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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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  • 57 episodes
  • Avg 42 min
  • English

Episodes 57

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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

    • Transcript
  • 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

    • Transcript
  • 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

    • Transcript
  • 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

    • Transcript
  • 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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  • S1 · E1125
    August 3 · 7 min

    Why Republishing Under a New URL Can Make a Dead Page Rank #1

    E1125: A page can target an easy keyword, match the search intent, and still fail to stay indexed or rank. I explain why republishing that page under a new URL may give Google a reason to evaluate it again using the topical authority your website has built since the page was first published. I experienced this with a page I originally published in March 2023. The keyword was easy, the page was properly optimized, and few competing websites were directly targeting the query. However, my website did not have enough topical authority when the page was first published. The page briefly reached the number-one position about a year and a half later, but it eventually disappeared from the index again. In March 2025, I republished the same content under a slightly different URL and redirected the old URL to the new one. Less than a month later, the page was ranking number one for its target keyword. It has remained in that position since. The content did not need to be rewritten. The main change was the URL. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why a page may fail to rank even when it targets a low-competition keyword - How your website's topical authority can affect a page when it is first published - Why an older page may continue to underperform after your site becomes more authoritative - How publishing the page under a new URL can lead to a new evaluation - Why the old URL should be redirected to the new URL - How to determine whether a keyword is genuinely being targeted by competing websites - Why keyword tracking is necessary for finding pages that should be performing better - How organic clicks and relevant backlinks can strengthen your authority within a topic - When this method may be worth testing on one of your own pages The basic process discussed in the episode is: - Find a page targeting a keyword that should be attainable - Confirm that the keyword appears in your title and URL - Check whether competing pages are directly targeting the same keyword - Confirm that the page has consistently failed to stay indexed or rank - Create a new URL by making a small, relevant change to the slug - Publish the existing content under the new URL - Add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL - Track the target keyword to see whether the new page begins ranking This is not about changing URLs across your entire website. It is a specific test for pages that appear to be properly optimized but were originally published before the website had enough relevance or authority in the topic. The episode also includes an excerpt from a previous conversation with David Quade explaining why Google treats each URL as a separate page and why a new slug can give the content a new start. ⭐️ The Magic Pill of SEO: Topical Authority - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/magic-pill-seo-topical-authority/ ⭐️ 10-Minute SEO Hack That Took My Page from Invisible to #1 on Google - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/10-minute-seo-hack-that-took-my-page-from-invisible-to-1-on-google/ ⭐️ Ep 846 - The SEO Playbook That Actually Works: PageRank, Topical Authority & Real Results - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eK5-TpaiPw 💎 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 Indexing Problem Setup 00:44 Republish With New URL 01:44 Topical Authority Explained 02:36 Case Study Timeline 03:36 David Quaid Google Canon 05:17 New Slug Fresh Start 05:34 Track Keywords And Republish 06:17 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #technicalseo #digitalmarketing

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  • S1 · E1124
    August 2 · 10 min

    YouTube's AI Detector Is Punishing Real Creators - Is Google Search Next?

    E1124: YouTube's AI detection system classified videos from Kurzgesagt as AI-generated spam, even though the videos are made with love by ducks and people. That mistake sharply reduced distribution for one of the largest science channels on YouTube. The affected video performed well on the usual quality signals: - People clicked at an above-average rate - Viewers watched for longer than usual - Audience feedback was positive But the video still became the channel's worst-performing upload since 2013. YouTube later confirmed that its automated systems had incorrectly identified the channel's content as AI-generated material. We look at why that matters for SEO. Google and YouTube are both part of Alphabet, and both platforms are working to detect large-scale AI spam. Research connected to YouTube has described systems that can analyze patterns across text, media, accounts, and publishing networks. These systems look for signals such as: - Repeated AI-generated text patterns - Similar text embeddings across many accounts - Shared templates and sentence structures - Repeated terms and phrasing - Coordinated publishing behavior - Groups of sites or accounts using similar content systems - Poor engagement signals across a larger network The concern is that these systems will not always distinguish between low-quality automated content and legitimate work. A real creator, publisher, or business could be affected because its content happens to share patterns with a larger group of AI-generated pages. We cover: - What happened to Kurzgesagt - Why YouTube reduced the reach of the channel's video - How automated AI detection can make mistakes - Why this incident matters for Google Search - How Google may identify scaled AI content - Why common AI writing tools can create detectable patterns - How default prompts and templates can make websites look similar - Why an entire group of sites could be judged together - How user behavior may influence spam classification - What website owners should review before the next major update - What to do if legitimate content is caught in an algorithmic crackdown - Why continuing to publish and improve still matters after a traffic loss Questions to ask about your own content: - Does it follow Google's spam policies? - Does it give the searcher the information they expected? - Does it sound like it was written for a specific audience? - Does it contain repeated generic phrases found across many other websites? - Are you publishing large amounts of content with the same structure? - Are you relying on default AI settings without substantial editing? - Are there obvious AI writing patterns throughout the site? - Are users clicking your pages and quickly returning to the search results? - Does the site contain original experience, examples, opinions, or research? - Would the content still be useful if search engines did not exist? This does not mean every site using AI will be penalized. The larger risk is producing content at scale that looks, reads, and performs like content from low-quality automated networks. The goal should be to create pages that are useful, specific, accurate, and clearly made for the person searching. I also discuss the HouseFresh recovery. The site lost most of its Google traffic after the Helpful Content Update, continued publishing and marketing its work, and later grew well beyond its previous traffic level. An algorithmic loss can be severe, but it does not always have to be permanent. ⭐️ Ep 1110 - Google's Next SEO Apocalypse: The Scaled AI Content Crackdown Is Coming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w66ME9-IRQ ⭐️ Kurzgesagt writeup - https://x.com/Kurz_Gesagt/status/2083191397981561232 ⭐️ Google Research Shows How AI Spam Can Be Detected - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-generated-ai-detected/579987/ ⭐️ Glenn Gabe - https://x.com/glenngabe/status/2067951984187949532 ⭐️ Ep 1083 - Google's New AI Spam Detector Could Wipe Out Entire SEO Networks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I78IQS99EwU ⭐️ Ep 999 - How to Humanize AI Content (Before It Destroys Your SEO) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8CoElpldtk 💎 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 AI Crackdown Warning 00:34 Kurzgesagt Gets Flagged 01:38 YouTube Confirms Bug 02:34 Why It Matters for SEO 03:22 How AI Spam Is Detected 04:51 Protect Your Content 06:48 If You Get Hit, Persist 07:56 Consistency Mindset 10:17 Final Thanks and Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #searchengineoptimization #googleupdate #growthhacking

