The Unscripted SEO Interview Podcast

Christopher Gimmer bootstrapped Snappa to ~$10K/month off the back of a single blog post — and now he's rebuilding it AI-first while launching GoodMetrics, a cookieless alternative to Google Analytics. In this episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, Christopher and host Jeremy Rivera get honest about what actually still works for bootstrapped SaaS founders as AI Overviews and paid placements quietl...

You don't rank pages anymore — you rank entities. That single shift, Federico Fancinelli argues, is why AI search quietly favors established brands over the small players everyone hoped it would lift. Federico is the founder of GeoSonar, an AI-search visibility platform born from a two-year GEO research lab. In this episode he shares what the research actually found: entity strength lives across t...

AI didn't kill SEO — it raised the stakes on the fundamentals. Erika Braeger of Tenspeed on using AI to kill the pre-work (not the thinking), writing humans-first-but-machine-readable, and what AI actually cites at the B2B evaluation stage. Erika Braeger is Manager of Organic Growth Strategy at Tenspeed, a B2B SaaS content agency (organic, AEO, digital PR, design). A former teacher, she leads by b...

Most agencies are still figuring out what to say about AI. Robert Spinrad from SEOM Interactive already has an answer — and it’s not what you’d expect. Robert is the Associate Director of SEO at SEOM Interactive, a Philadelphia-area digital marketing agency operating since 2008. He joined the team straight out of Temple University in 2015 and has grown into a leadership role running the SEO functi...

Jeremy Rivera sits down with Adrian Nikolov, founder of Haide Digital, for an unscripted conversation about what SEO becomes when AI stops being a threat and starts being the engine. "Haide" means "let's go" in Bulgarian — and Adrian's whole philosophy is built on it: publish, break stuff, read the data, feed it back, improve. With 18 years in SEO and digital marketing, Adrian breaks down "Organic...

Most founders become the bottleneck in their own business. Lloyd Thompson of Virtual DOO on the fractional "operator" who sits between you and your team — and gets you out of the day-to-day. Jeremy Rivera talks with Lloyd Thompson, founder of Virtual DOO, about fractional operations for busy online business owners: what a Director of Operations actually does, when you need one, how to make operati...

AI gets a "C+" in everything — but the last 20% is still the human job. Mike Montague (Avenue9) on marketing the Iron Man way: augment yourself, don't automate slop. Jeremy Rivera sits down with Mike Montague — founder of Avenue9 and host of the Human First AI Marketing Podcast (100k+ subscribers) — for a candid talk on using AI to distill your real story instead of manufacturing more noise. They...

About the guest Rob Bonham is an SEO with about two decades of experience spanning local, e-commerce, SaaS, and home-services clients. Today he advises several startups on SEO and works as a fractional SEO manager and director for a handful of agencies. You can reach him on LinkedIn . What we cover Why the “agentic age” feels like the pre-Panda/Penguin wild west — and what that means for strategy...

Patrick Stox's extensive background from developer to product manager at Ahrefs and now as a solo consultant. The evolution and influence of product development within SEO tools, including infrastructure changes and visualization tools. The competitive landscape of SEO tools, including the impact of industry giants like Ahrefs and emerging niche tools. The role and growth of AI in SEO, including i...

Semantic Links  with Bradley Benner Watch: https://youtu.be/AUf1U_klNCM Previous interview:  https://unscriptedseo.com/building-relevent-links-agencies-with-bradley-benner/ Unlocking the Power of Relevance in SEO and Link Building with Bradley Benner Discover how relevance outranks traditional metrics in modern SEO strategies, especially in the era of AI and large language models (LLMs). Bradley B...

Joel Miller is the co-founder of The SkyFloor , a digital agency he has run alongside his identical twin brother since 2008. The SkyFloor works across industries — churches, retail, education, and service organizations — with a philosophy centered on long-term partnerships and outcome-driven strategy rather than one-off deliverables. Joel writes regularly on digital strategy and business growth at...

This episode features Jeremy Rivera and digital marketing expert Matthew Slaymaker discussing actionable strategies for small businesses, the evolving landscape of digital ads, and leveraging AI tools for marketing efficiency. Whether you're running ads, optimizing your website, or navigating new platforms, this conversation offers practical insights to boost your marketing ROI. Key Topics: The im...

