Podcasts about webcology

Google is fast approaching the FIND OUT stage of its multiple anti-trust cases with the US Department of Justice and EU regulatory bodies. It is very possible the DOJ could order Google to sever its relationship with its Chrome browser in coming months. That leads to speculation on what other decisions might be coming down and how throwing spanners into the cogs of the machine Alphabet has built might effect Google's operations in the future. Those wags at OpenAI suggested they would be happy to take Chrome off Google's hands if the courts order it. Meanwhile, there's more controversy over OpenAI's restructuring plans, Google was caught forcing Motorola to block Perplexity.AI on certain phones, Meta's oversight board is suddenly worried about Meta's new policies effecting human rights, US search ad revenues grew by nearly 16% in 2024, and according to Gemini "You can't lick a badger twice". We know that last statement to be untrue but won't be answering any questions about it. All this and much much more in this edition of Webcology.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

An all star SEO panel made up of Mordy Oberstein (Wix Studio), Mark Traphagen (seoClarity), and Jenny Halasz (JLH Marketing) joins hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger to look back at the events, changes, and ideas of 2024 and into a new world of even more rapid change as AI grows from its infancy towards its adolecence. An incredibly interesting conversation between five veteran search marketers, each with a unique perspective on the industry. This is the last show of 2024. On behalf of the hosts, producers, and everyone associated with Webcology, thank you for listening and have a save and happy holiday period. Best wishes for 2025 from all of us.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Duda's cofounder Amit Glatt found time to sit with us to talk about the history, evolution, and future of the website builder and management platform he helped create. Since its founding 15 years ago, Duda has grown to become one of the top-tier enterprise website builders on the web. Duda feels like it's on a growth sprint right now. They have some interesting tools for web makers to work with and are committed to developing a better builder for SEOs and professional website developers. Amir himself has brought his decades of education, experience, research, and well earned knowledge to Duda since he cofounded the company in 2009. This was a fun conversation that moves through a range of topics from industry trends to personal and professional decision making.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jono Alderson is a well known SEO Consultant, one of the top WordPress contributors, and a bonafide Digital Superstar. He joined Jim and Kristine to fill us in on the backstory and implications of the ongoing drama in the world of WordPress. Jono has been around for a long time. He knows where the bodies are buried and in this interview, he explains how it unfolded to get to where we're at now. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A war is being waged in the deepest heart of the Open Source movement for that movement's very soul. Last week, Matt Mullenweg, the original founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, the commercial arm of WordPress, laid down his version of the law by banning WPEngine from the greater WordPress environment. The dispute centers around money and time contributed to the collective which provides the engineering for WordPress. From Mullenweg's perspective, WPEngine has contributed too little of either after extracting hundreds of millions in revenues over the years. From WPEngine's perspective, "WTF eh?" Webcology hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger try to make sense of a fight that threatens the web's very understanding of what Open Source means. Meanwhile, Sam Altman has pushed OpenAI away from being a non-profit to being a for-profit benefit organization with Altman enjoying a 7% stake in the newly constituted company. This has pushed several key figures at OpenAI, including CTO Mira Murati and Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew to resign in the past week. In other news, Google has killed its helpful Cache feature while updating its Web Search Spam policies. Google also reported and is fixing a noindex bug that caused several JavaScript driven pages to be indexed when Google couldn't read the protocol. The show covered a lot more Google news in what was a busy post-COVID show after Jim caught and was sidelined last week by his first (and hopefully last) bout with the virus.