Search Engine Journal Show

Third-party cookies are on their way out, but the deep-data connection to your future audience isn't gone for good.

This shift to first-party data allows you to pinpoint and own your audience's valid preferences, giving you greater control over your content strategy, customer experience, and marketing journey.

First-party cookies are now your golden ticket to the perfect user experience and higher conversions.

But how do you get your email subscribers to share their preferences with your brand?

How do you get the information you need to customize their experience?

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs and Wall Street Journal's bestselling author, joined me on the SEJ Show to give you proven steps to gather first-party cookies.

In this podcast, you'll learn to connect with your audience, maintain relevant marketing campaigns, and nurture your owned audience to conversion.

When I look at that cookie or the idea of a post-cookie world, and when I look more holistically at what's going on in digital marketing, I think that we have an opportunity to not think about the death of cookies like it's death (in some ways it is because we're losing that access to bits of third-party data) but actually to reframe it as an opportunity to reboot our customer relationships. –Ann Handley, 25:32

Email is new again. –Ann Handley, 23:09

Sometimes there's an over-compensation for the short term instead of playing the long game. Playing the long game is what we can do from a content perspective.–Loren Baker, 48:07

[00:00] - Ann Handley's background.

[06:25] - Pillars to create great content.

[09:24] - Example of an airline using good content.

[12:18] - Are avatars important when you're writing?

[13:15] - Our job as marketers when it comes to writing.

[16:40] - Google vs. Safari dropping the third-party cookies.

[16:67] - How to relate your content to something newsworthy.

[21:46] - Tips for getting emails opened and adding value to your list.

[30:43] - Companies that humanized their approach to content.

[33:00] - An example of how JetBlue approaches its content.

[36:07] - Ann's thoughts on building subscriber lists on social media channels.

[40:18] - Other ways to use email newsletter lists.

[51:32] - Content marketing ideas to take "offline".

[52:28] - A nice example of print content.

[62:38] - How do you communicate your content to people?

Resources Mentioned:

Road ID - https://www.roadid.com/

Books: Everybody Writes & Content Rules - https://annhandley.com/books/

Marketing Profs - https://www.marketingprofs.com/

Part of the reason I believe so strongly in email and whether it's a post-cookie world or not is because it's such a tremendous opportunity to connect directly with one person at one time. –Ann Handley, 24:08

It's going to cut down on the amount of retargeting, remarketing, and data that third parties have about you, but first parties may be able to have it.–Loren Baker, 18:35

Instead of approaching your marketing with this level of anxiety…If we've done our jobs right from a content and an SEO standpoint, it will ultimately pay off in the long term. I think sometimes the reason that short-term thinking happens is that we have this anxiety around it.–Ann Handley, 48:32

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 Ann Handley:

​​Ann is a pioneer in the world of digital marketing. A Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author, LinkedIn Influencer and Writer, partner at MarketingProfs, and Founder of ClickZ, she has made an indelible mark on how we think about content and marketing.

She has handled the tough topics of writing and content marketing with finesse. As an expert in her field, she has authored two best-selling books, "Everybody Writes" and "Content Rules."

Her influence extends beyond being a speaker and author, as Ann has guided many companies to develop marketing strategies that work.

Connect with Ann on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annhandley/

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

Visit her website: https://annhandley.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

2022 is here and so is the era of machine-influenced SEO.

With so many new algorithm changes, futuristic "AI" theories, and the importance of user intent pulling at your attention, how do you know what to focus your energies on?

What strategies will help you dominate on the SERPs and earn more revenue in 2022?

Miranda Miller, Managing Editor at Search Engine Journal, joins me on the SEJ Show to help give you a clear north star into SEO for 2022.

In this podcast, you'll discover the top trends as well as gain valuable insights from our ebook that tapped into 44 of our industry's top SEO professionals.

The generation that grew up with the internet, digital natives, are looking for change, they're looking for something that's different from the status quo. –Loren Baker. 10:08

It's super important to make sure that the information you're relying on to formulate your own strategy is credible. It changes quickly, so make sure you're not going off something that happened five years ago. I think we're only going to see that pace of change speed up this year, so keep your ongoing learning sharp.–Miranda Miller, 50:03

The one thing I always tell people about SEO is you have to be on top of trends, you have to be on top of things that are new, you just have to stay ahead of the curve.–Loren Baker, 50:20

[00:00] - About Miranda's background in SEO.

