Less than 1% of views of YouTube videos come from Google search clicks, according to a member of Google’s legal team.

The quote. Here’s what Attorney John Schmidtlein said, according to Courthouse News Service:

• “Roughly less than 1% of views on YouTube come from people who click on [search] links,” Attorney John Schmidtlein of Williams & Connolly, who represented Google, said in court.

Why we care. This is the first time this statistic has been revealed publicly, as far as I know. It might be 100% true. The majority of people likely discover and view videos directly on YouTube, either via YouTube search or YouTube’s recommendation algorithm.

But. Google does seem to self-preference YouTube a lot. it’s hard to imagine that Google would show videos in prominent places in search results if the videos weren’t getting clicked on and watched.

Google vs. Rumble. The statistic was revealed in federal court last week, ahead of what would be yet another antitrust trial brought against Google – this time by Rumble, a rival video platform.

Rumble is arguing that “a rival cannot hope to compete” when Google gives preferential visibility to YouTube – especially on mobile, but especially when Google ranks YouTube videos over Rumble videos even when Rumble’s name appears in the search query.

With marketing spending down and Google reporting higher earnings, we know that SEO is a tough sell.

Below are seven proven methods to increase clients’ payments for SEO (and the value they receive).

First, a word on value

Before I provide solid ways to increase revenue, we need to discuss value and price.

Humans are hard-wired to fear and avoid loss.

Loss aversion is heavily linked with SEO because it’s the “pay now, might gain later” of the marketing world.

So, as an offer, SEO is automatically less appealing than 99.9% of other marketing activities.

Knowing this, SEOs need to understand value like the back of their hands.

There are two components to price value:

• Acquisition utility: The value you get from the product or service.
• Transaction utility: How good of a deal you feel you are getting.

Research shows that losing money triggers the same area of the brain as physical pain, making financial loss feel psychologically distressing.

This is a key challenge for SEO as a service. Clients are naturally cautious, which affects how they perceive its value. 

As a result, SEO pricing tends to remain low across the industry.

I’d say businesses spend more on their Christmas party than they do their SEO.

That’s not to say we can’t increase the price we charge and earn from SEO.

It’s a gentle reminder that SEO often scares clients, especially if they are not the business owner.

Staff put their professional reputation on the line when choosing an SEO agency. 

Knowing all the above, here are seven tried-and-tested methods to increase your revenue from clients.

1. Break down your services to reduce client risk

All agencies want to have retainers, but this can create barriers.

When you ask the client to commit to a large sum but to spread that money out, this can raise alarm bells.

The compound cost of retainers can add up, and prospects look at cancellation clauses and think, “I could sink $15,000 on you and have nothing to show for it.”

To avoid this, the first concept to cover is splitting services.

Service splitting involves breaking what you do into core deliverables or projects.

This means that clients are only on the “hook” for specific elements, and they can leave at any time they wish.

Sadly, this makes forecasting hard for agencies as payments are not monthly.

Still, it can increase conversion rates, and if you price differently, you can make more revenue in stages.

2. Sell SEO strategy as a standalone service

The next key aspect to consider is separating SEO strategy and selling it as its own service.

Many agencies rush this process, often reducing strategy to nothing more than a basic to-do list with little competitive analysis or critical thinking.

By offering strategy as a standalone service, you can price it higher – charging for your time, expertise, and insights.

Dig deeper: 8 SEO costs that impact your ROI

3. Offer link building as an upsell, not an inclusion

Many SEO retainers are built with links included in the retainer. This makes your retainers seem more valuable (SEO service + links).

But by selling links as a separate service, you can price at a higher additional level.

This isn’t about delivering less value for a higher price; it’s about offering more value at a higher price and giving clients options.

4. Consider digital PR to add more value

Selling digital PR has taken off over the last few years, and for good reason. It works.

While I don’t want to flood the industry with fake PRs dressed as SEOs, digital PR is a good service to offer clients alongside your SEO deliverables.

5. Monetize advanced analytics and insights

Most people will do reporting as standard, but much data and insights go unreported.

You can offer advanced analytics services, from set-up to detailed reporting and, more importantly, insight.

Because it’s the insight that people are often interested in the most.

One agency I know charges $2,000 for analytics reports on top of the SEO work.

6. Use SEO sprints to generate quick wins and revenue

SEO sprints allow clients to see results quickly by focusing on intensive, short-term efforts. 

While they are less common in the age of AI, some agencies still offer them.

How does it work? 

Clients pay a fixed fee for a large body of work to be completed as quickly as possible. 

This can include technical sprints, content sprints, or other focused projects – all designed to deliver significant progress quickly.

