The Recipe For SEO Success Show

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Hello, lovely humans, Kate Toon here and I'm sad to say that this is the final episode of the Recipe for SEO Success Podcast. Since around 2015, I've cooked up nearly 300 episodes with brilliant guests from tech tinkerers to content nerds. It's been a lot of fun. Thank you for listening, learning, and laughing with me.

Tune in to learn:

Why I'm moving on from the Recipe for SEO Success
How to keep your site relevant and user-friendly
What's next for me

Head to the show notes.

Useful resources:

Follow the Hearts, Minds & Money Podcast
Join the Hearts, Minds & Money Community on Facebook
Buy my new book: Six Figures in Sales

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What still works, and what was overhyped Hello SEO beasts. Kate Toon here – your once SEO-obsessed, slightly odd host of The Recipe for SEO Success. Today is a big, squishy, full-circle moment. After 11 years of recording (with a few gaps), 200 brilliant guests, more than 500,000 downloads, and thousands of fabulous humans taking my courses - we've arrived at the penultimate episode of this podcast. And who better to help us cross the finish line than my very first guest, the moustachioed maestro of marketing himself: Rand Fishkin.

I'm keen to hear how Rand thinks the marketing market place has changed over the last decade or so.

What he misses, what he's glad we've left behind.

Also, where he thinks we're heading in this world of AI?

We're going to talk beyond blue links and into the messy, magical world of podcasts, newsletters, communities, and those shadowy corners of the internet where great marketing quietly happens.

Let's get stuck in.

Tune in to learn:

Stepping Away from SEO: Rand and Kate's Journey
What Marketers Believe Now vs 2015
Overhyped Trends: Mobile-First, Voice Search, and AI Job Losses
Which platforms work best for different types of businesses
Zero-Click Results and the Future of Search
What Still Works: Copywriting, PR, and Email
What's next for Rand

Useful resources:

First episode of Recipe: SEO for small business: Interview with Rand Fishkin (NEWBIE)
How to go Viral with Rand Fishkin (NEWBIE)
Six Figures in Sales

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

The Ultimate AI SEO Checklist
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Evolving with the ever-changing search engines

With the rise of AI search tools, it's important to make sure your business is showing up in the search snippets and in the LLMs.

But where are they pulling information from, what are people searching, and how can we make a successful SEO strategy for 2026?

Today we have Elizaveta, the Head of Marketing at Serpzilla, to help answer these questions and more.

Tune in to learn:

Why we want to show up in AI search summaries
How to become the kind of brand that AI search summaries recommend
How far AI search has expanded since it began
Where AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity are sourcing their data from
Why AI results love FAQ pages, How-To's, step-by-step guides and expert commentary
Why proving your content is structured, practical, original, and socially validated to LLMs is important
Backlinks - variety beats volume: Why it's better to have one link from 10 different sites over a hundred links from the same site.
How Serpzilla can help strategically place content on sites that AI already tends to quote or source from
How to get started with the three most important components for your AI SEO strategy
Elizaveta's top advice for having a solid AI SEO strategy

Useful resources:

Serpzilla
LinkedIn

Head to episode notes

Workshops:

AI SEO for Beginners
AI SEO Prompt Writing and Optimisation

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate AI SEO Checklist
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Keeping your site safe, speedy and searchable

Today, my AI SEO Snippet co-host, Tony Cosentino, has full rein of the episode to share his tips and advice about WordPress SEO, and a bit of AI mixed in.

If you haven't heard already, Tony is an expert on the Recipe for SEO Success Course, in the DMC membership, and is of course, my beloved. So stay tuned to learn all about WordPress SEO.

Tune in to learn:

Why internal links are important
How to check and manage your internal links
How schema works
Helpful schema tools for WordPress sites
Why speed matters to Google and your customers
Ways you can optimise your site to speed it up
How to keep your website secure
Why you should review your plugins regularly
How to integrate Google and track as much data as possible
How to get ahead of the curve of LLMs and AI instead of chasing it
Tony's favourite tools for WordPress

Useful resources:

AI SEO Workshop for beginners

Internal links:

Link Whisper
Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Schema:

Yoast SEO
Header Footer Code Manager
WPCodeBox
Schema Validator

Speed:

GTmetrics
WP Rocket
Imagify

Security:

Solid Security
Wordfence

Backups:

Updraft Plus

Google Integration:

Google Search Console
Google Analytics
Independent Analytics
Tracking Code Manager

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Bringing on AI as your intern, not the team leader Today you'll be hearing from another expert from the big Recipe course. For this episode, I've invited Cath Fowler, Copywriter and Keyword queen to explain how AI is affecting keyword research, her top tips, and why AI hasn't put her out of a job yet.

Tune in to learn:

How AI is changing keyword research
How prompts can uncover long tail keyword opportunities for you
What risk comes with the overuse of AI
Why human judgment is still absolutely critical
Cath's predictions on where AI-driven search is heading in the future.

Useful resources:

AI SEO Workshop for beginners
SEMrush
Ahrefs

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

The Ultimate AI SEO Checklist
Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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So if you've read anything about AI SEO, you'll have heard the word Schema used, sometimes known as structured data.

In this episode, Tony Cosentino and I will demystify the schema jargon, show you where schema actually moves the AI SEO needle and give you some practical steps to implement it.

And don't worry, no technical degree is required.

So grab a cuppa, open your JSON-LD, and let's teach the robots to love your website.

Listen to all the AI SEO Snippet episodes

Useful links:

AI SEO: Workshop for Beginners
The WP Guy
Free: Ultimate AI SEO Checklist
Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
Free: The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course
Sign up for the Recipe for SEO Success Course

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Today Tony Cosentino and I are diving into a seismic shift for AI SEO: Shopify's New integration with ChatGPT. It's bringing real native shopping straight into AI conversations.

OpenAI has launched Instant checkout, powered by Agentic Commerce Protocol, whatever that means, and built with Stripe so shoppers can discover and buy products without ever leaving the chat.

So we're gonna unpack what it means for AI SEO, how to make your catalogue 'agent ready', why structured data and entity clarity matter it more than ever, and the practical steps to get your product data, pricing and inventory ready for conversational discovery. Let's future proof your store for the age of agentic commerce.

Listen to all the AI SEO Snippet episodes

Useful links:

AI SEO: Workshop for Beginners
The WP Guy
Free: Ultimate AI SEO Checklist
Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
Free: The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course
Sign up for the Recipe for SEO Success Course

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Today, Tony Cosentino and I are talking all about Experience Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness with a little AI elbow grease.

If you think E‑E‑A‑T is just for Google boffins, stick around—by the end of this episode you'll have an AI EEAT recipe you can actually cook.

We'll break down what E‑E‑A‑T really means, how AI can make it measurable, and where humans still need to keep their hands on the wheel.

Listen to all the AI SEO Snippet episodes

Useful links:

AI SEO: Workshop for Beginners
The WP Guy
Free: Ultimate AI SEO Checklist
Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
Free: The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course
Sign up for the Recipe for SEO Success Course

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Now there's a lot of misunderstanding about where tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc. get the data that they're using to give you answers with, right?

People get very confused about this.

So today Tony Cosentino and I are going to talk about data sources for LLMs.

Did you ever think you'd be listening to a podcast about something so fascinating? I bet you didn't.

Listen to all the AI SEO Snippet episodes

Useful links:

AI SEO: Workshop for Beginners
The WP Guy
Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
Free: The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course
Sign up for the Recipe for SEO Success Course

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Right, so maybe you're feeling, you've finally got your head around SEO and now there's AIO, GEO and AI SEO flying around like confetti at our wedding.

It's like the digital marketing world has gone acronym mad. But here's the thing, your customers are asking ChatGPT for recommendations instead of just Googling.

So today, Tony Cosentino and I are going to cut through the jargon to explain what these terms actually mean and what they mean for your small business, and also why you should care.

Listen to all the AI SEO Snippet episodes

Useful links:

AI SEO: Workshop for Beginners
The WP Guy
Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
Free: The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course
Sign up for the Recipe for SEO Success Course

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Welcome to AI SEO Snippets, the newest podcast from the Recipe for SEO Success, hosted by Kate Toon, SEO Educator and digital marketing lover and Tony Cosentino, AI super nerd and WordPress warrior.

Each episode is a quick hit of actionable insights, delivering essential AI SEO knowledge without any fluff or jargon.

Get ready to boost your SEO game in just a few minutes—because our aim is to help you succeed, one snippet at a time.

Listen to all the AI SEO Snippet episodes

Useful links:

AI SEO: Workshop for Beginners
The WP Guy
Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
Free: The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course
Sign up for the Recipe for SEO Success Course

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Today I'm going to hand the mic over to our very own resident Shopify SEO expert on the big course, and also in the digital marketing collective, my VIP marketing membership.

Her name is Kerri Bennett, her business is Yellow Door Digital. She is a legend.

Today she'll be sharing her tips and advice to help you on your Shopify SEO journey and avoid making all the wrong moves.

Tune in to learn:

Why you should never buy a third-party theme
Why Shopify is actually easier for SEO beginners
Why you should always duplicate your main theme before making edits
Why you should never let a website developer be the owner of your store
Why it’s unwise to buy your domain name from Shopify
Kerri’s tips for creating SEO-friendly content on your product pages
Why you should steer clear of editing your robots.txt file
What to do when you want to remove a product
How to keep your discount codes safe
Why you should never put your store on password-only access

Useful resources:

VentraIP

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Posting on platforms with purpose For the last few years, we’ve all been a bit single-minded. Google, Google, Google And that makes sense, Google's market share has consistently been around 90-95% globally, but it’s slipping. And platforms like ChatGPT come along and blow everything out of the water, perhaps it’s time we got a little bit more search-agnostic.

Not sure what I mean? In this episode, we’ll explain all.

Tune in to learn:

What search agnosticism is
What sites and social platforms are now used as search engines
Why writing for humans first, search engines second is key
How to decide what content works best for each platform
How search agnosticism changes the way you write and do keyword research
How to be more strategic with your content
Jessica’s top tips for being more search agnostic

Useful resources:

Connect with Jess on LinkedIn

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Getting started with quizzes, surveys and calculators Welcome to another episode of The Recipe for SEO Success, where we whisk together strategies for search engine glory.

Today we’re sharing a little-known secret ingredient for capturing leads and boosting engagement on your website, calculators and quizzes.

These interactive tools can be your golden ticket to increasing your audience and gaining more insights. We're joined by the brilliant Steven Schneider, who will dig into the magic of these interactive tools in SEO.

So if you’re sick of average lead magnets and looking for something a little more special, get your ears ready to hear why calculators and quizzes are your new SEO BFFs.

Tune in to learn:

How interactive tools and calculators can help SEO
How to decide what kind of interactive tool is relevant to your audience
How you can draw people to your site with keywords leading to an interactive tool
How quizzes can lead to PR and backlink opportunities
How to get started setting up surveys and quizzes to put on your site
How to promote your new interactive tool once it’s live
Why you should follow up with an email flow
What to put in the email flow to keep customers in your funnel
Why rushing the process is a common mistake people make when setting up an interactive tool or quiz
Steven’s favourite tools to make online surveys, quizzes and tools

Useful resources:

Lovable

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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How Learning Language Models are affecting search

Ah AI, it's all everyone's talking about and utterly fascinating, yet also boring as bat poo at the same time. While some are using AI to create new tools and innovate, my partner, the WordPress guy, is doing amazing things, most of us are using it to make AI versions of themselves as dogs or creating rubbish lists of two-word keywords in ChatGPT.

So how will AI affect SEO, and what do we really need to know to make the best use of it in our small businesses? Today I'm talking to an AI guru who will shed some light on this hot topic.

Tune in to learn:

What types of AI are relevant to SEO
How AI overviews work
Whether you should optimise your site for ChatGPT
Why AI and LLMs are not the end of SEO
Common mistakes business owners make when using Claude or ChatGPT to generate content for their sites
What type of content is still relevant to add to your site
How to use AI in your business in a positive way
Matthew’s thoughts on a ‘zero click’ future, and why it isn’t as dire as it seems

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Using keywords to showcase my creative business on Google

Getting SEO advice is one thing, but how much of it is really doable for the average business human?

In my reality SEO episodes, I talk to real life people and get the truth about how they use SEO and digital marketing to improve their business.

Today I'm talking to a former student of the Recipe for SEO Success course, Rebecca Eddison.

We'll chat about how Bec got her start in SEO, the digital marketing highs and lows, and the challenges she's faced along the way.

Useful resources:

Umina Beach Book Nook

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Understanding the stats that matter Hey there, it's Kate Toon, here to sprinkle some SEO seasoning on your day with the Recipe for SEO Success Podcast.

Today, we've got a delightful dish brewing with the incredible Sally Mills. We're diving into Google Search Console—the boring, yet indispensable, cousin of Google Analytics.

Often overlooked, this tool is a treasure trove for businesses, helping whip up insights into your website's performance, show you which keywords bring visitors to your door, and even help you spot those pesky errors that need a quick fix. So, grab your aprons and let's cook up some SEO magic that will elevate your business to new heights.

Tune in to learn:

What the point of Google Search Console is
Why you should set up your Google Search Console account
How to find out if your site has been crawled and indexed
What to do when you have 500 errors
What data you can get out of Google Search Console about mobile usability
What Core Web Vitals are
How to keep track of your keywords with Google Search Console
How to see what backlinks are driving traffic to you
Sally’s top tips for getting the most out of Google Search Console

Useful resources:

Google Search Console
Lighthouse
Keywords Everywhere
Bing Webmaster Tools

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Building recognition for your brand and profile

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Recipe for SEO Success podcast, hosted by yours truly, Kate Toon. Today, I'm thrilled to bring you an episode that promises to revolutionize your approach to link building. I've invited the incredible Christopher Panteli to join us, a master in the art of securing the most coveted links on the planet. Together, we'll explore practical strategies and insider tips that will empower you to craft these critical connections yourself.

Whether you're a seasoned SEO guru or taking your first steps into the land of Google, our insights will guide you to enhance your online authority and boost your search rankings. So, grab a cup of tea and prepare to transform your SEO strategy as we delve into the fascinating world of link acquisition.

Tune in to learn:

Why link-building is so important
How digital PR link-building differs from other nefarious link-building
How small businesses can start building links locally and pitching for stories
How to get value out of an unlinked mention online
Different strategies for putting your expertise out there
Why being featured or published can boost your trust factor
What common mistakes to avoid when engaging with the media

Useful resources:

HARO
SourceBottle
Qwoted
PressPlugs

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Welcome to another mouth-watering episode of the Recipe for SEO Success podcast. I'm your host, Kate Toon, the head chef in this delightful digital kitchen where we whip up scrumptious SEO strategies to elevate your online presence. Today we're diving into the tantalizing world of e-commerce SEO, sprinkling a dash of insight on the latest search engine result pages changes.

Joining us at the table is the insightful Jason Mun, who's here to guide us newbies through this ever-evolving landscape. So sharpen your SEO forks and knives because we're about to serve up some seriously actionable advice that'll have your e-commerce efforts rising to the top, like a perfectly baked souffle. Let's get cooking.

Tune in to learn:

What Google has recently changed in the SERPs that impacts ecommerce businesses
How to be featured in Google’s SERP organic shopping carousel
What impacts your ability to appear in the carousel
How product reviews can help boost your visibility
How labels can help you advertise your sales in Google Merchant Center
How you can reduce your workload and optimise your products
How Google’s brand knowledge panel works
Jason’s advice for ecommerce stores trying to build up their brand entity
How important category pages are, and why you should focus on them.

Useful resources:

SEO-Friendly Product Description Template
Google Merchant Center
Ecommerce SEO in 2025 with Louis Smith (NEWBIE)

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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It's a Toon tip day, and I want to talk to you about intrusive interstitials (aka pop ups).

Now, there's one funny thing about Google. Well, there's many funny things about Google, but one of them is the way they refer to things, they do have a rather la-di-doodle way of talking about things. So they talk about intrusive interstitials being a problem on websites, and what they mean by that is pop-ups. So, today I wanna talk about pop-ups and their impact on your ability to rank, sell, build customer loyalty and keep people on your site.

Listen to all the tip episodes

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably already trying to save money by doing SEO yourself.

But one of the biggest struggles for people doing DIY SEO is building backlinks.

That’s often why they resort to using an SEO agency, and let’s be honest, good SEO agencies aren’t cheap.

That’s because building quality backlinks takes a big amount of time. You’ve got to build the relationship, you’ve got to get the good content out there and even then it can take a while for those links to flow through.

But today I’ve got an amazing guest on to talk about a revolutionary idea: Can you still rank well without link-building?

Sponsor love:

Ready to uncover what's really holding your website back from Google Glory?

Firewire deliver detailed, no-fluff SEO audits that show you exactly what's working and what needs fixing.

Get yours for just $100 at FirewireDigital.com.au/audit and turn search into your most profitable revenue channel.

Tune in to learn:

What a backlink is, and what it does
How you can still compete with competitors that invest heavily in backlinks
How small local businesses can create great content that organically gets shared online
How to assess what kind of content Google is prioritising in your niche or industry
How using Google Analytics can show you how people engage with your website
Why click-through rate is important to focus on

Useful resources:

What the eff are entities in SEO? with Nik Ranger (NEWBIE)
Banned Books Brochure
SEO Forecasting: How to Predict and Plan the Future with Dan Petrovic (NEWBIE)

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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If you bought a small bookshop in a coastal town, in pretty much the middle of nowhere, what would you do to make it a success? In this episode, I'm going to be telling you exactly what I've done to try and make my new bookshop, Umina Beach Book Nook, rank well on Google and build a community of loyal and loving fans. It's going to be a combination of marketing, copywriting, SEO, a whole lot of hard work.

SPONSOR LOVE:

Ready to uncover what's really holding your website back from Google Glory?

Firewire deliver detailed, no-fluff SEO audits that show you exactly what's working and what needs fixing.

Get yours for just $100 at FirewireDigital.com.au/audit and turn search into your most profitable revenue channel.

Listen to all the tip episodes

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Connecting with community and promoting yourself Getting people through the door can be a constant struggle, which is why SEO is so important for local businesses.I know this for real now that I have a bookshop.

But with all the changes Google has made, how do you stand out in the local pack? Is the local pack even a thing anymore?

Today I’m chatting with a Local SEO expert about the latest advice, so stay Tooned.

Tune in to learn: * What local SEO is, and how it differs from normal organic SEO * How search intent and local results work * How to appear on the local pack * Why your Google Business Profile is so important * How to appear in the top three of the map pack * Why the Q&A section of your Google Business Profile is so powerful * How to manage negative reviews * How local link building differs from regular link building. * How to connect more within your community to raise awareness of your business

SPONSOR LOVE:

Ready to uncover what's really holding your website back from Google Glory?

Firewire deliver detailed, no-fluff SEO audits that show you exactly what's working and what needs fixing.

Get yours for just $100 at FirewireDigital.com.au/audit and turn search into your most profitable revenue channel.

Useful resources:

Google Business Profile
Ultimate SEO Checklist

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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It's Toon Tip time, and your trusty host, me, is here today to tackle that ever elusive question swirling in the minds of digital marketing managers everywhere. How long does it really take for SEO to work? Is it a sprint? A marathon, or maybe a bit of both?

Today we're going to be diving into timelines, managing expectations, and maybe even giving you the patience you need to see your glorious search engine rankings soar. Let's get stuck in.

Listen to all the tip episodes

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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When I started out, I was one of the few women in the SEO trenches. I remember joining an SEO Group on Google and realising I was literally the only female in there. I’m beyond chuffed to see that that’s no longer the case. At a recent SEO event in Newcastle over half of the audience were women. It’s great to see the SEO world and events trying to aim for more balanced, diverse speaker lineups. But we still have a long way to go. I still see articles featuring the top 100 SEOS and nearly all of them are middle-aged white men. (Usually with beards).

Today’s guest is passionate about amplifying women’s voices in SEO, and even has an upcoming event I’ll be speaking at. Let’s get into it.

Tune in to learn:

When Georgia got started in SEO
What made Georgia want to focus on building a strong SEO community for women
What has changed over the last few years in the SEO industry
How men can help support women in SEO
Who will be speaking at the Breaking Barriers IWD event
What Georgia’s community do to support each other and make online marketing life easier
What one area you should pay more attention to in your SEO

Useful resources:

Breaking Barriers Event: IWD Women in Digital Marketing

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Hello and welcome to The Recipe for SEO Success. Today it's Toon tip time. I'm going to share a short, sharp episode that gives you quick advice and helps make your SEO journey easier. And today I want to talk about E.E.A.T. (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

Kate discussed the importance of Google's EEAT framework for content creators to enhance their authenticity and authority in the digital landscape. She emphasized the need for content to reflect firsthand experience, demonstrate depth of knowledge, cite reliable sources, and establish a brand as a leader in its space. Kate also stressed the importance of transparency and strong signals in terms of reviews and testimonials.

Listen to all the tip episodes

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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In today's Toon tip I'm answering a question from the Misfits Entrepreneurs Facebook group from Jo Green: What are the top things to do to help your website and articles show up in Google AI overviews or AI search that are easy to implement?

Listen to all the tip episodes

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course
Join the Misfits Entrepreneur Facebook group

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Keeping your customers click-happy What does the future of ecommerce look like? Now, we’ve already done our SEO predictions episode covering the broad strokes, but today I want to focus on eCommerce.

What has changed, and what has stayed the same? How can you continue to compete with the big brand names in this new age of AI? Stick around and find out.

Tune in to learn: * What has changed in ecommerce over the last year * What technical aspects you should learn * What Google Shopping is * How Google Merchant Center works * Common UX mistakes ecommerce sites are making * What differences you can make to product descriptions for voice search * How AI is changing ecommerce business processes * How Louis keeps up with all the changes in ecommerce * Louis’s number-one tip for ecommerce owners

Useful resources:

Ecommerce SEO-friendly UX: from crappy to kerching with Louis Smith (NEWBIE)
Google Shopping
Google Merchant Centre
Microsoft Clarity
Magai
Hemingway
Personal Branding Workbook

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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It's time for my first SEO tip of 2025, and today we're going to be talking about SEO prompts for ChatGPT.

Now unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that ChatGPT is an advanced natural language processing AI model. Developed by OpenAI, it's all about trying to understand and generate ‘human-like’, and yes, I'm doing air fingers when I say human-like, text based on the input it receives.

It's a valuable tool, we love it, and lots of people are using it for SEO. Now, I want to give you some examples of how you can use it, say some prompts that might be helpful.

Listen to all the tip episodes

Useful links:

Magai

Freebies:

SEO SOS Challenge
Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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What’s important to Google this year

So it’s been a while, thanks for Tooning back in. As I mentioned in the kick-off episode for the year, I took a little break to deal with some personal stuff, but now I’m back and ready to face everything SEO has to throw at us in 2025. But what do we think is coming down the tube? How much will Chat GPT influence SEO? Do the old methods still work? Today I’m joined by one of my favourite SEO’s to talk through our predictions for the coming year.

Tune in to learn:

Why it’s important to focus on UX (user experience) friendly sites
Why Google AI summaries are here to stay
Why SEO needs to become a multi-channel approach
Why we need to move beyond keywords and focus on user intent behind queries
Why everyone (including SEO pros) needs to work on building up their EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)
Why video content is so important
Why we should focus on collaboration instead of creation
Why AI content is going to increase
How building communities can lead to potential customers
How you can use AI agents to streamline SEO processes

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Hey, we're back. It's 2025 and the Recipe for SEO Success podcast is back on the airwaves (or the earwaves or whatever podcasts are).

For those of you who have been following my story online, you'll know that 2024 wasn't my best year. Very sadly, my dad passed away, and that caused obviously a lot of upset and changes.

But never fear, we are back and I will be launching a series of episodes over the coming weeks and for the first part of this year, I really want to focus on Australian SEO talent. There are now dozens of SEO podcasts. When I started, there were very few. Now there are hundreds. Every software seems to have an SEO podcast, every publication.

But we seem to see the same guests appearing again and again, and they're often the celebrity guests who are also on the speaker circuit.

And since my audience is primarily real people, small business owners, ecommerce store owners, marketing managers, often who are trying to do SEO themselves with a very tight budget, I feel often these tips from the glamorous superstar SEOs aren't quite as relevant.

We'll also continue our reality SEO episodes where we talk to people who are doing the do who aren't necessarily getting paid as SEO experts. And also I will continue to do my tips,I really want to go back to the basics, what is happening in 2025?

How is SEO going to change? And of course it's always changing as it always has, we can't ignore the rise of ChatGTP and AI. So of course we'll be covering those in the episodes, but still core principles stay the same.

So that's going to be the focus. Aussie Experts for now, more tips and advice, more reality, and a real focus on getting back to basics. So if that sounds good to you, put this in your favourite, listen in and welcome back. I'm so glad to be back in my little seat in my little hut in my back garden talking SEO again.

Listen to all the tip episodes

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Hello, I just want to explain that we're going to be taking a little bit of a break on the podcast, probably about a month or so.

This is sadly because I've had some bad news from home and I need to return to the UK and spend some time with my family. So I hope you can bear with me while I get through this difficult time.

We will be back later in the year with more great episodes.

Thanks for listening. I wish you all well. Thank you.

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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How to make your ecommerce store stand out with SEO

Do you struggle to get your products to rank high on the search engine results pages?

Last year we went through how you can improve user experience on site with Louis Smith.

And today we’ll cover some common mistakes ecommerce owners make that can lead to their products ranking poorly, or sometimes not at all.

Tune in to learn:

How ecommerce SEO differs from service-based business SEO
What features ecommerce owners can access in the SERPS
Why you should get set up on Google Merchant Center.
The biggest mistakes ecommerce sites are making
What the best structure for product pages is
Patrick’s top tips on how to make more engaging product descriptions
How to use internal linking to cross-sell your products
Why having a personalised brand can help you stand out
What role schema plays in ecommerce sites

Useful resources:

Google Merchant Center
Google Keyword Planner
SEMrush
Ecommerce SEO-friendly UX: from crappy to kerching with Louis Smith (NEWBIE)

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
Free challenge: SEO SOS
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Today is a tip episode, no guest to interview, just little old me.

My tips, my advice.

These shorter, more succinct episodes are here to help with easy learning and quick wins and I promise they’re 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today I’m answering a question that was posted in the I LOVE SEO group about whether someone can optimise one web page of their website, and if that will be enough.

Listen to all the tip episodes

Freebies:

Free online training: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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There is a mountain of SEO advice out there, but how much of it is actually doable for the average business human?

In my reality SEO episodes, I talk to real humans and get the truth about how they use SEO and digital marketing to improve their businesses.

Today I’ll be talking to a former student of the Recipe For SEO Success Course, Jane Fonti.

We’ll chat about how Jane got her start in SEO, the digital marketing highs and lows, and the challenges she’s faced along the way.

Head to the episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO SOS Challenge
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Today is a tip episode, we’re going to be talking about easy ecommerce SEO, five things for store-owners to focus on in 2024.

I’m gonna be honest, I think that most ecommerce stores need to focus on some foundational elements.

So let's jump in.

Listen to all the tip episodes here.

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Knowing your audience and cutting through the noise

In 2024 with the rise of AI, it can feel like we’re moving further and further away from our humanity. If we can chatbot our customer service, analyse spreadsheets to decide our next move, and Chatgpt our content do we really need to build relationships with our customers any more?

Well obviously, yes, yes we do!

But where do we start?

How do we really know who our audience is, what they’re talking about and how to reach them?

Can we use data and insights to find out what podcasts they’re listening to, which social accounts they follow and the websites they love most?

And when we know all that information, what the hell do we do with it?

Today’s guest is an all-time favourite of the show and is going to help us understand what the eff is going on in the world of digital marketing and social media this year - and how we can be better marketers.

Tune in to Learn:

How much influence AI has actually had in digital marketing
The biggest challenges marketers are facing n 2024
What ‘dark social’ means
What the future of paid ads looks like
What is working in social media
How SparkToro works
How to use the data you find using SparkToro
Why email marketing is the way forward
What you should be investing your time in marketing right now

Useful resources:

Geraldine DeRuiter’s new book: If You Can’t Take the Heat

Head to the episode notes.

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Today is a tip episode, no guest to interview, just little old me.

My tips, my advice.

These shorter episodes are here to help with easy learning and quick wins and I promise they’re 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today we’re going to be talking about what the first steps are for a new website when it comes to SEO.

Check out all the Toon tips here.

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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So here we are, a fresh new year to grapple the Google beast and get our site found online.

But what should be our SEO priorities in 2024? What’s coming down the pipe? And what is old hat? Today I’m joined by one of our favourite guests on the Recipe for SEO Success podcast, Cyrus Shepard.

We’re going to be rubbing our crystal balls together and chatting through what we think are the big things to focus on in 2024. Will AI ruin SEO once and for all? What algorithm updates do we see coming? Can we finally forget schema? We’ll answer all this and more in today’s episode.

Tune in to learn:

What impact Generative AI will have on the Search results
The importance of User signals in ranking
What Cyrus learned as a Google quality rater
Whether backlinks still matter
If you still need to keep using schema
The three-second rule and why it matters more in 2024
What Cyrus learned from the recent Google privacy trial

And so much more.

Head to episode notes

Useful resources:

Cloudflare
Pingdom
GTmetrix
Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines

Freebies:

SEO SOS Challenge
Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Taking testing one step at a time

Do you ever wonder how effective your site’s SEO is?

You’ve put all this time and effort into finding effective keywords, your images are slim, your page loading time is faster than a fast thing.

But is it bringing in the clicks and sales? Because at the end of the day, ranking is nice, but you know what’s nicer? Making money!

Today we’re going to look at some tests you can run on your SEO to make sure it’s all ticking along, and what needs some work.

Tune in to learn:

What SEO testing is
Where to start - simple tests for small business owners
How to measure how successful your title tag is
How long you should run a test before looking at the results
How you can test the effectiveness of a featured snippet
How to look at your highest conversion pages and see where the clicks are really going
What tools Logan recommends for SEO testing
Logan’s top tip to get started with testing

Useful resources:

Google Search Console
SEOtesting
SEO pilot

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Today is a tip episode, no guest to interview, just little old me.

My tips, my advice.

These shorter, more succinct episodes are here to help with easy learning and quick wins and I promise they’re 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today we’re going to be talking about the 4 most common website issues I see every day.

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Embracing techy SEO to get found online

Getting SEO advice is one thing, but how much of it is really doable for the average business human?

In my reality SEO episodes, I talk to real humans and get the truth about how they use SEO and digital marketing to improve their businesses.

Today I’ll be talking to a former student of the Recipe For SEO Success Course, Elisha de Jonge.

We’ll chat about how Elisha got her start in SEO, the digital marketing highs and lows, and the challenges she’s faced along the way.

Useful resources:

SEO META in 1 CLICK

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Today is a tip episode, no guest to interview, just little old me.

My tips, my advice.

These shorter, more succinct episodes are here to help with easy learning and quick wins and I promise they’re 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today we’re going to be talking about how much should SEO cost?

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Now here’s me thinking that being online means I’m pretty green.

My entire business is up in the cloud, with very few physical products, not much post, and a little shed in the back garden that uses minimal electricity.

And I never use my printer, not because I’m green but because I can’t hook it up to my computer properly.

But today’s guest is going to explain how even hosting your website has environmental consequences and some simple steps to minimising your environmental footprint.

Tune in to learn:

What it means to be green online
How your digital footprint is connected to your carbon footprint
How climate change is being affected by websites, apps and email
Common practices online that are more harmful than helpful to the environment
What steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint
Why hosting is a big issue when it comes to being green
How True Green® can help reduce energy output
What to focus on when choosing a hosting platform

Useful resources:

True Green®
Facebook live event - being green online with Ray Pastoors
TinyPNG
SmallPDF

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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So today is a tip episode, no guest to interview, just little old me.

My tips, my advice.

These shorter more succinct episodes are here to help with easy learning and quick wins and I promise they’re 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today I’m answering questions about ecommerce SEO.

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Setting up a website is not a one-off process.

In many ways, it’s like having a plant.

Building your website and optimising it to be found is like setting up the nutrient-rich soil.

Hitting publish for the first time is like planting a seed.

Now you just sit back and see what happens right?

No, much like that little seed, if you ignore it, it will wither away, much like your website traffic.

You have to monitor it, remove any bugs, and give it plenty of water and sunshine. I’ll leave the plant metaphor there.

So how do we keep it healthy and thriving? The answer? Well, one answer is Google Search Console. I often describe it as Google Analytics ugly cousin, but in fact, it’s a rich source of website nutrients, helping you diagnose, and understand your website, and if necessary bring it back to life.

Today we’ll look at the benefits of using Google’s Search Console as a tool in your SEO garden shed to keep traffic high and problems low.

Tune in to learn:

What Google Search Console is
Two metrics to focus on when you’re getting started
What Sodiq thinks of Search Console Insights
Where to start looking when your traffic is way down
More advanced ways to use Google Search Console
Sodiq’s tips for getting acquainted with Google Search Console

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

Need a speedy SEO Fix?

These micro SEO tip episodes are a fast way to digest a little SEO knowledge for easy learning and quick wins and I guarantee they’re 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today I’ll be giving you some top tips on Local SEO.

