The Edward Show

E1073: Most small business owners know they should care about SEO, but they often misunderstand what moves the needle. I'm joined by Mariah Magazine to break down what small business owners get wrong about SEO, why keyword research is more than just picking phrases with search volume, and how business owners can use search data to make better decisions about their websites, offers, and content. Mariah shares how she got started in SEO after leaving school, what she learned working in a small agency in Buffalo, and why she now focuses on making SEO understandable for small business owners who are not technical marketers. We also talk about one of her favorite SEO stories: a candle company that used keyword research to discover demand for mini candles and made sales before the product was even added to the website. Topics covered: - Why many small business owners think SEO is more complicated than it is - How keyword research can validate demand before you invest in a product or page - The difference between SEO keywords and brand messaging - Why "nobody is searching for what I do" usually means the keyword research is too narrow - How Mariah thinks about commercial and transactional keywords - Why business owners should look at the actual Google results before choosing a keyword - How to think about keyword difficulty, domain authority, and topic authority - Why search competitors are not always the same as business competitors - Mariah's basic keyword research process using competitor analysis, Semrush, and SERP research - Why many service businesses need separate pages for separate services - What makes a website more useful for cold traffic from Google and AI search - Why About pages, Contact pages, service pages, FAQs, testimonials, and trust signals matter - Why filling out image alt text is not a complete SEO strategy - How PR and journalist relationships can support SEO through links and referral traffic - Why Mariah prefers using AI to repurpose existing content rather than write from scratch - How consultants and agency owners can get clients through referrals, communities, and helpful content This conversation is especially useful for small business owners, consultants, freelancers, service providers, and agency owners who want SEO to feel less confusing and more connected to real business outcomes. ⭐️ Mariah Magazine's website - https://www.mariahmagazine.com/ ⭐️ Mariah Magazine on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/MariahMagazine ⭐️ Mariah Magazine on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariahmagazine/ ⭐️ Mariah Magazine on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mariahmagazineco/ ⭐️ Mariah Magazine on Threads - https://

E1072: Breaking down the most common CRO and SEO advice shared by entrepreneurs and marketers, and explaining why nearly all of it comes back to one principle: matching search intent. The discussion comes from a popular entrepreneur community thread where dozens of business owners share the tactics that consistently improve both rankings and conversions. Despite different backgrounds and industries, the overwhelming consensus is that pages perform best when they perfectly match what the searcher is trying to accomplish. Topics covered: - Why matching search intent is the foundation of both SEO and conversion rate optimization - How a clear headline can dramatically improve engagement and conversions - Examples of stronger H1 headlines for local businesses, SaaS companies, and ecommerce stores - The difference between informational intent and commercial intent - Why combining multiple intents on a single page often hurts performance - How to structure separate pages for research-focused and purchase-focused searches - Internal linking strategies that move users naturally toward conversion - Why visitors should get the answer immediately instead of scrolling through long introductions - The role of above-the-fold content in keeping visitors engaged - How to reduce friction and make conversion paths easier to follow - Where to place calls to action for maximum effectiveness - Why too many buttons, links, and options can reduce conversions - The importance of social proof placement - How Microsoft Clarity can reveal user behavior that analytics tools often miss - Common mistakes businesses make when building SEO landing pages - A practical framework for creating pages that satisfy both users and search engines I also share a simple formula for matching intent on any SEO page, including: - Where to place your target keyword - How quickly to answer the searcher's question - What content should appear above the fold - When to use images versus videos - How to structure calls to action based on intent - How to decide whether a query deserves an article or a conversion-focused landing page ⭐️ The Reddit Thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/1t03mxq/comment/opcm1qx/ ⭐️ How I Took a Landing Page From $1,000/Month to $25,000/Month Without More Traffic - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/landing-page-conversion-checklist/ ⭐️ Ep 1051 - Most SEO Copywriting Is Killing Your Rankings (And Costing You Sales) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owYbNfATBhM 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear ste

E1071: How does ChatGPT choose which brands to cite, and how much of that comes from Google's existing search ecosystem? Zachary Long (Modern Humans AI) and SEO veteran David Quaid join the show for a clear, side-by-side conversation about "GEO vs SEO" and what influences visibility inside AI-generated answers and recommendations. Along the way, they discuss how AI tools gather sources, what "real-time search" really means, and why many businesses are uncertain about whether AI is "indexing the internet" or borrowing from the systems that already do. You'll hear two competing models: - One view: AI is becoming the front-line "recommender," so brands need more helpful, topic-focused content that AI can pull into answers. - The other view: AI systems still rely heavily on traditional search engines and their indexes, so if you're not discoverable in Google, you're not reliably discoverable in AI either. Key topics covered - GEO vs SEO: are these actually different "games," or mostly the same fundamentals under a new label? - How AI assistants assemble recommendations (and why the list can change from person to person) - What "real-time search" means inside ChatGPT-style tools (and what it doesn't mean) - Why Google's index matters when AI tools fetch sources for answers - Local search realities: proximity, reviews, and why "best near me" behaves differently than long conversational prompts - Content strategy for expert businesses: answering specific questions, building topical coverage, and being cited in AI summaries - The disagreement around "AI crawls and stores the whole web" vs "AI retrieves from search engines" - Scaled content: what it is, why it's risky, and how it intersects with AI-generated publishing Practical takeaways for business owners - If you want to show up in AI answers, you need clear, specific content that matches the questions people actually ask. - If AI tools are pulling sources from search engines, then basic SEO and discoverability still matter. - For local businesses, proximity and your business listing presence often decide who gets surfaced first. - Publishing more content is not automatically better; the goal is coverage that is genuinely useful and distinct. ⭐️ Modern Humans AI - https://www.modernhumans.ai/ ⭐️ Zachary Long on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacklongofficial/ ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/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

E1070: Breaking down the most extensive LocalBusiness schema test ever run - what it proves, what it doesn't, and why the results matter for local SEO and how businesses show up in ChatGPT. Jake Hundley joins Edward Sturm and David Quaid to walk through a controlled schema experiment designed to answer a simple question: does LocalBusiness schema move the needle? The study tested performance across Google Maps, Google mobile, major search engines, and multiple LLMs. The headline result: LocalBusiness schema did not improve rankings in Google Maps or traditional search - but it showed a measurable impact in ChatGPT. Key findings from the study - LocalBusiness schema did not improve rankings in Google Maps or Google mobile results - LocalBusiness schema did not improve performance in traditional search engines tested (Google/Bing/Yahoo discussed) - No measurable impact in Gemini and Grok in this test setup - Measurable improvement in ChatGPT visibility and position in results, reported with 90%+ confidence - Reported lift included improved position in ChatGPT's recommended list and higher "share of voice" across the grid-based testing What the study did differently than most "we analyzed millions of pages" posts - Used a test group and a control group to reduce the chance that algorithm updates explain the outcome - Ran a defined control period and test period, with steps to confirm crawling/indexing before measuring outcomes - Documented methodology in detail and pre-reviewed it with multiple industry experts - Focused specifically on LocalBusiness schema (non–rich snippet generating), not every schema type What this does not prove - It does not claim schema is a ranking factor for Google Maps or organic search - It does not explain why ChatGPT appears to respond to schema in this case - It does not prove results will generalize to all schema types, industries, or rich-result markup - It does not suggest schema alone will make a business show up in ChatGPT if other signals are weak Discussion topics in the episode - Why LocalBusiness schema has long been assumed to help, and what the data shows instead - The difference between correlation studies and controlled tests - The "positions in LLMs" debate and how the study defines and measures placement - Why relying on any single tactic (schema included) is risky without validation - Practical guidance: when schema is easy to add, when it's oversold, and how to treat it like a minor technical baseline rather than a strategy ⭐️ Does Schema Markup Affect Rank and AI Recommendations? - https://evergrowmarketing.com/how-schema-affects-google-and-ai/ ⭐️ Jake's Agency Discord - https://discord.gg/uvHRRRFVRD ⭐️ Jake's Podcast - The Agency Growth Podcast: https://everbrospodcast.com/ ⭐️ r/agenc

E1069: Search interest in SEO just hit a new all-time high. For more than a decade, people have said SEO is dying. Every algorithm update. Every new platform. Every new shift in traffic. The narrative repeats. But the data tells a different story. I break down why search engine optimization is at its highest recorded interest level, what changed over the past 24 months, and why the AEO panic is now turning into regret for many companies. We look at what actually happened when businesses: - Fired their SEO teams - Shifted entirely into "answer engine optimization" - Chased short-term AI visibility - Abandoned their core search foundations Now many of them are realizing something important: AEO is not a replacement for SEO. It is built on top of it. In this episode: - The Google Trends data showing SEO at a new all-time high - Why generative engine optimization and answer engine optimization are not replacing SEO - How companies overcorrected when traffic dipped - Why losing search traffic also hurts AI visibility - How ChatGPT actually searches the web when answering questions - How to see the exact queries AI models use - Why new founders and creators are driving more demand for SEO - How AI is bringing new, non-technical people into online business - Google's official documentation confirming SEO still matters for AI search - What the "regret phase" looks like for companies that dismantled their SEO foundation I also explain why ranking in AI systems requires understanding: - Search intent - Relevance - Authority - Language alignment If you want your brand recommended by AI tools, you need to understand how search works. SEO is not dead. The businesses that understand even just its fundamentals are benefiting greatly. ⭐️ AEO regret - https://x.com/5le/status/2041536429549887517?s=46 ⭐️ Ep 1047 - Google Says GEO Doesn't Exist… Here's What They're Not Telling You - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KxY5Z9tFCo ⭐️ Google directly saying GEO/AEO is just SEO - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide ⭐️ Spencer Heckathorn's comment - https://x.com/mrhobbeys/status/2063625889577914502 ⭐️ Glenn Gabe's comment - https://x.com/glenngabe/status/2063239072739369457 ⭐️ Last year's "Interest in SEO Just Hit an All-Time High (And I'm Shocked)" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nlVG05vcjY 🚀 Edward's SEO Art

E1068: Breaking down a real-world ecommerce SEO test that answers a common question: if you have multiple product variations (size, color, quantity), is there anything "special" you should do? The test looked at a simple canonical tag change and found a clear lift on variation pages, without hurting the main product pages. What you'll learn - How canonical tags affect indexing and rankings when product pages are very similar - A tested approach for handling product variation URLs, including parameter-based variants - What changed in the experiment, and why it likely helped Google crawl and index variant pages more consistently - The measured results and what they mean in plain terms - When this approach may or may not apply to your site The experiment setup - Many ecommerce sites have one main product URL and separate variation URLs - Example main URL: /products/metal-water-bottle - Example variation URLs: ?size=32oz, ?color=black - Before the test, the main product page canonical was self-referential - Before the test, each variation page canonical was also self-referential - The issue: variation pages were not indexing consistently and weren't getting the traffic expected - The change tested: the main product page canonical was updated to point to one primary variation (often the most popular) - The variation pages stayed self-referential Results - Main product pages: no negative impact (overall inconclusive) - Variation pages: positive result - Best estimate: 22% uplift in organic traffic to variation pages - Net effect: positive enough that the change was deployed more broadly Practical takeaways - Don't assume the generic "main" product page is always the best page for Google to rank - Specific variation pages can match what people actually search for (size, color, material, model, quantity, use case) - If searchers use modifiers, pages that directly represent those modifiers often deserve a clearer path to being indexed and ranked A reasonable way to test this on your site - Choose a product category where modifiers matter (size, color, material, model) - Identify one primary variation you're comfortable treating as the canonical target - Update the canonical on the main product page to point to that primary variation - Keep variation pages self-referential unless you have a clear reason not to - Track indexing consistency for variant URLs - Track organic sessions to variant pages - Track rankings for modifier queries - Track conversions and revenue, not just traffic Notes and limitations - This won't fit every ecommerce setup - Results depend on how many variants you have per product - Internal linking structure can change the outcome - Product lifecycle and catalog churn matter - Platform beha

