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The Edward Show

Edward Sturm

Daily SEO advice, hacks, and interviews with some of the top voices in search engine optimization, as well as sit-downs with many undiscovered talents.

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  • 51 episodes
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  • English

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  • S1 · E1145
    August 23 · 8 min

    Google Just Gave SEOs a New Ranking Signal (Do This Now) - Preferred Sources

    E1145: Google just gave SEOs a new feature that could change how publishers build visibility across Search, Discover, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. I break down Google Preferred Sources, how it works, why it matters, and why publishers should pay attention before everyone starts using it. Google Preferred Sources allows users to choose publishers they want to see more often in Google Search experiences. These selections become a user-controlled signal that works alongside Google's ranking systems. I cover: - What Google Preferred Sources is and why Google launched it - Why this could become an important signal for publishers and SEOs - How Preferred Sources connects with Google Discover, Top Stories, AI Overviews, and AI Mode - How to check if your website is eligible to appear as a preferred source - How to add a Preferred Source button to your website - Where to place the button to maximize the chances that readers select your site - How I customized my own Preferred Source buttons using WordPress and Elementor - Why this is not just for news publishers, but can also apply to brands with company blogs and product pages - How domain-level and subdomain-level sites are eligible while subdirectories are not - How SEOs can think about this as an audience-building strategy Google's documentation says Preferred Sources selections do not override relevance. Your content still needs to match user interests and provide value, but this gives publishers a new way to encourage users to tell Google they want more from their website. This is one of the few features where publishers can directly encourage users to create a signal around their website. If you run a website, publish content, work in SEO, or care about Google Discover and AI search visibility, this is something you should understand. I also share how to implement this on a website, where I would place the buttons, and why I think many publishers will overlook this opportunity. ⭐️ Search Engine Journal: Google's Preferred Sources Feature Is Now a Global SEO Signal - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-preferred-sources-feature-is-now-a-global-seo-signal/573591/ ⭐️ Google Developers: Preferred Sources Documentation - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sources ⭐️ Compact Keywords testimonial insert - Rank & Rent SEO: How Ippei Built 130 Sites - and Made $240K From One 15-Hour Website - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muwrS4Dh_R8 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Preferred Sources Breakthrough 00:17 How the Feature Works 01:10 Old Button vs New Popup 02:51 Designing High Converting Buttons 03:41 Where to Place the CTA 04:29 Setup Guide With Claude 05:21 Discover and Ranking Limits 06:07 AI Mode and Global Impact 06:39 Domain Eligibility Rules 07:18 SEO That Makes Money The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #ecommerce

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  • S1 · E1144
    August 22 · 17 min

    Google's August Spam Update Just Crushed Scaled Content - SaaS Is Winning

    E1144: Google's August 2026 spam update has officially finished rolling out, and we're seeing clear patterns in who got hit, who recovered, and who is winning. The update launched August 18 and completed just three days later on August 21. But the volatility started well before Google officially announced it. Throughout August, sites were reporting major ranking swings, sudden traffic losses, and unexpected recoveries. One of the biggest patterns: scaled content sites are getting crushed. I break down what happened during the August spam update using real sites, Google Search Console screenshots, Reddit posts, Ahrefs & Semrush data, and examples being shared throughout the SEO community. Topics covered: - How the August spam update started affecting sites before its official August 18 launch - Sites publishing 500 to 1,000 pages per day suddenly losing rankings and traffic - The difference between legitimate programmatic SEO and scaled content abuse - Google's policy against scraping, stitching, and combining content without adding meaningful value - A site getting roughly 2,200 organic users per day before its traffic started collapsing - Guru99 falling from an estimated 14 million monthly organic clicks in 2021 to roughly 50,000 today - The pattern of sites rapidly increasing their number of pages while their organic traffic falls - Why "Mount AI" happens when sites use AI to rapidly scale low-value content - Mike King's explanation for why Google may not need to detect AI-generated content directly - How user behavior and site-quality signals can eventually expose bad scaled content - Why generative AI at scale is not inherently spam if the pages actually provide value - An expired-domain case that some SEOs initially blamed on the spam update - Why redirects from acquired or expired domains aren't automatically expired domain abuse - The importance of maintaining search intent when migrating or redirecting pages - SaaS sites that appear to be winning during the August volatility - Why short bottom-of-funnel landing pages are continuing to work - Sites previously hit by Google spam systems suddenly reporting recoveries - Whether this spam update could be followed by another Google core update I revisit Mike King's explanation of Mount AI. His argument is that Google doesn't need to reliably identify whether content was written by AI. Google can initially rank a large new set of pages, collect signals about how searchers respond, and then adjust the site's visibility based on those signals. Publishing 100,000 pages isn't automatically the problem. Publishing 100,000 pages that don't give searchers unique value is. There is a legitimate way to do programmatic SEO at scale. The underlying data, usefulness of the pages, search intent, UX, and reason for those pages to exist all matter. Meanwhile, I'm seeing encouraging movement from SaaS sites. Our own vibe-coded SaaS has been growing throughout August without aggressively scaling content, and I share another newer SaaS using short bottom-of-funnel landing pages that has also been gaining organic clicks. The August spam update is finished. Now we get to see whether the volatility settles down or Google has something else coming next. ⭐️ SE Roundtable: Google August 2026 Spam Update - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-august-2026-spam-update-done-41906.html ⭐️ Reddit: Who got hit - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO_Marketing_Offers/comments/1vsln4q/comment/p4mlfam/ ⭐️ David Quaid - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid/status/2090046206290386970?s=20 ⭐️ Expired Domain Comment - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1vrv11e/breaking_google_august_2026_spam_update_is/ ⭐️ Ep 1141 - Can You Launch 100,000 Pages and Survive Google? - https://youtu.be/wNtiygMsRfg ⭐️ Donmend0 on 𝕏 (site recovery) - https://x.com/donmend0/status/2090438229635879068 ⭐️ Ganesh_S_007 on 𝕏 (site recovery) - https://x.com/Ganesh_S_007/status/2090502537741029874 ⭐️ Ep 1127 - Google's Biggest SEO Leak Changed Everything… But Almost Nobody Adapted - https://youtu.be/fIs1ZSmEJGU ⭐️ James Dooley - https://youtu.be/EOkrLkKNDrY 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Spam Update Recap 01:03 Scaled Content Fallout 03:32 Spam Policy Breakdown 04:11 Programmatic SEO Wipeouts 05:31 Guru99 Case Study 08:15 Mount AI Explained 10:32 Expired Domain Confusion 12:49 SaaS Sites Winning 13:54 Recoveries and Core Rumors 15:13 Durable SEO 17:06 Episode Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #programmaticseo #seopodcast

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  • S1 · E1143
    August 20 · 1 hr 6 min

    He Did 2,000 Podcasts in a Year Just for SEO Rankings

    E1143: He Did 2,000 Podcasts in a Year Just for SEO Rankings James Dooley has published 2,000 unique podcast episodes this year and is on track to hit 3,000 by the end of the year. But he's not doing it to build a traditional podcast audience. He's doing it for SEO. James breaks down the system he uses to turn short, keyword-focused podcast episodes into Google rankings, video rankings, backlinks, leads, and mentions across AI platforms. His episodes are typically only 5-15 minutes long. Instead of making broad, entertainment-focused shows, he treats each podcast episode like an SEO landing page: one search query, one tightly focused topic, and questions built around the attributes of that topic. We get into exactly how this works, including how James chooses topics, structures episodes, distributes them, and uses podcast syndication as part of a larger SEO strategy. We also discuss why he deliberately targets bottom-of-funnel searches such as "best lead generation company for plumbers," how he approaches competitor keywords, and why video has become such an important part of his search strategy. James explains how his team: - Creates podcast episodes around individual search queries - Keeps most SEO-focused episodes between 5 and 15 minutes - Structures podcast conversations similarly to SEO pages - Targets bottom-of-funnel keywords designed to generate inquiries - Uploads the video to YouTube before distributing the podcast - Uses Transistor to syndicate episodes across podcast platforms - Identifies podcast platforms that provide dofollow and nofollow links - Links podcast descriptions back to highly relevant pages - Works to get syndicated podcast URLs crawled by Google - Uses transcripts to reinforce entities and relationships between topics - Publishes supporting press releases and guest posts - Distributes episodes through social platforms - Uses IMDb as part of his entity and knowledge-panel strategy - Tests publishing similar videos across multiple YouTube channels - Uses slightly different titles and thumbnails when testing distribution - Tries to trigger Google video carousels for targeted searches - Targets competitor names, alternatives, and comparison searches with video - Uses podcast content to support Google rankings and AI visibility We also talk about an important distinction between ranking a video and getting a video recommended by YouTube. James isn't necessarily optimizing these podcasts to become viral YouTube videos. His goal is often much simpler: when someone searches a commercially valuable query, he wants his video to appear. That changes how he thinks about everything from episode length to entertainment value. James also explains why podcast syndication matters beyond YouTube. While YouTube transcripts may primarily be accessible within Google's ecosystem, publishing transcripts and related content elsewhere gives search engines and large language models additional text-based sources connecting people, companies, products, and topics. We get into: - Podcast SEO vs. traditional YouTube growth - Google video rankings - AI search and LLM visibility - Podcast backlinks - Entity SEO - Knowledge panels and KGMIDs - Semantic triples - Press release syndication - Google News and Google Discover - AI-generated podcast videos - HeyGen, ElevenLabs, and Higgsfield - Podcast sponsorships and monetization - Why James is publishing 3,000 episodes this year - How he built a team to handle editing, thumbnails, uploads, and distribution James also shares why he's doing such an extreme amount of content in the first place. After writing eight books in a year, he set himself the goal of producing 3,000 podcast episodes so that when he asks the business owners he works with to publish one episode per week, he can show that he practices what he preaches. This is a detailed look at what happens when podcasting is treated not only as content, but as an SEO distribution system. ⭐️ James Dooley's website - https://jamesdooley.com/ ⭐️ James Dooley on 𝕏 - https://x.com/james_dooley ⭐️ James Dooley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameszdooley/ ⭐️ James Dooley on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jameszdooley/ ⭐️ James Dooley on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/james.dooley1/ ⭐️ James Dooley on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@JamesDooley 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 2000 Podcasts Results 01:41 Keyword First Podcast Model 03:27 Bottom of Funnel Queries 05:58 Syndication Stack Setup 08:21 IMDb Entity Boosting 10:11 Backlink Lift Explained 12:19 Episode Content Blueprint 15:13 Titles Descriptions Workflow 18:06 Transcript Keyword Seeding 20:38 AI Generated Episodes 24:09 Multi Channel Upload Tests 29:27 Video Carousel Domination 32:17 LLM Transcript Visibility 33:15 Transcripts Press Layers 34:22 Knowledge Panels Per Episode 36:10 Entity Indexing Proof 37:45 Press Release Providers 38:54 Old Google News Hacks 40:54 Podcast Transcript SEO 43:47 Scaling 3000 Episodes 47:34 Guesting and Podmatch 51:01 Monetizing With Sponsors 01:02:14 Avoiding Top Funnel Waste 01:04:39 Wrap Up and Next Debate The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #backlinks #seopodcast

