<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Is-top-of-funnel-content-still-worth-it-in-2027.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Is top-of-funnel content still worth it in 2027?" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Is-top-of-funnel-content-still-worth-it-in-2027.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Is-top-of-funnel-content-still-worth-it-in-2027-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Is-top-of-funnel-content-still-worth-it-in-2027-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Is-top-of-funnel-content-still-worth-it-in-2027-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>New traffic data shows a widening divide between YMYL and B2B tech — and points to the TOFU strategies most likely to work next.


Organic search clicks have fallen 42% since AI Overviews began expanding in Google Search, while LLMs continue to fully answer users’ informational queries in-platform. At the same time, AI content production has allowed publishers to flood SERPs with top-of-funnel (TOFU) articles at scale — meaning competition for blue links has gone up, even as available clicks have decreased.
Considering these factors, there’s a real question for content marketers: Is top-of-funnel content still driving traffic in any way that justifies writing it?
What happened to TOFU traffic over the past year
To get a high-level read on how top-of-funnel content is trending, I pulled Semrush’s organic traffic estimates for August 2026 and compared them to the same month a year earlier across 30 of the largest digital publishers spanning nine industries.
While third-party or panel-based data aren’t ideal for measuring precise traffic totals, they’re useful for getting a sense of general trends — which is exactly what we’re looking for here. Some of my sample domains included:
Cloud/DevOps/IT: aws.amazon.com, ibm.com
Consumer tech: howtogeek.com, pcmag.com
Cybersecurity: crowdstrike.com, paloaltonetworks.com
Data/CX SaaS: qualtrics.com, mailchimp.com
Fintech/finance: investopedia.com, nerdwallet.com
Healthcare: mayoclinic.org, healthline.com
HR/people ops: bamboohr.com, gusto.com
Legal: legalzoom.com, nolo.com
Marketing/sales/SaaS: hubspot.com, salesforce.com
For each domain, I tracked URL performance year over year, then grouped pages into a rough TOFU estimate: any pages ranking for keywords that include “what is…” and “how to…”, plus any pages that include “guide” in their URLs.
customers find first.
      
Start your free trial
    
YoY TOFU trends: YMYL declined, B2B tech improved
Across this sample of major publishers’ TOFU content, every domain in finance, healthcare, legal, and consumer tech publishing lost traffic over the past year. This includes glossary entries, “how to” articles, and guides — all declining in performance together.
Unsurprisingly, this pattern aligns with Google’s Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) categories, where AI Overviews show up most aggressively. These are the categories where Google assumes users want a fast, authoritative answer and don’t necessarily need to click through.
While this sample only reviews a top hierarchy of publishers, the industry trends certainly stand out. Even Legalzoom.com, whose sharp 90% YoY decline in TOFU content was an outlier, directly attributed its loss in traffic to changing patterns in Google Search, rather than any internal or site changes.
However, it wasn’t all bad for TOFU content. Every domain in cybersecurity and marketing/sales software improved during this window. Collectively, cloud infrastructure also ended up positive.
Comparing top-of-funnel to middle-of-funnel
But are these TOFU-specific patterns, or are they happening across the whole funnel? 
I compared the same industries against other common standard markers of middle-of-funnel (MOFU) content — service/product comparison pages ranking for “vs.” and “best” keywords — to see if the funnel stage made a difference within a given industry.




The patterns were remarkably similar. In this sample of 30 of the web’s top publishers, TOFU and MOFU have been trending together in the same direction, either up or down.
4 major takeaways from YoY TOFU/MOFU trends
1. In 2026, success largely depended on industry
Curiously, TOFU and MOFU tracked similarly in every industry reviewed, meaning the funnel stage of a content strategy may matter less than industry and the audience a company serves.
2. TOFU in B2B tech is still a reliable strategy
The data suggest top-of-funnel content can remain a valuable strategy in certain B2B tech industries. It makes sense, since a B2B buyer researching a platform migration or a security vendor may spend more time with a topic and place more weight on demonstrated expertise than YMYL consumers looking up symptoms or a tax rate. Because B2B decisions often involve larger budgets and more consideration, users’ research will go deeper than a single AI Overview can satisfy.
And beyond AI Overviews — even for LLMs, B2B software and infrastructure topics may move fast enough that their training data can’t reliably keep up. When an LLM doesn’t already have the answer, it has more reason to search and cite the page that does, hopefully still encouraging a user click.
3. For YMYL companies, a turn to MOFU may not help
If there’s little difference between the top- and middle-of-funnel performance within an industry, a YMYL brand cutting TOFU budget in favor of MOFU content won’t sidestep the negative impact of AI Overviews and other forms of AI search.
4. YMYL decline likely goes beyond major publishers
If the YMYL decline held for the largest, most authoritative publishers, that’s a bad sign for smaller publishers. Research on AI Overview citations in YMYL topics shows Google’s summaries lean almost entirely on a small set of established domains (Mayo Clinic in health, Investopedia in finance, etc.).
If dominating AI Overview citations isn’t enough to protect the biggest names in YMYL industries, it’s hard to imagine smaller publishers, competing for a thinner slice of SERPs, are faring much better.
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
 
				
				
			
See terms.
		
Effective TOFU content strategies in 2027
Past success or challenges don’t guarantee future performance — positive or negative — especially for SEO in the tumultuous 2020s. But certain trends are worth noting. Beyond industry, several high-level TOFU strategies appear promising for success in the coming year.
Local search that appeals to local needs
Recent studies have shown promising consistency for local search traffic. They note that, since LLMs still lack reliable location awareness and Google’s AI Overviews appear far less often for local queries, site posts still play a significant role in the local search user experience.
Even so, in 2027, an ideal local SEO strategy will likely go beyond programmatic location pages to provide helpful, meaningful content tailored to the unique needs and interests of each service area.
TOFU digital tools
Interactive tools also seem promising. My recent Search Engine Land analysis comparing organic and LLM-referred traffic found that plain educational how-to content (a classic TOFU format) gets cited by LLMs only about 12% of the time. Since LLMs and AI Overviews are already good at writing generic how-to content, they give little reason to send anyone to read yours.
However, ungated online tools, like specialized industry calculators and screeners, are a different story. In that study, nearly every tool page picked up at least some AI Search traffic, and summaries recommended a specific tool by name when asked for an assessment or evaluation.
Tools are one of the few TOFU formats that AI summaries can cite but won’t reproduce on their own. That alone makes them worth prioritizing in any content strategy.
Real SME expertise
AI Overview responses are quick, generic, and anodyne. By design, they’re unlikely to take a compelling position, make pointed critiques, draw on firsthand experience, use humor, give interesting “hot takes,” or connect concepts to a truer, messy reality. We’ve all seen firsthand how LLMs can flatten even interesting topics into a short, staid summary.
The “what is X” article, either written or informed by a human SME (who’s run the process, made mistakes, formed nuanced opinions about tradeoffs, and genuinely cares), will read differently from an AI summary assembled from five existing explanations.
And at the very least, taking advantage of your organization’s SME expertise in your content process can be a short path to original data or insights — which makes your site far more likely to get cited by AI in the process.
The artificial elephant in the room: Scaled AI content
It’s impossible to discuss top-of-funnel strategy without addressing the elephant in the room: hyper-scaled AI content generation, a tactic some publishers are now treating as a standard TOFU practice.
On the surface, it’s easy to see why marketing departments have adopted the approach. Where AI writing is “strongest” is precisely where most TOFU content lies: generic, topical, informational articles. It’s a fairly low-effort automated lottery ticket for potential traffic gains.
Yet for fully automated, AI-scaled content, even the most meticulously prompted (and least rapacious) strategies may be in trouble. It’s due to a few converging trends:
AI writing quality improvements are slowing
It’s far too early to suggest we’ve reached a plateau in any of AI’s capabilities, but few would be willing to argue that the model-to-model improvements for written content haven’t slowed over the past year. 
Studies show that AI content requires heavy human involvement and per-article prompting to perform. Even a heavily “humanized” AI writing style provides limited value beyond what AI Overviews and LLMs already provide users.
Tools are increasingly calling out AI copy
Claude now watermarks its output, and Pangram has been rolled out across Substack. AI detection infrastructure is gaining traction, and users may increasingly expect it as an integral part of their web experience. 
Beyond these tools, we’re also getting better at AI detection as increased exposure highlights the telltale patterns, tics, limitations, hallucinations, and common annoyances of AI writing.
Google may be changing its mind about AI content
Most notable for those considering developing or continuing scaled AI content strategies is whether Google changes its stance on not penalizing AI writing. Google has been aggressively cracking down on scaled content in successive updates. 
Already, these spam updates appear to be going beyond Google’s long-standing ranking levers of tracking downstream engagement signals, monitoring on-page performance, and weighing backlink signals.
There’s little reason to think content marketers should avoid the use of AI in writing altogether. Studies consistently show AI-enabled human content performs strongly — and in some cases, most strongly.
Yet fully automated, highly scaled AI content appears to have little long-term value.
Dig deeper: The micro-macro shift: How to measure AI visibility now that precision is gone



  
before your competitors.
      
Start your free trial
    
So, is TOFU worth writing in 2027?
Over the past year, TOFU content in certain B2B industries has shown consistent traffic growth, and its performance has tracked closely with supposedly more-evergreen MOFU content.
Local SEO remains a stable avenue — particularly specialized service guides written with a strong awareness of area interests and needs. But if your industry falls under YMYL, troubling trends mean you may, at the least, want to reassess expectations.
And regardless of your industry, publishers need to recognize that competition across SERPs has gotten far fiercer. To drive actual clicks, your content now has to beat your competitors, as well as AI Overviews and LLMs, on increasingly bloated SERPs.
At least for now, the best strategy for your content is to ask yourself the question publishers should always ask:
Does this page deserve to be published?

New traffic data shows a widening divide between YMYL and B2B tech — and points to the TOFU strategies most likely to work next.

Is top-of-funnel content still worth it in 2027?

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Meta Ads: Why creative diversity matters more than volume" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Vary hooks, creators, messaging, formats, and offers to give Meta more creative combinations to match with different audiences.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Meta Ads: Why creative diversity matters more than volume" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Why-creative-diversity-matters-more-than-volume-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">From building lookalikes to stacking interests and creating dozens of ad sets for different segments, advertisers on Meta have long focused on audience targeting. Those levers matter far less today as <a href="https://searchengineland.com/meta-ai-driven-advertising-system-andromeda-gem-468020">Meta’s AI</a> gets better at finding the right people to achieve campaign objectives.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Broader targeting and machine learning have shifted more of the optimization work from building and testing audiences to creative, which advertisers can directly control.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The mistake many advertisers still make is thinking creative diversity means having more ads. In reality, it means giving Meta fundamentally different ways to communicate the same message so its algorithm can learn which combinations resonate with different people at different times. Here’s how to diversify your creative efforts to drive better results with Meta Ads.</p>



<h2 id="h-meta-s-new-creative-diversity-metric" class="wp-block-heading">Meta’s new creative diversity metric</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Earlier this month, Meta rolled out a new metric in Ads Manager reporting called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2371176336684086" target="_blank" rel="noopener">creative diversity</a>, which is the first glimpse into how the platform evaluates the variety of creatives within campaigns and ad sets. To locate this new metric, click <em>Columns > Customize columns > Creative diversity.</em>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="767" height="396" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Creative-Diversity-Metric.png" alt="An image of search bar with creative diversity selected for a custom report." class="wp-image-485758"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Source: Meta Ads Manager</em></figcaption></figure>
</div>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Labeled “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/metrics-labeling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in development</a>,” the metric estimates how visually diverse your images and videos are. It&#8217;s designed to identify when creatives are becoming too visually similar, reduce creative fatigue, improve long-term campaign performance, and encourage advertisers to introduce more visual variety into their campaigns.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The metric has three ratings: Low, Medium, and High diversity. Naturally, I was curious to see how it rated our client accounts across different industries.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For several accounts where I felt confident about high creative diversity, the metric rated each one low, despite using static images, video ads, videos with a variety of hooks and people, user-generated content, partnership ads, boosted brand organic posts, and carousels.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="668" height="328" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Creative-Diversity-Metric-Estimate.png" alt="An image of the new Meta Ads creative diversity metric description pop-up." class="wp-image-485759"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Source: Meta Ads Manager</em></figcaption></figure>
</div>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The low ratings may reflect the metric’s early stage, stricter-than-expected thresholds, or signals Meta hasn’t disclosed. Its release nonetheless reinforces the growing importance of creative diversity in Meta’s optimization strategy.</p>


<a href="https://www.semrush.com/analytics/traffic/paid-search?utm_campaign=ic_sel_0101ppc&#038;utm_source=searchengineland.com&#038;utm_medium=overlay&#038;onboarding=off" target="_blank">
  <div>
    
    <div>
      
      <div id="semrush-one-headline" class="headline-responsive">
        See exactly how <span>your competitors win</span>.
      </div>
      <p id="semrush-one-subhead">
        Uncover the keywords, ads, landing pages, and strategies driving your competitors&#8217; paid search success—and find your next opportunity to outperform them.
      </p>
    </div>
    <div>
      <span id="semrush-one-cta">Analyze your competitors</span>
    </div>
    </div>
    </a>




<h2 id="h-diversity-isn-t-about-quantity" class="wp-block-heading">Diversity isn’t about quantity</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Uploading 20 ads doesn’t automatically create creative diversity. If all 20 ads feature the same product image, opening shot, headline, spokesperson, and messaging, they offer very little variation in Meta’s eyes.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">From an algorithm’s perspective, these 20 ads are simply slight edits of the same creative. Real creative diversity comes from changing meaningful elements that influence how a person experiences and engages with an ad.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">To add more diversity, vary your:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Hook.</li>



<li>Creator or spokesperson.</li>



<li>Visual style.</li>



<li>Messaging angle.</li>



<li>Offer.</li>



<li>Customer pain point.</li>



<li>Emotional appeal.</li>



<li>Format.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Filling your campaigns with meaningful variations gives Meta more to learn from and optimize against to accomplish your goals.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/meta-ai-can-now-analyze-and-optimize-meta-ads-campaigns-485588">Meta AI can now analyze and optimize Meta Ads campaigns</a></em></strong>



<h2 id="h-expand-video-hook-variety" class="wp-block-heading">Expand video hook variety</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The first few seconds determine whether someone will stop scrolling, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/high-performing-social-ads-curiosity-482756">keep watching</a>, or resume scrolling. When developing video content, produce several versions of each video that begin differently. For example, a skincare brand may want to test:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>POV: You finally find a moisturizer that doesn’t leave your skin looking greasy</li>



<li>Three mistakes almost everyone makes with their skincare routine</li>



<li>I wish I knew this about my skin before turning 40</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The body of the video can remain the same, but the same creator or spokesperson can record several different hooks to appeal to different people, their motivations, problems, and stages of familiarity with your brand.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="612" height="1088" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Akvile-DeFazio-POV-IG-Example.png" alt="An image of a POV video on Instagram" class="wp-image-485760"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>An image of a POV video on Instagram</em></figcaption></figure>
</div>


<div class="nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2">
	
	<div class="row align-items-center nl-inline-container">
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-3 col-xl-4 pe-md-0 pb-2 pb-lg-0">
			<p class="inline-form-text text-center mb-0">Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.</p>
		</div>
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-7 col-xl-6  pe-lg-0">
			<div class="form-nl-inline">
				<form id="mktoForm_16298"></form> 
				
				
			</div>
		</div>
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-2 col-xl-2 ps-1">
			<p class="text-center mb-0"><a class="nl-terms" href="https://searchengineland.com/termsofuse" target="_blank" aria-label="opens in a new tab">See terms.</a>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>




<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-css-opacity has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background"/>



<h2 id="h-go-beyond-format" class="wp-block-heading">Go beyond format</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While it’s important to have a variety of formats in your campaigns, such as images, videos, and carousels, the strongest-performing accounts I see on Meta today have more layers of diversification across multiple dimensions.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Give Meta more opportunities to learn and optimize by testing:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Founder videos.</li>



<li>User-generated content (UGC).</li>



<li>Customer testimonials.</li>



<li>Partnership Ads with creators.</li>



<li>Lifestyle photography.</li>



<li>Product photography.</li>



<li>Educational content.</li>



<li>Unboxing videos.</li>



<li>Reviews.</li>



<li>Social proof.</li>



<li>Reaction videos.</li>



<li>Problem/solution.</li>



<li>Meme-style creatives.</li>
</ul>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="442" height="989" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Meta-Ads-Gruns-Comment-Hijack.png" alt="An image of a POV video on Instagram." class="wp-image-485761"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em>Source: Meta Ads – Grüns</em></figcaption></figure>
</div>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/high-performing-social-ads-curiosity-482756">How to build curiosity into high-performing social ads</a></em></strong>



<h2 id="h-fight-fatigue-with-diversity" class="wp-block-heading">Fight fatigue with diversity</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Creative fatigue happens when a person sees the same ad too many times. When Meta has only a handful of similar creatives to serve, delivery will naturally concentrate on the one that performs best. As time goes on, ad frequency increases, performance declines, and costs rise, making your campaign less efficient and effective.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By introducing fundamentally different creative, you’ll give the system more options to test before fatigue sets in. As you diversify in more directions, you’ll also give Meta more opportunities to identify patterns, such as which hooks attract different people, which creators resonate with certain demographics, which messaging is more effective at converting colder versus warmer audiences.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The more meaningful your variations are, the richer the signals Meta can use to optimize your campaigns. You’ll build a deeper pool of creatives that can rotate as performance shifts, so you won’t have to rely on one winning ad to carry the entire campaign.</p>



<h2 id="h-make-creative-diversity-part-of-your-meta-ads-workflow" class="wp-block-heading">Make creative diversity part of your Meta Ads workflow</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If your creative workflow still revolves around producing a handful of ads every month, it may be time to<a href="https://searchengineland.com/structure-paid-social-creative-testing-478963"> rework the process</a>. Take a winning ad and determine how you can recreate it in 10 new ways to tell the same story. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While it may be a heavier lift on the creative side, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel entirely. When working with creators or using storytellers from your organization, one creator can produce:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Multiple hooks.</li>



<li>Different captions.</li>



<li>Several CTAs at the end.</li>



<li>Different aspect ratios.</li>



<li>Various thumbnails.</li>



<li>Different lengths.</li>



<li>Product-first and creator-first edits.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By planning ideas ahead, one shoot can produce more than a single asset, and a little more work up front will give you a longer runway to test the new ads you’ve created.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/dying-ads-creative-fatigue-463690">Your ads are dying: How to spot and stop creative fatigue before it tanks performance</a></em></strong>

From building lookalikes to stacking interests and creating dozens of ad sets for different segments, advertisers on Meta have long focused on audience targeting. Those levers matter far less today as Meta’s AI gets better at finding the right people to achieve campaign objectives.
Broader targeting and machine learning have shifted more of the optimization work from building and testing audiences to creative, which advertisers can directly control.
The mistake many advertisers still make is thinking creative diversity means having more ads. In reality, it means giving Meta fundamentally different ways to communicate the same message so its algorithm can learn which combinations resonate with different people at different times. Here’s how to diversify your creative efforts to drive better results with Meta Ads.
Meta’s new creative diversity metric
Earlier this month, Meta rolled out a new metric in Ads Manager reporting called creative diversity, which is the first glimpse into how the platform evaluates the variety of creatives within campaigns and ad sets. To locate this new metric, click Columns > Customize columns > Creative diversity.



Source: Meta Ads Manager



Labeled “in development,” the metric estimates how visually diverse your images and videos are. It’s designed to identify when creatives are becoming too visually similar, reduce creative fatigue, improve long-term campaign performance, and encourage advertisers to introduce more visual variety into their campaigns.
The metric has three ratings: Low, Medium, and High diversity. Naturally, I was curious to see how it rated our client accounts across different industries. 
For several accounts where I felt confident about high creative diversity, the metric rated each one low, despite using static images, video ads, videos with a variety of hooks and people, user-generated content, partnership ads, boosted brand organic posts, and carousels.
Source: Meta Ads Manager



The low ratings may reflect the metric’s early stage, stricter-than-expected thresholds, or signals Meta hasn’t disclosed. Its release nonetheless reinforces the growing importance of creative diversity in Meta’s optimization strategy.
your competitors win.
      
Analyze your competitors
    
Diversity isn’t about quantity
Uploading 20 ads doesn’t automatically create creative diversity. If all 20 ads feature the same product image, opening shot, headline, spokesperson, and messaging, they offer very little variation in Meta’s eyes. 
From an algorithm’s perspective, these 20 ads are simply slight edits of the same creative. Real creative diversity comes from changing meaningful elements that influence how a person experiences and engages with an ad.
To add more diversity, vary your:
Hook.
Creator or spokesperson.
Visual style.
Messaging angle.
Offer.
Customer pain point.
Emotional appeal.
Format.
Filling your campaigns with meaningful variations gives Meta more to learn from and optimize against to accomplish your goals.
Dig deeper: Meta AI can now analyze and optimize Meta Ads campaigns



Expand video hook variety
The first few seconds determine whether someone will stop scrolling, keep watching, or resume scrolling. When developing video content, produce several versions of each video that begin differently. For example, a skincare brand may want to test:
POV: You finally find a moisturizer that doesn’t leave your skin looking greasy
Three mistakes almost everyone makes with their skincare routine
I wish I knew this about my skin before turning 40
The body of the video can remain the same, but the same creator or spokesperson can record several different hooks to appeal to different people, their motivations, problems, and stages of familiarity with your brand.
An image of a POV video on Instagram




	
	
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
 
				
				
			
See terms.
		
Go beyond format
While it’s important to have a variety of formats in your campaigns, such as images, videos, and carousels, the strongest-performing accounts I see on Meta today have more layers of diversification across multiple dimensions. 
Give Meta more opportunities to learn and optimize by testing:
Founder videos.
User-generated content (UGC).
Customer testimonials.
Partnership Ads with creators.
Lifestyle photography.
Product photography.
Educational content.
Unboxing videos.
Reviews.
Social proof.
Reaction videos.
Problem/solution.
Meme-style creatives.
Source: Meta Ads – Grüns



Dig deeper: How to build curiosity into high-performing social ads



Fight fatigue with diversity
Creative fatigue happens when a person sees the same ad too many times. When Meta has only a handful of similar creatives to serve, delivery will naturally concentrate on the one that performs best. As time goes on, ad frequency increases, performance declines, and costs rise, making your campaign less efficient and effective.
By introducing fundamentally different creative, you’ll give the system more options to test before fatigue sets in. As you diversify in more directions, you’ll also give Meta more opportunities to identify patterns, such as which hooks attract different people, which creators resonate with certain demographics, which messaging is more effective at converting colder versus warmer audiences.
The more meaningful your variations are, the richer the signals Meta can use to optimize your campaigns. You’ll build a deeper pool of creatives that can rotate as performance shifts, so you won’t have to rely on one winning ad to carry the entire campaign.
Make creative diversity part of your Meta Ads workflow
If your creative workflow still revolves around producing a handful of ads every month, it may be time to rework the process. Take a winning ad and determine how you can recreate it in 10 new ways to tell the same story. 
While it may be a heavier lift on the creative side, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel entirely. When working with creators or using storytellers from your organization, one creator can produce:
Multiple hooks.
Different captions.
Several CTAs at the end.
Different aspect ratios.
Various thumbnails.
Different lengths.
Product-first and creator-first edits.
By planning ideas ahead, one shoot can produce more than a single asset, and a little more work up front will give you a longer runway to test the new ads you’ve created.
Dig deeper: Your ads are dying: How to spot and stop creative fatigue before it tanks performance

Vary hooks, creators, messaging, formats, and offers to give Meta more creative combinations to match with different audiences.

Meta Ads: Why creative diversity matters more than volume

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Has-Google-demoted-listicles-featured-image.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Has Google demoted listicles - featured-image" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Has-Google-demoted-listicles-featured-image.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Has-Google-demoted-listicles-featured-image-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Has-Google-demoted-listicles-featured-image-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Has-Google-demoted-listicles-featured-image-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>A 60,000-query analysis reveals where listicles still rank, where they’ve declined, and why ranking well doesn’t guarantee clicks.


Aren’t listicles dead? 
Brands have been writing self-serving listicles as a classic SEO play for years, and many have ramped up production at the start of AI Search due to their outsized influence on citations. But over the last 12 months, we’ve seen growing evidence that the tactic of editorial “best of” or roundup pages has run its course.
Lots of great research over the last 12 months from experts like Lily Ray, Nick Haigler, and Glen Allsopp has shown that:
Listicles are the most-cited page type in ChatGPT answers at 43.8% of 26,283 source URLs, including lists where brands rank themselves first.
Google began demoting sites built on self-serving listicles in January 2026, with several SaaS brands losing 29 to 49% of organic visibility within weeks.
ChatGPT cut listicle citations by 30% from December 2025 to January 2026, with Wikipedia and Reddit absorbing the lost share.
And yet, whenever I still use Google (which is not that often anymore), I still encounter listicles all the time. So, what gives? A few questions came up for me:
How often are listicles still present?
Can we spot a demotion of self-serving listicles?
What are the characteristics of a listicle that consistently perform well?
Should companies write listicles at all?
I set out to find the answers to those questions with a large data pull: I analyzed 60,000 US-English desktop Google queries across 15 verticals using SE Ranking. The dataset contains 5.32 million organic-result rows collected during a 47-hour window in August. 
I’ll split the findings into two Memos: Memo one (this one) answers questions 1 and 2. Memo two (next week) will answer 3 and 4, so stay tuned.
Definition of a listicle
A lot of confusion comes from not using the terminology correctly (tell me you’re a nerd without telling me you’re a nerd).
The word listicle is a combination of article and list. Or, in other words, a listicle is an article where the list is the content. The body consists of discrete, same-type items (tools, ideas, examples, options) that are comparable to one another. Each item gets a self-contained treatment (usually its own heading). And the title promises a bounded set, with or without a number.
A step-by-step tutorial (“How to set up Asana”) is sequential, not a listicle, because item 3 depends on item 2. Listicle items can be reordered without breaking the logic.
A few examples of listicles:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/credit-cards/best/cash-back
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gpus,4380.html
https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/trading-investing/five-investing-ideas
https://www.salesforce.com/small-business/types-of-businesses/
https://travel.usnews.com/hotels/best-all-inclusive-resorts-in-usa/
https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/at-home-workouts
Listicles can come from different types of companies with varying incentives: affiliates like NerdWallet, publishers like U.S. News, or brands like Salesforce.
Website owner type: brand, publisher, retailer, platform, nonprofit, or community.
Incentive: self-promotional, affiliate-supported, independent, or unclear.
Methodology
60,000 US-English desktop Google queries were analyzed across 15 verticals using SE Ranking data. 
This dataset contains 5.32 million organic-result rows from a 47-hour window in August 2026.
Queries were stratified by vertical, query wording, and query length, then weighted to the intended sample mix.
Duplicate records and successful-but-empty SERPs were excluded.
A nested 20,000-query subset captured additional search-result features, including AI Overviews, video, images, People Also Ask, Reddit, and YouTube.
Each result was automatically classified as a listicle or not using its title, snippet, URL, and website type. The classification separated numbered list articles from unnumbered editorial roundups and excluded product grids, directories, forums, video pages, single-item reviews, and step-by-step guides.
The data pipeline was checked for completeness, duplicate queries, and rank integrity. I also manually reviewed website ownership and conducted a blind quality review of 30 pages. The initial classifier pilot achieved 100% precision and recall on 30 queries, but an untouched production holdout remains the final validation step.
The study is observational and reflects one crawl wave. It identifies associations between query wording, listicle presence, and ranking, not causal effects.
Has Google demoted listicles?
The results from this dataset do not show a universal penalty for listicles. At least one listicle appeared in the top 10 for 55.1% of queries and in the top three for 32.3%.




85.9% of search results pages contained at least one title with a broad list cue: a one-to-three-digit number or a word such as “best,” “top,” “ways,” “ideas,” “examples,” “alternatives,” “tips,” “tools,” “apps,” or “options.”
However, stronger classification shows a confirmed listicle on 55.1% of search results pages. In other words, half of search results contain true listicles.
The query itself is the biggest factor deciding whether Google shows a listicle or not. Google shows 4.5x more listicles when users ask for a set of options.








When a query explicitly asks for ideas, examples, options, or the best items, listicles dominate the top results. 
When the request for multiple options is only implied in a query, the listicle advantage largely disappears.
The top-three rate rose to 54.5% for explicit-list queries compared with 10.2% for implicit category or comparison queries.
The rate of listicle appearance was 12.1% for the comparison group of informational queries that did not ask for a list.
However, one suggestive hint that Google is demoting (self-serving) listicles is that almost half of them come from publishers instead of known brands/vendors.




Publishers also won 54.0% of 4,026 direct matchups against a brand or vendor listicle on the same search results page. When examining the top 5 results in the SERP, the publisher averaged position 4.24 in those matchups, compared with 4.71 for the brand or vendor.
Publishing and content platforms had the strongest conditional rank at 3.76 when one of their listicles appeared in the top 10.
Publishers averaged 3.99, government, academic, and nonprofit sites averaged 4.48, and brands or vendors averaged 4.65.
The 5,765 domains that supplied top-10 listicle leaders point to a broad market with a long tail:
The top 10 domains accounted for 18.3%, and the top 50 accounted for 36.5%.
The remaining 5,715 domains accounted for 63.5%.
What about self-promoting listicles?
Self-promoting listicles come from brands (software companies, banks, service providers, etc.) that put themselves first in their lists to influence AI answers. A classic example is to write about the “x best [insert category]” and list yourself at the top. By the way, sometimes you can influence “objective” listicles (from affiliates or publishers) by paying for it, but Google cannot detect that since those transactions happen behind closed doors.
So now that we know that there is a difference between publishers who create listicles for products vs. self-serving listicles that come from brands, the question is whether the latter has seen a demotion since brands go bonkers with it?
We know from Lily Ray’s analyses that the unannounced mid-January Google update impacts listicles. I’ve observed the same, anecdotally. We also know from Peec that there doesn’t seem to be a demotion for self-promoting listicles in citations across ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, and AI Overviews.
In this study, I compared a fixed subset of 2,400 queries and 24,000 search results between January and August. The results: The search results changed substantially. Only 52.5% of queries had the same exact URL at position one in both periods, and only 58.3% had the same domain. At position one, the conservative listicle range fell from 18.9% to 20.2% in January to 15.1% to 15.6% in August. Across the top three, the January range was 35.9% to 39.0%, compared with 32.0% to 33.0% in August.







That is the listicle penalty we’ve seen anecdotally. But I cannot trace it back to self-promoting listicles specifically. As a matter of fact, 62% of vendor-authored listicles gained estimated organic traffic since January, and the median page gained 38%.
Results differ by vertical
Listicle occurrence in the organic top 10 ranged from 42.0% in entertainment and gaming to 67.2% in beauty and fashion. B2B software reached 62.5%, while travel reached 49.3%.




Brand or vendor listicles varied even more. They appeared in the top 10 on 46.2% of B2B software search results pages, compared with 3.3% in food and 6.2% in travel.




That, to me, is symptomatic of how B2B companies use listicles to “optimize” for AI Search, which is a much smaller lever for consumer-oriented verticals. After all, I’d argue it’s mostly B2B brands using listicles for AI Search optimization. However, it also shows that listicles are by no means dead.
Listicles solve for intent but face tough competition
Demotion or not, the reality is that listicles face heavy competition for attention. 92% of SERPs with a top-10 listicle also contained Reddit or YouTube somewhere on the page. Both platforms appeared together on 53% of those SERPs.




The practical consequence is that a page can lose attention (think: clicks) without losing its position among standard unpaid results. Listicle-related keywords seem to carry high buyer intent, but don’t expect a flood of conversions amid AI Overviews, Reddit, and YouTube. The average share of AI Overviews across all verticals was 83.7% to 93.4% in B2B, where listicles appear most!
Reddit and YouTube occupy different positions in the organic results.
Reddit placed in the top 3 on 70.7% of the search results pages where it appeared in the top 10. YouTube did so on 11.1%.
When Reddit appeared in the top 10, its best result averaged position 3.31 and had a median position of 2. YouTube averaged position 6.62 and had a median position of 7.
Reddit and YouTube can appear as ordinary links, embedded result boxes, and sources in Google’s AI-generated answer for the same query.
Reddit ranked above YouTube on 84.5% of the 19,729 search results pages where both appeared in the top 10. The Reddit advantage reached 90.4% on explicit list queries and fell to 69.9% on implicit category or comparison queries.
YouTube gains more reach outside ordinary organic results. In the 20K-query advanced panel, video boxes and AI Overview citations added 20.7 percentage points of YouTube reach beyond search results pages where YouTube already ranked in the organic top 10. The same increase for Reddit was 2.1 percentage points.




The platform pattern also changes by vertical.
Reddit had greater organic top-10 presence than YouTube in 11 of 15 verticals. Its largest advantages appeared in travel (+40.6 percentage points), education and careers (+22.8), finance (+21.9), family and pets (+21.1), and automotive (+19.6).
YouTube led in 4 verticals: food (+40.8 percentage points), health (+19.1), home and DIY (+15.1), and beauty and fashion (+6.1).
Reddit’s organic top-10 presence peaked at 77.1% in automotive and fell to 25.7% in health.
YouTube peaked at 78.1% in food and fell to 29.7% in travel.
The pattern suggests different platform roles. Reddit is stronger in research and comparison-oriented categories, while YouTube is stronger where visual demonstration, inspiration, or instruction matters.
So, are listicles dead?
Has Google demoted listicles? Yes, in a very targeted way. We see almost 4% fewer listicles in position 1 and the top 3. And yet, they remain very present in Google’s search results. Listicles that are performing well in August have even gained traffic since January. So, Google has systematically and carefully weeded out certain listicles.
My take is that the aggressive use of AI to create (poor) listicles has led to a flood that Google targeted with the secret mid-January update. Quality and velocity seem to be markers in Google’s latest spam algorithm updates.
That said, and this is the bigger issue here: Even where listicles perform well, the click opportunity shrinks. 92% of listicle SERPs carry Reddit or YouTube results; 93.4% of listicle-related B2B query results have AI Overviews.
Look, I have my own moral judgments about self-promoting listicles. There’s a degree of cringe to it. There is also a degree of business impact to it, though we don’t know how much. So, the way I reconcile the two is by seeking evidence for putting yourself first. For example, can your G2 grid position or reviews support that “you’re the best”?
Next week, we’ll dive deep into my observations on what well-performing listicles do better than others, and whether it’s still worth creating listicles.
This post first appeared on the author’s website and is republished here with permission.

A 60,000-query analysis reveals where listicles still rank, where they’ve declined, and why ranking well doesn’t guarantee clicks.

Has Google demoted listicles?

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>Google is testing new Performance Max controls that let advertisers influence which channels the algorithm prioritizes.

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Ads-PMax-channels-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Google is testing a new Performance Max channel setting that could give advertisers a direct way to tell the algorithm which channels they value more — a notable departure from PMax&#8217;s traditionally automated approach to channel allocation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The feature, currently described as being in alpha testing, includes adjustment controls for Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What’s new.</strong> The experimental &#8220;Channels&#8221; setting appears to let advertisers make positive or negative adjustments for individual Performance Max channels.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" width="800" height="687" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/PMax-controls.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-485826" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/PMax-controls.jpeg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/PMax-controls-768x660.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A positive adjustment relaxes the CPA the system is willing to accept for that channel, effectively signaling that the advertiser places greater value on conversions coming from it. A negative adjustment tightens the CPA, encouraging PMax to place less emphasis on that channel.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Importantly, this isn&#8217;t the same as assigning a fixed percentage of budget to Search or YouTube. Instead, advertisers appear to be influencing the economics PMax uses when deciding where to pursue conversions.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why it’s significant.</strong> Performance Max has historically given advertisers little direct control over how budgets are distributed between Google&#8217;s inventory.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Advertisers could influence the system through assets, audience signals, search themes and conversion value data, but Google&#8217;s existing documentation says advertisers can&#8217;t directly control how PMax allocates budget by channel.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If broadly released, this would represent a much more direct lever for influencing that mix.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>From visibility to control.</strong> The test follows Google&#8217;s introduction of <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-begins-rolling-out-performance-max-channel-performance-reporting-456251">channel-level Performance Max reporting</a>, which gave advertisers greater visibility into where campaigns were serving and spending.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The new setting could provide the next piece of that puzzle: the ability to take what advertisers learn from channel reporting and use it to influence how PMax behaves.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>But attribution complicates things.</strong> Channel-level performance isn&#8217;t necessarily the same thing as channel-level value. A user could first encounter an advertiser through a YouTube ad and later convert through Search. Looking only at the channel receiving conversion credit could therefore make YouTube appear less valuable than its actual contribution to the customer journey.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Aggressively tightening a channel because its directly attributed CPA looks poor could potentially reduce demand or conversions elsewhere in the campaign.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why we care.</strong> Advertisers have spent years asking for more control over Performance Max, and this test could be one of the most consequential controls Google has introduced. It could help advertisers correct unwanted channel allocation without abandoning PMax altogether. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But it also creates another optimization decision: marketers will need to understand the role each channel plays beyond last-touch performance before telling Google&#8217;s algorithm where to pull back.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Bottom line.</strong> Google appears to be testing a significant shift in Performance Max: giving advertisers a direct lever to influence which channels its algorithm prioritizes. After giving marketers greater visibility into channel performance, Google may now be starting to give them more control over what happens next.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>First spotted. </strong>This update was spotted by Search Marketing Advisor Heidi Sturrock, who shared spotting it on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7497705244001370112/">LinkdedIn</a>.</p>


Google is testing a new Performance Max channel setting that could give advertisers a direct way to tell the algorithm which channels they value more — a notable departure from PMax’s traditionally automated approach to channel allocation.
The feature, currently described as being in alpha testing, includes adjustment controls for Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.
What’s new. The experimental “Channels” setting appears to let advertisers make positive or negative adjustments for individual Performance Max channels.




A positive adjustment relaxes the CPA the system is willing to accept for that channel, effectively signaling that the advertiser places greater value on conversions coming from it. A negative adjustment tightens the CPA, encouraging PMax to place less emphasis on that channel.
Importantly, this isn’t the same as assigning a fixed percentage of budget to Search or YouTube. Instead, advertisers appear to be influencing the economics PMax uses when deciding where to pursue conversions.
Why it’s significant. Performance Max has historically given advertisers little direct control over how budgets are distributed between Google’s inventory.
Advertisers could influence the system through assets, audience signals, search themes and conversion value data, but Google’s existing documentation says advertisers can’t directly control how PMax allocates budget by channel.
If broadly released, this would represent a much more direct lever for influencing that mix.
From visibility to control. The test follows Google’s introduction of channel-level Performance Max reporting, which gave advertisers greater visibility into where campaigns were serving and spending.
The new setting could provide the next piece of that puzzle: the ability to take what advertisers learn from channel reporting and use it to influence how PMax behaves.
But attribution complicates things. Channel-level performance isn’t necessarily the same thing as channel-level value. A user could first encounter an advertiser through a YouTube ad and later convert through Search. Looking only at the channel receiving conversion credit could therefore make YouTube appear less valuable than its actual contribution to the customer journey.
Aggressively tightening a channel because its directly attributed CPA looks poor could potentially reduce demand or conversions elsewhere in the campaign.
Why we care. Advertisers have spent years asking for more control over Performance Max, and this test could be one of the most consequential controls Google has introduced. It could help advertisers correct unwanted channel allocation without abandoning PMax altogether. 
But it also creates another optimization decision: marketers will need to understand the role each channel plays beyond last-touch performance before telling Google’s algorithm where to pull back.
Bottom line. Google appears to be testing a significant shift in Performance Max: giving advertisers a direct lever to influence which channels its algorithm prioritizes. After giving marketers greater visibility into channel performance, Google may now be starting to give them more control over what happens next.
First spotted. This update was spotted by Search Marketing Advisor Heidi Sturrock, who shared spotting it on LinkdedIn.

Google is testing new Performance Max controls that let advertisers influence which channels the algorithm prioritizes.

Google tests channel prioritization controls for Performance Max

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="AI visibility" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Getting cited by AI isn't enough. Discover why winning recommendations requires cross-functional action beyond SEO and website optimization.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="AI visibility" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/ai-visibility-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For most of search marketing&#8217;s history, action items stayed close to what SEO and website teams owned: technical issues, content, links, authority, and related work. Fixes often required developers, writers, or subject-matter experts, but SEO and website teams could usually diagnose the problems and influence the outcome on their own.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>AI visibility doesn&#8217;t fit as neatly into that SEO box.</strong>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A company can have a technically sound website that AI crawlers can access and understand, including what the company sells and who it serves. AI may even mention and cite the brand regularly in informational responses.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yet when a buyer asks what to purchase, those same brands can be left out. That&#8217;s because AI uses a different set of criteria when it shifts from providing information to making recommendations. As a result, AI visibility plans require action from teams across the organization, far beyond SEO and AI search.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is why I believe AI visibility now has two jobs:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Optimize what SEO and development control.</strong></li>



<li><strong>Mobilize the organization for everything else.</strong></li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Mobilizing teams across the organization will become one of the most important capabilities for in-house teams responsible for AI visibility.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is something I’ll be addressing in my <a href="https://searchengineland.com/smx/master-classes/topics/ai-brand-visibility" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AI Brand Visibility SMX Master Class on</a><a href="https://searchengineland.com/smx/master-classes/topics/ai-brand-visibility"> Oct. 5</a>.</p>



<h2 id="h-being-visible-and-being-recommended-aren-t-the-same-problem" class="wp-block-heading">Being visible and being recommended aren&#8217;t the same problem</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Much of the industry&#8217;s GEO conversation today focuses on getting found and mentioned:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Can AI crawlers access our content?</li>



<li>Are we mentioned?</li>



<li>Are we cited?</li>



<li>Which sources influence AI responses?</li>



<li>How often do we appear compared with competitors?</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is a job in itself.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">However, when a buyer asks:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>&#8220;I need a compressed air system for a food manufacturing facility that maintains consistent pressure during variable production demand without introducing oil contamination into the process. What should I consider?&#8221;</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This isn&#8217;t simply a request for information about compressed air systems. The buyer has provided a specific set of requirements and asked AI to help make a decision. AI shifts from providing information to giving advice.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">To answer well, AI must determine which solutions are appropriate for food manufacturing, which can handle variable demand, which address contamination concerns, what tradeoffs the buyer should consider, and more.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The AI system compares products using documentation, technical specifications, customer experiences, third-party sources, and its understanding of manufacturers and the buyers they serve. It also applies its own understanding of what matters most in that buying scenario to its evaluation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Once AI moves into <em>advising</em>, it&#8217;s no longer simply retrieving information. It&#8217;s making recommendations, and that&#8217;s when being understood and citable is no longer the same as being recommendable.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That significantly expands the role of the SEO and AI Search (GEO) team.</p>



<h2 id="h-sometimes-ai-understands-your-product-perfectly-and-that-s-why-you-re-omitted" class="wp-block-heading">Sometimes AI understands your product perfectly and <em>that&#8217;s</em> why you’re omitted</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Consider a manufacturer with strong domain authority, extensive content, and technically sound product pages. Its products consistently appear when buyers ask informational questions about the category.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now imagine a buyer asks:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>&#8220;What equipment should I use for this application if minimizing downtime is more important than initial cost?&#8221; </li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The manufacturer disappears from the recommendations. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Why?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most search teams would look for a content opportunity. Maybe the website doesn&#8217;t explain the product in the context of that application. Maybe its operational advantages aren&#8217;t documented. Maybe the information exists but isn&#8217;t easy to retrieve. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Those are fixable search and content problems.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But our analysis of leading brands is uncovering issues far beyond what SEO and AI Search (GEO) teams typically consider. We&#8217;re seeing reasons such as:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Higher maintenance requirements than competing products</li>



<li>Missing capabilities that matter for the buyer&#8217;s specific application</li>



<li>Consistent customer reports of difficult support experiences for complex issues</li>



<li>A component with a reputation for frequent failure</li>



<li>Cloud connectivity that&#8217;s reported to drop frequently</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">These aren&#8217;t hypothetical examples. We&#8217;ve uncovered issues like these while investigating why large, sophisticated brands with strong products are omitted from AI recommendations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In these cases, AI wasn&#8217;t failing to find the company or its products. It understood them extremely well — in fact, too well. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">AI accurately recognized the products&#8217; limitations, what could go wrong, and where buyers were likely to face risk, frustration, higher total cost of ownership, more downtime, longer repair times, and other tradeoffs.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The gaps we&#8217;re finding come down to buyer scenarios. Specific prompts surface evidence within AI&#8217;s context window that it uses to decide whether a company is a good recommendation for that buyer.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is a fundamentally different visibility problem than SEO or getting found by AI. It&#8217;s a <strong>recommendation problem</strong>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When recommendations are the issue, the work extends beyond the SEO and AI search (GEO) team and into cross-functional teams across the organization. In many cases, winning in AI search requires mobilizing far more teams than SEO ever did.</p>



<h2 id="h-getting-ai-to-recommend-a-product-often-exposes-problems-outside-seo-s-jurisdiction" class="wp-block-heading">Getting AI to recommend a product often exposes problems outside SEO&#8217;s jurisdiction</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now consider a SaaS company that&#8217;s a true leader in its niche but consistently loses recommendations when buyers want a native integration with a particular enterprise platform. Its leading competitors offer one. This company doesn&#8217;t.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The website could clearly explain the available workaround. It could publish implementation documentation and customer examples showing the alternative works. That may improve the company&#8217;s visibility and AI&#8217;s perception. But content can&#8217;t turn a workaround into a native integration. If that capability matters to the buyer, AI sees the product as a poorer fit or a higher-risk choice.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We saw an even more striking example while researching a complex manufacturing machine. AI understood that one component was made from a different material than its competitors, recognized the performance implications of that design choice, and surfaced both the component and its material when throughput became important to the buyer later in the conversation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The product&#8217;s design itself becomes a factor in recommendations.</strong>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Let that sink in for a moment. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Product design has rarely influenced marketing channels beyond reviews, listicles, and ecommerce filters.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is where AI visibility moves beyond the traditional boundaries of SEO. The SEO or AI Search (GEO) team can identify the pattern, measure how often it affects important buyer scenarios, and diagnose why the product loses recommendations. But it can&#8217;t change the material used in a product, add a native integration, or rewrite a company&#8217;s warranty policy.</p>



<h2 id="h-seo-needs-to-know-when-and-how-to-mobilize-other-teams-to-execute-ai-visibility-solutions" class="wp-block-heading">SEO needs to know when and how to mobilize other teams to execute AI visibility solutions.</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">AI visibility creates a different kind of cross-functional challenge than SEO. Analysis may uncover recommendation problems whose solutions don&#8217;t belong to SEO at all.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>If AI repeatedly excludes a product because buyers need a capability it doesn&#8217;t have, the next conversation belongs with <strong>Product</strong>. </li>



<li>If customer evidence causes the company to lose recommendations because of poor support for complex issues, that conversation belongs with <strong>Technical Support</strong> leadership.</li>



<li>If the return policy or refund timeline is blocking recommendations, that conversation belongs with <strong>Finance</strong> leadership.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The SEO and AI search (GEO) team&#8217;s expanded role is to bring cross-functional teams a business problem they may not even know exists:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>&#8220;When buyers ask AI about this requirement, we lose. Here&#8217;s why. Here&#8217;s how often it happens. Here&#8217;s which products or revenue opportunities it affects. How do we fix it?&#8221;</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">From there, the business can decide whether anything should change.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sometimes the answer is to change the product, policy, or process. Sometimes the answer is, &#8220;We can&#8217;t change,&#8221; and the team must rely on better positioning, stronger evidence, or clearer content to improve AI&#8217;s perception. And sometimes the company decides the buyer scenario simply isn&#8217;t important enough to justify action.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Pacesetter AI visibility programs will <strong>own the program</strong> while mobilizing cross-functional teams to <strong>own the solution</strong>. That creates two layers of ownership, unlike SEO, where responsibility typically rests with the SEO team. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The SEO and AI search (GEO) team may own monitoring recommendations, investigating losses, and diagnosing their causes. But when the cause lies in the product, customer experience, operations, finance, or another function, that team must be mobilized to own the solution.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The pacesetters in AI visibility won&#8217;t be the teams that learn to optimize everything they find. They&#8217;ll be the teams that know what SEO can fix, what it can&#8217;t, and how to mobilize the organization when the answer lies elsewhere.</strong>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Join me Oct. 5 for my all-new <a href="https://info.thirddoormedia.com/NzI3LVpRRS0wNDQAAAGjrwoumDq-ic3ckHue8llwq0cdQHGY5iKSuTrlejfQyEfSdbdm2N1ylu7-9ZdJkP63mxZo_TM=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AI Brand Visibility SMX Master Class</a> and discover what it really takes to earn recommendations in the AI era. This isn&#8217;t another tactical SEO workshop. It&#8217;s a strategic roadmap for understanding how AI is changing discovery, and how your organization can adapt before your competitors do.</em>


For most of search marketing’s history, action items stayed close to what SEO and website teams owned: technical issues, content, links, authority, and related work. Fixes often required developers, writers, or subject-matter experts, but SEO and website teams could usually diagnose the problems and influence the outcome on their own.
AI visibility doesn’t fit as neatly into that SEO box.



A company can have a technically sound website that AI crawlers can access and understand, including what the company sells and who it serves. AI may even mention and cite the brand regularly in informational responses.
Yet when a buyer asks what to purchase, those same brands can be left out. That’s because AI uses a different set of criteria when it shifts from providing information to making recommendations. As a result, AI visibility plans require action from teams across the organization, far beyond SEO and AI search.
This is why I believe AI visibility now has two jobs:
Optimize what SEO and development control.
Mobilize the organization for everything else.
Mobilizing teams across the organization will become one of the most important capabilities for in-house teams responsible for AI visibility.
This is something I’ll be addressing in my AI Brand Visibility SMX Master Class on Oct. 5.
Being visible and being recommended aren’t the same problem
Much of the industry’s GEO conversation today focuses on getting found and mentioned:
Can AI crawlers access our content?
Are we mentioned?
Are we cited?
Which sources influence AI responses?
How often do we appear compared with competitors?
This is a job in itself.
However, when a buyer asks:
“I need a compressed air system for a food manufacturing facility that maintains consistent pressure during variable production demand without introducing oil contamination into the process. What should I consider?”
This isn’t simply a request for information about compressed air systems. The buyer has provided a specific set of requirements and asked AI to help make a decision. AI shifts from providing information to giving advice.
To answer well, AI must determine which solutions are appropriate for food manufacturing, which can handle variable demand, which address contamination concerns, what tradeoffs the buyer should consider, and more.
The AI system compares products using documentation, technical specifications, customer experiences, third-party sources, and its understanding of manufacturers and the buyers they serve. It also applies its own understanding of what matters most in that buying scenario to its evaluation.
Once AI moves into advising, it’s no longer simply retrieving information. It’s making recommendations, and that’s when being understood and citable is no longer the same as being recommendable.
That significantly expands the role of the SEO and AI Search (GEO) team.
Sometimes AI understands your product perfectly and that’s why you’re omitted
Consider a manufacturer with strong domain authority, extensive content, and technically sound product pages. Its products consistently appear when buyers ask informational questions about the category.
Now imagine a buyer asks:
“What equipment should I use for this application if minimizing downtime is more important than initial cost?” 
The manufacturer disappears from the recommendations. 
Why?
Most search teams would look for a content opportunity. Maybe the website doesn’t explain the product in the context of that application. Maybe its operational advantages aren’t documented. Maybe the information exists but isn’t easy to retrieve. 
Those are fixable search and content problems.
But our analysis of leading brands is uncovering issues far beyond what SEO and AI Search (GEO) teams typically consider. We’re seeing reasons such as:
Higher maintenance requirements than competing products
Missing capabilities that matter for the buyer’s specific application
Consistent customer reports of difficult support experiences for complex issues
A component with a reputation for frequent failure
Cloud connectivity that’s reported to drop frequently
These aren’t hypothetical examples. We’ve uncovered issues like these while investigating why large, sophisticated brands with strong products are omitted from AI recommendations.
In these cases, AI wasn’t failing to find the company or its products. It understood them extremely well — in fact, too well. 
AI accurately recognized the products’ limitations, what could go wrong, and where buyers were likely to face risk, frustration, higher total cost of ownership, more downtime, longer repair times, and other tradeoffs.
The gaps we’re finding come down to buyer scenarios. Specific prompts surface evidence within AI’s context window that it uses to decide whether a company is a good recommendation for that buyer.
This is a fundamentally different visibility problem than SEO or getting found by AI. It’s a recommendation problem.
When recommendations are the issue, the work extends beyond the SEO and AI search (GEO) team and into cross-functional teams across the organization. In many cases, winning in AI search requires mobilizing far more teams than SEO ever did.
Getting AI to recommend a product often exposes problems outside SEO’s jurisdiction
Now consider a SaaS company that’s a true leader in its niche but consistently loses recommendations when buyers want a native integration with a particular enterprise platform. Its leading competitors offer one. This company doesn’t.
The website could clearly explain the available workaround. It could publish implementation documentation and customer examples showing the alternative works. That may improve the company’s visibility and AI’s perception. But content can’t turn a workaround into a native integration. If that capability matters to the buyer, AI sees the product as a poorer fit or a higher-risk choice.
We saw an even more striking example while researching a complex manufacturing machine. AI understood that one component was made from a different material than its competitors, recognized the performance implications of that design choice, and surfaced both the component and its material when throughput became important to the buyer later in the conversation.
The product’s design itself becomes a factor in recommendations.



