Search Engine Journal Show

Would you like to get high-level leads? Who doesn't!

Using surveys as a lead generation and brand awareness strategy can be very effective.

Join Shelley Walsh, Special Projects Editor at Search Engine Journal and Founder, Loren Baker, as they use our State of SEO 2021 Report as a case study. (You can find a copy here: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/state-of-seo/)

They discuss the why, how, and challenges of our latest survey from a content marketing perspective.

Developing a good report is more than numbers; it's also about connecting with the right people, getting good data, building your audience, and reaching them in various ways. Listen as they share how this survey has increased the success of gated content and considerations when publishing something like this on your own.

We were looking to find something that would assert that industry authority that we had and something that would get us not only good page views but also links as well. –Shelley Walsh [09:54]

Having unique data is always a real plus point, and one of the real benefits of it is the fact that

they are natural linking machines. –Shelley Walsh, [13:22]

The value of building your own audience, whether you're a company, ecommerce, a publisher, is that building up an email list or a customer list that you can revisit in more ways than one. –Loren Baker, [31:26]

[00:00] - A little about Shelley

[08:51] - Why SEJ decided to publish a massive piece of content, the State of SEO

[15:30] - How many SEO professionals were surveyed and how that led to quality results

[18:06] - Tactics that generated extensive media coverage, conversation, and backlinks

[20:17] - How Shelley designed the State of SEO survey to be useful and actionable

[24:49] - What challenges Shelley had and what she learned from doing this study

[31:22] - Is it worth it for ecoms or publishers to build their own audience?

[33:26] - How to leverage your audience for responses

[35:40] - Creating and using your own audience vs. using those owned by others

[39:19] - How Shelley and SEJ encouraged readers to respond

[41:16] - Comparing survey tool UX and how to choose the right one

[43:57] - What a survey design needs to be successful

[50:00] - What made the difference when publishing the results?

[53:11] - One of the classic rules in advertising applied

[55:14] - What people never mention about content repurposing and branding

[58:52] - Where do Shelley and Loren find their most valuable marketing insights?

[01:03:27] - Using surveys for lead acquisition

[01:05:14] - Questions to ask yourself when planning surveys

[01:06:20] - How to get good data even if you're a small business

Try to think about something different for each channel and approach it in a different way so that it's giving people a reason to check out all the different avenues. Give a slightly different approach in each one. –Shelley Walsh, [58:38]

What really matters is that you know if you're producing content that nails your concepts and you've got a really strong concept of value. –Shelley Walsh, [43:57]

If you've done a study or survey the first time, don't give up. By continuously doing it, people start to expect it, and it starts to grow. –Loren, [01:08:29]

For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/searchenginejournal

Looking to keep up with what's current and effective in digital marketing today? Check out https://www.searchenginejournal.com for everything you need to know within the digital marketing space and improve your skills as an internet marketer.

Connect with Shelley Walsh:

Content marketing consultant Shelley Walsh is a Special Projects Editor at Search Engine Journal. Since founding ShellShock, her team has produced content that has attracted hundreds of links and gone viral. Having a passion for new challenges and learning new things has driven her to achieve success. She enjoys spending time at the pool, reading, biking, or climbing hills during her free time.

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theshelleywalsh

Connect with Shelley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleywalsh/

Visit: https://shellshockuk.com/

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

Google ranking factors are usually a hot topic of debate in the SEO industry.

While Google has confirmed a few ranking factors and signals, there is a lot of speculation and bad information out there about what is, what might be, and what definitely is not a ranking factor.

So the Search Engine Journal team set out to separate fact from fiction.

Join Search Engine Journal's Assistant Editor Anna Crowe and founder Loren Baker as they give you the facts, so you can aim your SEO strategy for the biggest impact on this special edition of the Search Engine Journal Show.

Whether you're attempting to understand the latest algorithm update, improve a site's rankings, or boost conversions, understanding how the search engine works and where you fit in the ecosystem can result in a much better strategy, a smoother user experience, and more high-quality traffic.

We're talking about a few key ranking factors from the ebook, how the book was put together, and what it means for you.