E1067: Most e-commerce founders believe they need more traffic. In reality, most stores already have enough qualified visitors. They just fail to convert them. In this episode, I sit down with David Schomer - former CPA, Amazon seller, founder, and now CEO of Build Grow Scale - to break down why most e-commerce sites waste organic and paid traffic, and what actually increases revenue. We go deep into conversion rate optimization, SEO strategy in the AI era, Amazon data advantages, and the practical changes that move the needle. If you run a Shopify store, sell on Amazon, or are building any online brand, this episode will help you rethink where your growth is really coming from. What we cover: - Why "more traffic" is often the wrong goal - The simple homepage mistake that costs sales - Why putting your phone number at the top of your site builds trust - How to reduce buyer risk and increase conversions - Using customer service emails to improve product pages - Why FAQs and sizing charts matter more than most founders realize - How Amazon PPC data can improve your Shopify SEO - The return of the blog and when top-of-funnel content actually works - Bottom-of-funnel SEO and targeting high buyer intent searches - How AI tools like Claude are changing how founders analyze data - Finding wasted SaaS spend inside your own P&L - Why mobile optimization is still a major issue in 2026 - What e-commerce brands should steal from Amazon reviews - The 30-minute audit any founder can do today to improve conversions David also shares: - How he built and sold Amazon brands - What separates profitable stores from struggling ones - How to think about cross-sells and upsells strategically - What he's seeing with AI-driven search and new ad platforms This is a tactical episode focused on practical improvements. If you are serious about building a profitable e-commerce business, watch this all the way through. ⭐️ Build Grow Scale website - https://buildgrowscale.com/ ⭐️ David Schomer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-schomer-b08a0a41/ ⭐️ Build Grow Scale on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/buildgrowscale ⭐️ Build Grow Scale on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BuildGrowScaleEcommEducation ⭐️ Firing the Man podcast - https://firingtheman.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://compactkeywo

E1066: Breaking down exactly how Jotform built an SEO engine that consistently drives traffic, rankings, and high-intent users - and what you can apply to your own business. Jotform is getting a whopping 2.7 million clicks per month from Google. We're looking at real numbers, real pages, and real strategy. Jotform has: - 92/100 domain authority - 21.2 million backlinks - 108,000 ranking keywords - 35,000 keywords in positions 1-3 - 2.1 million non-branded clicks per month But the numbers aren't the real lesson. The real lesson is how they structure their site and how they turn product pages into SEO assets. What you'll learn: - Why template pages outperform blog posts for high-intent keywords - How Jotform ranks for terms like "pay stub template," "contract template," and "AI quiz generator" - How they use subfolders like /pdf-templates/, /form-templates/, and /ai/ to scale - Why internal linking from linkable assets strengthens the entire domain - How they protect branded traffic by bidding on their own keywords - Why pruning blog content can increase traffic instead of hurting it - The rise of self-promotional listicles and the risks involved - Why informational traffic spikes can become dangerous if topical authority stretches too far One of the biggest takeaways: Stop trying to rank blog posts for keywords that require a product. If someone searches "pay stub template," they don't want a 2,000-word article. They want the template immediately. Jotform gives it to them above the fold. That is why they win. We also discuss: - How their AI subfolder is rapidly gaining traction - How competitors try to intercept branded searches like "Jotform pricing" - Why some companies see traffic spikes from aggressive listicles - and then collapse - What happened to companies that overextended their topical authority This episode is about long-term SEO strategy. Jotform has been consistent for years. Their backlink profile, their structure, and their product-first SEO approach show what is possible when you commit to the long game. If you want to build SEO assets instead of publishing blog fluff, this breakdown will give you ideas you can apply immediately. ⭐️ Jotform - https://www.jotform.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 Why Jotform Wins SEO 00:46 Authority and Traffic Stats 02:17 Template Pages as SEO Assets 02:54 Pay Stub Template Breakdown 04:07 Product Pages Not Blog Posts 04:57 More SEO Subfolders and AI 05:58 Defending Branded Key

E1065: Kalin Karakehayov owns more than 200,000 domains and operates a portfolio of roughly 30,000 websites. In this episode, Kalin explains how the domain industry actually works, why expired domains can be worth millions to the right buyer, and what most SEO professionals misunderstand about backlinks, authority, and ranking websites. We discuss how domains are acquired, how aged domains are evaluated, the economics behind large domain portfolios, and why some businesses are built entirely around acquiring and monetizing internet real estate. Kalin also shares stories from nearly two decades in SEO, including a domain purchased for $30 that generated $150,000, a domain acquired for $10,000 and sold for $140,000, and examples of buyers generating millions of dollars in value from domains purchased for only a few hundred dollars. Later in the conversation, we explore the relationship between chess, decision making, performance, and business. Kalin was an International Master in chess before entering the domain industry, and he explains why many of the skills that make someone successful in chess don't necessarily transfer to entrepreneurship. Topics discussed: - Owning and managing more than 200,000 domains - How expired domains are discovered and acquired - Why aged domains can outperform new domains - What makes a domain valuable - How backlinks influence rankings today - Whether backlinks matter less in the AI era - Private Blog Networks (PBNs) and how they've changed - Common mistakes people make when buying domains - How SEO has evolved over the last 20 years - The economics of link building - Why some domains sell for six figures - The role of brand searches and authority signals - Local SEO vs SaaS SEO - Ranking websites in highly competitive industries - Domain auctions and domain investing - How large domain portfolios are built - Google indexing and ranking behavior - Why some websites rank while others don't - Chess, performance, and decision making - Building an eight-figure asset portfolio About Kalin Karakehayov: Kalin Karakehayov is the founder of a large domain portfolio company that owns more than 200,000 domains. His company specializes in expired domains, domain acquisition, domain valuation, and serving businesses that rely on organic search traffic. Before entering the domain industry, Kalin earned the title of International Master in chess. Subscribe for more conversations with founders, operators, investors, and unconventional thinkers building businesses on the internet. ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Karakehayov ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karakehayov ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kalin.karakehayov/ ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on Face

E1064: Most business owners think their niche is too competitive for SEO. It's not. I explain why most people completely misjudge competition, why keyword difficulty scores are misleading, and how bottom-of-funnel SEO is still wide open - even in 2026. Top-of-funnel informational SEO has taken a major hit. Click-through rates have dropped. AI overviews are reducing traffic. Ranking #1 doesn't mean what it used to mean. But high-intent SEO is different. If you sell a product or service, there is still enormous opportunity - and most of your competitors are not optimizing properly. I break down: - Why your niche is probably not as competitive as you think - The mistake of relying on keyword difficulty scores - How to actually evaluate competition by looking at the SERPs - Why relevance matters more than most people realize - The exact on-page placements that influence rankings (page title, URL, H1, first sentence) - Why overusing your keyword can hurt you - How to use keyword variants to rank for more terms with less effort - Why bottom-of-funnel, high-intent SEO is still a blue ocean - How to find longer-tail keywords that are easier to rank for and bring qualified traffic Most businesses emailing me don't have an authority problem. They don't have penalties.  They don't have technical blockers. They have a relevance problem. And they don't know how to evaluate real competition. This episode walks through how to fix that. ⭐️ Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58% - https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/ 💎 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 Why Competitors Aren't Scary 00:22 Stop Trusting Keyword Difficulty 01:02 Top of Funnel SEO Is Crushed 02:15 Bottom of Funnel SEO Blue Ocean 02:48 Check for Real Ranking Blockers 03:57 Relevance Beats Authority 04:28 Avoid Over Optimization 06:05 Three Mistakes and Fixes 08:52 Find and Target High-Intent Keywords 10:03 Final Outro and Thanks The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #bottomoffunnelseo #informationalseo #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1063: If you run a large ecommerce site with hundreds of thousands or millions of product pages, and only a fraction of them are indexed, you are not alone. David Quaid and I break down why Google indexes only 30-40% of pages on many large sites - and what actually determines whether a product page gets crawled and indexed. This conversation covers how authority flows through large websites, why crawl budget is often misunderstood, and how URL structure, topical relevance, and internal architecture affect indexation. If you manage or market a large ecommerce site, this episode will change how you think about SEO. What we cover: - Why "discovered, not indexed" is a bigger problem than "crawled, not indexed" - Why adding more internal links doesn't automatically improve indexation - How Google's crawl pools actually work - Why pruning pages rarely fixes indexing issues - The role of the URL slug in determining whether a page gets crawled - How topical authority influences whether a product page is worth indexing - Why homepage backlinks don't help deep product pages as much as you think - How hub pages can bypass traditional site hierarchy - When to include keywords in subfolders vs. slugs - Why some large sites perform well with only 40% of pages indexed - What happens when authority "tightens" across your site - How to decide which product pages actually need to rank - The first three things to check when auditing a 1M+ product site - The real difference between crawl efficiency and authority shaping - How blog content can directly support deep product tiers We also discuss: - Whether AI-generated product content hurts indexing - Why XML sitemaps do not solve indexation problems - The difference between semantic ranking and topical authority - Why step-by-step traffic decline often signals authority loss, not penalties If you operate a large ecommerce site, this episode will help you think beyond crawl budget and start focusing on the pages that actually matter. Drop your questions in the comments. We read them and often turn them into future episodes. (And congratulations to friend of the podcast, Harpreet Singh, on his baby boy!) ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/ 🚀 Learn SEO for free - https://freeseoknowledge.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: <a href= "https://compactkeywor

E1062: Most link building advice sounds great until you try to execute it. The real challenge isn't "getting backlinks." It's getting links that make sense, earning real replies, and avoiding tactics that waste your time. I break down a Reddit post that ranks five link building methods by how well they work in practice. I walk through each method, why it works, what to watch out for, and give many examples along the way. In this episode: - The 5 link building methods, ranked by effectiveness - Why "relevance" often beats raw authority - How to think about links in a way that avoids spam tactics - What runs out quickly vs. what scales over time - A simple question to filter good link ideas from bad ones: would this link still make sense if Google didn't exist? The 5 methods (ranked): - Adjacent niche outreach (complementary businesses, same audience, not competitors) - Competitor backlink gap (find sites that link to competitors but not you) - Niche blog outreach (contextual placements, but you must vet sites carefully) - Partner/supplier/customer mentions (real relationships, natural links) - Agency-to-agency link swaps (rare, but works when relationships exist) Examples mentioned: - Roofing company swapping links with a gutter installer (same homeowner, not competitors) - Directory and listing opportunities discovered through competitor backlink profiles - Guest contributions on niche sites that have real organic traffic - Vendors or partners featuring you in customer stories or recommended tools pages Key cautions covered: - Don't publish on sites that exist only to sell links - Check for real organic traffic and whether it's stable or increasing - Expect low reply rates in outreach, and plan for it - Some methods are high quality but limited by how many real relationships you have - Look for relevance ⭐️ 5 link building methods ranked by how well they actually work - https://www.reddit.com/r/linkbuilding/comments/1tgeomv/5_link_building_methods_ranked_by_how_well_they/ ⭐️ Episode 1001 - Guest Blogging Is DEAD for SEO (According to Google) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StrGzJ_05qY ⭐️ Episode 1037 - How One Simple Website Got 384,000 Backlinks (Linkable Assets Explained) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Q5HHatvoc ⭐️ The AI System to Find Relevant Journalists, Land Coverage, and Earn Ongoing High-Authority Backlinks - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/articles_ai-system-find-journalists-earn-high-authority-backlinks/<

