We’re joined by Brian Dean, co-founder of Exploding Topics, as he shares his journey of transitioning from SEO education to trend-spotting innovation. We dive into the creation of Exploding Topics, exploring its origins as a side project, the collaboration with fellow entrepreneurs, and the strategic enhancements that shaped it into a successful Sa…

This week on Content & Conversation, Ross and Emily Campbell-Snidal, VP of Content Marketing at Siege Media, explore how brands can craft effective content strategies during election season. Show Notes: 0:00 Election Strategies and Content Creation 2:48 Rethinking Content Calendars 4:37 Leveraging Current Events for Engagement 7:21 Updating Existin…

Show Notes: 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - Clearscope and the future of SEO 13:08 - What are language models actually good for? 29:10 - Using the data to guide strategy 39:00 - Discussing Reddit and SERPs 49:00 - Is there optimism for the future?Von Siege Media

Show Notes: 00:09: Welcome, Jimmy Daly, Co-Founder and CEO of Superpath 03:30: What does high-performance SaaS content look like? 06:48: The importance of knowing your product (Fresh Paint) 10:24: Outstanding content in SaaS 11:16: The advantages of compiling your own data 13:03: Jimmy’s Your Blog Is a Library Not a Publication 21:31: The three bes…

Show Notes: 00:05: Welcome, Matt Bowers, SEO Consultant (Zapier and Zillow Alum) 11:01: Indexation is becoming more challenging. Should a new startup consider programmatic? 01:12: Do you believe there’s a minimum threshold of unique content that a programmatic page should have to be successful? 11:01: Indexation is becoming more challenging. Should…

Show Notes: 00:00 - Introduction 00:45 - What is Product-Led Digital PR? 4:30 - Why you should choose Product-Led Digital PR 6:37 - A case study with encouraging results 8:30 - Putting your data to work 10:00 - Running surveys 13:00 - How do you make surveys effective? 16:00 - What the future looks like 18:00 - Final Thoughts…

Show Notes: 00:08: Welcome, Jesse McDonald, Senior Director of SEO at Siege Media 00:41: Mike King’s analysis of Google Search’s leaked internal engineering documentation (Read more) 02:15: Overall site authority score 03:05: The impact of clicks on rankings 04:09: Defining Domain Authority 04:49: “Font Size of Terms and Links Matters” 05:26: The “…

Show Notes: 0:24: Exploring the optional internal team structure for content marketing 1:18: Why in-house Content Marketing Managers are the most effective 2:59: The role of SEO Managers in driving success (ideally) 4:03: The pitfalls of outsourcing and its impact on quality and bandwidth 5:19: The importance of consistency in brand voice and tone …

Show Notes: 00:00 - Introduction 1:02 - Despite slightly smaller budgets, businesses remain committed to content marketing 2:47: Reports indicate higher success rate for those who invest more per asset 3:24: What we're currently seeing in AI's impact, AI usage up YOY 5:25: Is AI helping or hurting your content? 7:29: Where AI is making the most sig…

Show Notes: 00:00 - Introduction 01:15 - The SEO Job Market 4:30 - Should we be scared of SGE and AI? 08:00 - Changes in the SEO industry 14:50 - What does the future look like? 16:48 - Thoughts on SGE 20:47 - Would you change anything about your career? 25:00 - How to future proof your job 28:20 - Technical SEOs vs Content SEOs 36:13 - Final Thoug…

Show Notes: 00:00: Introduction 01:53: Understanding why problems in SEO occur 07:55: Being a T-shaped marketer 09:10: Ross shares a recent client case study 10:50: Tory shares a recent client case study 13:28: Having critical conversations with clients 15:45: Thematic issues that prevent SEO work 19:54: Useful tips for getting SEO projects done 24…

Show Notes: 00:00: Introduction 00:57: Lessons from BrightonSEO 02:20: Strategies for Link Relevancy 04:00: Lessons from Less Manual Link Building 10:20: How Do Brand and EEAT Signals Impact Links 15:45: Summing It All Up 18:36: Outro Show Links: Follow Drew on Twitter Follow Ross on Twitter Send Us an Email…

Show Notes: 00:00: Introduction 02:09: Intro to the sheet 3:00: Keyword Research process 4:50: Keyword Difficulty 5:20: Relevancy Score 6:30: Ranking Page URL 9:27: Links 11:45: Page Traffic and Traffic Value 13:05: KOB Score 15:00: SERP Features and Keyword Demand Trends 16:40: Word Count 17:48: Refresh Frequency 19:17: Revised KOB score 20:25: Ca…

