Webcology

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. Sur...

This was a weird week punctuated by the stupefyingly terrible news of the Titan submarine disaster, (which was confirmed by the US Coast Guard in the middle of the show recording), and the shockingly hilarious news of a potential cage match between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. The early money is on Zuckerberg who is a trained MMA fighter and twelve years younger than the 51-yea...

"Whispers from within, Nature's laughter fills the air, Gentle cheeks release.", ChatGPT for Chrome, 2023 It's been another week of extraordinary A.I. developments with plenty of examples of A.I. screw-ups, gripes, and fears as we surge forward figuring out how to best use and abuse the powers of A.I... Kristine Schachinger and Jim Hedger look at Chatbots in Search and talk about a...

The impacts of artificial intelligence are everywhere and we spend a lot of time talking about those impacts but we also got to talk about some regular Googley stuff too. Jim Hedger and Kristine Schackinger did start off on a high note, noting the reports of the death of a US Air Force member testing an AI-operated drone were greatly and completely exaggerated as it was only a simulation. Paraphra...

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 q...

In what is possibly one of the most interesting and entertaining interviews we've recorded in a while, Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talk with SEO legend Martin MacDonald about the development and release of the industry's first AI-supported SEO Auditing tool, Serpere. AI -  https://serpere.ai/ .  Martin has been a practicing SEO since the dawn of the commercial Internet and has work...

Google announced major changes to search results as artificial intelligence-assisted search becomes part of Google's information universal ecosystem (*except for Canadians, Germans, and a small gaggle of other unfortunates whose governments find themselves arguing with Google)  In this show, Jim Hedger and Kristine Shachinger talk about the biggest announcements from Google IO and how coming c...

Geoffery Hinton is widely considered the Godfather of Artificial Intelligence. His research into human brain function in the late 1980s and early 90s at the University of Toronto prompted him and a team of early neural researchers to start to conceive of a digital brain that could learn. His work is considered the foundation of modern machine learning and large language models. He recently stepped...

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 covered the growth of Spoutable Elon's Secret faux-min...

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 in...

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...

Like Elvis in a Mojo Nixon song, AI is everywhere man. This week hosts Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talk through the confusing ways the SEO and tech industries are taking to AI. From hallucinated Guardian stories to a treasure trove of industrial espionage opportunities, this week offered us a lot of lessons about being careful around AI. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands...

Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger talked about a number of stories this week focusing on the implications of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, the suddenly introduced March 2023 Google Core Update, the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT4, and the educational game SEOpoly. There was no end of big and important things to talk about this week, we wanted to make time for Jef Van Gool, innovator of SEO...

Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger host an informative and very fun show today with guests, Mitul Ghandi co-founder and chief architect and Mark Traphagen, VP of Product Marketing and Training from the enterprise-SEO super-system SEOClarity (https://seoclarity.net). Mitul and Mark join Jim and Kristine to talk about the multi-feature rollouts SEOClarity introduced during its Release Week. SEOClar...

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 a...

This was a technical heavy show focusing on talking announcements from Pubcon, Google’s Feb2023 Product Reviews Update, how Bing uses AI content, changes to credentials at Search Console, Russian propagandists exploiting Twitter verification, and the cases in front of the US Supreme Court that might threaten Section 260. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https:...

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 inten...

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 mak...

We had a truly interesting show following last week's Yandex data leak. Mike King, CEO of iPullRank sits in as a guest for the full hour. This is the first week Kristine Schachinger from Sites Without Walls in Las Vegas has sat in the official co-host's seat. Welcome home, Kristine! This is the second week in a row I was able to write the intro to a guest while listening to their music on...

This was Dave’s last show as cohost and it was a special one. Over the past few weeks, we have been witnessing and in many cases, participating in the greatest transformation of the digital age. The AI revolution is in full swing and Dave is an emerging expert in the fields of AI and machine learning relating to the search. We have also seen significant changes in how Google wants to look at conte...

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 char...

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 mi...

Twas two weeks before Christmas and across the wide web SEOs were hitting their desks with their heads Google had come to update itself Guaranteeing no downtime For us little elves Along with a number of other Googley things, Jim Hedger and Dave Davies talk about getting Scroogled again this year.  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A most excellent news round-up day with Jim Hedger and Dave Davies rolling through several major stories that affect the search industry this week. The biggest story in tech is the massive fallout from Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. It feels like the social media universe is reordering itself as Twitter and Facebook (Meta) face the biggest challenges in their histories. Advertising Inquiries: ht...

Today on Webcology Kristine Schachinger from Sites without Walls cohosts with Jim Hedger from Digital Always Media. They talk about The return of conferences and the State of Search Conference – last week in Dallas TX. They also dive into Barbados SEO – two weeks from now, as well as The 2022 Social Media Big Tech implosion AND MORE! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Op...