Search Engine Journal Show

Google adds AI Brief and text disclaimers to AI Max. See how new controls help regulated advertisers adopt automation while maintaining compliance and messaging accuracy. The post New: AI Brief And Text Disclaimers Come To Google AI Max appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

We're excited to bring you the SERP's Up podcast on the SEJ Show channel! Join Wix for their landmark 100th episode, as their experts & guests take a deep dive into the world of SERPs. If you're frustrated by how broken the SERPs feel, don't worry…they're getting honest and covering the reasons. In this candid discussion, they're also breaking down what's currently going on with local SEO, the effects of the Google August Update, and of course…they're talking all things AI. Celebrate Wix's 100th episode with this powerhouse panel, as Mordy Oberstein & Crystal Carter of Wix are joined by SERP experts like Kevin Indig, Barry Schwartz, Chima Mmeje and more to let loose on issues search marketers are facing right now. If you haven't experienced a SERPs Up episode before, you should absolutely take a listen to experience the full effect of Mordy and Crystal's banter. The SERP's Up podcast is brought to you by Wix Studio.

Join us as we look at how your online reputation and local marketing strategies can drive revenue for your business, while avoiding pitfalls along the way. With guest Raj Nijjer of Edge, we'll dive into the revenue impacts that your online reputation can have, and why this reputation building should be crucial in your planning. Join your host Loren Baker, as he and Raj discuss how to avoid wasteful strategies of local marketing and multi-location businesses, plus a couple tips on how a good reputation can help attract and retain top talent. [01:14] - Raj's Background and Journey to Edge. [02:44] - Edge's Concept of Employee-Driven Growth and Its Connection to Google Reviews. [10:34] - How Reviews Contribute to Local SEO. [11:27] - Customer-Facing End: In-Depth Reviews and Personalization. [13:24] - Standing Out in Cutthroat Competition: Franchises and Service Businesses. [14:37] - Motivating Employees and Transparent Recognition Through Reviews. [20:49] - Reputation Management and Injecting Employee Recognition. [45:06] - Employee Retention During Challenges Like The COVID-19 Pandemic. We encourage businesses to amplify positive reviews and learn from the negative reviews. - Raj Nijjer, 5:34 Now not only does the brand win and the business win, but employees can feel great or a person can feel great about the job that they've done. - Raj Nijjer, 9:21 Positive reviews are so important. There's one stat I read on your site…53% of customers won't go to a business rated under four stars. - Loren Baker, 15:21 I think the injection of motivating and recognizing your employees while they're doing this service is something that we're very proud of, because we can see which employees are doing really well. And then you can duplicate that. - Raj Nijjer, 21:44 Our goal is to marry the marketing with operational excellence. You want to hold people accountable, especially if you're rewarding them. - Raj Nijjer, 30:53 I think one thing COVID taught every business owner is employee retention and how hard it's been to find people and when a displacement happens, it really jeopardizes your business if you don't plan it well. So you want to keep your superstars, don't ever lose your superstars. - Raj Nijjer - 41:10 Resources Mentioned: Edge Connect With Raj Nijjer: Raj is Head of Marketing for Edge, an employee-driven growth platform for service brands. Previously, he was the CMO of Refersion (acquired), and held executive marketing roles at Yotpo and Yext (IPO in 2017). Raj also spent over nine years at Godaddy (IPO in 2015) in leadership roles launching innovative prod

Join us as we explore how to prove that SEO matters to resistant stakeholders and C-suite executives, along with ways to combat the external noise affecting the outlook on SEO efforts. Dan brings his experience as a leading SEO consultant for top companies to this exclusive interview. He and Loren navigate the complexities of the shifting SEO landscape, and how to set realistic expectations in your business.  They also dig into the potential risks and opportunities of AI in search, and what these drastic changes mean moving forward. I think oftentimes in a lot of organizations, everyone's time poor, everyone has their own set of KPIs and objectives moving towards that bigger goal, and oftentimes SEO is trickled through. - Dan Taylor, 1:53 I think through that communication system framework, however you want to go around it or phrase it, it's about getting that shared buy-in. - Dan Taylor, 8:24 We have people planning their budgets and their SEO plans already, but with a little bit of a turbulent economy, sometimes it's a little bit of a question mark. - Loren Baker, 1:18 [00:43] - Dan's background and expertise [01:53] - SEO planning and visibility tips. [03:18] - Recommendations for visibility in SEO. [04:14] - Managing expectations with AI. [07:02] - Addressing SEO performance comparisons. [08:24] - Effective communication for executive buy-in. [11:17] - Combatting SEO Misinterpretations. [15:52] - Personal Touch in Client Interactions. [26:48] - Adapting SEO to Rich Media in Search Results. [32:06] - Adaptations in the travel industry. It's having sincerity and it's actually having a human touch. - Dan Taylor, 14:40 Essentially that kind of battleground which we previously had in search is sort of being lost. Now it's understanding what the impact of that's going to be, whether or not it's going to be a major impact, minor impact, or if the impact overall is going to be redistributive. - Dan Taylor, 18:19 It's about trying to bring in what unique modifiers we can into the actual product pages themselves...So how can we create a differentiator? It was this concept we had called champion products. - Dan Taylor, 21:03 Resources Mentioned: Mirador Local Connect with Dan Taylor: Dan Taylor is a recognized SEO professional, having worked with a number of companies in strategically helping them increase their organic market visibility and overcome technical challenges. Having consulted and worked with companies like Cloudflare, Proton, and China Southern Airlines, Dan has been featured in the leading SEO publications, as well as spoken at a number of SEO and marketing conferences in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and o

In this must-listen episode, join us for a sit-down with John Brown from Google's Trust & Safety team. With his rich background in building ad networks and more, John offers exclusive insights into Google's efforts to educate publishers globally. Discover critical differences between publisher policies and demand restrictions, explore the evolving role of UGC, and learn about Google's initiatives to support publishers. As you navigate the complexities of policy compliance, you won't want to miss John's expert perspective, honed through years of leadership and mentorship in this realm. We don't want to misinform folks or trick folks or anything like that. We provide clear narratives around the policies, why do we create it? Where does it fit within the ecosystem? - John Brown 03:46 Really, it's the ease of use for the user because everything that's in the website, or mostly everything that's in the website without some editorializing, it is things that could be found elsewhere on external Google pages. - John Brown, 08:01 That was the number one concern going into this is not just to launch and then leave alone, but to launch and iterate and make sure it's fresh. - John Brown, 09:44 I learned early on at Google, traveling globally and speaking on stage globally, that different users across the world consume information differently. So we can't just have a help center with text and localize it and hope that people understand. - John Brown, 13:30 [00:00] - Introduction to John Brown, Google's Policy Transparency Lead. [01:57] - Significance of John Brown's role in ecosystem health. [02:45] - Overview of transparency.google's key features. [09:44] - Keeping transparency.google current in the digital landscape. [23:02] - Google's Fair Policy Appeals process: Google highlights fairness and transparency in the policy appeal process. [37:28] - Google's dedication to a mission-driven nature of trust and safety teams. Resources Mentioned:  Google Transparency Center Make sure you meet people who need the information, and give them the information that they want to consume in their format that they most prefer. - John Brown, 16:29 There's a dedication there. There's a mission that you probably don't find in other parts of organizations just because other teams, not just within Google, but elsewhere. It's quarter to quarter revenue, things like that, trust and safety. - John Brown, 37:28 Connect with John Brown: John is part of the Trust & Safety team at Google, and leads a team that is focused on educate publisher partn

We're diving into insights from over 16,000 ecommerce businesses, showing the trends that shaped PPC advertising in 2023, and how to use them to move forward into 2024.   In this insightful interview with Jacques van der Wilt, he and Loren examine highlights from DataFeedWatch's powerful Multichannel Marketing Report. They take a look at which PPC strategies stood out the most and which channels provided the best return, along with big changes coming next year.   Using these insights, they also explore the most common challenges in ecommerce PPC campaigns, and what leading brands are doing to succeed right now.   We looked into the feeds of 15 to 20,000 online stores in all of those countries, and that means that's such an incredible volume that what we see basically is an almost exact picture of what is happening in ecommerce advertising. - Jacques van der Wilt, 2:20   Obviously Google is still the largest channel. Almost every retailer is using that. However, we can see that social is beginning to eat their lunch. - Jacques van der Wilt, 6:06   I think Amazon has a big influence on everything. They're probably market leader in ecommerce, so their impact must have been big. Yet I think that it's not primarily driven by Amazon. - Jacques van der Wilt, 11:59   [0:00] Ab

In an increasingly difficult economy, do you know how to prove the value of your SEO and remain efficient, while maintaining the SEO budgets you need to succeed? Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, joins me on the SEJShow to examine actionable strategies to doing more with less and maintaining the freedom to test, all while proving the positive impacts of your SEO work. Using insights from marketing leaders, SEO specialists, and senior executives, you'll hear Will and Loren break down the skills you need to keep your CFO happy while driving efficiency. If you've found yourself having to defend your budget, pitch harder than ever, and work more to prove your results, then you won't want to miss this episode. There's more pressure on ROI calculations, there's more scrutiny on all of those decisions. SEOs are often shy of taking on targets, quotas, goals and so forth. But even forecasting is something that I think the industry is too naive about. –Will Critchlow, 06:04 Big companies are spending tons of money on this stuff. The fact that you are out there asking for a quarter of a million dollars, half a million dollars, whatever it might be, that's actually totally achievable. –Will Critchlow, 09:38 Speaking of the funnel, we all know that SEO is not a direct response marketing technique. It's not search keyword, find site buy done. There's all kinds of touch points throughout the funnel, multi-touch attribution, which is massive. –Loren Baker, 16:16 [00:00] - Will's background and expertise.[08:44] - Integration challenges in long-term planning.[12:30] - The importance of planning when dealing with CFOs.[13:18] - Tracking multiple attribution points.[16:16] - Google algorithm updates and their impact on forecasting.[21:05] - Forecasting challenges influenced by various factors.[23:32] - Beta testing's effects on search results.[26:41] - The evolving impact of AI-powered tools on search queries.[29:28] - Strategies for SEO teams to improve forecasting. Resources Mentioned: SearchPilot www.searchpilot.com Intro to SEO testing [PDF] Get on the email list to get new SEO test results in your inbox SEO as a product discipline is something that we are seeing. And what that often means is squads of product managers, engineers, designers, all aligned to that objective. –Will Critchlow, 13:18 I think almost every SEO is testing beta testing, Google, SGE, and we have in our heads that when that query is done, everything's going to be

In an era of user-generated, human-generated and machine-generated content, mistakes are increasingly costlier to make. Learn the ways to revitalize and future-proof your approach to content marketing with Purna Virji, globally recognized content strategist and bestselling author of "High-Impact Content Marketing". She and Loren will uncover the common mistakes content marketers make, and how you can avoid them as you plan your marketing strategy. Tune in and hear strategies for creating genuinely inclusive and relevant content that audiences will actually want to consume, so your content strategy won't go the way of the dinosaurs. What we want to think about is what are we solving for. What roles do we play? How are we engaging with the audience and giving them what they are interested in, what they need, and what would be of value to them? – Purna Virji, 03:00 You always want to give your audience something to do next. It all comes down to this concept called backward design. – Purna Virji, 08:58 We found that we get the most social interaction and the highest quality traffic from social media. LinkedIn has just become the most engaged platform there is within social media, and it's been a complete 360 over the past three or four years. – Loren Baker, 27:30 [00:00] - About Purna. [02:41] - Strategies for intentional content creation. [08:58] - How to ensure content effectiveness. [14:41] - Best practices for content promotion. [18:01] - How to create content for various audience awareness levels. [20:13] - Importance of company representation in content marketing. [23:41] - LinkedIn's content promotion capabilities. Resources Mentioned: High Impact Content Marketing Take an idea before you even create the content and think about different ways you'll use that idea. – Purna Virji, 17:13 The members on LinkedIn tend to see their time on LinkedIn as an investment in themselves professionally and personally. They're here to learn, grow, share, and put their best foot forward. – Purna Virji, 30:18 Try to understand what makes you money and for that, who are the types of the cream of the crop? Customers who spend a lot are loyal are referring you to others. – Purna Virji, 03:53 Connect with Purna Virji: Purna Virji, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a celebrated content strategist and marketer, currently the Principal Content Solutions Consultant at LinkedIn. Her career spans leading roles at Microsoft, and diverse experiences in social media, search advertising, and television, giving her a unique perspective on content marketing. Recognized as an Adweek Young Influential and Se