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  • S1 · E1123
    August 1 · 10 min

    Claude's Privacy Disaster Proves Why SEO Matters

    E1123: Claude shared conversations were appearing in Google, Bing, and other search engines, exposing information that users may never have expected to become publicly searchable. The problem was not caused by a complicated search engine failure. It came down to a basic technical SEO mistake: the shared pages were accessible to search engines without the correct indexing controls in place. In this episode, I break down what happened, why the reporting around the story created additional confusion, and what the incident shows about the importance of involving experienced SEOs in product and website decisions. Topics covered: - How Claude shared chat URLs became publicly searchable - The types of sensitive information reportedly found in indexed conversations - Why a public URL can be discovered even when users think it is only being shared with one person - Why robots.txt does not guarantee that a URL will stay out of search results - How a noindex directive works - Why blocking a page in robots.txt can prevent search engines from seeing its noindex directive - The mistake Anthropic made when handling Claude shared pages - The incorrect SEO advice included in some reporting about the incident - What Google's documentation says about robots.txt and noindex - Why search engines are not responsible for deciding which website pages should remain private - How website owners can control which pages are crawled, indexed, and displayed in search results - Why sensitive pages should be protected at the product and technical level - How ChatGPT shared conversations created a similar indexing problem in 2025 - How SEOs used indexed AI-generated pages for parasite SEO - Why some old Claude Artifact pages may still appear in Google - What this incident reveals about the continued importance of technical SEO A key distinction discussed in the episode is the difference between crawling and indexing. A robots.txt rule can prevent a search engine from crawling a page, but it does not necessarily prevent the page's URL from appearing in search results. If Google discovers the URL through links or other sources, it may still index the URL without being able to read the page. A noindex directive tells a search engine not to include a page in its index. However, the crawler must be able to access the page to see that directive. When a page is blocked through robots.txt, the crawler may never see the noindex instruction. This is why combining a robots.txt block with an on-page noindex directive can create problems. The crawler is blocked before it can read the instruction telling it not to index the page. The broader lesson is straightforward: - Decide which pages should be public - Decide which pages should appear in search engines - Do not assume that an unlisted URL is private - Use the correct technical controls - Test how search engines can access sensitive page types - Include SEO specialists when building sharing, publishing, and privacy features - Remove sensitive information at the source instead of relying only on search engine directives SEO is not only about increasing rankings or generating traffic. It also includes controlling what search engines can discover, crawl, index, and display. When those controls are handled incorrectly, the result can be a privacy problem, a security problem, and a reputational problem. ⭐️ Om Patel's Claude post - https://x.com/om_patel5/status/2081218866839966116 ⭐️ What excites you in SEO - https://x.com/edwardeachday/status/2083151456685769104 ⭐️ Barry Schwartz writeup - https://searchengineland.com/google-indexed-claude-chats-because-anthropic-didnt-block-your-private-chats-from-search-engines-483748 ⭐️ Google's robots.txt instructions - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7489871 ⭐️ Ep 757 - Google Is Indexing ChatGPT Conversations?! Huge SEO Opportunity (And Risks) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LfNTcTJ86M ⭐️ Ep 788 - Rank #1 on Google in 5 Hours with Claude Artifacts (AI Parasite SEO) - https://youtu.be/nYOYNPtjS5g 💎 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 Share Leak 01:02 SEO World Reacts 01:44 What Wired Missed 04:00 Robots.txt Disallow vs Noindex 05:34 Google Policies Explained 06:46 ChatGPT Repeat Mistake 08:21 Claude Artifacts Still Indexed 10:07 Wrap Up and Thanks The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing #anthropic

