<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Inbound Unbound" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>After declaring inbound dead last year, HubSpot is renaming its annual conference to something less limiting.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Inbound Unbound" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/inbound-unbound-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>If you shelved your inbound strategy this past year, you can shelve your Inbound conference mugs and swag with it.</p>



<p>HubSpot renamed its annual Inbound conference in Boston this September to Unbound. A <a href="https://unbound.hubspot.com/">note on the event site</a> explains the thinking:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>“This evolution is our response to that reality. INBOUND is becoming UNBOUND because growth no longer fits within a single framework or function. Today, it covers marketing, sales, service, and operations across the full customer journey in an AI-driven environment. UNBOUND reflects that expanded reality and the mindset required to lead through it.” </li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Inbound is outbound. </strong>HubSpot pioneered inbound marketing, which uses content and search rankings to attract visitors, then convert them on-site.</p>



<p>Recent Google core updates appeared to <a href="https://searchengineland.com/hubspot-seo-organic-traffic-drop-451096">hurt the HubSpot blog</a>, possibly because its content drifted from core topics like CRM, sales, and marketing into broader business areas like interview tips.</p>



<p>Inbound strategy has declined as search shifts from platforms like Google to LLMs like ChatGPT, which drive fewer clicks to websites.</p>



<p><strong>From inbound to loop marketing. </strong>In 2025, HubSpot introduced its <a href="https://martech.org/hubspot-brings-a-new-playbook-for-a-new-era-of-marketing-to-inbound/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loop marketing strategy</a> to replace inbound. Loop focuses educating consumers in an AI-driven world.</p>



<p>The conference rebrand acknowledges that no single framework works for you in today’s marketing landscape.</p>


If you shelved your inbound strategy this past year, you can shelve your Inbound conference mugs and swag with it.
HubSpot renamed its annual Inbound conference in Boston this September to Unbound. A note on the event site explains the thinking:
“This evolution is our response to that reality. INBOUND is becoming UNBOUND because growth no longer fits within a single framework or function. Today, it covers marketing, sales, service, and operations across the full customer journey in an AI-driven environment. UNBOUND reflects that expanded reality and the mindset required to lead through it.” 
Inbound is outbound. HubSpot pioneered inbound marketing, which uses content and search rankings to attract visitors, then convert them on-site.
Recent Google core updates appeared to hurt the HubSpot blog, possibly because its content drifted from core topics like CRM, sales, and marketing into broader business areas like interview tips.
Inbound strategy has declined as search shifts from platforms like Google to LLMs like ChatGPT, which drive fewer clicks to websites.
From inbound to loop marketing. In 2025, HubSpot introduced its Loop marketing strategy to replace inbound. Loop focuses educating consumers in an AI-driven world.
The conference rebrand acknowledges that no single framework works for you in today’s marketing landscape.

After declaring inbound dead last year, HubSpot is renaming its annual conference to something less limiting.

HubSpot rebrands its flagship conference from Inbound to Unbound

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="AI bot traffic surge" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>AI fetcher bots siphon traffic and revenue from publishers, delivering real-time answers that bypass your site and cut referral visits.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="AI bot traffic surge" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/ai-bot-traffic-surge-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>AI bot activity surged 300% in 2025, with media and publishing among the most targeted sectors, according to a new Akamai report. </p>



<p><strong>Why we care. </strong>AI bots are reshaping how content is discovered and consumed, shifting users from search clicks to instant answers in chat interfaces. Publishers are seeing fewer visits from organic search and often don&#8217;t get attribution in AI-generated answers. It&#8217;s also eroding ad and subscription models.</p>



<p><strong>The threat is real. </strong>Publishers now face two threats:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Training bots that ingest content for models.</li>



<li>Fetcher bots that extract real-time content for immediate answers. These pose the bigger risk because they capture value as it’s created.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>The impact</strong>. Pageviews are declining, costs are rising (because scraping bots increase infrastructure costs by consuming server and CDN resources without generating revenue), and brand visibility is weakening.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI chatbot referrals drive ~96% less traffic than traditional search</li>



<li>Users click cited sources in AI answers only ~1% of the time</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>What publishers are doing</strong>. Publishers are adopting nuanced controls (rather than blanket blocking AI bots), such as:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Monitoring and classifying bot traffic.</li>



<li>Selectively blocking or slowing malicious scrapers (e.g., tarpitting).</li>



<li>Allowing approved bots tied to licensing or partnerships.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying.</strong> According to Akamai&#8217;s report: </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>&#8220;These bots are not just a security nuisance, they represent a profound business challenge that threatens the sustainability of quality journalism in an age dominated by zero-click searches and AI-generated content.&#8221;</li>



<li>&#8220;The publishing industry today faces an existential crisis &#8230; Many readers and visitors still value trustworthy reporting and original content. Yet, instead of clicking through search results, users now turn to AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini for instant answers and summaries.&#8221;</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>What’s next</strong>? A <a href="https://searchengineland.com/cloudflare-pay-per-crawl-seo-geo-458310">“pay-per-crawl” model</a> is emerging. Tools like identity verification (Know Your Agent) and platforms like TollBit aim to authenticate bots and charge for access in real time.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The goal is to turn scraping into a measurable, monetizable transaction instead of uncontrolled extraction.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>About the data</strong>. The report analyzed Akamai bot management data from July to December 2025, covering application-layer traffic across websites, apps, and APIs.</p>



<p><strong>The report.</strong> <a href="https://www.akamai.com/resources/state-of-the-internet/publishing-ai-botnet-report">SOTI Security Insight Series: Navigating the AI Bot Era</a> (registration required)</p>


AI bot activity surged 300% in 2025, with media and publishing among the most targeted sectors, according to a new Akamai report. 
Why we care. AI bots are reshaping how content is discovered and consumed, shifting users from search clicks to instant answers in chat interfaces. Publishers are seeing fewer visits from organic search and often don’t get attribution in AI-generated answers. It’s also eroding ad and subscription models.
The threat is real. Publishers now face two threats:
Training bots that ingest content for models.
Fetcher bots that extract real-time content for immediate answers. These pose the bigger risk because they capture value as it’s created.
The impact. Pageviews are declining, costs are rising (because scraping bots increase infrastructure costs by consuming server and CDN resources without generating revenue), and brand visibility is weakening.
AI chatbot referrals drive ~96% less traffic than traditional search
Users click cited sources in AI answers only ~1% of the time
What publishers are doing. Publishers are adopting nuanced controls (rather than blanket blocking AI bots), such as:
Monitoring and classifying bot traffic.
Selectively blocking or slowing malicious scrapers (e.g., tarpitting).
Allowing approved bots tied to licensing or partnerships.
What they’re saying. According to Akamai’s report: 
“These bots are not just a security nuisance, they represent a profound business challenge that threatens the sustainability of quality journalism in an age dominated by zero-click searches and AI-generated content.”
“The publishing industry today faces an existential crisis … Many readers and visitors still value trustworthy reporting and original content. Yet, instead of clicking through search results, users now turn to AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini for instant answers and summaries.”
What’s next? A “pay-per-crawl” model is emerging. Tools like identity verification (Know Your Agent) and platforms like TollBit aim to authenticate bots and charge for access in real time.
The goal is to turn scraping into a measurable, monetizable transaction instead of uncontrolled extraction.
About the data. The report analyzed Akamai bot management data from July to December 2025, covering application-layer traffic across websites, apps, and APIs.
The report. SOTI Security Insight Series: Navigating the AI Bot Era (registration required)

AI fetcher bots siphon traffic and revenue from publishers, delivering real-time answers that bypass your site and cut referral visits.

