Nichola Stott on running, hiring and evaluating an SEO agency

Topics & sourcesSEO newsGoogle core and spam updates roll outBing Webmaster Tools adds featuresGoogle Unleashes Manual Actions Galore After Search Spam Policy UpdatesAI-content websites deindexed?!Goodbye FID! INP now part of CWV metricsLiz Reid announced as new Head of SearchAI newsThe AI Act: first-ever legal framework on AISam Altman chats with Lex FriedmanSGE being tested in search interfaceWordPress newsWordPress 6.5: The features you want to know aboutYoast newsYoast SEO 22.3: Introducing AI for category and tag pagesBluehost announces WP Cloud hosting

Topics & sourcesSEO news INP coming to CWV on March 12Does Structured Data Markup influence EEAT?The SEO Starter Guide got a makeoverGoogle: We Don't Say Core Web Vitals Are A Ranking FactorUpdated the availability of Web StoriesTimings on HCU recovery?New Search experiences in EEAGoogle adds Product Variants supportReddit and Google expand partnershipAI newsOpenAI introduces SoraBard is now Gemini, 1.5 releasedOpenAI developing AI web search?Search volume at risk by AI?Gemma: laptop-friendly open model AIWordPress newsWordPress 6.5 Beta 1 ready for testingYoast newsYoast SEO 22.1: AI update and better language support

Topics & sources2024: SEO predictions and trendsGoogle: new ways to search in 2024Growth of voice and visual searchSemantic search and intent optimizationBuilding helpful content and topical authoritySGE’s wider adoptionSEO newsGoogle has started phasing out third-party cookiesGoogle clarifies primary source of snippetsGoodbye Google WebsitesGoogle Perspectives dominated By Twitter, YouTube & RedditLarge SEO Reddit Community Taken Over By New ModeratorsGoogle Drops Thousands Of Search Quality Raters In Latests CutsGoogle Search are getting worse (report)Google to change European search results to show comparison sitesAI news94% of Google SGE links are different from organic search results, study findsNew York Times Lawsuit Against OpenAIBing Gained Less Than 1% Market Share Since Adding Bing ChatSGE not happening after all?3 new generative AI features for Chrome

Mike and Joost will cover the following topics during this episode, with timestamps indicating when the topic comes up:1:08 - Who is Mike King? 4:15 - Importance of talking at conference for business5:49 - Technical SEO renaissance10:54 - The future of natural language generation 15:15 - Should SEO starters use tools or not? 17:47 - The power of internal linking21:46 - Increase CTR by using personas in SEO27:35 - An example of the iPullrank personas31:15 - Mike’s rapper career, and more of his future plansResources of this podcast episode:Podcast episode with Mike King - https://www.yoast.com/podcast/mike-king-2021iPullrank SEO video at mozcon - https://wistia.com/learn/show-news/how-ipullrank-launched-the-worlds-first-seo-movieiPullrank - https://ipullrank.com/Botify - https://www.botify.com/Marcus talks about what he does at Ryte - https://yoast.com/podcast/marcus-tandler-podcast/Kevin Indig guide to internal linking - https://www.kevin-indig.com/blog/internal-linking-the-full-guide-to-internal-link-axioms/

Marcus and Joost will cover the following topics during this episode, with timestamps indicating when the topic comes up:2:01 - What do Ryte and Marcus do? 5:19 - How website UX is important for SEOs8:37 - How the field of SEO changed into holistic SEO14:14 - What Ryte does to make the internet more carbon neutral18:35 - Blocking crawlers to save energy21:51 - Where is Ryte going in the next few years?23:51 - A good thing about the differentiating of SEO tools 28:50 - How Ryte predicts important KPIs35:46 - Is website speed a big ranking factor?  38:09 - Discover the patterns in Core Web Vital updates

Cindy and Joost will cover the following topics during this episode, with timestamps indicating when the topic comes up:1:18 - Passage ranking: Google indexing text fragments4:02 - Progressive Web App (PWA) in search results8:26 - Making indexed information accessible for all languages11:52 - Cindy’s take on the future of SEO14:06 - All about MobileMoxie’s (new) tools16:07 - The benefits of MoblieMoxies ‘page-oscope’19:18 - How coders help Google by adding markup22:52 - The importance of Core web vitals25:56 - New idea: a JSON-LD version for a URL29:30 - Why everyone, including big brands, should use WordPress30:57 - The future of voice search34:45 - New idea: Markup the first paragraph of news articles as speakable

Lily and Joost will cover the following topics during this episode, with timestamps indicating when the topic comes up:2:00 - The SEO specialty of Lily Ray4:21 - What is a good future proof SEO strategy?6:25 - How to improve your E-A-T and the role of schema in this11:13 - How to measure if E-A-T changes have an effect12:54 - The influence of Google’s intent and it’s core updates for E-A-T and site-ranking 19:06 - Actionable tips on how to build trust on a certain topic 20:10 - The next steps of Google on; E-A-T, E-commerce, SERPs “People also ask” and Paid Ads26:29 - Why SEO is getting more important than paid ads28:52 - The benefits of using WordPress and Yoast for E-A-T and structured data31:58 - Is it profitable to start a new e-commerce space nowadays?  36:24 - The closeness and helpfulness of the SEO community39:24 - The one thing that people should do to improve their E-A-T

Nichola and Joost will cover the following topics during this episode, with timestamps indicating when the topic comes up:1:47 - When should you hire an agency?7:52 - Should you keep doing parts of SEO yourself as a business owner?12:24 - What you should look for in and expect from an agency?15:12 - What a good client looks like for Erudite agency17:04 - Budgeting for your SEO and content strategy19:13 - What to expect when starting to work with an SEO agency?21:35 - At what point does a business not need an agency anymore?24:19 How often do agencies and customers communicate?26:27 How to keep your agency up to date on the latest news and research in SEO?34:02 - In what way do easy-to-use CMSs change agency work?40:44 - The most important KPIs for an agency to report on

Marieke and Joost will cover the following topics during this episode, with timestamps indicating when the topic comes up:1:20 - How Marieke became the CEO of Yoast 4:20 - The origin of the readability analysis in Yoast SEO7:52 - The importance of readability 12:53 - Readability analysis changes in the past 5 years 18:12 - Product copy and SEO26:14 - Using video in your marketing28:39 - What led up to Marieke becoming the CEO of Yoast?31:40 - What a conversion rate and Marieke's PhD conclusion have in common38:42 - How Marieke sees the core values of Yoast

Kristopher and Joost will cover the following topics during this episode, with timestamps indicating when the topic comes up:2:55 - Building and scaling a business7:24 - How Kristopher deals with career paths of people in agencies13:39 - What challenges do Kristopher's clients struggle with?19:07 - Investing in companies20:38 - Kristopher's technology accelerator buildings23:59 - The hybrid working environment27:34 - Kristopher tells about Special Guests, his entertainment booking platform35:22 - Why eCommerce businesses are on Kristopher's investment wish list