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Jasmine Granton joins Search with Candour to discuss the mental health crisis in SEO and digital marketing. Jasmine’s experience as both a digital PR professional and a qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor means she’s especially qualified to discuss this topic. They explore how always-on culture, Slack urgency, KPIs, AI-driven expectations, and perfectionism keep marketers in fight-or-flight, reducing creativity and productivity. Jasmine shares practical techniques, including setting boundaries, “closing loops” at the end of the day, tracking energy and feelings, and building a “wins” folder to counter negativity bias and boost self-compassion. Time stamps 01:14 Introduction 03:00 Welcome Jasmine Granton 05:09 Why marketing feels harder 07:44 Perfectionism and self-worth 12:24 Spotting burnout early 15:08 Journaling and closing loops 21:37 ‘Always on’ culture 27:10 Psychological safety at work 30:30 Learning from failure 32:30 Control circles and change 34:17 Building downtime into work 35:56 Creative focus time at work 37:17 Building self-compassion 38:22 Closing failure loops 40:32 Celebrating your wins 48:21 Track your feelings 49:55 Safety checks 55:22 Recommendations 01:04:00 Where to find Jasmine 01:05:26 Episode wrap-up

Annie-Mai Hodge, founder of Girl Power Marketing and creator of the Social Tea newsletter, makes her triumphant return to Search with Candour to discuss how to do SEO for social media. Annie-Mai explains practical keyword research for social using tools such as TikTok Creator Search Insights and AlsoAsked, and existing SEO tools, then consolidating ideas into a simple spreadsheet and testing performance via platform analytics. They cover everything from captions, on-screen text, audio, and profiles without keyword stuffing; how to choose channels and formats by researching native results, spotting content gaps, and repurposing across platforms; and why posting time matters less than you may think. Follow Annie-Mai: 🌟 Girl Power Marketing: https://www.girlpowermarketing.co.uk/ 🌟 Social media SEO workbook: https://offers.hubspot.com/view/social-media-seo-workbook 🌟 The Social Media Tea: https://www.girlpowermarketing.co.uk/newsletter 🌟 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniemaihodge/ 🌟 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlpowermarketing/ 🎧 Annie-Mai’s previous episode: https://withcandour.co.uk/podcast/tiktok-as-a-search-engine-with-annie-mai-hodge ▶️ Watch Search with Candour on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8c8k5Yy8FltVNsIsP1iUCSXDfE5cq2pM&si=K24FYKx9JiTMfWsh ▶️ Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4AILSpWLI74daOhECb8Hm0 Chapters 00:00 Welcome Back Annie-Mai 00:52 Why Social SEO matters 02:43 Keyword research tools 06:02 Testing keywords in analytics 09:07 Client audits and strategy 12:43 Avoid keyword stuffing 14:57 Posting times and expectations 20:21 Choosing content formats 25:20 Search intent on social 29:24 Repurposing across platforms 33:52 Trends vs core content 35:54 Meme trend pitfalls 36:36 Viral origins stories 38:58 Brand consistency 42:43 Human first optimisation 48:18 Profile basics that work 52:15 Are followers or views better? 56:24 Recommendations: Actionable tips, tools and Project Hail Mary 59:23 Wrap up

