730 | News from the EDGE | Week of 11.25.2024

Brands are admitting publicly to using AI to write their content – How do you think Google responded? Erin and Mordy take a deep dive down the rabbit hole of Search Engine Land and explore ChatGPT, AI content creation and how the indentation of a link in the SERP may impact your organic traffic. The duo asks the tough questions like, “Is ChatGPT coming for your job?” This week’s Barry Blast confirms the completed rollout of Google’s Helpful Content and Link Spam updates, that linking to multiple products in a review may give the page a SERP boost, and Google admits it is challenging to write an SEO case study. A big thanks to our new title sponsor of the show, SE Ranking. Check out their exclusive giveaway to the EDGE audience! News from the EDGE: [00:05:18] Are indented search results helping or hurting your business? [00:11:52] New Title Sponsor: SE Ranking Take the SE Ranking Checklist Challenge!Receive a one-month Pro 1000 subscription for completing this challenge when you go to https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking and send a screenshot of these completed steps: Create a project, add at least 5 keywords; Find 5 competitors via the Competitive Research tool and add them to “My Competitors” section; Run a website audit and show what issue you are going to fix; Do a backlink check and upload your backlinks to the Backlink Monitoring tool; Optimize one page using the Content Marketing tool. One Edge Listener Will Get A Full Year Business Package. We’ll Announce That On Our Feb 10th Podcast! A $2,500 Value! [00:14:08] More and more brands are using AI to write their content. . . And Google responds. [00:23:11] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks [00:24:23] OpenAI likely to get a $10b investment from Microsoft [00:26:54] Will you lose your job to ChatGPT? [00:32:50] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/site Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:33:31] Barry Blast 1: Google’s Helpful Content and Link Spam updates are finished rolling out  [00:34:36] Barry Blast 2: According to Google, writing SEO case studies can be challenging [00:36:00] Barry Blast 3: Google says that linking to multiple sellers in product reviews might give a small ranking boost Thanks to our sponsors! SE Ranking https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @MordyOberstein Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

18 Jan 202340min

We’re talking voice search, the Internet of Things, and Google’s Multitask Unified Model with Cindy Krum on this episode of the EDGE. Her breadth of knowledge on these topics and ability to predict the future is nearly endless. So much so, in fact, some might call her the Nostradamus of SEO.  Erin and Cindy dissect the difference between and the importance of Google’s transition from using a keyword-based understanding of the web to an entity understanding. This has major implications for voice and mobile queries, not just SERPs. Lastly, we ask the hard-hitting questions here on the EDGE like, “Can a dog eat an avocado?” and “How long can blue cheese stay in the fridge?” Google knows. Key Segments [00:02:38] Introducing guest Cindy Krum [00:05:04] Voice Search and How It Relates to Entity SEO [00:06:47] Right or Wrong Answers? Voice Search Learns  [00:07:56] The Canonical Question  [00:08:56] Google’s Dialog Flow [00:11:10] Understanding Questions vs. Keywords [00:13:12] Not Just Your Phone: Your Google Account is Constantly Learning [00:14:36] The Internet of Things [00:16:22] Site Strategics: Title Sponsor of EDGE of the Web [00:17:53] Can a Dog Eat an Avocado? [00:19:22] Inferred Concepts Extrapolated from How It's Talked About [00:21:55] How Long Can Blue Cheese Stay in the Fridge?  [00:26:14] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: WIX edgeofthewebradio.com/wix  [00:27:18] Multitask Unified Model [00:36:40] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: SE Ranking Take the SE Ranking Checklist Challenge!Receive a one-month Pro 1000 subscription for completing this challenge when you go to https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking and send a screenshot of these completed steps: Create a project, add at least 5 keywords; Find 5 competitors via the Competitive Research tool and add them to “My Competitors” section; Run a website audit and show what issue you are going to fix; Do a backlink check and upload your backlinks to the Backlink Monitoring tool; Add any page to Page Changes Monitor (Website Audit section) and show the graphs of the history of changes. One Edge Listener Will Get A Full Year Business Package. We’ll Announce That On Our Feb 10th Podcast! A $2,500 Value! Content timeframe: 1/12/2023 to 2/10/2023. [00:39:20] Trusting Google More  [00:42:26] What’s to Come in the Future? [00:45:11] Mobile Moxie Tools Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site WIX https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix  SE Ranking: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking  Follow Cindy Krum https://twitter.com/Suzzicks  https://www.facebook.com/cindy.krum/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindykrum/  https://www.instagram.com/mobilemoxie/  Mobile Moxie recently launched some cool new Chrome plugins for our main tools: SERPerator: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/serperator-by-mobilemoxie/ghnlaojdcibbkcgmanbbmbdgccmfdaof  Page-oscope: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-oscope-by-mobilemoxi/aofebfljannpdpbeapgnolkihjiepdeo  They also have a new WordPress Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/page-oscope-preview-by-mobilemoxie/