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera welcomes Drew Dorenfest to explore practical strategies for small businesses to harness SEO, reviews, and community engagement to boost their online presence and sales. Drew shares his background from Hollywood video editing to digital marketing, highlighting actionable tactics for local SEO, review management, and bridging IRL community efforts with online authority...

Episode Highlights: Grant Simmons shares his unconventional journey from 1980s programming to becoming a top SEO strategist, emphasizing the importance of foundational practices. Recent SEO trends like entity SEO, entity maps, and Google's evolving understanding layers—comparing Google’s approach to Large Language Models (LLMs)—are discussed. The significance of schema markup: its role in groundin...

Join Jeremy Rivera as he chats with Joe Zeppelin, a former corporate leader turned full-time YouTuber, about navigating career transitions, leveraging AI tools, and building successful digital brands. Discover actionable insights on automation, content creation, and monetization strategies tailored for small business owners and aspiring creators. In this episode: Joe shares his background in indus...

The Future of SEO: Insights from Content & AI with Greg Daniel Join Jeremy Rivera as he chats with Greg Daniel of Content Cubby about the evolving landscape of SEO, brand visibility, and how AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT are reshaping content creation and outreach strategies. Greg shares invaluable insights into building relationships, leveraging AI for faster content production, and the im...

Explore practical frameworks and insights for agency owners and freelancers to scale sustainably, improve systems, and align their mindset with success. Colby Wegter shares actionable strategies from his experience helping six-figure agencies reach seven figures while working fewer hours. Key topics: The importance of self-scale and personal boundaries for agency growth Using calendar curation and...

Discover how AI is transforming digital marketing strategies, from SEO shifts to innovative data management, with Brittany Trafis, a leader in AI-native marketing. Learn practical tips, industry insights, and the future outlook for small businesses navigating this rapidly evolving landscape. Follow the in-depth episode recap here . Main topics covered: Brittany Trafis ’ journey from graphic design...

In this episode of the  Unscripted Small Business Podcast ,  Jeremy Rivera  sits down with  Nick Eubanks  — a 2007-vintage SEO who sold Traffic Think Tank to SEMrush, spent three years building their media program into an eight-figure-a-year operation, and is now Global CMO at  Digistore24 , the world's largest affiliate network with 950,000 vendors and 5 million users. This is a veteran-to-vetera...

Discover practical insights for expanding your business globally through international SEO, translation strategies, and regional localization, guided by expert Christina Spalding . Main topics: Christina's international experience and expertise in multilingual SEO The evolution of SEO strategies from 2009 to today, including AI influence Language models (LLMs) in foreign languages: accuracy, hallu...

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera chats with Tom Malesic, founder of EZ Marketing , to explore effective digital marketing strategies tailored specifically for small businesses. Tom shares his insights on website importance, local SEO tactics, content creation, and the impact of AI on marketing. Key Topics: The foundational role of a high-quality, trust-building website Authenticity through real phot...

Julia Bocchese has spent nearly nine years helping small businesses in the creative and holistic space get found online — not through paid ads or social media grind, but through SEO, Pinterest strategy, and now AI search optimization . She also teaches SEO at the college level, which gives her a rare ability to break down the technical into the practical. In this conversation, Julia unpacks why Pi...

What if the biggest SEO opportunity for most businesses isn't a new tool, a new tactic, or a new algorithm hack — it's simply showing up consistently and claiming your authority? In this episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, Jeremy Rivera sits down with Jason Wade , founder of Ninja AI and an expert in AI visibility architecture , GEO , and AEO . They go deep on what it actually means to engineer...

Stephan Bajaio — CEO and co-founder of Vibe Logic , former co-founder of Conductor , and ex-CMO — joins Jeremy Rivera on the Unscripted SEO Podcast for one of the most candid conversations we've had about why the SEO industry keeps losing the narrative about itself — and what practitioners can actually do about it. Stephan built his career from the dot-com era through to co-founding one of the lar...

In this episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast , host Jeremy Rivera sits down with Brandon Leibowitz , founder of SEO Optimizers — a full-service digital marketing agency based in Los Angeles. With nearly two decades of experience in SEO, paid ads, social media, and coaching, Brandon shares his grounded, practitioner-level take on the AI search landscape and what actually moves the needle.   Topics...