Garrett Sussman: I cannot believe that – Inside SEO Week – SEO Week is next – it’s next week. And this is a really special interview and a special person that I’m talking to today because she has been part of the iPullRank team. She’s core. She’s core when it comes to how we deliver content strategy to our clients. She’s innovative. She’s paying attention to all the changes. I am joined today by Angela Clark. Angela is Senior Content Strategist at iPR with over 10 years of experience in digital marketing. We were just talking before this, it just hit the 10-year mark, which is nuts. Representing Atlanta, how are you doing, Angela? What’s going on? 

Angela Clark: I’m doing well. I’m very excited for what’s to come for SEO Week. It’s going to be big. 

Garrett: It is going to be big. You are talking Day Two, about Psychology. I’m really excited for your talk. But before we even get to that, let’s zoom out. In the context of everything that’s been happening in our industry and AI search, what is top of mind for you right now? How are you thinking about it for in client work, just your own personal experience? What’s your perspective? 

Angela: I think the biggest shift is that search is conversational, right? In the past – 10 years ago, when we first started in SEO, it was, are you matching the keywords? Do you have the keywords in there five to seven times per every 250 words? But now the machines are smarter, right? Like we don’t have to keyword stuff in order to gain that visibility. It’s all about understanding what are the very specific niche questions that our audience is looking for, you know? So of course we talk about persona and audience understanding, and that’s a big part of like understanding the intent. but it is answering those very specific questions in a very specific way so that you can show up for all of those different conversations that users are having right now. 

Garrett: I mean, you and I are both very interested in the personalization aspect of things. Both of our talks, you were almost ready to take a different angle from my talk about personalization, but what has been your own experience? Are you noticing personalized answers more and more when you’re engaging with SEO or does it feel the same? How are you, like, what are you seeing day to day? 

Angela: Yeah, you know, I’ve been doing my own little experiments and playing around with Google’s AI mode to kind of see what it would give me, you know, because yeah, it’s like you have your own experience and your own history within search. And, you know, what’s being shown to me might not be shown to you just based off of location alone. And then you add in all the historical context of like purchases we’ve made or, you know, previous searches that I’ve had that kind of give context about my personality or my preferences, you know, so it really is fascinating to kind of see how those differences come up. And the big theme right now is us educating our clients about that stuff too, because they’re experiencing things and, you know, a lot of clients are kind of still wanting to be on page one of Google, but it’s a lot bigger than that right now, because what you’re seeing is not what your clients are seeing or not even what a hundred different clients are going to see. It’s all going to be different. There’s no true page one anymore, but you know, we kind of have to think about the different ways that users are going to be able to see that visibility.

Garrett: And it’s interesting too, because like you navigate a bunch of aspects of content strategy for our clients. You know, we have our Omnimedia, Omnichannel content audits in which you have to address the query fan out. You have to address all the different directions that a specific search can go into. And then the other element that I know you’ve done a lot of research on is agentic. I know a lot of businesses are asking about, is it coming? What does that mean? How do we actually create a content strategy for agentic? Between those two aspects and just how you’re looking at the future, what do you think SEO and AI search is going to look like in like six months, in 12 months? Are we putting the cart before the horse and we’re going to see a lot of changes? Or do you think it’ll just be more of the same?

Angela: You know, I’m sure that we’ll continue to see  lots of different updates and changes and all that. You know, I think the conversation that we’re having right now, you bring up our Omnimedia work. The idea is like, what is the most optimal form of content to answer this question? You know, so we’re playing around with, you know, what are the preferred multimodal assets to best answer that question? And it’s not just written content anymore. It’s not just a blog post. It might be a comparison table to kind of summarize all the answers because we know people don’t want to read 700 words anymore. They just want to scroll through their phones and see a really quick answer, that synthesis of lots of different sources. You know, so yeah, we’re talking to clients about how to evolve that content. Yes, start with the written web article, but what are other formats that can be more easily digested to give that information? Whether it’s those comparisons, it’s a quick checklist, sometimes it’s just an image because people just want to see those visuals. 

