Yes, sometimes it happens. We don’t get through all of the news prepped. Mordy, Erin and Jacob take on the WordPress vs WP Engine scenario with a bit of fervor that really tanked the rest of the news, honestly. Which side do you fall on, the WordPress argument is that WP Engine hasn’t been “contributing” their fair share, so they banned all customers of WP Engine from updating or adding plugins from the WordPress library. WP Engine, however, seems to have to pay to play as a WordPress hosting en...
Oct 04, 2024•34 min•Ep 719•Transcript available on Metacast What is the future of Large Language Models and Search? Kristine Schachinger, SEO consultant at Sites Without Walls, joins us for another episode to discuss the intricacies of Navboost and its ramifications for SEO. Drawing insights from the recent Google versus DOJ court documents, she unpacks this misunderstood “ranking signal.” Continuing the conversation, Kristine shares the concept of “summarization engines” in replacement of AI Search - as she weighs into what the future of search may be a...
Oct 03, 2024•42 min•Ep 718•Transcript available on Metacast Is Generative AI causing seismic shifts in the search engine landscape? Surveys by The Information and Barry Schwartz reveal users are “turning away” from traditional search engines like Google, but how far are they actually turning? A slew of news from the digital marketing space, including AI-powered video ads on Amazon, Google's Merchant Center Next is pushing for optimized structured data, and a great Kevin Indig article studying over ½ million AI Overviews. Plus, hear about our media partne...
Sep 27, 2024•41 min•Ep 717•Transcript available on Metacast Anastasia Kotsiubynska, Head of SEO at SE Ranking, joins the EDGE to discuss the latest SE Ranking AI Overview studies. This episode focuses on the impact of AI overviews in Google's search results and what this means for SEO strategies. Anastasia sheds light on how these AI overviews have changed over the last five months since their release in April 2024. While this technology offers impressive efficiency, it also poses significant challenges, such as a potential 25% drop in organic traffic by...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 716•Transcript available on Metacast Dissecting Google's latest moves in the advertising world, from expanding its ad opportunities to embracing dynamic pricing on YouTube. Also, Google's all-new updates on its indexing API, which now comes with a big dose of spam-detection rigor. Who knew indexing could be this thrilling? Have you ever wondered if AI could help rake in millions with fake music? Well, a certain North Carolinian named Michael Smith did just that and found himself $10 million richer—but now he’s about to face the mus...
Sep 20, 2024•37 min•Ep 715•Transcript available on Metacast In episode 714 of EDGE of the Web, Kristine Schachinger shares her thoughts about the recent leak of Google's internal documents and its implications for SEO professionals. With 2500 pages of documentation now public, the SEO community is abuzz with speculation, curiosity, and anger. We cover the ground around the role of user engagement and click signals, addressing misconceptions and the importance of long-term data and context in Google's ranking algorithms. Key Segments: [00:03:38] Introduci...
Sep 18, 2024•38 min•Ep 714•Transcript available on Metacast In a recent announcement, Google stated that they will be phasing out bid strategy enhanced cost-per-click (eCPC) from Google Ads. The company says they will be replacing eCPC with manual CPC starting in October. Meta is updating business tools, announcing they will be increasing data restrictions as ongoing attempts to prioritize privacy continue. Meta explains the restrictions are set to automatically restrict certain data, including URLs and custom parameters. If one wasn’t enough, here's ano...
Sep 11, 2024•33 min•Ep 713•Transcript available on Metacast This week Erin is joined by the Chief Marketing Officer of SE Ranking, Bogdan Babiak, to discuss the SEO platform’s new brand evolution. Since its founding in 2013, SE Ranking has been a trusted tool for SEO professionals throughout the industry, and now, they are bridging the gap between SEO and innovation with a whole new look. Bogdan shares the vision behind SE Rankings brand evolution, discussing integral pieces such as AI and ML solutions behind their growing mission. Bogdan and Erin discus...
Sep 10, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep 712•Transcript available on Metacast Google is trying out a new product categories tab in search results, intended to offer more tailored suggestions in product searches. The new tab is driven by performance insights, demand trends, and actionable recommendations Yelp is hitting Google with a lawsuit, claiming that the search leader is illegally dominating local search markets. Following the recent and impactful DOJ antitrust lawsuit, Google may have a target on their back as the lawsuits pile up. You can now create specific remark...
Sep 04, 2024•36 min•Ep 711•Transcript available on Metacast The newest tech SEO conference is coming to Raleigh, North Carolina, this fall! Guests JR Oakes, Patrick Stox, and Matthew Kay have come together to create an all-new SEO experience, Tech SEO Connect, coming to Raleigh on October 17th & 18th. Don’t miss the heavy list of speakers covering core web vitals, Ahrefs Lang, data warehousing, BigQuery, machine learning, and more. In this show, we discuss the origin of Tech SEO Connect with the founders themselves. Learn what makes Tech SEO Connect diff...
