Erin Sparks and Mark Williams-Cook explore featured snippets and People Also Ask (PAA) features from Google. They dig into the benefits and how SEOs can take advantage of them. They somehow found a way to bake bread with Google, too.

Mark helped spearhead the development of one of Erin’s favorite SEO/content tools, AlsoAsked.com. His software collects PAAs from Google and allows users to use the data in a variety of ways, from creating long-form content to writing higher-converting PPC ads.

Come join the party and help bake bread with Google… on the EDGE!

Key Segments

[00:02:24] Reintroducing Mark Williams-Cook 

[00:04:06] What is People Also Ask (PAA)?

[00:06:54] Intent: Information or Transaction?

[00:09:10] Baking Bread with Google

[00:13:33] It's Okay to Answer the Same Question Twice on Two Different Pages

[00:15:09] Answer the Public

[00:16:40] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics

[00:17:58] Google’s Content Extrapolation 

[00:19:22] Hiking a Mountain with MUM

[00:21:55] Salesy Laundry PAA Gap

[00:26:26] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Wix

[00:27:00] A Featured Snippet Strategy for SEO 

[00:29:13] The UK Government and the Clown Circus

[00:30:02] AlsoAsked.com is One of our Favorite Tools

[00:40:06] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: SE Ranking 

[00:41:43] Mark: We’re Polarized in SEO Right Now

Please Visit our Sponsors!

Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site 

Wix: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix 

SE Ranking https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking

Take the SE Ranking Checklist Challenge!
Receive a one-month Business Package subscription for completing this challenge when you go to https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking and send a screenshot of these completed steps:

1. Create a project, add at least 5 keywords;
2. Find 5 competitors via the Competitive Research tool and add them to “My Competitors” section;
3. Run a website audit and show what issue you are going to fix;
4. Do a backlink check and upload your backlinks to the Backlink Monitoring tool;
5. Optimize one page using the Content Marketing tool.

One Edge Listener Will Get A Full Year Business Package. We’ll Announce That On Our Feb 10th Podcast! A $2,500 Value!

Follow Our Guest

https://www.twitter.com/thetafferboy 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markseo/ 

Check out >>> https://alsoasked.com 

Mark Williams-Cook and Erin Sparks have a deep conversation about the current transition happening for SEOs – moving from keyword search volume to intent volume. They opine on zero-volume keywords, PAAs, and Knowledge Graph optimization.

He shares his experiences doing SEO for nearly 20 years and delves into some of his recent experiments around PAAs, content scraping, and AI-written content. Mark says that in the future, today’s Google will be like crawling around the floor of a library looking for that one book.

Intent of Search is the new paradigm… on the EDGE!

Key Segments

[00:02:48] Introducing Mark Williams-Cook 

[00:09:21] What are Zero-Volume Keywords?

[00:11:32] Intent Volume vs. Search Volume

[00:12:58] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics

[00:15:12] People Also Ask and Intent Proximity

[00:18:00] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: SE Ranking

[00:19:41] Knowledge Graph Optimization

[00:23:06] Strategies Toward Optimization of Knowledge Not Volume

[00:24:01] Google says Links Won’t be as Important in the Future

[00:26:33] The Helpful Content Evolution

[00:27:28] Mark's Tests: Scraped vs A.I. Content

[00:29:54] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Wix

[00:32:28] Crawling Around the Floor Looking for a Book in the Library

Please Visit our Sponsors!

Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site 

SE Ranking https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking

Wix: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix 

Take the SE Ranking Checklist Challenge!
Receive a one-month Business Package subscription for completing this challenge when you go to https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking and send a screenshot of these completed steps:

1. Create a project, add at least 5 keywords;
2. Find 5 competitors via the Competitive Research tool and add them to “My Competitors” section;
3. Run a website audit and show what issue you are going to fix;
4. Do a backlink check and upload your backlinks to the Backlink Monitoring tool;
5. Optimize one page using the Content Marketing tool.

One Edge Listener Will Get A Full Year Business Package. We’ll Announce That On Our Feb 10th Podcast! A $2,500 Value!

Would love it if you'd give us a rating on ratethispodcast.com/edge!

Follow Our Guest

https://www.twitter.com/thetafferboy 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markseo/ 

Check out >>> https://alsoasked.com 

We’re talking voice search, the Internet of Things, and Google’s Multitask Unified Model with Cindy Krum on this episode of the EDGE. Her breadth of knowledge on these topics and ability to predict the future is nearly endless. So much so, in fact, some might call her the Nostradamus of SEO. 

