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Knowledge bombs to help you learn more about Local Search

Suds and Search 38 | Rand Fishkin, Founder of SparkToro

November 5, 2020 Mark Bealin Digital Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, Suds and Search

Also available as a Podcast:

My guest on this episode of Suds & Search is a man who needs no introduction. Rand is one of – if not the most recognizable personalities in SEO. He is the co-founder and CEO of SparkToro.

Previously, he co-founded SEOMoz, which later rebranded to Moz, along with his mother Gillian. Moz is one of the most important brands in SEO. From Whiteboard Fridays to the Beginner’s Guide to SEO to MozCon and all the impressive tools Moz has created, Rand has been at the center of this incredible company from the start.

Rand resigned from his board position at Moz in October 2020 just after we spoke. You can learn more about his personal journey and that of his company in his incredibly impressive book, Lost and Founder. I’ll spend some of our conversation talking about the book, but honestly, I could’ve talked to Rand all day about it. I couldn’t recommend a book more strongly. It’s not just for SEOs! It’s not just for entrepreneurs. It’s an incredible human story. Rand courageously tells all the great and gory details of his entrepreneurial life.

I’m going to start our conversation talking about his new company SparkToro. I’ll get Rand’s reaction to some use cases for Local SEOs and pick his brain on a post he wrote titled, “Six Ways SparkToro’s Early Customers Use Our Product.”

Grab something cold to drink and join me for a conversation with Rand Fishkin. We talk about the importance of core values in business, how to become less reliant on the duopoly of Facebook and Google, why he chose to make canceling a subscription with SparkToro easier, and we’ll spend a little time talking about his love for pasta and al pastor tacos.

What to do if you’re affected by new COVID restrictions

November 3, 2020 Greg Gifford Digital Marketing, Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO, PPC Advertising

In this week’s episode, we talk about what you should do if your business is affected by the new round of COVID lockdowns. As the virus is surging in many areas across the country, many areas are increasing restrictions and returning to strict lockdowns. We’re heading into the holiday season, so it’s more important than ever to maintain your visibility online, so we share a few quick tips to ensure your business will be visible and attract customers.

Suds and Search 37 | Will Critchlow, Founder and CEO of SearchPilot

October 29, 2020 Mark Bealin Marketing Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, Suds and Search

Also available as a Podcast:

My guest on this episode of Suds & Search is Will Critchlow, CEO at SearchPilot and SEO Partner at Brainlabs. Will is one of the most famous SEO presenters in the world. His content is ubiquitous on blogs, webinars, and at industry conferences.

Will co-founded Distilled in 2005 with Duncan Morris. Distilled became an iconic brand in SEO, winning numerous industry awards. Will and the team at Distilled started the conference series SearchLove, one of the most popular search marketing conferences with events held in London, San Diego, and New York.

Earlier this year, Distilled’s consulting services were acquired by BrainLabs. I’m going to start our conversation by talking about what it was like to go through an acquisition.

His new project, SearchPilot, was originally software Distilled used to help their clients. Now they’ve developed a really interesting way for SEOs to do A/B tests. A/B testing is popular in Conversion Rate Optimization and Paid Media, but not as much in SEO. I’m going to ask him about some of the findings from the A/B tests he and the team at SearchPilot have performed.

Will and Distilled have had an amazing relationship with Moz and Moz’s co-founder Rand Fishkin that I’ve followed from afar. We talk about how building genuine relationships rather than transactional relationships was a key to Distilled’s rapid growth.

Grab a beer and join me for a conversation with Will Critchlow one of the most important voices in SEO. We’ll talk about how the industry has evolved over his 15-year career, how to do a proper a/b test in SEO, we’ll talk about his love for basketball and what he learned from having his children perform a handful of searches on Google.

Greg’s Top 10 Halloween Horror Movies

October 27, 2020 Greg Gifford Local Search Tuesdays, Reviews

This week, we’re taking a break from SEO and digital marketing tips… It’s Halloween this weekend, so I’m sharing my list of top 10 Halloween horror movies. I’m skipping the obvious commercial choices and going with rarely seen and/or underrated horror flicks, so check out the list and have a creepy Halloween!

Suds and Search 36 | Duane Brown, owner of Take Some Risk

October 22, 2020 Mark Bealin PPC Advertising, Suds and Search

Also available as a Podcast:

My guest on this week’s episode of Suds & Search is Duane Brown, Founder and Head Marketer at Take Some Risk.

Duane started Take Some Risk in January of 2017. In a short period of time, they have developed an impressive roster of clients including Birdies, Unbounce, and Woocommerce.