AI bot traffic surged 300%, hitting publishers hardest: Report

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Google Ads tactics to drop" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Google is testing a swipeable location carousel in search ads, making local results more interactive and competitive for multi-location advertisers.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Google Ads tactics to drop" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/11/Google-Ads-tactics-to-drop-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>Google may be making local search ads more interactive, potentially changing how advertisers showcase multiple locations and capture nearby demand.</p>



<p><strong>What’s happening</strong>. Google Ads appears to be testing a new format that displays multiple business locations in a swipeable carousel within search ads, allowing users to browse options directly in the ad unit.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" width="1280" height="720" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/location-asset-test.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-473898" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/location-asset-test.jpg 1280w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/location-asset-test-768x432.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/location-asset-test-1200x675.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" /></figure>



<p><strong>How it works</strong>. Instead of listing locations separately, the new format groups them into a horizontal carousel with business details like ratings and proximity, enabling users to swipe through locations without leaving the search results page.</p>



<p><strong>Zoom in</strong>. Early comparisons show a shift from static, stacked location assets to a more dynamic experience, where multiple listings are consolidated into a single, scrollable unit.</p>



<p><strong>Why we care</strong>. Advertisers with multiple locations could gain more visibility within a single ad, while users get a quicker way to compare nearby options.</p>



<p><strong>Between the lines</strong>. This format could increase engagement with location-based ads, but may also intensify competition within the carousel itself as businesses vie for attention.</p>



<p><strong>What to watch</strong>. Whether the feature rolls out more broadly and how it impacts click-through rates and local ad performance.</p>



<p><strong>First spotted.</strong> This update was spotted by Founder of Adsquire Anthony Higman who shared spotting this ad type on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anthony-higman-a3656a46_new-google-ads-asset-tests-google-is-ugcPost-7445939854414143488-ywwh/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAABU5RtAB1yM61HMd6Ska99csDVjiJlgRo6A">LinkedIn</a>. </p>


Google may be making local search ads more interactive, potentially changing how advertisers showcase multiple locations and capture nearby demand.
What’s happening. Google Ads appears to be testing a new format that displays multiple business locations in a swipeable carousel within search ads, allowing users to browse options directly in the ad unit.




How it works. Instead of listing locations separately, the new format groups them into a horizontal carousel with business details like ratings and proximity, enabling users to swipe through locations without leaving the search results page.
Zoom in. Early comparisons show a shift from static, stacked location assets to a more dynamic experience, where multiple listings are consolidated into a single, scrollable unit.
Why we care. Advertisers with multiple locations could gain more visibility within a single ad, while users get a quicker way to compare nearby options.
Between the lines. This format could increase engagement with location-based ads, but may also intensify competition within the carousel itself as businesses vie for attention.
What to watch. Whether the feature rolls out more broadly and how it impacts click-through rates and local ad performance.
First spotted. This update was spotted by Founder of Adsquire Anthony Higman who shared spotting this ad type on LinkedIn.

Google is testing a swipeable location carousel in search ads, making local results more interactive and competitive for multi-location advertisers.

Google tests swipeable location carousel in search ads

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How to use Performance Planner and Reach Planner in Google Ads" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Google’s new developer hub simplifies access to tools for automation, tracking and scalable campaign management.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How to use Performance Planner and Reach Planner in Google Ads" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/02/How-to-use-Performance-Planner-and-Reach-Planner-in-Google-Ads-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>Google is consolidating its advertising and measurement resources into a single destination, aiming to make it easier for developers and technical marketers to build, automate and scale campaigns.</p>



<p><strong>What’s happening</strong>. Google has introduced a new Advertising and Measurement Developers Hub, a centralized site designed to help users access tools, documentation and support across its ad ecosystem. </p>



<p>The hub brings together resources for products like the Google Ads API, Google Analytics and publisher tools such as AdMob and Google Ad Manager, all organized into categories including advertising, tagging and measurement.</p>



<p><strong>How it works</strong>. The site offers a streamlined homepage with quick access to documentation, blog updates and community channels, along with dedicated sections to explore products, connect with support and engage with Google’s developer relations team.</p>



<p><strong>Why we care.</strong> Google is making it easier to access and implement advanced tools that power automation, tracking and campaign optimization. This can help teams work more efficiently, especially those relying on APIs, tagging and data integrations. As advertising becomes more technical and AI-driven, having a centralized hub lowers the barrier to building more sophisticated, scalable setups.</p>



<p><strong>The big picture</strong>. As advertising becomes more automated and API-driven, Google is investing in infrastructure that supports developers and technical users who manage complex integrations across platforms.</p>



<p><strong>Zoom in</strong>. New features include a “meet the team” section, a centralized support page linking to Discord and GitHub resources, and a media hub featuring content like Ads DevCast.</p>



<p><strong>What to watch</strong>. Whether this hub becomes the primary entry point for developers working across Google’s ad products — and how it evolves with new AI and measurement tools.</p>



<p><strong>Bottom line</strong>. Google is simplifying access to its ad tech ecosystem, betting that better developer support will drive more innovation and adoption.</p>



<p><strong>Dig deeper.</strong> <a href="http://ads-developers.googleblog.com/2026/04/introducing-google-advertising-and.html">Introducing the Google Advertising and Measurement Developers Hub!</a></p>


Google is consolidating its advertising and measurement resources into a single destination, aiming to make it easier for developers and technical marketers to build, automate and scale campaigns.
What’s happening. Google has introduced a new Advertising and Measurement Developers Hub, a centralized site designed to help users access tools, documentation and support across its ad ecosystem. 
The hub brings together resources for products like the Google Ads API, Google Analytics and publisher tools such as AdMob and Google Ad Manager, all organized into categories including advertising, tagging and measurement.
How it works. The site offers a streamlined homepage with quick access to documentation, blog updates and community channels, along with dedicated sections to explore products, connect with support and engage with Google’s developer relations team.
Why we care. Google is making it easier to access and implement advanced tools that power automation, tracking and campaign optimization. This can help teams work more efficiently, especially those relying on APIs, tagging and data integrations. As advertising becomes more technical and AI-driven, having a centralized hub lowers the barrier to building more sophisticated, scalable setups.
The big picture. As advertising becomes more automated and API-driven, Google is investing in infrastructure that supports developers and technical users who manage complex integrations across platforms.
Zoom in. New features include a “meet the team” section, a centralized support page linking to Discord and GitHub resources, and a media hub featuring content like Ads DevCast.
What to watch. Whether this hub becomes the primary entry point for developers working across Google’s ad products — and how it evolves with new AI and measurement tools.
Bottom line. Google is simplifying access to its ad tech ecosystem, betting that better developer support will drive more innovation and adoption.
Dig deeper. Introducing the Google Advertising and Measurement Developers Hub!

Google’s new developer hub simplifies access to tools for automation, tracking and scalable campaign management.

Google launches developer hub for ads and measurement tools

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Audit your agency- 6 questions to find a true growth partner" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Most agencies sound the same. The real differences show up in how they optimize, measure, and scale. This is how to uncover them.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Audit your agency- 6 questions to find a true growth partner" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Audit-your-agency-6-questions-to-find-a-true-growth-partner-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>Most agencies present prospective clients with an account audit as part of their sales process. The purpose is twofold:&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>To provide immediate value (usually without strings attached).</li>



<li>To demonstrate that they know their stuff.</li>
</ul>



<p>But how often do brand marketers turn the tables and audit their agencies in their RFP?</p>



<p>I’m the head of performance marketing at a marketing agency, so I’m clearly writing from a biased perspective. However, over my decade-plus in the industry, I’ve seen too many brands settle for “good enough” because they didn’t know which questions would reveal the cracks in a potential partner’s strategy and approach.</p>



<p>If I were a brand looking for a true growth partner, here are the specific questions I’d ask to separate the top performers from the rest.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-what-are-your-key-services-and-what-percentage-of-your-clients-utilize-each">1. What are your key services, and what percentage of your clients utilize each?</h2>



<p>A lot of agencies claim to be “full service,” but rarely are they “full excellence.” I’d be looking for where an agency truly spends its time versus where they’re just trying to upsell me.</p>



<p>It’s less about the channels in question (although if, say, LinkedIn is a key growth driver for your brand, they’d better demonstrate proficiency there), and more about how their strengths align with your needs.</p>



<p>If an agency claims to be experts in SEO, creative strategy, and paid media, but 90% of their client base only uses them for paid search, that’s a red flag. You want a partner whose core competencies align with your primary needs.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you need high-volume creative testing, you want an agency where 80%+ of clients use its creative production frameworks, not one that treats creative as an add-on service.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/confessions-ppc-only-agency-seo-456978">Confessions of a PPC-only agency: Why we finally embraced SEO</a></em></strong></p>



<p><a href="https://www.semrush.com/lp/semrush-one/en/?utm_campaign=ic_semrush_one&amp;utm_source=searchengineland.com&amp;utm_medium=overlay&amp;onboarding=off" target="_blank" style="display: block; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-how-are-you-approaching-ai-driven-account-optimization-and-platform-automation">2. How are you approaching AI-driven account optimization and platform automation?</h2>



<p>I miss the days when knowledge of the manual controls at your disposal could set you apart as a high-performing marketer. But those days have been gone for a while.</p>



<p>In 2026, there’s a real danger of over-optimization with the controls we have left. This can reset algorithmic learnings and prevent them from fine-tuning in service of your goals. Agency teams that strike this balance most certainly have a healthier approach than those who either blindly trust algorithms or can’t help tinkering excessively.</p>



