The Agency Insider Show

Most websites don’t have a traffic problem—they have a content bloat problem. In this deep dive, Marten Saar joins Navneet Kaushal to reveal why pruning and deleting up to 40% of low-performing pages can dramatically improve crawl efficiency, restore search visibility, and drive higher organic rankings.

If you are running an agency, managing an enterprise site, or trying to understand modern technical SEO and site quality signals, this masterclass covers the strategic frameworks you need to audit, prune, and scale.

• 00:00 – Why publishing more content is hurting your rankings
• 04:15 – The 40% Rule: What content pruning really does
• 10:30 – Crawl budget vs. site quality score: How search engines evaluate dead weight
• 17:45 – Identifying pages to delete, merge, or redirect
• 25:20 – Handling cannibalization & thin content without losing backlinks
• 33:50 – Case studies: Real traffic rebounds after mass content removal
• 42:10 – Agency workflows: Getting clients to approve deleting their pages
• 51:30 – The future of technical SEO & staying competitive in the AI era
• 1:00:15 – Key takeaways & closing thoughts with Marten Saar

• Quality over Volume: Why eliminating zombie pages consolidates topical authority.
• Audit Frameworks: Step-by-step methods to identify non-performing URLs safely.
• Preserving Equity: How to properly manage 301 redirects, 410 headers, and internal linking structures.
• Agency Positioning: Communicating pruning strategy to clients who fear losing rankings.
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Have you ever audited or deleted old blog posts and pages on your site? Did your traffic drop or spike? Share your experience in the comments below!

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Get Your Free SEO Audit and 30 mins consultation at https://www.pagetraffic.com/request-quote.phpIn this episode of the Agency Insider Show, I’m sitting down with Grant Simmons, a true veteran who has been in the search game longer than most of us have had email. Grant has an incredible track record, from scaling an agency to over 140 clients to tripling traffic for homes.com in just nine months.We dive deep into the world of entities and AI search—moving beyond simple keyword stuffing to understand "connective tissue" and topical drift. Grant also shares some hard-hitting advice for agency owners on why "free audits" are a trap, how to truly sell your value, and why your internal linking strategy is likely your biggest missed opportunity.Whether you're looking to master the technical side of the knowledge graph or want to refine your agency’s sales and retention process, this conversation is packed with "golden knowledge" you can act on today.Key moments in this episode:The transition from keywords to entities and "connective tissue.How to diagnose and fix "topical drift" on your pages.Why your agency should hold the audit as a prize, not a giveaway.Strategies for building a brand that earns its place in the knowledge graph.The truth about AI citations and how to become "linkable" in AI overviews.Timeline:0:00 The Problem with Free Audits0:40 Meet Grant Simmons2:42 Entities Beyond Keywords4:10 Diagnosing Topical Drift6:40 Local SEO Entity Strategy10:31 Internal Linking as a Lever16:28 The Entity Mapping Standard38:03 Fixing Agency Sales Processes#SEO #GEO #AISearch #EntitySEO #AgencyGrowth #DigitalMarketing #SEOAgency #AgencyOwner #AIOptimization #KnowledgeGraph #SearchMarketing #SEOTips #MarketingPodcast #AgencyInsiderShow #FreeSEOAudit

