Have you heard about Google’s new Project Magi? Word is that GA4 was just updated to include “one per session” conversion tracking. Jacob Mann, Mordy Oberstein and Erin Sparks tackle these news topics and dive into Google’s latest product review update, its video thumbnail update, and more. Check out the digital marketing news for this week. . . on the EDGE! News from the EDGE: [00:03:50] Google is Developing a New Search Engine and Working on Additional Search Features through Project Magi [00:...
Apr 18, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast How have Google’s rich snippets and knowledge graphs evolved over time? What impact will generative AI have on the SERP? What tools can we use to detect AI-written content? Guest Brodie Clark, SEO consultant, and host Erin Sparks explore these questions and many more. Join us for some SEO tomfoolery on this episode of the EDGE! [00:00:39] Introducing Brodie Clark [00:04:45] Living the Agency Life [00:06:41] Making the Transition to a Solo Consultancy [00:09:33] Exceeding Expectations [00:12:07] ...
Apr 14, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast If Facebook enters the AI chat space will he call it ZuckBot? What are Google’s Quality Raters doing with Bard and is it coming to the most popular search engine anytime soon? Jacob Mann and Erin Sparks explore these questions and dive into whether or not Google’s latest core update impacted local search, it’s use of pattern recognition when crawling, and more. Check out the digital marketing news for this week. . . on the EDGE! News from the EDGE: [00:03:28] Meta to Release it’s Own Generative ...
Apr 13, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast What impact will AI have on marketing and advertising in 2023? Is Discord a viable marketing channel? What’s it take to build a successful podcast? Join Erin Sparks and guest Greg Finn, partner at Cypress North and host of the Marketing O’clock podcast, as they answer these questions and many more on this episode of the EDGE podcast! [00:00:35] Reintroducing Greg Finn [00:01:48] Marketing O’Clock [00:05:38] Discord Community [00:09:42] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:11:14] Th...
Apr 06, 2023•35 min•Ep 583•Transcript available on Metacast Not a week goes by when we’re not talking about AI these days. Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak say the tech world should put a six-month pause on the development of systems smarter than GPT-4 until an independent or government body can oversee it. . . AKA regulations. Are ads coming to generative AI? Did you know Google is moving employees around to beef up its Bard division? All this digital marketing news on more. . . on this episode of the EDGE! News from the EDGE: [00:05:12] You Know What’s Miss...
Apr 05, 2023•33 min•Ep 582•Transcript available on Metacast Why does Google’s support for paid advertising stink so bad and what’s causing cost per lead to skyrocket up? Erin Sparks and Greg Finn sit down to discuss these topics and more on this episode of EDGEtalk. Greg Finn is a partner at Cypress North, a performance digital marketing and development company in Buffalo, NY. He’s also a certified Google AdWords partner and a frequent contributor to Search Engine Land. Learn all things AdWords with Greg Finn on EDGE! [00:00:36] Introducing Greg Finn [00...
Mar 30, 2023•36 min•Ep 581•Transcript available on Metacast Mordy Oberstein and Jacob Mann partner up this week to tackle the digital marketing news. It seems the SEO industry isn’t that impressed with Google Bard. Apparently, for a pretty understandable reason, the US Congress isn’t much of a fan of TikTok, either. They also dig into Darren Shaw’s extensive 2023 local search factors report. Mordy invents a new segment name this week. Instead of the Barry Blast he calls it the Barry Bombardment. Come join us this week for the Barry Bombardment. . . on th...
Mar 29, 2023•26 min•Ep 580•Transcript available on Metacast What’s the difference between an offensive and defensive approach to SEO? Erin Sparks sits down with Chris Long to discuss the minutia between these two different perspectives. Chris, in his role as the Vice President of Marketing at Go Fish Digital, uses his understanding of Google's algorithm and web technology to help clients improve their organic traffic. He takes on challenging situations and complex search scenarios to achieve this goal. Learn how to be more offensive in your SEO and less ...
