Building Expertise-Driven Content In A World Of AI-Created Slop

Summary

Voices of Search Podcast: Building Expertise-Driven Content In A World Of AI-Created Slop

Episode Information:

• Title: Building Expertise-Driven Content In A World Of AI-Created Slop
• Podcast: Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
• Host: Jordan Cooney, Pre Visible
• Guest: Ruth Burr Reedy, Senior SEO Manager at Houzz Pro
• Release Date: March 10, 2025

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Introduction to Expertise in Content

[02:29] Jordan Cooney:
Jordan welcomes Ruth Burr Reedy to discuss the critical role of expertise in content creation, especially amidst the surge of AI-generated content. The conversation sets the stage for exploring how genuine expertise can differentiate content quality in a saturated digital landscape.

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Defining Expertise in Content Creation

[03:54] Ruth Burr Reedy:
Ruth defines expertise as the ability to "notice the patterns and form strong informed opinions" through extensive experience. She emphasizes that expertise "confers a point of view," which is essential for crafting compelling and credible content.

Notable Quote:
"Expertise means that you have done something enough times to notice the patterns and to form strong informed opinions about things that happen."
— Ruth Burr Reedy [04:08]

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The Impact of AI-Generated Content on SEO

[09:03] Ruth Burr Reedy:
Ruth addresses the influx of AI-generated content, labeling it as "AI-created slop." She critiques the lack of genuine expertise and unique perspectives in AI-produced material, which often results in content that "lacks that strong point of view."

Notable Quote:
"That content is by its very nature going to lack that strong point of view because it's a machine. It can't form a cogent, complete, well thought out opinion."
— Ruth Burr Reedy [09:49]

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Strategies for Building Expertise-Driven Content

1. Information Gain and Uniqueness

[13:12] Ruth Burr Reedy:
Ruth introduces the concept of information gain—creating content that offers "something that is different, better, newer, more in-depth" than existing materials. She suggests using vector embeddings and entity mapping to enhance the uniqueness and depth of content.

2. Relevance Targeting

[18:03] Jordan Cooney:
Jordan coins the term "relevance targeting," focusing on ranking in strategic areas that align with business goals rather than merely aiming for high visibility. This approach prioritizes quality over quantity in content placement.

3. Leveraging AI as a Tool

[21:00] Ruth Burr Reedy:
Despite her skepticism about AI, Ruth acknowledges its utility in extracting expertise from busy professionals. She advocates for using AI to repurpose expert insights into various content formats, such as blog posts, podcasts, and videos, thereby maximizing the reach and impact of authoritative voices.

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Measuring SEO Content Quality

[12:37] Ruth Burr Reedy:
Ruth challenges the vague notion of "good content" by outlining measurable SEO quality signals. She highlights the importance of information gain and machine readability to assess how content stands out against competitors.

Notable Quote:
"SEO has always been about trying to figure out what the human readable quality signals you want to send with your website... and then trying to understand what the machine readable equivalents of those quality signals are."
— Ruth Burr Reedy [13:01]

Metrics to Consider:

• Information Gain: Offering new or deeper insights.
• Entity Mapping: Ensuring content covers relevant topics comprehensively.
• Vector Embeddings: Enhancing semantic understanding for better search engine recognition.

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The Future of Content in 2025 and Beyond

[19:12] Ruth Burr Reedy:
Looking ahead, Ruth anticipates a continued erosion of SERP quality due to AI-generated content. She underscores the necessity for brands to build trust and demonstrate authenticity to regain user confidence and improve search rankings.

Notable Quote:
"Trust online and trust of the average searcher in the results that they're seeing... is very, very, very low."
— Ruth Burr Reedy [19:58]

Future Strategies:

• Enhancing Trust: Through authentic, expert-driven content.
• Repurposing Content: Utilizing AI tools to diversify content formats efficiently.
• Building Brand Awareness: Focusing on quality signals that resonate with both users and search engines.

