Voices of Search Podcast

Episode: Technical SEO Infrastructure vs Human-Crafted Content Quality with Limited Resources

Date: September 11, 2025
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest: Duane Forrester, Unbound Answers

Episode Overview

In this episode, Tyson Stockton and guest Duane Forrester dive deep into a core decision many SEO teams face: with limited time and resources, should you invest in technical SEO infrastructure or focus on human-crafted content quality? Drawing on their extensive experience, they explore how to prioritize efforts given a site's starting point, the evolving definition of “quality” content, and how technical problems increasingly find automated solutions. The conversation reveals actionable insights for SEO practitioners grappling with resource constraints in a fast-changing landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Framing the Decision: Technical vs Content Focus

• Real-World Constraints:
  Tyson frames the episode with a realistic scenario: “Obviously there's always limited resources, limited things you can take on... it's gonna be technical SEO infrastructure or human crafted content quality.” (00:43)
• Both host and guest agree: assuming your technical SEO and content quality are at a baseline level (no glaring issues), the choice isn’t straightforward and depends on several factors.

When Technical SEO Comes First

• Duane:
  “If you tell me that you have no ability to deploy structured data on your website, then I'm going to tell you you have to go dive in on the technical side because that ultimately is going to trump whatever value I think the quality of content might improve.” (01:26)
  • Severe technical limitations (like inability to add structured data) take precedence.
• Assumption:
  If technical health is “covered”, content becomes the higher leverage play for growth.

The Expanding Importance of Human-Crafted Content

• Infinite Content Opportunities:
  Duane highlights the boundless potential of content versus technical tasks:
  “You will never run out of content to explore... You will always need humans in that loop. They will have to produce quality...” (02:07)
• Quality Content Redefined:
  The expectation of “quality” has evolved. It’s now more than grammar—it's about entity relationships and retrievability for AI crawlers:
  “Quality isn't just about sentence structure. It's not just about the words you're using. It's also about that chunking. It's about how you relate an entity, relationships an entity, an explanation, like all of these pieces to make them retrievable by that crawler.” (03:07)
• Humans vs. Crawlers:
  Whereas SEO advice once centered on “build for humans”, the paradigm is shifting:
  “You got to start building for the crawlers now... not trying to trick Googlebot... [but to] create an inclusive, holistic environment that invites CC Bot in, that invites all of the LLM bots in to see your content.” (02:52)
• Content as Differentiator:
  “The quality, I think it's worth defining here as well, right? Like, we all bandy this around like there's some kind of standard for quality... it is changing a bit. But yeah, I'm taking content over technical moving forward.” (04:06)

Technical Debt: Increasingly Solvable with Tools

• Automating Technical Fixes:
  Tyson notes, “The more and more we go down the path of like, edge SEO and some of these, like, you know, ability to automate these type of like, technical debt errors... you would expect that to be something that could be solved easier and easier by different tool sets.” (04:35)
• Duane’s Perspective:
  “My experience inside the engine taught me [technical debt] gets solved in one of two ways. But it gets solved.” (04:58)
  • Platforms adapt (e.g., shift from m-dot sites to responsive design).
  • Search engines adapt, lessening the impact of technical flaws.
• Linear Progress:
  Technical improvements tend to move “in a much more linear lockstep sort of fashion than anything else.” (05:47)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Prioritizing Technical Fixes:
  “If you have no ability to deploy structured data... you have to go dive in on the technical side... [Technical infra] is going to trump whatever value I think the quality of content might improve.” — Duane Forrester (01:26)
• On Enduring Need for Human Content:
  “You will never run out of content to explore... You will always need humans in that loop.” — Duane Forrester (02:07)
• On the New Nature of ‘Quality’:
  “Quality isn't just about sentence structure... it's about how you relate an entity... to make them retrievable by that crawler.” — Duane Forrester (03:07)
• On SEO Paradigm Shifts:
  “For most of our careers, we were told, you know, don't build for the crawlers, build for humans... You got to start building for the crawlers now...” — Duane Forrester (02:42)
• On Technical Problems Being Temporary:
  “Nobody does M dot anymore because responsive design... So the tech solves the problem or... the engine [search engine]... find a different way to care about the same data.” — Duane Forrester (05:14)

Key Timestamps

• 00:43 — Resource allocation scenario: technical SEO vs. content quality
• 01:26 — When technical SEO must come first (structured data example)
• 02:07–03:30 — Infinite opportunities in content and evolving definition of “quality”; building for LLM bots
• 04:35 — Technical debt increasingly solvable/automated
• 04:58–05:47 — How both engines and platforms adapt to technical issues; the linear progress of technical SEO vs. human “squishy” side of content

Conclusion

The episode concludes that while both technical SEO and content quality are foundational, the future leans toward investing more in human-crafted, high-quality content—provided your site is in sound technical shape. As technical issues increasingly find automated solutions, it’s the unique insights, depth, and relatability in content (optimally structured for both users and AI bots) that will set winners apart in search. Tyson and Duane distill years of expertise into actionable priorities for marketers facing resource constraints and a constantly evolving search landscape.