Search Off the Record takes you behind the scenes of Google Search and its inner workings! In each episode, the folks from the Search Relations team will give you background info on the decision-making behind launches, feature prioritization in Search Console, and the projects Google Search teams are working on. They will share fun stories from the many conferences they attend as well as from their day-to-day working life at Google. They will also dive into the currently trending conversations in the SEO community at large. Have a listen!
New AI Tool Builds ANY Automation in Minutes (Live Demo)
This episode is sponsored by https://seowriting.ai/ – Create SEO-optimized long-form content that actually ranks with their super pages feature. Use code HACKPODCAST for 25% off.
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Tired of complex automation tools that break when you change one tiny detail?
Fed up with spending hours debugging N8N workflows or paying premium prices for Zapier?
In this episode, Aaron from Gumloop demonstrates LIVE how to build a sophisticated research assistant workflow that would take hours in other tools – completed in just 20 minutes using their AI-native automation platform.
Best of all, Gumloop has an actually usable free forever plan so you can all try it for free.
What makes Gumloop different:
👉 AI-Native Design: Built assuming you'll use AI in your workflows
👉 MCP Nodes: Describe what you want, get working integrations instantly
👉 Free Forever Plan: 1,000 credits monthly, only pay for external AI calls
👉 Visual Debugging: See exactly what's happening at each step
Watch Aaron prove that powerful automation doesn't require a computer science degree – perfect for business owners, sales teams, and anyone who found other tools too complex or expensive.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Automation Reality Check
01:54 Platform Overview
04:48 Pricing Breakdown
07:20 Live Build Begins
11:00 Data Source Setup
16:00 MCP Node Demo
22:00 Loop Mode Magic
28:00 Report Generation
32:00 Testing Process
36:00 Interface Creation
39:00 Customer Stories
42:00 Internal Use Cases
45:00 Future Outlook
How Googlebot Crawls the Web
May 29, 2025
In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin and
Gary from the Google Search Relations team take a deep dive into
how Googlebot and web crawling work—past, present, and future.
Through their humorous and thoughtful conversation, they explore
how crawling evolved from the early days of the internet, when
scripts could index a chunk of the web from a single homepage, to
the more complex and considerate systems used today. They discuss
the basics of what a crawler is, how tools like cURL or Wget
relate, and how policies like robots.txt ensure crawlers play nice
with web infrastructure.
The conversation also covers Google’s internal shift
to unified infrastructure for all crawling needs, highlighting how
different teams moved from separate crawlers to a shared system
that enforces consistent policies. They explain why some fetches
bypass robots.txt (like user-initiated actions) and the rising
impact of automated traffic from new products and AI agents. With a
nod to initiatives like Common Crawl, the episode ends with a look
at the road ahead, acknowledging growing internet congestion but
remaining optimistic about the web’s capacity to adapt.
Resources:
Episode transcript →
https://goo.gle/sotr092-transcript
Listen to more Search Off the Record → https://goo.gle/sotr-yt
Subscribe to Google Search Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral
Search Off the Record is a podcast series that takes
you behind the scenes of Google Search with the Search Relations
team.
#SOTRpodcast #SEO #SearchOfTheRecord
Speakers: Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes
Products Mentioned: Googlebotl,
Gemma,
Google AI
Google’s Secret AI Tool Builds $10k Websites FREE
Get all the prompts & tools used in this video: https://www.authorityhacker.com/freeb…
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The game has changed thanks to cutting-edge AI like Google's Firebase Studio, enabling you to:
👉 Plan Your Perfect Site with AI: Use Gemini (free 2.5 Pro access) to create a detailed Product Requirements Document (PRD) including color palettes, fonts, and full website copy.
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👉 Build with AI "Vibe Coding": Watch as Firebase Studio takes your PRD and generates a fully functional Next.js website in minutes.
👉 Refine & Enhance with Precision: Learn prompting techniques to iteratively improve design, add features (like an AI chatbot), and fix issues.
👉 Replace Expensive Tools: See how to build multi-step forms (like Typeform) and other elements for free.
👉 Master Manual & AI-Assisted Edits: Go beyond AI generation to directly edit copy, upload images, and fine-tune your site in Firebase Studio's code editor.
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—
CHAPTERS
00:00:00 Intro: Free AI Websites
00:01:26 The Challenge
00:03:53 AI Planning (PRD)
00:14:50 AI Logo Generation
00:16:39 AI Website Generation
00:24:00 AI Design Refinement
00:32:00 Adding AI Components
00:35:50 Editing Copy & Images
00:40:50 Free Hosting & Deploy
00:46:28 The Big Opportunity
00:55:57 Next Steps & Features
01:00:15
SOTR092_Transcript.pdf
Search Off the Record takes you behind the scenes of Google Search and its inner workings! In each episode, the folks from the Search Relations team will give you background info on the decision-making behind launches, feature prioritization in Search Console, and the projects Google Search teams are working on. They will share fun stories from the many conferences they attend as well as from their day-to-day working life at Google. They will also dive into the currently trending conversations in the SEO community at large. Have a listen!
#332 – 4 PROVEN Steps To Beat Google Updates
Google just released a fat core update and all the rules you know about SEO are about to change again. As Google has already started de-indexing what they deem to be low quality sites, content auditing has never been more important.
It's the process that might save you from an extinction event during the next update, or could resurrect your site if you've already been affected. Plus, it's the only process that's consistently shown results for websites affected by previous large updates like Panda, medic, spam and core updates.
So in this episode, we dive into what this latest core update means for SEO practices, and break down exactly what you need to do to curate content that will keep Google – and you – happy.
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A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR Agency, Search Intelligence.
https://search-intelligence.co.uk/
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Full show notes:
https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/4-proven-steps-to-beat-google-updates/