling digital PR with AI

Building your brand’s authority and trust through earned media has become more critical in an era of AI-driven search results.

Google’s algorithm and AI models prioritize widely cited and trusted content, favoring brands with strong E-E-A-T signals.

Digital PR helps secure high-authority backlinks and trusted media mentions that improve search rankings.

These efforts also increase the likelihood of being featured in AI-generated results, as LLMs are trained on well-cited, newsworthy sources.

In short, earning mainstream news and authoritative, niche-relevant brand coverage simultaneously strengthens your visibility across search, social, and emerging AI platforms.

AI holds enormous potential for PR teams. It can:

Research journalists.
Personalize outreach.
Even draft pitches in seconds.

Still, we must pair scale with skill.

Relying too much on automation can lead to spammy, robotic pitches that journalists ignore (or resent).

Rather than blasting out “just another AI-generated pitch,” smart PR teams use an AI-powered, human-perfected workflow.

AI handles the heavy lifting – research, pattern-based tasks, and first drafts – while humans focus on strategy, messaging, and real relationship-building.

The key is scaling the repeatable parts with AI and reserving human effort for creativity, judgment, and authentic personalization.

Here are a few high-impact ways PR professionals can use AI today.

AI pitch strategy prompt

One of the easiest prompts to create is a digital PR strategy generator that mimics the pitch templates your team uses to earn authoritative brand coverage.

Incorporating training guides, sample pitch templates, industry pro tips, and other proprietary knowledge is crucial.

This is key to building a GPT or agent that helps your PR team stand out in a sea of sameness.

Below are the areas you should hone in and expand when designing a PR strategy prompt.

Role: You are PPS savant, a digital PR Expert specialized in generating a complete pre-pitch strategy (PPS) for data-driven PR studies and media outreach. Your job is to extract the most compelling statistics from a provided study or campaign and generate a fully developed, press-ready outreach strategy, including subject lines, email copy, and a targeted media list.
Distill:
- Compelling statistics
- Subject lines
- Email pitch structure
- Follow-up pitch structure
- Targeted media outlets
- Tone and focus

Media list builder

Finding the right outlets and contacts is a time-consuming part of PR that AI can dramatically improve.

Instead of manually searching media databases (or paying for expensive platforms that quickly go out of date), an AI-driven media list builder can scan recent articles and news to identify journalists and publications relevant to your content.

For example, given a summary of your campaign or a PDF of your research, an AI agent could compile a list of the 30–50 most relevant publishers and reporters, including:

The outlet name.
A link to a recent similar article (to prove relevance).
The journalist’s name and beat.
Even metrics like the outlet’s traffic.

This increases the odds of getting interest and saves thousands of dollars that might have been spent on static media databases.

Sample prompt

Role: You are a digital PR publisher expert who analyzes brand studies to identify the 40 most relevant, high-authority news outlets based on the provided resource. Your focus is on matching the content (attached PDF) to vertical-specific, top-tier outlets and ensuring maximum relevance and link potential.
Publisher recommendations should include:
- Publisher name
- Root domain (clickable URL)
- Vertical section (e.g., “All Finance”, “Lifestyle”, “Health”, “Education”, etc.)
- Domain authority (DA)
- Site traffic
- Relevant post

Blog search

Beyond mainstream media outlets, much of the “long tail” of PR success comes from niche blogs and industry influencers who syndicate or share your content.

Here, too, AI can make a huge difference.

To solve this, we built a “blog search agent” that runs a semantic search across 20,000+ active (non-spam) blogs from Kagi’s Small Web to help uncover niche-specific influencers who regularly update their smaller, mid-tier sites for highly relevant audiences.

By using AI in these ways, PR teams can significantly increase the speed and quality of their outreach, leading to more authoritative coverage.

Top brands already use these tactics to land stories in national newspapers and specialized trade publications.

More than algorithmic efficiency, effective PR requires credible, newsworthy content and authentic human relationships.

AI can help you write 10 pitches in the time it used to take to write one.

Still, if the core story isn’t strong or you haven’t bothered to personalize it, journalists will delete your email.

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.

Business email address

See terms.

3. Streamlining social content syndication with AI

New search and social platforms will inevitably rise and fall.

However, one principle remains constant: marketers must repurpose and syndicate their best content across the diverse platforms where their audience engages.

In the age of AI, diversification is key for building defensible brand visibility and traffic.

A blog post that earns links and ranks on Google can be adapted into an X thread, a Reddit post, a LinkedIn article, a TikTok script, or a YouTube video.

Each extension reinforces your expertise and reaches new pockets of your audience.

Consistent cross-platform visibility boosts SEO and engagement and trains AI models to recognize your brand’s authority everywhere.

Share of social media referrals to the web

Many content teams excel at creating high-value content, but they often lack the bandwidth or distribution tools.

By automating parts of the syndication process and optimizing content for each channel, AI ensures your work actually gets seen.

Here are a few ways AI can amplify your cross-channel content strategy.

Reddit advice tool

With Reddit dominating the SERPs, it’s a crucial time to evaluate this social platform as another avenue for your content syndication.

This agent helps your social team:

Identify relevant subreddits for your brand content.
Develop suggested titles and justify why that style would resonate with each specific community.
Generate article summaries to get you started.

AI image creation

AI is making creating eye-catching graphics, illustrations, or photos to accompany your content easier than ever.

That said, the jury is still out on the best models and prompts that can make or break your brand’s output.

A few of my personal favorites include DALL-E 3, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, which can produce custom images that were unimaginable a few years ago.

Still, the key difference is the quality of your prompt engineering.

Often, the best prompt designers are those with a creative eye, like graphic designers, who will know how to coax the model toward a desired style or factual accuracy.

The result: your content stands out in crowded feeds without the cost or time of a full photoshoot or graphic design cycle for every piece.

Dig deeper: How to create images and visuals with generative AI

Diversifying and repurposing content across channels is no longer optional. It’s essential for building a resilient brand presence.

AI makes this far easier by taking on the heavy lifting of format adaptation.

Your most valuable content assets can live multiple lives: a research report can spawn dozens of social posts, videos, and media pitches.

A single great insight can become an infographic, a blog, a webinar, and a Reddit AMA.

With AI handling the transformation and distribution at scale, you can ensure that no piece of content potential goes untapped.

The payoff is greater reach, more engagement, and a brand that appears ubiquitously wherever your audience (or the algorithms) might look.

AI tools and agents will transform 2025 marketing strategies and workflows

If there’s one overarching lesson in all of this, it’s that AI isn’t replacing great marketers – it’s amplifying their proven workflows and freeing up time for even greater innovation.

The brands that outpace their competition in the next 1–3 years will use AI to scale proven marketing workflows.

Humans will stay relentlessly focused on driving creativity, building community, and establishing trust.

Forward-thinking teams are already investing in comprehensive AI toolkits that touch every aspect of marketing:

Content research and clustering.
Content optimization.
Digital PR outreach.
Technical SEO analysis.
Social media scheduling.
Sentiment analysis.
And much more.

These early adopters recognize that nearly every marketing workflow will have some element that AI can improve.

By experimenting now, they’re building a foundation of AI-augmented processes that will be standard practice for everyone else a few years later.

The message for marketing leaders is clear: don’t wait.

Encourage your team to pilot AI in different parts of your operation and see what boosts your efficiency or results.
Create internal case studies of what works (and share these insights with peers, contributing to industry knowledge).

Remember, the goal isn’t to hand everything over to machines. It’s to let machines do what they’re great at so that humans can do what they’re great at.

The winning formula is AI + human, not AI vs. human.

In 2025 and beyond, success in SEO and cross-channel marketing will come down to this balance.

The hype cycles will continue – new tools, algorithms, and platforms – but the fundamentals remain.

Know your audience.
Create real value.
Earn trust.
Be everywhere your audience is looking.

AI is simply the newest (and arguably most powerful) set of tools to help you execute on those fundamentals at scale.

Those who embrace these tools thoughtfully will:

Safeguard their brand’s visibility.
Reclaim precious time to focus on strategy and big ideas.
Foster the human connections that truly build brands.