The most important thing you can do if you are worried about ranking is write content that satisfies intent and fulfills the aspirations of E-E-A-T. –Ben Steele, 09:11 Join us as we talk about the biggest updates to Google Ranking Factors this year, and what that means for you as we head into 2024. Our very own senior editor of ebooks, Ben Steele, gives you the behind-the-scene scoop on what factors really matter now. More than 200 hours went into researching and gathering our findings on the signals that have been officially declared, at one point or another in time, as Google ranking factors. Ben brings you the impact behind the BIG updates made this year: E-E-A-T, Google's redefining of page experience, the developments around systems and signals, and more. Listen in as Ben and host Loren Baker, two of SEJ's brightest SEO professionals, talk Google Ranking Factors. Discussion designed for search professionals and marketing managers planning for next year. Notable: Suppose you do build content that is comprehensive enough to display authority in your experience. In that case, the aspiration is that content will float to the top regardless of more manipulative tactics. –Ben Steele, 10:14 When people have asked me what's our secret to ranking content at SEJ, I've always told them the publish button because we've been building this brand, this entity, and this trust for 20-plus years. –Loren Baker, 13:48 Google is evaluating links more qualitatively. Keywords are still huge, but the number doesn't matter anymore. It's about the way you use them. –Ben Steele, 22:30 [03:30] - Google ranking factors 2023: What's changed and what remains? [10:14] - Keywords and links vs. content and E-E-A-T in today's SEO. [22:30] - Google's qualitative approach to evaluating ranking factors. [27:39] - Building E-E-A-T for smaller sites to compete with big brands. [29:42] - Generative AI content's ranking performance post-updates. [37:24] - Long-term success with E-E-A-T and user intent. [43:27] - Curation as a strategy against generative AI in SEO. [46:52] - How to access the Google Ranking Factors ebook. Keeping your nose clean, don't engage in the quick win strategies that are technically spam because Google has come out and straight up said if it's defined as spam under our guidelines, relevancy doesn't matter. –Ben Steele, 33:33 Curation is something you can lean into as a small business. There is still going to be a demand for human curation. –Ben Steele, 43:27 You can become a trusted source of curation for your audience... that's one thing that language models are not good at: being a source of well-curated information that you need right now. –Ben Steele, 44:29 <em

Everyone who touches your website is on the SEO team. The problem is that most people don't know they're on the team. An "always on" mentality regarding SEO can help mitigate risk and protect rankings. Since there's no 'easy' button for a technical audit, join us for this special spotlight episode to learn how 24/7 monitoring can help you see everything happening on your site at any moment. Go beyond SEO and bring together teams focused on compliance, know when people go rogue and when other teams make changes. Addressing them quickly as they happen can help your rankings and growth. Conductor's Patrick Reinhart joins me on the SEJ Show to dive into the importance of continuous SEO monitoring and how Conductor can help you work smarter, not harder. Patrick will walk through common problems with SEO and how you can proactively fix them before rankings are impacted. You'll also learn how real-time SEO auditing can streamline your process. One of the hardest things is a conversation with other teams getting people to care. And I think something that always gets someone, the attention is data. –Pat Reinhart, 13:47 The mindset of it being a compliance component and that notification when something is not working can not necessarily change a negative mindset, but get everybody on the same mindset that you're working together for this common goal, which I like. –Loren Baker, 16:59 One of the best things you can do is pay attention to how specific you're being with your content. Specificity is going to be a key factor moving forward. –Pat Reinhart, 26:16 [00:00] - About Pat Reinhart. [05:51] - SEO audit shift to ongoing processes. [07:34] - Always-on SEO mentality explained. [12:38] - Real-time SEO monitoring versus health check-ups. [16:22] - Emphasizing compliance in SEO audits with developers. [17:31] - Realistic goal-setting with dev teams in SEO. [19:31] - SEO strategies before holiday code freezes. [24:41] - AI's impact in SEO and ChatGPT's role. [25:05] - Strategies for Google's search generative experience. [32:58] - Transparency and authorship in SEO content. [35:58] - LinkedIn's importance for SEO professionals. Resources Mentioned: Conductor's 30-30 Webinars: https://www.conductor.com/events/30-30-webinars/ Searchmetrics: https://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/ Content King: https://www.conductor.com/contentking-get-started/ Lily Ray's E-E-A-T: https://lilyray.nyc/e-a-t-expertise-authoritativeness-trustw

Bard is our creative collaborator. It's a place where you can come in and have a conversation with the large language model which really helps you to boost your productivity and bring your ideas to life. –Yuri Pinsky, 02:16 Step behind the curtain and into the world of Google's Bard with its Director of Product Management, Yury Pinsky, in an exclusive conversation with SEJ Editor-in-Chief Amanda Zantal-Wiener.  Hear about the origins and journey to Bard's unveiling, and discover how the team behind it envisions a collaborative future with AI. SEO pros and seasoned digital marketers alike will get an up-close look at the nuances of generative AI and a glimpse at what predictions for what's next.  So prep your popcorn -- grab your notetaking method of choice -- and tune in to learn how to incorporate Google's current and forward-looking AI initiatives into your own business innovation.   [07:11] - The origin of Bard and its market niche. [13:23] - Impact of generative AI and Bard on SEO and content creation. [17:37] - Using Bard for audience evaluation in content creation. [23:54] - Distinctive features of Bard compared to other AI models. [28:33] - Most interesting prompts seen in Bard. [33:29] - Future vision for Bard and generative AI.   I'm inspired by this idea that technology can work together with us, and we can bring Bard in as a creative partner in your editorial work or when we're trying to write a document for work or something in our personal lives. –Yuri Pinsky, 09:46 It's a very vibrant, fast-paced, fast moving industry right now. I think some of the unique things we have with Bard are things like the ability to plug into Google tools. –Yuri Pinsky, 23:54 In the sciences and the medical field, there could be lots of interesting breakthroughs in drug discovery in climate applications. How can they use the power of these foundational models to really benefit all of us in some way? –Yuri Pinsky, 25:44 Your ideas still have to be your own in order for AI to work with you best and work for you best. –Yuri Pinsky, 28:33 It is not the end of search. Bard is an experiment. It's complementary to search. It's this conversational collaborator. –Yuri Pinsky, 32:47   Connect with Yury Pinsky: Yury is a Product Manager for Bard, leading areas including Extensions, Factuality, and multi-modality. Yury is passionate about cutting edge technology and finding ways to bring it to users around the world. Prior to serving in his current role, Yury led product teams around Natural Language and Speech Recognition for the Google Assistant, spent time building

As platforms evolve, so should our strategies. No one knows that better than Brian Kearney, a prominent content creator who gained over 100k Instagram followers in about a year. Brian joined me on the SEJShow to dig into his viral success and what it's taught him about discoverability, co-branding with authenticity, and how a unique background can make for some of the best content. From harnessing the ever-evolving algorithms of digital channels to leveraging the nuance of relatable humor, Brian shared how his journey has culminated in an unparalleled ability to craft resonant content -- and how it can be applied to your strategic success.   —   Based in Boston, Brian Kearney started as a registered nurse, later transitioning into the healthcare and startup sectors. He also ventured into politics and volunteered for local initiatives. As a content creator on Instagram and TikTok, Brian is known for his relatable humor and consistent content quality. His diverse experiences highlight his adaptability and passion-driven journey. Connect with Brian Kearney: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krianbearney/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@krianbearney Connect with Amanda Zantal-Wiener, Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Journal: Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandazantalwiener/ Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amanda_ZW

SEO and Site Migrations: Common Pitfalls To Avoid  with Arnout Hellemans Migrations can be time consuming and stressful, even more-so when you don't have company-wide collaboration and alignment, or when you're worried about drops in rankings. Come learn some myth-busting migration tips shared between our host, Loren Baker, and freelance SEO and analytics consultant, Arnout Hellemans. Arnout has seen plenty of migrations go bad. Hear actual case studies on what not to do to have better success. Join us for this can't miss episode. Arnout Hellemans is a freelance SEO and analytics consultant based in Amsterdam but mostly working for clients all over Europe and the US. He just loves solving SEO puzzles. He has been freelancing since 2010 and loves it. Connect with Arnout Hellemans:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnouthellemans/ X: https://twitter.com/hellemans 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

Effective Website Redesigns: How To Avoid Costly Mistakes With Janet Mesh of Aimtal Website redesigns are a necessary component for marketers. But with so many elements going into an effective redesign, do you know what to focus on to develop a solid plan from the start?  Join us and hear from Janet Mesh, CEO and co-founder of Aimtal, as she and Loren Baker, our founder and host, break down the ways to effectively launch a website redesign using Webflow and HubSpot, and the factors you need to focus on when redesigning. You'll get tips on honing in on your site's infrastructure using Janet's "do no harm" strategy, to ensure that you have a clear infrastructure plan from the beginning. If you're looking to make your next redesign efficient and effective, you won't want to miss these tips.   Resources: Website Strategy Worksheet    Connect with Janet Mesh, CEO and Co-Founder of Aimtal: Janet Mesh is the CEO + Co-Founder of Aimtal, a fully remote integrated marketing & consulting agency for B2B tech companies like Cisco, Atlassian, Trello, and Prisma Cloud. She is a remote work advocate who, in the past 5 years, has built and run a team of marketers located in 6 time zones all over the world. Janet has doubled the size and revenue of her agency year-over-year since its inception in 2018 and Aimtal won the Sprout Social 'Always Be Growing' award in 2022 in recognition of this growth. Her passion for integrated marketing with an agile approach is the key to her success, and has led to over a million dollars in sales for her clients in the last year. Outside of work, you can find Janet trying new restaurants around the world, reading historical fiction novels, and hosting happy hours at home for family & friends. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimtal_co/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aimtalco/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimtal/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/aimtal_co LinkedIn: <a class="ProsemirrorEditor-link" href= "https://www.linkedin.com

Using data gathered from 3,890 SEO professionals for our annual State of SEO report, we're ready to give you new insights on the disruptive factors in the industry. From the rise of generative AI to shifting content trends, there are many opportunities to use these new disruptions to your advantage and stay ahead in such a competitive time. Ben Steele, senior editor at Search Engine Journal, joined me on this SEJ Show to break down the three significant disruptions in the SEO world and the opportunities they present. We examined the process behind implementing generative AI and what AI might look like next year. Get tactics for communicating your SEO value, tips on new ways to cultivate your audience, and new content creation strategies for facing changing trends. People noted that generative AI would be the biggest disruptor. However, respondents are largely positive; they feel optimistic about the impact of generative AI and its potential to affect their business's bottom line. I think there's an interesting duality to note there. It's disrupting many things, but people are still excited about it. –Ben Steele, 04:33 You bring up a great point about adapting focus. The industry is incredibly dynamic. With the acceleration of AI, changes in search engine algorithms, and evolving user behavior, SEO professionals need to be agile. They have to reassess and adapt their metric priorities in real time to ensure they're capturing the most relevant data, which translates to business value. That could be the reason we had to revisit the metrics we included in this year's survey. –Ben Steele, 20:29 While I can't predict the future with absolute certainty, what's clear is that the traditional role of an SEO professional is already transforming. SEO is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. It's no longer just about optimizing for search engines; it's about optimizing for user experience, understanding data analytics, and even having some proficiency with AI and machine learning models. –Ben Steele, 21:15 [00:00] - About Ben. [03:57] - Top disruptors in SEO. [04:33] - Has generative AI affected search yet? [07:07] - User behavior toward new technology: voice search example. [10:46] - Freelancers moving to permanent positions. [12:15] - Impact of layoffs in tech companies. [16:34] - Priority metrics for SEO professionals. [18:05] - Agency vs. in-house SEO communication struggles. [22:20] - Importance of click-through rate as a metric. [27:25] - SEO's role in ecommerce and Google Shopping. [28:53] - Content's role in SEO. [29:37] - Top barriers to SEO success. [30:57] - Communication barriers in SEO

