Search Engine Roundtable Podcast

The Google broad core update for March is not done yet, and we see tremors. Google started to roll out Bard, and while it is fast and has a sleek interface, it was a bit underwhelming when compared to Bing Chat. In fact, Bard is unlikely to link to sources and content creators too often. Even Bing’s CEO at Microsoft said Bard is “pretty far behind” Bing Chat. Bing is testing Chat answer boxes in the search results. Bing Chat is also integrating its Bing Image Creator tool, and it started to work a few days after it was announced. Microsoft is relaxing restrictions on balanced mode before other modes. Microsoft Bing said there is no site blacklist for the Bing Chat sidebar in Edge. Google posted its generative AI policies, will they apply to Search? Google updated the Google Search Status dashboard to include ranking updates. Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool added if a video embed URL page uses indexifembedded. Google said URLs are not removed until after Google processes the robots.txt file and then after the specific URL is processed by Google. Bing Webmaster Tools may be missing a week of data. Google is testing highlighting snippets in the Google Explore search feature. Google Business Profiles displays wrong and dangerously incorrect service pricing for some businesses. Google is testing showing only one star in the local pack. Google Local Service Ads industry and service selector was updated. Some Google Ads campaigns may suffer significantly if they don’t upgrade to Google Analytics 4 by July 1. Microsoft Advertising launched target shoppers by browsing categories with keyword boosters. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: This week's video recap is sponsored by Duda, the Professional Website Builder You Can Call Your Own. You can register for the webinar with Bing and AI, where I will be hosting along with others over here.

In part one, we spoke about who Sam Michelson is and his business development techniques. In part two, we dove into CRM software and how they use it, including looking at a new piece of software for partner management. Then in part three, we go into pricing your services, and in part four, we talk about human resources. In part five, we talk about Google algorithm updates.

He said in the old days of SEO, it was live and die by these Google algorithm updates. With reputation management, it is about managing the first ten to twenty results, and it is about doing SEO for not just your site but other sites you don’t manage.

They take a data-centric approach to Google algorithms. They basically look at the search results for the competing search results. Then they try to replicate those results based on what Google tends to rank for those queries. Then you find a pattern, and then you try to repeat that pattern.

Reputation management aims to build a search result set that Google wants to show, people want to see, and your clients approve of. And that type of content is things you own, earned media, profiles, and it tends to be all very deliberate.

For more on Sam Michelson, visit Five Blocks and find him on LinkedIn.

Google released the March 2023 broad core update, so far this has been a very fast and big update. Bing said they've been using the new GPT-4 technology for the past several weeks. Bing also hinted that the Bing Search answers would be replaced with Chat-based answers. Bing’s sidebar with Bing Chat is now in the stable release of Edge, and they also increased the limits and speed of Bing Chat. Bing also described which mode to use for Bing Chat and why. Google featured snippets can go wrong, and when it does, you may want to consider using the data-no snippet. Google mobile app install buttons come from deep linking and the knowledge panel. Google said less common languages are not considered low quality. Google updates the Googlebot IP address file a few days after detecting new IPs. Google’s John Mueller said you could ignore spammy referral traffic. Google Business Profiles has a bug that says your business listing is not visible, but it is visible. Reviews on Google Local Services ads can now be reported. Google Local listings have a “similar to” feature. Google is testing a blended search and local snippet in search. Microsoft Advertising broad match modifier now uses broad match instead of phrase match. Microsoft Advising launched doctor and clinic ads. Google updated the AdsBot mobile web android user agent. Google updated the AdSense auto ads publisher user interface. Google has a promotion to search by camera. Google tests replacing the 3D label with a 360 label for images. Google Search has the ave your favorite brand feature now in the wild. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: Wix - make sure to check out the super fun and educational SERPS Up Podcast.

In part one, we spoke about who Sam Michelson is and his business development techniques. In part two, we dove into CRM software and how they use it, including looking at a new piece of software for partner management. Then in part three we go into pricing your services. In part four, we talk about human resources.

Sam and I spoke about hiring and employee retention. He said the most important thing for employees is treating employees well, respecting them, making them feel valued, letting them move up in the company, giving them perks at the office, and so on.

He said being in the office is important but they also do use Slack a ton in the company. There is a lot of culture and sharing in the company, and a ton of electronic communication. But they also value people being in the office at least four times weekly.

For more on Sam Michelson, visit Five Blocks and find him on LinkedIn.