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The August 2024 Core Update ended a week early and it might still be too soon to tell the winners from the losers but one thing is clear, Google can always be depended on to try to do what's best for Google. Some have seen drops in traffic while others have seen increases and still others have seen no changes at all. This update does appear to be setting a foundation for an increase in AI Overviews in results. Webcology hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talk about the effects of this core update, the new International Framework Convention on AI, the DOJ indictment of Russian backed American far-right media empire, advances at OpenAI, how Elon Musk has torched tens of billions of his friends' monies, more legal troubles in Google's present and future, SearchGPT, and a lot of SEO thoughts about Google. This was a fun and fast paced episode.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This is a rare middle of summer heavy news edition but, after a year of constant updates, reactions, retractions, retrenchments, and growing user resentment, it's been a rather busy week for Google. It was also a busy week in A.I., with TwiXter, Facebook, Microsoft, and others. Webcology hosts Kristine Schachinger and Jim Hedger weave their way through stories ranging from rumours of an imminent Google Core Update, the harmful empathy-gap in A.I., Microsoft Word's new surcharge for custom image generation, more speculation from the great Google May 2024 API Leak, A.I. in local search results, research into Google AIO keyword trends, idle crawler rendering, the goodness of CWVs, and a whole lot more. Tune in, fill up, and enjoy.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This episode also covers a lot of the week's general news including the coming of ChatGPT5, Meta's near universal introduction of AI to Facebook and Instagram, TikTok's upcoming turmoil, how plans to kill the cookie have again gone stale, that Webcology was, this week, named among the top SEO podcasts to listen to in 2024 by Search Engine Journal. Thanks to SEJ and to everyone for listening and contributing to our shared industry in whatever ways you do. We cover a lot of other Googley things but nothing compares to the Google April 2024 Rotten to the Core Scandal.  It's been a long week since yesterday's news. Mark it in your calendars and diaries, April 24, 2024 was the day Google's greatest myth was finally busted. Recorded live the day after the world learned conclusively how Google manipulated and degraded results to produce a higher query frequency in order to bump its bottom line, this episode deals primarily with what could be Google's worst week ever. Google broke the Ghostbuster Protocol and merged the paid and organic streams of interest and in a long, detailed, and absolutely damning 4200 word essay released yesterday, former Google insider Edward Zitron fills in the five-Ws; who, what, where, when, and why. The piece traces the devolution of Google search back to an emergency all hands meeting in 2019 and places blame at the feet of the man who previously led Yahoo Search to oblivion's great beyond. A stunning and scandalous story is quickly emerging and this marks the first open chapter.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In the second week of the largest Google Core Update in Google Core Update history Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger are joined by Patrick Hathaway, cofounder and CEO of what is arguably the most cost-effective crawler/auditor tool out there, Sitebulb. During a core update, there's not a lot of work you can do on content that's going to make a difference until the update is over. What you can do is trim the sails and batten the hatches so your websites can best weather a turbulent time. In fact, keeping your website in optimal running shape at any given time is always a good practice and is the basis of technical SEO. Sitebulb packs an outrageous set of tools and metrics for its price-point. Patrick walks us through Sitebulb's function and features and talks about how a major SEO tool adapts to an ever changing environment. Jim and Kristine try not to gush over a toolset that both use daily with Jim noting a massive SEO win for a certain name brand corporation that's very likely very near you right now that he can absolutely attribute to a Sitebulb audit. We also talk a lot about Google, the March 2024 Core Update, Google's expectations, John Mu's robots.txt, and a hell of a lot more on this Pi Day edition of Webcology, Also Known as: The #2 March Core Update Edition.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Recorded on host Jim Hedger's 55th birthday, this newsy episode covers a lot of Googly ground. Apparently, there's a lot to update with the September 2023 Helpful Content Update following hot on the heals of the August 2023 Core Update but a little bit before the October 2023 InternatSpam Update which, of course, preceded the October 2023 Broad Core Update. We also talk about the mysterious TwiXter playbook, the obvious TwiXter debt load, and a bit about how Bing Search's A.I. is already eating its own tail. Confused? You probably won't be after this episode of Webcology!