EDGE of the Web - The Best SEO Podcast for Today's Digital Marketer

Dr. Marie Haynes shares her thoughts and insights on the EDGE by looking at the plethora of Google algorithm updates this year. 2022 has seen its fair share of volatility in the SERPs. In addition, she explores ways to identify and track the impacts of algorithm updates on a website, while pointing out many of the culprits responsible for misleading false positives, which may be wrongfully associated with an update. With over 10 years of SEO experience, she’s a regular speaker at MozCon, Pubcon, SMX, and Brighton SEO, and a frequent contributor to many industry publications. She’s the owner and President of Marie Haynes Consulting. Additionally, Dr. Marie Haynes hosts one of the top SEO podcasts, Search News You Can Use. Time to dive into Google algorithm updates… on the EDGE! Key Segments: [00:02:15] Introducing Dr. Marie Haynes  [00:04:11] Highest Levels of Continued Rank Volatility [00:05:00] Should We Be Focused On Traffic? [00:06:41] Product Review and Core Updates [00:09:11] The Compounding Impacts of Multiple Updates and Diagnoses [00:12:39] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:13:42] Gross Traffic vs. Individual Page Traffic [00:14:32] Transactional vs. Informative Content [00:16:31] Old School SEO [00:18:12] Intent and Relevancy [00:21:41] The Helpful Content Update, Knowledge Graph and Snippets [00:23:32] Not All Traffic Changes Are From Algorithm Updates [00:27:35] MobileMoxie Tracks Historical SERP Snippets [00:28:44] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/wix [00:29:37] The Apocalypse! [00:33:16] Questions, Questions and More Questions [00:35:18] External Evidence [00:37:20] AI Content Is Likely Algorithmically Identifiable Follow our Guest: https://twitter.com/Marie_Haynes https://www.mariehaynes.com/seo-newsletter/ https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marie-haynes https://www.mariehaynes.com/ Dr. Marie Haynes’ SEO Podcast https://www.mariehaynes.com/seo-newsletter/seo-podcast/ Thanks to our Sponsors! Site Strategics https://www.sitestrategics.com Wix https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix

Cindy Krum jumps into the news with Erin to tackle the slew of news this week! A little late, but still really important! Erin blames his kids… Covering articles from Barry Schwartz, Mike Blumenthal, Roger Montti and Fili Wiese, we also jumped into a Twitter thread that revealed something very interesting! Is there going to be a larger focus on structured data from Google to the degree of triggering manual penalties? As Cindy says. “The news this week kind of reinforces the idea that you are in Google's results wherever you are at their leisure and at their discretion. And what they give, they can easily take away.” Check your schema, all - it could be an issue. News from the EDGE: [00:03:16] Almost all industries have seen a large increase in Google Cost-Per-Leads [00:08:56] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks [00:09:41] Twitter removes 80% of its contractor employees without notice [00:14:20] GBP updates might eliminate your reviews. Have backups! [00:20:54] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:21:42] Marketers are jumping on the Mastodon bandwagon. Should you? [00:25:11] Social Thread: Spammy Schema will get a Manual Penalty? Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:32:41] Barry Blast 1: Google Ads Paying Advertisers $100 To Enroll In Automatically Applies Recommendations Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @Suzzicks Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

Crystal Carter, Head of SEO Communications at Wix, joins the EDGE to discuss Visual Image Search Optimization. After discussing Visual Image Search on the last episode, she dives head-first into best practices in optimizing for Visual Image Search. Crystal answers this question: How do we ensure our brands and services are part of our customer's visual search? Let’s talk visual search optimization… today on the EDGE! Key Segments: [00:04:31] Throwback to Ep. 544 [00:06:35] Associated Intent [00:08:45] Caterpillars, Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Oh My! [00:09:26] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower [00:10:29] Stats, Stats, Give Me More Stats [00:11:42] Ecommerce Implications [00:13:14] More Rich Images on Your Website [00:14:06] Optimizing for Visual Image Search [00:17:47] LegoLand is Cool / User Generated Content [00:20:32] AI-Powered Local Photos [00:21:40] Let’s Find A Burrito [00:22:37] Bridging the Gaps [00:24:37] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/wix [00:25:09] Stock Photography [00:27:17] Infographics [00:28:13] International and Language-less [00:29:41] All Things Logo [00:36:09] Google Visual Search vs. Image Search [00:37:06] MuM Knows Best [00:39:29] Goggles or Googles? [00:43:04] Users Want Google Lens Follow our Guest: https://twitter.com/CrystalontheWeb https://www.instagram.com/crystalontheweb_/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/crystal-carter-digital https://www.crystalcarterseo.com/ Crystal’s Harnessing Visual Search for Optimization Opportunities! https://moz.com/blog/seo-opportunities-visual-search   Thanks to our Sponsors! Page One Power https://edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower   Wix https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix 

