The Business of Digital Podcast

If nothing else test the tool to see what an email from Google looks like so you can monitor for someone doing shady and trying to remove your content.

Beyond that, use the tool as needed to remove content or monitor your removed content and that you haven't tripped Safe Search Filtering.

Announcement & Coverage

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/01/new-removals-report-in-search-console.html"We’re happy to announce that we’re launching a new version of the Removals report in Search Console, which enables site owners to temporarily hide a page from appearing in Google Search results. The new report also provides info on pages on your site that have been reported via other Google public tools." https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6349986?hl=en https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-launches-new-removals-tool-328328"Google gives you two types of removals:Temporary remove URL will hide the URL from Google Search results for about six months and clear the cached copy of the page.Clear cache URL clears the cached page and wipes out the page description snippet in Search results until the page is crawled again."

The Good

Anytime Google gives us more ways to alert them or tell them via a sitemap.xml, tool or the Google Search Console we are all for it. There may be a number of uses when pages you DON'T want indexed or available but it is, this is just another way to speed things up.

Wrong/Bad Product PageOutdated PageThank You Page

The Bad

We couldn't think of much as we love when Google gives us more control or ways to inform them of what is going on with the site. The one thing that scares us is how people may look for ways to misuse the Public facing form.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Matt Siltala: Hey

guys, excited to be here with you on a another one of these episodes. How's it

going, Dave?

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:16]

Top of the morning,

Matt Siltala: [00:00:17]

top of the board into the afternoon whenever

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:22]

is we're recording. I don't know.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:23]

Or when they're listening. What else? Whatever you need it to be. Um, but you

know, we don't often jump into these type of topics. Uh, you know, we, we tend

to record a few of these at a time and, and, uh, but we kind of felt this one

was an interesting one to get into, but, uh, this is something that has to do

Dave, with Google's content removal tool, the new tool that they just put out.

Now, Barry, um, of course posted about it on the 28th of

January. And in the morning, I guess, or Google did a post about it in the

morning of [00:01:00] January 28th and then Barry posted about it, jumped right

on it, and yes, as he does. And, uh, but it's got some, you know, some as, as

always with stuff like this, there's same some, uh.

Mixed reviews going out of about it. There's lots of

different views and lots of different, uh, um, things that people are saying

about it. And so we thought we would probably just jump in and spend a little

time, give some of our thoughts like, uh, and Dave, you know, you could talk

about, uh, you know, who you were sharing with posted about it earlier if you

want.

But, uh, you know, some of my first initial thoughts and our

conversations with us is if there's a way for someone in our industry to abuse

it. Hey, well,

Dave Rohrer: [00:01:46]

yup.

Matt Siltala: [00:01:46]

And so again, those are like my absolute very first thoughts and I'm thinking,

okay, well, you know, who's to say that a, again, we joke about, uh, we, we

just talked about the, uh, the, the term span that we [00:02:00] believe, uh,

it was Brett tap key, right?

That, uh, you know, sites the sites position above mine.

Damn. And so, you know,

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:10]

everything's spam. If it's in front of me, that's the only reason.

Matt Siltala: [00:02:14]

So let's go and report these guys. Well, is it outdated content? It's spam.

It's above me. I'm going to get rid of

Starting on a new Social Channel or maybe a blog, podcast or video channel? This episode walks you through the question of how much content to have at launch.

A question was posted some time ago by a non digital marketer friend of Dave but it is a great question with a tough answer. Here is a modified version of what they asked:

I am starting a new business and want to have a blog and Instagram. How much content do I need to launch with? Do I need to fill my Instagram grid? Do I need 1, 2, 10 pieces of content on the site when I launch?

Best Practices for New Content or Social Channel

Sadly there is really no "correct" answer to the initial question but at a high level the goal should be to plant the seed of what your project/site is about with as many or few things posted as you need to lay that groundwork.

This is true no matter what channel or platform you are looking to get started with:

TikTokInstagram PostsInstagram StoriesFacebookLinkedInBlog PostTwitterYouTubePodcastEmail NewsletterWeekly Food SpecialWhite PapersWebinarsetc..

Do You Have a Content Plan?

In the end the real question that we try to answer is "why you need a content plan" to answer the question around how much content do I need when I launch.

Do You Know Your Posting Frequency Going Forward?

If you do, use that number to help figure out how many to post at launch and how many to have at the ready so that you can come out fast. In reality you likely only need 1-2 at launch and have 1-4 at the most ready in the can waiting to be posted.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey guys, excited to be here with you on another

one of these business of digital podcast episodes. How's it going, Dave? Top of

the morning or afternoon or whatever time it is. You're listening to this?

Yeah. Who you know? Who knows whatever time we're recording.

That's right. So what we're going to talk about today, and I love this, and you

guys, you don't know like how awesome this stuff happens, just like on the fly,

but a Davis four different changes to the title. Yeah. Four different changes

within, like a minute of us, uh, getting ready to record this episode.