Selling sprints can be an effective way to generate additional revenue while providing high-impact results.

7. Implement smart pricing strategies to maximize client spend

Pricing is the most significant factor, which is why I’ve saved it for last.

There are many ways to approach it – the simplest is to boost revenue by increasing your prices.

But how?

Over the years, I’ve heard many ways to do this, but here are some solid methods.

Increase pricing by 10% for each pitch

Many struggle with imposter syndrome, which can hold back their confidence in pricing higher.

To defeat this, increase your prices by 10% each time you pitch until someone says no.

Once they say no, ask why, and then reduce by 10%.

The aim is to continue doing this until you reach your highest price and know the market cannot tolerate any higher.

Price architecture

This is a big subject that we don’t have time to go into detail, but essentially offer more than one price and offer.

Often seen in the SaaS market, you combine offers and pricing to create a tiered system.

Call it bronze, silver, or gold service levels if you like.

The point is that the client can pick an option that suits them but is designed to suit them.

Premium offer

Again, this is a version of price architecture.

But here, you have an ultra-high premium offer designed to make your other offer seem more reasonable.

You can have a “deluxe SEO service” at a high cost. But you show them your standard offer next to the deluxe option you give clients.

This gives them a choice, making your standard offer more appealing.

The battle in SEO will involve pipeline and sales for the next year or so. 

As the economy continues to grow at a snail’s pace, or worse, possibly contract. You will need methods to increase revenue.

Using any or a combination of the tactics above can yield more profit, which you can then invest back into pipeline development.

Because without increased profit, pipeline development can be a challenge.

Dig deeper: How much does SEO really cost

Last week, Avinash Kaushik said, “The best way to make a Super Bowl ad effective is through ‘spike and sustain’ marketing.” 

He also explained that releasing teasers, ads, and extended versions before the Big Game is part of the “sustain” strategy, building momentum ahead of the “spike” in viewership. 

Super Bowl LIX drew 113 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Many brands embraced this strategy, unveiling their commercials early to build buzz and maximize exposure. 

By midday Sunday, more than 40 ads had already been released, and several organizations had analyzed those aired before Feb. 9.

Pre-game Super Bowl ads that made an impact

For example, iSpot.tv identified “Budweiser | Super Bowl LIX ‘First Delivery’” as the early winner based on consumer surveys. 

A young Clydesdale foal, eager to join the Budweiser delivery team, is told he’s too young. While the other horses depart, a keg falls off the wagon unnoticed. 

The foal, determined to prove himself, embarks on a long journey, pushing the keg through various obstacles. 

He successfully delivers the keg to the bar, interrupting a “horse walks into a bar” joke and impressing the driver who had dismissed him earlier. 

The foal is rewarded with recognition and a sense of accomplishment.

“Somebody | It Takes All of Us SB LIX,” which features players mentoring kids, was the most emotionally resonant and attention-grabbing Super Bowl ad released before the Big Game, according to DAIVID. 

It evoked intense positive emotions in over half of viewers, particularly feelings of warmth, inspiration, and pride, all significantly higher than the U.S. average. 

The ad also held viewers’ attention better than average ads, both at the beginning and the end.

And Sprout Social‘s social media analysis showed strong performance for “A Century of Cravings | Uber Eats.” 

Their successful celebrity-filled advertisement features Matthew McConaughey, Charli XCX, and Martha Stewart and cleverly incorporates the stadium’s name into a joke about Stewart’s Caesar salad.

The best Super Bowl ads released during the Big Game

Some of the roughly 80 Super Bowl spots cost a record $8 million for 30 seconds this year, per the Associated Press. 

The granddaddy of rating TV commercials during the Big Game, “Budweiser | Super Bowl LIX ‘First Delivery’” ranked no. 1 with a score of 3.56 out of 5, according to USA Today’s Ad Meter. (Kudos to iSpot.tv for picking this winner ahead of time.)

In second spot was “LAY’S | The Little Farmer | :60,” with a score of 3.55. As the video’s description says, “One little potato. One big dream.”

In third place was “The ULTRA Hustle | Super Bowl LIX | Michelob ULTRA” with a score of 3.52. 

As the ad’s description declares, “You can’t out-hustle a hustler. Willem Dafoe, Catherine O’Hara, Sabrina Ionescu, Randy Moss, and Ryan Crouser.”

In fourth position was “Stella Artois | David & Dave: The Other David” with a score of 3.51. 

So, David Beckham goes to meet his long-lost twin, played by Matt Damon. 

What do they have in common? “A love for Stella? Fancy footwork?” 

