Confessions Of An SEO Podcast
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If it’s Tuesday, We’re In a Core Update – Season 6, Ep 34
OK, August was fun. Watching the Spam Update start to line up a couple of week’s before it was officially rolled out. So I thought given the pattern, it would […]
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The Summer of GEO – Season 6, Ep 33
This episode gave me the opportunity to review the summer’s episodes and I noticed some of them naturally grouped into 3 different categories – what LLMs want, the computational constraints […]
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Symptom Chasing vs. Single-Variable Testing Deconstructing the Semrush ChatGPT Study
As an experienced SEO tester, when one can isolate factors to test hypothesis – its always the conclusion where one can get tripped up. I think there is a huge, […]
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You’ve Really Only Got 5 Seconds or You Are Burning Hostload- Season 6, Ep 31
Google updated their developer documentation on their crawl budget and there is so much in here. Google made some previously optional recommendations into hard requirements now. They defined HOSTLOAD as […]
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GoogleAgent: Google’s Secret Agent with a Key – Season 6, Episode 30
Google updated their developer documentation on their crawl budget. In doing so, Google quietly executed a major technical rewrite of their crawl budget guidelines, officially codifying the mechanics of their […]
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The Trust Sentinel – Google’s Verification Clock Is a Forensic Warning
Who would have thought that a tiny HTML file could lead to a diagnostic based on server logs? This week I share the latest fruit from the on-going site recovery […]
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Symmetry Before Semantics: Why SEO Meaning Without Proof is a GEO Without Authority – Season 6, Ep 28
This week I share my latest breakthrough, the answer to a question that’s been in the back of my mind. Why Do LLMs Require Symmetry – the 1:1 parity between […]
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Treat Google’s Crawl Scheduler Like the Active Power Grid It Is – Season 6, Episode 27
When a site “gets in trouble with Google”, they have a way of dealing with it. They stop crawling it. And to get “The Scheduler” of the crawling system to […]
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HouseFresh Reborn? Or Technical Reprieve – Season 6, Ep 26
The industry narrative is so clean, so emotionally satisfying: ‘Look! HouseFresh is back on Page 1! Google is finally getting it right again! Real editorial merit and original testing actually […]
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The GEO Paradox – Season 6, Ep 25
Are SEO gurus leading your brand straight into a computational trap? In this episode, Carolyn Holzman explores ‘The GEO Paradox’ to reveal why mass-automated content triggers permanent AI exclusion. Mentioned […]
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The Tweak Trap and The Mechanics of Index Volatility – Season 6, Ep 24
When an organic traffic graph plummets off a vertical cliff, the search industry always rushes to the same soft, narrative-driven explanations. They blame “quality updates,” “AI content penalties,” or the […]
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The Myth of the LLMs.txt file – Confessions S6, Episode 23
OK – We’re going to get down on the discussion about the LLMs.txt files and WHY I do not use them or recommend to use them. I’ve got 4 technical […]
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What AI Models Want And How To Give It To Them
You’re not sure what AI wants – you optimize – do all the right SEO things and you can’t get anywhere. There’s a reason and its not what you think. […]
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Structure is the Gatekeeper – Meaning is the Guest
The excitement is building for the outcome from this Core Update that started on May 21, 2026. And the data of the site performance in logs tells me everything I […]
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Passing the Symmetry Gate for AI Visibility – Confessions S6, Episode 20
Get ready because you’re going to hear about things AND hear things that you probably never suspected or expected. Before you can know what temporary AI citations you come up […]
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Legacy SEO Practices Are Killing Your AI Visibility – Season 6, Ep 19
This week I hope you catch my drift that we need to stop optimizing for ‘strings’ and start anchoring for ‘entities.’ If you’re still bolding keywords to get clicks, you’re […]
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Confessions S6, ep 18 Why We Need to Write for Machines First (So People CAN Find Us) – Season 6, Episode 18
Well, get ready for some high level digital marketing blasphemy. You heard me right the first. We do need to write for the Machine First because if we don’t, the […]
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Helpful Content is a Math Problem, Not a Moral One – Season 6, Ep 17
This week is another cautionary tale because most of us don’t have a 300 Million in ARR like ClickUp. https://vizzex.ai/the-clickup-seo-autopsy/ Last week’s episode: https://www.confessionsofanseo.com/podcast/the-1-club-achieving-gemini-induction-in-the-age-of-compute-tax/ Mentioned in the show: https://contentlevers.xyz/blog/clickup-blog-traffic-drop VizzEx […]