<p>One control you can and must be diligent about using is first-party data for enhanced conversions and offline conversion tracking. Part of the job of a great marketer is training the algorithms on which leads and which conversions to target, and first-party data is a huge lever to pull in that regard.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-what-is-your-reporting-process-and-what-kpis-do-you-focus-on-for-the-majority-of-your-clients">3. What is your reporting process and what KPIs do you focus on for the majority of your clients?</h2>



<p>Don’t just ask for a sample report. Anyone can make a PDF look pretty. You need to understand their philosophy on data.</p>



<p>You’re looking for an agency that’s willing to move upstream. If the majority of their clients are measuring success on clicks, traffic, or even MQLs, run the other way. </p>



<p>A performance-driven agency should be obsessed with revenue, ROAS, and pipeline velocity. Ask them how they handle attribution. If they rely solely on in-platform metrics, which often over-claim credit, they aren’t looking at the full picture.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/what-successful-brand-agency-partnerships-look-like-in-2026-466647">What successful brand-agency partnerships look like in 2026</a></em></strong></p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-what-s-the-average-industry-tenure-of-the-team-on-my-account">4. What’s the average industry tenure of the team on my account?</h2>



<p>This is actually a pretty common question and has been for years. Too many marketers know the pain of integrating rotating sets of agency teams because the agency can’t hold onto top employees, and you should be evaluating the answer from this perspective.</p>



<p>There’s another factor to consider. Generally speaking, the more experienced a marketing team is, the more effectively it uses AI tools. </p>



<p>Whereas junior marketers might be more avid proponents of AI and quicker to adopt its functionality, they’re also far more likely to use it for things like creative ideation and strategy. Both are areas where high-quality human thought is a true differentiator.</p>



<p>For this answer specifically, remember that you have some great research tools like Glassdoor that you can and should access. Employee tenure is one thing, but a Glassdoor profile with a bunch of red flags is an indicator that the agency might struggle to keep the talent it really wants to retain.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-how-is-your-team-using-ai-on-client-accounts">5. How is your team using AI on client accounts?</h2>



<p>Again, you’re looking for a balance here. Agency teams that don’t use AI at all are almost certainly burning resources on manual tasks, but agency teams that overuse it to replace perspective, critical thinking, and creativity are commoditizing their own client service.</p>



<p>Two follow-up questions to ask:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>What is your governance structure for AI use?</li>



<li>What’s your process for QAing AI output?</li>
</ul>



<p>You’re looking for firm answers and redundant layers for each of these questions — at the very least, someone relatively senior should approve any output before it goes live.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/ppc-teams-becoming-data-teams-471001">Why PPC teams are becoming data teams</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-6-when-you-take-over-an-account-what-are-the-first-things-you-do-to-save-budget-without-affecting-growth">6. When you take over an account, what are the first things you do to save budget without affecting growth?</h2>



<p>This is the ultimate litmus test for technical proficiency. A great performance marketer knows where the ad platforms hide the waste buttons. If I were a brand marketer, I’d want to hear about:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Any <a href="https://searchengineland.com/paid-media-success-checklist-2024-436579">harmful default settings</a> that need to be turned off.</li>



<li>What inputs are driving wasted spend (audiences, networks, keywords, etc.).</li>



<li>A plan to prioritize budget around what’s driving business outcomes.</li>
</ul>



<p>If an agency can’t rattle off these specific checks, they’re likely missing the “low-hanging fruit” of budget efficiency. Fixing some of these takes seconds, but missing them costs thousands.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-separates-a-true-growth-partner-from-the-rest">What separates a true growth partner from the rest</h2>



<p>Remember: when you’re choosing an agency partner, it’s the job of each agency to sound as good as they possibly can, but what an agency considers to be a great answer might not be a great fit for your brand.&nbsp;</p>



<p>By focusing on utilization rates of services, strategic application of AI, and approaches to budget efficiency, you’ll find a partner capable of driving actual performance, not just spending your budget.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/find-ppc-agency-tips-451928">How to find your next PPC agency: 12 top tips</a></em></strong></p>

Most agencies present prospective clients with an account audit as part of their sales process. The purpose is twofold: 
To provide immediate value (usually without strings attached).
To demonstrate that they know their stuff.
But how often do brand marketers turn the tables and audit their agencies in their RFP?
I’m the head of performance marketing at a marketing agency, so I’m clearly writing from a biased perspective. However, over my decade-plus in the industry, I’ve seen too many brands settle for “good enough” because they didn’t know which questions would reveal the cracks in a potential partner’s strategy and approach.
If I were a brand looking for a true growth partner, here are the specific questions I’d ask to separate the top performers from the rest.
1. What are your key services, and what percentage of your clients utilize each?
A lot of agencies claim to be “full service,” but rarely are they “full excellence.” I’d be looking for where an agency truly spends its time versus where they’re just trying to upsell me.
It’s less about the channels in question (although if, say, LinkedIn is a key growth driver for your brand, they’d better demonstrate proficiency there), and more about how their strengths align with your needs.
If an agency claims to be experts in SEO, creative strategy, and paid media, but 90% of their client base only uses them for paid search, that’s a red flag. You want a partner whose core competencies align with your primary needs. 
If you need high-volume creative testing, you want an agency where 80%+ of clients use its creative production frameworks, not one that treats creative as an add-on service.
Dig deeper: Confessions of a PPC-only agency: Why we finally embraced SEO

  
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2. How are you approaching AI-driven account optimization and platform automation?
I miss the days when knowledge of the manual controls at your disposal could set you apart as a high-performing marketer. But those days have been gone for a while.
In 2026, there’s a real danger of over-optimization with the controls we have left. This can reset algorithmic learnings and prevent them from fine-tuning in service of your goals. Agency teams that strike this balance most certainly have a healthier approach than those who either blindly trust algorithms or can’t help tinkering excessively.
One control you can and must be diligent about using is first-party data for enhanced conversions and offline conversion tracking. Part of the job of a great marketer is training the algorithms on which leads and which conversions to target, and first-party data is a huge lever to pull in that regard.
3. What is your reporting process and what KPIs do you focus on for the majority of your clients?
Don’t just ask for a sample report. Anyone can make a PDF look pretty. You need to understand their philosophy on data.
You’re looking for an agency that’s willing to move upstream. If the majority of their clients are measuring success on clicks, traffic, or even MQLs, run the other way. 
A performance-driven agency should be obsessed with revenue, ROAS, and pipeline velocity. Ask them how they handle attribution. If they rely solely on in-platform metrics, which often over-claim credit, they aren’t looking at the full picture. 
Dig deeper: What successful brand-agency partnerships look like in 2026
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See terms.
4. What’s the average industry tenure of the team on my account?
This is actually a pretty common question and has been for years. Too many marketers know the pain of integrating rotating sets of agency teams because the agency can’t hold onto top employees, and you should be evaluating the answer from this perspective.
There’s another factor to consider. Generally speaking, the more experienced a marketing team is, the more effectively it uses AI tools. 
Whereas junior marketers might be more avid proponents of AI and quicker to adopt its functionality, they’re also far more likely to use it for things like creative ideation and strategy. Both are areas where high-quality human thought is a true differentiator.
For this answer specifically, remember that you have some great research tools like Glassdoor that you can and should access. Employee tenure is one thing, but a Glassdoor profile with a bunch of red flags is an indicator that the agency might struggle to keep the talent it really wants to retain.
5. How is your team using AI on client accounts?
Again, you’re looking for a balance here. Agency teams that don’t use AI at all are almost certainly burning resources on manual tasks, but agency teams that overuse it to replace perspective, critical thinking, and creativity are commoditizing their own client service.
Two follow-up questions to ask:
What is your governance structure for AI use?
What’s your process for QAing AI output?
You’re looking for firm answers and redundant layers for each of these questions — at the very least, someone relatively senior should approve any output before it goes live.
Dig deeper: Why PPC teams are becoming data teams
6. When you take over an account, what are the first things you do to save budget without affecting growth?
This is the ultimate litmus test for technical proficiency. A great performance marketer knows where the ad platforms hide the waste buttons. If I were a brand marketer, I’d want to hear about:
Any harmful default settings that need to be turned off.
What inputs are driving wasted spend (audiences, networks, keywords, etc.).
A plan to prioritize budget around what’s driving business outcomes.
If an agency can’t rattle off these specific checks, they’re likely missing the “low-hanging fruit” of budget efficiency. Fixing some of these takes seconds, but missing them costs thousands.
What separates a true growth partner from the rest
Remember: when you’re choosing an agency partner, it’s the job of each agency to sound as good as they possibly can, but what an agency considers to be a great answer might not be a great fit for your brand. 
By focusing on utilization rates of services, strategic application of AI, and approaches to budget efficiency, you’ll find a partner capable of driving actual performance, not just spending your budget.
Dig deeper: How to find your next PPC agency: 12 top tips

Most agencies sound the same. The real differences show up in how they optimize, measure, and scale. This is how to uncover them.