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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*Showing Google you've got the goods*

Hey you, ecommerce store owner.
I know you got a sexy theme for your website that promised it was responsive, conversion-focused and all that jazz.
But is it?
So many ecommerce sites fall down on the basics of user experience.

Terrible navigation - check
Confusing home page - check
Bland category pages - check
Cut and paste product descriptions - check

And don’t get me started on that checkout experience.
Well, today we’re honing in on carts, shopping and making the sale.
Telling you how to turn casual browsers into eager buyers.

Tune in to learn

The three main differences between service-based business SEO and ecommerce SEO
How small businesses should build out the primary nav structure
Two ways to start driving more relevant traffic to your ecommerce site today
How to avoid the duplicate content issue with collection and product pages
How to do keyword research for collection pages and product pages
How to improve time on site and key information you should add to encourage customers through to the sale
How to stand out in the SERPS against the bigger brands
Optimising your product pages - where to start
Why generative AI isn’t going to doom ecommerce stores
The importance of your brand story, and taking consumers on a journey with your brand

Useful resources

Keywords Everywhere
Ahrefs
Semrush

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

Okay, are you ready for a rant?
I know I share interviews and chats.
I’ve now started sharing tips and advice.

But today it’s rant time. This Toon is angry and I want to share why.

So today I’m getting stuck into shitty SEO agencies.
What they do.
Why they do it.
And how to see the red flags before you get screwed.

Ready? Let’s go.

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Understanding how Google classifies context.

The Google beast has come a long way since 10 blue links, doorway pages and exact match domains.

But what’s changed the most is probably how we consider and use keywords.

At beginner level we’re gathering keywords, grouping them by content and then using them on our pages, but as Google strives to improve the search results, it has started to dig deeper, and look at more than just the words on the page - now Google thinks about both context and the relationships between words.

And this, my friends, is what we mean when we talk about entity-based SEO.

Tune in to learn:

Today we’ll cover:

What entities are
What a knowledge graph is
What semantic search is
How semantic search helps users find relevant information
Keyword research: how relevant it is with entities in the mix
Nik’s top 5 tips for content writers with Natural Language Processing in mind

Head to episode notes

Useful resources:

Great article on entity SEO
SEO Forecasting: How to Predict and Plan the Future with Dan Petrovic

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

I’ve started a new style of episode.

I’ve had an amazing run of interviewing other humans but often you don’t hear that much from me.

My tips, my advice.

So I thought I’d start sharing that with you.

After a long 5 years, shorter more succinct episodes for easy learning and quick wins, 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today I’ll be covering Core Web Vitals: what are they, why do we care about them, and how we can make them better.

Useful Resources:

Algorithm Change history
Algorithm updates

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Leaving your audience satisfied with every click

So you have your beautiful new website. You’ve carefully written the copy and paid an arm and a leg for a fancy pants design, you’ve even done a little SEO, optimising your images, writing titles and metas and making an effort to speed up your site.

But you’ve noticed something odd when you look at Google Analytics. Your time on site is low. People are only viewing one or two pages. And your conversions are lower than worm doing a limbo. ‘What went wrong?’ you cry, gnashing your teeth. Well it could be your user experience. How people enjoy and consume the content on your site, and travel from point a to point b. Perhaps there are 15 steps before I can check out. Perhaps the font is so small it needs a microscope to read.

Or the buttons have grey copy on a grey background. User experience is crucial not just for … the users, but also to please the Google beast, so lets dig into this topic today.

Tune in to learn:

User experience: what it is, and how it differs from accessibility
How to measure user satisfaction
Why engagement is so important to SEO
Which good engagement metrics to focus on
The pros and cons of heat mapping tools
Kevin’s best heat mapping tool recommendations
Which GA4 reports you should focus on
How marketers should approach SEO content in 2023, compared to 2013
Kevin’s number one tip to improve user experience

Useful resources:

Hotjar
Crazy Egg
Clarity by Microsoft
Speedy Website Review Checklist

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

A complete history of algorithm updates (and why they matter)

Google appears to be fiddling with things all the time, which can feel overwhelming for your average site owner.

But the truth is most of the updates don’t impact small business website owners, and Google is pretty open about the big changes that you really need to take action on. In this episode, I’ll run through a complete history of the algorithm updates since 2011 and explain what they mean and how they help.

Tune in to learn:

What is an algorithm?
Why are all the updates named crazy things?
The biggest updates you need to know about
Why Google changes things all the time
Bonus: top tips on how to use pop-ups on your website.

Useful Resources:

Algorithm Change history
Algorithm updates

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

Brendan Kelso and Kate Toon get back to basics

It’s time to get back to basics.

If you’re a regular listener to the podcast you’ll know we dive deep each episode into a different SEO challenge and adventure.

But today I though it would be useful to have a recap of common mistakes that we often see small business and professional services websites making.

Because the truth is it’s often not bleeding edge SEO that makes the difference in this market, but ensuring you’ve ticked off all the essentials.

So today put your mind at rest as I chat with Brendan Kelso about the core things you need to fix up to ensure your website gets the Google love.

Tune in to learn:

Easy site changes that make all the difference
SEO basics that most people forget
Why Google My Business should be a priority
Why it’s not the cutting-edge things that matter

And so much more.

Useful resources:

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Building quality backlinks and promoting your content

I know, I know, backlinks are well-trodden ground, we’ve covered them before and we’ll likely cover them again.

Because still after all this time, debate rages about whether backlinks really do make a difference to you ability to rank.

Google encourages us to earn, not buy links.

SEOs tell us to focus on quality not quantity.

We dutifully keep our backlink profiles clean, disavowing on a regular basis.

But is any of this working?

And if the black hat tactics don’t work (PBNs, comment spam and the rest) why do so many SEO types still do them?

Today we’re getting back to basics on backlinks and it’s a refresher that’s definitely worth your ear time.

Tune in to learn:

Do backlinks matter to Google?
If backlinks from social media have any impact or authority
Where to start setting up your first 3 backlinks
How to recognise good backlinks
How to recognise the red flags
How content promotion ties in with link-building
Ranking locally - what effect local backlinks will have
Alan’s favourite tools to track backlinks
Dodgy backlinks - are disavows worth it?
Alan’s top backlink tip

Useful resources:

Ahrefs
Growth Gorilla Email Finding Chrome Extension
Pitchbox
Hunter.io

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

I’ve started a new style of episode.

I’ve had an amazing run of interviewing other humans but often you don’t hear that much from me.

My tips, my advice.

So I thought I’d start sharing that with you.

After a long 5 years, shorter more succinct episodes for easy learning and quick wins, 100% jargon and gobbledegook free.

Today I’ll be answering the question that comes up a lot from my course students: Should I target zero-volume keywords?

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

Taking your brand global

While many of us start small and want simply to be found locally, over time our desire to be found on the global stage increases.

And even if we’re not directly targeting other countries, of course it’s likely that a fair share of your website visitors come from different countries and speak different languages, so it might be time to consider making your site more international.

But if you’re looking to create an international website, what do you need to consider?

In this episode we’ll focus on the three big tasks:

International-friendly URLS - or country targeting
Language tags - language targeting
Ranking in the different countries.

As well as discussing a bundle of other tips and tactics.

So, if you’re ready to take your brand global, this is the episode for you.

Tune in to learn:

How to choose an internationally-friendly brand name
Which is best moving from local to global: Top level domains, sub domains or subdirectories
How to avoid duplicate content issues across multiple sites
Best practices for language targeting.
What to consider across different cultures when writing content
Best ways to handle keyword research and backlinks for international variations of your site
Top tips for using Google Analytics and Google search console
How important it is to host your international sites on a local hosting site

Useful Resources:

The Guide to International SEO - Just getting acquainted with international SEO? Start here.
The International SEO Checklist - Aleyda Solis walks you through everything you need to know to get started with international SEO.
International SEO – Google Technical Support

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

Taking on AI as an asset, not a threat

Everyone is talking about ChatGPT.

My LinkedIn is stuffed with experts providing tips and examples of how to use this amazing tool.

(Everyone is an instant expert on LinkedIn).

To some it’s the best thing since sliced bread.

To others, it’s the end of the content marketing world as we know it.

I mean, haven’t these people watched The Terminator movies, don’t they know how it all ends?

So today I’m going to give you my low down.

What is ChatGPT?

What can it do?

Why all the fuss?

I’ll take you through the challenges, the positives, what’s coming, and also a bit of a reframe for those who are struggling or feeling scared about this new tool

It’s time to embrace the robots people. Let’s get stuck in.

Tune in to learn:

What ChatGPT is
Why everyone is talking about ChatGPT
Why your job isn’t being taken by robots
How to use AI tools as an asset
The limitations in using ChatGPT
What’s coming down the line

Useful resources:

ChatGPT
WordTune
Grammarly
Originality.AI
WebChatGPT Chrome browser tool
Frase

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

How to increase your site’s speed, performance, and quality

There’s one thing that never gets old when it comes to SEO.

And that’s speed.

I’d argue it’s one of the most important technical factors.

A slow site isn’t going to please anyone, not least the Google beast.

So, in this episode we’re going to revisit the basics.

What’s the ideal load time
What makes sites slow
What tools can you use to test
What’s the impact of Core web vitals
And how the heck do you speed up your site?

It also features one of my all-time favourite guests, so I’m pretty darn excited.

Buckle your Google belts people, we’re about to get speedy!

Tune in to Learn:

Why site speed is so important
Factors that impact your site performance
How Google uses Core Web Vitals to look at your site
Why mobile is so much harder than desktop
How to improve the quality of your site
Jono’s top SEO tip

Useful Resources:

Speedy Website Review Checklist
GT Metrix
Google Fiber Speed Test
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Cloudflare
Tiny PNG

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Learning how the cogs turn behind the Google machine

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to actually talk to Google?

To ask them all the questions you’ve ever wanted to ask?

To find out why they do what they do.

Why they keep fiddling.

What they have coming up.

Imagine how great that would be.

Well, imagine no more, for today we have John Mueller, head of Google Search Relations, on the pod.

We’ve spoken to John before in my first season on Episode 15: Ask Google: Q&A with John Mueller, Episode 29: Mobile First with John Mueller, and Episode 30: GOOGLE Q&A with John Mueller.

And today, to kick off our pod in 2023 we have his ear again.

Hurrah.

Tune in to learn:

Biggest updates from 2022
What small businesses should focus on for SEO
What’s coming up in 2023
Where to find out the latest Google updates
Developments John is most excited for
John’s top 5 tips for ranking on Google
How important backlinks really are

Useful resources:

Follow Google on Twitter
Follow updates on YouTube
Google Search Essentials
Best practices for ecommerce sites in Google Search
In-depth guide to how Google Search works
Google Helpful Content Update: What NOT to do with James Welch (NEWBIE)

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

How SEO has changed this year and what you should do about it

It’s been a busy year in SEO land.
And Google has been experimenting as always.

And if you’re a normal human, and not glued to Twitter every living minute of the day, you might find it hard to keep up with it all.

So I’ve asked one of our most popular guests to come back on the show and give us the low down on what’s what in SEO in 2022.

The big moves.
The little tweaks.
The things you can ignore and the things you better jump right on.

This is a short, snappy wrap-up of everything you need to know about Search Engine Optimisation before you head into your festive flop period and face a brave new year.

Tune in to learn:

Kate and Cyrus’s thoughts on the top 10 changes in SEO this year:
Improvements to Google Search Console
Google not indexing less important pages
More videos
Greater emphasis on visual search
Mobile SERP changes: Site Name and Favicon in results, shorter titles on mobile
Spam Update (auto-generated content)
Universal Analytics > GA4
Changes to Google My Business > Google Business Profile
Product Review Update
Helpful Content Update
Where SEO is heading for 2023

Useful Resources:

Google Search Console
Google Helpful Content Update: What NOT to do with James Welch (NEWBIE)

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

View Details

Scaling up from being an SEO freelance consultant

Okay so perhaps you’re an SEO freelancer.
Working job to job, helping clients on a small scale.
But you have big dreams.

You’d love to run your very own SEO agency.
But the thought of setting it up and managing all the ins and outs leaves you cold.

The risk is huge and let’s be honest, SEO agencies often don’t have the best reputation out there!

So how do you overcome all this and make your agency honest, legitimate and profitable?

Today we’re going to answer all this and more.

Tune in to learn:

How running an SEO agency differs from being a freelance SEO consultant
Darren’s tips for starting your own SEO agency
Common mistakes to avoid
Why so many agencies get a bad wrap, and how to improve your reputation
Big changes in SEO - what has happened in the past, and what’s coming up in the future
Darren’s top DIY SEO tip

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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How to Yoastify your shop

If you’re even vaguely into SEO and haven’t heard of Yoast, then I’m guessing you have been living under a rock.

But for those that don’t know, Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that helps your site perform better in search engines like Google.

It also gives you the tools to bring your content to the highest standards of SEO and overall readability.

It’s my favourite SEO tool which I use on all my sites and recommend in my course The Recipe for SEO success.

And yes I’ve tried all the other tools, but I find that Yoast works best with other plugins and its SEO copywriting features are just awesome.

But one big fat bummer was always that I couldn’t recommend Yoast to my Shopify students, who now make up nearly 50% of my course takers.

They had to struggle on, using dodgy apps or hand coding.

But all that has changed.

Yoast has just launched a Shopify version of their famous WordPress plugin and today I’m delighted to be chatting to Marieke van de Rakt all about its features, upcoming developments and how to get the best out of the app.

Tune in to learn:

What Yoast is
Why Yoast launched an SEO app for Shopify
Core features of the Yoast SEO app
How it helps deal with duplicate content
How to start off with Yoast SEO
What kind of support is available
Marieke’s top SEO tip

Useful resources:

Yoast SEO for Shopify
Yoast SEO for WordPress

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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How organising your content can keep customers coming back Have you heard about content clusters?

They’re all about strategic internal linking.

Creating little groups of content around a key topic.

You create a pillar page and link to and from it, offering multiple internal links to keep readers entertained, educated and on your site.

Benefits include more organised content, less overlap and more authority on a given topic and increased content production speed.

Sounds good right?

But where do you start?

And if your existing content is currently the blog equivalent of a hoarders boudoir, how do you organise your content into clusters?

Today we’ll answer these questions and many more.

Tune in to learn:

What content clusters are
What the benefits of using content clusters are
How to choose your cluster topics
Must-haves for your content clusters
Common mistakes to avoid
How to measure the effectiveness of content clusters, and where you can gather these metrics
How Google’s recent content update impacts content clusters
What to do if you already have a blog packed with content
Marion’s top content cluster tip

Useful resources:

Answer the Public
Clever Copy Chats

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Keeping up in the rankings by being mobile-friendly Did you know that half of all website traffic worldwide comes from mobile?
I hope when you hear that you’ll understand how important it is to listen to this week’s episode.

Google has been pushing mobile-first indexing for the past few years. It rolled out the first mobile-first index in 2018 but more recently announced mobile-first indexing for the whole web.

So what does this mean for your little website?
Well if your site isn’t fully optimised for mobile searches, it’s about time you got with the program.

In today’s episode, we’re going to share what mobile SEO is, best practices and top tips on how to ensure your site looks tickety boo on any device.

Tune in to learn * What Mobile SEO is * How Google classifies mobile * Why mobile SEO is so critical * Easy ways to check if your site is mobile-friendly * How to optimise your site correctly * How to improve the user experience of your site on mobile * How keyword research differs for mobiles * What you need to know about the latest mobile-first indexing update * Cindy’s top mobile SEO tip

Useful Resources * Mobile statistics * Google mobile-friendly test tool * Google URL inspection tool * Lighthouse (more for developers) * Google PageSpeed tool * Core web vitals test tool

Head to episode notes

Freebies

Free webinar: Your first month as a copywriter
Free rates guide

Membership: Join now

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What Google's latest update really means Recently Google announced its Helpful Content update. And as per usual, the interwebs got their knickers in a twist.

SEO agencies sending emails to copywriters telling them to stop using keywords.

Business brands frantically worrying that they were going to get a penalty after stuffing their sites with useless space-filling guff in their blogs.

But I tend not to freak out about these things.
I like to wait and see.

And today we’ll be chatting through what Google really wants to see when it talks about Helpful Content.

The dos.
The do nots.
And the do not panics.

Tune in to learn:

Google Helpful Content update:
What the purpose of the update is
What has changed
What hasn’t changed
3 things you SHOULDN’T be doing
How sites are being impacted by the update
What mistakes SEO agencies are making with content
James’s top content creation tips

Useful resources:

Google’s guidelines
Embryo’s word count study
Frase
SourceBottle

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Finding the right keywords to rise above the competition

By now you’ve gobbled up a lot of SEO advice.

But is it really all doable?

