A Simpler Way to See What’s Working

Google Ads is testing a new layout that makes it easier for advertisers to track and
understand how well their ads are performing. The update is focused on what Google calls
“conversion goals” — the actions you want people to take after clicking an ad, such as filling
out a form, calling your business, or making a purchase.
With the new design, users can now click on a dropdown arrow next to each goal to get
more details without needing to dig through multiple menus. This new layout helps
advertisers quickly see which goals are active, how they are set up, and how they’re
performing — all in one place.

Easier Navigation and More Useful Information

Previously, Google’s conversion tracking could feel cluttered or confusing, especially if you
were managing several goals at once. This new test groups similar goals together and
provides a cleaner overview, making it easier to understand what’s going on.
For example, if you’re tracking both online purchases and phone calls, you’ll now be able to
see those separately but within a unified dashboard. Clicking on each goal shows more
specific setup steps and performance data, helping advertisers fix problems or make
changes faster.

Helping Businesses Make Smarter Decisions

This update is part of Google’s ongoing effort to make its advertising tools more helpful,
especially for small businesses or teams without dedicated marketing staff. By offering more
transparency and easier-to-read data, the redesigned interface should help users make
better decisions about where to spend their money.
Some advertisers have already spotted the change in their accounts as part of a limited test.
If it proves helpful, it’s likely Google will roll it out more widely soon. For now, it’s a
promising step toward making ad performance easier to understand — even if you’re not a
marketing expert.

Many websites struggle to attract organic traffic from Google Search, leading to frustration and confusion among site owners. Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, has provided guidance on improving visibility and success through three core strategies: creating high-quality content, diversifying traffic sources, and building an engaged audience.

Sullivan emphasizes the importance of long-term SEO practices, moving beyond quick fixes and focusing on creating content that resonates with readers. Diversifying traffic sources and engaging directly with audiences through various channels are also crucial for sustainable growth. Finally, understanding that Google’s ranking system uses a variety of signals can help site owners develop a comprehensive SEO strategy.

Build for your audience

Building an engaged audience is crucial for long-term success. Sullivan shares his experience of growing websites from zero to authoritative entities through email lists, social media, and direct engagement. Cultivating a loyal audience requires consistent effort and a genuine connection with your readers. This involves not only creating valuable content but also engaging with your audience through various channels.

Developing multiple ways to reach and interact with your audience, such as through newsletters, social media, and community forums, can significantly enhance your site’s reach and influence. An engaged audience is more likely to return, share your content, and contribute to your site’s growth.

Long-term strategy, not short-term hacks

Success in SEO now hinges on a comprehensive approach that encompasses all elements of search engine optimization. This means paying attention to technical SEO, on-page and off-page SEO, user experience, and more. The future of SEO belongs to those who are willing to invest time and effort into understanding and implementing these elements effectively.

A long-term strategy focused on sustainable practices will yield better results than short-term hacks or loopholes. Google’s ranking algorithms are becoming increasingly sophisticated, rewarding websites that provide genuine value to users rather than those that exploit technicalities.

The importance of great content

Creating great content is fundamental to attracting and retaining an audience. High-quality content is not just about meeting SEO requirements; it’s about providing real value to readers. This means producing content that is informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience.

Great content builds trust and authority, positioning your site as a reliable resource in your niche. It encourages users to spend more time on your site, share your content, and return for more. This sustained engagement helps improve your site’s ranking on Google over time.

Stay up to date with the latest Google Updates

Google frequently updates its algorithms to improve search quality and user experience. These updates can sometimes negatively impact websites that were previously performing well.

For sites affected by these changes, future updates might offer some relief. Danny Sullivan acknowledges that in some cases, issues could be on Google’s end rather than the site’s. It’s important for site owners to stay informed about these updates and adapt their strategies accordingly. Regularly reviewing and updating your content to align with the latest best practices can help mitigate the impact of algorithm changes.

