Greg Merrilees is the founder of Studio1 Design — a conversion-focused website agency that has designed for over 2,000 businesses worldwide, including Hollywood A-listers like Sylvester Stallone. He’s the author of Next Level Website Design and has been building websites since 2009.

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera sits down with Greg to tackle whether websites are still relevant, how to build for searcher intent, why copywriting beats design every time, and what the rise of AI vibe coding actually means for your brand.

Hosted by Jeremy Rivera

In this episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, Jeremy Rivera sits down with Charlie Birch, Founder and Creative Director of Humaniz Collective, to explore the collision between brand strategy and modern SEO — and why treating them as separate disciplines is costing founders real revenue.

Humaniz Collective Website

Brand IdQ — Take the Free Integrity Snapshot

The Inner Circle — Apply for Free Monthly Networking (2nd Thursday each month, 1:30 PM ET — mention Unscripted SEO Podcast to get prioritized!)

On Raising Brands Newsletter

Breaking the Bottleneck — Founder Interviews

Charlie on LinkedIn

Humaniz Collective on Instagram

Spacebar Collective (Chris Tweeten) — 'Publishing more won't fix a weak SEO game. It's about leverage.'

Permacast Walls — The precast concrete walls example that revealed the "anti-dig" keyword opportunity

SEO Arcade — Content Gap Analysis & Forecasting Tools

Jeremy Rivera is an SEO strategist with 19+ years of experience and founder of SEO Arcade. He specializes in connecting SEO tactics to real business outcomes, helping brands turn podcast conversations into high-leverage content strategies.

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In this episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, Jeremy Rivera sits down with Paul Baterina, Senior SEO Manager at REVOLVE — a publicly traded fashion e-commerce brand with over 260,000 products. Paul has been at REVOLVE for 13 years, making him one of the rarest SEOs in the industry: a specialist who went deep on one brand instead of bouncing across industries.

Timothy Malmros is a former gambling affiliate SEO with nearly two decades in the industry. After retiring from active affiliation, he turned his focus to investigating and documenting black hat SEO techniques — particularly in the gambling and sweepstakes space — through detailed posts on LinkedIn. His work offers a rare, transparent look at how spam tactics actually function, why they succeed, and why Google takes so long to stop them.

In his own words: 
"Finished 12th grade. Got fired from Mcdonalds. Moved to Israel back in 2005. Applied to 20 jobs, got one reply and started working as a ”live person” human chatbot in an online casino. Promoted to affiliate manager 10 months later, did that for a bit over a year.

Decided, lets try to become an affiliate, if I after a year can earn 3000 euro a month I wont go back to school. Sold my company in 2016 to gaming innovation group, joined as director of seo as employee nr 6 for gig media. Gig media grew to 200+ people and became a bit to pc for me, quit in 2018, rebuilt going hard on grey hat SEO then decided to take a break from the stress of SEO in November 2024 and basically retire but quickly got bored and started writing articles instead."

Follow Timothy's ongoing research: linkedin.com/in/timothy-m-59a216b/

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera sits down with Timothy Malmros — a former gambling affiliate SEO turned black hat investigator — for a wide-ranging, candid conversation about how spam evolves, why Google keeps losing the spam war, and what the rise of AI really means for the internet's content ecosystem.

Timothy shares his hands-on research into drop domains and the canonical trick, a modern black hat method that combines expired high-authority domains with spam link bombardment and canonical redirects to game Google's rankings in the gambling and sweepstakes space. The conversation expands into Trust Rank theory, click metric manipulation, the collapse of the anti-spam team, and the disturbing implications of AI-generated content replacing original human publishing.

A refreshingly honest, technically deep episode for anyone who wants to understand what's actually happening beneath the surface of modern search.

Benas Leonavicius
Freelance SEO Consultant & Agency Builder
Website | LinkedIn | Substack

Benas Leonavicius has spent 10 years in the SEO trenches—from working with large e-commerce sites to navigating the bureaucratic nightmare of enterprise SaaS SEO. Now he's building an agency focused on keynote speakers, authors, and coaches, where basic SEO fundamentals deliver outsized results.

In this conversation, we dive deep into:

If you're a freelancer trying to scale, a speaker trying to get found, or anyone wondering how AI is changing search—this episode is for you.

On SaaS Scalability:

"Although I can provide a lot of value to SaaS companies, at the end of the day, I might only have one or two clients like that per month, and then I cannot scale."

On AI Search Sources:

"For you to be on ChatGPT, you basically need to be on either the speaker bureau's websites or you need to be on those listicles because that seems to be one of the primary sources."

