Technical SEO, Thinking Like a Robot & More with Jamie Alberico [PODCAST]

“Not a Robot is my own company. I named it after all the CAPTCHAs I filled out in my life. As a technical SEO, you are emulating the experience of bots to encounter your content that triggers a lot of like, “Are you sure you’re humans?” I work best embedded with dev teams. That is my happy place right there between UX, our developers and having conversation with the stakeholders. And that allows me to prioritize and tailor recommendations, testing strategies for that business needs and the model they’re going with.”

Need technical SEO or JavaScript advice?

Ask Jamie Alberico.

As one of the brightest in the field, Jamie regularly shows all kinds of awesome insights and interesting takes over on Twitter.

Technical SEO is her turf, but did you know she started out in the industry as a website content writer?

Curiosity took her into the rabbit hole that is SEO – and that same curiosity has helped her take on enterprise projects where “everything’s always on fire.”

There’s so much we can learn from Jamie – from how she approaches technical SEO and working with dev teams, to advocating for accessibility and being a value-oriented SEO.

Get to know all these and more in today’s episode of The Search Engine Journal Show.

About Jamie Alberico

Jamie is a self-described 100% human technical SEO consultant at Not a Robot. (Though I did hear a rumor she may be changing that title soon to undisputed Elf Queen of SEO.)

In the past, she was SEO Product Owner at Arrow Electronics, CRO at Moz, and Consumer Analyst at MapQuest.

Jamie’s been doing SEO since 2011. In addition to being a regular contributor for Search Engine Journal, she’s contributed to white papers and videos for DeepCrawl, OnCrawl, Authoritas, Google Webmasters YouTube channel, and WebCertain.

And you can also catch Jamie speaking at Search Engine Journal’s upcoming virtual conference, SEJ eSummit, happening on June 2 where she’ll be talking all about technical SEO.

Show Notes

• What is Not A Robot? What types of projects does primarily work on these days as a technical SEO consultant? [3:30]
• How’s work been like for Jamie during the pandemic? [5:01]
• What does a typical workday look like for Jamie? [8:16]
• Why you shouldn’t make Jamie do keyword research. [9:54]
• The key technical SEO tactics people should focus on right now. [11:46]
• What are some of the big challenges with JavaScript in terms of SEO? [12:58]
• For Jamie, JavaScript isn’t the devil. “I think it’s a tool. It’s like a hammer. You can use a hammer to put in nails, to remove nails. But if you use a hammer to give yourself a pedicure, maybe you’re using the tool wrong.” [16:18]
• How did the SEO Mythbusting video with Google’s Martin Splitt come about? [16:56]
• “I don’t think [Google is] using JavaScript as a trap. I think people want to build websites to have really rich interactive experiences, and they’re struggling and learning at the same pace we are. Don’t have to have JavaScript on your site. It just depends on what your goals are.” [21:11]
• Jamie recommends this resource for people who want to dive into the world of JavaScript. [22:10]
• Some of her favorite tools to use going through various projects. [24:25]
• Jamie actually began writing content for sites before getting into SEO – basically transitioning from the content side to the technical SEO side. [25:58]
• Her experiences working as a consumer analyst for MapQuest and as a CRO for Moz. [27:46]
• How she managed 4 to 6 million products in seven languages in her previous role as SEO Product Manager at Arrow Electronics. [31:55]
• Out of all the experiences she’s had, what’s her favorite project? [34:16]
• On working on varied projects, Jamie has this to say: “I am not going to prescribe to anybody that they should stay one place, or move to another. If it is working for you, if you have adequate skills that allow you to accomplish what your goals are. Those goals have a clearly communicated value. You do you, boo. There’s no need for you to jump on over into JavaScript execution if you are just on point in how you write engaging content that matches user intent. You understand how to leverage your structured data. That is highly valuable.”
• How does Jamie manage dumpster fires and instances when she can’t figure something out? [36:48]
• Jamie has always been curious about SEO being deemed as “highly manipulative” and finds herself asking, “Is this a meaningful and ethical contribution?” [41:21]
• What’s her approach when taking on new clients? [43:08]
• Jamie’s strategy for setting expectations with clients. [45:43]
• One piece she’s proud of writing? SEO Guide to Angular: Everything You Need to Know which currently has 36K reads on SEJ. [49:59]
• What makes a value-oriented SEO? [53:25]
• If Jamie wasn’t an SEO, she would probably be a medical illustrator living in a small fishing town in Italy, or building great animatronic creations, or running a fruit stand in Costa Rica. [56:07]
• If she could go back in time to give herself some advice, it would be “You’re going to make it out just fine.” [57:00]
• One piece of terrible advice that should stop circulating: “Well, Amazon does it this way.” [57:42]
• The keys to longterm success in our industry? Jamie says ask dumb questions. [1:01:09]
• Jamie’s list of must-follow SEO professionals on Twitter. [1:03:16]
• Why she’s focused on rendering right now. [1:04:38]
• What’s next for Jamie Alberico? [1:06:23]

Links from the Episode

How to connect with Jamie Alberico:

Twitter | LinkedIn | Not-a-Robot.com

• Jamie Alberico on Search Engine Journal
• JavaScript: SEO Mythbusting (YouTube)
• Understand the JavaScript SEO basics (Google Search for Developers)
• Chrome DevTools
• Lighthouse
• Chrome User Experience Report
• SEO Guide to Angular: Everything You Need to Know (Search Engine Journal)
• What Is Ethical SEO? (Search Engine Journal)

People Mentioned

• Barry Adams
• Gary Illyes
• Martin Splitt
• Lizzi Harvey
• Alexis Sanders
• Ashley Berman Hale
• Dave Smart
• Lily Ray
• Hannah Butler
• Cindy Krum
• Greg Gifford
• JP Sherman

This podcast is brought to you by Ahrefs and Opteo.

To listen to this Search Engine Show: Better Know an SEO Pro Podcast with Jamie Alberico:

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Visit our podcast archive to listen to other Search Engine Journal Show podcasts!

Image Credits

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita