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Explore every episode of the podcast Business Class Lounge by SearchPilot, hosted by Will Critchlow

Dive into the complete episode list for Business Class Lounge by SearchPilot, hosted by Will Critchlow. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.

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TitlePub. DateDuration
How Premium Brands Get Found in AI Search with Christine Ullmann of John Lewis19 Oct 202600:38:26

Christine Ullmann is the perfect guest for The Business Class Lounge. With deep experience in retail, she now leads organic discovery across AI and search for John Lewis - one of the UK's most iconic brands, and a key SearchPilot customer. We have collaborated on how to use experimentation to deepen the commitment and success of such a large organisation when it comes to modern organic discovery, and I'm thrilled to bring our conversation to the wider world.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers understand what works in the age of AI-powered discovery. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to get better work from your SEO agency02 Oct 202600:36:32

Paddy Moogan and I go way back. He worked for my agency, Distilled, until 2014. He started as an SEO consultant, but ultimately ran the UK team out of the London office before starting his own agency. Since leaving agency life himself, he has helped agencies both 1:1 and through his training courses and community. We both know how hard agency life can be, but we also know that brands sometimes struggle to get the best out of their agencies.


In this conversation, we drilled into some of the reasons why that is, when agencies do and don't make sense, and how to avoid the pitfalls.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers understand what works in the age of AI-powered discovery. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LLMs don't rank anything. So what are you optimizing for?11 Sep 202600:40:51

Britney Muller is the founder and AI Consultant at Orange Labs. She has gone deep into understanding AI since the earliest days of the recent explosion in capabilities. As a result, she has a unique and detailed perspective on how things actually work and helped me dispel some myths and misconceptions including some in my own understanding. Her strongest argument is that to treat LLMs like search engines is to fundamentally misunderstand how they work. Ranking factors are the wrong mental model.


Her ability to speak clearly while building on deep technical accuracy is unsurpassed and she also has some WILD anecdotes from her career in AI.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers understand what works in the age of AI-powered discovery. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beyond crawl data: what SEO teams really need from their tools with Patrick Hathaway17 Aug 202600:37:18

Patrick Hathaway is the founder and CEO of Sitebulb. He and his team have built a beloved and powerful tool packed full of insights, and they've done it in quite a different way to SearchPilot. We thought that others might be interested to hear us discussing the differences and similarities in our philosophies and approaches.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers understand what works in the age of AI-powered discovery. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SEO Is a System, Not a Channel: Lessons from Zalando, Omio, and idealo with Norman Nielsen11 Jul 202600:32:28

Norman Nielsen has deep experience across travel, retail, and marketplace sites, and strong opinions about how organic discovery should work. In this episode Will and Norman reminisce about the growth of the web, and the changes to how consumers discover products and services.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From SEO to GEO in 2026 with Tim Soulo30 Jun 202600:33:40

Tim Soulo has an irreverent approach to marketing, and strong opinions about how to approach GEO, grounded in deep experience of the SEO tools market. Join the conversation Will had with Tim about what works in 2026.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Product management lessons for SEO with Abby Gleason11 May 202600:40:47

In this episode, Will was joined by Abby Gleason, Senior Product Manager for SEO at Upwork. Abby has a rare blend of experience: she came up through agency SEO, moved into product at Scribd, and now runs SEO in a true product operating model at Upwork, with an engineering team, a roadmap, and a steady drumbeat of experiments.


This session was about the system. How Abby picks what matters, writes it up so teams can ship, runs tests that stand up to scrutiny, and keeps growth moving even as the SERPs shift underneath us.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wayfair's Framework for Picking SEO Tests with Rodney Pérez10 Apr 202600:31:10

Probably the most common question we hear from SearchPilot customers is "how should we pick which tests to run?". In this episode, Will Critchlow asks Rodney Pérez how they do it at Wayfair. Rodney shares the frameworks and thought processes that underpin a large, competitive, and successful SEO organization.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Building an AI Fluent Team: A Candid Talk with Wil Reynolds11 Mar 202600:48:48

Will Critchlow and Wil Reynolds cover some interesting and different topics in this episode of The Business Class Lounge. This candid conversation covers what Wil is seeing across hundreds of clients, how he is using AI day-to-day and what it takes to keep a 200+ person agency moving while the ground keeps shifting. Listen up for hard truths from Wil about how staying employable means treating AI learning like a second job, being honest about uncertainty, and building a culture of momentum and accountability.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

GEO, Fanout, Agents: Mike King’s Take on Where Search Is Really Heading09 Feb 202600:38:01

Will Critchlow catches up with Mike King, founder and CEO at iPullRank to talk about GEO, fanout queries, agents, and what the cutting edge feels like at a top agency. Mike and Will go way back, so this episode covers a lot of ground, from SEO to Mike's view on the place of AI in the production of art.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Inside adidas: How a Global Brand Builds an Insight-First SEO Program with Matthew Morrissey16 Jan 202600:22:30

Will Critchlow is joined by Matthew Morrissey, Organic Search Director EU at adidas to talk about life at the cutting edge of enterprise SEO at a major global brand. Learn about the power of hunting insights, and insight rate over wins and testing cadence, team alignment, and where great ideas come from.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Google Product Grids and AI Mode: The Ecommerce SEO Playbook with Brodie Clark02 Dec 202500:36:30

Will Critchlow is joined by Brodie Clark, independent SEO consultant and ecommerce expert to talk about all the ways that the search result pages are changing, new display features and ranking algorithms, and all the ways these things affect ecommerce businesses in particular when it comes to SEO.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Experimentation lessons from CRO - a conversation with Ryan Lucht30 Oct 202500:38:06

Will Critchlow is joined by Ryan Lucht, Senior Technical Advocate at Datadog which he joined as part of the Eppo acquisition earlier this year. Ryan has deep experience and expertise in CRO experimentation, and has great insights to share from that world to help SEO experimentation catch up with CRO in testing maturity.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SEO vs. GEO: Aleyda Solis on eCommerce Search in an AI-First World14 Oct 202500:43:06

Will Critchlow is joined by Aleyda Solis, founder & international SEO consultant at Orainti. Aleyda is the brains behind the leading SEOFOMO SEO newsletter and is the perfect expert to walk us through the changes she is seeing in search results.


Some resources we mention in the conversation:


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Future-Proofing E-Commerce SEO for 2026 and Beyond with Ross Hudgens12 Sep 202500:42:31

Will Critchlow is joined by Ross Hudgens, founder and CEO at Siege Media. Ross brings a complementary skillset and background to Will's, with a deep focus on content and PR, and together they lay out a blueprint for the future of e-commerce SEO.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Search Isn't Dead - SEO Trends with Rand Fishkin03 Sep 202500:38:17

This is the audio of a live recording. You can watch the video here.


In this episode, Will chats to Rand Fishkin. Will and Rand are old friends going back to their times running Distilled and Moz (actually, SEOmoz!) respectively. They got together to record in person when they were in NYC for SEO Week, and covered a wide range of topics including the perennial question: IS SEO DEAD?


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Smarter search strategies in a world of rising PPC costs11 Aug 202500:42:56

Will Critchlow is joined by Kevin Gibbons, founder of ecommerce specialist agency Re:signal. Their wide-ranging conversation reveals key insights into ecommerce SEO, aligning paid and organic search efforts, and why specialisation matters more now than ever.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large ecommerce retailers take SEO from react mode to control mode. Stop trying to predict the future. Experiment to discover it.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beyond Google - How AIs and LLMs are Changing SEO Forever09 Jul 202500:45:57

Will Critchlow chats with his brother! Tom Critchlow is now the EVP Audience Growth at Raptive, but before that was an independent consultant, a Googler, and (going way back) a colleague at Distilled.


Working in the same industry as family leads to various chats that roam across a wide range of topics, but for this conversation, we decided to record a discussion about the future of Google - a topic we have both been thinking about a lot.


We cover Google's AI Mode and the curious ways that early versions missed the mark, the future of search queries, and paid search, as well as tactics and business plans for the future of AI powered search.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Product-led SEO in AI times with Eli Schwartz24 Apr 202500:44:14

Will Critchlow interviews Eli Schwartz - ex-Survey Monkey and author of the book Product-Led SEO.


Eli and I met during his Survey Monkey days, when he was developing the ideas that he would go on to publish in his book Product-Led SEO. We talk about how to survive the shift to an AI world with product-led thinking.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An engineer's perspective on SEO with Abishek Rajendra07 Jan 202500:40:54

Will Critchlow interviews Abishek Rajendra - VP Organic Growth at Course Hero.


I'm joined today by Abishek Rajendra who came to SEO from an engineering background, and so brings a rare perspective not only on the technical aspects of SEO itself, but also on the mindset of engineers, and the work that we are often asking them to do. He has deep experience with SEO testing, as well as with the more leadership-oriented elements of integrating effective organic growth into your digital marketing plan.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From evading Matt Cutts to being effective in the corporate world with Todd "Oilman" Friesen12 Dec 202400:47:52

Will Critchlow interviews Todd "Oilman" Friesen - ex-Salesforce and Vimeo SEO expert.


I’m joined today by Todd Friesen who OG SEOs will know as Oilman. He was already a huge name in the nascent industry when I got started “some time ago” and we first met at an SMX West conference in 2006 or 2007. The reason I’m particularly excited to talk to Todd is because he’s the best example I know of someone who started his career in the churn and burn world of darker-hat SEO, and then made a journey via agency life and director-level in-house roles to one of those relatively-rare VP of SEO positions. 


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guessing what Google wants25 Jul 202400:35:22

Can we guess? Does it matter?


The more Google relies on machine learning and user signals to make searchers happy, the less explainable the results are, and the harder they have to guess.


Does that matter, and what should we do about it?


Join Will as he meanders through these implications in this episode.


Take the quiz here to test your SEO skills: https://searchpilot.scoreapp.com/


Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will it make the car go faster? 16 Jul 202400:28:42

Frank Williams, of Formula 1 fame, apparently would ask this question in response to almost anything he was asked (org changes, budget requests, etc) and it's been bouncing round my head since I heard that.


This week, Will talks about making the car go faster, as well as some tactical discussions about what it's possible to test from an SEO perspective, and why and how we are working to create the best possible places to do on-site SEO.


Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lessons from paid search: spend, budgets, reporting and more09 Jul 202400:31:38

More data digging into where Google sends clicks after users perform searches, this time vis-a-vis how budget is attributed and how organic traffic fare against paid search. As always, Will brings this back to the importance of setting metrics and budgets to achieve your SEO goals.


Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Misconceptions SEOs have about money02 Jul 202400:23:57

How can SEOs understand and start speaking the language of business?  

  1. Understand the definitions of these key business terms
  2. Identify what makes a 'large amount' spend for your organization
  3. Develop a dashboard that provides visibility on search's impact on revenue


Fresh off the eTail conference speaking with eCommerce and digital leaders, Will shares his thoughts on why it's so important for SEOs to understand and start speaking the language of business.


Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Turning SEO into the channel you always wished it could be SearchPilot 114 subscribers Analytics Edit video25 Jun 202400:28:54

Organic search is the biggest channel for new customer acquisition for most ecommerce sites, but it is frustratingly opaque and often the hardest channel to understand or improve. Are your wishes for SEO is for it to be accountable, transparent, and to drive growth? Then listen on.


Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

(Part 2) Reflecting on things I've heard about SEO from senior leadership18 Jun 202400:11:58

What does leadership really care about when it comes to SEO?


Will spends a lot of time talking to folks in leadership positions about what they really care about (as well as to the teams who report to them). Some of the themes Will explored are: SEO is confusing. We don't have SEO goals; We want to do things right but faster; We've been stung by SEO before. If any of these resonate with you, then listen to both Part 1 and 2!


This is Part 2. You should be able to find Part 1's audio in the show's library.


Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

(Part 1) Reflecting on things I've heard about SEO from senior leadership18 Jun 202400:25:16

What does leadership really care about when it comes to SEO?


Will spends a lot of time talking to folks in leadership positions about what they really care about (as well as to the teams who report to them).


This is Part 1 before Will accidentally pressed the wrong button and took himself out of the live stream. Thankfully, the YouTube and LinkedIn live streams continued, but the audio file recording was split into two parts. Hence, Part 2's audio upload follows next.


Tune in to the full live stream on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Not paying attention" - does the Google leak change anything?11 Jun 202400:34:57

There's only one thing in the news this week as it relates to Google - and that's the leak of internal engineering documentation regarding how organic search works. First reported and analysed by Rand Fishkin and Michael King, it's a treasure trove of rabbit holes (to mix my metaphors) for those of us who geek out on this stuff. But what does it change? What should we be doing differently as a result? Rand said that if you aren't changing things as a result (and didn't have omniscient knowledge of Google's inner workings already) then "you're not paying attention". I disagree. Tune in to find out why. Tune in to the full live stream recording on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SEO experimentation for ecommerce29 May 202400:34:59

In a week where we are celebrating the announcement that SearchPilot is working with M&S to bring SEO into their experimentation program, it seemed like a good time to revisit testing in ecommerce generally, how experimentation programs work, and what good looks like! Tune in to the full live stream recording on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Google getting less serious?21 May 202400:33:12
Taking on the biggest announcement from Google (so far), AI Overview, Will sifts through published articles and posts to get to the core points of how this can affect marketing and the search world. He also shares ways on how we, as marketers and SEO professionals, can do better amidst all these changes. One clear way of doing better is by running more SEO A/B tests as it's going to get harder to predict which pages will perform better. He concludes with an optimistic point of view on all these changes. Tune in to the full live stream recording on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some mysteries explained - Is Google saving costs?07 May 202400:33:58
In this live stream, Will shares his thoughts on whether Google is saving costs and provides an explanation to uncover a few recent mysteries. He breaks down the answer referencing revenue reports and data-based research. Also featured in this week's talk is the presentation he gave at the recent BrightonSEO conference. You can tune in to the full live stream recording on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does Google uncertainty mean?30 Apr 202400:43:08
Google is feeling the pressure, from regulators, from the media, and from customers. Are they really under pressure? What are they likely to do about it? This week, Will want to dive into some of the sources of uncertainty and instability and what they mean for marketers and leaders of companies that rely heavily on search visibility. Here's one of the articles (The Man Who Killed Google Search) he referenced in his talk. You can tune in to the full live stream recording on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Google subscription, anyone? 23 Apr 202400:39:55
In this week's live stream, Will covers a whole bunch of articles and thoughts on whether a Google subscription works or not. He also talks briefly about the effect of your (UK) social status on your work pay and promotion. He shares podcast episodes and channels that he's listened to and following. Two of them are from Lenny's Podcast where Jason Lemkin talks about building world-class sales organizations and Dharmesh Shah on productivity framework for leaders. You can tune in to the whole live stream recording on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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SearchPilot Live - early Googlebot and Search Console lessons for SEO testing09 Apr 202400:34:10
Learn about a goal-setting model for your experimentation program, early lessons for SEO A/B testing from Googlebot and GSC, and Will's insights on being a 'sustainable' founder. Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Why experiments are valuable to make meaningful decisions02 Apr 202400:36:38
This week's talk centers around the value of experimentation to help you make meaningful decisions. Will also shares some research paper and trend lines on statistics and ecommerce growth. All that to point to the importance of testing for both CRO and SEO with an example of a CRO positive change that was a -25% effect on SEO. Head over to our YouTube channel to see some live whiteboarding to have a sneak peek of Will's new 2x2 quadrant. Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Disentangling internal linking - the SEO element you can control25 Mar 202400:40:39
Will Critchlow pull out the threads on a common SEO element that is within your full control: internal linking? How can you influence this element more? How to set up SEO A/B tests for internal links? Plus Google's new Head of Search and Apple and Google Gemini's strategic partnership. And some sneak peek and news alerts from SearchPilot. Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Google is huge18 Mar 202400:31:08
This new research proves that search is still the biggest channel and offers you your biggest opportunity for growth. Not only that but the data staggeringly shows that Google dominates the search stream. Will goes through this latest research from Rand Fishkin. Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - Build or Buy to support your experimentation program? (6 March 2024)11 Mar 202400:25:34
When you have experimentation ingrained in your organization's culture, it's important to have the right tool to match this practice and discipline. More often, we come across this question: Build or Buy? Will discusses this big ol' question referencing Ryan Lucht's presentation deck on experimentation and from Ronny Kohavi's deck. Find out what set of questions to use to determine whether build or buy suits you. Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - Downtime, Fiction, and the customer benefits of bootstrapping (27 Feb 2024)06 Mar 202400:29:20
After a week's break, Will is back with some thoughts on his experience bootstrapping while building his business. He also shares some of his holiday reading list. Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - Googlebot, Gemini (formerly Bard), Googlebot crawling for SEO testing (14 Feb 2024)05 Mar 202400:37:32
In this episode, we are taking the SEO geek path as Will talks about Googlebot, Gemini (formerly Bard), Google's large language model, and how tracking works for SEO testing. Also, did you know that our platform has a new feature that shows you if your test pages are also crawled by Googlebot (you can see how this works on our YouTube channel). Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - Is Google getting worse? Is the web getting worse? (02 Feb 2024)13 Feb 202400:28:50
This week's livestream focuses on different research papers and articles on the discussion of whether Google is getting worse or if the web is getting worse. Will's opinion is that irrelevant content makes the site bad, especially with more AI-generated content. He makes a case for SEO testing and how this can help turn your website 'not bad' and shows what kinds of insights you can gain from SearchPilot's customer dashboard. Listen in or tune in on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - SEO isn't dead, search statistics should be part of company public reports (wild), and Google's SGE (23 Jan 2024)09 Feb 202400:29:12
Will uncovers why SEO is as important as ever, how scalable sites are fueling the world's organic search traffic, and why companies should bring search statistics as part of their reporting. Plus, he talks about the ins and outs of producing search-performing content with generative AI and Google's new announcement on their Search Generative Experience (SGE). Tune in to this replay of the live stream on 23 Jan 2024. Join him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - SEO Testing Pains: Seasonality, Sophistication, Statistics, and Other Compounding Effects (16 Jan 2024)19 Jan 202400:28:04
Will does a candid talk on the different challenges that DIY SEO testing analysis can bring out: seasonality, statistics, the sophistication of the data and test set-up, and other compounding effects that are often outside of our control. There's a way to overcome these 'pains': listen in or tune in to YouTube to see some of the insights presented via screen sharing. Also, check out the podcast show recommendations on history, current affairs, politics, and how to write better....maybe even basketball. Join him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesdays). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - CRO and SEO: Testing metrics that you care about (10 Jan 2024)11 Jan 202400:24:18
In this week's live stream, Will advocates for good experimentation program and what that looks like. He also shares ways on how to coordinate CRO and SEO testing to gain better metrics that you care most about which is revenue. Plus, things he learned from 'On Writing' by Stephen King and how to avoid 'death by a thousand cuts' part way reading through the 'Challenger Customer' book. Tune in to this replay and join him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every week (mostly Tuesday). If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - Back to Basics (3 Jan 2024)05 Jan 202400:15:00
Could SEO be your biggest opportunity in 2024? Will goes back to what SEO is, what it brings to your business and how you can make it your biggest growth opportunity for this year. He also shares thoughts from his holiday reads that included titles like: Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk and Michael Lewis' book about Sam Bankman-Fried. Tune in to the replay and join him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every Tuesday. If you want to see how SearchPilot can help you run more SEO A/B tests and make SEO your biggest growth opportunity, then let us know here.

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Live with Will - ISO27001, GDPR, and Steering committees (20 Dec 2023)03 Jan 202400:14:12
Will went live pre-festive season to cover how we keep our security and compliances in check to confidently deploy our software server-side and how to get important things done for a small business via a steering committee. Listen to the replay of this live stream to find out more about his insights as a business founder and CEO. Be sure to join him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube every Tuesday. If you want to see the SearchPilot features he mentioned in this episode, let us know here.

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Live with Will - Search Console, The Bear and New Features in SearchPilot (12 Dec 2023)18 Dec 202300:24:23
Will Critchlow shares what's on his reading and watch list. Have you seen The Bear? He also shares upcoming features of the SearchPilot platform, including how users can track Googlebot crawl data for the SEO tests they are running. He also talks about how Google Search Console data affects SEO testing and an upcoming beta feature to be added to the SearchPilot platform. Listen to this replay to hear more about this and his favourite episode of The Bear. Be sure to join him every Tuesday on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube. 

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Live with Will - Usage data as ranking factor (5 Dec 2023)14 Dec 202300:18:36
Will Critchlow explores the complex relationship between user behaviour and Google's ranking algorithm. He also discusses the implications of this for SEO strategies and the importance of focusing on user experience. Listen to the replay of this live stream to find out more about his insights on ranking factors. Be sure to join him every Tuesday on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube.

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Building growth teams at rocket ship startups with Brian Hale (VP at DoorDash and ex-VP at Facebook)25 Apr 202300:44:55

My guest for this episode is Brian Hale.


Brian is currently VP of Growth at DoorDash. We met over a decade ago when he was in the growth team at Facebook, and we got to work together on some SEO initiatives. In the intervening decade, he rose up the ranks ultimately to lead a large team as VP of Product Growth across Meta (as Facebook had become by then). He's been responsible for as much growth and innovation as anyone I know, and his work has affected an incredible number of people. As you'll hear though, he's also an empathetic and effective leader, and I'm looking forward to quizzing him about growth challenges.


This episode is produced by Mark Cotton and hosted by Will Critchlow - you can follow Will on Twitter: @willcritchlow.


The Business Class Lounge is a podcast from SearchPilot. SearchPilot helps large websites prove the value of SEO by making SEO tests easier, faster, and more accurate.


If you like the sound of the podcast, add the feed to your podcast app if you haven't already, and if you know anyone who you think would enjoy the conversations, please do recommend it to them.


You can email us at podcast@searchpilot.com to discuss anything you hear on the show.

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