In my reality SEO episodes, I talk to real humans and get the truth about how they use SEO and digital marketing to improve their businesses.

Today I’ll be talking to a former student of the Recipe For SEO Success Course, and eCommerce extraordinaire, Estelle Oliveri.

We’ll chat about how Estelle got her start in SEO, the digital marketing highs and lows, and the challenges she’s faced along the way.

Useful resources:

Namecheckr
Google Trends
Digital Masterchefs

Head to episode notes

Freebies:

Free webinar: Increase your website traffic (and sales)
The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Free SEO Nibbles Course

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Enriching web dev and copy services with SEO

Hearing great SEO advice is one thing but is it actually doable?

In my reality SEO episodes, I talk to real humans and get the truth about how they use SEO and digital marketing to improve their businesses.

Like Rachel Amies, a former student of the Recipe For SEO Success Course, a member of the Digital Masterchefs, and a cat-pun enthusiast.

We’ll talk about how Rachel took her web design and digital marketing to the next level with SEO, and the challenges she’s faced along the way.

Get your free Ultimate SEO Checklist

Head to the episode notes

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Expanding your audience reach with the right voice Influencer marketing.

Even the mention of it gives me the heebeejeebees.

Visions of hot 20-somethings lying in a cossie on a rock in Ibiza spring to mind. Your product lying next to them on said rock.

And oh the horror stories.
Small business owners giving away oodles of product, and splashing the cash only to be ghosted.

So how do you choose a trustworthy influencer? And how do you see genuine return on your investment?

Today we’ll talk about the positives and the pitfalls of this relatively new form of advertising, and whether it really has legs for your business.r

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Staying strong during the ebb and flow of SEO Bonjour mon petite SEO beasts.

Today we’re talking about longevity in SEO.

These days everyone is looking for a quick fix, fast engagement, the dopamine hit of an easy like.

But the truth is that solid SEO strategy takes time.

As I like to say, SEO is for life, not just for Christmas.

It can take a long time to get the needle moving, undo previous bad work and build up authority.

But once you get your SEO firing, the results last a very long time.

I have posts I wrote back in 2009 that still deliver consistent traffic to my site.

And my SEO has weathered the storm for 13 years, through a gazillion algorithm updates, with very little movement.

Our friend Rand Fishkin refers to SEO as a heavy flywheel; difficult to get started, but once it’s going, not so much effort is required.

So today I’m chatting with Alizée about how we ensure our SEO strategy is built for the long term and how to resist reacting to every little change.

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Making informed keyword choices for my shopfront business

Hearing great SEO advice is one thing but is it actually doable?

I started the reality SEO episodes to illustrate how the teachings here and in my course, really impact small businesses.

You can hear the truth direct from real SEO beast’s mouths.

Like Norelle Hentschel, a former student of the Recipe For SEO Success Course, a member of the Digital Masterchefs, and an avid herbalist.

We’ll talk about how Norelle was able to give her online naturopathy a healthy dose of SEO, and the challenges she’s faced along the way.

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Get creative in your marketing strategy Are you content with your content?

I’d say that most of us aren’t.

And yet we know that great content is the key to building a brand, creating trust, and becoming well known for what we do.

But there are so many options.

Should we be creating blog posts, guesting on podcasts, creative videos, dancing on reels, or going live?
How can we be everywhere?

And yes I know we’d all love to go viral, but if you tuned into my episode with Mr. Rand Fishkin, you’ll know that going viral is about as useful as something very unuseful - if it isn’t relevant to what you offer.

So how do we direct online attention to our business in a meaningful way with good, relevant content?

Well, today I’m talking to Shannon Morrison to get all the answers on how to build authority online with smashing content marketing tactics.

Tune in to learn:

Is content marketing still king?
How to get your foundations right to create good content
What an audience avatar is
How important audience avatars are in marketing these days
Four factors of content consumption, and how to leverage them to your advantage
Which platforms best deliver content marketing
Shannon’s top content marketing tip

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Check out my new podcast, Clever Copy Chats for some in-depth SEO Copywriting knowledge.

Whenever I’m in a copywriting group I see the same comments.

“SEO ruins conversational copy.”
“SEO ruins conversion copy.”
“You don’t need to use keywords any more. Google will work it out.”
“SEO copy is boring copy.”

(Heavy sigh)

These kinds of comments show a fundamental misunderstanding of what SEO copywriting is and how it works.

And these copywriters who think that Google will magically work out where to rank you no matter what you write on the page, well they’re either naïve or just plain lazy.

If anything great SEO copywriting is even more important now than it’s ever been.

I’m going to get back to basics and give you an overview of the important elements in SEO Copywriting, and a few tips on how to please humans and Google too.

Listen to the episode now.

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Filling the appointment books by showing up in local searches

From feedback, I find the Reality Episodes are a crowd favourite.

Yes, it’s great hearing from super-duper SEO and marketing experts, but what about the real humans chipping away at marketing goals, trying to woo Google, slippery up their funnel, and smash their socials?

Is all this advice actually doable?

Well, today I’m chatting with Anthea Digby-Smith, a former student of the Recipe For SEO Success Course, a member of the Digital Masterchefs, and a hairdresser extraordinaire.

We’ll talk about how Anthea was able to give her online haircare business a total SEO makeover, and the challenges she’s faced along the way.

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Stopping your site from slipping through the cracks You’ve built a beautiful site.
Your mum loves it.
You’ve even paid your developer for a super SEO package.
So everything should be right, right? But for some reason when you Google yourself nothing’s coming up,
Or maybe just a measly page or two.
And you have no idea why.

Or perhaps you’re pumping out content on your blog and for some reason, it’s still not getting indexed as fast as you would like.

This week we’re talking all about crawling and indexing.
How to check, how to fix and the best tips for making sure your content is as findable as a findable thing.

Tune in to learn:

What it means for your site to be crawled and indexed
How to find out that your site isn’t getting indexed
What is a sitemap, what is a robots.txt
What is crawl budget
Crawlability vs Indexability: Why Google doesn’t automatically index your site after crawling every page
Common issues that prevent site pages from being indexed
Gaston’s recommended tactics to get your site indexed
How to troubleshoot indexing for a small website
How large sites differ, and how best to approach indexing
The difference between LATAM sites and English-speaking western countries (USA/UK/AU)
Gaston’s go-to tools to get your site indexed

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Hurrah back in the land of copy podcasts. It's been a while. So let me tell you what my new podcast is all about.

I know. I know. There are a gazillion copywriting podcasts out there. I've made a few hundred or so episodes myself, but honestly, most leave me wanting. They're all so dry, so earnest, so teachy.
All mega famous copywriters dispensing blobs of copy knowledge down from their lofty plinths.

Most of the folk interviewed aren't even copywriters anymore, they've moved on to being course creators and moguls.
So I wanted to create a podcast that gets back to the sticky, awkward, gloriousness of being a day today copywriter.

The woes, the ups, the bitty fist annoyance of a client that won't use track changes, the tips on how to write 5,000 words in 20 minutes because you forgot the deadline, and of course, the real bottom warming stories of great clients and amazing writing that keeps us doing the do each day.

So come with me on a journey through colons and interrobangs.

Through client Zooms and last-minute amends, we'll have some laughs and learn a thing or two along the way.

Grab a coffee and join me on Clever Copy Chat.

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Turning those well-earned clicks into cash

Okay so you’ve listened to all the episodes of the Recipe for SEO Success podcast, you’ve done my fabulous courses, and put in the hard SEO hours.

The Google beast finally understands who you are and the traffic is pouring in.

But how do you turn casual browsers into sales?
How do you move people from your page to a purchase?

Today we’re talking about how to turn SEO juice into sweet sales nectar.

How to turn cold chips into hot potatoes.

SEO got you this far, what next?

Tune in to learn:

Three quick things to think about for your homepage once people have been lured over from the SERPS
How to introduce your brand quickly and easily to people searching for what you do
How to connect with people who know you from social platforms/your brand
Top 3 tips to make those eCommerce sales
Russell’s top tips for converting customers to your services-based business
What is a SMART offer
Sales calls - Have they been replaced by strong branding, really schmick marketing, funnels, and sales page, or is there still a place for them

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Appealing to the humanity of the masses

Have you noticed that your buying choices are often not defined by price or even product features but by how you feel about a brand?

We want to buy from brands that we feel have values that are aligned with our own, but to do this, brands need to market intelligently and emotionally.

They need to appeal to our humanness.

So how do we do this?
It might seem relatively straightforward if you’re a one-human band, but what about larger businesses?
How do we show up as real humans in everything we do, how much is too much, and when is caring sharing, oversharing?

Today we’re going to chat about the best ways to show up online as glorious human beans and make genuine connections with your audience.

Tune in to learn:

What human to human marketing is
Human to human marketing done well: examples of individual and larger brands doing it right
How to show your brand values online
How to overcome your fear of being more open with your audience
3 simple tactics to humanise your brand
How to differentiate yourself from everyone else
Human to human marketing fails: What to avoid
Jenn’s top tip for H2H marketing

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Peeling the fiction away from fact to help Google find you Keywords, we’ve covered them before and we’ll cover them again.

Why? Because no matter how long I swim in the murky waters of SEO, I still see so much misinformation about how keywords are found, researched and eventually used.

Especially on low-grade SEO copywriting courses (shh, naming no names).

These so-called experts are stuck in the keyword past, talking about density and shoehorning them into every paragraph and meta description.

But with Google’s improvements in understanding the context of our content, (the why behind the what), the deeper intelligence around natural language process (hello Bert), and the fundamental improvements in learning how language itself works, these old school ideas won’t help you get found.

So today we’re going to bust some myths, refresh some memories and get back to the basics of keyword research.

Tune in to learn:

Who’s responsible for researching keywords: the client, the copywriter, or the SEO agency
What to do once you have your list of keywords
What role search intent plays in your choice of keyword
Why there is no one “perfect keyword”
When to start assigning your keywords to posts, pages and products
Keyword myths: Why you shouldn’t use the same keyword for every page
How service-based business keyword usage differs from keyword usages for eCommerce businesses
How to find investigation and informational keywords
How effective blogging is for keyword ranking
Joh’s favourite keyword tools
Joh’s number one tip for keyword research

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Niching, knowing your audience & personal branding In my Reality SEO episodes, I like to focus on real humans grappling with the Google beast, and Digital Marketing.

I get all sorts passing through my slippery funnel of courses and resources: marketing professionals, copywriters, e-commerce owners, web developers, and real business humans.

Today we’re talking to Jude Love, a former student of The Recipe for SEO Success Show, a member of The Digital Masterchefs, and an absolute personal branding beast.

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Creating more profitable conversations with your customers We all know that robots are taking over the world.

If you’re a fan of Black Mirror it’s pretty clear we’re headed for a Terminator future.

And while I’d like to feel bleak about that, I won’t.

This is a marketing podcast, after all, so let’s talk about when robots work for good.

When AI can save you time and money.

When using automation and bots can actually improve your customer service rather than ruining it.

For yes today we are talking Chatbots.

Now as a copywriter I’ve written a fair few bots for myself, I’ve also set one up to work on my Facebook page, but I haven’t fully embraced the opportunity.

And boy is that opportunity big.

Today we’re talking to Dan Pinne, chatbot guru and member of my Digital Masterchefs Community, about how to use chatbots to revolutionise your business in a non-Arnold Schwarzenegger way.

Tune in to learn:

What chatbots are, and how they can help your business
The key elements to a successful chatbot
Where to start with chat marketing
How lead-based businesses can use chatbots
How eCommerce businesses can use chatbots
Dan’s top tips for setting up successful chatbots

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Everyone wants to go viral.
(I’m doing air fingers, I know you can’t see them, but believe me.)

Whether it’s for dancing on TikTok to a new catchy tune or for the perfect Twitter snipe, or a beautifully crafted blog post.

We all dream of the traffic tsunami and the potential that has to lead to cold hard sales.

But is it just a happy accident, or an artful strategy?

Today I am giggly with girlish glee to have Rand Fishkin, the co-founder, and CEO of audience research startup SparkToro, on the show.

He’s going to explain how going viral is much more nuanced than you might think.

And that if you put in the work, you can draw in the masses to your brand with well-crafted content that not only gets attention but warms the wiggly bits of your customers too.

Tune in to learn:

What viral content is, and how it can be used in your marketing plan
Which content formats are best for going viral
Rand’s powerfully simple formula for creating viral content:
- How to hook people in
- How to keep them on the line
- How to sink deep into your audience’s brain
Rand’s top tip for success with content marketing

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Taking measured steps into digital advertising In my Reality SEO series, I interview real-life humans who’ve changed their digital marketing and SEO strategy for good and used simple techniques to transform their business and brand. These episodes include practical, doable advice and tips from people just like you. Find out why mad-cat marketer, Mitchell Beattie, decided to pivot from the world of wine to help other businesses perfect their marketing strategy, what got him on the path of SEO, what his biggest learnings have been, and his top tips for small businesses.

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Build up your business by expanding your network I’ll admit when it comes to social media, my least favourite platform is LinkedIn. It’s like the boring guest at the party, hovering near the sausage rolls and talking about how great they are. And over the years I’ve had sporadic attempts to rekindle my LinkedIn love. But it still leaves me with a deep-rooted sense of meh. Today we’re going to change all that. We’re straying from the SEO path to talk all things LinkedIn. Why it still matters, how to make the most of it for your business, and our special guest Jo Saunders is going to share her number one tip for making LinkedIn a powerful tool in your social media tool kit.

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Every year about this time, I dust off my crystal ball and start looking into Google’s nether regions, trying to discern what lies ahead on the murky path of SEO. This is a solo episode, just a little old me, and I’ll be running through my opinion of what’s next, what’s changed, and what remains the same. Will you agree? Well, that remains to be seen, or heard.

Tune in to learn:

Important SEO changes from 2021 you might have missed
Is Google still even a search engine?
How Google is understanding us better
The lowdown on user experience
How Google is squeezing us out of the SERPs
Why we should all EAT more
How AI will impact things
Why images matter more than ever

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This episode is a rerun - while I take a much-needed break from the pod, keep your SEO skills sharp by checking out one of my favourite episodes. I was lucky enough to chat with one of my SEO heros Rand Fishkin in my I LOVE SEO Group on Facebook recently. Not only was Rand my first ever guest on the podcast, he’s also been a huge influence on my SEO career and a veritable font of knowledge and ideas.

I was super excited to share the stage with him at Yoastcon recently where we discussed all things Digital Marketing – and he was generous enough to offer to share his thoughts with my students and DIY SEO Learners.

It’s a great episode that covers a range of topics and challenges a lot of traditional ideas about what SEO really means, and how to be successful in digital marketing in 2019. Enjoy!

Show notes:
https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/digital-marketing-qa-with-rand-fishkin/

Website:
https://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com.au/

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This episode is a rerun - while I take a much-needed break from the pod, keep your SEO skills sharp by checking out one of my favourite episodes. Crawlability is super important for your website.

Ensuring humans and those sticky little Google bots can slip through your site like a damp otter down a pipe is crucial.

We don’t want duplicate content and we don’t want oodles of pointless pages and archives being crawled.

We want slick, efficient, uber crawlable websites and today we’ll be going through how to make that doable.

Tune in to learn:

What crawlability is and why it matters
The meaning of crawl budget
How often Google crawls your site
How you can get Google to crawl your site more
The key elements of crawlability
How to handle password-protected content
Zombie pages and how to deal with them
Best tools to crawl your website
How to handle 404s and 301 redirects
Dealing with duplicate content

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This episode is a rerun - while I take a much-needed break from the pod, keep your SEO skills sharp by checking out one of my favourite episodes. 9 experts share their best advice for 2019

I was lucky enough to present at Yoastcon in the Netherlands, so thought I’d do a special live episode interviewing all the smart people there and asking them their number one Digital Marketing tip for this year

Many of these awesome humans will also appear on future episodes of the podcast so stay Tooned for those episodes too.

Tune in to learn:

What is DSA?
How to find out what’s holding your customers back
What’s the most important aspect of branding?
What are progressive web apps?
How digital marketing is converging.
Why you need to get rid of some of your pages
Why you need to take a step back to look at your values
Why page speed still matters
What’s the biggest thing with WordPress site’s coming up?
Why it’s better to follow the path less trodden

Show notes:
https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/whats-your-number-one-digital-marketing-tip/

Website:
https://therecipeforseosuccess.com.au

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This episode is a rerun - while I take a much-needed break from the pod, keep your SEO skills sharp by checking out one of my favourite episodes. Let’s be honest, most of us are scared of SEO agencies.
We’ve heard too many horror stories.

Of people being bamboozled, misled, ripped off, and left with sites riddled with dodgy backlinks, poor optimisation, and woeful rankings.