Show Notes: 00:17: Above the fold best practices 3:46: Siege Media’s sticky navigation case study 6:47: The impact of font size on conversion rate 10:46: The power of updating content Show Links: Follow Drew on Twitter Follow Ross on Twitter Send Us an EmailVon Drew Page, Siege Media, Ross Hudgens

Show Notes: 00:30: BOFU benefits in SaaS 00:55: Why “Best X” roundups are necessary 2:45: BOFU content best practices 5:41: How to counter legal ramifications 7:21: The importance of updates 9:01: Alternative and “vs” page strategies 11:09: When landing pages make sense 12:14: How internal linking fits in 12:14: HubSpot example 14:05: PandaDoc exam…

Show Notes: 00:23: Does digital PR have enough value per link? 4:35: How to execute link building effectively 6:40: Breaking down the value of links by industry 7:29: Off-brand digital PR — the “Principal—Agent” problem 9:59: Deploying digital PR campaigns 1-4x a year 11:50: Why keyword-driven digital PR makes the most impact 13:08: How to fuel int…

Show Notes: 00:08: Welcome, Bernard Huang, Co-founder of Clearscope 00:35: E-E-A-T’s background and evolution 4:00: Common E-E-A-T misapplications by SEOs 13:21: The value of a simple photoshoot 18:27: Modern SEO necessities vs. technical SEO 27:32: How to optimize every pixel on your site Show Links: Visit Clearscope’s Blog Follow Bernard on Twitt…

Show Notes: 00:10: The core SEO changes at Google I/O 2:14: Health and finance topics will not be affected (so far) 3:08: Watermarking for generative content creators 4:51: New layouts in Google SERP 6:12: New impact on affiliate website 7:43: Query complexity and how it influences content choice 8:30: Google’s incentives for content and websites c…

Show Notes: 00:07: Welcome, Bernard Huang, Co-founder of Clearscope 00:30: How to recession-proof content marketing 5:05: Why exploring bottom-funnel topics are key 7:32: Attributing content to revenue, lead generation 11:57: Update content more 14:41: Repurpose content more 18:09: Using keyword rankings to prove success 19:05: Search demand’s decl…

Show Notes: 00:08: Welcome, Chip Malt, CEO of Made In 00:35: The details of Made In’s content strategy 4:33: How do you quantify the worth of your assets? 7:10: Why Chip pursued education and research first 7:50: How long did it take to feel traction from your SEO investment? 13:48: Made In’s content and A/B tests 10:02: The evolution of Made In’s …

Show Notes: 00:13: Welcome, Ryan Darani, SEO Consultant for DTC Health and Wellness brands 1:36: How much content should you publish to be effective with SEO? 2:59: Content freshness and its impact on rankings 5:20: What’s the counterargument to Monday.com’s case study? 8:24: The negative effect of high volume, low quality content 11:33: The import…

Show Notes: 00:08: Welcome, Jonathan Newar, CEO of Captain Experiences 2:08: What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever caught? 3:48: SEO’s role in the initial stages of Captain Experiences 10:13: How Captain Experiences thinks through “Guide” pages 12:50: How to present a growth story to investors with SEO 16:32: Captain Experience’s marketing and SEO te…

Show Notes: 1:33: Currently, those that *don't* use AI report higher performance on average. That said, company usage has gone up 12% this year. 6:45: How AI is changing content optimization and SERPs over time. 16:00: The future of Google’s Helpful Content update. 23:23: Businesses that incorporate link building into their strategy report a 45% hi…

Show Notes: 00:09: Welcome, Lily Ray, Senior Director, SEO & Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital 00:41: Breaking down Bing’s AI integration and Google’s AI announcement 2:23: Lily’s take on the future of AI integration and SEO 10:36: The competition between Google and ChatGPT 13:06: How to incorporate AI content generation into your strategy…

Show Notes: 00:07: Welcome, Derek Flazraich, CEO of Ness 1:55: How Derek’s former company, Greatist was born 3:33: How Greatist scaled to 50 million visitors per month 6:02: Why establishing the correct tone for your audience is key 13:18: Greatist’s success in mentioned outreach 19:38: How Pinterest contributed to Greatist’s success 22:07: Biggest…

