Search Engine Roundtable Podcast

In part one Riley Hope and I spoke about her SEO career, how she did her thesis on ethics in SEO and we spoke about the automotive SEO space. In part two we talk about women in SEO and more on the automotive space and search results. In part three, we talk about how COVID has changed searcher behavior. COVID & Searcher Behavior Riley said we all saw an uptick in internet usage and led to searches around mental health, depression, anxiety, sleep issues, dealing with kids being home and people buying online, curbside pickup and more general business being done online. She said some of the dealers would drop cars off at your home, which was big. But small businesses, some, weren’t able to adapt as quickly as some bigger businesses. This led to larger companies profiting more, like Walmart, Target and Amazon - leaving smaller businesses in the dust. Riley’s masters was in “social enterprise” and it involved studying the impact on COVID’s impact on small businesses and using SEO to help these small businesses recover. I gave some examples of my personal experiences and Riley explained how things changed right after COVID compared to months after. Many companies were offering digital based services, like selling cars online, and not doing everything face to face. We then moved into discussing how marketing had to change to be more sensitive towards COVID’s mental health changes. Companies had to change their commercials to adapt to the new world. We didn’t only speak about commercials but how online reviews are taking a beating with disgruntled customers who don’t want to wear masks or other issues. Strategies For Small Businesses During COVID: A lot of small businesses did not know about Google Search Console, Google My Business (now Google Business Profiles), Google Analytics and so forth. Plus, a lot of these businesses do not have websites, they might be on Instagram but no where to funnel these customers. Most these small businesses don’t know about SEO, they don’t have CRM set up, plus they have a really unprofessional website. Google did try to release features to help businesses perform and generate revenue during the pandemic. Small businesses should utilize what you can, like social media. Small businesses don’t have a big staff to do everything. So just do what you can with what resources you have, and you will learn as you go and keep growing from there. Make sure to be consistent with whatever you do. You can learn more about Riley Hope at RileyHope.com or follow Riley on Twitter @reillyhope13.

In part one, we spoke about how Colt Sliva became an SEO engineer and some topics around visualizing search graphs. In part two we spoke more about entities, python for SEO and winning over developers. Now in part three we get into frequency statistics, improving on those models and doing proper A/B testing in SEO. Frequency statistics In the frequency of an event i is the number n_{i} of times the observation occurred/recorded in an experiment or study. Frequency statistics was cheap, fast and easy to compute and that is why we used it in the old days. But we have faster computers, we are smarter, we should be using more advanced methods to predict changes and their benefit through machine learning and AI based methods. So he is hopeful for SEOs using more sophisticated methods. It is harder for smaller SEO consultants or even smaller websites, sites with very limited traffic. The big question does the new more advanced models work better than the cheaper method of frequency statistics? It is unclear right now. I did bring up at the end that the keyword planner tool added trending data, with details, it is worth checking out if you didn’t see it. iPullRank is hiring, so if you are looking for a job, hit them up. More next week but you can learn more about Colt Sliva @SignorColt.

Today we covered the Google ad tech monopoly remedies after being told it won’t be broken up. Google Search profiles get a new article design, fewer followers are required, easier login management and new badges.  OpenAI is testing new ChatGPT ads named Sponsored Agents.0:00 - Introduction0:28 - Google ad tech monopoly remedies4:05 - Google Search Profiles get updates6:13 - OpenAI Testing Sponsored Agent Ads in ChatGPT9:08 - ConclusionA daily recap video summarizing a few of the top search marketing headlines covered at the Search Engine Roundtable.This recap is called It's New - A quick, daily dose of the latest in SEO with Anu Adegbola of Search Engine Land, Mordy Oberstein o

Today we covered Google Ads updated its benchmark report to compare you to your competitors. Google Ad has a new multi-source conversion document. Google Chrome user experience report has added new ad metrics. Gemini 3.8 Live now powers Google Search Live.  Google Search Console’s position reporting will evolve over time.0:00 - Introduction1:11 - Google Ads Spend Benchmarks Report Compares Your Competitors5:42 - Google Ads Multi-Source Conversion6:59 - Google Chrome User Experience Report New Ad Metrics10:35 - Google Search Live powered by Gemini 3.8 Live12:44 - Google Search Console Position Reporting Will Evolve14:35 - ConclusionA daily recap video summarizing a few of the top search marketing headlines covered at the Search Engine Roundtable.This recap is called It's New - A quick, daily dose of the latest in SEO with Anu Adegbola of Search Engine Land, Mordy Oberstein of SE Ranking and Greg Finn of Cypress North (and Marketing O’Clock) and Barry Schwartz.

Today we covered the heated Google ranking volatility we saw this morning, it might be big. Google is testing text link ads in AI Mode.  Google Ads August 17th bidding update finished on August 27th. We have data from Mike Ryan on the August 17th bidding update. Microsoft Advertising publishes its AI content transparency rules. Google’s EU ecosystem carousel is now live.0:00 - Introduction0:55 - Google rank volatility this morning1:53 - Google AI Mode text link ads3:58 - Google bidding update completed Aug 274:59 - Google Aug bidding update data6:40 - Microsoft Advertising Publishes AI Content Transparency Rules10:00 - Google EU’s ecosystem carousel is live 11:33 - ConclusionA daily recap video summarizing a few of the top search marketing headlines covered at the Search Engine Roundtable.This recap is called It's New - A quick, daily dose of the latest in SEO with Anu Adegbola of Search Engine Land, Mordy Oberstein of SE Ranking and Greg Finn of Cypress North (and Marketing O’Clock) and Barry Schwartz.