[04:47] - How did SEJ find the contributors for SEO Trends 2022?

[06:00] - What are the SEO tactics to throw out in 2022?

[08:53] - IndexNow: An important topic to look out for.

[15:38] - Trend: EAT and quality content.

[19:42] - Is EAT an extension of the Google Authorship Program?

[23:15] - Can you have content quality without EAT?

[24:00] - Will human SEOs be replaced by AI?

[27:06] - Practical examples of using AI.

[29:43] - All about visual content, images, and the need to be original.

[40:55] - What will MUM bring us this year?

[49:32] - Other trends to keep an eye on.

Resources mentioned:

SEO Trends Ebook

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-trends-2022/

How To Use Python For IndexNow API Bulk Indexing & Automation

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/indexnow-api-python/429726/

Ranking Factors Ebook

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ranking-factors/

There's so much content on the web now that the bar is high, like average is not good enough anymore. So if you're creating average content, you're gonna get average ranking – someone's doing better than you.–Miranda Miller, 20:32

We're on the verge of going from predominantly one search engine to many search engines. It just feels that way. And we're at a time of change right now – with things like crypto, the metaverse, web three, I haven't seen this much excitement since the late 90s.–Loren Baker, 9:32

I think one thing that Google has done over the past couple of years, which has been fantastic with their updates, especially your money, your life, or your health-oriented updates, is making sure that the information that people are reading is coming from a credible source.–Loren Baker, 18:21

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 Miranda Miller:

Miranda is a talented writer, editor, and marketer with over 15 years of experience in the digital space. Her passion lies in the planning and execution of engaging content for SMBs as well as enterprise-level organizations looking to reach out into their communities through content.

SEJ is lucky to have such a passionate and dedicated Managing Editor in Miranda Miller. She's made it her life's work, not only working as an entrepreneur but also raising children while traveling around on occasion!

Connect with Miranda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandamillerwrites/

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

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

The key to local business success: Be the first to use Google's newest marketing features in your area.

Get more traffic in the door, get your business noticed faster, and outrank your competition.

Amanda Jordan, Director of Digital Strategy for RicketyRoo Inc., joined me to discuss the easiest ways to incorporate the new Google Local and Google Maps features into your local SEO strategy.

The pandemic, changing search habits, and more people shopping locally have driven the need for local businesses to have a strong presence in the search results.

Google Business Profile and other local features are vital to adapting to these changes.

In this podcast, you'll learn how to grow your local business with a few tweaks on Google Local, Google Maps, and Google Business Profile.

Local search ads are becoming a bigger part of the local SEO landscape and search results. You can see them pop up at the top of the page. They show up in the google maps app and mobile now. –Amanda Jordan, 25:33

Every time I've seen someone go from no Google business profile to a cool business profile, or even just adding anything like that, there's a huge amount of growth because essentially you've just made yourself visible to lots of people that didn't even know you existed before. –Amanda Jordan, 58:54

The more thorough and valuable your reviews are, the more of an impact it does have on your ability to rank. –Amanda Jordan, 19:55

[00:00] - A little about Amanda's background.

[02:00] - The most impactful changes on Google Maps.

[07:45] - How often should you update your Google Business Profile?

[10:44] - Does posting updates on Google Business Profile give you an advantage?

[12:58] - Should you build a website within Google Business Profile?

[14:48] - How to motivate customers to leave positive reviews on Google.

[20:58] - The missed opportunity with social media and SEO.

[25:28] - Ad opportunities in Google Local.

[29:32] - Where Google Local is going in 2022.

[36:50] - How to educate clients about local SEO changes and get buy-in.

[44:00] - Should a local business use professional photos, and is video important?

[48:42] - A recommended platform for UTM tracking for local.

[50:17] - Where should local businesses build links?

[51:30] - How to handle clients who insist on keyword stuffing their business profiles.

[56:45] - Do you need a Google Business Profile if you don't have a brick-and-mortar location?