Have you wondered how to expand your business' reach across different languages and cultures? Do you know what role multilingual and localized content can play in your business? Naoko Takano, Localization and Community Program Manager for WordPress, joined me on the SEJShow to explore the significance of localization and internationalization in WordPress' mission. Naoko has been involved with WordPress localization since its infancy and has seen firsthand how multilingual localization has built larger communities around businesses. Learn the power of multilingual content and what it means for effectively broadening your reach online. Discover tips and opportunities for your business to collaborate across different cultures and how to leverage this power to improve your ROI. WordPress, being an open-source solution from WordPress.org, your mission is to empower the publisher. –Loren Baker, 06:45 One of the advantages WordPress has is that we have so many different types of languages, and it's possible to add more languages as long as there are translators. –Naoko Takano, 13:49 The mission of WordPress is democratizing publishing. Our mission is to reach all the people using the internet and want to publish, not only in English-speaking countries. So yes, we want to expand beyond. –Naoko Takano, 23:28 [00:23] - About Naoko. [02:18] - WordPress localization and global growth. [06:45] - Open source as WordPress.org's growth driver. [08:49] - The role of translation in WordPress business expansion. [10:58] - Volunteer-driven operations at WordPress.org. [12:55] - WordPress plugins vs. enterprise CMS for expanding businesses. [13:49] - WordPress' multilingual capabilities. [14:55] - Anticipation of multilingual support in WordPress core software. [16:07] - Balancing WordPress' multilingual offerings with business interests. [16:54] - Gutenberg's fourth phase: Multilingual support? [17:07] - Adapting translation plugins for WordPress' block editor. [19:54] - WordPress' growth in the Spanish market. [21:52] - The most active countries in WordCamps events. [23:12] - The impact of translation on WordPress.org's international usage. [24:42] - Democratization through cultural collaboration in WordPress. [26:12] - Localization in WordPress: More than translation. [30:15] - The future of multilingual WordPress. [32:48] - The international WordPress community's size. [34:07] - Site translation and localization for various audiences. [36:24] - Connecting with the WordPr

No matter what your business specializes in, your website is often the first place potential clients and customers learn about your company. This means visitors can decide about your services within the first few seconds. So how do you hook them? Fiona Allman-Treen, author of "Website Mastery for Business Owners Who Don't Speak Tech," joins me on the SEJShow and shows you the three key things your website needs to increase your website's visibility, boost your business growth, and convert visitors to paying customers. Get expert analysis based on Fiona's best-selling book that will show you how to translate the tech-speak around website design and maintain ROI after your website launch's initial excitement is over. Website Mastery for Business Owners was needed because [speaking tech] is something that people shouldn't have to do to get a really good website. They shouldn't need to know the ins and outs of the code. - Fiona Allman, 00:59 What attracted me to the web in the first place was seeing that level playing field. It makes a one-man band can sound like an orchestra online, and that's what I love. So it's, it's all about making that happen for people. - Fiona Allman, 01:31 I've always found it nice to just send a text every once in a while and send a follow-up because you never know when someone will leave and go somewhere else. It's just good sportsmanship at the end of the day. Just, "Hey, how's it going?" It's checking in, you know, happy new year, whatever it may be. It doesn't have to be cheesy, but it, it has helped me personally retain or even bring clients back. Just having an open line of communication all the time. –Loren Baker, 20:21 [00:46] About Fiona. [02:22] Keeping up with recent web design changes. [03:12] Initial steps in defining a website strategy. [06:11] Key elements for website visitor engagement. [13:57] Significance of image selection in customer engagement. [15:23] Strategies for customer satisfaction and preventing buyer's remorse. [15:56] Importance of post-purchase customer engagement. [17:22] Balancing customer connection and salesmanship. [19:42] Value of communication with returning customers. [22:57] An insight into Fiona's book "Website Mastery." [23:00] Advantages of print publishing over online writing. [24:02] Networking advantages of a physical book. [25:41] Using "Website Mastery" in client onboarding. [26:20] Unexpected outcomes of book publishing. [27:28] Reaction to book rejection at networking events. [30:49] Advice for non-tech individuals on web design mastery. Resources

As WordPress celebrates its 20th anniversary, it is essential to reflect on its roots and explore how its history has shaped ecommerce and what this means for your website. Paul Maiorana, CEO of WooCommerce, joined me on the SEJ Show for this special episode to reflect on how ecommerce found its way into the WordPress world and how WooCommerce intertwined with WordPress' values and initiatives. We talked about Paul's 11+ year career with Automattic, his experiences leading WordPress VIP, and what led him to take on the leadership of WooCommerce. You'll also hear about the core community spirit that lives in the foundation of WordPress and how this has impacted WooCommerce's mission for its users. You won't want to miss this critical look back from someone who has been there through countless steps along the way. The difference, though, in governance is really important, which is that nobody owns WordPress. It's stewarded by the WordPress Foundation and a nonprofit that owns the intellectual property and everything around WordPress. That's guided by Matt Mullenweg, its founder, co-founder, and still project lead. But the governance model is different. Whereas with WooCommerce, Automattic wholly owns WooCommerce. It's still an open-source product that uses the GPL license, free software, the same as WordPress is. Still, we effectively fund all of the development of WooCommerce. –Paul Maiorana, 14:36 WooCommerce is a global platform for sure. So we have customers in every country. There is such great support for localization. Translations and localization are a massive part of that, not just in terms of people providing those translations but also on the other side. It's how merchants can build a localized experience for their shoppers. –Paul Maiorana, 20:57 That's the beauty of open source, right? We're able to get leaner and meaner than some of our competitors. We've adequately federated this ecosystem of independent software developers, agencies, freelancers, and web hosts. These folks come together to produce a WooCommerce site and a quality product. Our interests are aligned, which ultimately makes for a better customer experience. –Paul Maiorana, 23:02 [00:00] - About Paul. [03:28] - WooCommerce's origin & Automattic integration. [07:01] - Purpose of WooCommerce development. [09:38] - WooCommerce's market share. [13:27] - Developer engagement with WooCommerce. [17:10] - Exploring WooCommerce extensions/integrations. [20:57] - WooCommerce & localization strategies, shopping support, lean model & open-source contributions. [24:14] WooCommerce's Solution to ecommerce challenges. [26:23] Commerce platform fragmentation is

How do you prepare your social and marketing team for AI? There are a ton of AI tools out there, but not all of them are useful. Jamie Gilpin, CMO at Sprout Social, joined me on the SEJ Show to talk social, search, and how AI can play a bigger part in your strategy. Gain valuable insight into virality, social media trends, and emerging AI technologies, and discover the seamless integration of these technologies into your team's workflow. Trends come from forces, and forces are the big cultural shifts that we see. As a result, the moment or signals from those forces become micro topics. –Jamie Gilpin, 05:43 In the world of SEO and search, search changes quickly. Social media trends change just as fast, whether it's platforms or just the way that people are communicating. Everything used to be written. Then, it went to images. And now, video. –Loren Baker, 02:03 Social does infiltrate not just the full customer journey but all aspects of the customer's enterprise. –Jamie Gilpin, 33:23 [00:00] - About Jamie [02:03] - The evolution of social media trends & content consumption [03:25] - Understanding trend culture and TikTok's influence [13:14] - The importance of having a business presence on TikTok [19:51] - Opportunities to integrate AI in daily social media marketing workflows [20:57] - Current discourse and applications of AI in marketing [25:39] - Understanding the AI Assist Tool [27:16] - Future of AI in visual content for social media marketing [33:39] - Intersection of social media and search in consumer research Resources Mentioned: Sprout Social - https://sproutsocial.com/ One of the biggest opportunities, I would say, and it's synonymous with the challenge we have on the marketing team, is that it's so much easier to work autonomously in silos. Still, the real value, and more importantly, our customers expect that all those folks are working together and delivering one seamless customer experience. –Jamie Gilpin, 18:52 The worst thing that you can do, from a customer experience and perception perspective, is to not have a through-line for when your customer is ready to buy. When they see something they want to buy from you and can't find it. –Jamie Gilpin, 15:13 That's the future of social, and that's why I get very excited about this space. It started in marketing, but it started as a tool for us to advertise another thing–another channel that we would push our message out. –Jamie Gilpin,32:26 For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube chann

YouTube is a powerful platform for B2B marketers, but many organizations still need to start using it to its full potential. Ali Schwanke, founder at Simple Strat and Host of HubSpot Hacks, joined me on the SEJShow to share her top tips for creating a successful B2B YouTube strategy- including using YouTube's new features to make your videos more discoverable. Gain insight into the rising importance of YouTube in B2B marketing, leveraging podcast features, differentiating strategies for marketers, the role of video in an AI era, and much more. We run a channel called HubSpot Hacks over on YouTube, with about 18,000 subscribers. We just crossed over a million views earlier this year, and we're a small team of 10. –Ali Schwanke, 00:41 YouTube happens to be a place where there is very little competition for most B2B companies. So if we do help people on YouTube, it's because the barrier to entry is very high, and so the competition's low. –Ali Schwanke, 02:00 You can create videos so that they just earn a rabbit hole. So if I sent viewers a video every day, it'd take 30 days to get to know me. But if I create an experience for you and your journey that you consume 30 videos in four days because they're just so one after the other, yes, I've accelerated that relationship building, and that's what we're seeing. –Ali Schwanke, 14:18 [00:00] - Introduction to Ali Wanky. [00:41] - Simple Strat's role with "HubSpot Hacks." [02:00] - YouTube as a strategy for B2B in low-competition platforms. [03:56] - Misconceptions about video marketing. [06:19] - The importance of informative content in B2B YouTube marketing. [08:52] - The role of authenticity in learning. [11:22] - Strategies for embedding YouTube videos versus using tools like Wistia. [14:51] - Techniques for consistent video exposure. [16:17] - The benefits of multi-platform promotion for video content. [21:51] - The value of content length variations in viewer engagement. [23:49] - Format and style considerations: vertical versus horizontal videos. [26:07] - The potential of YouTube Shorts in content marketing. [27:29] - The role of AI tools in video creation. [32:17] - The necessity of engaging content in a crowded YouTube landscape. [34:44] - Efficient content generation through webinar repurposing. [35:19] - An overview of valuable resources on HubSpot Hacks. Resources Mentioned: HubSpot Hacks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuMAttNQze1GaVfiQ7rMcfA Simple S

