RankUp

The time has finally come for the last RankUp podcast. To wrap up the show, Ben, Edd and Liv look back on their favourite episodes, and talk about the changes in our careers that have led to this decision.

SEO and UX often go hand in hand – whether you're an in-house SEO working alongside a UX team, or an agency SEO trying to pitch an idea to a client, it's rare that you can make big changes without considering how it affects the site's design or usability.

Ecommerce businesses and other large websites often face challenges in getting all of their content crawled and indexed by search engines. Given that index coverage is a key part of achieving good organic visibility, we wanted to bring you a conversation on how to monitor and improve indexing for your site.

Content optimisation is a key pillar of SEO that continues to evolve as search engines interact with language in increasingly interesting ways.

Startup SEO has all the ingredients of SEO for larger businesses, but with unique considerations that make it worth discussing as its own topic.

Where do you start when a website has no content? How do you build links when no one's ever heard of the brand? What do you say when your client asks for advice on their brand name? How do you manage expectations for results when you're starting from scratch?

2021 was a big year for SEO. We had multiple algorithm updates, Core Web Vitals became a ranking factor, SERP layouts changed, Google messed around with title tags...the list goes on. In this episode, RankUp's regular hosts Ben Garry, Olivia-Mae Foong and Edd Wilson sat down to break down 2021 and look ahead to 2022.

But we didn't want to give you a wooly new year episode that just rehashed what you already knew from working in SEO. Instead, we focused on the practical tips that came out of last year's changes, and where you should be focusing if you want to see success in 2022.

There was no better way to finish off a year of interviews than with a special episode featuring not one, but two guests! Rejoice Ojiaku and Wilhemina Gilbertson-Davis joined us to talk about why diversity matters in SEO, how businesses can take steps to improve their own diversity, and to have a fascinating side chat about Rejoice's work in content repurposing. Continue reading or listen to the full interview for the whole story.

Anthropology and SEO don't seem like interconnected disciplines, but Helene Jelenc opened our eyes to the ways that anthropology can make us better SEOs in her talk at BrightonSEO earlier in 2021.

Inspired by that talk, we invited her to the podcast to hear more about some of the theory and practices that she introduced, with the aim of giving our listeners and readers some practical takeaways that can be used in all of our SEO strategies.

In the episode, we discuss what anthropology is, why it fits so naturally with SEO, and how we can apply anthropological research methods to our work.

Technical SEO is crucial to organic success and a part of the SEO job description that many in the industry enjoy. Many technical SEOs have also found ways to use their skills to look into automation opportunities and rethink the ways in which different SEO tasks are carried out.

Luke Davis is one such person. A technical specialist here at Impression, Luke has also taught himself Python and applied it to a range of different activities. If you're considering specialising in technical SEO yourself, or you're simply interested in hearing other people's views on how this area of the industry is developing, Luke's thoughts and experiences are a fantastic place to start.

He joined us on the podcast to discuss his route into technical SEO, and what he sees as important in the field right now.

Like always, you can listen to every word of our conversation with Luke via the player at the top of this page, or by finding the RankUp podcast on your app of choice. You can also keep reading to see write-ups of some of our highlights from the conversation.

SEO testing is the process of measuring to see whether changes made to a website have made a significant difference or not. It's always been possible if you've had access to good data and some time on your hands, but tools are starting to appear that automate the process.

Managing SEO projects can be a complex undertaking, with different websites having completely different requirements, and different SEO activites often requiring very different skills.

Despite its complexity, many SEOs find themselves in the position of managing projects solo. They could be freelancers like today's guest, working in-house as the only dedicated SEO, or even simply the only SEO on a particular client's team in an agency.

SEO is booming, and growth goes hand in hand with job opportunities. The last 12 months or so have already seen SEO professionals across the industry changing companies and changing roles at a furious pace, but there's no sign of the recruitment drive slowing down.

You might find yourself facing a career choice soon. When it comes, what will you be thinking about? What progression opportunities does your current workplace offer, and what might be available elsewhere? What do the different job roles in SEO mean from company to company?

Mental health is a vital conversation topic in any industry, especially given the challenges thrown at us by COVID-19. SEO is no different, with imposter syndrome, performance expectations and the stresses of remote work just some of the strains commonly felt by people working in our industry.

Ryan Darani, our guest on this episode, is keen to keep people in SEO talking about mental wellbeing and working proactively as a community to make our workplaces and working lives healthier.

Join us as we talk to him about SEO's unique challenges, share some of our own experience about mental wellbeing in the industry, and discuss some of our thoughts as regular SEO workers (not medical professionals!) on ways we've found of protecting our mental wellbeing when things get tough.

Developing an SEO strategy over time is a crucial way to ensure that your site is able to compete in search and achieve its goals in the long term. The tactics that earned you success two years ago might not work in the present, and the needs of your site will evolve as the business grows and changes.

We interviewed Lucy Pembayun, founder of LEaF Translations, about the fascinating intersection of SEO and translation. Translation is a huge component of international SEO strategies but, as Lucy explains, machine translation and even human translation won't always leave you seeing the best organic results in your new markets.

Lucy joined us to articulate a translation process that takes into account both the communication of the text and its eventual organic performance, which will give you plenty to chew over if you're on the verge of branching into a new market with your company or client.

Kev Wiles joined the 20th RankUp podcast for a wide-ranging episode covering all kinds of topics from his experience working in agencies, in-house and as a SEO freelancer.

Now, freelance, Kevin has previously worked for big UK brands like Halfords and Soak.com, as well as working in the UK and New Zealand for a number of digital agencies. With this background, he's had plenty of time to pick up on what it takes to find commercial success through SEO.

Diana Richardson, social media and community manager at SEMRush, joins the RankUp podcast to discuss audience personas and storytelling for SEOs. Drawing on her experiences in search marketing and social media, Diana brings a new, cross-channel perspective to the podcast.

Listen anywhere for meaningful definitions and actionable tips to help you take the concepts of personas and storytelling and make use of them in your SEO strategies.

Gerry White from Rise At Seven joined us for episode 18 of the RankUp podcast to talk about his experience working on technical SEO for enterprise websites. The conversation centred around how to make sure that the teams you're working with actually get stuff done, with tips on talking to both developers and high-level stakeholders.

Gerry has a wealth of experience in this area, having seen it from both an agency and an in-house perspective, so there's plenty of practical takeaways whatever your role is in SEO.