Don’t just rely on SEO

Relying solely on Google Search for traffic is not a sustainable strategy. Successful websites attract traffic from a variety of sources, including direct visits, email referrals, links from other sites, and social media mentions.

Diversifying your traffic sources not only helps ensure a steady flow of visitors but also builds resilience against fluctuations in search engine algorithms.

By promoting your content across multiple channels, you can reach a broader audience and reduce dependence on any single source. This multifaceted approach enhances your site’s visibility and can lead to more consistent and reliable traffic growth.

By focusing on these key areas—high-quality content, diversified traffic sources, and building an engaged audience—site owners can improve their chances of success in Google Search. Embracing a long-term, holistic SEO strategy is essential for sustainable growth and visibility.

Google has confirmed that performance data from its new AI Mode will appear in Search Console soon. However, you won’t be able to isolate that data to understand how AI Mode is performing on its own.

What is AI Mode?

AI Mode is part of Google’s growing use of generative AI in search results. Instead of showing traditional blue links right away, AI Mode generates a full answer using AI -pulling together information from various websites.

This can appear as a block of text with links, products, or suggestions before standard search results. It’s designed to give users a fast, direct summary or response and it’s a major shift from how search has worked in the past.

AI Mode was initially tested in Google Labs and has now been rolled out more widely in the US.

What’s happening?

When AI Mode first launched in Google Labs earlier this year, it wasn’t included in Search Console reports. Now that it’s out of Labs, Google plans to include it – but you won’t be able to separate AI Mode traffic from standard search traffic.

Just like with AI Overviews, all data will be lumped into the “Web” search type in your Search Console Performance reports.

What Google has said

Google’s John Mueller confirmed that:

• AI Mode reporting is planned for Search Console
• It will appear as part of the existing “Web” search traffic
• There are no plans for a separate reporting view or API changes

The updated Google help document also confirms that sites appearing in AI Mode and AI Overviews are included in general search performance, not as separate categories.

What about bugs?

There was a bug that initially made AI Mode untrackable, but Google has confirmed this issue was fixed on May 28th. That said, you still won’t be able to isolate or analyse that data separately in your reports.

What about ads?

Google is now testing ads inside AI Mode and AI Overviews. However, advertisers won’t be able to see ad performance data broken out by these AI features. This limits the ability to understand how ads are performing in these new environments.

Despite the emphasis on transparency during Google Marketing Live, this is a clear gap.

Why is AI Mode important for marketers?

AI Mode is expected to reshape how users interact with search results. Instead of browsing multiple websites, users may get what they need from the AI-generated summary – potentially reducing clicks to individual sites.

This matters for both SEO and paid media:

• Organic traffic might drop if AI summaries reduce the need to click
• Featured brands in AI Mode could see a rise in visibility
• Without clear data, it’s hard to optimise for AI-driven search
• Paid media performance is difficult to attribute or assess in this format

In short, AI Mode may change how users engage with your content — but you won’t have the data to adapt your strategy effectively.

Why this matters

AI Mode could significantly shape how people search and how your brand appears in results. But for now, you can’t track AI Mode traffic separately, whether it’s for organic results or paid ads. This makes it harder for digital marketers to:

• Understand where traffic is coming from
• Optimise for AI-generated answers
• Track ad performance in new search formats

What can marketers do?

Unfortunately, not much – yet. While Google may add more reporting in the future, there’s no timeline. For now, all you can do is:

• Keep an eye on general traffic changes in Search Console
• Combine Search Console with Google Analytics to spot shifts
• Continue to give feedback to Google

Many in the industry are pushing for better visibility, but we’re unlikely to see big changes soon.

Since the introduction of AI, the way marketers automate their workflows has changed forever. AI can improve productivity, problem-solving solving and even creativity with industry tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini leading the way in the new age of AI. SEOs can use these latest developments in AI technology to help with time-consuming tasks such as On Page SEO, Technical Audits and Competitor Research.

How has AI impacted SEO?

AI has impacted real-time results with SEO as website links are now getting pushed further down the search engine results page (SERP) for AI-generated responses.

This makes it more important than ever to be ahead of the curve on SEO and stand out from competitors, and the SERP is more competitive than ever. Using AI to your advantage to automate tasks i,s therefore a crucial component of appearing high up in search engine rankings in today’s digital age.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is the process of optimising elements of a web page to improve its performance on search engines. AI can help users with on-page SEO, including allowing users to answer any content-related questions to inform them about the content. Written content can also be optimised and summarised with the help of AI. Finally, AI can analyse web pages given a summary of any improvements that can be made in order to enhance a web page.

Technical Audits

A technical audit is a comprehensive review of a site’s SEO capabilities, including site speed, site errors, image optimisation, title, descriptions and more. AI can be used for technical audits, for example,e creating any title tags and meta descriptions in bulk to specification, helping you understand any site speed issues. As well as explaining how to fix technical issues that may be complex or that you have not encountered before, as can be seen below.

Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is also another SEO task that can be automated by recent advances in AI technology. These tasks are often time-consuming as multiple websites need to be analysed to make informed decisions on the strengths and weaknesses of competitors. AI tools can analyse the content on websites in a matter of seconds and help users to make quicker decisions on on-page tactics, as well as analyse keywords and content gaps.

AI is here to stay and can be used to automate a number of SEO tasks. The sooner SEOs get to grips with advances in AI the better, as they will be at risk of being left behind by their competitors if they fail to keep up with the latest advancements in AI technology.

Google’s new AI Mode is now live for all users in the U.S. – no special opt-in required. Originally available only through Search Labs (a kind of testing ground for experimental features), it’s now a standard part of Google Search. You’ll find it in a new AI Mode tab just under the search bar on Google.com and in the Google app.

What is AI Mode?

AI Mode is Google’s next step in enhancing how people search. Instead of giving you a list of links, it can break down your query, run multiple related searches in the background, and deliver an in-depth, fully cited response – more like a report than a typical search result. Google says these AI-powered searches are often two to five times longer than standard ones.

New features included in AI Mode

Google has added several powerful tools to AI Mode, some of which are still in beta under Search Labs:

• Deep Search: Offers long-form, research-style answers to complex queries. It automatically pulls together information from hundreds of sources and presents it with citations. Great for marketers researching trends, audiences, or new industries.
• Complex Analysis & Data Visualization: Rolling out soon, this feature uses real-time data to create dynamic charts and visual summaries—especially useful for financial or sports-related searches. You’ll need to opt into this via Search Labs.
• Agent Support (Agentic AI): Google is starting to introduce task-completing agents in AI Mode. For example, if you search for event tickets, it can compare prices and availability across multiple websites and even help pre-fill booking forms—without completing any transactions unless you choose to.
• Shopping Enhancements: AI Mode will soon help with product discovery and checkout by suggesting options based on live availability and pricing.
• Personalised Context: Later this summer, AI Mode will be able to draw from your personal Google services (like Gmail) to tailor results. If you search for “restaurants in Halifax this weekend,” for example, it could suggest places near your hotel or taxi arrival, assuming it can access your relevant bookings. You’ll be able to turn this feature on or off.
• Gemini 2.5: AI Mode is now powered by a custom version of Google’s Gemini 2.5 model, the same technology behind its AI Overviews. This upgrade improves the accuracy, speed, and depth of AI responses.

Why this matters for digital marketers

This is a major shift in how search works. While traditional organic results still matter, AI Mode adds a new layer where Google can summarise content and direct users more efficiently.

Marketers will need to consider:

• Visibility: How do your brand and content appear in AI responses?
• Click-through potential: Will users still click through to your site from these summaries?
• Conversion tracking: Google claims that users who do click through from AI Mode are more engaged and likely to convert. You’ll want to verify that with your own data.

AI Mode might also offer a better experience than the much-criticised AI Overviews, since it’s housed in a separate tab rather than embedded in traditional search results. That gives users more control and clarity.

What’s next?