This started back in November 2019, so this is how long this ebook has been in the works. The goal really was to become the SEO Mythbusters on what is and what isn't a ranking factor. We wanted to come up with something more defined by facts and not just based on opinion and commentary. –Anna Crowe [04:44]

There are tons of studies out there, but whenever you actually get into the meat of those studies, a lot of it is opinion or cause and correlation types that don't necessarily ring true to what Google's statements are, what's in their patents, or what's confirmed from the voice of John Mueller or Danny Sullivan. –Anna Crowe [07:51]

A good chunk of our time, I'd probably say, maybe even 60 percent of it was spent researching before we actually began writing this piece. –Anna Crowe [09:32]

​​

[00:00] - What Anna does at SEJ and her digital marketing interests

[02:33] - What Google Ranking Factors: Fact or Fiction covers

[02:52] - Are there still only 200 Google ranking factors?

[03:41] - What led to creating this book?

[04:14] - The methodology behind Google Ranking Factors

[07:26] - Why this book took almost two years to write

[08:24] - What Anna learned from researching the various ranking factors

[09:57] - How did Google algorithm updates affect the research behind the many ranking factors?

[11:07] - How might continuous mobile scrolling change website visibility in the search results?

[14:30] - Are Easter eggs a Google ranking factor?

[16:54] - Is word count a ranking factor? The final verdict

[21:51] - What is Query Deserves Freshness, and does content freshness affect website rankings?

[28:27] - Is E-A-T a ranking factor?

[29:55] - Are links a ranking factor?

[34:37] - The gray area of domain and site age as a ranking factor

[37:30] - Is the Better Business Bureau (BBB) a ranking factor?

[38:50] - What is the difference between Google Quality Rater Guidelines and a ranking factor?

[42:14] - The interesting panini analogy by Loren

[43:57] - The main takeaways from reading the book

The more you understand how the Google algorithm works, the better you can deliver an amazing piece of content to the user. –Anna Crowe [10:20]

It's about science, so it's interesting to learn how the algorithm works. But it's more important to realize that the goal really is to build a better page for the user. –Anna Crowe [44:27]

The purpose of this Ranking Factors ebook is to demonstrate that yes, there are all these ranking factors, but they evolve. In the end, it's really just about the user, and the goal is to make sure that your website is an amazing experience for them. –Anna Crowe [45:11]

It sounds like the life of an SEO has been mirrored into this project in terms of keeping up with everything. –Loren Baker [11:09]

Have you ever thought of using Snapchat for marketing?

Snapchat is more than a camera tool and social media network – it's also a keyword discovery engine!

Matt McGowan, Director and General Manager of Snap Inc Canada, joins Loren Baker to discuss Snapchat trends and how marketers can reach, influence, and engage millions of Snapchat users.

Aside from discovering and exploring trends that can help you drive better engagement, Matt will share how Snapchat Lenses are the future of augmented reality. This means an evolution of customer engagement for your business.

During this podcast, you'll learn more about this unique platform and how you can leverage imagery and other customer-engaging features into your marketing.

"Reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. It has empowered people to express themselves, live in the moment, and have fun together." –Matt McGowan [06:55]

"At the end of the day, it's all about discovering and exploring trends. You'll be able to find

what topics perform well on the platform to help you drive better engagement." –Matt McGowan [19:05]

"Augmented reality is here to stay. It's a tool that you can use it to help you communicate, it's a tool you can use for entertainment purposes, and it's also a utility." –Matt McGowan [27:02]

[00:00] - A little about Matt

[05:08] - What differentiates Snapchat from competitors?

[08:47] - What is the Discover section?

[09:39] - How movie production studios can use Snapchat for their marketing

[10:29] - How old are Snapchat users?

[13:05] - The core principles that Snap was built upon

[16:03] - How Snapchat is connected to search marketing and content marketing

[15:54] - How Snapchat trends work

[19:52] - Five ways marketers can utilize the data from Snapchat

[20:07] - How you can take advantage of obscure holidays on Snapchat

[24:55] - Google, augmented reality, and Snapchat

[27:55] - Where the new Spectacles come into play

[28:51] - The new scan function

[29:22] - How the camera is becoming more and more powerful

[32:56] - Snapchat's new software: Lens Studio

[33:28] - Snapchat's certification programs

[36:13] - Different Snap scenario opportunities for marketing

[45:09] - How the Snapchat Creator Marketplace works

[56:21] - How Loren and Matt first connected in the early days of SEJ

"Because it's not gonna live forever, because it's ephemeral, I feel more comfortable in general

sending a picture of me at the moment. It's not like my best picture. It's not going to be like you're not going to find it in search engine results pages at some point in my career. It's not like I need to get rid of a blemish or change my hair. This is just a picture of me communicating to you, what I'm doing and how I'm feeling." –Matt McGowan [15:09]