Show Notes: 1:52: What led you to step down as CEO of Animalz? 9:12: Devin’s thoughts on the direction of content marketing at Animalz and the future of the industry 14:57: How to not be confined by a “content marketing box” when implementing long-term strategies 18:13: What were some of the biggest strategic struggles you saw in the content world …

Show Notes: 00:18: Welcome, Mike Yon, Founder of Clean Air Digital 00:56: Mike’s experience in SEO M&A 3:41: The current state of SEO M&A 7:21: What does digital real estate look like today? 11:19: Finding SEO acquisition targets — link value vs. ownership value 16:06: What is the best deal structure? 19:52: How to evaluate SEO assets in every indu…

Show Notes: 00:40: Welcome, Eli Schwartz, Growth Advisor and author of Product-Led SEO 1:42: How startups should think about SEO in a volatile environment 3:31: Why startups should not do SEO 7:17: Creating SEO ROI models for startups 12:56: Why links aren’t the end-all be-all 20:27: Learn from Eli’s SEO advisory toolset 27:52: When and when not to…

Show Notes: 00:07: Welcome, Gaetano DiNardi, Growth Advisor and Fractional VP 1:24: The relationship between SEO and Growth Marketing 2:05: How search can create demand 4:30: Is inbound marketing still relevant? 5:26: Determining the pace of content quantity (Aura case study) 8:29: How Gaetano convinced executives to invest in content 10:43: The id…

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome, AJ Kohn, Founder, Blind Five Year Old 00:42: The current threat to SEO 5:33: What’s causing hesitation towards SEO? 7:30: SEO measurement and A/B testing 9:25: Data-informed vs. data-driven culture 15:38: Potential solutions for SEO resistance 19:35: How to quantify SEO impact for clients 28:03: The rapid growth of long-…

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome, Ryan Farley, Co-Founder and CMO, LawnStarter 00:40: Was SEO a primary focus for LawnStarter from the get-go? 3:06: How LawnStarter developed an SEO foundation during Series A 4:10: What SEO metrics key stakeholders care about 6:10: Competing with local pack vs. national-local companies 10:30: The content hub strategy (ex…

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome, Kristan Bauer, Founder and SEO Consultant, Conifr 00:41: Navigating low-percentage branded traffic 7:32: The benefits of a localized site architecture 9:37: Is duplicate content bad for real estate? 13:39: AI-generated content’s role in real estate SEO 15:45: How to guide client’s on link acquisition 18:00: The ideal in-…

Show Notes: 00:13: Welcome, Aleyda Solís, International SEO Consultant, Orainti 1:06: E-commerce category pages best practices 7:18: Companies that do category pages well (JB HI-FI) 11:21: How to optimize product pages 14:42: Why human-first content is ideal 17:34: Companies that do product pages well (Manscaped) 19:24: Do accordions have SEO value…

Show Notes: 00:25: Welcome Nick Lafferty, Head of Growth Marketing at Loom 00:51: Important pre-executive pitch steps to ensure it’s received well 6:23: What to do in your first 30 days at an organization 9:27: How to execute a pitch to your executive team 12:14: Scale-back on projections, keep it realistic 15:01: How to deal with push back, unreal…

Show Notes: 00:39: What is the Google Helpful Content update? 1:40: What we think Google is trying to fix (Ross’ prediction) 7:00: Potential collateral damage, what to be aware of moving forward 10:01: How excessive word count plays a part 12:39: Create content that solves the problem, instead of just answering the query 14:10: Our overall recommen…

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome Abby Gleason, SEO Product Manager at Scribd 00:40: What does “zero volume” keywords mean? Why are they a good strategy? 2:22: Why zero volume keywords is creating a buzz 5:29: How do you find zero volume keywords that actually drive traffic? 8:26: Zero volume case study outcomes 9:15: Discovering zero volume keywords by i…

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome, Brodie Clark, Melbourne-based SEO consultant 1:42: Brodie’s best strategies for expanding SEO Internationally 3:54: How much does existing equity “transfer” to international markets using hreflang (ex. /us/)? 5:37: Why automatic redirection isn’t a good idea 7:30: Expanding domains is a long-term game, link signals 9:54:…

