
Search Off the Record
Search Off the Record takes you behind the scenes of Google Search and its inner workings! In each episode, the folks from the Search Relations team will give you background info on the decision-making behind launches, feature prioritization in Search Console, and the projects Google Search teams are working on. They will share fun stories from the many conferences they attend as well as from their day-to-day working life at Google. They will also dive into the currently trending conversations in the SEO community at large. Have a listen!
Latest episodes

Nov 3, 2022 • 32min
LIVE Q&A from brightonSEO
Join John, Lizzi, and guest, Myriam Jessier, SEO Trainer, for a live recording of SOTR from brightonSEO: a conference where SEOs gather to chat, network, and learn about search marketing. In this episode, they answer a bunch of questions hand-picked before the event. They cover topics like which is better: subdomain or subdirectory, to criteria for penalizing backlinks, and the pros and cons to templated content outlines. Learn about adding schema types, image alt, and more! Resources: Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr050-transcript brightonSEO website → https://goo.gle/3TVlfm0 Mryiams Jessier’s website → https://goo.gle/3W6iUGU Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team. #SOTRpodcast

Oct 20, 2022 • 30min
Search Central docs and SEO
Find out if Google Search Central implements its SEO best practices and guidelines on its own website and documentation! Hosts John and Lizzi discuss SEO tools, sitemaps, hreflang links, robots.txt, click-through rates, and more. They cover what they’ve implemented, what they are thinking of updating, and what they are passing on. Hear all things link related, categorizing, and working with an external SEO agency during rebranding. Episode transcript → http://goo.gle/sor049-transcript Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Oct 6, 2022 • 34min
Let's talk image SEO
Do you want to know how to increase traffic to your website with images? What about making your website more accessible for screen readers with alt text for an image? Our hosts John and Lizzi chat about optimizing for image search. They cover everything from naming your image file, how often Googlebot crawls images, increasing visibility of your page through image search, to improving alt text and image accessibility. Resources: Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr048-transcript Google images best practices → https://goo.gle/3CAevUD SEO for Google Images | Search Central Lightning Talks → https://goo.gle/3e76PQo Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team. #SOTRpodcast

Sep 22, 2022 • 28min
The early days of Google Search Central
In this episode of Search Off the Record, Vanessa Fox, a former Google employee, joins hosts John and Lizzi to talk about the early days of Google Search Central (or shall we say, Webmaster Tools). She shares the beginnings of the Sitemaps tool, Webmaster Help group, Webmaster Tools, and more! Resources:Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr047-transcript Our very first blog post, authored by Vanessa Fox → https://goo.gle/3qEM6WM URL Structure guidelines → https://goo.gle/3U3T8BU SEO Compendium → https://goo.gle/3C0RsCn Keylime Toolbox → https://goo.gle/3xIipIn Vanessa Fox on twitter → https://goo.gle/3xJmOLa Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team. #SOTRpodcast

Sep 8, 2022 • 28min
Non-HTML files on the web
Join hosts Gary and Lizzi for a chat about file types on the web beyond HTML, like PDFs, PowerPoints, and images. We cover issues with all sorts of file types, if you should convert your weird file into HTML, what file types are indexed, and more on non-HTML files. Resources: PDFs in Google search results → https://goo.gle/3RZ16dV Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr046-transcript Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team. #SOTRpodcast

Sep 1, 2022 • 2min
PODCAST TRAILER: Welcome to Search Off the Record
What is Search Off the Record? Listen to our podcast trailer! Do you geek out about SEO? Are you interested in exploring on-going projects with the people that work on Google Search? Well, look no further! Listen to the Search Off the Record podcast to go behind the scenes of SEO and Google Search, all while having fun and mischief with our hosts from the Search Relations team from Google: Gary Illyes, Lizzi Sassman, John Mueller, and Martin Splitt. Watch the Search Off the Record podcast trailer on YouTube → https://goo.gle/3RmjuNe Listen to Search Off the Record on YouTube → https://goo.gle/3PShrA2 Listen to Search Off the Record on Libsyn → https://goo.gle/3am6jMx Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Aug 25, 2022 • 29min
Should I worry about crawl budget?
There is a lot of confusion around crawl budget so Martin, Lizzi, and Gary from Search Relations are here to bring clarity for everyone unsure about it. Are you worried about your website not being crawled quickly? Not sure what consumes and wastes your crawl budget? Learn when you should and shouldn’t be worried about your crawl budget. This episode covers misconceptions and frequently asked questions concerning crawl budget. Resources: What Crawl Budget Means for Googlebot → https://goo.gle/3pIwXTM Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr045-transcript Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team. #SOTRpodcast

Aug 11, 2022 • 33min
Let’s talk accessibility
In this episode of Search Off The Record, guest Danny Farra, UX Interaction Designer at Google, joins Lizzi Sassman to chat about accessibility of websites. We explore how to get started with accessibility, from using a screen reader for the first time to assessing contrast ratio and cognitive accessibility. Listen to this podcast to learn about assisted technology tools like screen readers and more! Resources: Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr044-Transcript Google Accessibility → https://goo.gle/3A5C6LG Danny Farra on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3A6OJX6 Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Aug 4, 2022 • 29min
How do removals work in Google Search, really?
In this episode of Search Off the Record, Lizzi Sassman, John Mueller, and Gary Illyes have an insightful conversation around how removals work in Google Search. Specifically, they chat about how Google Search operates when removals are in the mix. How does crawling, indexing, and blocking work in the backend? What really happens at each of these stages when it comes to removals? Listen to this podcast to get a behind-the-scenes look at Google Search Resources: Check out our episode about blocking → https://goo.gle/3P1UWYq Control what you share with Google → https://goo.gle/3oUyoym In-depth guide to how Google Search works → https://goo.gle/3bx2CV2 Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr043-Transcript Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Jul 14, 2022 • 30min
How Barry Schwartz Created RustyBrick
In this episode of Search Off the Record, Lizzi Sassman and Gary Illyes sit down with Barry Schwartz - a search engine connoisseur. Specifically, they explore how Barry runs his online career, balancing RustyBrick and Search Engine Roundtable. We even talk about website development, and the origin story behind RustyBrick - a web construction firm specializing in website development, web page design, SEO optimization, and more! Check out and subscribe to Barry Schwartz’s YouTube channel → https://goo.gle/3z3FCWw Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr042-Transcript Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.
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