Mar 23, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chris Long and Erin Sparks sit down to discuss expertise, and what that may look like in the eyes of Google. The dive into the Information Gain Score, content freshness, E-E-A-T and several other SEO categories. As the Vice President of Marketing at Go Fish Digital, Chris tackles challenges and complex search scenarios to assist clients in enhancing their organic traffic by leveraging his comprehension of Google's algorithm and web technology. Learn everything you need to know about expertise on...
Mar 16, 2023•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every week there seems to be an unlimited amount of headlines to cover on News from the EDGE about generative AI. TikTok is taking on search giants Google and Microsoft in the paid advertising space, Grammarly gets into the generative AI game, but with a twist, and Mordy Oberstein discusses the future of search and AI. And we also had the Twins versus the Yankees baseball play by play as we literally were recording the show! The AI wars have cometh. . . on this week's episode of EDGE! News from ...
Mar 14, 2023•34 min•Ep 577•Transcript available on Metacast Erin Sparks sits down with Chris Long to discuss featured snippets, their value, and how to earn them on the SERP. The higher you rank in the 10 blue links the likelihood of earning a featured snippet increases. Chris is the VP of Marketing for the Go Fish Digital team and works with unique problems and advanced search situations to help clients improve organic traffic through a deep understanding of Google's algorithm and web technology. Learn everything you need to know about featured snippets...
Mar 10, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast There’s a lot to cover in SEO and digital marketing this week on EDGEnews. From a new WordPress plugin vulnerability and local service ads to Google Bard and the projected growth in the use of AI by SEOs this year, there's plenty of news to dig through. In addition, the winners of SE Rankings SEO Checklist Challenge are announced. Come join us on EDGE for this week’s news and remember. . . Bard is NOT search. News from the EDGE: [00:03:17] Big Plugin Vulnerability Exposes 200,000 WordPress Sites...
Mar 09, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of EDGEtalk, Kevin Indig, a renowned SEO expert and executive consultant, shares his insights on developing effective strategies for businesses. Throughout the episode, he emphasizes the importance of staying focused on objectives, and shares tips on how to measure and communicate KPIs both upwards and downwards in an organization. Kevin also stresses the need for getting buy-in from top-level executives, setting SMART goals, and taking pride in SEO efforts. He shares his own fra...
Mar 03, 2023•37 min•Ep 574•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to this week’s episode of EDGEnews, the podcast that brings you the latest updates and insights from the world of SEO and digital marketing. Today's episode, we have a special guest hostess, Gemma Houghton, who will be joining us to discuss some of the most pressing issues in the industry while sharing her experience with international search. Gemma and Erin Sparks talk about the skyrocketing costs of AI search, the potential downfall of LastPass, and the latest developments with Google....
Mar 02, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kevin Indig stops by the EDGE studios virtually to have a conversation about generative AI content with Erin Sparks on this episode of EDGEtalk. Can AI satisfy Google’s EEAT? Are AI content tools disrupting the SEO industry? If AI intentionally makes a mistake is it really a mistake? He is a growth advisor and consultant at Kevin-Indig.com where he advises startups, PEs and VCs in strategic SEO. Together, they tackle the above questions and more on the EDGE! [00:02:43] Introducing Kevin Indig [0...
Feb 24, 2023•39 min•Ep 572•Transcript available on Metacast Would you pay $12 a month to be verified on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp? Looks like Meta is adopting the Twitter model. Did you know Bing just put a cap on how many questions you can ask in a chat session. After 30 years of the existence of HTML Google finally gives actual guidance on link best practices. Erin Sparks and Mordy Oberstein examine these topics and much more on this episode of EDGEtalk. A big thanks to our new title sponsor of the show, SE Ranking . Check out their exclusive gi...