E1061: Breaking down one of the most interesting SEO experiments in recent memory: the Cats.txt hoax created by Mark Williams-Cook. He invented a completely fake "standard" called cats.txt, published formal documentation for it, and made it look legitimate. Soon after, major crawlers were requesting the file. Google indexed it. AI overviews described it as real. ChatGPT even said it could help you rank in search and large language models. Then the experiment went viral. Now AI systems acknowledge that it started as a joke. But before that happened, they confidently explained how it worked and why it mattered. This episode covers: - What the Cats.txt experiment actually was - How Googlebot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, BingBot, AppleBot and others crawled it - Why ChatGPT initially claimed Cats.txt could help with rankings - What this reveals about how LLMs retrieve and synthesize information - Why "LLMs.txt" style tactics are often misunderstood - How consensus-looking content becomes treated as truth - The circular authority problem in AI systems - Why you can't reliably ask an LLM how its own infrastructure works - How this connects to previous experiments with fake schema markup The key takeaway: large language models do not inherently know what is authoritative. If enough content presents something as real, the model may confidently describe it as real. LLMs are very good at modeling what people say is true. That is not the same as knowing what is true. I also explain why you do not need fancy technical files like LLMs.txt to show up in AI-driven systems. A clear About page, strong positioning, relevant landing pages, brand mentions, and real marketing fundamentals will do more for you than trying to implement something that sounds advanced. If you are a business owner and want to show up in Google and in AI systems: - Target high-intent searches tied directly to what you sell - Build conversion-focused landing pages, not just blog posts - Structure your site around demand - Earn links and brand mentions - Do marketing that makes people want to search for you That is what moves the needle. ⭐️ Introducing cats.txt: The Missing Standard for SEO and GEO - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-catstxt-missing-standard-seo-geo-mark-williams-cook-dijre/ ⭐️ Cats.txt - https://catstxt.org/ ⭐️ Lily Ray's post about Cats.txt - https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/2058119840565436567 💎 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: <a

E1060: AI search is not magic. It is pattern recognition at scale. It looks for consensus, relevance, authority, repetition, and reinforcement across the web. If you understand that, you can influence it. In this episode, Kasra Dash and I break down how AI search engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity decide who to recommend. We go deep into what is working right now, what most SEOs are missing, and how brands can control what AI says about them. This is based on live testing, deleted pages, AI citation tracking, and real-world case studies. We cover: - Why YouTube is massively underutilized in AI search - How AI engines build "consensus" around a brand - Why reviews impact not just SEO, but paid ads and AI recommendations - How to swap out review platforms when one is hurting you - The real effect of listicles in AI citations - How ChatGPT uses multiple bots (and why that matters) - What happens when you delete pages that are being cited in AI - Differences between ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity - How to influence AI by amplifying reviews across external sites - Why most SEOs are undervaluing their skillset - Whether affiliates and publishers still have a future in AI search - Why customer service may be the most overlooked SEO lever - How to think about fan-out queries and recommendation prompts - When schema helps and when it does nothing We also talk about: - Click manipulation in competitive industries - Query fan-out strategy for product recommendations - Why brand > anonymous affiliate sites in the current environment - Why owning assets beats running an agency long term - How to structure comparisons and "alternatives" pages properly If you run a SaaS, local service business, agency, affiliate site, or media brand, this episode will change how you think about AI search. The goal is simple: Do not let AI decide your narrative. Understand how it works.
Build consensus.
Control your positioning.
Use SEO as leverage. ⭐️ Kasra Dash on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@kasradash/featured ⭐️ Kasra Dash on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Kasra_Dash ⭐️ Kasra Dash on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasra-dash/ ⭐️ Kasra Dash's Website - https://kasradash.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 Kasra Dash 00:20 From Web Dev to SEO 01:54 YouTube Parasite SEO<br /

E1059: Is SEO actually dead this time? Every few years, the industry declares the end of SEO. This time the argument sounds stronger: AI overviews, AI-generated content, Google "stealing" traffic, collapsing affiliate sites, and major ranking volatility. In this episode, I sit down with Michał Suski, co-founder of Surfer SEO, to break down what's really happening. We talk about what has really changed since 2017, what hasn't changed at all, and why much of the panic around AI is missing the point. This is not a hype conversation. It's a grounded discussion about brand, behavior, backlinks, attention span, and what Google is really rewarding right now. What we cover: - How Surfer started as a side project and grew into one of the best-known SEO tools - Whether AI overviews are actually killing organic traffic - Why top-of-funnel content is disappearing (and why that might be fine) - The truth about self-promotional listicles and whether they're risky - How Google likely detects low-quality AI content - Why behavioral signals matter more than ever - What happened to Surfer's traffic - and why losing it wasn't necessarily bad - Why niche focus beats broad authority in competitive markets - The collapse of generic affiliate sites and what survives - How attention span is reshaping SEO strategy - Whether SaaS is still a good opportunity in 2026 - What matters more today: topical authority, backlinks, brand, or user behavior - What Michał would do with only 90 days to grow traffic - Why rewriting old content is one of the biggest missed opportunities - The role of brand mentions vs traditional link building - Whether there is still a future for pure affiliate SEO One of the biggest themes of this episode: Content alone is not enough. It's an enabler, not a differentiator. Brand, trust, behavior, and relevance are doing more of the heavy lifting than most people realize. If you run a SaaS, niche site, agency, or you're building in SEO right now, this conversation will give you a clearer framework for what matters - and what doesn't. Listen if you want perspective instead of panic. ⭐️ Surfer - https://surferseo.com/ ⭐️ Michał Suski's website - https://msu.ski/ ⭐️ Michał Suski's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michal-suski/ 💎 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 Michał Suski 00:17 Surfer Origin Story 00:56 What Surfer Does Now 02:00 How Search Behavior Shifted 06:02 SEO Panic vs R

E1058: AI search tools don't just look at your website anymore. They look at your reviews. They scan Reddit threads. They surface YouTube videos. They analyze what real people are saying about your brand. And if the internet says bad things about you, AI will repeat it. I break down why customer service is no longer just a support function. It directly affects whether AI tools recommend your product, whether buyers trust you during due diligence, and whether your brand gets shared organically across platforms like YouTube and Reddit. If you sell anything high-priced, subscription-based, or competitive, this matters even more. We cover: - Why AI search cites reviews and user-generated content - How fake review channels are influencing brand perception - Why bad reviews are more damaging today than they were pre-AI - The connection between customer service and SEO - How user-generated content shows up in Google and AI results - Why trying to shortcut with tactics like parasite SEO can backfire - How good support reduces negative posts on Reddit and review sites - Why personalized customer experiences increase organic brand mentions - What happens when your brand name gets banned from communities - Why "good product" isn't enough anymore There's a clear shift happening: Instead of brands controlling the narrative, AI is aggregating the narrative from everywhere else. If your customers are unhappy, that becomes searchable.
 If your customers are happy, that becomes searchable too. The simplest way to protect your brand in this new environment is not manipulation, automation, or shortcuts. It's strong customer service.
 It's personal support.
 It's giving people a reason to say good things about you without being asked. I also share a recent review of my SEO course and explain why long-term brand trust is built through both product quality and support. If you care about: - SEO - AI search - Brand reputation - Long-term growth - Sustainable marketing This episode is for you. 💎 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 Search Makes Reviews Matter 00:46 Fake Review Channel Scam 02:08 Why Bad Reviews Spread 03:13 Max Out Customer Service 04:49 UGC Wins in Search 05:50 Parasite SEO Explained 07:02 Risks of Gaming Reddit 07:49 Trust in Due Diligence 08:20 Shortcuts vs Real Support 09:01 Example Review 10:57 Wrap Up and Goodbye The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edw

E1057: One of the most common mistakes in SEO: Targeting multiple keywords on your homepage. A lot of marketers and even experienced SEOs believe the homepage has the most authority, so it should target everything. They stuff a primary keyword into the H1 and then scatter additional keywords into H2s and body copy. It sounds logical. It doesn't work. And worse, it costs you money. In this episode, I explain: - How Google prioritizes relevance more than most SEOs realize - How authority actually works (and why the homepage isn't your magic ranking page) - Why stuffing keywords into your homepage weakens your SEO strategy - How this mistake hurts conversions - Why your homepage should be optimized for conversions, not rankings - The right way to structure dedicated SEO pages - How hub pages pass authority to service pages and blog posts - How to actually target a single keyword on your homepage - The risk you still run even if you do it correctly Most people think in terms of backlinks and authority. They don't think enough about relevance and intent. If you want to rank for multiple keywords, build dedicated pages. Put them one to two clicks from your homepage. Build links to hub pages when appropriate. Keep your homepage focused on converting the traffic you're already getting. SEO is simpler than most people make it: Relevance and authority. That's it. If you know someone making this mistake, send them this episode. 💎 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 Homepage SEO Mistake 00:40 How Google Ranks 01:50 Why Marketers Stuff Keywords 02:35 Relevance vs Backlinks 03:47 Conversion First Homepage 04:11 Build Keyword Pages 05:25 Single Keyword Homepage 06:13 Why It Still Fails 08:41 Final Thanks Goodbye The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #marketingstrategy #localseo

E1056: Most people think the solution to competitive SEO is simple: build more backlinks. Authority matters. But if your page doesn't satisfy search intent quickly, backlinks will only help you rank temporarily. They won't help you stay there. In this episode, I break down what really wins in competitive SERPs: user signals. When Google is testing multiple pages targeting the same keyword, it looks at behavior. Click-through rate. Pogo-sticking. Whether searchers feel satisfied. If your page makes people work too hard to understand what it offers, they leave. And when that happens consistently, rankings drop. You'll learn: - Why backlinks alone won't keep you ranking - What actually happens when Google tests pages against each other - How to reduce pogo-sticking without relying on more copy - Why the image at the top of your page matters more than you think - How to structure your page so people understand it without reading - How to improve click-through rate in competitive SERPs - A simple page title formula you can use immediately - When and why adding "free" to your page title increases clicks - The danger of mass AI content and how it hurts user signals - How to combine authority and user satisfaction for lasting rankings If you're targeting high-intent keywords and competing against optimized pages, you need more than keyword placement and authority. You need pages that communicate value immediately. The goal: someone lands on your page, instantly understands what you offer, and clicks the call to action without hesitation. That's how you rank - and stay ranking. ⭐️ Most SEO Copywriting Is Killing Your Rankings (And Costing You Sales) - https://youtu.be/owYbNfATBhM ⭐️ How to Get Backlinks for a Brand New Website (Even With Zero Authority) - https://youtu.be/5TE2mXQxuTU ⭐️ The Era of 10 Blue Links Is Over (Google I/O Search + May 2026 Core Update) - https://youtu.be/eD6sNhLHM0I 💎 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 Competitive SERPs Setup 00:18 Pogo-Sticking Explained 01:03 Lazy Searchers Principle 01:27 Hero Image 02:45 User Signals Win Rankings 03:10 Competitor Gap Example 05:03 Image First SaaS Example 05:35 AI Content UX Risk 06:00 CTR Page Title Formula 06:36 Free In Page Titles Advantage 07:12 Authority Versus UX Signals 08:08 Key Takeaways Recap 10:20 Closing And Sign Off The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: <a href= "https:/

