The EMJ SEO Podcast

Today, we are going to de-mystify the relationship between Wikipedia and SEO with our special guest Mike Wood. It is with great pleasure that I welcome Mike to the show.

Mike Wood BioMike Wood is an online marketer, author, and Wikipedia expert. He is the founder of Legalmorning.com, an online marketing agency that specializes in content writing, brand management, and professional Wikipedia editing. He is a regular contributor to many online publications where he writes about business and marketing.

ResourcesLegal Morning Website – https://www.legalmorning.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/legalmorning

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LMMarketingAcademy

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Legalmorning

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@Legalmorning

Udemy – https://www.udemy.com/user/mike-wood-4/

The Content Marketing Institue – How to Do Backlinks in Wikipedia the Right Way

Books Mike Has WrittenWood is the author of the books Link Juice and Wikipedia as a Marketing Tool.

Link Juice – Understanding and Using Backlinks for Better Search Ranking – Available on Amazon and Google Books.

Wikipedia as a Marketing Tool: How to reap the marketing benefits of Wikipedia – Available on Amazon

Questions I asked Mike1. What size business would qualify for having a Wikipedia page created? 2. Why have a Wikipedia Page? 3. What are the SEO benefits of having a link from Wikipedia? 4. If a business does not qualify for a Wikipedia Page, how can it contribute content as a citation? 5. What type of 3rd party website should a business citation be on, that links back to the money site? 6. Why is it important to have an experienced, professional paid editor for Wikipedia? 7. What other opportunities are there in Wikipedia for a business to get links back to their site? 8. Can you explain some of the restrictions within Wikipedia guidelines? 9. What is a Wikipedia article, and how is it different from a Wikipedia page? 10. Could you talk about the deletion process on Wikipedia? 11. Could you explain what services Legal Morning offers, and how listeners can reach out to you?

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James Wirth IntroHave you ever met someone in your professional life, where the way they approach a subject matter alters how you look at what you thought was a standard way of doing business?

A few years ago, I met James Wirth after talking with Garret French of Citation Labs, a pioneer in the link-building world. I used Citation Lab’s building research tools in the past when I was doing solo link-building outreach.

But this time, I approached Citation Labs to be a link-building agency for an enterprise business I was part of.

What I did not expect was that James was going to change the way I approached link-building, and almost everything I knew about the topic.

It is with immense pleasure, that I welcome James to the show.

BioJames Wirth is the Sr. Director of Strategy & Growth for Citation Labs. James has been in SEO since 1997, loves to be a kid with his kids, explore the great outdoors, and help businesses exceed their growth objectives.

ResourcesLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswirth/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/jameswirth

Skype IM – skypewithjames

Link Building – ROI Calculator Worksheet

Link Prospector – https://linkprospector.citationlabs.com/

Citation Labs Website – https://citationlabs.com/

ZipSprout Website – https://zipsprout.com/

Moz’s Page Authority Tool – https://moz.com/domain-analysis

SEMRUSH Keyword Difficulty Score – https://www.semrush.com/kb/1158-what-is-kd

Episode # 6 – Garret French Discusses Link Building & Link Gap Analysis

Questions I Asked James* What is link building in SEO? * Why is link-building important? * What is link relevancy? * How can anchor text impact a link-building campaign? * Does link building still work? * What is a good link-building strategy? * What should you avoid in link building? * How do you create a link-building plan? * Is link building for Local, organic search results different than for organic search? * How many links should you build per month? * How can you estimate how many links you need from referring domains? * How can you measure the ROI on link building? * How can Citation Labs help with link building?

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How can a podcast help a Local business and its Local SEO?Have you ever wondered if a podcast would fit into your business and your SEO?

And if you did move forward with the podcast, what would be the steps that you would take to be successful?

Today’s guest is Colin Grey, who has been podcasting professionally for 12+ years.

Colin is going to give us a 500ft view on podcasting and how it can help Local businesses and in so doing their SEO.

Colin Grey BioColin is a podcaster, speaker, Ph.D., and founder of ThePodcastHost.com and Alitu. ThePodcastHost.com is a huge audio, video, and written resource on how to create a successful show. Alitu.com is a podcast maker tool, designed to help you create your podcast in the easiest way possible, and with full creative control, including call recording, audio cleanup, audio editing, building your episode, and hosting your show.

ResourcesAlitu (podcast maker app/editor) – https://alitu.com/

The Podcast Host – https://www.thepodcasthost.com/

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/colinmcgray

Twitter – http://twitter.com/thepodcasthost

Questions I asked Colin* Why should a podcast topic be niched down? * Why should you have passion for your podcast topic? * How can businesses be seen more as an authority on topics by being a guest on podcasts? * How do you plan out your content for podcast shows? * Where does podcasting fit into content marketing? * How would a business make money from podcasting? * How can links from podcast cast guest interview posts help SEO? * Can you tell our users about the training that you provide on podcasting? * Can you tell uses about Alitu?

Check out the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/how-local-businesses-can-benefit-from-a-podcast-with-colin-grey

Check out more episodes of The EMJ SEO Podcast.

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Company messaging hurdlesOne of the largest struggles I see as an SEO is how companies can misalign their messaging.

Here is what I mean by that:

Companies tend to pound their chests with their messaging as if they are the best thing since sliced bread.
They do not communicate to users how their products and services can help the user’s pain points.
The company communication is not consistent across different lines of the business, the website, social media, and email communication.
Their communication is not consistent with the company’s mission.

Today’s episode goes into this in detail.

