If you’ve been affected by AI Overviews, traffic drops, or feel uncertain about SEO’s future, then this episode is for you.
Search Engine Journal’s Editor-in-Chief Katie Morton sits down with growth advisor and author of “Growth Memo,” Kevin Indig, to unpack the results of his latest AI Overviews study.
In this 35-minute episode, they discuss how it impacts search, SEO, and brand marketing in 2025.
Editor’s note: The following transcript has been edited lightly for clarity, brevity, and adherence to our editorial guidelines.
Katie Morton: Hi, everybody. It is I, Katie Morton. I’m the editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal, and today I’m sitting down with Kevin Indig, who is a growth advisor to fast-growing tech companies and the author of “Growth Memo,” a fantastic newsletter.
We syndicate it here on Search Engine Journal, but sign up for it directly, too, because he has content exclusive to subscribers. It’s filled with smart insights every marketer needs to know.
Kevin, thanks for making the time today. The study was analyzed in March-April 2025 and published in May. We’ve had time to reflect, and today we’ll unpack the key takeaways.
We’ll start with the nuts and bolts of the study’s background, so listeners understand the context, and then go beyond the data to explore how marketers and companies, especially those frustrated by Google, AI Overviews, or traffic drops, can respond.
So, Kevin, can you summarize the study and share the main takeaways?
Kevin Indig: Thanks for having me on, Katie. It’s great to be here with you.
Kevin: The study came from a desire to deeply understand, from a qualitative perspective, how everyday users interact with AI Overviews.
In 2024, everyone was eyeing AI Overviews with curiosity, but traffic impact wasn’t significant yet. Then, at the start of 2025, everything changed. It became a “holy cow” moment – this was real and serious.
We asked 70 participants in the U.S., across different age groups, to solve eight tasks that covered dominant user intents: Finding a tax accountant, researching medical questions, shopping, etc.
We intentionally included queries that showed AI Overviews but didn’t tell participants to interact with them – we wanted unbiased behavior.
So, in a nutshell, the three most poignant results are:
First of all – and this is no surprise – clicks are really rare when people see AI Overviews. That’s gotten through to everyone by now.
And yet, at the same time, classic organic results still have the majority of impact on people’s completion of user journeys.
Let me untangle that for a second: What we found is that people get their final answer – the final piece of information they were set out to get – 80% of the time from classic organic results. Not from AI Overviews, so that was encouraging.
Clicks are going down, but people still click. And each of those clicks has much, much higher quality than, say, in 2024 or before.
Because those clicks are to verify whether the results are accurate, to get human input from platforms like Reddit or YouTube, and to increase confidence in whether what the AI is saying is true.
And for us, that means it’s critical to be present in these high-trust, high-risk moments. I can unpack that a little more…
The third result I found very interesting is that there really is an age difference here. [Younger users] are much more receptive to AI answers. They’re much more active on Reddit and YouTube. Whereas people of a higher age will often just skip the AI answers because they don’t trust them.
You want to know who you’re talking to, who your target audience is. Ideally, what the age group is of your ICP or your target audience, and then make SEO decisions accordingly.
Katie: Thank you for that. What I’d love to talk about next is branding.
I feel like big brands are a little safer with recent developments. If you already have recognition, you’re in a better spot. But if you’re a tiny brand with no recognition, you’re really behind the eight ball.
For the uninitiated or the uninformed, [you might wonder], why is that important? It’s about trust.
When someone sees your brand in an AI Overview, recognition boosts trust. If they click on an AI Overview or scroll to find organic results, they’re more likely to trust and click a name they know. A strong brand increases your chances.
But even strong brands can lose recognition. Mordy Oberstein and I talk about this a lot – he’s doing branding work now. Reputation is everything.
Mordy uses the example of Nike, which was once ubiquitous, but has lost some relevance. Younger generations aren’t as loyal or aware of the swoosh anymore.
So, for big brands, maintaining confidence and trust is critical. For small or new brands, or brands that never had strong recognition, can they still gain traction?
Kevin: You can get traction … but it’s really challenging.
One challenge is that multiple teams need to work together: product, innovation, marketing, support, supply chain. SEO doesn’t control all these variables. It’s always been a discipline of recommendations, relying on others to act.
So, you always were relying on other teams, and that has 10x’d now with AI. Because, as you said, brand, brand perception, and sentiment are so critical to how you appear in search results or answers.
And it goes back to so many different touch points with a brand, not just the logo that people see or the advertising, but also the product that they use, retention, all that kind of stuff.
SEOs need to show other departments where issues lie, using click-through rates, brand search volume, and engagement metrics as signals. They must communicate the story and rally other teams.
But that often runs into cost concerns. Asking for a new call center to improve support has big budget implications, and quantifying ROI is tough.
So, SEOs must push beyond the Google channel and influence company strategy. It’s incredibly difficult to influence.
Katie: Absolutely. And speaking of SEO being declared “dead,” I’ve heard that every few years in my 20 years in the industry, but this is the first time I’ve felt a credible threat.
SEO will never truly die. It’s discovery, and discovery is always needed, but it’s definitely changing. It used to be the most cost-effective marketing channel. Now, ROI is less certain, and budgets are contracting.
But there’s a silver lining. A lot of low-quality, general content meant just to drive mass page views is getting weeded out.
For example, we used to rank for “What is E-E-A-T?” and get tons of unqualified traffic. With AI Overviews answering those general queries now, traffic is down, but the remaining traffic is far more qualified. That’s better for conversions.
It’s hard for publishers who relied on brute-force clicks. But for us, shifting away from programmatic and toward advertisers aligned with our audience, like SaaS, has worked. The industry is changing massively.
So, what do you think is next for SEO and marketing?