E1055: Most people lose sight of what SEO is actually capable of. If you do it properly, SEO is not just about traffic. It is about building an asset that can consistently generate customers, users, and leads without depending on paid ads or luck. In this episode, I break down what I call the promise of SEO - and why so many businesses quit right before it starts working. The problem is not that SEO does not work. The problem is that most people abandon it during the foundation stage. They underestimate how long it takes, overestimate how much competition matters, or focus on the wrong things entirely. This episode is about correcting that. Here's what I cover: - Why most new websites stay stuck in the "new site" phase - The simple three-page strategy to start getting traction - How to find high-intent keywords that actually lead to customers - Why informational traffic alone is no longer enough - What makes a backlink meaningful (and what does not) - Why referral traffic and brand mentions matter more than vanity metrics - How to build authority in a way that compounds over time - The difference between real SEO and "SEO theater" - Why most people give up during the link-building phase - How ranking pages create more authority and make future rankings easier - How to use SEO to strengthen every other marketing channel - How I outranked major publishers by properly targeting search intent - Why SEO is still powerful even in the age of AI If you focus on: - Targeting underserved, high-intent keywords - Building links that bring real referral traffic - Creating pages that satisfy search intent - Building brand signals that generate branded searches - Staying consistent long enough for authority to compound You can build a business that generates leads every day without needing to go viral or be the biggest player in your space. SEO is not about shortcuts. It is about building a real foundation and scaling on top of it. Recorded in NYC ❤️ 💎 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 The Promise of SEO 00:36 Why New Sites Quit 01:15 Three Easy Keyword Pages 01:51 Action Intent Keywords 02:38 Link Building That Matters 05:23 Satisfy Search Intent 06:14 Scale the Flywheel 08:16 Evergreen Authority Wins 10:59 Avoid Spammy Shortcuts 11:21 Showing The Manhattan Skyline The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #marketing

E1054: Breaking down Google's May 2026 Broad Core Update and what I'm seeing across the SEO community as the rollout begins. Google announced a two-week rollout starting May 21, after several days of volatility that had people reporting major ranking swings and traffic changes. I cover what's likely driving the turbulence, what looks like noise, and what appears to be a real directional shift. What I'm seeing so far: - A stronger crackdown on scaled AI content and hyperscaled "AI blog" subfolders - Local SEO turbulence, with directory/aggregator sites losing ground on "near me" terms - A Google Search Console issue causing link reports to show major drops or even zero links - Wide community chatter ranging from panic to relief depending on site type and intent Scaled AI content: possible enforcement getting sharper - a notable example circulating in the community involves a large AI-generated blog subfolder that appears to have been hit hard right as the update landed. The site's English blog presence effectively disappeared from search results while the broader domain still shows, which lines up with either enforcement actions or an algorithmic demotion aimed at low-value scaled content. I explain what made this type of content vulnerable: - Dense, repetitive AI text with low usefulness and poor readability - Little to no original media or supporting assets - Broad topic sprawl with no clear expertise or focus - Pages that look designed for search volume capture rather than users Local SEO: directories losing "near me" visibility - early reports suggest directory sites that previously dominated local-intent queries are dropping from top positions for a wide set of "near me" searches. I walk through why this may be happening and what it signals about how Google is evaluating local results during this update. Key idea discussed: - Google may be favoring the provider over the middleman when the intent is explicitly local and service-based Why that would make sense in practice: - Google already has Maps and Business Profiles to satisfy local intent quickly - Business Profiles include reviews, photos, hours, and direct contact details - Directory pages often add little beyond a list of providers and generic text What this could mean depending on what you run… - If you operate a local service business: you may see improved visibility as directories slide - If you run a directory/aggregator: you may need clearer differentiation, better information, and a reason to exist beyond collecting listings - If you do both: your strategy may need to split between brand-level authority and high-intent, provider-specific pages Google Search Console: links report glitch - at the same time as the rollout, many SEOs are reporting Google Search Console's links report behaving erratically, including: - Links dropping sharply in reported totals - Link counts showing as zero in some cases - Sudden, extreme

E1053: Breaking down Google's latest Search changes announced at Google I/O and what they mean in practice for SEO, businesses, agencies, publishers, and affiliates. I also cover the May 2026 core update announcement from Google Search Central, what people were noticing leading up to it, and early signals worth paying attention to. Google is reframing the search box into something closer to a prompt interface: longer queries, prompt prediction, image input, interactive experiences you can return to, and agent-like behavior that can track details and alert you over time. A lot of people are asking whether this is finally the moment "SEO is dead." My take: for businesses that sell their own products and services, the fundamentals still hold. The pain is concentrated elsewhere, especially for publishers and affiliates. What we cover: - What Google announced at Google I/O and why it's a major shift in how Google wants people to search - The "prompt-like" search box: longer queries, expansion, and predicted follow-up text - Interactive experiences inside Search, including tools and visualizations you can revisit - Agent-style features: tracking prices, stock status, local deals, and ongoing monitoring based on your preferences - Why most people still prefer short searches, and why that limits how fast behavior changes - Why "build it for me" still requires clarity most users won't provide - Why SEO isn't "dead" for businesses selling their own products and services - What continues to work for SEO in an AI-first search environment - Bottom-of-funnel pages targeting scenarios, use cases, and services you actually offer - Documentation that clearly explains what your product or service does - Online reputation management and buyer due diligence - Comparison and "alternative" pages (competitor + alternative) - Who gets hit hardest by these changes - Publishers losing clicks to AI answers, even when they still rank - Affiliates losing commissions when the path to the product gets shortened - Why owning the product is the most durable play if you can rank - The May 2026 core update announcement and the stated rollout window - What people noticed before the update - Volatility chatter across SEO communities - Reports of sites getting deranked, especially those relying heavily on AI content - Reports of backlink counts dropping in Google Search Console ⭐️ Google Search as you know it is over - https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/ ⭐️ Google May Core Update announcement - https://x.com/googlesearchc/status/2057487931250499886 ⭐️ Google May 2026 Core Update Is Rolling Out - You Felt It - <a href= "https:

E1052: We break down how to migrate a website without losing SEO traffic. Whether you are switching from WordPress to Squarespace or Webflow, changing to another CMS, restructuring your URLs, or moving to a new domain entirely, this conversation covers what actually happens inside Google during a migration - and how to minimize risk. We discuss real-world scenarios, including accidental migrations, domain changes, slug updates, and situations where rankings unexpectedly dropped. The goal is simple: protect your traffic and avoid unnecessary volatility. What we cover: - What happens when you change CMS but keep URLs and content the same - Why HTML structure changes can still trigger re-indexing - How low-authority pages can suddenly impact rankings during a migration - The difference between crawl, refresh, and discovery modes - How cannibalization can appear after a migration - Why you should freeze structural changes before migrating - When to noindex pages before changing slugs - How to properly handle 301 redirects for slug updates - What to expect when changing root domains - How to use Google Search Console's domain migration tool - Why XML sitemaps do not "force" indexing - Why HTML sitemaps can be more effective - The risks of changing site architecture during a migration - How to warm up a new domain before moving - How to smooth traffic volatility with strategic content republishing We also answer a listener question about whether submitting a new sitemap after changing site architecture can cause traffic drops - and what to do instead. If you are planning a website migration, CMS switch, URL restructure, or domain move, this episode walks through the technical considerations that can make the difference between a smooth transition and a traffic decline. If you have questions about SEO, migrations, indexing, or site structure, send them in and we may cover them in a future episode. ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/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 Migration SEO Basics 00:30 Chad's CMS Switch Scenario 02:02 Pre-Migration Freeze Checklist 03:11 Protect Top Traffic Pages 04:19 Prune And Republish Old Posts 05:46 Press And Email Crawl Boost 07:17 Same Domain Vs New Domain 08:59 HTML Changes Trigger Reindexing 11:15 Discovery Vs Refre

E1051: Most SEO copywriting is written for algorithms instead of searchers. That creates two problems: 1. Pages convert poorly 2. Rankings slowly decline over time In this episode, I break down one of the biggest SEO mistakes businesses make: misunderstanding search intent. A lot of websites technically "do SEO" correctly. They target keywords, publish articles, and rank on Google. But when searchers land on the page, the copy does not immediately give them what they want. People leave.
 Conversions suffer.
 Google notices. We cover: - Why answering search intent immediately is critical - How pogo sticking hurts rankings - Why most SEO introductions are written incorrectly - The difference between top of funnel and bottom of funnel intent - How to write introductions that increase conversions - Why "explaining the keyword" often backfires - Examples of good vs bad SEO copywriting - How to naturally work keywords into content - Why strong SEO copy feels more like sales copy than encyclopedia writing - How better copy improves both rankings and revenue Examples discussed in the episode include: - "Why is my sink draining slowly?" - "24 hour plumber Hoboken" - "Room planner app" This episode is focused on practical SEO writing that keeps searchers on the page, builds trust quickly, and moves people toward action. ⭐️ How Adding TL;DR Boosted My Conversions by 33% - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1h3qstq/how_adding_tldr_boosted_my_conversions_by_33/ 💎 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 Copywriting Stakes 00:44 Answer Intent Immediately 01:42 TLDR Boosts Conversions 02:30 Top of Funnel Example 05:29 Bottom of Funnel Mistakes 06:48 Local Services Copy Fix 09:04 SaaS Copy Fix 10:48 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #copywriting #searchengineoptimization #seo #localseo

E1050: Rand Fishkin returns to the show to talk about what is actually changing in marketing right now. Search traffic is shrinking. AI answers are replacing clicks. Platforms are keeping users inside their ecosystems. And many marketers are still operating like it's 2015. We break down what "zero-click marketing" really means, why brand matters more than ever, and what founders should be doing instead of chasing vanity rankings. We also go deep into AI, PR, profitability, and how to build something that lasts. Topics we cover: - Why links may matter less than mentions - The shift from traffic-driven marketing to influence-driven marketing - What zero-click marketing actually looks like in practice - Why ranking for informational keywords is no longer a complete strategy - How AI is changing research, buying behavior, and brand perception - The risks and ethics of AI-generated content - Why many affiliate and pure publisher sites are in trouble - The difference between building a brand and chasing search volume - How to measure off-site marketing without relying on clicks - Time-based and location-based experiments for attribution - Why PR is still one of the most undervalued marketing channels - How to think about short-term marketing "hacks" versus long-term positioning - Why profitability gives bootstrapped founders leverage - What Rand learned from leaving Moz and starting SparkToro - How teaching and communication became his most valuable skills Rand also shares: - How Alertmouse reached 5,000 users in about 100 days - Why product improvement drove more growth than new channels - How to decide which marketing channels to ignore - Why some companies survive Google updates while others disappear - What makes a marketing strategy durable This episode is not about panic. It's about adapting to how people actually research, evaluate, and buy today. If you are a founder, marketer, or SEO trying to understand where the industry is heading, this conversation will give you a grounded perspective. ⭐️ Rand's first time on the podcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JQvdLYvGZI ⭐️ Rand on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/ ⭐️ Rand on Threads - https://www.threads.com/@randderuiter ⭐️ Zero Click Marketing - https://zeroclickmarketing.co/book ⭐️ SparkToro - https://sparktoro.com/ ⭐️ Snackbar Studio - https://snackbarstudio.com/ ⭐️ Alertmouse - https://alertmouse.com/ 💎 Compact Keywor

E1049: One of the most common SEO mistakes is trying to do too much too fast. In this episode, I break down why rushing SEO usually creates more problems than progress, especially for new websites. Publishing too many pages too early, automating workflows you do not fully understand, doing sloppy outreach, and chasing competitive keywords before building authority all create unnecessary variables that make SEO much harder than it needs to be. I explain why "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" applies directly to SEO and how moving more carefully at the beginning often leads to faster long term growth. Topics covered in this episode: - Why publishing too many pages early can dilute authority - How weak pages create negative SEO signals - Why new websites should target easier keywords first - The relationship between backlinks, authority, and rankings - How internal linking channels authority across a website - Why bad outreach can permanently hurt link building opportunities - Common mistakes people make with AI generated content - Why automation works best after you understand the underlying process - How reducing variables makes SEO easier to troubleshoot - Why taking breaks can improve search intent satisfaction and click through rates - What to cut if your website already has too many low quality pages - A simpler SEO process for new websites trying to get traction I also talk about: - Pogo sticking and why it matters - Information architecture - Keyword targeting mistakes - Scaling SEO the right way - Why many websites make SEO harder than it needs to be 💎 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 Slow Is Smooth Intro 00:56 Rushing Creates Chaos 01:43 Authority Gets Diluted 03:04 Sloppy Content Signals 04:14 Bad Outreach Backfires 06:09 Go Slow To Scale 07:05 Automation After Mastery 07:53 Action Steps Recap 09:54 Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #linkbuilding #digitalmarketing