But the one that stuck that I think is amazing that Dave

came up with is a tips for starting a new content channel. And so, uh, it's

really what we're going to get into, but I guess it came from a. Inquiry or

question that you received, Dave, so maybe you can kind of, uh, uh, jump in and

get us started and we'll go from [00:01:00] there.

It was, um, a friend of mine who is not a digital marketing

person, um, like a year and a half ago. That's how, like when we tell you that

sometimes we have ideas that we sit on them for a while and we have a long list

of ideas, which kind of goes into what we're going to talk about. Like, we have

a long list of topics to talk about and we get to them eventually, sometimes

not as quick as people want, but, you know, sorry.

Well, yeah, you know, when you try, Hey, we're not paid for

this guy, but this is kinda one of those, it's actually an example on multiple

levels. Um, they, they were starting like. A new blog, and it can be a blog, it

could be a podcast, it could be an Instagram account. Um, I don't really think

Twitter would qualify because it's more about how much content do I need before

I start.

So if you're starting a new blog, do you start with just,

you know, you launch it and there's no content? How many videos should I have

before I start my YouTube channel? How many videos for your YouTube or

Instagram? [00:02:00] What's that? Yeah. No, I was gonna say, yeah. And, you

know, do you build a grid in your Instagram to start with, uh, where, what is

the correct best practice?

And you know, back to our best practices aren't always best

practice. But as I think about us, we launched the podcast we had, shoot, how

many? We had like four, I think, in the can. And I think we pushed to live

instantly. And then. We had to for the next two weeks. So that gave us, you

know, two or three weeks ish to then record more.

Cause we don't do it every week as this is our second one

today. So, you know, that's how we

Dig into some alternative ways to create a sitemap XML file should your out of the box or CMS plugin simply not cut it for you. No matter your CMS this is the Sitemap XML guide for you.

Sitemap XML Guide - Do You Need Them and How to Build Them.

Thanks to the constant number of SEO Audits that Dave does each month he sees odd things across many sites, content management systems and more specifically in sitemap XML files.

Recently there was some comments made by John of Google and covered by Barry at Search Engine Round Table where you can see what was said by all parties.

Automate it on your backend (generate the files based on your local database). That way you can ping sitemap files immediately when something changes, and you have an exact last-modification date. Don't crawl your own site, Google already does that. Via John Mu on Reddit

And while John is correct that the most efficient and reliable way to create a sitemap.xml file is through a backend process, the reality is that there are often technical or business reasons why this isn't a viable solution. As we covered recently, sometimes best practices aren't best practice and every situation around a CMS, plugins, business goals, developer resources, setup, and 20 other things may make your situation pretty unique and thus "best practice" simply won't work for you.

The goal of this podcast episode was to try and walk you through various options no matter your CMS and technical ability (as best we can in 20 minutes of course).

Steps for Building a Sitemap.xml

Start with your CMS and use any extensions, plugins or default ways to build the file. Compare your known site to the sitemap.xml - are there pages in it you do NOT want in it? Is it missing any types of pages?Move on to looking at ways to customize your sitemap.xml as needed. This may be at the plugin/extension level or for something like WordPress this may be at the page level.Now this may be where if your out of the box setup or plugin is having issues that you may need to look at custom options for building a sitemap.xml file.

Tips for Building a Sitemap.xml

For large dynamic sites the out of the box solutions may or may not work. When that is the case for you and your site here is a quick breakdown of some tips to use to help you build a solid sitemap file.

Export all URLs that you can from your CMSExport all URLs from your Google Analytics or Web Analytics solutionExport all URLs from your Google Search ConsoleCrawl the site using whatever 3rd party crawler you prefer to useCombine all these sources to give you an idea of every URL there is on your site.Cut anything you don't want in the sitemap.xml file - tag pages, author pages, add to cart, thank you pages or anything else.Double check it like you are Santa and push the file live.

CMS Sitemap XML Resources

Below is a list of CMS resources on how or where to find plugins and information on implementing sitemap XML files for various content management systems. We didn't cover EVERY CMS on the show but we did try and mention and cover the more heavily used systems.

Medium

https://medium.com/onely/mediums-got-a-large-problem-451bb89dfba7

Drupal

https://www.drupal.org/project/xmlsitemap

WordPress

https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-is-a-wordpress-sitemap-how-to-create-a-sitemap-in-wordpress/

Wix

https://support.wix.com/en/article/request-making-changes-to-your-sitemap

Joomla

Shopify

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/seo/find-site-map

Sitefinity

https://www.progress.com/documentation/sitefinity-cms/sitemap-generator

Sitemap XML Podcast Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Hey guys, excited to be here with you today. How's it going Dave?

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:15]

It is going, sir. Awesome.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:17]

So we've got a fun one for you guys. You're gonna love this one today. We're

going to get really nerdy on ya.

Um. Well, Dave is, anyway,

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:27]

so

Matt Siltala: [00:00:28]

somewhat nerdy now. This is, this is a good one, I think is a good time. Like

we were just talking about. It's a go

Hackers are not the only ones that can gain access and hurt your business. Listen as we dig into company data security and better on-boarding/de-boarding processes.

