016 – The Core SEO Principles To Focus On In 2024

00:00.00
peteeveritt
Hello and welcome to this episode of the wp seo show. It is the first show of twenty twenty four and we’re backing in the game how you doing Jeff.

00:06.43
Jeff
Um, Yay! I’m good. It is ah we were just joking but like it feels. It feels so Weird. We took a couple weeks off and like oh man I give everybody needs a a break every now and then but like it know was a holidays but here we are and it’s like. It was maybe it was a mistake I feel like I lost a groove. You know? Ah yes.

00:27.10
peteeveritt
Ah, we’ll get back into it. It’ll be absolutely fine. So so did you have a good Christmas in year.

00:36.20
Jeff
I did I did we? We didn’t do anything too crazy. We stayed pretty local. Um, we have families spread around so we had to do a bit of you know driving and commuting and stuff. But I mean honestly it was a nice time. We did a lot of our prep like well ahead of time you know like people say they’re gonna do every year. We actually did it and.

00:53.68
peteeveritt
Ah, real good stuff good stuff I was gone. Yeah, we so we were at home for Christmas which was which was great and then between Christmas and New Year we went.

00:54.50
Jeff
Oh was great. It was great. What about you you were ah you were gone.

01:09.66
peteeveritt
Ah, we went over to France to our favorite ski resort and we were there for new year. So came back in the middle of last week and yeah we had ah we had a great time and the snow was good and the runs were good and I’ll give him a shout out right now. My son isaac got a gopro for Christmas so he.

01:25.71
Jeff
Is.

01:28.48
peteeveritt
He set himself up with a little Youtube channel which is sort of highlighting some of the runs that he was doing so if anybody’s interested feel free to dm me and I’ll I’ll drop the link. In fact, I might even drop the link in the show notes just to um, just just to give him a big up. He’s 13 and or nearly thirteen and he’d he’d love an extra few subscribers or 2 so yeah, that’s that’s what we did.

01:50.78
Jeff
Pete sent me the link to it while he was gone over and said hey you know Isaac’s doing this and you’d really love a subb but I’m pretty sure uncle Jeff was his first sub I’m pretty sure but um, ah oh.

01:55.49
peteeveritt
Probably was yeah outside of me and his mom. Yeah absolutely he was like we were in this apartment in France and he set this thing up on his phone and and got some art work and did this that in the other and he was like hey dad dad wears your phone like here. Why next thing. Thanks and he gives it back to me and he’s subbbed from my Youtube account mom mom where’s your phone so he’d like instantly you were gone to like 3 subscribers with it within the first five minutes but yeah he’s he’s he’s getting some good views on those videos. Um, which is absolutely.

02:20.49
Jeff
I. Hey, you got to get in an algorithm Somehow you know I love it because I wasn’t using headphones to listen to it and I just have a real crappy desktop speaker that like it’s fine for like background music or something like that. So.

02:34.14
peteeveritt
Absolutely.

02:43.61
Jeff
You know with those go pros you kind of hear the wind and the snow a little more than you do like the the the talking because he’s not really talking. He’s skiing but I love kind of half hearing his commentary. You know he’ like oh oh ah, boy they sees his sees his brothers like did you see me hit that bump and he goes are you amazed that I didn’t crash.

02:52.80
peteeveritt
A.

03:00.72
peteeveritt
I will I will say there’s 2 2 elements on 1 video where where he muted it and that’s because his mum nearly crashed just out of shot and started swearing.

03:12.52
Jeff
I I was like trying to listen if he was maybe swearing under his breath Oo I’m until dad.

03:15.27
peteeveritt
Um, so so that that was what we did. That was what we did and we had it read a great time and yeah, back to it and energized and lots of lots of stuff planned and um, yeah, it’s goingnna be good. It’s gonna be good. So. It’s a new year and we kind of thought look you know what we have to do a new year episode and um, we batted around a few ideas about what we could do about Seo in sort of what we expect seo to be like in 2024 but rather thanress preguess anything. Ah. We kind of settled on this title of 3 core principles of Seo that are going to be important in 2024 and we just thought that would be a good thing to to have as the first show of of the year to you know good a good theme for it. Um, so you know none of this is going to be.

04:06.77
Jeff
Um, yeah.