And then of course, like the different decision making tools that are more interactive. You know, we’re playing around with, if you have a limited budget to create content or to do content production, you might have a team of writers that can already do the written stuff? What can we add on to that ecosystem of content to make sure that every different user, personalization, they get what they need from the content that we’re creating? So I’m sure that we’ll continue to see a lot more different types of routing formats accessible and we might just be expanding the different ways that we can share resources and information. 

Garrett: It’s valid too, because it’s like, obviously, the question in any business is how much resources you have. Now you can go in infinite different ways with content, and you have to prioritize. The bar for content creation has gotten lower and lower and lower. How are you even thinking about content quality now? How important is content quality when you can generate a ton of AI slop at scale? What’s your role as a content strategist to kind of ride that line between scale and quality? 

Angela: You know, quality is one thing, but I think starting at the actual topic level is a whole other thing. You know, we often talk to clients about how actionable content is or like, what’s going to get me the leads, you know? So quality is definitely an important thing. Like, is it a good, strong piece of content? But what’s more important to me in my content strategy lens is what are the types of content that you, a brand, can create that no one else can duplicate or say the same things, you know? So I’m asking questions for our clients about what proprietary data do you guys own that you can publish a study on? Or where is there a subject matter expert in your community that can create a really specific piece of content that can be used as a source for these AI Overviews? And, you know, so it’s less about definition articles or here is an answer to this one thing. And then you get that answer on the Google search results page. But what is that unique content that can drive people to the site and really show your brand as that trustworthy, unique resource? 

Garrett: It makes sense that the direction of Google or ultimately ChatGPT goes there where it’s like there is this ability to commodify content. To your point about like these top funnel, you know, informational queries that are just anybody can write and everybody’s copycatting. So it’s like being able to create a unique insight, is, makes it harder, right? Like that is a potential moat for the brands that are able to produce it. How does that show up in your thinking? Like, how are you best able to tease out that proprietary data from a client that might not even know they have it? Like, are there specific questions or approaches that you get to surface it? 

Angela: You know, one of the coolest things is to kind of understand the client or their brands, like what their user journey is. You tell us, like, how have people found your brand? Or like, what are the questions that someone asks right before they become a lead or a customer? You know, so one of the fun things that I think is really cool to take advantage of is like, if there is a chatbot on your site, like, what are the questions that people are asking that chatbot that show up consistently? You know, there might be a content piece in there that only you can answer, you know? And then, yeah, just they know their industry better than I do, so I allow them to educate me on their industry and what’s going on there. And, you know, another best practice is, of course, like having those brand alerts, you know, trending topics within the industry to kind of see, like, what is the new question that’s showing up? What is the information that users need to kind of help them make that decision? And, you know, of course, it wouldn’t hurt to put like some really great data in there, visual aids and all that, to kind of make sure that it is valuable. and that there’s some good insights from there. 

Garrett: You know, so it’s interesting. A lot of what we’re talking about is like the human part of making this content authentic. And yet your talk kind of leans into the fact of like so many people have to deal with these pressures around using AI in their marketing teams, how it’s affecting the psychology of our teams. Can you kind of speak to, and if you guys haven’t done so already, I’m gonna shout out, Angela’s got a survey that we still want to get as much data as we can, if you’re seeing this, to fill this out, I’ll have a link in the YouTube. But give a peek into your SEO Week talk and what people can expect to hear from you. 

Angela: You know, I think the biggest part of my talk is, okay, there’s an AI tool that can do a part of your job or do all of your job. And there are a lot of fears and anxieties depending on what your role is on, how can I use this tool? How can I leverage its value? While also strengthening my own skills, making sure that I’m still doing the work and, you know, not losing that, you know, losing the skills essentially. And so my talk kind of goes into how you make decisions about where to use AI in your job. It’s like, can you figure out what actually saves you time versus prioritizing what you should still be owning and doing? And it also talks about being the human in the loop, right? Like we use these AI tools, but they hallucinate. They’ll often make mistakes or say something that is a little off kilter. But there is still a value of us being the human in the loop, being the smartest in the room to make sure that we are still delivering content, delivering strategies that have that human eye, that have that strategic insight and context. And to just, you know, encourage the audience that you’re not losing your skills, you’re not being overrun by robots, but that there’s still value in both the AI and the human insight. 