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A rough-voiced version of Webcology was recorded several days late due to illness. With Kristine Schachinger recovering from a second round of COVID-19 and Jim Hedger getting over a throat infection that temporarily cost him his voice, this is one of those "the show must go on" episodes. We cover a lot of news in this episode from major AI advancements to the outcomes of Google's Helpful Content update. (note, Jim found the document he insisted Kristine send him).Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's BluShark Week here on Webcology as this week we're happy to welcome guest Seth Price, founder and CEO of local-legal focused SEO firm, BluShark Digital. According to the AboutUs page on their website, “BluShark Digital uses the same cutting-edge marketing techniques (high-quality technical optimization, sophisticated content, authoritative link-building, and local optimization) that Seth used to grow his own business and has established itself as a best in class digital agency focusing on the legal sector.” That business that Seth grew, by the way, is a multi-officed law firm. Seth is also the founding partner of Price Benowitz Accident Injury Lawyers, LLP, a law firm with numerous offices around the Washington DC, Arlington, and Baltimore region. Price Benowitz started with two attorneys and now employs over 40 people.Jim and Kristine spend a fast-paced and truly fun hour talking with Seth about local search, how his digital marketing experience helps better build his legal business, and how building his legal business literally built BluShark, his digital marketing business. With a wealth of experience to share from both businesses, Seth graced us with an insightful and information-packed conversation. If you're into local search, you want to hear this episode.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger on Webcology today is Alan K'necht, owner of K'nechtology and one of the search marketing industry's expert's experts on analytics. Alan walks us through the changes between UA3 and GA4, pointing out similarities and differences search marketers should look for. This was a wildly interesting episode hosted the day before a significant milestone day in search history, the day Universal Analytics and the way it gathered user information, is being put out to pasture and replaced by something the sector dislikes but; as Alan points out, maybe you'll learn to like it. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 organizing shows, how to pitch your ideas, the free ticket lottery system, and a host of other stuff.We also walk through the enormous number of AI and SEO-related stories from the world of search including, New AI-driven third-party plug-ins for Expedia, Kayak, Instacart, and others (https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-openai-web-browsing-plug-change-how-we-use-internet-2023-5)22 best ChatGPT Chrome Extensions to try (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/chatgpt-chrome-extensions/485594/)Bing named the search engine of record for ChatGPT (https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-search-search-engine-chatgpt-35437.html)The opening of the first trial group in Google's new AI-driven Search Generative Experience (https://searchengineland.com/google-opens-access-to-search-generative-experience-today-427572)Google's not-so-new Topical Authority Ranking (https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-news-topic-authority-ranking-system-35438.html)and more...Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 coveredthe growth of SpoutableElon's Secret faux-minor Twitter profileGoogle Product Updates - GA4 is comingGoogle April 2023 Reviews Update done rolling outGoogle rewriting page titles in SERPs (again)and the bipartisan plan to limit social media access to ages 13 and overSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 sudden death of Buzzfeed News, and more…Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 the ongoing saga of strange going's on at the social network formerly known as Twitter.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 mass ban event. Last week Micha and Masa and all other mods at No Dumb Questions woke to find their Facebook and Instagram profiles disabled without cause or reason and with little to no help from Facebook. We start with their story.Later in the show, Kristine and Jim are joined by Audience Key founder and Webcology sponsor Tom Rusling as we talk about Pubcon, AI, and the Audience Key content strategy, creation, and deployment tool. (https://audiencekey.com/) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 leave his partner and seek love with it, we sort of have to talk about it. Luckily, we also found time to talk about Google's new directives on Links, give an update on Google's Mobile First initiative, discuss Microsoft's new Terms of Service, make fun of Elon as the new King of Muskego, talk about better Lighthouse data, and happily lament the degradation and death of Internet Explorer. Gumbo episodes are lots of fun. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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.Duane and Ryan join Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger for an hour-long wide ranging conversation about Google and Microsoft's AI announcements and the implications for the web and for the digital marketing communities.Duane Forrester is the Vice President of Industry Insights at Yext, the leading business-fact management tool where he leads industry outreach, evangelism, and company authorship. In his career, Duane ran the WebmasterTools program at Microsoft and Bing. Before that, he ran the SEO program at MSN. After leaving the concrete comforts of Microsoft, Duane ran operations for Bruce Clay's company. He moved to Yext about five, maybe six years ago. In between all that, Duane authored two books, “How To Make Money With Your Blog” and “Turn Clicks Into Customers”, both published by McGraw-Hill. He also taught himself how to make custom electric guitars in his garage when he isn't tenting it up somewhere miles away from civilization in his ample free time. – Duane Forrester, welcome back to WebcologyA web-dev turned SEO, Ryan Jones is Sr.Vice President, SEO at Razorfish, one of the oldest web marketing agencies on the web. Based in Detroit, Ryan has been an SEO since before Google became a publicly traded company (does today's Alphabet price give you a sense of nostalgia?) You've read Ryan's work as he's a regular contributor to most if not all industry publications. Publisher of WTFSEO, Ryan still makes his own websites and tools. He was one of the main crew that dissected Yandex a few weeks back. When he's not putting some keyboard to good use, Ryan hunts and plays hockey, softball, and golf. If you get the chance, look for him at an industry conference somewhere near you. Ryan Jones, welcome to Webcology.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 do this, Majestic created a model of the Internet that was printed on the International Space Station. The interview moves through the history of SEO and looks to the future as Dixon is one of the industry's expert thinkers on machine-assisted learning. Like most of us, he is keenly interested in artificial intelligence. This was one of our more fun interviews in the seventeen-year history of Webcology. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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. Change happens and change is good. The advancements made in AI, and in particular with OpenAI's ChatGPT have given innovative people more tools than we've ever dreamed possible. That some of those tools are sort of like, blunt objects isn't as relevant as the rapidity of their evolution and the dozens of things good SEOs are already doing with them. Check out a number of recent videos at YouTube by Matt Diggity for true innovative brilliance.  You know that meme about how you and your pre-teen buddies are about to go bike riding as a gang for the very last time and none of you are aware that this is it? I think we might have seen the last year we could hold on to a concept of what was “normal” and we didn't know it. Things are going to move much faster from here. It might be good, it might be bad, it might just be opportunities wrapped in new sets of bytes, and it should inspire you to do great things along with scaring the living bejeezus out of you. The weirdest thing about great change is it's often like watching a child grow up. You don't really notice the inches until a foot of them has suddenly happened. And then suddenly, when the thing that's going to happen happens, it tends to happen quite quickly. Happy New Year. Be ready for virtually anything. In the show, Jim Hedger and Dave Davies discussed a range of changes in the SEO industry moving into 2023 including, Bing and ChatGPThttps://searchengineland.com/microsoft-to-add-chatgpt-features-to-bing-search-390936ChatGPT in generalRecent movement against chatGPT in academia and creative circlesTwitter hasn't paid its rentRoger Montti's article asking if the research paper covers the Helpful Algorithmhttps://www.searchenginejournal.com/helpful-content-algorithm/475381/Are Most SEO Practices of Low Quality? Google seems to think so. "Documents that attempt to perform SEO tend to be flagged as very low quality. This is intuitive since these texts tend to simply string a series of keywords together and are therefore incoherent. Furthermore, we found a moderate number of product pages and professional profiles that also attempt to perform some form of SEO. We observed that media-centric domains, such as image hosting domains, often contain incomprehensible embedded text, possibly for SEO."John Mueller quote on Good SEO"I think one of the challenges is that "good SEO" is essentially invisible: it's a well-structured site, it has good content, people like it -- those are not attributes associated with SEO by the bigger web."SEO Skills needed in 2023? Curiosity and Persistencehttps://www.seroundtable.com/google-on-seo-skills-for-2023-curiosity-persistence-34671.htmlGoogle drops 110 character limit on headlines in structured data for articleshttps://searchengineland.com/google-drops-the-character-limit-for-headlines-in-article-structured-data-390937YouTube