04:13.20
peteeveritt
Necessarily groundbreaking but hopefully hopefully you’ll find it useful. You’ll find it entertaining. Um, and maybe there’ll be a few bits that you know few different ways of thinking about stuff that that you might not have thought about um yeah, and considering some of this stuff in the past. So the first one is look. We’re. for for the last two or three years we’ve been in ah essentially a content revolution when it comes to when it comes to Google ever since they’ve moved to use eccentric content so rather than Seo Centric content um you know the content has been king and let’s be honest. That isn’t going to change too much in the next twelve months um you know whatever the developments are with the I’ll go with the the priorities of stuff you can bet your bottom Dollar. It’s all going to be content driven. But maybe the way that we interact with that content might be ah, a little different and. I guess the first part of this content discussion. We need to have is about ai because yeah, look ai tools are becoming more and more prevalent they’re becoming easier to access. They’re becoming cheaper to access. It’s becoming embedded flipping everywhere. Um, you can’t really get away from them. But alongside that the ai detection tools are getting better and it’s my gut feeling that you know, ah the presence of Ai is going to become evident in some form in the algorithm probably within 2024.

05:43.82
Jeff
You think you think like Google’s and say hey this is Ai content or it’s going to kind of have a warning or tags some sort of I mean yeah I yeah I dont I mean I don’t know about that specifically. But I think that whether it’s Google.

05:43.85
peteeveritt
I don’t know what you think about that Jeff.

05:49.59
peteeveritt
It might have a little flag or a tag or something on it. Yeah, absolutely.

06:01.90
Jeff
Saying you know, kind of pointing out that content because I could see how that would be both beneficial and detrimental to them so I’m just I’m trying to kind of figure out how that would be a ah good choice for them. But um, it’s going to happen one way or the other like whether it’s Google specifically or you know it’s all the tools and and everything and.

06:17.84
Jeff
Overall, it’s great. You know I mean I think overall the ai revolution as we’re calling it is you know is amazing. Um there’s a lot of controversy, especially when it comes to artists and things like that and and those are you know I’ve been this is kind of just a personal topic I’ve dug into it I’ve been seeing some companies I follow that are. You know, kind of cutting out their artists and that’s you know, not cool. That’s kind of one of the big things that you know we focus on is that like you know we we want to embrace Ai as much as possible but like at the core we still want humans producing the content. You know it’s it’s it’s extremely valuable to us and um. Yeah, I’m just I’m really interested to see the evolution because I think so much happened last year with it and this year’s I’m hoping that we’re not necessarily dealing with new things. We’re dealing with better things. You know I’m I’m hoping that that the playing field levels out I’m hoping that. Things are solid and maybe maybe just as ah like you know as an industry or as a world as a whole we start to learn how to use them in responsible ways and you know.

07:21.99
peteeveritt
Well, there’s it’s it’s interesting. Isn’t it because there’s there’s a number of sides of this discussion which you need to consider The first is the first is look Ai is is machine learning. That’s that’s what it does It can read. It can process and it can it can respond to commands and and spit out for a content creation point of view I’m I’m talking about you know that’s that’s what it does. Um, which means that for all those people that were struggling with generating anything online. They’ve instantly got a leg up into this world of of being able to produce stuff and you don’t need to have that blank Cursor syndrome or whatever it was Called. You know you you can. You can very easily get out the gates with stuff that you know the the difficulty would be if if all content on the internet.

08:01.12
Jeff
We have.

08:13.82
peteeveritt
Was simply produced by Ai and copied and pasted straight onto the internet and then that then fed the Ai which then more people queried and then copied and pasted that output then you’d you’d end up in quite a dark place. Ah but the reality is that.

08:25.33
Jeff
Yeah.

08:29.43
peteeveritt
That’s never going to happen I think there’s enough content genuine content creators out there on the internet that it you’re never going to get this. Um this waiting where ai is feeding Ai is feeding ai whilst that might Happen. You know I’m not saying it’ll never happen for a single cycle. But. The fact that it would happen over and over and over again in this sort of cyclical fashion I don’t I don’t see that happening but what it did.

08:51.90
Jeff
Um, that would be some interesting I’m just thinking about the logic that goes into all that you know watching all that kind of breakdown would be really interesting but I do see I don’t and I’m I’m not disagreeing with you but I have seen a couple things lately and and this is actually very specifically about wordpress stuff. Um, where you know I’m sure all the you know wordpress developers and implementers out there have googled how do I do this or you know looking for a code snippet or something and I forget what? Ah I forget what it was I think it was something with Redis ah redis um, database caching but I was following. Ah, you know a six seven step tutorial on some blog. And the logic was completely broken and I quickly realized this was all done by Ai because it was like oh you know, add this 2 your wp config file do this and then restart the ftp server. It’s like wait. What like where the hell that cup from like ah like.