Get Your Free SEO Audit and 30 mins consultation at https://www.pagetraffic.com/request-quote.phpAI is already deciding which brands get recommended, and most businesses have no idea how it picks. In this episode, Dan Hinckley, Head of AI at Herringbone and Co-Founder of Go Fish Digital, breaks down exactly how LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity choose which brands to cite, and why doing SEO alone is no longer enough to show up.Dan has spent two decades at the intersection of search, engineering, and AI, working with brands like GEICO, Airbnb, Marriott, and the FBI. In this conversation, he reveals his team's testing on how AI silently drops brands from its recommendations, his semantic content audit framework built on Google's own text embedding models, and real data on whether AI Overviews are actually eating into local search.What you will learn in this episode:Why GEO is "SEO plus" and what that means for your agency's service stackHow an LLM decides which brand to cite, and why it sometimes drops one from its own shortlistThe AI-readable structure checklist: what a page needs for ChatGPT and Perplexity to pick it upHow to package, price, and prove ROI on GEO services when clients ask for numbersFocus Score and Radius Score explained: auditing your content in vector spaceThe case where removing 50% of a website's pages made organic traffic go upReal data on AI Overviews in local search, and whether the local pack is safeWhat local LLMs and edge AI mean for the future of searchHow a builder balances client delivery with product development inside an agencyCHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open and introduction 1:02 Dan's journey: Harris Interactive, Booz Allen, and founding Go Fish Digital 4:45 The Go Fish Digital acquisition and moving to Herringbone 6:44 Is GEO a fundamental shift or just content marketing with a new label? 9:43 How LLMs decide which brands to cite (and why they drop one) 12:42 The AI-readable structure checklist 15:20 Selling GEO: packaging, pricing, and the ROI conversation 25:09 Semantic content audits: Focus Score and Radius Score explained 27:09 Real audit scenarios: duplicate topics, thin clusters, semantic drift 35:37 The minimum viable semantic audit stack for agencies 38:16 AI Overviews and local search: what the data shows 42:09 Local LLMs, edge AI, and the 71.3% Stanford finding 44:54 Balancing client delivery with product development 49:05 Where to find Dan and closing thoughtsSubscribe to The Agency Insider Show for weekly conversations with the sharpest minds in SEO, AI, and agency growth. New episodes every week.#SEO #GEO #AISearch #GenerativeEngineOptimization #LocalSEO #AIOverviews #DigitalMarketing #AgencyGrowth #DanHinckley #TheAgencyInsiderShow

If you spend $20,000 a month on ads, $4,000 to $6,000 of it is probably being wasted. And your ad reports will never show you where it went.

In this episode of The Agency Insider Show, I sit down with Anni Kristiina Salo, CEO of Tracklution, a server-side tracking platform out of Helsinki, Finland, growing at over 60% year on year. Before this, Anni built an in-house tracking solution that helped scale and sell one of Finland's biggest broker platforms. She has seen exactly how ad platforms inflate their numbers, and more importantly, why.

Here is the uncomfortable math: Google says it drove 100 conversions. Meta says 80. TikTok says 40. But the client's backend shows only 120 total sales. Every platform is taking credit for the same customer. So who is telling the truth?

Anni breaks down why the platforms overattribute, who is actually feeding the algorithm bad data (hint: look in the mirror), and the exact steps to stop wasting 20 to 30% of your ad budget.

In this episode:

• Why Google and Meta report numbers that do not add up, and why that is by design
• The $6,000 a month leak hiding inside a typical $20K ad account
• Who is really feeding the algorithm bad data (it is not who you think)
• Why your tracking pixel is a black box with no audit trail
• The real client story: 17 to 19% lower customer acquisition cost and 25% more new customers after fixing the data
• 3 types of first-party data you already have but are not using: profit margin, CRM data, and new vs returning customers
• How to track offline sales, like a clinic booking that turns into a $500 purchase weeks later
• Cross-device attribution: how close are we to actually solving it
• The counterintuitive reason you might WANT platforms to overattribute

Whether you are an agency owner, a performance marketer, or a CMO trying to figure out why your numbers do not add up, this one is a masterclass.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The hook: where 30% of your ad budget really goes
0:43 Anni's journey: from fintech to fixing tracking
3:20 Built inside a lead gen agency out of real pain
5:22 From internal tool to global product with a team of 16
7:08 Server-side tracking in 5 minutes: too good to be true?
9:30 Who actually owns tracking inside a company
11:21 How agencies should handle clients with broken tracking
14:17 What happens when you feed algorithms bad data
17:34 Not all conversions are equal: choosing the right signals
19:50 Real case study: meal kit brand cuts acquisition cost by ~20%
24:40 The 3 first-party data goldmines you are sitting on
26:55 Closing the loop on offline sales
29:59 Which platforms punish bad data the most
31:40 Google says 100, Meta says 80, backend says 120: the attribution mess
36:00 Cross-device tracking: can it actually be solved?
38:30 Building data literacy inside your agency team
40:29 The final number: how much a $20K/month advertiser is wasting

Get Your Free SEO Audit and 30 mins consultation at https://www.pagetraffic.com/request-quote.php

Learn how LLM optimization works and why your unique data is the key to ranking better in ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

James Norquay and Navneet Kaushal break down the evolving relationship between AI models and search engine visibility. They explain why businesses need to prioritize unique data collection to remain relevant as platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini change how users access information. If you are trying to future-proof your digital strategy, this discussion clarifies where to focus your resources.

Beyond technical adjustments, the conversation touches on the realities of running a digital agency for over a decade. Navneet Kaushal shares insights on the hard work required to sustain a business, offering a grounded perspective for agency owners and marketers navigating these shifts. By focusing on LLM optimization, you can better understand how to position your content for both traditional search and emerging AI search strategy needs.

Whether you are curious about Gemini search results or Claude AI optimization, this video provides a clear path forward. You will walk away with a better understanding of why unique data value is the most important asset for your brand today.

Subscribe for weekly digital marketing breakdowns, and comment which AI model you are focusing on most this year.

Get Your Free SEO Audit and 30 mins consultation at https://www.pagetraffic.com/request-quote.php

How do you build an agency that doesn't depend on you? 🚀

In this milestone 100th episode of The Agency Insider, Jason Swenk joins us. He ran a digital agency for over a decade — clients like AT&T, Hitachi, Lotus Cars, and Legal Zoom, with a team of 100+ people. Then he did what most founders only fantasize about. He sold it.

If you've ever felt like your business is a glorified job, or you're the bottleneck for every decision, this conversation is for you. We dive into the five identity shifts every founder must make, why building a business that doesn't need you can feel like depression before it feels like freedom, and how to use AI as the Iron Man suit for your team.

In this episode, you'll learn:

✅ The Identity Trap: Why "the business snapbacks to the size of your identity"✅ Operator → Manager → Architect → CEO → Owner: Where most founders get stuck✅ Delegating Outcomes, Not Tasks: The shift that frees you from 80-hour weeks✅ AI Integration: Teaching your team to fish instead of feeding them fish✅ The 8 Systems: Which one to fix first (and which one founders build too early)✅ What private equity pays a premium for in an AI-leveraged agency in 2026

Timestamps:

00:00 - Celebrating 100 Episodes!01:45 - Jason on Milestones: "The Top of One Mountain is the Lowest Part of the Next"02:02 - Almost Walking Away From a Growing Business03:11 - The Two Questions That Changed Everything04:20 - When Being the Operator Felt Like Being Good at Your Job07:52 - Delegating Tasks vs Delegating Outcomes08:08 - How Long It Actually Takes to Change: "Seven Years"09:27 - Epic Fridays: Living Without Regret10:19 - The Business Snapbacks to the Size of Your Identity12:45 - Is the Snapback the Founder's Fault or the Team's?15:31 - The Five Identity Shifts: Where Each One Breaks19:52 - Architect to CEO: What a CEO Does on a Tuesday21:39 - CEO to Owner: Why Calm Compounding is Harder Than It Sounds24:50 - What Happens When You Skip a Stage25:54 - The 8 Systems: Which One Goes First and Why29:24 - The 90 Day Disappearance Test31:30 - The AI Curveball: Does Operator to Owner Still Hold?31:59 - AI as the Iron Man Suit for Your Team34:29 - What Buyers Pay a Premium for in 202636:47 - Lightning Round39:09 - Where to Find Jason & His New Book

Jason's new book: Operators to Owners: The Five Identity Shifts Every Founder Must Make📖 Available on Amazon, Audible and Kindle🔗 operatorownerrevolution.com

Join the Conversation: What is the #1 thing holding you back from stepping away from the daily operations of your agency? Let me know in the comments! 👇

🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss the next 100.

#AgencyGrowth #SEO #AI #Entrepreneurship #ScalingABusiness #DigitalMarketing #TheAgencyInsider #JasonSwenk

Get Your Free SEO Audit and 30 mins consultation at https://www.pagetraffic.com/request-quote.phpStop letting "cheap" clients undervalue your expertise with the "AI can do it" excuse. In this episode of the podcast, I sit down with Adrijana Vujadin to break down the mindset shift needed to attract high-paying clients who value strategy over automation.This is a no-fluff guide to navigating the AI era without losing your premium clients. We dive deep into practical strategies that deliver real results for your agency or freelance business.In this video, you will learn:Why cheap clients see SEO as a commodity (and high-payers see leads, revenue, and strategy)The shift from "SEO consultant" to "SEO business consultant" — and why it changes your pricingWhat business owners actually care about (hint: it's not your SEO terms)The AI mindset trap: is AI your assistant, or have you decided it's smarter than you?How to use the hours AI frees up to add MORE value instead of just cutting cornersThe LinkedIn "tell" that exposes who's really writing their own contentWhy building a brand is the only safe bet for SEOs over the next three yearsIf you've ever had a client push back on price by saying "AI can do this," this one's for you.Adrijana doesn't do comfortable takes — she does honest ones. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction: The AI vs. Strategy Debate 2:15 - Why Cheap Clients Use AI as a Shield 5:40 - The Mindset of a High-Paying Client 12:20 - How to Pivot Your Offer for Maximum Value 18:45 - Key Takeaways with Adrijana Vujadin