Crystal Carter joins the EDGE to school us on Visual Image Search. Fresh from the stage at the last MozCon, she brings her insights and expertise on visual search and AI. She delves into many of today’s examples and the future outlook of visual search, all based on real-world experiments and work. You have that and some best practices and considerations all here in the podcast. We explore some of the most important things to ponder on this Crystal Carter episode. Let’s talk visual search… today on the EDGE! Key Segments: [00:03:45] A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words  [00:04:37] An Evolution of Google’s Mobile First [00:05:14] Image Search vs. Visual Search [00:06:45] A Rich Tapestry of Contextual Queues [00:11:31] Lyft and PBR. . . Oh My! [00:18:02] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:13:35] AI, Visual Queues and Text Queries [00:15:02] Vision AI [00:16:23] Current Gaps and Biases [00:18:16] Pinterest Statistics and Bing [00:19:59] Rapper Xzibit and Amazon [00:20:33] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/wix [00:21:07] Google Lens and Ocular Character Recognition [00:22:46] Some Takeaways for Marketers [00:24:24] It’s the Brain of Understanding / The Hive Mind [00:25:13] Images are Contextually Language-less [00:28:15] Exploring Google Photos for Entities and Defining Gaps [00:30:00] Real-World Applications to Consider [00:34:06] Consistency is the Key Follow our Guest: https://twitter.com/CrystalontheWeb https://www.instagram.com/crystalontheweb_/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/crystal-carter-digital https://www.crystalcarterseo.com/ Crystal’s Harnessing Visual Search for Optimization Opportunities! https://moz.com/blog/seo-opportunities-visual-search Thanks to our Sponsors! Wix https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix Site Strategics https://www.sitestrategics.com 

Abusing the host? Is that what Mordy has lowered himself to? We love the Fall decor on the SERP. It’s NEWS! Today we cover articles from Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, TechCrunch and Search Engine Watch covering topics such as Google’s new search labels for coupons, the depreciating value of the link in the future, Mastodon’s rise amidst the chaos of Twitter, and Mordy Oberstein opines whether Google is moving to a more continuous “real time” algorithm. Oh, and we might talk about Robert Plant, ferns and rubber plants, too. News from the EDGE: [00:03:01] New labels to highlight coupons and promos in Google search results [00:07:21] Perhaps the value of backlinks are changing as Google continues to evolve? [00:11:47] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:12:41] Social Network Mastodon nearly doubles in users in just one week [00:22:49] Our own Mordy looks at data to see if we’re moving towards “real-time” algorithm updates. [00:31:47] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks  Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:32:55] Barry Blast 1: Links may be less important to the Google Search ranking algorithm in the future - Barry - Link [00:33:57] Barry Blast 2: Google Tests Fall Decorations In Search Results - Link [00:34:53] Barry Blast 3: Google: No, Your Website Doesn't Need 200,000 Words To Be Considered Authoritative - Link How to leave Twitter and switch to Mastodon from Jon Henshaw Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @MordyOberstein Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

Our Halloween 2022 Episode (yeah, it’s November, moving on) covers articles from MarTech, Android Police, Search Engine Land, and Semrush. We dug into a spooky article from Bruce Clay (much to Mordy’s chagrin) and provided an expose’ on the Semrush Zero-Click study from Marcus Tober. He had a fantastic analysis at the end, right Mordy (wink)? Seriously - a sizable study of 20,000 users click-stream on over 300,000 queries. There are some very striking data about what zero-click really means and how it differs from the 2018 report on zero-clicks. Make sure you check these links out! News from the EDGE: [00:03:23] New Features coming to GA4 [00:07:43] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:08:21] Are you using 2FA? [0014:38] Bruce Clay gives us 10 SEO tactics to quit in 2023 [00:18:08] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks [00:19:39] SEMRush presents a study about Zero-Clicks Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:31:26] Barry Blast 1: Keywords In Local Reviews Does Not Impact Google Local Rankings; Study Says - Link [00:33:25] Barry Blast 2: Google Showing On-Time Delivery & Order Accuracy Estimates In Search Ads - Link [00:35:42] Barry Blast 3: Google: Human Written Content Doesn't Necessarily Make The Content Useful Or Helpful - Link Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Page One Power https://edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower  Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @MordyOberstein Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