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  • S1 · E1142
    August 19 · 32 min

    Reddit Citations Just Collapsed in ChatGPT. What SEOs Do Next

    E1142: Reddit citations in ChatGPT just totally collapsed. Promptwatch data shows Reddit's share of ChatGPT citations dropping dramatically in August, falling to below 0.5% after previously sitting around 3-4%. This is the third major Reddit citation drop we've seen, and it raises a bigger question for SEOs: what happens when an AI search strategy built around one platform can disappear overnight? Klaas Foppen, co-founder of Promptwatch, joins me to break down what changed, what may have caused it, and what SEOs should do next. We cover: - Why Reddit citations suddenly fell in ChatGPT - The difference between an AI citation, source, mention, and visibility - Why Reddit can still be accessed by ChatGPT even though it is being cited far less - The August 8 query fan-out change that appears to have reduced Reddit citations - The much larger August 14 drop that Klaas believes may have involved a more deliberate adjustment - Why nobody outside OpenAI knows whether licensing negotiations, user feedback, search quality, or another factor caused the change - How this same dramatic Reddit decline is not showing up across Google AI Overviews and AI Mode - Why SEOs should not abandon Reddit just because ChatGPT is citing it less - The danger of building an entire AI search strategy around Reddit, parasite SEO, or any single third-party platform - Why your own website remains the part of your SEO and AI-search presence that you control - How technical SEO, complete product information, feature pages, comparison pages, landing pages, and fresh content can affect AI visibility - Why listicles are still frequently used for commercial-intent AI queries - Why product pages and landing pages may become more important as AI systems increasingly search official websites directly - Why old-school evergreen informational content may be less valuable when an LLM already knows the answer without searching the web - How OpenAI, Bing, Meta, Exa, and other companies developing or using different search indexes could reshape SEO - Why new AI search indexes could create opportunities for SEOs before their spam detection becomes as sophisticated as Google's - Whether PDFs, research papers, and sites like arXiv could become important sources for AI systems and training data - Why AI search is much less stable than traditional SEO and why tactics that work today can change very quickly The biggest takeaway is not that Reddit is dead. It's that "post on Reddit and get cited by ChatGPT" was never a durable AI search strategy. Reddit can still be a valuable marketing channel. But if your visibility depends entirely on Reddit, another social platform, or one AI search tactic, a single change can wipe out much of that advantage. Build the website. Get the technical fundamentals right. Publish the information customers and AI systems need. Earn mentions across multiple sources. And treat AI search as a moving system that needs to be watched rather than a fixed formula. ⭐️ Klaas Foppen on 𝕏 - https://x.com/forgebitz ⭐️ Klaas Foppen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaas-foppen/ ⭐️ Promptwatch - https://promptwatch.com/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Reddit Citations Vanish 00:38 Why The Drop Happened 02:11 Citations Vs Mentions 05:04 Deals And Partnerships 09:25 Other LLMs And User Backlash 11:10 Will Reddit Return 12:39 Diversify Your Marketing 14:02 Future Search Index Shakeup 19:53 What Content Works Now 23:09 Training Data And PDFs 26:10 Query Fanout Direction 27:23 On-Site SEO Foundations 29:53 Promptwatch New Automation 31:59 Wrap Up And Thanks The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

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  • S1 · E1141
    August 18 · 1 hr 4 min

    Can You Launch 100,000 Pages and Survive Google?

    E1141: Can you launch a brand-new website with 100,000 pages and survive Google? That's the question at the center of today's episode with David G. Quaid. A listener sent me a problem he and his friends keep running into: they launch programmatic SEO sites with 10,000 - 100,000 URLs, organic traffic shoots up, and then the sites collapse back to zero. So David and I dug into whether large-scale programmatic SEO is still possible in 2026, where Google may draw the line between a legitimate database and scaled content abuse, and what separates sites that survive from sites that get wiped out. We cover: - Whether launching 10,000 or 100,000 URLs at once is automatically dangerous - Why David might launch a new marketplace or database slowly - The difference between legitimate programmatic SEO and scaled content built primarily to capture search traffic - Why empty location, category, job, or marketplace pages can become doorway-page problems - Why proprietary data can completely change the equation - Whether a site with genuinely useful data could launch at massive scale from day one - Why backlinks, press coverage, branded searches, and other signs of a real business may matter - Why user satisfaction could be one of the biggest differences between programmatic sites that survive and sites that collapse - Click-through rate, pogo-sticking, return searches, and other user signals we think Google may be evaluating - Why publishing 100 pages, checking performance, and then scaling may be safer than immediately publishing 100,000 - How to use Google Search Console to identify pages and queries that may be producing poor user signals - Why misleading page titles can create problems even when they initially generate more traffic - David's prediction for what Google's August spam update could target - Why some publishers may be blaming AI Overviews for traffic losses that are actually ranking losses - How to separate traffic lost to AI Overviews from traffic lost because Google moved your pages down - Why HubSpot's organic decline may have more to do with rankings and changing user behavior than AI simply taking its clicks - Whether Google Search has actually gotten better or worse over the last few years - How far a site can expand into adjacent topics before weakening its existing topical relevance The main question throughout the episode is simple: If you have 100,000 pages that genuinely deserve to exist, can you make all of them available immediately without Google assuming you built the site to manipulate search? David thinks there are conditions where it can work. The harder question is what signals Google needs to see before it trusts you enough to let it work. ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DavidQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Programmatic SEO Today 00:17 Listener Database Launch Dilemma 01:12 Spam Updates and Scale Risks 03:18 Slow Rollout Strategy 04:25 Empty Pages and Manipulation 07:51 What Scaled Abuse Means 08:34 Proprietary Data Launch Debate 09:39 Grokipedia as Edge Case 12:31 Authority and Brand Signals 14:46 pSEO Example Book Calculator 20:34 Doorway Pages and Permutations 28:09 Phased Scaling and Testing 31:27 When Big Brands Can Launch Huge 32:46 pSEO Shortcut Mentality 33:17 When Programmatic SEO Fails 33:40 Localization and Scalable Pages 34:39 Finding Real Value Add 35:35 Brand Search Entity Mixups 39:28 Crawlers and Cloudflare Blocks 40:20 August Spam Update Predictions 42:15 Recovering From Traffic Drops 45:01 Free vs Freemium Titles 46:04 GSC Iteration Playbook 48:56 Are Google Results Better 50:23 HubSpot and User Signals 55:27 Expanding Into Adjacent Niches 01:00:49 Can 100k URLs Work 01:02:27 Wrap Up and Next Episode The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #programmaticseo #seopodcast

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  • S1 · E1140
    August 18 · 15 min

    Claude Is Watermarking Everything It Writes. Google Doesn't Have the Key

    E1140: Claude is now watermarking everything it writes, and the SEO community is worried about what this means for AI content and Google rankings. But there's an important detail: Google likely doesn't have the key needed to verify Claude's watermark. I break down what Anthropic's new watermarking system does, why it's being implemented, what it can and can't prove, and whether any of this should change how SEOs use AI-generated content. Anthropic is adding machine-readable marks to Claude's output as part of its compliance with the EU AI Act. The watermark can remain in text that has been copied and pasted, and Claude-generated files can include provenance metadata. The system is being rolled out across Claude, including its API and third-party platforms. But a watermark doesn't necessarily mean Claude wrote something from scratch. If you give Claude your own writing and ask it to fix grammar, translate it, summarize it, or otherwise process it, the resulting text may still contain the mark. And if no watermark is detected, that doesn't prove Claude wasn't involved. In this episode: - Why Anthropic is watermarking Claude's output - How AI text watermarking works - Why the EU AI Act matters here - Why switching from Claude to another major AI model won't solve anything - What Claude's watermark can and cannot tell you - Why short passages and heavily edited text are harder to verify - Why Anthropic's secret detection key matters - Why Google currently can't validate Claude's watermark - Whether Google could use AI watermarking as an SEO ranking signal - What Ahrefs' research says about AI-generated pages ranking in Google - Why AI content and bad content shouldn't be treated as the same thing - Where AI watermarking could matter for agencies, clients, and contracts - The potential EU disclosure requirements for publishers - Why human review and editorial responsibility matter - My take on whether this changes anything for SEO - Why generic AI content could still create problems even without an AI-content penalty - Why trust, original data, strong opinions, fact-checking, and editorial review matter more than whether AI touched the content - An example of AI-generated content that I genuinely enjoyed - How we're using AI-assisted SEO content on a new SaaS while targeting bottom-of-funnel keywords I also discuss Ahrefs' data on AI content in Google. Their research found AI-generated and heavily AI-assisted pages ranking throughout the search results, including at the top. The bigger issue appears to be something SEO has dealt with long before generative AI existed: bad content. My view is simple: if the output is enjoyable, novel, useful, accurate, and properly reviewed, the fact that AI was involved doesn't automatically make it bad content. The bigger long-term question is what happens to brands that publish large amounts of generic AI content without developing a recognizable voice, adding original information, taking meaningful positions, or earning trust with their audience. AI can help make great content. It can also make a lot of mediocre content very quickly. The difference is what the person using it actually puts into the process. ⭐️ Ahrefs: Claude Now Watermarks Everything It Writes - https://ahrefs.com/blog/claude-now-watermarks-everything-it-writes/ ⭐️ My post on 𝕏 - https://x.com/edwardeachday/status/2089307227064500665 ⭐️ Ep 1110 - Google's Next SEO Apocalypse: The Scaled AI Content Crackdown Is Coming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w66ME9-IRQ ⭐️ Ep 1124 - YouTube's AI Detector Is Punishing Real Creators - Is Google Search Next? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33QKtsBy9As ⭐️ Super Mario Bros 3 Jazz Lo-fi Remix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNjuiOd1c1I 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Claude Watermark Panic 00:31 What Watermarking Means 01:58 EU AI Act Compliance 03:08 How Text Watermarks Work 03:58 Limits and Detection Keys 04:25 Google Rankings Impact 06:07 SEO Community Reactions 07:22 My Skeptical Take 08:49 Real Risk Reputation 11:23 AI LoFi Success Story 13:24 Using AI for SEO 14:54 Wrap Up and Thanks The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #seopodcast

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  • S1 · E1139
    August 17 · 9 min

    Image Backlinks Work Better Than You Think (Here's How to Get Them)

    E1139: Image backlinks work surprisingly well for SEO, and one old experiment found they could even outperform exact-match anchor text links. I break down an SEO experiment from Dan Petrovic that tested four different types of backlinks to see which had the greatest effect on rankings. The test compared: - An exact-match anchor text backlink - A naked URL placed after the target keyword - An image backlink using the target keyword as the image alt text - A "click here" backlink with the target keyword placed near the link The result that stood out: the image backlink with the target keyword in the alt text performed better than every other link type in the experiment, including the exact-match anchor text link. The experiment was conducted in 2013, so I also look at whether the idea still matters today: Linked image alt text is still treated as anchor text for SEO purposes. I also cover more recent research from Kevin Indig and Semrush analyzing 35,000 backlink data points across 1,000 domains, which found that image backlinks correlated more strongly with AI search visibility than text links. Then I get into the practical part: how to actually build backlinks using images. We break down: - Why image backlinks affect search rankings - What Dan Petrovic's anchor text proximity experiment tested - Why the image backlink beat the other link types - How Google uses image alt text as anchor text - Why image backlinks may also matter for visibility in AI search - How to use infographics, charts, photos, maps, and product images for link building - How reverse image search can uncover websites already using your images - David McSweeney's TRUST formula for creating images journalists and bloggers may want to use - How to find topics journalists are already covering - How to turn research and data into simple visual assets - How to find journalists and bloggers who may be interested in your images - Why niche-specific stock photos can continue generating backlink opportunities after you publish them - Why you should still be careful with exact-match anchor text I explain a simple image strategy: create original niche-specific photos, charts, data visualizations, infographics, or other useful images and make them available on stock image platforms. If bloggers, journalists, or other websites use those images, they may credit the source. You can also periodically reverse image search your work to find websites that used an image without attribution and contact them to request a source link. The important point is that link building does not always have to start with asking someone to link to a page. You can create assets people already have a reason to use. ⭐️ SEO Sherpa: SEO Experiments - https://seosherpa.com/seo-experiments/ ⭐️ Dejan Marketing: Anchor Text Proximity Experiment - https://dejanmarketing.com/anchor-text-proximity-experiment/ ⭐️ Growth Memo: How AI Really Weighs Your Links - https://www.growth-memo.com/p/how-ai-really-weighs-your-links-analysis ⭐️ Ahrefs: Build Links with Images - https://ahrefs.com/blog/build-links-with-images/ ⭐️ Charles Floate's image SEO post - https://x.com/Charles_SEO/status/2021835662538813870 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Image Backlinks Surprise 00:37 Dan Petrovic Experiment Setup 01:56 Results Image Alt Text Wins 02:27 Still Relevant Today 03:09 Link Worthy Image Ideas 03:42 TRUST Formula for Visuals 04:46 Outreach and Promotion 05:02 Stock Photos Backlink Hack 05:50 Reverse Image Search Links 06:28 Avoid Over Optimization 06:38 Optimize Well Find Great Keywords 08:55 Sign Off The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #linkbuilding #backlinks

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  • S1 · E1138
    August 15 · 19 min

    How James Dooley Starts a New SEO Site (650 Industries Deep)

    E1138: How does James Dooley start a brand-new SEO site with 650 industries worth of SEO experience? James walks through how he evaluates a new SEO opportunity from the beginning, including when he'll use a fresh exact-match domain, when he'll buy an aged domain, how he evaluates the backlink profile before buying, and how he turns simple lead generation sites into larger brands. We also get into the economics behind local lead generation, why James thinks SEOs put too much weight on DR, and what "good content" actually means when the goal is to rank and convert. James explains why the strategy changes completely depending on the market. A low-competition local site might be built and earning quickly, while industries like finance or iGaming can require powerful aged domains, significantly more authority, and a completely different risk tolerance. We cover: - How James decides whether a new SEO opportunity is worth pursuing - Why his team analyzes search volume and CPC when entering new industries - Fresh domains vs. aged domains vs. exact-match domains - When an EMD makes sense for local SEO and long-tail keywords - Why competitive finance niches can require established authority - What James looks for before buying an aged domain - Why DR alone can give you a misleading picture of a domain - How he evaluates branded anchors, naked URLs, spam, trust, and backlink quality - The SEO tools and metrics his team combines when analyzing domains - Why an existing Google Business Profile can make a domain more attractive - The economics of buying high-value aged domains - How aggressive iGaming operators can rank repurposed domains extremely quickly - Why James is moving away from the churn-and-burn side of iGaming - How he approaches local lead generation sites - Why 50 targeted service/location pages can sometimes be enough to start - How a small lead gen site can fund the next site and eventually become a portfolio - James's definition of good SEO content - Why some pages can rank with only a few sentences - Why content should be "as short as possible but as long as necessary" - The problem with burying answers inside thousands of words of unnecessary content - How James turns an SEO site into a real brand - Citations, reviews, Google Business Profiles, case studies, awards, social profiles, and third-party reputation signals - How AI makes it easier to distribute brand assets across multiple platforms James has spent years repeating this process across hundreds of industries, so this episode is less about one isolated tactic and more about the decision-making process behind starting an SEO project from zero. If you're building your first site, launching another lead generation property, evaluating an aged domain, or deciding how much authority a new project actually needs, this episode gives you James Dooley's approach from the ground up. ⭐️ Ep 1131 - James Dooley & David Quaid: The SEO "Best Practices" We Ignore - https://youtu.be/jW8hYUn99Uk ⭐️ James Dooley's website - https://jamesdooley.com/ ⭐️ James Dooley on 𝕏 - https://x.com/james_dooley ⭐️ James Dooley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameszdooley/ ⭐️ James Dooley on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jameszdooley/ ⭐️ James Dooley on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/james.dooley1/ ⭐️ James Dooley on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@JamesDooley 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Background 00:56 How James Starts Sites 01:19 New Site Context Matters 01:53 EMDs in Finance 03:06 650 Industries Explained 05:39 Aged Domains Strategy 09:05 Tools and Anchor Checks 11:35 iGaming Churn and Burn 13:46 Local Lead Gen Blueprint 14:37 Good Content Definition 16:51 Building a Brandable Site 18:50 David Quaid Call In 19:13 Wrap Up and Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #blackhatseo #digitalmarketing

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  • S1 · E1137
    August 14 · 57 min