Kevin: You hit it on the head. SEO is contracting; budgets are down, leadership confidence is down, and when people leave, their roles often aren’t replaced. SEO has died and reinvented itself many times.
I see that we’re using a lot of SEO also for AI visibility optimization. I do expect that to change, but however you flip it, we are in a transition period. And the problem with transition periods is that they’re hard to navigate. You lose orientation, and it’s painful.
Once you settle at a new baseline, you just run around a little headless, and you try to find your way. And then slowly, things kind of start to settle back in.
And so I’m very confident that whatever we’re going to call this, we’re going to settle into a new baseline. It might take a while. This is not going to stop in the next six months – probably not twelve months. But it’s hard to predict when.
Based on how quickly models improve and how quickly humans adapt to them, that will decide the pace of this transition.
However, there are also many opportunities in transitions. You can reinvent yourself. And that’s where, as SEOs, we might lose the SEO budget, but maybe we gain some brand budget, which has been much, much bigger in the past.
You see companies spending millions of dollars for multi-year contracts for a tiny logo that sits somewhere on a Formula 1 car. These things happen all the time.
There’s a big opportunity for SEO to detach from that unwanted profiling as a performance channel – detach ourselves from being a performance channel, and become much more of a brand channel, influence channel, presence channel – whatever you want to call it.
New metrics. New levers. Deeply rooted in SEO. And effective and powerful, but kind of in a new design, right? Like SEO 2.0. Whatever you want to call it.
And I do agree with you. I also see people who’ve been in the game for a long time stepping out. Totally get that. I see young people losing a bit of confidence.
But I will also say that I would like (but wouldn’t admit) that there’s a little part of me that’s kind of excited for all this change.
Because it’s an opportunity to kind of reshuffle the cards, find out new stuff, maybe find some secrets, and kind of reverse engineer what’s going on.
When you look at the last just 10 days where multiple people and companies found new ways to reverse engineer what queries Gemini uses and ChatGPT uses, I’m like, man, it’s awesome to see how adamant the industry works on developing the new playbook, dissecting how these mechanics work and LLMs work, and finding new ways.
So, I have high confidence, and I also have a lot of empathy for all the pain and the kind of problems that this industry is going through. But again, I see us coming out the other side at some point in like a new design – and with a lot of impact.
Katie Morton: I love it. I agree with the empathy as well. Because everyone in marketing, it seems, has lost their mind a little bit over the past year or two with these shifts in traffic.
But that Wild Wild West environment is also really exciting because there are going to be all of these developments.
And if people are calm and they persevere and they do the work to figure these things out, either for themselves or to watch what those researchers are finding, people will be okay, right?
Kevin: We always are. Sorry to cut you off there, but there’s a really important point to make here that I didn’t make – and that is: It’s not just search that’s changing.
SEO is at the forefront of AI. At the absolute forefront. Because it’s about words, and it’s about search, and search is kind of the biggest interface between AI and humans right now.
So it’s not just search that’s changing. Marketing is completely changing. And like, all of our lives are completely changing.
Sure, this will take years to trickle through, maybe not even to the degree we’ve thought of it, but it’s pretty clear that AI is at least as revolutionary as the internet. Maybe even the most revolutionary invention that humanity has made so far.
So let’s not forget: Everything is changing. It’s not just us SEOs. It’s all the channels. It’s marketing as a whole.
Modes and levers are disappearing, and new ones are coming up. We’re feeling it deeply in SEO, as being kind of the front line of AI. But make no mistake, this will trickle through to all the paid channels, product, everything.
Everybody is in a state of shock right now, trying to figure out what the new branches are to hold on to and then build on top of. Marketing as we know it is over. LLMs are transforming how they reach us.
Katie: This affects every channel. At SEJ, we’ve collapsed editorial and marketing into one integrated team. It used to be SEO and editorial here, marketing over there, and no one really talked. That doesn’t work anymore.
Now, everything is more cohesive and focused on the ICP and conversion. It’s better for customers and for teams.
Kevin: 100%. I talk to all my clients about this. SEO and paid search should’ve always been connected, but they were siloed, same with product, email, social, etc.
I mean, look: Realistically and ideally, SEO and paid (or paid search) have always been connected at the hip. But I’ll tell you, at least across almost all the companies that I’ve worked with, they were siloed.
The same exists with all these other teams, like product marketing or social media, conversion, and email – all that kind of stuff.
Now’s the time to rip off the band-aid. There can be small teams of maybe an SEO, an editor, an email person, a social person, and maybe a very technical person who can quickly prototype new apps, programs, or tools.
The biggest challenge now is internal red tape. AI is a speed catalyst, but companies’ old workflows slow them down. Big organizations are stuck.
I’m urging clients to form these multi-disciplinary units under one manager, one roof, one mission.
Katie: Awesome. One last point: other platforms. For too long, people relied too heavily on Google. Diversifying traffic sources – ads, social, newsletters – is now essential. Holistic marketing is the future. What are you seeing [that is] working right now?
Generally speaking, where do people live these days? Where are humans hanging out, and where do we find them? What are the success metrics that you’re seeing?
Kevin: The short answer is: Everywhere.
Katie: Good luck, everyone. Okay, good night. That’s the show!
Kevin: No, but the reality is, everywhere. There’s this interesting paradox. I need to coin this term somehow, but this interesting paradox that basically all the social networks are growing. And new ones are popping up, right? TikTok – I mean, it’s not that new anymore, but it’s still growing. Reddit is becoming much more of a household name now.
And so you ask yourself, what gives? Sure, linear TV’s down, okay. But how is this possible? And the reality is: People are online all the time – speaking for a friend – and they use a lot of platforms at the same time.
So, the best teams, or the companies that are making a big impact, they have this surround sound effect that they’re creating, where they’re present in a lot of places. They engage authentically, say, on Reddit.