Ranked fifth with a score of 3.49 was “Somebody | It Takes All of Us SB LIX.” Congrats to DAIVID for picking this winner ahead of time.

It’s also worth noting that “A Century of Cravings | Uber Eats” finished no. 8 in the USA Today Ad Meter rankings. Sprout Social’s analysis of social media was in the ballpark.

Alternative metrics for evaluating Super Bowl ads

There are other ways to measure the top ads released during Super Bowl 2025.

For example, DAIVID used its AI-powered platform to analyze 65 Super Bowl ads aired Sunday night, predicting their emotional impact and effectiveness. 

Their AI models combine facial coding, eye tracking, survey data, computer vision, and even listening APIs.

“Somebody | It Takes All of Us SB LIX” was not only the most emotionally engaging ad of the 40+ spots released before the Big Game, but it also generated the most intense positive emotions of the 65 ads shown during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast. 

The ad attracted the highest attention levels of any spot shown.

In second place was “Jeep | Big Game | Harrison Ford x Jeep | Owner’s Manual.” 

As the video’s description acknowledges:

• “Life doesn’t come with an owner’s manual – you have to write your own. And no one knows this better than Harrison Ford.” 

The ad attracted an intense positive emotional response from 54.2% of viewers, according to DAIVID.

In third was “What is Greatness?” from He Get Us.

The video’s description asks:

• “Is being great, as our society defines it, really that great? Or is greatness quite the opposite of what we think it is? In this video, we explore how Jesus redefined true greatness and what it might mean for us. All of us.” 

And 53.3% of people had intense positive emotional responses.

“Own the Dream | Rocket” ranked fourth. The video’s description clearly states:

• “Everyone deserves their shot at the American Dream.” 

This generated intense positive emotional responses with 52.6% of people.

In fifth place was “Pfizer | Big Game Commercial 2025 | Knock Out.” 

As the video’s description explains, “Pfizer is fighting for 8 cancer breakthroughs by 2030.” This triggered intense positive emotional responses from 52.3% of people.

It’s also worth noting that “LAY’S | The Little Farmer | :60” ranked no. 8 and “Budweiser | Super Bowl LIX ‘First Delivery’” ranked no. 10 in DAIVID’s list of Top 10 Most Emotionally Engaging Super Bowl 2025 ads. 

Different methodologies can still yield similar results.

However, DAIVID’s post-game analysis yielded significantly different insights than USA Today’s. 

Super Bowl 2025 ads were the least effective in five years, per DAIVID’s Creative Effectiveness Score. 

The average ad scored 6.2 out of 10, the lowest since 2020, generating less attention and positive emotion than previous years. 

While many advertisers aimed for humor, serious and purpose-driven ads dominated the top 10, with the NFL’s “Somebody” ad being the most emotionally engaging.

Ian Forrester, DAIVID’s CEO and founder, observed:

“With the vast majority of Super Bowl advertisers trying to make us laugh this year, it’s interesting that brands that stepped away from the usual Super Bowl celebrity/humor trope have attracted the most positivity. It shows just how hard it is to cut-through when so many are trying the same approach. With overall effectiveness also down, maybe it’s time brands tried something different to get people’s attention on game day.”

What’s next: Insights beyond the Big Game

In the coming days, digital marketers can expect more rankings from Kantar, System1, and other organizations analyzing the impact of Big Game ads on both performance and branding. 

These insights matter because metrics like Brand Life and Engaged-View Key Events can serve as KPIs for “spike and sustain” campaigns beyond the Super Bowl – whether for back-to-school season, Thanksgiving, or a major product launch.

Website migrations are one of the most challenging aspects of SEO.

No matter how much experience you have in technical SEO, how detailed your plan is, or how thorough your checklist may be, unexpected issues can still arise. 

That’s why post-migration monitoring is just as crucial as the migration itself – especially in the first month when hidden problems are most likely to surface.

This article tackles some of the most surprising post-launch errors I’ve encountered, along with practical tips on how to identify and resolve them before they cause serious damage.

Random 404 pages

This issue drove me crazy. It’s a nightmare for SEO testing because it skews every tool and report we rely on. 

When you can’t trust the data, it’s impossible to know what’s actually broken or how it impacts performance.

During the post-migration phase of updating our JavaScript library, we noticed random 404 errors in our SEO tools and Google Search Console. 

The strange part? 

The affected pages weren’t consistent, and every time we checked manually, they loaded fine with a 200 status. 

As a result, all other reports became unreliable, making proper analysis nearly impossible.