BioI have 30 years experience as a corporate executive and consultant providing strategic and tactical corporate communications, public relations and writing support for companies across a variety of industries. An avid researcher of companies, industries and demographic shifts, I continued to see an alarming trend in which organizations fail to effectively communicate their mission, vision and values to their target audiences resulting in negative consequences. As a solution-focused consultant, I saw an opportunity to offer an objective analysis of a company’s products/services and assist clients in identifying their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. My expertise is in discernment — seeing clearly what my clients cannot see, most times because they are too close and their objectivity gets clouded. Every company has a unique selling proposition and, working closely with my clients; I help them see “the forest from the trees.”

ResourcesLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/danlspringer/

Questions I asked DanWhile not all of the questions show up in the recording, these were the basis of our conversation.

Could you explain how effective communication from a company is essentially a website’s users?
What type of strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities do you see on most websites as they describe their products and services?
How does messaging from a business help grow a business?
What struggles have you had in getting empathy and the business’s personality to shine through communication?
How do you align messaging across websites, social media, blog posts, etc. so that it is cohesive?
What is the process you take to develop a content strategy with businesses?
What strategies can listeners use to start to form a content strategy for their business?
How can a business use come from the perspective of its users in their content?
What are the biggest struggles the companies have with their content?
How can listeners reach out to you for help with their content?

Check out the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/company-communication-struggles-with-dan-springer

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If you have ever struggled to find your voice at work and give your opinion on strategies that would improve the company’s bottom line, you’re not alone.

Overcoming fears in a professional office setting amongst your peers, your manager, leadership teams, and the C-suite is a thing.

Today’s guest is Dee Williams.

We are going first to hear her story and where her resilience comes from.

We will then segway into how professionals and SEOs can speak confidently about their recommendations through resilience.

Dee Williams’ BioDee is the founder and CEO of Identifize Consulting, a recruitment and staffing consulting firm. Ms. Williams coined the term “Staffingpreneur” in 2008 and is the founder of Staffingpreneurs Academy, a digital business curriculum designed to educate aspiring entrepreneurs and provide them with the skills, tools, and resources they need to start, build and scale their niche recruitment and staffing business. Ms. Williams is also the CEO of Reskillify.com, where Dee helps professionals build full coaching brands that are profitable and that really change lives, and the founder of TheCannabisJobBoard.com, an online job board and hiring platform geared towards matching job seekers and employers within the legal cannabis industry.

ResourcesLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/deewilliamsga/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/yourdeewilliams

Twitter – https://twitter.com/no1networker

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyXAYiw0B8lznO5b9pw62Vg

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/yourdeewilliams/

Reskillify – https://reskillify.com/

The Cannabis Job Board – https://www.thecannabisjobboard.com/

Staffingpreneurs Academy – https://staffingpreneursacademy.com/

Identifizeconsulting – https://identifizeconsulting.com/

Books We Talked About Exactly What To Say – Your Personal Guide To The Mastery of Magic Words – by Phil M Jones (available on Amazon) * Stop, Snap & Switch to Unleash Your Limitless Life – by Krista Mashore (available on Amazon)*

Questions I asked Dee Williams1. How would you recommend professionals overcome fear within the workplace? 2. How can professionals be resilient so that they overcome obstacles? 3. What would be your strategy for professionals to achieve their goals? 4. How can professionals influence people to move on with their ideas? – especially if they are in different teams? 5. How do you get people to take action and do things? – Once they have agreed, that is a good idea. 6. Can you talk about how your resolve affects your reality? 7. How can professionals discover what is holding them back and then take action to move forward? 8. How can professionals support their inner strength? 9. What makes you feel inspired or like your best self?

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Does your website use GA4?Is your website ready for GA4? Google Universal Analytics stops collecting data on July 1st, 2023.

And based on BulitWith.com, 25,939,381 websites still have Google Universal Analytics on them.

Is your website one of those?

Check out the live stats here – https://trends.builtwith.com/analytics/Google-Universal-Analytics

BioSteve Erlich is a digital marketing expert and the Director of Search at Digital Law Marketing, Inc. For almost 15 years, Steve has been helping lawyers achieve their SEO, PPC, social media goals, and other digital marketing objectives. Steve also helps clients coordinate their different marketing channels to create a consistent brand and maximize the impact of all their marketing efforts.

ResourcesWebsite – https://www.digitallawmarketing.com

Twitter – https://twitter.com/ImSteveErlich

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-erlich-4a073028/

Brie Anderson:

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brieeanderson/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/brie_e_anderson?s=20

Dana DiTomaso:

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dditomaso/

LinkedIn Learning GA4 Course – https://www.linkedin.com/learning/advanced-google-analytics-4-ga4

Questions I asked Steve1. What is GA4? 2. Why change to GA4? 3. What’s happening to Universal Analytics and the data? 4. Are there any ways to keep my UA data? 5. What is changing in GA4? 6. What is Google Tag Manager, and why should I use it? 7. Are there any challenges to using GA4? (API limitations) 8. What new features of GA4 should a marketer or small business look for? 9. Is GA4 GDPR compliant? 10. Who should I be following for information on GA4?

Check out the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/ga4-deep-dive-as-universal-analytics-is-soon-ending-with-steve-erlich

Check out more episodes of The EMJ SEO Podcast.

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Not just for SEOsThis episode is for the SEOs working at companies where they are not empowered, have little to no budget, and where their voices are not heard or considered.

I asked today’s guest Scott Carley to be on the show to speak on how businesses can change from being stagnant to being innovative and, in the process, be agents of change.