It's our 20th Anniversary! In this special commemorative episode, take an exhilarating ride back to some of the earliest SEO and search marketing days as I sit down with our founder Loren Baker. Come for the nostalgia and stay for the hidden gems as Loren reflects on an awe-inspiring 20-year evolution of Search Engine Journal. We delved into the unforgettable landmarks, behind-the-scenes stories, and revolutionary insights that have shaped the industry and our coverage. Loren's captivating anecdotes and poignant reflections paint a bold picture of SEO's past, present, and future. Join us as we celebrate the extraordinary legacy of Search Engine Journal and inspire a new generation of digital innovation. We've achieved considerable success, especially since we collaborated with Alpha Brand Media in 2010 under the leadership of Jenise and Brent. Our primary goal was to expand SEJ's reach. Despite the various changes, one thing has remained constant – our commitment to continuous experimentation. –Loren Baker, 17:17 When I used to write, my natural inclination was to include a summary or an implication section in the post. I would explore questions such as: 'What does this information mean for marketers?', 'How can this be integrated into your SEO campaign?' or 'How can you incorporate this into your daily tasks? –Loren Baker, 15:34 Some of my favorite shows are those where we've invited day-to-day marketers, mainly in-house marketers, to share their experiences. They discuss how things are working from an enterprise perspective and in-house. Even when I used to attend a lot of conferences, I particularly enjoyed the in-house or enterprise-oriented sessions. As a consultant or agency representative, it helped me understand the thought processes, challenges and struggles in-house marketers face, which improved my communication with clients and sales. –Loren Baker, 24:54 [00:00] - Origin and Initial Vision of the Search Engine Journal [07:15] - Key Changes in SEO Since Launching SEJ [11:33] - Impact of Social Media Rise on SEO Strategy [15:34] - Applying SEO News to Marketing Campaigns [16:31] - Importance of Experimentation in SEO and Marketing [17:17] - Growth and Evolution of SEJ with Alpha Brand Media [18:29] - Learning from Past Mistakes and Wrong Decisions [20:22] - Maintaining SEJ's Editorial Integrity and Accuracy [21:12] - Keeping SEJ Relevant Amidst AI Advancements [24:02] - Most Impactful Interview Conducted on the Podcast [27:04] - Evolution of Challenges Faced by Marketers [30:40] - Impact of AI and SGE on SEO's Future [32:02] - Debunking the Myth: Is SEO Dead? [38:1

ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) are seemingly everywhere, and it's crucial to learn what's possible with them while acknowledging their flaws. After all, do LLMs have their intelligence? Is ChatGPT ready for "prime time," or is it merely a toy that can lead to fake and error-laden stories? President of Pilot Holding, Eric Enge, joined me on the SEJShow to share the truth behind the prevailing myths surrounding the generative AI landscape and how to succeed with the tools instead. Discover the problems arising from placing too much trust in generative AI. You'll also find out what is possible and how to use it in your business best while avoiding the common mistakes associated with LLMs. We must remember that the real problem is that this stuff is trained on the open internet. We have all the world's information on the web, and that's great, but we also have all the world's disinformation on the web and a lot of overtly intended misinformation. –Eric Enge,41:18 Anybody who thinks SEO is going away because of this doesn't understand SEO. As long as people want to search for and find things, and as long as there are tools to help people search for and find things, there will be SEO, end of story. –Eric Enge, 32:48 We're not at the point where this will supplant humans in all things. But we are at a point where we've developed a really interesting tool that can be used constructively and creatively in many different ways.–Eric Enge, 37:38 [00:00] - Introduction to Eric [04:21] - AI's current and future role in search & opportunities [09:36] - Effects of incorrect information on different Internet users [14:13] - Error reporting to Google: Best practices [15:25] - Preparing ecommerce sites for AI-enhanced search [21:02] - The role of content in local search results [23:52] - Evaluation of Google's source selection for search results [28:23] - Impact of Google's result integration on clicks and conversions [31:48] - Importance of brand visibility in search results [33:14] - Misunderstandings about AI's influence on search results [37:40] - Outlook on the future of ai systems [38:29] - Recent advancements in ai-generated output accuracy [41:18] - Web disinformation issues and their effect on ai models [44:22] - Strategies for ai-optimized business content [46:55] - AI's potential impact on online content credibility [48:33] - Importance of experts in enhancing ai-generated content [50:19] - Google's approach to evaluating content trustworthiness [51:49] - Insights on AI's role in future content g

Unlocking Your Brand's Potential with WordPress: Insights from the Executive Director Have you ever wondered how WordPress can transform your brand's narrative and enhance your online presence? Executive Director of WordPress, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, joined me on the SEJShow to discuss the impact of the open source model on WordPress's growth and economy and provides valuable insights on leveraging WordPress to tell your brand's story and succeed in the digital world. As WordPress marks its 20th anniversary, empowering individuals and organizations to share their narratives and establish their businesses, this episode provides a glimpse into WordPress's future and the unique ways marketers, entrepreneurs, and SMBs can capitalize on its evolving capabilities. WordPress enabled about half a trillion dollar economy based on everything people can do to create services and products inside the WordPress space. How we have created our marketplaces has been significant.–Josepha Haden,15:22 Like all the things with AI, I always ask my community to move slowly enough to be ethical but fast enough to be relevant. We're technology, and we have to be fast. Otherwise, we don't matter. But also, we are open source, so we always want to be as ethical as possible.–Josepha Haden, 36:02 The thing I think that makes Open Source so valuable in the history of WordPress and probably in the history of any open source project is that it not only has a bunch of freedoms for what anyone who wants to use our software can do and can have, but it also specifically includes freedoms from things that they should not have to deal with. Like they should be free from having someone suddenly change their terms of service and no longer having access to their content or, suddenly changing their algorithms and no longer having any access to the audiences that they worked so hard to gain on their sites and in their own spaces.–Josepha Haden, 10:12 [00:00] - About Josepha. [00:29] - The 20th anniversary of WordPress. [00:40] - SEJ's transition from Blogger to WordPress. [01:54] - The WordPress project timeline. [04:12] - Explanation of open-source project contributions. [14:32] - The economy of WordPress. [14:51] - SEO plugins in WordPress. [17:23] - How do plugin and theme developers monetize their work in the WordPress space? [20:25] - How has Gutenberg changed WordPress post publishing? [27:21] - Benefits for merchants using WordPress for ecommerce. [28:56] - Storytelling in ecommerce. [31:26] - The role SEO plays in WordPress' operation and its importance to users. [32:31] - Future of WordPress. [33:08] - WordPress' multilingual support. [34:12] - How WordPress is navigating enterprise-level customizations. [36:02] - Ethical considerations of WordPress & AI. [41:57] - The role & importance of the WordPress community in its success. Resources Mentioned: WordPress – <a href="https://wordpress.org/"

Get ready to unlock the secrets behind successful – and SAFE – advertising as we dive deep into the world of ads policy with a true industry expert.  Alejandro Borgia, Google's Director of Product Management, Ads Safety, joins me on the SEJShow to decode ad policy, setting the record straight on common myths in the ads world, from captivating clicks to unwavering compliance. From debunking misconceptions to chatting about what's next for ads, this episode is a must-listen for marketers, advertisers, and PPC enthusiasts alike.   [00:00] - About Alejandro. [01:46] - How Google approaches ad safety. [07:27] - Benefits of the Transparency Center. [09:23] - How will AI integration affect ad safety? [14:25] - How Google will defend the risks of generative AI in advertising. [19:21] - Misconception about ad safety. [22:21] - Top threats to Google's safety work. [24:34] - The then and now of Google Ads.  [27:48] - What Alejandro is excited about.   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 Alejandro Borgia: Meet Alejandro Borgia, a standout authority in product management and marketing. At the helm of strategic initiatives at Google as the Director of Product Management, Alejandro is known for breaking new ground.  His proven track record extends to influential roles at cybersecurity giant Symantec and digital music pioneer Napster.  Known for his thoughtful approach and continuous contributions, Alejandro has a well-earned reputation for fostering innovation, promoting growth, and encouraging transformation in the tech industry.  Connect with Alejandro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandroborgia/   Connect with Amanda Zantal-Wiener, Editor-in-Chief at Search Engine Journal: Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amanda_ZW Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandazantalwiener/

On this episode of the SEJ Show, we dive headfirst into the aftermath of Google's momentous May, from I/O to Marketing Live. Join SEJ Editor-in-Chief Amanda Zantal-Wiener in conversation with industry experts Roger Montti and Matt Southern as we dissect the key takeaways and groundbreaking announcements from Google's annual events. From an abundance of AI announcements to product updates, tune in to learn how to leverage and apply these developments to stay ahead of the curve. Google announced a lot of things, but they're not shipping anything yet, so it's not like they're flooding the market with all this new stuff that we have to try. There are a lot of announcements, and I find that we have a lot of time to digest them before we can get our hands on them and use them. –Matt Southern, 2:17 The big takeaway that I got from I/O and the way Google is looking to change the search experience, also with GML yesterday changing the advertiser experience is making everything conversational, which by the way, I feel like we've seen this before. Conversational marketing with chatbots etc., was a really big deal. There's a big emphasis on a conversational approach to all these things. –Amanda Zantal-Wiener, 32:22 So it seems both Open AI and Google are afraid of the democratization of AI. Right now, people are building a chatbot for 500 bucks or less, so the technology is out there. People are building their own things, like Jasper AI is working with Cerebras, which provides AI infrastructure, and a lot of people think Jasper AI is just taking a chat GPT feed and modifying it. No, they built their own large language models using the Cerebras infrastructure, and it's very unique to them and very specific–what's called domain-specific. That's going to pose a problem for them, and they want to keep a light on it, in my opinion, but that's why you're seeing the first strike from Google and open AI about the legislation because they want to control what the laws are. –Roger Monttii, 7:17 [00:00] - About Matt & Roger [02:04] - Are things slowing down this summer? [05:50] - The talk about the L-word: Legislation. [12:33] - The white paper on Google's ethics and AI. [17:32] - Initial thoughts on Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) [22:03] - About Section 230. [32:22] - How do you optimize for the new search experience? [47:15] - How will the new search experience impact accessibility & KPIs? [52:37] - What's the motivation for companies? [58:26] - What's on the horizon? Resources mentioned: Google I/O: https://io.google/2023/ <p dir="lt

In the world of SEO, search marketing, and content marketing, it's becoming clear that getting a solid grip on the customer's needs, desires, and lifestyle is equally essential to building your brand's unique persona and story. Ryan Kutscher, the creative force and founder behind CIRCUS MAXIMUS, joined me on the SEJShow to talk about how his team creates compelling brand narratives. We covered their use of Ikigai, a profound Japanese concept that translates to "a reason for being." This concept is a remarkable tool in their storytelling arsenal, providing a fresh perspective that introduces depth and purpose to their narratives. In this episode, we'll gain invaluable insights into how Ikigai can be utilized to create more meaningful, impactful stories, ultimately adding a rich layer of authenticity to your brand narrative. ​​We take a step back for brands to think more narratively about what the story they're trying to tell is. And then think about how they're applying that to the customer journey rather than tactics first, which just makes your head explode these days. –Ryan Kutscher, 04:38 Sometimes as a business owner or an executive, you assume that the entire company gets the mission and what you said is a human mission. So, one of the things lacking in the workplace, so that's been lacking in the workplace for the past 20-30 years, is purpose. What gets you up in the morning? –Loren Baker, 07:22 [00:00] - About Ryan [02:43] - How they craft memorable brand narratives and characters [08:50] - How human mission & passion comes in. [11:57] - The Mark Cuban example. [16:05] - How to get started with the voice of the customer. [17:48] - How do companies earn revenue from pinpointing passion & mission? [19:39] - Uber & Lyft example. [24:46] - The In & Out Burger example. [28:36] - Brands Ryan worked with applying Ikigai. [32:11] - Other ways listeners can use the Ikigai concept. [34:56] - How important are videos? Resources mentioned: Circus Maximus - https://www.circusmaximus.com/ The first question that we ask is why? Why is your brand doing what it's doing? What is the brand's purpose? That answer is not to make money or increase revenue by a quarter. It's not a business goal. It's a human mission. If everyone can kind of answer those questions the same way, or at least have an understanding of how the brand wants to answer those questions, they start to work for that idea or that narrative, and then that helps them do their job better and hopefully helps them tell their story better, tell the story better. There's an internal

