Human Friend Digital

Jacob and Jeff read Don Norman's Design of Everyday Things for the second episode of their book club series. The good news: the book is genuinely insightful about why some products work and others don't. The bad news: it's also kind of boring. But they made it through, and in this episode they talk about what they learned. They discuss concepts like affordances and signifiers, the l...

De-Coding the technical side of search Some websites get star ratings in Google search results. Others don't. Some searches give you answers without ever leaving Google's page. There's a reason for all of it. In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast , Jacob and Jeff break down schema - the structured data that helps search engines understand what your website is actually...

Google just turned off an old search parameter that's been around for over a decade. SEO tracking tools are scrambling to adapt, and companies are watching their ranking data change overnight. On this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeff break down what actually happened and why it might not impact your business as much as you'd think. They discuss what metrics rea...

How one woman turned her own search for community into Cincinnati's home for indie film. In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeff talk with Allyson West, founder of the Cindependent Film Festival, about how one person’s search for belonging became an international arts movement. Allyson left New York to return to Cincinnati for love, only to feel like she had traded...

In this episode, the first “Book Club” of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeff unpack The Art of War, finding in its pages not the call to conquer, but timeless lessons in patience, balance, and leadership that still shape how we work and live today. When most people hear The Art of War , they picture battlefields—armies clashing, banners raised, empires in peril. But when Jacob opened...

This week, Jacob and Jeff unpack four pieces of SEO lingo that they’ve laid out together on the first episode of their new series, Jargon Board : link juice , link farms , breadcrumb navigation , and keyword cannibalization . One’s about reputation. One’s about cheating. One’s about not getting lost. And one’s about competing with yourself. But in a way, they’re all about the same thing. Each term...

This week, Jacob and Jeff are in the same room for once, reflecting on how Google Ads—once a nimble tool for testing ideas—has become something heavier. Costs are up. Control is down. Running a campaign feels less like steering and more like nudging a massive, sluggish system that doesn’t always respond. Pay-per-click didn’t break all at once: it just got crowded. What used to be cheap is now expe...

In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast , Jacob and Jeff start with a simple question: how do you make digital ads that actually work? What follows is a practical conversation about pay-per-click advertising, touching on Google Ads, cost-per-click, and long-tail keywords. But at its core it’s about something much more general: how people decide to buy things. They walk through the thre...

In this episode of Human Friend Digital, Jacob and Jeff tackle the growing challenge of detecting AI-generated content—images, text, and everything in between. Starting with the viral trend of AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style portraits, they explore the ethical gray areas around using AI to imitate human art. From there, the conversation widens: how AI-generated content is becoming harder to spot,...

In this episode of Human Friend Digital , Jacob and Jeff take on a question that’s been echoing across the marketing world: is SEO dead? The answer, it turns out, is complicated. They explore how the landscape has changed—from the early days of keyword stuffing and link farms to today's crowded, AI-inflated search space. Jacob reflects on his roots in “white hat” SEO, a strategy focused on lo...

In this episode of Human Friend Digital , Jacob and Jeff wander far from digital marketing and deep into the hills of Middle-earth. What begins as a friendly debate about The Rings of Power becomes something more: a meditation on storytelling, adaptation, and what gets lost when myth is compressed for streaming. Jacob, steeped in Tolkien lore, explains why the Amazon series falls short—not because...

This time on Human Friend Digital , Jacob and Jeff explore link rot, the slow decay of the internet as web pages vanish and URLs break over time. Websites may feel permanent, but in reality, they’re as fragile as a pamphlet—easily deleted, lost, or restructured, leaving broken links in their wake. They discuss the impact of link rot on everything from SEO rankings to Supreme Court opinions, where...

In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeff explore the growing impact of zero-click search, where Google answers queries directly in search results—without users needing to click through to a website. Jacob explains that while this trend helps users find quick answers, it reduces traffic to informational websites. Businesses that rely on blogs or educational content may se...

In this episode of Human Friend Digital, Jacob and Jeff explore the impact of image file formats on website performance. They break down the strengths and weaknesses of JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG. JPEG is versatile but loses quality with compression, while PNG offers sharp transparency but has larger file sizes. SVG excels for scalable graphics, and WebP combines all benefits—compression, transparen...

In this episode of Human Friend Digital, Jacob and Jeffrey explore how to structure websites for both users and search engines. Using Simon Sinek’s Start with Why framework—what you do, how you do it, and why you do it—they discuss creating logical site outlines that balance user experience with SEO optimization. They highlight cornerstone content as key to organizing a website and the importance...

In this anniversary of the first year of the founding of Human Friend Digital, Jeffrey and Jacob celebrate with another edition of Acronym Soup, a dive into the trio of tools that power the internet: HTML, CSS, and JS (and don’t forget PHP!). These aren’t just technical terms—they’re the foundation of how websites look, feel, and function. Jacob breaks it down simply: HTML (Hypertext Markup Langua...

In this episode of Human Friend Digital, Jeffrey and Jacob are joined by Olivia Curry, a commercial director and professional boxer. Olivia’s career in film has taken her from small-scale productions to directing large commercial spots. She shares what it’s like managing the complexities of a commercial set, working with everyone—from cinematographers to lighting and sound designers—to bring a vis...

In this episode of Human Friend Digital, Jacob and Jeffrey sit down with Marquez White, a UI/UX designer who’s worked with companies like Grubhub and Kroger. Marquez doesn’t just design screens or logos; his job is to shape entire user experiences—every click, every scroll, and every interaction. Marquez breaks down the complexities of his work, explaining how good design goes beyond aesthetics. I...

In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeff dig into the complex world of website development. Jacob, a veteran in the field, shares his hard-earned insights from over a decade of experience. The conversation revolves around how creating a website is much like building a house: from laying the foundation (defining goals and buyer personas) to crafting the blueprint (site de...

In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeffrey welcome Caleb Hickman, a touring musician who's spent years on the road Houndmouth and other bands. Caleb shares a candid and often humorous look into the life of a musician on tour—beyond the spotlight. The conversation explores the realities of being on the road: hours of waiting between shows, long drives in cramped van...

In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeffrey dive into the world of keyword difficulty—a crucial concept for anyone navigating SEO. Jacob breaks it down: keyword difficulty measures how hard it is to rank in Google’s top search results for a specific keyword, with tools like SEMrush offering a score from 0 to 100. The conversation highlights the importance of competition...

In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeffrey break down one of the most essential aspects of SEO: Google indexing. They discuss how Google’s “spider bot” crawls the web, visiting sites to gather information, and the importance of being indexed—because if Google can’t find your site, it won’t show up in search results. Jacob explains the key factors that impact whether or...

In today’s episode of Human Friend Digital , we’re diving deep into the acronym-packed world of website launches. You’ve heard of DNS, CMS, CDN, and SSL, but do you really know what they mean? Jacob and Jeffrey are here to make sense of it all, keeping things laid-back while tackling some essential topics. From the basics of the Domain Name System (DNS) to how a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like...

In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeffrey venture into the wilderness—literally. Jeffrey, an experienced backpacker, shares his insights on the challenges and rewards of multi-day hikes. He talks about the essential gear—like water filters and bear bags—and the lessons learned from years on the trail, including the importance of proper preparation and the occasional mi...

Breaking Free of the Cookie Empire In this episode of the Human Friend Digital Podcast, Jacob and Jeffrey dive into the challenges and opportunities of moving toward a cookie-less world in online advertising. Building on last week’s conversation, they explore how cookies have evolved from simple trackers to invasive tools that gather extensive user data, raising serious privacy concerns. Jacob rei...