E1048: How do you get backlinks when your website is brand new and has almost no authority? We break down a real question from a founder who launched an AI tools directory and is stuck in the classic SEO chicken-and-egg problem: if no one trusts your site yet, why would anyone link to it? We talk through what matters in the early stages of link building, what makes a new site look trustworthy, and practical strategies you can use right away - even if your domain authority is close to zero. This episode covers: - Why most people cannot tell that your site is "new" (unless you make it obvious) - The biggest mistake founders make when asking for backlinks - How to build relationships before you ever ask for a link - How 15 minutes a day on social media can turn into real backlinks - Why following up with journalists is critical (and how to do it properly) - How to use AI to find journalists, develop angles, and write better pitches - What makes a website feel trustworthy enough to link to - How to create linkable assets people actually want to reference - When to use Help A Reporter Out, Source of Sources, Qwoted, and Featured - Why podcasts are an underrated backlink strategy - Why you do not need massive authority to start earning links We also discuss: - Whether you should wait for traction before doing outreach - The difference between chasing domain authority and building relevant referring domains - How to structure your site so publishers feel comfortable linking to you - Why most people fail to build ongoing relationships with journalists - How to control the language around your backlinks If you are building a startup, directory, SaaS, or content site and wondering how to earn your first 10–20 real backlinks, this episode walks through practical strategies that work in the early phase. ⭐️ The Reddit Thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/1qugpbd/how_do_you_earn_backlinks_for_a_brandnew_site/ ⭐️ The AI System to Find Relevant Journalists, Land Coverage, and Earn Ongoing High-Authority Backlinks - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/articles_ai-system-find-journalists-earn-high-authority-backlinks/ 💎 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 Backlink Ideas Kickoff 00:11 The New Site Dilemma 01:10 Look Legit, Not Spam 01:40 Relationship First Outreach 02:24 VA Social Comment Strategy 03:46 Keep Journ

E1047: Google just released official guidance on how to show up in generative AI search features like AI Overviews and AI Mode.  And according to them? GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is just SEO. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is just SEO. There's no special LLM optimization playbook. So… are they telling the full truth? I break down Google's official post from Search Central and separate what's accurate from what's incomplete. Some of it is absolutely correct. Some of it shuts down common AI "growth hacks." And one part? It works - even though Google says it doesn't. If you care about showing up in AI search results - Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude - this episode will save you years of distraction. What we cover: - Why SEO is still the foundation of AI search - How retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) actually works in practice - What "query fan-out" means and why it ties AI visibility directly to traditional search rankings - Whether GEO and AEO are actually different from SEO - Why non-commodity content matters more than ever - The real reason most AI content farms spike and then collapse - Why LLMs.txt and "chunking for AI" are mostly unnecessary - What Google says about structured data (schema) and AI - The truth about off-site reputation and mentions - The real SEO signals that matter: relevance, authority, click-through rate, reduced pogo-sticking I also explain: - Why chasing AI shortcuts is usually harder than doing real SEO - How to think about page creation without creating thousands of low-quality variations - When JavaScript SEO becomes a problem - Why page experience still impacts AI visibility - How to approach reviews and reputation the right way The core takeaway: If you build pages that satisfy searchers, reduce bounce-backs to the SERPs, get mentions, and target high-intent queries - you will show up in AI search and get conversions. You don't need special AI markup. 
You don't need secret GEO frameworks. 
You don't need to flood the web with AI-generated pages. You need strong fundamentals. ⭐️ Google's post - Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Google Lying Debate 00:55 SEO

E1046: Most websites ignore image SEO. They upload files named IMG_9283.jpg.
 They leave alt text blank.
 They use stock images with no context. Then they wonder why they are not getting traffic from Google Images or why their pages are underperforming. We break down a short thread from Hridoy Rehman on X where he shared results from optimizing images: - 241,000+ impressions - 7,000+ clicks - 2.9% click-through rate We walk through the exact steps discussed and how you can apply them to your own site. What you will learn: - Why image SEO still matters - How file names affect discoverability - Why compressing images improves performance and SEO - How to write alt text that helps Google understand your images - Why original images often outperform stock photos - Where to place images on a page for stronger contextual relevance - How to use your page content to generate better alt text - Why re-uploading images for specific landing pages can be strategic - How I built a personal "photos" page to influence Google Image results for my name Topics covered in detail: - Renaming images before uploading (and the naming structure I recommend) - Using dashes, subfolders, and URL slugs strategically - Converting and compressing images to WebP - Writing contextual alt text based on full page content - Using screenshots and original visuals instead of generic stock images - Structuring landing pages with images placed near relevant headings and paragraphs If you run: - A home services business - A SaaS company - An agency - An ecommerce brand - A personal brand These tactics apply to you. Image SEO is a simple, overlooked part of search engine optimization that can improve: - Relevance - Page performance - Accessibility - Image search visibility - Overall organic performance ⭐️ Hridoy Rehman post - https://x.com/hridoyreh/status/2053409879055052970 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Why Image SEO Matters 00:44 Rename Image Files 01:05 Compress and Use WebP 01:39 Alt Text That Ranks 01:57 ChatGPT Alt Text Workflow 03:32 Use Original Images 04:32 Place Images Near Text 04:46 Personal Photos SEO Case Study 06:09 Quick Recap and Checklist 07:41 Final Thanks and Sign Off The Edward Show. Your

E1045: This is what it takes to carry the responsibility of managing 90 SEOs AT THE SAME TIME. I sit down with Travis Tallent, former Managing Director of AI SEO at Brainlabs, where he led a team of 90 SEOs, CROs, digital PR specialists, and content strategists across enterprise clients like Microsoft and GitHub. We break down what scales inside a large SEO organization, what quietly breaks, and what most people get wrong about hiring, systems, and AI. This is not surface-level advice. It's what happens when you grow a team from 15 people to 90 in four and a half years and have to build the infrastructure to support it. What we cover: Leadership and scale - What leading 90 SEOs is really like day to day - The growing pains of scaling from 15 to 90 people - Why process matters more than talent at scale - How to build systems for communication across large teams - Decision rights, hierarchy, and why clarity prevents chaos - How to stop teams from getting in each other's way Hiring and onboarding - The most underrated skill in SEO hires - How to screen for real operators, not surface-level knowledge - The interview question that reveals everything - What a three-month onboarding program actually looks like - Why mock calls and repetition build communication skill - How to design onboarding that produces confident, client-ready SEOs Digital PR and link building - Why traditional outreach often fails at enterprise scale - What actually works in digital PR today - How to build data-driven linkable assets - Personalizing outreach without burning your domain reputation - Creative examples of assets that generate thousands of backlinks - Why brand investment matters more in the AI era CRO and conversion strategy - Why incremental button tests rarely move the needle - When full funnel redesigns drive major revenue gains - Common CRO mistakes that hurt SEO - How poor design damages both traffic and conversions - Why cross-functional alignment between SEO, paid, design, and CRO is critical AI, automation, and hype cycles - The real risks of migrating from .com to .ai - How executives think about AI branding decisions - Why most companies are trying to automate too early - The danger of vibe-coded sites without real strategy - What AI search actually requires to win Enterprise SEO lessons - How to fix cannibalization at scale - Why internal linking and taxonomy are often overlooked - What separates plateauing sites from compounding ones - How to push back on clients using data instead of ego - The metrics that actually matter when you lead a large SEO team This conversation is about ownership, discipline, and long-term thinking. Scaling SEO is not about adding more people. It's about building clarity into hiring, onboarding, communication, and execution. If you're running an agency, managing a marketing team, or building a SaaS company that depends on search, this ep

E1044: Most companies use the exact same brand description everywhere online. Same wording.
Same positioning.
Same messaging. That is a mistake if you care about SEO. I break down why offsite messaging should evolve based on the keywords you want to rank for, the audience you are speaking to, and the search intent you are targeting. I explain how strategic changes to your marketing blurbs can help strengthen topical authority, improve rankings for bottom-of-funnel keywords, and increase click-through rate from backlinks, podcast appearances, public relations, and other offsite placements. Topics covered: - Why using the same brand message everywhere can hurt SEO growth - How offsite messaging influences rankings - The connection between blurbs, anchor context, and topical authority - How to adapt messaging around new product features and use cases - When exact-match keyword phrasing matters - Why some keywords are easy to rank for and others are not - How to think about link building beyond just getting links - Why the best backlinks also send qualified referral traffic - How audience context should change your messaging strategy - Examples of SEO-focused messaging using a fictional SaaS company - How to use blurbs to support rankings for high-intent keywords - Why partial keyword coverage can still strengthen rankings - How AI features change the way products should position themselves off-site 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Offsite Messaging Matters 00:14 Stop Using One Blurb 00:27 SEO Informs Your Copy 01:34 Meet Fizzle Client 02:02 Targeting High-Intent Keywords 03:16 Rewrite Blurbs For Keywords 04:41 When To Include Keywords 05:44 Match The Audience 06:35 New Features Shift Messaging 07:26 Wrap Up And Next Steps 09:38 Final Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding #publicrelations #seo

E1043: Walking through a brand new study from Ahrefs that tested one of the most repeated claims in SEO: "Add schema to get cited more by AI." The data does not support that claim. Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD schema between August 2025 and March 2026. They matched those pages against nearly 4,000 control pages and measured citation changes across: - Google AI Overviews - Google AI Mode - ChatGPT The result: adding schema did not increase AI citations in any meaningful way. Here's what the study found: - No statistically significant citation growth in Google AI Mode - No statistically significant citation growth in ChatGPT - A small 4.6% DECLINE in AI Overviews citations (real but small, and not clearly attributable to schema) - Four separate statistical tests, all pointing to the same conclusion This matters because for years, SEO advice has claimed that structured data is essential for LLM visibility. The theory sounded logical: machines need machine-readable data, so schema must help AI systems cite your content. But when you isolate the variable and control for authority, content quality, and existing citation levels, the effect disappears. We also discuss: - Why 53% of AI-cited pages have schema (and why that doesn't prove causation) - How correlation misleads SEOs - Why technically sophisticated sites tend to have both schema and strong authority signals - A related experiment showing major AI systems ignore JSON-LD during live retrieval - What actually moves the needle for AI visibility If you're: - Paying an agency for schema to improve AI citations - Offering schema implementation as an AI visibility service - Trying to future-proof your SEO strategy for LLM search This episode is worth your time. If your goal is more AI citations on pages that are already visible, the current data does not support schema as a growth lever. My advice remains simple: Focus on relevance, building authority, internal distribution of that authority, and reducing pogo-sticking. Strong content on authoritative, relevant pages is what gets retrieved and cited. ⭐️ We Tracked 1,885 Pages Adding Schema. AI Citations Barely Moved. - https://ahrefs.com/blog/schema-ai-citations/ 🚀 How to ACTUALLY get shown in LLMs - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/ai-seo-geo-aeo-get-shown-llms-2026/ 💎 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 Breaking Study Shock 00:57 Correlation vs Causation 02:03 Result

