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 T...
Dec 21, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Norm Vogele, the Onsite Content Strategist for Page One Power, opines on philosophical concepts with Erin Sparks about the inherent dangers of personifying Google. It’s understandable why it happens, but it can lead to false assumptions that get in the way of creating good content, the purpose of which is to help real people find the information they seek. When the sole purpose of content creation and SEO is to satisfy Google, then the crucial starting point of empathy for a human audience with ...
Dec 17, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Welcome back to the EDGE, In today's podcast: we'll be exploring three major headlines from the SEO/tech world. First, Google has brought the continuous scroll to desktop search results. Second, Google has rolled out a December 2022 helpful content update. And finally, ChatGPT is the latest tool for content and SEO. We'll be taking a closer look at each of these stories and the implications they have for the SEO industry.“ That….has to be our lamest intro…..brought to you by ChatGPT! We covered...
Dec 13, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Erin Sparks at EDGE talks with Paul Andre (DRE) de Vera about all things video SEO. He brings over a decade of SEO experience to bear with his best practices for video and YouTube optimization. He’s constantly experimenting with using his own successful Video SEO Show and has developed a robust array of best practices. Dre opines on the importance of video for engagement, overall SEO, and its usefulness in owning the most pixels in the SERP. He explores how to use the EAT (Expertise, Authority, ...
Dec 07, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two years with Mordy Oberstein as a co-host with us. Yes, let that sink in for a moment. Are we masochists? The EDGE team digs into a lot of news this week with stories from Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Roundtable and Fox News…….and Newsmax (don’t judge us). Follow us on Twitter and tell us 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: [00:02:39] Don’t promise your clients page 1 rankings. You ...
Dec 06, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Paul Andre (DRE) de Vera shares how Covid motivated him to start a live-streaming podcast. Over 100 shows and two years later, he’s still cranking out the content. A consummate entrepreneur and former corporate SEO shares his journey of building a successful podcast with Erin Sparks on the EDGE. Dre shares insider tips for both beginners and seasoned veterans and does it with panache. He explains the importance of audience feedback, consistency, having high energy, landing great guests, and prod...
Dec 06, 2022•36 min•Ep 551•Transcript available on Metacast Hear that record scratch? [ Skreekeekeekkhchhhchchchhh ] Is that an Obsolete Sound (care of CitiesandMemories.com), or Mordy and Erin jumping into the fracas of the SEO platform data comparison dialogue? The meat of the show is dedicated to an article from SEJ (good play) and an article from Sparktoro, covering toolset match-ups. The EDGE team weighs in on the discussion a bit with a flag on the play….. Let us know what you think! Articles from Social Media Today and Wix as well. And some fun wi...
Nov 30, 2022•41 min•Ep 550•Transcript available on Metacast Today on the EDGE, Erin sits down once again with Dr. Marie Haynes to discuss how semantic search has evolved and what the future may have in store for SEOs and webmasters. Many Google algorithm updates are discussed from 10 years ago until today. They spend time discussing the impacts of Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E.A.T.), as well as the considerations associated with Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) and Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines. The algorithm updates mentioned above all help Goog...
Nov 30, 2022•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our Thanksgiving 2022 edition. Seriously, Jacob was using that gobble effect way too much! Mordy’s is back with us with a packed show, full of articles! Articles from Techcrunch, Moz, and Google Search Central Blog were key discussion points, along with our belief that the web is on drugs….yeah, I think we’re there, folks. With the Amazon layoffs, Elon Musk, and people trying to change the author of articles…..it’s a mess. News from the EDGE: [00:05:34] Layoffs at Amazon, Ticketmaster debacle, I...
Nov 23, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Marie Haynes shares her thoughts and insights on the EDGE by looking at the plethora of Google algorithm updates this year. 2022 has seen its fair share of volatility in the SERPs. In addition, she explores ways to identify and track the impacts of algorithm updates on a website, while pointing out many of the culprits responsible for misleading false positives, which may be wrongfully associated with an update. With over 10 years of SEO experience, she’s a regular speaker at MozCon, Pubcon,...
Nov 22, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cindy Krum jumps into the news with Erin to tackle the slew of news this week! A little late, but still really important! Erin blames his kids… Covering articles from Barry Schwartz, Mike Blumenthal, Roger Montti and Fili Wiese, we also jumped into a Twitter thread that revealed something very interesting! Is there going to be a larger focus on structured data from Google to the degree of triggering manual penalties? As Cindy says. “The news this week kind of reinforces the idea that you are in ...
