#seoisaeo Podcast - Expert Interviews At Major Digital Marketing Conferences

I start by overdoing his surname in the song. Then he tells me that he did 152 events last year. Then onto featured snippets - and SEMrush's study of 80,000,000 featured snippets (with hints as to how to get them). I link the 20th March update with the big uptick in featured snippets on that date. Fernando gives me the lowdown on how featured snippets are evolving. Fernando sees beauty in featured snippets and tells me about the most beautiful tabular featured snippet he has seen (Australian). Featured snippets are for brand awareness and consideration - embrace them, and you will flourish. Don't ignore preposition keywords - that is how people research the purpose of a product. Apparently the results for queries around iPhone are very, very different accross countries - and that becomes very obvious (and important) for the latter stages of the purchase process. Onto the factors for ranking as the featured snippet. Then 55% of featured snippets have a 'people also ask', as do results with images, carousels an

I am very curious about his name, given that he is from Ukraine (I think). He cites Arnold Schwarz-a-thingy. The onto more serious matters - starting with a definition of 'Long tail keyword' (we mostly get the definition wrong, by the way). Long tail does not refer to the number of words in a query, and Tim proves it. Interestingly, some one word queries have very small search volume. Which ones? In short 'if the query is long it doesn't necessarily have low search volume and vice versa'. Then, 90% of content on the web gets no traffic from Google. We are producing a lot of content for no payback. Another misconception is that the page ranking #1 in Google for a given keyword gets most organic traffic. Not true. Tim gives a brilliant explanation. I then ask a brilliant question (Tim's words , not mine :) This encourages him to give an amazing example of content for ranking, clicks and conversions (the dream !) Tim then states that user signals are super influential on ranking, whatever Google says. Finally, w

We discuss Alina's name and how much we both learn from our respective podcasts before getting down to the nitty gritty. Content and strategy for voice search. Voice search saves time and time is our currency. Brilliant. Dan Shure suggests is a fan of providing multiple formats for content so that you have the right format at the right time for users. Text and audio, perhaps video… then I get predictably overexcited by Dan Shure's name. Speakable content, accessibility (where I do a terrible Simon Cox impersonation), images, then APIs (companies will need to develop them to feed these devices). Lastly, we swerve into push notifications, specifically on voice. Warning - I talk too much in this episode. Poor Alina is very polite about it.

I start singing lower than ever before (you can almost hear the hangover in my voice). Anton then tells me 'you could do the song better' (which I could). He also tells me he worked more than he drunk at SEMrushLive. I didn't. He tells me how he got where he is today. Then onto webinars... first off, ask yourself why you are doing it. Just because you can? Or you have a good reason? Jo Pulitzer suggests not trying to sell anything. Building your audience in three stages : people get used to you, then build that to trust (by giving value), then you to loyalty. That loyalty and trust is then extended to your brand. Brilliant. And always remember that people are investing their time in your webinar. At the end, they need to feel that invested their time wisely. We often forget that conversation has a value... and he agrees that if it doesn't, my podcast is dead ;) We then get onto 70% of the quality of the answer is in the question. Then back to webinars. Sexy titles and descriptions are vital - often more impor

A lovely companion to my conversation with Gianluca Fiorelli's International SEO podcast appearance, since this looks at international expansion in digital from a business strategy perspective (beyond the website). She starts by wonderfully singing thank you (turns out Sarah is Welsh and therefore can sing like a bird). She admits that talking is her favourite hobby. Onto the business at hand, she tells me that the six steps: Get Aware, Get Ready, Get Started, Get Strategic, Get Building, Get Performing. Businesses try to run before they can walk (Sarah uses the term 'fools rush in', but that is a song and thus dangerous territory), and too often skip steps. In SEO we are very much working in the 'get performing' stage, but many of our clients have skipped one or more steps and are not truly ready. But when they do faithfully follow the 6 steps, unstoppable international growth 'simply requires nailing one territory before expanding by replicating to the others.