09:35.56
peteeveritt
Yeah.

09:40.00
Jeff
Okay, a human wouldn’t have I mean you know people could say the wrong things nice but that was just so out of left field I’m like man is this really what we’ve come to and I you know I see a lot of people say oh I got great code snippets and stuff from chat be Gpt and that’s great but man that’s already what I’m seeing just on blogs. So I’m really worried that people will kind of.

09:53.95
peteeveritt
Yeah.

09:59.56
Jeff
I Don’t think anyone’s going to truly benefit from it. But I’m afraid that people might start cluttering the waters with that you know and I don’t know.

10:02.74
peteeveritt
Well you you might be right? but I think Google’s response to that is going to be to lean more into EAT and y m y l your money your life type parts of the algorithm to in order to clean up that that stuff out of there.

10:17.91
Jeff
Yeah, yeah.

10:20.25
peteeveritt
The the reality is that whatever ai creates particularly if Ai starts feeding ai it’s going to become more and more generic as time goes by which is then going to drop it out of that experience expertise authority and trust factor or your money your life type type content. So i.

10:30.80
Jeff
Um, you.

10:39.84
peteeveritt
Personally I think that Google is going to end up leaning more and more into those things’ve I know we’ve mentioned them in the past on the show. Maybe we need to do ah a specific episode which is about e and ymel or y m y um, and ah, you know and and explore those a bit further which isn’t the the. Sort of place for it right now. But I that’s what I ultimately think Google’s response is going to be and simply it’ll just send ai content out of the serps. Um, which may stop some people that are relying on it for their for purely for their as their own content creation mechanism may stop them from. Um. Using it in that way in which case it then naturally starts to police itself. There’s obviously going to be. We’re still in that area of transition aren’t we we’re still in that place of flux and we yeah but I think in terms of this show and ah the core principle for 2024? yeah.

11:34.44
peteeveritt
Content having good quality content that plays to the ET or the y and y l depending it depends on the type of content. Um ah types parts of the parts of the process. It’s important to note that both of those are not yet part of the algorithm they’re theories. They are not.

11:52.50
peteeveritt
But it will be interesting to see how Google Retro fits them in they they are theories that have come from Google principles that have come from Google um, yeah.

11:57.72
Jeff
I Mean they’re tracking the metrics on them. So I mean they’re they’re going to put them in place I mean it’s.

12:02.61
peteeveritt
Well and and I think what we’re dancing around with here is really the topic that actually more and more even though we’ve been through 2 or 3 iterations of this helpful content. Update in 2023 more and more. The emphasis is going to be on how does this content help the user how is it written by humans four of the humans to get them. You know to educate them to help them to help them achieve something to whatever it the the the end goal is how does that work. Um, and.

12:21.17
Jeff
Um, yeah.

12:36.50
peteeveritt
You know I’m fed up of hearing every year since like 2015 it feels like you you get to January the first and somebody says hey Youtube’s going to be the biggest search engine this year you need to double down into Youtube content I I don’t disagree that Youtube is growing I don’t disagree that it’s a good search engine. But I don’t think it’s going to overtake Google any year really and certainly don’t think it’s it’s just different. But I think what that highlights is as as we are moving away or not moving away from our content as the world becomes more um, ah.

12:59.87
Jeff
Um, it’s It’s just different. It’s It’s just different.

13:14.72
peteeveritt
Ah, sort of as we navigate through this ai content and how it filters into Real-w World general content that is written for the user or generated for the user I think that’s where things like video things like audio the different formats that you.

13:32.88
peteeveritt
Customers potential customers can consume. That’s where it’s going to be that’s going to play another role in it. Let me put it that way. Um, yeah.

13:40.30
Jeff
Yeah I mean I would say if you’re starting this year off and you’re going h what content I going to produce where am I going to put it and you’re and you’re bouncing. But you know those ideas especially like you just mentioned you hear that a lot Youtube is a biggest search, engine etc and it is in some context you know, depending which way you want to frame it. But. I’d say make the content and put it in the best place it should be. You know if it’s if if the what you’re trying to share is best done in video make Youtube content. That’s great. You know if it’s best written have a blog if it’s you know whatever it is the content is the core principle and. Whether it’s video or written obviously text is you know, probably waited a little bit more for search but all this stuff is feeding into the algorithm. It’s always going to be beneficial.

