By Search Engine Journal
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The podcast currently has 485 episodes available.
We're excited to bring you the SERP's Up podcast on the SEJ Show channel!
Join Wix for their landmark 100th episode, as their experts & guests take a deep dive into the world of SERPs. If you’re frustrated by how broken the SERPs feel, don’t worry…they’re getting honest and covering the reasons.
In this candid discussion, they’re also breaking down what’s currently going on with local SEO, the effects of the Google August Update, and of course…they’re talking all things AI.
Celebrate Wix’s 100th episode with this powerhouse panel, as Mordy Oberstein & Crystal Carter of Wix are joined by SERP experts like Kevin Indig, Barry Schwartz, Chima Mmeje and more to let loose on issues search marketers are facing right now.
If you haven’t experienced a SERPs Up episode before, you should absolutely take a listen to experience the full effect of Mordy and Crystal’s banter.
The SERP’s Up podcast is brought to you by Wix Studio.
Join us as we look at how your online reputation and local marketing strategies can drive revenue for your business, while avoiding pitfalls along the way.
With guest Raj Nijjer of Edge, we’ll dive into the revenue impacts that your online reputation can have, and why this reputation building should be crucial in your planning.
Join your host Loren Baker, as he and Raj discuss how to avoid wasteful strategies of local marketing and multi-location businesses, plus a couple tips on how a good reputation can help attract and retain top talent.
[01:14] - Raj's Background and Journey to Edge. [02:44] - Edge's Concept of Employee-Driven Growth and Its Connection to Google Reviews. [10:34] - How Reviews Contribute to Local SEO. [11:27] - Customer-Facing End: In-Depth Reviews and Personalization. [13:24] - Standing Out in Cutthroat Competition: Franchises and Service Businesses. [14:37] - Motivating Employees and Transparent Recognition Through Reviews. [20:49] - Reputation Management and Injecting Employee Recognition. [45:06] - Employee Retention During Challenges Like The COVID-19 Pandemic.
We encourage businesses to amplify positive reviews and learn from the negative reviews. - Raj Nijjer, 5:34
Now not only does the brand win and the business win, but employees can feel great or a person can feel great about the job that they've done. - Raj Nijjer, 9:21
Positive reviews are so important. There's one stat I read on your site…53% of customers won't go to a business rated under four stars. - Loren Baker, 15:21
I think the injection of motivating and recognizing your employees while they're doing this service is something that we're very proud of, because we can see which employees are doing really well. And then you can duplicate that. - Raj Nijjer, 21:44
Our goal is to marry the marketing with operational excellence. You want to hold people accountable, especially if you're rewarding them. - Raj Nijjer, 30:53
I think one thing COVID taught every business owner is employee retention and how hard it's been to find people and when a displacement happens, it really jeopardizes your business if you don't plan it well. So you want to keep your superstars, don't ever lose your superstars. - Raj Nijjer - 41:10
Resources Mentioned:
Connect With Raj Nijjer:
Raj is Head of Marketing for Edge, an employee-driven growth platform for service brands. Previously, he was the CMO of Refersion (acquired), and held executive marketing roles at Yotpo and Yext (IPO in 2017). Raj also spent over nine years at Godaddy (IPO in 2015) in leadership roles launching innovative product lines with over ten patents issued and leading to a PE buyout and an IPO.
Raj is also fractional CMO to early and mid-stage technology startups. Raj received his Bachelors of Science degree in International Management and his MBA from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajnijjer/ Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RajNijjer
Connect with Loren Baker:
Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker
Join us as we explore how to prove that SEO matters to resistant stakeholders and C-suite executives, along with ways to combat the external noise affecting the outlook on SEO efforts. Dan brings his experience as a leading SEO consultant for top companies to this exclusive interview. He and Loren navigate the complexities of the shifting SEO landscape, and how to set realistic expectations in your business. They also dig into the potential risks and opportunities of AI in search, and what these drastic changes mean moving forward.
I think oftentimes in a lot of organizations, everyone's time poor, everyone has their own set of KPIs and objectives moving towards that bigger goal, and oftentimes SEO is trickled through. - Dan Taylor, 1:53 I think through that communication system framework, however you want to go around it or phrase it, it's about getting that shared buy-in. - Dan Taylor, 8:24 We have people planning their budgets and their SEO plans already, but with a little bit of a turbulent economy, sometimes it's a little bit of a question mark. - Loren Baker, 1:18
[00:43] - Dan's background and expertise [01:53] - SEO planning and visibility tips. [03:18] - Recommendations for visibility in SEO. [04:14] - Managing expectations with AI. [07:02] - Addressing SEO performance comparisons. [08:24] - Effective communication for executive buy-in. [11:17] - Combatting SEO Misinterpretations. [15:52] - Personal Touch in Client Interactions. [26:48] - Adapting SEO to Rich Media in Search Results. [32:06] - Adaptations in the travel industry.
It’s having sincerity and it's actually having a human touch. - Dan Taylor, 14:40
Essentially that kind of battleground which we previously had in search is sort of being lost. Now it's understanding what the impact of that's going to be, whether or not it's going to be a major impact, minor impact, or if the impact overall is going to be redistributive. - Dan Taylor, 18:19 It's about trying to bring in what unique modifiers we can into the actual product pages themselves...So how can we create a differentiator? It was this concept we had called champion products. - Dan Taylor, 21:03
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Dan Taylor:
Dan Taylor is a recognized SEO professional, having worked with a number of companies in strategically helping them increase their organic market visibility and overcome technical challenges. Having consulted and worked with companies like Cloudflare, Proton, and China Southern Airlines, Dan has been featured in the leading SEO publications, as well as spoken at a number of SEO and marketing conferences in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and online.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrwtaylor/
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/taylordanrw
Connect with Loren Baker:
Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker
In this must-listen episode, join us for a sit-down with John Brown from Google's Trust & Safety team. With his rich background in building ad networks and more, John offers exclusive insights into Google's efforts to educate publishers globally.
Discover critical differences between publisher policies and demand restrictions, explore the evolving role of UGC, and learn about Google's initiatives to support publishers.
As you navigate the complexities of policy compliance, you won't want to miss John's expert perspective, honed through years of leadership and mentorship in this realm.
We don't want to misinform folks or trick folks or anything like that. We provide clear narratives around the policies, why do we create it? Where does it fit within the ecosystem? - John Brown 03:46
Really, it's the ease of use for the user because everything that's in the website, or mostly everything that's in the website without some editorializing, it is things that could be found elsewhere on external Google pages. - John Brown, 08:01
That was the number one concern going into this is not just to launch and then leave alone, but to launch and iterate and make sure it's fresh. - John Brown, 09:44
I learned early on at Google, traveling globally and speaking on stage globally, that different users across the world consume information differently. So we can't just have a help center with text and localize it and hope that people understand. - John Brown, 13:30
[00:00] - Introduction to John Brown, Google's Policy Transparency Lead. [01:57] - Significance of John Brown's role in ecosystem health. [02:45] - Overview of transparency.google's key features. [09:44] - Keeping transparency.google current in the digital landscape. [23:02] - Google’s Fair Policy Appeals process: Google highlights fairness and transparency in the policy appeal process. [37:28] - Google's dedication to a mission-driven nature of trust and safety teams.
Resources Mentioned:
Google Transparency Center
Make sure you meet people who need the information, and give them the information that they want to consume in their format that they most prefer. - John Brown, 16:29
There's a dedication there. There's a mission that you probably don't find in other parts of organizations just because other teams, not just within Google, but elsewhere. It's quarter to quarter revenue, things like that, trust and safety. - John Brown, 37:28
Connect with John Brown:
John is part of the Trust & Safety team at Google, and leads a team that is focused on educate publisher partners globally on policies, enforcement actions, and best practices to remain policy compliant.
Prior to Google, John built two Ad Networks, has served on two IAB working groups, managed qualitative data for over 90 ad networks, and has mentored dozens of startups through his Techstars accelerator affiliation.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbrown74/ Connect with Amanda Zantal-Wiener:
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amanda_ZW Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandazantalwiener/
Creating or modifying images with AI is super easy. Imagine you're unhappy with your images as a retailer, but you have images for 10,000 products. It's horrible. So you can do that much quicker. It's a big time saver. - Jacques van der Wilt, 16:02
Connect with Jacques van der Wilt:
Jacques is a shopping feeds industry leader, start-up mentor, and entrepreneur. He's the founder of DataFeedWatch (acquired by Cart.com in 2022): a leading global feed management and optimization company that helps online merchants optimize their product listings on more than 2000 shopping channels in over 60 countries. Before founding DataFeedWatch, Jacques held leadership positions in the US and Europe. He is also a seasoned guest speaker at industry events and a mentor at Startup Bootcamp.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanderwilt/
Connect with Loren Baker:
Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker
In an increasingly difficult economy, do you know how to prove the value of your SEO and remain efficient, while maintaining the SEO budgets you need to succeed?
Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, joins me on the SEJShow to examine actionable strategies to doing more with less and maintaining the freedom to test, all while proving the positive impacts of your SEO work.
Using insights from marketing leaders, SEO specialists, and senior executives, you’ll hear Will and Loren break down the skills you need to keep your CFO happy while driving efficiency.
If you’ve found yourself having to defend your budget, pitch harder than ever, and work more to prove your results, then you won’t want to miss this episode.
There's more pressure on ROI calculations, there's more scrutiny on all of those decisions. SEOs are often shy of taking on targets, quotas, goals and so forth. But even forecasting is something that I think the industry is too naive about. –Will Critchlow, 06:04
Big companies are spending tons of money on this stuff. The fact that you are out there asking for a quarter of a million dollars, half a million dollars, whatever it might be, that's actually totally achievable. –Will Critchlow, 09:38
Speaking of the funnel, we all know that SEO is not a direct response marketing technique. It's not search keyword, find site buy done. There's all kinds of touch points throughout the funnel, multi-touch attribution, which is massive. –Loren Baker, 16:16
[00:00] - Will's background and expertise.[08:44] - Integration challenges in long-term planning.[12:30] - The importance of planning when dealing with CFOs.[13:18] - Tracking multiple attribution points.[16:16] - Google algorithm updates and their impact on forecasting.[21:05] - Forecasting challenges influenced by various factors.[23:32] - Beta testing's effects on search results.[26:41] - The evolving impact of AI-powered tools on search queries.[29:28] - Strategies for SEO teams to improve forecasting.
Resources Mentioned:
SEO as a product discipline is something that we are seeing. And what that often means is squads of product managers, engineers, designers, all aligned to that objective. –Will Critchlow, 13:18
I think almost every SEO is testing beta testing, Google, SGE, and we have in our heads that when that query is done, everything's going to be pushed down. There's going to be an article, there's going to be this, there's going to be that, but we tend to forget that we're the ones beta testing it, right? –Loren Baker, 23:07
And so the other reason that I'm bullish on there being organic links is I think there have to be ad links because I don't think Google is going to turn off 98% of their revenue overnight. And I think they're not going to go with only ad links because I think that's a degraded user experience. So I think there's going to be a combination of advertising links and organic links, and our job is to win the organic just as it always has been. –Will Critchlow, 27:37
Connect with Will Critchlow:
Will Critchlow is the founder and CEO of SearchPilot, a company dedicated to simplifying and improving SEO testing processes for large websites. He co-founded the SEO agency Distilled in 2005 and played a key role in expanding its services and the SearchLove conference series to the US, establishing offices in Seattle and New York.
In February 2020, he spun out SearchPilot as an independent business while Distilled was acquired by Brainlabs. Will is recognized for his expertise in SEO and digital marketing and often shares his insights through various platforms.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willcritchlow/ Connect with Loren Baker:
Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker
In an era of user-generated, human-generated and machine-generated content, mistakes are increasingly costlier to make. Learn the ways to revitalize and future-proof your approach to content marketing with Purna Virji, globally recognized content strategist and bestselling author of "High-Impact Content Marketing".
She and Loren will uncover the common mistakes content marketers make, and how you can avoid them as you plan your marketing strategy.
Tune in and hear strategies for creating genuinely inclusive and relevant content that audiences will actually want to consume, so your content strategy won't go the way of the dinosaurs.
What we want to think about is what are we solving for. What roles do we play? How are we engaging with the audience and giving them what they are interested in, what they need, and what would be of value to them? – Purna Virji, 03:00
You always want to give your audience something to do next. It all comes down to this concept called backward design. – Purna Virji, 08:58
We found that we get the most social interaction and the highest quality traffic from social media. LinkedIn has just become the most engaged platform there is within social media, and it's been a complete 360 over the past three or four years. – Loren Baker, 27:30
[00:00] - About Purna. [02:41] - Strategies for intentional content creation. [08:58] - How to ensure content effectiveness. [14:41] - Best practices for content promotion. [18:01] - How to create content for various audience awareness levels. [20:13] - Importance of company representation in content marketing. [23:41] - LinkedIn's content promotion capabilities.