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome, Mark Barrera, Vice President of Audience and Review Generation at TrustRadius 00:44: How do you use SEO data to impact decisions at TrustRadius? 3:36: The impact of review generation on SEO 5:23: Duplicate content and how to create different experiences 9:39: Mark’s ideal SEO department 11:37: Measuring reviews, metrics …

Show Notes: 00:15: What is the 50%+ of your time on distribution theory? 1:38: Why do we think this theory is wrong? 2:36: Spend more time on quality and optimization for search 3:24: The appropriate amount of time for distribution on average 4:11: Using Pareto’s Principle (80/20) to better balance efforts 5:34: What Archimedes’ Lever has taught us…

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome, Kelsey Jones, Founder of Six Stories 00:34: Kelsey’s content audit philosophy 3:08: The best process for content audits 7:22: The necessary benchmarks for content audits 12:53: How much time do content audits take? 14:38: Kelsey’s digital tool set 16:17: How to adjust for keyword cannibalization 19:45: Kelsey’s 404 vs. r…

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome, Bernard Huang, Co-founder of Clearscope 1:19: Bernard’s unique NFT marketing strategy 7:44: The importance of “search perspectives,” predicting the evolution path of a SERP 15:04: Where search perspective applies 16:09: What Google’s “what people have also asked” tells us 17:21: Google’s business model — is UX or ad reve…

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome, David Palombo, President and COO of Launch That. Brands include: Asbestos.com, Retireguide.com, Drugwatch.com, Annuity.org, Consumernotice.org 1:39: Launch That’s content creation process with E-A-T in mind 5:53: Balancing high-quality content and scale for content creators 8:09: How to separate ownership, performance ac…

Show Notes: 00:15: Why we recommend interactive content 1:31: What are the cons of interactive content? 2:16: If Google is building the same tools in the SERP, is it worth it? 3:44: How to think about the calculator itself, what to consider 4:25: Positive outcomes we've seen through passive link strategy 6:56: Other examples of interactive content …

Show Notes: 00:44: Our transition from manual to passive link building strategy 2:45: Examples of passive link topics 3:23: How newer authority websites can execute 4:36: Hammer vs. power tool strategy 6:22: Passive link strategy = higher authority on average 7:28: The importance of internal linking 8:06: Interactive content, why high-quality conte…

Show Notes: 00:12: Welcome back, Tom! 1:01: How to structure a good kickoff meeting 9:03: Separating great kickoff meetings vs. average ones 10:04: How many meetings are too many? 15:20: Report revenue to increase credibility 17:00: How to run meetings effectively 22:22: Is dedicated account management essential? 24:57: Defining the roles on your t…

Show Notes: 00:39: Bryan’s original post on how IBM generated over $250M of lifetime traffic value (LTTV) in 2021 1:10: IBM’s “Inbound Workbook” 8:13: What processes have made the workbook successful? 10:41: What is the “diamond team model” and how has it helped SEO in larger organizations 16:45: IBM’s SEO team breakdown 21:46: The benefits of keyw…

Show Notes: 00:17: Elsie’s roles and what it means for onboarding 00:37: What are some of the strategies we use to scale our training? 2:08: The benefits of open-source knowledge 3:28: Hiring in cohorts 4:00: The controversial “test” project 5:58: How to hire and train remote teams 7:01: The advantages of bringing in other managers, mentors early o…

Show Notes: 0:39: What content strategy means at the enterprise level 3:02: How to navigate push back 4:58: Governance model examples 6:56: Quick wins vs. big build-outs 9:16: The importance of work-in-progress updates before major deliverables 12:38: Mike’s playbook for getting things done as an agency in an enterprise organization 14:25: Why user…

Show Notes: 00:10: Welcome, John-Henry Scherck, founder of Growth Plays 00:28: What’s evolving in SEO and content in 2022? 3:39: Technical SEO is a bargain, not a mandate 6:58: Do CMSes prevent technical SEO debt? 10:05: Utilitarian content vs. “engaging” content 11:29: Why low time to value and instant gratification is key for content 14:25: Takin…

Show Notes: 00:12: Meet Tom Critchlow, Strategy Consultant, Founder of SEO MBA and former VP of Operations at Distilled 1:21: How to secure a substantial SEO budget 5:13: Tom’s contrarian take on how companies should invest in SEO 6:15: The secret behind organizational charts 7:42: Best metrics to use for proving ROI 10:46: Common mistakes in strat…