Company Data Security Guide for In-House Teams & Agencies

While this episode is mostly based on our experience a great resource and motivator to the idea for this episode came from Dennis Yu's post on LinkedIn so go check it out.

Team On-Boarding Management

For every team that you have internally (sales, marketing, product, IT, dev, email, freelancers, and so on) create and keep a list of what internal and external services they have access too. Each team should have an on-boarding process and list of tools/services that they use so that when someone moves on from the company or an engagement ends with an agency/freelancer that a de-boarding process is also followed.

Tips for Data Security

Have an on-boarding process and document what access someone is given.Keep track of all freelancers, contractors and agencies and what they are given access too.Create a de-boarding process for each team and the company overall.Keep track team by team of what tools, services and other data points they use and review/update the list each Quarter.Do mini audits of Social Media accounts, CRM, Google Analytics, GSC & the like and CMS (especially WordPress) each Quarter at least to see what 3rd party tools have access to data.

Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Matt Siltala: [00:00:00]

Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast

featuring your host, Matt  and Dave roar.

Hey guys, Matt SoCal here alongside Dave. Roar. How's it going, bud?

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:15]

It is officially 2020 when we're recording this. So we all made it through the

new year.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:21]

Yes, we all survived. And you know, some of us are.

Or a little bit actually. you guys have had a fairly warm

weather from what I've seen in the Chicago land area.

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:31]

Yes. We've had more days above 50 than we've had a snow this winter and today

is about almost 50 degrees and it's early January, which will, I will not

complain about it this time cause we'll probably get five feet of snow between

now and the end of winter.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:50]

Yucky.

Yes. Well, let's go ahead and jump into it. We're excited

bringing another one of these, episodes, [00:01:00] guys. today we're going to

be talking a little bit about companies security. And this is always a fun

topic because, you know, the thing that got me, whenever we were talking about

this topic day, w was.

The, the churn rate in our industry of, you know, like what

we consider a person that's like a long time veteran in our, even in our, own

personal agencies. Like if a person works for you more than a year or two or,

you know, it's almost unheard of that they're with you five years or even seven

years and, and things like that, you know, you know, it got me thinking about,

about just because the amount of people that you go through and just a cycle

that is in.

This industry, you know, how you keep company assets secure?

How do you stay on top of that? How do you do the things that need to be done

to make sure that, you know, just 50 random people out there within a couple of

years don't have access to like. All your socials and really screwed you,

especially if they leave in circumstances, maybe that [00:02:00] they

themselves didn't find, you know, that, that, appealing, if that makes sense.

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:07]

You said socials, by the way. I find that amusing for some, I don't know why.

Matt Siltala: [00:02:12]

Well, you know, old school.

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:14]

Yeah. And this, this idea, I don't think we've talked about it and maybe we've

mentioned it before, but I know we've mentioned about like churn and stuff. The

usual, what is, I think it's an year and a half or so is for marketing.

Matt Siltala: [00:02:29]

I knew it was something like that

Dave Rohrer: [00:02:32]

every year or every two years. There's some stat that comes out and you know,

we've been doing it for three years, so I'm probab

Even in 2020 on a podcast about digital marketing we may say something like - Maybe Digital Marketing Isn't the Answer. Listen to see why we would say such a thing.

In short we are not saying DON'T do digital marketing or to cut all or much of what you are doing but to measure, step back, ask questions, adjust, repeat. Online can drive offline and offline can drive online and whatever you do make sure you are measuring it. Give a listen to our episode with Damon where we talked about Ways any Business Can Measure Paid Search & Social Offline.

Nike, Adidas and Shoe Game

Not shocking to Dave that Mat has discovered there is such a thing as ShoeCon. Dave is more shocked Mat hasnt yet attended!

As far as some revelations from Adidas about some issues of what and how they measured their marketing in the past. Some 4-5 years ago Adidas was focused on efficiency over effectiveness and some specific KPIs. So their super focus on short term campaign performance over brand performance in the long term wasn't the best option for them... and might not be for you too.

Meanwhile here is Under Armor doing a webinar with their (?) agency on digital but they are having issues per CNBC that shows that overall sales and an accounting probe are hurting stock which is mentioned in this CNBC story, meanwhile Nike is crushing everything.

Volo and Car Market

Similar to what Adidas realized was Volvo stating that they too were going back to long term brand building over digital performance metrics. Note that they aren't stopping digital

Brand Building (Online & Offline)

Mat talks about two local restaurants to him that both have long lines daily but one is not active or really even found online while the other is crushing it with their posts on Social Media. So who is right? Is the one correct to not spend time on social since they are already super busy or is the one that is posting and spending time?

Conferences, product placements, getting on your local news/TV morning show - these all have value but what is that value? Mat and Dave each give a few examples of why doing these offline brand building may be as valuable or more valuable then your performance marketing.

As much as Dave loves data, do look at the long term and build a brand and not just drive sales/leads today. The goal is to be in business for years, not weeks or months.