Erin and Cindy dissect the difference between and the importance of Google’s transition from using a keyword-based understanding of the web to an entity understanding. This has major implications for voice and mobile queries, not just SERPs. Lastly, we ask the hard-hitting questions here on the EDGE like, “Can a dog eat an avocado?” and “How long can blue cheese stay in the fridge?” Google knows.

Key Segments

[00:02:38] Introducing guest Cindy Krum

[00:05:04] Voice Search and How It Relates to Entity SEO

[00:06:47] Right or Wrong Answers? Voice Search Learns 

[00:07:56] The Canonical Question 

[00:08:56] Google’s Dialog Flow

[00:11:10] Understanding Questions vs. Keywords

[00:13:12] Not Just Your Phone: Your Google Account is Constantly Learning

[00:14:36] The Internet of Things

[00:16:22] Site Strategics: Title Sponsor of EDGE of the Web

[00:17:53] Can a Dog Eat an Avocado?

[00:19:22] Inferred Concepts Extrapolated from How It's Talked About

[00:21:55] How Long Can Blue Cheese Stay in the Fridge? 

[00:26:14] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: WIX edgeofthewebradio.com/wix 

[00:27:18] Multitask Unified Model

[00:36:40] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: SE Ranking

Take the SE Ranking Checklist Challenge!
Receive a one-month Pro 1000 subscription for completing this challenge when you go to https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking and send a screenshot of these completed steps:

1. Create a project, add at least 5 keywords;
2. Find 5 competitors via the Competitive Research tool and add them to “My Competitors” section;
3. Run a website audit and show what issue you are going to fix;
4. Do a backlink check and upload your backlinks to the Backlink Monitoring tool;
5. Add any page to Page Changes Monitor (Website Audit section) and show the graphs of the history of changes.

One Edge Listener Will Get A Full Year Business Package. We’ll Announce That On Our Feb 10th Podcast! A $2,500 Value!

Content timeframe: 1/12/2023 to 2/10/2023.

[00:39:20] Trusting Google More 

[00:42:26] What’s to Come in the Future?

[00:45:11] Mobile Moxie Tools

Thanks to our sponsors!

Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site

WIX https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix 

SE Ranking: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking 

Follow Cindy Krum

https://twitter.com/Suzzicks 

https://www.facebook.com/cindy.krum/ 

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

https://www.instagram.com/mobilemoxie/ 

Mobile Moxie recently launched some cool new Chrome plugins for our main tools:

SERPerator:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/serperator-by-mobilemoxie/ghnlaojdcibbkcgmanbbmbdgccmfdaof 

Page-oscope: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-oscope-by-mobilemoxi/aofebfljannpdpbeapgnolkihjiepdeo 

They also have a new WordPress Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/page-oscope-preview-by-mobilemoxie/

We cover the MOST important digital marketing news of the week: which is better, Ring Dings or Ding Dongs - seriously?

Erin, Mordy, and Greg Finn of Marketing O’Clock take on some great articles from Search Engine Land and Martech in regard to search engine marketing this week. Yup - Mordy had nothing to do. The serious part of the show, though: is Google changing how it defines what you opted into AFTER you approved of a Google Ads Recommendation? Is this really what we’re seeing?

And yes, we conduct a blind taste test in the studio with those chocolatey wonders….as well as Ring Dings (grin).

Special thanks to our new title sponsor of the show, SE Ranking. Check out their special giveaway to the EDGE audience!

News from the EDGE:

[00:03:27] Changing the Recommendations AFTER You Have Opted In? Really - Come on, Google Ads!

[00:14:33] Ring Dings vs. Ding Dongs

[00:16:09] New Title Sponsor: SE Ranking

Take the SE Ranking Checklist Challenge!
Receive a one-month Pro 1000 subscription for completing this challenge when you go to https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking and send a screenshot of these completed steps:

1. Create a project, add at least 5 keywords;
2. Find 5 competitors via the Competitive Research tool and add them to the “My Competitors” section;
3. Run a website audit and show what issue you are going to fix;
4. Do a backlink check and upload your backlinks to the Backlink Monitoring tool;
5. Optimize one page using the Content Marketing tool.

One Edge Listener Will Get A Full Year Business Package. We’ll Announce That On Our Feb 10th Podcast! A $2,500 Value!

[00:18:51] Local Search Is Showing More And More Spam And Fake Reviews, And Google Can’t Keep Up

[00:26:05] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks

[00:26:42] Top (3) GA4 features to help you find that lost data from UA

Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable:

[00:35:41] Google: Helpful Content Update & Link Spam Update Can Take Another Week Or Two To Complete - Link

[00:35:51] Dentists Now Can Use Google Local Service Ads - Link

[00:37:02] Team Member, Chad Pollitt, Participates in a Blind Taste Test: Ring Dings vs Ding Dongs!