    How to Get Recommended by Google Maps AI | Darren Shaw

    E1137: Local SEO is changing as Google Maps becomes more AI-driven. I'm joined by Darren Shaw, founder of Whitespark and one of the most respected people in local SEO, to break down Google's Ask Maps AI and what businesses need to do to get recommended. Ask Maps combines Gemini with Google's location data, Google Business Profiles, reviews, Maps activity, and other signals to answer detailed local questions and recommend specific businesses. Darren believes this is where local search is heading, and that traditional Google Maps rankings may eventually become increasingly AI-driven. We cover what actually influences these recommendations and what local businesses should focus on now. In this episode: - What Google Ask Maps AI is and how it differs from normal Google Maps search - Why Darren thinks AI-driven results could eventually become the default experience in Maps - Why ranking well in traditional local search still gets you most of the way toward showing up in Ask Maps - How to fully optimize your Google Business Profile for AI recommendations - Why every service in your GBP should have a detailed description - How Google uses your products, attributes, posts, photos, videos, and social profiles - Why reviews are one of the strongest signals for Ask Maps - How to ask customers for reviews that give Google more useful information about your business - Why review responses may matter more now that AI can reference them - Why you should diversify reviews beyond Google - How to use Ask Maps itself as a local SEO research tool - How to uncover the most common customer complaints and pain points in your market - How to find third-party websites Google references for businesses in your industry - How Ask Maps can reveal information about competitors and service-area businesses - Why Reddit, local communities, and broader brand mentions matter for AI visibility - A simple Reddit strategy for local businesses - Why sponsoring and participating in local events can strengthen your brand presence - Local SEO tactics Darren considers low-value, including Google stacking and local business schema - Why NAP consistency is becoming more important again with AI search - Why citation optimization matters more than obsessing over every minor citation inconsistency - Why your website still has a major influence on Ask Maps - Why you should have separate pages for every major service and sub-service - How FAQs and query fan-out can uncover questions to answer on service pages - Why pricing information should be included on your website - How to use Ask Maps to find obscure services your competitors aren't covering - When competitor comparison pages make sense and when they become manipulative - Why proximity matters less in AI-driven Maps results than traditional local rankings - How personalization changes which businesses different people get recommended - How search history, Maps history, Gemini activity, and other Google data can influence recommendations - Why there may no longer be one universal "#1 ranking" in local AI search - How often Darren recommends refreshing important pages and Google Business Profile content - How to manually measure Ask Maps visibility despite probabilistic results - Why prompt tracking requires multiple searches across multiple AI systems - Darren's highest-priority local SEO actions for businesses that don't have time to do everything Darren's core recommendation is simple: completely fill out your Google Business Profile, create strong pages for every service you offer, add useful FAQs, and consistently collect detailed customer reviews. Those fundamentals mattered before AI, and they remain the foundation for getting recommended by Google Maps AI. ⭐️ Darren Shaw's first time on the pod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1awWMG1e5kY ⭐️ Local Search Ranking Factors: https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors/ ⭐️ Whitespark's local SEO software and services: https://whitespark.ca/ ⭐️ The Whitespark Local Update Podcast: https://whitespark.ca/the-whitespark-local-update-podcast/ ⭐️ Darren's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/whitesparkca ⭐️ Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenshawseo/ ⭐️ Darren's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenshawwhitespark/ ⭐️ Darren's Threads: https://www.threads.com/@darrenshawseo ⭐️ Darren's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darrenshawseo/ ⭐️ Darren's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@darrenshawseo 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Ask Maps AI Intro 00:57 What Ask Maps Does 03:35 Future of Local Search 04:49 Core Ranking Tactics 06:07 Optimize Your GBP 11:49 Reviews That Drive AI 16:31 Ask Maps Research Hacks 21:54 Branding Signals Matter 23:00 Reddit and Community Playbook 25:17 Local Events and Subreddits 27:55 Local SEO Time Wasters 29:16 Geotags and Google Stacking 30:37 Why Schema Backfires 32:05 Citations and NAP for AI 33:37 Service Pages and FAQs 35:19 Pricing and Hidden Services 37:27 Accordion FAQs and AI Parsing 39:40 Comparison Pages Done Right 42:05 Proximity vs Reputation in AI 44:06 Personalized Ask Maps Results 47:45 Freshness and GBP Posting 50:50 Measuring Ask Maps Visibility 52:04 Prompt Tracking Reality Check 53:47 80-20 Local SEO Checklist 54:52 Whitespark Tools and Wrap-Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #localseo #googlebusinessprofileoptimization #searchengineoptimization #generativeengineoptimization

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  • S1 · E1136
    August 13 · 1 hr 38 min

    SEO Legend Charles Floate's A-to-Z Blueprint (Zero to Enterprise)

    E1136: Charles Floate has been doing SEO for years, across everything from brand-new sites to companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on backlinks. In this episode, Charles lays out how he approaches SEO from A to Z: starting a site, building authority, finding keywords, structuring pages, getting links, becoming a topical authority, scaling what works, and changing the strategy as a site gets bigger. We get into: - Charles' "zero to 100" strategy for launching a brand-new site - How he uses entity stacking, citations, directories, social profiles, and reference sites to establish a new brand - How many backlinks he would build to a 10-page site vs. a 1,000-page site - Why backlink velocity has to match the size of the site - What actually makes a backlink valuable - Why a backlink that never gets indexed may provide no value - Why Charles doesn't force-index every backlink - How to find your real SEO competitors instead of just your business competitors - How to reverse engineer competitors' backlink profiles - Why Charles looks for referring domains shared across multiple ranking competitors - How smaller companies can beat larger competitors by doing better link due diligence - Why he usually targets long-tail, higher-intent keywords before the biggest keyword in a niche - How he knows when a site has reached topical authority - How topical authority changes the economics of publishing new pages - How Charles thinks about page-level relevance - The weight-loss site that lost most of its revenue after expanding into gardening and composting content - How to expand into adjacent topics without destroying your existing topical focus - How Charles would structure categories, URLs, navigation, and core site pages - His process for building topical maps - How he uses ranking competitors to expand one keyword set into hundreds of related queries - How SEO changes between a new site, a growing site, and an enterprise site - Why enterprise SEO is often easier to rank but harder to execute - When keyword cannibalization becomes a serious problem - How Charles approaches "crawled, currently not indexed" pages - Why refreshing existing content can outperform constantly publishing new content - How optimizing for traditional Google results differs from optimizing for ChatGPT, Claude, and AI Overviews - Semantic triples and how machines understand relationships between entities - Brand mentions, citations, consensus, and AI visibility - Charles' experiment getting an AI Overview to recognize his SEO awards site - Parasite SEO and satellite microsites for taking more positions in long-tail SERPs - What Charles considers the most important ranking factor in traditional Google search - How user engagement signals matter after you start ranking - How hidden keyword stuffing in schema and source code can over-optimize a page - What SEO tactics Charles thinks Google is likely to go after next This is Charles Floate's SEO process from a site with zero authority and zero rankings all the way through large-scale and enterprise SEO. ⭐️ Charles Floate on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Charles_SEO ⭐️ Charles Floate on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesfloate/ ⭐️ Charles Floate on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@CharlesFloate ⭐️ Charles Floate on Facebook - https://facebook.com/thecharlesfloate ⭐️ Charles Floate's community - https://seo.stream 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 SEO Playbook Kickoff 00:40 Meet Charles Floate 01:24 Authority And Links 02:44 Zero To 100 Launch 06:56 Social Profiles Activity 07:48 What Makes A Good Link 10:27 Backlink Indexing Reality 12:24 Reverse Engineer Competitors 18:55 Buying Links And Due Diligence 23:21 Competitor Link Overlap 26:38 Relevance And Topical Focus 31:46 AI SEO And Semantics 35:43 Generic vs Topical Authority 36:43 HubSpot Traffic Drop 38:49 Refresh Content Strategy 40:55 Pivoting Beyond Weight Loss 45:00 Building Topic Bridges 47:50 Site Structure Basics 51:19 Keyword Research Framework 55:52 Topical Maps Explained 57:00 Enterprise vs Small SEO 01:01:10 Indexing Issues Fixes 01:03:55 Content Overlap ROI 01:07:44 CRO Beyond Rankings 01:09:32 Sell Outcomes Not SEO 01:10:43 Auditing Traffic Drops 01:13:42 Common Decline Causes 01:16:20 Quality Score Explained 01:19:16 AI SEO Opportunity 01:22:49 Training Data Tactics 01:25:39 Gaming AI Overviews 01:29:42 Parasite SEO Plays 01:30:48 Ranking Factors Today 01:33:49 Future Updates Focus 01:35:46 Information Gain Framework 01:37:40 Episode Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #linkbuilding #seopodcast

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  • S1 · E1135
    August 12 · 1 hr 33 min

    The Local SEO Playbook Behind a Law Firm Doing $100M in 6 Months | Matt Hammerton