So what do we do?
How can we learn to trust SEO agencies again, and more importantly how can SEO agencies Suck less.

Today, I’m chatting with Mathew Cocciardi, who was a little burned by his SEO agency experience – and sharing some hot tips on how to ensure, if you’re looking for an agency, you find a good one.
And if you are an agency you sustain a good reputation.

Tune in to learn:

What led Mathew to seeking an SEO agency for help
What you should have set up before contacting an agency for SEO assistance
The key things to look for when choosing an SEO agency
How important is it for you as a customer to know SEO terminology
“Red flag jargon” you should look out for
How you can participate in the ongoing process
The best way to know your money is being spent well
Alternate models: What they are and the benefits of each

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This episode is a rerun - while I take a much-needed break from the pod, keep your SEO skills sharp by checking out one of my favourite episodes. International SEO is the process of optimising your website so that search engines can easily identify which countries you want to target and which languages you use for business.

Most of us struggle with getting to rank locally, so do we really need to care about international SEO?

Well if a good share of your website visitors are coming from a different country to where you’re located then it might be the right time to think global.

In this episode I’ll be chatting with Nitin Manchanda - an International SEO expert, about everything we need to know to get our global SEO in tip-top condition.

Tune in to learn:

When should you worry about international SEO.
How to structure your site for International SEO best practice.
What is Geotargeting and how should you be using it.
What to look out for when formatting your site for a country.
Which signals Google uses to understand the countries you’re targeting.
The importance of backlinks on international SEO.
Tips on how to win links in other countries.
How to handle local search engines like Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China.
Tips on international SEO for e-commerce businesses.
What are the biggest mistakes businesses make with International SEO.
The best ways to measure your international SEO success.

Show notes: https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/international-seo-a-beginners-guide/
Website: www.therecipeforseosuccess.com.au

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I was lucky enough to score an interview with one of my all-time SEO heroes, Mr. Rand Fishkin from Moz.com. * I asked him a heap of useful small business SEO questions, and yes, even asked how he felt being an SEO heartthrob! * Is it possible for small businesses to DIY their SEO? * Other than Moz and of course the Recipe for SEO Success, what are your other favourite SEO education websites? Resources? * What are you top five tools that every search marketing or digital marketing business type must use? * If you only had a few hours a week to spare in which to focus on SEO and marketing, what would you spend it doing? Building links or creating content? * There are only so many phrases and only 10 spots on the first page. Does there come a point where SEO just won’t work in a crowded market? * What role do spelling mistakes play in SEO, would having lots of typos in your copy impact your potential to rank? * Why is it so hard to rank for a keyword with a new page when you’re already ranking for it with an existing one? * Does social media impact my ranking? And which social media channel should I invest my time in? * What tips for an AU business wanting to appear in the US rankings? * How will live streaming affect SEO? * Do weak pages on your site damage the strong pages, should I kill off all my weak pages? * What was the one business decisions (mistakes) that you wish you could go back and change? * The truth is you’re a little bit of a heartthrob for many female (and possibly male) SEO types. How do you cope with that kind of attention?

Show notes: http://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com.au/seo-small-business-interview-rand-fishkin/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW5tOXslB5Q

Website: www.therecipeforseosuccess.com.au

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If you have any suggestions for guests or topics for next year, email admin@therecipeforseosuccess.com, fill out the contact form on www.therecipeforseosuccess.com, or leave a comment in the I LOVE SEO Facebook group.

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In my Reality SEO episodes, I like to focus on real humans grappling with the Google beast, and Digital Marketing. Yes, I get lots of marketing professionals, copywriters, and web developers passing through my slippery funnel of courses and resources, but I also get real business humans.

Today we’re talking to Bec Slack, a former student of the Recipe For SEO Success Course, a member of the Digital Masterchefs, and an online educational toy store co-owner.

We’ll talk about the challenges she faced taking on a pre-existing business, and if learning SEO and Digital Marketing for a toy store is all fun and games.

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Ever wondered how Google takes your crazy search query and spits out pages and pages of relevant content? It’s all in the words, my friend.

You might even say that words are the KEY.

And that’s why today we’re revisiting the topic of Keyword Research.

Much overlooked, much misunderstood, much avoided – Solid Keyword research underpins every aspect of your website structure, your content, your customer journey, and your conversions.

Understanding concepts like user intent, volume, traffic, click-through rate, keyword difficulty, and knowing when it’s best to go short or go long is all part of your SEO strategy.

So today we’re going to dig deep into smart keyword research, and how to get the right audience to your website.

An audience that engages, and buys.

Tune in to learn:

What a keyword is
The difference between short and long-tail keywords
Why you should rank for hundreds of keywords, not just one
Different keyword list brainstorming techniques
Narrowing it down: how to settle on your chosen keywords
What keyword grouping is, and how to find your focus keyword
Best methods: research a mega list of keywords for your site, or focus on a page by page (or product by product) basis
Ranking myths: Why using the same keyword on every page won’t necessarily help you rank for it
Ranking myths: Why you don’t need to use “near me” as a keyword in title tags and on page to rank for Near me searches.
Handy keyword research tools to save you time
Kristal’s top keyword research tips

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Welcome to another Reality SEO episode, where I take the time to focus on real humans grappling with the Google beast, and Digital Marketing. Of course, I love to help all kinds of business humans, but one of my favourite types to help are e-commerce store owners.

Because secretly, I long to have a shop.

I mean I have 3 already, but they don’t sell real things, like pottery hedgehogs or homemade soup.

But Keneena Fanning does have a real shop - Kablooie!

And today we’re going to learn all about it and discuss the highs and lows of walking her fashion label down the SEO runway.

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Do you love tracking trends, dissecting data, or rolling in results? Then I’ve got a treat for you.

Today is all about Google Search Console, formerly Google Webmaster Tools, a free platform that gives you the awesome ability to see the data Google sees and tracks for your website or app.

While I find it easy to get lost in data-tracking, it can be difficult to know what is worth paying attention to, and what’s just a long list of numbers.

So let us go forth and learn which parts of the Google-beast we can turn into juicy, flavourful SEO nuggets and rich content marketing strategy bites.

Tune in to learn:

What Google Search Console is all about
Why the data is so valuable for our businesses
How to use the data to gain a competitive advantage
How to use the information to target different stages of the buying journey
Three areas of GSC you should be looking at
How to use the new GSC insights feature
How to use the data to create content for frequently asked questions
Noah’s top Google Search Console tips

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And sometimes my courses and resources have the power to turn normal business humans into digital marketing beasts!

As so with Crystal Wong, a kindred SEO-loving soul.

Today we’re talking to Crystal about how she went from working as a Pharmacist to an SEO consultant, and the challenges she’s faced along the way.

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When was the last time you checked out your Google My Business profile?
Now this is not a set-and-forget project, people. Much like planting a bushy hedge, your GMB listing needs love and attention.

Sometimes you need to prune back old images, or shape it into your new branding, fertilise it with a few fresh posts, or spruce it up with a nice flowering promo.

Occasionally you get pests or spammy reviews, and you need to know the best way to treat them, organically of course.

Is the bush analogy wearing thin yet? I don’t think so.

Anyhow, today we're going to be looking into some of the common questions that arise and how to make your Google My Business profile bushy and flourishing.

Tune in to learn:

How smart businesses are using their Google My Business listings to stay on top and win more business
Why your business may not be showing up in GMB
How to stay in Google’s good books by following the Google My Business Compliance Guidelines
How to tackle spammy listings and reviews
What to do if a genuine review is removed by Google
How to reinstate your listing if it has been suspended

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What do you think about when you think about brand? A sexy colour palette, logo, a particularly snazzy font?

Obviously, branding is way more than that.

But it's amazing how much the colours, or logos we use can impact how our customers see us.

And of course, there's actually a psychology behind branding that uses science to match your brand, to your business goals, and your mindset.

And if you get strategic about your brand, it can of course build a bulging bank balance.

So today we're straying slightly away from the SEO path to talk about brand psychology.

Tune in to learn:

What brand psychology is
How to use science to make your brand more appealing
How your brainpower and senses impact your brand and business
How multiple senses can be used in marketing
Why it’s vital to be consistent in your branding
How science influence the colours and fonts in your brand
Lisa’s top tips on branding

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Pinterest, remember that? I used to use it yonks ago to plan my kid’s birthday party, or to mood board my latest decorating project. But I never took it seriously from a business point of view.
And maybe I should have done.

For those living in a hole, Pinterest is a social media platform that allows users to “pin” images and articles to their board.

People set up boards for anything from outfits to holiday destinations, makeup ideas, to dream cars.

But as well as a fun way to be creative, it can also be an incredible business tool for getting all kinds of products and services found online.

So this week we’re pinning our hopes on our Pinterest expert to tell us how to use this platform to boost our website traffic and our sales.

Tune in to learn:

Pinterest: What it is, who uses it, and how long it’s been around.
What makes Pinterest so valuable to businesses
How Pinterest can work for your service-based business
What being a Pinterest SEO means
Algorithms: Pinterest vs Google
How to get started on Pinterest today
Simone’s tips for optimising your Pinterest account

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Grappling the Google SEO beast takes time and effort, I know. Once we’ve started our journey we need to check our progress and build on our success.

Measuring progress means we usually check loads of data and all the data lives in different places.]

You know, the kind where you have 25 tabs open and your computer is starting to ooze smoke.

Then we have to spend ages trying to make sense of it all.

Before we know it, we’re down the SEO data rabbit hole. Or if you’re like me, you give up and go and fiddle with Instagram instead.

So imagine if there was a tool that could pull all your relevant SEO data into one place.

A tool that allowed you to see all the information you need to know quickly and easily.

You’d finally have the SEO superpowers you need to make useful, strategic decisions about your marketing efforts.

Well, that tool exists and today we are talking about it.

Get ready!

Tune in to learn:

Why SEO data is important to your business
Which core metrics you should be looking at
Which SEO tools will give you the data you need
How to create a strategic Google Search Console SEO report
How Supermetrics can save you time, make better business decisions so you can focus on the right stuff
How to set up with Supermetrics, and what kind of reports it delivers
How useful running Google Ads alongside your SEO strategy is
Anna’s tip for analysing your SEO data and making good marketing decisions

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Do you have a website? Congratulations.

Give yourself a little pat on the bottom. You could already be on Google’s radar.

Maybe.

Because building a website is one thing, but building an SEO-friendly website is quite another.

Today I’m talking about WordPress websites and avoidable SEO mistakes I often see.

Mistakes that kill your flow of Google juice and ruin your customer karma.

I’ll take you through what to avoid, how to fix past errors, and how to ensure you have a good flow of Google love to your site.

Tune in to learn:

What is WordPress and why is it awesome?
The most common mistakes we see with WordPress websites
How to fix those SEO errors
WordPress themes that help avoid mistakes
Things to know about Gutenberg and WordPress
More about WordPress website technical audits and support

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So perhaps you’re a new business considering taking the plunge into the Shopify pool. Or maybe you’ve taken that leap off the diving board, and are already splashing about and wondering if your Shopify site is really up to scratch.

And no matter what you’re selling – whether it’s fun pool floaties, funky garden gnomes, or eco-friendly fashion – you know you need to rank well on the search engines to reach new customers.

So today I’ll be chatting with my favourite Shopify pro, Kerri Bennett, and we’ll be covering the top ten mistakes people make on Shopify and how you can avoid them.

Tune in to learn:

What Shopify is
The importance of choosing the right theme
Why your theme needs to be mobile-friendly
What benefits Shopify has over WordPress
How to navigate the app store
Why you should be putting more attention into your collection pages
How many H1’s are the right amount.
What steps you should be taking for SEO
Why bigger isn’t necessarily better with your images
When you should upgrade your theme version.
How to preserve your theme before adding new apps or changes.

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Tik Tok. It’s the widely talked about short-form video sharing platform. Most think it’s for bright young things, who can dance about and skateboard off high things.

While it’s mostly known for dance-trends and lip-syncing videos, and being as addictive as sugar-water to a manic hummingbird on a hot summer day.

It’s also hugely powerful for business.

IF… you know what you’re doing.

Today we’re straying from the SEO path to talk Tik Tok and how you can use this to your advantage.

Tune in to learn:

Tiktok: What it is, and how it can help your business
What makes Tiktok unique from other video-sharing platforms
How secure Tiktok is, and alternatives (eg. Reels)
How to get started making your first TikTok
Advice for getting your videos seen
How product and service based businesses can appeal to their audiences

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Do you have a crystal ball?
Or a set of runes?
Or are you pretty dang good at deciphering tea-leaf patterns in your mug? No? Well if you can’t see the future, how are you going to predict the future of your marketing campaigns?

How are you going to forecast results?

So many humans are blindly executing SEO campaigns, and crossing their toes and bum cheeks for results.

But today I’m talking to one of the SEO greats about how to use human ingenuity, apps, and insight to foresee the traffic your SEO efforts will bring to your website.

Tune in to learn:

What SEO forecasting means
Where to start when planning an eCommerce SEO campaign.
The two main ways to increase your site traffic.
Tips to get more clicks on existing results with Click Through Rate (CTR) Optimisation.
How you can project CTR-based traffic increases.
How you can project future financial gain, and which tools can help.
How seasonality can affect your projections.
The differences between projecting for service-based businesses and eCommerce businesses.

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Ah those pesky Search Engine Results Pages, they seem to change every single day. And working out what is what can be incredibly confusing for the newbie, and even the oldbie.

Today we’re going to take you through it.
Step by step.
Element by element.

We’ll name them, explain them and tell you how to optimise for them.

By the end of this episode, you’ll be a SERP Pro!

Tune in to learn:

Which factors impact personalisation.
The increase in ads on Google.
Different Snippet types and how to nab them.
What the local pack is and how it’s influenced by user location.
What the knowledge graph panel is,
Which searches spawn a knowledge graph panel
Alan’s tips for creating a combo with your title tag, meta description, and URL that drive ranking and click-through.

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Every now and again I like to stray from the SEO path and talk about other types of Digital Marketing. Because of course, they all help improve your SEO.

This week it’s a solo episode, with just me, myself, and I, and I want to discuss the new kid on the social media app block.

Clubhouse.

Some of you may already have dipped your toe in the Clubhouse pond, only to discover it’s full of willy-waving 7-figure entrepreneurs, and heart-centred coaches talking about authentic brands.

Some of you might have discovered amazing new connections and chums to banish the loneliness.

Or perhaps you think it’s a social media app too far and really can’t be arsed.
Or you’re on Android and just have to wait.

But in this episode, I'm going to give you the ultimate guide to Clubhouse.

How to get started, how not to let it take over your life, and how to turn it to your digital marketing advantage.

Tune in to learn:

What is Clubhouse?
The language and etiquette of the platform
How to get started
How to write your bio
How to moderate a room
How to start a club and moderate a room
Who to follow
How to improve your Clubhouse confidence
How to use Clubhouse to build your brand

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In the world of digital marketing, there are oodles of people promoting their SEO services. Some promise overnight, top-ranking results like a bad pimple-cream ad.
“One-time application, the results will shock you!”

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Some will tell you what you want to hear, with the hope that you won’t actually look into the results too closely.

So how do you find a solid, trustworthy SEO Agency?
How much SEO knowledge should you have before hiring one?

Today I’m going straight to the source to get the inside scoop from a real, live founder of an SEO agency.

Tune in to learn:

What services SEO agencies provide
How Alex went from an SEO newbie to founder of a digital growth consultancy.
Common misconceptions about SEO agencies
How competitive the world of SEO Agencies is
What to look for in a reputable agency
Red flags to avoid in SEO services providers

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In my Reality SEO episodes, I like to focus on real humans grappling with the Google beast and Digital Marketing. Yes I get lots of marketing professionals, copywriters, and web developers passing through my slippery funnel of courses and resources, but I also get real business humans

Or those who, while they may know how to run a successful business, have studiously avoided dealing with the marketing side of things.

This week I’m talking to Gavin Hodgins, a Recipe course graduate and member of my mentoring community, the Digital Masterchefs.

Gavin runs FloatPac and Floating Solar, and prides himself on being the kind of CEO that gets involved in every level of operations.

Today we’re talking about Gavin’s ongoing relationship with digital marketing, the highs, the lows, and how he’s kept the passion alive all these years.

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Google has been making headlines here in Australia, the news corporations aren’t happy about the way they pull their stories into the SERPS, and they want a cut of the profit pie. Google is so far saying no, you want us to pay? We’ll go away.

So what would happen if Google left Australia?

In today’s bonus episode, recorded as a Facebook live in my I LOVE SEO group, I talk about this conflict between Google, the Australian Government, and news websites, and how this affects every business online, including yours.