"I can't think of a faster platform to see something trending than within a tool like Snap. Just the ability to be able to pull that data as a marketer excites me because I can see what people are using from a day-to-day perspective when they're describing things and writing about things." –Matt McGowan [17:13]

"Augmented reality is probably the next in the evolution of computing. There's an evolution of customer engagement in a world where we're still often home much more than we have been in the past. It connects those flat, boring websites with the consumer in a very engaging fashion." –Matt McGowan [34:22]

For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/searchenginejournal

Looking to keep up with what's current and effective in digital marketing today? Check out https://www.searchenginejournal.com for everything you need to know within the digital marketing space and improve your skills as an internet marketer.

Connect with Matt McGowan:

Matt is the Director and General Manager of Snap Inc. Canada, the camera company that owns Snapchat. In addition to working at Google, McGowan has held leadership positions at Incisive Media and Adestra. Former New Yorker living in Ontario, Matt has worked alongside entrepreneurs, executives, venture capitalists, and more. Matt has developed his knowledge and skills and become the business professional he is today through working with these professionals.

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcgowan/

Visit: https://www.snapchat.com/

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

Looking to open or grow new marketing channels for your business?

Pinterest is now considered a top search engine as posts can be optimized to drive organic traffic.

Lindsay Shearer, the owner of Pins4Profit, joins Loren Baker to discuss how to make Pinterest one of your most profitable marketing channels.

There's no other search engine that offers quite a visual experience as Pinterest. you can save posts, and come back later to purchase them. It's got a really unique element to it that people love.

This podcast episode will help you see the opportunity and learn how to grow your business with Pinterest.

"People are finally starting to warm up to this idea that yes in fact it is more of a search engine than a social media. It still has elements of both social media engagement and things like

that but it's much more categorized based on your keywords and your search intent.​​" –Lindsay Shearer

"We've had such good success with Pinterest because my background and my mind thinks

like an SEO." –Lindsay Shearer

[00:00] - What do people think about Pinterest?

[01:08] - How Pinterest is more of a search engine

[02:09] - How Lindsay became a Pinterest marketer and lead generation expert

[04:51] - How to rank Pinterest posts and boards

[06:43] - What are Pinterest's search volumes?

[11:03] - How to get started with a Pinterest strategy

[12:48] - What kinds of businesses work well on Pinterest?

[14:08] - Making native images and communities work on Pinterest

[16:41] - Is there a direct-response component to Pinterest for ecommerce or B2C sites?

[19:28] - Behavior of organic vs paid content on Pinterest

[19:57] - How effective is Pinterest marketing in terms of paid ads?

[23:05] - How many visitors can you get from Pinterest?

[26:10] - What kind of businesses are killing it right now?

[26:37] - Funnel structures that work well for Pinterest

[28:24] - Using video on Pinterest

[29:59] - Pinterest demographics

[36:58] - How to optimize Pinterest boards to rank on Google

[41:43] - What should people avoid doing on Pinterest?

[43:58] - What kind of content doesn't do well on Pinterest?

[47:04] - Where do you go to learn more about using Pinterest for business?

"It has this long-term staying power too that's another huge key point. If you share things on Instagram or any other social site, they're gone in 24 hours. Pinterest stuff stays forever." –Lindsay Shearer

"It's pretty amazing that for non-branded and branded terms that have extremely high search volume, I'm seeing Pinterest boards rank on the top page above the fold the top three on Google at the same time so there's actually the ability to rank your own board for a lot of very popular queries." –Loren Baker

Are you considering a site migration?

Migrations are a challenging - and sometimes dreaded - step in SEO.

With site migrations, chances are you're going to run into technical issues and nine times out of ten there's not enough time to fix everything before launch. The key is to build a good relationship with your developers, working together to solve critical issues.

Cody Gault, Website Migration Lead at Conductor joins Loren Baker for this migration episode. We have some great questions left from an SEJ Webinar we had with Cody a while back, along with some new topics to help you with your next big update.

This episode is perfect for anyone who is migrating platforms, changing URLs, updating branding, or trying something new for their website.

At the end of the day, the more crawls you do, the closer you can get to what the site will actually look like in a live environment. –Cody Gault

Do the 301 redirects. It's the gospel. With canonical, Google may or may not honor it. –Cody Gault

About half of site migrations are about finding the technical side of issues, and the other half is about having a team that can solve them and works well together. –Cody Gault

[00:00] - About Cody and how he got started performing website migrations

[02:41] - Cody's first big migration: An International website migration

[05:04] - How can broken link 404 reports help you identify and fix website issues?

[05:29] - How to preplan a website migration and reduce the risk of making mistakes

[07:05] - How to prioritize redirects and take some of the work out of site migrations

[07:49] - Common website migration mistakes

[10:06] - Should you immediately redirect old URLs to the new ones? Or use canonicals before redirecting?

[13:32] - Do 301 redirects slow down your site?

[17:05] - Is it better to change the title tags and meta descriptions or leave them as is?

[18:57] - Timing your website changes and how that affects rankings

[20:36] - How to test a site's usability and performance prior to migration

[23:40] - The biggest things hurting your CWV & website performance

[26:11] - How much traffic should you expect to lose when you migrate a website? And how long until your traffic recovers?

[27:40] - What happens if you lose most of your traffic after a migration?

[30:16] - Why is the old domain still indexed in Google?

[32:31] - What are some commonly overlooked parts of a migration or mistakes?

[37:41] - How to work with dev teams during migrations and how to handle technical SEO issues

[43:36] - The amount of time Cody focuses on site migrations

"You can learn so much from those broken link reports. I think it's amazing that you can connect those dots, fix them, and benefit from them post-migration." –Loren Baker

"Every issue I have is prioritized high, medium, low, and I go in with the understanding that not all of them are going to be fixed." –Cody Gault

"Talk to your developers to see what they can open up for you and then run with it." –Cody Gault

For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/searchenginejournal

Looking to keep up with what's current and effective in digital marketing today? Check out https://www.searchenginejournal.com for everything you need to know within the digital marketing space and improve your skills as an internet marketer.

Connect with Cody Gault:

Cody Gault is the Website Migration Lead at Conductor. As a result of his involvement in many migration projects, he has carved a niche in the industry. He shares insights on common site migration issues so you can be prepared to handle them.

Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/codygault0010/

Visit Conductor: https://www.conductor.com/

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

Do you know which SEO strategies will successfully drive traffic, leads, and sales for your company?

Do you need insights on how to approach online visibility?

When it comes to SEO, success often depends not on what you do but on how you do it.

Eli Schwartz, the author of the book "Product-Led SEO," joins Loren Baker on this episode to discuss long-term SEO strategies and how to implement an SEO mindset throughout your company.

Instead of offering step-by-step guidelines and techniques, this discussion digs into the logic and theory of SEO as a whole.

"What I call product-led SEO is taking many, many steps back and asking these questions:

• Why is a search user going to find us?

• How is the search user going to experience our website?

• Is there a reason that Google should send search users to us?

• When our audience finds us, will they fall into some sort of funnel?" –Eli Schwartz

"Many times engineers aren't at all sold on SEO, so therefore, you have to get them to care to do something for you that doesn't actually benefit their bonus or benefit the way they're going to be measured.

That's more important than a win, because if you get someone to care about your goals and you can scratch their back, and they'll scratch your back, that helps you further down the road." –Eli Schwartz

[0:00] - How Eli started and how SEJ led him down the path to his book

[02:41] - Where Eli spent most of his career

[04:12] - What he learned working for a company like Survey Monkey

[04:53] - What VPs and Chief Product Officers generally think about SEO

[06:06] - How Survey Monkey was in 2012 with no SEO but a lot of brand value

[06:33] - What caused Eli to change his entire approach to SEO?

[08:00] - The reason why he says "no" to some clients

[09:23] - When does it make sense to hire an SEO consultant?

[11:01] - Things to look out for besides communicating with CTOs and engineers

[11:34] - What Eli does in initial conversations with clients

[14:47] - Steps to becoming an insider of a company you consult for

[16:04] - Why in-house SEO is broken?

[17:41] - How Eli approaches each new client

[19:06] - The way most companies think of SEO

[20:31] - Why it's so much better to hire a consultant than staff-out?

[23:46] - Where do consultants fill the gap?

[25:24] - What led Eli to the Bay area?

[27:39] - Eli's mentor positions

[29:42] - Highlight chapters in Eli's book "Product Led SEO"

[30:57] - What is product-led SEO?

[33:28] - What does SEO need to move away from?

[35:12] - The big picture you need to see

[36:51] - Getting buy-in in with the rest of the marketing team

[37:23] - What Eli learned about goals

[40:02] - Advantages of being in-house at Survey Monkey

[44:48] - When Eli did SEO on his own name and discovering the world-famous epidemiologist

[50:56] - The story behind the Twitter handle @5le

"The reason I wrote the book was that I wanted to change the conversation on what SEO is. Product-led SEO is not at all something I invented or coined; it's just a way of approaching SEO." –Eli Schwartz

"Can you get the job done? Is there a buy-in? Even if you cannot do that 100 percent before you sign the contract, see what you can do. What's going to be able to move the needle to get buy-in and to get champions within the company to communicate that accordingly." –Loren Baker

"I think SEO needs to move away from this conversation of where am I ranking, what are my keywords and focus on who are my users and why should I build for them." –Eli Schwartz

Do you want to understand search patents better?

With the various Google white papers that come out and the changes in their patents, keeping up could be a task. Ultimately, we are interested in understanding SEO, where it is going, and how it will affect our business.

Bill Slawski, of SEO by the Sea and Go Fish Digital, joins Loren Baker on this episode to discuss Bill's hobby of dissecting Google, Bing, and other search-related patents – and what they mean.

While patents change, Google is doing a much better job right now of picking up video and audio, not just written anymore. Image search has also been getting smarter.

Learn how this knowledge can keep you a step ahead of the competition and help future-proof your SEO with ethical, long-term strategies.

"You don't need to have a brand mention to have value." – Bill Slawski

"Even if your site isn't branded, having rich information will help Google understand it and regard it as a trustworthy resource" – Loren Baker

[0:00] - How Bill started

[04:15] - How companies like Google have decided to change our reality

[05:19] - What Microsoft was doing that got Bill into patents

[06:51] - Was it more difficult to find a patent search back then?

[08:00] - How Google uses content vs. how we think of content

[08:39] - How many patents does Bill see come to fruition?

[09:49] - The tweet on the metrics Google has patented to rank entities

[10:14] - The book example

[11:19] - The skyscraper example

[12:52] - The augmentation patent and what's it about

[13:33] - The script that you feed Google

[15:35] - When Google introduced the Same As

[16:47] - Should you include competitors to backup the Same As?

[17:56] - How image search has become smarter

[19:15] - Bill's writeup on Detecting Brand Penetration Over Geographic Locations

[20:12] - When Google acquired Skybox and what it had to do with images

[22:47] - Why the unbranded results of a car insurance company ranked much higher

[24:49] - Are brands ranking factors for search engines?

[26:00] - How patents apply to SEO at the end of the day

[32:20] - How Google can see how a product has evolved over time

[35:18] - What this means for unbranded sites

[36:29] - Other patents Bill has seen that are important right now

[36:53] - What Bill didn't expect about patents

[37:55] - Search in audio and video

[40:49] - Searching for real-time results vs. links (Bill's earthquake example)

[42:43] - How Google considers content vs. what younger people think about content

[43:29] - The limousine company story

[44:48] - The mistake other SEO professionals make

[46:49] - What Google has been saying since 1999

[47:36] - The Baltimore campaign

[54:45] - How to spread your entities' influence

[62:56] - The story about the Reznor brand and how it relates to entities

[65:02] - What surprised Bill about the brand entity patent

[66:59] - What Google does when your search results aren't getting clicks

"We're living in a time where not all content is written anymore." – Loren Baker

"We're no longer going to look for your quote in knowledge graphs. We're going to search for audio and video." - Bill Slawski

Do you want to understand search patents better?

With the various Google white papers that come out and the changes in their patents, keeping up could be a task.  Ultimately, we are interested in understanding SEO, where it is going, and how it will affect our business.

Bill Slawski, of SEO by the Sea and Go Fish Digital, joins Loren Baker on this episode to discuss Bill's hobby of dissecting Google, Bing, and other search-related patents – and what they mean.

While patents change, Google is doing a much better job right now of picking up video and audio, not just written anymore. Image search has also been getting smarter.

Learn how this knowledge can keep you a step ahead of the competition and help future-proof your SEO with ethical, long-term strategies.

“You don’t need to have a brand mention to have value.” – Bill Slawski 

“Even if your site isn't branded, having rich information will help Google understand it and regard it as a trustworthy resource” – Loren Baker

[0:00] -  How Bill started

[04:15] - How companies like Google have decided to change our reality

[05:19] - What Microsoft was doing that got Bill into patents

[06:51] - Was it more difficult to find a patent search back then?

[08;00] - How Google uses content vs. how we think of content

[08:39] - How many patents does Bill see come to fruition?

[09:49] - The tweet on the metrics Google has patented to rank entities

[10:14} - The book example

[11:19] - The skyscraper example

[12:52] - The augmentation patent and what’s it about

[13:33] - The script that you feed Google

[15:35] - When Google introduced the Same As

[16:47] - Should you include competitors to backup the Same As?

[17:56] - How image search has become smarter

[19:15] - Bill’s writeup on Detecting Brand Penetration Over Geographic Locations

[20:12] - When Google acquired Skybox and what it had to do with images

[22:47] - Why the unbranded results of a car insurance company ranked much higher

[24:49] - Are brands ranking factors for search engines?

[26:00] - How patents apply to SEO at the end of the day

[32:20] - How Google can see how a product has evolved over time

[35:18] - What this means for unbranded sites

[36:29] - Other patents Bill has seen that are important right now 

[36:53] - What Bill didn’t expect about patents

[37:55] - Search in audio and video

[40:49] - Searching for real-time results vs. links (Bill’s earthquake example)

[42:43] - How Google considers content vs. what younger people think about content

[43:29] - The limousine company story

[44:48] - The mistake other SEO professionals make

[46:49] - What Google has been saying since 1999

[47:36] - The Baltimore campaign

[54:45] - How to spread your entities’ influence

[62:56] - The story about the Reznor brand and how it relates to entities

[65:02] - What surprised Bill about the brand entity patent

[66:59} - What Google does when your search results aren’t getting clicks

“We're living in a time where not all content is written anymore.” – Loren Baker

“We're no longer going to look for your quote in knowledge graphs. We’re going to search for audio and video.” - Bill Slawski

Have you claimed your Google Knowledge Panel?

Have you built out the entity of your company in the way that Google can understand who you are and differentiate between you and your competitors?

Jason Barnard, founder & CEO of Kalicube, joins Loren Baker, founder of Search Engine Journal, on the Search Engine Journal Show to discuss the importance of entity building with Google's Knowledge Graph.

In SEO, the goal is to package our content in a way that educates Google so that it can answer user queries in the most credible way.

As you build your brand, Google considers your entity (preferably your home page) as the first explanation of who you are, what you do, and who your audience is. Once it realizes that, you can present corroborating sources/links to support your brand.

"This is a niche within the SEO industry where the technique might be the same, but the order of priority is quite different. There are certain mistakes that may occur that you have never seen before since it's such a specific area of work." - Jason Barnard

"Google is a child that really wants to understand and our job is to educate it." - Jason Barnard

[0:00] - What the Brand SERP Guy means and why you should be thinking about your brand SERPs

[03:02] - Other opportunities from a front page real estate perspective

[03:29] - If you're missing this on your home page, Google might have issues understanding your site.

[04:21] - The value of Twitter boxes on brand SERPs

[04:49] - Value of video boxes on brand SERP

[06:09] - What Google is actually looking at in terms of engagement

[06:37] - Why you should be building your brand strategy from the SERP outwards

[07:36] - An example of managing negative reviews on a site

[07:51] - What brand SERPs really provide you

[09:21] - Why brand SERPs go outside of just searching for your brand name

[10:32] - How important is it to look at specific branded product names?

