This is not my real voice. It's a robot.  Call WorkHacker Chief Strategist Rob Garner at 469.347.4090, or email info@workhacker.com for more details about how we can help your business. www.workhacker.com --- FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW--- Thanks for listening. Today I want to direct this episode toward all of you who have spoken with me before, and have actually heard my voice in person, or maybe on a phone call, or in a Google Meet or Zoom call. I've been conducting an experiment over the last two months with Eleven Labs voices. It wasn't a secret per se, but the surprising reactions I received warranted this explanatory episode. The voice you are listening to right now is not me - it is an Eleven Labs premium voice clone. You are now in effect, listening to a robot. Your ears want to believe it is my actual voice reading this narrative, but it is not. The last sentence was synthetic. This sentence is also synthetic. And the remaining audio is synthetic. In fact, ten of the 12 previous episodes utilized this voice clone, though the ideas, thoughts, and words were all mine. I wrote every single word you are hearing now. While I started with the clone, you can expect to hear more of my real voice in future episodes. The episodes interviewing Bruce Clay, Viktor Grant, and Bob Heyman were all recorded live, as you can plainly tell when compared to these narrative-styled episodes. I will leave it to you to judge the quality of this audio. Throughout this experiment, I have been quite surprised at how many people did not detect that this was voice cloning technology at all. I had incorrectly assumed that most people would be able to detect the clone, but this was overwhelmingly not the case. These are people who know me very well, some who speak with me almost daily, or several times a month. There were some who thought I had done overdubs, due to slight changes in the timbre from paragraph to paragraph. But one thing is for sure, if you did not know this was a synthetic voice before this episode started playing, you certainly do now, and all of the potential audio defects are now exposed. It will become easier for you to recognize, not just with my voice, but with many other voices. It is an acquired detection skill that I think helps us think more critically when we are either knowingly or unknowingly consuming synthetic media. But as the technology gets better, it will require a more discerning ear, until we potentially get to the point that it can't be detected at all, only suspected. If you are wondering how the premium voice cloning technology works, Eleven Labs requests up to two hours of sample voice recording. This can be a single file, or multiple files. Once the files are uploaded, it takes them about four-to-six hours to render the premium clone. They had me read a full chapter of the Great Gatsby, and also one from Jane Eyre. I also read some business focused content, all for a total of approximately 90 minutes of audio. The better your recording set up is, the more accurate your voice clone will turn out. I have created voices for my clients using different types of cloning. The results vary greatly. For a premium Eleven Labs account, only one custom premium voice clone is allowed. The Instant Voice Clone feature requires a shorter audio example, and can be rendered in minutes. I have had some Instant Voice Clones do a good job, replicating a permitted client's voice to about 80-85% accuracy. In other cases, the instant voice clone does not sound like the sample voice at all, but can create original and usable voices nonetheless. The Instant Voice Clone is not near as expressive or accurate as the premium clone. There are also many other intricacies in creating and rendering voice clones for content. Speech synthesis markup language can be used to fine tune. There are also tools for pronunciations and inflections. It is also quite a strange feeling to hear yourself say words that were never spoken.

Call WorkHacker Chief Strategist Rob Garner at 469.347.4090, or email info@workhacker.com for more details on we can help your business.  www.workhacker.com FULL TRANSCRIPT   The HR Managers Guide on How to Hire an SEO Expert in 2026 - Navigating the New AI Era If you’re hiring an SEO right now, you’re entering one of the fastest-changing areas in digital marketing - transformed by both artificial intelligence and automation. Some of this podcast episode may sound a bit technical, but stay with me here, and maybe even listen twice. In this episode, you’ll learn how to identify real expertise in a crowded field, apart from just namedropping new acronyms like GEO, AEO, and AIO alone. We’ll cover the shift from keywords to context, the rise of AI-driven workflows, and why hands-on experience still matters more than ever. You’ll discover how to evaluate different roles, spot genuine thought leadership through a candidate’s digital footprint, and understand when specialization is an asset - or a blind spot. We’ll also talk about the importance of language fluency, staying current with industry updates, and how the best search pros connect optimization directly to business goals and revenue. By the end, you’ll know more about what to look for, what to avoid, and how to find an expert who can help your organization thrive. Artificial intelligence has changed the game for search pros - from how search engines interpret information to how content gets created, optimized, and distributed. Yet, most hiring managers are still using outdated criteria when evaluating search talent. It is important to note that while many things have changed, it is all still largely based on the core principles of SEO. But search pros of the past must have new perspectives and experience to succeed, and this perspective is not only critical - it is imperative. This outlines the main function of a good human resource professional tasked with filling an SEO position: Understanding the core need, understanding a candidates core skill set and experience, and making the right choice for the job at hand. There are many objective and subjective considerations for hiring an expert, literally too many to cover in a single podcast episode. But let’s start with understanding the conceptual shift from keywords to context, which can quickly shed a great light on how prepared a search professional is for future challenges. This concept is at the crux of understanding the new age of AI-based retrieval, and will help you qualify the best candidates. A candidate speaking in these terms can help you understand if they are on top of current trends, and thinking toward the future. A decade ago, search revolved around ranking for the right phrases. But now, search systems - powered by massive AI models—understand meaning, entities, relationships, and user intent. So while many newcomers are still chasing keywords, true professionals are shaping context - using structured data, embeddings, content entities, engaging topics, and brand signals to train search engines on what their business represents. This does not negate the fact that keywords and keyphrases are still considerations in modern search, it is just that the way we work with them has changed. And that’s where real experience becomes irreplaceable. Someone who’s lived through multiple Google updates, seen the impact of automation done right and wrong, and understands how content, links, and user signals interplay over time - has instincts you can’t learn from a quick course or prompt. Large language models can speed things up, but it can’t replace judgment. Ultimately, they are prediction engines that set the stage for human judgment, and that is not going-to change in the near future. And that again is where experience is critical. Let’s break down some of the fundamental modern SEO roles you’ll encounter. The Technical SEO is now part developer, and part data analyst, managing everything from structured

n this special episode, we sit down with Bob Heyman - the marketing pioneer widely credited with coining the term Search Engine Optimization - and Viktor Grant, one of the earliest innovators in digital marketing and analytics. Together, they take us back to the origins of SEO in the 1990s, sharing the stories, people, and technological shifts that shaped the practice long before Google became a verb. From the early days of manual submissions and keyword meta tags to today’s world of AI-driven search and generative experiences, Heyman and Grant explore how optimization has evolved - and what’s next as algorithms begin to think, create, and personalize results in real time. They discuss whether we’re entering a new era of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) or simply witnessing the next natural phase of SEO, and what these changes mean for marketers, creators, and searchers alike. If you’ve ever wondered where SEO came from, how it’s transforming in the age of AI, and what skills will matter most in the decade ahead, this conversation offers a fascinating mix of history, insight, and forward-looking perspective from two of the people who helped define the field itself. www.workhacker.com.

In this episode, Rob talks about his work with the Dallas Ft Worth Search Engine Marketing Association, and its related digital marketing conference, State of Search, held yearly in October in the DFW area.

In this first interview episode of the WorkHacker podcast, Rob Garner chats with Bruce Clay about SEO, then and now, and also about where GEO/AIO/AEO fall in the general taxonomy of digital marketing. www.workhacker.com 

For years, SEO revolved around keywords. The formula was simple: find the right phrase, place it strategically, and climb the rankings. More recently, a new idea called Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, has started to make noise. The goal is to optimize for A-I answers in systems like Chat G-P-T, and Perplexity. But here’s the catch. Both keyword-led SEO and early attempts at G-E-O share the same flaw. They prioritize words over context. And in a world where search engines and generative AI now- interpret meaning instead of just matching strings, context is the real king. Contact us at info@workhacker.com, or visit www.workhacker.com for more info.

Back in 2013, when I was writing my book "Search and Social", I discussed a concept that many in the SEO community weren’t quite ready to embrace. I talked about brand mentions as a ranking factor – the idea that you didn’t always need a direct hyperlink to gain authority from other websites. At the time, it seemed almost heretical to suggest that something other than a traditional backlink could carry similar weight in search rankings. Contact us at info@workhacker.com, or visit www.workhacker.com for more info.

Most writers and marketers focus on the primary keyword. It’s the flashy term that goes into the title and meta tag, the one everyone thinks will win them traffic. But here’s the overlooked truth: it’s the supporting keywords—the secondary and tertiary phrases—that transform a decent article into a long-term traffic magnet. Because in SEO and AI today, context is king. If you would like a free one on one consultation, visit us at www.workhacker.com or email to info@workhacker.com.

A small parameter in the Google search URL string quietly disappeared last week. That single change has shaken the entire SEO industry, sending ripple effects through data tools, reporting dashboards, and even the way we measure success in search. Check out this episode to learn more, and visit us at workhacker.com.

When Google launched in 1998, it wasn’t the first search engine. But the real revolution wasn’t just Google’s algorithmic design - it was what happened next. The web became a living corpus. That dynamic interplay with content developers created a feedback loop unlike anything the digital world had seen before. Visit us at www.workhacker.com to learn more about WorkHacker Digital.

In this episode, Rob Garner talks about three visionaries who published significant works in the 1990s that would be a beacon for the world we live in today. Understanding their ideas helps build a solid foundation for your own AI/GEO/SEO and content strategies. Visit www.workhacker.com for more info.

This episode explores Rob's concepts around real-time content marketing, as it applies through the modern AI, GEO, and LLM lens. Rob has written and spoken about these concepts for decades, and even in the age of AI, the approach is still evergreen, and even more attainable than ever before. Visit www.workhacker.com for more info.

In this episode, Rob Garner explores SEO within the lens of AI and LLMs, and posits that SEOs have been human intermediaries between content and AI all along. If you think about it - search engines are generative in the sense that they provide lists on the fly. And search engines check all the boxes as early examples of artifical intelligence. Visit www.workhacker.com for more info.

In this episode, Rob will discuss the etymology of the term "SEO," specifically on the linguistics of the word "optimization," and how it plays in the naming for AI related strategies and visibility. Bruce Clay, Leland Harden, Bob Heyman, and Viktor Grant are quoted in this podcast. Learn about the history of the term "SEO," an interesting story you might not have heard about how it came to be. Visit www.workhacker.com for more info.