Nov 18, 2022•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Crystal Carter, Head of SEO Communications at Wix, joins the EDGE to discuss Visual Image Search Optimization. After discussing Visual Image Search on the last episode, she dives head-first into best practices in optimizing for Visual Image Search. Crystal answers this question: How do we ensure our brands and services are part of our customer's visual search? Let’s talk visual search optimization… today on the EDGE! Key Segments: [00:04:31] Throwback to Ep. 544 [00:06:35] Associated Intent [00:...
Nov 15, 2022•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Crystal Carter joins the EDGE to school us on Visual Image Search. Fresh from the stage at the last MozCon, she brings her insights and expertise on visual search and AI. She delves into many of today’s examples and the future outlook of visual search, all based on real-world experiments and work. You have that and some best practices and considerations all here in the podcast. We explore some of the most important things to ponder on this Crystal Carter episode. Let’s talk visual search… today ...
Nov 10, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Abusing the host? Is that what Mordy has lowered himself to? We love the Fall decor on the SERP. It’s NEWS! Today we cover articles from Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, TechCrunch and Search Engine Watch covering topics such as Google’s new search labels for coupons, the depreciating value of the link in the future, Mastodon’s rise amidst the chaos of Twitter, and Mordy Oberstein opines whether Google is moving to a more continuous “real time” algorithm. Oh, and we might talk about Ro...
Nov 09, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our Halloween 2022 Episode (yeah, it’s November, moving on) covers articles from MarTech, Android Police, Search Engine Land, and Semrush. We dug into a spooky article from Bruce Clay (much to Mordy’s chagrin) and provided an expose’ on the Semrush Zero-Click study from Marcus Tober. He had a fantastic analysis at the end, right Mordy (wink)? Seriously - a sizable study of 20,000 users click-stream on over 300,000 queries. There are some very striking data about what zero-click really means and ...
Nov 02, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Olga Zarzeczna shares her perspective on the recent situation she had to deal with - the theft of her own web content, which got published as someone else's work on Amazon. It’s incredible to hear that it happened and the SEO community rallied behind Olga in extraordinary ways. Women in Tech SEO demonstrated their strength and support when this came to light. Key members in the SEO community also helped Olga navigate her own (unwarranted) imposter syndrome challenges. Olga shares some important ...
Nov 01, 2022•28 min•Ep 541•Transcript available on Metacast The prodigal son returns to the show. Mordy Oberstein is back to cut up the news like a Halloween Jack-o’-Lantern! We cover articles from Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Land, and Social Media Today. Regarding the Google Spam Update….to quote Mordy: if you got hit by the update: Check your rankings, check your site, check your content, and then check your soul (ouch). Side Note: Check out the Ted Cruz visit to a recent Yankees game! Key Segments: [00:05:02] Google Spam Update Done in Rec...
Oct 26, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are continuing with OlgaTober with the second of three episodes covering our interview with Olga Zarzeczna, one of the top SEO Audit specialists, today. We continued going through the list of top SEO mistakes made by sites that Olga has found over her years of performing audits. Erin and Olga match their notes on some of the most critical, flagrant fouls in the SEO space. We also cover some more controversial “gray hat” issues regarding structured data. But seriously, copying a competitor's s...
Oct 19, 2022•32 min•Ep 539•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew Optimisey jumps in to join Erin on the news this week! Andrew shares some of the great speakers from BrightonSEO, which makes us all sizably jealous here in the midwest! We take on articles from Digital Trends, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal. And, of course, the Barry Blast (sounds like a soda, right) from Search Engine Roundtable. Key Segments: [00:06:52] YouTube is adding taggable usernames for everyone! [00:10:07] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:11:05]...
Oct 13, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Olga Zarzeczna joins the EDGE again to provide some fantastic insight into over a hundred SEO audits she has done. We have some of the top issues that she has seen, and you have it all here in the podcast. Well, not all of them - please check out her full article in the link below. We tackle some of the most important things to get right in this OglaTober episode. Yes, we have 3 episodes with Olga this month of October - might as well name it after her. Dig in deep on the Best SEO Audit Mistakes...
Oct 12, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast There were so many things from the Google Search On event! All the things! And we didn’t cover nearly enough of them from Barry’s article. But Mordy and Erin did dig into plenty of items from Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable this week. We also realized that we’re getting really old! GetOffMySERP.com [00:08:15] Form interactions can be measured in GA4 [00:11:26] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:12:50] Brands suspending their Twitter campaigns after finding their a...
Oct 06, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tyler Bain, project manager with Page One Power, joins Erin to create of drinking game with the use of analogies in project management! No, of course not, that would not be responsible of us (see below if you want to play with your team)! Erin and Tyler dig into the usage of “it depends” when working with SEO clients. There’s a lot behind that phrase, and it has a stigma as well. Listen in as we tackle goal communications with clients and the responsibility of project managers to help educate th...
Oct 05, 2022•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mike Blumenthal’s second segment on the EDGE takes us into the realm of the value of image optimization for Local Search. It’s a huge conversion factor for businesses that can be easy wins. Check out the incredible tool, AirCam.ai - a service that gives a breakdown of all of the images your business needs for local visibility. Mike gives us his take on the most recent Google updates and how they may affect local visibility. He also unequivocally lays down his opinion about AI machine learning ev...
Sep 27, 2022•36 min•Ep 534•Transcript available on Metacast Dug into Search Engine Land, Tech Crunch and yes, Bloomberg (the first one on deck) this week. Of course, we couldn’t cover the bloody 5th Product Review Update from Google, as we recorded on Monday. Wow - updates are coming inside of weeks now. Can’t really grab ahold of that unless we go to a daily news show! (Please stop the updates, Google, please!) Had great fun, as usual, with Mordy and Jacob. Check out the links and let us know how we’re doing at RateThisPodcast.com/Edge! [00:03:12] Negat...
Sep 21, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mike Blumenthal, “Professor Maps” of the Local SEO community, catches up with the EDGE after some time to lay out the volatility he’s seen in local search. Mike’s been focused on the Google Business Profile forums and has seen some pretty striking and concerning developments. Witnessing around 200 review take-downs and close to 2,000 business profile suspensions per month, Mike’s a bit concerned to say the least. Where is Google’s accountability and transparency in responding to these issues? Th...
Sep 20, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ever listened to a podcast dumpster fire? You’ve got to check this one out. We led with today’s breaking news of Google’s September 2022 Core Update and didn’t rearrange the rest of our headlines. And what were those headlines, you might ask? Talking about the PREVIOUS update that we were still waiting to see affect our rankings. Yup - poured gasoline over the entire show and watched it burn! Still - good stories from Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal and Barry. We could only really use ...
Sep 13, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The second segment of our Michel Fortin interview goes from helpful content straight into the customer’s search intent. Are we meeting them on the road to their solution with insightful, useful content, or is our SEO page built for keyword ranking? We may be in a new world of pruning and reworking content, shaking off some old habits and replacing them with a new discipline of careful evaluation. Check out the first segment of our interview with Michel Fortin, a 30-year vet in the SEO industry a...
Sep 10, 2022•39 min•Ep 530•Transcript available on Metacast We came across a very important article from Dan Taylor this week regarding the possibility of site indexing being the most coveted goal for SEO’s of the future. Coupled with an article from Search Engine Roundtable regarding Google’s ability to ascribe quality to different sections of your site - I think we have some clear perspective of the SEO future to come! (see, Erin can write!) Article from the Verge, Search Engine Land, and DanTalyor.online, as well as Search Engine Roundtable - it’s a j...
Sep 08, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast It couldn’t be more timely! Michel Fortin, long time SEO professional, has recently written a fantastic article regarding “user-first” SEO principles, a concept that he has been championing for sometime. The article came out just weeks before the Google Helpful Content Update algorithm change that came in August of 2022. This is exactly where Google is telling us where to go with the user and Michel is the coach to help us along the way. Please read the article at Wix and reach out to our sponso...
Sep 05, 2022•31 min•Ep 528•Transcript available on Metacast Robots can recognize other robots, right Modie (Mordy’s AI name)? Alright, we evidently were advertising SERP’s Up, the new Wix podcast, as Mordy’ threw promos everywhere in the show. Yup - very proud to be able to roll out that show with Wix! On OUR show, we covered articles from Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Roundtable and followed a conversation on Twitter and Linked in regarding Google giving visual cues of how long it is to read content from the mobile device. Is that really a good ...
Aug 31, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