The undisputed Queen of Local SEO, Joy Hawkins, joins Navneet Kaushal on The Agency Insider Show to break down what's actually happening in local search in 2026 — and why most agencies aren't ready for it.

Joy is the founder & CEO of Sterling Sky, owner of LocalU, a Google Business Profile Product Expert, and a contributor to Search Engine Land. With 43 employees, zero sales team, and 100% inbound leads, she's built one of the most respected local SEO agencies in North America.

In this episode, Joy doesn't hold back. We get into:

→ Why your clients are ranking #1 but their phones have stopped ringing

→ How AI Local Packs are killing click-to-call and what to tell clients

→ Why rank tracking is going out the window in 2026

→ The press release tactic that can hijack an entire AI Overview overnight

→ How she runs a 43-person agency with no KPIs, no quotas, and no sales team

→ The review extortion scam every agency owner needs to know about

→ Why YouTube is the most underrated ranking signal for 2027

→ The brutal advice she gives to anyone trying to start an agency today

If you run an SEO agency, manage local clients, or are trying to figure out where local search is heading — this one is essential.

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⏱ CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open

00:03 Welcome & introducing Joy Hawkins

01:11 What Joy is testing right now: 2025 core updates hitting local

02:49 The biggest story in local search: AI Local Packs replacing 3-packs

03:19 What an AI Local Pack actually looks like for users

05:23 The dramatic decline in clicks & call buttons

06:59 Ranking #1 but the phone isn't ringing — how to explain it to clients

08:54 The pay-to-play shift: should agencies add Google Ads & LSAs?

10:35 Do PPC and SEO actually compound?

12:09 Building a local SEO empire: Sterling Sky, LocalU, Ranking Academy

14:21 From maternity leave to 43 employees: hardest inflection point

16:25 Why Sterling Sky has no KPIs, no sales quotas, no financial projections

18:49 The education business model — why events break even on purpose

20:04 Hiring for a 100% remote agency — the #1 trait Joy looks for

21:52 Why Sterling Sky has no separate sales team

24:00 Review extortion scams — what they look like & how to handle them

26:23 The "Most Relevant" reviews algorithm — how to influence it

28:22 Minimum review count, the "10 reviews" ranking boost

29:29 Review velocity vs total count — what really matters

32:29 Content strategy in the age of AI — finding gaps competitors missed

34:53 GBP services — do you really need a page for each?

36:43 Entity creation, schema, and what actually moves the needle

38:15 Local SEO for AI & LLMs — Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews

40:16 The press release comeback — why they shine for AI

42:39 Press release frequency, distribution services & map embeds

45:15 Is local SEO a growing or shrinking industry?

47:14 The #1 ranking signal Joy is betting on for 2027

49:31 Trust, consistency & execution — winning local SEO in 2026

50:44 Rapid Fire Round

54:36 Joy's #1 advice for agency owners feeling stuck

55:48 Wrap up

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🔗 CONNECT WITH JOY HAWKINS

Sterling Sky: https://www.sterlingsky.ca

LocalU: https://localu.org

Local Search Forum: https://localsearchforum.com

Search Engine Land column: https://searchengineland.com/author/joy-hawkins

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🎙 THE AGENCY INSIDER SHOW

Hosted by Navneet Kaushal — Founder & CEO of PageTraffic, an SEO agency serving 10,000+ clients across 36+ countries since 2002.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week with the world's top SEO and digital marketing leaders.

