---
title: "HubHeroes 1st Ever State of the Inbound SEO Union, feat. Franco Valentino"
url: https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/podcast/inbound-marketing-and-seo-in-2023-franco-valentino
description: "What's in and what's out with SEO for inbound marketers? Can HubSpot really do it all for SEO, or does it have blind spots? And what the heck will AI..."
type: article
updated: 2026-10-31T02:28:50Z
canonical: https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/podcast/inbound-marketing-and-seo-in-2023-franco-valentino
---

# HubHeroes 1st Ever State of the Inbound SEO Union, feat. Franco Valentino

Welcome back to another episode of the HubHeroes podcast! This week .... ohhhh, this is a juicy episode.

Since the [dawn of inbound marketing time](https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/podcast/starting-with-why-turning-humans-into-heroes), SEO (search engine optimization) has cast a wide shadow across the land ... feared by many, understood by few. Is it a verb? Is it something you can check off your to do list? How does one guarantee getting on the first page of Google?

Over the years, the practice of SEO (and how to do it well) has evolved substantially.

- _Keyword stuffing is in._
- _Keyword stuffing is out._
- _It's all about the substance of your content._
- _Just kidding your user experience now matters, too._
- _On page SEO is king!_
- _Hold on just a minute, have you heard of schema markup?_
- _Marketers control everything about rankings!_
- _Just kidding, call your website host provider, their speeds are killing you._
- _Your words are so pretty, they're gonna do great!_
- _LOL, nevermind, your developer made the code on your site too bulky and now pages load too slowly for your content to matter._

And on, and on, and on!

So, this week, we're having what we're affectionately calling the HubHeroes State of the SEO in Inbound Union with the one and only Franco Valentino, an SEO Jedi and founder of [Narrative SEO](https://narrativeseo.com/about-franco-valentino-expert-seo-consultancy) and [Mekanix](https://mekanix.io/). We're going to talk about SEO — what's in, what's out, what HubSpot can help you with, and what it can't.

### What we cover in this episode

- When inbound marketers think about SEO today, what are the key mindsets they need to have?
- What are the OUTDATED mindsets they need to drop?
- When I put myself in the shoes of a marketer or business owner of a small business, I can imagine feeling crazy overwhelmed by everything I think I'm supposed to understand. So, what do I actually need to understand? What are the basics?
- How CAN HubSpot help folks with SEO?
- How CAN'T HubSpot help folks with SEO? Put another way, if I rely on HubSpot to tell me if I'm doing a great job optimizing my site and content for search, what am I missing?
- What is actually true about what people need to understand about technical SEO?
- How do you know when you need a developer?
- Are artificial intelligence and tools like ChatGPT going to ruin everything?

### Extra resources

- [How to measure content marketing ROI the right way (HubHeroes Podcast)](https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/blog/content-marketing-roi-reporting-tips-examples)
- [The importance of sounding like a human in B2B content](https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/blog/the-importance-of-being-human-in-your-b2b-content-liz-murphy-on-marketing-smarts)
- [The last SEO content strategy guide you'll ever need](https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/blog/pillar-based-marketing)

## Key facts

- **Format:** Podcast episode
- **Author:** George B. Thomas and Max Cohen and Chad Hohn
- **Published:** July 18, 2023

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Source: https://www.sidekickstrategies.com/podcast/inbound-marketing-and-seo-in-2023-franco-valentino
Sidekick Strategies · HubSpot consulting and content operations