E1042: Breaking down the exact 22 Claude Cowork prompts used by a 40-person SEO agency every day to rank local businesses faster. Sarvesh Shrivastava joins the show! Three months ago, he said he could take almost any local service business to $100,000/month in 90 days using Claude. Now, after refining the system across dozens of clients, he says that was an understatement. This is a walkthrough of the real prompt stack Sarvesh's 40-person agency uses internally, including the outputs, the reasoning behind them, and how business owners can use them without hiring an SEO agency. We cover: - How to build a "huge brain" inside Claude so it stops giving generic SEO advice - The onboarding prompt that feeds Claude everything about your business, competitors, and target keywords - Google Business Profile category audits and how to identify ranking gaps - GBP attribute analysis (wheelchair access, LGBTQ-friendly, service tags, etc.) - Competitor review teardown (velocity, service mentions, response strategy) - Photo audit and posting frequency analysis - Keyword gap audits - Backlink gap analysis using Ahrefs through Claude - Identifying spam links and understanding DR tiers - On-page SEO audits that generate full implementation instructions - Title tag, meta description, and H1 fixes with impact timelines - Page structure recommendations (H1-H3 hierarchy, FAQs, subtopics) - NLP entity coverage analysis - Eight-week Google Business Profile posting plans - Service section optimization for GBP - Google Search Console export and analysis - Fact-checking outputs to reduce hallucinations - Giving Claude controlled access to WordPress and Chrome - Risks, safeguards, and how to prevent mistakes - How prompt refinement evolved over three months - The difference between Claude Cowork and Claude Code - How AI is reducing agency timelines from five months to three We also discuss: - Whether AI can replace an SEO agency - Why experience still matters when interpreting outputs - How to use Claude responsibly with access to email, files, and browser sessions - How Sarvesh uses Claude for YouTube, 𝕏, and content strategy - How he built a 280K+ Instagram account using AI-generated videos - Why eliminating repetitive work improves team performance If you run a local business, work in SEO, or want to understand how agencies are using AI behind the scenes, this is a detailed breakdown of the system. ⭐️ Sarvesh Shrivastava's Claude Cowork prompts - https://alventramarketing.com/claude-prompts/ ⭐️ Sarvesh Shrivastava on 𝕏 - https://x.com/bloggersarvesh ⭐️ Sarvesh Shrivastava on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarvesh-shrivastava-blogger/ ⭐️ Sarvesh Shrivastava on Instagram - htt

E1041: Google just officially killed FAQ schema support in Google Search. But the bigger story is this: Most SEO advice is still telling people to prioritize FAQ schema anyway. We break down: - What Google actually deprecated - Why this changes almost nothing for most websites - How schema became overhyped in SEO - Why ChatGPT still recommends outdated SEO tactics - How to use critical thinking instead of blindly following SEO advice - What actually drives rankings and conversions in modern SEO Topics covered: - Google removing FAQ rich results - Why FAQ schema stopped mattering years ago - How to evaluate schema types yourself - SERP features vs. actual ranking factors - Why LLMs don't really need schema - The difference between relevance and authority - How to identify better SEO keywords - A simple 3-question framework for writing SEO content that converts - Why most SEO content fails search intent Key takeaway: If a schema type does not create a visible SERP advantage for your target keyword, it is probably not worth obsessing over. The fundamentals still matter most: - Relevant content - Search intent alignment - Authority - Useful pages that satisfy users better than competing results This episode also includes: - A real example from a startup I'm funding - Why relying entirely on ChatGPT for SEO can backfire - The exact exercise that improved content quality immediately ⭐️ The announcement from Google - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/faqpage ⭐️ Previous schema types being deprecated - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-drops-support-structured-data-types-40386.html ⭐️ The Reddit thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/TechSEO/comments/1t7ccqv/comment/okobz8c/?context=1 ⭐️ Lily Ray's post - https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/2052788585070215286 ⭐️ Do LLMs Actually Use Schema? The Duck Test That Broke SEO - Ep 956 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nTqaG3GKLk 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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/ <

E1040: Discussing Unichannel SEO - the idea that you can build and scale an entire company primarily through Google. David Quaid and I record this in person on an NYC balcony, with the Manhattan skyline behind us, breaking down why SEO remains the largest and most dependable acquisition channel for B2B, SaaS, and tech companies. David shares real numbers from companies he's worked with, including one that grew digital-driven revenue from 6% to 70% before being acquired for $325 million. We cover: - Why SEO can function as a primary growth channel - Why many B2B companies get 75% or more of their leads from Google - Why waiting for rankings is a mistake - When and how to start link building - Cornerstoning and building authority properly - How to identify high-value search terms competitors are paying for - Using paid search data to shape organic strategy - Building links before you rank - How remarketing improved close rates on six-figure deals - The difference between brand marketing and search intent - How to get your first SEO clients - Why networking groups and local meetups can generate long-term backlinks - Why domain authority alone is not a useful metric - The role of YouTube as the second largest search engine - Whether AI and ChatGPT are meaningfully impacting search traffic We also break down: - The strategy behind ranking for high-CPC cybersecurity keywords - How competitor analysis shaped page structure - Why SEO is not passive marketing - What early Matt Cutts videos still teach about how Google works - How to approach agencies for referrals when starting out - Why solving problems builds long-term authority and trust If you're building a SaaS company, running an agency, or trying to grow through search, this episode focuses on execution and measurable outcomes. Recorded in New York City. ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/ 🚀 Learn SEO for free - https://freeseoknowledge.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 David Returns in NYC 00:19 Why Google Still Wins 02:00 Brand vs Search Intent 02:56 Startup Channel Mix 04:10 Link Building Early 06:17 Stop Waiting for Rankings 07:30 SEO to $325M Exit 09:36 Insights SEO Playbook 11:14 Paid Keywords to

E1039: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is becoming one of the biggest topics in search, SEO, and AI marketing. But is it actually safe? Edward Sturm and Harpreet Singh break down what is really happening with GEO, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), AI citations, and AI search visibility across tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Perplexity, and Bing. They discuss why many GEO strategies are creating short-term traffic spikes that later collapse after Google algorithm updates, why "scaled content" tactics are risky, and how some companies are damaging their long-term organic visibility chasing AI traffic. The conversation also covers practical strategies that actually improve visibility in AI search without destroying your website. Topics covered: - What GEO and AEO actually are - How AI search engines retrieve information - Why the "query fan out" matters - The connection between Google rankings and AI citations - Why scaled AI content can lead to "rank and tank" patterns - How GEO agencies inflate AI visibility metrics - Why many AI citation reports are misleading - The risks of automated content generation - Why Reddit strategies often fail - How LLM training data differs from live web retrieval - What influences ChatGPT without web search - Why review sites like G2, Trustpilot, and Glassdoor matter - How AI systems form opinions about brands - Ethical vs risky GEO tactics - Press release strategies that influence AI search - How affiliate sites and listicles affect AI recommendations - Why landing pages and product pages still work - The role of video in AI search visibility - Why branding and reputation matter more than most people realize - How to evaluate GEO agencies before hiring them - Questions every business owner should ask a GEO vendor - What "scaled content abuse" means in Google's guidelines - Why GEO is becoming a company-wide problem, not just an SEO problem This episode is for: - Founders - Local businesses - C-level executive - SEO professionals - Marketers - SaaS companies - Agencies - Anyone trying to understand how AI search actually works If you're interested in GEO, AEO, LLM optimization, SEO, AI search, ChatGPT optimization, or Google AI Overviews, this episode gives a grounded look at what is working right now and what is likely to fail over time. ⭐️ Harpreet Singh's Personal Site - https://harpsdigital.com ⭐️ Harpreet on X - https://x.com/harpreetchatha_ ⭐️ Harpreet's Newsletter - https://seoespresso.com ⭐️ Harpreet on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/harpreetsingh8/ ⭐️ Harpreet on TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@seoharp ⭐️ Harpreet on YouTube - https://youtube.com/@harpsdigital <

E1038: Breaking down one of the most dramatic SEO collapses in recent SaaS history. ClickUp's blog went from 1.19 million organic visitors per month to just 28,000 in 15 months - a 97.6% decline. This wasn't a single Google update. It wasn't just AI overviews. And it wasn't just "topical overreach." It was a compounding series of strategic, editorial, and technical decisions that made each algorithm hit worse than the last. We walk through the full timeline, what actually caused the collapse, and what serious SEO operators can learn from it. This episode covers: - The exact traffic timeline from peak to collapse - Which Google updates hit - and why the damage compounded - Why the blog fell 97.6% while the rest of the domain only dropped 27% - Why backlinks were not the problem - How ClickUp added 2,815 new posts during the decline - The templated content structure repeated across 7,000+ URLs - The promotional patterns that likely triggered quality classifiers - Why core commercial keywords like "task management software" disappeared - The technical SEO mistakes that were quietly hurting performance - How Zapier ran a similar model but stabilized instead of collapsing - Why AI Overviews do not fully explain what happened - What this case reveals about intent, editorial integrity, and search alignment We also compare ClickUp's ChatGPT alternatives page against Zapier's ranking page to show how editorial treatment, content structure, and intent matching can change outcomes - even when both companies promote their own products. This is not a story about Google randomly punishing a brand. It is a case study in what happens when: - Conversion-first content overrides search intent - Promotional density outweighs usefulness - Scaling multiplies weaknesses - Recovery efforts double down on the same structural problems If you work in SEO, content strategy, or run a SaaS blog, this breakdown will help you understand: - What not to industrialize - How algorithm updates compound - Why pruning sometimes matters more than publishing - And how to align content with what searchers are actually trying to accomplish ⭐️ Full article - https://zkami.substack.com/p/how-clickups-blog-lost-976-of-its 🚀 Learn SEO for free - https://freeseoknowledge.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 ClickUp SEO Crash Intro 00:23 The 97 Percent Drop 01:57 Google Updates Timeline 04:36 Blog vs Domain Split 06:

E1037: Breaking down one of the most effective SEO strategies on the internet: linkable assets. These are simple tools, calculators, generators, databases, reports, studies, visualizers, and micro-apps that naturally earn backlinks because people ACTUALLY want to share them. I walk through real examples of tiny websites and simple web apps that generated thousands - and in one case hundreds of thousands - of backlinks from major publications, blogs, newsletters, and social media shares. Topics covered: - How a simple "do nothing for two minutes" website earned 384,000 backlinks - Why small utility apps outperform expensive link building campaigns - How Canva's Color Palette Generator became a massive SEO asset - How Sleepyti . me turned a sleep calculator into 35,000 backlinks - Why linkable assets strengthen your entire website's SEO authority - How to funnel SEO authority from viral pages into revenue-driving pages - How to brainstorm linkable asset ideas with ChatGPT - Linkable asset examples for pressure washing, banking law, and local businesses - How to launch apps on Product Hunt and BetaList - How to get journalists and bloggers to cover your tools - How to use AI and vibe coding to build these projects quickly ⭐️ Prompt from the episode: "Act as a world-class viral growth marketer and SEO strategist. Generate 15 simple, highly shareable 'linkable asset' ideas for the [NICHE] industry. Prioritize tools, calculators, generators, visualizers, quizzes, databases, maps, trackers, or micro-apps that journalists, bloggers, Reddit users, and social media creators would naturally link to. Focus on ideas that are cheap to build, instantly understandable, emotionally compelling, and capable of earning backlinks organically." ⭐️ The AI System to Find Relevant Journalists, Land Coverage, and Earn Ongoing High-Authority Backlinks - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/articles_ai-system-find-journalists-earn-high-authority-backlinks/ ⭐️ Ep 908 - Vibe Coding for SEO: Building Rankable Apps, Tools, and Revenue in Minutes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cn03azU0GY ⭐️ Ep 1025 - He Ranked #1 on Google With 35 Words (No SEO) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsaZfnL7h50 ⭐️ Ep 989 - How NapLab Built an SEO Moat (103,000 Keywords, No Shortcuts) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9vzdovTfmw ⭐️ No link building budget could buy these results - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/no-link-building-budget-could-buy-these-results/ 🚀 Learn SEO

