Search with Candour

Candour

Every Monday, Jack Chambers-Ward has in-depth conversations with SEO experts from around the world. Covering topics from attribution in GA4 to networking tips for introverts and everything in between. Search With Candour is the perfect way to kickstart your working week! https://withcandour.co.uk/podcast

  1. Search with Josh Bachynski | The ethics of AI SEO, the new ranking factors & evidence-based marketing

    9 uur geleden

    Search with Josh Bachynski | The ethics of AI SEO, the new ranking factors & evidence-based marketing

    Host: Jack Chambers-Ward | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlwchambers/ | He/him In this episode of Search with Candour, I’m joined by Josh Bachynski, CEO at Be Found Everywhere. With over 20 years of experience, Josh shares insights on ethical marketing and why an evidence-based approach to SEO is important for AI search optimisation. Topics discussed: Why AI Mode is the biggest change in search since 1998How the ranking factors compare to the traditional 10 blue linksWhy marketers must adapt to AI or get left behindWhy testing is so important in making strategic decisionsGoogle’s definition of consensus and non-commodity contentHow to find trustworthy sources in SEOThe difference between virtue signalling and truly ethical marketing Chapters 00:00 Introducing Josh Bachynski 01:16 Introduction 04:15 Why evidence-based SEO is so important 07:05 The new ranking factors for AI search 15:00 Google’s definition of consensus and E-E-A-T 18:18 The ethics of Google’s business model 23:07 Google Ads incentives 27:34 Learn to embrace AI and adapt 36:11 Defining ethical marketing 41:18 Truthful ethical marketing 42:12 Virtue signalling and positivity 43:28 Use AI for good 44:03 Google is not moral 47:55 Adapt or lose jobs 50:37 Evidence-based SEO testing 53:55 Finding trustworthy sources in SEO 59:08 Accountability in communities 01:03:30 Recommendation: Actionable tip 01:08:36 Recommendation: Tools and software 01:14:03 Recommendation: Something fun 01:16:48 Where to follow Josh 01:18:31 Episode wrap-up and upcoming guests Follow Josh Website: https://bfeai.com/ - Use code BEEFY-JOSH-20 for 20% offLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-bachynski/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jbachyns Watch / Listen on YouTube - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8c8k5Yy8FltVNsIsP1iUCSXDfE5cq2pM&si=xl4cMh_ngcMhrJ0- Subscribe to Core Updates for weekly SEO news and SEO tips - https://coreupdates.com/

    1 u 20 m
  2. 22 jun

    Buying Links vs Digital PR: Risks, Costs, and What Actually Works (with Vince Nero from BuzzStream)

    Host: Jack Chambers-Ward (he/him) Vince Nero, BuzzStream’s Director of Content Marketing, joins Search with Candour to discuss whether paying for digital PR is the same as buying links. Vince shares research on link marketplaces, noting many sites have zero organic traffic and only a tiny fraction qualify as high-quality. With some top-tier paid placements averaging thousands of dollars per link, often rivalling or exceeding monthly digital PR retainers. Vince and Jack also discuss relevancy vs authority, referral traffic and business impact, the growing value of brand mentions for AI visibility, and how creating owned, original assets and proprietary data can drive long-term coverage. Follow Vince BuzzstreamBuzzstream podcastFollow Vince on LinkedInVince’s previous episodeVince's recommendations: Actionable tip: Create unique content for digital PR pitches and host that content on your website.Recommended tool: XofuSomething fun: Mina the Hollower and Widow's BayChapters 00:00 Highlight reel 01:12 Introduction 04:47 Welcome Vince Nero 05:38 Digital PR vs link buying 08:48 Link marketplaces data 12:47 Quality metrics relevancy 17:13 Google risks penalties 21:45 Cost value comparison 32:02 Digital PR long-term wins 36:07 The importance of owned assets 44:00 AI mentions new value 46:51 Linked vs unlinked mentions 48:25 When links don’t matter 49:46 Big brand campaign metrics 50:45 AI as a status signal 52:55 Non-AI agency debate 54:15 Trusting Google guidance 55:17 Search relations vs Google Corp 01:01:00 guidelines vs case studies 01:03:01 Recommendations: Actionable tip 01:04:24 Recommendations: Tool/software 01:05:37 Recommendations: Something fun 01:15:28 Where to find Vince 01:16:28 Episode wrap up and next guests

    1 u 18 m
  3. 15 jun

    AI for Human SEO + “Maybe It Isn’t JavaScript” (Crystal Carter & Martin Splitt) | SearchNorwich highlights

    Host Jack Chambers Ward shares a special episode of Search With Candour highlighting two talks from SearchNorwich 18 ahead of the first SearchNorwichXL conference on 24 September 2026. 🎟️SearchNorwichXL tickets: https://searchnorwich.org/ In the first talk, Crystal Carter (Wix) discusses using AI tools for “actual intelligence” in SEO by emphasizing human experience, real examples, and opinion, noting forum visibility (e.g., Reddit) and practical ways to add EEAT-style signals, primary-source content, and social proof while using tools like transcribers, image enhancers, and NotebookLM. In the second talk, Martin Splitt (Google) presents “Maybe it isn’t JavaScript,” explaining that many indexing issues blamed on JavaScript are actually caused by blocked resources (e.g., robots.txt blocking APIs), caching/CDN behavior, or incorrect status codes in SPAs, and recommends using Search Console and rendered HTML to diagnose problems. 00:00 Introduction 00:26 Search Nor Excel Preview 01:05 SearchNorwich 18 highlights 01:49 Crystal Carter Intro 04:59 AI Reality In SEO 07:41 Why Humans Still Win 09:54 Experience Signals Matter 15:17 Real Examples And Proof 17:39 Opinions Drive Clicks 20:51 AI Tools For Humans 23:39 NotebookLM Workflow 25:32 Wix Built In AI Tools 27:40 Crystal Wrap Up 28:58 Why JavaScript Gets Blamed 30:55 Use Search Console Rendered HTML 33:04 Missing Content Cats Case Study 35:32 Robots TXT Blocking The API 37:52 Google Rendering Bug Noindex JS 41:24 Phantom Noindex From CDN Cache 47:10 SPA Error Pages Returning 200 50:57 Fixing SPA 404s Properly 51:54 Summary Tools And Q&A 54:42 Wrap up

    56 min.
  4. 1 jun

    Does Answering People Also Ask Questions Improve Rankings? (SEO Study w/ Chris Green)

    Chris Green joins Search with Candour to share his study on whether answering Google’s “People Also Ask” (PAA) questions correlates with higher organic rankings. 📖 Read the study in full: https://alsoasked.com/insights/paa-ranking-correlation Key takeaways 📈Across the top 5 positions, pages that fully answer more PAA questions tend to rank higher. 📊Commercial and transactional queries show the strongest correlations; navigational and informational queries are weaker. 📉Beyond page 1, the correlation drops sharply and can even reverse in lower page 2 positions—likely due to small sample sizes and SERP variability. Answering PAA questions alone isn’t enough to rank well; technical quality, external signals, and user experience still matter. ✅Covering a wide range of related questions can make content semantically richer, which may support ranking potential. Follow Chris Green 🔗Website - https://www.chris-green.net/ 🔗LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgreenseo/ 00:00 Do PAA Boost Rankings 01:21 Show Intro and Context 03:12 Meet Chris Green 04:48 Why PAA Matters Now 06:14 Originality and Value Proxy 12:28 Study Setup and Intent Buckets 16:02 SERP Sampling Top 20 17:48 Scraping Content at Scale 19:28 How Deep to Pull PAA 21:01 Crawl Errors and Bot Blocks 23:38 Cleaning Scrape Data 24:00 Scraping Ethics and Bots 26:09 Study Setup and Scoring 27:29 Key Findings and Correlations 32:48 Why Intent Was Messy 36:43 Full vs Partial Answers 39:37 Client Action Plan 44:57 Beyond PAA Question Mining 47:23 Where to Follow Chris 48:12 Episode Wrap and Teaser

    49 min.
  5. 25 mei

    HiveMCR 2026 Recap - SEO talks, AI Search panel, live comedy and more

    Jack Chambers-Ward gives a recap of his experience at HiveMCR 2026 including all of the talks, panels and events over the two-day event hosted by Charlie Whitworth. The event included live music, stand up comedy and talks from Jono Alderson, Dawn Anderson, Alex Moss, Sophie Brannon and many more. Sponsored by Trendos - the AI search visibility tool. With Trendos, you can see who’s buying ads in your AI search results. Trendos now tracks ChatGPT sponsored placements and is the first tool to reveal which competitors are paying to appear in the AI answers your customers see every day.  Use code CANDOUR to get a 5% discount on any paid plan.  Try Trendos.com ChatGPT AdRadar now Chapters 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:02:19 - Trendos ad 00:05:08 - Thursday at HiveMCR 00:05:52 - Nikki Halliwell’s talk 00:06:35 - Jess Atkinson’s talk 00:07:09 - Manchester SEO All-stars panel 00:08:10 - Token Honey 00:09:21 - Friday at HiveMCR 00:09:41 - Alex Moss’s talk 00:11:05 - Sophie Brannon’s talk 00:12:20 - Dawn Anderson’s talk 00:13:49 - Jono Alderson’s talk 00:16:19 - AI Search panel - Ben McKay, Nick Handley, Itamar Blauer and Gus Pelogia 00:17:21 - Itamar Blauer’s talk 00:18:22 - Areej AbuAli’s talk 00:20:16 - Brand and digital PR panel - Lisa Paasche, Harry Clarkson-Bennett, Jono Alderson, Shannon McGuirk and Ashley Liddell 00:21:20 - Gus Pelogia’s talk 00:22:22 - Ashley Liddell’s talk 00:23:40 - Gianluca Fiorelli’s talk 00:24:19 - Steve Paine’s talk 00:25:14 - Wrap up panel - Charlie Whitworth, Dawn Anderson, Luke Cope and Ned Poulter 00:27:02 - Live comedy by Katie Lingo 00:27:40 - Live comedy by Rich Wilson 00:29:06 - Live comedy by Jeff Innocent 00:29:49 - Wrap up and outro

    31 min.

Info

Every Monday, Jack Chambers-Ward has in-depth conversations with SEO experts from around the world. Covering topics from attribution in GA4 to networking tips for introverts and everything in between. Search With Candour is the perfect way to kickstart your working week! https://withcandour.co.uk/podcast

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