Tune in to learn:

Why news sites are unhappy with Google
Why Google might pull their services from Australia, and what will happen if they do
Why you should do more for your site than just SEO
Why you should diversify your digital marketing across different platforms
Why you need to build brand recognition by getting your brand seen and heard across the web
Why having back-up marketing strategies is vital

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Google Analytics can feel just a little bit yawn. Yes, you set it up yonks ago.

And maybe poke around once in a while.

But really?

You’re not doing anything with the data.

In this week’s episode, we’re going to dig deep into Google Analytics, the important metrics, and reports that actually matter.

But more importantly, we’re going to chat about how to interpret the data and turn it in to… yes you guessed it, ACTION!

Tune in to learn:

What is data analytics?
Best practice tips to make the most of your Google Analytics setup.
Which metrics you should pay attention to.
How to make the most of the Google UTM URL Builder to better track your online activities.
Why it is important to use analytics to track your own marketing efforts.
Understanding marketing attribution and the multi-channel funnel attribution tool.

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So usually around this time of year, I do an SEO predictions podcast. But you know what I’m over it, the world and their rabbit has an SEO podcast these days, and everyone does a predictions podcast, so no.

It’s not happening here.

And also the predictions are always the same.

Voice search will be bigger.
Optimise for EAT.
SERPs will change.
Schema blah blah blah.

Obviously, we have the page experience update coming in May 2021 but we’ve covered that in our episode with Peter and we’ll do more around that time.

And here’s another thing. The more SEO changes the more it stays the same.

And most people (and yes I know it’s not all) are not even getting the basics right, so there’s no need for them to get sweaty about all the complex next-level stuff.

In this episode to kick off 2021, I’m speaking to one of my fave SEO experts (and one of the few funny ones) Cyrus Shepard about why we should get back to basics with SEO.

Tune in to learn:

Why simple SEO factors matter, and which should come first
Whether you should target keywords
What “fresh” content is
Why unique content is still important
The purpose of crawlability, crawl budgets, and 404 redirects
How relevant backlinks are to Google

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By now I’m guessing you’ve probably heard of Google My Business, it’s Google’s free listing for all your business operation information including address details, reviews, posts, photos, and a whole lot more. It pops up (for most of us) on the right-hand side of the Search Engine Results page when customers search for our brand.

But most of us are just plain lazy when it comes to Google My Business, only entering the most basic of information.

If we invest a little time and effort Google My Business can become a powerful way to increase customer engagement and ultimately make more moolah, and in today’s pod, we’re going to share 10 top tips on how to make your listing pop!

Tune in to learn:

Top 10 Google My Business Tips on:

Setting up your GMB page
Using the category feature
Responding to reviews - good and bad
The benefit of adding images
Why your information should be consistent across platforms and updated
Why the messaging feature is important

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Remember the early days of the internet?

Back when bandwidth was a total joke, and every browser took a few minutes to warm up.

It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

These days we have no time for slow sites. And nor does Google.

I want to open 10 different tabs at once and have them all working in less time than it takes a greasy penguin to slide down a hill.

And you guessed it, search engines have a similar opinion when it comes to website speed, so much so that most SEO experts consider it a core ranking factor.

And they try to help us, giving us nifty tools to help us measure and fix our site speed, well they’re kind of nifty, and also kind of impossible to understand!

But fear not, today I’m talking to Peter Macinkovic about how to understand Google’s web speed reports, and how to use them to turn your website turbo.

Tune in to learn:

What site speed reports are
Understanding and interpreting reports
How Google measures the speed
How site speed impacts your Google ranking
Report Opportunities: what they mean and how to enact them
Report Diagnostics: what they mean and how you can adjust your website.
Tips for using Google Page Insights Tool

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Do you ever have trouble making decisions? I know I do.

Should I wear red or blue?

Boots or joggers?

Do I feel like strawberry ice-cream or chocolate?

When you’re trying to pick between two different headlines for a post, or the colour of a call-to-action button on your webpage, the pressure is on.

Suddenly the choice between red and blue could make or break your click-through rate.

Today we’re going to discover exactly how to make that choice through definitive reasoning and results that are so solid you could build an adorable cottage for piglets on them and no wolf could blow it down.

Tune in to learn:

What is SEO A/B testing
Why split-testing is important
How SEO A/B testing differs from Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
What kind of content you should be testing
Why A/B testing is a must for eCommerce stores
Why SEO A/B testing is a big part of the future of SEO

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So there are an awful lot of us doing the do.
Standing out the front of our businesses, jumping up and down, and spinning a flashy sign in the hopes that customers will come our way.

But how do you keep your customers’ attention once they do actually show up?
How do you lead them in, establish a connection, build trust and of course sell them stuff, and have them come back again and again?
How do you lure them into your sticky tube, so to speak?

Today I’ll be addressing all of that with the help of my excellent guest Talia Wolf, as we talk about sales funnels.

Tune in to learn:

What sales funnels are, and how they can convert your customers
What a conversion optimization expert does
How to optimise your landing page without completely redesigning it
Ways to use emotional targeting in your marketing
The purpose of a Thank you Page
Tips for developing your email marketing campaign

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One of the most overlooked factors when it comes to marketing is how well your content is received without audio, according to the World Health Organisation, approximately 5% of the world’s population is deaf or hard of hearing.

But did you also know that around 85 percent of humans watch videos with the sound turned off?

Assuming that sound will be played on your video, or even your podcast and not considering how to make it accessible to those without sound could be a big issue.

So that beautiful video you’ve made might not be getting the love it needs simply because you forgot one vital element.
CAPTIONS!

Today I’m chatting to a guest who knows all too well about making sure your words are SEEN, accurately, as well as heard.

Tune in to learn:

What captions are, and why they’re so important
Ahmed’s favourite captioning tools
How YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo handles captions
Should we rely on the platforms for captions?
What people forget about when it comes to having quality captions
Non-video uses for repurposed or reused captions
What to consider when creating captions One of the most overlooked factors when it comes to marketing is how well your content is received without audio, according to the World Health Organisation, approximately 5% of the world’s population is deaf or hard of hearing.

But did you also know that around 85 percent of humans watch videos with the sound turned off?

Assuming that sound will be played on your video, or even your podcast and not considering how to make it accessible to those without sound could be a big issue.

So that beautiful video you’ve made might not be getting the love it needs simply because you forgot one vital element.
CAPTIONS!

Today I’m chatting to a guest who knows all too well about making sure your words are SEEN, accurately, as well as heard.

Tune in to learn:

+ What captions are, and why they’re so important
+ Ahmed’s favourite captioning tools
+ How YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo handles captions
+ Should we rely on the platforms for captions?
+ What people forget about when it comes to having quality captions
+ Non-video uses for repurposed or reused captions
+ What to consider when creating captions

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In my Reality SEO episodes, I like to focus on real humans grappling with the Google beast.

Yes, I get lots of marketing professionals, copywriters, and web developers passing through my slippery funnel of courses and resources, but I also get noobs.

Or those who, while they may know how to run a successful business, have studiously avoided dealing with SEO.

This week I’m talking to Jo Violeta, a marketing manager for her award-winning brokerage, and the host for her home improvement and property podcast.

Jo co-owns Violeta Finance with her husband, a successful mortgage brokerage that really understands the family, community, and small businesses.

Today we’re talking about how Jo markets her business, the tactics and techniques she uses, and the challenges she faces.

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Ads – they’re inescapable. I read once that the average person sees 5000 ads every single day.

What started out on billboards and in newspapers has turned into social media posts and fifteen-second video intros.

More importantly, with an ad, consumers are only ever one click away from the product being advertised. Don’t even get me started on the siren-call of Instagram ads – so many late-night purchases I now regret.

In this episode, I’m going to take you behind the furry curtains of online ads to show you which platforms will really have you strutting your stuff down the marketing cat-walk.

Tune in to learn:

What it means to run a digital marketing campaign
What are the perks of advertising on:
○ Facebook
○ Youtube
○ Google
What are the best marketing strategies for each platform
How many platforms you should target with your ads
Which common money-wasting mistakes to avoid

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Selling online is tough.
With the big boys like Amazon dominating the results, it can be hard to get eyeballs on your store.

But even if you do win the ranking game, and are getting traffic, how on earth do you get your customers to part with their hard-earned cash?

How do you persuade with amazing product descriptions?
What strategies can you use to make the first sale?
How do you stop those dreaded abandoned carts and how do you keep customers happy and coming back for more?

Today we’re talking eCommerce conversion optimisation, and how to get that delicious Kerching feeling!

Tune in to learn:

What eCommerce conversion optimisation is, and what it applies to
Key metrics you should analyse when creating an eCommerce growth strategy for your store
How to optimise an eCommerce store’s average order value
Ways to make email opt-ins and pop-ups more effective
Encouraging your store’s email list growth
What steps you can take to spruce up an abandoned cart email sequence
Setting up an email retention strategy that works

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You gotta love YouTube

The expansive pool of cat videos, How To recipes for muffins, music videos and beauty vloggers are an endless source of entertainment. But it can also be an endless source of new clients.

Getting your lovely little face onto people’s screens is a powerful way to help them remember you – and to stick in their blobby pink brain like a lollipop to a car seat in summer.

Today we’re talking about how to come out on top of the Youtube algorithm through the magic of SEOoooo…

Tune in to learn:

Should everyone be on YouTube?
What the fundamentals of a successful YouTube channel are (the three C’s of YouTube).
How to create a YouTube strategy based on Keyword research.
Optimizing your Titles, Tags, and descriptions based on Keyword research.
Improving your click-through rate.
Optimizing for watch time and session time.

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Selling your products and services online can be tough.

Every year, new trends pop up like weasels from their little weaselly holes, and we have to figure out how best to wrangle and train them to deliver more SEO juice than our competitors.

But don’t fret!

I have an excellent expert to simplify the eCommerce digital marketing process and highlight what will push you ahead of the game.

Tune in to learn:

How COVID-19 has changed eCommerce SEO
Why SEO is vital to any eCommerce site
How to optimise your images for prime SEO goodness
What new SEO trends have sprung up in 2020
How to come out on top for SEO ranking on Amazon
If content on our own site and on Etsy and Amazon is considered duplicate content
What automation through longtail and AI is, and how it can make a difference to your SEO strategy.

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In this tech-crazed day and age, we often Google first, and ask questions later.
When we find new business, product, or service, we want to know what the search engines, and the entire world, think of it.
And we want to know NOW.

But more importantly, we want to know the brand behind the product or service.
The who behind the what.

And of course, being found for who you are will always be easier than being found for what we do.
And that’s where improving your BRAND SERPS can help.

Today I’m chatting with Jason Barnard to find out how you can make your brand SERP as sexy and alluring as a porch light is to a moth.

Tune in to learn:

What is a Brand SERP? Who searches exact match brand names?
What does Google display
Why using the default option isn’t always best.
How to make your SERPs sexier.
How to use the insight gained from your results.
How the knowledge graph can improve your brand SERPs

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Personal branding is scary.
You don’t want to step out from behind your brand. And if you do, you have questions.

How much do you need to share?
How personal is a personal brand?
Do you need a brand for your business and for you?
And does it really make a difference to the bottom line?
We’ll find out all this and more on today’s episode

Tune in to learn:

Why Clarity is the first step towards building a personal brand
What role Confidence plays in your messaging
Whether Consistency is really important
How to measure the results of your personal branding
What are the downsides of personal branding
What are the positives of personal branding

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In my Reality SEO series, I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS who’ve changed their digital marketing for good and used simple techniques to transform their business and brand.

These shorter episodes will include practical DOABLE advice and tips from people just like you.

Find out how Rudo Makuyana has focused on her Digital Marketing to build relationships, put herself out as the face of her brand, and be more customer-friendly and less medical jargony!

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It’s that time again.
SCHEMA TIME.

Yes, we’re here for another soiree with Schema.

You’re a little familiar with it at this point.
You’ve eyed each-other across the room.
You’ve heard your peers mention “markup’’ in
hushed, worried tones.

It’s time to get reacquainted with, or meet for the very first time, this dead-handy structured data tool.

I know many of us put Schema in the too hard basket, but no more, I have a very special guest who’s here to make schema as easy as falling off a greasy log.

Even for the technically challenged.

Ready? Let’s get stuck in.

Tune in to learn:

What is Schema, and why is it important?
How to check for pre-existing schema on your website
How schema factors into Google rankings
How to effectively use Schema.org
Why you should be linking schemas, and how to do it
Do it yourself - how to build schema, and how to fix common problems as they arise

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When it comes to running your own business we have to wear so many different berets.

We have to be accountants, project managers, salespeople, and digital marketers.

And it’s a tough gig.

So often I see small business owners struggling to master digital marketing, not sure where to put their attention. Not sure what is going to move the needle.

Floundering, wasting money, getting ripped off, missing the basics.

So today I’m chatting with Louisa Dahl from Interactive Minds about Digital Marketing and we’re going to share the top mistake we see every day and how to avoid them.

Tune in to learn:

Why metrics matter
Why you need to know your peeps
How a lack of business confidence could be affecting your digital marketing
Why knowing your numbers is vital
Why relationships count
How to understand yourself and your brand
How to market yourself without arrogance

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In my Reality SEO episodes, I like to focus on real humans grappling with the Google beast.

Yes, I get lots of marketing professionals, copywriters, and web developers passing through my slippery funnel of courses and resources, but I also get noobs.

Or those who, while they may know how to run a successful business, have studiously avoided dealing with SEO.

This week I’m talking to Anu Sawhney, a Recipe course graduate and member of my mentoring community, the Digital Masterchefs.

Anu runs a successful online jewellery store called Bidiliia, and today we’re going to chat through challenges of Shopify SEO, writing killer eCommerce product descriptions, brand building, and how to make customers feel loved.

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In my Reality SEO series, I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS who’ve changed their digital marketing for good and used simple techniques to transform their business and brand

These shorter episodes will include practical DOABLE advice and tips from people just like you.

This week we’re talking to Marko Wittich, who runs a Shopify website for his business Campfire Treats. I’ll admit it, Marco is one of my star students, he put so much work into the course, turned up to every coaching call and asked oodles of questions.

And guess what? It paid off.

Get ready to be blown away by his amazing results.

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One of the hardest things about DIY SEO is affording all the tools.

We have the big three software Moz, Ahrefs, and SEMrush, and now oddles of up and coming brands.

On top of that, there are tools for keyword researching desktop tools like Screaming Frog and so many more. And it all adds up, especially if you’re a solo business person.

But what if there was a way to do DIY SEO without spending all that cash.

Today we’re talking about how to do your SEO without the fancy tools.

Tune in to learn:

We will look at how to use the browser and the built-in dev tools to get some SEO work done:

Do we need fancy tools
What are his top free tools
How do we test speed without a fancy tool
How do we test crawlability
How to we check ranking and keyword data
How do we check backlinks

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Webinars. I've done a few before, but I must admit I've never quite been 100% sure if they work.

Are they the secret to wonderful lead generation or are they a little bit worn out and not working quite as well as they used to?

Well, today I'm honoured to have Omar's Zenhom from WebinarNinja on the show, to give us the lowdown on webinars for beginners, and also some tips for the more advanced amongst us.

Tune in to learn:

How to get started with your first webinar.
How to use webinars to build your email list
Why webinars are the #1 sales conversion tool for any product
How to market your webinar for free- How to use webinars as a product to sell your audience
How to use webinars as a customer retention tool
Avoiding rookie mistakes
Different and new ways to do a webinar to appeal to different audiences
Tips for the non-tech

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Today I’m talking with Jono Alderson. Jono is a digital strategist at Yoast and also a bit of a wise old sage in the world of SEO, he’s not actually that old, but he has an air of Doctor who about him if you ask me.

I saw him present at Yoastcon last year and his talk about the future of the internet and Google searches was, without doubt, my favourite speech at any conference I’ve ever been too. High praise right?

So today on the podcast I wanted to ask Jono a big question. We’re all working on our websites, right? Some DIY, some splashing big bucks, the platforms are working to improve, the plugins, the browsers, the search engine.

So what actually happens when all our websites are fixed? What will we do then?

In this episode well think about the future… and what it means for the average Joe or Johanna.

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Featured snippets, some love them, some hate them.

For some, they’re a chance to grab position zero and end up at the tipperty top of the Google results even when competing with the big boys.

For others, they’re Google scraping our content and denying us click-throughs.

Today we’ll talk through what Featured Snippets are, the different formats, and what tactics you need to use to nab them, and whether they really are good for branding, click through and conversion.

Tune in to learn:

What are featured snippets
Types of snippets (old and new)
What triggers Google to show a featured snippet
Benefits beyond ‘position zero’
How being featured relates to traffic and click-through
Why voice search is important
How to get there, and make it ‘work’ for you

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People say that everyone has one good book in them.
Can we also say this of ecourses? Can anyone turn the raging tsunami of knowledge in their head into a loving pool of learning and resources?