Sep 03, 2024•42 min•Ep 710•Transcript available on Metacast A recent survey launched by Aleyda Solis highlights key SEO threats, with Google's updates, self-preferencing, and AI Overviews at the top of the list. The study reveals that AI advancements are reshaping search engine dynamics, and SEO is more difficult than ever. Google declares that low-quality traffic will not impact search rankings. The company affirms that links and site traffic do not negatively influence a site's trustworthiness but that ranking factors prioritize valuable, relevant cont...
Aug 29, 2024•45 min•Ep 709•Transcript available on Metacast We have the CEO of Team Odeon, Ori Zilbershtein, back for his second interview this week. In this episode, we explore the growing threat of negative SEO and fraudulent DMCA case claims, which are growing at a staggering rate. Learn what’s causing the spike in SEO scams as we dive into the scammers' minds in an attempt to understand their motives. Finally, we look at the steps Google has taken to mitigate negative SEO. Join us on episode 708 as we address the increasing number of SEO scams you mu...
Aug 28, 2024•33 min•Ep 708•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to another episode of news from the EDGE! The August 2024 core update has been rolled out! Primary intentions of the update are to reward high quality content and diminish low-value ranking based SEO content. In light of the August 2024 core update, a ranking bug affecting search results has emerged. Google claims the bug is unrelated to the update and confirms the issue is resolved and search performance should be stabilizing back to normal. Will the Google empire crumble? The DOJ ...
Aug 22, 2024•36 min•Ep 707•Transcript available on Metacast This week's guest is the CEO of Team Odeon, Ori Zilbershtein. With a diverse background in business spending development, marketing technology, and SEO, Ori specializes in finding ways to elevate those around him. In this episode, we dive into Google’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Learn how the DMCA can be exploited by competitors to destroy your business rankings. We discuss the problem as a whole and evaluate potential solutions Google could put in place to stop this scam from hurt...
Aug 21, 2024•41 min•Ep 706•Transcript available on Metacast Google is upgrading its Local Service Ads, introducing an auto-select photos feature to display in businesses ads, with aims to enhance effectiveness and rankings. To fully take advantage, advertisers should start updating their LSA profile photos. Google says URL parameters can create crawl and indexing inefficiencies. The issue is most common among e-commerce websites that use URL parameters to filter, sort, and specify items. Last Monday, a federal judge ruled that Google is an illegal monopo...
Aug 15, 2024•31 min•Ep 705•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back Founder of Flying Cat, Maeva Cifuentes. Maeva and Flying Cat recently published a report analyzing the extent to which different levels of AI-generated content impact content performance. The study takes metrics from 150 global content leaders, and today we dive into the aggregated results. AI content, SME processes, and confirmation bias… we take a look at the most significant factors when it comes to creating the best content. Tune in this week because, thanks to Maeva, we have ta...
Aug 13, 2024•42 min•Ep 704•Transcript available on Metacast Google announces they will be hitting advertisers with a 2.5% service fee for ads run in Canada starting in October. Advertisers, be sure to keep an eye on your geographic targets to avoid these fees in certain jurisdictions. Advertisers beware! Google Ads hit with major outage on August 1st, leaving advertiser information exposed to competitors! The data breach left merchant center information openly visible, raising major privacy concerns. Lastly, Google confirms that the Robots.txt file does ...
Aug 07, 2024•41 min•Ep 703•Transcript available on Metacast Patrick Hathaway is the Co-Founder of the revolutionary website crawler Sietbulb. The two-time winner of the best search software tool, Sitebulb makes technical SEO audits effortless and affordable. On August 5th, Sitebulb released a comprehensive JavaScript SEO report and we dive straight in to discuss everything covered. Discover what JavaScript SEO is and what it means to the modern website as Patrick shares key findings and hurdles discussed in the report, providing insights into optimizing ...
Aug 06, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep 702•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s guest is Maeva Cifuentes, founder of the Barcelona-based agency, Flying Cat. Maeva’s expertise also goes beyond the agency, working as an SEO marketing strategist for many major brands. With a strong multilingual background, Maeva specializes in marketing at a multi-language level, and she will help you decide if taking a multilingual approach to marketing and optimization is right for your business. Finally, get a first-hand look into the secrets of AI-powered marketing as we dissec...
Aug 02, 2024•39 min•Ep 701•Transcript available on Metacast Join us for episode 700 of EDGE of the Web! We’re grateful for each and every listener who keeps us motivated to push out new content each and every week, so raise a glass as episode 700 gets underway! Reddit has limited all but one search engine from accessing its content. Surprise, surprise… It's Google. This move is sparked by an ongoing trend of publishers and websites aiming to protect their data from AI training models, although Google is an exception, likely due to their recent $60 millio...