Resources Mentioned:

Claire's Guide to UTM Tagging: https://www.clairecarlilemarketing.com/resources/claires-complete-guide-to-utm-tagging-for-gmb/

It's good just to have something up there that's recent and current just because It'll help you stand out. –Amanda Jordan, 11:35

A lot of times, we see social media and SEO as two completely separate things, but they can inform each other. They both give you data about who your customers are, how they found you, why they like you, and what they're interested in. –Amanda Jordan, 22:01

A lot of times, especially with local SEO and the focus on reviews and things like that, we can forget about the technical elements or not be as confident in our ability to handle them. I think it's perfectly normal but I think that's a place where a lot of technical and local SEOs can grow. –Amanda Jordan, 40:40

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 Jordan:

Amanda has extensive experience designing campaigns, including web development and SEO, and is very talented and creative.

She began her SEO career in 2011 and has enjoyed tackling complex problems for clients. Her specialty is local SEO for legal and enterprise companies. In her free time, Amanda enjoys playing with her dogs and beating her son at Mario Kart.

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-jordan-96797686/

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

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

On-demand indexing is here.

Control when Bing, Yandex – and soon, Google – discover new and updated content now lies in your hands.

Fabrice Canel, Principal Program Manager for Microsoft Bing, joins me to discuss how IndexNow works and how to incorporate it into your SEO strategy.

IndexNow will be a great way to notify search engines of all content changes on the internet. Adoption and announcements are slated for 2022, so search engines can index content faster.

In this podcast, you'll learn why search engines are adopting IndexNow, how to adapt to this change and use it to your advantage.

What we don't want to accelerate is the crawler, we want to slow down crawling and we want to be notified about what to crawl. –Fabrice Canel, 48:50

IndexNow really fixed the real-time discovery issues that we were having of not discovering what's happening on the internet. It's here to be aware of each and every URL on the internet.–Fabrice Canel, 31:40

We want to make businesses successful by getting their latest content without crawling too much. –Fabrice Canel, 29:39

[00:00] - Meet Fabrice. [02:18] - Which search engines use Bing Webmaster Tools for discoverability? [07:23] - An advantage of IndexNow. [07:55] - The difference between crawling and IndexNow. [10:57] - Does Bing still crawl after an alert? [12:48] - Cloudflare as a partner and the challenges you can overcome with IndexNow. [14:27] - Will smaller sites be able to adopt IndexNow? [17:24] - How will IndexNow affect ecommerce sites? [22:12] - Examples of non-meaningful changes. [23:16] - Do you still need a sitemap? [24:40] - If you sign up for IndexNow, will your site still be crawled as often? [26:06] - The end goal for IndexNow. [26:57] - Are there any sites that shouldn't use IndexNow? [34:10] - How long will it take to index web pages with IndexNow? [35:56] - How Google's experiment with IndexNow is going. [40:42] - Can IndexNow identify new image and video files? [42:17] - Is the news using IndexNow? [47:31] - Having IndexNow as an opt-out.

Resources Mentioned: https://www.indexnow.org/ https://www.bing.com/indexnow

Adoption of the IndexNow is super easy. You just set up your own key on the site.–Fabrice Canel, 16:26

Let's make 2022 the year of slowing down crawling and a better crawl budget.–Loren Baker, 48:57

If we can have one uniform language or one uniform style of feed or API call to update everything, I think you're definitely on to something.–Loren Baker, 44:14

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 Fabrice Canel:

Fabrice Canel works on the most exciting team at Microsoft: The Bing team. Each day hundreds of billions of new pages appear on the web, and hundreds of billions of previously-existing pages are updated with new content.

Indexing and crawling the web is a large-scale distributed task that requires speed, precision, and comprehensiveness. With over 24 years of experience at Microsoft, this is what he enjoys doing.

Connect with Fabrice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricecanel/ Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/facan

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

Want to improve your video SEO strategy so your videos rank better? Video is hot right now, and the competition is steep.

That's why you'll want to watch this recent live show with Paul Andre de Vera, Search Marketing Global Lead at Workday and founder of the SEO Video Show. Paul and our Founder, Loren Baker, are talking about ways to optimize your video SEO strategy for higher rankings!

It's never been more important to treat your YouTube channel like a website that you optimize for SEO.

This episode is filled with tips and insights into how SEO blends with YouTube, and how to grow your YouTube presence.

