Twitter had another very bad week after it deGoogled itself in a badly thought through response to the scrapers and bots attracted to the network. Last Friday, Elon Musk announced he was limiting the number of Tweets users could see in a day in response to scrapping activity and bots on the network. Those limits had numerous effects, including having nearly half of Twitter content in Google's index removed. Today the world woke to the first day of Threads, the Twitter-like messaging platform sta...
Jul 06, 2023•1 hr 5 min
1 day, 13 hours, 59 minutes: That's the time left at the time of recording before Google pulls the data plug on Universal Analytics 3, replacing it with the much unloved and misunderstood Google Analytics 4. Many SEOs and other digital marketers, all of whom have been warned for the last 18 months are freaking out having hoped Google wasn't actually going to go through with the switch. Surprise, they will in approximately 1 day, 13 hours, and 58 from the time this sentence was spoken. Joining Ji...
Jun 29, 2023•1 hr 5 min
This was a weird week punctuated by the stupefyingly terrible news of the Titan submarine disaster, (which was confirmed by the US Coast Guard in the middle of the show recording), and the shockingly hilarious news of a potential cage match between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. The early money is on Zuckerberg who is a trained MMA fighter and twelve years younger than the 51-year-old Musk. This is surprisingly real. Other real things: Early bird tickets are still available for...
Jun 22, 2023•57 min
"Whispers from within, Nature's laughter fills the air, Gentle cheeks release.", ChatGPT for Chrome, 2023 It's been another week of extraordinary A.I. developments with plenty of examples of A.I. screw-ups, gripes, and fears as we surge forward figuring out how to best use and abuse the powers of A.I... Kristine Schachinger and Jim Hedger look at Chatbots in Search and talk about a few weeks of watching Google's Search Generative Experience roll out. One critic called Google SGE a plagiarism eng...
Jun 15, 2023•1 hr 1 min
The impacts of artificial intelligence are everywhere and we spend a lot of time talking about those impacts but we also got to talk about some regular Googley stuff too. Jim Hedger and Kristine Schackinger did start off on a high note, noting the reports of the death of a US Air Force member testing an AI-operated drone were greatly and completely exaggerated as it was only a simulation. Paraphrasing the words of the commanding officer, "... it was just a simulation. Only a madman would do that...
Jun 08, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Sometime last yesterday, word went out on Twitter and LinkedIn that one of the largest SEO conference in the world was coming to North America. Conference founder Kelvin Newman tweeted and posted his team was bringing the show over here in 2023 with a date and time to be announced in the coming weeks. We asked Kelvin to come on Webcology to talk about the experience and, what we expected to be a quick ten-minute promotion turned into a twenty-five-minute conversation about his experience organiz...
May 25, 2023•1 hr 3 min
In what is possibly one of the most interesting and entertaining interviews we've recorded in a while, Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talk with SEO legend Martin MacDonald about the development and release of the industry's first AI-supported SEO Auditing tool, Serpere.AI - https://serpere.ai/ . Martin has been a practicing SEO since the dawn of the commercial Internet and has worked with some of the largest websites in the commercial sphere, including TicketMaster, Expedia, and Orbitz. Fou...
May 18, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Google announced major changes to search results as artificial intelligence-assisted search becomes part of Google's information universal ecosystem (*except for Canadians, Germans, and a small gaggle of other unfortunates whose governments find themselves arguing with Google) In this show, Jim Hedger and Kristine Shachinger talk about the biggest announcements from Google IO and how coming changes will affect the business and practice of SEO. We discuss Google Perspectives, About This Image, Go...
May 11, 2023•55 min
Geoffery Hinton is widely considered the Godfather of Artificial Intelligence. His research into human brain function in the late 1980s and early 90s at the University of Toronto prompted him and a team of early neural researchers to start to conceive of a digital brain that could learn. His work is considered the foundation of modern machine learning and large language models. He recently stepped down from his position as head of AI research at Google's parent company Alphabet so he could raise...