When good companies engage on Reddit, it doesn’t feel like marketing. It’s not marketing, really. It’s much more like trying to be helpful, more like customer support or success.
That’s why these people are generally very well-suited to interact on Reddit. They truly add value. They’re truly part of the conversation.
Brands are repurposing their content in a very thoughtful and high-fidelity way, where maybe they create a blog article, turn it into a video, turn it into clips, which then turn into questions they answer on Reddit. There is this kind of everywhere strategy. AI really helps with that.
And I will also say it’s typically not companies that are getting stuck at the quantification-of-impact question. The reality is that steering an organization or a company toward that multi-channel effect – or that surround sound effect – takes a swing.
It takes a leader to say, “Okay, we’re going to spend some money and take six months, and we’re going to invest in Reddit and YouTube, and we’re going to wait for the results to come in. We’re not going to sit there every day refreshing the dashboard asking, ‘How many sales have we generated yet?’”
It takes a bit of a swing. And so it’s defining for this era, for this transition period, where it’s much harder to project and forecast where you’re going to land with some of these things.
It takes judgment and taste and a certain degree of risk-taking to invest in these channels and functions, and being comfortable, or at least okay, with waiting for some of the results to come in and being able to measure them later.
I’m not saying you should wait a year or two. But give it two quarters, maybe three quarters, and experiment with some of these channels.
So, that’s where people are – people are everywhere. It’s not enough to just have one shot at one platform. You need to be kind of everywhere.
And repurposing can help. Using AI with some of these things helps. But at the end of the day, you need to take a swing.
Katie: Very wise, Kevin. One of those things that I found highly annoying is that you can run these experiments, and you’re going to wait for your results, and then before your experiment is even done, everything’s changed again.
Kevin: Exactly. Predictable methods are gone. You take swings, and some won’t connect because conditions change. The best leaders, the best teams – a lot of times, they take a lot of swings.
Because some of those swings will hit full force, and it’s kind of a skill to build.
Katie: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. We’ve implemented monthly experiments at SEJ. Every department runs one. It could be layout, content type … constant iteration. I tell the team: soft knees. Be ready to shift. There’s no “set it and forget it” anymore.
Kevin: Yes, yes. On point. Allow people to fail. Another good skill is being able to take meaningful risks. I’m not saying bet the farm, but as a leader, if you want to encourage your people to take risks, let them.
Again, that doesn’t mean to blindly shoot in all directions. You want to have some thought behind that, some judgment. You want to be critical. But there has to be a point at which you let go.
Katie: That is a really perfect point. We tie experiments to north-star metrics. For us, one is newsletter subscriptions, so most of our experiments support that. We’ve seen great success, not always in raw traffic, but in conversions and revenue.
Kevin: Amazing. Congratulations on that.
Katie: Thank you. All right, Kevin, any parting remarks before we head out?
Kevin: I’m hearing a lot of very concerned SEOs. Concerned about “How do I tell this story?” or “How do I manage my boss or leadership in this time where traffic is down?”
I want to send out some courage. This is one of the biggest shifts I’ve lived through in my life. I would bet it’s probably the same for most, if not all, of the audience.
So, this is maybe the time to make some changes and have some grace about finding a new playbook.
I’m seeing a lot of SEOs very scared about this. I get the initial fear. But again, this is such a substantial, fundamental change. It’s okay for things to look different. It’s okay for you not to have the answer right now. Be honest with leadership. Push back if needed.
Katie: Focus on new metrics, not just UVs or PVs, but ones that connect to business goals. That’s where the story of success will be told.
Kevin: Exactly.
Katie: Thanks again, Kevin. Where can people find you?
Kevin: growth-memo.com, or just search for “Growth Memo.” That’s my main hub.
Katie: Awesome. We’re at searchenginejournal.com. See you next time!
Kevin: Thanks for having me.
More Resources:
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
We’ve updated our article on Threads to include the news that the number of Threads users on mobile is catching up to X.
Threads has become the fastest-growing social media platform in history since it launched on July 5, 2023.
Within the first hour alone, it received a whopping 5 million sign-ups — just three months after Meta confirmed it was working on an alternative to Twitter.
The buzz around Threads is huge news for marketers as many have been taking a step back from Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform, resulting in a 59% drop in ad spend in the U.S. Marketers are now understandably exploring new platforms to host their campaigns without compromising reach or quality.
Dig deeper: Why we care about social media marketing: A guide for brands
Is Threads the best alternative for advertisers? Here’s everything you need to know.
Use the form below to customize this content. Choose the appropriate job role and our MarTechBot will personalize the content on this page for you. If you’d rather not customize the content, simply keep scrolling.
Threads is a social networking app, operated by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms, which is closely integrated with Instagram and currently only available on iOS or Android devices. Meta has described Threads as “Instagram’s text-based conversation app.”
Threads gives its users the opportunity to post updates, share text, images, and videos, and interact with other users’ posts via likes, reposts and replies. On the app store, Threads is described as:
Although the app is very similar to Twitter/X in several ways, Zuckerberg has stressed that one of the key differences is the focus on “kindness” and being “friendly.” He wrote on his Threads account:
It’s worth noting that Threads is very closely integrated with Instagram. So much so, users can’t sign up for Threads without an Instagram account.
When Threads announced it was beginning a limited test of advertising in January 2025, it said the platform had 300 million monthly actives. It also said three out of four people on Threads follow at least one business.
In July 2025, TechCrunch published data from Similarweb that found Threads on the verge of catching up to X in terms of users.
The data (from June 2025) found Threads’ mobile app for iOS and Android saw 115.1 million daily active users, representing 127.8% year-over-year growth; X reached 132 million daily actives, as its year-over-year growth declined by 15.2%.
X still has a sizable advantage among web users. Similarweb found X averaged 145.8 million daily web visits worldwide in June 2025, compared with just 6.9 million for Threads.