In my research, I found that it takes about 16 months for someone to reach 1,000 subscribers and get monetization. That 4,000 hours, I was able to get that within about six months. –Paul Andre de Vera, 42:48

You can learn by teaching, you can learn by researching, and then you can learn by interviewing others as I do on my show. I can pick the brains of all the SEO professionals there. It is one of those things where I can increase my knowledge by having great conversations with people. –Paul Andre de Vera, 3:08

Sometimes, we think a lot more about sales than we do retention in marketing. Retention and engagement are what bring future growth. So hitting that base, letting them in like, "Hey, you're VIPs!" and you can see this ahead of time lets everyone else feel special by doing so.–Loren Baker, 27:22

[00:01] - How Dre got into SEO & what motivated him to launch his own YouTube show.

[09:39] - Where Andre gets ideas for his show.

[11:21] - How to deal with content burnout.

[12:28] - How to keep content fresh.

[14:19] - Where Andre gets inspiration from.

[16:43] - Do user signals help you grow your channel?

[17:57] - How to use SEO to establish your channel.

[19:26] - How to rank your videos.

[32:36] - How Andre expands his audience.

[34:31] - How to be unique on YouTube.

[37:04] - Why you should put hashtags in the title and description.

[39:43] - The essential entities to tie together.

[41:04] - A knowledge bomb for YouTube keyword research.

[42:19] - Other video promotion strategies for those starting a channel from scratch.

[44:54] - How regionally targeted is YouTube?

[48:55] - Does Andre split test on YouTube?

[50:28] - The importance of thumbnails.

[52:04] - How to train the YouTube algorithm.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.vmix.com/

https://netflixtechblog.com/

The audience is what keeps me coming back. Being stuck at home was one of those things where it became therapy.–Paul Andre de Vera, 30:04

So many times in advertising and marketing, we hear people saying new audience, new users, new sales, and bypassing the power of targeting your audience. –Loren Baker, 26:59

Grow your channel on the same platform that you're on. For example, give me a podcast guest if you have a podcast. If you have a YouTube channel, engage with other YouTube channels so you can bring that crowd quickly to your channel. –Paul Andre de Vera, 04:39

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 Paul Andre de Vera:

Through his two YouTube channels, SEO Video Show and DRE TV, Andre combines the best of both worlds in SEO and YouTube. He has a diverse background, having worked for 15 years in SEO, and he is also currently specializing in personal branding and public speaking. He balances his work as a digital marketing consultant with his full-time role as Workday's Search Marketing Global Lead.

The SEO Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf99ytepIJxWaTtH06KfkHA

Connect with Andre on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulandre

Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/paulandre

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

Creating content and want to know what was trending in search last week, month, or year? Google Trends can help you find useful and timely data. But how do you use it effectively?

If you want to create content that stays ahead of the curve, keeping up with the latest trends is an absolute must. And our guest has some insider tips to help you.

Having formerly held SEO roles at some of the world's biggest publications, Louisa Frahm knows news SEO. And she knows how to use trends to her advantage.

Now, she's now a Trends Curator at Google. And she joins Loren Baker to discuss Google Trends and how you can use it to plan your content.

What makes Google Trends so useful is that it shows exactly what people have searched for in the last hour, or whatever time frame, catch hot news items, plan your marketing strategies, and more. Find out how to push your content to the top by using the unique features of Google Trends.

As Google Trends curators, we're data journalists. It's all about mining through so much data in terms of search queries and what people are interested in at any given time. It's sifting through that and putting it together in an easy-to-understand way for the general public.– Louisa Frahm, 11:30

The real-time insights that you're getting from Google Trends, that just sets them apart from everything. –Louisa Frahm, 29:25

I really like the way that you can drill down on the local level to pull some of the trend information.–Loren Baker, 14:04

[00:01] – How Louisa landed a job at Google.

[08:25] – What Louisa is doing now at Google Trends.

[15:07] – What are Google Trends breakout modules?

[16:05] – How news SEO professionals can benefit from Google Trends.

[18:48] – Can Google Trends be used for forecasting future content?

[20:32] – What is the difference between rising queries and top queries?

[21:52] – How to use Google Trends to influence new product development.

[24:09] – The example of bloating.

[25:51] – What the difference is between 30 and 90 on Google Trends.

[27:03] – A good way of going beyond keywords with head terms and long tail.

[27:52] – A hack for the front end.

