The Unscripted SEO Interview Podcast

Charlie Sells brings 15 years of experience in brand messaging and positioning to discuss how small businesses can cut through complexity and build authentic brands that show up in search.

Key Topics Covered

Service Business Branding Charlie explains why service-based businesses should "stay hyper local" rather than trying to compete regionally. His advice for finding your competitive advantage? "Don't try to be bigger. Don't try to be flashier. Don't try to be anything other than who you are."

Working with a Florida event staffing company, Charlie discovered their retention rate was in the 80-90% range. "They're the most trusted name in conference and event staff"—that became their differentiator, not trying to be the biggest.

The Two-Part Brand Audit Framework Charlie always looks for two things: "Are we being really consistent? Every touchpoint of our brand—does it look the same, does it sound the same, does it feel the same on a sales call, social media, website, emails, in-person interactions?"

Second: "Are you really leaning into your unique competitive advantage?"

Branded vs. Non-Branded Search From his time at Dave Ramsey's Ramsey Solutions, Charlie learned a crucial lesson: "If they will get their branded terms right, then you can focus on the non-branded terms." He warns that "shiny object syndrome is rampant amongst entrepreneurs" who chase non-branded traffic while neglecting the basics.

His blunt take: "Search engines are the yellow pages today. You want to make it easy for somebody to just find you like that."

The Website Problem Charlie's most surprising piece of advice for clients: "If the weight of your business lands on your website, you have a problem."

Why? Your website is just one piece of your ecosystem. "If everything in your ecosystem is speaking the same language, then it's going to work." But when there's "no cohesive experience, no ecosystem," that's when brands struggle.

Technical SEO Still Matters Charlie shares a story about his staffing client who had keywords "in the graphic at the top of our page. In a designed graphic that can't be crawled, that had no alt text. I'm like, 'Nobody cares about that and Google's not recognizing it.'"

The lesson? "You have to plant a flag in the ground and say, here I am, and make it easy for people to find you."

Is SEO Dead? Charlie's take on the AI/LLM disruption: "I don't think traditional SEO is dead still. I think it still matters." While LLMs are changing search, "somebody is still looking for what you have" and "it still matters that you match intent more than anything else."

His strategy for the AI era? "I'm pushing folks to go way more grassroots and find ways to get on podcasts with niche audiences that are actually in their ICP."

Charlie's Two Essential Switches When onboarding clients, Charlie always starts with:

Mindset of Curiosity: "You've got to have a mindset of curiosity. If you are certain, if you are dead set, if you are rigid in your thinking about your brand, then this is not going to go well." His favorite question: "What is it like to be on the receiving end of your brand?"

Hold It With an Open Hand: "We've got to zoom out and not just think end of the month, end of the quarter. We've got to think about if where we want to be a year from now is our goal. What has to be true between now and then?"

Redirecting Good Ideas One of Charlie's most valuable skills is helping clients understand placement: "Just because it doesn't belong here doesn't mean it doesn't belong somewhere." A direct-to-camera video might be perfect for an email sequence but wrong for the homepage.

Resources Mentioned

Wyatt Bonicelli of Evolve Agency shares practical local SEO tactics for home service businesses—from Google Business Profile optimization and location page strategy to creative link building through local sponsorships and a clever gift card referral system that turns every customer into a lead generator.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Jeremy Rivera on the Unscripted SEO podcast by Be Sharp Digital Marketing sits down with Wyatt Bonicelli, founder of Evolve Agency in Edmond, Oklahoma, to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in marketing home service contractors. An engineer turned marketer, Wyatt has carved out a niche helping window cleaners, roofers, and other service professionals transition from relying solely on word-of-mouth to building a sustainable online presence that generates leads on autopilot.

The conversation covers the full spectrum of local SEO—from the critical importance of Google Business Profile verification to the age-old question of "how many location pages are too many?" Wyatt shares his approach to building local authority through sponsorship link building, Chamber of Commerce memberships, and creative tactics like using ChatGPT to find partnership opportunities.

Perhaps most valuable are the practical, low-cost marketing wins Wyatt recommends: car magnets, A-frame signs, door hangers with neighbor referrals, and a brilliant gift card system that creates a built-in affiliate program for service businesses. He also drops a Google Maps "driving directions hack" that sends trust signals to Google daily.

The episode wraps with a candid discussion about lead follow-up—why 90% of service calls go unanswered and how the Harvard study showing 400% better conversion within five minutes should change how contractors approach their phones.

Key Topics Covered

Why home service contractors struggle to invest in marketing (and how to meet them where they are)

Google Business Profile optimization for service-area businesses without a physical address

The location page debate: How many is too many in 2024?

Hub-and-spoke internal linking strategy for multi-location businesses

Creative link building through local sponsorships and advanced Google queries

The noindex mistake that cost one client years of branded search visibility

Steve Hunziker's gift card referral system explained

Why LLMs haven't disrupted local SEO (yet)

Combining Meta ads with SEO for short-term and long-term growth

The $10/day Meta ad strategy that pre-sells door-to-door visits

Lead follow-up statistics that should terrify every service business owner

Low-hanging fruit: Car magnets, A-frames, and door hangers

The Chamber of Commerce SEO bump

Google Maps driving directions hack for daily trust signals

Quotable Moments

"Any page on your website that doesn't have a link internally, externally, it's probably not going to get indexed."

"You're 400% more likely to convert if you call within the first five minutes."

"Let's turn one lead into more. Let's try to get three or four out of every one. And that pyramid will just continue to grow."

"We're kind of in a bubble a lot of times and think that everybody else is using the tools the same way that we are."

"If they don't have any web presence at all, no online reviews or a website talking about what they do and where—it's a little harder to trust them with a big check."

Guest Bio

Wyatt Bonicelli is the founder of Evolve Agency, a digital marketing firm based in Edmond, Oklahoma specializing in web development and SEO for home service contractors. With a background in engineering, Wyatt brings a systematic, results-driven approach to helping small businesses—particularly window cleaners, roofers, and renova...

In this deep-dive conversation, Alejandro Meyerhans shares his journey from Spanish waiter to CEO of a successful link building agency, revealing the mathematical foundations and strategic frameworks that make link building work. We explore the science behind PageRank, the evolving role of links in LLM optimization, Google's HCU updates, and the hard truths about operating within platform ecosystems.

Guest Bio

Alejandro Meyerhans is the CEO of GetMeLinks, a strategic link building agency serving agencies and CMOs. Since 2016, Alejandro has built his SEO expertise from the ground up—starting with affiliate sites, becoming a forensic SEO auditor, and eventually leading one of the industry's most respected link building operations. He's known for his data-driven approach, combining mathematics, game theory, and rigorous testing to demystify what actually works in modern link building.

Connect with Alejandro:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alejandro-meyerhans

YouTube: Alejandro Meyerhans SEO

Company: GetMeLinks.com

Key Topics Discussed

From Waiter to SEO Expert (00:00 - 04:03)

How Alejandro discovered SEO in 2016 while trying to escape waiting tables in Spain

Working with Dominic Wells at Onfolio (now NASDAQ-listed)

The transition from building affiliate sites to becoming a forensic SEO auditor

How he became CEO of GetMeLinks after being a client first

The intersection of math, statistics, game theory, and SEO

The Science of Link Building (04:03 - 10:28)

Why link building has intentional opacity and FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt)

Key influencers: Charles Floate, Matt Diggity, and the TEDSEO testing community

Understanding what's working versus understanding why it works

The importance of analyzing competitive backlink profiles

How to read the link graph and replicate winning strategies

Core Link Signals Beyond PageRank (10:28 - 14:35)

PageRank: The foundational "link juice" model and how it divides authority

Anchor text ratios: Why exact match anchors no longer work (0% in most winning profiles)

Reasonable Surfer: Link placement matters—body links above the fold carry more weight

Passage rank: Surrounding text relevance amplifies or diminishes link value

Link velocity: Must be proportional to traffic, brand search volume, and referral sources

Container authority: The power of both the linking page AND the linking domain

Sequential timing: Why you can't start a new site with 100 digital PR links

Related Resource: How to Start a Link Building Campaign

Distance to Seed and Verticality (14:35 - 22:03)

Understanding Google's seed list: .gov, .edu, and tier one authorities

How topical authority spreads from hub sites in each vertical

Why locksmith SEO is different from e-commerce which is different from YMYL

The completion game: You only need to match top 3 competitors plus a bit more

SEO as a jigsaw puzzle—technical foundation, content, user signals, brand signals

The logarithmic nature of PageRank (getting from DR 80 to 90 costs exponentially more)

Related Resource: Link Building for New Websites

Link Gap Analysis Methodology (22:03 - 29:33)...

How a Psychology Degree, Blog Writing, and Storytelling Built a $75K Content Marketing Success

About This Episode

In this episode of the Unscripted SEO Podcast, host Jeremy Rivera sits down with Alison Ver Halen, founder of AV Writing Services and author of Content Marketing Made Easy. Alison shares how she accidentally fell into content marketing after graduating during the 2009 recession, and how writing blog posts for a law firm led to $75,000 in new business within just six months.

The conversation covers the evolving landscape of SEO and content marketing, including E-E-A-T principles, the Helpful Content Update, the "robot sandwich" of AI-driven search, and why storytelling remains the most powerful tool in a content marketer's arsenal.

Guest Bio

Alison Ver Halen is the founder of AV Writing Services and a content marketing strategist with nearly a decade of experience. With degrees in English and Psychology from Lawrence University, Alison helps professional service providers attract, engage, and convert high-quality leads through strategic blog content, landing pages, and brand storytelling. She is also the author of Content Marketing Made Easy.