Garrett: Well, one thing I love talking about to you is like, like you have a very balanced perspective, I think on this. I don’t think you know, you’re either on the side of anti-AI and also like not in and let it replace us. I’m going to put you on the spot. Let me ask you what is, what is something that you love most about AI? And what is something that you hate most about AI in your day to day? 

Angela: That’s a great question. You know, I think, and I can kind of talk through like my personal use of AI and stuff too. Like it definitely helps me organize thoughts into a concise, summarized way. Like very often I will kind of just brain dump all of my notes because I’m a writer. Like I have a lot of notes, I have a lot of ideas, but sometimes it’s like, okay, what do I do with these 500 words that are kind of random? You know, so it does a really good job of helping me consolidate that information, put it into like the most important five key takeaways or action items or whatever it is. And so that’s really helpful to kind of help the organizational process, if you will. What I hate, that’s a strong word. I can’t say that. 

Garrett: It’s like your AI ick or like, you know, you’re allowed to have like pet peeve or what grinds your gears…what do you do you subtly dislike? Come on, we got we got to lead it. 

Angela: Yeah, I mean, the hallucinations are definitely a big part of it. You know, sometimes I’ll catch it. And that’s a good thing. That’s definitely the advice is like, always read all the words that it gives you, because there might be like a small little thing that sounds right. But then once you give it like a good 30 seconds of like review, oh, that might be a little incorrect. Like, can you try that again? you know, so that’s definitely something to be careful about and not necessarily a hate, but, you know, it just reminds me that they can’t do everything just yet. Oh, we’ll see. 

Garrett: I mean, I feel like my thing is like, I hate that sometimes you can be going back and forth to try and get it to where you want. And I know people are like, oh, well, you should have just written yourself if that’s the case. But I hate you get far enough along and then you feel like you have to start over because it’s kind of like lost the plot sometimes, whether it’s like a coding thing or a writing thing. I’m just like, well, this isn’t even what I’m trying to do at all. Like let’s, okay, let’s clean this slate and start from scratch. But regardless, it’s changing, getting better. Okay. So finally, Angela, let me ask you, you were there last year at SEO Week. This year, you’re a speaker. Tell me, what are you most excited about for the conference this year? Angela: This year, everything is bigger. We have expanded. There are not only more members of the iPullRank team, but it’s also a bigger venue, lots of space for us to stretch out, you know, so I’m definitely interested in being able to be a part of more of the talks and kind of get out from the behind the registration table, you know, and just being able to talk as, as a speaker, you know, and kind of represent iPullRank as a thought leader that we’re encouraging more of the team to be, you know, so I’m excited to meet new folks. There’s going to be a lot of clients that are going to be there in person that I get to meet for the first time. And of course, seeing Mike rap again, that’s going to be a good time too. 

Garrett: Well, dude, I can’t wait to hear your talk. It’s an easy call to have you speak at SEO Week. I am so excited for you and for our team to be able to see you and all of our clients get to meet you and everybody SEO Week, like having an SEO Week coming out party. So Angela, thank you for joining me today and we’ll see everybody like next week at SEO Week, right? 

Angela: Next week. Yeah!

Garret: There you go. You haven’t bought your tickets starting on Monday and we have like daily tickets so you can still get them. Hopefully by the time this is published and recorded, maybe we have tickets left. We might not. We might not. I’m sorry in advance, but SEOweek.org, get them. We’ll see you in New York City, 27th to the 30th. Catch you later. Garrett, sign off. Thanks.