Having worked in many marketing departments, I have seen businesses that did not adopt innovation and let their competition accelerate past them. The competition who moved past them in Google used newer techniques, had a budget for link building, updated web design, and much more.

It is my pleasure to welcome Scott to the show.

Scott Carley BioThere’s a reason they call him “The Change Energizer”–Scott Carley has the energy and the knowledge to get big achievements across the finish line! He takes a proactive and innovative approach to problem-solving, overcoming obstacles, and conquering failures. With his emphasis on taking action, Scott helps organizations achieve objectives and increase productivity.

A long-time certified Vistage speaker and Trusted Advisor, Scott Carley has spoken nationally to thousands of CEOs and key leaders. He is a two-term President of the Austin Chapter of the National Speakers Association. He is also a three-term Board member of the National Chapter Leadership Council of NSA, supporting Professional Speakers nationwide. He has rallied presenters to innovate with new tools during the Covid-19 Pandemic, exemplifying once again that he knows how to practice what he preaches.

Scott has traveled to over 350 cities stateside and from Australia to Europe as a keynote speaker. His top clients include Wells Fargo, Dell, NYL, and Travel and Tourism Industry. Clients love his clear approach to problem-solving and how he “creates a breath of fresh air” that energizes and uplifts.

His three most requested Conference Topics are:

Awaken The Giant Within – You’ve Got Super Powers, and You’re Gonna Need a Cape
We Did It – The Science and Strategy Behind Big Achievements
Conquer Your Sand Traps – It’s what made Tiger Woods a Champion

Scott hosts his We Did It Weekend Breakthrough Retreats once a quarter for Repositioning and Emerging Leaders.

Questions I asked Scott1. How do you get businesses that are overwhelmed working in their companies to work on their business? 2. How do you get business leaders out of funk so that your team is more agile and willing to move toward innovation? 3. The competition is wiping out the business. How do you get the company to take notice and take action? 4. What do you do to help people innovate in their business? 5. What is the catalyst to help people innovate? 6. How do you Energize a Team long-term? 7. How do you help a stagnate leadership team get creative and move forward? 8. How does a leader become decisive in making good decisions? 9. How do leaders say NO to distractions? 10. What was your aha moment or breakthrough with learning how to motivate businesses? 11. How can businesses work with you?

See the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/moving-forward-with-innovation-by-embracing-change

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If you are interested in what makes SEO tick or how to rank a web page or website in Google. You know that this is a moving target, as Google is constantly changing and evolving.

To speak directly about these issues, I invited Lily Ray to come on the show and discuss what is new about Google’s E-E-A-T framework.

She also goes into this if you are unfamiliar with the E-E-A-T framework was recently updated.

BioLily Ray is the SEO Director at Amsive Digital, providing strategic leadership for the agency’s SEO client programs. Born into a family of software engineers, web developers, and technical writers, Lily brings a strong technical background, performance-driven habits, and forward-thinking creativity to all programs she oversees. Lily began her SEO career in 2010 in a fast-paced start-up environment and moved quickly into the agency world. She helped grow and establish an award-winning SEO department that delivered high-impact work for a fast-growing list of notable clients, including Fortune 500 companies. Lily has worked across various verticals focusing on retail, e-commerce, b2b, and CPG sites. She loves diving into algorithm updates, assessing quality issues, and solving technical SEO mysteries.

Resources:Upcoming Events – https://lilyray.nyc/events/list/

Amsive Digital – https://www.amsivedigital.com/

The questions that I asked Lily that this podcast episode was based on* What does E-E-A-T mean? * How can E-E-A-T affect a site’s rankings in Google? * What can SEOs do to improve the E-E-A-T on their website? * What are the most common issues that you see? * Can writing more on topic clusters of the site's overarching topic help with E-E-A-T? – semantic SEO. * How does having more robust content with supporting keywords, related keywords, and question queries help? – People also ask. * Does FAQ schema help with E-E-A-T? – If so, can you explain how. * How does adding Author Schema help? * How does adding SameAs Author Schema Help? * When relevant internal links are implemented, can this help with E-E-A-T by connecting Google entities? * How can off-page signals like BBB and Yelp affect the Trustworthiness of a website for E-E-A-T? * Can the relevancy of your backlinks from referring domains affect the authority in E-E-A-T? * A relevant site and content linking back to your page. * A relevant or irrelevant link profile from 3rd party websites. * Does Google’s (NLP) play a part in E-E-A-T? If so, could you explain how?

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As an SEO or business owner, if your focus has been on organic SEO or local SEO, or maybe you’ve spent some ad dollars on Google or Facebook, there’s a huge opportunity for you in a search engine called YouTube.

You may be saying, what is the big deal?

Well, users come to YouTube to research and learn about topics. And it’s not like paid ads on Google or Facebook that use disruption tactics.

YouTube videos also show up in Google’s organic search results and Google Local search results.

YouTube videos can amplify the organic content message that you have.

Today’s guest, Jeremy Vest, has been working to figure out YouTube’s secrets for the past 15 years. And his customers have about 30 billion organic views on YouTube.

YouTube, though is kinda an enigma on how you show up.

BioJeremy’s been a YouTube coach for almost 15 years. His customers have over 20 billion organic views on YouTube. He’s worked with dozens of the largest brands and creators in the world. He’s spoken at VidSummit, Vidcon, and Social Media Marketing World and founded Video Marketing World.

ResourcesYouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@creatorunlock

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/creator-unlock/

Creator Unlock Website – https://www.creatorunlock.com/coaching

Key Moments1:20 – Jeremy talks about how YouTube serves up content to its users, the importance of watch history, and a niched focus for creators.

