

Search Off the Record
Google
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!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 14, 2022 • 24min
Search Status Dashboard
On this episode of Search Off the Record, John, Gary, and Lizzi chat about the Google Search Status Dashboard for incident reporting. They discuss what prompted the dashboard, how this compares to reporting Search incidents on Twitter, and more! Learn how the dashboard can streamline communication between Google and those reporting incidents. Resources: Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr054-transcript Status Dashboard → https://goo.gle/3Wt80KL How To Use the Dashboard → https://goo.gle/3HvwHls Blog: When indexing goes wrong (2019) → https://goo.gle/3HvwHls Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team. #SOTRpodcast

Nov 30, 2022 • 32min
From journalism to SEO with Jennifer Slegg
In this episode, Gary and Lizzi talk with Jennifer Slegg, an expert in Search Engine Marketing. They reminisce about the early days of the internet, discuss Jennifer's transition from journalism to SEO, and explore topics such as QRG, EAT, and creating informative content. They also highlight the importance of following Google's algorithm changes and guidelines for SEO.

Nov 17, 2022 • 27min
Let's talk redirects
Redirects are a genuine approach to moving something from one place to another. In this episode of Search Off the Record, John and Martin talk about the different types of redirects and which one you may want to use. They share the differences between 301 and 302 redirects, what type of redirects 308 and 307 are, why someone may want to use a JavaScript redirect over a meta refresh-type redirect, and more. They also cover merging and splitting domains, frustrating geo-targeting redirects, and redirects for mobile and desktop. Resources: Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr052-transcript Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team. #SOTRpodcast

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