predicts what will go viral in 2023 https://www.searchenginejournal.com/youtube-predicts-what-will-go-viral-in-2023/475545/(AI, and good-works stuff.ie:  MrBeast)Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Twas two weeks before Christmasand across the wide webSEOs were hittingtheir desks with their headsGoogle had come to update itselfGuaranteeing no downtimeFor us little elvesAlong 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/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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'opera Spatial”) is a very fetching painting mixing the television and film genres by combining the transformative properties of a friggen Stargate with the tragic and somehow erotic and stately qualities of the Royal Court of Padme Amidala.To be sort of unfair to everyone else in the competition, the painting, like all digital arts, is more of a rendering and it was done entirely by a computer. It should be noted that Mr. Allen, who is the CEO of Denver-based video game company, Incarnate Games, has been 100% upfront about who he is and how the work was created. He did not grant himself the prize. He has been bemused by people's reactions given he says he spent hundreds of hours experimenting with the commands given to the AI before settling on what he felt were the top3 images, one of which was Theatre D'Opera...Eventually, there will be a category for AI-created art in most competitions but it does raise the question of the future of and ideas about art. Welcome to Webcology. We're not sure how friendly the future will be but it continues to promise to be interesting.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Most SEOs consider Google Search Console (GSC) their source of truth and trust the data to be accurate. What if I told you that GSC doesn't tell you all of the keywords you're getting traffic from? In fact, the tool doesn't show a term for nearly half the clicks.These instances of hidden terms account for 46.08% of all clicks in our study. The study includes one month of data across 146,741 websites and nearly 9 billion total clicks.Google Updates Help Docs in wake of Stox's Study.https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-anonymizes-tons-of-queries-33735.htmlGA4 supports Urchin Tracking Parameters (UTM) UTM Term, UTM Content, Conversion and Bounce Rate metrics https://www.seroundtable.com/google-analytics-4-gains-utm-term-utm-content-conversion-bounce-rate-33744.htmlGoogle My Business App has ceased functioninghttps://www.seroundtable.com/google-my-business-app-no-longer-available-33743.htmlGoogle Maps App suggested as way to be able to message customerThere is no such thing as a ratio of nofollow to follow links in Google Rankings. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ratio-of-follow-to-nofollow-links-33711.htmlIs the type of CMS used to build a site a ranking factor?https://www.searchenginejournal.com/does-the-cms-matter-for-search-rankings/457580/Massive set of updates and bug fixes released with WordPress 6.0.1https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-6-0-1-maintenance-update-released-with-multiple-bug-fixes/457471/#closeGoogle Data Studio and how to use ithttps://searchengineland.com/google-data-studio-258871If you are interested in sponsoring Webcology please email brasco@wmr.fmSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

1+ Million WordPress sites affected by vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution attackshttps://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-vulnerability-in-essential-addons-for-elementor/436179/Webcology named as one of the 15 top SEO podcastshttps://ahrefs.com/blog/best-seo-podcasts/New Google Partners Program: After nearly two years, the new Partners program requirements have taken effect and Google will notify all Partners of their current status.https://www.seroundtable.com/new-google-partners-program-32867.htmlFacebook lost users for first time in a decade. Stock declined by 22%Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Danny Goodwin Talks to Jim and Dave About Joining Search Engine Land. Search Engine Land is happy to welcome well-known search marketing journalist Danny Goodwin to the team as Senior Editor. Goodwin will join the editorial team, which also includes editors Barry Schwartz and George Nguyen, to help us to deliver best-in-class journalism on search and performance marketing to you – our global audience of digital marketers.In addition to writing daily about SEO, PPC, and more for Search Engine Land, Goodwin will also manage and grow Search Engine Land's roster of subject-matter experts. He will also help program our conference series SMX – Search Marketing Expo, working with our Events Content Director Kathy Bushman.Prior to joining us, Goodwin was Executive Editor at Search Engine Journal, where he led editorial initiatives for the brand.Goodwin is a respected member of the search community going all the way back to 2007 when he began as an editor for Search Engine Watch. He has spoken at many major search conferences and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts. He's seen first-hand how this industry has evolved over the years and we are thrilled that he will bring his intelligence and perspective to Search Engine Land and SMX.