According to the 2025 Sprout Social Index (registration required), 53% of marketers are now posting to Threads, with an additional 23% looking to establish a presence on Threads in 2025.
In its Q1 2025 Sprout Pulse Survey, Sprout Social said only 10% of brands had no plans to join Threads or Bluesky. The report also provided examples of how Google and Netflix use Threads and other emerging social media platforms.
Dig deeper: Microsoft ad platforms end support of Twitter
Threads will collect a vast amount of information about its users, in the same way Meta’s other platforms, Facebook and Instagram, do. Meta’s apps gather and store all the details users enter, including sensitive information such as:
In addition to the above, Threads also stores data on how its users interact with posts and who they are following. This in-depth level of detail Threads stores about its user is why EU officials were concerned about data privacy.
Threads is enforcing Instagram’s Community Guidelines on content and interactions. Under these terms, users must be at least 13 years or older, and users under 16 years (or 18 in some countries) will automatically get a private account by default. However, parents are still advised to monitor their children’s activities online.
Users will have the option to filter their settings, meaning they have control over who can reply to them in texts. In addition, users will be able to block unwanted accounts and any accounts that they may have blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads too.
Meta has invested more than $16 billion into protecting people that use its platforms since 2016, and has stated that safety remains a top priority on Threads.
Meta announced on its Instagram blog that Threads would be linked to people’s Instagram accounts. Explaining the reasoning behind this decision, it said:
As your Threads profile is connected to your Instagram account, certain details are transferred between the two including your name and username. So in order to change your username on Threads, you need to change your Instagram username. To do this, you need to take the following steps:
There are limitations on posts and videos:
Threads is a pretty straight-forward app to use that operates in a similar way to Twitter. Here’s how you get started:
Deep dive. Read the Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy for more information on how Meta shares your data and how to delete a Threads account.
A pair of announcements from Instagram chief Adam Mosseri demonstrate a pivot in the strategy of Meta’s Threads app.
The first announcement, from late November, addressed concerns from Thread users who claimed to have trouble growing their followers on the platform.
In a post to Threads, Mosseri said: “We are rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people you follow, which will mean less recommended content from accounts you don’t follow and more posts from the accounts you do starting today.”
Following the renewed focus on followers, Mosseri announced in early December it was testing analytics for individual posts. He shared a screenshot of the test experience as part of the announcement.
For Threads to continue its growth and compete with X (formerly Twitter) and the insurgent BlueSky platform, Threads needs to provide its users with tools to help them grow their audience and measure their reach. These two announcements are steps in that direction.
Threads is introducing another feature to keep pace with more mature social media platforms. On Dec. 17, 2024, Threads announced a test of a “schedule post” feature, which allows users to create posts and schedule them to publish at a date and time in the future.
Scheduled posts will be saved in a Drafts folder until they publish. Users can edit and delete them from that folder before they are scheduled to go live.
Users in the test of scheduled posts will find the feature by clicking on the three-dot menu in Composer.
As the social media space deals with bans, boycotts and shakeups, Sprout Social reports consumers are spending more time on experimental and often niche networks. In its Q1 2025 Sprout Pulse Survey, the company found 36% of marketers say their audience is starting to spend more time on emerging platforms like Threads, as well as Bluesky, Lemon8 and Mastodon.
In fact, only 10% of brands have no plans to use Threads or Bluesky, the report found.
Sprout Social’s advice for brands testing out a Threads strategy — don’t overthink it. The platform invites lower-lift content, like text-based posts, links to articles and static images. That means brands can invest in Threads without divesting from other networks already core to their strategy.
The 2025 Sprout Social Index found that marketers’ greatest fear is audiences moving to private, closed or otherwise alternative platforms. But network diversification isn’t a distant fear — it’s already happening, and Threads is one of the platforms that’s benefitting.
Threads launched a limited test of ads with a select group of advertisers in January 2025, and in late April 2025 Meta annoounced Thread ads were now open to all advertisers, though the ads themselves were only available to been seen in select regions.
Advertisers can access Threads Ads through Meta’s Advantage+ platform. The new placement (called Threads feed) will be on by default for new campaigns using either Advantage+ or Manual Placements, Meta said. Advertisers have the option to opt out of Threads feed via Manual Placements.
According to a report in Digiday, advertisers plan to continue testing placements on Threads and measuring results as they slowly work the platform into campaigns.
A Threads feed ad placement. Image courtesy of Meta.
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Finally, Prime Day x4 is behind us. I’ve found it a little underwhelming this year, if I’m honest, especially when it comes to deals on some of the best 3D printers. It’s usually always the case that deals are far better when bought directly from a retailer themselves, and Prime Day has been totally beaten out this year by coinciding with Bambu Lab’s anniversary sale.
Even though Prime Day is over with, I’ve noticed that Creality still has some mega deals listed all weekend, not only on 3D printers but on some of the best 3D scanners, and some tasty deals on Laser engravers too.
WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, arguably because of its ability to become virtually any kind of website users want it to be.
This flexibility is made possible by thousands of third-party plugins that add the features needed to turn ideas into functioning businesses and platforms.
The WordPress plugin community is what really brings the platform to life and enables publishers and developers to build websites that enhance the experience for site visitors and publishers.
Based on my own experience and from others in the WordPress community, the following is a list of high-quality plugins that provide essential functionality for building a successful website.
All the WordPress plugins evaluated and selected are created by trustworthy developers according to the following criteria:
Note: Some widely used plugins with up to millions of installations may not have been included in this list due to a history of frequent or significant security vulnerabilities. While these tools may offer valuable functionality, consistent security issues meant they did not meet the standards for inclusion. Always evaluate plugins not just on popularity or features, but also on their security track record and ongoing support.