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The 1% Club – Achieving Gemini Induction in the Age of Compute Tax
This week I share about my testing VizzEx to see if it can recovery a site that was hit in the February 2026 spam update. But its actually a victim […]
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The Energy Economics of AI Answers – Season 6, Episode 15
This week we’re going to have that conversation – The Compute Tax imposed on your content by Gemini. Its not what you would think! Last week’s episode: https://www.confessionsofanseo.com/podcast/parsing-the-parsing-of-html-response-to-sotr-105-season-6-ep-14/ Mentioned in […]
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Parsing The Parsing of HTML – Response to SOTR (#105) – Season 6, Ep, 14
This week’s episode is in response to a Search Off The Record, Episode #105. In it, Martin and Gary unpack how HTML parsing really works, why the HTML standard is […]
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The Next Evolution of Indexing – Season 6, Episode 13
This week’s episode is basically with AI environments and search overlapping, we’re now at a point where we need to go BEYOND indexation INTO Induction. Our content needs to rise […]
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How To Make Your Content A Magnet for AI Citation – Season 6, Ep 12
If AI don’t find a coherent site in the top 100 results, we’re getting “average” answers. In this week’s episode, I share a deep dive into AI’s Autonomous Discovery Cycle. […]
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IP Laundering How Google Built an Answer Monopoly by Seizing YOUR Content
I know its not new news that Google isn’t providing sources for their AI Search answers but that doesn’t mean we should gloss over it. The European Publishers Council has […]
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You Had the Authority All Along: Backlink Truths – Season 6, Ep. 10
Got a question this week about how much of the success we’re getting is the result of only on page SEO or backlinks. I got a lot clearer as the […]
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Is Google Cracking Down on AI Content- Season 6, Ep 9
Over the past month, our industry has coalesced around a convenient explanation for the February visibility declines: Google is finally cracking down on AI generated content. I spent the last […]
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The Code is more like Guidelines Than Actual Rules – Confessions S6, Episode 8
This week is more about the news that slid under the radar for most, but I caught them and now it looks like everything we wondered about in 2022 when […]
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Bot Crawl Space and Time – Season 6, Episode 7
Googlebot’s new 2 MB crawl cap is the headline, but the real drama is how long the bot actually sticks around on your page before it bails. In this episode […]
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The Mystical Listicle Is It Really Endangered in Google? – Season 6, Episode 6
Wow I had fun with this one! Total shout out to Lily Ray for providing the germ of not JUST this week’s topic but the idea of a friendly stress-test […]
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Crawled Not Indexed Solved – Season 6, Episode 5
This week’s episode is likely one of the most actionable solutions to a perennial problem – Crawled Not Indexed page status in Search Console. Based on the indexation research a […]
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LLMs Don’t Rank Sites – They Synthesize Trust
So yeah, people ACT like all the AI LLMs are going to RANK their site. But that isn’t what they do when they make recommendations in overlays and responses. This […]
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Too Many Tags On The Dance Floor – Season 6, Episode 3
The rule of 7 also reinforces the concept of having to repeat new information, we can’t just get it in one delivery like last week’s episode. So in today’s I […]
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Blow Chunks in SEO – Season 6, Episode 2
This week’s topic comes from Google’s own podcast – Search Off the Record where Danny Sullivan provides Google’s take on whether or not we should change our content formats ONLY […]
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Horizontal Content Analysis Brings LLM Insight – Season 6, Episode 1
New Season’s first episode. In this week’s show there’s some confession and then an insight on what a horizontal analysis brought forth about backlinks for semantic graph. Last week’s episode […]
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Helpful Content Analysis Tool – Vizzex – Season 5, Episode 51
Last episode of Season 5 and I get to play with the cure for any Helpful Content issues on your wordpress sites – and this is just the beginning. Apply […]
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A few of my favorite things in 2025 – Season 5, Ep 50
Wow, episode 50 with one more left in Season 5. In this show I share my favorite episodes over the last 49. Join me as I countdown my top 3 […]
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A Good Kind of Sticker Shock – Season 5, Ep 49
This week I share one of the most offline kinds of marketing that this SEO loves because it leverages a revenue stream that is easy to forget and costly to […]
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Written in the Logs: GoogleOther’s Gemini Alignment – Season 5, Ep 48
Its almost like the move to Gemini was planned for a long, long time. Recent server logs revealed an expanded type of crawler with a distinctive pattern seen prior to […]