Jul 30, 2024•47 min•Ep 700•Transcript available on Metacast Coming back for his second segment of this interview series is Marketing Lead and Demand Generation Manager at iPullRank, Garrett Sussman. We explore the psychology behind consumer intent and assess how SEOs can implement a content strategy that addresses the various cognitive biases. Learn why the strength of a brand will contribute to user bias across the SERP and how even Google shows bias in brands. Communication is king in marketing, learn how to best connect to your audience past a wall of...
Jul 24, 2024•43 min•Ep 699•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to another episode of news from the EDGE! Erin is out traveling the world, so Mordy and Jacob guide the ship this week! Google AI Overviews take a big hit! Reports show that Overviews have taken a downward spiral in result frequency, as the AI feature now only shows up in 7% of all queries. Noticeable drops come from education, entertainment, and e-commerce queries, while Reddit and Quora citing rates near zero. Google confirms there is no way to prevent specific content from appear...
Jul 17, 2024•28 min•Ep 698•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to the EDGE! This week’s guest is the Marketing Lead and Demand Generation Manager at iPullRank, Garrett Sussman. Garrett recently showcased his expertise in various SGE optimization frameworks, and today he joins us to explore the nuances behind optimizing for AI Overviews. Volatility is peaking on the SERP. We navigate the risks and opportunities associated with optimizing for AI Overviews while investigating what type of content this learning engine tends to pull from. Tune in fo...
Jul 16, 2024•41 min•Ep 697•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to News from the EDGE! The crew is back together this week as we cover the breaking news in SEO as always. To better combat misinformation, Google will now require that advertisers disclose election ads that contain digitally manipulated content. This policy will automatically apply in-ad disclosure to all ads that use digitally altered images, audio, or video of real people or events. Advertisers beware! Apple has expanded their 30% fee on Facebook and Instagram ad purchases throug...
Jul 03, 2024•41 min•Ep 696•Transcript available on Metacast Erin has traveled west this week for some much needed summer relaxation. Thankfully Andrew Cock-Starkey stepped in to help Mordy and Jacob deliver the news for this episode. Universal Analytics takes its final ride into the sunset this month. Google announced that on July 1st, 2024 they will fully discontinue and shut down this web traffic metrics tool. We sure hope you have, but if you haven’t, don’t forget to migrate to GA4 ASAP! A recent study has unveiled a rise in authority for E-Commerce a...
Jun 27, 2024•46 min•Ep 695•Transcript available on Metacast Mark Williams-Cook & Jack Chambers-Ward are back for their second segment this week as we dive head first into SGE and AI in search. Changes are on the horizon with Search Generative Experience. We weigh out the looming pros and cons as we explore the potential repercussions of Google’s integration of Search Generative Experience. Discover how you can optimize for Search Generative Experience and what helpful content really means in today’s search landscape as we take a trip down the SGE rabbit ...
Jun 26, 2024•54 min•Ep 694•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to the EDGE! Google is accused of sending a $2.3 million check to successfully avoid a jury trial in their antitrust lawsuit. This payment has secured Google a Judges approval on a bench trial, causing a major setback to the Justice Department’s antitrust push against Big Tech. Reddit is revamping its comment stream ad placement with hopes to increase reachability to users. The updated ads will be larger and appear inside of conversation threads to reach users at the highest engagem...
Jun 21, 2024•33 min•Ep 693•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we welcome Mark Williams-Cook and Jack Chambers-Ward of the UK-based digital agency Candour for a double interview showcase. Jack serves as the Marketing Partnerships Manager at Candour and hosts and produces the Search with Candour podcast. Marks is the Co-Owner of Candour and has over 20 years of industry expertise in SEO and PPC under his belt. He is also a regular member of Search with Candour. Discover what it means to be a podcaster in 2024 as we follow the evolution of the Sear...
Jun 19, 2024•47 min•Ep 692•Transcript available on Metacast We welcome Will Critchlow back for his second segment this week to discuss SEO testing at scale for large enterprises and the potential for AI to make its way into the space. We assess the extreme search volatility in recent years and how it has dramatically increased the importance of conducting SEO tests for an organization. Discover the certain types of businesses for which large-scale testing is designed and why certain companies should take an alternate approach. Find out if AI can become t...
Jun 12, 2024•48 min•Ep 691•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to the EDGE! Mordy makes his return this week as the team digs even deeper into the Google Search API leaks, and evaluates the state of AI in search. Aleyda Solis has composed a collection of resources surrounding the API Doc leaks, readily accessible for you to gather the full picture of what these leaks mean for SEO. Be sure to keep this list in your back pocket for any current and future updates! Google AI Overviews are now showing up in only 15% of search queries, a major drop s...
Jun 06, 2024•39 min•Ep 690•Transcript available on Metacast 