Let that sink in for a moment. 
Product design has rarely influenced marketing channels beyond reviews, listicles, and ecommerce filters.
This is where AI visibility moves beyond the traditional boundaries of SEO. The SEO or AI Search (GEO) team can identify the pattern, measure how often it affects important buyer scenarios, and diagnose why the product loses recommendations. But it can’t change the material used in a product, add a native integration, or rewrite a company’s warranty policy.
SEO needs to know when and how to mobilize other teams to execute AI visibility solutions.
AI visibility creates a different kind of cross-functional challenge than SEO. Analysis may uncover recommendation problems whose solutions don’t belong to SEO at all.
If AI repeatedly excludes a product because buyers need a capability it doesn’t have, the next conversation belongs with Product. 
If customer evidence causes the company to lose recommendations because of poor support for complex issues, that conversation belongs with Technical Support leadership.
If the return policy or refund timeline is blocking recommendations, that conversation belongs with Finance leadership.
The SEO and AI search (GEO) team’s expanded role is to bring cross-functional teams a business problem they may not even know exists:
“When buyers ask AI about this requirement, we lose. Here’s why. Here’s how often it happens. Here’s which products or revenue opportunities it affects. How do we fix it?”
From there, the business can decide whether anything should change.
Sometimes the answer is to change the product, policy, or process. Sometimes the answer is, “We can’t change,” and the team must rely on better positioning, stronger evidence, or clearer content to improve AI’s perception. And sometimes the company decides the buyer scenario simply isn’t important enough to justify action.
Pacesetter AI visibility programs will own the program while mobilizing cross-functional teams to own the solution. That creates two layers of ownership, unlike SEO, where responsibility typically rests with the SEO team. 
The SEO and AI search (GEO) team may own monitoring recommendations, investigating losses, and diagnosing their causes. But when the cause lies in the product, customer experience, operations, finance, or another function, that team must be mobilized to own the solution.
The pacesetters in AI visibility won’t be the teams that learn to optimize everything they find. They’ll be the teams that know what SEO can fix, what it can’t, and how to mobilize the organization when the answer lies elsewhere.



Join me Oct. 5 for my all-new AI Brand Visibility SMX Master Class and discover what it really takes to earn recommendations in the AI era. This isn’t another tactical SEO workshop. It’s a strategic roadmap for understanding how AI is changing discovery, and how your organization can adapt before your competitors do.

Getting cited by AI isn't enough. Discover why winning recommendations requires cross-functional action beyond SEO and website optimization.

AI visibility has two jobs: Execute SEO and mobilize the organization

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>Google is adding Gemini Omni to Asset Studio, making it easier to turn creative briefs and brand assets into campaign-ready videos.

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-AI-creative-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Google is bringing Gemini Omni into Asset Studio in Google Ads, allowing advertisers to turn creative briefs, brand guidelines and existing assets into multi-format videos that can be deployed directly into campaigns.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The new capabilities are aimed at reducing the work required to produce creative variations for Demand Gen, Performance Max and other Google and YouTube campaigns.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What’s new.</strong> Starting today, Google DeepMind&#8217;s Gemini Omni model powers new multimodal video creation tools directly within Asset Studio.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-video"><video height="1080" width="1920" controls src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/multimodal-bloom-flux-30s-demo-mp4.mp4"></video></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Advertisers can provide their brand guidelines and website URL, enter a creative brief or select existing static assets, and use Gemini Omni to generate video storyboards and motion scenes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>How it works.</strong> Google has built the workflow around four stages: establish the brand, generate concepts, refine the creative and deploy the finished assets.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">After importing brand guidelines and a URL, advertisers can generate initial concepts from prompts or existing creative. They can then use additional prompts to adjust individual scenes, voiceovers, pacing and aspect ratios before exporting the assets directly into campaigns.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Prompt-based editing.</strong> Advertisers can refine generated videos using natural language rather than rebuilding creative from scratch.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Gemini Omni can make changes to scenes, backgrounds and styling while retaining context from previous instructions, allowing advertisers to iteratively develop the creative through a conversation-like workflow.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Brand controls.</strong> Google says Gemini Omni uses reasoning during scene generation to help AI-generated assets remain consistent with an advertiser&#8217;s visual identity and tone.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Rather than only generating realistic-looking scenes, Google says the model reasons about what should happen next while attempting to maintain the brand standards supplied by the advertiser.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Multi-format creative.</strong> One of the main goals is to make it easier to produce the creative variety needed across Google&#8217;s different advertising surfaces.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Gemini Omni can generate horizontal 16:9 and vertical 9:16 versions of video creative, reducing the need for advertisers to separately produce variations for different placements across Google and YouTube.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>From creation to campaigns.</strong> Finished assets can be exported from Asset Studio directly into Demand Gen, Performance Max and other YouTube or Google campaigns.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That creates a more integrated workflow where advertisers can move from a brief to generated creative and then into campaign deployment without relying on separate video production tools for each stage.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why we care.</strong> Producing enough video variations for Google&#8217;s increasingly creative-heavy campaign types can be expensive and time-consuming, particularly when advertisers need multiple formats. Putting generation and editing directly inside Google Ads could dramatically shorten that process. But advertisers will still need to scrutinize whether AI-generated videos genuinely meet their brand standards rather than relying solely on Gemini Omni&#8217;s interpretation of their guidelines.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Bottom line.</strong> Google is turning Asset Studio into a more complete AI video production environment, using <a href="https://business.google.com/us/accelerate/announcements/omni-in-google-ads/">Gemini Omni</a> to take advertisers from creative brief to brand-aware, multi-format video assets that can be deployed directly into campaigns.</p>


Google is bringing Gemini Omni into Asset Studio in Google Ads, allowing advertisers to turn creative briefs, brand guidelines and existing assets into multi-format videos that can be deployed directly into campaigns.
The new capabilities are aimed at reducing the work required to produce creative variations for Demand Gen, Performance Max and other Google and YouTube campaigns.
What’s new. Starting today, Google DeepMind’s Gemini Omni model powers new multimodal video creation tools directly within Asset Studio.








Advertisers can provide their brand guidelines and website URL, enter a creative brief or select existing static assets, and use Gemini Omni to generate video storyboards and motion scenes.
How it works. Google has built the workflow around four stages: establish the brand, generate concepts, refine the creative and deploy the finished assets.
After importing brand guidelines and a URL, advertisers can generate initial concepts from prompts or existing creative. They can then use additional prompts to adjust individual scenes, voiceovers, pacing and aspect ratios before exporting the assets directly into campaigns.
Prompt-based editing. Advertisers can refine generated videos using natural language rather than rebuilding creative from scratch.
Gemini Omni can make changes to scenes, backgrounds and styling while retaining context from previous instructions, allowing advertisers to iteratively develop the creative through a conversation-like workflow.
Brand controls. Google says Gemini Omni uses reasoning during scene generation to help AI-generated assets remain consistent with an advertiser’s visual identity and tone.
Rather than only generating realistic-looking scenes, Google says the model reasons about what should happen next while attempting to maintain the brand standards supplied by the advertiser.
Multi-format creative. One of the main goals is to make it easier to produce the creative variety needed across Google’s different advertising surfaces.
Gemini Omni can generate horizontal 16:9 and vertical 9:16 versions of video creative, reducing the need for advertisers to separately produce variations for different placements across Google and YouTube.
From creation to campaigns. Finished assets can be exported from Asset Studio directly into Demand Gen, Performance Max and other YouTube or Google campaigns.
That creates a more integrated workflow where advertisers can move from a brief to generated creative and then into campaign deployment without relying on separate video production tools for each stage.
Why we care. Producing enough video variations for Google’s increasingly creative-heavy campaign types can be expensive and time-consuming, particularly when advertisers need multiple formats. Putting generation and editing directly inside Google Ads could dramatically shorten that process. But advertisers will still need to scrutinize whether AI-generated videos genuinely meet their brand standards rather than relying solely on Gemini Omni’s interpretation of their guidelines.
Bottom line. Google is turning Asset Studio into a more complete AI video production environment, using Gemini Omni to take advertisers from creative brief to brand-aware, multi-format video assets that can be deployed directly into campaigns.

Google is adding Gemini Omni to Asset Studio, making it easier to turn creative briefs and brand assets into campaign-ready videos.

Google brings Gemini Omni video creation to Google Ads

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>Google is expanding LSA direct booking to more than 500 partners, making it easier for customers to book straight from ads.

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-booking-integration-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Google is significantly expanding booking capabilities for Local Services Ads (LSAs), increasing support from around 20 Reserve with Google booking partners to more than 500.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The expansion means substantially more LSA advertisers can let potential customers book directly from their ads on Google Search and Maps, according to Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What’s new.</strong> Starting now, advertisers whose Google Business Profile already has an active partner booking link will automatically have that booking capability enabled for their Local Services Ads.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s no additional manual linking required. Eligible customers can move directly from seeing the LSA to making a booking through the advertiser&#8217;s existing booking partner.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>A big expansion.</strong> Google says Local Services Ads now support more than 500 Reserve with Google booking partners, up from just 20.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That dramatically increases the number of businesses that could potentially use direct booking through their ads without adopting a different scheduling provider.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Bookings become paid leads.</strong> Direct bookings generated through LSAs aren&#8217;t simply an additional interaction with the ad. Google says they will flow into LSA lead reporting as paid leads.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Advertisers can continue viewing and managing those booking leads from within their Local Services Ads profile.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Advertisers still have controls.</strong> Businesses that don&#8217;t want to use a particular booking provider can adjust their preferences.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Booking settings and individual partner links can be managed under Profile &amp; Budget > Settings within the LSA dashboard, including the ability to disable a specific partner link.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The Google Ads migration.</strong> These settings won&#8217;t disappear as <a href="https://searchengineland.com/local-services-ads-come-to-google-ads-via-performance-max-482692">Google moves LSA accounts into Google Ads over the coming months</a>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Marvin said advertisers&#8217; booking preferences will carry over as part of that migration, helping preserve existing configurations through the transition.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why we care.</strong> Direct booking reduces the number of steps between seeing an LSA and becoming a lead. Expanding support from 20 to more than 500 booking partners could make that experience available to significantly more advertisers. But because those bookings are treated as paid leads, businesses should also monitor booking quality and costs rather than viewing the feature simply as a free conversion improvement.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Bottom line.</strong> Google is turning direct booking into a much more widely available Local Services Ads feature, automatically connecting existing eligible Business Profile booking links and letting customers go from an ad on Search or Maps directly to making an appointment.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Dig deeper. </strong><a href="https://x.com/adsliaison/status/2092237387178860721">Ginny Marvin announcement</a>


Google is significantly expanding booking capabilities for Local Services Ads (LSAs), increasing support from around 20 Reserve with Google booking partners to more than 500.
The expansion means substantially more LSA advertisers can let potential customers book directly from their ads on Google Search and Maps, according to Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin.
What’s new. Starting now, advertisers whose Google Business Profile already has an active partner booking link will automatically have that booking capability enabled for their Local Services Ads.
There’s no additional manual linking required. Eligible customers can move directly from seeing the LSA to making a booking through the advertiser’s existing booking partner.
A big expansion. Google says Local Services Ads now support more than 500 Reserve with Google booking partners, up from just 20.
That dramatically increases the number of businesses that could potentially use direct booking through their ads without adopting a different scheduling provider.
Bookings become paid leads. Direct bookings generated through LSAs aren’t simply an additional interaction with the ad. Google says they will flow into LSA lead reporting as paid leads.
Advertisers can continue viewing and managing those booking leads from within their Local Services Ads profile.
Advertisers still have controls. Businesses that don’t want to use a particular booking provider can adjust their preferences.
Booking settings and individual partner links can be managed under Profile & Budget > Settings within the LSA dashboard, including the ability to disable a specific partner link.
The Google Ads migration. These settings won’t disappear as Google moves LSA accounts into Google Ads over the coming months.
Marvin said advertisers’ booking preferences will carry over as part of that migration, helping preserve existing configurations through the transition.
Why we care. Direct booking reduces the number of steps between seeing an LSA and becoming a lead. Expanding support from 20 to more than 500 booking partners could make that experience available to significantly more advertisers. But because those bookings are treated as paid leads, businesses should also monitor booking quality and costs rather than viewing the feature simply as a free conversion improvement.
Bottom line. Google is turning direct booking into a much more widely available Local Services Ads feature, automatically connecting existing eligible Business Profile booking links and letting customers go from an ad on Search or Maps directly to making an appointment.
Dig deeper. Ginny Marvin announcement

Google is expanding LSA direct booking to more than 500 partners, making it easier for customers to book straight from ads.

Google expands direct booking for Local Services Ads

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>Google will start charging Local Services Ads advertisers for some missed and follow-up calls that qualify as valid leads from Oct. 1.

<div><img width="1672" height="941" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update.png 1672w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/LSA-call-policy-update-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Google is updating its Local Services Ads lead charge policy, changing how and when advertisers are charged for calls generated by their ads.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Starting Oct. 1st, certain missed calls and subsequent calls that meet Google&#8217;s valid lead criteria will become chargeable.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What’s changing.</strong> Missed calls during business hours will now be charged as valid leads when a user stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, with some exceptions.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="496" height="756" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Lead-charge.png" alt="" class="wp-image-485801"/></figure>
</div>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That means advertisers could be charged for a call even if nobody at the business actually answers it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Subsequent calls.</strong> If an initial call doesn&#8217;t qualify as a charged lead, Google says subsequent follow-up calls between the business and the user will be charged if they meet its valid lead criteria.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Call routing exceptions.</strong> Google is introducing an exception for businesses whose call-receiving setup requires customers to press a key to reach the appropriate department.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In these cases, the 20-second timer won&#8217;t begin until the customer presses the key. Businesses won&#8217;t be charged if the customer doesn&#8217;t press a key and therefore isn&#8217;t routed.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Spam protections.</strong> Google says it is introducing new safeguards intended to limit robot calls and address spam call abuse as part of the change.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The announcement doesn&#8217;t provide further details about how those protections will work.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why Google is making the change.</strong> Google says Local Services Ads customers often have immediate needs and expect to connect quickly with a trusted local professional.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The company says the policy change is intended to help the platform meet those customer expectations while rewarding businesses that provide &#8220;excellent responsiveness.&#8221;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why we care.</strong> The change puts more importance on advertisers&#8217; ability to answer calls during business hours. Businesses could now pay for missed calls that last longer than 20 seconds, making call responsiveness and routing setup more directly connected to LSA costs.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Bottom line.</strong> Starting Oct. 1, Google will broaden what can qualify as a charged Local Services Ads call lead, including missed calls lasting more than 20 seconds during business hours and qualifying subsequent calls.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>First spotted.</strong> This updated was spotted by a digital marketer on <a href="https://x.com/theJoeShmow">X</a>. </p>


Google is updating its Local Services Ads lead charge policy, changing how and when advertisers are charged for calls generated by their ads.
Starting Oct. 1st, certain missed calls and subsequent calls that meet Google’s valid lead criteria will become chargeable.
What’s changing. Missed calls during business hours will now be charged as valid leads when a user stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, with some exceptions.




