Make SEO Simple Again

"Moving to Melbourne was quite possible the best thing I could ever do." Nik Ranger is a Technical SEO Specialist at StudioHawk. She is no strange to site migrations and Semrush webinars. Like many of us in Search, the pathway is often not linear and from a civil engineering graduate position, her internal question of "what do I want out of life" has lead her to be a recording artist, touring as a professional electronic violinist, taught music in Cambodia, and moving between state lines in Australia.

"If you're talented and do the work it should be enough." As many of us who find their way into the profession of digital search, Amanda's story is similar. As someone who enjoyed band, drawing, psychology and excelled at mathematics and physics in high school, she started off in engineering before moving into graphics design. In this episode, you'll get to know Amanda in a whole new light - as a BIPOC professional as well as a new mum and she shares the journey of adopting a child during coronavirus and how her world has changed.

Being a freelance content writer is a hard gig. Being a freelance content writer based in Nigeria is even harder. But Chima has forged a path - it took her 2 years to do so, and in this episode, she shares how she did it and the challenges (both internal and external) she has overcome. From imposter syndrome, white privilege, to being the best at what you do, Chima leaves no stone unturned and I am honored to share her incredible story of perseverance. Connect with Chima on LinkedIn.

Unless you're in Melbourne or Australia, you probably won't know Peter Macinkovic. He's not on the speaker circuit but rather, one of the unknown SEOs who GSD for their clients. With JB HIFI as one of the clients he looks after at Innovate Online, this conversation will leave no doubt that Peter knows his sh*t. This was an episode worth talking shop :)

Moz Whiteboard Friday presenter Niki Mosier joins us today to share how she got started in SEO. With 10 to 15 years of experience under her belt, Niki shares her journey from "back in the day" of keyword stuffing to what she specialises in now - technical SEO and local SEO. And since our recording, Niki has a new project - https://www.lessonsfromanseo.com/. Check it out!

Joining us today is Krystal Taing, dialling in from sunny San Diego. Krystal is a Solutions Engineer for Strategic Partnerships at Uberall, a SaaS business that is based in Berlin. Prior to this, she did 6 years at Rio SEO that also was a SaaS-based local SEO solution. In this episode, Krystal shares how she fell into her expertise of local SEO, her experience as a person of color and as a woman in an industry represented by white men, where she continues to expand her knowledge, and her advice on whether you should consider a career in Agency vs In-house. Krystal is a huge advocate of LocalU and Women in Tech SEO (founder Areej will be on an upcoming episode). So let's get started!

For the longest time, I thought Craig was an intimidating person. But as you will discover, Craig is a very loveable character and he has a wealth of experience - especially with once running an SEO agency and why he no longer wants to own an agency by himself despite achieving "moderate success". New father, course provider, YouTube and affiliate SEO influencer, this is Craig Campbell's story.

NYC girl moves to Denver, Christina Brodzky is the brain behind MediaSesh. We talk about bears, taking naps, what it is like being a woman in SEO, and her previous life in public relations.

What drives Jason Brown to fight SPAM on the SERPs on a daily basis? Find out (and so much more about him) in this episode of Make SEO Simple Again. You can follow Jason Brown on Twitter (@keyserholiday). If you need help with removing fake reviews, this is Jason's business: Review Fraud.

Emily Brady popped onto my radar when I tweeted for salary expectations. She DM'd me and through that, I was able to negotiate new responsibilities with my boss. She is a Senior Manager in Local SEO Solutions at Milestones Inc. In this episode, we inevitably chat about local search and I learn how she pursued to become a content writer before falling into SEO. And learn what rhetorical criticism is :) Follow Emily on Twitter (@plotboilers).

In Season 2, my guest Cindy Krum said something that made a whole lot of sense to me. She suggested that Google should invest more resources into the public-facing Googlers. Why? Because when it comes to SEO, all of us turn to them (John Mueller, Martin Splitt, Danny Sullivan, Gary Illyes) and bombard them on a daily basis with our questions on how the Google search algorithm works. And this is why I'm excited to share this conversation I had with Martin Splitt because I want to show that he is a human being outside of his work. I also ask two questions from the audience; one from Peter Macincovik and the other from Rich Missey. So let's get started!