E1036: Breaking down practical SEO tactics that are working great and explaining why most people overcomplicate search engine optimization. We go through a massive Reddit thread on "SEO hacks" and separate the good advice from the outdated spam tactics. Topics covered: - Why customer reviews are becoming one of the most powerful SEO assets - How YouTube videos and video testimonials are getting cited by AI search tools - The simple on-page SEO fundamentals that still matter - Why intent-driven category pages are outperforming traditional SEO pages - How to think about search intent before writing content - The reason most AI-generated SEO content fails - How to find keywords your competitors are ignoring - Why comparison pages and "alternative" pages work so well - Local SEO examples using semantic keywords and natural language - Technical SEO basics that are still worth doing - What "quality content" means in practice - Why understanding how different people search changes your SEO strategy We also cover: - SEO myths that still circulate online - Why buying backlinks is usually a waste of time - How to structure pages for humans instead of algorithms - The relationship between pogo-sticking and rankings - How semantic relevance improves content performance - What makes content more useful for both humans and AI systems If you want to learn SEO that drives customers, leads, and conversions instead of vanity traffic, this episode will help. 🚀 Learn SEO for free - https://freeseoknowledge.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 SEO Hacks Thread Intro 00:09 Reviews Everywhere Strategy 01:01 Video Reviews for AI Search 01:39 Ecommerce Taxonomy Pages 02:21 Intent Driven Categories Win 03:05 Hidden Text Joke Warning 03:51 On Page Keyword Basics 04:23 Quality Content and Pogo Sticking 04:37 Search Intent Writing Exercise 05:48 How Different People Search 06:46 Technical SEO and Easy Keywords 07:40 Authority and Trust Signals 08:26 Backlink Joke and Don't Buy These 08:34 NLP and Local Intent Example 10:21 UGC Reviews and Communities 10:39 Competitor Alternatives Pages 11:44 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #entrepreneurship

E1035: Breaking down the risks of using AI to fully automate SEO. The man… the myth… the legend… Gagan Ghotra returns to the podcast!!! We get into why so many founders, startups, and small businesses are being tempted by viral posts promising that Claude, ChatGPT, or other AI tools can replace an SEO team, an agency, or a group of writers. The problem is that a lot of these workflows turn into scaled content abuse. They create hundreds or thousands of pages quickly, often without enough original information, human review, or real value per page. The traffic can go up fast, but the drop can be just as fast. We talk about: - What scaled content abuse means - Why Google introduced the policy - How AI SEO pages can grow for a few months before falling hard - Why "fire your SEO team and use AI" advice is dangerous - The difference between programmatic SEO and scaled AI content - When scaling content can be useful - Why unique data, original opinions, and internal knowledge matter - How Google might detect bad scaled content - Why engagement signals, brand signals, and social presence may matter more over time - What happened with Shopify's scaled content issues - Why VC-backed startups are especially vulnerable to AI SEO hype - How short-term growth can hurt fundraising if the site gets hit later - Why boring local businesses may be able to use AI differently than competitive startups - Why social profiles, PR, and brand recognition can help support SEO - What companies should be doing now if they want to win search over the next three years - Why brand building and SEO are becoming harder to separate - How to use AI as part of the writing process without letting it take over the whole page Gagan's main point is simple: AI can help with SEO, but it should not replace judgment, original information, or human editing. If you are building a real company, your domain is an asset. Burning it for a few months of traffic is not the same as building a search channel that lasts. ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra on 𝕏 - https://x.com/gaganghotra_ ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gagan-ghotra/ ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra's website - https://gaganghotra.com/ 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 SEO Automation Hype 01:51 Scaled Content Abuse Explained 03

E1034: David McSweeney breaks down what actually drives visibility in AI search - and what is a complete waste of time. The conversation starts with a viral experiment claiming that a blank website ranked in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. From there, Edward and David dig into how AI systems really parse content, why that experiment was misunderstood, and what it reveals about how search is evolving. They challenge a lot of current narratives around "GEO" (Generative Engine Optimization), structured data, and AI visibility - and explain where the industry is getting it wrong. Topics covered: - Why the "blank page ranking #1" experiment doesn't prove what people think - How AI tools actually read and retrieve content from web pages - The real impact (and limits) of schema, structured data, and LLMs.txt - Why most "AI SEO" services are repackaging old ideas or selling noise - The difference between correlation studies and real evidence in SEO - How ChatGPT and similar systems pull, parse, and use information - Why prompt tracking is unreliable and often meaningless - What actually influences whether your content appears in AI answers - The risks of chasing short-term tactics like cloaking, spammy listicles, and Reddit manipulation - Why traditional SEO fundamentals still matter more than ever - A practical approach to improving visibility in AI-generated answers - How to think about measuring success when AI traffic is still small They also discuss broader shifts in search: - Whether Google search quality is improving or declining - The rise of user-generated content and platforms like Reddit - How AI is changing content creation - and why most AI content underperforms - Why authenticity, clarity, and trust will matter more over time This episode is a direct response to the hype around AI search. It focuses on what can actually move the needle for businesses, rather than what sounds impressive on LinkedIn. ⭐️ Busting The GEO Jargon: Why You're (Probably) Overcomplicating AI Search - https://queryburst.com/blog/ai-search/ ⭐️ David McSweeney on 𝕏 - https://x.com/top5seo ⭐️ David McSweeney on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mcsweeney-79840154/ ⭐️ David McSweeney's company - QueryBurst - https://queryburst.com/ 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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: <a href= "https://

E1033: Breaking down a dense set of notes from the BrightonSEO conference and turning them into a practical playbook for modern SEO. These are real observations about what you have to do to win search and conversions - especially with AI, generative engine optimization (GEO), and the growing importance of conversion-focused content. I recorded this episode from a rooftop in Manhattan, and we cover everything from technical SEO foundations to how AI systems actually discover, evaluate, and cite content. If you care about getting customers from search - not just traffic - this episode will give you a clear direction. What we cover: - The modern SEO framework: technical SEO as the foundation, content and PR as the catalyst, social media as the amplifier, and GEO as expanding your presence across AI systems - A decision framework before creating content: demand, winnability, indexability, visibility, differentiation, and trust - How AI search works: query fan-outs, partial page reading, citation behavior, and why influence happens at the prompt level - Key data points shaping strategy: AI overviews reducing clicks, more journeys involving AI, homepages getting more AI traffic, and low overlap with top Google rankings - Content strategy shifts: optimize for passages, answer one question per paragraph, use neutral language, and focus on problems instead of keywords - Conversion-focused SEO: why bottom-of-funnel pages matter, how intent-driven pages perform, and how to structure pages to convert - AI and content quality: using LLMs effectively, spotting mistakes, and validating outputs with multiple systems - Brand and trust: the role of reviews, sentiment, consistency, and where AI pulls brand signals from - E-commerce and AI search: what gets products cited, how to structure product pages, and the importance of attributes and Q&A - Practical takeaways: mining fan-out queries, aligning navigation with customer language, focusing on leading metrics, and combining engineering with storytelling This episode is packed. You may want to slow it down or take notes. Subscribe if you want daily episodes on SEO, AI, and building a business through search. ⭐️ Malte Landwehr's write-up - https://x.com/MalteLandwehr/status/2050268682115272994 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 BrightonSEO Notes 00:41 GEO KPI Checklist 01:16 GEO Like Poker 01:52 Indexability And Speed<

E1032: Breaking down new research analyzing 1.4 million ChatGPT prompts to understand a simple but important question: why does ChatGPT cite some pages and ignore others? This study, conducted by Ahrefs, gives one of the clearest looks yet into how ChatGPT selects sources, what influences citation likelihood, and how you can position your content to be included. We walk through the key findings, what they mean in practice, and how they connect to real SEO strategy. What you'll learn in this episode: - How ChatGPT retrieves dozens of sources but only cites about half - The role of titles, snippets, and URLs before your page is even opened - Why semantic relevance to "fan-out queries" is one of the strongest ranking factors - What fan-out queries are and how to find them yourself - Why most cited sources come from traditional search results (and what that means for SEO) - The surprising role of Reddit: heavily used for context, rarely cited - Citation breakdown across sources like search, news, Reddit, YouTube, and academia - Why natural language URLs and keyword alignment increase your chances of being cited - The relationship between content freshness and citation likelihood - Why older, more established pages often beat newer ones within the same query - How news content is treated differently, with freshness acting as a tiebreaker - Why SEO landing pages and product pages are among the most cited content types We also cover a practical method to uncover the exact queries ChatGPT uses behind the scenes, and how to use those insights to structure your content. If you're trying to get your site, product pages, or content cited in AI-generated answers, this episode gives you a clear framework based on real data. ⭐️ Why ChatGPT Cites One Page Over Another (Study of 1.4M Prompts) - https://ahrefs.com/blog/why-chatgpt-cites-pages/ 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Why Citations Vary 00:34 Gatekeeping Before Reading 01:35 Study Setup and Goals 02:02 Where Sources Come From 04:54 Reddit Not Credited!? 05:31 Semantic Scoring and Titles 07:30 Find ChatGPT Fanout Queries 09:05 Freshness Versus Relevance 11:19 What It Means to Be Citable 11:55 SEO Pages Win Citations 15:19 Wrap Up and Goodbye  The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: http

E1031: Wil Reynolds, founder of Seer Interactive, joins the show to break down what's actually working in SEO right now - and what most people are getting completely wrong. This conversation goes beyond tactics. Wil explains why chasing shortcuts, automations, and "quick wins" is a losing strategy, and why the future belongs to people who understand how humans think, search, and make decisions. We talk about AI, agents, brand, keyword strategy, client work, and the mindset required to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry. In this: - Why most SEOs are focused on the wrong things - The difference between tenure and tenacity in SEO - What's actually changing with AI search and LLMs - Why "talking to real humans" is still the biggest edge - How to find keywords that actually drive revenue (not vanity traffic) - Why ranking #1 can still be a waste of time - The problem with listicles, loopholes, and copycat strategies - How to use PPC data to validate SEO decisions - What real marketing looks like in a search-driven world - How brand perception impacts both Google and AI results - Wil's experiments with LLMs and how fast results can change - Why most agencies lose trust (and how to avoid it) - The role of agents and automation in modern workflows - Why internal linking and SEO processes are becoming fully automatable - The importance of playing the long game vs chasing short-term wins Key ideas from Wil: - Just because you rank doesn't mean you'll win customers - SEO without understanding people is incomplete - If your strategy depends on a loophole, it won't last - Brand matters more than ever in AI-driven search - The fastest wins are often the least durable - The best insights come from watching real users, not tools - You have to earn trust, not automate it ⭐️ Wil Reynolds' agency - Seer Interactive - https://www.seerinteractive.com/ ⭐️ Wil Reynolds' 𝕏 - https://x.com/wilreynolds ⭐️ Wil Reynolds' LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilreynolds/ ⭐️ Wil Reynolds' YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/wilreynolds ⭐️ My mom passed away, what kind of son was I to her? - https://wilreynolds.medium.com/my-mom-passed-away-what-kind-of-son-was-i-to-her-af28b8e40c3e 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns -

E1030: Keyword cannibalization - what it is, how to identify it, and how to fix it without wasting time on things that don't move your business forward. This topic came from a detailed post in the SEO subreddit, along with real-world examples and insights from people actively working on sites. We also connect it back to how Google actually handles duplicate and competing content, and where people tend to get this wrong. Keyword cannibalization is often misunderstood. It's not just about duplicate content - it's about multiple pages on your site competing for the same intent, causing Google to split ranking signals and making it harder for any one page to perform well. In this episode, I walk through: - What keyword cannibalization actually is (and what it isn't) - How to spot it using Google Search Console - Why pages bounce in rankings and what that usually means - How to use SERP overlap to determine if two pages target the same intent - When you should consolidate pages vs keep them separate - A step-by-step process to fix cannibalization correctly - Why 301 redirects matter more than most people think - Common mistakes, including creating new content before fixing existing issues - Why "best tools 2024 / 2025" URLs can create problems - The limitations of canonical tags - What to expect after making changes (timeline and ranking volatility) I also share an important point that most people overlook: You don't need to fix cannibalization everywhere. Focus on keywords that actually drive revenue, leads, or meaningful traffic. It's easy to spend hours cleaning up issues that have no real impact on your business. There's also a discussion on how Google handles duplicate content, including insights from Matt Cutts, and why this problem still exists today. If you're doing SEO seriously, this episode will help you avoid one of the most common ways sites limit their own performance. ⭐️ The Reddit Thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1skbj17/heres_what_i_have_learnt_about_keyword/ ⭐️ The Matt Cutts Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZY7EmjbMA 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Cannibalization Overview 00:43 What It Means 01:04 How To Spot It 01:42 SERP Overlap Test 02:25 Consolidation Playbook 03:16 Common Fix

