Recent Posts
News•Feb 2, 2026
SERPs with Ads + AI Overviews Grew by Over 394% in 2025
Google has dramatically increased ad presence on search results that feature AI Overviews, jumping from 5.17% in March 2025 to 25.56% by October—a 394% rise. The growth is uneven across placements, with bottom‑of‑SERP ads now appearing on roughly a quarter of AI‑driven pages, while middle and top spots lag behind. AI Overviews themselves have broadened beyond pure informational queries, with commercial, transactional and navigational intents now accounting for 43% of such searches. Google is also piloting ads embedded directly within AI summaries, signaling a long‑term shift in how paid and organic signals coexist.
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 28, 2026
What Are URL Parameters? A Guide on How to Use Them
The article explains what URL parameters (or query strings) are, how they’re structured, and why they’re essential for filtering, personalization, pagination, search, session tracking, and campaign analytics. It highlights the SEO risks they pose, such as duplicate content, wasted crawl...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 28, 2026
12 Alternative Search Engines to Try (Instead of Google)
The article lists twelve search‑engine alternatives to Google, emphasizing how each can serve different user needs. It highlights Bing as a standout option, noting its AI‑powered Copilot chat, integrated result sources, and a rewards program that grants points for queries....
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 23, 2026
How to Win AI Visibility with Semrush One
AI‑driven search interfaces are reshaping how users discover brands, allowing large language models to surface answers that bypass traditional SERP clicks. Semrush responded with Semrush One, a unified platform that combines classic SEO tools with an AI Visibility Toolkit to...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 23, 2026
On-Page SEO Checklist: The Complete Task List for 2026
The article delivers a 2026‑ready on‑page SEO checklist covering 11 core tasks plus essential technical actions. It walks readers through keyword research, title and H1 optimization, meta descriptions, URL slugs, content integration, header hierarchy, internal linking, visual assets, schema markup,...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 20, 2026
What Is Bounce Rate? And How to Reduce It
Bounce rate measures the share of unengaged sessions—those that last under 10 seconds, trigger no conversion event, and view only one page—in GA4. The metric is not shown by default and must be added manually, but it serves as a...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 19, 2026
Toxic Backlinks: What They Are & How to Find Them
Toxic backlinks are inbound links that violate Google’s link‑spam guidelines and can erode a site’s trust signals, especially when they appear in manipulative patterns. While Google often ignores isolated low‑quality links, large‑scale spam can trigger manual actions that suppress rankings....
By Semrush Blog
![How We Built a Content Optimization Tool for AI Search [Study]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://static.semrush.com/blog/uploads/media/e2/2f/e22f51dd255b84e2a38e3e195b8150ad/e56eb1f7f1e194543547bb51a29886b7/how-we-built-a-content-optimization-tool-for-ai-search-study-sm.png)
News•Jan 14, 2026
How We Built a Content Optimization Tool for AI Search [Study]
A Semrush study examined over 300,000 URLs to pinpoint which text‑only attributes drive citations in AI‑powered search tools such as ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. The analysis revealed five content qualities—clarity, E‑E‑A‑T signals, Q&A formatting, section structure, and structured...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 14, 2026
What Is the Google 3 Pack? And How to Rank in It
The Google 3‑pack, also known as the local or map pack, displays the three most relevant local business listings for location‑based queries. It shows the business name, rating, price range, address, hours and a clickable map, often outranking traditional organic...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 14, 2026
4 Ways to Increase Your Website Authority in 2026
Website authority—how trustworthy a site appears to search engines and AI models—directly influences visibility in both traditional and generative search results. Semrush’s Authority Score (0‑100) quantifies this trust, with top‑industry averages ranging from 53 in construction to 75 in finance....
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 13, 2026
The 8 Best AI Visibility Tools to Win in AI Search (2026)
AI visibility tools now let brands monitor how they appear in AI‑generated answers from platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. The guide evaluates eight solutions, ranging from lightweight monitors such as Otterly AI to enterprise‑grade suites like Semrush...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 8, 2026
18 Best Content Marketing Tools to Use in 2026
The guide lists the 18 best content‑marketing tools for 2026, spanning research, planning, creation, distribution and analytics, with pricing details for each. It highlights how solo marketers, small teams, and large operations can tailor a stack of four to six...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 5, 2026
XML Sitemap: What It Is And How To Generate One
An XML sitemap is a structured file that lists the URLs a site wants search engines to crawl and index, often including metadata such as last‑mod dates, change frequency, and priority. It boosts crawl efficiency, especially for large or complex...
By Semrush Blog
News•Jan 5, 2026
How to Optimize Your Website for SEO (Beginner’s Guide)
Search engines now surface AI‑generated overviews alongside traditional listings, making structured, authoritative content essential. The guide stresses targeting low‑volume, low‑difficulty keywords to capture both organic clicks and AI‑summary citations. It outlines high‑impact steps for new, stagnant, or declining sites, from...
By Semrush Blog