"Black AF" reads his Twitter bio. Truth be told, I hesitated in reaching out to today's guest. But Taylor Berg, our previous podcast guest told me I HAD to have him on the show. So I got over my own shit and the next 60-minutes is one of my favorite recordings. Jamar Ramos is the Co-founder of Crunchy Links, a full-stack digital marketing consulting agency (except for social media). In this episode, find out who Jamar is beyond his tweets and get to know him as a real human being. Being Black, we of course go there. We also touch upon how Crunchy Links is managed and how team members are recruited. And 7-minutes in, you'll learn why his business is called "crunchy links".

Growing up in a large and loud Chicago family that also operated a family business, Taylor cut her teeth in digital marketing in the family moving company as a 19 year old. These days, Taylor Berg is the Senior SEO Manager at Talkspace - an online platform that connects people with a therapy provider. This is her origin story (and it is a good story). We may or may not talk about Chicago food, bogans, and her cat called Tuna. Oh, and if you stick around to the end, Taylor explains her recent experiment with GPT-3 involving Screaming Frog, Semrush, Ahrefs and Majestic.

Jenny Li Fowler asked for a Rebel Alliance X-wing pilot LEGO avatar. You can already tell that she is 100% badass. Because she is and in this episode, Jenny talks about what it is like being an American-Korean, what her day to day looks like as the Director of social media strategy at MIT. But did you know that Jenny was a news anchor and wanted to be once ever since she was 14? Find out how she transitioned across from journalism and how she sees what she does as a continuation of storytelling. Connect with Jenny via Twitter: @TheJennyLi

Itamar Blauer is a SEO consultant in the United Kingdom. He has started various YouTube channels, enjoys swing dancing and guitars. I don't usually talk shop but Itamar knows a fair bit about YouTube SEO so if you want to know how to get more views for your videos, this episode is a treat for you. Connect with Itamar via Twitter, subscribe to his YouTube channel, and here is his consulting website.

When it comes to the concept of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T), two names comes to mind (both ladies) where one of the two is Lily Ray, Director of SEO at Path Interactive. In this episode, you will find out a few interesting things about Lily outside of her professional world. For example, did you know that she was touring as a teenager in a band? Did you know that she was a drummer? And why does she enjoy DJ-ing? "There will always be people talking about you behind your back .. it is part of the process, so you can't let those haters define what you do because they're always going to be there so just ignore them." I also ask her to share her experiences as a woman in the industry so tune in to find out more! If you're a woman in Search/Discoverability, Lily recommends that you join the Women in Tech SEO community. Follow Lily on Twitter (link) and to listen to her DJ, click here.

Steve Toth is the lovely human behind SEOnotebook.com, a free weekly email newsletter where he shares tactics and strategies to growth your website's visibility, organic traffic, and conversions. He was able to get thousands of Featured Snippets for Freshbooks and I ask him how he was able to do this. And since he has held positions in-house, been a freelance SEO consultant, and at an agency, I ask Steve which of these three should someone new to SEO consider and what the benefits are for each. As you will discover, Steve is a giver and in this episode, I ask him how he got started in the industry, how he manages his mental health to avoid burn out, and he gives some tips on how to grown one's network. He recommends the book The Go-Giver.

She is one of the loveliest human beings on the planet and boy does she know her technical SEO! In this episode of Make SEO Simple Again, I have the great pleasure of chatting with Jamie Indigo who is now at DeepCrawl. Having once managed an eCommerce website that had 5.7 million products, Jamie has handled her fair share of dumpster fires. She also continues with her private consulting at Not A Robot. In this episode, we discuss the ethics of SEO, curiosity, being a female in the industry, and self-care. Click here for show notes.

In this episode of Make SEO Simple Again, I chat with Victor Pan who is a Taiwanese-American. He also works in the SEO space at Hubspot and previously held a role in an agency. Victor talks about his privileges, his perspective on planning ahead and being curious, his desire to make the world a kinder place (especially for his children), and reveals a whole bunch of things with being an Asian.