14 Jan 202350min

We cover the MOST important digital marketing news of the week: which is better, Ring Dings or Ding Dongs - seriously? Erin, Mordy, and Greg Finn of Marketing O’Clock take on some great articles from Search Engine Land and Martech in regard to search engine marketing this week. Yup - Mordy had nothing to do. The serious part of the show, though: is Google changing how it defines what you opted into AFTER you approved of a Google Ads Recommendation? Is this really what we’re seeing? And yes, we conduct a blind taste test in the studio with those chocolatey wonders….as well as Ring Dings (grin). Special thanks to our new title sponsor of the show, SE Ranking. Check out their special giveaway to the EDGE audience! News from the EDGE: [00:03:27] Changing the Recommendations AFTER You Have Opted In? Really - Come on, Google Ads! [00:14:33] Ring Dings vs. Ding Dongs [00:16:09] New Title Sponsor: SE Ranking Take the SE Ranking Checklist Challenge!Receive a one-month Pro 1000 subscription for completing this challenge when you go to https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking and send a screenshot of these completed steps: Create a project, add at least 5 keywords; Find 5 competitors via the Competitive Research tool and add them to the “My Competitors” section; Run a website audit and show what issue you are going to fix; Do a backlink check and upload your backlinks to the Backlink Monitoring tool; Optimize one page using the Content Marketing tool. One Edge Listener Will Get A Full Year Business Package. We’ll Announce That On Our Feb 10th Podcast! A $2,500 Value! [00:18:51] Local Search Is Showing More And More Spam And Fake Reviews, And Google Can’t Keep Up [00:26:05] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks [00:26:42] Top (3) GA4 features to help you find that lost data from UA Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:35:41] Google: Helpful Content Update & Link Spam Update Can Take Another Week Or Two To Complete - Link [00:35:51] Dentists Now Can Use Google Local Service Ads - Link [00:37:02] Team Member, Chad Pollitt, Participates in a Blind Taste Test: Ring Dings vs Ding Dongs! [00:38:31] Report: Microsoft Bing To Add OpenAI's ChatGPT Feature - Link Thanks to our sponsors! SE Ranking: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking  Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @MordyOberstein Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

11 Jan 202344min

The SEO Sherpa, Cindy Krum, comes back to the EDGE loaded for bear! It’s awesome to reflect back on what Cindy was talking about in 2018 and and nowm in 2023. She was spot on with Entities being the target of search engine optimization, and we cut back to that show just to reflect. Erin and Cindy walk through the history of the portability of concepts in search, watching what Google is leveraging as it rolls out features and functions for content providers to test. The Big G is always learning, and our job is feed the beast in order to win in search. Cindy Krum is a stellar player in the SEO constellation and we’re excited to unpack this first segment of her 2022 interview with us. Be sure to check out the second episode coming shortly! [00:02:50] Introducing Cindy Krum [00:06:04] A Throwback Moment on Entities from the 2018 Show with Cindy [00:10:47] What are Entities? [00:12:43] Contextualizing the Cute Puppy Search [00:13:44] How Does Google Define an Entity? [00:15:02] Did Google Use Links to Understand Entities in the Early Days of Search? [00:16:23] How has the Knowledge Graph Evolved? [00:17:35] Site Strategics: Title Sponsor of EDGE of the Web  [00:18:20] Mobile-First Indexing was a Misnomer. It had to do with Portabiity [00:21:28] Entities Being Language Agnostic: HREFLang [00:22:50] What is Above the Knowledge Graph? The Topic Layer [00:26:26] You Can Guarantee that there's Another Training Benefit to What Google Rolls Out [00:27:30] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: WIX edgeofthewebradio.com/wix [00:28:36] Moving from Monolithic to Micro Services [00:30:31] Portability as it Applies to Passage Indexing Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site WIX https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix Follow Cindy Krum https://twitter.com/Suzzicks  https://www.facebook.com/cindy.krum/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindykrum/  https://www.instagram.com/mobilemoxie/  Mobile Moxie recently launched some cool new Chrome plugins for our main tools: SERPerator: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/serperator-by-mobilemoxie/ghnlaojdcibbkcgmanbbmbdgccmfdaof  Page-oscope: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-oscope-by-mobilemoxi/aofebfljannpdpbeapgnolkihjiepdeo  They also have a new WordPress Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/page-oscope-preview-by-mobilemoxie/

7 Jan 202337min

We just hit a new year, and like with every new year comes new SEO tips, tools, techniques, and upcoming trends to look out for. Mordy Oberstein and Erin Sparks explore all of the above in this information-packed episode. All while asking what your SEO resolution is for the new year. Below are some highlights of the discussion: Chat GPT for SEOs Can AI chat threaten Google Google’s recent location privacy settlements The holidays delayed the latest Google algorithm/process updates New product listing graphs with price history John Mueller’s skill to know for 2023 Should SEOs use Chat GPT for content creation? Or are there other ways it can be used (insert thinking face/chin scratch emoji)? Hit play now and join us on the first 2023 News from the EDGE podcast. . .  Follow us on Twitter and let us know how we did this show. Help us out with a review of the show today! Go to RatethisPodcast.com/EDGE News from the EDGE: [00:05:59] Is This Google’s Helpful Content Algorithm? [00:15:38] Google to pay $29.5 million to settle DC, Indiana lawsuits over location tracking [00:19:57] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks [00:21:15] Is ChatGPT Really a “Code Red” for Google Search? [00:33:-9] ChatGPT for SEO: 20 Ways to Leverage ChatGPT in your SEO Activities [00:36:52] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:37:46] Barry Blast 1: Google’s Helpful Content and Link Spam updates were delayed due to the holidays. [00:38:22] Barry Blast 2: Google’s Search Product Listings with price history graph [00:38:25] Barry Blast 3: John Mueller of Google says that SEO skills needed for 2023 are “curiosity and persistence”  Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @MordyOberstein Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