Audit your agency: 6 questions to find a true growth partner

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Google Ads may be over-crediting your conversions- A 7-day test tells a different story" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Google’s new commerce protocol signals a shift toward in-search checkout, changing where and how conversions happen for advertisers.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Google Ads may be over-crediting your conversions- A 7-day test tells a different story" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/Google-Ads-may-be-over-crediting-your-conversions-A-7-day-test-tells-a-different-story-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>Google is laying the groundwork for “agentic commerce,” where users can complete purchases directly inside AI-driven search experiences.</p>



<p><strong>What’s happening</strong>. Google has published a new onboarding guide for its <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-universal-commerce-protocol-467290">Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) in Merchant Center</a>, outlining how merchants can integrate with the system and enable checkout directly from product listings in AI Mode and Gemini.</p>



<p><strong>The big picture</strong>. As AI search evolves from discovery to transaction, Google is pushing to keep users within its ecosystem by embedding shopping and checkout into conversational experiences.</p>



<p><strong>How it works</strong>. Merchants must first complete a technical integration, then submit an interest form and wait for approval before gaining access to onboarding tools in Google Merchant Center, including a sandbox environment to test integration, identity linking and checkout APIs.</p>



<p><strong>Why we care.</strong> Google is moving search closer to transaction, meaning users may complete purchases directly inside AI experiences instead of visiting your website. This shifts where conversions happen and could change how performance is measured, attributed and optimized. Early adopters of the Universal Commerce Protocol may gain a competitive advantage as shopping becomes more integrated into tools like Gemini.</p>



<p><strong>Zoom in</strong>. The protocol acts as an open standard for connecting product data, user identity and payment flows, enabling seamless purchases without redirecting users to external sites.</p>



<p><strong>What to watch:</strong> The rollout is gradual and currently limited to the U.S., with a dedicated UCP integration tab expected to appear in Merchant Center accounts over the coming months.</p>



<p><strong>Bottom line</strong>. If widely adopted, the Universal Commerce Protocol could redefine how online shopping works — turning search into a full-funnel, AI-powered checkout experience.</p>



<p><strong>Dig deeper. </strong><a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/16992327">How to onboard to the Universal Commerce Protocol in Merchant Center</a></p>


Google is laying the groundwork for “agentic commerce,” where users can complete purchases directly inside AI-driven search experiences.
What’s happening. Google has published a new onboarding guide for its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) in Merchant Center, outlining how merchants can integrate with the system and enable checkout directly from product listings in AI Mode and Gemini.
The big picture. As AI search evolves from discovery to transaction, Google is pushing to keep users within its ecosystem by embedding shopping and checkout into conversational experiences.
How it works. Merchants must first complete a technical integration, then submit an interest form and wait for approval before gaining access to onboarding tools in Google Merchant Center, including a sandbox environment to test integration, identity linking and checkout APIs.
Why we care. Google is moving search closer to transaction, meaning users may complete purchases directly inside AI experiences instead of visiting your website. This shifts where conversions happen and could change how performance is measured, attributed and optimized. Early adopters of the Universal Commerce Protocol may gain a competitive advantage as shopping becomes more integrated into tools like Gemini.
Zoom in. The protocol acts as an open standard for connecting product data, user identity and payment flows, enabling seamless purchases without redirecting users to external sites.
What to watch: The rollout is gradual and currently limited to the U.S., with a dedicated UCP integration tab expected to appear in Merchant Center accounts over the coming months.
Bottom line. If widely adopted, the Universal Commerce Protocol could redefine how online shopping works — turning search into a full-funnel, AI-powered checkout experience.
Dig deeper. How to onboard to the Universal Commerce Protocol in Merchant Center

Google’s new commerce protocol signals a shift toward in-search checkout, changing where and how conversions happen for advertisers.

Google rolls out onboarding guide for Universal Commerce Protocol

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-800x450.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How to test UGC and EGC ads in Meta campaigns" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-800x450.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-600x338.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-200x113.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-768x432.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Meta’s new Google Tag Manager template simplifies Pixel setup, making cross-platform tracking faster and more consistent for advertisers.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-800x450.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How to test UGC and EGC ads in Meta campaigns" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-800x450.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-600x338.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-200x113.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-768x432.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/05/How-to-test-UGC-and-EGC-ads-in-Meta-campaigns.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>Meta Platforms is making it easier for advertisers to implement tracking, reducing technical friction for teams running campaigns across platforms.</p>



<p><strong>What’s happening</strong>. Meta released an official Pixel template inside Google Tag Manager, replacing the need for third-party or community-built workarounds.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" width="1100" height="832" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Meta-GTM-ttemplate.png" alt="" class="wp-image-473884" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Meta-GTM-ttemplate.png 1100w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Meta-GTM-ttemplate-768x581.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /></figure>



<p><strong>How it works</strong>. The new template allows advertisers to reuse their existing GA4 dataLayer, meaning events already configured for Google Analytics 4 can be leveraged without rebuilding tracking from scratch. It also automatically maps enhanced e-commerce events such as purchases, add-to-cart actions, content views and checkout initiations, eliminating the need for duplicate tagging.</p>



<p><strong>Why we care</strong>. This reduces implementation time, lowers the risk of tracking errors and ensures consistency across platforms, especially for advertisers managing both Google and Meta campaigns.</p>



<p><strong>What to watch</strong>. Whether this leads to broader adoption of Meta Pixel tracking among advertisers who previously avoided complex setups, and if similar cross-platform integrations follow.</p>



<p><strong>Bottom line</strong>. Meta is removing one of the biggest headaches in ad tracking — making it faster and easier to get reliable data across platforms.</p>



<p><strong>First seen. </strong>This update was spotted by Paid Media expert Thomas Eccel who shared spotting the update on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thomaseccel_ppc-metaads-tagmanager-share-7447179193680998401-_9yu/?utm_source=social_share_send&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop_web&amp;rcm=ACoAAAJTV04Bw5M-1qqJtnImkpsEOFw9bHvfSSs">LinkedIn</a>. </p>


Meta Platforms is making it easier for advertisers to implement tracking, reducing technical friction for teams running campaigns across platforms.
What’s happening. Meta released an official Pixel template inside Google Tag Manager, replacing the need for third-party or community-built workarounds.




How it works. The new template allows advertisers to reuse their existing GA4 dataLayer, meaning events already configured for Google Analytics 4 can be leveraged without rebuilding tracking from scratch. It also automatically maps enhanced e-commerce events such as purchases, add-to-cart actions, content views and checkout initiations, eliminating the need for duplicate tagging.
Why we care. This reduces implementation time, lowers the risk of tracking errors and ensures consistency across platforms, especially for advertisers managing both Google and Meta campaigns.
What to watch. Whether this leads to broader adoption of Meta Pixel tracking among advertisers who previously avoided complex setups, and if similar cross-platform integrations follow.
Bottom line. Meta is removing one of the biggest headaches in ad tracking — making it faster and easier to get reliable data across platforms.
First seen. This update was spotted by Paid Media expert Thomas Eccel who shared spotting the update on LinkedIn.

Meta’s new Google Tag Manager template simplifies Pixel setup, making cross-platform tracking faster and more consistent for advertisers.

Meta simplifies Pixel setup with official Google Tag Manager template

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Why product feeds need an organic strategy for AI search" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Most product feeds are built for paid media. Aligning them with organic search behavior improves visibility across Shopping and AI surfaces.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Why product feeds need an organic strategy for AI search" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Why-product-feeds-need-an-organic-strategy-for-AI-search-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>Ask most ecommerce brands who owns their product feed, and the answer is almost always the same: the paid media team. </p>



<p>Maybe a feed management tool sits under <a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-paid-search">PPC</a>. Maybe the shopping team built the feed years ago, and nobody’s touched the titles since. Either way, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo">SEO</a> rarely has a seat at the table, and it’s often forgotten as part of the broader feed management strategy.</p>



<p>Whether you’re worried about AI search or traditional clicks, you’re missing out on opportunities by excluding SEO from your feed management strategy.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-shopping-results-are-grounded-in-google-shopping-data">AI shopping results are grounded in Google Shopping data</h2>



<p><a href="https://searchengineland.com/new-finding-chatgpt-sources-83-of-its-carousel-products-from-google-shopping-via-shopping-query-fan-outs-470723">Up to 83% of ChatGPT carousel products</a> match Google Shopping’s organic results, according to a recent Peec AI study analyzing more than 43,000 listings. And 60% of those matches came from Shopping positions 1-10.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="1536" height="1024" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/carousel-products.png" alt="carousel-products" class="wp-image-470741" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/carousel-products.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/03/carousel-products-768x512.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em><em>Data shows how ChatGPT&#8217;s product carousel matches Google Shopping&#8217;s organic results, with Google dominating over Bing.</em></em></figcaption></figure>
</div>


