Navigating SEO with a Former Googler: In-depth Discussion with Kaspar Szymanski

Kaspar Szymanski is a renowned SEO expert, former senior member of the famed Google Search team and very few former Googlers with extensive policy driving, webspam hunting and webmaster outreach expertise. As Founder of the Search Brothers, Kaspar nowadays applies his skills to recover websites from Google penalties and to help clients to grow visibility of their websites in search engines results.

Kaspar will be speaking at the Prague Gaming & TECH Summit that will take place on 26-27 March 2024, at Vienna House Andel’s Prague.

Hello Kaspar, thank you for taking the time for this interview. We are thrilled to find out more about you and learn from a renowned SEO expert and former Google Search team member! Would you please introduce yourself to our readers in your own words?

Hello and thank you for the opportunity to share from my experience. My name is Kaspar Szymanski. I’m a former Google Search team member and have worked on Google Search quality for several years. My scope of responsibility included investigating suspected Google Webmaster Guidelines violations, issuing penalties when necessary and lifting penalties in cases where the reconsideration request was deemed to be compelling. The insights and knowledge gained during my tenure working at Google Search are a huge advantage nowadays and one that our clients equally benefit from. Since leaving Google I’ve together with a fellow former Google Search engineer and an SEO industry giant, Fili Wiese built an SEO consulting agency under the brand SearchBrothers.com. Together we offer technical SEO consulting services to website operators in competitive industries. Next to the privilege of working with our clients, I equally enjoy speaking at select industry events such as the 2024 Prague Gaming & TECH Summit and sharing with the audience from my SEO experience.

Let’s dive straight into SEO: Given the dynamic nature of search engine algorithms, how do you perceive the current state of SEO and its significance for businesses?

While SEO is a rather dynamic industry, which is owed equally to technical innovation as well as to policy development, at the same time it is incredibly consistent. An SEO strategy to prioritize user experience above everything else serves today equally well as it had 15 years ago. That’s because Google is consistently prioritizing their users’ satisfaction as part of a grand vision. Which isn’t surprising, because Google’s dominant position in search is fragile and can only be maintained by constantly delivering on their users’ expectations.

Because organic traffic from Google and Bing can be a great lead source, SEO is tremendously significant for companies which operate in the online business. Search Engine Optimization is never at the center stage -that position must always remain reserved for the respective product or service- but it is not far behind for those businesses that seek to build or expand on their online sales.

As a former senior member of the Google Search team, you’ve had an insider’s view of how search algorithms evolve. Can you share a behind-the-scenes perspective on how Google adapts to industry changes?

In my experience, innovation is often stimulated by Google because of its current market position. That is not to say that Google does not have to evolve and adapt at times. Google Search Essentials, previously known as Google Webmaster Guidelines are a good example in this regard. These guidelines have been adapted and amended countless times and will in most likelihood continue to evolve along the lines of human and SEO ingenuity.

Let’s discuss the hot topic in everyones’ conversations: AI. With almost everyone using it to a certain extent, does generative AI influence SEO practices, and how can businesses leverage this technology for better search visibility?

There are no actual AI products available for commercial use as of this moment. Currently available so-called “AI” services are not sentient. They neither understand compassion, nor sense of humor. Because of these and other reasons they fall short of actual AI. The rather advanced language models are what’s on the offer for now. They tap into comparatively large, yet by far not exhaustive databases to reproduce what already exists in one form or another. Depending on the data source, the copyright of the content can represent a legal liability if it is republished. That is not to say that the so-called “AI” services available right now can not be leveraged in order to improve efficiency. In some areas, rudimentary source code generation or simple FAQ content generation, to name just two, these tools offer a most cost effective alternative to previously employed methods. In that sense, while the “AI” revolution isn’t coming quite yet, SEOs can enjoy yet another tool to scale up their efforts in an otherwise very competitive game.

Moving on with another popular topic, how do you anticipate the imminent elimination of third-party cookies to impact SEO strategies, especially in terms of tracking user behavior and personalization?

For readers who still depend on third-party cookies for SEO it is time to update their SEO strategies. Personalization is fine, but applied to logged-in users, that way it does not impact SEO signals -as Googlebot will never log in-and for tracking behavior. One method can involve self-hosting an analytics solution to avoid being dependent on third-party cookies and directly store relevant tracking information upon site visits internally.

In a comprehensive marketing strategy, and considering the “cookieless” future, how do you advise businesses to balance their SEO efforts with other digital marketing channels?

Some companies have already moved on from using third-party cookies to improve usability for the end-users. Some may still need to align their SEO efforts with other departments to make sure that the “standard” HTTP responses of the website are not dependent on any cookies, as this is how Googlebot and users coming from Google are experiencing the website.

And how do recommend businesses measure the success of their SEO efforts, considering the evolving landscape and changing metrics?

Next to conversion which is the ultimate goal of any business and the most important KPI, the web platform performance is critically important. This is due to the fact that all other signals being roughly the same, Google notoriously shows preference to faster websites, because of the well funded assumption that users prefer faster rather than slower websites. First Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift can be excellent indicators with regard to the website’s performance. Google Search Console also offers import KPIs and a potential avenue to growing sales, especially for websites with high impressions and low CTR simultaneously. In such cases the relevance for queries isn’t rewarded with clicks because of the snippet representation, which can be prioritized as part of a well rounded SEO strategy.

You will be making a Keynote Presentation at the upcoming Prague Gaming & TECH Summit about “Surviving SEO Disasters”. Can you share an overview of the topic and give us a “teaser” of your presentation?

I firmly believe that it is much more cost effective and safe to learn from mistakes someone else made. I’ll be sharing from real life examples where SEO decisions had unintentionally undesirable and occasionally catastrophic consequences. And most importantly what the learnings from these missteps are. And not just how to avoid these but also how to insulate one’s own websites against similar SEO risks. I look forward to this opportunity to share and also to the audience Q&A at the very end of my presentation.

Thank you for this amazing interview, Kaspar! We are looking forward to hearing your invaluable insights at the Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2024!

Thank you and I look forward to speaking at the 2024 Prague Gaming & TECH Summit.

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