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Moving into the New Year I have a strange sense of déjà vu. Tonight we're gonna party like it's 2020 Two, the updated edition.This is the sixth day of January, 2022. A year ago, before the attempted coup, we were all so much younger. Now it just feels numb, and dumb, and sometime sort of pointless. It feels like we're entering the new year running it petal to the metal, full tilt in neutral. The incredible spikes in COVID infections over the last few weeks from Omicron is so far beyond believable it makes knowledge of what is coming in the next two weeks unfathomable. Happy New Year eh? I got Omicroned for Christmas. Myself and my partner Shana both got exposed and infected over the two week holiday period. I think it might have happened in a cell phone store. For me, it was very very mild. I had a nasty cold sore and a half day of sniffles. I would have been exposed 10 – 14 days after getting my third dose booster shot of SpikeVax, the punkrock name given to the Moderna vaccine. Shana, who as many of you know was infected early in April 2020, caught her second bout of Covid. In her it manifested as one of the harshest flues she's had in years. She had yet to receive a booster shot.The next two weeks are likely to be crazy. I hope I'm wrong but expect a lot of people to phone in sick and a lot of services and shops to be shut down for lack of staff. If we're smart, four to six weeks from now could look very different but, if there's one thing I am absolutely sure of, we're not nearly smart enough when it comes to existential emergencies. 2022 is going to teach us all a lot of lessons, some good and some bad. I think how things work out will have a lot to do with how we learn them. Blackberry old goes dark(Mr. Jones, we've solved your Crackberry addiction...) Bing IndexNow WordPress Plugin availablehttps://www.seroundtable.com/indexnow-wordpress-plugin-released-32709.html Migration advice – don't drop AMP during migrationhttps://www.seroundtable.com/migrate-domains-remove-google-amp-seo-32696.html Ways to generate some Soft 404shttps://www.seroundtable.com/error-like-pages-soft-404-google-32690.html Language quality can impact multilingual siteshttps://www.seroundtable.com/google-language-version-site-quality-impact-32686.html Danny Goodwin leaving Search Engine Journal Why? We don't know but we're gonna get the scoop on it. Danny's joining us on January 20th to talk about a life editing decision and a life editing some of the largest and most read search news websites. Did SEOS work over Xmas?19.5% Yes, a lot33.3%, Yes, a little47.2%, Nope, not at allhttps://www.seroundtable.com/seos-work-over-the-christmas-holiday-break-32662.html Some basic questions answered by John Muhttps://www.searchenginejournal.com/does-domain-extension-affect-seo/431956/#close 2021, a year of changes and updateshttps://searchengineland.com/google-algorithm-updates-2021-in-review-core-updates-product-reviews-page-experience-and-beyond-378017  The Google Developers Style Guide, on headingshttps://developers.google.com/style/headings Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's almost the middle of the year! COVID is almost over in much of the developed world. A summer full of hope and opportunity is almost upon us and what does Google do? It hits us with a double whamy of a Core Update, the June/July 2021 Core Update.Thanks to Erika Varagouli (who has today's coolest ever SEO name) SEMRush for naming Webcology the #1 podcast in a strong field to learn from. After who the hell knows how long of doing this show it is good to know we're still relevant. Get ready for the insufferable to become inescapable. Crypto-ads are about to be allowed by Google https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-allow-cryptocurrency-ads-31529.html To be certified by Google, advertisers will need to:" • Be duly registered with • (a) FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter; or • (b) a federal or state chartered bank entity. • Comply with relevant legal requirements, including any local legal requirements, whether at a state  or federal level.  