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Vector Embedding for $2025 Alec! – Season 5, Episode 47
In this episode we’re playing the ‘connection’ game again – using my favorite crayon, The Helpful Content System Analysis and how vector embedding explains in more engineering jargon the same […]
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Breathing Through the Noise – Season 5, Episode 46
This week’s topic was inspired from a Twitter post from Suganthan Mohanadasan suggesting that the SEO community has a mental health issue – we’re arguing now over everything – no […]
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SEO vs GEO vs AIO equals IR Information Retrieval – Season 5, Ep 45
This week’s topic is “What Do We Call What We Do?”. Is it still SEO? Or is is GEO or AIO? Lots of discussions but ultimately I think there’s a […]
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The Halloween Google Update That Never Was – Season 5, Episode 44
Thank you to Ahrefs for being the sponsor of this episode. Check out the Webmaster Tools – https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This week’s show topic is a response to the speculation of a […]
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Topical Cohesion Is Designed — Topical Authority is different – Season 5, Ep 43
Thank you to Ahrefs for being the sponsor of this episode. Check out Brand Radar https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This week’s topic was inspired from a fellow SEO, Shaun Anderson, creating his breakdown […]
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Let the Games Begin – Season 5, Ep 42
This week I took everyone with me on my new project – more of a cautionary tale for business owners but wow was it entertaining, subtly sad and ultimately resolved […]
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How Much Did That Content Really Cost? – Season 5, episode 41
Never listen to news articles on the radio while in your car about electric infrastructure unless you like to torture the brain on un-sustainability issues. In this week’s show let’s […]
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Duplicate Content Works Until It Doesn’t – Season 5, Episode 40
Thank you to Hrefs for being the sponsor of this episode. Automate technical SEO with Ahrefs https://ahrefs.com/ai-tech-seo?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025. This week’s show is me parsing out the answer to a question that […]
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Monopoly Bingo – Season 5, Episode 39
This week’s show caps off a spectacular September for Google. This latest in the madcap adventures of dog in the manger style approach – Google killed off the &num=100 parameter. […]
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I’ll Do It My Way – Season 5, Episode 38
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Apply a brand marketing use case to monitor and measure using Ahrefs. https://ahrefs.com/use-cases/brand-marketing?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This show is kind of a follow up to […]
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Happy 4th Birthday Crawl or No Crawl – Season 5, Episode 37
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Get tickets and check out the speaker lineup for Ahrefs Evolve. https://ahrefsevolve.com/?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This time every year since 2022, I take the time […]
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Google Retains Custody of Chrome – Season 5, ep 36
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Use Ahrefs for Competitive Intelligence. You can get started with Ahrefs for free today! https://ahrefs.com/use-cases/competitive-intelligence?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This week’s topic is about where Google stops […]
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The Google Crawler Crisis of August 2025 – Season 5, Ep 35
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Learn about Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. You can get started with Ahrefs for free today! https://ahrefs.com/web-analytics?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This week’s topic is about the recent […]
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Is Mo Content Mo Better? Season 5, Episode 34
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Learn about Ahrefs Brand Radar Addon. You can get started with Ahrefs for free today! https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 In this episode I share my […]
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AI SEO Confession – Season 5, Ep. 33
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Learn about Ahrefs Always-On-Audit tool. Get started with Ahrefs for free today! https://ahrefs.com/site-audit?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 In this episode I confess that I haven’t been […]
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Born In An Oven Does Not A Muffin Make – Season 5, Episode 32
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Learn about Ahrefs Marketing Platform and their GBP Monitor. Get started for free today! https://ahrefs.com/gbp-monitor?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This week’s episode was a reality check […]
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Pivoting Is Awareness Season 5, Episode 31
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Learn about Ahrefs Marketing Platform’s Site Explorer in Webmaster Tools and get started for free https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 Catching up in Linkedin this week […]