With AI Mode now live across the U.S., expect more changes to follow. For marketers, it’s a good time to start testing how your content is being handled in AI Mode and see whether it drives traffic and conversions.

At Google Marketing Live 2025, Google unveiled Smart Bidding Exploration, an AI-driven enhancement to its automated bidding platform. This new feature aims to help advertisers capture more conversions by expanding the range of search queries their campaigns can target. By introducing greater flexibility in return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) goals, it empowers marketers to reach potential customers earlier in their journey without sacrificing performance.

Broader Targeting for Early-Stage Customer Intent

Traditionally, Smart Bidding strategies focus on highly specific, high-intent searches such as “mortgage rates” or “best running shoes.” While effective, this approach can overlook broader, exploratory queries like “how to buy a home” or “top sneakers for beginners.” Smart Bidding Exploration addresses this gap by allowing more flexible ROAS targets that enable campaigns to tap into these earlier-stage search intents. This helps marketers attract a wider audience and uncover new demand without needing to overhaul their existing strategies.

Enhanced AI-Driven Discovery

Built on Google’s advanced AI technology, including AI Max, Smart Bidding Exploration actively identifies valuable but previously underutilised search queries. This enables campaigns to expand reach while maintaining efficiency dynamically. Early internal data from Google shows promising results, with an 18% increase in unique converting search categories and a 19% lift in total conversions during the test period.

Implications for Advertisers

This update reflects Google’s ongoing commitment to AI-powered automation in digital advertising. Advertisers can optimise performance by leveraging machine learning to explore new opportunities while reducing manual targeting efforts. For digital marketers, Smart Bidding Exploration represents a significant step toward smarter, more adaptive campaign management that balances growth and efficiency.

Stay Ahead by Monitoring Google Updates

As Google continues to evolve its advertising tools, marketers must stay informed and monitor these changes closely. Regularly reviewing campaign performance and adapting strategies accordingly will ensure you’re maximising the benefits of new features like Smart Bidding Exploration and maintaining the best possible results.

Google has launched a free training course for a Generative AI Certification that allows users to learn how to use all of Google’s AI tools, including Gemini, AI Overviews, Google Lens and more.

What is Generative AI

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that generates new content such as text, video and imagery based on data it has learned. Google has released its own generative AI help assistant Gemini, to combat the growing popularity of other AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity and more.

Google Generative AI Course

There has currently been more than one Generative AI course made available. There is an introduction to Generative AI course which is a micro learning course that takes 45 minutes to complete. However, for a full certification users will need to complete the Generative AI Leader course. The Generative AI leader course has 5 different activities:

• GEN AI: Beyond the Chatbot – “Gen AI: Beyond the Chatbot is the first course of the Gen AI Leader learning path and has no prerequisites. This course aims to move beyond the basic understanding of chatbots to explore the true potential of generative AI”

• GEN AI: Unlock Foundational Concepts – “Gen AI: Unlock Foundational Concepts is the second course of the Gen AI Leader learning path. In this course, you unlock the foundational concepts of generative AI by exploring the differences between AI, ML, and gen AI”

• Gen AI: Navigate the Landscape – “Navigate the Landscape is the third course of the Gen AI Leader learning path. Gen AI is changing how we work and interact with the world around us. But as a leader, how can you harness its power…”

• Gen AI Apps: Transform your Work – “Transform Your Work With Gen AI Apps is the fourth course of the Gen AI Leader learning path. This course introduces Google’s gen AI applications, such as Gemini for Workspace and NotebookLM. It guides you through concepts like grounding, retrieval and more.

• Gen AI Agents: Transform Your Organisation – “Gen AI Agents: Transform Your Organization is the fifth and final course of the Gen AI Leader learning path. This course explores how organizations can use custom gen AI agents to help tackle specific business challenges.”

Although the course is free to complete, in order to gain your certification it costs £75 to complete.

Why is this important for Marketers

Digital marketing is an ever evolving landscape and AI is becoming more crucial with each passing year in order for marketers to automate tasks and improve their workflows. Keeping up to date with the latest trends and technologies is important and Google’s latest generative ai training courses are helpful to stay informed.

