Search with Candour

Host: Jack Chambers-Ward | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlwchambers/ | He/him In this episode of Search with Candour, I’m joined by Josh Bachynski, CEO at Be Found Everywhere. With over 20 years of experience, Josh shares insights on ethical marketing and why an evidence-based approach to SEO is important for AI search optimisation. Topics discussed: Why AI Mode is the biggest change in search sinc...

Laura Iancu joins Search with Candour to talk about the growing crossover between SEO and UX and how we should all thinking about “search experience optimisation” (SXO) instead of traditional SEO. Follow Laura: Searchpedia: https://searchpedia.co.uk/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-iancu-seo/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/searchpedia.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sear...

Host: Jack Chambers-Ward (he/him) Vince Nero, BuzzStream’s Director of Content Marketing, joins Search with Candour to discuss whether paying for digital PR is the same as buying links. Vince shares research on link marketplaces, noting many sites have zero organic traffic and only a tiny fraction qualify as high-quality. With some top-tier paid placements averaging thousands of dollars per link,...

Host Jack Chambers Ward shares a special episode of Search With Candour highlighting two talks from SearchNorwich 18 ahead of the first SearchNorwichXL conference on 24 September 2026. 🎟️SearchNorwichXL tickets: https://searchnorwich.org/ In the first talk, Crystal Carter (Wix) discusses using AI tools for “actual intelligence” in SEO by emphasizing human experience, real examples, and opinion, no...

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts a solo episode to recap the biggest SEO news from May 2026, including Google IO, AI traffic reporting in GA4 and the May 2026 core update. Links to news stories https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/explore-web-generative-ai-search/ https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7458539598885867520/ https://developers.google.com/search/docs/funda...

Chris Green joins Search with Candour to share his study on whether answering Google’s “People Also Ask” (PAA) questions correlates with higher organic rankings. 📖 Read the study in full: https://alsoasked.com/insights/paa-ranking-correlation Key takeaways 📈Across the top 5 positions, pages that fully answer more PAA questions tend to rank higher. 📊Commercial and transactional queries show the...

Jack Chambers-Ward gives a recap of his experience at HiveMCR 2026 including all of the talks, panels and events over the two-day event hosted by Charlie Whitworth. The event included live music, stand up comedy and talks from Jono Alderson, Dawn Anderson, Alex Moss, Sophie Brannon and many more. Sponsored by Trendos - the AI search visibility tool. With Trendos, you can see who’s buying ads in yo...

Adam Gent returns to Search with Candour to discuss how Google’s indexing works and why large websites should monitor it closely. Adam explains that statuses like “URL unknown to Google” can mean Google has deprioritised and effectively forgotten pages, and that Search Console may misreport or fail to alert when pages are actively de-indexed. He describes a “130-day rule” for indexing, where low p...

Jack Chambers-Ward delivers an SEO news recap covering key stories from April 2026 into early May. He highlights Google testing AI Mode directly in the “All” tab, AI Mode’s agentic restaurant bookings, AI Mode side-by-side browsing in Chrome desktop (US), and Google’s Audio Overviews appearing on SERPs beyond Search Labs. He also discusses Google’s official guidance on building agent-friendly webs...

In this eighth live collaboration between SEO Mindset and Search with Candour, the hosts discuss the “efficiency paradox” and why AI can increase overwhelm rather than make life easier. Jack Chambers-Ward, Sarah McDowell and Tazmin Suleman debate the pressure to use AI, environmental and job concerns, hallucinations and misuse for legal/medical advice, de-skilling, declining human interaction, and...

Jack Chambers-Ward and Mark Williams-Cook are back in the Candour studio to discuss if People Also Ask questions improve rankings and Google’s recent crackdown on self-promotional listicles. Sponsored by Trendos No demo required. No paywall. Free plan available. Check your brand’s AI visibility now → Trendos.com They discuss a Chris Green study using AlsoAsked API, SERP scraping, and OpenAI to sco...

Jasmine Granton joins Search with Candour to discuss the mental health crisis in SEO and digital marketing. Jasmine’s experience as both a digital PR professional and a qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor means she’s especially qualified to discuss this topic. They explore how always-on culture, Slack urgency, KPIs, AI-driven expectations, and perfectionism keep marketers in fight-or-flight, re...