On AI's Future:

"I think what we're playing with is probably the worst version AI will ever be. I feel like we're still going upwards, not downwards."

On Keynote Speaker SEO:

"Imagine you're a speaker that wants to target keywords such as 'leadership keynote speaker.' They don't even have 'leadership' anywhere mentioned on their website because they want to differentiate themselves."

On Entity-Centric SEO:

"Digital visibility is less centric just to the website, but more towards the entity." - Jeremy Rivera

On SEO Fundamentals:

"Do you actually mention the keywords in the titles and the text? That's probably the highest ROI thing I do for my clients."

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera sits down with Jeremy Yang, founder of Digital Goliath, to explore the often-siloed world of paid advertising and how it intersects with SEO. Managing over $450,000 in monthly ad spend, Jeremy Yang shares brutal truths about Google Ads setup mistakes, the death of exact match keywords, and why most businesses fail at Meta advertising before they even start.

From offshore Google support nightmares to the "bullets in the chamber" framework for platform selection, this conversation reveals what seven years of hands-on PPC experience teaches you about digital marketing that no certification ever will.

Jeremy Yang
Founder, Digital Goliath
Website | LinkedIn

Jeremy founded Digital Goliath seven years ago and currently manages about $450,000 per month in ad spend across Google Ads and Meta platforms. Based in Sydney, Australia, he works with small to mid-sized businesses and white labels for larger agencies, specializing in high-accountability, hands-on campaign management.

"If you really want things to go fast, you got to go into paid ad space."

"For ads, the intensity is a lot higher. When your clients are doing ads, the stakes feel higher. They're more demanding. You have to be hovering around the computer. Things go wrong and things have to be fixed straight away."

"Everything is broad-ish now. Doesn't matter how you set it. Competitor brands can sneak in, whereas that's never happened before. So exact match is no longer exact match."

"How many bullets you got in the chamber? If you go 'Let's do this for three months' and you got like four assets, I'm like 'Where'd you get these four assets?' You go 'We shot it a year ago and the guy's gone now.' I don't know if you're going to last three months."

"Meta is about burnout. So you got to refill and replenish the tank."

"Since I started seven years ago, I only believe in using display ads for remarketing."

"If you have one product line that has 1.2X and 8X ROAS acceptable, that's not going to work because it's too scattered. Law of averages will kill you."

"Bots don't have money to spend. If you want something to happen, you still got to make sure it works for the last person who's going to be in the chain."

"SEO should recognize that this is an essential game now. It's not even optional anymore. They can't be working in silos. They've got to be a communicator."

The SEO-SEM divide persists largely due to operational intensity differences — paid ads require constant monitoring and rapid response, while SEO operates on longer timelines with more methodical testing and community knowledge-sharing.

Google's ad platform has shifted from granular keyword control to theme-based, broad-match campaigns, with Performance Max becoming the dominant model, requiring advertisers to focus on ROAS-based campaign structuring rather than traditional keyword segmentation.

Display advertising should be reserved exclusively for remarketing with clear offers, as the diminishing returns come very quickly on display, YouTube, and discovery feeds — smart advertisers allocate minimal budgets ($10-20) to maintain brand presence across touchpoints.

Platform selection depends on your content fuel supply — if you can't consistently produce fresh video and creative assets, Meta will burn you out quickly; service businesses without video capabilities should focus 80% on Google Search with 20% on Bing once search is optimized.

The future of marketing requires breaking down silos between SEO and paid ads teams, viewing performance through blended ROAS rather than isolated channel metrics, and creating content systems that repurpose assets across multiple platforms rather than treating ad creative as disposable.

In the emerging AI-driven search landscape, the "human-bot sandwich" principle matters most — bots don't have money, so content must ultimately serve humans even as it passes through multiple algorithmic layers, with genuine subject-matter-expert conversations producing far richer content than keyword-optimized articles alone.

Summary

In this episode of the Unscripted SEO podcast, Keith Breseé and Cauveé, the inspiration engineer, delve into the intricacies of content marketing. They discuss the importance of platforms like Substack and Beehive for community building, the necessity of finding one's niche, and the long-term strategies required for effective content creation. The conversation also covers the significance of understanding market gaps, leveraging influencer marketing, and the role of paid advertising. Additionally, they emphasize the importance of crafting effective hooks, storytelling, and utilizing AI tools for content creation. The episode concludes with insights on building relationships and the long game in personal branding.

Takeaways

What happens when a marketing coach who's also an actor sits down to talk about authenticity in business? You get one of the most unfiltered conversations about trust, AI, and human connection in marketing that we've had on this show.

