This interview is with Joe Hall, SEO Consultant at Hall Analysis.

 

Joe Hall, SEO Consultant, Hall Analysis

Joe, can you introduce yourself and tell us about your journey in the world of SEO? What unique experiences have shaped your expertise in this field?

I first got started as a web developer making websites for nonprofits and small businesses. Around that same time, I started working as an IT manager at a local real estate company. I built their website, and soon they wanted it to rank well in Google. That was my first professional entrance into SEO. After getting to know other SEOs in the SEO community, I started doing web development work for many SEO agencies and consultants, mostly just implementing their audits and strategy. Soon, I discovered they were making a lot more money than I was while not doing much of the actual work. I then decided to start providing SEO consulting myself, and from then on, the rest is history! I’ve now had my own SEO consulting company for the last 14 years.

Joe Hall, SEO Consultant at Hall Analysis

Looking back on your career, what was the pivotal moment or project that solidified your passion for SEO and set you on the path to becoming an expert?

I think that first site at the real estate company really lit my fire. I loved seeing all of my hard work pay off as I watched the site climb in the results. It was very gratifying. After that, I wanted to get better and see what else I could accomplish.

 

In your experience with client-side rendering issues, what’s a creative solution you’ve implemented to improve indexation while maintaining site functionality? Walk us through the process and outcome.

Moving the site to a system or platform that relies on server-side rendering is critical. But oftentimes this is a huge technical and organizational hurdle that requires time and budget to overcome. However, headway can be made if you prioritize critical sections of the page, such as main content and navigation, first. This will help increase crawling and indexation.

 

You’ve recommended Search Engine Roundtable as a valuable resource. Beyond staying informed, how have you applied insights from industry discussions to solve a unique SEO challenge for a client?

I find the most valuable industry discussions are found in private groups or forums. There, seasoned pros will often discuss different methods for solving unique issues.

 

You’ve emphasized the value of technical SEO audits for startups facing setbacks. Can you describe a situation where your audit uncovered an unexpected issue, and how did you turn this discovery into a growth opportunity for the client?

I was once working with an e-commerce client that had around 2 million products. However, Google had indexed around 25 million URLs accidentally. This was a result of not using canonical tags properly on pages with faceted navigation for product category listings. The site lost rankings and had over-indexation as a result. To fix this issue, we helped them implement correct canonical tags on these pages, which brought their indexation count down to about 10 million URLs. Over the next year, their traffic and visibility within the search engines doubled. This issue would not have been identified if the business had not gotten a technical SEO audit that understood proper use of canonicalization and how to adequately manage a bloated crawl budget.

 

In the ever-evolving landscape of SEO, what’s a recent trend or algorithm update that caught you off guard, and how did you adapt your strategies to overcome this new challenge?

So far, I’ve been surprised that AI Overviews have had such a dramatic impact on click-through rates and referring traffic from Google. I wrongly assumed that they would have around the same impact as Featured Snippets, which was minimal at best. But instead, it seems that AI Overviews have done a very good job at monopolizing the user’s attention on the SERPs, which has led to drops in clicks and traffic for pages that still rank within the top three or four sets of results.

 

I’m currently still trying to figure out the best method to adapt to this change, but I think it will be different for each client and based on the context of their current rankings and current offering on their website. I think it’s critically important for SEOs to begin shifting their thought process into more strategic ways that they can leverage the search results to align with the client’s business goals. Oftentimes, that means not focusing so deeply on rankings or keywords but moreover on unique user demands and the business’ offerings.

 

Looking ahead, what’s one SEO practice you believe will become crucial in the next few years, based on your observations and experience? How are you preparing your clients for this shift?

I think brand building will be crucial for the future of SEO. We’ve known for years that websites with strong brand presence have an easier time building backlinks and attracting other user signals that are beneficial for SEO. However, now it’ll become even more crucial as brands will be used to align with target terms and language that will also be surfaced within LLM results. It’s crucial that companies focus on branding opportunities not only for a more well-rounded marketing approach but also for a more robust SEO strategy.

 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I think I’d like to say to anyone out there that wants a career in SEO: It is just as important to learn about business as it is to learn about backlinks. Understanding how to align your client’s business interests with a specific SEO strategy is critical for long-term career growth. Understanding different tactics or tricks that you think will “one-up” the search engines is not how to build a sustainable career. Understanding the dynamics of business and marketing is a critical asset to building a long-term career trajectory in this industry.