The WordStream Blog

At first, TikTok was a platform that seemed to be for viral dance trends geared toward a Gen-Z audience. But that’s just not the case anymore. Today, TikTok is one of the most effective advertising platforms for small and medium-sized businesses looking to reach new customers. The platform has more than a billion active users, an algorithm designed to help great content get discovered, and targeting options that help small businesses get real results without a massive budget.

According to a Sterling Sky study, roughly 22% of tracked local queries now show an AI-powered local pack, and those AI-powered local packs feature 68% fewer businesses than the traditional three-pack. Plus, Local Services Ads have grown from 11% to 31% of tracked queries in a single year. And according to a study by Whitespark, AI Overviews are now showing on 57-80% of local searches. That means there are fewer opportunities for a local business to get mentioned organically in Google results.

The most important Google ranking factors in 2026 fall into five buckets: domain authority, topical authority, document quality, freshness, and engagement. That five-group framing is grounded in the May 2024 Google Content Warehouse API leak, which exposed more than 14,000 internal attributes and finally let SEOs name what Google’s ranking systems are measuring under each of those buckets.

Email marketing is still the highest-ROI digital channel for most small and mid-market businesses, returning roughly $36 for every $1 spent. Email marketing has changed in the last 24 months. Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) now pre-fetches the open pixel for roughly 64% of Apple Mail users, so open rate is no longer a reliable headline KPI.

Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, we at WordStream by LocaliQ have been reading, hearing, and writing about how to get seen in AI search. We’ve also been trying to optimize our own content to get found there. (Marketers, they’re just like us!) And while we’ve seen progress and wins on this front, the end result has been a little depressing: increased AI mentions with minimal traffic impact, fewer clicks from organic rankings, tears, frustration.

July is filled with many opportunities for creative marketing—it’s National Anti-Boredom Month, Independent Retailer Month, home to World Emoji Day, Pandemonium Day, and plenty more. In this article, I’ve taken care of all of the brainstorming and planning for you with a complete list of July awareness causes, themes, national days, and holidays.

There’s a lot of hype and confusion about search query targeting in Google Ads. From “keywordless targeting” to “close variants,” the deprecation of dynamic search ads and the promotion of AI Max from Search to Shopping, confusion is understandable.

Unlike other website pages that may educate or introduce, landing pages have one job—to get someone to take a specific action. But many of them aren’t converting, even when the offer itself is objectively strong. Design plays an important role here, but the culprit behind lackluster conversion rates is often the copy. A common pitfall is landing pages full of polished language that reads well but doesn’t actually make it easy and automatic for the visitor to take action.

For years, SEO for small businesses meant guessing which words people typed into Google. Now it’s about understanding how they talk to AI. Customers no longer type short phrases; they ask real questions.

There’s a reason you feel all warm and fuzzy when you see a Blockbuster logo or hear that classic AOL “you’ve got mail” notification. It‘s become one of marketing’s go-to emotions—a shortcut to trust and instant recognition: nostalgia. And brands are betting on it. From retro Pepsi cans to Spotify Wrapped, today’s marketers understand that even though we’re obsessed with newness, it’s the past that makes us feel safe. This isn’t just for legacy brands with global recognition.