🎙️ Unscripted SEO Podcast
Barry Schwartz: The SEO News Editor with 40,000 Stories to Tell
CEO of RustyBrick and founder of Search Engine Roundtable — 20+ years covering every major Google update from the front row of the industry.
Barry Schwartz is the CEO & President of RustyBrick, who specialise in software development and customised online technology. Barry is the founder of Search Engine Roundtable, which has been covering every Google update, algorithm change, and SEO industry development since 2003.
“Joy Hawkins: The Woman Behind Sterling Sky — Groundbreaking Local SEO Insights” — the founder of Sterling Sky on the most important and most misunderstood signals in local search, and what her team’s testing actually reveals about how Google Local works.
— Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky | Listen: Joy Hawkins on Local SEO →
Key Takeaways
- 20 years of Google update coverage teaches pattern recognition that no tool can replicate. Barry has watched every major algorithm shift from the front row. His most consistent observation: Google always moves toward rewarding what it originally said it wanted — quality, relevance, authority. The updates are course corrections, not redirections.
- Search Engine Roundtable is built on community intelligence. Barry’s coverage model relies on aggregating signals from practitioners across the SEO community. The Webmaster World forums were the original source; now it’s Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and SEO Slack communities. Collective pattern recognition beats individual observation.
- The news cycle is the enemy of good SEO strategy. Barry’s advice: use update coverage to understand direction, not to react tactically. Every brand that panics and changes strategy with every Google update is making their situation worse.
- RustyBrick’s software development background gives Barry a technical lens most SEO journalists lack. Understanding how search works at a systems level makes his analysis of Google’s patents, API documentation, and technical disclosures more grounded than pure editorial commentary.
Connect with Barry Schwartz
- Search Engine Roundtable: seroundtable.com
- RustyBrick: rustybrick.com
The Unscripted SEO Podcast features candid, unscripted conversations with SEOs and digital marketers. Hosted by Jeremy Rivera.