6:09 – In this section, Jeremy breaks down further the importance of niching down as a creator on YouTube.

11:13 – In this section, Jeremy talks about the most common issues creators have when setting up their channels, creating content, or generally where things go wrong.

14:12 – How do you get traffic to the YouTube channel and its videos to start with? – What should you focus on first?

16:45 – How can a YouTube coach help you improve your appearance on YouTube?

18:30 – Learn what’s new on YouTube for 2023.

21:26 – How can you work with Jeremy?

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It is my great pleasure to bring on the show one of my all-time favorite managers: Michael Impelluso. While working with Mike, I increased my capacity for empathy for my co-workers. I came to think of my colleagues as customers.

Some of the skills I learned to improve upon were soft skills, hard skills, effective communication between team members and leadership, learning to clarify the ask, time management, and work-life balance.

This episode covers all of these topics, as I find they are essential whether you are working as a freelance consultant, in an agency, or within an enterprise-level marketing department.

BioMike is the Vice President of Marketing at CentralReach, the industry’s leading ABA software and services provider that helps organizations serving individuals with autism and IDD deliver evidence-based and personalized care. Mike has over 20 years of experience in Digital Marketing, Brand Management, and Lead Generation. He has managed agencies that deliver SEO and website services to hundreds of clients and ran corporate teams for privately owned and publicly traded organizations that drove significant bottom-line growth using cohesive digital marketing strategies.

Resources:LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelimpelluso/

Central Reach – https://centralreach.com/

Questions For Mike:Can you tell us your background on where you started position-wise in your career and where you have gone?

How did soft skills play a par in your career?

How did additional training with hard skills play a part in your career?

Can you tell us about some challenges you had in getting other teams or senior leadership to align with your vision?

How do you keep your teams agile?

What were your biggest aha moments for managing team members in marketing?

What was your biggest breakthrough in marketing that directly affected how the business performed?

What recommendations can you give to young marketing professionals?

See the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/seo-skills-that-every-seo-needs-that-are-not-found-in-a-tool

Check out more episodes of The EMJ SEO Podcast.

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Today we are going a little bit off the beaten path on the SEO learning path.

This episode is dedicated to people who are looking to learn SEO for a family business.

When families run their businesses and the business is split between an older and younger generation, there can be stressors between the two groups on how to run and market their business, let alone which tactics to use, which could include SEO, Local SEO, Local Search Ads (LSA), and more.

That is why I have brought in an expert on business succession to go over the main issues that face family businesses and pathways to overcome the friction of multi-generation family businesses and business succession.

Businesses that align amongst the generations with a succession plan will be able to move forward, working together as a unit, where they can have a strategy on how they are going to market their business.

It is my pleasure to welcome Stephen Shortt to the show.

Stephen Shortt Bio:

Stephen grew up in two family businesses and started a few of his own. Having bought both family businesses from his parents and growing them internationally, Stephen learned a lot about successful succession planning and making some mistakes along the way…

Stephen is the former global chair of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, which supports young, emerging entrepreneurs in over 50 countries around the world – which was the basis for the Disney+ / National Geographic Documentary “Own the Room”. Stephen has also served on the global committee for EO Accelerator, which supports entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses to €1m+ per year. He was a founding member and Past President of the Irish chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization.

Stephen is a succession planning coach; strategy facilitator; team development coach; leadership coach, and personality profiler. Stephen has delivered keynotes, facilitated workshops, and taught leadership academies in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceana. Stephen is honored to act on several advisory boards; as a coach for accelerator companies scaling up their businesses; as an angel investor, and as a mentor to emerging entrepreneurs in Ireland and internationally.

All of Stephen’s projects, businesses, and programs feed into his core purpose “To help people Aspire to a better future and Empower them to get there”. Stephen and his Spanish wife have two bilingual daughters and try to spend as much holiday time in Spain as possible.

ResourcesLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenshortt/

Successful Succession – https://successfulsuccession.com/

Questions for Stephen* How do you figure out a future vision for a family business? * How do we pick the right NextGen leader for the business? * How can we prepare both generations for the transition? * What are common pain points when families talk about business succession? * Can you discuss how the business's strategy might change based on success? * With inflation increasing, how does this impact business succession? * Can you discuss what typically happens if a family can’t agree on a business succession plan? * Can you talk about your aha moment or breakthroughs you have had while working with businesses on succession? * In 2023, what issues do you see impacting business succession? * How can businesses reach out to you for help?

Check out the full episode at:

https://emjpodcast.com/does-your-business-strategy-include-a-succession-plan

Check out more episodes of The EMJ SEO Podcast.

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If you struggle with how you will build relevant, authority-building links to the SEO projects you are working on, you are not alone. All you have to do is go into a forum like the Local Search Forum and look at what people are talking about around link building, and you will see that there is general confusion on what strategies to implement.

After reading some of the forum posts, I felt like I was being teleported back in time to when people suggested they were using social bookmarking tools, paying for guest posts, and generally talking about getting on sites with domain authority.

Today we are joined by Kari DePhillips, the CEO of The Content Factory. Kari will talk to us about how we can effectively do link-building with PR strategies to get links from top publications and news sites by pitching to journalists.

Sit back and listen to the discussion.

Kari’s Bio:Kari DePhillips is the CEO of The Content Factory, an SEO agency specializing in PR. Kari is also the founder of the Sisters in SEO Facebook community, which has grown to over 11,000 members (if you’re a non-dudebro in SEO, you’re welcome to join!). SERPstat named Kari one of the Top 3 Women in SEO, Thrive called her a “limit-breaking female founder,” and NBC news titled her a “CEO who takes job perks to the max” for her approach to business management.