🌐 PageTraffic: https://www.pagetraffic.com

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navneetkaushal

🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/navneetkaushal

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#LocalSEO #JoyHawkins #SEOAgency #AgencyInsiderShow #GoogleBusinessProfile #SterlingSky #SEO2026 #LocalSearch #AIOverview #DigitalMarketing

Get Your Free SEO Audit and 30 mins consultation at https://www.pagetraffic.com/request-quote.php

Niklas Buschner almost lost his agency. He stood in front of 200 marketers at PPC Summit Copenhagen and told them the truth — he nearly went bankrupt. Since then, he's rebuilt Radyant into one of the sharpest agencies in Europe, hitting seven-figure revenue with a team of ~20, a product team inside the agency, and an AI search strategy that most SEO agencies haven't even heard of yet.

In this episode, Niklas breaks down why most SEO work is "just busy work to justify your retainer," why his team doesn't care about search volume or keyword difficulty, and how optimizing help center content started getting his clients cited in ChatGPT and Perplexity responses. He also shares his take on the $1M-per-employee agency model, why AI agents can't replace human innovation, and his anti-burnout system for running an agency without burning out.

📌 What We Cover:

→ How Niklas went from near-bankruptcy to seven-figure agency

→ Why help centers are getting cited in AI search responses

→ The "conversion-first SEO" framework that ignores search volume

→ Three-layer attribution model for AI search (click-based + self-reported + verbal)→ $1M per employee — real or LinkedIn provocation?

→ Why Radyant has a product team inside an agency

→ ChatGPT ads — will organic AI visibility survive?

→ Anti-burnout system: flow phases, weekly reflection, no guilt slow days

🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with the sharpest minds in SEO, AI, and agency growth.#SEO #AIsearch #AgencyGrowth #AIvisibility #DigitalMarketing #LocalSEO #ChatGPT #Perplexity #AgencyLife

Amanda Walls is the founder of Cedarwood Digital — a 14-person boutique agency out of Manchester that's won 5 European Search Awards, spoken at Brighton SEO 5 times, and is more profitable than most large agencies she knows. And she did it with no outbound sales, no account managers, and zero AI shortcuts.

In this episode, Amanda breaks down why hero campaigns are dead, how a story about fruit flies generated more links than expensive data studies, why one DR45 niche link beats five DR80 links from national press, and her original Aristotle-inspired Ethos, Pathos, Logos framework for SEO.

She also delivers a brutally honest warning: agencies that get lazy with AI will lose clients. Brands will fire them. And people will lose jobs. But if you use AI the right way — like doing the laundry and vacuuming instead of running the house — your agency becomes unstoppable.

Whether you run a 5-person shop or a 50-person agency, this episode will change how you think about scaling, profitability, and what agency value really means in 2026.

0:00 — Intro0:54 — Amanda's background and welcome0:58 — Philosophy to SEO: The Ethos, Pathos, Logos origin story3:52 — Ted the golden retriever: Cedarwood's chief fluff officer5:13 — From Australian newsroom to Manchester agency owner7:21 — Digital PR through a journalist's lens8:35 — Why journalists are overrun and what they actually want10:23 — Anatomy of a pitch that lands links in 202613:38 — Reactive newsroom: how Cedarwood spots newsjacking windows15:13 — Economics of digital PR: low-cost, high-return campaigns16:25 — The fruit flies story: 10 hours, tons of coverage17:26 — "The days of hero campaigns are kind of gone"18:17 — Digital PR vs traditional PR: is there a credibility gap?20:40 — One DR45 niche link vs five DR80 general news links22:15 — The Ethos, Pathos, Logos framework for SEO explained27:34 — 87% of people leave the funnel after a bad review30:08 — First 3 things to audit using the framework32:35 — User intent: 15 changes in top 10 for one keyword in a year33:39 — Stripping content out: less is more in 202635:34 — Experience-led vs expertise-led content: how to decide37:14 — The 3 C's of intent: content type, format, and angle39:52 — AI overviews and zero-click: 30% to 58% in one year42:58 — YMYL SEO: AI as a risk management tool45:36 — First 30 days onboarding a YMYL client: the trust ceiling47:45 — How Cedarwood uses AI internally: 5 practical ways50:44 — Will AI kill agencies? Amanda's honest take53:07 — Tracking client visibility in LLMs: "it's a nightmare"54:44 — Agency building: 14 people, no outbound, no AMs55:09 — "We're more profitable than all the large agencies I know"56:49 — Speaking playbook: from 30-person meetup to Brighton main stage1:00:13 — Wrap up and where to find Amanda