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts a solo episode of Search With Candour, recapping the last 6 weeks of SEO news from the Core Updates newsletter. Jack covers Google’s February 2026 Discover update, a fast March spam update, and the ongoing March 2026 core update. He then highlights Bing Webmaster Tools, adding AI Performance reporting, Google’s WebMCP new UCP features. 📧 Core Updates: https://coreupdates.com/ 🤝 SearchNorwichXL: https://searchnorwich.org/ Google updates 🔗 https://status.search.google.com/incidents/mYbNTqV1ytDc2fA8hUz4 🔗 https://status.search.google.com/incidents/VbnSXAH4SmEcxPtx4YSD 🔗 https://status.search.google.com/incidents/7eTbAa2jWdToLkraZj5y Bing’s AI performance report 📊 https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/February-2026/Introducing-AI-Performance-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Public-Preview 📊 https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/blog/post/march-2026/the-ai-performance-dashboard-your-view-into-where-your-brand-appears-across-the-ai-web UCP and MCP 🛒 https://developer.chrome.com/blog/webmcp-epp 🛒 https://block.github.io/goose/blog/2026/03/17/webmcp-for-beginners/ 🛒 https://ppcnewsfeed.com/ppc-news/2026-03/google-publishes-help-page-universal-commerce-protocol/ 🛒 https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/shopping/ucp-updates/ Chapters 00:00 SEO news rundown 00:47 Google Discover Update 02:42 March Spam Update 03:43 March Core Update 05:15 Bing AI metrics debut 06:55 Inside AI Performance Report 11:03 New Bing AI metrics 14:42 WebMCP explained 18:06 UCP Agentic Checkout 20:43 UCP new features 22:45 Walmart vs ChatGPT conversions 25:02 Wrap up and next steps 25:44 Newsletter and event plug 27:16 Final thanks and teaser

Alison Moss joins Search with Candour to discuss how to prioritise technical SEO fixes and get development tickets actioned. Together, they cover common pitfalls like lack of buy-in and unclear requirements, emphasising translating SEO needs into business outcomes and developer-friendly acceptance criteria, using ticket templates, and providing references. Alison explains prioritising by impact versus effort, helping teams order “high priority” items, and acknowledging SEO competes with other business priorities while building relationships with product and dev teams and supporting testing. Links 🔗Follow Alison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-moss-804a5537/  🎫SearchNorwichXL early bird tickets: https://searchnorwich.org/  🎟️Buy tickets for the Live podcast in Brighton: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-efficiency-paradox-why-al-doesnt-make-your-life-easier-live-podcast-tickets-1982302667641?aff=erelexpmlt Time stamps 00:00 Get your dev tickets prioritised with Alison Moss 01:28 Introduction 05:41 Why tech SEO gets stuck 08:29 Sell fixes for buy in 15:25 How to write clear dev tickets 22:06 Prioritise issues smartly 26:47 Pick your battles and quick wins 32:19 Frameworks and relationships 42:47 Handling senior pushback 47:53 Explaining SEO value 48:10 Writing better seo tickets 50:56 Developer context links 52:13 Resurrecting backlog work 54:26 Using external proof 56:42 Don’t be afraid to jump on a bandwagon 59:56 Recommendation: Actionable tip 01:01:08 Recommendation: Tools and software 01:03:06 Recommendation: Butter, Project Hail Mary and Dungeons & Dragons 01:15:06 Where to find Alison 01:16:36 Conclusion

Jack Chambers Ward is joined by Jessica Bettis, Candour’s Director of Strategy, to discuss what makes a strong collaboration between SEO specialists and client partnership/account management. Jack and Jessica discuss their experience of working with clients together, and Jessica explains how client partners define success, translate work into business impact, manage resources and expectations, and nurture trust through onboarding and ongoing check-ins. Follow Jessica: Website: https://withcandour.co.uk/about/team/jessica-bettis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-bettis/ Jessica’s recommendations: Spend 5–10 minutes aligning before key meetings or responding to feedback.Maintain a dedicated, shared digital space for client context and information.Wuthering Heights (2026) 00:00 Welcome, Jessica Bettis 01:25 Important client partner traits 03:12 How to build respect and trust with your clients 05:18 Commercial context matters 10:20 Building client trust 11:48 Matching teams to clients 16:59 The behind-the-scenes value 24:57 Skills and training balance 30:21 Onboarding and roadmap 34:28 How to prevent client churn 37:10 Resource management 39:52 The joy of surprise rebrands 46:29 Upskilling and training clients 49:56 Team collaboration magic 52:29 Recommendation: Actionable tip  55:31 Recommendation: Tool/software 58:59 Recommendation: Wuthering Heights (2026) 01:04:10 Where to follow Jessica

Jack Chambers Ward welcomes SEO consultant and Designmodo SEO Manager Bengü Sarıca Dinçer to discuss what marketers should track in GA4 as search shifts across AI summaries, social platforms, newsletters, communities, and private sharing. Bengü argues classic metrics like rankings and organic sessions are incomplete and recommends focusing on influence signals such as assisted conversions, branded search growth, returning users, engagement, and what she calls “content eco,” plus a move toward probabilistic attribution. Time stamps 00:00 Show Intro and Guest Tease 02:04 Meet Bengü Sarıca Dinçer 04:58 Why Metrics Must Change 07:52 Assisted Conversions Explained 10:23 Branded Search and Recall 14:10 Digital Archaeology for Visibility 17:16 Tracking AI Search Traffic 24:18 Measuring Informational Content 28:50 Dark Social and Private Sharing 33:10 Every Platform Is Search 34:24 Beyond Google Mindset 36:43 GA4 As Question Tool 37:32 Metrics Mislead Warning 40:56 Email Social SEO Mix 43:43 Audience Nurture Flywheel 45:27 GA4 Hidden Features 47:43 Map Discovery Paths 50:31 Clarity Heatmaps Wins 54:36 Sims And Web Analogy 59:20 Where To Follow Outro 01:01:48 Episode Wrap Next Week

Jack Chambers Ward welcomes returning guest Sarah McDowell from The SEO Mindset Podcast to discuss AI and LLMs and how they’re responsibly integrating them into their work processes. Jack & Sarah share AI usage stats, note the split between adopters and non-adopters, and cover concerns including environmental impact, big tech/data issues, hallucinations and fabricated reporting, and the need for clearer disclosure when AI is used. They describe practical, cautious uses of tools like Descript and Riverside for transcription, clip creation, repurposing, research, and rewriting emails, stressing AI as a tool that still requires human review. 🎟️Get your tickets for the LIVE podcast Follow Sarah: The SEO Mindset podcastFollow Sarah on LinkedInResources: https://www.wearetenet.com/blog/llm-usage-statisticshttps://masterofcode.com/blog/chatgpt-statisticshttps://www.elon.edu/u/news/2025/03/12/survey-52-of-u-s-adults-now-use-ai-large-language-models-like-chatgpt/https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-pulse-ai-mode-hits-75m-users-gemini-3-flash-launches/563725/https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/23/googles-ai-overviews-have-2b-monthly-users-ai-mode-100m-in-the-us-and-india/https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/alphabet-earnings-q4-2025/Time stamps 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 01:33 Weather Banter and Seasons 03:36 Why This AI Episode 04:35 Brighton Live Show Details 08:03 AI Usage Stats Reality Check 10:54 Adoption Curve and Attitudes 16:00 Risks, Data and Hallucinations 20:15 Disclosure and AI in Media 22:46 AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement 24:33 AI in Podcast Workflows 27:09 Uncanny Valley and What LLMs Are 28:29 Google Share Shifts 30:32 Live Podcast Announcement 33:00 Responsible AI Mindset 37:46 AI for Transcripts 42:28 Repurposing and Clips 47:30 AI for Clearer Writing 53:16 Key Takeaways Wrap 55:28 Event Details Goodbye 56:56 Final Outro Links

Jack Chambers Ward hosts Search with Candour with guest Dena Warren, SEO Lead at Techquity, to discuss how e-commerce brands can prepare for AI search and LLMs. They cover how the importance of consistent product data across on-site content, feeds, and maximising structured data (product, FAQ, reviews). Dena highlights using user-generated content, avoiding duplicate manufacturer copy, and ensuring key content is visible in HTML rather than hidden behind JavaScript interactions, feed optimisation using OpenAI’s product feed spec, and, of course, scepticism about LLMs.txt. Follow Dena: Techquity: https://www.techquity.co.uk/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dena-warren-b44106139/Dena’s recommendations: Ahrefs unlinked mentions: https://ahrefs.com/content-explorerAlsoAsked: https://alsoasked.com/Kelewele recipe: https://www.africanbites.com/kelewele-or-alocospicy-fried-plantains/Resources: https://developers.openai.com/commercehttps://productfeed.cloud/Time stamps 00:00 Introduction 01:39 Meet Dena Warren 02:39 Why Clients Ask Now 04:38 Avoiding AI Snake Oil 06:52 Product Data And Schema 10:18 Personalised Comparison Prompts 12:13 2026 Ecommerce Essentials 15:56 JavaScript And Crawlability 17:33 Cloudflare Bots Panic 20:54 Feed Specs For AI 24:10 Agentic Commerce Readiness 26:44 No Separate AI Subsites 30:59 Multimodal Images And Video 34:06 Shopping In Context 35:08 3D And Video Demos 36:05 Machine Readable Packaging 37:29 SEO Shiny Object Traps 38:02 llms.txt Scepticism 42:22 Agentic Commerce Reality 46:16 Agent Ready Checkout 49:43 Small Brands Can Win 53:52 Recommendations 58:27 Episode Wrap up

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts Search With Candour with guest Faezeh Shafiee, a freelance international SEO content specialist, to discuss how to build an interview-based content campaign with the assistance of AI. During this campaign, Faezeh used expert interviews to create a multi-channel content campaign, turning an initial plan into interviews with three women leaders in sustainability. Faezeh explains the end-to-end process from planning, interviewing in both English and Spanish, recording and transcribing, to translating/localising, article structure, keyword research and repurposing into social, email, and other channels. 00:00 Welcome to Search With Candour 01:01 Subscribe & listener call-to-action before the chat 02:04 Meet Faezeh Shafiee 04:09 Why this campaign now: International Women’s Day + interview-based content 05:17 From idea to execution: turning one interview into three 11:00 Using AI as an assistant 15:03 Keeping authentic voices and avoiding hallucinations 19:52 Results & business impact 24:06 Are interviews more valuable in the AI era?  27:21 The deeper why: women’s rights, personal context, and amplifying global voices 32:44 Why individual action and content matter 34:33 Storytelling as a content superpower 38:54 Using AI for transcription, translation & editorial surprises 44:10 What Faezeh learned from the campaign 46:56 How to use AI responsibly 48:45 Actionable Tip: Stop doomscrolling 51:43 Tool Recommendation: Conduit for internet access solidarity 53:39 What Faezeh’s enjoying: Watercolour painting and Bob Ross 56:45 Wrap-Up and next episodes

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts a solo episode of Search With Candour recapping seven major SEO and digital marketing news stories from the first six weeks of 2026, previously covered in the Core Updates newsletter. He highlights Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for agentic commerce and checkout capabilities, Google’s Business Agent for brand-voice shopper conversations, and Google’s Personal Intelligence initiative that personalises experiences by connecting Gemini to apps like Gmail, YouTube, Photos, and Search. He also covers Gemini-powered AI Insights in Google Trends, Chrome’s agentic “auto browse” features that can complete multi-step tasks, a SparkToro study showing AI/LLM recommendations are highly inconsistent, and the February 2026 Google Discover core update aimed at reducing sensational clickbait, improving local relevance, and addressing self-promotional “self-ranking” listicles. Jack notes plans for ongoing monthly news recap episodes and points viewers to links in the show notes for all sources. Links to resources/references: https://developers.googleblog.com/under-the-hood-universal-commerce-protocol-ucp/https://support.google.com/brandprofile/answer/16410382https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/personal-intelligence/https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/google-trends-explore-with-ai/https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/chrome/gemini-3-auto-browse/https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-ais-are-highly-inconsistent-when-recommending-brands-or-products-marketers-should-take-care-when-tracking-ai-visibility/https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/02/discover-core-update00:00 Introduction 02:34 Candour Website Builds: Why SEO Must Be Baked In From Day One 04:17 Story #1: Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for Agentic Commerce 08:52 Story #2: Google Business Agent - Branded AI Chat for Retailers 11:50 Story #3: “Personal Intelligence” and the Start of Fully Personalised Search 15:09 Story #4: Gemini-Powered Google Trends Insights 17:02 Story #5: Chrome “Auto Browse” & Gemini in the Browser 22:54 Story #6: SparkToro Study: Why AI Brand Recommendations Are Inconsistent 31:51 Story #7: February 2026 Google Discover Core Update 34:35 Wrap-Up and upcoming episode