Looking for some great PPC conversion rate optimization tips? Navah Hopkins, PPC expert and SEJ contributor, joins me on the SEJShow, where we explore the art and science of turning ad clicks into valuable conversions. She delves into the crucial journey from ad to landing pageant and shares strategies and techniques to help you deliver on the promise made in your advertisements. Whether you're a seasoned professional or a newcomer, this podcast episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to take their conversion rates to new heights. Navah Hopkins is the Evangelist for Optmyzr. A veteran of the digital marketing industry, she began as an SEO in 2008, transitioning to PPC in 2012. In 2019, she became a founding member of the Paid Search Association, a group dedicated to empowering the next generation of PPC practitioners and serving as a resource for all practitioners to learn from and share with the community. Now, landing page experience is a core component of quality score, which is a core component of ad rank, which influences your cost per click in at least Google and Microsoft PPC campaigns. And what's interesting is that the landing page experience is a two-part piece: The first is how well the landing page answers the promise you made in your ad, and that goes to the keywords you're targeting or the audiences you're targeting. The other piece is a little bit technical, and where you might need to partner with your SEO friends or use a tool that has some of these things baked in. Is the ad bot able to crawl your landing page to generate a quality score? Are you going to be having popups going left, right, and center? Are you going to have modules that may not necessarily behave? So there's a, there's a technical component, and then there's the, the content component. And what I think a lot of either PPCs, may need to remember to think about is the technical component. –Navah Hopkins, 04:47 I've always considered utilizing SEO or normal site pages as huge distractions for PPC campaigns. Typically with PPC campaigns, someone knows where they're going to go. You want to keep them in that funnel and follow that call to action, so they will make that purchase. But it seems like, in PPC, you can direct someone into taking that call to action. Whereas SEO, we're doing the exact opposite. We're interweaving this web of distractions to show that it's an authority, and there are reviews, FAQs, and there's the schema, and there's everything else, like all across the board and interlinks and navigation. –Loren Baker, 10:07 If we want experiences that are curated, we need to know how to say yes. Because that's an

You know how the world of SEO is constantly changing. And staying on top of things and making the most of your skills is essential. That's what we're all about here at the SEJShow - finding fantastic new business models and strategies that help you shine as an SEO consultant. Roland Frasier joins me in today's show to dive into alternative methods that could change your consulting game, giving you even more rewards for all that hard work you put into client and partner projects. So, strap in, and let's jump off that old SEO hamster wheel to uncover some exciting SEO consulting opportunities! If you're entrepreneurial, it makes sense to think about possibly getting something more permanent for your time. –Roland Frasier, 03:40 What I found to be most effective is to say you've got knowledge, skills, experience, and connections that add tremendous value to businesses, so you have a choice: You can get a short-term income and a flat fee, get paid by the hour, and even get in the middle of a revenue share. But when that stops, it stops. A way around that is to come in and add value to the business. The value you bring to the company should be compensated by participating in the ongoing profits or equity of the business...That's the concept: how do you turn your effort into equity? –Roland Frasier, 05:12 After so many years in marketing, I don't consider myself just an SEO. I'm typically brought in to do SEO Consulting and help on that side. The next thing I know, there's a new brand launching, so I'm looking at opportunities for brand messaging, looking at the product before it comes out, and involved with that this and that. –Loren Baker, 13:03 [00:00] - About Roland. [07:01] - What consultants should look for when they want to have equity in a company. [12:55] - How to avoid "over consulting" and earn based on the value provided beyond SEO? [20:45] - How to yourself as proving more than just SEO. [23:20] - How to start consulting for equity. [32:55] - What is a Fractional CMO? [41:30] - The mindset that leads to a better quality of life. Resources mentioned: Epic Network - https://epicnetwork.com/ The Business Lunch Podcast- https://businesslunchpodcast.com/ I'm going to look at where I can have a significant impact. I'm going to say if the lift that I can add to this company is something that I think will move the needle for them, then I believe it's an appropriate conversation. –Roland Frasier, 9:40 They will put you in that box if you come in as an SEO, so how you brand and pr

AI Revolutionizes SEO: Unveiling IndexNow Updates and Bing Strategies We know you're wondering: What does SEO look like for the new Bing? Can you use AI for SEO? We're curious, too. Fabrice Canel, Principal Program Manager for Microsoft Bing, joins me on the SEJShow to share insights and answer your questions. We'll dive into the latest advancements in AI and their potential impact on SEO strategies and discuss recent updates to the IndexNow protocol and how it's transforming the search landscape. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn from an industry expert and discover the future of search engine optimization on Bing. Open AI investment for Microsoft is not recent. Microsoft has invested in Open AI for a few years already. For years, there has been a lot of investment in leveraging AI at Microsoft and Bing and liberating machine learning. We are purely machine learning based, trying to satisfy the user. –Fabrice Canel, 04:39 When people enter the search chat experience, this is about refining the queries and results to satisfy the user. The Bing experience is really about redirecting a customer to a site that somebody has published. This is all about finding the best content and clicking to find this content online and clicking this link where people can transact. –Fabrice Canel, 11:18 When you navigate a site, you can use the chat experience to learn about the site or summarize information about this page. The chat can help you generate an email, LinkedIn posts, Twitter, etc. This experience is not only available within Bing.com. This is also moving across Microsoft products. You will see this also in Skype and directly integrated into Windows. –Fabrice Canel, 13:39 Resources mentioned: Bing Webmaster Guidelines - https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a Edge Browser - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge [00:01] - About Fabrice. [00:59] - The new Bing & the technology it powers. [03:35] - How does Bing use ChatGPT & Open AI technology? [05:32] - What is the Prometheus language model? [07:41] - How citations work in ChatGPT-powered Bing search results. [12:41] - What can you do with Bing Co-Pilot in Microsoft Edge? [18:03] - What AI integrations is Bing working on for small and local businesses? [20:26] - How to use ChatGPT-powered Bing Search - Help planning a trip to London. [23:01] - What has Bing learned since launching ChatGPT-powered search? [25:24] - How to generate an image with DALL-E

Privacy laws and best practices are ever-evolving, just like everything else in marketing. How do you ensure your organization is compliant and keep your customer's best interest in mind? Lucas Long, Director of Privacy Strategy at InfoTrust, and co-author of the new Amazon Best-Selling book, "Becoming a Privacy-Centric Marketing Organization" joins me on the SEJ Show for a privacy-focused podcast. Gain insights on the three pillars of privacy that every marketing should consider and what steps you need to take now. When we start talking about consumer expectations and we start talking about compliance, it becomes very complicated in large organizations that are working across different countries. You have other things like GDPR and EPRI in Europe versus all the state laws in the United States. There are various restrictions for how you can use an identity service, how you can identify users, and for those users that you can identify, even what activities and what data you can start to leverage for any advertising activity. –Lucas Long, 02:13 Traditionally, third-party cookies have played a significant role...Those are ultimately going away by the end of next year once Chrome deprecates support. So how we have to identify those users and associated information together is the core of what's changing right now. –Lucas Long, 06:14 The only way to identify a user across different locations is if there is some persistent identifier. Typically in the form of an email or a login, so that's really where it starts. And then it gets into that first-party ownership for that first-party data, collecting the correct information on each of those different properties, integrating it so that we can then have that more centralized view and be able to take various actions for that consumer –Lucas Long, 07:16 [00:00] - About Lucas Long. [01:37] - ID-oriented data and targeting in multiple brands & regions. [03:26] - Industries Lucas specializes in. [04:13] - Ecommerce challenges with cross-country targeting. [07:16] - Core pillars of privacy-centric marketing. [08:34] - Other ID touchpoints available. [14:58] - Other options for additional data sources. [16:21] - What is server-side tag management? [19:21] - Can companies access more data from loyalty programs? [23:09] - How the book launch has been for marketing. Resources Mentioned: Book: Becoming a Privacy-Centric Marketing Organization (Crawl, Walk, Run) https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Privacy-Centric-Marketing-Organization

In today's world, we are bombarded with information from all sides. As a result, it can be hard to know what is newsworthy and what is not. Matt Southern and Roger Montti, SEJ's news writers, joined Amanda Zantal-Wiener, Editor-In-Chief at SEJ, to discuss how to determine what is worth following and how to avoid being overwhelmed by the information deluge. These experts talk about information overload, marketing, and data science to share tips on how to stay informed without being overwhelmed. Matt and Roger share their experiences with information overload and how they have learned to manage it. If you are overwhelmed by the information, this episode is for you. We will help you learn how to navigate the information jungle and stay informed without being stressed out. I filter the information according to what I find interesting professionally and personally and what I think the audience would be interested in. I'm especially interested in things that are novel or under-covered but are essential for people to know. That's one of the reasons why I started covering more of the WordPress stuff as well as Wix. –Roger Montti, 3:14 Covering John Mueller, it's always interesting to decipher what he's trying to say, what he wants to say…he addresses people with the understanding that they have a high level of knowledge of SEO, and that's only sometimes the case for people who can benefit from the information he has to share. So I like to take the data he's sharing, which is usually communicated at a high level, and distill it into smaller parts and try to break it down into a language everyone can understand. –Matt Southern, 18:01 I see breaking news as two things. The first one is the fact: "This happened." The second part is "What does that mean and how does that impact people?"...So you must balance the speed and being out there with the news and saying, "this happened." But then we can also revert to what happened, do an article about what it means, and bring in other people who might have interesting insights into it. –Roger Montti, 7:38 [00:00] - Meet Matt & Roger. [01:26] - Understanding information overload. [05:34] - Keeping content timely and relevant amidst rapid news flow. [09:18] - How to strike a balance between reader engagement & SEO rankings. [15:24] - Best practices for tackling inaccurate information. [17:31] - Tips and insights for covering statements from authority figures. [19:56] - Providing the right historical context: A key to effective writing. [23:41] - Should you always credit who covered a topic first? [27:15] - How to avoid falling down a rabbit hole when researching a topic. [33:52] - How to craft

Social advertising can be an easy entry point for many organizations. But, with all the targeting and metrics to track, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Daniel Alvarado, CEO at White Shark Media and Head of Engineering at AdClicks joined me on the SEJShow to talk about ensuring profitability and success with your social ads. Gain insight on how to leverage social advertising metrics and strategies to achieve optimal ROI and measurable business outcomes. In terms of trends, we are going to see a lot more funds being put in by advertisers and by agencies in terms of video production and video production quality. There are a lot of people that are investing in refreshing their creatives and their copy and making it a little bit more top-notch production because that's, that's what's finding to be very appealing to users today. –Daniel Alvarado, 05:25 My approach towards AI is more around research as opposed to actual content production. And I still have my team, put the effort in terms of creating that very original piece that really appeals and speaks to the customer. –Daniel Alvarado, 11:04 In the world of SEO, people look at it as a very direct response-oriented marketing channel. Like, oh, you got this traffic from Google, it converted, okay, then you get attribution. Whereas that's typically not the case. People like to do research. With top 10 lists and peer reviews, it means that people are doing their research or trying to figure things out. They may visit your site one day via SEO, do research, and down the road visit via the ad, but SEO was part of that, or organic was part of that. Or maybe one of the last steps of the buyer's journey is to actually go to the site, do a search, find the site, find some basic information from it, and then from that organic traffic or that organic visit make that final decision to then buy, which could even be a branded search. –Loren Baker, 22:15 [00:00] - About Daniel [03:00] - Experience working on campaigns that are search oriented within TikTok [04:42] - Is Daniel doing a lot more video advertising now? [08:02] - Does he use AI in campaigns? [14:00] - How do you show ROI in campaigns from multiple platforms? [18:30] - Does he integrate CRMs with ad clicks? [21:58] - How attribution points are tracked through SEO & social with an ad click. [25:18] - Where Daniel sees the GA4 transition play into attribution tracking [28:30] - Does he see social platforms affecting metric tracking? [33:07] - Daniel's journey from SEM supervisor to CEO. Resources Mentioned: White Shark Media - https://www.whitesharkmedia