And that’s a winning playbook, no matter how search evolves.

Bottom line?

AI will boost your growth strategy if you don’t shy away from being an innovator on the technology adoption curve.

Your 2025 brand goal is simple.

Repurpose your most valuable content to achieve cross-channel brand visibility, authority, and engagement where your target market resides.
Hedge against the rapidly evolving AI landscape that will reshape consumer behavior over the next 12-36 months.

Read more at Read More

Google Search Console updates its Merchant opportunities report

April 8, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

Google announced it has refreshed and renamed the Search Console report now known as the Merchant opportunities report. Previously, this report was named the Search Console Shopping tab listings report, when it was introduced in November 2022.

The Merchant opportunities report within Google Search Console can show you recommendations for improving how your online shop appears on Google.

What Google said. Google posted on LinkedIn about this report saying:

“Today we’re refreshing the Search Console Shopping tab listings report to also include details about payments methods and store ratings. To bring the report name in line with its functionality, we’re renaming it to be the “Merchant opportunities report”.

Check it out and make sure to add important info about your store, so customers can see it when shopping on Google.”

The report. Here is a screenshot of this report:

As you can see, this report will tell you what you are missing when it comes to Google Merchant Center and your fields in that area. The help document goes on to explain:

Adding store information can improve the display of your products and help people when they’re shopping on Google. If you’ve created and associated your Merchant Center account under Merchant opportunities in Search Console, you’ll see suggested opportunities, including:

You can return to the report to see if your information is pending, approved, or flagged for issues that need fixing.

Why we care. If you sell product on your site, this is a report you want to make sure to review and see what opportunities you are missing with your e-commerce site setup. You can then plug those items and hopefully get more exposure within Google Search, Shopping and even local results.

Read more at Read More

10 Ways to Create Helpful Content + Examples and Checklist

April 7, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News/by

Like it or not, we’re all at the mercy of Google’s ranking systems.

Systems that reward some sites with high rankings.

And wipe others off the SERPs overnight.

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Google provides fairly detailed guidelines about the type of content it’s looking for: helpful content.

We follow these guidelines here at Backlinko.

For example, our SEO strategy guide dominates the search results.

And ranks for more than 3.2K long tail keywords:

Organic Research – Backlinko – SEO Strategy

But this wasn’t by luck.

We aim for every article we publish to meet — or exceed — Google’s helpful content standards.

And you can, too.

After reading this article, you’ll have 10 Google-approved strategies for creating people-first content.

You’ll also see examples from real sites that excel at creating helpful content.

Plus, you’ll get a free checklist to ensure your pages meet Google’s quality standards.

Let’s start by understanding what “helpful content” is in Google’s eyes.

What Is Helpful Content?

Helpful content delivers what a searcher needs, whether they’re seeking information, researching options, or ready to buy.

It’s content written for people — not search engines.

But what was the Google Helpful Content Update (HCU)?

First launched in 2022, Google’s helpful content update was designed to reward people-first content while filtering out pages created primarily for search engines.

According to Google, helpful content does the following:

Provides trustworthy information backed by genuine expertise
Delivers substantial value compared to competing results
Demonstrates firsthand experience with the topic
Creates a satisfying user experience
Serves a purpose beyond just ranking in search

Google uses a site-wide classifier. It checks your whole domain, not just single pages, for helpfulness.

This means a significant amount of low-quality content can drag down even your best pages.

The biggest changes to this algorithm update took place in late 2023 and early 2024. Some sites lost A LOT of organic traffic.

Google confirms it reduced low-quality content in search results by a staggering 45%.

The sites hit hardest by these updates were:

Content-only websites with no actual products or services
Sites creating articles purely for search traffic
Affiliate sites with thin content and/or a high monetization-to-informational content ratio

The HCU aftermath sparked lots of debate about whether or not these updates were truly “helpful.”

And if the declines and deindexings were warranted.

But the reality remains: Google determines your visibility in search.

And as the makers (and breakers) of rankings, following their guidelines is essential.

As of March 2024, the helpful content update is no longer a thing.

But helpfulness isn’t going away. The HCU is now integrated into Google’s core ranking systems.

Bottom line?

Creating helpful content is vital for your survival in search.

10 Ways to Create Helpful Content That Google Rewards

There’s no sugarcoating it:

Creating exceptional content is hard work.

But it can pay off through high rankings and targeted traffic.

Download our Helpful Content Checklist to follow along as you read. Use it before hitting publish to ensure your content meets Google’s quality standards.

1. Incorporate Firsthand Experiences

Want to instantly make your content more helpful?

Add personal stories and examples (real ones — not AI-generated).

Why?

Because it shows you actually know what you’re talking about — which is exactly what Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) prioritize.

Google advises against generic, regurgitated advice on its website:

By including personal experiences in your content — including your successes and failures — you’ll create the kind of content search engines reward.

And your target audience wants to read.

Take this backlink guide from Backlinko founder Brian Dean, for example:

Brian didn’t just give generic advice like “create great content” or “reach out to bloggers.”

He shared specific tactics and advice that actually worked for him, including:

Real email templates he’s used for outreach
Screenshots showing actual results
Step-by-step instructions
Tool recommendations
Specific case studies with traffic metrics

Backlinko – High quality backlinks – Intro

The result?

Content that feels like you’re learning from someone who’s been there, done that — not canned advice you can find on any site.

No wonder this guide has maintained high rankings for years.

And generated 31.5K backlinks.

Backlink Analytics – Backlinko – High quality backlinks

Pro tip: When sharing personal experiences, focus on specific outcomes and measurable results. Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines value demonstrable expertise. So, don’t just say, “This worked for me,” explain exactly how and in what timeframe. Include photos and screenshots when possible to back up claims.

2. Add Expert Insights and Quotes

Expert quotes add authority and new perspectives to your content.

They also help you meet Google’s helpful content expectations by providing insights readers can’t find elsewhere.

Even if you have personal experience with a topic, expert opinions add dimension and alternative perspectives that make your content more comprehensive and helpful.

Expert quotes strengthen your content in multiple ways:

Add credibility to your claims
Provide unique insights
Create content that’s difficult for competitors to replicate

For a great example of this in action, look at pet company Chewy.

Their content often contains insights from board-certified veterinarians and animal behaviorists.

This makes it more authoritative and trustworthy.

Source expert insights through:

Original interviews (via email, phone, or video)
Reaching out to experts on LinkedIn, X, or industry-specific sites and forums
Attending industry events and networking for insights
Using a media outreach platform

As Nate Matherson, head of growth at Numeral, says:

When writing blog posts, I often source expert insights from leaders in the SEO industry for my weekly SEO podcast, Optimize. For example, after interviewing Ethan Smith, the CEO of Graphite, on my podcast, I repurposed one of his quotes about topical authority to use in a blog post on the same topic.

3. Create Content That Meets Search Intent

Understanding and satisfying search intent is fundamental to helpful content.

For example, if someone searches “how to fix a leaky faucet,” they want clear, step-by-step instructions — not a sales page for plumbing services.

Content that addresses their actual goal (fixing the faucet themselves) will be considered more helpful.

But first, you need to understand the four main types of search intent:

Informational: Seeking knowledge — “how to fix a leaky faucet”
Navigational: Looking for a specific website — “Home Depot plumbing”
Commercial: Researching options — “best tankless water heaters”
Transactional: Ready to buy — “buy Moen touchless kitchen faucet”

Not sure if you’re creating people-first content that meets search intent?

Consider these points from Google:

After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal? Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?

If the answer to either question is “no,” your content isn’t fully addressing search intent.

To better meet search intent:

Analyze the current top-ranking pages for your target keywords
Note what format dominates (guides, lists, videos, etc.)
Use a keyword research tool to check search intent for each term and identify related questions and topics. Keyword Magic Tool is helpful for this task.
Use clear headings that answer specific questions
Include practical next steps or related resources
Demonstrate topical authority by addressing all relevant subtopics and common pain points in your content

Start your keyword research

Explore the largest keyword database.

4. Use Reputable Sources

Using high-quality sources (and citing them) is important for all sites.

It signals to readers and search engines that the information you’re sharing is reputable, accurate, and verifiable.

Well+Good, a wellness site, demonstrates this in its article about medication safety:

They support every health claim with information from:

Board-certified psychiatrists
Professors of psychiatry and behavioral sciences
Peer-reviewed medical journals
Reputable health resources, like .gov sites.

Well+Good – Reputable sources support health claim

When evaluating sources for your content, follow these best practices:

Prioritize recognized authorities in the field (major universities, established publications, industry leaders)
Check publication dates to ensure information is current
Check that you’re referencing the original source of the information
Look for potential conflicts of interest or bias in the source’s funding or affiliations

Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines place heavy emphasis on trustworthiness.

And nothing builds trust faster than showing readers you’ve based your information on solid, reputable sources.

5. Hire Writers with Topical Experience

When it comes to helpful content, experience matters.

So, prioritize writers with backgrounds in your niche over generalists.

This will benefit your content in multiple ways:

More practical, nuanced advice that only comes from hands-on experience
Insider tips that readers can’t find on other sites
Real examples and case studies that build immediate trust

For example, Harvard Health Publishing features physicians as their content creators.

harvard-health-publishing-content-creators

These writers have impressive qualifications.

Including clinical experience, research credentials, and specialized knowledge in their medical fields.

Harvard Health Publishing – Writer's qualifications

This level of expertise is particularly important for Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) topics, where accuracy directly impacts reader well-being.

But experienced writers are valuable across all blog niches, from beauty to travel.

For instance, Family Vacationist, a travel blog, features contributors who have personally visited the destinations they cover.

Family vacationist – Writer – Insider tips

This is evident by the insider tips they give.

Including advice on the best rides for kids, the tastiest treats in theme parks, and which hotels to stay at and why.

Harvard Health Publishing – Insider tips on the topic

Family Vacationist also highlights its writers’ experience in bios.

Including relevant publications where they’ve been featured.

Even if you already have experienced writers, an expert review process will add another layer of credibility to your content.

Have subject matter experts fact-check your information
Include reviewer credentials directly in your content
Highlight your review process on your editorial standards page

For example, home services company Angi has experts review its content and features them prominently with a byline.

The expert reviewer also gets a bio to highlight their qualifications.

Investing in topic experts signals to readers and search engines that you’re committed to delivering accurate content and genuine value, not just ranking for keywords.

Pro tip: Create a database of expert reviewers categorized by specialty, experience level, and publication history. When new content needs arise, you’ll know exactly who to contact for a review.

6. Provide an Optimal Page Experience

Page experience is a critical component of helpful content.

If your page loads slowly or is hard to navigate, readers will leave. It doesn’t matter how good your information is.

But as Google states on its website (in slightly different words), doing the bare minimum won’t cut it.

For the best results, cover all aspects of the page experience rather than focusing on isolated elements.

Here’s how:

Analyze Your Current Performance

Use PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report to establish your baseline metrics.

Focus on the following scores:

If your assessment fails, follow the tool’s recommendations to improve these metrics.

Like reducing unused JavaScript and third-party code.

Pro tip: Use a tool like Semrush’s Site Audit to get weekly updates about your site’s technical performance. You’ll get automatic updates about issues affecting page experience, including loading speed, crawlability, broken links, large files, and more.

Optimize Images

Compress images without sacrificing quality using tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or built-in CMS optimizers.

This will keep your images from dragging down your page speed.

Test Across All Device Types

Ensure your site has a responsive design that works across desktops, tablets, and various mobile screen sizes.

Use Chrome DevTools or BrowserStack to test how your site performs on popular devices and browsers.

Pay special attention to touch targets on mobile.

Check that buttons and links are easily tappable without accidental clicks.

Improve Security

Use HTTPS across your entire site to build user trust and meet Google’s requirements for secure browsing.

Google Search Console’s HTTPS report will tell you if your pages are secure. (And what to fix if they’re not.)

You’ll also want to configure proper SSL certificates and ensure all resources load securely.

Optimize Above-the-Fold Content

Prioritize loading essential above-the-fold content (aka content that appears on a webpage before scrolling) to capture web visitors’ attention.

And draw them to your most important content or assets.

Minimize unnecessary elements that push key content below the fold, especially on mobile devices.

Balance Monetization with User Experience

If you use display ads, ensure they don’t trigger layout shifts, overwhelm content, or create friction points for readers.

Reserve space for ads in your layout to prevent content jumps when they load.

7. Seek Information Gain (aka Bring Something New to the SERPs)

Google hasn’t said that “information gain” is a ranking factor, but it aligns with their emphasis on adding value to search results.

Information gain means adding something new to the topic. Something readers can’t find anywhere else.

I’ve mentioned some information gain methods already, like firsthand experiences and expert quotes.

But there are other ways to achieve information gain, including the following:

Original research: Survey your audience or industry and publish the findings
Proprietary frameworks: Develop your own scoring system or methodology
Product testing: Go beyond specs to share real-world performance

For example, the finance site NerdWallet goes to great lengths to thoroughly review different financial products.

Like credit cards, savings accounts, and personal loans.

As part of that effort, they created a NerdWallet star rating methodology.

But they don’t use a one-size-fits-all rating system.

They created separate methodologies for each financial product category.

Why?

Because different factors matter for different financial decisions.

NerdWallet – Star rating methodologies by topic

They also published detailed explanations of how they weigh different factors in their rating system.

This helps give their star rating system more credibility.

You’ll see these ratings on various NerdWallet reviews to help readers choose the best products for their needs.

Like this one for a credit card:

The key takeaway here?

Information gain often requires a significant upfront investment.

Whether in time, money, or both.

But it leads to something valuable: content that competitors can’t replicate overnight.

8. Refresh Existing Content

Creating new content isn’t always the best strategy.

Sometimes, updating what you already have delivers better results with less effort.

Fresh, comprehensive content shows Google you’re committed to quality and accuracy.

It can also help boost your rankings.

In my experience, updating existing content often delivers faster traffic gains than creating new pieces. A blog post I wrote for Positional about title tags basically sat in the same SERP position for nine months. After revamping the post with additional information, it shot up in rankings almost immediately — and the ranking and traffic gains have held.

When refreshing content, prioritize these improvements:

Update statistics and examples with current data
Enhance visuals and formatting for a better user experience
Incorporate new expert insights or research
Fix outdated advice or recommendations
Target evolving search intent

Warning: Updating old content with a new date to appear “fresh” without substantial changes won’t fool Google. Focus on genuine updates that add new value, insights, or relevant information to improve the reader’s experience.

9. Create Helpful Graphics and Videos

Helpful content doesn’t just mean the words on the page.

Graphics and videos can also be valuable additions that improve reader comprehension and engagement.

When creating visuals for your content:

Focus on clarifying complex ideas, not just adding decoration
Create custom graphics rather than using generic stock images
Ensure videos add unique value beyond what’s in the written content
Use callout boxes to highlight key takeaways

At Backlinko, we take visual content seriously.

You’ll often see us using screenshots from various analytics programs to highlight results and showcase website performance.

Backlinko – Information gain – Visual content

Our custom graphics illustrate key points and make complex topics more digestible.

They also keep readers engaged throughout the article.

Backlinko – How to start a blog – Graphics

We use tables to make data-heavy topics more digestible.

And improve the readability and retention of our content.

We also use callout boxes to break up text and add more value.

Like side notes and pro tips.

Backlinko – How to start a blog – Pro tip

Visual elements make your content more appealing and effective at conveying ideas clearly.

They can also help you improve your bounce rate.

10. Be Strategic with AI Writing Tools

AI writing tools can be great assistants, but they shouldn’t replace human writers.

In fact, Google warns against “using extensive automation to produce content on many topics.”

GSC – Avoid creating search engine-first content

Google’s March 2024 update specifically targeted sites using AI to generate low-quality content at scale.

Google search update – March 2024 – Scaled content

As a result, many websites with large amounts of AI-generated content saw dramatic ranking and indexing issues.

But if you read its guidelines, you’ll see that Google isn’t technically against using AI.

As they say on their site — they reward high-quality content “however it’s produced.”

This is a little bit of a gray area, though.

Your idea of high-quality, human-edited AI content may not match Google’s.

But overall, avoid using AI to create low-quality, unoriginal content to manipulate rankings:

Including:

Publishing AI-generated articles without significant human input
Creating entire pieces with no subject-matter expertise
Relying on AI for factual claims without verification
Generating content solely to target keywords with no real value

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to benefit from AI content tools while staying in Google’s good graces.

This includes:

Summarizing research papers or creating key takeaways
Suggesting potential structures based on top-ranking content
Creating (very) rough drafts of blog posts, email marketing, newsletters, and more
Improving clarity, fixing grammar issues, or suggesting better phrasing
Generating topic ideas or angles for your content

The key?

Use AI as a foundation, not a final product.

Enhance it with your expertise, personal experiences, and fact-checking to satisfy Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.

Bonus: Evaluate Your Content’s Helpfulness with Google’s “Who-How-Why” Framework

Want a simple way to assess if your content meets Google’s helpful content standards?

Use their Who-How-Why framework.

Who Created the Content?

The “Who” question focuses on expertise and credibility.

Google wants to see clear information on the team behind your content.

This can be strategists, writers, editors, fact-checkers, and expert reviewers.

Add detailed author bios that highlight relevant experience and credentials
Include prominent bylines on all articles where readers would expect them
Link bylines to author pages with additional background information

For example, the National Council on Aging (NCOA) highlights its writers’ experience and expertise prominently in bios.

Including medical credentials, education, and writing experience.

This transparency builds trust with both readers and search engines.

How Was the Content Created?

The “How” question is all about transparency in your process.

Google wants to know:

What research or testing methods did you use?
How thorough was your approach?
Did you use AI assistance? (If so, how?)

If you conducted product testing, explain your methodology.

Don’t just say, “We tested 10 products.”

Be specific.

For example, the NCOA highlights its testing data on articles.

Including how many hours of research went into their testing.

And how many experts they consulted.

NCOA – Why you can trust-our expert review

Why Does the Content Exist?

The “Why” question is the most critical — and the one most likely to trigger ranking issues.

Ask yourself:

Is this content primarily for helping people? (Good)
Is it primarily for attracting search traffic? (Bad)

If you’re only publishing to rank for keywords without providing unique value, Google will eventually catch on.

Instead, create content that would be valuable even if search engines didn’t exist.

Content that people would seek out directly.

Like this in-depth NCOA guide on respite care that would be valuable to its target audience, whether on- or offline.

NCOA – Content that people seek directly

Put This Helpful-Content Framework into Action

Want results? Stop creating content just to check an SEO box.

The sites that dominate search results are those that genuinely help their audiences.

With the 10 strategies in this guide, you’ll create content that Google recognizes as truly valuable.

And attracts traffic because it deserves to rank, not because it’s gaming the system.

So, download our Helpful Content Checklist if you haven’t already.

Then, check out our Content Gap Analysis guide to identify untapped opportunities where you can apply these principles.

You’ll discover where to focus your efforts for maximum impact so you stand out on the SERPs — and withstand Google’s next update.

The post 10 Ways to Create Helpful Content + Examples and Checklist appeared first on Backlinko.

Read more at Read More

Using AI to generate great SEO titles and meta descriptions

April 7, 2025/0 Comments/in Web Design News, Yoast SEO/by

You need compelling titles and meta descriptions to attract visitors from search results and encourage users to click. Manually writing these elements for every page can be quite challenging. Generative AI can streamline this process by automating it. However, you should check the AI-generated suggestions critically. This post will show various methods for generating effective titles and meta descriptions using generative AI for SEO.

AI titles and meta descriptions for SEO

Titles and meta descriptions act as your web page’s representatives in the SERPs. These snippets are often the first impression users get of your content, impacting their decision to click and explore further. Therefore, engaging titles and meta descriptions are key to capturing attention, showing relevance, and getting users to visit your site. Generative AI can help write effective ones. When done correctly, integrating generative AI with SEO can be very beneficial.

Improving click-through rates (CTR) and UX

Titles and meta descriptions that sell your content help improve click-through rates. Compelling titles and descriptions are relevant to the users’ search query, which helps them to click on your link.

A higher CTR signals to search engines that your content is valuable, which could lead to more traffic. Moreover, describing the essence of your content helps users find what they’re seeking. This could lead to more engagement, more time spent on your website, and, ultimately, SEO success.

A helpful AI tool in Yoast SEO Premium

Experience the benefits of generative AI and make your work simpler today!

Get Yoast SEO Premium Only $99 / year (ex VAT)

The (un)predictability of Google’s rewriting game

While you invest time and effort in writing titles and meta descriptions, it’s important to note that Google often rewrites them on the SERPs. Therefore, there’s no guarantee that your carefully written titles and meta descriptions will always appear as intended.

Google often thinks it knows how to present your site best. It tends to rewrite stuff to provide users with the most relevant and informative snippets that align with their search intent. Thus, it may rephrase or modify a title or meta description if it believes its version matches the user’s query or accurately represents the content.

Although Google’s rewriting will happen, optimizing your titles and meta descriptions remains useful. Generating good, relevant content increases the likelihood that Google will use your title and meta description.

Use the AI in Yoast SEO Premium to generate titles

Yoast SEO uses AI to generate titles and meta descriptions. Imagine not having to struggle with writing the perfect meta descriptions and titles. Our advanced AI does it for you! It’s designed to understand your content and create engaging titles and descriptions that boost your performance.

The AI feature of Yoast SEO helps you find awesome titles and meta descriptions quickly

Using generative AI to create powerful titles

For SEO, generative AI is a helpful tool for automating the writing of optimized titles. Using state-of-the-art generative AI models like GPT-based models, we can improve our work and generate tailor-made titles for our target audience.

Did you know?

Learn about generative AI and SEO at Yoast SEO Academy

Want to learn how to adapt SEO content strategies for AI? Looking to gain a competitive advantage by integrating AI tools? Check out our training course on AI for SEO!

How to evaluate AI-generated titles

Getting models to spit out titles is not hard, but what comes next is more important. You should check for relevance, keywords, length, uniqueness, and branding when evaluating AI-generated titles. Your titles should be effective and appropriate for your content:

Clarity and relevance: The title should accurately convey the subject and main focus of the content. It should tell what the page or article is about so that users can see how relevant it is before clicking on it.
Keyword optimization: Incorporate relevant keywords that fit the content and help search engines understand it. However, keep the title natural and readable, avoiding keyword stuffing or over-optimization.
Length and readability: The title must be within a certain length to be fully displayed. It must also be easy to read, with proper grammar and punctuation, so users can quickly understand it.
Engaging and unique: Titles that stand out are more likely to attract clicks. Use AI-generated titles that evoke curiosity, offer a benefit, or create a sense of urgency. Always try to make your titles unique and different from those of your competitors.
Brand consistency: Check if the AI-generated title aligns with your brand voice and guidelines. Make sure it represents your brand’s personality and values while being consistent across your content.

Remember, there’s still no substitute for human experience. Please take the time to manually improve the work of the generative AI tool of your choice.

Using AI-generated meta descriptions

Titles are not the only things you need to look at, as meta descriptions also play an important role. These summaries get users to click on your link and explore your website. You can optimize your meta descriptions using generative AI to be engaging, informative, and aligned with search intent.

Check the AI-generated meta description

Here are a few aspects to consider when checking AI-generated meta descriptions. In general, look for relevance, length, clickability, and if it has the correct tone of voice.

Ensure that the generated meta description accurately reflects the page’s content for relevance. Verify that the description captures the main topic or purpose of the page and includes relevant keywords or phrases that users might search for.

Looking at length and readability, you should check the length of the generated meta description. Make sure it falls within the desired character limit (around 150-160 characters). Check the readability and clarity of the text so it flows smoothly and is easy to understand for users. See if the message comes across in this short piece of text.

Clickability is important. Consider whether the generated meta description is likely to attract user clicks. Does it address the user’s search intent, highlight the page’s proposition, or create a sense of curiosity or urgency? Aim for attractive descriptions that encourage users to click through to your website.

Another aspect is tone and brand voice. Review the tone and style of the generated meta description to ensure it aligns with your brand voice and messaging guidelines. Does it accurately represent your brand’s personality and values? Make any necessary adjustments to maintain consistency.

Checking generated content using human expertise

Once you have your AI-generated titles and meta descriptions, check these for quality, relevance, and alignment with your objectives. Manual review and refinement from an expert are vital in perfecting the generated content.

Reviewing for quality and coherence

Begin your evaluation by checking the generated titles and meta descriptions for quality and coherence. Assess the language, grammatical correctness, and overall readability. Identify inconsistencies or errors that make the content difficult to understand. By making necessary edits, you improve the quality of the generated content.

Check relevance to content and context

While reviewing the generated output, evaluate its alignment with its content. Consider the specific web page and its context to ensure the generated content accurately portrays the page’s main topic, theme, or purpose and adjust where necessary.

Check brand voice and message

Like any other content, aligning the generated titles and meta descriptions with your brand’s voice, messaging, and tone is critical. Assess how the generated content reflects your brand’s personality and if it resonates with your] audience. Make edits to add your brand’s unique identity to the content while preserving readability.

Optimize keyphrase integration

See if the generated titles and meta descriptions have your target keyword phrases. Keywords play a crucial role in optimizing your content for search engine rankings. Check if the generated content naturally integrates the keywords and their variations.

Analyzing user engagement metrics

In addition to manual review, you should also analyze user engagement metrics to assess the effectiveness of the generated titles and meta descriptions. Monitor impressions, click-through rates, bounce rates, and time spent on the page to understand their impact. Compare the AI-generated content’s performance against alternative variations to determine the best-performing options.

Incorporating human input and expertise

While generative AI can help generate titles and meta descriptions, you shouldn’t underestimate the value of human expertise. Generative AI models are trained on data but lack intuition and an understanding of contextual nuances. By implementing manual review and refinement, you can add your creative insights, industry-specific knowledge, and brand context to the content.

Balancing SEO optimization and user value

Using generative AI for generating titles and meta descriptions is balancing between search engine optimization and delivering value to users. This can help your content perform well in search results while providing your audience with an engaging and meaningful experience.

Understanding user intent

To strike the right balance, understand the intent behind user searches. Analyze the keywords and search queries relevant to your content and consider users’ motivations and expectations when they land on your page.

Providing clear and concise information

When writing, please make sure your titles and meta descriptions tell what users can expect from your page. Clearly outline your content’s main topic, purpose, or value proposition. Use concise language to capture users’ attention and encourage them to click through.

Showcasing unique selling points (USPs)

Titles and meta descriptions are excellent opportunities for your unique selling points. What sets your page or product apart from the competition? Does it offer a unique perspective, in-depth analysis, or insights? By using these selling points in the content, you entice users and demonstrate the value they stand to gain by visiting your page.

Engaging and connecting with users

Titles and meta descriptions help user engagement. Use compelling language, emotional triggers, and storytelling elements that resonate with your audience. Emphasize the benefits, solutions, or outcomes users can achieve by interacting with your content. Stir curiosity or create urgency that helps users to click through and explore further.

Prioritizing readability and usability

Prioritize the readability and usability of your titles and meta descriptions. Use clear and concise language, making information easily understandable. Structure the content in a scannable format, and use proper punctuation and well-defined sections. Make sure the generated output doesn’t compromise readability by focusing solely on optimization.

AI for titles and metas, with a human in the loop

Generative AI can simplify and optimize the creation of titles and meta descriptions. You can save time, improve click-through rates, and elevate user engagement using AI. Yoast SEO Premium has a helpful AI tool that lets you generate titles and meta descriptions with the click of a button.

However, it’s crucial to remember that AI should improve human expertise, not replace it. Combine the creativity of human writers with generative AI to create titles and meta descriptions that are optimized, captivating, and valuable to users.

The post Using AI to generate great SEO titles and meta descriptions appeared first on Yoast.

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Integrating SEO into omnichannel marketing for seamless engagement

April 7, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

With customers now discovering content across traditional search engines, LLMs, social media, and beyond, the need for an integrated, omnichannel strategy is more important than ever.

Relying on isolated channel strategies no longer works.

Customers engage with brands across multiple touchpoints before making decisions, and they expect seamless, personalized experiences.

An effective omnichannel approach aligns all marketing efforts – ensuring consistency, maximizing visibility, and driving meaningful interactions.

As omnichannel marketing continues to evolve, integrating SEO across all channels is essential for sustained growth.

This article explores why a unified strategy is critical and how SEO can work across channels to enhance the customer journey and drive results.

Why an omnichannel approach to SEO is critical in 2025

Here are seven trends that make an omnichannel approach vital to business success and growth.

1. The shift away from third-party cookies

The decline of third-party cookies has made it harder for brands to track users across the buyer journey.

An omnichannel approach to data collection and centralization helps mitigate these challenges and lays the foundation for an effective strategy.

2. Growth of LLMs and AI-powered search

The growth of alternate avenues for audiences to find information adds to the complexity of the buyer’s journey.

This presents additional attribution challenges.

3. Zero-click searches and decreasing top-funnel traffic

Due to the rise in zero-click searches, traffic to websites from top-of-the-funnel information-seeking terms is declining.

4. Importance of SEO

Despite the growth in zero-click searches, SEO remains the primary source of traffic for most businesses and the channel with the highest long-term ROI.

AI Overviews and AI-generated results mainly pull information from the top organic results.

5. Search is multi-modal

This means written content is not the only content you need to optimize.

To effectively saturate SERPs, you must optimize all your digital assets, including images, videos, and PDFs.

6. Personalized experiences

Personalization is key to customer engagement. Up to 71% of consumers expect it, while 76% find generic content frustrating, per a McKinsey study.

Businesses that prioritize personalized marketing can see up to a 40% increase in revenue.

An omnichannel approach ensures marketers focus on customer intent rather than marketing channels.

7. Unified customer experience with agent economy

The growth of artificial intelligence has resulted in the emergence of an agent economy, where AI agents are beginning to revolutionize marketing and digital experiences.

They can easily connect dots across multiple channels to deliver a unified customer experience.

Tackling the visibility dilemma in customer journeys

With all the changes in the industry, consumer behavior, and technological advancements, we need to answer important questions that marketers are confused about.

How can you learn about audience intent even when they do not visit the site after a search?
How do you gather data on your audience’s behavior after they leave your site if they do not convert during their first visit?
How can you develop effective SEO, paid, zero-click, and content strategies with limited visibility into the customer journey and insights into customer intent and personas?
How can you provide personalized experiences without third-party data, limited traffic, and visibility into your customers’ journeys?

This is where an omnichannel approach can help businesses enhance visibility, drive meaningful interactions, and create a seamless path to conversion.

Building blocks of an omnichannel strategy

A true omnichannel strategy is no longer limited to traditional marketing channels like SEO, paid, email, social media, etc.

Today, it is about delivering a unified experience at every stage in the customer journey at every touchpoint.

It includes effectively using channel-agnostic strategies and tactics, such as personalization, AI agents, conversion optimization, A-B testing, and co-optimization.

Here are five building blocks for creating an omnichannel strategy that truly engages your audiences consistently across touchpoints in an AI-powered world.

Reliable data

Ensure you have the necessary infrastructure to gather and segment customer data accurately.

AI can then be layered to:

Build audience cohorts.
Predict user journeys.
Deliver real-time personalized experiences.

Dig deeper: How to boost your marketing revenue with personalization, connectivity and data

Artificial intelligence

Having an organizational AI strategy is key to ensuring the effective use of AI, not just for content generation but also for improving:

Efficiency.
Process automation.
Customer data segmentation.
Forecasting.
Real-time personalization at scale.
And more.

Dig deeper: 4 pillars of an effective enterprise AI strategy

Digital assets

Having a digital asset manager that lets you centralize, optimize, and distribute all your digital assets across marketing channels is key to ensuring consistency and reducing duplication.

Dig deeper: Visual optimization must-haves for AI-powered search

Infrastructure

Search-friendly infrastructure and content management system are crucial for effectively crawling and indexing your content, and delivering an engaging, personalized experience to your visitors.

Dig deeper: How to select a CMS that powers SEO, personalization and growth

Structured data and entity optimization

All search engines, including LLMs, detect entities within your content to understand what your content is all about.

Structured data – or schema markup – helps search engines detect entities and all your digital assets.

This helps maximize your content visibility and SERP saturation.

Dig deeper: Future-proof your SERP presence: 6 areas to focus on

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.

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9 steps to integrating SEO into an omnichannel customer journey

You can start developing your omnichannel strategy while closing any gaps you have identified in the building blocks.

Step 1: Audience and intent mapping

Start with your audience and intent. Identifying target audience personas and their intent is the first step in audience mapping. It is important to review:

Content performance: Evaluate performance of page types or templates to understand gaps in content strategy (e.g., category pages vs. product details pages vs. location pages vs. blog content).
Search engagement insights: Search console data can help identify high-intent terms with low click-through rates. This information can inform zero-click and CTR optimization strategies.
Channel overlaps: Identifying how visitors overlap across channels is key to crafting an integrated and unified experience. For example, paid and organic channels must work together to saturate the full funnel and maximize ROI from both channels.
Conversion optimization: Content with high engagement can provide insights into visitor intent. This can help define A-B tests, UI/UX enhancements, and personalization strategies.

Step 2: Define clear strategic goals

The next step is to have clear and smart goals that you want your omnichannel strategy to achieve:

Set specific, measurable business objectives (revenue growth, customer retention, growing market share, etc.)
Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for channel-specific and overall performance. For example, if the goal is to improve visibility, the primary KPIs should be around impressions, clicks and rich results visibility. Traffic or conversions can be secondary KPIs but should not be the primary success criteria.
Create baseline metrics to measure improvement against current performance.
Develop a measurement framework that accounts for cross-channel attribution challenges.

Step 3: Map the customer journey across all touchpoints

Traditional funnel is changing rapidly.

Brands should be ready to respond to customers across all touchpoints fast and with quality.

Develop a comprehensive understanding of how customers interact with your brand:

Create detailed personas representing your target audience segments.
Identify patterns in cross-channel journeys using path analysis in analytics and create common use cases.
Aggregate and centralize data across customer touchpoints (website analytics, CRM, sales data, app usage, etc.)
Segment customers based on behavioral patterns rather than just demographics.
Quantify the value/attribution as a combination of different journey paths and touchpoints.
Measure channel preference and effectiveness across different customer segments.

Step 4: Omnichannel audit

Based on your goals and journey maps, evaluate your current channel gaps and capabilities:

SEO audit: Analyze search visibility metrics, technical health scores, and overall SEO performance.
Content audit: Measure content performance data, topical and entity coverage, competitive gaps, engagement rates, conversion impact, and cross-channel content effectiveness.
Local presence assessment: Evaluate local search visibility metrics and location-specific engagement.
Experience audit: Analyze drop-off points and measure cross-channel friction.
Data and technology assessment: Evaluate data collection and measurement framework to optimize your data infrastructure.
Full-funnel audit: Learn from your visitors. Past visitor data can provide meaningful insights into audience segments, what visitors engage with, and where they drop off in the conversion funnel. This can help identify opportunities for co-optimization, A-B tests and delivering personalized experiences across channels.

Step 5: Develop your integrated channel strategy

Here, focus on aligning your channels to ensure they work together seamlessly and support your overall business goals.

Prioritize channels according to attribution data and customer value metrics.
Leverage machine learning and predictive analytics to forecast the impact of each channel.
Use predictive analytics to determine the optimal channel mix.
Set channel-specific targets that ladder up to overall business objectives.
Create frameworks for continuously testing and validating channel effectiveness.
Define how channels will complement and support each other across the customer journey.

Step 6: Content orchestration strategy

While a content strategy focuses on what content is needed, a content orchestration strategy also encompasses distribution frameworks that enhance audience interaction with your content.

Friction analysis

Analyze how your audience engages with your content to identify friction points. This process helps you identify, rectify, and optimize:

Inconsistencies.
Intent misalignments.
Delivery mechanisms (text, images, video, etc.).

Content intelligence

Assess the performance of your existing content across various channels and identify competitive gaps and opportunities based on audience personas and business goals.

Here are a few steps to evaluate content gaps and refine your strategy:

Identify underperforming content for optimization.
Spot gaps in content that need to be addressed across channels and stages of the customer journey.
Recognize cross-linking opportunities to create content hubs.
Prioritize new content to close competitive gaps and achieve business goals.

Cross-channel content strategy

After identifying friction points and content gaps, develop a tailored content strategy for each channel, prioritizing based on business goals:

Broader informational content to enhance awareness during the discovery stage of the customer journey (e.g., social media, blog content).
Comparison content for the consideration stage (e.g., product pages).
Landing pages focused on specific buying-intent terms during the conversion stage.

Content optimization

Optimizing content extends beyond targeting the right keywords. Your content optimization strategy should include:

Closing topical gaps in content that create friction.
Developing an entity optimization strategy to maximize content discoverability.
Implementing a click-through rate (CTR) strategy to enhance traffic from discovered content.
Optimizing visual content.
Establishing an engagement and conversion optimization strategy that includes personalization, calls to action optimization, A/B testing, messaging strategies, UI/UX optimization, and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Dig deeper: The complete guide to optimizing content for SEO (with checklist)

Step 7: Infrastructure and technical SEO

To give your content the best chance of being crawled, indexed, understood, and featured in search results for the right terms, focus on the following:

Fix technical SEO issues related to crawling, indexing, and user experience.
Ensure mobile optimization across all digital properties.
Deploy nested schema markup to enhance search visibility.
Improve page speed for all web properties and optimize Core Web Vitals.
Test cross-device compatibility.
Implement proper canonicalization for multi-regional brands.
Prioritize web accessibility by following ADA and WCAG guidelines to enhance user experience and search visibility.

Step 8: Engagement and conversion optimization

Utilize unified customer data to enhance user engagement and drive conversions:

Deliver personalized content at scale for each audience segment in real time. Personalization strategies can be based on various factors such as marketing channel or campaign, visitor location, search intent, and past behavior.
Identify and deploy AI agents that assist audiences in quickly finding information, engaging in meaningful interactions, and making real-time decisions.
Develop remarketing strategies informed by visitor behavior.
Implement A/B testing across channels, ensuring consistent test and control groups.
Measure performance across channels and optimize based on business goals and success KPIs.

Step 9: Continuously test, measure, learn, and optimize

Refine your strategy through ongoing testing and data-driven adjustments to improve performance across all channels.

Monitor performance metrics across all channels. Establish BI dashboards that connect and integrate data across channels.
Implement attribution models that effectively account for complex customer journeys.
Regularly test new channel integrations and enhancements to the customer journey.
Gather feedback from customers regarding their cross-channel experiences.
Refine your strategy based on evolving search engine algorithms and changing customer behavior.

SEO’s role in delivering a unified, cross-channel experience

Integrating SEO into the omnichannel customer journey isn’t simply for improving search presence.

Ultimately, it’s about creating discoverable, unified, and personalized experiences that guide customers naturally toward conversion.

By implementing this nine-step framework, you can:

Break down departmental silos.
Align cross-functional teams around customer needs.
Build truly seamless engagement models that drive sustainable growth.

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Data providers: Google March 2025 core update had similar volatility to the previous update

April 1, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

The Google March 2025 core update finished rolling out over a 14-day period, starting on March 13, 2025, and completed about 14 days later on March 27, 2025. This March core update took about a week longer than Google’s December 2024 core update, which started December 12, 2024 and completed about 6 days later on December 18, 2024.

Please understand that if a core update impacts a site, it can result in a huge change for that site’s search visibility. So, I do not want to diminish any core updates, including the March core update; those could have been really big for you or the sites you manage.

