Search with Candour - SEO podcast

Jack Chambers-Ward and Mark Williams-Cook reunite to recap all the important SEO news from February 2024. Sponsored by Positional: Join the closed beta now before launch on 26 March 2024! Jack & Mark discuss: The new Google & Reddit agreement Google paying publishers to test new AI tools Helpful Content fallout and recoveries What is information gain? Time stamps: 00:00:05 - Intro 00:00:52 - Sponsor: Positional 00:02:41 - Google and Reddit partnership 00:08:00 - 'Help me write' AI vs review guidelines 00:12:53 - Google is paying publishers to test unreleased AI tools 00:17:54 - Sponsor: Positional 00:19:20 - Google is killing independent sites 00:24:00 - Helpful Content Update recovery 00:31:30 - What is information gain and why does it matter? Watch Search With Candour on Youtube

Hannah Butcher joins the podcast this week to discuss squiggly SEO career paths. Why are unusual career paths common in the SEO industry? What are the benefits of this kind of career path? What are some of the potential drawbacks? Common causes of job changes How much can mental health and neurodiversity contribute to your career path? Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sr4bviTy65c Sponsors: AlsoAsked - https://alsoasked.com/ CoreUpdates - https://coreupdates.com/ Follow Hannah: Twitter: https://twitter.com/hanfbutcher LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahfb/ Website: https://agency-angel.com/

Nate Matherson, CEO of Positional and host of the Optimize Podcast, joins Jack to discuss how to make your content helpful in 2024. Topics discussed include: How to stand out against AI-generated content How to find unique data sources Why you should include quotes from subject experts How to demonstrate first-hand experience Bring some personality and tone of voice to your writing Targeting long-tail keywords For full show notes and to watch on YouTube, go to search.withcandour.co.uk.

Alex Harford, a Technical SEO consultant and mentor, discusses URL structure, page templates, coding languages, and status codes with Jack. They highlight the significance of user-friendly websites on SEO, understanding web servers and status codes, considerations of CDNs, and the importance of page templates and coding languages in SEO.

Matt Kohli makes his return to the podcast to discuss his recent move from working in SEO agencies to going freelance. Topics discussed include: The decision to go freelance The early days so far The importance of all the paperwork and boring bits The pros & cons of moving from agency to freelance Planning and road mapping Sponsors: AlsoAsked - ⁠https://alsoasked.com Core Updates - https://coreupdates.com/⁠

Mark Williams-Cook reunites with Jack Chambers-Ward to discuss and recap the most important SEO news from January 2024 including: Is Google search getting worse? The impact of SGE on organic results Sponsors: Join the Positional private beta today: https://www.positional.com/sponsored/search-with-candour?utm_source=search-with-candour&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=january2024  Core Updates: https://coreupdates.com/?utm_source=search-with-candour&utm_medium=podcast  Timestamps: 00:24 - Intro 03:48 - Topic 1 - Is Google search getting worse? 21:40 - Positional (sponsor) 25:24 - Topic 2 - What impact will SGE have? Links and resources: Mashable article about search quality: https://mashable.com/article/google-search-low-quality-research Lily Ray’s tweets: https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc/status/1749413842285666367 https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc/status/1747588212300669205   Weekend ranking mystery or Google bug? https://ziptie.dev/blog/google-weekend-ranking-mystery-or-a-google-bug/  Authoritas study on SGE: https://www.authoritas.com/blog/research-study-the-impact-of-googles-search-generative-experience-on-rankings  60% of SEOs are worried about SGE https://seroundtable.com/seos-worried-impact-google-sge-36770.html

Riley Hope, an SEO reporting expert for small and medium-sized businesses, joins the host to discuss important metrics for tracking, tools to use for SEO reporting, providing feedback to clients, long-term strategy, and KPIs. They also touch on data regulations, the use of Booker Studio for interactive SEO reporting, simplifying SEO for small businesses, limitations of developers, and establishing expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in SEO.

Chris Spann, Technical SEO Lead at Lumar, discusses the intersection of SEO and security, highlighting the challenges faced, the significance of log file monitoring for SEO, and the misconceptions about security. They also explore the difficulties of working with larger companies, recent leaks in the gaming industry, and the importance of collaboration between SEO and security teams.

In this episode, Matt Hepburn joins Jack Chambers-Ward to discuss enterprise SEO. What is enterprise SEO? How is enterprise SEO different? Are SEOs invited to help brain storm on content topics? What is content syndication? How can multiple business lines adversely affect SEO when they are targeting the same topics? How can enterprise businesses stumble with their implementation How can organic traffic conversion help enterprise businesses? Sponsors: AlsoAsked - https://alsoasked.com/  Core Updates - https://coreupdates.com/ Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@candouragency Follow Matt: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthepburnnj/ EMJ SEO Podcast - https://emjpodcast.com/ Offer Fuel - https://offerfuel.io/ Follow Jack: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlwchambers/Twitter - https://twitter.com/JLWChambers

In the final episode of season 2, Jack is joined by Petra Kis-Herczegh to discuss emotional intelligence and how it can help you in your career. Topics include: What is emotional intelligence? The types of emotional intelligence How can emotions hold us back? What can we do to improve our self reflection? What are the biggest challenges SEOs face? Subscribe to us on YouTube Check out our newsletter that will launch in January: https://coreupdates.com/