In today's digital age, having a well-optimized website is essential for any business looking to succeed online. However, simply focusing on keywords and topics may not be enough to stand out and connect with your target audience truly. Rory Hope of HubSpot joined me on the SEJ Show to discuss integrating actual audience data into SEO strategies to go beyond the basics of critical terms & topics. Learn how to integrate audience intelligence and social listening data into keyword strategies to understand your 'SEO persona.' You'll be able to plan more relevant and engaging content and digital PR (link building) campaigns to generate better results. Many SEOs I know sometimes struggle with integration into broader marketing. I think one of SEO's worst enemies is being in a silo where people see the SEO's role as being purely keywords or having and not having a voice in broader content strategy in strategic discussions. I think SEOs can start to bring in social data to support the reasoning as to why content is being published, to help keyword performance by tailoring it all back to the keyword topic, then building out from there and saying we're listening to these publications and these influences because we've seen that these websites rank for these keywords topics that we want to target. –Rory Hope, 27:53 Social is fascinating because we're looking at the digital marketing pillars –email marketing, social media, marketing search, organic search page search, and the ability to use persona typically are not necessarily integrated into what I would call traditional keyword research. A lot of the tools now have things like intent, which helps, but what does the persona look like, what does the buyer look like, who is the buyer when they're searching for something, and what terms are they utilizing that others may not identify and better filter down into Google. –Loren Baker, 7:17 In the sense of SEO, we're missing out on getting back to the audience and understanding the persona. So I think that audience intelligence tools have a real place at the table within an SEO toolset. –Rory Hope, 26:07 [00:00] - About Rory [04:18] - What is Hubspot's Hustle? [08:01] - Importance of social data in SEO. [20:26] - Key benefits of link acquisition opportunities. [32:28] - How social data can work from an agency point of view. [36:15] - Tips for teams that are spread out worldwide. [38:23] - What C3PO means. Resources Mentioned: The Huste: https://blog.hubspot.com/the-hustle Let's look so, so what you need to think about here is I like to call it audience first SEO. So you know your base layer research, your foundational study remains the same. You are conducting keyword research, clustering keywords into topics, subtopics, intent analysis, and building a keyword targeting planner. I think that's important to know. However, y

Google's very own Martin Splitt joined me on the SEJ Show to share his thoughts and opinions on various technical SEO topics, such as Semantic HTML, Google Search Console, indexing, and client-side rendering. Explore how to leverage these powerful tools to improve your website's SEO. Prefer to watch the video? Register here: http://bit.ly/3YQxzG7 I would say make sure that you are focusing on the content quality and that you are focusing on delivering value to your users. Those have been, will always be, and are the most important things. Everything else should follow from that. –Martin Splitt Suppose you are fine-tuning technical details or your website's structure or markup. In that case, you are likely missing out on the more significant opportunities of asking yourself what people need from your website. –Martin Splitt This question keeps coming up. This is not the first time and will not be the last time this question will come up and continue to be asked. I don't know why everyone thinks about who, what value, or who. It's about structure. I can't emphasize this enough, if you choose to have H1s as your top-level structure of the content, that's fine. It just means that the top level of the content is structured along the H1s. –Martin Splitt [00:00] - About Martin [02:47] - Why Semantic SEO is important. [04:22] - Is there anything that can be done within Semantic HTML to better communicate with Google? [06:02] - Should schema markup information match what's in the document? [08:24] - What parts of Semantic search does Google need the most help with? [09:19] - What is Martin's opinion on header tags? [14:22] - Is the responsibility of implementing Semantic HTML on the SEO or the developer? [16:19] - How accessible is Semantic HTML within a WordPress, or Gutenberg-style environment? [19:58] - How compatible is Semantic HTML with WCAG? [21:08] - What is the relationship of Semantic HTML to the overall concept of the Semantic web RDF, etc.? [25:04] - Can the wrong thumbnails be rectified utilizing Semantic HTML? [28:42] - Is there another type of schema markup that can still refer to the organization and use IDs on article pages? [32:10] - Can adding schema markup to show the product category hierarchy and modifying HTML help Google understand the relationship between the product and its category? [33:49] - Is preserving header hierarchy more critical than which header you use? [36:36] - Is it bad practice to display different content on pages to returning users versus new users? [40:08] -

When two search experts come together, they will likely discuss various SEO and digital marketing topics. These discussions can cover everything from the latest trends and strategies to industry news and best practices. Barry Schwartz, CEO of Rusty Brick and Founder of Search Engine Roundtable, joined me on the SEJ Show to discuss SEO, business, the search landscape, and even hair products. It was legendary! Most of the world these days wants to see a five-second TikTok or YouTube short, and they don't have the patience to go ahead and read something. I think that might be scaring not just advertisers, SEOs, and marketers but Google and Microsoft search ad revenue models and seeing how they can get people to click on those things. This should be interesting. –Barry Schwartz, 17:19 I'm usually very consistent. I'm the type of person who will do something and never stop doing it for better or worse. And it's just the way I like to be. Have a nice routine where I do certain things in a particular order. And I'm passionate about tracking what's changing, so if you let things go more than 24 hours, it just gets worse, piles up, and you get behind. So I like to stay on top of it, and honestly, helping the community in my little way makes it all worth it. –Barry Schwartz, 5:22 I try to cover publicly available stuff that anybody else could access without a password. So that's my rule, it has to be publicly available, and Twitter is a great place where most things are publicly known unless their profiles are limited. –Barry Schwartz, 9:53 [00:00] - About Barry. [04:46] - What has kept Barry going over the past 20 years? [09:28] - SEO forums that people should participate in today. [17:46] - What should the KPIs be behind SEO now with AI here? [19:13] - Will a new search engine now emerge over Google? [25:22] - Biggest regret in blogging. [28:54] - Topic Barry wished he could cover. [32:46] - Barry vs. Google's announcement to take down sponsored links. [38:15] - Is having a Google Plus share button on your blog a ranking factor? [40:45] - How important is it to have fast site core web vitals? [51:15] - How to boost authority & rank higher. [59:42] - How fulfilling has it been to use Roundtable from a religious standpoint? Resources mentioned: Search Engine Roundtable: https://www.seroundtable.com/ Rusty Brick: https://www.rustybrick.com/ On chatGPT, I don't remember a time in the world of search where or a recent time, maybe the past 12 or 13 years, when things were so exciting. –Loren Baker, 12:04 I think, seeing how G

Success in the fast-paced world of advertising requires a focus on innovation and adaptation to the latest trends. This includes staying informed on changes in cookie usage, the growing importance of identity, and exploring opportunities in emerging platforms like connected TV (CTV). John Gentry, CEO of OpenX, joins me on the SEJShow to discuss the opportunities of ad exchanges, distribution beyond Google & Microsoft, how header bidding works, ad opportunities growing on mobile devices and CTV, and the role of identity and cookies in ad targeting. Gain insights on how to take your PPC and advertising efforts to new heights. The key is to put an offering in front of somebody who has articulated their interest. Reaching a consumer in real-time and understanding that they want something –they want a car, they want to get tickets to a baseball game. So you're responding to them at that exact time, making that work compelling. The big magic of that model was that real-time response to a user's needs. –John Gentry, 04:26 Paid search is a great entry point into an ecosystem of advertising models working together to identify that intent. And then, if someone may not make the purchase decision at that moment, you can then remarket/retarget. You can then remind them, or at least you have the data. Maybe they're somewhere in the funnel where you are looking at a blog post, buyer guide, or comparison page, and then you can follow them through. –Loren Baker, 05:07 Programmatic came out of that idea to take intent and see if you can respond to the user in some timeframe. The goal here is to try and keep that offer in front of the user when you think you understand the consumer wants to buy something. Programmatic extended that opportunity to be in front of that user and target that user with a different time window. –John Gentry, 05:53 [00:00] - About John. [05:07] - Where Programmatic comes in. [06:59] - Overview of OpenX. [09:46] - How is First-Party Data different from cookie-based advertising? [11:21] - How buyers match to data. [18:19] - More about Open audience. [19:38] - Will there ever be an alternative to Google? [22:34] - How AI will change the search experience. [25:42] - How targeting works in CTV. [33:09] - Ways OpenX stays sustainable. <

SEO professionals looking for ways to gain a competitive edge in their link acquisition and blogging techniques can take heart — 2023 is bringing some exciting advancements that you'll want to add to your toolbox of tricks. Ann Smarty joins me on the SEJ Show to talk about techniques in link acquisition, resourceful and trusted content, and other progressions of traditional SEO strategies. Discover approaches for boosting visibility and SEO success in this episode. Link building is the only thing that can move the needle. You can optimize, and you can make your site fast. You can create content and do keyword research, but at the end of the day, what moves the needle to get that website ranking very competitively is still linking. –Ann Smarty, 07:43 We even have our database of websites that sell links, and we can track every company that buys links there. So we know that if this site is buying here, that site is usually selling links. So the neighborhood is a huge thing here. –Ann Smarty, 10:28 The beauty of educators is that it's the best neighborhood. Those people never sell links on their websites because they're busy with something else and value all the resources they put on their websites. So that's a never been spammed neighborhood.–Ann Smarty, 21:20 [00:00] - About Ann. [03:59] - Are experimental side projects important? [07:15] - How crucial is linking for SEO nowadays? [11:56] - The importance of quality of content in terms of a link target page. [14:53] - What's more important on Google reading lists, at the top or bottom? [21:09] - Other forms of ethical link building. [26:42] - Kinds of content that attract more links now. [30:23] - Types of impactful outreach and linking. [32:57] - Importance of original statistics. Resources Mentioned: https://www.seosmarty.com/ Some companies are closing down, and there are stores and restaurants everywhere that are closing down. That's very sad. But the opportunity from a link acquisition perspective is someone's going to lose their domain,

It seems like everyone these days wants to talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential in search. It's true - there is no doubt that AI will continue revolutionizing how we find information online. But did you know that real-time AI search is already here? Introducing NeevaAI, it harnesses the power of artificial intelligence for more efficient search results in real time. Neeva CEO and ex-Head of Google Ads, Sridhar Ramaswamy, joined me on the SEJ Show to discuss how live AI questions and answers will change how people search. We touched on how AI will alter the business models of search engines. And also covered the limitations of ChatGPT, and the importance of sourcing and citations in AI-powered live search-driven answers. We felt that commercial search engines, Google, and Bing, had become products for advertisers, not products for you and me to find out what we want. We felt that a user-focused search engine could differentiate itself and deliver a better product experience. So Neeva, at its core, is a user-first search engine. That means that we don't show ads, don't show affiliate links, and we protect your privacy. –Sridhar Ramaswamy, 02:03 NeevaAI seemed to fix most of the issues I was experiencing with chatGPT, especially the lack of sourcing and accurate information.–Loren Baker, 35:30 The underlying technology behind chatGPT is this model called GPT-3.5. The core technique that that model uses is learning on every page, every piece of text that it can get its hands on. Now note they don't know where these pages came from. They don't know whether it is real or not. They don't understand things like link structure authority. –Sridhar Ramaswamy, 06:41 [00:00] - About Sridhar. [05:29] - Limitation of ChatGPT. [10:17] - A walkthrough on Neeva's AI search. [17:35] - Monetization challenges ad-supported search engines may face with AI. [21:24] - How verified sources are served. [23:48] - How personalized are AI-driven answers based on history? [24:54] - Will there be more follow-up queries after the AI results are given? [27:43] - Where this is going in terms of privacy. [35:30] - Is Neeva available in multiple languages? [37:12] - Can website owners verify with Neeva, like Google Search Console? Resources mentioned: Neeva: ad-free private search: https://neeva.com/ All of us, willingly or not, are participating in a giant experiment similar to Google. We are happily submitting our thoughts, worries, and desires to chatGPT. And worse, it is not equipped to compartmentalize information like Goog