<p>On Google’s side, the Shopping Graph now contains more than 50 billion product listings and feeds directly into AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini. AI Overviews appear in roughly 14% of shopping queries, up from about 2% in late 2024. Like many other things we’ve discovered about AI search, the generative results are informed by traditional SERP.</p>



<p><a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-silo-breaks-cross-channel-execution-starts-467508">SEO needs to be the strategic quarterback</a> for brand authority. This is a highly valuable opportunity to work cross-channel toward a common goal of improving visibility across search surfaces. It really requires SEOs, commerce, and paid media teams to get in the same room.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-case-for-a-dedicated-organic-feed">The case for a dedicated organic feed</h2>



<p>Typically, brands run a single product feed optimized for Google paid shopping campaigns. Titles are written for bid relevance, descriptions are built for Quality Score, and the feed exists to win auctions, with less consideration for user search behaviors.</p>



<p>As user behavior shifts, search surfaces favor stronger semantic alignment between queries and product data. A title stuffed with paid-friendly modifiers or branded terms isn’t the same as a title that mirrors how someone conversationally searches for a product.</p>



<p>We tested this with a large ecommerce brand. Our agency’s AI SEO team partnered with the commerce team to launch a dedicated product feed for free organic listings, with titles and descriptions optimized specifically for organic visibility, rather than replicating what was already running in the paid feed.</p>



<p>After the organic feed was pushed live: </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Organic listing CTR increased 10% month over month, alongside a 4% lift in purchasing rate. </li>



<li>A product-level test saw a 92% increase in revenue for free listings, with visibility up 83%, and add-to-cart up 14%.</li>



<li>The organic optimization changes alone drove 35,000 impressions at a 1.4% CTR, 55% higher than the CTR seen in paid for the same time period.</li>
</ul>



<p>Rather than replacing our paid feed strategy, we recognized that organic and paid shopping solve different problems and have different needs that require optimizing accordingly. </p>



<p>Organic feed titles should reflect how your customers actually search, not how your bidding strategy is structured.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/ai-driven-shopping-discovery-product-page-optimization-468765">How AI-driven shopping discovery changes product page optimization</a></em></strong></p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-prioritize-in-an-organic-feed-strategy">What to prioritize in an organic feed strategy</h2>



<p>Not every feed attribute carries equal weight. If you’re building a dedicated organic feed or just auditing your existing feed for gaps, here’s where you could start.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-titles-are-the-highest-impact-lever">Titles are the highest-impact lever</h3>



<p>Google’s algorithm heavily favors feed titles when matching products to queries, and <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7380908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its own documentation</a> emphasizes including important attributes to “better match search queries and drive performance lift.” Consider how a customer might describe what they’re looking for in a conversational way, and how that aligns with product attributes.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="794" height="484" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Googles-Merchant-Center-documentation-on-feed-strategy.png" alt="Google's Merchant Center documentation on feed strategy" class="wp-image-473802" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Googles-Merchant-Center-documentation-on-feed-strategy.png 794w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/Googles-Merchant-Center-documentation-on-feed-strategy-768x468.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><em><em>Google&#8217;s Merchant Center documentation reinforces the point that your feed strategy should map to how your customer actually shops to help improve their search journey</em></em></figcaption></figure>
</div>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-global-trade-item-numbers-gtins-are-non-negotiable">Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) are non-negotiable</h3>



<p>Google&#8217;s <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324461" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GTIN documentation</a> makes clear that products with correct GTINs receive significantly more visibility. Industry data has consistently shown that properly matched products can drive up to 40% more clicks. They’re also the primary signal for aggregating product reviews across sources.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-don-t-overlook-images">Don&#8217;t overlook images</h3>



<p>They’re still the most common source of Merchant Center disapprovals. Products with both standard and lifestyle images typically see significantly higher engagement.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If budget or bandwidth has kept better product images on the back burner, Google’s Product Studio can help handle some of the editing, so you can test and improve creative at scale without a full reshoot. It’s also a way for SEO and creative teams to collaborate on feed-specific assets and testing.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-optimize-key-product-attributes-product-highlight-and-product-detail">Optimize key product attributes: <code>product_highlight</code> and <code>product_detail </code></h3>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><code>product_highlight </code>lets you add scannable benefit statements that appear in expanded Shopping views. For instance, “water-resistant for light rain commutes” is doing more work than “high-quality material” for both the shopper and the AI. </li>



<li><code>product_detail</code> provides structured specifications that power Google’s faceted filters in organic product grids.</li>
</ul>



<p>The same semantic work SEOs are doing to optimize product detail pages (PDPs) for conversational search — like defining ideal buyers, naming use cases, and articulating compatibility — should inform feed attributes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Product and content teams already understand what drives someone to buy. That context should be in the feed, not just on a brand’s PDPs.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/ecommerce-product-pages-ai-first-world-458629">How to make ecommerce product pages work in an AI-first world</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-your-feed-is-also-your-agentic-commerce-foundation">Your feed is also your agentic commerce foundation</h2>



<p>Here’s what makes this investment compound: the feed optimization work done today for organic shopping visibility will also help build brand readiness for agentic commerce standards and applications.</p>



<p>Google’s <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-universal-commerce-protocol-ecommerce-seo-470460">Universal Commerce Protocol</a>, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-universal-commerce-protocol-467290">announced in January</a>, is a framework that enables AI agents to discover products, build carts, and complete transactions directly inside AI Mode and Gemini. The shopper may never land on the brand website to make a purchase. UCP isn’t a replacement for Google Merchant Center, because it’s built directly on top of GMC data.</p>



<p>Feeds are how products enter the Shopping Graph. The Shopping Graph is the dataset AI agents query when processing a shopping request. The new <code>native_commerce</code> attribute added to feeds is what signals that a product is eligible for the UCP-powered “Buy” button in traditional and AI-driven Google services.</p>



<p>Google has also announced the eventual rollout of several new Merchant Center attributes designed specifically for conversational commerce:&nbsp;</p>



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



<li>Use cases.</li>



<li>Compatible accessories.</li>



<li>Product substitutes. </li>
</ul>



<p>These are additions to an existing GMC feed that give AI agents the contextual understanding they need to match products to natural-language queries like “what’s a good waterproof jacket for bike commuting?” These new conversational attributes are rolling out to a small group of retailers first.</p>



<p>This is where feed data and on-page content need to stay tightly aligned. Search surfaces cross-reference a brand’s feed against:</p>



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



<li>PDP content.</li>



<li>Other sources to validate findings. </li>
</ul>



<p>When those layers contradict each other, trust erodes at the domain level.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/organic-content-investments-ecommerce-roi-471572">7 organic content investments that drive ecommerce ROI</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-building-a-cross-channel-strategy-for-ai-search">Building a cross-channel strategy for AI search</h2>



<p>Product feed strategy and optimization is an opportunity for genuine cross-team collaboration to test, execute, and measure visibility. A holistic approach to managing product details across every surface will benefit brands in both traditional and AI-driven search.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>SEOs bring the keyword intelligence, semantic understanding, and knowledge of how AI systems match queries to content. </li>



<li>Commerce and marketplace teams own the product data, product information management, and relationships with retailers. </li>



<li>Paid teams have the feed infrastructure, the tools, and years of experience managing feed health at scale.</li>
</ul>



<p>These teams must work together to coordinate their insights and effectively establish an <a href="https://searchengineland.com/ai-seo-operating-system-building-your-seo-team-in-2026-453280">AI SEO operating system</a>. The product feed sits at that intersection as it’s an owned asset managed by commerce infrastructure that directly feeds AI-powered visibility.</p>



<p>The first step is to pull a current feed and compare organic titles to paid titles. The second step is getting the right people in the room to build something better. SEO is most successful when more channels align toward the same goal: better brand visibility.</p>

Ask most ecommerce brands who owns their product feed, and the answer is almost always the same: the paid media team. 
Maybe a feed management tool sits under PPC. Maybe the shopping team built the feed years ago, and nobody’s touched the titles since. Either way, SEO rarely has a seat at the table, and it’s often forgotten as part of the broader feed management strategy.
Whether you’re worried about AI search or traditional clicks, you’re missing out on opportunities by excluding SEO from your feed management strategy.
AI shopping results are grounded in Google Shopping data
Up to 83% of ChatGPT carousel products match Google Shopping’s organic results, according to a recent Peec AI study analyzing more than 43,000 listings. And 60% of those matches came from Shopping positions 1-10.
Data shows how ChatGPT’s product carousel matches Google Shopping’s organic results, with Google dominating over Bing.