Join Jack Chambers-Ward as he sits down with Alex Dees, co-founder and CEO of Meridian, to discuss how to optimise your brand and sites for AI-driven search engines like ChatGPT, AI Mode, and Perplexity. Discover strategies and insights on increasing visibility in the age of AI, if “chunking” your content works, and the future of e-commerce and agentic commerce.Follow Alex: Website: https://trymeridian.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-dees 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 01:22 Guest Introduction: Alex Dees 01:47 The Rise of AI in Search 02:18 Optimising for AI Search 03:58 The Future of SEO and AI 11:55 Measuring Success in AI Search 16:38 Strategies for Effective AI Marketing 17:45 Content Structuring and Chunking 27:20 Combining Data for Better Insights 30:15 AI in E-commerce 31:31 The Future of E-commerce and AI 32:17 The Role of Structured Data in AI 33:41 Agentic Commerce: Trends and Insights 35:23 Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) 36:04 Challenges and Opportunities in Agentic Commerce 44:23 The Impact of AI on Small vs. Big Businesses 46:53 The Growing Importance of Video Content 49:17 Actionable Recommendations for AI Search 52:59 Final Thoughts and Recommendations

In this episode of Search With Candour, host Jack Chambers-Ward is joined by SEO experts Chris Green and Amaka Chukwuma to discuss the SEO chapter of the Web Almanac 2025. Together, they delve into the process behind writing the chapter, trends in SEO, impacts of AI and LLM crawlers, structured data adoption, and the importance of resisting hype in the SEO industry. 00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction 00:27 Discussing the Web Almanac 2025 01:38 Welcoming the Guests 03:15 SEO Chapter Insights 04:09 Data Analysis and Process 11:37 SEO Trends and Surprises 20:11 Robots.txt and Web Standards 30:11 Bing Bot and AI Crawlers 35:50 Legacy SEO Practices and Their Impact 38:16 The Rise of AI Crawlers 39:58 Adoption and Implementation of LLMs 48:59 Structured Data and Schema Markup 56:36 The Future of SEO and the Web 01:03:12 Closing Thoughts and Upcoming Topics 📖 The SEO Chapter of the web almanac 2025: https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2025/seo Follow Amaka: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amaka-chukwuma-jubilee/ Follow Chris: 🔗 Website: https://www.torquepartnership.com/ 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgreenseo/ 🔗 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chris-green.net

Join Jack Chambers-Ward and Mark Williams-Cook for a special episode of Search With Candour, where they recap the top SEO conferences of 2025 and share their most anticipated events for 2026. From Brighton SEO to the SEO Brein Meetup, they discuss the highlights, unique features, and what makes each conference a must-attend. Plus, get an exclusive sneak peek into the upcoming SearchNorwich XL… Don't miss out on insights, networking tips, and the banter you’ve come to expect from Search with Candour! Best SEO conferences of 2025: https://brightonseo.com/https://croatiaseosummit.com/https://hub.seofomo.co/events/https://tech-seo-summit.com/https://searchnstuff.co.uk/search-n-stuff-antalya-conference-2026/ SEO conferences to look forward to in 2026: https://www.womenintechseo.com/conference/london/https://www.seobrein.nl/meetuphttps://hive-mcr.co.uk/https://searchnstuff.co.uk/search-n-stuff-london-conference-2026/Coming soon... https://searchnorwich.org/ 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:20 Conference Highlights and Reflections 01:57 The Importance of Networking 04:30 Top Conferences of 2025 04:48 Brighton SEO 08:50 Zagreb SEO Summit 15:13 SEO FOMO Meetups 19:46 Tech SEO Summit 23:55 Search and Stuff Antalya 26:46 The Importance of Preparation for Conferences 27:23 Navigating Language Barriers at International Conferences 28:07 The Value of Speaker-Audience Interaction 29:35 Upcoming Conferences in 2026 30:18 WTSFest London 33:50 SEO Brien Meetups 35:39 Hive MCR 39:33 Search and Stuff London 41:43 SearchNorwich XL 49:56 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Jack Chambers-Ward is joined by Georgie Kemp, the SEO lead at Veed. Together, they delve into the limitless potential of video as a channel for marketers, discussing how video content can be repurposed and its SEO advantages. Georgie emphasises the importance of authenticity and the human element in creating engaging video content. Jack and Georgie also explore the evolution of search, integrating video into SEO strategies, and leveraging AI while maintaining a human touch. Follow Georgie: Website: https://www.veed.ioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgie-kemp/ Veed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/veedstudioVeed on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veedstudio/ Resources https://sell.g2.com/resources/webinars/capturing-demand-in-the-llm-ecosystemhttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7388499289389572097/https://sparktoro.com/blog/its-still-seo-search-everywhere-optimization/ Veed guides for video marketing: https://www.veed.io/learn/video-marketing-guide https://www.veed.io/learn/ai-tools-for-video-editinghttps://www.veed.io/learn/ai-video-production Georgie’s recommendations https://www.granola.ai/https://misotasty.com/recipes/miso-brown-butter-banana-bread-recipe Time stamps 00:00 The Limitless Potential of Video Marketing 01:22 Introduction 03:26 Sponsor Message 05:13 Interview with Georgie Kemp 06:50 The Evolution of Search and Video Content 20:47 Community Engagement and Authenticity in SEO 34:47 Monitoring Brand Sentiment 35:12 The Party Analogy 35:49 Honesty in Product Comparisons 36:46 Community-Centric Content Strategy 37:55 Success in Video Generation and Editing 38:55 Comparison-Based Content 42:17 Brand Management and Visibility 48:17 AI's Role in Content Creation 55:21 Recommendations and Final Thoughts

In this week's episode of Search with Candour, Jack Chambers-Ward welcomes Nicole Lee to discuss the significance of long tail keywords in SEO and content marketing. Jack and Nicole delve into how these keywords become even more crucial in the age of AI, focusing on creating personalised, bottom-of-funnel content. The episode also covers Nicole's strategies for programmatic SEO, the challenges of setting client expectations, and the importance of high-intent content. Follow Nicole Website: https://nicoleleemf.com/ Daydream: https://www.withdaydream.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolelee-marketer/ Recommendations Corner Maps: https://get.corner.inc/Opal: https://www.opal.so/ Graphite AEO tools: https://graphite.io/five-percent/aeo-toolsThinking in Bets: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35957157-thinking-in-bets Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Long Tail Keywords 01:20 Welcome to Search with Candour 01:36 Meet Nicole Lee 08:16 The Importance of Long Tail Keywords in SEO 15:55 Balancing Informational and Transactional Content 29:42 Programmatic SEO Strategies 36:11 Setting Client Expectations for Leads 37:24 High-Value Conversions and Client Examples 38:28 User Behaviour and Educated Consumers 39:57 Specialised Content and High-Intent Articles 43:50 The Art of SEO and Product Marketing 49:08 Nicole’s Recommendations 55:58 Staying Curious and Recommended Tools 01:05:19 Upcoming Guests and Future Content