Feb 22, 2023•30 min•Ep 571•Transcript available on Metacast Cyrus Shepard and Erin Sparks explore why internal linking is so important to SEO, all while backing it up with studies and giving many pro tips for all of you SEOs out there. They also go in deep on AI content tools to share how-to and how not to use them, and why. They also go on a sidebar discussing the “happening in real time” implosion of Twitter and its eventual demise. In addition, the two give important must-knows about structured data and how it can impact your internal linking. Now it’...
Feb 17, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Should AI be used for YMYL content? Does CLS have more weight in Google Core Web Vitals? Will Bing’s chatbot steal your clicks? These questions and more are explored by Erin Sparks and guest co-host Mike King on the EDGE! This week’s Barry Blast examines a traveling SEO grifter, ads arriving to Bing’s new ChatGPT SERP interface, and the concerns publishers have with search engine chat interfaces. A big thanks to our new title sponsor of the show, SE Ranking . Check out their exclusive giveaway t...
Feb 15, 2023•37 min•Ep 569•Transcript available on Metacast Cyrus Shepard is this week’s guest on episode 568 of EDGE of the Web show. He sits down with Erin Sparks to discuss the changing SERP features, visual search, and the future outlook of SEO. He is an SEO, online marketer, content publisher, speaker, and writer. Cyrus first discovered SEO in 2009, and took a wine business from 500k in sales to 2.5 million in one year. Now let’s discuss why SEOs are Google’s farmers on this episode of the EDGE! [00:00:35] Introducing Cyrus Shepard [00:02:35] Pathwa...
Feb 10, 2023•31 min•Ep 568•Transcript available on Metacast GA 4 is coming, and Google says it will implement it for you. Do you want to be verified on Twitter? That’ll be $1000 per month. . . maybe? Is Google going after ChatGPT? Lastly, a judge just used ChatGPT to help him write his ruling. OMG! Great articles from Search Engine Land, The Information & Vice. And, of course, Search Engine Roundtable. Erin Sparks and Mordy Oberstein tackle these trending topics and many more on the 567th edition of EDGE of the Web! News from the EDGE: [00:05:25] Make th...
Feb 08, 2023•48 min•Ep 567•Transcript available on Metacast Mordy grabs the captain’s seat as Erin’s stuck in a trailer in the garage with COVID. Wow - listen to these guys. They just wander around the news while Erin’s away and offer up Ring Dings to everyone (by the way - call Mordy on that). Then we catch Mordy at the end imitating Ron Burgundy and James Lipton. What’s going on here? Seriously? Okay - articles from Search Engine Land, Search Engine Roundtable and Kevin Indig. Digging their own holes deeper - Jacob and Mordy give their take on the news...
Feb 02, 2023•43 min•Ep 566•Transcript available on Metacast Erin Sparks and Mark Williams-Cook explore featured snippets and People Also Ask (PAA) features from Google. They dig into the benefits and how SEOs can take advantage of them. They somehow found a way to bake bread with Google, too. Mark helped spearhead the development of one of Erin’s favorite SEO/content tools, AlsoAsked.com. His software collects PAAs from Google and allows users to use the data in a variety of ways, from creating long-form content to writing higher-converting PPC ads. Come...
Jan 27, 2023•46 min•Ep 565•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Williams-Cook and Erin Sparks have a deep conversation about the current transition happening for SEOs – moving from keyword search volume to intent volume. They opine on zero-volume keywords, PAAs, and Knowledge Graph optimization. He shares his experiences doing SEO for nearly 20 years and delves into some of his recent experiments around PAAs, content scraping, and AI-written content. Mark says that in the future, today’s Google will be like crawling around the floor of a library looking...
Jan 20, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jan 18, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 a...
Jan 14, 2023•50 min•Ep 562•Transcript available on Metacast 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 c...
Jan 11, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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, ...
Jan 07, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 li...
Jan 05, 2023•43 min•Ep 559•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Dec 31, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 p...
Dec 27, 2022•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
