Searchlight is Aztek's marketing news roundup that brings together the week’s most relevant developments in marketing, search, AI, and digital strategy, all in one place. We update this article throughout the week with news we think is worth your time, along with context to help you understand what changed, why it matters, and what it could mean for your business.
This week's topics:
05/05: When Convenience Hurts: The Hidden SEO Costs of Drag-and-Drop Site Builders
DIY site builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly all promise slick templates and launch-in-a-day convenience. That’s great...until you need search traffic. Beneath the drag-and-drop polish lurks a cocktail of SEO limitations that can stall growth the moment you outgrow “just having a website.”
Core Web Vitals: Speed You Can’t Fix
Google’s page-experience system puts real weight on how fast your pages load. In recent tests, Squarespace sites averaged a painful 8.79 seconds until the main content finished loading, while Wix landed at 5.2 seconds. Both of these are far slower than leaner custom builds.
Google’s own documentation makes it clear: slow vitals lower the odds of ranking well. Since most of these drag-and-drop builder themes bundle hefty JavaScript, third-party fonts, and video backgrounds you can’t easily trim, you inherit performance debt you can’t pay down.
Structured-Data Roadblocks
When you search Google and see things like recipe cards, star ratings, or handy “How-To” steps right in the results, that’s because the website added special labels in its code called structured data. Think of them as little sticky notes that tell Google, “This part is a product price,” or “This is a customer review.”
Here’s the catch:
- Sites like Wix and Squarespace only let you use a short menu of those labels. If you need anything beyond the basics, you’re out of luck.
- Without the right labels, your page shows up as a plain blue link while competitors have stars, images, or FAQ drop-downs.
- As Google rolls out more AI-powered search features, those extra visual bells and whistles matter even more for clicks.
Drag-and-drop builders make it easy to get online, but their label limits keep you from claiming the actual search results that drive traffic.
Slow, Heavy Pages Make Google Visit Less Often
Picture Google’s crawler as a delivery driver with a tight schedule.
- Light pages = quick drop-off. The driver scans your page, grabs what’s needed, and moves on.
- Heavy pages = time drain. Drag-and-drop builders pack each page with extra scripts and widgets you never see. The driver now has to open every box to find the real content. That slows everything down.
Because the driver (Googlebot) has millions of stops, it spends less time on slow houses. Fewer new pages discovered, slower updates indexed, weaker rankings, purely because your site is weighed down by code you can’t remove.
Technical Levers You Can’t Reach
When you first launch a website, “publish and go” feels fine. The moment you compete for tougher keywords, though, search engines expect clearer signals you can’t always send from a drag-and-drop dashboard.
| Setting |
What It Does |
Why You’ll Want It |
| Canonical tag |
Declares which near-duplicate URL is the one Google should rank. |
Prevents your own pages from stealing traffic from each other when you reuse content or add tracking parameters. |
| robots.txt rules |
Blocks crawlers from low-value areas (e.g., staging folders, endless filter URLs). |
Keeps Google focused on pages that deserve authority instead of wasting crawl budget on junk. |
| hreflang attribute |
Directs visitors (and Google) to the correct language or regional version. |
Essential once you translate pages or target multiple countries. |
Most drag-and-drop builders hide these options behind paywalls or guardrails. Wix, for example, allows robots.txt edits but disclaims responsibility if changes tank visibility. On small, local sites that may never matter. Once you expand, these limits create real friction:
- Duplicate pages fight for the same query; rankings drop.
- Googlebot spends its crawl time on parameter URLs you never intended to rank.
- International visitors land on the wrong language version and bounce.
If growth is on your roadmap, confirm that your platform lets you control canonical tags, robots.txt, and hreflang without work-arounds. Otherwise, plan for a move before those missing settings start costing organic traffic.
Invest Early, Save Later: Key Takeaways
Drag-and-drop builders earn their keep when the goal is “get online fast,” but the trade-offs add up:
- Speed matters. Heavy code and widgets drag Core Web Vitals below Google’s comfort zone.
- Visibility matters. Limited structured-data options and missing advanced settings keep you out of rich results and slow growth.
- Control matters. Once you need duplicate-page fixes, robots.txt rules, or multilingual targeting, the dashboard stops short.
If long-term search traffic is on your roadmap, sometimes the smartest move is to invest in a flexible, performance-focused build from day one so that quick start turns into an expensive redo.
05/06: TikTok Search Ads Campaign: What Marketers Should Know
TikTok has quickly become a place where people search for answers, product ideas, recommendations, reviews, tutorials, and inspiration. For advertisers, that opens up a different kind of opportunity than the typical “show up in the feed and hope someone stops scrolling” approach.
With TikTok Search Ads Campaigns, brands can now reach people closer to the moment they’re actively looking for something. Someone searching “best running shoes for beginners” or “easy weeknight dinner ideas” is showing a different level of interest than someone casually watching whatever the algorithm serves next. They may not be ready to buy right away, but they’re raising their hand.
What Changed With TikTok Search Ads?
Before its recent update, TikTok search ads were more limited. Advertisers could opt into search placement, but they didn’t have the same level of control that paid search advertisers are used to seeing in platforms like Google Ads.
Now, TikTok Search Ads Campaigns work more like a true search campaign. Instead of only relying on TikTok’s broader delivery system, advertisers can build campaigns around the words and phrases people are actually typing into the app.
Some of the biggest changes include:
- Keyword targeting, so advertisers can choose the searches they want to show up for
- Negative keywords, so they can avoid irrelevant or wasteful searches
- Search-focused reporting, so teams can see which searches are driving activity
- Dedicated campaign setup, so search is treated as its own strategy instead of a side placement
- Creative options that still fit the TikTok experience, including video and carousel assets
Why TikTok Search Ads Are Worth Paying Attention To
Most TikTok advertising is built around discovery. Someone is watching videos, your ad appears in the feed, and the creative has to earn attention quickly. That can work pretty well, especially when the ad feels native to the platform and gives people a reason to keep watching.