That means advertisers could be charged for a call even if nobody at the business actually answers it.
Subsequent calls. If an initial call doesn’t qualify as a charged lead, Google says subsequent follow-up calls between the business and the user will be charged if they meet its valid lead criteria.
Call routing exceptions. Google is introducing an exception for businesses whose call-receiving setup requires customers to press a key to reach the appropriate department.
In these cases, the 20-second timer won’t begin until the customer presses the key. Businesses won’t be charged if the customer doesn’t press a key and therefore isn’t routed.
Spam protections. Google says it is introducing new safeguards intended to limit robot calls and address spam call abuse as part of the change.
The announcement doesn’t provide further details about how those protections will work.
Why Google is making the change. Google says Local Services Ads customers often have immediate needs and expect to connect quickly with a trusted local professional.
The company says the policy change is intended to help the platform meet those customer expectations while rewarding businesses that provide “excellent responsiveness.”
Why we care. The change puts more importance on advertisers’ ability to answer calls during business hours. Businesses could now pay for missed calls that last longer than 20 seconds, making call responsiveness and routing setup more directly connected to LSA costs.
Bottom line. Starting Oct. 1, Google will broaden what can qualify as a charged Local Services Ads call lead, including missed calls lasting more than 20 seconds during business hours and qualifying subsequent calls.
First spotted. This updated was spotted by a digital marketer on X.

Google will start charging Local Services Ads advertisers for some missed and follow-up calls that qualify as valid leads from Oct. 1.

Google Local Services Ads will charge for some missed calls starting Oct. 1

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How to turn an SEO backlog into a roadmap" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>SEO roadmaps should tie business goals to ownership, capacity, impact, and measurement. Otherwise, you’ve built a backlog.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How to turn an SEO backlog into a roadmap" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/How-to-turn-an-SEO-backlog-into-a-roadmap-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Your <a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo">SEO</a> <a href="https://searchengineland.com/how-to-create-an-seo-roadmap-432389">roadmap</a> needs to be more than a list of activities.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Every line in the list could be worth doing, but they should also tell you why it matters, what it’s supposed to accomplish, or what happens if it slips a quarter. A roadmap should answer “so what” for everything on it. Otherwise, you’ve built a backlog.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It’s important to note the difference because roadmaps and backlogs serve different purposes, even though they&#8217;re sometimes mistaken for interchangeable.</p>



<h2 id="h-seo-backlogs-vs-roadmaps" class="wp-block-heading">SEO backlogs vs. roadmaps</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A backlog is where ideas, patches, or nice-to-haves sit and wait their turn, while a roadmap is where you show measurable outcomes tied to initiatives when tasked with answering what SEO will actually deliver within a set time frame and why it deserves to be continuously funded compared to other growth levers.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Treating the two as the same is how teams end up defending activity instead of outcomes, and often, where roadmaps fail.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A backlog says:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Fix this set of canonical errors.</li>



<li>Add schema to a template.</li>



<li>Update category pages.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A roadmap says:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Why this matters.</li>



<li>What business outcome it supports.</li>



<li>Who owns it.</li>



<li>What has to happen first, if anything.</li>



<li>Expected impact, direct or indirect.</li>



<li>What it costs in time and resources.</li>



<li>How you’ll know it worked by measurement.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Everything that can clear those questions should be scored and sequenced on your roadmap. Everything that can’t should stay in the backlog until it can.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Your list is the first step. A framework for building the roadmap is the qualifying layer.</p>


<a href="https://www.semrush.com/?utm_campaign=ic_sel_0101default&#038;utm_source=searchengineland.com&#038;utm_medium=overlay&#038;onboarding=off" target="_blank">
  <div>
    
    <div>
      
      <div id="semrush-one-headline" class="headline-responsive">
        Be the brand <span>customers find first</span>.
      </div>
      <p id="semrush-one-subhead">
        Track, grow, and measure your visibility across Google, AI search, social, local, and every channel that influences buying decisions.
      </p>
    </div>
    <div>
      <span id="semrush-one-cta">Start your free trial</span>
    </div>
    </div>
    </a>




<h2 id="h-using-scope-for-seo-roadmapping" class="wp-block-heading">Using SCOPE for SEO roadmapping</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A helpful framework to categorize between roadmap and backlog is SCOPE. It’s similar in method to other acronymic frameworks, like RICE in product or RACI in operations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">SCOPE stands for:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Strategic alignment</strong>: Does the initiative tie to business goals the executives care about?</li>



<li><strong>Confidence in delivery</strong>: Will the initiative get shipped in the way it’s intended, without being derailed by dependencies?</li>



<li><strong>Ownership of execution</strong>: Who will actually do the work, and what’s their capacity?</li>



<li><strong>Potential impact</strong>: What’s the value of the initiative? Can you measure it honestly?</li>



<li><strong>Effort and elapsed time</strong>: What does the initiative cost, and how long will it take?</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Take your list of initiatives and run them through the matrix (hypotheticals within):</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Initiative</strong></td><td><strong>Strategic alignment</strong></td><td><strong>Confidence in delivery</strong></td><td><strong>Ownership of execution</strong></td><td><strong>Potential impact</strong></td><td><strong>Effort and elapsed time</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Fix canonical tag errors on product pages</td><td>High. Protects existing rankings from splitting equity.</td><td>High. No dependencies.</td><td>SEO team</td><td>Medium. Recovers lost equity but no new demand.</td><td>Low effort. 2 weeks.</td></tr><tr><td>Add schema to top commercial pages</td><td>Medium. Supports visibility and CTR.</td><td>High. No dependencies.</td><td>SEO team + content</td><td>Medium. Incremental changes.</td><td>Low effort. 3 weeks.</td></tr><tr><td>Consolidate thin category pages</td><td>Medium. Cleans up cannibalization.</td><td>Medium. Needs stakeholder alignment.</td><td>SEO team</td><td>Medium. But potentially avoids further issues later.</td><td>Medium effort. 6 weeks.</td></tr><tr><td>Rebuild internal linking architecture</td><td>High. Impact across the entire website.</td><td>Medium. Needs CMS support for dynamic linking.</td><td>SEO team + dev</td><td>High. Lifts authority flow across entire site.</td><td>Medium effort. 1 quarter for data-driven analysis.</td></tr><tr><td>Build a pSEO directory from the product database</td><td>High. Net-new organic demand captured at scale.</td><td>Low. Needs engineering bandwidth.</td><td>SEO team + engineering + QA</td><td>High. Largest net-new traffic opportunity.</td><td>High effort. Half year.</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-goals-strategy-planning-453492">SEO execution: Understanding goals, strategy, and planning</a></em></strong>



<h2 id="h-sequence-your-seo-priorities-on-your-roadmap" class="wp-block-heading">Sequence your SEO priorities on your roadmap</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While placing the initiatives across your matrix tells you what matters most, sequencing tells you what happens when.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Doing so is beneficial because some initiatives are cheap and fast, while others are expensive and slow to pay off.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you’re reporting on quarterly or half-year targets, your roadmap should include a mix of both. Otherwise, all of your wins will hit a wall in outcomes by month ~four, while long-horizon bets won’t show up until the next cycle, making it harder to justify the roadmap.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here are some examples of quick wins:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Fix canonical errors:</strong> Low effort, ships in two weeks, fine outcome.</li>



<li><strong>Add schema to top commercial pages: </strong>Low effort, ships in three weeks, fine outcome.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here are some examples of long bets:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Rebuilding the internal linking architecture:</strong> Blocks a quarter of work before compounding effects become visible.</li>



<li><strong>Building a pSEO directory off the product database:</strong> Has the highest upside to net-new traffic, but requires the most effort and time.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good sequencing usually means quick wins that are low-effort and high-confidence, generating results while the slower initiatives run in parallel in the background.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That way, by the time quick wins are exhausted, you’ll start reaping the rewards of the bigger bets that have phased through their dependencies and are beginning to gain traction.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So you have the list, you have the qualifying layer, and now you’re sequencing appropriately. But what about limitations?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/prioritize-technical-seo-fixes-business-impact-477385">How to prioritize technical SEO fixes by business impact</a></em></strong>



<div class="nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2">
	
	<div class="row align-items-center nl-inline-container">
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-3 col-xl-4 pe-md-0 pb-2 pb-lg-0">
			<p class="inline-form-text text-center mb-0">Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.</p>
		</div>
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-7 col-xl-6  pe-lg-0">
			<div class="form-nl-inline">
				<form id="mktoForm_16298"></form> 
				
				
			</div>
		</div>
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-2 col-xl-2 ps-1">
			<p class="text-center mb-0"><a class="nl-terms" href="https://searchengineland.com/termsofuse" target="_blank" aria-label="opens in a new tab">See terms.</a>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>




<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-css-opacity has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background"/>



<h2 id="h-build-the-seo-roadmap-around-realistic-implementation" class="wp-block-heading">Build the SEO roadmap around realistic implementation</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Roadmaps only work if you’re honest about what you can do.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/programmatic-seo">Programmatic SEO</a> (pSEO) is a clean example of an initiative that could slow your progress. This isn’t about spammy implementation, as some websites have produced thousands of thin pages and been hit by spam updates. It’s about building rich, unique content into database pages with structure and value for users.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Think of a large database-driven directory, for example. These initiatives can look fantastic in a strategy deck, but querying a database to spin up well-done pages with widgets across each will typically require engineering time. Meanwhile, engineering has its own roadmap and backlog that doesn’t focus on organic traffic.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The same logic applies to factors such as CMS limitations and other technical considerations. Your SEO initiatives aren’t just competing with each other on a SCOPE matrix and sequencing. They’re competing with product and dev roadmaps.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://hub.seofomo.co/surveys/ecommerce-seo-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEOFomo’s 2026 survey</a> found that implementation bottlenecks and development constraints were the most commonly reported reasons SEO projects didn’t meet their expectations. This includes dev backlogs, limited engineering capacity, and complex architecture.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Although it can be underwhelming to accept and label initiatives as just not practical to get completed, it’s important to set realistic expectations so your roadmap remains aligned with what you can actually deliver.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Any advances in AI tooling may lower the barrier to implementation, but they won’t eliminate dependencies overnight. Complex architecture, governance, and deployment to production, especially in regulated industries, will probably still require coordination beyond the SEO team.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/fix-everything-wrong-seo-strategy-478437">‘Fix everything’ is the wrong SEO strategy</a></em></strong>



<h2 id="h-defining-measurement-before-implementation" class="wp-block-heading">Defining measurement before implementation</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Measurement is table stakes and baked into defining the potential impact of initiatives on your SEO roadmap. Revenue is usually the strongest outcome.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But SEO isn’t always cleanly attributable to revenue, as some initiatives support things like brand visibility, paid acquisition efficiency in multi-touch buyer journeys, or lifecycle enablement. Or, generally speaking, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-blended-customer-acquisition-costs-483589">SEO can reduce blended customer acquisition costs</a>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And the initiatives that support that contribution, although not direct, may still deserve to be on the roadmap because indirect value is still value.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whether it’s via blended CAC efficiency demonstrated through holdouts, direct revenue tied to first-touch attribution, or a mix, there needs to be an honest plan to measure it.</p>


<a href="https://www.semrush.com/?utm_campaign=ic_sel_0102default&#038;utm_source=searchengineland.com&#038;utm_medium=overlay&#038;onboarding=off" target="_blank">
  <div>
    
    <div>
      
      <div id="semrush-one-headline" class="headline-responsive">
        Own the conversation <span>before your competitors</span>.
      </div>
      <p id="semrush-one-subhead">
        See where your brand appears, where it doesn&#8217;t, and exactly how to win more visibility across search, AI, local, social, and every channel that matters.
      </p>
    </div>
    <div>
      <span id="semrush-one-cta">Start your free trial</span>
    </div>
    </div>
    </a>




<h2 id="h-treat-the-roadmap-like-a-real-operating-plan" class="wp-block-heading">Treat the roadmap like a real operating plan</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">SEO roadmaps that work typically qualify their initiatives in comparison to others, are considerate of cross-functional dependencies, sequence based on capacity and expected timelines, are honest about what’s measurable, and are revisited on a regular cadence.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Once there’s early traction and a clear business impact, that’s leverage to go back and ask for increased capacity for larger bets.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the meantime, your roadmap should be built like someone is going to ask you to defend it. Do that well enough, and no one has to.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/build-120-minute-weekly-seo-workflow-481205">How to build a 120-minute weekly SEO workflow that gets results</a></em></strong>

Your SEO roadmap needs to be more than a list of activities.
Every line in the list could be worth doing, but they should also tell you why it matters, what it’s supposed to accomplish, or what happens if it slips a quarter. A roadmap should answer “so what” for everything on it. Otherwise, you’ve built a backlog.
It’s important to note the difference because roadmaps and backlogs serve different purposes, even though they’re sometimes mistaken for interchangeable.
SEO backlogs vs. roadmaps
A backlog is where ideas, patches, or nice-to-haves sit and wait their turn, while a roadmap is where you show measurable outcomes tied to initiatives when tasked with answering what SEO will actually deliver within a set time frame and why it deserves to be continuously funded compared to other growth levers.
Treating the two as the same is how teams end up defending activity instead of outcomes, and often, where roadmaps fail.
A backlog says:
Fix this set of canonical errors.
Add schema to a template.
Update category pages.
A roadmap says:
Why this matters.
What business outcome it supports.
Who owns it.
What has to happen first, if anything.
Expected impact, direct or indirect.
What it costs in time and resources.
How you’ll know it worked by measurement.
Everything that can clear those questions should be scored and sequenced on your roadmap. Everything that can’t should stay in the backlog until it can.
Your list is the first step. A framework for building the roadmap is the qualifying layer.
customers find first.
      
