Unlocking the Secrets of Google’s Algorithm with Lindsey Busfield

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
Let's talk about the real, the raw, the updated version of the Google algorithm. Because y'all, it has changed a lot in the years. I used to work at a SEO agency, twenty five years ago and or twenty years ago, and a lot has changed with our friend Google. And today we're gonna talk all about that with Lindsey Busfield. I'm excited to have her on the show to talk about the myths and the magic behind our favorite algorithm. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show. I use it to edit not only the audio in the video, it is like chef's kiss magical making the entire process so so easy.

Andréa Jones [00:00:44]:
Plus, I love their magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself, resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and reels, those all come from magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go saves me so much time. If you wanna get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes, and make sure to use my code DREA, d r e a, at checkout to get 15% off your membership. Lindsey, welcome to the show.

Lindsey Busfield [00:01:26]:
Thank you so much for having me.

Andréa Jones [00:01:28]:
I'm excited to just be a little nosy because I'm like, how does this all work now? I know the, you know, general SEO strategies, but I'm excited to get into this this algorithm, the the the world's number one search engine as well. But I wanna talk a little bit about your background. How did you get into the world of SEO?

Lindsey Busfield [00:01:49]:
So my, entrance into the world of SEO actually started with a bunch of Amish chicken farmers, which is about as far removed as you can be from the world of SEO. My family started a pasture raised egg business, and I, worked with the farmers out there, but I also worked with the marketing, with with the company and helped to get it some traction, get it to grow, help with its digital presence. And then as that took off and is now the nation's largest organic pasture raised egg company, I decided to step back and really focus on marketing a little bit closer to home. So I went to go work for a law firm here in Raleigh and started working with their digital marketing team, and they needed somebody to help out with this SEO initiative that they had just taken on. And I really wasn't all that savvy when it came to SEO. I was still kind of venturing into marketing and, you know, taking that on as a new career. But once I became familiar with how SEO works, how that Google algorithm works, and it became demystified, it actually became a lot of fun. So I worked with this law firm, doing SEO for them and kind of learning the ins and outs of that and fell in love with it.

Lindsey Busfield [00:03:06]:
And then, happened to meet my now business partner, Lynn, who had an SEO agency that exclusively worked with law firms, and it seemed like a dream come true. So about seven years ago, I partnered with Lynn, and now I'm at Optimize My Firm, and I'm the vice president here and doing my dream job of doing SEO for law firms.

Andréa Jones [00:03:29]:
Oh my gosh. From chicken farmer to law firm SEO business owner. I love I love it.

Lindsey Busfield [00:03:36]:
You never know where life's gonna take you.

Andréa Jones [00:03:38]:
Life takes you. I have all the ups and downs. So for those who are new to SEO, can you give us a quick definition?

Lindsey Busfield [00:03:44]:
So SEO, is search engine optimization. And usually, by the time I finish that last syllable, people's eyes just kinda glaze over. So really, in a nutshell, what SEO is is I work with your website to make it rank highly on Google. So if somebody is looking for a law firm, somebody's just been in a car accident and they search car accident lawyer near me, I work with their website so that it shows up on that first page so a prospective client can actually find that lawyer. And the same is true no matter what business you have. So whether you are working, with law firms or a pizza place or any other type of service industry or store, if you have a website that you are using to attract clients, search engine optimization is going to get your website to show up for the search terms that people are using when they're trying to find a product or service like yours.

Andréa Jones [00:04:38]:
Yeah. I love this because I think a lot of especially local businesses need need need to do this so that people can find you. Hello. And I also think it's such a powerful way for businesses to just be strategic about, how people are finding them as well. So what what is the first thing we should think about when we're when we're thinking about SEO, when we're looking at our website and we're like, I want people to find me, where do we start?

Lindsey Busfield [00:05:03]:
So I think you have to start with thinking about what is Google looking for. And people think about SEO and, like, all this technical metadata and, like, alt tags and descriptions and stuff and all that is quasi important, but it really doesn't matter. What Google is looking for time after time, no matter what algorithm change happens, they're looking for good content. So they're looking for your website to have information that is relevant for the people who want your product or service. So having content on your website that is informative and accurate and reputable is what Google is after. So that's 80% of it. And the other 20% of that is gaining a reputation for being an authority in your market. And you do that by attaining quality backlinks.

Lindsey Busfield [00:05:51]:
And that's another one where people's eyes kind of glaze over. But in a nutshell, a backlink is getting a mention to you of your site from another website. So it's like if somebody is quoting you, then that is giving you a little bit more authority. So when another website quotes your website and links back to it, that gives your website more authority. So Google trusts it a little bit more, trust that content a little bit more. And that's all SEO is.

Andréa Jones [00:06:16]:
That's it. Oh, yeah. I knew about the backlinks thing. Honestly, I get the spam emails all the time where people are like, can I put links on your website? And I'm like, I'm just deleting this. Like, you don't. Is that bad for my website if you if I do

Lindsey Busfield [00:06:28]:
that? Right. Right. And there are a lot of websites out there that do that, that they monetize their websites by selling backlinks. And that is one way to get links. And there are, you know, some other more organic ways to to get backlinks that are a little bit more reputable that actually give your website a little bit more credibility than just buying links. But, yeah, there are a few ways to go about doing that, but most of the sites that are either trying to put a link on your website or sell links to you, probably probably not something that you wanna engage with.

Andréa Jones [00:07:00]:
Yeah. It feels like those, those fake magazine sites too where it's like, oh, do you wanna be in our magazine? We'll feature you on the front page. And then you're like, yes. And they're okay. To give me all your money. Like, you're like, oh, never mind. Yeah. Yeah.

Andréa Jones [00:07:13]:
Okay. I totally see that. I'm I'm curious now. Is there a way to see how reputable your website is? Because this past year, I was featured on BBC, and I was like, oh, the the bbc.com. I mean or .co.uk. That's gotta be, like, a really strong website. Right?

Lindsey Busfield [00:07:30]:
Yeah. That's that's a decent link to get. And, yeah, there are a few tools out there like Semrush, and then there's Ahrefs. There are a few different places that you can go to see your backlink portfolio, and those will show you what websites have linked to your website. It'll also show you this funky metric called domain authority, and that's something on a zero to 100 scale of how credible your website is. And a lot of people get hung up on this metric where it's somewhat relevant, but not super relevant. A lot of these backlink places will be like, I'm gonna get you a link on, you know, 45 d a plus. And, like, some of those are fine.

Lindsey Busfield [00:08:12]:
Some of those are still kinda cruddy sites. But for your own domain authority, what's more important is how you rank in relation to the other businesses that are in your geographic area if you're providing a local service. On a national level, you wanna look at the businesses that are your direct competitors on the national scale. So it's not necessarily where you rank in terms of zero to a hundred, but more so how you rank in relation to the other websites that are competing for the same search terms that you are.

Andréa Jones [00:08:43]:
Yeah. I mean, basically, context matters. Right? I mean, I feel like this is looking at any sort of report or data, I I think sometimes it's very easy to go, you know, oh, I'm number one. It's like number one where compared to what, you know? Okay. Cool. So I mentioned earlier that I used to work for this SEO agency when I worked in Atlanta, Georgia, and I was like the the lowest totem pole basically interning there. And my job was to go around to local businesses that were, their competitors are ranking really high and then basically pitch them, like, we will rank you high. And I was the grunt person, so I was doing all this research, like, all of the surrounding cities, all of the ZIP codes, and then would give the list to my boss, it'd get approved, and then I basically just paste, like, a thousand ZIP codes and city names into a web page.

Andréa Jones [00:09:33]:
This was twenty years ago. We can't do that now. Right? Like, this that's very dated advice. So tell me, like, what what's the latest, greatest updates when it comes to, like, how do we speak the algorithm's language?

Lindsey Busfield [00:09:45]:
So you're right. Man. Like, that I just that takes me back. So, I mean, you know, fifteen, twenty years ago, you mean, really even five years ago, people were trying all of these tricks. And so, you know, putting this putting all the ZIP codes in or putting h ones in white text on a white background that, you know, we're, like, trying to game the system. And then there, you know, is the good old keyword stuffing where you have, you know, all these keywords that are just kinda, like, hidden in the background on the page and, you know, Google would see these a million times over and start ranking you for those key those keywords. Google has gotten so much savvier, and, like, those tricks just don't work. And if Google catches you doing that, they will absolutely tank your site.

Lindsey Busfield [00:10:26]:
So there are a lot of tricks that used to work that just don't work anymore. And Google with every algorithm update is getting more and more savvy. The big one was was the penguin update. And then there are some specific fields that are targeted more than others. The big one that comes to mind is the health care field. So Okay. Yeah. Google went through a giant revamp in the health care field because they know that it is so incredibly important that people are getting accurate information.

Lindsey Busfield [00:11:00]:
So there are a handful of sites that Google will inherently prioritize and rank over others. So, like, your WebMDs, hospitals, government websites, which are but a lot that historically have been credible information sources, and they will rank those first. And so if you have a local, health care website or a blog that's about health care, it's gonna be almost impossible to get those to rank because you are not a trusted credible source. So Google did a huge revamp over the the health care industry and has actually extended that to pay per click ads. They have a lot of really strict regulations on what you can and can't say with that. There are a lot of really strict regulations on websites in general. So, for aestheticians, there are some products and services that you can't have on your website or else Google will never rank your website highly. So there are a lot of things that Google is trying to get more savvy about, all with the intent of providing accurate credible information.

Lindsey Busfield [00:12:05]:
So to answer your question, having more in-depth information, that's answering questions that people are asking, that is going to be the best thing you can possibly do. And having more in-depth information, that's answering questions that people are asking, that is going to be the most helpful. And then if you wanna get into some more depth there, looking at topics within your certain sector that haven't been covered a million times over by your competitors is gonna be some low hanging fruit that you can use to get people to actually come and visit your website because you'll automatically rank higher if there's not as much competition.

Andréa Jones [00:12:46]:
Wow. Yeah. I mean, honestly, to me, this goes to, like, the human experience of it all. Like, as a person who goes to Google and types in, like, toddler dinner recipes, I want the most reputable ones ones to hit the top and not the person who's, like, trying to game the system, which is interesting. So how how does AI play into all of this? Because I've noticed this cute little box at the top of my Google that gives me the AI result. And, like, as someone who uses Google, I'm like, oh, that's it. That's the answer I was looking for last night. I was looking for, like, when when's the next, Leafs game? Because they're in the playoffs right now at the time of recording this.

Andréa Jones [00:13:26]:
K? Oh, I may regret saying that when this goes live later, but they're in the playoffs right now at the time recording this. When's the next game? Gave me the answer. I didn't have to click anything. I'm like, oh, great. As a user? Great. But then, like, as a business owner, I'm like, oh, I just, like, stole website traffic from, like, nhl.com or something. Like, they're looking at their website results like, what is happening? Is that this is bad. Right? Or is it good?

Lindsey Busfield [00:13:48]:
Oh, this is not bad at all. Oh, okay. So no. This is this is actually a really great thing because you have to look at the intent of a user search. So let's say you are wanting to find out when the next game is and you type in, when is the next game? That's going to be an informational search. This is some, some information that you would have otherwise been pulling from another website, that informational search isn't costing them any money because you weren't going to another website in order to purchase a service or a product. Because you weren't going to another website in order to purchase a service or a product. So you are directly able to get whatever information it is that you're needing.

Lindsey Busfield [00:14:22]:
And what Google is doing and how they're generating that response is they're pulling from some of the most credible websites out there. So this is information that's probably coming from the first or second page of the Google search results, and they are cross checking the answers against each other and pulling this information together, synthesizing it, and presenting what they believe to be the most accurate piece of information. It is not always accurate, so I will put that put that in there as well. Sometimes Google does just give really bad answers because they're pulling from information that's not always a % accurate. They can only pull from information that's available on the Internet that, you know, is in line with what their algorithm is looking for in terms of being inherently trustworthy. Also, there have been some issues with, the AI hallucinating answers. So sometimes it'll just make something up out of thin air. And this has been really well documented and is kind of problematic.

Lindsey Busfield [00:15:22]:
And we've we've seen this in the law industry a few times and there have been some big issues. But Google in that section is really just pulling from the information that it has available on other websites.

Andréa Jones [00:15:36]:
Wow. I mean, I'm a huge proponent of AI. I love it, especially as someone who use like, I use ChatTBT and Gemini daily. It's, like, embedded into everything I do. But I can't help but get a little nervous for the, you know, the blogger who was, like, on page two anyways. You know, what are the hockey results? Or, like, a hockey blogger. I'm never gonna see that now. What does that person do to try to still get search traffic to their website?

Lindsey Busfield [00:16:09]:
That's a really good question. And I guess it depends on what the purpose of their website is. So, yes, it could be challenging if somebody is looking for the, you know, the time of the next game would have otherwise gone to that website and said, oh, here's the next game. By the way, let me continue searching through this website and go down the rabbit hole and maybe, you know, click on an affiliate link or, you know, some other monetizing feature on that blog. And, yeah, that that could be problematic. But my assumption would be is that for somebody who is looking for that information and looking to go down that rabbit hole, they're gonna get the information they need, and then they're going to still look for a website that's in line with the type of article or information that they're looking for. Otherwise, it's somebody who probably was just looking for this information and will probably x out of it once they have it anyway.

Andréa Jones [00:17:03]:
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I think that is, again, the human experience of it all is we kinda have to think about the human behind the search. Right? Like, that person's experience, what is it like? This reminds me of, so I mentioned recipes a few times because whenever I go to, like, the recipe site, I'm instantly scrolling past, like, the the story. Just give me the recipe. And I feel like that's really what it is. It's like, just give me what I came to search for and, like, let's cut out the fluff, which again, like, as the blogger, as the business owner, we kinda wanted that, you know, for the for the for the person who, you know, happens to click on something.

Andréa Jones [00:17:37]:
But this really is creating just a better user experience all around, the hallucinations aside. I think it it could be, a better, thing all around. But the other thing that I'm so curious about is search within some of these tools like a Gemini, like a ChatGPT. You know, people are saying now I found a coach that way or I found you know, I bought a product because that recommended it. Are there things that we can do to enhance our rankings in AI tools?

Lindsey Busfield [00:18:11]:
Sure. And it is really looking at kind of the same algorithm features that Google is already looking at. So AI is only going to be able to recommend somebody if Google believes that they're credible source in that particular domain. So the more that you can do to boost your credibility by creating those backlink relationships and the more content you have on your website that points to you as being an expert or source, a trusted source for this type of information, then Google will be able to figure out who you are, where it is that you're providing the service, and whether or not you have the experience and expertise to be able to be a true, you know, whether it is a a law firm that you're looking for or the best pizza place in town, having that content and having, the domain authority as established by the backlinks, that's all gonna work together to improve your odds of showing up as a recommended service provider within AI.

Andréa Jones [00:19:16]:
Yeah. Okay. Great. So so someone who's listening to this podcast episode and they're like, I love everything that Lindsey is saying. I wanna optimize my website. I don't know where to start. Where do I start, Lindsey? What's one thing that I can do today to help the search engines, help people find me?

Lindsey Busfield [00:19:34]:
Write content. So in your free time, just sit down and write content. Write content about whatever it is that people are using as a search term to find a product or service like yours. So if somebody is, let's say, a a lawn care provider, write content about the different types of services you provide within your law, your your lawn care business. So about mowing or about stump removal or about tree trimming. Write pages about all that different type of content. And one place that you can go to find, topics to write about, one would be AI, chat g p t. Another thing that you could do is write in to Google lawn care service provider.

Lindsey Busfield [00:20:20]:
And then on that, search result page, there's the people also ask. That shows questions that people are regularly asking after they are searching for a lawn care service provider or search terms that are really closely related to the initial search term that that you plugged in. So developing content that answers those questions is another way that you can, develop content for your website that shows Google what it is that you do and is going to make you eligible to show up for more search terms when people are trying to find a product or service like yours.

Andréa Jones [00:20:53]:
Yeah. I love the people also search for thing because I think sometimes we try to we try to just think up, like, what what are people asking? But, like, you you could just literally go to the tool, and it'll get it'll give you the answer.

Lindsey Busfield [00:21:06]:
I love that. Google will tell you what to write. It's it's all right there.

Andréa Jones [00:21:10]:
Yeah. Well, do you have an example you can share of your your company or maybe a client's where, you applied all of this amazing SEO expertise and got a good result from it?

Lindsey Busfield [00:21:21]:
I mean, all of our clients. I and I know that sounds really biased. But let's, let me think about this. There's a client that we've been working with out in California for about ten years now. And he started off his law firm with, you know, him and a couple of other attorneys, a very small practice, but had this ambition to grow and trusted the process and invested in SEO, developed the content, built the backlink relationships, and is now one of the largest personal injury attorneys in the state of California just by following these practices, developing that content, and really nourishing those online relationships to give his website and now websites more credibility so that Google sees him as a trusted authority and for, for personal

Andréa Jones [00:22:12]:
injury. Oh, wow. I love this. Ten years too. I think that that's something that people always think, like, oh, I'll work on SEO today and I'll help my business tomorrow. But, like, this is a long term strategy. Like, it's not just, you know, do something today for tomorrow. It's do something today for ten years from now.

Andréa Jones [00:22:29]:
Like, we all want businesses that sustain us for ten years. I love that. Such a beautiful, beautiful example.

Lindsey Busfield [00:22:33]:
Absolutely. And then and it is one of those things where it's like, it's not like you pay for SEO for a month and like, boom, faucet goes on. No, it's it's a long term relationship. It's just like investing in any sort of ad or PPC or any any other marketing strategy. This is a long game thing. And it takes a little bit of time after you first get started because you need to develop that content, and Google needs to see you as a trusted authority. So it takes time to build that credibility and start to rank your competition. And then the other thing that you have to remember is that the other successful businesses in your sector are also running SEO.

Lindsey Busfield [00:23:10]:
So it's a constant competition, constant battle for that top ranking position for clients to be able to find you before they find your competition.

Andréa Jones [00:23:20]:
Yeah. Oh, gosh. Yeah. It is. And I think it's always shifting, right, too. So, yeah, you kinda have to stay on top of it. I love that. Okay.

Andréa Jones [00:23:27]:
So for everyone listening who's like, yes, I want to work with Lindsey. Tell us about your company and how we can connect with you.

Lindsey Busfield [00:23:34]:
Sure. So my my company is Optimize My Firm, and we just do SEO. We just do it for law firms, but I'm happy to talk SEO with anybody who has questions. You can learn more about our practice at, optimizemyfirm.com. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm Lindsey Busfield. I am the only Lindsey Busfield, so I'm really easy to find. And, you can listen to my podcast, the personal injury marketing minute, where we talk about marketing and business operations for law firms.

Andréa Jones [00:24:04]:
I love it. Thank you so much, Lindsey. I will put all of those links in the show notes, y'all. You can find it at onlinedrea.com/36zero. Lindsey, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Lindsey Busfield [00:24:15]:
Thank you.

Andréa Jones [00:24:16]:
And thank you, dear listener, for tuning in to another episode of the Mindful Marketing podcast. I've got more episodes coming your way. I've got Sam coming on the show next to talk about how to get clients from podcast guesting. It was amazing conversation. I can't wait till you listen to that one. And, hey, if you love conversations like this and you wanna go even deeper in your marketing, come on in and join us in the Mindful Marketing Lab. Coming up soon, we're doing our summer SPF Challenge to really help you streamline your marketing this summer season. Especially if you're like me and you got kids at home all summer, you're gonna wanna come in to our SPF Challenge in the Lab, but you gotta be in the lab in order to join us.

Andréa Jones [00:24:54]:
Check that out at onlinedrea.com/lab. I'll see you there. Bye for now.