Duane is a paid media expert who worked internationally for years before starting his own agency. His journey from vagabond digital marketer to agency owner…during a lockdown was definitely something I wanted to discuss with him.

Duane is an in-demand conference speaker who has presented all over the world. A shortlist of the conferences he’s spoken at include, Brighton, INBOUND, SMX, and SEERfest.

Duane is also an accomplished writer. What I really like are his long-form guides to lesser-used advertising channels like Snap Ads and Tik Tok. I’ll spend a lot of our conversation talking about his guides and how marketers can use these channels more effectively.

Grab a beer and join me for a conversation with Duane Brown. We’ll discuss the value of advertising on smaller channels like Tik Tok and Snap, Google’s update to their Search Terms report, and why he decided to fire all his clients in August 2017.

Greg’s Local SEO Presentation from PubCon

October 20, 2020 Greg Gifford Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO

This week’s episode is another long one – but it’s packed with awesome Local SEO tips! I wanted to share my presentation from PubCon last week – one of the industry’s oldest and largest digital marketing conferences. I share lots of up to date tips to help gain more visibility in local searches and explain several of the recent COVID-related updates to Google My Business – you definitely don’t want to miss it!

Suds and Search 35 | Mordy Oberstein, Liaison to the search community at Wix

October 15, 2020 Mark Bealin Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Suds and Search

Also available as a Podcast:

My guest on this episode of Suds & Search is Mordy Oberstein.

Mordy is a talented SEO speaker, podcaster, blogger, and social media influencer. He’s presented at SMX West, SMX Advanced, Ungagged, DMIExpo, and many other places.

Mordy is also one of the most popular SEO podcasters. He’s launching a new show called Behind SEOs. He’s already lined up some impressive guests.

In a former life, Mordy was a school teacher and it shows in his approach as an SEO educator. This comes through most in his blog content. I would encourage you to check out his columns at Search Engine Land.

Mordy hosts the popular #SEOchat which happens every Thursday at 1:00 pm. To join in, simply check out the hash tag #SEOchat to participate.

Until very recently he was the CMO at Rank Ranger, the popular SEO tool suite. He recently started a job at Wix as their Liaison to the SEO community. In a rare scoop for Suds & Search, we caught up with Mordy a couple of weeks into his new job to discuss how things are going.

Grab a beer and tune in to learn from one of the really good guys in the industry. We’ll talk about featured snippets, algorithm updates, NFL fandom and the beer scene in Israel.

Signals that Influence Local SEO: Reviews

October 13, 2020 Greg Gifford Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO, Reviews

In this week’s episode, we’re back to my mini-series about the signals that influence Local SEO, and we’re talking about reviews. Learn how they influence your visibility and get connected to past LST videos with even more details about reviews.

Suds and Search 34 | Jeff Ferguson, Partner at Amplitude Digital

October 8, 2020 Mark Bealin Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Suds and Search

Also available as a Podcast:

My guest on this episode of Suds & Search is Jeff Ferguson. Jeff is a Partner and the Head of the Production Team at Amplitude Digital. He is an industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in digital marketing. In that time, he’s worked with large organizations like Belkin, CBS, eHarmony, Manchester United, Paychex, Sony and many others.

He is a regular presenter at conferences such as Ad:tech, AllFacebook Expo, Conversion Conference, eMetrics, and SMX. He is also a professor at UCLA where he teaches classes in Advanced Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

Earlier this year, Jeff wrote an article for Search Engine Journal titled, “Do We Have the Math to Truly Decode Google’s Algorithms?” The article quickly gained interest on Twitter and throughout the SEO community. I’m going to spend a lot of our conversation discussing some of the points made in the article.

Prior to joining Amplitude, Jeff owned his own agency Fang Marketing. I’m going to ask him about the experience of getting acquired during a global pandemic.

Jeff is also a lot of fun to have a beer with. Bonus points to Jeff for bringing an imperial coffee stout from Gigantic Brewing Company with an unforgettable picture of Sam Jackson on the front of it (picture on the next page).

Join us for a conversation that scrutinizes the tools SEOs use, the studies we rely on for information and learn a little bit about Gentlemen Scientists.

Greg’s presentation from BrightonSEO

October 6, 2020 Greg Gifford Local Search Tuesdays, Marketing Analytics

In this week’s episode, I share the video of my presentation at BrightonSEO last week – the UK’s largest digital marketing conference. I packed 20 minutes with time-saving tips for using Google Data Studio for reporting. If you haven’t played with Data Studio yet, now’s the time to get started. Watch these awesome tips and take your reporting game to the next level!