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  • S1 · E1122
    July 31 · 14 min

    What Does an SEO Actually Do Every Day? New vs. Ranking vs. Established Sites

    E1122: What does an SEO actually do every day? The answer depends on the stage of the website. The work required for a brand-new site is very different from the work required for a site that already ranks, generates revenue, or has an established presence in its market. I break down the day-to-day responsibilities of an SEO across three stages: - A brand-new website - A website that is already ranking - A large, established website For a new site, an SEO often has to handle nearly everything. That includes planning the site structure, researching keywords, creating pages, building links, checking technical issues, and making sure the website is designed to grow. For a ranking site, the focus begins to change. You have real search data, existing authority, and pages that can be improved. Your work becomes more focused on expanding rankings, fixing keyword cannibalization, improving declining pages, and using internal links to support more competitive keywords. For an established site, SEO becomes a combination of strategy, prioritization, management, and quality control. You may be working with thousands of keywords, multiple departments, outside agencies, technical teams, content marketers, and public relations teams. You will learn: - How to plan the information architecture of a new website - How keyword research should influence subfolders and site structure - Why every important page should be connected through internal links - How to avoid creating orphan pages - How to study competitors without copying their mistakes - Why branding, trust, user experience, and SEO are connected - How poor pop-ups and usability problems can hurt search performance - Why new websites should start with less competitive keywords - How top-of-funnel pages can support more valuable commercial pages - Why link building often takes up most of an SEO's time on a new site - How to earn links that also produce referral traffic and brand awareness - Why direct traffic and branded searches matter - How to check whether a website is crawlable and indexable - How to use Google Search Console and Screaming Frog - Why you should track keywords, tests, changes, and results - How video and other platforms can rank for your target searches - How SEO work changes once a website starts making money - How to find keyword opportunities within your existing rankings - How to use ranking pages to support more competitive pages - What keyword cannibalization is and how to reduce it - Why a ranking website should not depend entirely on SEO - How SEO can support social media, public relations, sponsorships, and other marketing - How to get more value from sponsorships than a single backlink - Why technical problems become more common as a website grows - How staging sites, robots.txt rules, plugins, and noindex tags can cause ranking problems - How to identify and update pages that are losing traffic - When a website is ready to target larger and more competitive keywords - How SEO changes when you are managing an established website - Why content pruning becomes important - How to prioritize thousands of possible keyword opportunities - How to cover the top, middle, and bottom of the search funnel - How to expand into an adjacent topic without losing topical focus - Why large websites often accumulate thin, duplicate, or unnecessary pages - How programmatic and AI-generated pages can create indexing problems - Why established companies often pay for SEO tools they do not need - How large brands compete for the highest-volume keywords - Why established-site SEO is a balance between fixing problems and finding new opportunities The main lesson is that there is no single daily SEO checklist that applies to every website. Your priorities should change as the site grows. A new site needs structure, research, content, links, and technical foundations. A ranking site needs optimization, internal linking, updates, testing, and marketing beyond search. An established site needs prioritization, management, technical oversight, content cleanup, and a plan for competing for the most valuable keywords in its market. ⭐️ Ep 1120 - You Don't Need 1,000 Backlinks to Rank on Google (Here's What Actually Works) - https://youtu.be/8dwPZu9rjt8 ⭐️ Ep 1104 - The 1-Hour SEO Update That Makes Your Best Pages Rank for More Keywords - https://youtu.be/GmsAuotHGso ⭐️ Ep 1030 - Keyword Cannibalization: Why Your SEO Pages Compete (And How to Fix It) - https://youtu.be/n3jrXrau6kE ⭐️ Ep 1012 - How IBM Took Over "AI" Keywords on Google (And What You Can Steal) - https://youtu.be/NwJk9HN-TOI 💎 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 What SEOs Do Daily 00:43 New Site All Hats 03:06 Keyword Research Strategy 03:58 Link Building Grind 05:06 Tech Checks Tracking 06:13 Ranking Site Growth 07:18 Diversify Marketing PR 09:54 Fix Declines Scale Up 10:37 Established Site Management 12:43 Biggest Keywords Stunts 13:43 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing #linkbuilding

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  • S1 · E1118
    July 29 · 1 hr 14 min

    There Is No #1 Ranking Anymore: Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR & Charles Floate on SEO's New Rules