It’s time for the SEO video recap; in this episode, I talk about how the February 2023 Google product reviews update finished rolling out on March 7th. I spoke about more flutters we saw this past weekend with the Google Search results. Google has launched the new sitename, favicon, and sponsored ad label for desktop search results. Google flip-flopped again on Google Discover, being impacted by the helpful content update. Google reminded its employees that Bard is not Search. Bing Chat is working on saving chats, improving language support, and sharing some stats on its growth. Bing Chat also has answer cards and is now showing some referral data for analytics. Google spoke about a site with a long history of spamming. Google double downed on not using the link disavow tool. Google Ads performance max for travel goals is rolling out globally. Google Local Service Ads added tons of new service types. Google updated its review guidelines for personal information and fake engagement. Google launched the blue highlights for featured snippets. Google has local results in the Google Explore feature. Google Search is testing alternatives to people also ask. Google launched a more datasets button. Google Trends has a new look. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by Rank Ranger, the all-in-one- professional SEO software. Rank Ranger is a comprehensive SEO platform that allows you to grow your business with data and analytics. It offers valuable insights through advanced rank tracking, including above-the-fold tracking, Organic Share of Voice reporting, actionable SERP feature data, and SERP analysis tools.

In part one, we spoke about who Sam Michelson is and his business development techniques. In part two, we dove into CRM software and how they use it, including looking at a new piece of software for partner management. Then in part three, we talk more about how to charge the right price for your digital marketing services.

Sam Michelson said you don’t want to charge the wrong price, but picking the right prices is hard. You don’t want to charge too little because that can hurt. He said it isn’t necessarily harder to do reputation management for a bigger company when compared to a smaller company. Bigger companies have media coverage, have a Wikipedia page, and they can get PR about their company. Smaller companies can’t always do that. So smaller companies pay less and have fewer resources. Plus, bigger companies will work for you for a longer time compared to a smaller company, he explained.

He recommends you set a minimum monthly spend and not take on clients for less than that. He also never does hourly billing; he only does fixed fees. It is more about solving the problem, not how many hours you work on the problem.

As you grow, do not sell yourself short and take on larger budgets. He added your clients do not want to pay the cheapest price; they want the value. Anchor your pricing based on what you think the client values your pricing at.

Your price needs to be set at what the customer values your services at. He also spoke about not raising your fees even after five years unless they ask for a new project or something different. It is about the long-term value of the client, and that is more important.

For more on Sam Michelson, visit Five Blocks and find him on LinkedIn.

This week we saw a lot more volatility from the Google Product reviews update, one last weekend and the other around March 1st. I also posted the big Google webmaster report for March 2023. Bing AI chat now lets you set the tone of the responses. Bing Chat also launched version 96, which improves hallucinations and responses. Bing is testing summarized from the web and sources. Google said it has its own way of sending traffic to publishers. Google’s John Mueller spoke more about rewriting your content using ChatGPT. Gary Illyes from Google spoke about authorship, links, and disavows. Google also spoke about the lastmod date in XML sitemaps. Google's Gary Illyes dropped some information on recovering from the helpful content update. Google said you don’t hoard anything by nofollowing links. Google gave some tips on how to move a site, then move it back, all within a few months. Google is testing blocking news for Canadian searchers. Bing has “content medically reviewed” by doctors. Google Ads is testing a new design to improve advertiser workflow. Google Ads updates its policies for malicious software, compromised sites and unwanted software. Google Ads also added many new features and lost more targeting settings. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by BruceClay, who has been doing search marketing optimization since 1996 and also has an amazing SEO training platform.

In part one, we spoke about who Sam Michelson is and his business development techniques. In part two, we dive into CRM software and how they use it, including looking at a new piece of software for partner management. They use software for client task management but said they really need good partner software.

Sam is also not a fan of drip emails; instead, he tries to email people something about what is going on with them. He follows what they are up to on social and uses that for his emails, something very personable. He also tried a weird and interesting marketing campaign where he mailed fish to people, and I got one. He described that campaign…

Five Blocks focuses more on outreach to companies and individuals who will recommend them to their next client, over reaching out directly to that clients. Five Blocks won’t offer competing services, and they stay in their lane.

For more on Sam Michelson, visit Five Blocks and find him on LinkedIn.

