Video: Michael Lewittes on growing a site after an algorithm update

He built his own entertainment news site, went through numerous Google algorithm updates and sold it to a private equity firm at the top.

Chat with SearchBot

Michael Lewittes, a veteran entertainment journalist who worked at numerous large media outlets, started his entertainment news site Gossip Cop and later sold it to a private equity firm at the top of the site’s performance. We discussed how he did it and how he managed to work through numerous Google search algorithm updates — not all of them positive for his site.

It was a two-part interview, the first part was mostly about his history in the entertainment space and why he started his own site, even though he was super successful working Access Hollywood, US Weekly, NY Post, NY Daily News and other media networks. We mostly focused on how he first learned about SEO, the early Panda update and how he reshaped Gossip Cop to excel through these updates by focusing on E-A-T before it was the cool thing to do.

Here are the two videos back-to-back:

If you’re a search professional interested in appearing on Barry’s vlog, you can fill out this form on Search Engine Roundtable; he’s currently looking to do socially distant, outside interviews in the NY/NJ tri-state area. You can also subscribe to his YouTube channel by clicking here.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.