There are nine categories of plugins on the list:
SEO plugins handle critical tasks that every WordPress site needs to rank well in search engines.
They automate essentials like generating sitemaps, adding meta descriptions and title tags, and inserting schema.org structured data.
They also provide a way to manually add article excerpts and centralize on-page optimization by managing internal linking, rank tracking, redirects, and integrating with Google Search Console for performance insights.
These are the five most widely used and trusted SEO plugins, listed by number of installations:
Yoast SEO is a go-to plugin for handling the basics of on-page optimization.
It has practically no impact on site speed according to my measurements and a long track record of providing fast updates in response to changes at Google.
It also deserves special mention for its trustworthiness in terms of security.
WordPress site security is sometimes overlooked in favor of focusing on sales or SEO, but all it takes is one security incident to understand the severe impact a vulnerability can have on sales and search performance.
Top 3 WordPress Security Plugins
Wordfence is one of the most widely used WordPress security plugins, trusted by over 5 million users.
The free version protects websites against external threats by locking down commonly exploited areas and running a malware scan that checks for intrusions.
It also blocks malicious files from executing in sensitive folders, sends alerts when plugins and themes need updating, and provides an option to enforce strong passwords.
Its standout feature is a built-in firewall that automatically detects and blocks suspicious activity and user agents. These blocks are temporary and automatically lifted after a preset time to prevent database bloat.
Wordfence also allows users to define custom firewall rules, offering precise control against malicious bots (learn how to use Wordfence’s custom rules).
It is authorized by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Program as a CVE Numbering Authority, which means it contributes vulnerability discoveries to the official CVE® database and underscores its credibility in the security space.
For most users, the free version offers strong baseline protection that makes Wordfence an essential plugin. The Premium version adds real-time threat signatures to protect against newly discovered vulnerabilities.
Sucuri, which is currently owned by GoDaddy, is a security auditing, malware scanning, and website hardening solution that complements other security plugins.
It doesn’t duplicate the features in Wordfence, so the two can be used together as a layered security strategy.
Sucuri includes a file integrity scanner that alerts users to changed files, secures the website against intrusions, and provides security notices, such as when someone logs in.
The paid version includes a firewall that actively blocks threats, but even the free version adds meaningful protection.
When combined with Wordfence, Sucuri offers a highly effective and essential level of WordPress security.
Patchstack helps secure WordPress sites by detecting vulnerabilities in themes and plugins.
It provides email notifications and real-time alerts, including a dashboard for monitoring up to 10 websites in the free version and up to 50 in the premium solution.
WordPress plugins and themes can contribute to unnecessary code bloat and render-blocking scripts, which negatively impact website performance.
Caching and web performance plugins address these issues by applying the latest speed and optimization techniques, helping sites load faster and perform more efficiently.
Recommended Caching Plugins
This is the official WordPress performance plugin developed by the WordPress Performance Team, composed of WordPress core contributors.
It offers advanced performance optimizations that take advantage of the latest technologies and browser capabilities, some of which may be included in future versions of WordPress.
Its modular design enables users to activate only the performance features most relevant to their websites.
The purpose of the plugin is to allow users to provide feedback on how the performance improvements work with their websites.
While there is a small possibility of unexpected issues, the plugin is generally stable and safe to use.
Some of the latest performance improvements offered are:
WP Rocket addresses core performance challenges that affect most WordPress websites, offering everything a site needs to improve speed and load times, plus compatibility with other plugins and themes.
Virtually every recommended optimization, from lazy loading to delaying JavaScript, is included.
The attention to detail is top-notch. For example, one of the most recent updates was to preload fonts that show above the fold.
The solutions provided by WP Rocket reduce the need to hand-code performance optimizations, resulting in lower development and maintenance costs.
W3 Total Cache (W3TC) improves website speed by offering extensive caching options, including database objects, and minification of JavaScript and CSS resources.
It also handles deferring non-critical resources and converting images to the WebP format, helping websites meet modern performance standards.
Backing up and archiving a WordPress site is critical to protecting it from catastrophic failure due to a server issue or site hacking.
Backups are also invaluable when unintended changes are made and need to be reverted.
Using a dedicated backup plugin is the most reliable way to ensure regular, complete backups are available when needed. The importance of website backups cannot be overstated.
Recommended Backup Plugins
The UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup plugin is trusted by over 3 million users.
It provides a reliable, easy-to-use solution for creating full backups and restoring a site to a previous version when needed.
In addition to website recovery, UpdraftPlus supports site migration between servers, making it a practical tool for both maintenance and server changes.
Backing up and restoring a WordPress site with this plugin is straightforward, even in urgent situations like accidental file deletion.
BlogVault offers real-time incremental backups that include free off-site storage and a 90-day archive.
The plugin backs up the WordPress database, themes, plugins, settings, and images, covering all critical components of a WordPress site.
The official WordPress repository page for the plugin states that BlogVault is the official site migration plugin for Cloudways, Flywheel, Liquid Web, Pantheon, and WP Engine, further reinforcing its reliability.
BlogVault also provides a free staging environment. The paid Pro version offers automation features, one-click recovery and migration, plus priority customer support starting at $149. Higher tiers offer built-in malware scans.
The free version provides many of the backup and storage functionalities that most websites need, and its staging capabilities are a strong bonus, allowing users to safely test changes before deploying them to a live site.
Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a component of the Jetpack plugin bundle that starts at $9.95/month. It’s by Automattic, founded by Matt Mullenweg, who is the co-founder of WordPress.
VaultPress Backup provides daily and real-time backups of WordPress and WooCommerce stores, including all customer and order data, making it especially well-suited for websites where uptime and data integrity are crucial.
It creates multiple redundant encrypted backups to ensure recovery is always possible.
Because VaultPress Backup is developed by Automattic, it’s coded to the highest standards and tested for compatibility with all major plugins and themes.
While a theme’s built-in contact form provides basic contact functions, third-party plugins are necessary for sites that rely on lead generation, marketing campaigns, or advanced features like multi-step forms.
The following contact form plugins offer greater flexibility and control to meet those needs.
WPForms is a visual contact form builder that can be adapted for accepting feedback, serving as subscription forms, and forms for accepting payments, integrating with Authorize.Net, PayPal, Stripe, and Square Payments.
The plugin offers over 2,000 templates to make it easy to create a form and offers easy customizability, exceeding the functions and adaptability of default contact forms typically found in themes.
There are different paid version levels, each providing increasingly sophisticated features and capabilities, but the free version is a reliable option for websites that need more than just basic contact functionality.
Gravity Forms is an advanced contact form plugin that offers conditional logic that can hide fields or pages depending on user answers, and can be configured for payments, product sales, and donations, all done with the highest levels of security.
Form configuration is done within a drag-and-drop visual editor and includes dozens of add-ons that can be used to make it integrate with a customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, or anti-spam solution, or add an autocomplete to increase conversions.
These capabilities make Gravity Forms particularly well-suited for websites that require flexible, advanced forms to handle complex data collection, transactions, and lead generation.
Gravity Forms is a professional-level plugin that can do virtually anything related to capturing user-provided data.
Ninja Forms is an easy-to-use contact form builder, but with increasingly complex functionalities that can be added according to need.
What makes Ninja Forms stand out is its modular system, which allows users to purchase add-ons to extend its capabilities. Paid add-ons include features like multi-step forms and conditional logic for advanced workflows.
The free version includes options that are premium features in many other form plugins.
For example, it is Akismet- and Google ReCaptcha-friendly, and can accommodate uploads, accept payments via PayPal and other gateways, and integrate with MailChimp, Constant Contact, multiple CRMs, and more.
It’s a practical choice for websites that need a reliable form solution right away, with the flexibility to expand as requirements grow.
Formidable Forms is an advanced custom form builder that is easy to configure, with an intuitive drag-and-drop builder interface that makes it easy to create a custom form.
It’s engineered for fast performance and is WCAG/A11Y compliant, making it suitable for sites that need accessible, high-performance forms.
The Pro version enables forms to be adapted for payments, calculations, surveys, quizzes, and dozens of integrations with CRMs and email marketing platforms, making it a strong choice for websites that need flexible, feature-rich form capabilities.
Image optimization plugins address one of the most common performance issues by compressing images and converting them to more efficient formats for faster loading.
This helps reduce page load times, improve user experience, and increase conversions.
EWWW Image Optimizer uses a server’s image optimization apps to optimize images, converting them to the appropriate format for each one.
The plugin is compatible with major plugins and handles optimization automatically.
The premium version offers higher compression rates and uses their servers to reduce the user’s server load. It’s a reliable tool trusted by over one million users.
Smush is a free, no-limits image optimizer plugin that doesn’t run on a user’s server, which avoids slowing down the website.
The free version includes a wide range of features, and the premium version adds background optimization and conversion to advanced image formats like WebP and AVIF.
Image optimization is automatic, with support for resizing, lazy loading, incorrect image size detection, and no monthly limits other than a maximum image size of 5 MB, making it a strong choice for improving site performance with minimal effort.
In addition to optimizing images (including WebP) and PDFs, ShortPixel can automatically add alt-text and block AI bots from downloading images, features that support both accessibility and content protection.
The plugin can also convert images to modern formats like WebP and AVIF, which significantly reduce image file sizes for faster page loads.
Since the free version uses ShortPixel’s servers for compression, it helps maintain site speed by reducing the load on your own hosting environment.
Akismet is an easy-to-use anti-spam solution that automatically filters spam comments and allows site owners to review and restore them if necessary.
It’s easy to implement for protecting comment sections and contact forms that integrate with it. It’s a useful plugin for any site that has comments enabled or accepts form submissions.
Akismet is developed by Automattic, founded by Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress.
Advanced Google reCAPTCHA adds Google’s reCAPTCHA to contact forms, registration forms, and password resets, and integrates with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and BuddyPress.
By blocking brute-force login attempts and preventing spam registrations, it mounts an effective defense against two of the most common threats faced by WordPress sites, making it a practical security solution for websites that accept user input.
The advanced Google reCAPTCHA is published by WebFactory, core contributors to WordPress and creators of many popular plugins.
WordPress, by design, offers only basic search functionality.
Ecommerce stores, content-heavy sites, and sites with knowledge bases and documentation rely on advanced search engine plugins to help users quickly find products and information.
These plugins improve user experience by handling misspellings and using stemming to deliver broader, more relevant results.
The following plugins are highly recommended for WordPress websites where search plays a key role.
Recommended Search Engine Plugins
Relevanssi is a free WordPress search plugin that brings advanced capabilities often found only in paid tools.
It improves on the default WordPress search by offering sorting by relevance (instead of date), partial word matching, and support for advanced operators like “and,” “or,” and exact phrase searches using quotation marks.
These features make it easier for visitors to find the right content, especially on content-heavy sites or stores.
Relevanssi can display excerpts that show the search term in context and highlight those terms when users click through. It also integrates with WPML and Polylang, making it useful for multilingual sites.
One thing to be aware of is that Relevanssi increases database usage. The developers recommend checking the current size of the wp_posts table and estimating triple that amount for storage needs.
The Pro version adds features like the “Did you mean?” suggestion tool, support for indexing PDFs, taxonomy filtering, and weighted results.
A standout feature in the Pro version is stemming, which matches results to the meaning or topic of the query, not just the literal keyword. This improves result relevance and can reduce the size of the search index.
This plugin replaces the default WordPress search box with a more capable search tool that works across posts, pages, and custom post types like events, portfolio items, and WooCommerce products.
