In the last two years, Ahrefs, a tool that many people in the industry would agree is the best tool for the job, has lived long enough to see itself become the villain and many now associate the brand with corporate greed. So how did that happen and is it justified?

No topic was off the table in this week’s episode with Tim Soulo from Ahrefs. Gael gets the 4-1-1 on their credit system, whether their search engine yep.com was funded by the price increase or not, and compares Ahrefs and their value proposition to the competition.

Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/328-did-ahrefs-fk-us/

#328 - Did Ahrefs F**k Us?

When a talented SEO like Cyrus Shepard becomes a Google Quality Rater, you know we'll get someone who has excellent insights on how Google evaluates your site and where you fail to impress them.

So in this week’s episode, Gael asks Cyrus all the questions that matter to figure out:

👉 How much does EEAT really matter for Google and quality raters?
👉 Does Google give an unfair advantage to larger sites?
👉 And what's coming next from Google based on their recent updates to the Quality Rater Guidelines?

 Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/329-make-google-love-your-site/

#329 - Make Google ❤️ Your Site

6 months after a series of devastating updates for many legitimate sites, and the best advice Google could come up with is "𝘜𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴" ?! 🙄  

Honestly, we're getting a little annoyed by Google's attitude towards all of this, and in today's episode, we tried to do what Google could not.

We give you real examples of real sites that are not only surviving, but thriving ✨ in the current version of Google, to help you plan what to do next for your business. 

These sites have won despite Google's relentless updates and we've tried to identify:
👉 what they do
👉 why they may be winning
👉 and how you can emulate them. 
____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR and link building solution, BuzzStream:
https://www.buzzstream.com/link-building
____________________________________________
Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/7-sites-beating-googles-algorithm/

#330 - 7 Sites Beating Google's Algorithm

Did you know that Google is about to introduce a new web vital metric? 😨

Neither did we.

But this news did prompt us to take another look at our site speed setup, and we wanted to bring in a pro to help us out.  So in this week's episode, Gael chats with Brian Jackson - the guy behind the enthusiast site speed plugin, Perfmatters.

He's seen hundreds of site setups, this week he critiques our setup and gives you tips on how to fix your setup as well.

If you've ever wondered:
👉 if the number of plugins you use is cutting your site speed
👉 what the best CDN setup is
👉 what caching plugins you should never use...

...or even if you should delay or defer your JavaScript, then you won't want to miss this one.

____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, the all-in-one SEO tool set, Ahrefs.
____________________________________________
Check out the latest video on our new ✨news channel ✨:
👉  https://youtu.be/77VhY990xY8?si=aVNLu_kvZcDjjhYg
____________________________________________
Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/site-speed-nerd-roasts-our-setup/

#331 - Site Speed Nerd Roasts Our Setup 🔥

Google just released a fat core update and all the rules you know about SEO are about to change again. As Google has already started de-indexing what they deem to be low quality sites, content auditing has never been more important.

It's the process that might save you from an extinction event during the next update, or could resurrect your site if you've already been affected. Plus, it's the only process that's consistently shown results for websites affected by previous large updates like Panda, medic, spam and core updates.

So in this episode, we dive into what this latest core update means for SEO practices, and break down exactly what you need to do to curate content that will keep Google - and you - happy.
____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR Agency, Search Intelligence.
https://search-intelligence.co.uk/ 
____________________________________________
Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/4-proven-steps-to-beat-google-updates/

#332 - 4 PROVEN Steps To Beat Google Updates

RTINGS.com is one of the most successful product review sites of all time. Despite 'only' having a DR 75 domain and competing against sites like PCMag, Tech Radar, New York Times, the Wire Cutter, and CNET (all DR 90+ sites), they have over 4 million monthly organic visits. 

So how exactly did they pull this off?

In this week’s episode, Mark sits down Pauline Duthiel, Head of Digital Marketing at RTINGS.com to take a look behind the scenes at what SEO looks like at one of the world's most loved review sites - and it was nothing like we expected.
____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR and link building solution, BuzzStream:
https://www.buzzstream.com/link-building
____________________________________________
Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/the-secret-to-rtings-seo-success/

#333 - The Secret to RTINGS.com's SEO Success

As we come to the end of the March 2024 Core update, many things have changed in the Google landscape, and it’s time to start looking at where we landed.

To help navigate these changes, we wanted to bring a guest that’s out in the trenches every day - prominent and very opinionated character in the industry, Lily Ray 🔥

She hares a ton of interesting insights about SEO on social media, including a lot of original research.

In this episode, Lily and Gael get straight to it and cover many of the hottest topics in search right now, including:

👉 the visibility changes of pure content sites and how your business model may affect your visibility
👉 Reddit and Quora monopolizing search results and how long it may last
👉 HCU, and the divergence between Google’s guidelines and what we observe
👉 signals outside of the“traditional” that Google is giving a lot of importance to these days

We also take a look at specific examples - and they often break the rules - so don’t miss out on this one.
____________________________________________
Host: Gael Breton
Guest: Lily Ray

Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/334-march-core-update-analysis-lily-ray/
____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, the all-in-one SEO tool set, Ahrefs:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/recommends/ahrefs/
____________________________________________
Looking for 100s of more episodes like these? Check out our main YouTube channel: https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcast/
Or visit our podcast page: https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcast/
____________________________________________
More about Lily Ray
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-ray-44755615/
_____________________________________________
Love this episode? Here’s an easy way to leave a review - they really help us a lot:
Leave us a review on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/
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____________________________________________
► If you want to learn how to start and grow profitable authority sites, visit The Authority Site System: https://www.authorityhacker.com/free-training/
► Subscribe: http://bit.ly/2QB51kf to learn more secret authority site tips.
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#334 - March Core Update Analysis with Lily Ray

Let’s face it.
Google is probably never going to be the same easy traffic source it has always been.

You won’t be able to solely rely on Google traffic to run an online business anymore, if that’s what you’re used to.

So the question a lot of people are asking now is:
What now? 😳

While nothing is a 1:1 replacement to Google search, in this episode, we talk about ONE of the things we are doing to diversify away from Google traffic: Meta ads.

We’ll show you exactly
 👉 how we plan and build a funnel
 👉 how we angle our ads, how we target them
 👉 how much money you should spend…
 
 … and a ton more practical details for those of you who are interested in taking action.

We’ll also talk about why we think it’s one of the safest ways to go for traffic and a bunch of other high level debates for those of you who are still on the fence.
____________________________________________
Hosts: Gael Breton & Mark Webster

Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/335-how-we-make-money-from-facebook/
____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR Agency, Search Intelligence.
https://search-intelligence.co.uk/
____________________________________________
Looking for 100s of more episodes like these? Check out our main YouTube channel: https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcast/
Or visit our podcast page: https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcast/
_____________________________________________
Love this episode? Here’s an easy way to leave a review - they really help us a lot:
Leave us a review on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/the-authority-hacker-podcast/id1073349789
Leave us a review on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1D6MzYn5pFiNlr8aNaoqEn?si=dcafbd9048684d4d
Leave us a review on Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-authority-hacker-podcast-51498
____________________________________________
► If you want to learn how to start and grow profitable authority sites, visit The Authority Site System: https://www.authorityhacker.com/free-training/
► Subscribe: http://bit.ly/2QB51kf to learn more secret authority site tips.
► Facebook: https://facebook.com/authorityhacker/
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► LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/authorityhacker/
____________________________________________

#335 - How We Make Money From Facebook

In this episode, Mark and Gael dive deep into real-life Facebook ad funnels that actually work for small sites. Using the free Facebook Ad Library tool, they break down ads from small businesses in several niches that have been profitable over time, including their strategies for maximizing conversion with upsells and other tactics. 

If you're looking for actionable insights backed by success stories, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
____________________________________________
Hosts: Gael Breton & Mark Webster

Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/336-small-sites-making-money-without-google/ 
____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR Agency, Search Intelligence.
https://search-intelligence.co.uk/
____________________________________________
Looking for 100s of more episodes like these? Check out our main YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AuthorityHacker
Or visit our podcast page: https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcast/
_____________________________________________
Love this episode? Here’s an easy way to leave a review - they really help us a lot:
Leave us a review on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0OFIAJl
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-authority-hacker-podcast-actionable-online-marketing/id1073349789 
Leave us a review on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1D6MzYn5pFiNlr8aNaoqEn?si=77108e07a3124fc5 
Leave us a review on Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-authority-hacker-podcast-51498
____________________________________________
► If you want to learn how to start and grow profitable authority sites, visit The Authority Site System: https://www.authorityhacker.com/free-training/
► Subscribe: https://bit.ly/2QB51kf to learn more secret authority site tips.
► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorityhacker/
► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorityhacker
► Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/authorityhacker/
► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/authorityhacker/
____________________________________________

#336 - 5 Small Sites Making Money Without Google

In this episode, Mark and Gael take a look at the current challenges online business owners are facing, and present the framework they've created that addresses these challenges. They'll also break down three examples of businesses who already successfully use this framework, and finally, what this all means for Authority Hacker's free and paid content.
____________________________________________
Hosts: Gael Breton & Mark Webster

Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/337-future-of-authority-sites/
____________________________________________
A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR Agency, Search Intelligence.
https://search-intelligence.co.uk/
____________________________________________
Looking for 100s of more episodes like these? Check out our main YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AuthorityHacker
Or visit our podcast page: https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcast/
_____________________________________________
Love this episode? Here’s an easy way to leave a review - they really help us a lot:
Leave us a review on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0OFIAJl
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-authority-hacker-podcast-actionable-online-marketing/id1073349789
Leave us a review on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1D6MzYn5pFiNlr8aNaoqEn?si=77108e07a3124fc5
Leave us a review on Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-authority-hacker-podcast-51498
____________________________________________
► If you want to learn how to start and grow profitable authority sites, visit The Authority Site System: https://www.authorityhacker.com/free-training/
► Subscribe: https://bit.ly/2QB51kf to learn more secret authority site tips.
► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorityhacker/
► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorityhacker
► Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/authorityhacker/
► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/authorityhacker/
____________________________________________
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____________________________________________

#337 - The Future of Authority Sites

First aired in 2016, voted the Ahrefs #1 podcast for several years running and with over half a million downloads in 120+ countries, “The Authority Hacker Podcast” is one of the most authoritative podcasts for providing actionable online marketing tips and staying ahead of the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. Hosts Gael Breton and Mark Webster teamed up in 2010 and have since worked with several Fortune 500 companies, and launched and sold various successful businesses together. Join them every 2 weeks as they interview site owners, marketers and SEO experts, and share their own expertise on everything needed to build and grow a successful online business. The 300+ episodes cover everything from online marketing, affiliate marketing, SEO, content creation, website building, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, you’ll get the latest insights and strategies for growing your site and generating passive income.

With a focus on actionable strategies and practical tips, each episode is designed to help you take your online business to the next level. You'll learn everything you need to create high quality content, build links, and get your website on the first page of Google, Bing and Yahoo, and a whole lot more. All of the reviews say that this podcast is honest, insightful and informative. Come and join the international community of Authority Hackers - Subscribe now.

#seo #internetmarketing #seopodcast #onlinebusiness #podcastforwebsiteowners

Follow us on:
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#328 - Did Ahrefs F**k Us?

The Authority Hacker Podcast

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