    E1121: There is no permanent #1 ranking in AI search. Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR and Charles Floate join the show to explain why Google's results are becoming less fixed, more variable, and harder to measure with traditional rank tracking. They break down what is changing across Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other answer engines - and what they are changing in their own SEO strategies. The conversation goes beyond predictions. Koray and Charles share case studies, technical explanations, black-hat observations, and practical frameworks drawn from years of testing Google. In this episode: - Why AI search results are probabilistic - and why "position #1" no longer tells the full story - How rankings can change throughout the day, even when tracking tools report a stable average position - Why Google appears less tolerant of outdated content and large-scale AI publishing - The authority site that published more than 2,000 AI articles in one day and reportedly lost around 70% of its traffic - Why freshness depends on the query, and how Google may compare previous versions of a page - How Google's need for fresh sources in AI Overviews and AI Mode may be changing traditional search - Why Charles no longer wants to build the same "niche expert" content sites he built six or eight years ago - How one parasite page reached page one for a competitive finance query within three hours - Koray's $200, single-page site that grew from five clicks to 8,000 Google clicks per day without changing its content - What "visual semantics" means and why page layout, buttons, product grids, upload fields, and other functional elements may affect how Google classifies a page - Why Koray believes the Helpful Content Update would be more accurately described as a "functional content" update - Why a useful article may still struggle if the site does not clearly provide a product, service, tool, or other function - How to decide whether a query deserves its own page, a heading, or only a sentence - Why topical maps must be reviewed as Google changes query intent and semantic relationships - How topical focus, exact-match domains, expired domains, links, and click data work together - Why there is no single SEO silver bullet - and why content, links, technical SEO, entities, user behavior, and page function must support each other - How click satisfaction differs by query, and why a longer visit is not always a better signal - Why links and brand mentions serve different purposes when ranking pages, companies, products, and people - How Koray and Charles are using satellite sites, content distribution, and mentions to influence AI recommendations - What each guest would do with a fresh domain, $10,000, and six months to generate revenue - Which parasite platforms may work for B2B, local, B2C, and other markets - One SEO action listeners can implement this week that could affect rankings within 90 days This episode examines how Google evaluates pages, how AI systems retrieve and describe brands, and why tactics from traditional search cannot simply be copied into AI search. Subscribe for more conversations about SEO, Google, AI search, content, and backlinks. ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR's website - https://www.holisticseo.digital/ ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/koray-tugberk-gubur/ ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on 𝕏 - https://x.com/KorayGubur ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TopicalAuthority ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/koraytugberk.gubur.948/ ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on Medium - https://medium.com/@ktgubur ⭐️ 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 💎 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 Koray and Charles 00:22 Koray's SEO Origin Story 01:36 Topical Authority Breakthrough 02:30 Semantics vs Systems 04:56 What's Working in SEO 06:15 Google Gets Less Tolerant 09:07 Freshness and Historical Data 12:39 Charles' $250K SEO Lesson 15:35 Koray's Cost of Retrieval 16:24 Visual Semantics Case Study 20:19 SEO Myths and Schema 24:09 Entity Stacking Frameworks 28:09 Core Updates and Embeddings 31:05 Topical Maps Explained 36:11 Function Over Content 37:29 Visual Product Mimicry 40:02 Fake Collections That Rank 42:11 Helpful Content Misnomer 44:53 Agents For Visual Actions 46:05 Clicks And RankLab 48:02 Engagement And Satisfaction 50:38 AI Results Are Probabilistic 54:20 Liquid SERPs And Duration 55:48 AI SEO Tactics 01:00:04 Parasite SEO Playbook 01:08:12 Mentions Versus Backlinks 01:13:28 One Tactic This Week The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #searchengineoptimization #blackhatseo #technicalseo

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  • S1 · E1120
    July 29 · 18 min

    You Don't Need 1,000 Backlinks to Rank on Google (Here's What Actually Works)

    E1120: Your competitors may have 500 to 1,000 backlinks while your site has only a handful. That does not automatically mean you need hundreds of links to compete. I break down a popular SEO subreddit discussion about how to build backlinks today. I review the strongest comments, explain which advice is useful, and show why relevance, real traffic, relationships, and search intent often matter more than the total number of links pointing to a site. You'll learn: - Not doing any link building to get backlinks - The debate on PBNs - When buying backlinks can create risk - Why cold outreach and guest posting work, but require time and consistency - How businesses earn links through podcasts, niche publications, partnerships, sponsorships, and digital PR - Why a relevant link that sends real visitors can be more valuable than a high-metric link that gets no traffic - How to evaluate a website before asking for a backlink from it - Why you should check traffic history, ranking keywords, indexing, and sharp traffic declines - How original stock photos can attract natural backlinks with little or no outreach - How reverse image search can uncover websites using your images without attribution - Why brand mentions may still help Google understand your business, even when there is no link - How answering one journalist request per day can lead to strong editorial mentions and backlinks - Why industry events and business relationships can produce users, press, partnerships, and links at the same time - How hosting or appearing on podcasts can help you build relationships with people in your market - Why three highly relevant links may sometimes be more useful than hundreds of weak or unrelated links - How under-targeted, high-intent keywords can help a lower-authority site compete with larger websites The main point is simple: do not measure your backlink strategy only by quantity. A good backlink should make sense for the business. Ideally, it should appear on an indexed page, come from a relevant source, support your reputation, and send interested people to your site. Links created only to manipulate rankings are easier to identify as spam and less useful to a real business. I also explain why link building should not be separated from marketing. Useful content, expert commentary, podcast appearances, earned media, partnerships, events, and sponsorships can all generate links while also building awareness and bringing potential customers to your website. ⭐️ The Reddit thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1v2qkjz/how_do_you_get_backlinks/ ⭐️ Ep 1092 - The Digital PR Playbook That Earns High-Authority Links (Most SEOs Never Learn) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prWLsQNMHqo ⭐️ Ep 1116 - James Dooley Episode - https://youtu.be/EOkrLkKNDrY ⭐️ Ep 1111 - Why Red Bull Ranks for Everything: The SEO Power of Viral Marketing and Sponsorships - https://youtu.be/lmPBNIDwIks ⭐️ How to Get On Podcasts as a Guest in 2026: The Easy Way - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/get-on-podcasts-as-guest-2026/ ⭐️ How I Produce Guest Podcasts in 90 Minutes (That Help Me Rank in Google) - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/how-i-produce-guest-podcasts-in-90-minutes/ ⭐️ https://aipodcastmatcher.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 Backlink Question 01:12 Four Link Methods 01:53 Guest Posts Deep Dive 02:28 PBNs And Buying Links 02:57 PR And Podcast Links 05:17 Evaluating Link Quality 07:23 Stock Photo Link Hack 09:07 Digital PR And Mentions 10:57 Earned Media Examples 12:20 Journalist Quotes Daily 13:07 Partnerships And Hosting 14:42 Relevance Beats Backlinks 16:27 Wrapping The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #linkbuilding #searchengineoptimization #backlinks

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  • S1 · E1119
    July 27 · 1 hr 24 min

    $1B Ecommerce Expert Tears Apart Product Pages That Don't Convert

    E1119: Most ecommerce brands assume they need more traffic. But sometimes the real problem is the product page. I sit down with James Backenstone from Build Grow Scale as we screenshare and tear apart real ecommerce product pages while explaining why some pages convert while others lose the sale. James has spent 10 years studying customer behavior, working with more than 100 brands, and reviewing stores ranging from startups to eight- and nine-figure businesses. Across Build Grow Scale's work, the team has managed roughly $1 billion in ecommerce revenue. We look at the good, the bad, and the confusing across subscription and one-time-purchase product pages. James explains what he would change, what he would test, and which details can quietly cause a customer to leave. You'll learn: - The three questions a product page should answer before a visitor scrolls - What belongs above the fold on desktop and mobile - Why a vague product title can hurt both conversions and SEO - How clutter, unclear selections, broken-looking buttons, and unnecessary popups create friction - Why benefits and key product details should appear before secondary offers - Where to place reviews, star ratings, testimonials, and customer photos - Why real reviews often look more trustworthy than a page filled with perfect five-star ratings - How to build a clear subscription and one-time-purchase section - When a sticky add-to-cart button is worth testing - How to order product images, ingredient details, dosage information, videos, and customer content - Why captions should be added to product videos - How large video files can slow down a Shopify store - When comparison charts help customers understand why your product is different - Why brand-focused numbers can matter less than customer-focused proof - How to use customer objections to decide what information belongs on the page - Why "clarity trumps persuasion" when someone is deciding whether to buy James also explains how his team combines Shopify server-side data, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Microsoft Clarity to study behavior across a store. They use Claude to compare the data, find repeated patterns, and create a testing plan instead of relying on a single analytics platform. We also discuss: - Microsoft Clarity heatmaps and scroll tracking - Intelligems and VWO for A/B testing - Matching landing-page language to the ad or search that brought the visitor in - Exit-intent offers and timing popups based on average time on page - AI customer support that clearly identifies itself and transfers difficult questions to a human - Why every page change should be tested on real users rather than judged only by appearance The main lesson is simple: traffic cannot fix a product page that fails to explain what the product is, what problem it solves, and why the customer should buy it from you. Subscribe for daily episodes on SEO, AI, ecommerce, marketing, and building businesses online. ⭐️ Build Grow Scale - https://buildgrowscale.com/ ⭐️ AI Powered Store Audit - https://buildgrowscale.com/bgs-intelligence-snapshot ⭐️ James Backenstone on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-backenstose-839048206/ 💎 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 Product Page Teardowns Intro 00:35 Meet James and BGS 03:38 Why CRO Principles Matter 06:03 Mystery Tackle Box Audit 12:21 Clarity Over Cleverness 19:33 Reviews and Credibility 29:15 Heatmaps and AI Analysis 33:08 Pet Supplement Page Done Right 37:52 Mobile Sticky Add to Cart 41:00 Images and Made in USA Trust 44:35 Captions For Product Videos 46:26 Buy Box Breakdown 50:47 Sticky Layout Idea 52:01 UGC Testimonials And Hosting 01:02:04 AI Chat And Exit Intent 01:08:11 Cut Redundant Sections 01:12:45 Comparison Charts And Reviews 01:19:26 Conversion Summary And Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #conversionrateoptimization #ecommerce #seo #searchengineoptimization

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  • S1 · E1118
    July 27 · 12 min

    Google Smacked WindowsForum for AI Slop - Was the Penalty Deserved?

