Chris Rodgers and Jesse Farley: SEO Tactics; Past, Present, and Future AI Trends in Digital Marketing

Meet our SEO guest experts, Chris Rodgers and Jesse Farley of CSP Agency, discussing the history and future of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Chris explains that he founded the company in 2012 as SEO Pros, focusing on providing better value to clients and eventually pivoting to a business-centric SEO approach after meeting Jesse. Jesse shares his extensive background in the industry, including co-founding an SEO company in 2000 and his focus on integrating SEO with strategic business goals as an in-house team would.

Our conversation also explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on SEO, concluding that older, purely keyword-driven technical SEO is "dead," but a "human-first", audience-aligned approach is more crucial than ever for success with large language models (LLMs).

Finally, our guests stress the importance of simplifying SEO concepts for clients and providing measurable business value with CSP Agency (LinkedIn).

Glossary of Key Terms in this episode

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Technology that enables computers to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. In the context of the podcast, it refers to systems like ChatGPT that provide conversational answers and are changing how users access information.

Answer Engine

A system designed to give a direct answer to a question (e.g., "2+2 equals 4") rather than a list of websites. This is contrasted with traditional search engines that provide links for the user to sift through.

Backlinking

The practice of getting other websites to link to your own. The podcast explains that its strategy has evolved from being keyword-focused to being brand-mention-focused.

Brand Mentions

Instances where a brand name (e.g., "JBL") is mentioned online. This is now seen as a crucial signal of authority and relevance, especially when paired with a sentiment score.

Business-First Approach

An SEO strategy that prioritizes delivering true business value, such as revenue and strategic goals, over simply increasing rankings and traffic.

Canonical Tags

A type of HTML tag mentioned as part of the technical SEO jargon that can confuse clients who "don't understand what canonical tags mean."

Core Web Vitals

A set of specific technical performance metrics that Google uses to measure user experience. Jesse dismisses them as largely unimportant except as a minor tie-breaker.

CSP Agency

The company featured in the podcast, co-led by Chris and Jesse, which focuses on a "business-first" and "human-first" approach to SEO.

Human-First Approach

An SEO philosophy focused on understanding and answering the direct, conversational questions of a human audience, rather than targeting the synthesized keywords that search engines use.

In-house Team

A company's internal m