The In Search SEO Podcast

Crack search marketing reporter, George Nguyen, shares what covering the SEO industry looks like: · What goes into getting information out of Google? · How to find the SEO truth · How to find a happy medium between offering users both intrigue & reality Plus, we take a look at how COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on Google’s algorithm! In this episode, we talk with George Nguyen, the associate editor at Search Engine Land. We go into what it's like to cover the SEO News. We begin with how George started in content marketing and worked his way to writing articles for Search Engine Land. Then we go into what it's like to ask questions to major companies like Google and Microsoft and how forthcoming with information they really are. George also walks us through ways to rectify the situation when you get something wrong (some great stories about his personal experience here). We also get into what the hardest stories to cover are and how to deal with haters (just shake them off). Lastly, we explore why Search Engine Land has adopted its unique article structure. Don't skip the first segment as we talk about the insane rank fluctuation patterns that occurred over the last 2 weeks. It seems Google's machine learning is working around the clock to figure out all of these new COVID-19 queries that it hasn't seen before. To that we'll get into some of the patterns we've seen and why we think Google has released so many updates in such a short amount of time. Timestamps: Is COVID-19 Driving Google’s Algorithm Updates? [00:04:24 - 00:20:40] What Covering the SEO News Is Actually Like [00:21:05 - 01:00:40] SEO News [01:01:00 - 01:04:52] Resources: Rank Risk Index: rankranger.com/rank-risk-index TF-IDF Tool: rankranger.com/blog/tf-idf-seo-tool In Search SEO Podcast Episode 62: rankranger.com/blog/seo-work-life-balance In Search SEO Podcast Episode 65: https://www.rankranger.com/blog/confirmation-bias-seo Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: George Nguyen twitter.com/geochingu linkedin.com/in/george-c-nguyen/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

Today we welcome the podcast’s first-ever repeat guest, the one the only, the magnificent and always pleasant Carolyn Lyden joins us to chat it up about the pros and cons of confirmation bias in digital marketing! · When confirmation bias works for and against your marketing efforts · The line between right and wrong when leveraging confirmation bias · How confirmation bias plays itself out in the Googleverse Plus, how Google’s machine learning is assimilating COVID-19 topics into the search results. Resources: Signup Form for 3-Months free access to our reporting dashboards: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1C34OvLwEjWOMP4ORkJnb5l_DRkttDCsMDN1xo_ltpfQ/ #SEOChat: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Seochat&src=typed_query Marie Haynes Informal Survey: https://twitter.com/marie_haynes/status/1221791870952595457 Marketing Psychology: Avoiding Confirmation Bias in Digital Marketing: https://www.rankranger.com/blog/confirmation-bias-in-digital-marketing Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Carolyn Lyden twitter.com/CarolynLyden linkedin.com/in/carolynlyden/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

Rachel Slovin of Kahena Digital chats with us all about how to push your SEO agency and/or SEO team forward and in difficult times. · Running an SEO team & agency during the good times as well as the bad times · How to be efficient with your team and resources · When growth makes sense, how to do scale-up Plus, we offer some tips on how to set yourself up for success when working at home as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Resources: https://www.rankranger.com/blog/seo-work-life-balance https://www.rankranger.com/blog/onboarding-seo-clients https://twitter.com/aleyda/status/1239470143232753669 https://thecoronapub.com/ https://www.uberconference.com/room/mobilemoxie Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Rachel Slovin twitter.com/rachslov linkedin.com/in/rachelslovin/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

Amy Toman joins the show to discuss how on-demand apps might be a bigger threat to your site’s local traffic than you think: · Are on-demand apps stealing local traffic from small businesses? · Which local verticals are more susceptible to losing site traffic to apps? · How a bit of creativity can head off losing local site traffic Plus, our thoughts on what good rank tracking practices look like. Resources: https://moz.com/blog/how-low-can-number-one-go-2020 https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-challenges-moz-article/352078/ Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Amy Toman twitter.com/BubblesUp linkedin.com/in/amy-toman-25945047/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

Kelly Stanze joins the show to discuss SEO, mental health, and maintaining a proper work-life balance. · Creating a healthy work-life balance while keeping a rigorous career in SEO · Dealing with the demands of SEO while struggling internally · What the SEO industry needs to do to advance mental health within the industry Resources: searchenginejournal.com/2020-seo-trends/338697/ searchenginejournal.com/mental-illness/324147/ Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Kelly Stanze twitter.com/KellyStanze linkedin.com/in/kellystanze/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