---

Advice for Aspiring SEO and Content Marketing Professionals

[24:41] Ruth Burr Reedy:
Ruth offers practical advice for newcomers aiming to establish expertise:

1. Hands-On Experience: Engage in consistent practice to build proficiency.
2. Agency Work: Gain exposure to diverse projects and business models.
3. Leverage Freelancers: Collaborate with subject matter experts to enhance content quality.

Notable Quote:
"The best way to build experience is just to do something a lot and to learn about it and try to do it better."
— Ruth Burr Reedy [25:07]

Key Takeaways:

• Consistent Practice: Essential for developing deep expertise.
• Diverse Experience: Working across various projects accelerates learning.
• Collaborative Content Creation: Utilizing expert insights through interviews and AI-assisted writing.

---

Conclusion

The episode underscores the critical importance of authentic expertise in content creation, particularly in an era dominated by AI-generated material. Ruth Burr Reedy and Jordan Cooney emphasize that genuine expertise not only enhances content quality but also builds trust and authority, which are paramount for successful SEO strategies. Aspiring professionals are encouraged to seek diverse experiences and leverage collaborative tools to cultivate and showcase their expertise effectively.

Final Notable Quote:
"One of the number one positive things that's coming out of all of the terrible AI slop that's flooding the Internet right now is that it is easier than ever to get thoughts out of experts' heads and into a place where you can share them."
— Ruth Burr Reedy [27:25]

---

For More Information:

• Ruth Burr Reedy: LinkedIn Profile | Houzz Pro
• Jordan Cooney: LinkedIn Profile | Pre Visible

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast. A member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network, ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts. Sit back, relax and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of.

[Jordan Cooney]

Search Podcast, Jordan Cooney hello SEOs and marketers. My name is Jordan Cooney from Pre Visible. Joining me today is Ruth Burr Reedy who is the Senior SEO Manager at Houzz. Ruth is working on Houzz Pro, an all in one business management platform for interior design and residential construction businesses. Today, Ruth and I are going to discuss building expertise driven content in a world of AI created slop.

[Ahrefs Sponsor]

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[Jordan Cooney]

Here'S my conversation with Ruth Burr Reedy, the Senior SEO Manager at Houzz. Ruth, welcome to the show.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Hi, thanks for having me.

[Jordan Cooney]

I am shocked that this is the first time that you are on our show. I feel actually terrible that this is the first time you're on our show. So we're going to have to make it up to you. And we're going to have to do this again and again and again now, anytime.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

I love talking about this stuff and my feelings are not hurt. I'm just very excited to be here.

[Jordan Cooney]

Thank you. Thank you. But exciting topic today. We're talking about content in this kind of changing landscape that we're all facing, not just as SEOs, but as web developers, as brands, as marketers. And I'm curious to just start this conversation to really unpack the concept of expertise, because expertise to me is something that we've all kind of lost sight of a little bit, in my opinion. But I want to get your point of view on what is expertise in a content, in a web content perspective, and how do you define it and want to see value from that keyword, expertise, when you see, read or produce content?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great place to start because expertise can mean a lot of different things to different people. There's a book that I really like that I read several times over and over when I was running an agency called Business of Expertise. And the quote from there that really stuck with me and that has shaped how I think about expertise when it comes to content creation is expertise confers a point of view.

[Co-Host]

Expertise means that you have done something.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Enough times to notice the patterns and to form strong informed opinions about things that happen. So to me, a point of view.

[Co-Host]

A strong opinion, a take, if you.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Will, is an absolute core component of crafting messaging that contains expertise. I think especially depending on the audience.

[Co-Host]

You'Re talking to, expertise is going to be more or less important.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

If I'm selling shoes, I don't really need you to be an expert in shoes. But if you are selling something to or marketing something to a more expert audience, whether that's Web developers, engineers, SEOs.

