So, you've popped the champagne and welcomed a new company to your portfolio. What's next? First off... Congratulations! That's such an exciting milestone and we hope you took the time to celebrate this achievement! 🍾🎉🎈 Second, once the initial excitement winds down, it's time to establish a real performance baseline. Doing so will build a solid data foundation that you can use to forecast marketing growth for your newly acquired company. Morgan, Director of Private Equity Partnerships at WebFX, outlined the steps needed to build a useful post-acquisition forecast — including insights on how to establish your data foundation and identify areas where you can create the most value. You'll find all of the details on our blog. At the core of it all, though, you need to centralize the data. Outline all of the tools that your new company uses to track performance and manage operations, then connect that data in one central hub. Your new portfolio company may use a variety of platforms in its operations. They might manage the sales pipeline in a CRM like ServiceTitan, Salesforce, or Nutshell. They may use a spreadsheet to follow their finances, or have something like QuickBooks or NetSuite in place. They might have local listings in Google Business Profile, Yelp, or other directories. No matter which tools they have in their lineup, it's critical that you a.) know which ones they utilize and b.) bring the data into one place for a more holistic view of past performance. Then, you can better connect marketing activity to revenue and identify growth opportunities. Morgan expands on the forecasting roadmap on our blog, so you'll definitely want to check it out. The full post-acquisition roadmap: buff.ly/kSHgvPl

You have two main options to stop spam leads from sending your Google Ads bidding automation off the rails. Option 1: You can retract those leads from your data set. A retraction removes the spam conversion so it loses influence on the automation setup. Option 2: You can restate the value of the leads. Restatement doesn't change your conversion count but it does change the value of the spam lead. What you don't want to do is keep those spam leads in your data set. If you do, you increase the likelihood that Google will start bidding on low-quality opportunities. Not a great way to use your ad budget. We explain more about Google Ads conversion adjustments on our website 👇 buff.ly/7QOoz3O

As a Yelp Advertising Partner, our team knows what it takes to make the most of the platform. We chatted with Nolan, Head of Innovation at WebFX, to get his top tips for optimizing your Yelp presence, including both your profile and your ads. Pause your scrolling, because this is some advice you don't want to skip for your business.

You may be wasting your ad budget on bots. 🫨 But fear not, there's a way to protect your advertising dollars from fake clicks and bad conversion data. Let us introduce you (via YouTube video) to Google Ads value-based bidding, a data-driven approach to your ad campaigns that helps you optimize for the leads most likely to become customers. With a comprehensive value-based bidding strategy in place, we saw a 47% lower cost per qualified lead year over year, as well as improvements to other metrics. We put a link to the full video (and to a blog post with more details) below. Check 'em out! 👇 Our video on value-based bidding: buff.ly/AWjzk8B Our blog post on bot traffic: buff.ly/iJ21KoZ

Yes, it's true. And we're not afraid to say it. 📣 You need to get your SEO in order to ensure you appear in AI responses. There. We said it. A solid SEO foundation will set you up for success when you launch your AI SEO strategy. And how do you evaluate your current SEO strategy? With an audit. Our free SEO checker can help! Pop your URL into the tool and you'll get a report full of helpful tips. You're one giant leap closer to dominating the organic and AI search results. buff.ly/7ymXeEb

AI platforms can impact your website in a major way with seemingly small changes to their UI. One such change includes OpenAI grouping sources inside of a three-dot menu at the bottom of ChatGPT's responses, rather than providing an individual button. The sources still exist, and still feed the LLM's responses, but their visibility lives behind an extra click. While the adjustment may not be permanent, and could just be a test, this speaks to the importance of citation resilience. AI evolves at lightning speed, and change is bound to happen. This means your strategy needs to be ready for interface decisions you aren't a part of, and it's not limited to ChatGPT. The path to success requires you to: ⚡ Diversify your tracking ⚡ Stop treating any single platform’s interface as a stable channel ⚡ Build proof that doesn’t depend on the click However, if you've noticed a drop in AI traffic, don't immediately blame it on the platform. Do what Sarah, one of our SEO experts, suggests. 👇 “If you see a sudden drop in AI referral traffic, dig into your analytics first (GA4 has a dedicated AI Assistant channel for this) before assuming it’s from this UI change. In GA4, for example, check to see if the drop is coming from a specific source (like ChatGPT) or landing page and how that shift compares to the previous period and year.” Want more insights on how to build an AI optimization strategy that adapts to the latest changes? You'll have to visit our blog for more details. buff.ly/e2V5atz

Generative AI traffic has grown how much??? 👀 Check out the full video on our YouTube channel for more details on the growth of AI and how to adapt to the changing landscape in 2026. 👇 buff.ly/3wbTTlO

In our analysis of about 600,000 AI referral sessions, we found that more than 9 in 10 landed on consideration or decision-stage content. This means your website's AI visitors are coming to you already having done their initial research. Before they've had their first interaction with your website, they've likely already asked AI to compare options, summarize reviews, or explain pros and cons. They're not opening up ten browser tabs and spending hours parsing through the results. The initial learning happens via a conversation inside a chat window. Want to keep learning about the content that earns AI traffic? Visit our website for the full analysis. buff.ly/J70eith

You're not just copying and pasting random AI prompts and pre-built files from the internet, right? Right?!?! We get it. Finding a slick prompt or a ready-made AI customization (GPT, Gem, Skill, etc.) for your AI tool feels like a quick win. But that shortcut can carry hidden instructions designed to manipulate the AI's behavior or quietly pull sensitive information out of you. If that customization comes with tool access — meaning it can run code, connect to your files, or reach into your accounts — the potential damage goes up considerably. You really don't know the motivations of whoever built it. This applies whether you're using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or anything in between. If it came from somewhere you don't fully trust, it's worth a second look before you use it. A simple rule of thumb: if you didn't create it and you don't know what it really does, check with your digital security team before you add it to your account. Thank you for reading this PSA. Now back to your regularly scheduled scrolling.

Quick question: do you know how much of your Google Ads traffic might actually be bots? According to one study, 53% of internet traffic comes from bots. If your Google Ads automation setup doesn't distinguish a bot's form fill from a real lead, it will start to spend your hard earned dollars on fake conversions. Don't take this to mean you should abandon your automated bidding strategy. When you feed the right data into your value-based bidding strategy, you show Google exactly which conversions are worth chasing, and which ones aren't. Then, the algorithm learns from your best customers instead of your worst traffic. We break down the basics of value-based bidding and how to refine your setup on our blog. buff.ly/OXXLU3D

You'd expect traffic from ChatGPT to be people just starting their research, right? It's actually the opposite. 🤯 We analyzed nearly 600,000 AI sessions. 92% landed on consideration and decision-stage content. Awareness pages? 2.3%. People reach your site from AI tools after they've already done the research in the chat, which means they're close to a decision. This also means the way you think about your website content needs to adapt. We broke it all down by funnel stage (and more!) in the study. buff.ly/0T36syo

AI search is sending you more qualified visitors — but that cuts both ways. They've already done their research. They've asked the top-of-funnel questions. They may have already looked at your competitors. By the time they hit your site, they're not browsing. They're ready to make a decision. Your website's job isn't to introduce your business anymore. It's to confirm your visitors chose correctly. Alec and Eric on what that means for businesses in the AI era:

Investing in GEO without a measurement plan is a bit like running a paid campaign with conversion tracking turned off. You might be doing everything right, but without any tracking, you have no way to prove it. We outlined a practical starting point on our website. A solid GEO reporting plan tracks roughly nine KPIs: AI visibility rate, AI citation rate, AI brand mention rate, query coverage, content inclusion rate, AI-driven traffic, conversion rate from AI traffic, engagement metrics from AI users, and assisted conversions. That may be a lot for most teams to take on at once. If you're building this out from scratch, you may want to start with just three core KPIs: AI visibility rate, AI citation rate, and conversion rate from AI traffic. Those three tell you whether you're showing up, whether your content is trusted as a source, and whether any of it is producing results for your business. If conversion attribution isn't solid yet, substitute AI-driven traffic until it is. Don't make the mistake of tracking only one platform. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Gemini don't always surface the same sources, so monitoring just one gives you a partial picture at best. Read our full GEO KPI analysis: buff.ly/b6Lw0Jn

AI is out there speaking on your behalf, using your website content. The question is: do you trust what it's saying about you? Eric and Alec, two of our digital marketing and AI experts, put it simply in this video — if AI is pulling from your website, you want it to reflect how you speak to your customers. If the response doesn't do that, you have a content quality problem. Your audience may be interacting with websites less directly. But the content on those pages is being read, interpreted, and repeated by AI tools more than ever. What AI surfaces about your business isn't random. Instead, it comes from what you've published. If that content was written to check an SEO box instead of to actually communicate, AI is going to reflect that back to your buyers. The way you control your AI representation is similar to how you've always controlled your brand: good content, written like a real expert, about things that actually matter to your customers.

Losing search traffic? If you publish content in any of the following categories, AI may be scooping up those clicks and leading to those less-than-ideal numbers: 📉 Definitions and glossary pages 📉 How-to guides and step-by-step tutorials 📉 Beginner-level explainers 📉 FAQ-style content 📉 Basic comparison pages like “X vs. Y” at a surface level Combatting this loss of traffic isn't impossible. Our blog post outlines six key strategies you can try to gain some of that traffic back. buff.ly/hAag8bQ

Having trouble getting your website cited by AI? Take a look at your pages and determine if they're guilty of these common mistakes: ❌ Long, unstructured content ❌ Vague or generic answers ❌ Lack of topical depth ❌ No clear definitions ❌ Overly promotional tone Fixing these issues can get your site on the right track for visibility. You can find more details on our blog! buff.ly/4TfSjF9

Belonging isn't a perk of a great workplace. It's part of what makes one. One of the things we love most about WebFX is the people who make up our team. Every person brings their own story, experiences, perspective, and personality, and the truth is, we're better because of it. We believe people do their best work when they feel valued, respected, and like they belong. We're grateful for all of the people who help make WebFX what it is. Happy Pride Month! 🌈

Using AI for research? Savannah has some advice to make sure you're getting the right information.

Your brand's trust signals — third-party reviews, in-depth case studies, industry certifications, author bios — are even more valuable to your marketing than you may think. They go further than helping your audience decide who to contact or buy from. Search engines and AI look for those same things when deciding how to respond to user inputs. Trust signals have always influenced whether a prospect stays on your site or bounces. They are the details that tell a buyer your business is legitimate and experienced. They don't always make it onto the SEO checklist, though. AI search has made the push for credibility even harder to ignore. The same signals that build credibility with people now factor into whether AI platforms cite your business when someone asks a relevant question. A perfectly structured page with strong technical SEO but no visible trust signals gives AI tools, search engines, and buyers very little reason to choose you over a competitor. A lot of the conversation around search and AI optimization focuses on content structure, schema markup, and keywords. Those things matter, but they're only part of the whole picture. Watch the video for our take on authenticity in this new era of SEO, and then head to the blog for eight more ways to adapt your SEO strategy to the current landscape. buff.ly/wHskZzR