ResourcesContent Factory Case Studies – https://contentfac.com/digital-marketing-pr-case-studies/

How to Write a HARO Pitch that WORKS – https://contentfac.com/how-to-write-a-haro-pitch-that-works/

How to Get $100k+ in Media Coverage for Your Brand (In Just 3 Months!) – https://contentfac.com/how-to-write-a-haro-pitch-that-works/

Website & SocialThe Content Factory – https://contentfac.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/karidephillips/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/karileed

Sisters In SEO – https://www.facebook.com/groups/sistersinseo

TCF Twitter – https://twitter.com/ContentFac

TCF LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/contentfac/

Questions for Kari1. Aside from the SEO benefit of building domain authority, what are PR’s other benefits?”

What are reporters looking for?
How can HARO and Quoted pitching help SEO in their SEO strategy?
Could you talk about the quality of the content needed on the website for PR efforts?
Could you explain what makes content newsworthy?
Could you talk about using social proof from PR to help boost conversions?
How can businesses that don’t have much budget still use PR to help boost SEO?
How can the content factory help SEOs with PR?
How can our listeners reach out to you?

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If you drive traffic to a product or service page on your website, you ultimately want a call to action for users to reach out to you. For many websites, this means opening a line of communication with your sales team.

Does your website use old fashion forms, or does it use click-to-call or a listed email?

What happens to these website leads when your business is closed?

Do your form emails go into oblivion?

How fast are you getting back to these potential customers?

As an SEO, I love it when I can drive relevant traffic to the website I am working on. However, if

there is a hole in the conversion bucket, how much traffic I drive to the website will not matter.

That’s where today’s guest Aaron Weiche of Leadferno, comes in. Aaron is going to show us how we can convert more website leads. This is an important episode on how to grow your business with the traffic you already have.

It is my pleasure to welcome Aaron to the show.

BioAaron Weiche is the co-founder and CEO of Leadferno, a conversion platform for businesses to close more leads faster with text messaging. Aaron is an entrepreneur, founding and leading multiple software companies and digital marketing agencies over the past 20 years.

Before Leadferno, he was CEO of GatherUp, growing it to serve over 25,000 businesses and appearing in the INC 5000. Aaron led GatherUp to an acquisition in 2019. Aaron speaks internationally on digital marketing, customer experience, conversion, and messaging.

ResourcesLeadferno – https://leadferno.com/

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/aaronweiche

GatherUp – https://gatherup.com/

Aaronweiche.com – https://www.aaronweiche.com/

Questions For AaronAaron, can you talk about your aha moment that led to the idea of Leadferno?

Can you tell us how Leadferno helps businesses generate more sales and achieve higher ROI?

Can you talk about any major breakthroughs you had as you developed your SaaS software?

Can you tell us what differentiates Leadferno from other solutions for connecting website users to the website business?

Why is SMS better than live chat?

Could you talk about your shortcut feature to request reviews?

Could you talk about lead conversion rates for SMS text messages vs traditional website communication tools?

Can you discuss how Leadferno connects to CRM’s and why that is critical?

What is on the horizon for Leadferno in 2023? Are there updates of new features that are rolling out?

How can listeners reach out to watch a demo or just get started?

Check out the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/aaron-weiche-converting-web-visitors-through-sms-text

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Today we are joined by Joy Hawkins a leader in Local SEO. In this interview, Joy talks about the recent changes in Local Search from test data, as well as an update from the State of Local Search in 2023.

Episode 10 Highlights We get some insight as to how AI might affect content creation in 2023 and different ways that business owners can make unique content that AI can’t make or compete with. * We receive insight into some new ranking factors* in Local search results around Google Business Profile services. * We also got great advice on how businesses can take advantage of video for their local pages, which can help the business have more visibility in Local search results.

Listen to the episode so that you can take away these insights to adjust your Local SEO strategy.

BioJoy Hawkins has been working in the Local SEO industry since 2006 and loves being a Google Top Contributor. She also loves spending time managing Google Ads accounts and has been certified in both Google Search & Display. She is also a speaker at various search engine marketing conferences such as SMX & LocalU, Pubcon & Mozcon.

ResourcesTwitter – https://twitter.com/SterlingSkyInc/

Sterling Sky – https://www.sterlingsky.ca/

LocalU Advanced Dallas TX – April 26, 2023 – https://localu.org/upcoming-events/dfw-23/

The State of Local Search 2023 – https://www.brightlocal.com/webinars/the-state-of-local-search-2023/

My Questions For Joy1. Could you tell us a little bit about Sterling Sky 2. Who do your services help? 3. The advanced local training. 4. What do you see changing in the local search ecosystem in 2023? 5. Could you lean into any changes from the recent The State of Local Search 2023? 6. How can business owners get the right training to market their businesses locally? 7. Can you talk about the Local U acquisition and what that means moving forward? 8. What were your aha moments or breakthroughs in local search? 9. If you had a chance to tell yourself as a younger marketer something, what would that be? 10. What is on the horizon in 2023 for Sterling Sky and LocalU?

Check out the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/whats-new-in-local-seo-in-2023-with-joy-hawkins

Check out more episodes of The EMJ Podcast.

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Mike’s Bio

Mike has been involved with offering web services since 1995. Prior to specializing in web design and search consulting in 2001, Mike was a principal in a family-owned & operated retail business for over 30 years. That business was very successful until it wasn’t and was crushed by the new reality of retail. Like all small business owners attempting to market to a fragmented clientele, he was continually frustrated by the barriers & costs imposed by the advertising options available. Shortly after Google Maps was released in 2004 he threw out his 9 Yellow Page books and started focusing on Local Search.

Mike helped co-found LocalU in 2009 (acquired by SterlingSky in 2019) and co-founded GatherUp.com in 2012 (acquired by ByTraject in 2019).

During the week, you can find him at LocalU.org where he does a weekly podcast, and at Near Media where he writes about local search and its impact on the business community.

Resources:Near Media– https://www.nearmedia.co/

Mike’s Posts at Near Media – https://www.nearmedia.co/author/mike/

Local U – https://localu.org/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mblumenthal/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/mblumenthal

Blumenthals – https://blumenthals.com/blog/Questions I ask Mike

Could you talk about how you first started in the local industry 20 years ago, and what drove your passion to help businesses compete in their local markets?
Can you talk about some of the challenges you had with your agency and with Google’s local environment changing?
Can you tell us some of the aha moments and breakthroughs you have had as you researched local search?
Can you talk about co-founding Local U, and helping business owners understand the local landscape?
Can you explain what GatherUp is, and how you helped start it?
Could you explain how Near Media can help businesses?
If you had the ability to change something in the local ecosystem, what would it be
What is on the horizon in 2023 for Near Media and Blumenthals?

Check out the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/mike-blumenthal-talks-about-his-journey-with-local-seo

Check out more episodes of The EMJ Podcast.

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Today we are joined by Amanda Milligan, the head of marketing for

Stacker.com. Amanda is an experienced growth and content marketing specialist

focusing on audience research, strategic content development, personalized

outreach, and white-hat link building through acquiring media coverage.

Amanda has agreed to share with us strategies around earned syndication.

I am pleased to welcome Amanda to the first episode of the Focus Visibility

Podcast.

Resources

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandamilligan/

Stacker - https://stacker.com/

Stacker Studio - https://studio.stacker.com/

MOZ Article - https://moz.com/blog/content-syndication-case-study

Value Drops

3:20 – Amanda talks about the differences between

owned syndication, paid syndication and earned syndication.

5:36 – Amanda explains why earned syndication is good

for building authority with your audience as well as building domain authority.

Questions for Amanda

What is the difference between paid

syndication and earned syndication?

You’ve said that the earned

syndication approach is much better for SEO and authority - can you explain?

Can you talk a little bit about earned

syndication and how it has changed the traffic on stacker.com?

Can you explain how paid syndication

can generate link authority back to a publisher’s domain?

Do you post content to one 3rd party

publisher, or do you syndicate to multiple?

Can you recommend a strategy for

brands to start connecting with relevant 3rd party publishers for earned

syndication?

What timeframe should brands

realistically plan for to start seeing some benefits from earned syndication?

Can you please explain the requirements

for canonical Links and do-follow links?

Can you outline the process that was

used at Stacker to syndicate content?

How can brands create the type of

content that publishers want to run?

What would you recommend for brands

who want to try their hand at 3rd party content syndication?

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Today we are joined by Ben Fisher, a Google Business Profile Diamond Product Expert. Ben co-founded Steady Demand, a local marketing agency, in 2013.

The Steady Demand team works with local businesses to set up, optimize, and continuously improve their web presence locally.

When Ben is not working with clients or contributing to Local SEO communities, he writes local marketing content for platforms such as Bright Local, Local U, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, MOZ, SEMRUSH, and many, many more.

The full episode can be found at: https://emjpodcast.com/ben-fisher-the-evolution-of-local-seo-and-steady-demand

ResourcesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfishertechpad/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSocialDude

Website: https://www.steadydemand.com/

Bio & About: https://www.steadydemand.com/about/team/

Value Drops2:00 - Insights into what Google wants in the local SEO landscape.

4:22 – One of the first companies, if not the first, to start managing Google Local profiles for customers.

5:13 – Ben talks about the benefits of business owners becoming an expert in their niche.

6:30 – Ben talks about niching down.

9:36 – Becoming a well know entity in your niche.

11:33 – The importance of a mentor in your niche/space.

14:40 – Ben talks about his aha moments with the

business and data.

18:46 – Customers and monopolizing your revenue.

20:30 – Ben talks about re-instating businesses whose

Google Business Profile is suspended.

23:45 – Ben talks about building his assurance program against Google Business profiles getting suspended and quickly getting re-instated.

25:45 – Ben talks about where Steady Demand is going in 2023.

Questions for Ben:1. Can you tell us about Steady Demand and who it serves?

How did Steady Demand get started?
You have become an expert in Local SEO. Can you tell the listeners how to become an

expert in their industry and why?

Can you tell the listeners how elevating others can be important and why?
What were some aha moments or breakthroughs as you developed your business?
How can specializing or niching down make you more successful?
Can you tell the listeners how Google has evolved in the Local organic space?
How did Google’s changes in Local SEO change your positioning, products, and services?
Where do you see Steady Demand Going in 2023
How can listeners get the help of the Steady Demand team?

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I had the absolute please of interviewing a legend in link building and SEO, Garrett

French of Citation Labs. Garrett co-wrote the Ultimate Guide to Link Building with Eric Ward, the godfather of link building (known as link Moses). Garret has developed software tools for the link-building community, enabling us to find link-building prospects.

I used Garrett’s agency at one of my enterprise-level SEO positions.

In today’s episode, Garrets pulls the curtain back on link building and link gap analysis. Let’s dive in.

ResourcesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettfrench/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GarrettFrench

Websites: https://citationlabs.com/, https://zipsprout.com/

Bio & About: https://citationlabs.com/about/

Software (Tools): https://citationlabs.com/tools/

Book – Ultimate Guide to Link Building: How to Build Website

Authority, Increase Traffic and Search Ranking with Backlinks (On Amazon)

Value Drops4:26 - Garrett talks about the Ontolo link-building tool and his time on that team with Ben Wills.

5:10 - Garrett talks about developing a system for scraping Google.

7:49 - Garrett talks about the Zip Sprout tool set for local SEO.

8:40 - Garrett talks about link impact and what difference links make.

8:52 - Garret talks about his aha moment (building links to sales pages).

12:14 - Garret talks about measuring ROI against a control group of similar URLs.

13:40 - Garrett talks about the relevance of topically relevant domains and content vs domains with inflated domain authority (DA).

18:40 – Garrett talks about link gap analysis and how to calculate the number of links you need to rank for competitive keywords.

21:29 – Garrett goes into link-building ROI in combination with link gap analysis. (Garrett’s second aha moment).

24:28 –Garret talks about Citation Labs' different business lines and Branded Link

Building.

31:37 - Garrett talks about what Citation Labs' focus is in 2023 (AI)?

38:35 – Garret talks about how businesses can contact Garrett and Citation Labs.

39:26 - My recommendation is to use Citation Labs from my experience.

42:30 – What happens first as link building occurs? (Garretts 3rd aha moment).

44:03 – We talk about other metrics that can be used in conjunction with Link gap analysis: # of keyword baseline, Google search console: impressions, clicks, and

click-through rate (CTR), as well as a baseline of conversion goal (conversion rate) from analytics.

Check out the full episode at: https://emjpodcast.com/garret-french-discusses-link-building-link-gap-analysis

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It is not every day that you get to introduce one of your heroes who influenced your life

and your career.

I can truly

say that this guest’s whiteboard Friday webinars, help shed light on topics

within my industry and settled arguments within agency between multiple SEO analysts.

I hope you are sitting down because today we are joined by the co-founder of SparkToro and MOZ Rand Fishkin.

Buckle up, this is going to be good.

ResourcesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/rand.fishkin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/randfish

Website: https://sparktoro.com/

Bio & About: https://sparktoro.com/team/rand

Book - Lost and Founder – Rand Fishkin (available on Amazon)

Value Drops:4:00 – Rand talks about one of his worst days ever- his last day at Moz.

4:53 – Rand talks about one of the best days he has ever had.

10:12 – Rand talks about what motivated his toward audience intelligence (audience research).

17:51 – Rand Talks about the gigantic data set that is run in the background, constantly

crawling the web.

21:20 – Rand talks about the misalignment between founders and venture capital firms.

29:36 – Rand talks about his aha moments.

32:30 – Rands gives some recommendations for businesses that are just starting out.

37:58 – Rand gives predictions on marketing trends in 2023

Questions for Rand:So asked the questions in a free-form way today, so they are not exact, but you get the gist of what I was asking Rand.

What motivated you to create SparkToro?
What lead you to focus in on identifying a business’s audience research?
What were some of the challenges that you faced building the software and server stack to gather audience research data so quickly?
You talked candidly about venture capital and how there can be misalignment between founders and VC firms, and it seems this can happen on many levels.

a. I love the fact that you are keeping SparkToro investor free.

b. Can explain to the listeners and any budding founders, the benefits of staying venture capital free?

Can you tell the listeners over your career, what have been some of the aha moments or major breakthroughs you have had, and how they influenced your business at that time?
What are your marketing predictions for 2023 for businesses that want to get more closely aligned with their audience?
What recommendations can you provide for the business owner struggling with marketing, or someone just starting a business?
If you had a chance to tell your younger self how to approach something differently. What would that be?

Check out the full episode on The EMJ Podcast at:https://emjpodcast.com/rand-fishkin-talks-about-leaving-moz-and-starting-sparktoro

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Gary Spagnoli is the founder and CEO of Zen Anchor Digital. Gary has been providing strategy, account management, automated ad scripts, and analytics support for companies for over 10 years.

Zen Anchor is a Google Partnered Meta/Facebook Partnered agency that provides profitable SEO and PPC marketing solutions for lead-generation-focused companies.

Resources:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyspagnoli/

Website: https://zenanchor.com/

Zen Anchor Jobs: https://angel.co/company/zen-anchor/jobs

Book Mentions:* Traction – Get a grip on your business - Gind Wickman * The E Myth Revisited – Why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it – Michael E. Gerber * Managing The Professional Service Firm – David H. Maister

Value Drops: 4:30 – decided to set up his digital marketing agency in 2013 as a fully remote distributed team – years before the pandemic when jobs went remote. * 8:20 – Winning more business by having systems and processes in place, selling, and pitching via zoom and video chat. * 9:53 – Scaling your business – rather than working in your business, work on your business. – Fully documenting your processes and phases of work. * 19:53 – Advice for new business owners on how to grow new businesses online. * 26:41 – Gary talks about his aha moments with Zen Anchor. * 42:05 – Gary talks about his goals for 2023 and the changes he sees for digital marketing. * 55:10 – What makes Zen Anchor different? * 57:15* – Gary talks about hiring for new roles

Show Notes:Questions for Gary:

Can you provide the listeners with some background on what Zen Anchor is?
What drove you to create Zen Anchor?
What are the industries that Zen Anchor caterers too?
Are there any niches that the business focuses on?
How much of Zen Anchor’s client base is small to mid-sized companies and how much is enterprise level?
What differentiates you from others in the space?
How many members are on your team currently?
When you formed your business, was it just you, or did you have a team in place?
How have you been able to grow your business while still working on it?
What types of growing pains have you had as you scaled your business and grew your team?
What advice can you give new business owners on how to grow their lead generation?
What breakthrough moments can you share with our listeners?
What would you do differently if you could?
What are your goals for the year / down the road?