Resources Mentioned:
Take an idea before you even create the content and think about different ways you'll use that idea. – Purna Virji, 17:13
The members on LinkedIn tend to see their time on LinkedIn as an investment in themselves professionally and personally. They're here to learn, grow, share, and put their best foot forward. – Purna Virji, 30:18
Try to understand what makes you money and for that, who are the types of the cream of the crop? Customers who spend a lot are loyal are referring you to others. – Purna Virji, 03:53
Connect with Purna Virji: Purna Virji, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a celebrated content strategist and marketer, currently the Principal Content Solutions Consultant at LinkedIn. Her career spans leading roles at Microsoft, and diverse experiences in social media, search advertising, and television, giving her a unique perspective on content marketing.
Recognized as an Adweek Young Influential and Search Personality of the Year, she's also a top-rated international speaker and an advocate for women in technology. Virji is the author of the best-selling book "High-Impact Content Marketing," showcasing her expertise and influence in the field.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/purnavirji/
Connect with Loren Baker:
Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker
The most important thing you can do if you are worried about ranking is write content that satisfies intent and fulfills the aspirations of E-E-A-T. –Ben Steele, 09:11
Join us as we talk about the biggest updates to Google Ranking Factors this year, and what that means for you as we head into 2024.
Our very own senior editor of ebooks, Ben Steele, gives you the behind-the-scene scoop on what factors really matter now. More than 200 hours went into researching and gathering our findings on the signals that have been officially declared, at one point or another in time, as Google ranking factors. Ben brings you the impact behind the BIG updates made this year: E-E-A-T, Google's redefining of page experience, the developments around systems and signals, and more.
Listen in as Ben and host Loren Baker, two of SEJ's brightest SEO professionals, talk Google Ranking Factors. Discussion designed for search professionals and marketing managers planning for next year.
Notable:
Suppose you do build content that is comprehensive enough to display authority in your experience. In that case, the aspiration is that content will float to the top regardless of more manipulative tactics. –Ben Steele, 10:14
When people have asked me what's our secret to ranking content at SEJ, I've always told them the publish button because we've been building this brand, this entity, and this trust for 20-plus years. –Loren Baker, 13:48
Google is evaluating links more qualitatively. Keywords are still huge, but the number doesn't matter anymore. It's about the way you use them. –Ben Steele, 22:30
[03:30] - Google ranking factors 2023: What's changed and what remains? [10:14] - Keywords and links vs. content and E-E-A-T in today's SEO. [22:30] - Google's qualitative approach to evaluating ranking factors. [27:39] - Building E-E-A-T for smaller sites to compete with big brands. [29:42] - Generative AI content's ranking performance post-updates. [37:24] - Long-term success with E-E-A-T and user intent. [43:27] - Curation as a strategy against generative AI in SEO. [46:52] - How to access the Google Ranking Factors ebook.
Keeping your nose clean, don't engage in the quick win strategies that are technically spam because Google has come out and straight up said if it's defined as spam under our guidelines, relevancy doesn't matter. –Ben Steele, 33:33
Curation is something you can lean into as a small business. There is still going to be a demand for human curation. –Ben Steele, 43:27
You can become a trusted source of curation for your audience... that's one thing that language models are not good at: being a source of well-curated information that you need right now. –Ben Steele, 44:29
Those factors of E-E-A-T will be critical for inoculating your business from the negative impacts of AI implemented by big platforms... the experience and the trust. –Ben Steele, 45:53
Resources:
Get the Ranking Factors ebook: https://bit.ly/3tFXB53
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3Q64Cni
Connect with Ben Steele:
Ben Steele, the Senior Editor at SEJ, boasts profound expertise in digital content. Though he didn’t initially aim to become an SEO strategist, the skills he acquired for his role, combined with his self-initiated research into digital marketing, unveiled his genuine passion in this field.
His experience in professional theater not only refined his work ethic and leadership abilities but also fostered other invaluable attributes such as creativity.
Now, at SEJ, Ben contributes to their ebooks, consistently providing fresh perspectives and strategic content advice. Through his SEO endeavors, he artfully weaves the nuances of human experiences, journeys, and expressions into enlightening lessons for others.
Connect with Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/writerbensteele/
Connect with Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal:
Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker
Everyone who touches your website is on the SEO team. The problem is that most people don't know they're on the team. An “always on” mentality regarding SEO can help mitigate risk and protect rankings.
Since there's no 'easy' button for a technical audit, join us for this special spotlight episode to learn how 24/7 monitoring can help you see everything happening on your site at any moment.
Go beyond SEO and bring together teams focused on compliance, know when people go rogue and when other teams make changes. Addressing them quickly as they happen can help your rankings and growth.
Conductor's Patrick Reinhart joins me on the SEJ Show to dive into the importance of continuous SEO monitoring and how Conductor can help you work smarter, not harder.