It can search in titles, descriptions, article excerpts, and custom fields, improving how users find content on the site.
It also offers useful options like excluding specific categories or posts from search results and can integrate with Google Analytics to track search behavior.
The plugin is multilingual-friendly and compatible with Polylang, QtranslateX, and WPML, making it a good fit for global audiences.
The paid Pro version expands support to popular page builders, additional content types like PDFs and Events Calendar, and includes advanced WooCommerce search functionality.
This paid search plugin is a widely trusted option among developers and publishers who need more advanced search capabilities than WordPress provides by default.
Its algorithm can prioritize frequently clicked results, apply custom weighting, include an include/exclude feature, and index content from custom fields, PDFs, media files, and custom post types. These features make it suitable for content-rich or complex sites that rely on internal search.
Ecommerce features include support for product attributes and taxonomy searches, with compatibility for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and BigCommerce plugins.
Pricing at the time of writing is on sale for $99 per year.
Website staging is a feature offered by several WordPress plugins that allows users to create an exact copy of a site for safe testing.
They’re valuable for previewing changes before updating the WordPress core, plugins, or themes.
Staging plugins also help with debugging, trying out new templates, and customizing the site without affecting the live version.
Recommended Staging Plugins
The free version of the plugin enables users to clone their website to a subfolder of the website, including the database.
The clone can be used for staging a website, as well as for backup and migration.
The pro version of the plugin enables users to back up the website to third-party cloud providers and offers advanced site migration capabilities.
The free version of the plugin advertises that it’s so lightweight that it can even be used on a low-powered shared hosting environment. The paid version of the plugin is on sale at the time of writing and starts at $103/year.
WP Stagecoach is a paid premium solution that offers an easy way to stage a website safely on the WP Stagecoach servers and then push it to the live production server when it’s ready.
I’ve used WP Stagecoach and found it to be simple and convenient.
Pricing starts at $149/year.
While plugin needs can vary, certain plugins have proven useful across most types of WordPress sites.
The WordPress ecosystem offers thousands of plugins that extend website functionality.
The plugins on this page are trustworthy, widely used, and essential for increasing search visibility, increasing sales, improving the user experience, and supporting what makes WordPress the most popular CMS in the world.
More Resources:
Featured Image: Biscotto Design/Shutterstock
Despite record investment in the creator economy, not every creator is cashing in.
U.S. brands are expected to spend $13.7 billion on influencer marketing by 2027, according to eMarketer. It’s a cash grab, but the competition has outpaced brand budgets, according to agency execs. That outpacing has left mid-tier creators — those with moderate followings of between 50,000 and 500,000 — struggling to scoop up their fair share of brand spend.
“There’s almost no middle class anymore,” said Paul Desisto, owner of PD Talent, a talent management company. “It goes to the really in-demand creators. The brands, if they are going to spend, are going after those.”
The creator economy is booming. More than 1.5 million Americans work full-time as digital creators — a 7.5x growth rate since 2020, according to recent research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). But with growth comes competition, and that’s where mid-tier, lifestyle creators are feeling the squeeze, says Desisto.
At the same time, brands are asking for incredibly niche and specific influencers in campaigns. For example, client asks like young, male bodybuilders who talk to camera during their content creation process in the gym, sports fans in Portsmouth, N.H., and contractors who specialize in HVAC, have all come across the desk of Danielle Wiley, founder of influencer marketing shop Sway Group.
And it’s not just Wiley’s clients. Marketers are becoming more selective about influencers they partner with – all while looking for a clear return on investment. (More on that here.)
Plus, there’s the never-ending request for marketers to do more marketing with less budgets, in which spend goes to whatever can deliver brand awareness and measurable sales lift. That became all too apparent when tariff and economic headwinds came into play earlier this year. Right now, the answer is nano and micro-influencers and not the mid range creators, according to Gregory Curtis Jr., director of influencer strategy at Empower Media.
Steven Sharpe Jr., a creative director and content strategist, has nearly 25,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, but said brand deals and ambassador opportunities have gotten harder to come by. In the first half of this year, the lifestyle and wellness creator had approximately eight or nine brand partnerships, a significant decrease from the estimated 15 to 20 he had during the same period in 2024. As the second half of 2025 gets underway, he’s lined up two contracts when there’d normally be four to five.
“This middle class of creators is starting to see partnerships disappear or come few and far between,” Sharpe said. “I’m going to go join an agency and I’m going to get a consistent income so I don’t have to stress out over when my next partnership is coming through.”
Sharpe isn’t alone. Earlier this year, amidst the start of the ever-looming TikTok ban, Digiday reported that some creators were re-joining the traditional workforce in hopes of making consistent pay. Meanwhile, others are doubling down on owned-and-operated channels, including Substack, newsletters, personal websites, blogs and other mediums.
It’s clear that the creator economy is shifting. Advertisers are demanding more niche targeting, measurable ROI all while navigating tighter budgets. That has put creators — specifically, mid-tier creators—on the offense, muddying the path to success for mid-tier creators.
That’s not to say advertisers have closed the book on mid-tier creators and influencers. According to Empower Media’s Curtis Jr., those influencers are leveraged when there’s a need for subject matter expertise or niche, “but they’re no longer our default,” he said. “Our focus has shifted toward precision over scale — finding creators whose voice, audience, and creative style align tightly with campaign objectives.”
Catriona walks us through the creation of the beloved cartoon’s scenery and backgrounds, from its dollhouse proportions and subtle doggy details, to its distinctly Brisbanite atmosphere.
The old rules no longer apply. It’s time for a smarter, AI-ready playbook.
AI-driven search is changing the landscape fast. Organic traffic is dropping, visibility is shrinking, and traditional SEO tactics are losing their edge. If you’re still following yesterday’s strategy, you’re already behind.