We start off discussing SEOcamp Paris, then move onto the heart of the matter. Bartosz is a super Javascript SEO expert, but doesn't see a long-term future for his skillset. Javascript is too difficult and expensive to process. And Russian Dolls somehow come into it. Google has been struggling with JS for years, but will nail it soon, which is great from a geeky point of view, but bad for Bartosz's business…. maybe in 2 years, maybe in 5, depending on when Google figure out how to digest the cost of Javascript. Because they haven't until now, Javascript SEO is a 'thing' - Which.com has been deindexed because of Javascript, Netflix have sidestepped JS, Hulu were unfindable for a while (and replaced by Torrent). They all need people like Bartosz. I get a bit keen on internal politics at Google (about which I know very very little). Bartosz helps me out by improvising a short piece of theatre in the role of a Google fellow, which is super fun. In the middle of it, he suggests how as a Google fellow) he would put

This episode is full of half remembered quotes, which makes for some fun listening. In between mis-quoting people (and cartoon cats), we have a lovely discussion about ways of automating SEO tasks. Laziness pays... but Michael got into this not because he is lazy, you understand, he just doesn't like doing unnecessary work :) Specifically keeping store data up-to-date in GMB. A chat about our role as digital marketers in this world. Facts are a marketing tool and SEO is about communicating facts and getting those facts to people in the right way at the right time. Then a bit about email - there wasn't anything like email before email came along, apparently. Who is the Reverend Spooner? And how do we end up talking about Rowan Atkinson? You don't know what you don't know. Even the bit about archiving and storing data is fun. Or maybe you know what you know you do what you do and you can't use it if you don't have it. Or something. And lastly Michael makes me feel better about not using Big Query and Big Data.

We start with a discussion about sunglasses, then quickly move onto InOrbit2019 in Slovenia and some great advice from Ian Anderson Gray and Dennis Wu - create a one minute video. now. Going into people's houses to do their paperwork in France (sounds creepy to me, but isn't … and is a 'thing', apparently). Administrative Phobia is a thing too, and ZenCafé is going to help people with that problem. Interestingly, InOrbit2019 and ZenCafé is the (strange) combination that pushed Anders into DIY marketing and inspired him to embrace the empowerment age. Anders brilliantly takes DIY Marketing to the next level live on screen (you'll need to watch the YouTube video). Onto the fear of looking stupid (Anders and I got over that a long time ago :) We get a bit sidetracked with Paul McCartney (and I sing a Beatles song). Anders goes on to sing a Danish love song adapted for LinkedIn (who wouldn't want to hear THAT ?)Andre Then back on track with a video a day to promote on social media. Anders' motto - Do It Yourself,

Brad starts by telling me why Microsoft won't stop Bing anytime soon even if the they stay on a low market share. He also gives a breakdown of the MAG cloud businesses, and moves onto the voice assistants. Microsoft are a great number 2 player who bide their time and step in when the number 1 makes a mistake. Microsoft were 'the borg' and are now a nice, cute puppy. They are the slowly slowly gets the monkey company. Google have messed up on search, apparently with entity based search, specifically in cases where there are multiple entities. Bing are better at entity based search. Brad looks at Google as a verb, and why Google are now OK with it. A quick diversion Facebook being a bigger worry for Google than Amazon. Amazon is not a worldwide competitor, whereas Facebook is. We have a quick chat about the different business models. AWS vs Azure vs Google. And finish up with 'What ARE Facebook doing?'. Brad figures out a new business model. Mark Zuckerberg, are you listening?