Key Takeaways

The $75K Blog Post Discovery: Alison's first content marketing client saw $75,000 in new business within six months—just from blog posts she was writing for his law firm

Information Gain is Everything: The key to standing out isn't just creating content—it's adding your unique perspective, experience, and stories that ChatGPT can't replicate

E-E-A-T is About How You Write: Rather than technical markup and author schemas, E-E-A-T signals come from first-person experience and professional perspective woven into your content

Don't Propose on the First Date: Match your calls-to-action to where prospects are in the buyer journey—a newsletter signup beats a sales call request for top-of-funnel visitors

The Robot Sandwich: With AI tools searching other AI outputs based on human-created content, writing for humans remains the winning strategy

It's Still SEO, People: Despite the hype around GEO, AIEO, and AEO, the fundamentals of search engine optimization haven't changed—just the platforms

Guest Everything: Podcasts, blogs, newsletters—earned media builds the Know-Like-Trust factor that drives real business results

Topics Discussed

[00:00] Introduction and Alison's background

[02:34] The $75,000 aha moment in content marketing

[04:02] Methodology for researching and developing unique content

[05:54] E-E-A-T: What it really means for content creators

[10:22] The "robot sandwich" of AI-driven search

[14:05] Understanding the buyer journey and sales funnel

[15:51] Lead magnets and CTAs in the post-ChatGPT era

[19:42] The Helpful Content Update and brand identity

[26:08] GEO, AIEO, AEO—why it's still just SEO

[27:02] Link building in the age of LLMs

[36:49] Best practices for content quality and distribution

[41:08] Where to find Alison Ver Halen

Notable Quotes

"After six months, he came back and told me that I had brought in $75,000 worth of business to his law firm just through the blog posts I was writing for him."

"We are primed to connect with stories, we are primed to remember stories. So that is critical for getting your point across and for being memorable."

"I refer to it as proposing on the first date. Like, well we just met, dude. That is way too much way too soon. And you're gonna scare them off."

"AI does not generate anything. It just regurgitates what humans have already created."

"It's still SEO, people. Just becau...

Will Wang of Black Belt Consulting joins Jeremy Rivera to discuss his journey from corporate IT analyst to accidentally building a seven-figure marketing agency. In this candid conversation, Will shares the expensive lessons he learned about hiring (including a $500,000 mistake), how he's leveraging AI for market research while keeping humans in the loop, and why he's betting big on YouTube and Instagram while going bearish on LinkedIn for 2025.

This episode is packed with practical insights for agency owners, consultants, and entrepreneurs who are scaling their businesses and want to avoid the costly mistakes that come with rapid growth.

Listen to the full episode: Unscripted SEO Podcast

Guest Information

Will Wang

Company: Black Belt Consulting

Instagram: @blackbeltconsultant

LinkedIn: Will Wang

Email: [email protected]

About Will: Will grew up in Sydney, Australia, worked in corporate IT making $130-150K/year before taking the leap into entrepreneurship. After two years of struggles and making every mistake possible, he built a seven-figure marketing agency which he sold 12 months ago. He's also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt (earned 4 years ago) and now runs Black Belt Consulting, helping businesses scale from $25K to $250K per month with strategic marketing consulting.

Key Topics & Timestamps

The Corporate Escape

Growing up as an immigrant in Sydney, Australia

The soul-crushing reality of corporate IT ($130-150K salary trap)

The difficult decision: when to make the leap with a family to support

Two years of stumbling through every possible business mistake

The $500K Hiring Mistake

Why he hired a general manager when the business wasn't ready

The account manager who created an unnecessary layer between clients and strategy

The remote copywriter problem: why proximity matters for creative roles

Key lesson: "We weren't big enough for a GM. We just needed me to spend less time working in a few of the things on the business"

Taking full ownership: "It was all my fault... their abilities were hampered by how I supported them"

Building Lean, AI-Enabled Teams

The shift to small core teams of highly competent people

His new hiring framework: creativity vs. process-driven roles

When to hire locally vs. when to leverage cost arbitrage with virtual teams

Using online jobs.ph and Upwork strategically

"Give people a goal, give people a vision, and then hire people who are competent and disciplined enough to do what they need to do"

SOPs and Systems for Non-Operations People

Using Loom videos to document processes instead of writing SOPs yourself

Having your VA or operations person create the documentation by following your recordings

Why being the "big picture creative" doesn't mean you can't systematize

AI for Market Research (Not Delivery)

How customer research went from weeks to minutes

Using ChatGPT and Claude to build detailed customer avatars

The critical rule: "Nothing that gets delivered to clients is actually AI done"

AI for research, humans for delivery—that's the framework

Building AI-enabled teams in 2025

Content Strategy & Platform Bets for 2025

Going all-in on YouTube: "YouTube is the big one for me. I'm investing a lot into that this year"

The Instagram surpri...