May 04, 2023•1 hr 4 min
There was a lot of Google news to cover this week in a short break from our usual breathless coverage of the AI revolution. This week hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger discuss a number of Google and social media stories, along with thanking Search Engine Journal for including Webcology in the Top SEO Podcasts for 2023. This week we covered the growth of Spoutable Elon's Secret faux-minor Twitter profile Google Product Updates - GA4 is coming Google April 2023 Reviews Update done rolling ...
Apr 27, 2023•59 min
Another AI-focused show. Hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talk about the introduction of Auto-GPT, OpenAI’s newest product that can instruct itself. Jim, who has been a strong supporter of incorporating AI into our work process and tools admits to being a bit queasy at the prospect of a self-prompting AI. We also cover the development of Project Maji and Google’s new Search Engine, the introduction of a new Google web crawler, the removal of Page Experience from the Search Console, the ...
Apr 20, 2023•1 hr 7 min
A news coverage show that tried to focus on organic search with a lot of changes to report at Google. The biggest story this week has been the rollout of Google’s new Review Update expanding to cover reviews about products, services, and things. Hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger also talk about how a page or site’s quality can degrade over time, how schema triggers different types of SERPs, how the March 2023 Core Update might have affected local search, using ChatGPT for research, and t...
Apr 13, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Like Elvis in a Mojo Nixon song, AI is everywhere man. This week hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talk through the confusing ways the SEO and tech industries are taking to AI. From hallucinated Guardian stories to a treasure trove of industrial espionage opportunities, this week offered us a lot of lessons about being careful around AI. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://r...
Apr 07, 2023•1 hr
Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talked about a number of stories this week focusing on the implications of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, the suddenly introduced March 2023 Google Core Update, the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT4, and the educational game SEOpoly. There was no end of big and important things to talk about this week, we wanted to make time for Jef Van Gool, innovator of SEOpoly, a twist on the common board game but where you acquire knowledge and SEO skills rather than pr...
Mar 16, 2023•1 hr
Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger host an informative and very fun show today with guests, Mitul Ghandi co-founder and chief architect and Mark Traphagen, VP of Product Marketing and Training from the enterprise-SEO super-system SEOClarity (https://seoclarity.net). Mitul and Mark join Jim and Kristine to talk about the multi-feature rollouts SEOClarity introduced during its Release Week. SEOClarity is all about merging big data with understandable and actionable dashboards, insights, and sugge...
Mar 09, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Facebook will now remove a post and give up to seven explanations before suspending or banning users. The new policy is a result of analysis and feedback from Meta’s Independent Oversight Board. More severe violations still could mean immediate penalties like posting bans and/or account removal. https://about.fb.com/news/2023/02/meta-is-improving-facebooks-penalty-system/ First up Micha Fisher and Masatake Wasa, two mods of the No Dumb Questions SEO group on Facebook joined us to talk about a ma...
Mar 02, 2023•1 hr 4 min
This was a technical heavy show focusing on talking announcements from Pubcon, Google’s Feb2023 Product Reviews Update, how Bing uses AI content, changes to credentials at Search Console, Russian propagandists exploiting Twitter verification, and the cases in front of the US Supreme Court that might threaten Section 260. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Feb 23, 2023•1 hr
This was a news and review show, wrapping up a number of weeks of talking about AI's effects on the search and on digital marketing. Going into the show hosts Jim Hedger of Digital Always Media and Kristine Schachinger of Sites Without Walls are expected to cover a lot of Google news and announcements. Almost predictively, AI managed to dominate a lot of the conversation despite our best intentions but when Microsoft's version of ChatGPT goes off on an NYTimes reporter trying to convince him to ...
Feb 16, 2023•58 min
Earlier this week, Microsoft and Google both announced they’re introducing different types of AI into search and related products with staged press events. Both of today’s guests have spent a lot of time thinking about and working with machine learning and AI in their digital marketing careers. Duane Forrester thinks about emerging technologies from the point of view of a leading business tool maker while Ryan Jones is a vice president of one of the oldest digital marketing agencies in the world...
Feb 09, 2023•59 min
We had a truly interesting show following last week's Yandex data leak. Mike King, CEO of iPullRank sits in as a guest for the full hour. This is the first week Kristine Schachinger from Sites Without Walls in Las Vegas has sat in the official co-host's seat. Welcome home, Kristine! This is the second week in a row I was able to write the intro to a guest while listening to their music on Spotify. Icon the Mic King is better known in the SEO world than Michael Icon King, Mike to everyone around ...