So much to discuss this week in the SEO video recap - just so much. Let's start with a new confirmed Google update, and the February 2023 Google product reviews system was updated to support more than just the English language. Google updated its help documentation to say the helpful content system update now can impact Google Discover visibility, and it never did prior, according to Google. Microsoft Bing told us more about how Bing AI Chat works so fast, leveraging Prometheus; I try to break it down for you all. Bing AI Chat launched on mobile with voice search. Bing AI Chat in the Edge sidebar sometimes doesn’t show citations by default. Microsoft Bing should have released a significant quality improvement to Bing AI chat Thursday. Bing also integrates the image creator tool in some regions in some search results. Microsoft upped the cost of the Bing Search API in a big way. Many Google Ads advertisers have been suspended recently. Google Ads performance max gained many new features that should be coming soon. Google Search Console now lets you export more data daily to BigQuery. Google Search Console updated the user and permissions management. Google said favicon no longer needs to be hosted on the same domain as the site. Google said existing sites wouldn’t drop just because it uses an exact match domain. Google said core web vitals should not be a priority for small and local businesses. Google’s Gary Illyes dug into what happens with a noindex or nofollow on a 301 or 302 redirect. A new study shows that services impact local rankings in Google Search in a big way. Google Business Profiles has now launched the “profile strength” widget and many local SEOs are not happy. Google Business Profiles added a duplicate “see photos” button. Google AdSense sites section is changing next month. A report shows that 50% of Google’s search business depends on Apple devices. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

0:00 - Introduction 

1:12 - Google Unwraps February 2023 Product Reviews Update With Language Support

2:25 - Google: Google Discover Impacted By Many Search Signals, Including Now The Helpful Content Update

3:53 - Prometheus: Why Bing AI Chat Is So Fast & Up-To-Date

5:38 - New Bing AI Chat Now On Mobile With Voice Search

6:21 - Bing AI Chat In Edge Sidebar Tests Not Showing Citations For Some Results

6:48 - Microsoft To Release Major Quality Improvement For Bing AI Chat On Thursday

7:55 - Microsoft Bing Tests Image Creator In Search Results

8:12 - Microsoft Bing Search APIs Price Going Up 10x

8:24 - Many Advertisers Complaining About Google Ads Account Suspensions

8:54 - Google Ads Performance Max Adds Brand Exclusions, Page Feeds, Video Creation & More Reporting

9:17 - Google Adds Ongoing Bulk Data Export From Search Console to Google BigQuery

9:44 - Google Search Console Updates Users & Permissions Controls

10:13 - Google: Favicons No Longer Need To Be Hosted On Same Domain

10:28 - Google: Existing Sites Won't Drop In Rankings Just Because Its An Exact Match Domain

10:43 - Google: Core Web Vitals Shouldn't Be Top Of The List For Most Small & Local Businesses

11:03 - Google's Gary Illyes On Noindex With Redirects

11:36 - Report: Google Business Profiles Services Now Impact Local Rankings

12:13 - Google Business Profile Profile Strength Widget Now Live & Many Local SEOs Not Happy

12:45 - Google Business Profiles "See Photos" Button

12:58 - Google AdSense Sites Management Changes Coming March 20th

13:45 - Report: Over 50% Of Google Search Business Flows Through Apple Devices

14:16 - Conclusion

Sam Michelson was in town, and he is the CEO of Five Blocks, a digital reputation management firm based in Jerusalem, Israel. We spoke about how Sam started, which actually was via an e-commerce site selling cell phones as an affiliate.

Sam explained that they sold tons of cell phones but there were a couple of complaints here and there and those complaints really showed up at the top of the search engines. So he started to write refund checks to these customers, but some of those customers were frauds. During that process, he thought about how to manage the reputation of his company online.

Sam was born in Pittsburgh, he is the son of an army family, so they moved around. He went to Yeshiva University, then went to graduate school in Israel, then the Israeli army and then had jobs at technology companies in Israel. That is where he learned his technology and online skills. I believe we met first at an SMX Israel, where he may have spoken and sponsored at past events.

We then discussed business client development, i.e., getting new prospects and customers. Sam said this was all done organically; it happened out of solving their own internal issues. Sam said he was willing to spend thousands of dollars per month, but larger companies are likely willing to pay more. So once they figured out how to do it for themselves, they then moved to figure out how to do it for others.

So they decided to go the public relations route to get some business. That PR company became their first client, and they started to work by trial and error. So they systematically on LinkedIn tried to talk to people and firms within the public relations space. They did not find new clients through online marketing but rather by reaching out through connections.

It was a lot of outreach through LinkedIn and word of mouth. And they spoke about reputation management in terms of building up the positive stuff and not about hitting or destroying the bad stuff - being positive versus negative. Sam also shared everything and didn’t keep any secrets, and that helped them get more attention despite sharing competitive knowledge. Sam was doing content marketing, in a form, before most.

Five Blocks proposals are 15 or so pages that spell out the steps you need to take to solve the problem. They spell it out and many ask him why? He said because the clients that he really wants will hire them to do those tasks.

He said they close about 50% of all proposals, which is super high. But he said a lot of this is because he is getting a lead from a word-of-mouth reference and they are not shopping around.

For more on Sam Michelson, visit Five Blocks and find him on LinkedIn.