Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast

Overview: How does a brand successfully leverage organic content utilizing paid content? The separation between organic and paid content used to be much like the separation of Church and State until brands began using paid channels to boost organic search rankings to much success. On this episode of Voices of Search Ben Shapiro spoke with expert Amine Bentahar from Advantix Digital on how brands s...

Episode overview: Industry heavyweights Amazon and Walmart are already experiencing success after Google’s September 2019 core algorithm update went live less than a month ago, despite the lack of data available. Initial impressions suggest the update is placing a greater focus on user expectations and a need to fulfill EAT and YMYL principles. Ben Shapiro spoke with Jordan Koene on a special edit...

Why do many companies with great reputations over-optimize their content, which hinders their users’ experience? Excellent content needs a combination of outstanding content quality combined with a stellar user experience to truly gain the loyalty and dedication of your customers. Join Ben and Jordan Koene as they break down the essentials of content optimization and how to avoid common pitfalls t...

Episode Overview: With a little more than a week to determine the impact of the latest Google core update and the Real News update, some early winners are emerging with BuzzFeed as the biggest surprise followed by Spotify while YouTube continues to dominate the entertainment category. Join Tyson Stockton and Ben as they suss out the post-update landscape. Show Notes Connect With:  Tyson...

Episode Overview: Ben and Jordan tackle the rapid-fire series of Google algorithm updates that began on September 10th with no-follow attribution changes (and additions), September 12th with original news reporting and the 18th with rich results clarifications. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Website  //  LinkedIn  Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedI...

Episode Overview: Learn about the audacious site migration that allowed Dan Petrovic and Dejan marketing to escape and correct a severe manual Google penalty while dropping his link profile from 13,000 to 77 links. Show Notes Connect With: Dan Petrovic:  Website  //  LinkedIn Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //   Twitter See Privacy Policy at...

Episode Overview: What could lead a well-known Australian SEO agency to delete its entire website and publish a new one? Join Dan Petrovic of Dejan Marketing and learn how a brilliant bit of link building turned into disaster (and how they recovered). Show Notes Connect With: Dan Petrovic: Website // LinkedIn Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //   Twitte...

Episode Overview: In the final episode of Grey Hat Week, we take a look at the how to diagnose, define and adjust to the full range of penalties doled out by Google as they catch up to Grey Hat tactics over time. Show Notes Connect With:  Joe Sinkwitz:  Website  //  LinkedIn Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //   Twitter See Privacy P...

Episode Overview: When viewed through the right lens, hyper-personalization, user testing and conversion rate optimization are tactics that savvy SEO’s can use to boost performance. Learn how with Joe Sinkwitz from Digital Heretix. Show Notes Connect With:  Joe Sinkwitz:  Website  //  LinkedIn Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //   Twitter...

Episode Overview: We’re joined again by Joe Sinkwitz, principal of Digtial Heretix and CEO and co-founder of Intellifluence. Listen in as Ben and Joe dig into grey hat strategies for key word stuffing and content hacks as well as slipping into the dark side with content stripping and republishing. Show Notes Connect With:  Joe Sinkwitz:  Website  //  LinkedIn Benjamin Shapiro :...

Episode Overview: Despite rumours to the contrary, purchasing backlinks remains a popular grey hat tactic for increasing domain authority. In this episode, Ben and Joe dig into the art of purchasing backlinks while remaining in the fuzzy grey zone. Show Notes Connect With:  Joe Sinkwitz:  Website  //  LinkedIn Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //&nb...

Episode Overview: Join us for the kick-off of grey hat week with Joe Sinkowitz of Digital Heretix as he and Ben explore the landscape of back linking, keyword stuffing and cloaking with a little brand reputation management thrown in for good measure. Show Notes Connect With: Joe Sinkwitz: Website // LinkedIn Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //   Twitter See...