Join Siteimprove on July 23, 2025 for an exclusive webinar with Zoe Hawkins and Jeff Coyle. Learn how to evolve your SEO approach and content planning to thrive in a world where AI now plays a central role in search.
We can no longer rely on the same tactics that worked before. This session gives you an inside look at how SEO must evolve to stay effective in the AI-first future.
Register now to stay ahead of the curve. Can’t attend live? Sign up anyway and get the full replay delivered to your inbox.
Top of the Ticker: By the look of it, the news wheel format popularized by the defunct linear channel CNN Headline News is slowly making its way to CNN’s free ad-supported streaming channel, CNN Headlines.
The network, according to Axios, quietly relaunched the FAST service with live and original programming, including two hours of a new, live original show called “CNN Headline Express” at 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET.
CNN has also hired Brad Smith as an Atlanta-based anchor for CNN Headlines. The network says his appointment is part of CNN’s wider investment in its FAST programming, complementing its existing linear, digital, mobile, and podcast offerings and soon-to-launch streaming service and other standalone products.
The network also says new advertisers are latching on to its FAST products and developing new commercial product innovations to maximize monetization through advertising and sponsorship directly or through FAST platform partnerships.
Bipartisan Event: NewsNation and its sister digital publication The Hill are teaming up for a daylong bipartisan event featuring Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson in the inaugural Hill Nation Summit on Wednesday, July 16, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET in Washington, D.C. In addition to Johnson, there will be a powerhouse lineup of one-on-one interviews and panel discussions examining the progress and promises of the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. The entire summit will be livestreamed on TheHill.com and available on The Hill TV’s Fast Channel.
Speaker Mike Johnson and a lineup of political heavyweights will discuss key issues at the inaugural “Hill Nation Summit” on July 16.
The event will be livestreamed, offering special coverage on @NewsNation and The Hill.
Apply to attend using the QR code in the video below. pic.twitter.com/p7aaBglZM0
— The Hill (@thehill) July 10, 2025
Heading to trial: Former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s lawsuit against Elon Musk and X, formerly Twitter, will be going to trial at a yet-to-be-determined date. Lemon had sued Musk after his content deal with the social platform was abruptly cancelled in August 2024.
Sports Acquisition: Fox News’ streaming service, Fox Nation, enters the live sports arena with a partnership with the Professional Bull Riders. The streamer will be the exclusive Friday night broadcast partner for the PBR Camping World Team Series, beginning August 8, continuing weekly till the league’s championship opener on October 24 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In the lead-up, Fox Nation will release season two of Last Cowboy Standing, a series where eight amateur bull riders compete for the opportunity to join a PBR team, starting Friday, July 11.
8 riders. 0 guarantees. 1 shot at the @PBR.
Season 2 of #LastCowboyStanding drops FRIDAY. Only on Fox Nation. https://t.co/H17P98A7mS pic.twitter.com/PHo48v4gEj
— Fox Nation (@foxnation) July 8, 2025
Worthy Recognition: CBS Sunday Morning host Jane Pauley will be the recipient of the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism on Saturday, November 15, in Tampa, Florida. The recognition will take place during Poynter’s Bowtie Ball, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Poynter Institute. Pauley is being recognized for building a “deep and meaningful relationship with the American viewing public, who have invited her into their homes as a trusted source of news and information for decades,” said Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute.
📣 At this year’s Bowtie Ball, Jane Pauley will receive the 2025 Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism 🎉 Dean Baquet & G.B. “Garry” Trudeau will earn Distinguished Service to Journalism Awards. www.poynter.org/news-release…
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— The Poynter Institute (@poynterinstitute.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 9:48 AM
What does it take to make a zine? Four dedicated technicians (and one or two moody ones), a few too many discussions about bleed and binding, and three (or four) reprints. That’s what it took me to get a final draft of my zine.
Once I’d overcome all those stumbling blocks (and learned all there is to learn about different types of printing), I knew I’d made both a piece of art and a product that I hoped would be able to compete with some of the best indie magazines out there. More importantly, I knew the stumbling blocks had left me equipped with lessons that would speed up the process next time.
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Google has updated its structured data documentation to clarify how merchants should implement markup for return policies and loyalty programs.
The updates aim to reduce confusion and ensure compatibility with Google Search features.
The updated documentation clarifies that only a limited subset of return policy data is supported at the product level.
Google now explicitly states that comprehensive return policies must be defined using the MerchantReturnPolicy type under the Organization markup. This ensures a consistent policy across the full catalog.
In contrast, product-level return policies, defined underOffer, should be used only for exceptions and support fewer properties.
Google explains in its return policy documentation:
“Product-level return policies support only a subset of the properties available for merchant-level return policies.”
For loyalty programs, Google now emphasizes that the MemberProgram structured data must be defined under the Organization markup, either on a separate page or in Merchant Center.
While loyalty benefits like member pricing and points can still be referenced at the product level via UnitPriceSpecification, the program structure itself must be maintained separately.
Google notes in the loyalty program documentation:
“To specify the loyalty benefits… separately add UnitPriceSpecification markup under your Offer structured data markup.”
Google’s documentation now states that shipping discounts and extended return windows offered as loyalty perks aren’t supported in structured data.
While merchants may still offer these benefits, they won’t be eligible for enhanced display in Google Search results.
This is particularly relevant for businesses that advertise such benefits prominently within loyalty programs.
The changes don’t introduce new capabilities, but they clarify implementation rules that have been inconsistently followed or interpreted.
Merchants relying on offer-level markup for return policies or embedding loyalty programs directly in product offers may need to restructure their data.
Here are some next steps to consider:
Staying compliant with these updated guidelines ensures eligibility for structured data features in Google Search and Shopping.
Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