[28:58] – Is there a difference between data on Google Trends vs Keyword Planner & Keyword Research Tools?

[30:32] – Can you set alerts and can it be country-specific?

[32:44] – A quick case study of water pills.

[35:46] – Looking at trends that are tapering off.

[38:25] –The urban dictionary challenge: top trending search on Google Trends now.

[40:45] – Last-minute tips on using Google trends for the holiday season.

[48:14] – What are breakout queries?

Resources Mentioned:

https://trends.google.com/

https://trends.google.com/trends/subscriptions

It is really interesting to match up the trends accordingly because I know in the world of SEO it's very easy for us to just make an assumption. –Loren Baker, 39:07

Specifically for news SEOs, Google Trends will really help you, especially in the rising queries, to find those breakout questions that people are searching for. – Louisa Frahm, 16:08

Google Trends really stood out from all of the other tools to me because of its real-time capabilities.– Louisa Frahm, 10:12

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 Louisa Frahm:

For the last seven years, Louisa Frahm has been mastering the art of SEO, on an agency level and in-house. Enterprise news SEO is her specialty. A pop culture junkie, fun enthusiast, and believer in living life to the fullest.

Connect with Louisa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-frahm-67710922/

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

Neeva is a new search engine that promises a private and customizable experience, without ads. Think about it as an HBO subscription service - premium media without ads.

How will a paid search engine, with an ad-free experience, change SEO and the search landscape?

Sridhar Ramaswamy, Chief Executive Officer of Neeva, joins Loren Baker to discuss the impact this may have on users and SEO professionals.

Neeva is all about reimagining search, which means creating a product that takes customers' personal preferences into account. Their goal is to focus on their customers and the content they want to see, not what advertisers want them to see.

If you approach your marketing with this model in mind, you could uncover new opportunities to strategize for your brand and clients. Listen to this podcast to learn more.

We wanted to create a product that was just simply about users and giving them access to high-quality information. To a certain extent, this is like a throwback to how things were 20 years ago. Neeva is completely ads-free, no affiliate links with a small subscription fee.–Sridhar Ramaswamy, 01:18

About search being free - if anything is free, you may not be paying for it from the money from your wallet but you're paying for it in other ways. With Google, we're paying with the data that we're giving.–Loren Baker, 02:23

There is a big part of us that is really all about technology that needs to be much more focused on the customer, on the people. It should not be about exploiting them - it should be low-cost and worry-free.–Sridhar Ramaswamy, 47:05

[00:32] - What led to the launch of an alternative search engine.

[03:16] - The ethical concerns of showing ads & the difference at Neeva.

[09:33] - What it means to reimagine search.

[12:22] - Neeva's average user profile.

[19:03] - The problem with personalized ads.

[20:47] - Why an increase in Google competitors?t

[25:25] - How hard is it to build a search engine?

[29:06] - The systems that power Neeva.

[30:24] - The funding behind Neeva.

[31:09] - How many of the Neeva team comes from Google?

[31:55] - Where Sridhar sees the subscription model going.

[33:01] - Costco: the most amazing subscription business ever.

[34:23] - The magic of offering bundles.

[36:41] - How Neeva can partner with publishers.

[39:07] - Where Sridhar sees SEO going if Neeva succeeds with its mission.

[41:22] - The fun element of discovery on Neeva.

[42:42] - Other advantages to the subscription model of Neeva.

[45:48] - The story of how Costco's hotdog keeps that 91% retention.

[46:44] - More about the Neeva mission.

For us it's a little bit about just giving control back to you by having you look at the sites that you care about, giving you additional context.–Sridhar Ramaswamy, 10:44

I actually see more opportunity for a diversity of sites to thrive in a model like ours where it is more about taking the needs of individual customers into account as opposed to the current winner-take-all model for the important keywords that there are.–Sridhar Ramaswamy. 40:21

It was that aha! moment of "Everything that I put in Google is not anonymous," so I think you're definitely filling a void that's needed in this space.–Loren Baker, 17:24

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 Sridhar Ramaswamy:

Sridhar is passionate about translating data into revolutionary tech businesses. Currently, he is the CEO and co-founder of Neeva, a consumer-focused, ad-free search service built with privacy at the forefront.