Starting as a content writer (because he was a native English-speaker), this was Mordy Oberstein's foot in the door. "It is sort of the perfect synergy of creativity, science, art, depth and content all at the same time." Years later, he is now the liaison to the SEO community at Wix, after being the CMO of Rank Ranger. But did you know, prior to the 2007/8 GFC, Mordy was a property manager? In this episode, Mordy shares his personal journey and expresses his love for his favorite team in the NFL (sorry folks). Connect with Mordy on Twitter: @MordyOberstein. Check out how Wix has evolved re: 301 redirects and editing robots.txt file. Tune into Mordy's podcast The SEO Rant. Summary and show notes available on the Make SEO Simple Again website.

"The realm of link-building is always changing." Backlinks, whether earned, acquired or bought are the bane of many SEOs. Yet, Eric Carrell, co-founder of a link building agency, has found a way to scale it and charge a premium for links. Part of his success comes down to a few things: leveraging strengths of others, careful selection of clients, and taking care of one's mental health. In this episode, we talk about work/life balance and Eric shares that his company, dofollow.io is still finding its mission. "Links are the architecture of the internet" - Eric believes that there is a responsibility when it comes to link building. Find out more about his values, his opinions, and how he found his way into what he does. Join his Facebook group - Link Building Community. Show notes - https://makeseosimpleagain.com/podcast/s02e04-eric-carrell/ And find out more about Eric's new HARO service.

Cindy Krum is the CEO and Founder of Mobile Moxie, a Denver-based SEO consultant and SEO tool developer, specializing in mobile search engine optimization and ASO. In this episode, Cindy reveals a funny story of how she fell into mobile marketing and by the end of this episode, you will have doubt of her expertise and passion in mobile-marketing. From critiquing Google and what excites her about Search, you can tell that she really loves what she does. Follow her on Twitter: @Suzzicks Mobile Moxie For Make SEO Simple Again listeners, you can get a 14-day trial of SERPerator, Page-oscope, and App Rankalyzer by using coupon code 'SIMPLE'. Show notes availabe here - https://makeseosimpleagain.com/podcast/s02e03-cindy-krum/

It's not in every conversation where someone says, "I was in porn" or "I was a spammer". But Judith Lewis is not your average person and that is 100% why I wanted to share her personal journey as an entrepreneur, as a female in a male-dominated industry, and as a fellow human being. In this episode, Judith recounts how her mother had to fight for her so that she could enrol in a programming class in high school. She reveals how isolating and challenging it was (and is) as a female SEO professional. Judith opens up about sexual harassment and assault and also provides a number of supportive communities that women in SEO can turn to. These include: Women In Tech SEO Girl Geek Dinners Women In Technology Women Who Code Girl Geek Academy Judith talks about one of her biggest failures - when a client was completely deindexed for six whole weeks as well as one of her biggest wins (Zopa, a UK social lender). Show notes: https://makeseosimpleagain.com/podcast/s02e02-judith-lewis/

In this episode of Make SEO Simple, I sit down with Bibi The Link Builder who runs a remote link-building agency from Amsterdam. She has scaled out her own remote team and in this episode, she shares how she filters through job applicants so that only the right candidates reach the final stages of the interview process. Starting from social media marketing, Bibi fell into affiliate SEO by accident (without knowing that it was SEO) and when people started asking her to link-building, this was how she began building her empire. Her business is called Bibibuzz - https://bibibuzz.com - and while we don't go into the specifics of how she achieves success with her email outreach campaigns, there's plenty of insights and little tips you can pick up on. PS - this is where Bibi gets her cat beanies - http://gewoldiggehaakt.nl/

In this episode of Make SEO Simple Again, I sit down with Woj Kwasi to talk about agency life, what it is life being the founder at an agency, and how events in one's personal life can have catastrophic impact on the business (and how to overcome them).

For years I had heard her name mentioned in every "in search of" SEO thread. Even back when I was a wedding photographer, Kate Toon's name was always being recommended for SEO copywriting. Is Kate an SEO or a copywriter? Find out (and more) in this episode of Make SEO Simple Again.

In this episode I sit down with my very first SEO client and ask her to share what it was like hiring a SEO provider. 100% real talk with zero censorship - this is a fun and honest episode. Also, what exactly does a wedding stylist do? Tune in to find out.

How Bernard Huang, co-founder of Clearscope.io sees life in the framework of systems (and how you can too).

Founder of Diggity Marketing, Lead Springs, Authority Builders, and the name behind Chang Mai SEO Conference - Matt Diggity shares how he transitioned from being an electrical engineering to learning SEO from scratch.