Google has made a small but useful update to its image SEO guidelines. If you’re using the same image on different pages of your website, Google now recommends that you reference that image using the same URL each time. This helps with website efficiency and makes it easier for Google to crawl your site.

What’s new in Google’s guidance?

In its updated advice, Google now suggests that websites should avoid uploading and referencing the same image multiple times using different file names or links. Instead, reuse the same image URL wherever the image appears on your site.

The reason comes down to something called a “crawl budget.” This is the amount of time and effort Google spends scanning your website. If you’ve got several versions of the same image under different links, Google ends up wasting time looking at duplicates. Using a single URL allows Google to recognise and reuse that image, which speeds up crawling and improves efficiency.

Other image SEO best practices

Alongside this update, it’s a good idea to keep the rest of your image SEO in shape. Here are some other best practices to follow:

• Use descriptive file names: Give your image files names that describe what’s in the image (e.g. red-running-shoes.jpg instead of IMG1234.jpg).
• Add alt text: Use alternative text (alt text) to describe your images for users with visual impairments and to help search engines understand what the image is showing.
• Choose the right image format: Use modern, web-friendly formats like WebP or compressed JPEGs to improve page speed without losing quality.
• Compress your images: Smaller file sizes help pages load faster, which improves user experience and SEO.
• Make images mobile-friendly: Ensure your images resize properly on smaller screens.
• Use image sitemaps: Including images in your sitemap can help Google discover them more efficiently.
• Provide context around images: Use relevant captions and place images near related text so Google can understand their relevance.

Why this matters for marketers

If you’re managing a website with lots of content, small tweaks like this can have a noticeable impact over time. Avoiding duplicate image uploads keeps your site lighter, more organised, and easier to maintain. It also makes life easier for Google, which can contribute to better search performance.

For marketers working with developers or managing CMS platforms, it’s worth checking whether your site reuses image files under different links. If it does, consider streamlining those into a single, consistent image URL wherever possible.

Even though this change may seem small, it’s a helpful reminder that SEO isn’t just about words – it’s about how your whole website is structured and how efficiently it performs.

Google has always been evolving, but its latest shift might be the biggest change in a decade. If you’re in marketing and rely on search traffic, whether you’re running content campaigns, managing SEO, or just trying to be seen online, this one’s worth paying attention to.

What are AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are short, AI-generated summaries that now appear at the top of some Google search results. Instead of showing a list of links like Google normally does, these Overviews attempt to give you an answer right away, pulling information from several websites to create a kind of “best guess” response.

Think of it like this: instead of telling you where to find the answer, Google is just giving it to you directly.

Why it matters for marketers

This has serious implications for how users interact with search results and how they discover brands. If Google gives people the answers without them needing to click through to your site, you could lose valuable traffic, even if your content helped create that answer in the first place.

It also means your strategy may need to shift from trying to rank on page one to trying to be the answer itself.

Just how common are these AI Overviews?

The numbers are growing fast. In March 2025, AI Overviews showed up in more than 13% of all U.S. desktop searches, up from just 6.5% in January. That’s more than double in only two months. And there’s no sign of it slowing down.

At the moment, most of these summaries appear for informational searches, things like “what is BMR” or “how does intermittent fasting work.” These are the kinds of top-of-funnel queries that drive awareness and early engagement.

But Google is creeping closer to more commercial territory. AI answers are starting to appear for:

• Navigational searches (trying to find a specific website or brand)
• Commercial or product-related queries (such as comparing features or prices)

That’s where things get more serious for marketers.

Are AI Overviews hurting clicks?

A major concern is “zero-click searches,” where people get what they need from Google and don’t visit any websites. Semrush looked at over 200,000 keywords to see if AI Overviews are driving this trend.

Surprisingly, the data shows that zero-click behaviour actually went down slightly from January to March, even for the same keywords that started showing AI Overviews. That suggests users are still exploring beyond the Overview, at least for now.