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NAVER what it seems – Google’s Latest Crawler
This past week I witnessed Google’s crawling system quietly issue a type of crawler that I hadn’t seen before. Its a googlebot along with a South Korean’s search engine crawler […]
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Hreflang – International Tag of Mystery – Season 5, Episode 29
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Learn about Ahrefs Marketing Platform’s Site Audit in Webmaster Tools and get started for free https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 Hreflang. International SEO. Shopify ability to […]
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Google Core Update June 2025: Don’t Be Afraid, Publish Now – Season 5, Ep. 27
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to learn about Patches – https://ahrefs.com/blog/site-audit-patches/?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 Launching new content into a Core Update? Are you crazy??? Crazy like a […]
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Every Tool Is A Weapon IF You Hold It Properly – Season 5, Episode 26
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to learn about AI Content Helper – https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-content-helper/?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 In this episode I sort through some recent articles about the […]
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The Fatal Flaw in Your Correlational Ranking Data – Season 5, Ep 25
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to learn about Brand Radar https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 I have for a long time loved software that provides correlational data – the […]
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The Power Paradox – The AI Energy Crossroads
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to gain AHrefs certification https://ahrefs.com/certification?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 Looking for a TOC wordpress plugin that does NOT “confuse” Googlebots. We’re close. https://carolynholzman.com/fix-the-canonical-scoring-in-helpful-content/ […]
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I’m Kind of A Big Deal – Season 5, Episode 23
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to get started with Site Explorer https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This past week there was a huge uproar within the SEO community and […]
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What’s Mine is Mine – Season 5 Episode 22
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to get started with https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 This week’s show started out as an AI crawler test then a “whose content is […]
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The DEMISE of DMARGE – Season 5, Epi. 21
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to get started with https://ahrefs.com/rank-tracker?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 In this episode I do a compare and contrast between an honest and transparent […]
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Google Agrees With Me About TOC Links – Season 5, Ep 20
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to get started with Site Audits. This week I found out that Google Search Team agrees with me – Table […]
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Ain’t Hard To Follow 1000 Cows – Season 5, Episode 19
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to get started with Keyword Explorer https://ahrefs.com/keywords-explorer In this week’s Confessions I am sharing the data breakthrough on my Helpful […]
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First to Crawl, Chance to Index – Meet GoogleOther
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to get started with Ahrefs Web Analytics. https://ahrefs.com/web-analytics?utm_source=CarolynHolzman&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=partnerships&utm_content=Q2_2025 In this week’s Confessions I’m introducing my field observation about GoogleOther […]
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Accidental Indexing Momentum: From 1 page indexed to 57 in 3 days
Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring this episode. Click here to get started with Webmaster Analytics. In this week’s Confessions I share the results of a test that I was […]
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SERP Inversion – Season 5 Episode 16
Today I’m going to a new hunch about the volatility in search results as measured by the SEO weather tools like Semrush and others. SEO tools that measure the volatility […]
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Indexers Gotta Index, right?
Accidentally, I learned that THIS episode is the 200th episode of Confessions of an SEO! Yay me! I’ve learned a lot and this week I’m going to go through three […]
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Is this the Golden Age or Gilded Age of AI
Wasn’t sure exactly what the topic was this week until I just stopped thinking about it – and it came. In today’s show I talk a little about one of […]
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Just EEAT it!
Finally, now we know what EEAT is about – not! But what we do know is what it is NOT and that many in our industry have been claiming they […]
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The March Core Update of 2025 is Over!