Kyle Merrick doesn't pull punches. As the founder of Anarchy For A Day and a marketing veteran with nearly a decade of agency experience, he's seen it all—and he's not afraid to call BS on what's broken in modern marketing.

In this episode, we dive deep into the tension between performance and authenticity, why AI-generated content is killing trust, and how businesses can differentiate themselves in commodified markets. Kyle brings a unique perspective as both a marketer and an actor, understanding how to build believability while staying within boundaries.

This conversation gets heated, philosophical, and practical all at once. If you're tired of the same sanitized marketing advice, this episode is for you.

Trust & Authenticity in Marketing (00:00-10:02)

AI vs. Human Connection (10:02-22:31)

The Coloring Book Analogy (22:31-27:39)

Market Understanding & Differentiation (27:39-37:23)

Consistency & Long-Term Thinking (37:23-40:15)

"No marketer is really trustworthy until you actually get to know them. So I'm not even going to try to pitch myself on that."

"I don't give a shit about anything your business has to say if you're using AI. Let me see the people behind it, even if they're paid actors."

"Human to human podcast. This is the very important bit."

"Having been in business for myself for a decade now, it's like, this is the only kind of conversation I actually value because I know it's real, because you can sense the pain behind my words."

"People don't truly understand their marketplace. Go talk to the people that you're trying to serve or provide solutions to or sell a product to, whatever. Get to know them, their world."

"I always think about it like a coloring book. The lines are really what is within bound and reason for what is going to be believable."

"If you want real conversation, dish it out. Maybe that's the best answer to how can we get more genuine conversation in corporate marketing. Fucking do it. It ain't that hard."

"Business is still human. And if we're not accounting for that human factor, I wish you the best."

"Consistency is key. You need to be doing it a while for these different robotic entities to deem, 'All right, well, you're human and you do this.'"

Kyle Merrick is a marketing coach, actor, voice artist, and the founder of Anarchy For A Day. With nearly a decade as a marketing agency owner under his belt, Kyle now focuses on educating business owners and nonprofit leaders to think like marketing experts.

Operating at the intersection of communications engineering and resource management, Kyle specializes in helping small to midsize B2B, B2C, and nonprofit organizations craft strategic, data-driven marketing plans and messaging that drive real results. He's served industries including healthcare, hospitality, nonprofit, e-commerce, technology, and SaaS.

A "marketing vigilante" who stands to rebuild trust between organizations and marketers through education, Kyle calls BS on the rampant scams and shortcuts plaguing the industry. His philosophy? Empower through education. Separate with anarchy.

Originally from Chicago and now based in Denver, Kyle brings midwestern modesty to an industry that often rewards the immodest—and he's still figuring out how to navigate that tension.

Connect with Kyle:

Kyle's Services:

From This Episode:

Related Content on SEO Arcade:

Supporting Articles on Authenticity:

Example Referenced:

The Unscripted SEO Podcast features real conversations with SEO professionals, digital marketers, and business owners about what actually works in search engine optimization and content marketing. Hosted by Jeremy Rivera of SEO Arcade, each episode dives deep into authentic strategies, industry insights, and the human side of digital marketing.

We believe the best marketing comes from genuine expertise and conversation, not AI-generated content or cookie-cutter approaches. That's why every episode is transcribed and transformed into comprehensive articles, social content, and resources that preserve the authentic voice of our guests.

About the Host: Jeremy Rivera is the founder of SEO Arcade and host of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, with 19+ years of experience in SEO and digital marketing. He specializes in converting podcast interviews into comprehensive SEO content marketing strategies, helping businesses build authority through authentic conversation.

Listen & Subscribe:

Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by The Cookeville Sunroom Company - Quality craftsmanship, genuine care, and transforming homes one sunroom at a time.

Charlie Sells brings 15 years of experience in brand messaging and positioning to discuss how small businesses can cut through complexity and build authentic brands that show up in search.

Service Business Branding Charlie explains why service-based businesses should "stay hyper local" rather than trying to compete regionally. His advice for finding your competitive advantage? "Don't try to be bigger. Don't try to be flashier. Don't try to be anything other than who you are."

Working with a Florida event staffing company, Charlie discovered their retention rate was in the 80-90% range. "They're the most trusted name in conference and event staff"—that became their differentiator, not trying to be the biggest.

The Two-Part Brand Audit Framework Charlie always looks for two things: "Are we being really consistent? Every touchpoint of our brand—does it look the same, does it sound the same, does it feel the same on a sales call, social media, website, emails, in-person interactions?"

Second: "Are you really leaning into your unique competitive advantage?"