Data providers on the Google March 2025 core update

Semrush. Semrush (our parent company) was the first to send us data that seemed to show that the Google March 2025 core update had similar volatility than the previous core update, the December 2024 core update. Keep in mind that the December 2024 core update was more volatile than the November 2024 core update, based on the data.

If you glance at the Semrush Senor, you can see the overall volatility the tool reported over that time period:

Mordy Oberstein, who sent me the data from Semrush, told me the two were of “similar in size” when comparing the volatility. He sent me this chart showing the volatility of the past two core updates, broken down by vertical. It shows the peak volatility numbers were pretty similar between the two updates:

If you look at overall ranking volatility change comparison, you can see that the Health sector saw a much bigger change, for some reason:

But when you compare this to the baseline rank volatility, both the December and March core updates were within very similar ranges, Mordy Obertstein told us. “There’s a mere .1 difference between the two,” Obertstein added. Obertstein said he has a theory, which he will share at his session at SMX Advanced, on why he thinks that this update hit different verticals differently.

When you dive into the top ten results, you can see a notable change in what ranking changes there were between these two past core updates:

Similarweb. Similarweb’s SERP Seismometer showed the spikes in volatility cooled down with the March update. You can see it get a bit more volatile on March 13th, 14th and 15th but then start to cool again as the core update rolled out.

Darrel Mordechai from SimilarWeb told us the March 2025 core update was not the most volatile core update they’ve seen and compared to the December core update, it showed “similar levels of volatility.”

Here is a chart showing the core update volatility by average position change for the past core updates, as documented by Similarweb:

Here is when you zoom in comparing the March 2025 and December 2024 core updates, they are super close:

The current update showed slightly lower fluctuations in the top three positions but increased volatility across the top five. Here is where you can see that in this chart:

When you compare it by vertical or niche, you can see the volatility the March 2025 core update caused across the health, finance, retail, travel and finance industries. You can see the finance industry showed the highest levels of fluctuation, particularly in the top five results. In contrast, the travel industry experienced notably low volatility in the top three positions.

seoClarity. The folks at seoClarity also sent me some winners and losers reports, showing the biggest winners and losers from February to March 2025:

Other tools. There are a lot of Google search ranking volatility tools. Here is what they looked like after the core update finished rolling out and over the course of the update:

Mozcast:

Algoroo:

Advanced Web Rankings:

Accuranker:

Cognitive SEO:

Wincher:

Mangools (looks broken?):

Sistrix:

Data For SEO:

SERPstat:

Industry. The initial rollout seemed to kick in within a few days after the update was announced. Some sites saw big swings both up and down, in terms, of ranking improvements or decline. But this update did not seem as widespread as some previous core updates, where it had a wider impact on a more diverse site of sites. That is not to say this update was not big for those who were impacted by it – it 100% was very big for those sites.

During the update, some of the tracking tools were tripped up by some Google Search result page changes. That may make it hard for some to track the impact of this update. But you can use Google Search Console to see your impact for your site and see position changes for your most popular keywords.

Then, we saw some additional volatility spike at the tail end of this update.

What to do if you are hit. Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. Google has not really given much new advice here.

There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.
Google said you can see a bit of a recovery between core updates but the biggest change would be after another core update.

In short, write helpful content for people and not to rank in search engines.

“There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page,” Google said previously.

More on Google updates

You can read more of our coverage in Search Engine Land’s Google Algorithm Updates history.

Why we care. While the data above shows how sites in general are doing with the last core update, it does not represent how your individual site did with the update. If your site was hit by this past update, it can be devastating. If you were hit by previous updates and so no improvement with this update, then again, devastating once again. But some sites saw big improvements.

Feel free to compare this to our December core update report.

We hope you saw improvements with this March 2025 coe update.

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Your guide to Google Ads Smart Bidding

April 1, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

Are you controlling your paid search campaigns, or are they controlling you?

If you can’t confidently articulate your smart bidding strategies, you lose conversions and credibility.

True mastery isn’t just about setting up a campaign and picking a bid strategy; it’s about owning and communicating the process effectively.

This guide is your roadmap to clarity and control, breaking down 2025’s Smart Bidding into actionable insights.

We’ll cover key concepts, common mistakes, and actionable tips for picking the right strategy.

Smart Bidding in Google Ads: AI-powered bid optimization

Smart Bidding is Google Ads’ advanced form of automated bidding.

It leverages machine learning and real-time auction signals to optimize bids for conversions or conversion value.

It dynamically adjusts bids to achieve specific goals, such as maximizing conversions at a target cost or achieving a desired return on ad spend.

Key Smart Bidding strategies include:

Target CPA (cost per action)

Optimizes bids to achieve conversions at a target cost per action.
Ideal for campaigns where you have a specific cost you’re willing to pay for each conversion (e.g., lead, sale).
Example: “We aim to acquire leads at a CPA of $50.”

Dig deeper: Everything you need to know about Target CPA bidding

Target ROAS (return on ad spend)

Focuses on achieving your desired revenue for every dollar spent.
Best for ecommerce or campaigns with clear revenue goals.
Example: “We want to achieve a ROAS of 400%, meaning $4 in revenue for every $1 spent.”

Maximize Conversions

Automatically sets bids to achieve the most conversions within your budget.
Useful when you want to drive as many conversions as possible, regardless of cost.
Example: “Our goal is to maximize the number of sign-ups within our daily budget.”

Dig deeper: Mastering Maximize conversions bidding in Google Ads

Maximize Conversion Value

Prioritizes higher-value conversions for greater overall return.
Effective when different conversions have varying values to your business.
Tends to favor selling more expensive products or services, as they contribute more to the total conversion value.
Example: “We value a ‘request for quote’ more than a ‘newsletter sign-up,’ so we want to maximize the total value of conversions.”

Dig deeper: Maximize Conversion Value: Google Ads bidding explained

Maximize Clicks

Automatically sets your bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget.
Useful for top-of-funnel campaigns where the goal is to drive traffic to a site.
Example: “This campaign is designed to drive as much traffic to our new blog post as possible.”

Enhanced CPC (ECPC)

A semi-automated bidding strategy that adjusts your manual bids to try and get more conversions.
Google Ads adjusts your manual bid up or down based on the likelihood of a conversion.
Example: “We are using manual bidding but want to use Google’s signals to increase conversions where possible.”

Viewable CPM (YouTube)

Focuses on maximizing viewable impressions of your display or skippable in-stream video ads.
Ideal for brand awareness campaigns where the goal is to get your message seen by as many people as possible.
Example: “We want to ensure our brand message is visibly displayed to our target audience on YouTube.”

Cost Per View (YouTube)

Optimizes bids to get the most video views or interactions within your budget.
Best for campaigns focused on driving engagement with your video content.
Example: “We are running a video campaign on YouTube and want to maximize the number of views we receive.”

It’s crucial to understand that while setting a Target CPA or ROAS provides strategic direction, achieving those exact targets isn’t guaranteed.

I’ve had situations where a media planner pushed for an immediate switch to a specific CPA goal.

They wanted the target set at four times and wouldn’t budge or try to understand why the campaign was set at two times.

A common misconception is that simply setting a desired metric will automatically yield the desired results.

In practice, achieving optimal performance often requires a nuanced approach.

This may involve:

Gradual bid adjustments.
A willingness to accept temporary fluctuations in ROAS for broader account health.
A comprehensive evaluation of multiple factors, including budget, historical campaign performance, and keyword strategy.

It’s essential to understand that Smart Bidding strategies, while powerful, require strategic oversight and a holistic understanding of account dynamics.

Success should be measured within the context of overarching account objectives, not solely focusing on individual campaign metrics.

Understanding manual, automated and smart bidding in Google Ads

Manual bidding allows you to control bid adjustments completely, making it ideal for certain industries, such as legal or home services, where fluctuating competition requires ongoing oversight. However, it requires more time and effort.

It’s like driving a car where you control every gear shift and pedal movement.

Automated bidding simplifies bid management by using algorithms to adjust bids.

While automated bidding can save time, its generic approach doesn’t account for nuanced conversion goals.