    E1118: Google hit WindowsForum.com with a manual action covering roughly 168,000 forum threads and more than half a million posts. The site's owners argued that Google unfairly punished a decades-old community for "thin content" without providing example URLs. But once you look deeper, the case becomes much more complicated. We investigate what WindowsForum says happened, what changed on the site before the penalty, and whether Google's action was deserved. The site presented the penalty as an attack on old forum content that had survived years of Google updates. However, its own response also revealed a large automated AI publishing system that created news articles, forum replies, and content based on material from other sources. Some of that content included unrelated topics such as: - Cryptocurrency promotions - Stock price predictions - Analyst ratings - General financial news - Articles that had little connection to Windows - Automated forum replies that summarized and praised user comments - AI-generated news pages built from third-party sources WindowsForum later said it was removing thousands of low-quality articles produced by its automated system. It also claimed that every bot-authored article had been reviewed after the manual action. That raises several questions: - How much AI-generated content was published? - How much human review took place before publication? - Why did the site's organic traffic increase so rapidly before the penalty? - Was Google targeting the old forum archive or the newer automated content? - Should a manual action against part of a site suppress an entire URL pattern? - Should independent forums be treated differently from large platforms? - Are users actually helped by AI-generated replies inside community discussions? The traffic pattern is also worth examining. WindowsForum's estimated organic traffic remained relatively stable for years, then increased sharply from around 4,900 monthly clicks to more than 150,000 monthly clicks. That increase appears to line up with the expansion of its automated publishing activity. We break down: - WindowsForum's public explanation of the penalty - The details missing from the original Reddit discussion - The site's automated AI content pipeline - The admission that thousands of low-quality articles were published - The use of AI accounts inside forum discussions - The site's scraped and summarized news content - The unusual organic traffic growth before the manual action - Why old content may not have been the real reason for the penalty - Why domain authority cannot protect a site from low-quality publishing - What this case means for site owners using scaled AI content The evidence suggests that WindowsForum used its established domain authority to publish large amounts of automated content, much of which added little original value and sometimes had little connection to the site's main topic. Google's response may have been broad, and the lack of example URLs makes the reconsideration process harder. But the site's own admissions make it difficult to argue that the penalty came without warning or justification. This case is a useful warning for anyone planning to publish large amounts of AI-generated content. AI can help with research, organization, editing, and drafting. It should not replace subject-matter expertise, fact-checking, original analysis, or human editorial review. Publishing more pages is not the same as creating more value. ⭐️ WindowsForum full response - https://windowsforum.com/threads/ ⭐️ Join the Reddit discussion - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1v6jn8x/google_hit_windowsforumcom_with_a_thincontent/ ⭐️ Join the discussion on X - https://x.com/gaganghotra_/status/2081287139271250274 💎 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 Detective SEO 00:14 Manual Action Breakdown 01:51 What Actually Changed 02:28 Why Google Hits Broadly 04:00 WindowsForum Response 04:38 AI Workflow Red Flags 06:26 Suspicious Traffic Spike 08:35 AI Slop Examples 09:43 Bigger AI Crackdown Context 11:30 Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #searchengineoptimization #webdevelopment #digitalmarketing

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  • S1 · E1117
    July 25 · 1 hr 30 min

    Rank & Rent SEO: How Ippei Built 130 Sites - and Made $240K From One 15-Hour Website