Branded vs. Non-Branded Search From his time at Dave Ramsey's Ramsey Solutions, Charlie learned a crucial lesson: "If they will get their branded terms right, then you can focus on the non-branded terms." He warns that "shiny object syndrome is rampant amongst entrepreneurs" who chase non-branded traffic while neglecting the basics.

His blunt take: "Search engines are the yellow pages today. You want to make it easy for somebody to just find you like that."

The Website Problem Charlie's most surprising piece of advice for clients: "If the weight of your business lands on your website, you have a problem."

Why? Your website is just one piece of your ecosystem. "If everything in your ecosystem is speaking the same language, then it's going to work." But when there's "no cohesive experience, no ecosystem," that's when brands struggle.

Technical SEO Still Matters Charlie shares a story about his staffing client who had keywords "in the graphic at the top of our page. In a designed graphic that can't be crawled, that had no alt text. I'm like, 'Nobody cares about that and Google's not recognizing it.'"

The lesson? "You have to plant a flag in the ground and say, here I am, and make it easy for people to find you."

Is SEO Dead? Charlie's take on the AI/LLM disruption: "I don't think traditional SEO is dead still. I think it still matters." While LLMs are changing search, "somebody is still looking for what you have" and "it still matters that you match intent more than anything else."

His strategy for the AI era? "I'm pushing folks to go way more grassroots and find ways to get on podcasts with niche audiences that are actually in their ICP."

Charlie's Two Essential Switches When onboarding clients, Charlie always starts with:

Redirecting Good Ideas One of Charlie's most valuable skills is helping clients understand placement: "Just because it doesn't belong here doesn't mean it doesn't belong somewhere." A direct-to-camera video might be perfect for an email sequence but wrong for the homepage.

Website: clarityovereverything.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charlie-sells

Free Resource: Download Charlie's brand assessment to see if your brand is clear and aligned or confused and complex. Find "the taxes and the costs that are ruining your brand and your business" at clarityovereverything.com.

"If the weight of your business lands on your website, you have a problem." - Charlie Sells

"Don't try to be bigger. Don't try to be flashier. Don't try to be anything other than who you are." - Charlie Sells

"What is it like to be on the receiving end of your brand?" - Charlie Sells

"Just because it doesn't belong here doesn't mean it doesn't belong somewhere." - Charlie Sells

"I don't think traditional SEO is dead still. I think it still matters." - Charlie Sells

Wyatt Bonicelli of Evolve Agency shares practical local SEO tactics for home service businesses—from Google Business Profile optimization and location page strategy to creative link building through local sponsorships and a clever gift card referral system that turns every customer into a lead generator.

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera on the Unscripted SEO podcast by Be Sharp Digital Marketing sits down with Wyatt Bonicelli, founder of Evolve Agency in Edmond, Oklahoma, to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in marketing home service contractors. An engineer turned marketer, Wyatt has carved out a niche helping window cleaners, roofers, and other service professionals transition from relying solely on word-of-mouth to building a sustainable online presence that generates leads on autopilot.

The conversation covers the full spectrum of local SEO—from the critical importance of Google Business Profile verification to the age-old question of "how many location pages are too many?" Wyatt shares his approach to building local authority through sponsorship link building, Chamber of Commerce memberships, and creative tactics like using ChatGPT to find partnership opportunities.

Perhaps most valuable are the practical, low-cost marketing wins Wyatt recommends: car magnets, A-frame signs, door hangers with neighbor referrals, and a brilliant gift card system that creates a built-in affiliate program for service businesses. He also drops a Google Maps "driving directions hack" that sends trust signals to Google daily.

The episode wraps with a candid discussion about lead follow-up—why 90% of service calls go unanswered and how the Harvard study showing 400% better conversion within five minutes should change how contractors approach their phones.

"Any page on your website that doesn't have a link internally, externally, it's probably not going to get indexed."

"You're 400% more likely to convert if you call within the first five minutes."

"Let's turn one lead into more. Let's try to get three or four out of every one. And that pyramid will just continue to grow."

"We're kind of in a bubble a lot of times and think that everybody else is using the tools the same way that we are."

"If they don't have any web presence at all, no online reviews or a website talking about what they do and where—it's a little harder to trust them with a big check."

Wyatt Bonicelli is the founder of Evolve Agency, a digital marketing firm based in Edmond, Oklahoma specializing in web development and SEO for home service contractors. With a background in engineering, Wyatt brings a systematic, results-driven approach to helping small businesses—particularly window cleaners, roofers, and renovation contractors—build their online presence and generate leads without relying solely on word-of-mouth marketing.