[00:38:31] Report: Microsoft Bing To Add OpenAI's ChatGPT Feature - Link

Thanks to our sponsors!

SE Ranking: https://edgeofthewebradio.com/seranking 

Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks

Follow Us:

Twitter: @ErinSparks
Twitter: @MordyOberstein
Twitter: @TheMann00
Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio

#StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine

The SEO Sherpa, Cindy Krum, comes back to the EDGE loaded for bear! It’s awesome to reflect back on what Cindy was talking about in 2018 and and nowm in 2023. She was spot on with Entities being the target of search engine optimization, and we cut back to that show just to reflect. Erin and Cindy walk through the history of the portability of concepts in search, watching what Google is leveraging as it rolls out features and functions for content providers to test. The Big G is always learning, and our job is feed the beast in order to win in search. Cindy Krum is a stellar player in the SEO constellation and we’re excited to unpack this first segment of her 2022 interview with us. Be sure to check out the second episode coming shortly!

[00:02:50] Introducing Cindy Krum

[00:06:04] A Throwback Moment on Entities from the 2018 Show with Cindy

[00:10:47] What are Entities?

[00:12:43] Contextualizing the Cute Puppy Search

[00:13:44] How Does Google Define an Entity?

[00:15:02] Did Google Use Links to Understand Entities in the Early Days of Search?

[00:16:23] How has the Knowledge Graph Evolved?

[00:17:35] Site Strategics: Title Sponsor of EDGE of the Web 

[00:18:20] Mobile-First Indexing was a Misnomer. It had to do with Portabiity

[00:21:28] Entities Being Language Agnostic: HREFLang

[00:22:50] What is Above the Knowledge Graph? The Topic Layer

[00:26:26] You Can Guarantee that there's Another Training Benefit to What Google Rolls Out

[00:27:30] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: WIX edgeofthewebradio.com/wix

[00:28:36] Moving from Monolithic to Micro Services

[00:30:31] Portability as it Applies to Passage Indexing

Thanks to our sponsors!

Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site

WIX https://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix

Follow Cindy Krum

https://twitter.com/Suzzicks 

https://www.facebook.com/cindy.krum/ 

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

https://www.instagram.com/mobilemoxie/ 

Mobile Moxie recently launched some cool new Chrome plugins for our main tools:

SERPerator:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/serperator-by-mobilemoxie/ghnlaojdcibbkcgmanbbmbdgccmfdaof 

Page-oscope:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-oscope-by-mobilemoxi/aofebfljannpdpbeapgnolkihjiepdeo 

They also have a new WordPress Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/page-oscope-preview-by-mobilemoxie/

We just hit a new year, and like with every new year comes new SEO tips, tools, techniques, and upcoming trends to look out for. Mordy Oberstein and Erin Sparks explore all of the above in this information-packed episode. All while asking what your SEO resolution is for the new year.

Below are some highlights of the discussion:

• Chat GPT for SEOs
• Can AI chat threaten Google
• Google’s recent location privacy settlements
• The holidays delayed the latest Google algorithm/process updates
• New product listing graphs with price history
• John Mueller’s skill to know for 2023

Should SEOs use Chat GPT for content creation? Or are there other ways it can be used (insert thinking face/chin scratch emoji)? Hit play now and join us on the first 2023 News from the EDGE podcast. . . 

Follow us on Twitter and let us know how we did this show.

Help us out with a review of the show today!

Go to RatethisPodcast.com/EDGE

News from the EDGE:

[00:05:59] Is This Google’s Helpful Content Algorithm?

[00:15:38] Google to pay $29.5 million to settle DC, Indiana lawsuits over location tracking

[00:19:57] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks

[00:21:15] Is ChatGPT Really a “Code Red” for Google Search?

[00:33:-9] ChatGPT for SEO: 20 Ways to Leverage ChatGPT in your SEO Activities

[00:36:52] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics

Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable:

[00:37:46] Barry Blast 1: Google’s Helpful Content and Link Spam updates were delayed due to the holidays.

[00:38:22] Barry Blast 2: Google’s Search Product Listings with price history graph

[00:38:25] Barry Blast 3: John Mueller of Google says that SEO skills needed for 2023 are “curiosity and persistence” 

Thanks to our sponsors!

Site Strategics https://edgeofthewebradio.com/site

Inlinks https://edgeofthewebradio.com/inlinks

Follow Us:

Twitter: @ErinSparks

Twitter: @MordyOberstein

Twitter: @TheMann00

Twitter: @EDGEWebRadio

#StandwithUkraine edgeofthewebradio.com/ukraine