Which industries are being affected the most?

Some sectors are seeing a rapid rise in AI Overviews:

• Science and health are leading the way, likely because they involve factual content that’s easier for AI to summarise.
• Society, law, and government are also seeing big increases, even though these areas often involve sensitive or complex issues.
• On the other hand, news, sports, and real-time content are being handled more cautiously by Google, likely because the information changes too quickly for AI to summarise reliably.

What kinds of content trigger AI Overviews?

Right now, AI Overviews are most likely to appear for long-tail, low-competition informational queries, such as definitions, how-tos, and comparisons. These are usually low-cost from an ad perspective and not the types of searches that Google is trying to monetise heavily. That’s likely why AI is being tested there first.

If you’re creating blog content, guides, or FAQs, this is your front line.

But here’s the twist: commercial and branded terms are slowly starting to trigger AI Overviews too. If that trend continues, even your traffic from high-intent searches could be at risk.

Are your competitors already in the AI box?

Just because Google shows an AI Overview doesn’t mean your brand is featured in it. Only some sites are actually referenced inside the summary. So it’s important to check whether:

• Your site is being mentioned in AI-generated answers
• Your competitors are showing up instead
• You’re losing traffic from terms that now feature Overviews

This can help you decide whether to adapt your content strategy to aim for inclusion or to focus on other opportunities that still drive traffic.

So what should marketers do now?

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Don’t panic, but do pay attention. AI Overviews are expanding quickly, but they’re mostly impacting low-risk, informational content for now.
2. Shift your mindset. Being ranked isn’t enough anymore. You want to be quoted in the AI answer.
3. Focus on quality, clarity, and authority. Google’s AI leans on sites it trusts. Expert commentary, well-structured answers, and authoritative sources are more likely to be used in summaries.
4. Look for low-competition opportunities. There are still lots of high-value keywords that aren’t being disrupted by AI Overviews yet, especially in commercial and local search areas.
5. Track what matters. Watch your rankings and traffic on a keyword-by-keyword basis. When Overviews appear, analyse how your click-through rate is affected.

Google isn’t just listing websites anymore. It’s becoming a content creator in its own right. That means SEO is entering a new phase. It’s not just about rankings, but visibility inside answers, presence across formats, and building a brand that AI chooses to trust.

And while we might not be living in a totally post-click world yet, we are moving toward a post-rank one. The brands that adapt now will be the ones still visible tomorrow.

The Google local map pack is a feature on the search engine results page (SERP) that shows up-to-date information for the most relevant businesses for a search query. It includes the business NAP information, name, business and address, as well as opening hours, reviews, a call button and directions. Getting into the local pack is important for any local business owner wanting to stand out from the competition, as it immediately gives more information about your company on the SERP compared to your competitors. In this article, we will tell you all you need to know about appearing in Google’s local pack.

Why is Local Map Pack important?

The local pack is important for both audiences and business. It is a mobile friendly feature that gives businesses a clear CTA on the SERP to either visit a site, get directions or contact a business. This makes it easier for users to find relevant local business and increases traffic while also building trust with potential customers.

How to rank in the Google Local Map Pack

1. Create a Google My Business Profile In order to rank in the local pack business first need to create a Google My Business profile. To create a google business profile visit google.com/business and fill in your business details, including phone number, photos, website, address and more.
2. Optimise Google My Business Profile Make sure your GMB profile is optimised with SEO best practices including an engaging description, relevant keywords and high-quality images will enhance your chances of appearing high up in the local map pack and on the SERP. Also, it is important to make sure Google My Business listing has high-quality reviews. Google uses a site’s prominence in the local area when assessing its listings, and high-quality client reviews are more likely to see you appear higher in the local pack
3. Monitor Information in Google Local Pack. Anyone can suggest an edit to the information in your local map pack, which Google can put live without any prior warning.

As a local business appearing on the Google local map pack is essential for small business owners to gain more visibility online by optimising their business listings. If you need help with your local business listings feel free to get in touch info@intelligencygroup.com.