E1029: How e-commerce brands should build backlinks, especially Shopify brands. Kai Cromwell, an e-commerce SEO legend, joins the show for his second time. We cover what links are worth paying for, what links to avoid, how to evaluate link marketplaces, when to use cold email, and why most e-commerce brands should be careful about building too many links directly to product pages. Topics covered: - Where e-commerce brands should build backlinks from - When a new brand should avoid spending money on links - How much Kai recommends spending if you use link marketplaces - Why link insertions are often better than guest posts - How to check whether marketplace metrics are outdated - Red flags to look for before buying a link - Why traffic history matters - How to evaluate a site's outbound link ratio - What topical relevance should look like - What makes a link insertion look natural - How Kai uses cold email for link building - Why niche sites are often more useful than big news sites - How to think about building links to the homepage, collection pages, blog posts, and product pages - Why Kai usually avoids building links to product pages - Anchor text ratios for e-commerce sites - How smaller brands can build links without a large budget - Why free foundational links still matter - How link exchanges, journalist requests, and PR can fit into a link building strategy - What makes one backlink more valuable than another - Why having a real brand and useful content makes link building easier Kai also shares a few link building stories, including one involving a food blogger, a cookie company, and a fake cookie recipe made with ChatGPT. If you're in e-commerce, this episode is a must. ⭐️ Kai's first time on the podcast - Full Shopify SEO breakdown - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu8J3ldS9mQ ⭐️ Kai Cromwell on 𝕏 - https://x.com/KaiCromwell ⭐️ Kai Cromwell on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kai-cromwell/ ⭐️ Kai Cromwell on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@searchnewseas ⭐️ Kai Cromwell's Shopify SEO Agency, New Seas - https://newseas.co/ 🎯 The AI System to Find Relevant Journalists, Land Coverage, and Earn Ongoing High-Authority Backlinks - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/articles_ai-system-find-journalists-earn-high-authority-backlinks/ 💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted f

E1028: Breaking down what Google is rewarding right now when it comes to SEO - and how so much "standard" content isn't working. Last week at the Google Search Central Live Toronto event, a series of slides started circulating in the SEO community. One in particular stood out: the difference between commodity content and non-commodity content. This is a practical breakdown of that idea, what it means for your site, and how to apply it without losing rankings for keywords. I also share a simple ChatGPT prompt you can use to create titles that combine keyword targeting with real, experience-driven angles that people actually want to click. What you'll learn in this episode: - The difference between commodity content and non-commodity content - How generic "tips" content struggles to rank and convert - How to keep strong keyword relevance while making your content more specific - A simple prompt you can use with ChatGPT to generate better titles - When non-commodity content works best (top-of-funnel vs. bottom-of-funnel) - How to structure titles so they match search intent and improve click-through rate - How scaled, templated content can lead to ranking drops or manual actions - What Google actually says about AI-generated content and when it becomes a problem - Why you don't need to target every keyword variation or conversational query - Practical advice on SERP comparison and keyword selection Key takeaway: You still need keywords. Google is still a relevance-driven system. But content that is generic, repeatable, and easy to produce is getting filtered out more aggressively. Content that is specific, experience-based, and difficult to replicate performs better - especially when combined with clear keyword targeting. ⭐️ The Commodity vs Non Commodity slide: https://x.com/CyrusShepard/status/2047044462774563300 ⭐️ Google Search Central Live Toronto - All Slides (April 2026) - https://www.jcchouinard.com/google-search-central-live-toronto-slides-april-2026/ ⭐️ The Reddit Thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/TechSEO/comments/1svgj8p/need_help_manual_action/ 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Organic Search Shift 00:15 Commodity vs Non-Commodity Content 0

E1027: Tryggvi Rafn rejoins the show to screenshare (on YouTube) the AI-powered SEO system he built from scratch over four months. This is not another "AI writes blog posts" workflow. The system is designed to discover, prioritize, and build revenue-driving pages automatically, using a combination of data pipelines, keyword clustering, and agent-based workflows. We walk through how it works end-to-end, including how it finds opportunities, creates content, and routes everything through a structured review process. What we cover: - How the system builds a "keyword universe" from multiple data sources - Using Google Search Console, scraped content, forums, and product data together - Turning website content into a vector database to better understand topics - Automatically generating and scoring new keyword opportunities - Clustering keywords into topics and mapping them to the right pages - Why most tools focus too much on blog content (and what to do instead) - Building commercial pages, landing pages, and product-driven SEO content - How the system identifies missing pages and creates them - The role of intent analysis and why it needs to be tracked over time - How "striking distance" and information gain are used to improve rankings - The content pipeline: research → brief → draft → review → publish - Why human review is still a critical step in the workflow - How agents are used for research, analysis, and execution - The difference between stateful agents and task-based agents - How the team iterates on content quality and improves outputs over time - What actually makes AI-generated content useful instead of generic - The biggest challenges in building a system like this (and what broke along the way) - How much time this saves compared to manual SEO workflows - Real-world results, including ranking for competitive keywords and driving high-ticket sales We also get into the technical side: - Building data pipelines that don't break at scale - Error handling and workflow reliability - Managing handoffs between different agents - Designing systems that continuously improve with feedback This episode is especially useful if you: - Run SEO for an e-commerce or service business - Want to move beyond manual keyword research and content planning - Are thinking about building internal tools using AI - Care about ranking pages that actually drive revenue, not just traffic ⭐️ Tryggvi Rafn on 𝕏 - https://x.com/ecomtryggvi ⭐️ Tryggvi Rafn on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tryggvi-rafn/ ⭐️ Tryggvi Rafn on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Ecomtryggvi ⭐️ Tryggvi Rafn's agency - https://www.nordicamarketing.com/ 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - <a href= "https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimiz

E1026: Breaking down common SEO crawling myths and explaining why "crawl budget" is usually not the real problem. We talk about crawling, indexing, authority, sitemaps, content pruning, duplicate content, and cannibalization. The legendary David Quaid, our guest, explains why more crawling does not mean better rankings, why XML sitemaps do not magically fix indexing issues, and why authority is often the missing piece when pages are crawled but not indexed. Topics covered: - Can you actually optimize crawling? - Why crawl budget is misunderstood - Crawled not indexed vs. discovered not indexed - Why sitemaps do not solve most SEO problems - How Google prioritizes crawling - Why more crawling does not equal better indexing - The role of authority in crawling and indexing - Why internal links matter for crawl priority - When technical SEO fixes actually help - Why content pruning usually does not improve crawl budget - How duplicate content differs from cannibalization - When cannibalization becomes a real SEO issue - How to think about slugs, folders, and overlapping pages - Why new sites often struggle with indexing - How to diagnose crawling and indexing problems more realistically - Why HTML sitemaps can still be useful This episode is for SEOs, site owners, marketers, and founders who are trying to understand why Google is crawling, indexing, or ignoring certain pages. ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/ 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Can You Optimize Crawling 01:30 Sitemaps And Crawled Not Indexed 02:54 Authority Drives Indexing 04:54 How Google Triages Crawling 10:07 Internal Links Beat Crawl Budget 22:02 Tech SEO Myths And Stack Claims 25:20 Sitemaps Are Not A Todo List 25:54 Content Pruning And Root Causes 31:50 HCU Recovery And Lost Authority 34:19 Thin Content And Information Gain 35:16 Duplicate Content And Cannibalization 36:20 Duplicate Content Reality 37:05 How Pages Block Results 39:14 Cannibalization Explained 39:38 Slug Synonyms Traps 42:54 Niche Content Strategy 44:51 PAA And FAQ Risks 47:53 Diagnosing With SERP Data

E1025: Matt Diamante breaks down how he built a simple one-page tool that ranked #1 on Google with almost no content and no traditional SEO work. The site is LinkGap.io, a backlink gap analysis tool he built in a single afternoon using AI. It has roughly 35 words on the page, no meta description, no analytics, and almost no backlinks - yet it ranks and generates thousands of leads. This conversation walks through exactly how it was built, how it gained traction, and why it's working despite breaking most SEO "rules." What you'll learn: - How Matt built a working SaaS-style tool in a few hours using AI - The exact setup process (hosting, APIs, and basic structure) - Why he ignored traditional SEO best practices - and still ranked - How the tool generated 14,000+ emails as a lead magnet - The simple marketing strategy that drove initial traffic - User behavior signals vs. on-page SEO - How to come up with similar tools in any niche - The difference between building a brand vs. a standalone tool - How to turn simple tools into long-term products or SaaS Key takeaways: - You don't need a full website to rank - a useful tool can be enough - Distribution (even a single video) can kickstart traction - AI can handle most of the technical build if you guide it properly - Small, focused tools can outperform large, "optimized" sites - There are still many underserved niches outside of marketing Topics covered: - AI-assisted development (Claude Code) - Backlink gap analysis and SEO tools - Lead generation through free tools - Ranking factors beyond traditional SEO - Building and testing ideas quickly If you're trying to grow a business, build tools, or get traffic without overcomplicating SEO, this episode gives a practical example of what's possible right now. ⭐️ Backlink Gap Analysis - https://linkgap.io/ ⭐️ Matt Diamante on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/heytony.agency/ ⭐️ Matt Diamante on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@heytonyagency ⭐️ Matt Diamante on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@heymattdiamante ⭐️ Matt Diamante's agency - https://heytony.ca/ 🚀 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/ 💎 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 Without SEO 00:35 What LinkGap

1024: An experienced SEO practitioner and an AI search founder debate what gets a brand surfaced inside large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. The conversation starts with a core disagreement: is generative engine optimization just an extension of SEO, or is it a fundamentally different discipline? From there, it expands into how AI systems actually produce answers, what "query fan-out" means in practice, and if most traditional SEO frameworks may not translate cleanly into AI-driven environments. This episode breaks down how both sides approach the problem in the real world - one focused on ranking and retrieval, the other on shaping how AI models understand brands, categories, and decisions. Topics covered: - The difference between SEO and generative engine optimization (GEO/AEO) - What "query fan-out" is and how AI decomposes a single prompt into many searches - When AI does not search at all - and what that means for visibility - The role of awareness, consideration, and conversion in AI-driven journeys - If most AI influence happens before any citation or click - How LLMs decide which brands to mention (and which to ignore) - The relationship between search rankings and AI-generated answers - Whether optimizing for subqueries is practical or scalable - The concept of "information gain" and if original research matters more than summaries - Auditing how AI currently perceives your brand - The role of reputation signals like reviews, Reddit, and third-party content - If traffic and rankings may be the wrong metrics for AI visibility - The risks of scaling content purely to match query variations - How brand positioning, content, and reputation interact inside AI systems - Tactical approaches to getting included in AI-generated recommendations - The limitations of LLMs, including reliance on consensus and susceptibility to weak signals - Differences between platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini - Whether tactics like schema, markdown, or llms.txt actually matter - How new brands can break into AI results without existing authority - The long-term question: are LLMs search engines, or something fundamentally different? This is a detailed, back-and-forth debate with real disagreement, practical examples, and a focus on how things work today. If you work in SEO, content, SaaS, or growth, this will challenge how you think about visibility and influence in AI systems. ⭐️ Tom Rudnai's Dark AI Report - https://demand-genius.com/resource/dark-ai-and-what-actually-drives-aeo-influence/ ⭐️ Tom Rudnai on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-rudnai-0539b6151/ ⭐️ Demand-Genius - https://demand-genius.com/ ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - h