Search Engine Journal Show

Google is moving all Google Analytics to GA 4 in July 2023 and wants companies to run on GA 4 by July 2022 to have year-over-year data once the 2023 switchover begins.

Charles Farina of AdSwerve joined me on the SEJ show to discuss Google Analytics 4 and the implementations and customizations which can be used with this newer analytics solution from Google.

You'll gain insight into what you can expect from GA4, how the two differ, and what you need to do to start setting up for the move.

There are two critical deadlines. For most of you, it will be July 1, when the accessible version of universal processing deprecates, so you can still access your data. Still, you can't send new data to it. For 360 or the paid customers, it's going to be, I believe, October 1 of next year, which is when that version deprecates. –Charles Farina, 3:23

If you're not using GA4 currently, it will be a big potential challenge for you in the future because when you switch over, you won't be able to do a year-over-year analysis in it. –Charles Farina, 5:42

The thing with Google Analytics was it would seem it should never be used as the record source. You shouldn't use it to report to your boss how many purchases your business had because that should come from your purchase database like Shopify or wherever that source is. –Charles Farina, 31:11

[00:00] - A background on Charles & why he loves analytics.

[04:58] - Will data be lost if you don't transition in time?

[06:14] - Will you lose the data you track before July 1?

[09:09] - Is there an easy way to migrate the GA Universal Analytics to GA4?

[11:15] - Recommendation for migrating in mass?

[14:02] - Pros and cons of GA4 as compared to Universal Analytics.

[18:39] - Will bounce rate be eliminated?

[22:50] - Differences in what's seen on Google Console vs. Analytics?

[27:02] - Will there be more explanation on direct traffic?

[31:04] - What is directionality?

[33:07] - Ways to integrate Google My Business into GA4.

[35:17] - Is dual tagging recommended?

[39:01] - Three concepts of attribution in GA4.

[42:05] - Will Data Studio be recalibrated?

[43:21] - State of UTMs.

Resources mentioned:

Measure Slack - https://www.measure.chat/

It's a crucial time that we're having this conversation now because to your question, GA4 uses an entirely new data model, requiring a new implementation to get data into that product. So, in short, it doesn't carry forward any of the data you've collected in the past on the old version.–Charles Farina, 5:06

The best practice has been until now is that you should try and run both versions side by side so that you can have 13 months of data in the new platform and eventually make it very easy to switch over now.–Charles Farina, 5:29

Take a little time out of your day just to learn a little bit more and a little bit more about how to utilize reporting and everything else. –Loren Baker, 8:00

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Charles Farina:

Charles is an innovative consultant with extensive experience in helping clients, analysts and marketers unlock the full potential of their business on Google's marketing platform & Cloud.

With more than a decade of experience, he has helped organizations worldwide understand their online presence through Google Analytics. He's done this by implementing hundreds of training sessions for enterprises, including GoPro, Starbucks & Glassdoor, among others!

His contributions to the Google Analytics partner community earned him an excellence award. In addition to being a leading contributor on Measure Slack and Twitter, Charles can also be found at an ice rink playing hockey.

Connect with Charles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesfarina/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesfarina

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

Can a website or network of sites rank with little linking and multiple TLDs? What about a brand that's been built over the past few years being indexed in Google News with a ".news" domain and hitting featured snippets in Google with a separate domain using a ".reviews" TLD?

How can this be done and what can we learn from it as SEOs?

In this episode, Jon Henshaw, SEO at Paramount+ and the founder of Raven Tools & CoyWolf, joined me to discuss his experience on Decentralized Web3.

Jon has recently worked on many Web3-based CDN / publishing/blogging projects. Included in our discussion are insights into what this means for the future of content publishing and SEO.

It's a place for me to test things around publishing and to get something to rank. So with that being said, I would say that one of the most interesting things that I've observed over the last year with what I've been doing is the ability to rank content really high without any outreach or link building.–Jon Henshaw, 18:47

I always write in a way that's very that's focused on disambiguation. When I write, I mention an entity that can confirm to Google that this is what this thing is about.–Jon Henshaw, 26:13

At SEJ, we don't do any link building. Our link building tool is our publish button. –Loren Baker, 1:04:29

[00:00] - A little about Jon

[06:23] - Is the increase in videos and images in search results relevant?

[10:05] - How Coy Wolf started.

[17:29] - What signals are becoming stronger over the last year?

[18:50] - One interesting thing Jon has observed in the rankings.

[24:16] - Coy Wolf's other experiments.

[37:30] - A tactic for reputation management.

[56:07] - Did search visibility for professional news & review sites increase?

[1:01:42] - Can dot-com quality help?

[1:07:00] - How Jon sets up his hosting.

Resources mentioned:

https://www.coywolf.news/

https://coywolf.app/

https://coywolf.pro/

https://coywolf.reviews/

https://coywolf.surf/

I think the latest algorithm update probably hit on things that may have to do with how much time people spend on the content before they actually click back to the search result.–Jon Henshaw, 26:38

I definitely do the experiment and do things that many people within our field would consider not best practices. Never seen that before, or I certainly wouldn't advise doing that. But, I've learned from it that there are some things I now would suggest or recommend because it's not as bad as you thought they might be.–Jon Henshaw. 54:14

It reminds me of the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Every mountain starts with a speck of dust, right, so Kaizen's at the thousandth step. But you have to start with step one, and you just grow and grow slowly and slowly over time. –Loren Baker, 50:43

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Jon Henshaw:

Jon brings an unmatched combination of experience and expertise to the world of digital marketing and web technologies. He founded Raven Tools, which became widely used in the industry after selling it to TapClicks in 2017.

He's also no stranger to the big screen, having worked with Fortune 500 companies throughout his career. Currently, he is the Principal SEO analyst at Paramount, where you can find him directing and overseeing streaming services of Paramount+, Pluto TV, Showtime, and CBS.

Also, as Editor-In-Chief of CoyWolf, he ensures that all stories are reported with rigorous journalistic integrity.

Connect with Jon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonhenshaw/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/henshaw

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

Thinking about implementing a four-day work week?

In this episode, Joe O'Connor of 4DayWeek.com joined me to discuss implementing a four-day week and why CEOs and HR managers should consider trying it. We also discussed the global momentum around the shift in thinking amongst companies.

Offering flexible working or remote working used to be a competitive advantage. It's not anymore. It's now a standard expectation.–Joe O'Connor, 13:53

And part of the beauty around this is the quid pro quo. You know, it is the idea that this is for many leaders that have done this. They've described it as the cheapest, most efficient process improvement strategy we have ever deployed.–Joe O'Connor, 34:44

We're going to be trying the four-day work week, and we're going to be sharing how it's worked for us. Just like we've been sharing things like being a digital-first company that has always been a virtual workplace.–Loren Baker, 40:32

[00:00] - A little about Joe and the four-day workweek

[04:01] - Is a 3-day weekend a great incentivizing force?

[06:15] - Does it level the playing ground with gender equality?

[13:10] - Why is the four-day work week suddenly taking off?

[17:00] - How does it differ amongst countries?

[21:35] - Recommended tools for outdated ways of working.

[25:21] - How do you make the most of someone's natural productivity.

[26:40] - Misconceptions about shutting down the company on a Friday or a Monday.

[31:53] - Learn from a study from a company that moved to a four-day work week.

People said their output, expectations, and responsibilities are the same as before we took reduced work time. And they're the same as our five-day colleagues. So what does that tell us? It tells us two things. First, we've got a gender equality problem in the workplace. Secondly, Parkinson's Law is the idea that the length of time that you've got available to complete a task that a task will expand to fill the time available for its completion. And that's something that drives the philosophy behind the four-day workweek movement.–Joe O'Connor, 05:20

It seemed like the first one, and last one out was that indicator of who was working the hardest, and not necessarily the indicator of who was working the smartest.–Loren Baker, 15:15

People's priorities have changed. For many people, the pandemic has forced them to realign how they value different things within their lives and what they think constitutes a reasonable life-work balance.–Joe O'Connor, 20:12

Resources mentioned:

https://www.4dayweek.com/

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Joe O'Connor:

Joe O'Connor is a driven and dynamic campaigner with extensive leadership experience in campaign work and organizational transitions. His passion lies with social justice issues that pertain to economic empowerment for all people globally - he's 4 Day Week Global CEO!

Right now, Joe is leading 4 Day Week Global's pilot program, with 150 companies launching six-month coordinated trials of the four-day week in the first half of 2022 alone. These trials involve 7,000 employees from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

​​Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-o-connor-81704287/

Follow him on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/joeoc99

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

SEO has become a major part of marketing strategies in the past decade.

As Google's ranking algorithms continue to improve and change over time, businesses across all industries must now put more resources into other growth tactics that will keep them going.

In this episode, Mark Spera joined me to talk about Merchant Center, Growth Marketing beyond long-term SEO investment, the marriage of AI and Content Marketing, and how to speed up SEO and work smartly.

After 2020, SEO wasn't really always about ranking and traffic. It was about driving leads, sales, conversions, whatever it may be. And there's more to growth than just organic alone.–Loren Baker, 05:04

Distribution and partnerships are everything, and that's the lowest cost per acquisition way of getting out there. –Mark Spera, 14:36

If you're writing tons of content and it's a major way that you're driving, traffic and conversions on your site, the Growth Bar is for you.–Mark Spera, 11:10

[00:00] - A little about Mark.

[02:44] - Find out about Growth Marketing Pro.

[05:04] - Ways to grow a company.

[09:53] - What does Growth Bar do?

[12:58] - What kind of companies does Growth Bar work with?

[14:21] - Growth strategies Mark has used that helped companies.

[18:03] - Is it advisable to use AI tools to generate 100% of your content?

[21:34] - What Mark is doing to give back.

[23:28] - How AI can play a part in overall marketing besides SEO.

Resources mentioned:

Growth Marketing Pro - https://www.growthmarketingpro.com/

Growth Bar - https://www.growthbarseo.com/

It really all comes down to an LTV thing. How much are you spending to get a lead? How much does that lead give you sometimes SEO's the answer, and sometimes it's not. I think one of the most overlooked channels, in general, is wholesale or just larger-scale distribution.–Mark Spera, 06:40

On dwell time, like Google is kind of like watching and seeing how humans are interacting with your site. So at the end of the day, if the AI is not as good as human-created content, it's not gonna rank. It's just that simple.

AI isn't gonna replace human content yet. I mean, there is, there's a future probably where this will happen, but I, that future isn't now, and there's not a single AI writing tool out there. I, I know because I've tried them, all that is going to like completely replace, what a human can do.–Mark Spera, 12:01

We're not talking about the AI being a replacement for writing, we're talking about AI being kind of an assistant or a proven assistant. –Loren Baker., 11:47

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Mark Spera:

Hard work, perseverance, and success are the hallmarks of Mark's story. Several years ago, he started a blog called Growth Marketing Pro to share his marketing and business growth knowledge - which has now become a six-figure passive income business!

Previously, he led growth marketing for venture-backed startups in San Francisco. All of this also led to the co-founding of GrowthBar, a tool for bloggers and content teams. His love for pizza was probably a big part of it, too!

​​Connect with Mark on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-spera-90a62322/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/growthmktingpro

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

So, you want to promote your products online. Are you ready?

Google Merchant Center is the future of ecommerce when it comes to both PPC AND SEO (including local). It is the first step to launching Shopping Ad campaigns for your products.

In this episode, Duane Brown joined me to talk about Merchant Center, its data, the importance of feeds, and the all-around Google Shopping experience for Google's users.

Your shopping feed is the most important thing you could work on, and it sets you apart from your competition because most people are not going to work on it. Admittedly, it's a bit tedious, but it's a tedious, boring work that gets you ahead.–Duane Brown, 20:53

Google really wants to build an Amazon type of marketplace, and we all know that Amazon is all about the lowest price at the end of the day.–Duane Brown, 40:34

I believe that Merchant Center is a hybrid of organic and shopping that may be used in the future for organic results and shopping ads. So keep an eye on that. –Loren Baker, 24:43

[00:00] - A little about Duane.

[03:07] - Does Duane do ads outside of Google Shopping?

[04:26] - What's exciting in the Google ad scene right now?

[07:41] - Emerging ad platforms.

[11:38] - Why is Merchant Center important?

[13:51] - Should SEO be involved in the Merchant Center?

[17:33] - Tips for feed management.

[21:22] - How to be considered a Google Shopping ranking factor.

[22:58] - How important is shipping-time data?

[27:22] - Recommended apps for smaller ecommerce stores.

[29:10] - How important are tools?

[33:17] - Why are search engines going feed-based?

[35:26] - Merchant Center suggestion for a motorcycle dealership.

[38:38] - Additional tips & techniques for Google Merchant Center.

[41:58] - Can you sell services with Google Shopping?

Resources mentioned:

Google Merchant Center - https://www.google.com/retail/solutions/merchant-center/

Triple Whale - https://trytriplewhale.com/

Take Some Risk - https://www.takesomerisk.com

Suppose you're going to run shopping ads. Whether it's paid shopping ads or you want to be on the shopping tab, which is free, you definitely need a Merchant Center to have a place to store your data.–Duane Brown, 12:26

Retention is just becoming a bigger thing. Google realizes that if we want to have people with a better experience, we need to think about retention. –Duane Brown, 26:36

You build a business. It's that second purchase, that third purchase, that fourth purchase –well, you turn them from a customer to a brand loyalist. That's a goal. That's the dream. –Loren Baker, 28:52

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Duane Brown:

Duane is a global citizen with 14 years of experience working across digital marketing and branding for clients, including ASOS, Walmart, Jack Wills, WooCommerce, RockerBox, and Wea.

Duane's story is one of hard work, dedication, and success. So far, his globetrotting has taken him places like Australia, where he worked at Telstra; London, the UK, working on brands such Mopp & Grant Thornton. He left London after ten weeks to go to Asia, then back home in Canada, where he landed a job at Unbounce.

With this opportunity came more opportunities that led him down the path toward running an advertising agency that helps ecommerce, DTC, and SaaS brands scale PPC and paid-to-advertise.

When Duane is not working, he travels somewhere new, checks out a restaurant on his bicycle, or delves into a book that caught his eye.

​​Connect with Duane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanebrown/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/duanebrown

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

Constantly looking for ways to optimize your ad spend? Dreaming of a high-ROI paid advertising future? We've got great news — The future is now.

Big changes are on the horizon, and we know how to amplify your ad potential into high-quality leads.

John Lee, Microsoft Ads' Head of Evangelism at Microsoft, joined me on the SEJ Show to talk about the future of ad exchanges and their ability to supercharge your potential to thrive with high-performance, low-resource programmatic advertising.

People do hop, skip and jump around, so there are all kinds of opportunities to target consumers throughout their decision journey, and Microsoft advertising is a significant piece.–John Lee, 11:25

When people think Microsoft, a big chunk of the time, people assume enterprise business, B2B, and that's the tried and true. While that's still a significant portion of the bottom line for Microsoft, the consumer matters greatly, whether that's gaming or devices.–John Lee, 22:46

There's this shift in behavior online. We're seeing effectively a new persona emerge. –John Lee, 46:05

[00:00] - A little about John Lee.

[05:35] - How does the Microsoft advertising ecosystem look like?

[07:25] - Where to find traditional advertising beyond Bing?

[09:38] - What you can find in the display component of Microsoft.

[12:02] - Targeting in LinkedIn with Microsoft advertising.

[17:13] - Are Microsoft advertising ads shown within the X-box experience?

[23:52] - Important & growing vertical industries that Microsoft has focused on.

[31:22] - Are people still scrolling down and clicking on organic links in the SERPS?

[37:45] - How important are images in search advertising?

[45:26] - The new emerging personas.

Resources mentioned:

Viva Goals - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/viva/goals/intro-to-ms-viva-goals

Microsoft Game Pass - https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/pc-game-pass/cfq7ttc0kgq8?icid=CNavAllPCGamePass

Bing Webmaster Tools - https://www.bing.com/webmasters/about

Shutterstock - https://www.shutterstock.com/

All of these other developments, these feed-based elements are new flavors and additional flavors to make an amazing user experience. Whether you're talking SEO or paid ads, all of it is working together to create an on-point user experience on the server, whether that's Google, whether that's Bing.–John Lee, 34:28

There's a lot happening in the verticals space, and that's really just the tip of the iceberg. –John Lee, 28:22

Just as a reminder to all of you out there that are SEOs and are running websites. All of your sites do have a feed. It's called an XML sitemap. Make sure it's updated. Google is able to fetch it and not serve errors. All of these engines work off of feeds. Also, don't be afraid to submit your RSS feeds for your blog categories into the search console as well. Mimic that within Webmaster Tools on the Bing side too. Search engines have gone very feed friendly. This is the way to go. It's also the way to go from an advertising perspective.–Loren Baker, 33:08

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 John Lee:

John Lee's enthusiasm for digital marketing is infectious, and he has the knowledge to match. He's been at it for years, and he knows how to get results—both as an entrepreneur himself with Clix Marketing (which he co-founded) or in his current role as Head of Evangelism at Microsoft Advertising.

He has a great deal of experience with search engine marketing, display advertising, and social media marketing–Content creator, speaker, trainer, and fan of all things digital (marketing and technology).

Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejohnalee/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/John_A_Lee

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

SEJ is thrilled to announce that Amanda Zantal-Wiener is our Editor-In-Chief!

This is a newly created role focused heavily on leadership and strategy. Amanda will be overseeing the entire editorial team and guiding us into our exciting future.

Amanda joined me to talk about her new role, content strategy, leadership, and how a solid content strategy, married with a strong editorial team, can empower and inspire your team.

Before coming to SEJ, Amanda served as Senior Deputy Editor and Content Manager for HubSpot's social media team.

SEJ is in this critical moment of growth and scale where it's an extremely important time but an extremely exciting time to be entering this environment because it is a time of great change with maybe a few growing pains. So it's really being able to see the impact you're going to have on this growth and evolution for SEJ, specifically as it evolves from a blog to a full-fledged media presence, a full-fledged publication. –Amanda Zantal-Wiener, 20:01

I love a good corporate culture that doesn't need a handbook to tell people how to have a good corporate culture. –Loren Baker, 22:57

There's a lot of opportunity in broadening the view that a publication has of news and creating editorial content that is not necessarily breaking but is still timely and relevant and therefore newsworthy, and that gives you a little bit more time to really sit with information and think about what it really means and add different perspectives to it. –Amanda Zantal-Wiener, 49:11

[00:00] - About Amanda.

[08:08] - How Amanda got to Hubspot.

[14:52] - What are Amanda's management & leadership philosophies.

[18:59] - What attracted her to the SEJ's Editor-In-Chief role?

[26:17] - Are there differences in goals with a publishing company vs. a tool company?

[35:27] - What else is she bringing into this new role?

[41:40] - What to keep in mind when writing content, and do AI tools have a place?

[48:17] - Where will she steer SEJ editorial?

That's what was what drew me to SEJ's environment. In particular, it seemed like an environment where there were a lot of strong-minded smart people. Everybody I interviewed listened. So being able to come from that strong stance and that strong point of view with respect was something that stood out to me during the interview process, and that's not an environment, and that's not a workplace dynamic that you find in too many places –Amanda Zantal-Wiener, 21:06

Everything is so multi-pronged now. You have to have a multi-channel approach to content strategy, or else you're going to fall behind the start line. That is probably the biggest difference: you have to keep brand awareness in mind, brand recognition, brand recall, thought leadership, and all of those things. –Amanda Zantal-Wiener, 29:24

As long as you have that audience, you could always introduce new components and new things.–Loren Baker, 34:02

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Amanda Zantal-Wiener:

Amanda brings a wide array of experience to the table. From HubSpot, she has worked as an editor and writer for companies such as Fast Company and EcoSalon. In addition, her byline can be found in various media outlets, including Thrillist.

SEJ is fortunate to have Amanda on board as Editor-In-Chief. Her expertise in content strategy and editorial work with solid teams of writers and editors makes her ideal for the challenges we face as an organization navigating constantly changing media landscapes, where relevance is key!

​​Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandazantalwiener/

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

Find her works on her website: https://www.amandazw.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

Can't you just call Google and tell them we want to be on the first page?