[11;06] - What Jason advises you to take a look at

[11:58] - All about unbranded SERPs

[13:59] - How Jason sees companies compensating for their lack of entity building with paid campaigns

[14:45] - The interesting thing about Google ads and the strategies you need to put into place

[15:42] - What you really should be looking at the end of the day

[15:49} - The concept of leapfrogging

[18:35] - How the knowledge panel is an interesting part of the brand SERP

[20:04] - How Google is like a child

[23:35] - Where your entity home should be

[24:09] - How contradictory information becomes a problem

[25:47] - The concept of reconciliation

[27:01] - Why getting a Wikipedia entry is easier said than done

[27:41] - Other ways that someone can look into their entity besides Wikipedia

[29:29] - What should be your trusted source

[30:30] - How LinkedIn is credible from a knowledge graph perspective

[31:34] - How Bing and Google collaborate

[33:05] - Other good webmaster tools and search engines

[37:53] - Next step in entity building and building it into company culture

[38:36] - How google is centralizing entities into the main knowledge graph

[40:57] - Hot to get your entities understood by Google better

[42:14] - The experiment with Boowa and Kwala

[45:16] - Building up the parallel dimension

[45:57] - How to rank when you pivot to a new identity

[47:11] - What happens when Google trusts you

[53:12] - What Jason advises against

[54:22] - Where listeners can find more about Jason

[56;05] - Jason as a musician and a digital marketer

[63:04] - Jason sings for Loren!

[63:20] - Loren attempts to sing, too!

"​​In the world of SEO, there's no way that you can learn everything and stay on top of everything. It's just impossible, but if I can learn a little bit about what everyone else is an expert at, yeah, and also share that with thousands of people at one time, I've not only done a little bit better for myself but I've helped to educate quite a lot out there and bring

your story to everyone else." – Loren Baker

Are you a link builder or digital PR pro, or you're just getting started? This episode of the Search Engine Journal Show is for you.

Get insights on smart linking, performing highly targeted link outreach, and link metrics, from none other than Bibi the Link Builder.

Bibi Raven talks with Search Engine Journal Founder Loren Baker about forms linking, writers vs automation, and also training teams and individuals to "scale" link building.

You'll also get to meet Hilda the Hen, too.

"With link building, you should leave your ego at the door." – Bibi Raven

"Taking the time to ask for something is so underrated in the world of outreach and link building." – Loren Baker

[0:00] - How Bibi started her link building business

[3:49] - Why few people truly understand link building

[4:58] - Bibi's philosophy

[5:48] - Does it work to focus on metrics?

[6:05] - Type of link building Bibi does and what makes her different

[8:05] - What she does before reaching out to prospects

[8:38] - PR vs link building

[10:20] - Tactics to cut through the noise with bloggers & journalists

[11:58] - Who Bibi hires

[12:33] - Target multiple publishers or build relationships with a few?

[13:33] - Is scaling everything?

[13:49] - Who do you target with outreach emails

[17:16] - The approach Bibi likes doing now

[17:49] - One of the most successful campaigns Loren has done

[19:14] - What Bibi recommends when training teams

[20:20] - What you should and shouldn't be saying in your outreach

[21:21] - Percentage of pitches she typically get a response from

[22:20] - What Loren learned on his campaign on listicles

[24:16] - The power of asking

[26:23] - Why people don't like link building

[28:39] - What she likes about Ahrefs

[30:24] - An idea Bibi has on cats and dogs

[32:12] - Case study: What would Bibi do to get started?

[35:15] - The importance of image link building

[35:52] - Loren's experience with beauty schools from a link perspective

[37:14] - The most overlooked & underrated search engine

[39:03] - Tip on what you should be focusing on for SEO this year

[39:25] - One of the most detrimental forms of duplicating content

[40:22] - Can Google identify if a backlink is paid or not?

[41:44] - Red flag patterns

[42:44] - What sites to avoid

[43:44] - Does she ever match clients together?

[46:46] - About being honest in your prospecting

[48:14] - How picking up natural links is the best kind

[49:36] - Is it harder to build links for B2B?

[49:51] - Is there such a thing as a boring niche?

[50:48] - How do you approach a very niche client?

[53:20] - How to grow your business if you don't have a lot of clients

[55:06] - What's the difference between link building & digital PR

[56:03] - Pitching to executives on LinkedIn vs emails

[56:50] - The best link Bibi ever built

[58:03] - Automating quality link building and the tool she uses

[1:00:00] - Metrics to consider when prequalifying prospects

[1:03:07] - Prospecting angles in link building

[1:04:30] - How you will learn a lot

[1:07:23] - Bibi's other hobbies

"The human aspect is still very strong. We think about the prospects, and what they are interested in." –Bibi Raven

"Just try something different. Don't be afraid, do it consistently and you'll discover a way that works for you. So many people are so scared to send something out, so you should just try." –Bibi Raven