Tallest Tree SEO Podcast

Cord Blomquist
  • 5.0 (2)
  • MARKETING
Tallest Tree SEO Podcast

Each week Cord Blomquist and Einar Jóhannsson discuss search news and discuss their experience working in search engine optimization (SEO) for think tanks and publishers.

  1. Google Updates & Search Ranking Systems

    01/02/2023

    Google Updates & Search Ranking Systems

    Sources Cited: Google Search gets Status Dashboard to provide updates during outagesGoogle December 2022 Link Spam UpdateGoogle Launches Visual Guide To Search ElementsLily ray on google updatesA guide to Google Search ranking systems

    1h 22m
  2. Think Tank Ranking Preview

    12/12/2022

    Think Tank Ranking Preview

    In a short episode, Cord and Einar preview the new and improved Tallest Tree Think Tank Ranking. The new rankings will be automated, updated monthly, and incorporate more data than ever. This includes: Budget data from ProPublicaTraffic, traffic value, domain rating, and backlink data from AhrefsPages indexed  from Serp APIWeb software from WappalyzerWe're now able to pull historical traffic data from Ahrefs, which will give us insights into the last 36 months of performance for each of the 300+ groups in our study. We thank Ahrefs, who reviewed and approved our use of this data, for their support of this project. We're also working with a new statistician, assistant professor of marketing at Clemson University, Lura Forcum. We're grateful for her insights on the data. A few trends popped up in data review: About 12% of groups are still dealing with www vs non-www canonical issuesMany sites have pop-ups that likely violate Google's Page Experience guidelinesWe found "spikey" traffic patterns for many groups, especially state-based think tanks, which may be explained by the location from which the traffic data was collectedWe saw a few sites that relaunched w/o redirects in place, which resulted in their referring domains crashing and large losses in trafficMany groups were affected by recent Google updatesMany groups saw growth in referring domains w/o growth in traffic

    32 min
  3. How to Optimize for Crawling

    11/21/2022

    How to Optimize for Crawling

    Cord & Einar discuss how to optimize your website for web crawlers. How do things like robots.txt, site speed, HTTP codes, URLs, links, redirects, XML sitemaps, PDFs vs web pages, robots meta tags, and canonical URLs all affect web crawlers? How can you optimize these aspects of your site to make sure all the content you want robots to discover can be crawled and indexed? Sources Cited: Google Robots Testing ToolMerkle robots.txt ValidatorPageSpeed InsightsLighthousePingdom Speed TestRobots Meta Tags

    1h 17m
  4. All About Links: JavaScript, HTTP/HTTPS, Link Rot, Ranking, and Link Networks

    11/14/2022

    All About Links: JavaScript, HTTP/HTTPS, Link Rot, Ranking, and Link Networks

    Cord & Einar discuss all things linking. Can JavaScript links pass PageRank? How to HTTP to HTTPS redirects work? Are old links irrelevant? Will links always be a ranking factor? What's a link graph? Sources Cited: Search Engine Roundtable: Google Updates Help Documentation To Say Using JavaScript For Links Can Be FineGoogle Search Central: Make your links crawlableSearch Engine Roundtable: Google Can Pass PageRank From HTTP To HTTPS URLs With RedirectsSearch Engine Roundtable: Google: Some Old Links May Be Irrelevant (AKA Link Rot)Search Engine Roundtable: Google: Links Will Be Less Important As A Ranking Factor In The FutureKevin Indig: https://twitter.com/kevin_indig/status/1590115045236965376SEMRush: Get a Bird’s Eye View of Any Website’s Link NetworkSearch Engine Roundtable: Google Search Console API Delay To Be Fixed In DaysSearch Engine Journal: Is Bounce Rate A Google Ranking Factor?

    56 min
  5. How we do SEO audits

    11/07/2022

    How we do SEO audits

    In this episode Cord & Einar discuss the ever-evolving Tallest Tree approach to SEO audits. Here's the outline Cord & Einar used on the show: ToolsSitebulb: run both an HTML-only and JavaScript crawlAhrefs CrawlerAhrefs Site ExplorerAhrefs Chrome extensionGoogle Search ConsoleChrome Inspector w/LighthouseGoogle’s Robots TesterInspect URL in GSCSchema ValidatorMerkle’s https://technicalseo.com/tools/The Wayback MachineFirst lookExplore the site by hand, view source on whatever the half dozen most-used templates seem to beTurn off JavaScript using Chrome extension and review the site againExplore the backend and get some counts on posts, categories, authors, etc.Look at plugins/modulesReview Sitebult/Ahrefs crawl resultsReview Google Search ConsoleThe goal of the first look is form a basic hypothesis about how technical SEO and site structure can be improved. Take screenshots and start making slides right away. ChecklistReview 192 items in 35 categoriesReportingHow a search engine worksCrawlingIndexingRankingE-A-TMeasurementRank TrackingGTM & GA4 for Traffic  & ConversionsLink GrowthGoogle News

    1h 14m
  6. SEO Twitter: Facebook Ads, Search Console, New References, E-A-T, Topical Authority

    11/01/2022

    SEO Twitter: Facebook Ads, Search Console, New References, E-A-T, Topical Authority

    In this episode Cord & Einar review the best of "SEO Twitter" discussing topics like Facebook's profit nightmare (and why you should do SEO instead of Facebook ads), Google Search Console's new messages on max-image-preview, the 4th edition of "The Art of SEO," the new 2022 Web Almanac, how "Early Hints" can improve your Core Web Vitals, measuring E-A-T, 8 confirmed Google ranking factors, content hubs, and measuring topical authority.  Sources Cited: @antoniogm  cites The New York Post: Meta’s profits plunge more than 50% as ad revenue dwindles @rustybrick  tweets about Google Search Console Notices For max-image-preview @LeeFootSEO  shouts out  The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization 4th Edition @HTTPArchive  hightlights the new  2022 Web Almanac @alonkochba show how Early Hints can boost Core Web Vitals @creativetrnd spreads the word about @lilyraynyc's Measuring E-A-T Whiteboard Friday talk for @Moz @ahrefs on  8 confirmed Google ranking factors @aleyda links to a @sistrix list of Content Hubs Performance Leaders @jsvxc links to an Ahrefs study that uses a topical authority measurement method from @Kevin_Indig

    36 min
  7. AMP, Topical Authority, Google Updates, and WordPress 6.1

    10/21/2022

    AMP, Topical Authority, Google Updates, and WordPress 6.1

    In this episode Cord & Einar discuss whether or not AMP is ranking factor, priority hints, Google Search Essentials, the October 2022 spam Google spam update, title tags, WordPress 6.1, how Yoast pings search engines, and an article about topical authority by the late Bill Slawski. Sources Cited: brightonSEO online: October 2022Search Engine Journal: AMP: Is It A Google Ranking Factor?web.dev: Optimizing resource loading with Priority HintsSearch Engine Journal: Goodbye Google Webmaster Guidelines, Hello Google Search EssentialsSearch Engine Land: Google releases October 2022 spam updateSearch Engine Journal: Google Replaces Title Tags With Site Names For Homepage ResultsSearch Engine Land: Google rolling out site names and updated favicon logos in search resultsSearch Engine Journal: WordPress 6.1 Is Jam-Packed With Performance UpgradesYoast: Disabling search engine pingsGo Fish Digital: Google Using Website Representation Vectors to Classify with Expertise and Authority

    50 min
  8. A Real "Looker"

    10/14/2022

    A Real "Looker"

    In this episode Cord & Einar discuss Google changing Data Studio to Google Looker Studio, SEO conferences, Kevin Indig's take on the latest Google updates, previously visited sitelink icons, and the trouble with timestamps. Sources Cited: Search Engine Roundtable: Google Data Studio Is Now Looker StudioSearch Engine Journal: The Best SEO Conferences In 2022-2023 (Virtual And In-Person)Kevin Indig: Google's latest updates leave no room for low-quality contentSearch Engine Roundtable: Google Tests Previously Visited Sitelinks IconsSearch Engine Roundtable: Google Still Working On Getting Timestamps Accurate In Search Results

    55 min
See All (30)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Each week Cord Blomquist and Einar Jóhannsson discuss search news and discuss their experience working in search engine optimization (SEO) for think tanks and publishers.

Information

  • Creator
    Cord Blomquist
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2023
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Tallest Tree Digital LLC
  • Show Website
    Tallest Tree SEO Podcast

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