We just changed keyword strategies last week. Where is our uptick in traffic?

I've just read an article that says we should do x, y, z, and now I'm the expert. Sound familiar?

Whether you're at an SEO agency or in-house, it can feel challenging to set and keep SEO expectations in check with reality.

Helping non-SEO pros understand your long plays is easier said than done – or is it?

Grant Simmons, Director of SEO at ClickFluent Consulting, joined me to discuss how to position yourself as the thought leader for your department, clients, and shareholders and stay positive.

There's that disconnect between what agencies think about in-house people. –Grant Simmons, 10:49

Make sure expectations are met. That's essentially the job, and you sell it. You make sure people understand what was sold, and you make sure they know what they're going to get, and then you have to deliver it. And if you can't deliver it, as I said before, communication is key, just letting them know when. –Grant Simmons, 7:15

There are a lot of folks I know that are independent SEOs or consultants that get a contract. They do the audit, and they're done. There's no value there. I mean, there's some value that may be in the audit itself. Still, the ability to continuously keep communication going is gone. –Loren Baker, 8:14

[00:00] - Grant's background in search marketing.

[05:00] - What Grant has learned on the agency side helped him in-house and vice versa.

[18:29] - Tips for anyone looking to transition from consultant or agency to in-house.

[21:41] - Why Grant hired multiple agencies & tips for handling them.

[26:02] - Opportunities in media & non-digital partnerships.

[28:32] - The example of haunted.com

[41:25] - How to assess the ROI from an agency.

[44:36] - Recommendations for agencies before signing on to projects.

[47:46] - How important is it to focus on local SEO?

[50:00] - Does Grant believe in pilot programs or Requests For Proposals (RFP)?

[59:29] - Grant's favorite acronym.

[1:04:48] - Words of wisdom to anyone in the job market.

I'd be really rich if I were paid a million dollars for my million-dollar ideas. So your idea is only worth the time coming up with that. –Grant Simmons, 55:32

If you are in-house, listen to your agency. If you're an agency, do what's best for your client, and if that means that you can't implement it as you said, you just tell them to know you're not going to. –Grant Simmons, 37:53

Empowering your clients to understand what should be prioritized and how that project has come about is from understanding their expectations. It means tailoring what you pitch to them to ensure that it aligns and letting them choose from ideas prioritized toward the outcomes they want. The outcomes they can justify internally to give you more work. It's the great thing about being an SEO, and you don't have to understand your client's business 100%; you just have to understand what your client needs from SEO for that business. –Grant Simmons, 38:32

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Grant Simmons:

Grant's expertise in SEO is unparalleled. He has an extensive background that includes roles with major companies like Clickfluent and Homes.

Throughout his 35-year career in marketing, Grant has focused on digital channels and collaborative SEO. His performance-based successes allow him to work with local companies and global ones for both small businesses looking at optimization needs and large corporations that need assistance managing their search engine rankings.

He also describes himself as an ex-pat with a funny accent.

​​Connect with Grant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simmonet/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/simmonet

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 is always looking for ways to push the limits and make its search engine more intelligent.

Dr. Pete Meyers from Moz joined me to talk about how you can optimize your site to better represent itself within Google's search results, including title tags, featured snippets, indented results, and other Google SERP real estate opportunities.

If you want to rank higher in Google search results, this is the episode for you! Get insights that will help you improve your online visibility and give users the correct information they need when they're searching.

There's more volatility, and it's harder to pin down any one thing. And now we have Google saying something like three to 4000 changes a year. Ten a day on average. –Dr. Pete Meyers, 9:00

I see more and more of a trend to push people down Google from broad informational queries to something more commercially actionable, something lower in the funnel. Google is trying to drive you from, you know, refrigerator to refrigerator freezer, side by side in Chrome. To the point where the ads are going to be more effective. –Dr. Pete Meyers, 19:00

First of all, make sure that your new SEO KPI is on your phone team. It's making sure that there's someone there to pick up the phone. –Loren Baker, 42:10

[06:40] - What attracted Dr. Pete to Moz.

[08:59] - Are there more changes to Google's forecasts?

[11:35] - Changes at Google that are positively impacting site owners.

[16:32] - Should SEO professionals learn to work within the Google ecosystem?

[23:21] - Should you go into the hybrid approach of PPC and organic?

[25:15] - Is Domain Authority a Google metric or Moz metric?

[28:10] - How to define authority in search.

[29:13] - The difference between domain authority and page authority.

[31:06] - If a brand is searched more, does visibility in unbranded terms increase too?

[37:57] - What components of SEO should not be overlooked?

[45:16] - Changes Google made that changed site owner or user behavior.

[52:23] - Is SEO going to be left behind with Web 3.0?

[57:13] - Does Google rotate the top 10 results?

Resources Mentioned:

Moz SEO Tools & Software: https://moz.com/

As long as there are places to find things, people who want to see things, and other people who want to be found, there will be SEO, shape, or form. What it looks like and how we do it is going to change. –Dr. Pete Meyers, 53:11

I've wanted Search Engine Journal to be about search engines, not just about SEO, or paid search, because I believe Search engines are the glue that holds the internet together. And whatever site you're on, you have to find what you're looking for. So there's SEO and paid search for everything. –Loren Baker, 55:22

I don't think we understand how much things change. And it isn't just Google putting switches, you know, the world is changing, our intent changing from day to day as new information comes in. –Dr. Pete Meyers, 1:01:28

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Dr. Pete Meyer:

When you want to know what's going on with Google, Dr. Pete has your back! He spends his days working as a Marketing Scientist for Moz in Seattle. His work involves monitoring changes made by algorithms from periods spanning 2002 up until today - so trust us when we say this guy knows his stuff!

In addition to being a computer scientist, Dr. Pete is also a psychologist and entrepreneur! After growing an event start-up in his early years, he joined Moz. In his day-to-day responsibilities, he works with the marketing and data science teams to develop product research and data-driven content.

​​Connect with Dr. Pete on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drpete/

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dr_pete

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

Whether you're in B2B or B2C, LinkedIn is the place to network with colleagues, peers, mentors, and your customers.

Jessica Foster, the Senior SEO Strategist at Media Monks and Founder of Keys & Copy, joined me to talk about LinkedIn optimization tips and strategies.

We discussed enhancing your LinkedIn profile to make better connections and drive more leads.

There are not many people who are writing about LinkedIn SEO or even considering LinkedIn as a search algorithm algorithmically driven platform. –Jessica Foster, 05:06

If you can grow your following and your influence, you can generate leads through LinkedIn and not just use it for applying for jobs. –Jessica Foster, 13:40

Linkedin, by far, gets us the most ebook downloads and the most newsletter subscriptions from all of these micro-events that we've set up for tracking on SEJ. So LinkedIn outperforms any other social media looking at the user's numbers and quality. –Loren Baker, 15:15

[00:00] - About Jessica.

[03:26] - Difference between content optimization and SEO.

[12:13] - How did LinkedIn get so popular again?

[19:03] - How the algorithm works in LinkedIn.

[25:47] - Get insights from Jessica's LinkedIn profile walkthrough.

[31:33] - How important is filling in skills & endorsements?

[34:43] - How to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

[40:34] - Should you link back to original articles on LinkedIn?

[42:16] - Things Jessica enjoys doing outside of SEO.

Resources mentioned:

Keys and Copy: https://keysandcopy.com/

People are craving a little bit of professionalism on social media. –Loren Baker, 16:56

I honestly find LinkedIn to be refreshing. It's a little less of people fighting out in the comments. But, for the most part, it's people sharing precious insights and genuinely looking for networking opportunities with people in their industry. –Jessica Foster, 17:02

If you have a limited scope of connections, don't let that stop you from engaging with other content publishers on the platform and publishing your content because it can increase. –Jessica Foster, 25:18

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

Are you looking to keep up with current and effective 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 Jessica Foster:

Jessica is the Senior SEO Strategist at Media Monks and has founded her own company, Keys & Copy.

She has extensive experience in SEO and copywriting and knows what it takes to create content that will attract and engage your target audience.

Jessica, who possesses both original ideas and solid strategies, helps clients rank highly on Google using her unique skills.

​​Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica--foster/

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

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