https://www.semrush.com/blog/learn-seo/  • Ensure their ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies Negative matching allowed in regex https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-regular-expressions-exclusions-31526.html Cumulative Metrics Shift – CLS Update (Cumulative Layout Shift) updates at Google Search Console https://www.seroundtable.com/cumulative-layout-shift-metric-google-search-console-31520.html https://www.seroundtable.com/google-page-experience-label-31516.html CWV icon? No talk at Google for a whileGoogle News Transparancy Policy Article Level Google News Factors/Signals Here are the article level specific Google News signals it uses behind its transparency policy. Google said these factors helps Google "consider information that helps users quickly gain context about articles or the journalists covering stories." • Article byline that link to a bio describing the author's credentials and expertise • Article's publishing date (finally!) • Labeling to indicate the article type, for example Opinion or News Site Level Google News Factors/Signals Here are the site wide level Google News signals it uses behind its transparency policy. Google said these factors "helps readers understand a site's purpose, its organizational structure, and the kinds of information they can expect from that site." • Mission statement • Editorial policies and standardsStaff information and bios for both editorial and business staff • Non-generic contact information • Other organizational-level information like owners and/or funding sources (for example, state-sponsorship, relationship to political parties or PACs). Google added: • Google considers different regional and country-level expectations and practices around transparency. This is particularly important in areas with less press freedom where practices like naming a journalist can carry significant risk. • Google looks at a number of inputs and consider a breadth of editorial practices. This helps ensure that distinctive editorial philosophies—for example, publishing pieces without bylines — don't affect the credibility of an otherwise authoritative source. • Google also considers information that is clearly available to users, so that larger, more technically sophisticated sites and smaller sites that use simple text to convey information are on equal footing.

It's almost the middle of the year! COVID is almost over in much of the developed world. A summer full of hope and opportunity is almost upon us and what does Google do? It hits us with a double whamy of a Core Update, the June/July 2021 Core Update.Thanks to Erika Varagouli (who has today's coolest ever SEO name) SEMRush for naming Webcology the #1 podcast in a strong field to learn from. After who the hell knows how long of doing this show it is good to know we're still relevant. Get ready for the insufferable to become inescapable. Crypto-ads are about to be allowed by Google https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-allow-cryptocurrency-ads-31529.html To be certified by Google, advertisers will need to:" • Be duly registered with • (a) FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter; or • (b) a federal or state chartered bank entity. • Comply with relevant legal requirements, including any local legal requirements, whether at a state  or federal level.  https://www.semrush.com/blog/learn-seo/  • Ensure their ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies Negative matching allowed in regex https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-regular-expressions-exclusions-31526.html Cumulative Metrics Shift – CLS Update (Cumulative Layout Shift) updates at Google Search Console https://www.seroundtable.com/cumulative-layout-shift-metric-google-search-console-31520.html https://www.seroundtable.com/google-page-experience-label-31516.html CWV icon? No talk at Google for a whileGoogle News Transparancy Policy Article Level Google News Factors/Signals Here are the article level specific Google News signals it uses behind its transparency policy. Google said these factors helps Google "consider information that helps users quickly gain context about articles or the journalists covering stories." • Article byline that link to a bio describing the author's credentials and expertise • Article's publishing date (finally!) • Labeling to indicate the article type, for example Opinion or News Site Level Google News Factors/Signals Here are the site wide level Google News signals it uses behind its transparency policy. Google said these factors "helps readers understand a site's purpose, its organizational structure, and the kinds of information they can expect from that site." • Mission statement • Editorial policies and standardsStaff information and bios for both editorial and business staff • Non-generic contact information • Other organizational-level information like owners and/or funding sources (for example, state-sponsorship, relationship to political parties or PACs). Google added: • Google considers different regional and country-level expectations and practices around transparency. This is particularly important in areas with less press freedom where practices like naming a journalist can carry significant risk. • Google looks at a number of inputs and consider a breadth of editorial practices. This helps ensure that distinctive editorial philosophies—for example, publishing pieces without bylines — don't affect the credibility of an otherwise authoritative source. • Google also considers information that is clearly available to users, so that larger, more technically sophisticated sites and smaller sites that use simple text to convey information are on equal footing.