Link superstar Cass Downton joins the show to share her wisdom on dealing with a less than optimal backlink profile: · At what point is your backlink profile unhealthy? · How effective is disavowing links & when is it applicable? · What’s the connection between links, authority, and E-A-? Plus, we look at some tips to create content that Google’s core updates will love! Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Cass Downton twitter.com/cassdownton https://www.mariehaynes.com/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

Enterprise SEO rockstar Heather Physioc joins the show to share her strategy on creating SEO client buy-in: · How to systematically onboard new SEO clients · What to say and how to say it: Creating effective lines of communication · How to maintain and grow your relationships with your SEO clients Plus, we analyze what Google is doing when segmenting the News Box into multiple carousels! Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Heather Physioc twitter.com/HeatherPhysioc linkedin.com/in/heatherphysioc/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

SEO and content creation superstar Jessica Levenson joins the podcast to help you stay true your target audience: · How to take intent targeting concepts and make them a reality · Methods towards making sure your content really does target an audience · How creating targeted content is evolving Plus, we take a look at Google’s latest entity understanding advancement… relationships as entities! Host: Mordy Oberstein twitter.com/MordyOberstein linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Jessica Levenson twitter.com/guerillagirl linkedin.com/in/jessicalevenson/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

PPC powerhouse Navah Hopkins joins the podcast to discuss the harmonious relationship between SEO and PPC: · Why the myths about the lack of PPC & SEO synchronicity are not just false, but harmful · What goes into synching your SEO and PPC teams · Unifying PPC and SEO at the vertical level Plus, the who, what, when, where, and why of Featured Snippet deduplication Host: Mordy Oberstein https://twitter.com/MordyOberstein https://www.linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Navah Hopkins https://twitter.com/navahf https://www.linkedin.com/in/navahhopkins/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/hennesseydigital/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

SEO superstar Jenny Halasz joins the podcast to discuss Google’s success and failure in its quest to offer highly targeted and nuanced search results: · How consistent is Google in offering nuanced & targeted results? · How effective is BERT a few months in? · What more does Google need to do to get results right? Plus, we explore the expansion of Google Stories & what they say about how the search engine sees entities. Host: Mordy Oberstein https://twitter.com/MordyOberstein https://www.linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Special Guest: Jenny Halasz https://twitter.com/jennyhalasz https://www.jlh-marketing.com/ Presented by Rank Ranger: www.rankranger.com/

Local SEO expert Cori Graft of Seer Interactive joins the podcast to discusses the ins and outs of SEO competition analysis at the local level: · How to best discover which local competitor poses the biggest threat · What signals engagement to Google at the local level? · What’s important and not important when tracking local competitor data Plus, we take a look at what the data says about the January 2020 Core Update! Host: Mordy Oberstein https://twitter.com/MordyOberstein https://www.linkedin.com/in/mordy-oberstein-12551715/ Presented by Rank Ranger: https://www.rankranger.com/

SEO and Natural Language Processing expert Dawn Anderson joins the podcast to break Google BERT down into its simplest parts: · What exactly BERT does · How BERT impacts web content & search results · What Google having a better contextual understanding means Plus, we look at how intent diversity and personalization are on a collision course and what Google will inevitably have to do about it!

World-renowned SEO expert, Jennifer Slegg, joins the show to share her thoughts on Google’s changes to the Quality Raters Guidelines: · Changes to YMYL language in the guidelines & its implications · Why Google has recategorized the sites types listed as YMYL · How connected the Quality Raters Guidelines are to Google’s algorithm Plus, we pick apart some of the most popular clichés about doing SEO in 2020!

This week we pull out the top 10 moments from The In Search SEO Podcast in 2019! Get the best of the podcast in one episode! Great tips on everything from SEO automation to E-A-T to content marketing to competitor analysis! Plus, go behind the scenes of the podcast along the way!

CEO of Directive Consulting, Garrett Mehrguth, joins the show to share his insights on making your brand more discoverable: · How to increase your visibility market share · Capitalizing on reviews site for top ranking opportunities · The role of search marketing in discoverability Plus, we look at the effect of the holiday season on PLAs!