14:26.54
peteeveritt
Yeah, absolutely fully agree. Fully agree. So that principle one is is content principle 2 is technical Seo and again this isn’t like a groundbreaking light bulb theme. But. Personally I think the the trajectory for 2024 is because of this new acceptance or modeling around ai and how Ai content is going to fit into the serps and how that’s going to affect search rankings and and this that newer which is only going to become more prevalent as time goes by. I think that technical seo is It’s always been important to have a strong technical Seo Foundation but I think it’s going to become even more important that that balance of having a website that plays the game the way Google wants it to be played. And has the content that is going to help users get from a to b that is where the the real sort of gem of a mix of of driving traffic is going to be.

15:32.22
Jeff
Yeah, and you can you can have some success if 1 or the other is not fully embraced or in place. But it’s not you’re not maximizing that effort. You’re just not and if you’re out if you’re putting all that work into your content on a website. You know whether this is. Your website as the agency or 1 of your clients. Whatever it is but the technical health isn’t there. Well there’s probably going to be a competitor who technical health is in good shape and is producing similar content and is then overstepping you in the rankings I mean it’s it’s really is in the most simple, you know way how it breaks down. Um, and. It’s yeah I feel like we’re we’re beating a dead horse here I hate that I hate that euphemism metaphor. It’s terrible I don’t know but I never would so I do live on horses I wouldn’t beat them but no anyway.

16:15.95
peteeveritt
Why would you be a dead horse. Why would you be any horse.

16:28.13
Jeff
Sorry for my weird metaphors here. But anyway, um, no no Jeff’s weird metaphors anyway, um yeah editor take that part out. No way we don’t have an editor. Ah.

16:28.58
peteeveritt
Um, good to see things haven’t changed in 2024 on the Wp Seo show. I mean speak of a segment.

16:43.75
peteeveritt
I We we don’t have it and it’s ah.

16:47.35
Jeff
Ah, oh wait. We click publish all right? Um, no okay, you know like you you were saying people. We’ve been saying technical health technical for years and years and years and years and years and years. And you know what I still every single day of my life enter a website or 12 where nobody has paid any attention to to technical health so in twenty and 24 and I think it’s first time I said 2024 in 2024 please do this stuff. Ah.

17:16.35
peteeveritt
Ah, you know we’re we’re verging on myokbox with yeah save Jeff 2024 Hashtag save Jeff and we we’re verging on my soapbox which is agency should be producing.

17:16.77
Jeff
Ah, just to save me just save me save me.

17:23.25
Jeff
Ah.

17:30.19
Jeff
Um, yeah.

17:30.65
peteeveritt
Websites that are Techica clean anyway and we know that Seo Technical Seo isn’t everybody’s bag. But yeah, if people are coming to you as a web professional therefore you should you know do that you wouldn’t go and take your cart at the garage and be happy if the guy used elastic bands and duct tape to.

17:36.92
Jeff
And.

17:46.94
peteeveritt
Give it back to you so why would you do that with the website. Yeah, the idea I’m not gonna go there. Um, but I that the point I think for this show is that twenty twenty four is gonna be the time of almost like reconciliation of a lot of this stuff and. The the differentiating factors are going to be a lot of the stuff that we already do but turned up to 11 so you’re going to need to. You’re going to need to get this this nailed whether that’s getting some external help in to help help you with that whether that’s changing your build processes whether that’s putting a um you know putting a a.

18:10.62
Jeff
Yeah.

18:25.10
peteeveritt
Process at the start of an Seo retainer. Whatever it is this stuff needs to be done I’ve often explained technical Seo or not getting technical Seo right? means that like all of your other Seo efforts have a seatbelt on if you’ve got a website that’s got a health of 62 or 63 you can write the world’s. Best blog about you know, ten fifteen thousand words about most in-depth article about whatever the core topic of the website is but when Google sees it. It’s going to say that’s a great piece of content on a website that’s got a health 63%. Um, so you know just. Add that sentence to the end of anything else that you do and you’re instantly limiting the effort and therefore the reach and therefore the results of any work that you do be it on your own website or a client’s website. That’s that’s just the reality and as I say my. Inkling for 2024 is that that is just going to become more and more important as tang goes by.

19:19.82
Jeff
Absolutely I’m already seeing it excuse me. Um in search console. You know this is this is like the bane of any like web professionals existences those search console emails but you know normally there there was right? What a couple years ago the focus was responsive.

19:36.80
peteeveritt
Yeah, an Ssl certificates.