On Google’s side, the Shopping Graph now contains more than 50 billion product listings and feeds directly into AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini. AI Overviews appear in roughly 14% of shopping queries, up from about 2% in late 2024. Like many other things we’ve discovered about AI search, the generative results are informed by traditional SERP.
SEO needs to be the strategic quarterback for brand authority. This is a highly valuable opportunity to work cross-channel toward a common goal of improving visibility across search surfaces. It really requires SEOs, commerce, and paid media teams to get in the same room.
shows up.
      
Start Free Trial
    
Get started with
The case for a dedicated organic feed
Typically, brands run a single product feed optimized for Google paid shopping campaigns. Titles are written for bid relevance, descriptions are built for Quality Score, and the feed exists to win auctions, with less consideration for user search behaviors.
As user behavior shifts, search surfaces favor stronger semantic alignment between queries and product data. A title stuffed with paid-friendly modifiers or branded terms isn’t the same as a title that mirrors how someone conversationally searches for a product.
We tested this with a large ecommerce brand. Our agency’s AI SEO team partnered with the commerce team to launch a dedicated product feed for free organic listings, with titles and descriptions optimized specifically for organic visibility, rather than replicating what was already running in the paid feed.
After the organic feed was pushed live: 
Organic listing CTR increased 10% month over month, alongside a 4% lift in purchasing rate. 
A product-level test saw a 92% increase in revenue for free listings, with visibility up 83%, and add-to-cart up 14%.
The organic optimization changes alone drove 35,000 impressions at a 1.4% CTR, 55% higher than the CTR seen in paid for the same time period.
Rather than replacing our paid feed strategy, we recognized that organic and paid shopping solve different problems and have different needs that require optimizing accordingly. 
Organic feed titles should reflect how your customers actually search, not how your bidding strategy is structured.
Dig deeper: How AI-driven shopping discovery changes product page optimization
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
 
				
								
					MktoForms2.loadForm("https://app-sj02.marketo.com", "727-ZQE-044", 16298, function(form) {
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See terms.
What to prioritize in an organic feed strategy
Not every feed attribute carries equal weight. If you’re building a dedicated organic feed or just auditing your existing feed for gaps, here’s where you could start.
Titles are the highest-impact lever
Google’s algorithm heavily favors feed titles when matching products to queries, and its own documentation emphasizes including important attributes to “better match search queries and drive performance lift.” Consider how a customer might describe what they’re looking for in a conversational way, and how that aligns with product attributes.
Google’s Merchant Center documentation reinforces the point that your feed strategy should map to how your customer actually shops to help improve their search journey



Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) are non-negotiable
Google’s GTIN documentation makes clear that products with correct GTINs receive significantly more visibility. Industry data has consistently shown that properly matched products can drive up to 40% more clicks. They’re also the primary signal for aggregating product reviews across sources.
Don’t overlook images
They’re still the most common source of Merchant Center disapprovals. Products with both standard and lifestyle images typically see significantly higher engagement. 
If budget or bandwidth has kept better product images on the back burner, Google’s Product Studio can help handle some of the editing, so you can test and improve creative at scale without a full reshoot. It’s also a way for SEO and creative teams to collaborate on feed-specific assets and testing.
Optimize key product attributes: product_highlight and product_detail 
product_highlight lets you add scannable benefit statements that appear in expanded Shopping views. For instance, “water-resistant for light rain commutes” is doing more work than “high-quality material” for both the shopper and the AI. 
product_detail provides structured specifications that power Google’s faceted filters in organic product grids.
The same semantic work SEOs are doing to optimize product detail pages (PDPs) for conversational search — like defining ideal buyers, naming use cases, and articulating compatibility — should inform feed attributes. 
Product and content teams already understand what drives someone to buy. That context should be in the feed, not just on a brand’s PDPs.
Dig deeper: How to make ecommerce product pages work in an AI-first world
Your feed is also your agentic commerce foundation
Here’s what makes this investment compound: the feed optimization work done today for organic shopping visibility will also help build brand readiness for agentic commerce standards and applications.
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, announced in January, is a framework that enables AI agents to discover products, build carts, and complete transactions directly inside AI Mode and Gemini. The shopper may never land on the brand website to make a purchase. UCP isn’t a replacement for Google Merchant Center, because it’s built directly on top of GMC data.
Feeds are how products enter the Shopping Graph. The Shopping Graph is the dataset AI agents query when processing a shopping request. The new native_commerce attribute added to feeds is what signals that a product is eligible for the UCP-powered “Buy” button in traditional and AI-driven Google services.
Google has also announced the eventual rollout of several new Merchant Center attributes designed specifically for conversational commerce: 
Product FAQs.
Use cases.
Compatible accessories.
Product substitutes. 
These are additions to an existing GMC feed that give AI agents the contextual understanding they need to match products to natural-language queries like “what’s a good waterproof jacket for bike commuting?” These new conversational attributes are rolling out to a small group of retailers first.
This is where feed data and on-page content need to stay tightly aligned. Search surfaces cross-reference a brand’s feed against:
Structured data. 
PDP content.
Other sources to validate findings. 
When those layers contradict each other, trust erodes at the domain level. 
Dig deeper: 7 organic content investments that drive ecommerce ROI
Building a cross-channel strategy for AI search
Product feed strategy and optimization is an opportunity for genuine cross-team collaboration to test, execute, and measure visibility. A holistic approach to managing product details across every surface will benefit brands in both traditional and AI-driven search.
SEOs bring the keyword intelligence, semantic understanding, and knowledge of how AI systems match queries to content. 
Commerce and marketplace teams own the product data, product information management, and relationships with retailers. 
Paid teams have the feed infrastructure, the tools, and years of experience managing feed health at scale.
These teams must work together to coordinate their insights and effectively establish an AI SEO operating system. The product feed sits at that intersection as it’s an owned asset managed by commerce infrastructure that directly feeds AI-powered visibility.
The first step is to pull a current feed and compare organic titles to paid titles. The second step is getting the right people in the room to build something better. SEO is most successful when more channels align toward the same goal: better brand visibility.

Most product feeds are built for paid media. Aligning them with organic search behavior improves visibility across Shopping and AI surfaces.

Why product feeds need an organic strategy for AI search

<div><img width="800" height="462" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-800x462.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-800x462.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-586x338.jpg 586w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-196x113.jpg 196w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-768x443.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-1536x886.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-150x87.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Google’s first 2026 core update finished its 12-day rollout. You can now assess impact and adjust your content strategy.

<div><img width="800" height="462" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-800x462.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-800x462.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-586x338.jpg 586w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-196x113.jpg 196w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-768x443.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-1536x886.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920-150x87.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/03/google-core-update-1920.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>The <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2026-core-update-rolling-out-now-472759">March 2026 core update</a> finished rolling out today after 12 days and 4 hours, completing Google’s first broad ranking update of the year.</p>



<p><strong>What happened</strong>. Google confirmed the rollout ended at 06:12 PDT, per its <a href="https://status.search.google.com/incidents/7eTbAa2jWdToLkraZj5y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Search Status Dashboard</a>. The update began March 27 and impacted search rankings globally.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Google previously said this was “a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>The timeline</strong>. Google originally estimated the March 2026 core update would take up to two weeks to complete.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Started:</strong> March 27.</li>



<li><strong>Completed:</strong> April 8.</li>



<li><strong>Total rollout: </strong>12 days, 4 hours</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>The context</strong>. This was the first core update of 2026. It followed the <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2026-spam-update-done-rolling-out-472455">March 2026 spam update</a> and the <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-february-2026-discover-core-update-is-now-complete-469450">February 2026 Discover update</a>.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Core updates introduce broad changes to ranking systems and typically drive noticeable volatility across search results.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>What to do if you were impacted</strong>. Google didn&#8217;t issue any new guidance for the March 2026 core update. Its standing advice remains:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Ranking drops don’t necessarily mean something is wrong.</li>



<li>Recovery often comes with future updates, not immediate fixes.</li>



<li>Focus on helpful, reliable, people-first content.</li>
</ul>



<p>Google continues to point site owners to its <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-advice-on-improving-your-sites-ranking-for-future-core-ranking-update-320184">core update</a> and <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content">helpful content guidance</a>.</p>



<p><strong>Why we care</strong>. Now that the rollout is complete, you can assess impact with more confidence. Analyze ranking and traffic changes, identify winners and losers, and adjust your content strategy based on what the update appears to reward.</p>