Start your free trial
    
Using SCOPE for SEO roadmapping
A helpful framework to categorize between roadmap and backlog is SCOPE. It’s similar in method to other acronymic frameworks, like RICE in product or RACI in operations.
SCOPE stands for:
Strategic alignment: Does the initiative tie to business goals the executives care about?
Confidence in delivery: Will the initiative get shipped in the way it’s intended, without being derailed by dependencies?
Ownership of execution: Who will actually do the work, and what’s their capacity?
Potential impact: What’s the value of the initiative? Can you measure it honestly?
Effort and elapsed time: What does the initiative cost, and how long will it take?
Take your list of initiatives and run them through the matrix (hypotheticals within):

InitiativeStrategic alignmentConfidence in deliveryOwnership of executionPotential impactEffort and elapsed time
Fix canonical tag errors on product pagesHigh. Protects existing rankings from splitting equity.High. No dependencies.SEO teamMedium. Recovers lost equity but no new demand.Low effort. 2 weeks.
Add schema to top commercial pagesMedium. Supports visibility and CTR.High. No dependencies.SEO team + contentMedium. Incremental changes.Low effort. 3 weeks.
Consolidate thin category pagesMedium. Cleans up cannibalization.Medium. Needs stakeholder alignment.SEO teamMedium. But potentially avoids further issues later.Medium effort. 6 weeks.
Rebuild internal linking architectureHigh. Impact across the entire website.Medium. Needs CMS support for dynamic linking.SEO team + devHigh. Lifts authority flow across entire site.Medium effort. 1 quarter for data-driven analysis.
Build a pSEO directory from the product databaseHigh. Net-new organic demand captured at scale.Low. Needs engineering bandwidth.SEO team + engineering + QAHigh. Largest net-new traffic opportunity.High effort. Half year.






Dig deeper: SEO execution: Understanding goals, strategy, and planning



Sequence your SEO priorities on your roadmap
While placing the initiatives across your matrix tells you what matters most, sequencing tells you what happens when.
Doing so is beneficial because some initiatives are cheap and fast, while others are expensive and slow to pay off.
If you’re reporting on quarterly or half-year targets, your roadmap should include a mix of both. Otherwise, all of your wins will hit a wall in outcomes by month ~four, while long-horizon bets won’t show up until the next cycle, making it harder to justify the roadmap.
Here are some examples of quick wins:
Fix canonical errors: Low effort, ships in two weeks, fine outcome.
Add schema to top commercial pages: Low effort, ships in three weeks, fine outcome.
Here are some examples of long bets:
Rebuilding the internal linking architecture: Blocks a quarter of work before compounding effects become visible.
Building a pSEO directory off the product database: Has the highest upside to net-new traffic, but requires the most effort and time.
Good sequencing usually means quick wins that are low-effort and high-confidence, generating results while the slower initiatives run in parallel in the background.
That way, by the time quick wins are exhausted, you’ll start reaping the rewards of the bigger bets that have phased through their dependencies and are beginning to gain traction.
So you have the list, you have the qualifying layer, and now you’re sequencing appropriately. But what about limitations?
Dig deeper: How to prioritize technical SEO fixes by business impact




	
	
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
 
				
				
			
See terms.
		
Build the SEO roadmap around realistic implementation
Roadmaps only work if you’re honest about what you can do.
Programmatic SEO (pSEO) is a clean example of an initiative that could slow your progress. This isn’t about spammy implementation, as some websites have produced thousands of thin pages and been hit by spam updates. It’s about building rich, unique content into database pages with structure and value for users.
Think of a large database-driven directory, for example. These initiatives can look fantastic in a strategy deck, but querying a database to spin up well-done pages with widgets across each will typically require engineering time. Meanwhile, engineering has its own roadmap and backlog that doesn’t focus on organic traffic.
The same logic applies to factors such as CMS limitations and other technical considerations. Your SEO initiatives aren’t just competing with each other on a SCOPE matrix and sequencing. They’re competing with product and dev roadmaps.
SEOFomo’s 2026 survey found that implementation bottlenecks and development constraints were the most commonly reported reasons SEO projects didn’t meet their expectations. This includes dev backlogs, limited engineering capacity, and complex architecture.
Although it can be underwhelming to accept and label initiatives as just not practical to get completed, it’s important to set realistic expectations so your roadmap remains aligned with what you can actually deliver.
Any advances in AI tooling may lower the barrier to implementation, but they won’t eliminate dependencies overnight. Complex architecture, governance, and deployment to production, especially in regulated industries, will probably still require coordination beyond the SEO team.
Dig deeper: ‘Fix everything’ is the wrong SEO strategy



Defining measurement before implementation
Measurement is table stakes and baked into defining the potential impact of initiatives on your SEO roadmap. Revenue is usually the strongest outcome.
But SEO isn’t always cleanly attributable to revenue, as some initiatives support things like brand visibility, paid acquisition efficiency in multi-touch buyer journeys, or lifecycle enablement. Or, generally speaking, SEO can reduce blended customer acquisition costs.
And the initiatives that support that contribution, although not direct, may still deserve to be on the roadmap because indirect value is still value.
Whether it’s via blended CAC efficiency demonstrated through holdouts, direct revenue tied to first-touch attribution, or a mix, there needs to be an honest plan to measure it.
before your competitors.
      
Start your free trial
    
Treat the roadmap like a real operating plan
SEO roadmaps that work typically qualify their initiatives in comparison to others, are considerate of cross-functional dependencies, sequence based on capacity and expected timelines, are honest about what’s measurable, and are revisited on a regular cadence.
Once there’s early traction and a clear business impact, that’s leverage to go back and ask for increased capacity for larger bets.
In the meantime, your roadmap should be built like someone is going to ask you to defend it. Do that well enough, and no one has to.
Dig deeper: How to build a 120-minute weekly SEO workflow that gets results

SEO roadmaps should tie business goals to ownership, capacity, impact, and measurement. Otherwise, you’ve built a backlog.

How to turn an SEO backlog into a roadmap

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Google Business Profile categories and local rankings: What 1.8M profiles reveal" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Specific primary and additional categories, plus complete profiles, correlate with stronger local rankings. See what the data reveals.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Google Business Profile categories and local rankings: What 1.8M profiles reveal" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/08/Google-Business-Profile-categories-and-local-rankings-What-1.8M-profiles-reveal-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you want to improve your local rankings, start by getting specific with your <a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/google-business-profile">Google Business Profile </a>category, choosing relevant additional categories, and fully completing your Profile.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whitespark studied 1.8 million Google Business Profiles across 4,209 categories to learn more about the impact of Google Business Profile categories on rankings, identify notable trends among businesses with specific GBP categories, and explore the curious things that happen at the intersection of different categories. <em>(</em><strong><em>Disclosure</em></strong><em>: I’m the founder of Whitespark.)</em>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The findings challenge some assumptions about how category selection and Profile completeness affect local rankings. Here are three of the most interesting findings from the study.</p>



<h2 id="h-is-it-better-to-pick-a-generic-or-specific-category-for-rankings" class="wp-block-heading">Is it better to pick a generic or specific category for rankings?</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The idea that Google matches the primary GBP category to the search term shouldn&#8217;t come as a surprise to any local marketer.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For example, here are the results for a search for “hair salons”:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary category</strong></td><td><strong>Appearances</strong></td><td><strong>Avg rank</strong></td><td><strong>% in top 10</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Hair salon</td><td>7,952</td><td>49.9</td><td><strong>11.3%</strong>&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>Hairdresser</td><td>200</td><td>56.9</td><td>6.0%</td></tr><tr><td>Beauty salon</td><td>2,066</td><td>60.0</td><td>3.2%</td></tr><tr><td>Barber shop</td><td>297</td><td>79.5</td><td>1.3%</td></tr><tr><td>Nail salon</td><td>36</td><td>81.3</td><td>0.0%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The exact-match category, Hair salon, outperforms all other adjacent categories.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The same applies to a search for “plumbers,” where the “Plumber” category outranks all the other categories in the industry, and the pattern repeats for almost every category in our dataset. Obvious and expected.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">However, there&#8217;s more to consider when choosing your primary category: specificity.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many business owners who aren&#8217;t familiar with local SEO might be tempted to pick a generic primary category, say, Restaurant or Law Firm, to capture broader search traffic.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">However, the data shows that across all industries, a <strong>specific</strong> primary category is associated with better rankings and a ~36% higher presence in the top 10 results (12.5% vs. 9.2%):</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary category type</strong></td><td><strong>Businesses</strong></td><td><strong>Avg rank</strong></td><td><strong>% in top 10</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Generic (Restaurant, Store, Contractor, Attorney, etc.)</td><td>55,091</td><td>50</td><td>9.2%</td></tr><tr><td>Specific (everything modified)</td><td>1,664,733</td><td>45.8</td><td>12.5%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here are three specific category examples:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Attorneys</strong>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary category</strong></td><td><strong>Avg rank (lower is better)</strong></td><td><strong>% in top 10</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Criminal justice attorney</td><td>44.7</td><td>13.4%</td></tr><tr><td>Personal injury attorney</td><td>48.4</td><td>12.2%</td></tr><tr><td>Attorney (generic)</td><td>57.1</td><td>12.9%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Contractors</strong>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary category</strong></td><td><strong>Avg rank (lower is better)</strong></td><td><strong>% in top 10</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Electrician</td><td>48.6</td><td>11.2%</td></tr><tr><td>Roofing contractor</td><td>53.1</td><td>12.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Plumber</td><td>53.2</td><td>10.4%</td></tr><tr><td>HVAC contractor</td><td>53.2</td><td>12.4%</td></tr><tr><td>Contractor (generic)</td><td>57.7</td><td>8.0%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Restaurants</strong>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary category</strong></td><td><strong>Avg rank</strong><strong> (lower is better)</strong></td><td><strong>% in top 10</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Tapas</td><td>28.8</td><td>32.1%</td></tr><tr><td>Hawaiian</td><td>28.4</td><td>27.1%</td></tr><tr><td>New American</td><td>30.4</td><td>28.9%</td></tr><tr><td>French</td><td>37.0</td><td>15.8%</td></tr><tr><td>Spanish</td><td>40.1</td><td>18.5%</td></tr><tr><td>American</td><td>41.8</td><td>17.8%</td></tr><tr><td>Restaurant (generic)</td><td>49.7</td><td>10.1%</td></tr><tr><td>Mexican</td><td>66.7</td><td>2.7%</td></tr><tr><td>Pizza</td><td>74.8</td><td>1.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Chinese</td><td>73.2</td><td>0.6%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Specific categories rank better than generic ones every time. This is because:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The specific categories generally have less competition. Compare the number of Hawaiian restaurants in your town to the total number of restaurants.</li>



<li>Google always tries to match the primary category to the query. If you search for “plumbers,” Google wants to present the user with a list of businesses that specialize in plumbing, not general contractors.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Takeaway:</strong> If you want to rank for everything, you’ll end up ranking for nothing. Users have specific needs in mind when they search for a local business. So, choose a more specific primary category with less competition to reap those ranking benefits.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/local-seo-google-entity-467727">The local SEO gatekeeper: How Google defines your entity</a></em></strong>


<a href="https://www.semrush.com/gbp-optimization/start/?utm_campaign=ic_sel_0101local&#038;utm_source=searchengineland.com&#038;utm_medium=overlay&#038;onboarding=off" target="_blank">
  <div>
    
    <div>
      
      <div id="semrush-one-headline" class="headline-responsive">
        Turn Google searches into <span>more calls, visits, and sales</span>.
      </div>
      <p id="semrush-one-subhead">
        Everything you need to manage your GBP, dominate Google Maps, and attract more customers.
      </p>
    </div>
    <div>
      <span id="semrush-one-cta">Connect your business</span>
    </div>
    </div>
    </a>