5 Jan 202343min

Our final podcast of 2022 doesn’t fail to deliver as we tackle content optimization with an analogy: treating it like you would if you were a comedian! Dan Shure, the host of Experts on the Wire podcast, joins Erin again in the second segment of his interview in 2022. Dan shares a solid content creation perspective, focusing on intent before E-E-A-T. The challenge is that the content, once produced, often doesn’t get a second look! Dan has some great examples of success that he has seen for the consumer intent focus before anything else. The connection between music theory and digital marketing is also explored, focusing on two main concepts:  Understanding the Large and Small concepts of content integration  and the perspective of Patterns. If you like this show, let us know by going to RateThisPodcast.com/EDGE to share! Thanks for the great feedback this year. Key Segments [00:02:38] Introducing Dan Shure [00:04:30] Always a Focus On Content Optimization [00:08:05] Zero Time Thinking About E-E-A-T [00:13:37] What is the QRG Really There For? [00:14:50] Attention to Sentiment: Important Factor for SEO [00:18:39] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Page One Power [00:19:33] Using Images to Secure the Topic of Your Article, Use Google Lens [00:21:48] Looking At Content Optimization Like a Comedian [00:25:45] Loss of Indexed Pages: The New First for SEO? [00:27:02] Indexing: If It's Important, Link to it From Your Homepage [00:30:22] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/wix [00:31:33] Digital Marketing Lessons to Learn from Music [00:38:50] Two Tools for Content Optimization from Dan Shure Thanks to Our Sponsors! Page One Power https://edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower Wix https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix  Follow Guest https://www.twitter.com/dan_shure  https://www.linkedin.com/in/evolvingdan/  https://www.instagram.com/danshure Experts On The Wire Podcast: https://www.evolvingseo.com/category/podcast/

31 Des 202241min

Dan Shure, the host of Experts of the Wire podcast, returns to join the EDGE. He discusses how the show came about in 2015 and the factors of the success of a podcast with today’s digital consumers. There are some huge lessons that the EDGE team shares in common with Dan and his show. We were eager to discuss how podcasting flourished through COVID and what kept some of them afloat after. Dan shares some podcasting tips with our listeners as he reflects on one of the most important elements of podcasts - research. Join one of the EDGE’s astute colleagues, Dan Shure, as we go on the Wire with this Expert! [00:02:35] Introducing Dan Shure [00:04:57] SEO Came From Necessity [00:10:30] How the SEO Podcast Affected Dan’s Business [00:12:14] Audio Quality Is a Separator in the Podcast Space [00:15:54] When Dan's SEO Skills Took Off [00:17:52] Some Lessons Learned About Podcasting  [00:18:09] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower [00:19:01] Research is the Key [00:22:24] Companies that Jumped Into Podcasting During COVID [00:24:51] Oversaturation of the Medium? [00:25:33] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/wix [00:26:07] Podcast Tips: Equipment? [00:27:26] Find Your Niche or Create One [00:30:12] Education from the Podcast Discipline [00:32:53] Asking 50 Experts Thanks to our sponsors! Page One Power https://edgeofthewebradio.com/pageonepower  Wix https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix Follow Guest https://www.twitter.com/dan_shure  https://www.linkedin.com/in/evolvingdan/  https://www.instagram.com/danshure

27 Des 202236min

There’s a lot of news this week coming up on the holidays and it’s Google’s fault! Morty Olberstein and Erin Sparks dig into the new Google Search Console dashboard, December’s link spam algorithm update and Erin’s EEEEEEEEEE onomatopoeia. . . E-E-A-T On top of that these two peas in a pod(cast) lament on an Elon Musk Twitter poll asking if he should step down as CEO. You can guess how that conversation went. Oh, and both of their Twitter accounts may or may not still be live. . . Follow us on Twitter and let us know how we did on this show. Help us out with a review of the show today! Go to RatethisPodcast.com/EDGE News from the EDGE: [00:03:17] Google Reveals More Information About Search Status Dashboard [00:08:54] Google December 2022 Link Spam Update Rolling Out Now [00:12:35] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:13:05] E-E-A-T and major updates to Google’s quality rater guidelines [00:25:29] Google E-E-A-T: How To Demonstrate First-Hand Experience [00:27:44] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks [00:28:38] Elon Musk’s poll results are in: He should step down, Twitter voters say Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable: [00:32:59] Barry Blast: Quick Roundup Thanks to our sponsors! Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks   Follow Us: Twitter: @ErinSparks Twitter: @MordyOberstein Twitter: @TheMann00 Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio   #StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

21 Des 202234min