Think of this as engaging cruise control. You tell the car (Google Ads) your general desired speed (goal), and it adjusts the engine (bids) to maintain that pace.

Smart Bidding, however, takes automated bidding further by using real-time signals and advanced machine learning to predict the likelihood of conversions and their value, tailoring bids to individual auctions.

It’s especially effective for campaigns with clear conversion goals and sufficient historical data.

This is like having a self-driving car with an incredibly sophisticated navigation system.

It’s important to know that while all Smart Bidding is automated, not all automated bidding qualifies as Smart Bidding.

Automated bidding covers a wider range of strategies, some of which are more basic and don’t rely on real-time signals or advanced machine learning.

In essence:

Manual: You control every bid.
Automated: Google’s algorithms handle bid adjustments based on your chosen strategy.
Smart: Google’s machine learning optimizes bids in real-time for conversions and conversion value.

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Smart Bidding: Advantages and risks

There are significant advantages to using Smart Bidding.

Improved efficiency: Saves time by automating bid adjustments.
Auction-time optimization: Factors in user intent, device, location, and other data points to optimize bids for each auction.
Goal alignment: Customizes bids to match your campaign objectives, whether it’s maximizing volume or focusing on high-value actions.

While Smart Bidding offers significant advantages, missteps in implementation can lead to underwhelming results.

Here’s how to avoid common pitfalls and optimize your campaign performance.

Data dependency

Smart Bidding algorithms rely on robust historical data to make accurate predictions.

Campaigns with fewer than 30 conversions in the last 30 days may struggle to optimize effectively.

Start with manual bidding or Maximize Clicks to build a data foundation before switching to Smart Bidding. Boris Beceric, a Google Ads consultant and coach, said:

“I guess most try Smart Bidding too early – without enough conversion volume. What usually helps: consolidate campaigns so you get more data flowing through a single campaign. Portfolio bidding – kinda the same, but consolidation takes place at the bid strategy level.
“Micro conversions – try to add in the micro conversion that had the most volume and is closest to the ‘real’ conversion. Bonus: Reverse engineer CVR and conv value from micro to macro conversion and adjust tCPA accordingly.”

Goal misalignment

Using the wrong bidding strategy can hinder performance.

For example, applying Target ROAS to a new campaign with limited data can set unrealistic expectations and reduce reach.

Align bidding strategies with your goals.

When prioritizing profitability, use Maximize Conversions for volume and Target ROAS or Target CPA. Harrison Hepp, owner of Industrious Marketing, said:

“I had a client who was hybrid ecommerce and lead gen (they sold products, but high-priced deals were lead gen), and they insisted on tracking purchases and leads in every campaign. We constantly battled major fluctuations in the campaigns as they’d swing back and forth between getting purchases or leads and trying to optimize to both.
“It also made bid strategy selection really hard, as conversion value bidding would deprioritize leads (no value was tracked), but CPA bidding wasn’t efficient for purchases because of differences in product prices. It really showed how aligning your goals and bid strategy is critical for steady performance. It also underlined how the right bidding strategy can prioritize success in campaigns.”

Monitoring is non-negotiable

Despite its automation, Smart Bidding is not a “set it and forget it” tool.

Failing to monitor campaigns can lead to wasted ad spend and missed optimization opportunities.

Regularly review performance metrics, adjust campaign parameters, and stay proactive in managing Smart Bidding strategies.

“Custom columns/Segment views: We want to measure efficiency, so things like conv value/conv, search impression share, etc.” said Ameet Khabra, owner of Hop Skip Media.

Even with the most advanced AI behind Smart Bidding, performance optimization requires vigilance.

Regularly review the following metrics to ensure your strategy is working as intended:

CPA: Is your Target CPA being met?
ROAS: Are the conversions driving sufficient revenue?
Conversion rates: Are conversions coming from the right audience segments? Or are you paying for competitors to download your white papers and marking that down as a lead?
Search term reports: Are irrelevant keywords consuming a significant portion of your budget? Unprofitable keywords can be why a campaign is not meeting goals.
Conversion tracking accuracy: If conversion tracking is improperly implemented, Smart Bidding will optimize based on inaccurate data, reducing effectiveness.

Double-check your conversion tracking setup. Assign accurate values to conversions to reflect their true business impact. Khabra said:

“My favorite saying lately is ‘garbage in, garbage out,’ and that is definitely a large component of conversion tracking. Ensuring that we’ve identified the correct conversions that move the needle is half the battle. Implementing the tracking and double-checking that it is correct – collecting conversions – is the second half.”

Budgetary awareness

Strategies like Maximize Conversions and Maximize Clicks will attempt to spend your entire daily budget.

If your budget is set too high, this can lead to overspending.

Start with smaller daily budgets and gradually increase them while monitoring performance.

Realistic targets

Setting overly aggressive Target CPA or Target ROAS goals can limit your campaign’s reach, as the algorithm will avoid auctions it deems unprofitable.

Begin with realistic targets slightly higher or lower than your current average. Allow time for the algorithm to learn before refining the target.

Best practices for Smart Bidding in Google Ads

To ensure optimal performance, follow these best practices for implementing Smart Bidding in your Google Ads campaigns.

1. Feed accurate data

Ensure your conversion tracking is set up correctly.

Assign meaningful values to conversions – whether it’s a purchase, lead form submission, or newsletter signup.

2. Leverage seasonality adjustments

Use seasonality adjustments in Google Ads to guide Smart Bidding algorithms for short-term changes (e.g., holiday sales or promotions).

This prevents excessive or insufficient bids during periods of fluctuating demand.

3. Start with conservative budgets

Begin with smaller budgets and avoid aggressive bid caps that may limit auction participation. Allow the algorithm to learn and adapt gradually.

4. Prioritize business value over conversion volume

Align your bidding tactics with broader business goals. Instead of focusing solely on conversion volume, consider how each conversion contributes to revenue or lifetime customer value.

5. Test and adapt

Use Google Ads experiments to test different strategies.

For example, compare Target CPA with Target ROAS to identify which delivers better results for your campaigns.

Google Ads Experiments let you directly compare bid strategies in real-world scenarios.

Duplicate your campaign, allocate a split percentage to a new strategy (like comparing Target CPA vs. Target ROAS), and see concrete results with statistical significance.

Final thoughts

Smart Bidding isn’t just about knowing which technical settings to adjust.

It’s about understanding how to make Google’s automated tools align with your business goals.

The digital landscape evolves quickly, so it’s essential to stay adaptable, continuously monitor performance, and make adjustments as needed.

Nail the strategy, stay proactive, and you’ll set yourself up for long-term success.

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Microsoft Advertising will start enforcing Consent Mode in May

March 31, 2025/0 Comments/in Search Engine Land, Web Design News/by

Microsoft Advertising will require advertisers to provide explicit user consent signals starting May 5.

First communicated to advertisers a few weeks ago, this change ensures compliance with global privacy regulations while maintaining the ability to gather insights that optimize ad performance.

Why we care. As data privacy concerns grow, businesses face increasing pressure to protect personal information. Microsoft’s enforcement of Consent Mode offers a way to balance privacy with performance, reinforcing trust while meeting regulatory requirements.

What is Consent Mode? Consent Mode is a feature from Microsoft Advertising that respects user privacy preferences while allowing advertisers to track conversions and optimize campaigns. It adjusts cookie access based on user consent, using the ad_storage parameter to either allow or block cookies. This applies to:

Universal Event Tracking (UET) on the Microsoft Advertising Platform.
Universal Pixel, Segment, and Conversion pixels within Microsoft Invest, Curate, or Monetize.

Consent signals can also be shared through the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) or directly via a Consent Management Platform (CMP).

How to implement Consent Mode. Businesses can send user consent signals using one of these three options:

Direct integration. Implement Consent Mode with UET, Universal Pixel, Segment, or Conversion pixels.
IAB framework. Pass consent signals directly in a TCF 2.0 string or through a CMP.
Third-party tools. Integrate Microsoft’s Consent Mode through tools like Google Tag Manager.

Read more at Read More

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