[Co-Host]

People who know what they're talking about.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Will be able to tell right away if you don't know what you're talking about. And the more specialized and technical an audience you get into, the higher the likelihood that if they sense that you know less about this than them, then there's no point in them continuing to interact with your content or even your brand.

[Jordan Cooney]

Yeah, no question. I mean, there's a big component of this that is that repetition to be at a level where you fundamentally have an opinion. And I want to add something to that and get your clarification. I'm also wondering, does expertise have a level of critical thinking that comes from that mastery that comes from that exposure with a particular vertical topic? You know, line of work, what have you, that then helps you be more aware of what that field is. And how does that then translate into content? How does that ability to be a critical thinker in a expertise or an area like SEO or whatever it be translate into great content work?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Yeah, I think absolutely that critical thinking.

[Co-Host]

Piece is part of it.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

You know, if I think about expertise in my own life, having expertise in SEO, having been doing this for almost 20 years, at this point, they're assuming things that I come across where I can quickly say, oh, that's normal. That's absolutely to be expected for a website of your size, in your vertical, at your business stage, you are having all of the problems that I would expect.

[Co-Host]

You have a big website, you have.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

I don't know, a forum, you have an E commerce section. The problems that you're having and the problems that I would expect you to have, or conversely.

[Co-Host]

That's weird.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

You shouldn't be dealing with this at that stage. I've been just the basic. I've been here before and I've handled it before, especially not just once, but multiple times. You do it once and you know how to do it that way. You do it a hundred times, a hundred different ways to do it. I think that level of confidence and of critical thinking, that multifaceted approach that can really take into consideration the context people might be operating in, gives you an opportunity, as an expert or as.

[Co-Host]

Somebody who works with other subject matter.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Experts to say, here, here's the problem that we're talking about.

[Co-Host]

Here's why it is the way it is.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Here are several different ways to think about it, because your very, very specific problem, you as the user, you as the person who's reading this blog post or listening this video or what have you, your specific problem. I'm not actually speaking one on one to you. I can't tell you step by step exactly how to fix it, probably. But what I can tell you is.

[Co-Host]

Here are the different approaches you can.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Take to get to the solution. Here are the different things to watch out for along the way. A lot of that stuff is really hard to fake because it comes from having done it a lot, many times, enough to have strong informed opinions about what to do and what not to do and how to know what to do, right?

[Jordan Cooney]

I mean, there's a component of this, of knowing what the path is, right? Having enough history to then formulate what the potential outcomes could be. Um, and I think that's what's really unique because in content we don't Always get it right. Right. It's not like even, even the experts and I want to get your view on this, don't nail it every single time. But they do it so often that they actually get a much better hit rate. Right? They get, they are able to connect with the audience you're trying to go after in content more often than not. And that is, I think, what you're ultimately looking for. It's, it's not like 100% effective every time, but it's that volume and that percent of hits that really helps scale your business, scale the audiences and the consumers or the buyers that you're trying to reach. What's happening on the other side of this, Ruth? What's happening on the world of AI slop as we've defined it here for this episode? What's going on over there?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

So I have been saying actually for many years, for longer than the AI boom has been around, that people need to start paying more for content. I think for many, many, many, many years, including early in my own career.

[Co-Host]

You could find somebody who could write.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And who could research and you could.

[Co-Host]

Say, okay, I know you're an English major, but now you write a blog.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

About government contracting and you're just going to go out and you're going to look up resources on government contracting, you're going to regurgitate that.

[Co-Host]

We're going to throw in some keywords.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And rank that business model. The bottom has completely fallen out because that is basically what large language models.

[Co-Host]

Can do, what generative text tools can do.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

It's what they're doing at scale, is.

[Co-Host]

Looking at the existing corpus of knowledge.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

On a given topic and then digesting it down into a newly generated piece of content. Crucially, that content is by its very nature going to lack that strong point of view because it's a machine. It can't form a cogent, complete, well thought out opinion.

[Co-Host]

It can regurgitate other opinions. Those opinions are often not going to.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Have the weight of experience behind them that makes them really resonate with an expert audience. So when do generated AI tools started coming out? When ChatGPT blew up, when we had this sort of tipping point within the SEO industry, my first thought was, okay.

[Co-Host]

Now that there is absolutely no barrier.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

To content creation, what am I going to do for my clients and people that I work with to help them create something that stands out? If you can generate 1,000 blog posts in an hour and pop them up on the Internet and they're about as good as everything else, what can you do that's different. Unfortunately, I'm seeing this everywhere. The Internet is very frustrating to use right now because a lot of companies kind of took the opposite lesson and.

[Co-Host]

Said, okay, for years and years and years we've been told content is king.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Just create good content.

[Co-Host]

So now we've got this keyword list.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And we've got this generative tool. Let's just crank out a whole bunch of stuff. And some of it's not even that bad in terms of overall quality or.

[Co-Host]

Even the information that is contained in it.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

But it is because of the way that these tools work.

[Co-Host]

Absolutely in no way different or distinguishable from anything else that's already on the web.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And I think that at this point.

[Co-Host]

To rank well for a competitive term.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Or within a competitive topic set, it's not enough to achieve parity with what's already ranking. You have to be demonstrably better in machine readable as well as human readable ways or there's no reason to rank that content instead of what's already there.

[Jordan Cooney]

Yeah, let's laser into this concept of the measurement of this, because I think this is where, I think this is where a lot of SEOs in particular and content marketers, whether they be in house or an agency, get this really wrong. When we think about the measurement of what is better, how do we want to think about that? There's a lot of credence and I'm just going to, I'm going to give you a little bit of a preview into what I think many of our listeners may be thinking is, you know, they're going to be thinking about Google's content quality statements, which are often very broad, sweeping and very generic. But Ruth, with your experience, your knowledge, how do you measure SEO content quality? And more importantly, what are the metrics that you're thinking about to define what is best or demonstrably better than everyone else in the market?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

That's such a great question. Well, I mean, so I've always really.

[Co-Host]

Been bothered by the just create good.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Content kind of adage because, okay, what is good content? How do you know if your content is good? Everybody thinks their content is good and a lot of it isn't right. To me, SEO, if you boil it all the way down, has always been about trying to figure out what the.

[Co-Host]

Human readable quality signals you want to.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Send with your website, with your products, with your business, with your content are, and then trying to understand what the.

[Co-Host]

Machine readable equivalents of those quality signals are.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

So when we think about expertise, a concept that we're Talking about a lot is information gain. So going back to the idea of what are you saying that's different, better, newer, more in depth than what is already ranking. That is something that is getting increasingly easy to understand with machine readability. Taking all the content that ranks now.

[Co-Host]

Taking your piece and saying, okay, what do these have in common?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Where are they different? What are the topics that aren't being covered? Where can we introduce a new perspective.

[Co-Host]

Or a more in depth understanding that.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Might resonate not only with search engines but with users? And you can do that through vector embeddings, you can do that through entity mapping. There are a few different ways to back into the machine readability of the uniqueness and information gain from the content that you're creating. But I think too so Andy Crestedina said this on LinkedIn several months ago and it's just stuck in my brain forever, which is that when we think.

[Co-Host]

About intent, we think about measuring search intent.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

It's no longer that kind of informational, transactional, navigational, kind of traditional intent funnel.

[Co-Host]

One of the things that you need to be thinking about is does this.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Query or does this topic have visit website intent? So I think looking at the intent for your given query set and understanding what is going to happen with that. With AI overviews, sometimes your whole goal.

[Co-Host]

Is to appear in the AI overview.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

It's not necessarily to get the click because if somebody gets the information from.

[Co-Host]

The overview, then they don't need to click. Okay, so how do we make sure.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

That we're appearing in the AIO review? That has to do with co occurrence.

[Co-Host]

And building citations and building your brand.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

As well as content optimization. But it means that for that query set traffic, which has long been our North Star, is not necessarily what you're even going for.

[Co-Host]

But are you getting the click when.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

You should be getting the click Looking at once people are on page, do.

[Co-Host]

They take the next step that you.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Expect them to take?

[Co-Host]

Whether that's visiting another page, whether it's.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Bouncing, whether it's coming back. And then I think too the other.

[Co-Host]

Side of that is how are you.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Targeting not visit your website intent? So I think a great example is.

[Co-Host]

I have had so many e comm.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Clients who are like we need to rank for best blue teapots. And if you look at what ranks.

[Co-Host]

For best blue teapots, it's not blue.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Teapot providers, it's listicles, it's roundups, it's affiliate sites. And a lot of that content isn't.

[Co-Host]

Necessarily higher quality than something a provider could create. But if you're not thinking about content.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And what you're creating and where else.

[Co-Host]

You'Re seeding it online. In addition to your own site you.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Are going to and finding ways to measure that. Tracking the URLs where you know you.

[Co-Host]

Appear as a brand impression, looking at.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Things like Reach and Share of Voice. As part of that you are missing a huge component of how you are building awareness and ultimately building traffic back to your site.

[Pre Visible Sponsor]

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[Jordan Cooney]

I've been kind of coining this lately. Relevance targeting, right? Where it's not just about the game of ranking anymore. It's about ranking in places that you've agreed upon with your business or your partners or your organization to target. Right. And that relevance to your point, like if it's an AI overview, well yeah, you're not going to be getting many clicks, but hooray, you got into an AI overview. Yeah, great awareness for your brand. But if you doing relevance targeting correctly, you're making that claim and making that distinction in advance. As we think about this year, right, we're kind of closing out or going to be closing out here Q1 and we still have a lot of 2025 left and we think about where content and content strategy is going to go throughout this year? Where do you see these principles of expertise and the ability to explore AI and utilize AI? Where do you see them going and how do you see them unfolding in the landscape over the next year?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Well, I should preface this by saying that I'm something of an AI skeptic. I don't love it. The environmental impact of the technology makes me take pause before using it.

[Co-Host]

In general, I don't use AI when I have existing tools that will do.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

The same thing as well or better. So I am not as all in on AI as some people.

[Co-Host]

I also think at the end of the day it's a tool.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

You know, you can buy the best.

[Co-Host]

Hammer in the world.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

If you expect that hammer to build you a house by itself, it's not going to be able to do that. So you have to think of it.

[Co-Host]

As a tool and understand what the.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Limitations of that tool are. All of that said, I think that.

[Co-Host]

Because of the AI slop that we.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Talked about earlier, trust online and trust.

[Co-Host]

Of the average searcher in the results that they're seeing, whether on Google or.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Other places, is very, very, very low. I think the overall SERP quality has eroded a lot in the last couple of years and I think user behaviors reflect that.

[Co-Host]

It's a big part of why Google.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Has leaned in so hard on forums.

[Co-Host]

Because people are starting to go to non search places. So I think building trust and demonstrating.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

That you do have something that is real, is true, is trustworthy and is.

[Co-Host]

Useful to the person who's searching for.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

It has never been more important. So one of my favorite things to use AI for is getting expertise out.

[Co-Host]

Of the brains of experts.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Because historically the problem that I have always had is that people who have.

[Co-Host]

Subject matter expertise are very good at.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Their jobs, very, very, very busy doing those jobs. That job is not write a blog. And so they may not be great.

[Co-Host]

Writers, they may not be great written communicators. They also don't have time.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

So the example that I always think of is when we think about your money or your life sites. I've worked multiple times over my career with hospital groups, medical groups, people that.

[Co-Host]

Have giant, giant pools of subject matter.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Experts who are never ever going to write a blog post because they are.

[Co-Host]

Surgeons and they're doing surgery.

[Jordan Cooney]

Right.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

One of the nice things about AI.

[Co-Host]

Tools is that it's now possible. Okay, you can't write a blog post. Great. Can you have a half hour phone call with me and just talk to.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Me about this topic? And I'm going to record it, I'm going to take a transcript, I'm going.

[Co-Host]

To use a tool to turn that into a blog post. You wrote this blog post.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

It's all your words, but it took.

[Co-Host]

Half an hour of your time.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And that deep expertise, that point of view is still there and is still present. It's still something you can be proud to put your name on. And you can also use AI to.

[Co-Host]

Build a whole content brief.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

If you are going to have somebody create a piece of content for you and you're like, okay, you're an expert in this, but you also go way off topic every time I try to talk to you about this.

[Co-Host]

Can you just give me some bullet.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Points on the following topics? If you were going to have a.

[Co-Host]

Drink at the bar with your friends.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Who are also subject matter experts, and you were going to talk to them about what you're excited about on this topic for half an hour, what would you say?

[Co-Host]

The ability to get expertise out of.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

The minds of experts and in front of the people who could actually benefit from it in the form of written and video and audio content. It's a whole new world of that. So I am hopeful that more people.

[Co-Host]

Will understand the ways that they can.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Build expertise signals via real experts using these tools rather than trying to mimic.

[Co-Host]

Those signals or reverse engineer and then.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Fake them using these same tools. I don't have a lot of confidence because SEOs do ruin everything that we touch, bless our hearts. But that is something that I would be hopeful for. I think. The other thing that I'm really excited about when it comes to these new.

[Co-Host]

Tools is the ability to repurpose a piece of content.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

I don't know if you've read Ross Simmons book about publishing once and then refurbishing forever. Amazing book.

[Co-Host]

And he has for years and years been beating this drum of don't just create new content.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

What can your existing content do? The ability now to take an hour long conversation and turn it into two podcast episodes, 20 YouTube shorts, 100 TikTok videos, five blog posts.

[Co-Host]

Using these tools instead of doing all.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Of that by hand gives you so much more opportunity to meet your users wherever they are on that journey, even.

[Co-Host]

If that's not Google.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And to really take that information and get it in front of people who need it when they're looking for it, which is what SEO should be all about. So those are the things that I am excited about when it comes to generative AI tools and content marketing.

[Jordan Cooney]

So Ruth, a lot of our listeners are getting started in their career, they're probably have much less experience than you and I do in the SEO world or content marketing world. And one of the big questions I hear often from individuals who are just growing their career in this space is how do you become an expert? Like nobody has a manual. I didn't get the 400 level class at the University of Expert to become an expert. And so what's that process and what's that look like based on your experiences to define and help our younger listeners to become experts?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Yeah, so the 10,000 hours statistic has.

[Co-Host]

Been pretty widely debunked.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

That's not really based on anything.

[Co-Host]

However, if you work a 40 hour.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Week and you're working 52 weeks a year, that's five to six years of experience.

[Co-Host]

And that to me was when I felt in my SEO career I really.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Started noticing that when people ask me questions about SEO, I was more likely.

[Co-Host]

To know the answer than to have.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

To say, that's a good question and I'm going to get back to you.

[Co-Host]

For better or for worse, the best.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Way to build experience is just to do something a lot and to learn about it and try to do it better. You know, every time you don't know.

[Co-Host]

How to do something, you research it and you try to do it and you see what happens and you do it again and you do it better.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

And you just keep doing that until you have done it enough times.

[Co-Host]

You know there is something to be said for practice.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

There is, I mean boiling it all the way down, that's what experience is.

[Co-Host]

Is the more you do something, the.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Better you get at it. Unfortunately, there aren't always shortcuts for that. Some ways that you can kind of speed run that one I would say is working at an agency. If you are in any kind of marketing adjacent discipline because you are going.

[Co-Host]

To get to work on a lot.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Of different projects with a lot of.