As the former head of Google's advertising business, Sridhar has unmatched expertise in transforming data insights into new infrastructure, and he is eager to work with entrepreneurs for the next generation of software solutions for individuals and enterprises.

Connect with Sridhar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sridhar-ramaswamy/

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

Visit https://neeva.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

Are you getting the most out of your PPC campaigns?

Want to know what you should focus on in 2022?

Jeff Ferguson, honored as one of PPC Hero's "Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts" for three years in a row, joins Loren Baker to talk about the biggest PPC trends that can help improve your strategy.

In the coming year, businesses will no longer be able to rely on third-party tracking, which has become an industry standard over the years, requiring them to rely on first-party data.

For those of you looking for guidance on how to manage this massive change, this podcast is for you.

In 2022, things are going to be very different. It's one thing where I really think people are not fully grasping how dramatically different this is going to be when Google pulls the plug. –Jeff Ferguson, 15:14

We've been telling people already to do whatever they can on that first-party side, like start yesterday. –Jeff Ferguson, 20:09

That's really the beauty of what we do, it changes from day to day. –Loren Baker, 09:24

[00:00] - A little about Jeff.

[11:40] - What interesting changes happened in PPC this year and where is PPC going in 2022.

[17:50] - What is first-party data? How do you switch from using third-party data to first-party data?

[23:13] - Why are classic media planning styles returning?

[24:19] - How programmatic advertising gets obtrusive.

[25:10] - What can you do instead of programmatic advertising?

[28:59] - An example of disconnected retargeting.

[32:01] - Where you can use your first-party data for retargeting.

[32:45] - What PPC opportunities are there instead of Google, Microsoft & Facebook?

[39:53] - Does PPC really help with branding?

[49:26] - Do you need to be on every platform?

[56:09] - Jeff's room, his stand-up bass, and becoming a UCLA professor.

Resources Mentioned:

PPC Trends 2022 - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ppc-trends-2022/

The problem is we get all these new tools that are fun and they're effective and they have a place for them. We think they're doing the work but we really have to go back to old-school marketing. –Jeff Ferguson, 48:41

I'm really trying to teach people not to become digital marketers but to become marketers that use digital. –Jeff Ferguson, 63:07

I don't think that a PPC campaign started chicken sandwich wars. I think there are people on social media talking about how long the line is, and that there are pickles, and it just exploded - and now in Santa Clarita, there are three Popeyes being built. –Loren Baker, 47:51

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 Jeff Ferguson:

Search Engine Journal columnist Jeff Ferguson has uncovered many sacred cows of SEO and paid media ad mismanagement through his legendary data research. Besides being a partner at Amplitude Digital, a digital media advertising agency based in Los Angeles, he also leads classes at UCLA Extension on Advanced Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

Visit: https://amplitudedigital.com/

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

Follow him on Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Jeff-Ferguson-1

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefftferguson/

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

Many large organizations already know it to be true: WordPress is a great CMS solution.

So what do enterprises need to know about WordPress SEO to be successful?

Shelly Fagin, Director of Growth Marketing & SEO for Credit Karma, joins Loren Baker to discuss how enterprise sites can best use WordPress.

For WordPress to function smoothly, transparency, communication, and acknowledging wins are vital.

This podcast is for you if you want to stay ahead of the curve, need to be flexible, and need to make quick adjustments. That's what WordPress is known for.

I think WordPress has not stopped growing, and they're definitely going to be around for a long time, so it's a worthwhile investment

–Shelly Fagin, 57:11

Don't be afraid to invest in your hosting. It's like the foundation of your site. It is so critical, and they are going to be your best friends if something ever happens. –Shelly Fagin, 55:44

WordPress is really only as great as what you put on top of it, so your theme and foundations are really important. –Shelly Fagin, 20:02

[00:00] - A little about Shelly.

[08:39] - The typical relationship between devs and SEO professionals

[09:05] - Tips on building trust with the development team.

[15:50] - The approach to getting SEO features included in the website.

[19:24] - Common myths around WordPress.

[20:41] - What Shelly thinks about breadcrumbs.

[24:45] - How it was when Gutenberg rolled out.

[28:50] - Is WordPress as secure as other enterprise CMS solutions?

[29:41] - Considerations when you're using third-party plugins.

[30:40] - What Shelly runs on the website enterprise level.