19:38.28
Jeff
Ah, design right? And so everybody started getting yeah al and so of course there was the oh you know this website isn’t behind ssl warnings you’d get or which that’s pretty much done these days. Um. But ah, 2 2 elements are too close together. Font size is too small I mean all these just ridiculous things that when you actually look at them in place. They’re not actually causing a problem or they’re not a thing but we’ve seen those over and over again now I’m seeing so much more on the schema and the various strings that are attached to things because. You go through when you do that you know sometimes when you install an Seo plugin and you go through the kind of the wizard and stuff a lot of those things are just left blank because they’re not relevant. Well sometimes those tags still get left in there. They’re not relevant. They shouldn’t matter Google’s starting to see them. They’re starting to to kind of notify about them and so I was just reviewing some just yesterday and we’re looking at them and going.

20:20.76
peteeveritt
Yeah.

20:27.83
Jeff
Is irrelevant this this doesn’t make any sense. No that doesn’t need a testimonial author’s name because this isn’t a testimonial I don’t know if that means things need to be. You know, cleaned up on that side and that’s more of a probably ah like a plugin structure thing because they’re indiserting all that stuff or if this is just kind of Google testing some new checks and putting some new plate. Checks in place but it’s happening and that’s you know we’ll we’re going to see how they play out but they are definitely definitely happening.

20:54.36
peteeveritt
That’s it’s definitely happening Now here’s a curve ball. You just as you were talking. It made me think about it and this isn’t something we we mentioned in our little pre-show chat where we we ironed out our notes that we’d made. Um, but yeah, there could be there could be.

21:03.40
Jeff
Um, who I love surprises.

21:10.81
peteeveritt
More of an inclusion for accessibility legislation in with technical technical seo as well. Which at the moment at the moment accessibility is very much based on a country by country basis I know in the us you have far stricter accessibility rules on websites than we do in Europe.

21:25.51
Jeff
He.

21:29.99
peteeveritt
But I just I the thought just occurred to me as you were talking that could be that could be something that gets included in the in the not too distant future into tech seo through search console. Although if anybody from Google is listening to this show which I realize is probably unlikely, but. If they are um, please do something? Yeah, do you want a sponsor is no no ah alone now you’ve just asked it. So yeah, please sponsor us and but do please do something about the interface for Google Search console it is terrible. It is absolutely awful. Um.

21:50.10
Jeff
Um, do you want to sponsor us. Oh that’s not what you’re going to ask.

22:08.85
peteeveritt
And.

22:08.85
Jeff
I’ll I’ll take the interface just stop with the emails to my clients just top. Ah.

22:15.15
peteeveritt
Yeah, it just please please just review it review that whole thing. It’s not it’s not good it it hasn’t really changed or evolved since you know the dinosaurs and it really needs to um yeah if you want to see a Google interface that’s. Definitely been designed by developers. It is search console and let’s face it GA4 ain’t much better, but we we’re learning to with learning to live with that one? Um, but yeah, so hey watch this space. Maybe maybe anybody listening to this or watching this has some thoughts about how accessibility may get worked into the yeah into the the.

22:37.84
Jeff
Um, no.

22:51.85
Jeff
yeah yeah yeah I don’t know how that would would work necessarily but I have to be honest I think that it probably should and would be a good thing because I mean just kind of going back to the Ai right is like well do we want to publish that it’s a do we want to to know that it’s Ai probably.

22:52.18
peteeveritt
I’ll go at some point I don’t know that’s that’s just a cove ball.

23:10.71
Jeff
So if Google is going to. You know, be telling people that they should probably also tell people that it’s accessible because they don’t want to promote a website that people that can’t use it. You know what? I mean like if if somebody can’t use it because of accessibility issues Google probably isn’t going to prioritize that in the search. And don’t think they’re tracking that I don’t think they really can yet but they will if it’s if it matters and it matters.

23:27.96
peteeveritt
I will it does and you know it’s another indicator that you as the website owner are putting the user first which is that is the key. The key metric here because let’s let’s remember the reason that all of this stuff happens is so that Google can charge the most for the ads that appear at the top.

23:35.67
Jeff
Um, yeah.

23:46.71
peteeveritt
That it can earn money you by getting all of this stuff right? Whilst you’re supporting your clients or developing your own business or whatever you are also helping Google earn money and that is there. You know theyre a business that’s their primary focus.

23:58.10
Jeff
I am on a legal standpoint I am not educated to speak about this but you have to think is Google putting themselves at risk could they be putting themselves at risk by promoting websites that fall into that category. You know what I mean so they might even do that on their ads too. They might go you know your site has to be accessible.

24:15.67
peteeveritt
Maybe maybe absolutely maybe who knows I have people that do ads for me. It’s and it’s not really my area of Expertise either. Um, so yeah, cool and then the last The last thing.

24:17.69
Jeff
And every way they probably might already do that I don’t do ads clearly. Yeah.

24:33.61
peteeveritt
The third principle for 2024 maybe we should have done at the start of the episode is hey these are what we think our 3 principles are going to be and then dive into them so you’ve had to wait 24 minutes for this one ah is ah that.

24:42.81
Jeff
Um, that sounds like your strategy to me suckers. We got you.

24:49.80
peteeveritt
Ah, okay, it’s now 25 minutes ah but yeah, the the third is going to be that local results are going to become more prevalent. Um, both in the search results and also that map pack traffic and ah that. So you know, accessing local results that way is going to become ah the interaction. There’s going to increase as well. So that’s going to put the emphasis on making sure that you have your Google business profile sorted out making sure that you are generating content that is locally relevant making sure that. All of the schema stuff all of the tags. All of the you know declarations you make are are watertight that kind of I suppose it’s in technical seo but it is more of a a local Seo sort of process making sure that you’re building citations properly making sure that you’re. Ah, uploading the relevant types of content to your profile so that you can compete with the people that are already in the in the top of that making sure that your geographics are separate all of that kind of stuff. Um that that’s again, this comes down to basically ever since we’ve said look there’s gonna be a filtration process for Ai content. Everything else we’ve said since that point are things that we think are going to play a factor in how Google is going to filter that ai content through the serps and local is another another key element of that.

26:11.35
Jeff
Yeah I mean it’s become so ingrained in our day-to-day life and when you think just not even talking about the agency business or you know working with clients just going out into the world and looking for stuff. We are constantly using our mobile devices. We’re constantly looking. Things that are being ranked in the map pack on Google we’re finding directions to places we’re looking at reviews we’re looking at pictures to make sure the place doesn’t look sketchy and to make sure it’s open. You know what? I mean I mean even in I live in Southern California and it is. It’s a busy you know.

26:36.96
peteeveritt
Yeah.

26:46.57
Jeff
Area a lot of business. A lot of commerce I would say the vast majority of places that you know not big places like you know, big Bri and mortar places like say Target or you know big you know, ah department stores or whatever but like smaller businesses I’d say the vast majority of them are either just flat out. Not. On. There. They haven’t claimed their listing or they have done absolutely nothing and it’s not useful and half the time as a consumer you wonder if they’re even open and so so many local businesses just don’t they’re not embracing it and it it can I mean I don’t want to say can instantly give it success. But.

27:11.51
peteeveritt
Yeah, yeah.

27:24.24
Jeff
Ah, probably can in some cases in a lot of cases.

00:00.00
peteeveritt
Hey guys apologies if you’ve seen a cut in our audio or our video we did just have a little tech error but we were just about to talk about I was just about to talk about a little thai restaurant down in London that I I saw when I was down there visiting a client. Spent the day with the client. There was a few of us there and we needed to eat something and the the client recommended this thai restaurant that was in this little culdesac just behind covent garden and ah their directions were look here’s the street name and then when you get there. There’s like four thai food shops go into the one that looks terrible and. Ah, the we when we got there. It was exactly like that there was like there was like 8 shops in this little precinct almost off the off this. Yeah that’s that that was exactly it and it was. We got there and it was like these 3 thai restaurants that.

00:44.13
Jeff
It’s like sure That’s what we want to eat. Are you sure? That’s what we want to eat really.

00:54.46
peteeveritt
Wouldn’t have looked out of place in a really high end shopping mall. You know, glass windows ah black tables with bench seats with all of the places already set little plants and stuff on on the tables just looked looked. They all looked stunning and then there was this 1 place that I kid you not look like a corner shop. You couldn’t see through the windows because they’d stuck like old posters of Thailand on the windows so that when you were in the shop you looked like you were sort of looking at Thailand rather than a London street and but they were all sort of peeling and a bit ripped and sort of discolored and and whatever because of the weather and the door looked. Ah, from memory I even think the door had a letter box on it. It was like an old house door that had been put in this hole to you know it. It wasn’t really a door. It was more just like ah a a whole plug that was kind of the right shape. Um, and we we had exactly that discussion is are you sure we we might get. Killed. We might get eaten are we gonna be on the menu who who knows and ah and sure enough we went there and the food was exquisite. It was beautiful. It was like it must be the best thai food I’ve ever eaten. It was stunning. Well let me put it this way. It was so good that like six years later I can still remember this story. That’s how good it was and ah so why am I saying all this well that’s kind of the point of getting your local Seo stuff right? getting all the right content on there getting you personalizing your your profile so that you aren’t just a name with a few reviews next to you but you’re actually of.

02:10.64
Jeff
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

02:28.71
peteeveritt
What you’re actually trying to do with your local profile is take the user across that threshold bring them into your business whilst they’re still looking at you on the device in their hand because if you can get them invested at that point then they’ll either visit you or contact you or inquire with you or buy from you. Rather than you just being another listing on a map pack amongst a whole load of listings and you know the fact that you have all this different type of media available. That’s what sets the map pack apart from the standard search engines where it is just a title and some text. Um, so yeah, that’s why it’s important.

03:06.50
Jeff
I Love that analogy both from a Thai food Aficionado standpoint because that is like as soon as I knew exactly what I’m sure most people probably knew with that store how it was going to end but it was like yeah like absolutely Thai food the sketchiest looking Thai food is always the best Thai food.

03:07.60
peteeveritt
Um, so anyway.

03:20.28
peteeveritt
Yeah, so.

03:22.69
Jeff
And but then also I think that’s a great analogy because and no offene to thai food I absolutely love thai food or just just just just to be clear I love thailand I love thai food. Um, but I love that analogy because those restaurants the fancy ones with marble and the glass windows and stuff those are the fancy websites. Those are the nice designs. They probably you know what I mean and then the sketchy one is that like old 20 year old one but they’ve been doing seo and so they still get business like that’s a great representation now I don’t know what their website’s either 1 of those like but like those are great metaphors for both of those I love it. Ah.

03:41.00
peteeveritt
And.

03:56.58
peteeveritt
Um, so.

03:57.31
Jeff
Because but that’s what’s important right? like the reviews the sharing you know the the word of mouth. All that stuff that that’s a good, a good example of local search.

04:03.56
peteeveritt
That’s it. That’s it. Well, you know what? maybe there’s a guy that I ah well I’m I’m personal friends with him here in the Uk. A guy called Alex Curtis he runs a an agency called the lead engine and they do websites and Seo for. Financial service websites. That’s their niche so mortgage advisers pension advisers financial advises those kind of people and um Alex I might see if I can strong arm him into coming on the show. So I’m doing this live on air so that he will hear this episode because I will share it with him and then he can’t say no.

04:36.19
Jeff
These.

04:40.30
peteeveritt
And but they his agency worked through the like 6 or 7 touch points that people need or the 6 or 7 touch points that people would have offline to work with a business and then replicated those onto a website. So they are things like um, they are things like social proof. So having your reviews having testimonials from customers and and you know other people that are like the people that you are wanting to attract now. Okay, if you’re ah if you’re this is where it works so well for Alex because he’s a mortgage advisor he works with mortgage advisors mortgage advisors are people are buying houses. That’s the thing they have in common right? They you know they are that. That’s who they’re helping so you know have those reviews personalize the service so people would maybe want to get to know you a little bit more ah to break down that boundary that might come in the in light in real life through a. Through a recommendation by a friend. You know, hey just speak to so Andso or I’ve I’ll pass your number on that kind of thing. Well actually you can do that by creating content that’s in audio format or video format so that you’re breaking down that that barrier when when the person then enquires with you. They all all um, almost feel like they know you a little bit already. Alex has a far better way of breaking that down. So maybe as we were talking about getting guests on from time to time I ah might see if I can line Alex up to come and talk through his I’m I’m sure it’s either a 5 or six sort of key indicators. I.

06:09.80
peteeveritt
The bit of this podcast that Alex probably won want to hear is I’ve sat through his presentation twice and I can’t remember how many indicators there are that that you put on a website but it were he is really good at explaining it. So I’ll see if I can find anyone.

06:19.86
Jeff
Yeah, don’t don’t let that sway you but please Alex come on after pete insults you you know like that you know I got you buddy I got him I got his back.

06:26.84
peteeveritt
all right? it’s all right yeah thanks me. Thanks yeah, cool cool I’ll be up for some stick when when Alex is on the show for sure and so yeah, but that’s that’s why there are 3 things content is going to become more and more prevalent.

06:38.00
Jeff
Ah.

06:41.37
Jeff
The.

06:44.92
peteeveritt
Technical is going to become more and more prevalent local is going to become more and more prevalent.

06:47.30
Jeff
Yeah, yeah, and it’s like I was saying just there’s so many I feel like much of the Seo industry is is really focused on local Seo which is great. It should be but there’s still just so many. You know so many businesses out there that are just not using it and it’s not even something that like. They need to I don’t know invest a lot of time or effort in 2 just to start just claim your profile. You know what I mean and and just have the simple things up there and and local Seo is interesting because it doesn’t necessarily um, add to traffic of the website right? like. And 1 way you can’t track and be like hey look we’ve improved your local Seo and your website rankings went up because that’s not exactly the point of it. The point is to get people in the door of your business usually or calling you or or whatnot so it’s ah it’s a little bit different to show the success in that. But it’s it’s vital It’s absolutely vital. It has been for a long time and um. I don’t know I mean not to share another restaurant story but I ate a fantastic little italian pizza place the other night because I was in this little shopping center and I was starving and I needed food I was the only person in the place I was so sketched out they had no reviews nothing anywhere. The only reason they got my business was because I was. Dying and now I’m sitting there going. They’re great. Why aren’t they telling people about them like I’m going to go write him a review but you know what I mean they’re not embracing any of that nobody knows they exist and exist.

08:13.00
peteeveritt
No please note no co-hosts actually died in the production of this podcast. No not nor were any horses beaten.

08:19.11
Jeff
I was pretty starving man I was pretty starving it for for me to go into a to eat at a place like that that isn’t Thai food says a lot I was close to death I was starving.

08:34.49
peteeveritt
Ah that’s how much she loves ty thailand folks absolutely so well. Ah that that’s our big three. We’d love to hear from you if you have any other opinions if you if you disagree with us or you think that. Ah, you know there’s there’s going to be other factors and we’re not saying that these are going to be the only things I should caveat this but these are going to be our big 3 for for 2024 and that is partly the way but you know the reason that we do what we do and we structured the business the way we structure it. But that’s um, yeah, we’d love to hear from you about what you think. Are going to be potential other influences in 2024 as well. absolutely absolutely well I think that brings this first show of twenty twenty four to a rap. Um, it’s been fun. Will will hit our stride again. This one feels like it’s been a bit bitty.

09:09.75
Jeff
Um, yeah, and and what are you doing to address them.

09:23.94
Jeff
You know I mean they’re they’re they’re They’re not always Academy award winning productions but we get through them and people listen they subscribe and they like it. Okay maybe not as many as we’d like which is why I’m trying to guilt you into doing that if you’re still listening to this please and thank you.

09:26.60
peteeveritt
Um.

09:39.19
peteeveritt
I like I like the in assertion that any of them are award winning episodes.

09:47.70
Jeff
I Didn’t say I didn’t say they were I Just said this one isn’t ah.

09:53.46
peteeveritt
Oh that’s fantastic and before we sign off, we need to give our weekly ah weekly shout out to Cal Van duzen at the admin bar and some exciting news actually about that is that I don’t know if I’m allowed to announce this. But I’m going to anyway. Ah, is that for the next few months we are going to be doing some guest posting on the admin bar website about some Seo related themes. So um, we’ll make sure that we drop the links in our socials and all that kind of thing when they’re published. But yeah, watch this space. We will be both Jeff and I will be generating some content over in the amin bar website too.

10:25.38
Jeff
Um, yeah, looking forward to it and hoping Pete didn’t just break any nondisclosure agreements. We signed.

10:26.60
peteeveritt
Which is going to be fun.

10:30.80
peteeveritt
Sorry I I used your signature so you’d be the one that was so yeah when when I got the pdf through on Adobe sign. It was like a Jeff free patch. So they so good. Thank god for us pass.

10:38.50
Jeff
Oh yeah, I’ve got it saved in there. Yeah, you got it. It’s all help yourself. Could you sign some of those photos people been requesting also for me. Oh oh I miss.

10:50.99
peteeveritt
Ah, yeah, but the picture wasn’t of you. Ah.

10:55.66
peteeveritt
Ah, yeah, yeah, you know that horse. Ah, um, if you’re gonna line and apply that I’m gonna Smash I have a good one. Everyone see you next time.

10:55.79
Jeff
Misunderstood that request I guess.

11:02.51
Jeff
See you next week. Everybody.