<h2 id="h-what-are-the-winning-primary-additional-category-combinations-for-rankings" class="wp-block-heading">What are the winning primary + additional category combinations for rankings?</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">After you pick your primary category with our advice above, the next step is to add additional categories. We’ve noticed in the data that aligning specific additional categories with your primary tends to have a positive impact on rankings.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here are the primary + additional category combinations that rank the highest in our database:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary category</strong></td><td><strong>Best-ranking additional</strong></td><td><strong>Avg rank</strong></td><td><strong>vs. no additional category</strong></td><td><strong>vs. “Service establishment”</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Veterinarian</td><td>Emergency veterinarian service</td><td>33.9</td><td>51.2</td><td>75.6</td></tr><tr><td>Electrician</td><td>EV charging station contractor</td><td>38.2</td><td>47.5</td><td>63.5</td></tr><tr><td>Gym</td><td>Athletic club</td><td>34.7</td><td>43.3</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>Plumber</td><td>Drainage service</td><td>47.3</td><td>54.0</td><td>62.3</td></tr><tr><td>Roofing</td><td>Gutter service</td><td>47.1</td><td>52.1</td><td>70.3</td></tr><tr><td>Personal injury attorney</td><td>Business attorney</td><td>40.8</td><td>51.4</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>Dentist</td><td>Cosmetic dentist</td><td>47.6</td><td>57.6</td><td>53.7</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The data shows that having well-chosen, specific additional categories correlates with higher rankings (by 6-17 rank positions) when compared to businesses that only have a single primary category.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">However, correlation isn’t causation. Business owners who add additional categories are more likely to take care of their local SEO in general (to optimize their GBPs, to ask for reviews, to do SEO work outside of their Google Business Profile, etc.). So, of course, their rankings reflect that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Still, it’s noteworthy that the correlation exists.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Also, to no one’s surprise, a broad, generic category like “Service establishment” that no one ever searches for is useless. In fact, the data seems to suggest that it’s harmful to add this nothing-category to your Profile.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Has anyone ever in the history of the world gone to Google and typed “service establishment near me”? No. So, go specific.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/how-to-pick-the-right-google-business-profile-categories-447898">How to pick the right Google Business Profile categories</a></em></strong>



<div class="nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2">
	
	<div class="row align-items-center nl-inline-container">
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-3 col-xl-4 pe-md-0 pb-2 pb-lg-0">
			<p class="inline-form-text text-center mb-0">Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.</p>
		</div>
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-7 col-xl-6  pe-lg-0">
			<div class="form-nl-inline">
				<form id="mktoForm_16298"></form> 
				
				
			</div>
		</div>
		<div class="col-12 col-lg-2 col-xl-2 ps-1">
			<p class="text-center mb-0"><a class="nl-terms" href="https://searchengineland.com/termsofuse" target="_blank" aria-label="opens in a new tab">See terms.</a>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>




<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-css-opacity has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background"/>



<h2 id="h-the-gbp-completeness-index" class="wp-block-heading">The ‘GBP completeness index’</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of the most important questions we asked when doing this study was, “Does Profile completeness differ systematically by category and industry?” And the follow-up to that: “Does GBP completeness predict rank?”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, we built a 0-5 GBP Completeness index, where we added one point each for the presence of:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A website.</li>



<li>A business description.</li>



<li>Hours of operation.</li>



<li>Photos.</li>



<li>A claimed status.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And we used this index to answer the following questions.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Note:</strong> For this research, we didn’t gather all the data that Google Business Profiles contain (like business attributes, services, products, etc.). Thus, this index is based on the limited data we did gather.</p>



<h3 id="h-does-gbp-completeness-vary-systematically-by-industry" class="wp-block-heading">Does GBP completeness vary systematically by industry?</h3>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yes. Businesses in competitive industries where local SEO is essential for standing out have the most complete Profiles.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Industry</strong></td><td><strong>Avg completeness (0-5)</strong></td><td><strong>% fully complete (5/5)</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Home services</td><td>4.4</td><td>55%</td></tr><tr><td>Professional services</td><td>4.3</td><td>52%</td></tr><tr><td>Automotive</td><td>4.2</td><td>48%</td></tr><tr><td>Beauty and personal care</td><td>4.1</td><td>45%</td></tr><tr><td>Legal / Financial</td><td>4.1</td><td>46%</td></tr><tr><td>Retail</td><td>3.9</td><td>40%</td></tr><tr><td>Real estate</td><td>3.8</td><td>38%</td></tr><tr><td>Travel and tourism</td><td>3.6</td><td>33%</td></tr><tr><td>Community and organizations</td><td>3.0</td><td>22%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Meanwhile, the noncommercial/institutional industries (community and organizations categories like churches, for example) don’t put too much work into their Profiles because they don’t need to.</p>



<h3 id="h-does-gbp-completeness-predict-rank" class="wp-block-heading">Does GBP completeness predict rank?</h3>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yes, absolutely.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Completeness index</strong></td><td><strong>Avg rank</strong></td><td><strong>% in top 10</strong></td></tr><tr><td>0</td><td>62</td><td>4%</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>58</td><td>5%</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>54</td><td>7%</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>50</td><td>9%</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>47</td><td>11%</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>43</td><td>13%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Our data shows that GBP completeness goes hand in hand with better rankings. Going from a 0 to a 5 in the GBP Completeness index improves average rank by ~19 positions and triples the rate of appearing in the top 10 results.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">However, it’s important to remember that correlation does not equal causation. Having a fully optimized Profile is one of the foundational steps to better rankings, but your local SEO work doesn’t end there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A business owner with a complete GBP is more likely to publish Google Posts, request reviews, and pay attention to their website, citations, and online reputation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Takeaway:</strong> Begin by filling out every field of your Google Business Profile. Then, maintain that Profile: request reviews continuously, upload photos and videos often, and publish Google Posts. And, of course, don’t forget about your website SEO, your presence on social media, and your AI SEO.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-business-profile-audit-local-rankings-472990">5-step Google Business Profile audit to improve local rankings</a></em></strong>



<h2 id="h-your-local-rankings-checklist" class="wp-block-heading">Your local rankings checklist</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here’s your simple local rankings checklist based on the data from our study:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>When it comes to picking a primary category, always pick a specific one.</li>



<li>Don’t neglect your additional categories. Add all the additional categories that your business offers (and maybe skip “Service establishment”).</li>



<li>Fully optimizing your GBP is nonnegotiable. Simply doing this one thing can be more than enough to stand out from the competition in noncrowded industries. However, most businesses have to go beyond their GBP: optimize and maintain your website, build citations, be present on social media, engage with your online community, and pay attention to AI SEO.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">These are just a few of the many findings from our category research. Stay tuned for the full report (publishing soon).</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/localized-ai-search-optimization-playbook-478499">The new playbook for localized AI search optimization</a></em></strong>

If you want to improve your local rankings, start by getting specific with your Google Business Profile category, choosing relevant additional categories, and fully completing your Profile.
Whitespark studied 1.8 million Google Business Profiles across 4,209 categories to learn more about the impact of Google Business Profile categories on rankings, identify notable trends among businesses with specific GBP categories, and explore the curious things that happen at the intersection of different categories. (Disclosure: I’m the founder of Whitespark.)



The findings challenge some assumptions about how category selection and Profile completeness affect local rankings. Here are three of the most interesting findings from the study.
Is it better to pick a generic or specific category for rankings?
The idea that Google matches the primary GBP category to the search term shouldn’t come as a surprise to any local marketer.
For example, here are the results for a search for “hair salons”:

Primary categoryAppearancesAvg rank% in top 10
Hair salon7,95249.911.3% 
Hairdresser20056.96.0%
Beauty salon2,06660.03.2%
Barber shop29779.51.3%
Nail salon3681.30.0%






The exact-match category, Hair salon, outperforms all other adjacent categories.
The same applies to a search for “plumbers,” where the “Plumber” category outranks all the other categories in the industry, and the pattern repeats for almost every category in our dataset. Obvious and expected.
However, there’s more to consider when choosing your primary category: specificity.
Many business owners who aren’t familiar with local SEO might be tempted to pick a generic primary category, say, Restaurant or Law Firm, to capture broader search traffic.
However, the data shows that across all industries, a specific primary category is associated with better rankings and a ~36% higher presence in the top 10 results (12.5% vs. 9.2%):

Primary category typeBusinessesAvg rank% in top 10
Generic (Restaurant, Store, Contractor, Attorney, etc.)55,091509.2%
Specific (everything modified)1,664,73345.812.5%






Here are three specific category examples:
Attorneys





Primary categoryAvg rank (lower is better)% in top 10
Criminal justice attorney44.713.4%
Personal injury attorney48.412.2%
Attorney (generic)57.112.9%






Contractors





Primary categoryAvg rank (lower is better)% in top 10
Electrician48.611.2%
Roofing contractor53.112.6%
Plumber53.210.4%
HVAC contractor53.212.4%
Contractor (generic)57.78.0%






Restaurants





Primary categoryAvg rank (lower is better)% in top 10
Tapas28.832.1%
Hawaiian28.427.1%
New American30.428.9%
French37.015.8%
Spanish40.118.5%
American41.817.8%
Restaurant (generic)49.710.1%
Mexican66.72.7%
Pizza74.81.6%
Chinese73.20.6%






Specific categories rank better than generic ones every time. This is because:
The specific categories generally have less competition. Compare the number of Hawaiian restaurants in your town to the total number of restaurants.
Google always tries to match the primary category to the query. If you search for “plumbers,” Google wants to present the user with a list of businesses that specialize in plumbing, not general contractors.
Takeaway: If you want to rank for everything, you’ll end up ranking for nothing. Users have specific needs in mind when they search for a local business. So, choose a more specific primary category with less competition to reap those ranking benefits.
Dig deeper: The local SEO gatekeeper: How Google defines your entity



  
more calls, visits, and sales.
      
Connect your business
    
What are the winning primary + additional category combinations for rankings?
After you pick your primary category with our advice above, the next step is to add additional categories. We’ve noticed in the data that aligning specific additional categories with your primary tends to have a positive impact on rankings.
Here are the primary + additional category combinations that rank the highest in our database:

Primary categoryBest-ranking additionalAvg rankvs. no additional categoryvs. “Service establishment”
VeterinarianEmergency veterinarian service33.951.275.6
ElectricianEV charging station contractor38.247.563.5
GymAthletic club34.743.3–
PlumberDrainage service47.354.062.3
RoofingGutter service47.152.170.3
Personal injury attorneyBusiness attorney40.851.4–
DentistCosmetic dentist47.657.653.7






The data shows that having well-chosen, specific additional categories correlates with higher rankings (by 6-17 rank positions) when compared to businesses that only have a single primary category.
However, correlation isn’t causation. Business owners who add additional categories are more likely to take care of their local SEO in general (to optimize their GBPs, to ask for reviews, to do SEO work outside of their Google Business Profile, etc.). So, of course, their rankings reflect that.
Still, it’s noteworthy that the correlation exists.
Also, to no one’s surprise, a broad, generic category like “Service establishment” that no one ever searches for is useless. In fact, the data seems to suggest that it’s harmful to add this nothing-category to your Profile.
Has anyone ever in the history of the world gone to Google and typed “service establishment near me”? No. So, go specific.
Dig deeper: How to pick the right Google Business Profile categories




	
	
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
 
				
				
			
See terms.
		
The ‘GBP completeness index’
One of the most important questions we asked when doing this study was, “Does Profile completeness differ systematically by category and industry?” And the follow-up to that: “Does GBP completeness predict rank?”
So, we built a 0-5 GBP Completeness index, where we added one point each for the presence of:
A website.
A business description.
Hours of operation.
Photos.
A claimed status.
And we used this index to answer the following questions.
Note: For this research, we didn’t gather all the data that Google Business Profiles contain (like business attributes, services, products, etc.). Thus, this index is based on the limited data we did gather.
Does GBP completeness vary systematically by industry?
Yes. Businesses in competitive industries where local SEO is essential for standing out have the most complete Profiles.

IndustryAvg completeness (0-5)% fully complete (5/5)
Home services4.455%
Professional services4.352%
Automotive4.248%
Beauty and personal care4.145%
Legal / Financial4.146%
Retail3.940%
Real estate3.838%
Travel and tourism3.633%
Community and organizations3.022%






Meanwhile, the noncommercial/institutional industries (community and organizations categories like churches, for example) don’t put too much work into their Profiles because they don’t need to.
Does GBP completeness predict rank?
Yes, absolutely.

Completeness indexAvg rank% in top 10
0624%
1585%
2547%
3509%
44711%
54313%






Our data shows that GBP completeness goes hand in hand with better rankings. Going from a 0 to a 5 in the GBP Completeness index improves average rank by ~19 positions and triples the rate of appearing in the top 10 results.
However, it’s important to remember that correlation does not equal causation. Having a fully optimized Profile is one of the foundational steps to better rankings, but your local SEO work doesn’t end there.
A business owner with a complete GBP is more likely to publish Google Posts, request reviews, and pay attention to their website, citations, and online reputation.
Takeaway: Begin by filling out every field of your Google Business Profile. Then, maintain that Profile: request reviews continuously, upload photos and videos often, and publish Google Posts. And, of course, don’t forget about your website SEO, your presence on social media, and your AI SEO.
Dig deeper: 5-step Google Business Profile audit to improve local rankings



Your local rankings checklist
Here’s your simple local rankings checklist based on the data from our study:
When it comes to picking a primary category, always pick a specific one.
Don’t neglect your additional categories. Add all the additional categories that your business offers (and maybe skip “Service establishment”).
Fully optimizing your GBP is nonnegotiable. Simply doing this one thing can be more than enough to stand out from the competition in noncrowded industries. However, most businesses have to go beyond their GBP: optimize and maintain your website, build citations, be present on social media, engage with your online community, and pay attention to AI SEO.
These are just a few of the many findings from our category research. Stay tuned for the full report (publishing soon).
Dig deeper: The new playbook for localized AI search optimization

Specific primary and additional categories, plus complete profiles, correlate with stronger local rankings. See what the data reveals.

All About
Digital Marketing

Read the Latest Trends and Headlines in Digital Marketing.

Here are some of the latest headlines on digital marketing insights, search, and ecommerce:

Free Consultation

Reach out with any questions you might have regarding how RSO can help you with digital marketing.

All About Digital Marketing

Read the Latest Trends and Headlines in Digital Marketing.

Here are some of the latest headlines on digital marketing insights, search, and ecommerce:

Free Consultation

Reach out with any questions you might have regarding how RSO can help you with digital marketing.

All About
Digital Marketing