See the post at: https://emjpodcast.com/episode/gary-spagnoli-zen-anchor-interview

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I am happy to welcome Eli Schwartz a Product-Led SEO expert to

the EMJ Podcast.

In this episode, we get insights from Eli Schwartz on business positioning and strategies that can help your website copy be relevant to online users.

Today’s GuestEli Schwartz

I am extremely happy to welcome Eli Schwartz a Product-Led SEO expert to the EMJ Podcast.

You’ll Learn

Here are some of the questions I asked Eli:

In the Strategic SEO chapter of your book, you gave some insight into how business

owners with no customers could run a survey to get deeper insights into what

customers wanted.

I was hoping you could tell our listeners about this.

In your book: you talk about Product-Led SEO as “Blue Ocean SEO”

Can you please explain what this is to the audience?

In digital marketing, there is always talk about niching down. Can you please explain how Product-Led SEO does exactly this with customer feedback?

Can you explain how this can shift the direction of the products or services the business is

offering as well as their online content?

For businesses who have content online, how do they adapt to a Product-Led SEO

strategy?

In your tactical SEO chapter, you talked about “Quality Signals” and “Contextual Relevance”

in relationship to backlinks.

Could you provide some more insight into what quality backlinks are in 2023 and the

importance of topical relevance on the referring domain level and page level?

In your book, you talk about attracting links with a PR approach.

Could you please explain what this means to our listeners and how they could take this

approach, and why this is a better approach to most link-building strategies?

I would love it if we could talk a little bit about the end-user experience from queries in

Google the types of content they might expect to find on a website.

How do site owners showcase the correct content and content types for different stages of the buyer’s journey, and how does that all match the user's query on Google?

Can you share some of your breakthrough moments in marketing and SEO?

Did any of these aha moments make you completely shift how you were approaching your

business and marketing?

Interview VideoCheck out the video of this interview at: https://emjpodcast.com/episode/eli-schwartz-product-led-seo-interview/

Resources:To learn more about Eli, check out his about me page on his website: https://www.elischwartz.co/about.

To learn about Eli’s book on Product-Led SEO, please visit the following page: https://www.elischwartz.co/book.

Eli Schwartz BIOEli Schwartz is the author of Product Led SEO, and he is an SEO expert and consultant with more than a decade of experience driving successful SEO and growth programs for leading B2B and B2C companies. He helps clients like WordPress, Shutterstock, BlueNile, Quora, Getaround, Mixpanel, and Zendesk build and execute Global SEO strategies that dramatically increase their organic visibility at scale.

Website: https://www.elischwartz.co/

Other Podcasts Eli Has been On: https://www.elischwartz.co/podcasts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/5le

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byrule62/

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I am happy to welcome Jeff Coyle from MarketMuse to the EMJ Podcast. In this episode, we get insights from Jeff Coyle from MarketMuse on business positioning, and strategies that can help your website copy be relevant to online users.

Jeff goes into quality content across your websites, and why each page on a website should have a purpose.

Today’s GuestJeff Coyle

I am extremely happy to welcome Jeff Coyle a co-founder of MarketMuse to the EMJ Podcast.

Website: https://www.marketmuse.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcoyle/

You’ll Learn* What inspired Jeff to start MarketMuse? * Jeff will tell us a little bit about MarketMuse rapid growth, and on the flip side, are there signs that you have seen that indicate you are reaching product market maturity? * How MarketMuse built an organic content strategy to build trust with the audience? * How do you handle the fear of the current market disappearing? – Fears in entrepreneurship? * How do you deal with product ideas that people don't know they need? * How do you build a support structure away from business? * What is content efficiency & making sure each piece of copy has a purpose? * MVPable products * Pivoting products * Adaptability across teams by matching value. * De-siloing content structures. * How content that does not tie up to the overarching topic and sub-topics of a website can hurt performance. * Longtail keywords as a thing of the past (without all their supporting content).

Some sub-topics that are discussed:* Relevance Of Content * Google E-E-A-T Guidelines * Google’s Helpful Content Update * SchemaFor Rich Snippets

ResourcesPlease don’t forget to visit MarketMuse and take the software out for a test drive.

You can sign up for MarketMuse's free level at: https://www.marketmuse.com/pricing/

You can also book a MarketMuse demo at: https://www.marketmuse.com/book-demo/

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In this episode, I provide my background and journey from being a college dropout to a successful enterprise-level marketer.

Your Host:

Matt Hepburn

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthepburnnj/

I have always had the willingness to learn and grow. Change is going to happen to us no matter if we like it or not. Rather than be upset about the change, I embrace it and stay agile for its opportunities.

Here are some of the main topics I go into in this episode:

You are in the right place
The goal of the EMJ podcast
Episode Publishing frequency and day
College drop-out to blue-collar work
My transition from blue-collar work to the mortgage industry
My background in marketing:
Direct Mail for the mortgage industry
Recession and transition to SEO
Consulting with clients and working in an agency
Transition to enterprise SEO in a corporate environment
My heart attack story where my heart was blocked 99.99%
Providing better online marketing information from our guest's experiences.

The EMJ SEO Podcast: Recent Episodes

Matt Hepburn