    E1117: Breaking down Rank-and-Rent, one of the most profitable local SEO business models. We are joined by a pro in the subject: Ippei Kanehara Ippei has been building Rank-and-Rent websites for more than 11 years. During that time he's built hundreds of local lead generation sites, generated recurring income from websites that are over a decade old, and recently built 130 new sites to test what's working in SEO today. One of his earliest websites took around 15 hours to build and has generated more than $240,000 over its lifetime while continuing to produce recurring monthly revenue. We cover the complete strategy behind modern Rank-and-Rent SEO, including niche selection, keyword research, website architecture, topical authority, Google Business Profiles, AI content workflows, and why bottom-of-the-funnel SEO continues to outperform many traditional content strategies. Whether you're an SEO professional, agency owner, affiliate marketer, local business owner, or someone looking to build recurring income online, this episode is packed with practical insights and real-world examples. Topics covered include: - What Rank-and-Rent SEO is - Whether Google Business Profiles are still required - How the business model differs from running an SEO agency - How to generate leads before signing clients - Using free leads to acquire long-term customers - Commission deals vs. flat monthly rental agreements - Why recurring rental income often produces lower client churn - The biggest misconceptions about rank and rent - How successful operators continue building without relying entirely on GBP - Choosing profitable local niches - Why home service businesses continue to offer strong opportunities - High-ticket vs. low-ticket service industries - Avoiding overly competitive local markets - What to look for when analyzing competing websites - Why many local businesses still have weak SEO - Exact match domains and partial match domains - Building brands around local search intent - Website structures that consistently rank - Homepage optimization - Heading hierarchy - Service page strategy - Sub-city landing pages - Internal linking strategy - Using the homepage as the authority hub - Building topical authority across an entire site - How many pages to launch with - Creating dozens of bottom-of-the-funnel pages - Expanding into neighboring cities - Finding overlooked service keywords - Using Google's autocomplete for keyword research - Google Search Console to discover new opportunities - When to create new pages versus expanding existing content - Information architecture for local SEO - AI-assisted content creation - Entity optimization - Editing AI content for higher quality - Making local landing pages more unique - Case studies and location-specific content - Image strategies for local websites - Link building vs. topical authority - Why Ippei has largely stopped relying on guest posts - Using internal authority across owned websites - Building multiple websites for the same client - Scaling local SEO without unnecessary complexity - The first 30 days of launching a new Rank-and-Rent website - Why beginners should build multiple sites - Common mistakes new local SEO operators make We also discuss how Google's algorithm updates have affected different business models. Ippei shares how large content websites can be heavily impacted by updates while many local lead generation sites continue producing consistent results by focusing on commercial search intent and bottom-of-the-funnel keywords. ⭐️ Ippei's Blog - https://ippei.com/ ⭐️ Ippei's Web Builder & Call Tracking - https://ippei.com/dashboard/ ⭐️ Ippei Kanehara on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@IppeiSEO 💎 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 Rank and Rent Intro 00:27 Model Breakdown 03:31 Monetization and Billing 05:03 Why It Beats Agencies 08:48 Ippei Origin Story 14:24 Best Site Example 14:58 Misconceptions and GBP 17:17 Picking Profitable Niches 18:46 Reading Competition Right 23:07 Site Structure Basics 25:44 Branding and Scaling Cities 28:22 EMDs and Must Have Pages 31:36 Internal Linking Strategy 36:31 Avoiding Doorway Pages 39:44 AI Content Workflow 43:34 Keyword Research Methods 46:22 GSC Insights and New Pages 47:27 Keyword Page Splits 48:31 Backlinks Versus Authority 51:09 First 30 Days Blueprint 54:38 Site Structure Strategy 56:35 Image Sourcing Tactics 57:59 GBP Lead Boost 01:00:45 Video Verification Hacks 01:05:52 Reviews And Conversions 01:08:23 Monetization Models 01:10:08 Lead Handoff Scripts 01:16:16 Contracts And Leverage 01:18:14 Scaling And Mistakes 01:21:51 Mega Brand Rollup 01:27:18 Why Projects Fail 01:29:30 Final Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #rankandrent #seo #searchengineoptimization

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  • S1 · E1116
    July 24 · 1 hr 42 min

    What Actually Works in SEO in 2026 - James Dooley on AI Search, Links & "Money-Hat" SEO

    E1116: James Dooley joins the pod to explain what's working in SEO in 2026, based on years of testing across hundreds of websites, multiple industries, and highly competitive search markets. James describes himself as a "money-hat SEO": he is less interested in labels such as white hat or black hat and more interested in testing, measuring results, managing risk, and building assets that make money over the long term. We discuss: - What James does during the first 30 days of a new SEO project - Why he often builds an exact-match domain, a partial-match domain, and a branded website for the same business - How he chooses between short-term ranking opportunities and long-term brand building - Why bottom-of-the-funnel pages remain central to his lead-generation strategy - How to tell whether a site needs more authority, better content, content pruning, or conversion work - What "discovered, not indexed" and "crawled, not indexed" can reveal about a website - Why deleting a large percentage of weak pages can sometimes increase traffic - What the Google API leak confirmed about user signals, clicks, branded searches, and NavBoost - Why site speed, concise content, image size, dwell time, and user behavior still matter - Which links still move rankings in 2026, including digital PR, guest posts, citations, press releases, and PBNs - Why James now prefers links that competitors cannot easily copy - What still works in iGaming SEO and why James is reducing his involvement in that market - How parasite SEO, expired domains, exact-match domains, and indexing tools fit into his current process - Why top-of-the-funnel content is increasingly being published on Reddit, social platforms, and third-party sites - How one strong review, testimonial, award, or case study can be repurposed across many platforms - Why force-indexing social posts and third-party content may help those pages appear in search and AI systems - How brands can improve their chances of being cited and linked in Google AI Overviews - Why consensus and third-party corroboration matter for recommendations in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity - James's "who you are, what you do, and why you're brilliant" framework - How knowledge panels, Knowledge Graph IDs, schema, books, podcasts, IMDb, Wikidata, and entity connections work together - The difference between using schema for rankings and using schema to clarify an entity - How James outranked another well-known person with the same name in Google's Knowledge Graph - Why fewer clicks from informational searches do not always mean fewer leads or sales - How AI-assisted search can send better-informed prospects who are more likely to convert - The SEO mistakes James has made, how he tests penalties, and why he teaches new team members to find the limits - The one SEO action he recommends completing in the next 24 hours - Why SEOs should test ideas instead of repeating advice they have never verified ⭐️ 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 Welcome James Dooley 00:32 From Business to SEO 01:46 Content Amplification Flywheel 05:11 First 30 Days SEO 08:07 Money Hat SEO 11:58 Google Leak Signals 15:52 iGaming Negative SEO 19:13 Pruning and Authority 21:14 Revenue Keyword Research 23:52 Multi Domain Strategy 26:26 Entity SEO Knowledge Panels 31:01 Link Tactics 2026 36:17 Schema for Entities 40:50 Search Volume vs Corroboration 42:20 Schema for Knowledge Panels 43:37 Schema Testing for Rankings 44:35 R&D Testing Mindset 46:13 Social Platforms for Long Tails 48:12 AI Overviews and Better Leads 50:15 Consensus Framework for AI 52:56 Amplify Testimonials Everywhere 56:57 Ethics of Review Manipulation 59:49 Semantic Triples Explained 01:01:35 Force Indexing Social Proof 01:04:43 Omnichannel Consistency Wins 01:08:20 Mentorship and Industry Growth 01:10:27 Nofollow and Mentions Debate 01:11:44 Unlinked Mentions Matter 01:12:36 Why SEO Is Surging 01:13:54 Bottom of Funnel Keyword Wins 01:15:01 Inside Their SEO Testing Lab 01:16:43 Image Search Traffic Plays 01:18:01 Video And Podcasting Boost 01:18:37 Podcast Syndication For LLMs 01:24:08 Monetizing Podcasts With Sponsors 01:26:49 Strategic Micro Episodes Plan 01:30:16 Three Questions 01:36:04 Who To Follow In SEO 01:40:46 Wrap Up And Where To Find The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #blackhatseo #digitalmarketing