Episode Overview: Grey Hat SEO is an ill defined practice as much as it is a danger zone for marketers. Join Jordan and Ben to understand the boundaries and risks of operating in the Grey zone. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Website  //  LinkedIn  Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //   Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://ar...

Episode Overview: Black Hat SEO. It’s easy to dismiss it as a set of tactics long overcome by Google guidelines. But as link farms die, cloaking tactics become more sophisticated. And in the case of our host Ben, a misunderstanding of Google guidelines let to black hat penalties that torpedoed an acquisition. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Website  //  LinkedIn  Benjam...

Episode Overview: Navigating the waters of Google compliance. It used to be an art form, now it’s just good SEO practice to hue to ‘white hat’ SEO practices. In this episode, Ben and Jordan discuss the guidelines and requirements and how to understand them to follow great Google SEO practices and hygiene. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Website  //  LinkedIn  Benjamin S...

Episode Overview: August saw Facebook rebound, Twitter slide and Netsuite soften while YouTube continues to dominate SEO visibility. Will Twitter correct their slide? Does Sling have a chance? And, how much the long tails of the Game of Thrones benefit HBO as the summer comes to an end? Travel There’s good news for Travelocity who made up lost ground after the horror show of late 2018. Booking.com...

Episode Overview: Google’s search algorithms must consider the users context: their location, language, custom settings and inherent personalization attributes. Optimal search results depend on it. On the flip side, SEO’s must consider the very same signals and their limited ability to customize their content and settings to reach niche audiences. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Websi...

Episode Overview: Do you know whether your website is sending poor usability signals to Google? Identifying and avoiding the pain points that users encounter and ensuring that your website is not throwing off the signals that cause Google to deprecate otherwise outstanding content is the focus of today’s episode. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Website  //  LinkedIn&nbs...

Episode Overview: Content quality, it’s more than what’s on a single page – it’s everything that surrounds your content, the way that people navigate to it and the performance of your site. Eloquently captured by the acronym E-A-T, and an important recent Google update, SEOs need to consider the relative authority of their content, how Google would measure their expertise and the trust they’ve bui...

Episode Overview: The relevancy of your online content and its success in the SERPs depends on sending quantifiable, measurable signals that squarely match the core topic and intent of a given page (aka, the science of SEO). In this episode, Ben and Jordan talk about balancing keywords and page-level assets to send the correct content relevancy signals to Google. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Ko...

Episode Overview: Google’s rise to dominance in the global digital ad market is built on understanding what end users are trying to accomplish. Better known as user intent, Google’s ability to diagnose and parse informational, transactional and navigational queries is a key element of their search algorithms and our starting point for Algorithm Week. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:&nbs...

Episode Overview: Understanding the nuances and relationships between Google Guidelines and their supporting policies is a mainstay of the SEO community. In the 111th episode of Voices of Search, Jordan returns to give a crash course on Google Guidelines and Policies, how to interpret them and where source the information you’ll need to stay on top. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Web...

Episode Overview: Are ranking factors the Rosetta Stone of the Google Algorithm or just Pig Latin for SEOs? Ben and Jordan draw distinct lines between the two to help our loyal listeners understand the difference. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:  Website  //  LinkedIn  Benjamin Shapiro :  Website  //  LinkedIn  //   Twitter See Privacy Polic...

Google's search algorithm has defined the search marketing landscape for the better part of two decades and created an entire cottage industry of SEO alchemists, but what exactly is it, and, how does it work? In this opening episode of algorithm month, Jordan and Ben set the table by defining the rules and structure that govern Google search algorithm. Show Notes Connect With: Jordan Koene:&n...

A successful holiday season is a process that starts far in advance for SEOs. This week Tyson Stockton, Searchmetrics’ Director of Services, walks us through the five steps to executing a successful holiday campaign. In today’s episode, Tyson walks us through how to understand and scale your holiday campaign performance. Show Notes Connect With:  Tyson Stockton:  Website  ...