Yes, that is my data-driven analysis from server logs – its over and the whole process is nearly complete. In this episode I talk about the new Chrome bot seen […]
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March 2025 Core Update and Indexing API
This week it would wrong of me not to talk about the current running Core update that started on March 13th. Something very interesting is under the hood and “might” […]
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What 16 Million Pages Can Say Part 2
So much data, so many things to talk about. If you want to get the skinny on this data through the eyes of an indexation and serving expert – you […]
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What 16 Million Pages Can Say Part 1
What a load of data! That’s what I thought when I read a new analysis from LinkCheckr on 16 million pages and their state of indexing. If you want to […]
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Trad Keyword Research Failing Us
Keyword research has been the foundational activity in SEO since, well, forever. Grab a list of search phrases and optimize a page for each was standard when I entered into […]
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Anchor Links OK But Not All Are – Season 5, Episode 7
Where do you get your SEO knowledge? How much information out there is just a repeat of what you can read already and perhaps walk away with a higher understanding […]
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Content Over the Threshold – Season 5, Episode 6
In this episode you will hear about one of my test sites that took a “dirt nap”. If you don’t know what that means, count yourself lucky! Mentioned in the […]
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Healthy Relationship Between Site and Search – Season 5, Episode 5
In this episode we’re gonna get to brass tacks on backlinks and reasons why if you build them on sites or in a fashion that is NOT going to permit […]
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Scale Ruins Some Things – Season 5, Episode 4
Have you had “scaling” conversations without know they were “scaling” conversations? How much of our time could be saved if we figured out if it NEEDED to be scales vs […]
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Helpful Content – Patent or SERPS? Season 5, Episode 3
Welcome to Season 5 of Confessions of an SEO podcast! This week I unpack a discussion on what do you do when Google Patents say one thing and the SERPS […]
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Schema Screaming – Season 5, Episode 2
Welcome to Season 5 of Confessions of an SEO podcast! In this episode I’m sharing my schema testing data at least as how it stands here in January 2025. You […]
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SEO Expertise and Lack of Awareness – Season 5, Episode 1
Welcome to Season 5 of Confessions of an SEO podcast! In this episode i talk about an article about a Search On The Record podcast from Google engineers. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-podcast-discusses-seo-expertise/536606/ https://g.co/kgs/xXDzBNf
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Final Episode – Happy New Year’s Eve – Season 4, Episode 50
Final episode of Season 4! Wishing you and yours a wonderful, warm, expansive New Year! https://g.co/kgs/xXDzBNf
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An SEO Christmas Eve – Season 4, Episode 49
This is one of the last 2 episodes in Season 4. As I started to update my indexation history log, I saw that as of today this is my 1200th […]
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SEO Testing – A Reality Check – S4, Episode 48
This week I am sharing a very sensitive topic about SEO testing. At least, sensitive to me. Publishing a test and claiming it did something matters. There are protective measures […]
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The Journey is as important as the SEO destination – Episode 47, Season 4
Too much outcome, not enough journey In this episode are updates about what I’m working on and things I want to get better at in 2025. Mentioned in the show […]
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Helpful Content in all the wrong places – Season 4, Episode 46
Looking for (helpful) content in all the wrong places In the countdown to the end of 2024, I talk SEO testing groups, not so Helpful advice for Helpful Content and […]
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Results on Helpful Content Classifier Testing Does HC read? – Season 4, Episode 45
Test results are in! Finally we have some data that gives us signals if the Helpful Content System Classifier is reading our content between the optimizations. Mentioned in the show […]
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Over the Shoulder Launch into An Update – Season 4, Episode 44
Well, its not REAL SEO testing until you do it a couple more times. In this episode you get to listen over my shoulder as I launch two more tests […]
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November Core Update, Really Google? Season 4, Episode 43
Just when we thought we might get out of a Q4 Black Friday Google Core Update – they go an toss one in the mix on a monday – 3 […]
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Helpful Content System Does Not Read Content – Season 4, Episode 42
Its early in the testing timeframe and it woud appears that the Helpful Content System does NOT read content – at least in a way that relates to your writing […]
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I’m Your Huckleberry – Test to know if Helpful Content System Actually Reads – Season 4, Episode 41
When it comes to getting advice from the SEO community about how to get out of a Helpful Content Update Smackdown, most of the advice implies that the HCS ACTUALLY […]
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Does Helpful Content System READ content? – S4, Episode 40
Couldn’t get my mind off Kyle Roof’s groundbreaking contest entry that ended up providing evidence that Google doesn’t read. Got me to wondering – does Helpful Content System read? So […]
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Hitting Google Like a Hurricane, Season 4, Episode 39
This past week was a bit of a roller coaster ride for many people in the US. Got me to thinking of a time when an SEO showed Google no […]
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No Such Thing As Helpful Content – S4, Episode 38
I realize that is a bold claim. If you’re looking for helpful content you’re looking in the wrong place – I’m a bit of a radical on Helpful Content because […]
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Forbes is the new Reddit – Season 4, Episode 37
This was a big week – talked about the loss of the google cache AND how it impacted the indexation testing. THEN – The article by Lars Lofgren CNN and […]
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Site Reputation Abuse Enforced Manually – Why?
In this episode – the return of an early type of segment called – The Facebook Question Grab Bag – if you’ve ever wondered which keywords belong in the same […]
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Walking on Sunshine – Season 4, Episode 35
You’ve heard me complain about Google – but today is not that day – I went positive and chose today to list the top 3 things that I’m grateful for […]
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