Savvy digital marketers leverage user identification to create genuinely custom experiences for their customers because identity is a crucial part of today's online landscape. Nancy Marzouk of MediaWallah joins me on the SEJ show to discuss the concept of identity data and how it becomes an integral part of digital advertising. In addition, we discuss the critical elements to have in place to create a successful approach. We also get into clean rooms and clean tech vs. a "black box" approach and how AWS, Google & Snowflake's impacts on the ID data market will look like. There's a lot that needs to go into how I design my identity strategy to fit not only the privacy talk about data governance and all that fun stuff but also works within the industry that I'm in and deals with the marketing stack that I've invested in. So that's really where identity by design comes in. It helps you understand. We help people understand the pieces of what a sustainable building-up of your identity graph might look like. –Nancy Marzouk, 06:19 The fact that the cookies were anonymous and that the workflow that was present for cookies was acceptable, but it's no longer viable when you're starting to deal with the first-party data. Because it's very sensitive information, creating a more secure workflow will be very important in the future. With that being said, it doesn't mean that retargeting goes away. It just looks a little different. –Nancy Marzouk, 10:41 With cookies and mobile going away, what it does is it brings the advertiser and the publisher closer together. –Nancy Marzouk, 16:15 00:00 - About Nancy. 05:00 - What is identity, and why is it important? 08:46 - Can you still retarget in the future? 11:47 - Is it going to be better or worse for advertising? 22:51 - Does a publisher have to work with every identity solution? 35:29 - A scenario ID platforms can identify. 38:47 - How to transition to ID. Resources mentioned: MediaWallah - https://mediawallah.com/ There are different parts of identity. First, there's being able to identify an event or a session or something happening in a browser or something happening in the app so that you can do that targeting right then and there based on what the platform is that you're using. And then there's how do I take all that information and connect it to an individual or a user so that I can perhaps do some sophisticated audience modeling or attribution? –Nancy Marzouk, 26:12 It seems like the past three years. Google's been serving more and more publisher sites that are reviews or product-oriented reviews, recipe sites, whatever on the publisher side, as opposed to going directly to the source. So I think it will make that real estate more important from an advertising pers

You may have heard of artificial intelligence, but what about creative intelligence? Alex Collmer, CEO of VidMob, joined me on SEJ Show to talk about creative intelligence and its role in helping marketers, especially in today's market conditions. Gain insight into how creative intelligence optimizations and data transparency can help you make the right decision when running your creative campaigns. Find out how it plays in with privacy updates and running campaigns across various ad networks, mobile devices, and social media apps. One of the things that creative intelligence can do is help people get a reality check on how original and unique that creative is vis-a-vis the myriad of things in the market today. It's a tool to help people monitor culture to understand how trends are progressing and when the moment has passed. –Alex Collmer,15:34 Before, it was about getting the click to go to the site. Now everything is so intertwined. It has to be quite a chore for a creative team to fill in all the blanks and then utilize that data to alter, refresh, or make those adaptations to the creative itself. –Loren Baker, 03:54 This isn't A/B testing. You know that that's sort of like the thing we did yesterday. This is a whole new world and opens up visibility into the why of creativity for the first time. –Alex Collmer, 07:20 [00:00] - About Alex. [08:03] - How creative intelligence relates to AI. [10:53] - How fast a campaign gets creative feedback. [13:40] - Where originality comes in. [17:55] - How important is Creative Intelligence regarding data privacy? [19:46] - Can Creative Intelligence report on demographics? [21:16] - Can you optimize for different age groups simultaneously? [22:57] - Can data sync from handheld devices to traditional advertising? [25:20] - Alex's take on Augmented Reality and Snap. [31:37] - Insights on rich media style advertising on Amazon. Resources mentioned: VidMob - https://www.vidmob.com/ We built technology to enable people to ingest all of that creative they might be running across an account on Meta, YouTube, TikTok, or Amazon. We process those billions of creative attribute signals and pull all the performance information from those platforms. The likes, clicks, views, engagement metrics, and purchases are included. –Alex Collmer, 06:22 Intelligent creative gives people data they can react to in real-time in a software platform that enables them to be very agile in their creatives. They can optimize the market and dramatically improve the results they see from their campaigns.–Alex Collmer, 10:35 As the media side loses effectiveness, the creative side has to take over more of the responsibility. –Alex Collmer, 19:14</

In a world where PR and content marketing is essential to SEO, the sports industry can bring about some learnings for anyone in the digital marketing field. Karina Barriga Albring of FIFA joined me on the SEJ Show to discuss the world of Sports Development and Sports Marketing. She shares her journey from traditional journalism to PR and marketing. Take a look at how sports can provide some valuable marketing insights and how marketing can benefit from sports too. We know how passionate people are about a sport, whether football, soccer, or basketball. People sometimes have an irrational attachment to this activity, myself included...The emotional connection is so strong that, of course, brands will want to be involved. Sports marketing is tagging along to the immense love, attachment, and relationship we have for sports. –Karina Barriga Albring, 11:44 We're going to start seeing brands' funding to align with athletes whose message and online persona align with the values that the brand wants to spread. –Karina Barriga Albring, 24:31 Brands like to have ambassadors who are relatable and who are real people. So if you are an athlete who enjoys theater, go to the theater and get involved in local community activities. Try to identify the other passions that you have. All of that helps you build your persona. Make people find you more relatable and likable, which will translate into brands wanting to work with you. –Karina Barriga Albring, 30:30 [00:00] - About Karina. [03:40] - How working with other industries helped her in sports. [06:57] - What PR is all about. [10:54] - What is Sports Marketing? [16:12] - To what extent is licensing a part of Sports Marketing? [19:14] - The importance of personal branding in Sports Marketing. [27:26] - Opportunities for athletes to build their brand. [33:28] - Sports Marketing tips that can be applied to marketing. Resources mentioned: FIFA - https://www.fifa.com/ In the time that we're living in, we're no longer competing for an audience. We're not only competing with our direct competitors but for the attention of the audience. You're competing for people's times...These days that is something that we need to think about when we analyze our strategies and our positioning. –Karina Barriga Albring, 48:29 In website development or SEO, it's always nice to check what your main competitor is doing and your smaller competition. And it's always great to have a "side project" to experiment with...the ability to have some side project and then turn it into a business case and then pitch the ability to do it on your company's website may also be helpful. –Loren Baker, 47:23 With influencers and content creators online, when we think about PR, we don't only think about traditional me

What is Zero Click? And how does it affect businesses and their SEO/PPC strategies? Semrush's Marcus Tober joins me on the SEJ Show to discuss Semrush's recent Zero Click study and how this fits into a growing trend in Google. Get insights on how Zero Click reshapes expectations of traffic, multi-touch attribution, and other traditional Google KPIs. Zero Clicks for us means there was an initial search and nothing after that. There was no continuation. And we did is we defined a session in a two-minute window. –Marcus Tober, 09:42 The biggest pivot probably in the past decade is that, to your point, someone may click on Google Maps, someone may click on Google Images, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're not reaching the business goal of that user. –Loren Baker, 12:44 As a marketer, we should aim for areas with a hybrid strategy. We need to show up for these transactional commercial searches, even if we know we don't get to click. We need visibility. We also need to invest in content that might trigger different search results, like, featured snippets, or maybe show up in more visual searches because we have lots of visual content. –Marcus Tober, 19:59 [00:00] - About Marcus. [04:22] - The difference between enterprise vs. normal marketing solutions. [08:00] - Is Zero Click negative or positive with planning for SEO? [08:19] - What triggered the Zero Click study? [12:12] - Is the call button a Google internal click or a click to the site? [18:04] - What are the popular product box? [22:12] - An actual query on mobile by Loren. [30:37] - How do you make sure your brand covers the results delivered? [39:07] - Google's search difference on desktop vs. mobile. [47:02] - Other findings from the Zero Click study. [48:08] - Conversion rates through Google products vs. regular organic traffic. [51:58] - Will people ignore a CTR within indexed content and be served on Zero Click? Resources mentioned: Semrush - https://www.semrush.com/ Zero Click may mean Google may have answered the user straight away. So there was no need for the user to click to continue anything else.–Marcus Tober, 11:24 I truly believe Google has now found enough motivation to compete against Amazon. That's why they're investing so much in all these different ecommerce integrations.–Marcus Tober, 36:58 SEO will be very important in the near end and long term if we understand from which perspectives users are coming. Don't only optimize on transactional keywords because you can convert this traffic easily in SEO. And then, suddenly, Google launches popular products with checkout, and you lose every traffic. It would help if you diversified to succeed in SEO.–Marcus Tober, 23:45

Want to increase your ROI and improve your SEO strategy? How will SEO evolve in the year ahead? What are the biggest threats and challenges? SEJ's Ben Steele joined me on the SEJ Show to discuss the findings of SEJ's Second Annual State of SEO Study, which includes emerging trends in the world of SEO and can help companies plan for 2023 and beyond. As long as people need to find things, there will be SEO. That explains why this industry has seen so much growth, even with the upset of the last few years and economic issues on the horizon. –Ben Steele, 12:34 Organic marketing or performance marketing forms, such as SEO and affiliate marketing, have risen from staffing and investment perspectives. –Loren Baker, 14:31 If you're hyper-focusing on that automation element, you might be missing its actual value, which is allowing you to go hands-off on some of the things that don't matter as much and focus on creating content that resonates with your audience –Ben Steele, 31:11 [00:00] - About Ben. [06:49] - What is the second annual State of SEO? [09:59] - Number of respondents involved. [10:25] - Preliminary findings that stuck out. [16:09] - Locales with the highest salaries for SEO. [18:20] - Where SEO professionals focused big this year. [22:31] - Metrics to track success. [32:40] - Important emergent factors in the next two years. [41:33] - Difficulties in ebook planning. [43:34] - The difference between an ebook & a white paper. Resources mentioned: State of SEO - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/state-of-seo-performance/ Ebooks are an interesting beast because they have unique difficulties and advantages. The most significant unique problem is they require a lot of buy-ins. By that, I mean they need someone to not only have the time to sit down and read it but to go through the process of discovering and deciding to download it. –Ben Steele, 37:55 People are returning to basics, driven by Google's updates over the last couple of years. –Ben Steele, 19:40 Yes, rankings are nice, but it's much better to have an ROI where people purchase or click. –Loren Baker, 28:16 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 <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqblo1OGJpVS11Z0lXeVB1V2FrSUtJbF80cWlYQXxBQ3Jtc0ttbVJRcElBUW85VlVMS21aa2w3UzRyRlIzVkF6RUQyc2NFclp3TmhTR2hoYlNwVGdpZ3Ntd2NXT0FKMk5RamFnMTZkT21ZVlZTeHByaEpFe