Feb 06, 2023•1 hr 1 min
This was Dave’s last show as cohost and it was a special one. Over the past few weeks, we have been witnessing and in many cases, participating in the greatest transformation of the digital age. The AI revolution is in full swing and Dave is an emerging expert in the fields of AI and machine learning relating to the search. We have also seen significant changes in how Google wants to look at content. Lily Ray, Senior Director of SEO and Head of Organic research at Amsive Digital joins us for a f...
Jan 26, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Today we spoke with the Founder of Inlinks and one of the truly great innovators in the SEO world, Dixon Jones. Dixon has made or been at the C-Level of two of the most important SEO tools, Majestic and Inlinks. Dixon was Marketing Director at Majestic from 2009 to 2018, leaving to help found InLinks. Based in the UK, his team at Majestic won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for characterizing the Internet in a way people would understand it, humanizing the Internet if you will. To...
Jan 12, 2023•1 hr 2 min
2023 is going to be a year of extraordinary change. The last three years feel like a coiled spring with a build-up of so much potential energy prepared to become kinetic it will feel like the advent of mass-computing all over again. This might be particularly jarring for some and present ranges of opportunities previously unknown for others. What’s happening right now is the predecessor of what might be the last human-organized information environment in our species’ somewhat short history. Chan...
Jan 05, 2023•56 min
Twas two weeks before Christmas and across the wide web SEOs were hitting their desks with their heads Google had come to update itself Guaranteeing no downtime For us little elves Along with a number of other Googley things, Jim Hedger and Dave Davies talk about getting Scroogled again this year. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Dec 20, 2022•53 min
A most excellent news round-up day with Jim Hedger and Dave Davies rolling through several major stories that affect the search industry this week. The biggest story in tech is the massive fallout from Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. It feels like the social media universe is reordering itself as Twitter and Facebook (Meta) face the biggest challenges in their histories. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Priva...
Nov 17, 2022•57 min
Today on Webcology Kristine Schachinger from Sites without Walls cohosts with Jim Hedger from Digital Always Media. They talk about The return of conferences and the State of Search Conference – last week in Dallas TX. They also dive into Barbados SEO – two weeks from now, as well as The 2022 Social Media Big Tech implosion AND MORE! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com...
Nov 07, 2022•1 hr
Ash is currently the in-house enterprise and multi-national SEO manager at carsales.com.au/ Carsales.com.au , by the way, has a massive global footprint making Ash responsible for overseeing car sales sites around the world as well as Australia. He’s worked with Suncorp, Australian National Bank, Optus (2nd largest wireless carrier in AUS), Sensis – Aussie mega info corp, and several other corporate SEO jobs. For years he was a regular columnist at APC Magazine (Aus. Personal Computer days?) He’...
Oct 20, 2022•44 min
Jim Hedger and Dave Davies have a fun rambling trip through Google’s most recent September Core Update and the newest Products Review Update, both of which stopped rolling out on September 26. Explaining how Google is merging its newly gained powers of perception with its foundation in link references, Jim and Dave explore the history and implications of Google's algorithm and core updates over the years. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donations Advertising Inquiries: ...
Sep 29, 2022•57 min
Jim Hedger and Dave Davies cover a lot of ground today with a long talk about the Google Helpful Algorithm Update as its rollout appears to be winding down. While it’s too early to tell exactly how Helpful is going to fall out and its effects could take months to sprawl across the web, the update is having a substantial effect on sites that were actually affected. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy &...
Sep 09, 2022•53 min
I don’t know a lot about art... Actually, that’s not true. I know a hell of a lot about art, including what I do and don’t like. Now, I don’t know a lot about philosophy... Actually, that’s not true. I also know a hell of a lot about philosophy. Life’s weird that way. Weirder still is the decision of the Colorado State Fair to award the first place finish in the Digital Arts category to Jason Allen for his Ai-Generated work, “Theatre D’opera Spatial”. Now, to be fair to the Fair, it (“Theatre D’...
Sep 02, 2022•55 min
