Search news with working-SEO patience.
SEO 101 is a working-SEO news table with Ross Dunn and Scott VanEck reacting to platform changes in practical terms. The show moves from Google rollouts and AI search anxiety into client-side consequences, technical gotchas, and the occasional dry detour.
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SEO 101 is a long-running search-marketing conversation centered on what changes in SEO actually mean once they hit a real website, business profile, or client account. Ross Dunn and Scott VanEck bring a working-practitioner lens to Google updates, AI search shifts, citations, spam reports, local visibility, and the messier edge cases that do not fit neatly into platform announcements. The show is not slick. It has banter, repetition, sponsor interruptions, tangents, and the feel of two people sorting through notes while reacting in real time. That looseness is part of its usefulness. A story about Google Ads hold music can sit beside a serious discussion of AI chatbot harm, and a casual complaint about rollout timing can become a practical point about feature availability. The recurring theme is consequence. When ChatGPT citations favor certain parts of a page, the conversation turns to content structure. When a false copyright complaint removes an article from search, the concern becomes negative SEO risk. When Google changes review or business-profile rules, the focus shifts to what owners can report, fix, or document. AI is treated with interest, but also with fatigue and suspicion. The show keeps asking what happens to clicks, visibility, publishers, advertisers, and the need for human SEO judgment as AI features take more space in search. It is especially strong when the hosts move from a headline into a client-style example or a technical failure, such as blocked Google Search Console access that made a site hard for Google to see. Those moments make the industry feel concrete. The show suits people who already care about rankings, content visibility, local search, and search-platform behavior. It also rewards business owners who want to understand why SEO work still matters when search results, ads, and AI answers keep shifting. The tone is casual and occasionally cranky, but the center of gravity is practical: keep the fundamentals sharp, watch the platforms closely, and do not mistake AI hype for the end of search work.
Made for: Built for SEO practitioners, marketers, and business owners who already follow search changes and want practical reaction more than polished theory. It best suits listeners comfortable with Google, AI search, local SEO, citations, and site-visibility problems.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by treating search news as field work: every platform update gets pulled toward client impact, workflow risk, or a concrete SEO fix. Its conversational roughness makes the analysis feel closer to a practitioner debrief than a scripted industry recap.
SEO 101 is Search Engine Optimization from the very beginning. SEO 101 will teach you SEO from Square one. Hosts Ross Dunn and John Carcutt give out helpful information for the beginners without overwhelming you with technical details.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
SEO 101 makes the changing craft of online visibility understandable through practitioner conversation, concrete cases, and advice tied to real publishing problems.
SEO 101 turns changes in search into a working conversation between Ross Dunn and Scott VanEck. On the Arts shelf, its subject is the craft of making online work visible: how search results are shaped, how AI systems cite sources, and how platform decisions reach the people…
Google's latest curveball gets translated before you panic-edit a perfectly healthy website.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Google spam-report change gets a blunt practitioner reaction, with the everyday mess of SEO still in view.
The episode is strongest when it stays with Google's spam-report change: reports can now trigger manual actions and may be shared with site owners, after Google had previously said they were only used to improve spam-detection algorithms.
Two search stories, one clear reminder of how fast traffic can shift.
The episode finds Ross Dunn and Scott Fennack at the practical edge of search news, moving from ChatGPT's ad rollout to a false copyright complaint that briefly pushed a Search Engine Land article out of Google search results.
A conversational look at OpenAI ads and Google's February 2026 Discover update.
SEO 101 takes a conversational run at OpenAI ads and Google’s February 2026 Discover core update, with Ross Dunn and Scott VanEck focusing on what the changes mean in practice instead of dressing it up.
A practical look at AI search, visibility, and the next SEO move.
SEO 101 starts with a light Google customization anecdote and then settles into a practical talk about Claude and AI overviews. Ross Dunn and Scott VanEck treat AI overviews less as a click problem than a visibility problem, and the conversation keeps circling back to solid…
A grounded look at keeping SEO fundamentals useful as search spreads across AI citations and richer content formats.
SEO 101 Ep 515 treats the evolution of search as a practical workload, not a grand prediction. Ross Dunn, Scott VanEck, and the guest connect familiar fundamentals, including the continuing value of links, to a results landscape shaped by images, videos, People Also Ask, and…
A brisk practitioner discussion of AI ad growth and the fragile mechanics of Google visibility.
SEO 101's 526th episode frames search marketing as a system under pressure, where ad rollouts, platform rules, and business-owner worries collide.
Simon Owens interviews founders about the revenue mechanics behind their media businesses.
Colin and Samir break down creator-economy news, from OpenAI's TBPN deal to AI podcasts.
AI-era marketing tactics from operators testing what works next.
Mark DeGrasse interviews agency and marketing operators on the frameworks behind their case studies.
Cory Cotten-Potter interviews B2B sales and marketing founders on AI's reshaping of pipeline generation.
Kristina Halvorson interviews content strategists about how the work actually gets done.
This episode discusses Google being sued by Chegg over AI overviews allegedly harming traffic and revenue, with hosts analyzing the legal arguments and broader SEO implications.
Episode 526 starts loose.
Episode 515 opens on a milestone, then gets straight to the work.
Episode 527 begins with ads, credits, and a bit of setup.
ChatGPT ad money gets the first reaction.
The hosts discuss Google's AI mode potentially threatening web traffic and publishers, with a humorous tangent about frustrating hold music from Google Ads and other companies.
This SEO podcast episode discusses how AI is impacting search, Google's recipe update, and a cautionary tale about a website redesign, while also covering a lawsuit against Google's Gemini chatbot for allegedly influencing a man's suicide.
This episode discusses a study on where ChatGPT pulls citations from in content and provides SEO tips for AI content optimization and Core Update recovery.
Episode 522 opens under deadline pressure.
Episode 521 starts with a small Google color tweak and quickly turns into the messy, practical side of AI search.
This episode discusses Google review scams targeting businesses and provides SEO tips related to Google Search Console indexing and service area guidelines.
This episode features an interview with SEO expert Jim Hedger, discussing his start in SEO and the evolution of search engines from the early 2000s.
This episode discusses Google being sued by educational company Chegg over AI overviews allegedly hurting traffic and revenue through anti-competitive practices.
This episode discusses Google's updated AI ethics policy, which removed promises not to use AI for weapons or surveillance, with hosts expressing concerns about the implications.