<p><strong>Previous core updates.&nbsp;</strong>Here’s a timeline and our coverage of recent core updates:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-december-2025-core-update-rolling-out-now-465852">December 2025 core update </a>was on Dec. 12 and ended on <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-december-2025-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-466362">Dec. 29</a>.</li>



<li>The&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-june-2025-core-update-rolling-out-now-457731">June 2025 core update</a>&nbsp;was on June 30 and ended on&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-june-2025-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-458617">July 17</a>.</li>



<li>The&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2025-core-update-rolling-out-now-453253">March 2025 core update</a>&nbsp;was on Mar. 13 and ended on&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2025-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-453364">Mar. 27</a>.</li>



<li>The&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-december-2024-core-update-rolling-out-now-449255">December 2024 core update</a>&nbsp;was on Dec. 12 and ended on&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-december-2024-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-449421">Dec. 18</a>.</li>



<li>The&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-november-2024-core-update-rolling-out-now-448083">November 2024 core update</a>&nbsp;was on Nov. 11 and ended on&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-november-2024-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-448428">Dec. 5</a>.</li>



<li>The&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-august-2024-core-update-rolling-out-now-445221">August 2024 core update</a>&nbsp;was on Aug. 15 and ended on&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-august-2024-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-446225">Sept. 3</a>.</li>



<li>The&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-released-massive-search-quality-improvements-with-march-2024-core-update-and-multiple-spam-updates-438144">March 2024 core update</a>&nbsp;was on March 5 and ended on&nbsp;<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2024-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-438713">April 19</a>.</li>
</ul>


The March 2026 core update finished rolling out today after 12 days and 4 hours, completing Google’s first broad ranking update of the year.
What happened. Google confirmed the rollout ended at 06:12 PDT, per its Search Status Dashboard. The update began March 27 and impacted search rankings globally.
Google previously said this was “a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”
The timeline. Google originally estimated the March 2026 core update would take up to two weeks to complete.
Started: March 27.
Completed: April 8.
Total rollout: 12 days, 4 hours
The context. This was the first core update of 2026. It followed the March 2026 spam update and the February 2026 Discover update.
Core updates introduce broad changes to ranking systems and typically drive noticeable volatility across search results.
What to do if you were impacted. Google didn’t issue any new guidance for the March 2026 core update. Its standing advice remains:
Ranking drops don’t necessarily mean something is wrong.
Recovery often comes with future updates, not immediate fixes.
Focus on helpful, reliable, people-first content.
Google continues to point site owners to its core update and helpful content guidance.
Why we care. Now that the rollout is complete, you can assess impact with more confidence. Analyze ranking and traffic changes, identify winners and losers, and adjust your content strategy based on what the update appears to reward.
Previous core updates. Here’s a timeline and our coverage of recent core updates:
The December 2025 core update was on Dec. 12 and ended on Dec. 29.
The June 2025 core update was on June 30 and ended on July 17.
The March 2025 core update was on Mar. 13 and ended on Mar. 27.
The December 2024 core update was on Dec. 12 and ended on Dec. 18.
The November 2024 core update was on Nov. 11 and ended on Dec. 5.
The August 2024 core update was on Aug. 15 and ended on Sept. 3.
The March 2024 core update was on March 5 and ended on April 19.

Google’s first 2026 core update finished its 12-day rollout. You can now assess impact and adjust your content strategy.

Google March 2026 core update rollout is now complete

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How AI search defines market relevance beyond hreflang" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>Explore how AI evaluates content across markets, and what signals help your local pages get selected, cited, and used.

<div><img width="1920" height="1080" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="How AI search defines market relevance beyond hreflang" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang.png 1920w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2026/04/How-AI-search-defines-market-relevance-beyond-hreflang-1200x675.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /></div>
<p>Hreflang has long been a core mechanism in <a href="https://searchengineland.com/international-seo-in-2026-what-still-works-what-no-longer-does-and-why-467712">international SEO</a>, directing users to the right regional version of a page. That approach worked when search engines primarily returned static results.&nbsp;</p>



<p>AI-driven synthesis changes that. Instead of returning lists of links, AI systems construct answers. They don’t need, nor want, your perfectly implemented hreflang tags. They aren’t looking for instructions on which page to serve. They’re trying to determine which answer is best supported across sources.</p>



<p>Your content has to hold up when the model compares it against everything it’s seen, regardless of language or origin. If it doesn’t, it won’t be used.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-hreflang-does-and-doesn-t-do">What hreflang does and doesn’t do</h2>



<p>We need to address a fundamental misunderstanding of the hreflang attribute. Hreflang has always been a switcher, not a booster.  </p>



<p>If your brand lacked organic authority in Australia before implementing the tag, adding the <code>en-au</code> attribute wouldn’t magically improve your rankings in Sydney. Its only function was to ensure that if you did rank, the user saw the correct regional version.</p>



<p>In AI search, this “you vs. you” dynamic has become a liability. While traditional search still relies on these tags to organize traffic, AI models often bypass them during the synthesis phase. If a brand’s U.S.-based .com site possesses decades of authority, the AI’s internal logic may determine that the U.S. site is the true source of information.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Consequently, even when a user in Berlin searches in German, the AI may synthesize an answer based on the U.S. data and simply translate it on the fly, effectively ghosting the brand’s localized German site despite perfectly implemented hreflang tags.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-double-blind-query-fan-out-vs-entity-compression">The double-blind: Query fan-out vs. entity compression</h2>



<p>AI models don’t just answer the query you see. They expand it into dozens of hidden checks, comparing sources, validating claims, and pulling in information across languages to see what aligns. </p>



<p>ChatGPT often translates and evaluates queries in English even when the user searches in another language, <a href="https://peec.ai/blog/chatgpt-searches-in-english-even-when-you-don-t" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research from Peec AI shows</a>. This reinforces how query fan-out operates across markets. If your local entity doesn’t hold up in that broader comparison, it doesn’t get used.</p>



<p>A second issue happens before retrieval even begins. During training, LLMs compress what they see so it can be stored and reused at scale. </p>



<p>When multiple regional pages look too similar, they don’t stay separate. They’re folded into a single representation, also known as canonical tokenization.</p>



<p>Local details — phone numbers, office locations, and market-specific references — don’t always survive that process. They’re treated as minor variations rather than meaningful signals. </p>



<p>By the time the model is asked a question, your local site is often no longer competing. In many cases, it’s already been absorbed into the global one.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/global-spanish-ai-search-visibility-472833">What the ‘Global Spanish’ problem means for AI search visibility</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-7-ways-to-build-ai-first-relevancy">7 ways to build AI-first relevancy</h2>



<p>To compete globally, expand your strategy to include signals that resonate with AI&#8217;s data supply chain.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-build-locally-aligned-infrastructure">1. Build locally aligned infrastructure</h3>



<p>Meta tags tell systems what you intend. Infrastructure often tells them what to believe. Datasets like Common Crawl use geographic heuristics, IP location, and domain structure to make sense of content at scale. That happens early in the process, before anything resembling ranking.</p>



<p>This means your content may already be placed in a market before the model ever evaluates it. If your regional domains aren’t supported by local infrastructure or delivery, you’re sending mixed signals. Those are hard to recover from later.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-break-the-compression-threshold">2. Break the compression threshold</h3>



<p>To break the semantic gravity that leads to entity compression, you need what I would call a clear “knowledge delta.” Most global teams fail here because they think localization means translation. It doesn’t.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There’s no universally accepted magic number for unique content. From a semantic vector perspective, I speculate that a divergence threshold of at least 20% of the content on a local page must be unique to prevent the model from collapsing your local identity into your global one.</p>



<p>To address this, front-load market-specific data, such as regional shipping logistics, local tax identifiers, and native case studies, into the first 30% of your page. This lets you provide the mathematical proof the model needs to cite your local URL as a distinct authority.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-anchor-your-entity-in-semantic-neighborhoods">3. Anchor your entity in semantic neighborhoods</h3>



<p>AI models interpret market relevance by looking at the company you keep in the text. Incorporate geographic anchoring by referencing local neighborhoods, regional landmarks, or specific transit hubs (e.g., “located near the Alexanderplatz station” in Berlin).&nbsp;</p>



<p>These co-occurrence signals pull your brand’s vector embedding toward the specific local coordinate in the model’s training data, creating a geographic fence that helps the AI disambiguate your local office from your global headquarters.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/international-seo-tech-translation-trust-447685">How to craft an international SEO approach that balances tech, translation and trust</a></em></strong></p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-prioritize-local-link-sources">4. Prioritize local link sources</h3>



<p>The origin of your links is a primary signal of market authority. During the fan-out phase, AI models look for regional consensus. </p>