Having created oodles of online courses myself, it’s a question I get asked a lot. Along with, what makes a successful course? How much support do I need to give? How do I price it? What software should I use, and so much more.

So today we’re straying from the SEO path, onto the road of Digital Marketing and talking all about creating ecourses.

Tune in to learn:

How to leverage your existing content
How to make your content easy to consume
Why getting the damn thing “online” is the hardest part of
launching your online course
What’s the “right” opt-in for your course
Live launch vs evergreen course
How much support your course needs to give
How to price your course
Why perfection isn’t necessary but basic requirements must be met

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In my Reality SEO series, I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS who’ve changed their digital marketing for good and used simple techniques to transform their business and brand.

These shorter episodes will include practical DOABLE advice and tips from people just like you.

Find out why Amy Annetts, already a successful business marketer, decided she had to learn SEO, what were her biggest learnings and her two top tips for small businesses.

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In my Reality SEO series, I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS who’ve changed their digital marketing for good and used simple techniques to transform their business and brand.

These shorter episodes will include practical DOABLE advice and tips from people just like you.

Kate Toon chats with Belinda Austin Marketing manager of 6ft6 wines about how to build a brilliant brand with SEO.

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Today I’ve dusted off my crystal ball and I’m sharing my predictions for how the digital will develop in 2020,

What’s going to happen in the world of Google?

What should you as business owners, bloggers, entrepreneurs, word press developers, copywriters and marketeers be concentrating on?

Which platforms should we be using?

What are the big trends?

And what can we PLEASE ignore!

I'll also explain what I'm focusing my efforts on for my six, or is it seven, websites in 2020.

Tune in to learn:

Why position zero matters
What BERT means for user optimisation
How EAT is going to impact your business
How to have a bold brand that stands for something
Why your UX can't SUX
Why you need to get your bots ready
How video is going to change your business life

And my biggest overarching trend for 2020... #showthechaos

https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/digital-marketing-predictions-for-2020/

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In this episode, Kate Toon explains what's coming up in the newly revamped Recipe for SEO Success podcast
Series 2 is going to be bigger, better and a little more regular.

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Tune in to learn:

What led Mathew to seeking an SEO agency for help
What you should have set up before contacting an agency for SEO assistance
The key things to look for when choosing an SEO agency
How important is it for you as a customer to know SEO terminology
“Red flag jargon” you should look out for
How you can participate in the ongoing process
The best way to know your money is being spent well
Alternate models: What they are and the benefits of each

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International SEO is the process of optimising your website so that search engines can easily identify which countries you want to target and which languages you use for business.

Most of us struggle with getting to rank locally, so do we really need to care about international SEO?

Well if a good share of your website visitors are coming from a different country to where you’re located then it might be the right time to think global.

In this episode I’ll be chatting with Nitin Manchanda - an International SEO expert, about everything we need to know to get our global SEO in tip top condition.

Tune in to learn:

When should you worry about international SEO.
How to structure your site for International SEO best practice.
What is Geotargeting and how should you be using it.
What to look out for when formatting your site for a country.
Which signals Google uses to understand the countries you’re targeting.
The importance of backlinks on international SEO.
Tips on how to win links in other countries.
How to handle local search engines like Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China.
Tips on international SEO for e-commerce businesses.
What are the biggest mistakes businesses make with International SEO.
The best ways to measure your international SEO success.

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I was lucky enough to present at Yoastcon in the Netherlands, so thought I’d do a special live episode interviewing all the smart people there and asking them their number one Digital Marketing tip for this year

Many of these awesome humans will also appear on a future episodes of the podcast so stay Tooned for those episodes too.

Tune in to learn:

What is DSA?
How to find out what's holding your customers back
What's the most important aspect of branding?
What are progressive web apps?
How digital marketing is converging.
Why you need to get rid of some of your pages
Why you need to take a step back to look at your values
Why page speed still matters
What's the biggest thing with WordPress site's coming up?
Why it's better to follow the path less trodden

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Bing is often overlooked here in Australia, with a low market share of only 3% (according to Statcounter.com) is it really worth the effort?

In this podcast with Fabrice Canel from Bing, I discover some interesting features of Bing, and some amazing tools to help you with your whole DIY SEO approach.

Tune to hear why you need to give Bing a second look.

Tune in to learn:

What is Bing’s Market Share in Australia?
Is doing SEO for Bing the same as doing SEO for Google?
What role does Schema play with Bing?
Does Bing use Meta descriptions to rank sites?
Does Bing use speed as a ranking factor?
Does Bing care about secure sites?
What can Bing Webmaster tools help us with?
More about Bing’s SEO analyzer
Tips on setting up Bing Places Profile
What’s the best way to check rankings on Bing?
Where is Bing focusing resources in the next year?
What Fabrice recommend as your first three steps with Bing?

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Crawlability is super important for your website.

Ensuring humans and those sticky little Google bots can slip through your site like a damp otter down a pipe is crucial.

We don’t want duplicate content and we don’t want oodles of pointless pages and archives being crawled.

We want slick, efficient, uber crawlable websites and today we’ll be going through how to make that dobable.

Tune in to learn:

What crawlability is and why it matters
The meaning of crawl budget
How often Google crawls your site
How you can get Google to crawl your site more
The key elements of crawlability
How to handle password protected content
Zombie pages and how to deal with them
Best tools to crawl your website
How to handle 404s and 301 redirects
Dealing with duplicate content

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I was lucky enough to chat with one of my SEO heros Rand Fishkin in my I LOVE SEO Group on Facebook recently.

Not only was Rand my first ever guest on the podcast, he's also been a huge influence on my SEO career and a veritable font of knowledge and ideas.

I was super excited to share the stage with him at Yoastcon recently where we discussed all things Digital Marketing - and he was generous enough to offer to share his thoughts with my students and DIY SEO Learners.

It's a great episode that covers a range of topics and challenges a lot of traditional ideas about what SEO really means, and how to be successful in digital marketing in 2019. Enjoy!

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Video has been around long enough now that people have cottoned on to it being a great tool for business. Everyday, I see more and more people getting in front of the camera to share their stories and expertise. And everyday, there’s an increase in below average videos being posted across the interwebs.

Today, I’m joined with Ben Amos to help you combat the battle of the average. Ben we’ll explore why Video strategy is the game changer and how you can use one to stand out from the masses.

Tune in to learn:

How push through not wanting to make videos at all?
How to come up with good story ideas
The types of content that help build awareness
Content that converts on video
What the structure is of a great video
Things to avoid when storytelling
The seven types of story
Easily accessible tools for creating killer videos

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You might have heard the term influencer marketing.
You might think all it involves is hot girls in bikinis on instagram clutching your product and charging you $1000 for one insta story.

But it’s a teeny bit more complicated than this.
An enhanced form of relationships marketing Influencer marketing can help boost your brand through the power of personal recommendation, it can get your products in front of new eyeballs, build trust, and ultimately drive conversions.
It can also be a bit flat flop!

In this episode I chat with highlighly acclaimed digital marketing expert Jeff Bullas on how to get started in the somewhat scary world of Influencer marketing.

Tune in to learn:

What influencer marketing actually is
How influencer marketing works
How effective influencer marketing can be
What are the different types of influencers
What does an influencer actually do
How much does it cost
How to contact an influencer
How to know if your campaign has worked?

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So in this second part of the Tim Soulo interview, we are moving away from talking about content marketing. You can head back to the first episode hear all Tim's amazing tips on that.

And instead we're going to talk about the Ahrefs tools, what it does, and also some kind of sticky questions which I'm wondering if Tim is going to be comfortable answering.

We have some questions for Tim himself about what it is to be a well-known figure in the SEO industry. So this is going to be a great episode. Get your ears ready.

Tune in to learn:

What personal skills have given Tim the edge
How Tim deals with online abuse
What does Ahrefs do that no other SEO software does
Why doesn’t Ahrefs have an affiliate program
Why Tim chose Ahrefs over any other software company
What’s the one thing Tim would change about Ahrefs

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Content marketing is something we know we should all do, but it’s so overwhelming many of us don’t know where to start.

So today, I’m delighted to have Tim Soulo from Ahrefs on the podcast, he’s Marketing lead for this leading SEO software Tim and his team consistently pump out amazing shareable content that builds brand awareness and authority.

In this episode I’ll grill him with questions from you, the erstwhile listeners of the Recipe for SEO Success podcast, about content marketing, the Ahrefs tool set and his own personal experience as a leading figure in the SEO world.

Tune in to learn:

How often you should publish and update content
Are blogs a thing of the past
Will links become a thing of the past
What questions Tim asks his writers to produce great content
What has been Ahrefs most effective lead generator

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In the Reality SEO series I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS who’ve worked hard to learn more about the wonderful world of SEO. They're all graduates of my Recipe for SEO course and all real business people, not SEO gurus.

Andrew Lau worked as an agency producer before deciding to take a leap into SEO copywriting. He knew that a high Google ranking was the key to keeping his phone ringing, so he dove in deep did the work and moved his website from page 100 to page 1. Right behind me! The student becomes the teacher or what?

He shares what learning SEO has meant to him and how ultimately it's helped him become a better dad.

Tune in to learn:

The pros and cons to working in agencies
The four pillars of SEO
What Andrew believes is the number 1 key to SEO success
How SEO helped Andrew become a better dad.
Why Andrew believes Google My Business is so essential
Warning Andrew swears a lot!!

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Many people think of SEO as an afterthought.

You build your website and then smear a thick layer of SEO icing over the top.
But SEO is not the icing on the cake, it’s the cake itself.

Structuring your website well is essential for both usability and findability, not only does it help your customers find the content they need, it helps Google understand your site better.

In this week’s podcast, I’m honoured to have Marieke Van De Rakt on the show to take us through how to create a defined site structure that woos humans and the Google gods.

Tune in to learn:

Why Site structure is so important for your website
How to set up a good website site structure
Tips for structuring your homepage
Tips for structuring your navigation
What is cornerstone content and is it still a thing?
How to use taxonomies effectively
Marieke’s tips on contextual linking
How often should we be adding new content to our websites
Marieke’s top DON’Ts when it comes to site structure

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In the Reality SEO series I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS who’ve transformed their businesses with simple digital marketing and SEO techniques.Included in this episode are their practical doable tips and advice you can implement today.

Josie Brown is an Australian WordPress developer who wanted to feel confident about building SEO websites from the get go - not just installing Yoast and saying ‘DONE’.

She talks us through the common issues she finds, image optimisation, speed and plugin problems.

Tune in to learn:

Can you develop a website without understanding SEO?
Choosing a bad domain name
Common image optimisation mistakes
Site speed issues and how to fix them
Plugin problems - which ones play well together
How having a group of peers to talk with has changed Josie’s business
What WordPress developers charge

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It’s been a busy year in SEO land. With more algorithm updates than you can shake a stick at.
The Search Engine results pages are unrecogniseable, Google My Business gets sexier each and every day and conversational search is on the up, as we’re able to use pretty much every device in the house to browse the interwebs.

So how can us lowly small business owners, bloggers and ecommerce store owners prepare for the year ahead?

Can we peer into oh crystal balls and see what Google has in store?

Well today I’m talking with SEO guru Cyrus Shepard about what we should expect for Search in 2019.
So if you want to get ahead of the competition, this is the episode for you.

Tune in to learn:

The importance of branded search
Schema and what you need to know
Is AMP here to stay
How can we take advantage of conversational search
What’s the deal with the ever changing SERPS
Why site architecture is still important
Is speed still important?
Do we need to build links in 2019?

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Google Tag Manager is every data lovers best friend. It’s been around for a while but many of us shy away from it due to fear of it being over techy. Can it really help me? Is it just for the big guys? What on earth is it really good for?

Today I’m talking to Nik Cree, the GTM master, about the insight and integration benefits of Tag Manager and how it can be an asset to your overall SEO and marketing strategy.

Tune in to learn:

What Google Tag Manager is
What GTM is useful for
How to access GTM
How to hook up GTM to your WordPress site
If you should remove other tagging plugins
Things GTM tracks
What Google Tag assistant is
The biggest problems users have with GTM
Tracking button clicks and video views

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Dom Kimber is an SEO copywriter based on the Sunshine Coast, not only did she build her own website but she grappled the Google beast, boosting her knowledge and confidence.

In the Reality SEO series I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS for who’ve transformed their businesses with simple digital marketing and SEO techniques.

With practical doable tips and advice you can implement today.

Tune in to learn:

How Dom overcame her fear of SEO
How Dom built her own SEO friendly website and saved big bucks
Dom’s and Kate’s top tips on writing killer titles and meta descriptions
Dom’s number one tip for small business owners thinking about getting started with SEO.

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Google loves to surprise and delight. It keeps us on our toes with surprise algorithm updates and plenty of features to help improve search. One of these additions is Google Optimise which came out a couple of years ago, but honestly I don’t think many people are using.

The big questions are “What on earth is it? And how is it useful to SEO?”

Today, Olga Summerhayes is joining me to answer both these questions and provide a map to help us navigate the world of Google Optimise.

Tune in to learn:

What Google Optimise is, when it was created and what it's useful for
How to access Google Optimise
Olga's 10-step Google Optimise process
Different tests you can do with Google Optimise
Working with A/B testing
Setting objectives
Targeting with Google Optimise
How to locate the results
Can you start it up again or do you have to recreate each time?
Google optimise 360 vs Google Optimise
Olga's top Google Optimise tips for best practice

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Real life business owners explain their Digital Marketing secrets. In my Reality SEO series I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS for who've changed their digital marketing for good and uses simple techniques to transform their business and brand.
These shorter episodes will include practical DOABLE advice for real life humans (not lofty abstract tips that require 40 hours a week of effort and a $100k budget). Find out how by specialising and niching Donna transformed her business, reached the top of the rankings for her chosen keywords and now her phone WILL NOT STOP RINGING (seriously it rang 3 times during the podcast I had to make her sit on it).

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Keyword research is essential to SEO, there ain’t no ifs or buts about it. However keyword research can feel like falling down the rabbit hole, blindly stumbling about, confused by the data and ending up choosing a random phrase out of sheer exhaustion.

Most of us know the basics. But what about the advanced techniques that the pros use?

Today I’m talking to Dido Grigorov on becoming advanced keyword research superstars. He’s going to show us how to find exactly what we need and how to avoid the rabbit hole..

Tune in to learn:

When detailed research is most important
Dido's process for determining synonyms and related phrases
How find find what keywords to target in a competitive market
Do free keyword tools really compete with paid tools?
Ranking for keywords on site with high competition
How do you balance catchy headlines with practical keywords?
Using primary and secondary keywords in titles
Using worldwide keyword data

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Real life business owners explain their Digital Marketing secrets. In my Reality SEO series I interview REAL LIFE HUMANS for who've transformed their businesses with simple digital marketing and SEO techniques.

With pratical doable tips and advice you can implememen today

Paula Glynn is an SEO and Digital Marketing strategist, who found that be really understanding how her customers talk, and reflecting that language back to them, she was able to rank higher, drive more traffic and convert more customers.

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Content marketing can feel overwhelming, there's so much you can do, but what should you be doing?

Joining me today is Shannon Morrison, not only is he incredibly lovable he’s also a genius when it comes to all aspects of content marketing.

Whether you’re just dipping your toe into the content marketing pool or you’ve been attempting to swim in it for a while, this pod is for you.

Tune in to learn:

What content marketing is
How to find your audience
What goes into creating content
The types of content you can create
Top mistakes people make with developing content
Simple vs advanced content
Planning a good content approach
Developing a long term content strategy, including basic and advanced content options
How SEO factors into a content strategy
Helpful tools when developing content

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My third Reality SEO guest is Kate Merryweather

Kate has worked hard on her SEO to optimise her site, and one her biggest wins was reducing her site speed from a bloated 13 seconds to a lean mean speedy machine of 3 seconds.

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Yoast is my favourite SEO plugin for WordPress.

I use it on all my business websites and yes, I have eight.

And I advise all my students to do the same. In my opinion, it's crucial for a great SEO strategy.
So why Yoast?

And what makes it great?

Today, we're going to find out some secret Yoast tips that you can use to boost your SEO because we are talking with the man himself, Joost from Yoast is here to answer questions and explain how to use Yoast to its full potential.

Tune in to learn:

Why Yoast is called Yoast
How Joost going into WordPress plugin Development
Why Joost thinks Yoast is the best SEO plugin
Why Yoast has so many effing updates!
Why the Traffic light system is not a golden bullet
How Yoast work with Google, the other big plugins and themes to ensure their updates work
Big changes coming to Yoast 9.0 with linguistic morphology features
Yoasts sexy new Gutenberg features
How Joost handles social media attacks
Who's speaking at the upcoming YoastCon event
What Joost thinks will be the big thing for SEO in 2019.