[33:47] - WordPress vs. Wix, is there a competition?

[37:37] - How important is Schema?

[40:39] - Should SEO professionals be learning the ins and outs of WordPress a little more?

[42:19] - An area where there is a shortage of SEO professionals.

[49:25] - Shelly's major requirements when looking for a web host.

[51:41] - Where you can start learning specialized WordPress SEO.

A lot of SEOs feel like they bang their heads against the wall dealing with developers and big teams. But they, your dev teams, need to feel heard. –Shelly Fagin, 06:25

Please explore WordPress SEO and get experience as much as you can. There are so many really great brands and companies that need you. –Shelly Fagin, 43:20

It's better to give a solution than just identify it. –Loren Baker, 49:00

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.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

WP Command Line: https://wp-cli.org/

WordPress SEO Guide: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-seo/

VIP & Parse-ly https://venturebeat.com/2021/02/08/automattics-wordpress-vip-acquires-parse-ly-to-bring-web-content-analytics-to-the-enterprise/

Connect with Shelly Fagin:

Shelly is Credit Karma's Director of Growth Marketing and SEO. A lover of the web since 1994, she has been developing websites since 2000, and she has been performing search engine optimization since 2005. Her daily challenges and constant learnings in the SEO industry keep her on her toes. She is a versatile marketer who is continually exploring new technologies and expanding her knowledge.

Connect with Shelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shellyfagin/

Visit: https://shellyfagin.com/

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

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

Optimizing your WordPress website is a never-ending job.

But that doesn't mean it has to be hard or complicated.

Syed Balkhi, founder and CEO of Awesome Motive joins Loren Baker for a discussion around tools that will make your WordPress SEO simpler.

With a community-first approach, Syed's team was able to solve users' problems, partner with other tools, or build tools for free. The value at the core of their success? If they helped others win, they won as well.

Learn more about the tools they developed, the secrets of their success, and how Awesome Motive and their full suite of WordPress tools became industry leaders.

"We give people the freedom to do the advanced things that they want to do and that's what we've really built before." - Syed Balkhi, [14:26]

"I remember the early days when WordPress came out, I was telling people I'm going to become a blogger. They said what are you doing? Why? You have to create new content every day? Are you crazy? I said, 'Let's do it!'" - Loren Baker, [33:36]

"Our goal is to fight inequality through education. This is why everything you see on WP Beginner is free. We don't charge for courses, there are hundreds of videos for free that we create and I believe that helps level the playing field and creates a better tomorrow." - Syed Balkhi, [48:56]

[00:00] - A look at Syed Balkhi, Awesome Motive, and their impressive WordPress brands

[03:44] - Why is on-site search important?

[07:09] - What's unique about All In One SEO?

[16:25] - Opt-in Monster & other cross-platform tools

[18:58] - Does TrustPulse work?

[20:04] - What is Sugar Calendar, and how does it work?

[22:15] - How Syed describes most of their plugins

[23:02] - Using Seed Prod for faster landing pages and sites

[24:28] - How WPBeginner began and what Syed learned doing it

[33:57] - The "aha!" moment with WP Beginner

[35:04] - How Opt-In Monster started

[37:41] - How Syed got into analytics and MonsterInsights

[42:06] - The core culture of Awesome Motive

[42:47] - How does WPBeginner Growth Fund work?

[47:53] - How Syed gives back through Pencils of Promise

---

"The beginner tools, we made it beginner-friendly - that was our first goal. But we also have the power tools because it's really built for us the migrating sites and the redirects." - Syed Balkhi, [13:26]

"Don't try to be everybody to everyone. You might end up drifting away from your core value. That's when business growth starts slowing down." - Syed Balkhi, [39:56]

"I might not be the smartest person in the room but I'm smart enough to know what I don't know

and smart enough to bring people in that know what I don't know, so we can work together and come to a solution at the end of the day."- Loren Baker, [40:27]

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 Syed Balkhi:

The mission of Syed Balkhi is for small businesses to have a level playing field. More than 19 million websites use his software to grow and compete with the big boys. More than 100 million people read his blogs every year to increase their website traffic, sales, and conversions!

Connect with Syed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/syedbalkhi/

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

Pencils of Promise: https://pencilsofpromise.org/

Visit: https://awesomemotive.com/about/

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