<p>This is one of the areas where traditional link building logic starts to break. It’s not just about getting links. Consider where those links originate, along with their authority and contextual relevance.</p>



<p>If your Australian page has backlinks primarily from U.S.-based websites, the model has little evidence that you actually belong in or are relevant to the Australian market. Local sources, including high local trust and location-specific news outlets, change that. Without them, you’re often treated more like a visitor than a participant.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-incorporate-linguistic-and-authoritative-nuances">5. Incorporate linguistic and authoritative nuances</h3>



<p>LLMs pick up on regional language nuances far more than most teams expect. This is where simple translation starts to break down. Unique market- or colloquial-specific terms, formatting, and even small legal references signal whether something actually belongs in a market.</p>



<p>Use the terms people in that market actually use — things like “incl. GST,” local identifiers like ABN, and even spelling differences. Without these signals, the page may be technically and linguistically correct, but it won’t register as truly local.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-6-capture-the-invisible-long-tail">6. Capture the invisible long-tail</h3>



<p>As mentioned, LLMs often generate multiple incremental queries during their research phase. These invisible queries may focus on local friction points, such as “How does this product comply with [name of local regulation]?”&nbsp;</p>



<p>By incorporating local FAQ clusters that address these nuances, you ensure your local URL survives the fan-out check, making your global .com too generic to be cited in a localized answer.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/ai-optimization-long-tail-seo-469315">Why AI optimization is just long-tail SEO done right</a></em></strong></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-7-run-ai-citation-audits">7. Run AI citation audits</h3>



<p>Expand your SEO reporting beyond traditional rank tracking. Incorporate AI citation audits by using a local VPN to query the most popular generative engines in your target markets.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If the AI consistently pulls from your global .com domain for a local query, it’s a clear signal that your local domain lacks the necessary evidence chain. Identify where this market drift is occurring and reinforce those specific pages with more unique local data and infrastructure signals.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-new-international-standard">The new international standard</h2>



<p>Hreflang and traditional technical signals still shape how search engines organize and deliver content, but they don’t determine what AI systems use.</p>



<p>AI models evaluate which sources to use based on evidence of local relevance. Without a distinct presence in each market, they default to the version of your brand they trust most, which often isn’t the one you intended.</p>



<p>Translation alone doesn’t establish that presence. Your content needs to demonstrate that it belongs in the market it’s meant to serve.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/multilingual-and-international-seo-5-mistakes-to-watch-out-for-453030">Multilingual and international SEO: 5 mistakes to watch out for</a></em></strong></p>

Hreflang has long been a core mechanism in international SEO, directing users to the right regional version of a page. That approach worked when search engines primarily returned static results. 
AI-driven synthesis changes that. Instead of returning lists of links, AI systems construct answers. They don’t need, nor want, your perfectly implemented hreflang tags. They aren’t looking for instructions on which page to serve. They’re trying to determine which answer is best supported across sources.
Your content has to hold up when the model compares it against everything it’s seen, regardless of language or origin. If it doesn’t, it won’t be used.
What hreflang does and doesn’t do
We need to address a fundamental misunderstanding of the hreflang attribute. Hreflang has always been a switcher, not a booster.  
If your brand lacked organic authority in Australia before implementing the tag, adding the en-au attribute wouldn’t magically improve your rankings in Sydney. Its only function was to ensure that if you did rank, the user saw the correct regional version.
In AI search, this “you vs. you” dynamic has become a liability. While traditional search still relies on these tags to organize traffic, AI models often bypass them during the synthesis phase. If a brand’s U.S.-based .com site possesses decades of authority, the AI’s internal logic may determine that the U.S. site is the true source of information. 
Consequently, even when a user in Berlin searches in German, the AI may synthesize an answer based on the U.S. data and simply translate it on the fly, effectively ghosting the brand’s localized German site despite perfectly implemented hreflang tags.

  
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The double-blind: Query fan-out vs. entity compression
AI models don’t just answer the query you see. They expand it into dozens of hidden checks, comparing sources, validating claims, and pulling in information across languages to see what aligns. 
ChatGPT often translates and evaluates queries in English even when the user searches in another language, research from Peec AI shows. This reinforces how query fan-out operates across markets. If your local entity doesn’t hold up in that broader comparison, it doesn’t get used.
A second issue happens before retrieval even begins. During training, LLMs compress what they see so it can be stored and reused at scale. 
When multiple regional pages look too similar, they don’t stay separate. They’re folded into a single representation, also known as canonical tokenization.
Local details — phone numbers, office locations, and market-specific references — don’t always survive that process. They’re treated as minor variations rather than meaningful signals. 
By the time the model is asked a question, your local site is often no longer competing. In many cases, it’s already been absorbed into the global one.
Dig deeper: What the ‘Global Spanish’ problem means for AI search visibility
7 ways to build AI-first relevancy
To compete globally, expand your strategy to include signals that resonate with AI’s data supply chain.
1. Build locally aligned infrastructure
Meta tags tell systems what you intend. Infrastructure often tells them what to believe. Datasets like Common Crawl use geographic heuristics, IP location, and domain structure to make sense of content at scale. That happens early in the process, before anything resembling ranking.
This means your content may already be placed in a market before the model ever evaluates it. If your regional domains aren’t supported by local infrastructure or delivery, you’re sending mixed signals. Those are hard to recover from later.
2. Break the compression threshold
To break the semantic gravity that leads to entity compression, you need what I would call a clear “knowledge delta.” Most global teams fail here because they think localization means translation. It doesn’t. 
There’s no universally accepted magic number for unique content. From a semantic vector perspective, I speculate that a divergence threshold of at least 20% of the content on a local page must be unique to prevent the model from collapsing your local identity into your global one.
To address this, front-load market-specific data, such as regional shipping logistics, local tax identifiers, and native case studies, into the first 30% of your page. This lets you provide the mathematical proof the model needs to cite your local URL as a distinct authority.
3. Anchor your entity in semantic neighborhoods
AI models interpret market relevance by looking at the company you keep in the text. Incorporate geographic anchoring by referencing local neighborhoods, regional landmarks, or specific transit hubs (e.g., “located near the Alexanderplatz station” in Berlin). 
These co-occurrence signals pull your brand’s vector embedding toward the specific local coordinate in the model’s training data, creating a geographic fence that helps the AI disambiguate your local office from your global headquarters.
Dig deeper: How to craft an international SEO approach that balances tech, translation and trust
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4. Prioritize local link sources
The origin of your links is a primary signal of market authority. During the fan-out phase, AI models look for regional consensus. 
This is one of the areas where traditional link building logic starts to break. It’s not just about getting links. Consider where those links originate, along with their authority and contextual relevance.
If your Australian page has backlinks primarily from U.S.-based websites, the model has little evidence that you actually belong in or are relevant to the Australian market. Local sources, including high local trust and location-specific news outlets, change that. Without them, you’re often treated more like a visitor than a participant.
5. Incorporate linguistic and authoritative nuances
LLMs pick up on regional language nuances far more than most teams expect. This is where simple translation starts to break down. Unique market- or colloquial-specific terms, formatting, and even small legal references signal whether something actually belongs in a market.
Use the terms people in that market actually use — things like “incl. GST,” local identifiers like ABN, and even spelling differences. Without these signals, the page may be technically and linguistically correct, but it won’t register as truly local.
6. Capture the invisible long-tail
As mentioned, LLMs often generate multiple incremental queries during their research phase. These invisible queries may focus on local friction points, such as “How does this product comply with [name of local regulation]?” 
By incorporating local FAQ clusters that address these nuances, you ensure your local URL survives the fan-out check, making your global .com too generic to be cited in a localized answer.
Dig deeper: Why AI optimization is just long-tail SEO done right
7. Run AI citation audits
Expand your SEO reporting beyond traditional rank tracking. Incorporate AI citation audits by using a local VPN to query the most popular generative engines in your target markets. 
If the AI consistently pulls from your global .com domain for a local query, it’s a clear signal that your local domain lacks the necessary evidence chain. Identify where this market drift is occurring and reinforce those specific pages with more unique local data and infrastructure signals.

  
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The new international standard
Hreflang and traditional technical signals still shape how search engines organize and deliver content, but they don’t determine what AI systems use.
AI models evaluate which sources to use based on evidence of local relevance. Without a distinct presence in each market, they default to the version of your brand they trust most, which often isn’t the one you intended.
Translation alone doesn’t establish that presence. Your content needs to demonstrate that it belongs in the market it’s meant to serve.
Dig deeper: Multilingual and international SEO: 5 mistakes to watch out for

Explore how AI evaluates content across markets, and what signals help your local pages get selected, cited, and used.

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