Olga Zarzeczna shares her perspective on the recent situation she had to deal with - the theft of her own web content, which got published as someone else's work on Amazon. It’s incredible to hear that it happened and the SEO community rallied behind Olga in extraordinary ways. Women in Tech SEO demonstrated their strength and support when this came to light. Key members in the SEO community also helped Olga navigate her own (unwarranted) imposter syndrome challenges. Olga shares some important lessons from this experience and advises others who may be silently struggling with confidence. After listening to this account, please reach out if you have time to tell Olga how you feel about her contribution to the SEO industry! [00:02:47] The Discovery [00:04:30] The Timeline of Events [00:06:24] The SEO Community Rallies [00:07:37] How Could This Happen Today? [00:09:37] Dealing with Imposter Syndrome [00:12:34] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower [00:14:06] The Supportive SEO Community: Women in Tech SEO [00:15:19] Lessons from SEO Theft [00:19:37] Try Another Community, But Not SEO! [00:21:05] Women in Tech SEO Thanks to our Sponsor! Page One Power https://edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower Follow Guest https://twitter.com/olgazarzeczna  https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgazarzeczna/  https://www.youtube.com/c/SEOSLY  Women in Tech SEO: https://www.womenintechseo.com/ Olga’s 99+ SEO Mistakes! https://seosly.com/blog/seo-mistakes/

The prodigal son returns to the show. Mordy Oberstein is back to cut up the news like a Halloween Jack-o’-Lantern! We cover articles from Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Land, and Social Media Today. Regarding the Google Spam Update….to quote Mordy: if you got hit by the update: Check your rankings, check your site, check your content, and then check your soul (ouch). Side Note: Check out the Ted Cruz visit to a recent Yankees game! Key Segments: [00:05:02] Google Spam Update Done in Record Speed! [00:10:55] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:12:32] Uber Ads are Coming, In Journey [00:15:27] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks [00:16:18] Facebook and TikTok Approving Ads with Political Misinformation days before the election Barry Blasts [00:22:13] Barry Blast 1: Google Trending Now For Shopping Results - Barry - Link [00:24:53] Barry Blast 2: Report: Google Reviews Being Removed From Local Business Profiles - Barry - Link [00:26:57] Barry Blast 3: Third-Party Appointment Services Hijacking Google Local Business Profile Panels - Barry - Link [00:30:12] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower   Be sure to RateThisPodcast.com/EDGE   Thanks to our sponsors!   Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Page One Power https://edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower  #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

We are continuing with OlgaTober with the second of three episodes covering our interview with Olga Zarzeczna, one of the top SEO Audit specialists, today. We continued going through the list of top SEO mistakes made by sites that Olga has found over her years of performing audits. Erin and Olga match their notes on some of the most critical, flagrant fouls in the SEO space. We also cover some more controversial “gray hat” issues regarding structured data. But seriously, copying a competitor's structured data? That actually happened? Check it out today on the EDGE! Key Points: [00:03:09] SEO Mistake: Targeting the Same Keywords on All Pages [00:04:46] SEO Mistake: +500K Excluded Pages in GSC [00:06:03] SEO Mistake: Chinese Characters in Search Results [00:06:46] SEO Mistake: Host Issues in the Crawl Stats Report in GSC [00:09:29] SEO Mistake: Pages or Resources that Should Not be Indexed by Google are Indexed [00:10:57] SEO Mistake: No Headings at All [00:12:25] SEO Mistake: Sitemap with HTTP links only [00:13:13] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:13:59] SEO Mistake: Website is Available and Indexable in Two Instances (Staging and Production) [00:16:09] SEO Mistake: Competitor’s Data in Schema [00:16:56] SEO Mistake: All bots Disallowed in Robots.txt [00:18:00] SEO Mistake: SameAs Pointing to Wikipedia [00:21:55] SEO Mistake: Using AI-generated Photos of “Authors” [00:23:50] SEO Mistake: ALT Text Stuffed with Multiple Keywords [00:25:28] SEO Mistake: Three different SEO plugins / Five Different Caching Plugins [00:26:54] SEO Mistake: Lack of Any Contextual Linking Between Blog Posts [00:28:17] SEO Mistake: Important Resources Blocked in Robots.txt Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://www.sitestrategics.com  Follow Guest https://twitter.com/olgazarzeczna  https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgazarzeczna/  https://www.youtube.com/c/SEOSLY  Olga’s 99+ SEO Mistakes! https://seosly.com/blog/seo-mistakes/

Andrew Optimisey jumps in to join Erin on the news this week! Andrew shares some of the great speakers from BrightonSEO, which makes us all sizably jealous here in the midwest! We take on articles from Digital Trends, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal. And, of course, the Barry Blast (sounds like a soda, right) from Search Engine Roundtable. Key Segments: [00:06:52] YouTube is adding taggable usernames for everyone! [00:10:07] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:11:05] Google Ad Manager and AdSense will soon support first-party cookies for publishers [00:19:44] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower  [00:20:38] What does Google think about the rise in the use of AI-generated images? Barry Blast (should it be grape?): [00:28:25] Blast 1: Google Tag Adds Tap Coverage Summary, Ads, Analytics & CMS Integration Link [00:30:46] Blast 2: Google Review Guidelines Updated To Disallow Discouraging Negative Or Selectively Solicit Positive Reviews - Link [00:34:17] Blast 3: Google Ads To Update UK Financial Services Policy Update To Crack Down On Fraud - Link [00:38:03] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Page One Power https://edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower  #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine