Search Off the Record

Latest Episodes:

Wrapping up 2024 Dec 30, 2024

Show notes

As 2024 comes to a close, we're reflecting on what SEO things happened this year. Listen along as we chat about what we learned from going to events, the importance of understanding how AI works, and whether everything will be replaced with JavaScript.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr088-transcript

Encoding + Googlebot → https://goo.gle/4iZEKXO

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Handling Dupes - Same Same or Different? Dec 05, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of Search Off the Record, John and Martin talk to Allan Scott from the Google Search team that handles duplicate content. They explore how Google Search deals with duplicated content, clustering, and canonicalization.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr087-transcript

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

#SOTRpodcast #SEO

Speakers: Allan Scott, John Mueller, Martin Splitt

Products Mentioned: Search Console - General

A discussion of UX for SEO Nov 21, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Lizzi and John are joined by Rio Ichikawa, a product manager working on UX, CRO, and SEO, to discuss the intersection of SEO and UX. They explore how user experience impacts SEO, emphasizing the shared goals of attracting and converting users. Tune in for a discussion on common UX mistakes - like carousels - and how heatmaps can be a valuable tool for understanding user behavior and optimizing web pages for better engagement and conversion rates.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr086-transcript

Transcript in Japanese by Rio → https://goo.gle/3OOrWpx

Rio on X/Twitter → https://goo.gle/4eAOjJz

Rio on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3OnaHuY

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Understanding how users experience your website Oct 31, 2024

Show notes

Sometimes talking to your users is the best way to figure out why that pesky bounce rate is high. But how do you actually do that, especially if you're on a budget?

In this episode of Search Off the Record, we're learning all about user experience research (UXR) and how getting a better understanding of how your users interact with your website can help when you're looking for ways to improve it. Tune in as Iva Barisic Hafner, a user experience researcher on the Google Shopping team, explains how to use UXR methods to get to the bottom of the "why" behind user behavior.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr085-transcript

Nielsen Norman Group → https://goo.gle/3YI3xrq

List of UXR methods → https://goo.gle/40sI6Ma

Iva on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3A7Te6E

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Designing Google Doodles and delightful experiences Oct 17, 2024

Show notes

What does recursion, Weather Frog, and Momo the Magic Cat have in common?

In this episode of SOTR, Lizzi and John go behind the scenes of a Google Doodle with Jessica Yu, the lead for Doodles and delight on Google Search, about designing experiences that resonate with your audience. Listen along as we learn more about what's involved in getting an easter egg into Google Search, from hatching the idea to designing (and deploying) the experience and measuring success.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr084-transcript

Jessica Yu on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3BKgSq1

Momo's first appearance → https://goo.gle/3UbGgeC

Submitting an idea for the Google Doodle → https://goo.gle/3A04stC

AVIF is now supported by Google → https://goo.gle/3NrwhhK

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Google Search Reliability Oct 03, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Ben Walton and David Yule from the Google Search Site Reliability Team (SRE) walk us through their day to day work, which surprisingly is not just about putting out fires! Learn what Search SREs really do, how they handle incidents that occasionally occur, and what it takes to be an SRE for Google Search.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr083

SRE handbook → https://goo.gle/3XSbVUF

David on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3XQKavR

Ben on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/4ewAkEX

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

How do I know if my SEO is doing a good job? Sep 19, 2024

Show notes

It's been a few months since you hired an SEO; how can you tell if things are headed in the right direction?

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Lizzi and John interview Erika Varangouli, head of Branded Content at Riverside.fm, about all things hiring and working with SEOs. Just because uplift isn't happening doesn't mean they're not doing work; we walk through practical things to check throughout the process, such as how things are prioritized, is there regular reporting, and proactive communication around things that don't go as planned.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr082-transcript

John's initial LinkedIn Post → https://goo.gle/3XNOqfI

Erika Varangouli on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3ZukgiH

Erika on X → https://goo.gle/3XXGBUR

Do I Need an SEO? → https://goo.gle/4dabZUb

SEO Starter Guide → https://goo.gle/42alrmy

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Let's talk shopping markup Sep 05, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Irina Tuduce from the shopping team joins John Mueller and Lizzi Sassman to chat all things shopping data, from schema.org to feeds spec. Listen along as we chat about how shopping infrastructure gets its data, why pricing data can be tricky, and what the Shopping team has been working on this year.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr081-transcript

Irina Tuduce on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3Xuiywf

Product structured data → https://goo.gle/4eaPJus

Feed spec in Merchant Center → https://goo.gle/3Tdl2MU

How to set up Merchant Center account → https://goo.gle/4gcSPjq

Merchant-level organization markup → https://goo.gle/47fvmd2

Schema.org community on GitHub → https://goo.gle/4e7A6E3

Variants in Google Search → https://goo.gle/4dU4BOc

Merchant Listings report in Search Console → https://goo.gle/47hlNuu

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt

Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

Working With Search Console API Aug 22, 2024

Show notes

We sat down with Mihai Aperghis, a Google Product Expert (PE) for Search, when he visited the Zurich office for the PE Summit this year. In this episode we talk about how he started his SEO agency, the tools he built, and his role as a Product Expert in the Search Central Help Community.

Mihai explains how he built tooling to get data from Search Console into Google Sheets and how he automated this process as well as what features he'd like to see coming to the Search Console API.

Resources:

Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr 080-transcript

Mihai on X → https://goo.gle/4dUzL7I

Mihai's tools → https://goo.gle/4dW3yNj

Mihai's recap of the PE Summit → https://goo.gle/4cAKhQ4

Search Central Help Community → https://goo.gle/4dUzOAq

Intro to Search Console API → https://goo.gle/3AzkJ8P

Crawling smarter, not harder Aug 08, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of SOTR, John Mueller, Lizzi Sassman, and Gary Illyes talk about misconceptions around crawl frequency and site quality, what's challenging about crawling the web nowadays, and how search engines could crawl more efficiently.

Resources: Episode transcript → https://goo.gle/sotr079-transcript Gary's post on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/3YAT55q Crawling episode with Dave Smart → https://goo.gle/3WShUsf If-Modified-Since → https://goo.gle/3ywXvja About the IETF → https://goo.gle/3SGVVlo Robots Exclusion Protocol → https://goo.gle/4dgmBSg Proposal for new kind of chunked transfer → https://goo.gle/3AgMF1c

Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral

Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations team.

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