Search ads work a little differently. They let you show up when someone is already looking for information. The user has typed in a question, need, product category, or problem. Your ad can meet them in that moment with something useful.
This does not mean TikTok Search Ads should replace Google Ads, Meta campaigns, or other paid media channels. A more realistic way to think about them is as another layer in your paid strategy. If your audience is already using TikTok to research products or ideas, search campaigns can help you capture some of that demand before they move elsewhere.
Who Should Test TikTok Search Ads First?
TikTok Search Ads will not be the perfect fit for every brand right away. Search behavior varies a lot by industry, audience, product type, and buying journey. Some categories naturally lend themselves to TikTok search, while others may still perform better on more traditional platforms.
Brands that may be strong early fits include:
- Ecommerce brands with visually interesting products
- Beauty, skincare, fashion, fitness, food, and lifestyle brands
- Companies already getting engagement from TikTok content
- Brands with products people compare, research, or review before buying
More niche B2B companies, highly regulated industries, or brands with very long sales cycles may still be able to use TikTok Search Ads, but they should start carefully. A small test can help show whether people are actually searching for relevant topics on TikTok before the brand invests more heavily.
A useful gut-check question is: would someone realistically search for this topic on TikTok? If the answer is yes, there may be enough intent to justify a pilot. If the answer is “probably not,” the brand may be better off focusing its budget elsewhere first.
How To Measure Whether TikTok Search Ads Are Working
Clicks are easy to look at, but they do not tell the whole story. A campaign can get a lot of clicks and still fail to drive meaningful business results. For TikTok Search Ads, you will want to look at both performance metrics and the quality of the search activity behind them.
The most useful metrics to review include:
- Conversions
- Cost per acquisition
- Return on ad spend
- Search terms
- Assisted conversions
- Performance compared to other paid channels
Search terms are especially valuable because they show what people actually searched before seeing or clicking your ad. That information can help you improve the campaign, find new keyword opportunities, and spot searches that should be excluded.
After a few weeks, compare TikTok Search Ads against your existing campaigns. The goal is not just to prove that search can spend money. The goal is to understand whether it is bringing in efficient traffic, useful conversions, or insights you can use across your broader marketing strategy.
The Bottom Line On TikTok Search Ads
TikTok Search Ads Campaigns give advertisers a more intentional way to show up inside a platform people already use for discovery and research. They combine TikTok’s visual, creator-style environment with some of the control marketers expect from paid search.
The smartest approach is to test before you scale. Start with a focused keyword group, use creative that actually answers the search, review performance regularly, and keep refining based on what people are typing into TikTok. If the results look strong, you can expand from there.
05/08: Google AI Overviews Links Get a Boost: What Marketers Need to Know
When Google rolled out AI Overviews last year, publishers watched organic clicks fall by nearly 40% while zero-click searches jumped from 54% to 72%. Searchers were getting their answers and never leaving the SERPs.
This week, Google signaled it has heard the backlash. Five updates, ranging from inline citations and hover previews to “Where to go next” article lists, re-surface real links and point users back to the open web. It’s a direct attempt to ease zero-click concerns and to showcase content that carries clear authorship and firsthand expertise.
The five new touches are:
- “Where to go next” suggestions – A mini SERP of deeper articles appears after many AI answers.
- Subscribed-label links – If a user pays for a publication, its articles carry a “Subscribed” badge.
- First-person perspectives preview – Quotes from forums, social posts, and other firsthand sources get attribution and direct links.
- Inline contextual links – Links now sit next to the exact text the AI is citing, not in a footnote pile.
- Hover previews (desktop) – Mousing over a link pops up the page title and site name so searchers know where they’ll land.
Why Marketers Should Care
Clicks aren’t dead yet. Early tests cited by Google show higher engagement when users can see and preview links inline. That means “Google AI Overviews links” may start sending meaningful referral traffic instead of siphoning it.
Original expertise is the new currency. Google frames these changes as helping people “connect with authentic voices.” AKA, pages that demonstrate firsthand insight, clear bylines, schema, and community credibility have a better shot at being surfaced.
Brand perception happens before the click. With hover cards, vague or click-baity page titles can now repel users immediately. Tighten up titles and metadata so the preview inspires confidence.
Retention meets acquisition. The Subscribed label turns existing paying readers into a ranking signal. Publishers that nurture newsletter or membership programs could see a double benefit: recurring revenue and prominent placement.
No measurement yet. Google Search Console still doesn’t break out AI Overview traffic, so expect to rely on blended analytics and directional trend checks for now.
Quick actions to stay visible
- Audit titles for clarity and brand. If you wouldn’t click the title in a hover card, rewrite it.
- Layer in author & entity markup. Use Person schema, author.url, and social profile links so Google can display names in perspective snippets.
- Surface subscription feeds. Publishers with paywalls should connect their identity feed to Google to unlock the Subscribed badge.
- Publish firsthand content weekly. Case studies, original data, and expert Q&As align with Google’s push toward “authentic voices.”
- Engage (selectively) in forums. Helpful participation in niche communities can earn organic mentions that now show inside AI answers.
What's Next for AI Overviews
The latest enhancements don’t end the zero-click debate, but they do prove Google is willing to share more real estate with credible sources. Treat Google AI Overviews links like any other SERP feature: Focus on original expertise, crystal-clear titles, and structured data that proves who you are. If your content is truly helpful and easy to trust, AI Overviews can become a fresh traffic stream rather than a black hole.