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  • S1 · E1115
    July 23 · 1 hr 5 min

    He Lost 50% of His Google Traffic to AI Overviews (Here's How He Recovered)

    E1115: Endre Olsvik Elvestad built a large SEO program around SignLab, a sign-language learning company. Its websites offered searchable sign language videos across multiple countries. Then Google AI Overviews appeared. SignLab lost about 50% of its Google clicks. High-intent traffic and app downloads fell even harder. Google could show the answer directly in search by displaying SignLab's videos, leaving users with no reason to visit the website. In this episode, Endre explains what happened, why the original programmatic SEO strategy stopped producing the same results, and how the company rebuilt organic acquisition across Google, YouTube, and AI search. We cover: - How AI Overviews reduced clicks while rankings and impressions often stayed stable - Why losing website visits caused a much larger drop in app downloads - How SignLab moved thousands of sign language videos from self-hosting to YouTube - The upload limits, verification issues, and automation challenges involved - Why YouTube became an important search engine for sign language queries - Why YouTube improved visibility without fully replacing website conversions - The difference between top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel traffic - Which queries produced the most app downloads after the decline - Why "Does Duolingo have ASL?" became a strong bottom-of-funnel topic - How the team shifted from individual sign queries to broader communication problems - Why traditional SEO fundamentals still mattered after AI Overviews - How SignLab manages separate SEO strategies across multiple countries and domains - Why direct translation was not enough for international SEO - How AI agents help with research, outlines, writing, review, publishing, and updates - Why content must reflect the culture, search behavior, and needs of each country - How customer reviews can feed new topics into an automated SEO workflow - What useful, specific, reviewed AI-generated content looks like - Which tactics were less useful, including gray-hat LLM tactics and expensive monitoring tools - The few actions that drove most of the recovery This case study is for anyone dealing with declining organic clicks, zero-click search, AI Overviews, programmatic SEO, international SEO, YouTube SEO, or AI-assisted content production. SignLab did not recover by finding a shortcut. It recovered by changing its content, expanding into YouTube, targeting queries closer to conversion, and applying solid SEO practices across every market. ⭐️ Endre Olsvik Elvestad on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/endreelvestad/ ⭐️ Endre Olsvik Elvestad's company, SignLab - https://www.signlab.co/ ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ Will Qu on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-qu/ 💎 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 Traffic Cut in Half 00:27 Sign Language SEO Model 01:37 AI Overviews Steal Videos 05:25 App Downloads Collapse 07:19 Working With David 09:44 Recovery Strategy Shift 15:24 YouTube Migration Plan 16:08 Upload Limits and Workflow 18:41 Verification to Scale Uploads 20:52 Titles Format and Editing 25:25 Replacing Embeds and SERP Impact 26:59 Why It Felt Unfair 32:31 YouTube Beats AI Answers 34:38 SEO Reset With Experts 36:16 What Good Content Means 38:21 Middle vs Bottom Funnel 42:00 Links And Topical Authority 44:06 Agentic Multilingual Publishing 46:25 Avoiding AI Translation Traps 51:12 Automated Content Feedback Loops 57:12 What Actually Drove Recovery 59:15 LLM Visibility And Community 01:01:40 Lessons And Closing The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #programmaticseo #digitalmarketing

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Showing 41–57 of 57 episodes