Rich Results Vanishing? Does Google Simply not trust your website?https://www.seroundtable.com/rich-results-site-wide-trust-issue-31024.html?fbclid=IwAR0NdT1scws9RAkUaUdOMWFqVZXGVrpVzt0oPPt65Ltos3B9sAkrvd9XG6wGoogle to stop tracking users after it abandons Cookieshttps://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-will-not-track-users-after-replacing-third-party-cookies/397739/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebook-auto-publish&fbclid=IwAR2UZLJ13feXDP1MoJErkbgzZMWMOvnFm--5JV6Ut04o-j_GniP0VHUnKu8AI as ideology rather than technologyhttps://www.wired.com/story/opinion-ai-is-an-ideology-not-a-technology/?fbclid=IwAR1T9T6ZLD9NvOm--BPO4g9H302y3q5lRMeX9-rRJxgeyYyZkA_ovuEQJMY&mbid=social_facebook&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=falcon&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebookAI Writes a Stage Play“Tomáš Studeník, a Czech entrepreneur and AI fan who came up with the idea for the project, notes a particular scene where a boy asks the robot to tell him a joke. The robot says that when the boy gets old and dies, and the boy's children and grandchildren are also dead, he, the robot, will still be around.”“In one of the scenes, an initial prompt about euthanasia ended up in a fight between characters about who had whose finger in whose anus.”https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/kinky-and-absurd-first-ai-written-play-isn-t-shakespeare-it-has-its-moments?fbclid=IwAR1XgGKlPZpWN2APvRkI0_wMXDvqT17PFjVZ2iLwtZOzUXKYHx6dicav6d8David Harry's Birthday Nice Shout-out from Rhea Drysdale about the small part Webcology played in saving the industry from having the term SEO patented by a bad person.

Welcome to Webcology on WMR.FM, the post-revolution edition. I call it that because something remarkable has happened in a horrible but less than disastrous way. The revolution has ended and, after four years of division, lies, distortions and horrible economics, the revolution has clearly failed. The fascists lost and, though they took the country to the brink of collapse, the traditions, institutions, and better sense of the American people held. No one doubts that those foundations stand firmly today even after the very Halls of Congress were rocked by the violent sedition of the President's supporters yesterday in a last ditch attempt to prevent the certification of President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris. Congress reconvened to complete its duty and certify the results of the election after the Trumpist terrorists had been arrested or routed from the building by the Capitol police, reinforced by the DC, Maryland, and Virginia National Guards. Mark that as the moment in time the Trumpian Revolution ended. Donald J. Trump leaves office having destroyed the Republican Party and having squandered and lost GOP control of all houses of legislative government, the Oval Office, the House, and the Senate. Even his handpicked judicial appointments failed to break with American law when he asked them to do his bidding. After the results of a national election, 62 friviolous and failed lawsuits, the two run-off Senate races in Georgia, the failed attempt to take the very House of Government Washington DC, and the final confirmation of Biden and Harris, Donald J. Trump finally assured America that there would be a transfer of power on January 20, 2021. He conceded that it's over and, even if he can't concede that he lost, he's lost and so is the movement he flounded. The fascist revolution is over and the Republic of the United States of America remains in place. A new decade begins now. Friends, welcome to 2021. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-new-robots-txt-tester-tool-30718.htmlGoogle works on Robots.TXT tool improvements Carolyn Lyden – content editor at Search Engine Land and SMXhttps://www.seroundtable.com/carolyn-lyden-joins-search-engine-land-smx-30716.htmlMiranda Miller – Search Engine Journalhttps://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-smith-algorithm/391929/#closeSMITH better than BERT