    E1135: Matt Hammerton joins me to break down the local SEO system he uses across personal injury law and home services. Matt has been doing SEO since 2009, manages more than 100 Google Business Profiles, owns stakes in multiple home service companies, and currently works with OneLaw, a law group that did $100 million in the first six months of this year. We get into the work behind those numbers: Google Business Profiles, reviews, locations, links, press releases, keyword research, AI search, and the systems Matt has built to manage it all at scale. We cover: - Why Matt believes reviews are the biggest factor in Google Business Profile rankings and Local SEO - How removing just four negative reviews caused one law firm location to jump in local rankings - Why average star rating can matter even when a business already has thousands of reviews - How often Matt runs local ranking scans and why he checks them every few days instead of once a month - How he sets up new Google Business Profiles - How he uses DBAs to put target keywords into legitimate business names - His approach to categories, service areas, descriptions, city pages, and additional locations - Why he has seen GBPs rank without even having a website attached - How he approaches review generation for home service companies and law firms - Why reviews on Yelp, Facebook, Thumbtack, Avvo, and other third-party sites matter for AI search - Why 1,000 Google reviews alone may not be enough to win recommendations from LLMs - How he builds links directly to directory profiles so those profiles rank for branded searches - How controlling page one for "[brand] reviews" affects both searchers and AI systems - How Matt uses Google Ads conversion data to decide which SEO keywords are actually worth targeting - How he combines Search Console data, existing page content, and AI to update pages - How personal injury SEO can be worth so much more per ranking than home services - The client journey after someone finds a personal injury lawyer through search - Why Matt publishes three to five press releases per week for law firms - How he republishes old wins, settlements, awards, and company news to keep them visible - How he uses EIN Newswire and why some press releases stay indexed for a year or longer - Why he puts NAP information in press releases for local SEO - How he uses Manus to research links, write content, prepare submissions, and check published placements - Why he still manually reviews AI-generated content before anything goes live - How he queries multiple LLMs across dozens of keywords to find the directories and sources influencing their recommendations - Why his biggest advice to SEOs is simple: build the system yourself, implement it, test it, and only then hand it off This is a detailed look at how an aggressive local SEO operator manages Google Maps, organic search, reputation, links, PR, and AI search across businesses where a single lead can be worth thousands of dollars. ⭐️ Matt Hammerton's Agency - https://www.brainspikemarketing.com/ ⭐️ Matt Hammerton on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthammertonaktaktion ⭐️ Matt Hammerton on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MattHammerton/ ⭐️ Matt Hammerton on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/aktaktion/ ⭐️ Matt Hammerton on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/OnlyDreamers ⭐️ Matt Hammerton's Label - https://www.onlydreamersmusic.com/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Meet Matt 01:04 100M SEO Impact 01:57 Scaling 100 Plus GBPs 04:02 Why Personal Injury Pays 08:05 GBP Rankings Are Reviews 10:23 Removing Bad Reviews 12:32 Getting More Reviews 14:33 Launching New GBPs 17:02 DBA Keyword Names 22:32 Categories and Setup 25:03 Review Funnel Tactics 27:49 Website vs GBP Power 30:31 Stop Automating Support 32:58 Reviews Drive LLM Rankings 34:07 Rank Directory Listings 35:24 Link Building With AI 36:52 Own Brand Review SERPs 39:53 Keyword Research Workflow 43:06 Conversion Keyword Patterns 44:51 Personal Injury SEO Value 47:09 Client Journey And Reviews 49:50 Press Releases For SEO 54:34 AI Drafting And QA 57:44 Agency Vs Solo SEO 01:00:24 Press Release Indexing 01:01:52 NAP Citations in Releases 01:03:09 AI Written Press Releases 01:04:31 Aggressive SEO 01:05:23 Link Building Sources and Vetting 01:08:08 Anchor Text Balance and Penguin Lessons 01:10:38 Pre AI Spinning and PBN Blasts 01:12:58 Future Updates and Long Term Growth 01:14:50 Music Marketing Success Story 01:21:14 Viral Stunts and SEO Parallels 01:26:08 Reviews and Entity Visibility 01:27:46 LLM Research and Execution Mindset 01:29:51 Wrap Up and Where to Find Him The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #localseo #legalseo #searchengineoptimization #seo

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  • S1 · E1133
    August 11 · 11 min

    The "Cheap" Keyword Trick Brands Are Too Proud to Use

    E1133: Most brands don't want to call themselves "cheap." That's exactly why the word can be such a powerful SEO modifier. I break down an SEO tactic James Dooley shared during our recent three-hour podcast: targeting words like "cheap," "cheapest," "affordable," "low cost," "budget," "inexpensive," and even "free" to stand out in Google and attract searchers who actually care about price. The opportunity exists because there's a disconnect between how brands want to describe themselves and what customers want. Brands want to be "premium." Searchers want something they can afford. And when almost every competing result is using the same words like "best," adding a price-focused modifier can make your result stand out. We cover: - How brands avoid words like "cheap," even when customers search for them - Why "cheap" can make a Page Title more attractive in the search results - Alternatives including affordable, inexpensive, low cost, budget, cheapest, and free - When you should put the modifier at the beginning of your Page Title - When your primary keyword should still come first - How search volume changes the way I would structure the page - How site and page authority affect how aggressively you can change your Page Title - Why lower-volume, bottom-of-funnel keywords often require far less authority - How relevance and search intent fit into the strategy - Why this tactic probably makes no sense for luxury brands - Examples for service businesses, e-commerce, and SaaS - How I would target "best web design agencies" - How I would structure a page targeting "carry-on luggage" - How I would use "affordable" for residential general contractor software - How freemium SaaS companies can use "free" as the modifier - How to combine this strategy with my Page Title formula The basic idea is simple: Most companies are fighting over the same obvious wording. "Best." "Top." "Leading." Meanwhile, customers are thinking: "How much does this cost?" "Can I afford it?" "Is there a cheaper option?" "Is there a free version?" That gap creates an SEO opportunity. I also explain why this gets more nuanced as keywords become more competitive. Sometimes you need the exact target keyword at the beginning of the Page Title, in the URL slug, in the H1, and prominently on the page. With more authority, you have more freedom to write a title designed primarily to win the click. And for under-targeted bottom-of-funnel keywords, the strategy becomes much easier. This episode is a practical breakdown of how I'd actually execute the tactic rather than simply adding the word "cheap" everywhere. ⭐️ Ep 1131 - James Dooley & David Quaid: The SEO "Best Practices" We Ignore - https://youtu.be/jW8hYUn99Uk ⭐️ Ep 1130 - The $50 Micro-Influencer SEO Strategy Nobody Is Using - https://youtu.be/8jHGa95T0GY 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Cheap Keyword Hack 01:13 Synonyms and CTR Boost 02:04 Agency Keyword Nuance 04:07 Authority Volume Intent 05:04 Ecommerce Carry On Example 06:53 Low Volume High Intent 07:54 Page Title Template 11:10 Final Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #onpageseo #digitalmarketing

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  • S1 · E1134
    August 11 · 1 hr 26 min

    Are Bot-Managed, CMS-Less Websites the Future of SEO? TJ Robertson & David Quaid

    E1134: Are traditional CMS platforms like WordPress about to become unnecessary for SEO? TJ Robertson and David Quaid join me to talk about a very different way of building and managing websites: CMS-less sites where bots and AI agents handle publishing, technical fixes, internal links, site updates, analytics, and eventually even parts of optimization themselves. TJ has already been building websites with Claude Code and believes that for many companies, moving away from WordPress will make sense within the next 6-12 months. We get into what these websites look like, what they can do today, where the technology still falls short, and what happens when websites no longer need humans making every individual change. We discuss: - Why TJ is building websites with Claude Code instead of relying entirely on WordPress - How a client could edit a CMS-less website simply by asking an AI agent to make the change - Why changing hundreds of pages at once becomes much easier when the site is controlled through code - TJ's work on a one-button WordPress-to-Claude-Code migration - Why Shopify may be one of the major exceptions to moving away from traditional platforms - How to stop AI-built websites from having the same generic "Claude Code" design - Using Figma with Claude Code to create more customized designs - Why bot-managed websites could automatically update themselves multiple times per day - Websites that update content automatically when the underlying product or database changes - Self-healing websites that detect broken links, broken forms, tracking problems, outdated information, and other issues - Building an SEO bot trained specifically on your website - Replacing parts of the traditional Semrush/Screaming Frog → SEO → developer ticket workflow with automation - Why David thinks there are opportunities to build custom analytics instead of relying entirely on GA4 - Tracking customer journeys and changing pages based on what returning visitors previously viewed - Why AI-generated content itself is not necessarily the problem - The difference between useful automation and dumping thousands of low-quality AI pages into Google - How Google might respond as high-quality automated content becomes possible at massive scale - Why obvious AI writing patterns are becoming a liability - AI satellite sites, exact-match domains, and third-party industry sites - Why having multiple websites could give brands a larger footprint in AI search citations - How satellite sites can give marketing teams room to experiment without changing the main company website - Whether you should connect AI satellite sites to the same Google Search Console account as your main domain - The risks of building third-party sites primarily to promote your own brand - Why websites may eventually expose structured company data directly to AI systems instead of creating thousands of keyword-variant pages - David's argument that LLMs are not actually "AI" by themselves - What SEOs and businesses should start experimenting with right now, even if they have no intention of leaving WordPress yet TJ makes the case that for roughly $200 per month, you can already have AI doing work that previously required an engineering team, and that we are only beginning to figure out what websites built around that capability will look like. The question is no longer just whether AI will write SEO content. It's whether AI will eventually run the website itself. ⭐️ TJ Robertson on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tj-robertson-seo/ ⭐️ TJ Robertson on 𝕏 - https://x.com/SeoRobertson/ ⭐️ TJ Robertson on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TJRobertsonDigital ⭐️ TJ Robertson on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tjrobertsondigital/ ⭐️ TJ Robertson on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tjrobertson52 ⭐️ TJ Robertson's Agency - https://tjrobertson.com/ ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DavidQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 CMS-Less Vision 02:11 Building With Claude 03:55 Clients Edit With AI 05:55 Rapid Prototyping Wins 09:24 WordPress Tradeoffs 12:25 EMDs For GEO 18:40 Avoiding Scale Penalties 25:12 Migration Timeline 27:44 Designing Beyond Generic 29:40 Editing Workflow Debate 33:35 Automated Content Quality 42:04 Google Indexing Limits 43:28 LLMs Not AI 45:06 Scale Spam Signals 47:38 Programmatic SEO Line 50:26 AI Search Changes Content 54:08 LLMs Not True AI 59:03 Satellite Sites Risk 01:05:26 Cheap Sites New Innovation 01:11:02 Avoid AI Content Tells 01:13:33 Skills And Knowledge Base 01:23:03 SEO Bots And Automation 01:25:35 Final Takeaways The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #aiseo #seopodcast