[Co-Host]

Different websites, a lot of different kinds of websites. That's going to teach you not only.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

About these different businesses, these different platforms, these different tech stacks, but also a lot about business, which I think is important to learn about different business models.

[Co-Host]

The way different internal teams operate, how to communicate.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

I think all of that and the nice thing about that too is if you get a couple of years into your career and you're like, I actually hate SEO, you have a bunch of other experience in building cross team communication and doing client work and selling and.

[Co-Host]

Project management, account management that can be.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Transferable to other careers.

[Co-Host]

And then in terms of finding experts.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

To help you create expert content. Your customers are usually a good place to start. If you have people who you know are picking up what you're putting down.

[Co-Host]

Already and you know they already like.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Your product, get them on one of those half hour calls.

[Jordan Cooney]

No doubt.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

There are also a ton of people in whatever industry you're in who do what they do on a freelance basis.

[Co-Host]

This goes back to the idea of paying more for content.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

You are going to have to pay.

[Co-Host]

Somebody who is a freelance writer who has subject matter expertise, more money. Those people are out there.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

You can also find people who do.

[Co-Host]

This thing that you are looking for.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Expertise in on a freelance level and.

[Co-Host]

Say, hey, can I pay you at.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Your freelance rate to get on a.

[Co-Host]

Call with me that I turn into a blog post?

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Because they might be like, I'm not a writer, I'm not going to write for you. That's not what I do.

[Co-Host]

Okay, let me pay you for what.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

You do do, which is be an expert in this. And I can turn that into something.

[Co-Host]

That we can use and put your.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

Name on it and you get byline and credit and all of that great stuff for your business. But that is, I think, the number one positive thing that's coming out of all of the terrible AI slop that's flooding the Internet right now is that it is easier than ever to get.

[Co-Host]

Thoughts out of experts heads and into a place where you can share them.

[Ruth Burr Reedy]

With the community that they're part of.

[Jordan Cooney]

Yeah, and that's a great place to wrap up this episode of the Voices of Search podcast. A big thank you to Ruth Burra Reedy from Houzz for joining us in part two of this interview, which we'll publish tomorrow, Ruth and I are going to discuss the importance of impactful brand signals for SEO. If you can't wait until our next episode and would like to learn more about Ruth, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes or visit her company's website, houzz.com.

[Podcast Outro Announcer]

Okay, thanks to Jordan Cooney, the founder of Pre Visible. If you'd like to get in touch with Jordan, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes. You can contact him on Twitter. His handle is J.T. cooney. That's J T K O E N E. Or you can visit his company's website, which is Previsible IO that's P R E V I S I B L E I O.

[Ahrefs Sponsor]

And a special thanks to Ahrefs for sponsoring this podcast. Monitoring your website used to require multiple expensive tools. But that's not the case anymore, thanks to Ahrefs, because they just launched their Ahrefs Webmaster Tools product, which monitors your SEO health, helps you keep track of your backlinks, and gives you the insight into what keywords are performing for free. So check out Ahrefs webmaster [e-mail] that's Ahrefs a h r e f s.comAWT.

[Podcast Outro Announcer]

Just one more link in our show Notes I'd like to tell you about if you didn't have a chance to take notes while you were listening to this podcast, head over to voicesofsearch.com, where we have summaries of all of our episodes and contact information for our guests. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and you can even send us your topic suggestions or your marketing questions, which we'll answer live on our show. Of course, you can always reach out on social media. Our handle is voicesofsearch on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or you can contact me directly. My hands handle is Ben jschapp B E N J S H A B and if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of SEO and content marketing insights in your podcast feed, we're going to publish an episode every day during the work week. So hit that subscribe button in your podcast app and we'll be back in your feed tomorrow morning. All right, that's it for today. But until next time, remember the answers.

[Ahrefs Sponsor]

Are always in the Data.

[Co-Host]

Radio.