Annie-Mai Hodge, founder of Girl Power Marketing and creator of the Social Tea newsletter, makes her triumphant return to Search with Candour to discuss how to do SEO for social media. Annie-Mai explains practical keyword research for social using tools such as TikTok Creator Search Insights and AlsoAsked, and existing SEO tools, then consolidating ideas into a simple spreadsheet and testing perfo...

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts a solo episode of Search With Candour, recapping the last 6 weeks of SEO news from the Core Updates newsletter. Jack covers Google’s February 2026 Discover update, a fast March spam update, and the ongoing March 2026 core update. He then highlights Bing Webmaster Tools, adding AI Performance reporting, Google’s WebMCP new UCP features. 📧 Core Updates: https://coreupdates....

Alison Moss joins Search with Candour to discuss how to prioritise technical SEO fixes and get development tickets actioned. Together, they cover common pitfalls like lack of buy-in and unclear requirements, emphasising translating SEO needs into business outcomes and developer-friendly acceptance criteria, using ticket templates, and providing references. Alison explains prioritising by impact ve...

Jack Chambers Ward is joined by Jessica Bettis, Candour’s Director of Strategy, to discuss what makes a strong collaboration between SEO specialists and client partnership/account management. Jack and Jessica discuss their experience of working with clients together, and Jessica explains how client partners define success, translate work into business impact, manage resources and expectations, and...

Jack Chambers Ward welcomes SEO consultant and Designmodo SEO Manager Bengü Sarıca Dinçer to discuss what marketers should track in GA4 as search shifts across AI summaries, social platforms, newsletters, communities, and private sharing. Bengü argues classic metrics like rankings and organic sessions are incomplete and recommends focusing on influence signals such as assisted conversions, branded...

Jack Chambers Ward welcomes returning guest Sarah McDowell from The SEO Mindset Podcast to discuss AI and LLMs and how they’re responsibly integrating them into their work processes. Jack & Sarah share AI usage stats, note the split between adopters and non-adopters, and cover concerns including environmental impact, big tech/data issues, hallucinations and fabricated reporting, and the need f...

Jack Chambers Ward hosts Search with Candour with guest Dena Warren, SEO Lead at Techquity, to discuss how e-commerce brands can prepare for AI search and LLMs. They cover how the importance of consistent product data across on-site content, feeds, and maximising structured data (product, FAQ, reviews). Dena highlights using user-generated content, avoiding duplicate manufacturer copy, and ensurin...

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts Search With Candour with guest Faezeh Shafiee, a freelance international SEO content specialist, to discuss how to build an interview-based content campaign with the assistance of AI. During this campaign, Faezeh used expert interviews to create a multi-channel content campaign, turning an initial plan into interviews with three women leaders in sustainability. Faezeh expl...

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts a solo episode of Search With Candour recapping seven major SEO and digital marketing news stories from the first six weeks of 2026, previously covered in the Core Updates newsletter. He highlights Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for agentic commerce and checkout capabilities, Google’s Business Agent for brand-voice shopper conversations, and Google’s Personal I...

Join Jack Chambers-Ward as he sits down with Alex Dees, co-founder and CEO of Meridian, to discuss how to optimise your brand and sites for AI-driven search engines like ChatGPT, AI Mode, and Perplexity. Discover strategies and insights on increasing visibility in the age of AI, if “chunking” your content works, and the future of e-commerce and agentic commerce. Follow Alex: Website: https://tryme...

In this episode of Search With Candour, host Jack Chambers-Ward is joined by SEO experts Chris Green and Amaka Chukwuma to discuss the SEO chapter of the Web Almanac 2025. Together, they delve into the process behind writing the chapter, trends in SEO, impacts of AI and LLM crawlers, structured data adoption, and the importance of resisting hype in the SEO industry. 00:00 Introduction and Guest In...

Join Jack Chambers-Ward and Mark Williams-Cook for a special episode of Search With Candour, where they recap the top SEO conferences of 2025 and share their most anticipated events for 2026. From Brighton SEO to the SEO Brein Meetup, they discuss the highlights, unique features, and what makes each conference a must-attend. Plus, get an exclusive sneak peek into the upcoming SearchNorwich XL… Don...

Jack Chambers-Ward is joined by Georgie Kemp, the SEO lead at Veed. Together, they delve into the limitless potential of video as a channel for marketers, discussing how video content can be repurposed and its SEO advantages. Georgie emphasises the importance of authenticity and the human element in creating engaging video content. Jack and Georgie also explore the evolution of search, integrating...