Countdown clocks, limited seating, only X items left in stock ... does scarcity marketing work for you? If so, why? Scarcity marketing and the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a phenomenon that can be applied to all forms of marketing - especially digital. Mindy Weinstein, Ph.D., author of The Power of Scarcity, joins me on the SEJShow to talk more about the concept - and how it can help you drive results. Marketing is so much psychology; it doesn't matter if you're doing SEO, paid search, or social. You're trying to reach a person. I feel like it's a lot harder than before because it's a matter of not just reaching them but cutting through the noise and then using the right words. –Mindy Weinstein,1:51 Because of scarcity, there is excitement and there is loyalty. Think of Nike and some of these big companies that people watch for the drops. It goes beyond just creating quick revenue, as I need sales right now, which is what most of us associate with scarcity. –Mindy Weinstein, 29:02 You're bringing their focus, especially for people all over the place, and you're giving them the direction to tell them what to do, which many audiences actually crave. They don't necessarily want to make that decision, and they need you to guide them to make the decision or to make the sale. I think that's something that can be lost in digital marketing. –Loren Baker, 19:20 [00:00] - Mindy's background. [05:17] - What is scarcity marketing? [06:00] - Four types of scarcity. [10:14] - How to take scarcity marketing from the traditional to the digital side. [16:01] - Examples of using scarcity marketing in websites. [20:20] - Examples for service-based businesses. [25:19] - How McDonald's used scarcity marketing. [32:27] - Ways search marketers can incorporate scarcity marketing into campaigns. Resources Mentioned: The Power Of Scarcity Book - http://powerofscarcity.com Market MindShift - https://www.marketmindshift.com/ It's multi-layered. It's more than just thinking buy now, or miss out, or you have only one day left. There's so much to it, it doesn't always work and it only works for specific audiences depending on the type of discourse you're using. –Mindy Weinstein, 2:39 Just telling you have these products as best sellers or most popular on your website helps someone as they're searching on your website. –Mindy Weinstein, 7:50 You want to have the regular price because it elicits a feeling of loss aversion that we don't want. –Mindy Weinstein, 33:54 For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/searchenginejo

Can programmatic be transparent and value-driven, given the deprecation of third-party cookies? Absolutely. Rajeev Goel, Co-founder and CEO of PubMatic, joins me on the SEJShow to talk about the future of programmatic. You can expect to hear critical insights on Google's open bidding, ID services, how AI can play a future role, bidding after cookies, CTV, trends, and more. Header bidding came to exist in the first place because publishers felt they were not getting a fair auction inside the Google Ad Tech stack. So header bidding was designed to open up that auction process and bring transparent participants. –Rajeev Goel, 25:28 What header bidding did was that it allow publishers to work with multiple monetization platforms. –Rajeev Goel, 4:06 There's a massive shift in consumer behavior that's driving where the ad dollar growth is. The change in consumer behavior is towards much more online video than the Internet. It's also towards connected TV and streaming. –Rajeev Goel, 29:52 [00:00] - About Rajeev Goel & PubMatic [03:03] - What is header bidding? [08:06] - The future of header bidding with third-party cookies is going away. [12:20] - Do identity solutions do a better job than third-party cookies? [14:49] - The shift toward more direct deals [17:32] ​- How AI helps with programmatic advertising. [18:10] - About modeled cohorts advertising. [21:10] - What is Google open bidding & why its controversial? [27:39] - All about CTV. [36:36] - Walled gardens vs. Open Internet. [41:04] - Opportunities & challenges in brand advertising vs. performance campaigns. Resources mentioned: PubMatic - https://pubmatic.com/ Identity Hub - https://pubmatic.com/products/identity-hub/ Header bidding is now ubiquitous across the industry, more competition for your ad space leads to more revenue, and we think that's great for publishers. That allows people to do what you're doing right now and reinvest into content that you know your consumers love. –Rajeev Goel, 7:22 Near term, we are seeing that there is a shift toward more direct deals. –Rajeev Goel, 15:25 Consumers want transparency. They want to know that, in an auction environment, there's a level playing field. –Rajeev Goel, 24:58 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 <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqblo1OGJpVS11Z0lXeVB1V2FrSUtJbF80cWlYQXxBQ3Jtc0t

What's more important to your SEO bottom line? Data or feelings? Data, of course! Dmitrii Kustov of Regex SEO joins me on the SEJShow to talk SEO Data, the opportunities for SEO of home services (which exploded post-Covid), and other emerging search trends. You'll also get insights around Google updates, tracking, and ROI expectations of SEO, and building localized service-oriented leads. Start recording data. Start tracking data today. Without it, you can't make any decisions based on the data you don't have. –Dmitrii Kustov, 13:57 Instead of Search Engine Optimization, I like Organic Revenue Generation. What is the point of organic search? It's not just traffic, it's revenue generation from that channel. A lot of people don't have that phrase, but that's what I prefer calling SEO, "Organic Revenue Generation." –Dmitrii Kustov, 21:48 I've always experienced that I don't see SEO as a standalone service that people buy, and that's it. It has to be integrated into the overall marketing machine, where lead quality and follow-up come in. Marketing is getting someone further down the funnel to make that sale. –Loren Baker, 16:28 [00:00] - About Dmitri. [02:10] - Home services Dmitri specializes in. [03:18] - What does it mean to be data-driven? [06:12] - What pure ROI means. [09:27] - Should you concentrate on high-ticket items for onsite optimization? [17:48] - Dmitri's viewpoint on ranking only for the front end. [22:59] - Role of direct search on data. [27:46] - Questions to ask product teams to start recording data. [29:55] - Can you leverage national blog post traffic for home services? [35:07] - Dmitri's take on Google's recent content updates. [40:47] - Dmitri's thoughts on E.A.T. Resources mentioned: Regex SEO - https://www.regexseo.com/ Content is not only text content. Text content nowadays is going away. So if you are an established business, doctor, health practice, or veterinarian, hire an intern videographer or editor and just let them follow you around and make a little YouTube showing whatever or little interviews. It's much easier for a doctor or any expert to sit in front of the camera for 15 minutes and answer a few questions than sit down and write a 2000 article that's going to take a day or more. If you have video content, YouTube is your friend. Nowadays, text content is becoming a smaller portion of content marketing. –Dmitrii Kustov, 50:53 If you're in the marketing industry and SEO game and doing it correctly, meaning that you produce great content, do not use any black hat, gray hat backlink building, or any of that stuff, none of the updates will affect you. They should even improve your rankings. –Dmitrii Kustov, 37:49 There's

Amazon Prime Day opened doors to endless marketing boosts for the second time this year. Refersion's Raj Nijjer joins me on the SEJShow to discuss marketing opportunities for Amazon Prime Day within and outside of Amazon. Even for businesses not on Amazon, there are chances to leverage the new October Prime Day, which is on its way to becoming as large of a holiday shopping day as Black Friday. This is the first time they've done the two prime days. The first one is in July, so it's the beginning of Q3, and now they're doing one at the beginning of Q4. It shows you that there's enough demand out there and there's enough inventory too. Now that supply chains have gone back to normal, shipping prices have gone way back to earth, and frankly, many brands are sitting on a lot of inventory. The timing for Amazon could not be more perfect –Raj Nijjer, 9:04 Amazon is probably one of the most efficient machines out there. I think from that perspective, it works, and that's why you see conversion rates that are six to seven times the B2C website –Raj Nijjer, 31:46 I also think you're going to have a generation going away that knows what Black Friday is. When was the last time, probably five or ten years ago, people lined up outside a store to go shopping? Black Friday it's become an online event. As that generation fizzles and goes away, the concept of Black Friday may not even exist anymore. –Loren Baker, 31:59 [00:00] - About Raj & Refersion [08:26] - What makes this year's Prime day different? [11:40] - Best categories to be in. [18:06] - How to reach out to your Amazon customers. [25:41] - How to leverage Prime even if you're not on Amazon. [27:23] - How does Prime impact Black Friday? [40:03] - How to use Refersion as an Amazon affiliate, associate, or seller. Resources mentioned: Refersion - https://www.refersion.com/ It can't be like B2C versus Marketplace. It has to be like B2C and Marketplace. –Raj Nijjer, 17:24 It's the promise that Amazon makes. It's fulfillment, shipping, and payment. It's all systems and operations, but it's like magic to you as a consumer. –Raj Nijjer, 16:15 If you're worried like, oh my God, I don't want to put my brand on Amazon, more than likely, your competitors are already on there. They're on there all right, and they're already selling and finding success. They've registered in the brand registry, which gives them protection and product protection. But they also get a slew of selling and marketing tools because you have complete control over your listing. –Raj Nijjer, 23:13 For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/searchenginej

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach your audience. However, staying up-to-date on the latest trends is crucial to avoiding common mistakes. Jay Schwedelson, the founder of SubjectLine.com, joins me on the SEJShow to discuss subject line techniques you should be testing, key tips for conversions, and pitfalls to avoid. You'll discover new options to stay ahead of the curve and how to make the most out of your email marketing. You're not going to get more business by sending less. That's not the way it works. You need to send more. Marketers think they send too much, but they're just not sending relevant stuff. –Jay Schwedelson, 6:50 Technology has changed in the last five to seven years, and the reason you go to the inbox versus the junk folder is not because of the content. It's not because of the words or symbols that you're putting in your subject line. It's because of your sending reputation. It's because of the engagement, the opens, and the clicks you're generating with the people in your database. Your engagement is the reason you're going to the inbox or not. –Jay Schwedelson, 8:58 You go in the junk folder because you have a bad sending reputation. You have no engagement. The misconception of spam trigger words hurts marketers because they're trying to write subject lines, not utilizing the words that all marketers know to work the best –things like free or expires.–Jay Schwedelson, 9:47 [00:00] - About Jay. [03:02] - What is the Guru Conference? [08:15] - Common email myths. [11:10] - Does purging & getting unsubscribes help with ratios? [15:24] - Email triggers words that are not okay. [19:24] - Using emojis in subject lines. [23:13] - What are Friendly Forms? [26:01] - Importance of personal names & avatars. [29:10] - How important is a subject line in outreach emails? [33:15] - How personalized can we get with email marketing? [37:10] - How important is it to get the CTA above the fold? [40:25] - Holiday email marketing tips. [45:24] - How to avoid getting into the promotions folder of Gmail. Resources mentioned: Guru Conference - https://guruconference.com/ Subject Line - https://www.subjectline.com/ Outcome Media - https://outcomemedia.com/ Inside Scoop - https://jayschwedelson.com/ Email marketing here at SEJ is one of our cores. It's one of our most significant pillars in terms of marketing. –Loren Baker, 4:57 You don't have to get any negative repercussions from an unsubscribe. You get negative repercussions from spam complaints which only occur if you're doing some sketchy stuff. –Ja

In content marketing, trust is the most critical factor. But with all the updates happening now, will this still hold, and will content marketing die off soon? Vitor Peçanha. the CMO and co-founder of Rock Content, joined me on the SEJShow to discuss the future of content marketing. We talked about the importance of branding in trusted content (for even zero-click searches), the "death" of content marketing, and the challenges and opportunities of building a global content marketing company. Content marketing today, it's like going back to our roots and saying hey, you need to generate value. It would help to recognize that brand awareness so people will remember you. That brand recall, the positive perceptions of your brain, that's emotion. So instead of saying, "Hey, here's a lot of ads," we will build all this by attracting people with excellent content. So it's the same cruise as before with the new channels, formats, and measuring methods.–Vitor Peçanha, 48:03 SEO has a straightforward response marketing mindset. People say that an ad served but not clicked is branding. With PR, if you get an article in the New York Times or Forbes that discusses your brand, but it doesn't link to you, I think a link builder or an outreach person might be upset, but that's a win. That's a branded win.–Loren Baker, 35:47 Branding is a tough thing to measure. It's something that for the last, I would say, 15 years. When you think about branding and how it is in content marketing, we have to explain that it's not only demand generation, last click, and exact attribution. You're building a huge asset, and you win the game when people are looking for your brand. –Vitor Peçanha, 43:30 [00:00] - About Vitor you're not acquiring only their market share., you're acquiring their culture and their team. –Vitor Peçanha, 8:32 When we think about the customer journey, I like to say; ideally, you have to take people to your media and domains continuously. –Loren Baker, 24:39 The important thing here is to broaden your scope and think about c