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  • S1 · E1132
    August 10 · 10 min

    They Outranked Apple for "iPhone" in 1 Hour - 5 Insane SEO Stories

    E1132: Somebody asked on Reddit: "What are some of the craziest, most interesting SEO stories and tactics you've come across?" The answers were incredible. I go through the best stories from the SEO Growth subreddit, including a Danish telco that outranked Apple for the keyword "iPhone" within an hour of a keynote. We also look at: - How an article about a random PS5 rumor reached #1 in Google and won the featured snippet - Why answering controversial or highly debated questions directly can create SEO opportunities - How to find strange rumors and unanswered questions people are already searching for in your niche - Why giving a clear answer beats huge publishers, Reddit threads, competitors, and even the manufacturer itself - How marketplace websites have used vendor badges to generate backlinks from businesses across an entire industry - Why badge-based link building has worked so well for directories, marketplaces, awards sites, and other businesses - How some affiliate SEOs have used expired domains and 301 redirects to rapidly increase rankings - Why expired-domain strategies can produce fast results but also carry serious risk - Why you don't necessarily need a powerful domain or thousands of backlinks to rank for valuable keywords - How under-targeted, high-intent keywords can give smaller sites opportunities to compete - Why pages that directly satisfy search intent can naturally earn backlinks over time - How deleting thousands of weak, outdated, cannibalizing pages can actually improve a site's SEO performance - Why content pruning can help sites that have expanded too far beyond their real topical authority One of my favorite lessons from these stories is the PS5 example. During the peak of the PS5 hype, an SEO noticed people debating whether the console should be positioned vertically or horizontally. Major media sites, Reddit threads, competitors, and Sony itself were discussing the subject, but nobody was giving searchers a simple, definitive answer. So he wrote an article targeting the question directly. Within days, it ranked #1 and captured the featured snippet. The lesson is simple: pay attention to the questions, rumors, disagreements, and problems people in your market are already discussing. Then look at the search results. If everyone ranking is dancing around the question instead of answering it clearly, there may be an opportunity to create the page that actually gives searchers what they came for. ⭐️ Reddit: What are some of the craziest, most interesting SEO stories and tactics you've come across? - https://www.reddit.com/r/seogrowth/comments/1vhv8si/what_are_some_of_the_craziest_most_interesting/ ⭐️ Ep 1120 - You Don't Need 1,000 Backlinks to Rank on Google (Here's What Actually Works) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dwPZu9rjt8 ⭐️ Ep 976 - The AI Clickbait King: How One SEO Built 9,000 Websites - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8w4-MOG_0M ⭐️ Ep 1030 - Keyword Cannibalization: Why Your SEO Pages Compete (And How to Fix It) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3jrXrau6kE ⭐️ Ep 989 - Google's Helpful Content Update DESTROYED the Internet (What Actually Happened) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YLUFjYrIEA 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Reddit SEO Stories Intro 00:16 Outranking Apple Fast 01:54 PS5 Rumor Snippet Win 03:18 Turn Rumors Into Pages 04:40 Earn Links Naturally 05:15 Badge Backlink Strategy 06:21 Expired Domains and 301s 07:17 High Intent SEO 08:41 Delete Content to Grow 10:08 Wrap Up and Thanks The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #growthhacking

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  • S1 · E1131
    August 9 · 3 hr 8 min

    James Dooley & David Quaid: The SEO "Best Practices" We Ignore

    E1131: James Dooley and David G Quaid join me for a three-hour discussion about the SEO "best practices" they ignore, the advice they think gets repeated without enough testing, and what they really look at when trying to rank websites. We start with a simple question: which accepted SEO practices do you not follow? That turns into a much broader discussion about how Google works, why SEO checklists often fail, and why tactics that work on a large authority site can be useless on a new domain. James and David agree on a core principle throughout the episode: test what works, understand why it works, and avoid treating SEO advice as universal. We get into: - Why James largely ignores standard SEO best practices and relies on in-house testing instead - Why doing "more SEO" does not necessarily produce better rankings - How adding more pages can create cannibalization instead of improving topical authority - Examples of pages ranking with almost no content - James' story of ranking #1 with a page that was accidentally published before the content was written - Why a technically poor website with an unnatural links penalty could still rank for extremely competitive terms - The relationship between authority, relevance, traffic and rankings - Whether Google actually understands content quality in the way many SEOs assume - Why "just write good content" is incomplete SEO advice - EEAT and what James and David believe it does and does not affect - Why simply adding author bios is unlikely to fix a struggling website - Google quality raters, RaterHub and manual transparency actions - When EEAT considerations may matter more for finance, gambling, medical and other high-consequence searches - Why YMYL may need to be considered at the query level rather than treating an entire industry the same way - Schema: where it is necessary and where adding more schema probably will not improve rankings - Why job, flight, hotel and similar structured search features are different from ordinary webpages - Backlinks, PageRank and why authority still matters - Why comparing backlink counts alone can give you the wrong conclusion - Branded search and whether increased branded searches can influence broader rankings - Using search behavior, autocomplete and suggested searches to strengthen associations between a brand and a topic - Click-through rate and how James approaches CTR testing - Why advice from SEOs working on huge brands may not translate to a brand-new website - Exact-match domains and partial-match domains - Why both James and David dislike having a single website as the only source of SEO traffic - Using multiple sites to reduce single points of failure - How James evaluates aged and expired domains using data from multiple SEO tools instead of relying on DR or DA alone - Why looking at trends and historical data matters more than blindly trusting a single authority metric - Contextual bridging and how to move from easier topics into increasingly competitive search terms - Why topical relevance determines which keywords a website realistically has the authority to target - How Google Search Console can reveal search demand that traditional keyword tools miss - Ranking social profiles and videos in Google - SEO in an AI and LLM-driven search environment - Why David believes SEO remains one of the best ways to reach someone at the exact moment they are looking for something A recurring theme in this conversation is that SEO is contextual. A tactic can be useful on one site and pointless on another. Schema can be required for one search feature and irrelevant to another. An author bio can matter in a transparency review without being the reason a normal commercial page ranks. A change that produces huge results across one million pages may have almost no practical value for a small local business. Instead of building SEO around a checklist, James and David argue for understanding the underlying system: relevance, authority, search behavior, internal relationships between pages, external links and real-world testing. This is the longest conversation I've recorded, and we had enough time to get past the usual surface-level SEO arguments and into the reasoning behind how both James and David actually approach ranking websites. ⭐️ James Dooley's website - https://jamesdooley.com/ ⭐️ James Dooley on 𝕏 - https://x.com/james_dooley ⭐️ James Dooley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameszdooley/ ⭐️ James Dooley on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jameszdooley/ ⭐️ James Dooley on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/james.dooley1/ ⭐️ James Dooley on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@JamesDooley ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DavidQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Best Practices Debate 01:44 Checklist SEO Myths 04:15 Authority Over Quality 06:20 SEO Case Studies 12:02 Content Quality Reality 21:21 EEAT Framework Clash 24:23 Why EEAT Falls Apart 32:25 Branded Search Signals 35:58 Brands Win on CTR 36:53 Autosuggest Brand Seeding 38:06 CTR Manipulation Done Right 39:56 Real Case Study EMD Launch 42:42 EEAT Myths vs Reality 44:02 RaterHub and Transparency Penalties 48:18 When EEAT Applies YMYL 01:01:53 Schema When It Matters 01:08:14 FAQ Schema and PAA Pages 01:12:40 Relevance Times Authority Framework 01:14:32 CTR Weakens Authority 01:15:19 Stop Anthropomorphizing Google 01:16:19 Bad Advice From Big Brands 01:20:07 Tribalism And Schema Wars 01:23:16 Debate Culture And Testing 01:26:47 CDN Fight And Ego 01:30:04 Penalties And Core Updates 01:31:35 Google Engineering Under Hood 01:38:07 Intent Shifts And Traffic Tiers 01:39:48 Listicles And SEO Creativity 01:42:26 LLMs Feed On Lists 01:53:58 AI Mode And Ad Economics 01:56:20 Index Moat And AI Race 02:00:03 Why Google Still Wins 02:00:42 Search Is Not The Real Battle 02:01:43 LLMs Need New Vectors 02:03:28 Best Time For SEO 02:05:09 SEO Demand From CEOs 02:07:36 AI Makes Building Easy 02:10:05 SEO Interest Explodes 02:11:22 Brand Building Myth 02:13:18 Chunking For AI Overviews 02:14:31 Using Every Tool 02:17:55 No Perfect Tool Stack 02:20:35 Data Driven Domain Buying 02:24:20 LLM Citations For Outreach 02:27:58 EMDs To Reduce Risk 02:31:59 Republish And Reuse Content 02:33:18 Steal Winning Slugs 02:35:11 Cheap Keyword Modifier 02:35:46 Search Console Goldmine 02:37:05 Social Linking Risks 02:39:56 Google As Traffic Engine 02:43:34 Tools Cost And Trials 02:47:17 Starting From Zero 02:51:16 Blogspot Ranking Playbook 02:54:16 Topical Bridging Explained 03:00:17 Strategy Over Keywords 03:04:05 Thanks And Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #seotips #seostrategy

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  • S1 · E1130
    August 8 · 6 min

    The $50 Micro-Influencer SEO Strategy Nobody Is Using

    E1130: Micro-influencer SEO is one of the most overlooked ways to get your brand mentioned across Google, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and AI search tools. I break down a simple strategy: instead of paying for generic press releases or chasing influencers with huge audiences, work with tiny creators whose videos are already being indexed and ranked by search engines. A micro-influencer with only a few hundred or a few thousand followers can still publish content that appears in Google for months or even years. And in many cases, the cost can be as little as $25 to $50 per creator. I cover: - Why micro-influencers can be useful for SEO even if they have a small audience - How to check whether an influencer's videos are being indexed by Google - How to test their past content before paying them - Why follower count is not the most important metric for this strategy - Using high-intent keywords that competitors are ignoring - How to structure an influencer's video description around a target keyword - Why the target keyword should appear near the beginning of the description - How to coordinate multiple creators around the same keyword and brand - How to support those creator posts with a page on your own website - Where to place the keyword in your page title, URL, H1, and opening copy - Why YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok matter beyond their own platforms - How video content can continue ranking long after it is published - Why social platforms are increasingly being used as search engines - How video descriptions can influence what ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI systems cite - Why authentic creator content can be more useful than a generic press release I also walk through a specific example using the keyword "residential general contractor software." The basic process is: - Find a micro-influencer in your niche - Copy the description from one of their recent videos - Search that exact description in Google - Check whether the video is indexed - Look at older videos to see how long their content tends to stay indexed - Find a high-intent keyword that is not being targeted heavily - Pay the creator to make a relevant video around your product or company - Give them an SEO-focused description to use - Repeat the process with several creators - Create or optimize a page on your website around the same keyword The goal is not simply influencer reach. The goal is to create multiple relevant pieces of content that associate your brand with a specific high-intent search term across platforms that Google and AI systems already crawl and reference. ⭐️ The Gary Vaynerchuk episode - https://youtu.be/EUnV-xaH32k 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Micro Influencer SEO Edge 00:56 Find Creators That Rank 01:37 Pitch With Overlooked Keywords 02:04 Write Descriptions For SEO 02:50 Dominate With Multi-Platform Posts 03:44 Social Search Is Exploding 04:08 Benefits And LLM Impact 04:18 Fake Reviews And Citations 05:01 Why This Tactic Wins 05:46 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #influencermarketing #generativeengineoptimization #seo

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  • S1 · E1129
    August 6 · 1 hr 18 min

    The Further You Are From Your Brand, The More AI Trusts You | Kaleigh Moore

    E1129: The further a source is from your company's control, the more likely AI systems may be to trust it. Kaleigh Moore explains her "Source Signal Stack," a four-level framework for understanding how brands earn visibility in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and other AI search tools. A company can control its website, blog, and social accounts. It has less control over what employees, independent creators, customers, journalists, and online communities say. According to Kaleigh, those independent sources can carry more weight because they are harder for a brand to manufacture. Kaleigh spent 10 years running a content marketing agency and working with companies including Shopify, Stripe, and Amazon Business. After AI changed the content industry, she enrolled in a graduate program at Harvard to study how large language models are built. She now researches AI search visibility, creates content, and publishes the Context Window newsletter. We cover: - How AI systems form an impression of a brand across the internet - The four levels of Kaleigh's Source Signal Stack - Why company-owned content may be the weakest trust signal - Why Reddit discussions, podcasts, earned media, and independent mentions matter - How named experts can help companies become associated with specific subjects - Why brands should create original frameworks and repeat clear, consistent language - How LinkedIn articles can reach the top of Google quickly - How Kaleigh ranked LinkedIn articles at number one within 24 hours - How short YouTube videos helped her earn citations in Google AI Overviews - Why creators may become increasingly important for AI search visibility - What "Creator AEO" means and how companies can work with outside experts - Why one-off sponsored posts are less useful than long-term creator relationships - How to check whether an influencer's existing content ranks before paying them - Why a small creator with ranking content may be more valuable than a large creator - How long video descriptions can help search engines and AI tools understand content - Why companies should stop publishing anonymous blog posts - How scaled AI content can create poor user signals - Why readers can usually recognize content written entirely by AI - How Kaleigh uses AI as a research and thinking partner without handing over her voice - Why conversational writing, personal stories, and unusual details are difficult to copy - Why founders should publish from personal LinkedIn accounts instead of relying only on company pages - How six months of daily LinkedIn posting created inbound leads and speaking opportunities - Why brands need to think and operate more like media companies - How podcasts can build relationships with bloggers, journalists, and potential customers - Why offline events can produce online mentions, social posts, and backlinks - How AI is changing the way businesses research and purchase software - Why buyers increasingly use AI during long and expensive evaluation processes - Why citation counts alone may be an unreliable measurement The central lesson is that AI visibility cannot be created only through changes to your website. Brands need recognizable experts, useful content, independent discussion, trusted relationships, and evidence that exists seemingly outside their direct control. The companies that understand this are the ones that appear when people ask AI tools what to buy, who to trust, and which solution to choose. ⭐️ Kaleigh Moore's newsletter, Context Window - https://kaleigh-moore.beehiiv.com/ ⭐️ Kaleigh Moore on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaleighmoore/ ⭐️ Kaleigh Moore on 𝕏 - https://x.com/kaleighf ⭐️ Kaleigh Moore on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@aisearchlady ⭐️ The Source Signal Stack - https://www.kaleighmoore.com/blog/2026/4/22/the-source-signal-stack 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Kaylee Background Pivot 01:54 AI Changes Marketing 04:25 LinkedIn UGC SEO Hack 06:00 Repurposing Content Systems 11:51 Source Signal Stack 17:26 Future of Blogging Audio 23:30 Human Authors Beat Slop 27:17 Using AI Without Losing Voice 36:06 Creator AEO Partnerships 39:01 Long Cut Consistency 40:48 LinkedIn Daily Reps 41:29 X vs LinkedIn Posting 42:36 Which Platform Pays 43:09 Journalism Links Debate 47:30 SEO Needs Media Company 48:24 Podcasting For Backlinks 51:50 Offline SEO Flywheel 55:02 Ecommerce Community Lessons 57:48 Time Compression Burnout 58:53 AI Search Newsletter Workflow 01:02:19 Winning AI Evaluations 01:04:14 Micro Influencers Parasite SEO 01:09:21 Growing On X 01:12:49 Lightning Round Wrap 01:17:00 Final Thanks And Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #contentmarketing #generativeengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

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  • S1 · E1128
    August 5 · 1 hr 12 min

    Local SEO in the AI Era: What's Working, What's Dying & What to Do Now - Joy Hawkins & Caleb Ulku

    E1128: Local SEO is changing as Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other AI systems influence how people find and evaluate local businesses. I'm joined by Joy Hawkins and Caleb Ulku for a detailed discussion about what is working in local SEO now, which common tactics are becoming less effective, and how businesses should prepare for AI-powered local search. Joy and Caleb compare what they are seeing across client accounts, ranking tests, Google Business Profiles, local packs, AI-generated recommendations, website content, reviews, links, and conversion rates. Topics covered: - How large language models evaluate local businesses and decide which companies to cite - Why local businesses may need content that clearly explains pricing, processes, outcomes, and service details - How awards and industry-specific directories can influence AI recommendations - Why winning an award is not enough unless the business also promotes it clearly on its website - How AI-powered local packs may reduce the importance of Google review volume and frequency - Why Yelp, Facebook, Reddit, and other third-party platforms are becoming more important for local visibility - How AI systems read the actual language inside reviews instead of only looking at star ratings - Why businesses should encourage customers to describe their experience and outcome in their reviews - The risks of asking for, buying, or incentivizing reviews on different platforms - Why fake listings, fake reviews, rank-and-rent listings, and other forms of Google Business Profile spam continue to create problems for legitimate businesses - How business hours can affect local rankings and why Google's written guidelines do not always match what works in practice - Whether keyword-stuffed Google Business Profile names will continue working as AI local results become more common - Why improving a local business website's design can increase leads without rebuilding the entire website - How AI tools can help businesses improve landing pages, buttons, coupons, images, page layouts, and conversion rates - How Joy and Caleb use AI to produce content without publishing generic rewrites of competing pages - Why original interviews, customer stories, project details, pricing information, measurements, timelines, and outcomes make content more useful - Why publishing dozens or hundreds of similar AI-generated pages can become a liability - How to approach location pages, service-area pages, and multi-location business websites - When separate location pages compete against each other and when combining locations may produce better results - Why press releases appear to have lost much of their previous influence on rankings and AI citations - Why exact-match anchor text, scaled link building, and guest posting have become increasingly risky - Which local link-building methods still work, including sponsorships, charities, community organizations, events, youth sports, and relevant award sites - What to examine when a website's organic traffic has been declining for several years - How excessive informational content, weak search intent, and expansion beyond a site's authority can damage performance - Why some websites need content consolidation, pruning, restructuring, or partial rebuilding - How local rank maps and Google Search Console data can reveal missing topical and geographic relevance - How Google Business Profile categories and services can guide website structure and internal linking - Where Joy and Caleb disagree about URLs, internal links, location pages, and duplicate content - Why CTR manipulation and driving-direction manipulation may work temporarily but can create serious long-term risks - Why tactics that stop working as soon as you stop paying for them are difficult to build a reliable business around This conversation is for local business owners, SEO consultants, agency owners, marketers, lawyers, home-service companies, and anyone trying to understand how local search is changing. ⭐️ Joy Hawkin's Agency - Sterling Sky: https://www.sterlingsky.ca/ ⭐️ Joy Hawkin's YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/SterlingSkyInc ⭐️ Joy Hawkin's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyhawkins/ ⭐️ Local Search Forum - https://localsearchforum.com/ ⭐️ Caleb Ulku on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@calebulku ⭐️ Caleb Ulku - https://calebulku.com/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Meet the Local SEO Pros 00:34 Getting Recognized IRL 02:02 Local SEO in the LLM Era 04:31 Awards as AI Signals 07:52 Paying for Credibility 12:34 Reviews Beyond Google 15:47 Yelp and Reddit Trust 18:50 Spam and Fake Listings 23:40 Loopholes That May Die 25:50 Big Missed Opportunities 31:35 AI Content That Ranks 36:38 AI Content Scaling Trap 37:12 Unique Content vs Relevance 38:24 Citygate Pages Risk 39:53 Multiple Locations Strategy 41:14 Press Releases Decline 43:08 Anchor Text Crackdown 43:55 Local Link Building Wins 48:46 Traffic Drops and Audits 55:22 GBP Landing Page Fixes 58:03 Citations and CTR Hype 01:02:27 Fake Reviews and Takedowns 01:05:44 Site Structure and URLs 01:10:00 30 Day Action Plan 01:11:25 Wrap Up and Thanks The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #localseo #localsearchengineoptimization #localmarketing #seo