Jef gets us started with a nice Elvis impersonation. And we agree he has an admirable business card. On a more serious topic, AI is science fiction, Machine Learning is what we mean. And will we ever allow AI to get to the stage where it can truly emulate a human. In Digital Marketing, ML has allowed us to move to become more marketers that tech. What we are doing in marketing, but just using modern tools. And that means we should be thinking in terms of strategy rather than focussing on tactics. There is no point in trying to hack the algorithm. Understanding, deliverabilty and credibility is a solid approach (I led Jef very not subtly into agreeing with me there). Then onto "ML started in the 50s… why is it blossoming now?". And with that our job is now to effectively feed the machines with information. We are moving towards a knowledge graph in real time. And things are moving forwards at an accelerating rate. Are we perhaps moving too fast? And as it moves forwards we are now at the stage where we can no

Quick fun discussion about Scottish accents (he says that he sounds like Mrs Doubtfire on Helium). Then onto Brand, Brand, Brand. Ross loves brand :) A great approach to linkbuilding / PR is to help make their life easier... and to make YOUR life easier, scrape their articles and use NLP to write the perfect pitch to each journalist - Ross calls this programmatic PR (and it is brilliant). We manage to get onto Justin Bieber who doesn't have two babies (and Ross makes a brilliant groan-worthy joke). We briefly discuss hacking the social media algorithms - trick is to have a video of my daughter playing with a cat. Onto images and then videos (Ross is enthusiastic) and then trite Cornflake Packet philosophy in PR (Ross is sick in his mouth). Interestingly he was down the Old Kent Road when he started his Bootstrap business. He's not there any more. Quick plug for the Canonical Chronicle - no idea what is in it, but the name is brilliant.

Why should we respect web standards when Google doesn't even respect those who DO respect them? There are more invalid sites on the web than valid. I suggest 98% with absolutely no supporting evidence. Simon wants a reward system for well-built sites. I suggest that there maybe an indirect ranking benefit. Simon refutes rather deftly. He then moves on to getting inaccessible US results on Google UK. More and more US sites are blocking EU visitors due to GDPR, money-saving and copycatting. The bugbear goes further to include a rant about US-centric results. Next onto the homepage deindexing issue - 6 days to fix a bug is simply too long. Are Google losing control with the AI stuff they are pushing out? Simon suggests that Google's AI is all string and sticky tape with Homer Simpson in charge. Then onto a gremlin about structured data. Apparently Screaming Frog have a great validation tool (that I didn't know about)… and he loves their customer support (and Hover's). Google is a slow, giant corporate beast wit

First question. Very obvious "What are the ranking factors". He tells me that ranking factors are just a means to an end. Then Nagu tells me that relevancy is Bing's North Star. There is no point in distinguishing between ranking factors and ranking signals. I ask what the ranking factors are (again) and Nagu politely that he gets leery when answering on the details. Tells me that obsessing on individual ranking factors is a futile excercise since the factors and their weightings are constantly changing. He guides me to the three considerations that a search engine to optimise user satisfaction. Relevancy, Quality and Context. We move onto what is the optimal keyword density. understanding without Deep Learning and Neural Networks (that Bing has been using since 2006). I manage to bully Nagu into agreeing that that everything we do as SEOs should serve Understanding, Deliverability and Credibility. I tell Nagu my theory about how the topic layer might work and he tells me my theory is a great product idea. So

Stewart starts by stealing my job as host. He quickly gets back on track as the guest. And proceeds to look at why we should be taking image search more seriously. Where and when voice is not appropriate. That voice search will lose out to image search. Clue: images are good for public use, voice for private. I shamefully get Lukasz's name wrong by calling him Kaspar. Use Google lens to translate a menu or to find out what cocktail your neighbour is drinking or a live band we should go and see. Marketers should be flooding the web with images. This is all very convincing, especially as Gary Illyes says that image search is his new favourite thing. Then look at what Pinterest, Facebook and Microsoft are doing. He goes on to talk about the 'generation timeframe' for new technology' and the fact that image search have a big head start on voice search. WeChat gets a special mention. And Squirrels. And my Grandma. And Fridges. Cellphones are the driver in image search and image as part of the user experience - we

I start badly by getting his name totally wrong. But Razvan is kind and (I think) he forgives me once I call him a genius. Razvan then kindly goes through the three types of keyword - know, go, do / informational, navigational, transactional... and helps me make better sense of them, how to include them more intelligently in your content - in short what to do, what not to do and how to best exploit the three types. He also agrees with Kate Toon - getting rid of churners is a good plan. Razvan makes the same point as Andrea Volpini - that when using machines to do SEO, the human remains essential and that there is a dance between humans and machines. We then move onto measuring brand and product mentions, including sentiment, and using context to disambiguate.