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Nikola Minkov shares his best tips for implementing Schema Schema. When I first heard about Schema I could feel the terror from my chest to the bottom of my bottom. What is Schema? Do I really need it? Can’t I just pretend it doesn’t exist?

Lucky for me, all my fears have been allayed as in this week’s pod Nikola Minkov breaks Schema down. We run through the A to Z of Schema, ways you can implement Schema now where you’re a beginner or a pro. If you feel the Schema terror or are simply intrigued and want some solid Schema strategies, this pod is for you.

Tune in to learn:

What is Schema?
Why is Schema important?
What are the benefits of Schema markup?
Great Schema plugins
Are plugins or manual Schema best?
What is Google’s structured data testing tool?
Schema troubleshooting
Schema Q&A from the digital masterchefs.

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Real life business owners explain their Digital Marketing secrets. So today I'm starting something new. I'm interviewing REAL LIFE HUMANS for my podcast who've changed their digital marketing for good and uses simple techniques to transform their business and brand.
These shorter episodes will include practical DOABLE advice for real life humans (not lofty abstract tips that require 40 hours a week of effort and a $100k budget).

First off the rank Jenny De Lacy.

Jenny explains how some simple usability changes improved conversion on her home page, encouraged more sign ups to her lead magnet and ultimate drove more sales.

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Tim Capper answers our burning Local SEO questions Local SEO and the mysterious local pack. We all yearn to crawl our way in and mostly, we fail. What is the secret to mastering local SEO?

In this week’s pod we put our burning Local SEO questions to the master. We run through the best strategies to make it into the local pack and how to widen your local search opportunities. If you’ve spent many night trying to conquer the beast that is Local SEO, this pod is for you.

Tune in to learn:

Can I optimise for “near me” searches?
How to compete with big city level searches
Is putting more than one suburb in title tags and meta descriptions a good idea?
How do I know if I’m ranking in the local pack?
The best way to differentiate Google My Business clicks to other click throughs to the website in Google Analytics
How to prepare for voice search queries

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Since I started my pod, not one but 4 of the big SEO software companies have started their own podcasts. They have money, high production values, teams, audio people, dancing girls and lazers.

I have me, in a hut, with a really annoying dog next door who never stops effing barking.

I've been sketchy with my schedule.
I've wondered if it's worth it.
I've had horrible bouts of imposter syndrome.

But today I got a huge boost because not only did the spokesperson for GOOGLE recommend my podcast, but one of the most popular SEO news sites published a link to my podcast.

It's reinvigorated me to keep on going with the pod. And to make some changes.

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Practical tips for normal humans As you’ll know, if you listened to the podcast with John Mueller, Google has moved to a mobile first index.

So what does this mean for you small business owner?

Must you burn your site to the ground and start again?

Must you pay big bucks to your website developer to do all the things?

Must your site be faster than a otter sliding down a greasy tube?

Well no, and yes. And a bit more no.

In this episode we’re going to pass on 10 easy ways to improve your site’s mobile optimisation.

So oil up your ears people, it’s going to be fun!

Tune in to learn:

What mobile first means
Why Mobile optimisation is a top priority for all businesses
Important tips to improve speed
How to make your site touch screen ready
How to handle font and contrast issues
The importance of usability
What to do with pop ups
Why click to call is essential
Great tools to test out your site

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Learn the ins and outs of voice search and the potential for your business Voice search is a speech recognition technology that allows users like you and me to perform searches via a voice command. Voice search can be used with smartphones and other small web-enabled devices.

It’s hard to say exactly how many search queries are voice-based since Google doesn’t publish that exact information regularly.

But we do know that it’s rising and that soon, voice searches may represent the majority of total searches.

In this episode, I’m going to uncover everything there is to know about voice search and how it’s changing the world of SEO.

Tune in to learn:

What voice search is and how it works
Why voice searches are on the rise
The positives and negatives of voice search
How Google generates the results for voice searches
Will voice search completely change the market for normal SEO services?
Will voice search cause normal SEO services to eventually become obsolete?
How do you optimize website content for a voice search?
What is the next big thing for voice search?

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We get the inside track from Google themselves Google, it’s a mystery - right?
What the hell to they want from us?
What fiery hoops must we force our websites to jump through to meet their never-ending list of demands?

And why do they keep changing things?

But rather than pull your hair out and mutter swear words under your breath, I have a solution for you. We can ask GOOGLE what they’re up to.

That’s why I’m super super delighted to have John Mueller back on the show today for a Google Q&A.

Tune in to learn:

Why most websites don’t have the basics covered
John Mueller’s top recommendation for ecommerce stores to increase visibility on Google
The importance of the H1
What’s the best way for ecommerce sites to use Google My Business?
How big your service area should be
If Google will ever offer SEO certification
Whether Google has too much power
And other super important Google questions

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Best practices and what it means for your business website On Monday, March 26, 2018 Google announced that after a year and a half of careful experimentation and testing they’re migrating sites that follow best practices for mobile first indexing.

The much talked about Mobile first index is finally here.

But what does this mean for the average small business website owner?

How will this site affect their web traffic, and what changes do they need to make to their websites to ensure they maintain their rankings, today I’m talking with John Mueller from Google all about this momentous change.

Tune in to learn:

What does mobile first indexing mean
Why Google are making this change
What are the best practices for mobile first sites
What impact will mobile first have on the average business website owner
Is having a responsive site enough
How important is speed when it comes to mobile sites
And other super important Google questions

https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/mobile-first-with-john-mueller/

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How to boost brand awareness and links with PR You might not realise it but PR and SEO go together like jam and scones.

While some people like to keep their digital communications in neat little pots, the truth is that the lines are very much blurred these days.

If you can write a press release that generates real media coverage, it will boost your SEO efforts with traffic, awareness and those all-important links.

So how can small businesses and DIYers use PR to boost their SEO?

In this episode of the podcast I’m talking with Mez about how his agency uses press coverage and PR to build Google juice for their clients, and how you can too.

Tune in to learn:

What PR is
What influence outreach is
Why PR helps SEO
Mez’s tips for building media awareness
Mez’s tips for influence outreach
How Mez measures PR and SEO success

https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/pr-using-media-boost-seo/

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Okay, so it’s time to make big changes to your website.

Perhaps you want to move to a new platform.
Or finally change from HTTP to HTTPS.
Perhaps you’re changing your domain name.

While this might be great for business, it’s important to understand just how big of an impact a poorly managed site migration can have.

Get it wrong and you could take a big fat hit in the wiggly bits when it comes to site traffic.

So in this episode of the podcast I’m talking with Jason Munn about how to ensure your site migration goes without a hitch.

Tune in to learn:

The different types of site migrations
When is it a good idea to migrate
The possible impact of poor migrations
Jason’s top migration tips
Kate’s top migration tips

[Tweet "Podcast: Site migrations: How not to lose your rankings #SEO #SEOPODCAST"]

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So if you’re been studying SEO for any period of time you’re likely to have come across the phrase Domain Authority.

It’s a term coined by Moz, the SEO software company, and they use it as a metric of a site’s ability to rank against its competitors.

But while many swear that the concept of Domain Authority is real, many more assert there’s no evidence such a thing exists. In fact, you’ll find many of the more ranty SEO types getting really angry when it’s mentioned.

So in this episode of the podcast I’m talking with Ross Tavendale about Domain Authority, what it is, why it’s helpful and if it’s even real.

Tune in to learn:

What is Domain Authority?
How you can use it to measure performance?
Whether Ross thinks DA is real?
What is SEO Juice?
Why do we need no follow links?
What is Page rank?
If DA is real, how do we build it?

https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/domain-authority-big-fat-lie/

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Social media is so much fun, and such a giant time sucker.

But does it really have any impact on your Search Engine Optimisation and ability to rank?

Social signals and their importance in relation to rankings is something that’s been hotly debated for years.
There are lots of people is the YES camp and about the same number in the NO camp.

In today’s episode, we’re going to dig a bit deeper into the relationship between social media and SEO. And I hope that by the end of the episode, we’ll be able to be 100% clear on whether social media metrics have a direct impact on rankings.

So, if you’re a Facebook fan, Instagram addict or Pinterest tragic. This is the episode for you.

Tune in to learn:

Does social media directly influence rankings?
What do SEOs mean when they talk about causation and correlation?
Do links from social media count as much as links from a regular website?
Does the number of followers I have on Instagram, or Facebook influence how Google sees my website?
How can I use Twitter to boost my SEO?
Does posting on Google+ help improve my ranking?
How do I optimise my social profiles for SEO?
Is traffic a ranking factor?
Does boosting posts help?
Does using scheduling for social media posts hurt SEO?
How can we use social media to improve our SEO?

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Why you need a fast site, not an AMP site These days, everyone in the SEO cafeteria is talking AMP, AMP, AMP.

It’s been around for a time, and while some earlier pioneers have tried to make it work (me), many failed (also me) and have given up.

So, when I saw the title of Jon Henshaw’s presentation at the recent Brighton SEO event ‘ FORGET AMP. MAKE FAST SITES', I thought my prayers had been answered! No need for AMP?

That’s why, today, I have Jon on the show to give us the low down on AMP and speeding up websites.

Tune in to learn:

What is AMP?
Why AMP might not be great for your website
Why we need fast sites
What’s the ideal loading time
Advanced site speed improvement tips
How to improve your site’s images
How improving your site’s UX can help speed things up
What is prefetch and how does it help
What is Gzip and how does it help
Jon’s favourite site speed testing tools

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Today, I want to talk about my SEO predictions for 2018.

What’s going to happen in the world of Google?
What should you as business owners, bloggers, entrepreneurs, word press developers, copywriters and marketeers.
What should you be concentrating on?
And what will I be focusing my efforts on for my six, or is it seven, websites in 2018?

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The Google Knowledge Graph is a system that was launched in May 2012. It understands facts about people, places and things and how these entities are all connected.

The Knowledge Graph is used both behind-the-scenes to help Google improve its search relevancy and also to present Knowledge Graph boxes within its search results that provide us consumers with direct answers.

You and I know the Knowledge Graph as the little box/panel or card that appears on the right hand side of the Results page or at the top of the results below the AMP carousel on mobile devices.

So, as small business DIY SEOers, how can we use the Knowledge Graph to our advantage?

Today, I’m talking to legendary SEO guru Bill Slawski to get the lowdown on all things Knowledge Graph.

Tune in to learn:

What is the Google Knowledge Graph?
What does ‘things not strings’ mean?
Why the Knowledge Graph is important for your business
How often do Knowledge Graph cards show up
The anatomy of the Knowledge Graph card
How to enhance your results
Does the Knowledge Graph actually damage our site?

https://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com/knowledge-graph-101-make-work-business

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We all know how important our landing pages are. The internet is full of articles hacks and tips on how to create a super smooth funnel, killer Calls to Action and they all promise that if we get our landing optimisation right – we’ll be winner customers faster than a well oiled otter sliding down a pipe.

But how does landing page optimisation relate to SEO and what are the really important things we need to be thinking about when we optimise our pages.

Today I’m talking to Arnout an online marketeer from Amsterdam into SEO, Analytics and Conversion – he’s an all round SEO and landing page optimisation whizz.

Tune in to learn:

Anout’s definition of a landing page
Does traffic from paid search perform the same way as traffic from organic search
The 3 essential ingredients for a tasty landing page
The best colour and copy for a Call to Action button
Whether it’s a good idea to remove navigation from our landing pages
How can we assess our landing page’s performance
Common landing page mistakes
Average conversion rates
And much much more

www.therecipeforseosuccess.com

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How to get to grips with Google when you're going it alone. When I spoke to Rand Fishkin way back on Podcast episode 1 (when I didn't even have a podcast and honestly just wanted an excuse to talk to Rand Fishkin) I asked him if he thought it was truly possible for small business types to do their own SEO.

He replied that yes it was possible, but they wouldn't be doing SEO at the same level as some highly paid Search Engine Optimisation guru.

And I couldn't agree more, we've had some amazing experts on this podcast already and their level of knowledge is EXTREME.

But can a small business handle the basics, even the intermediate requirements of a good solid SEO strategy?

In this episode I talk to four small business owners who have decided to take control of their own SEO. - and find out whether it's a been a SEO success or a giant fail.

Tune in to learn:

What struggles each business were facing before they DIYed their SEO
What key learnings they have had along the way
What improvements they've seen so far
There number one SEO tip

www.therecipeforseosuccess.com

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If there’s one thing I get asked by my SEO students at least once a week, it’s ‘Are Wix websites any good for SEO?’

And I get it. Wix is an easy to use platform that allows even the least technical beast to build a site quickly and easily.

I know that you want it to be great for SEO – because then life would be so much easier. But is it?

In this episode I’m going to compare both platforms and give you my honest opinion about whether Wix is really SEO-friendly, and how it compares to my favourite platform: WordPress.

Tune in to learn:

My previous experience with Wix.
How Wix stacks up against WordPress in terms of:
- Cost
- Usability
- Optimisation
- Design
- Plugins and apps
- Shops
- Support
- Maintenance

Podcast episode: Website: https://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com

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The words “duplicate content penalty” strike fear in the hearts of business owners.

And there are a lot of myths surrounding this topic so today we’re going to bust some. In this episode I’m going to take you through what duplicate content really means, how to find it, the different types of duplicate content and some easy fixes.

"Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. Mostly, this is not deceptive in origin…..”

Tune in to learn:

What is duplicate content?
Is there a duplicate content penalty?
How can duplicate content impact your website?
What are the different types of duplicate content?
Some useful duplicate content finding tools
How to fix duplicate content issues.

https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/duplicate-content-how-to-find-it-fix-it-and-does-it-really-matter

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Facebook - it’s the social media platform we love to hate.

Business page owners will know the struggle of trying to cut through the noise and get your posts seen. Some statistics say that even with the people who’ve taken the time to like your page, could only be seeing 2% of your content.

So how does Facebook’s news algorithm really work and what do we need to understand to get our content seen by more potential customers - without having to pay for ads. Today I’m chatting with Marie Page, Author, Speaker and Co Founder of The Digiterati about Facebook’s mysterious algorithm.

Tune in to learn:

Episode: http://www.therecipeforseosuccess.comfacebook-optimisation-understanding-facebook-news-feed-algorithm

Website: http://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com

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Create faster site that Google can't help but love We all know the feeling as we wait, and wait, (and sometimes wait some more) for the page to load. Do we hang around or do we click away and find a faster site? Well Google feels the same way, the school of thought is that while Google doesn't reward faster sites, it probably doesn't give slow sites a whole lot of love and this could see them slipping down the ranks.

In this episode I chat with Vahe about simple tips we can use to speed up our lazy old websites.

Tune in to learn:

Why having a fast site is important?
What is the impact of having a slow site
What is a fair load time benchmark for a small business website
Which Content Management System is the fastest
Our favourite speed testing tools
What is caching and how to does it help
How to reduce server response time

Episode: https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/speed-speed-sluggish-website/ Website: http://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com

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So today we’re talking all about content marketing, how to use blogs, videos, graphics and other media to increase sales, improve customer loyalty, drive awareness and get a better return on your investment.

it’s a pretty big subject and can sometimes feel a little overwhelming, but don’t worry we’ve got ten simple tactics you can start using today.

So if you want to learn and how to stimulate more interest in your products and services and build rapport and authority with your customers, this is the show for you.

What content marketing is
What benefits content marketing has for your business
Kate’s five favourite content marketing hacks
James’ favourite content marketing hacks
Content marketing tips and advice

Website: http://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com

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We all love Google, but sometimes as a business owner if can feel hard to actually talk to a real Google human!

So I was delighted to get the opportunity to chat with John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google. Yes a real live Google human!

John is someone I’ve been following for a long time, he provides excellent advice and answers to people all around the worlds so I’m super happy to have him here on the show.

Today John is going to be answer questions from students of my SEO ecourse, and I LOVE SEO community as well as giving us exclusive insight into what Google has planned for 2017.

So if you want the inside track on all things Google this is the show for you!

Tune in to learn:

Whether Google really wants to penalise websites.
What impact does Social media have on SEO.
How often you should update your pages and posts.
Do exact match domains impact ranking.
Why doesn’t Google use my Meta Descriptions.
Is it better to get lots of links from one domain or from multiple domains.
What’s the best long term SEO tactic.
Are Wix websites good for SEO.
What are the common SEO mistakes most websites make.
John’s one piece of advice for small businesses
What Google has planned for 2017.

Episode: https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/ask-google-qa-john-mueller/

Website: http://www.therecipeforseosuccess.com.au/

The Recipe For SEO Success Show: Recent Episodes

Kate Toon SEO copywriter and SEO Consultant