Patrick will walk through common problems with SEO and how you can proactively fix them before rankings are impacted. You'll also learn how real-time SEO auditing can streamline your process.
One of the hardest things is a conversation with other teams getting people to care. And I think something that always gets someone, the attention is data. –Pat Reinhart, 13:47
The mindset of it being a compliance component and that notification when something is not working can not necessarily change a negative mindset, but get everybody on the same mindset that you're working together for this common goal, which I like. –Loren Baker, 16:59
One of the best things you can do is pay attention to how specific you're being with your content. Specificity is going to be a key factor moving forward. –Pat Reinhart, 26:16
[00:00] - About Pat Reinhart. [05:51] - SEO audit shift to ongoing processes. [07:34] - Always-on SEO mentality explained. [12:38] - Real-time SEO monitoring versus health check-ups. [16:22] - Emphasizing compliance in SEO audits with developers. [17:31] - Realistic goal-setting with dev teams in SEO. [19:31] - SEO strategies before holiday code freezes. [24:41] - AI's impact in SEO and ChatGPT's role. [25:05] - Strategies for Google's search generative experience. [32:58] - Transparency and authorship in SEO content. [35:58] - LinkedIn's importance for SEO professionals.
Resources Mentioned:
It's not about speed or volume. It's more about creating specific content that drives value. –Pat Reinhart, 29:51
LinkedIn has been very helpful to me throughout my career. It's not just my digital resume. It's a community that you can use to your advantage. –Pat Reinhart, 38:12
It's more about process than practice most of the time. –Pat Reinhart, 44:25
Connect with Patrick Reinhart:
Patrick Reinhart leads enterprise digital strategy for Conductor’s Customer Success team as Vice President of Services and Thought Leadership. With over 15 years of organic search and digital marketing experience, he helps some of the world's largest brands with organic search initiatives.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickreinhart/
Connect with Loren Baker:
Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker
Bard is our creative collaborator. It's a place where you can come in and have a conversation with the large language model which really helps you to boost your productivity and bring your ideas to life. –Yuri Pinsky, 02:16
Step behind the curtain and into the world of Google's Bard with its Director of Product Management, Yury Pinsky, in an exclusive conversation with SEJ Editor-in-Chief Amanda Zantal-Wiener.
Hear about the origins and journey to Bard's unveiling, and discover how the team behind it envisions a collaborative future with AI. SEO pros and seasoned digital marketers alike will get an up-close look at the nuances of generative AI and a glimpse at what predictions for what's next.
So prep your popcorn -- grab your notetaking method of choice -- and tune in to learn how to incorporate Google's current and forward-looking AI initiatives into your own business innovation.
[07:11] - The origin of Bard and its market niche.
[13:23] - Impact of generative AI and Bard on SEO and content creation.
[17:37] - Using Bard for audience evaluation in content creation.
[23:54] - Distinctive features of Bard compared to other AI models.
[28:33] - Most interesting prompts seen in Bard.
[33:29] - Future vision for Bard and generative AI.
I'm inspired by this idea that technology can work together with us, and we can bring Bard in as a creative partner in your editorial work or when we're trying to write a document for work or something in our personal lives. –Yuri Pinsky, 09:46
It's a very vibrant, fast-paced, fast moving industry right now. I think some of the unique things we have with Bard are things like the ability to plug into Google tools. –Yuri Pinsky, 23:54
In the sciences and the medical field, there could be lots of interesting breakthroughs in drug discovery in climate applications. How can they use the power of these foundational models to really benefit all of us in some way? –Yuri Pinsky, 25:44
Your ideas still have to be your own in order for AI to work with you best and work for you best. –Yuri Pinsky, 28:33
It is not the end of search. Bard is an experiment. It's complementary to search. It's this conversational collaborator. –Yuri Pinsky, 32:47
Connect with Yury Pinsky:
Yury is a Product Manager for Bard, leading areas including Extensions, Factuality, and multi-modality. Yury is passionate about cutting edge technology and finding ways to bring it to users around the world. Prior to serving in his current role, Yury led product teams around Natural Language and Speech Recognition for the Google Assistant, spent time building wearables in Google [X], and helped build out Google Search on mobile devices.
Outside of work, Yury enjoys spending time with his family, planning his next vacation, and the daily logistics of kids' extracurricular activities.
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ypinsky
Connect with Amanda Zantal-Wiener:
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amanda_ZW Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandazantalwiener/
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