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  • S1 · E1127
    August 4 · 1 hr 4 min

    Google's Biggest SEO Leak Changed Everything… But Almost Nobody Adapted

    E1127: Google's biggest SEO leak gave marketers more information about how search works than almost any event in the industry's history. But according to Mike King, most SEO strategies, tools, and reporting systems barely changed after the leak. Mike explains what the leaked Google API documentation confirmed, what it revealed about links and ranking systems, and why the SEO industry has failed to act on some of its most important findings. We break down Google's different index tiers, why a backlink's value may depend on where the linking page sits in the index, and why common third-party metrics such as Domain Authority and Domain Rating may not tell you what Google actually values. Mike also explains how Google uses vector embeddings to understand pages, passages, websites, authors, brands, and entities. This changes how marketers should think about relevance, authority, mentions, links, and content creation. We also go deep into AI search and how platforms such as ChatGPT retrieve and evaluate information. Topics covered include: - What Google's API leak confirmed about ranking systems - Why Mike believes the SEO industry failed to adapt - How Google separates content into different index tiers - Why links from pages with rankings and traffic may carry more value - Why Domain Authority and Domain Rating can be misleading - How vector embeddings help Google understand relevance - Why brand mentions can sometimes matter more than backlinks - The difference between optimizing for prompts and query fan-outs - How ChatGPT breaks a prompt into multiple search queries - Why comprehensive content can create more chances to appear in AI answers - How to inspect the searches ChatGPT performs behind the scenes - Why AI search should not be treated as another version of traditional SEO - How brands should measure AI visibility, citations, accuracy, and performance - Why Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, earned media, and your website all matter - How content format affects whether AI systems select your page or video - Why starting your own subreddit may help protect your brand's position - The biggest mistake companies make with AI-generated content - Why publishing an article from a single prompt often produces weak results - How human review, original sources, structured prompts, and subject experts improve AI content - Why Google may rely more on user behavior than unreliable AI-content detection - Which older SEO tactics are returning because of AI search - What "relevance engineering" means - Why future marketing teams may need SEO, PR, UX, content, data, and engineering skills - Why SEOs should learn to build tools and test AI platforms directly Mike also shares a specific AI search case study involving 499 response codes. His team found that ChatGPT was abandoning page requests because the client's website took too long to respond. After identifying the problem in the site's log files and improving response speed, the client's AI search visibility increased by roughly 300% over three months. Mike's practical recommendation is simple: Check your server logs for 499 errors. Identify the affected URLs. Improve page speed, especially time to first byte. According to Mike, fixing this problem can improve AI search performance in 30 days or less. This conversation is for SEOs, founders, content teams, PR professionals, and marketing leaders trying to understand how discovery is changing across Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Bing, YouTube, Reddit, and other search surfaces. ⭐️ Mike King's agency, iPullRank - https://ipullrank.com ⭐️ Mike King's music - https://verywellversed.com ⭐️ Mike King on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkingphilly/ ⭐️ Mike King on 𝕏 - https://x.com/iPullRankAgency 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Welcome and Setup 00:17 Google Leak Takeaways 05:44 Index Buckets Explained 07:50 Embeddings and Entities 09:19 Mentions vs Links 11:51 Earning Mentions Tactics 14:27 Black Mirror Launch 16:05 Seeding Clips and Ads 19:15 Leak Frenzy and Twiddlers 22:14 Optimizing for AI Search 23:50 Inspecting Query Fanout 26:18 Fanouts vs Keywords Strategy 30:01 C-Suite Measurement Framework 31:05 Input Metrics That Matter 31:43 Why It Is Not Just SEO 33:01 Tooling For Measurement 33:38 Query Fan Out Research 34:54 RAG Pipeline Visibility Gaps 37:06 Who Should Lead GEO 38:46 Pilot Win Fixing 499s 42:09 Getting Into Training Data 44:22 Relevance Engineering Explained 48:04 Content Formats For AI Search 49:29 Using Reddit Without Astroturfing 51:58 AI Content Mistakes To Avoid 54:10 How Google Judges AI Content 57:09 Future Of Niche Publishing 59:01 Unpopular SEO Take And Skills 01:02:44 One Action For 90 Days 01:03:04 Wrap Up And Where To Follow The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #searchengineoptimization #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization

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  • S1 · E1126
    August 3 · 1 hr 16 min

    You're Reading Google Search Console WRONG (Here's Why)

    E1126: Breaking down one of the most misunderstood parts of SEO: Google Search Console. David Quaid returns to the podcast, sharing his screen, showing what is really going on. Many SEOs judge performance by looking at clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position. But those numbers, by themselves, rarely tell you why a page is succeeding or failing. Instead, we explain how to use Google Search Console to understand what Google is actually testing, which queries matter, when pages are competing against each other, and how experienced SEOs diagnose ranking problems. Topics covered include: - Why clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position can be misleading - How to analyze Search Console at the page and query level - Why average metrics often hide what's really happening - Understanding Google's ranking and testing process - How Google experiments with pages before rankings stabilize - Why keyword-level analysis is more valuable than site-wide metrics - Identifying keyword cannibalization using Search Console - When keyword cannibalization is worth fixing - and when it isn't - How to determine whether a ranking problem is caused by authority, relevance, or user behavior - Why page titles past page 1 rarely improve CTR - How to use Search Console alongside a SERP tracking tool - Looking for patterns in page history instead of reacting to daily fluctuations - Why Google hides parts of Search Console query data - How Google groups searches into keyword clusters - Using Search Console to spot intent mismatches - Why some pages rank for keywords you never targeted - How to decide when to republish, retarget, or rewrite content - Building a keyword universe instead of tracking vanity metrics - Why CEOs and marketing leaders should know their most valuable keywords The breakdown also covers: - Google's testing periods for new pages - Search intent versus page intent - Topical authority and relevance - Search Console filters and query analysis - SERP reports and keyword tracking - Common mistakes beginners make when evaluating SEO performance - How experienced SEOs interpret ranking volatility - Google Knowledge Panels and entity updates - Why EEAT discussions are often misunderstood - What YMYL actually means in practice If you've ever looked at your Google Search Console dashboard and wondered whether your SEO is actually working, this episode explains what to focus on - and what to ignore. ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DavidQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 Welcome Back David 00:35 SEO Castle Metaphor 00:48 Reddit GSC Metrics 02:34 Why Macro Stats Mislead 03:55 Keywords And SERP Reports 06:30 Click Zone And Titles 07:52 Creating A New Query 10:54 Regex And Query Filters 12:37 Knowledge Panel Name Edit 17:10 Hidden Queries In GSC 19:29 Google As CTR Engine 22:02 Testing And SERP Fluidity 25:24 Why GSC Data Lags 27:30 Finding Cannibalization 31:36 Fixing SEO Expert Overlap 35:37 When Cannibalization Matters 35:50 Diagnosing With SERP Tools 39:23 GSC Drops And Page Deltas 41:55 Rebuild Pages And Retarget 43:04 Newbie GSC Starting Points 45:28 Keyword Research And Relevance 48:09 What Data To Share Online 49:49 Keyword Universe For Leaders 52:38 SERP Fluctuations And Alerts 55:31 EEAT And YMYL Reality Check 01:05:17 Historical Trends And Tagging 01:10:49 Debates LLMs And Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #googlesearchconsole #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing

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Showing 21–40 of 51 episodes