These random 404s often stem from server-side issues such as rate limiting, where the server denies access to bots after too many requests. 

Other potential causes include:

• Misconfigured caching.
• Inconsistent DNS resolution.
• Load balancer errors that occasionally route requests to an unavailable server.

Identifying the root cause requires detailed server log analysis to track bot request and response patterns. 

And here’s the biggest lesson I learned: Without access to server logs, you’re fighting this battle blind.

Ensure your SEO team has access to the necessary server log tools and, at the very least, understands the basics of how they work. 

Monitoring bot activity logs can help you demonstrate the issue to developers. Without them, you risk getting stuck in endless debates over the accuracy of SEO tools.

Dig deeper: Website migration checklist: 11 steps for success

Random 500 pages

At first glance, this error looks similar to random 404s, but the cause is usually entirely different and just as difficult to diagnose. 

Even SEO tools like Lumar and Screaming Frog can inadvertently trigger these 500 errors while crawling.

Years ago, one of the websites I worked on had a strict rule: no crawling on weekends and no exceeding three URLs per second. 

Every time we increased our crawling limits, the database server struggled, slowing down the entire site – or worse, crashing it.

These errors often result from complex database queries overloading the server or improperly configured caching. 

Without proper caching, each request is processed individually, compounding the strain and leading to slow load times or intermittent crashes.

And once again, the solution starts with server log access. Without it, you’re just guessing.

Incorrect resource loading

This was one of those moments where I felt like a digital Sherlock Holmes. 

The migration had been completed before I joined the company, and I first noticed the issue during an initial technical audit.

The first clue? 

A mysterious drop in rankings and traffic shortly after the migration. 

There had been a Google update around the same time, so I couldn’t immediately link the decline to the migration. 

To complicate things further, this wasn’t a full migration, just a design revamp.

On the surface, everything seemed fine. Pages loaded correctly, and styles and JavaScript worked perfectly for users. 

Yet, in Google Search Console’s inspection tool, the same pages often appeared broken and unstyled. 

The issue was inconsistent, making it nearly impossible to replicate in front of the dev team. 

As a new team member still building trust, convincing them there was a deeper problem wasn’t easy. 

In hindsight, my mistake was not checking the browser console earlier.

Three months later, a single browser console message finally revealed the root cause: a script was loading out of order.

Due to caching, Googlebot sometimes saw the website correctly and other times didn’t, explaining the erratic behavior.

It was a tough reminder that small technical details – like the sequence of resource loading – and overlooking an obvious diagnostic step can significantly impact SEO performance.

My key tip: Check your website in different browsers and carefully review the error and warning messages in the console. 

If you’re unfamiliar with developer terminology, consult an independent expert or even multiple AI tools for explanations.

Non-existent URLs

While investigating those frustrating random 404 errors, I stumbled upon another issue almost by accident. 

While reviewing Google Search Console’s report on pages discovered but not indexed, I noticed an unusual pattern – several non-existent URLs appearing under certain sections, marked as duplicate content.

Instead of returning 404 errors as expected, these URLs resolved as normal pages with a 200 status code.

This type of error presents two major risks:

• From an SEO perspective, search engines treat these URLs as legitimate, potentially indexing irrelevant or duplicate pages, wasting crawl budget, and harming rankings. 
• From a security standpoint, it creates a vulnerability – malicious actors could generate thousands of random URLs, overloading the server.

Unfortunately, this issue is difficult to detect before it becomes a real problem. In my case, I was just lucky.

Don’t wait to stumble upon it. Make sure to:

• Regularly check whether sections of your site allow non-existent URLs to resolve with a 200 status.
• Build a list of key sections and test them monthly with your crawler. Even minor backend changes – not just full migrations – can trigger this issue.
• Prioritize pages generated programmatically or dynamically, as they are the most common culprits.

Hreflang tags or canonical tags to non-existing URLs

Managing hreflang tags on a multilingual website is challenging, and even small mistakes can cause big issues. 

On one website I worked on, we typically created pages in English first and then localized them. 

However, in some cases, only a local version existed, and the hreflang x-default was mistakenly set to an English page that didn’t exist.

Incorrect hreflang tags confuse search engines, which rely on them to identify the correct language or regional version of a page. 

When these tags are wrong, search engines may struggle to understand the site’s structure or ignore the hreflang implementation entirely.

Normally, we would have caught this in our migration checks. 

But at the time, we were buried in troubleshooting random 404 errors. 

We also made the mistake of not manually testing localized pages across different templates.

To prevent this in future migrations:

• Make a detailed list of site-specific checks. Generic migration checklists are a good starting point, but they need to be customized for the website and CMS.
• Manually test localized pages across different templates to ensure correct hreflang and canonical tag implementation.

Dig deeper: How to run a successful site migration from start to finish

JavaScript rendering failures

JavaScript-driven content that users can see but search bots can’t is a common and often overlooked issue. 

This typically happens when widgets or content sections rely on JavaScript to render, but the scripts aren’t fully crawlable or properly executed by search engine bots. 

(Google offers a great resource to help you understand JavaScript basics.)

If you’re unsure how a widget works, use this simple test: 

• Does it display the full content immediately, or does it require user interaction? 

If it’s the latter, it likely relies on JavaScript, meaning search and AI bots might not see everything.

To catch this issue, run both a JavaScript-enabled crawl and a pure HTML crawl, then compare the results. 

A quick manual test can also help. 

• Search for a specific sentence or element from the widget in your rendered HTML source. 
• If it’s missing, search bots are probably missing it too.

Resolving this often requires improving server-side rendering or ensuring that scripts load properly for both users and crawlers.

Since website migrations often leave little time for testing, make it a priority to run these two crawls post-migration to identify and fix any rendering issues.

Dig deeper: A guide to diagnosing common JavaScript SEO issues

Loss of tracking data

Tracking data loss can be a subtle yet costly post-migration issue.

In one real-world case, everything initially appeared fine. Analytics data was flowing and visits were being logged.

However, after a few days, it became clear that users arriving via paid ads were losing their tracking parameters as they navigated the site.

This meant subsequent pageviews within the same session were no longer attributed to the original paid campaign, disrupting remarketing efforts.

The cause? 

Improper handling of URL parameters during the migration.

Website migrations require cross-team monitoring, not just from the SEO team. 

While this issue didn’t directly impact SEO rankings, it still had major consequences.

Before migration begins, triple-check your plan to ensure all relevant teams are involved. 

Migration testing should go beyond SEO, incorporating analytics, development, and marketing teams to safeguard tracking parameters and user attribution. 

Each team should have pre-migration reports for comparison after launch.

While planning may not fall under SEO’s direct responsibility, identifying gaps in the project plan and raising concerns is essential.

Dig deeper: 12 SEO pitfalls to avoid during a website platform migration

Disappeared pages

This case is a perfect example of why having pre-migration data is crucial.

Everything appeared flawless during testing. 

The site functioned as expected on staging and even in production with internal DNS switched. 

But as soon as external DNS was activated, a third of the blog posts disappeared. 

The rest of the site remained intact, making the issue easy to overlook.

With all teams focused on testing tracking, forms, redirects, hreflang tags, and canonicals, no one initially noticed the missing pages. 

Ironically, it wasn’t an SEO tool or a developer check that caught the problem, but a regional manager. 

A few days before migration, she updated a blog image and wanted to verify that the change had transferred. 

Not only was the image missing, but the entire blog post was gone.

I’ll admit, I can’t explain exactly what caused this from a technical perspective. 

But the takeaway is clear: always conduct a full audit before migration begins. 

Using a crawler’s comparison mode can quickly highlight discrepancies like this before they become major problems.

Impact on admin settings

Not every issue affects SEO, but that doesn’t mean it won’t cause problems.

During a backend update, we encountered an unexpected challenge: Lumar and Screaming Frog were overwhelming the CMS admin panel. 

Each time a crawl was initiated, the surge in requests made it nearly impossible for editors to update content or make changes.

It’s important to remember that you’re not the only one using these tools. 

Crawlers are frequently employed for competitor analysis, meaning your website and CMS must function properly even under heavy crawling pressure.

In some organizations, SEO teams don’t have direct access to the CMS or manage content updates. 

If that’s the case, ensure content teams go through their usual workflows with test pieces after migration. 

Coordinating this with SEO crawls helps assess how resilient your system truly is.

The biggest mistake: Underestimating post-migration monitoring

Website migrations, revamps, redesigns, updates. Whatever you call them, they’re always complex. 

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is underestimating the challenges involved. 

Any change carries the risk of something going wrong.

Some errors, like broken redirects or missing pages, are immediately noticeable. 

Others, such as tracking failures or JavaScript rendering issues, may take time to detect. 

That’s why post-migration monitoring is just as critical as the migration itself.

The best way to mitigate these risks is to:

• Create a detailed project plan covering all potential issues.
• Document everything.
• Run audits before and after migration.
• Collaborate across teams.

A successful migration isn’t just about making the switch; it’s an ongoing process of monitoring, testing, and improving.

Dig deeper: How to speed up site migrations with AI-powered redirect mapping