An episode that is fresh news - ironically about evergreen Googlebot :) Its implications for crawling, Javascript rendering. A bit of a chat about what the User Agent is likely to be. Martin Splitt gets a mention for his mythbusting videos. Then onto Google Discover and content / ads on their homepage taking Google away from 'the do-no-evil Google way'. And a bit of a chat about the 'disappearing spam team'. Barry beautifully catches me out with my own comment about being careful not to generalising from a specific example. We end with Larry Page setting himself up for a fall back in 1999. Recorded at SMX London 21 May 2019.

She starts with the quote 'You shall know a word by the company it keeps', which is really cool. She uses seashore as an example, which is perfect because we are sitting on the beach in Brighton with the seagulls in the background (but that isn't the reason she chooses the example, surprisingly). Dawn is a super interested in academic papers and their importance to industry, so we end up talking a great deal about that… I assume that academic papers come from university, and Dawn gently corrects me and gives several really interesting examples of academics in industry at Google, Spotify, Yahoo… Conclusion is that industry would not be funding these studies if there were no commercial potential. Her (convincing) argument is PhDs are often the precursors of commercial implementation and patents, so she has the jump on pretty much all of us. Finally, NLP and BERT - whereas NLP will look left, then right of a word, whereas BERT looks both ways at the same time and thus vastly widens the context window. And that

Really great conversation about how often we underestimate Amazon as a marketing / advertising channel. Amazons business model is diverse and better balanced than Facebook and Google. Amazon are sales focussed which makes it a big opportunity for sales and there is still time to jump on the train. In that he and Dan Saunders appear to agree. Eugene gives me tips on buying razors, then segues neatly into fake reviews on Amazon and Google. SEMrush are now offering Amazon tools alongside their more 'traditional' SEO tools. I try to convince him that selling SaaS products through Amazon could be an option. It could, but isn't (yet!). Amazon is likely to displace Google for product searches. Aven relationships with Target et al won't save Google there because Amazon is a crowd-driven marketplace (brilliant strategy, apparently :)

Greg has a lot of tattoos. And a great beard. nd a cup of tea. And he tells me that the weight of GMB and proximity have increased immensely. We discuss the differences in that proximity weighting for car dealerships and coffee shops. As local search becomes more and more no-click, GMB has become your digital showroom - replacing your website. GMB reviews are the be-all-and-end all in local search. I ask a rather naive question about brand searches. Greg puts me straight (despite not watching much TV). GMB is a great feed for the Knowledge Graph about 'who you are and what you do'. Then onto department listings, which I thought were 100% great, but Greg has a couple of less enthusiastic things to say about. Further, local search is getting increasingly complex to deal with, and mom and pop stores are likely to get left behind, especially as much of this new stuff is Google prepping for voice search. Onto local business Q&A and the low down on Posts. Beyond zero click search we are moving towards zero search s

Felipe came out of the sewers to do SEO. We then get off to a bad start by disagreeing about the role of answers in SEO. But then he convinces me he has a great point of view. For a converting strategy, you will need to create different content for different countries and different cultures. We swap stories about the specifics of Spanish and French countries. Felipe tells me that 'basic is advanced' and I tell him that 'getting to simple is a complex process'. Mention of French SEO Olivier Andrieux who runs a site dedicated to investigating featured snippets and analyse what Google can and cannot digest. Felipe takes that into a more strategic sphere with the idea of building brand using featured snippets (with a boxing example). Then takes a swerve over to SEO as a marketing discipline rather than a tech one. We should be talking to the CMO, not the CTO. Brand searches are key. Drive those, and you both drive a better SEO strategy, AND convince the CMO that you are performing. Then we get enthusiastic about