The Edward Show

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

  1. 2 days ago

    Google Says "Good SEO Is Good GEO" - Here's What They Got Wrong

    E1158: Google published an article called "Good SEO Is Good GEO," arguing that the best strategy for showing up in Google's AI search experiences is still foundational SEO. I agree with a lot of it. But some of Google's advice leaves out important parts of how SEO and GEO work today. I go through Google's article point by point and react to it in real time. Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews are built on top of the same core ranking and quality systems used by traditional Search. It also says these AI experiences retrieve information from Google's existing search index. That means traditional SEO fundamentals still matter enormously for GEO, AEO, AI SEO, or whatever you want to call it. But that does not mean every piece of Google's advice should be taken at face value. In this episode: - Why Google says "good SEO is good GEO" - Why foundational SEO remains the starting point for getting visibility in AI Mode and AI Overviews - How Google's query fan-out works and why one AI prompt can trigger multiple searches - Why search intent still matters as much as ever - Why your page title, H1, URL slug, and keyword targeting still matter - Where I disagree with Google's advice to simply "optimize for people" - Why you cannot publish website content without understanding what people are actually searching for and expect Google to figure everything out - Why unique, first-hand, non-commodity content is valuable, but still needs distribution or keyword targeting if you want people to find it - Google's claim that marketers should stop chasing inauthentic mentions - Why that claim does not match what I see happening in actual search results and LLM recommendations - How brands are getting inserted into articles already receiving citations from large language models - Why inauthentic mentions can work even though I would not recommend building a strategy around them - Why Google is right about LLMs.txt - Why I still see no compelling evidence that LLMs.txt meaningfully improves your visibility in Google or AI search - Why user experience, trustworthy design, useful images, videos, reviews, and strong copy affect both SEO and GEO - Why Merchant Center and Google Business Profile remain important for ecommerce and local businesses appearing in generative search experiences - The problem with Google telling marketers to focus on business metrics while Search Console still gives limited visibility into AI search performance - Why leads, sales, signups, and revenue ultimately matter more than new GEO metrics invented by third-party tools The biggest takeaway is simple: You do not need to throw away SEO and start over because AI search exists. The same fundamentals that make a page useful, discoverable, relevant, trustworthy, and capable of ranking in traditional Google Search also give it a strong foundation for Google's generative search experiences. But "good SEO" still means understanding keywords, understanding intent, creating content people actually want, and making sure that content can be discovered. ⭐️ Good SEO is good GEO - https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/next/v2/article/search-and-video/ai-search-era-brand-authority-strategy/  ⭐️ Pareto SEO: The 20% of SEO That Matters - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/pareto-seo/  ⭐️ Ep 1081 - Google Merchant Center Mistakes Killing Your Ecommerce Revenue - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilyAv_Li1qA  💎 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 SEO Meets GEO 01:11 Foundational SEO Still Wins 02:07 What Helpful Really Means 02:59 Ignore New SEO Labels 03:31 Query Fan Out Explained 04:21 Pareto SEO Basics 04:33 Optimize For People Not Bots 05:06 Keyword Targeting Reality Check 05:57 Inauthentic Mentions Debate 07:54 LLMs txt Not Needed 08:28 Unique Perspective Content 09:45 Non Commodity Content Needs Keywords 10:28 Website UX Still Matters 11:42 Noisy Metrics And GSC 12:59 Merchant Center Reporting 13:38 Key Takeaways And Critiques 14:22 Wrap Up 15:12 Daily Podcast Streak Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

  2. 2 days ago

    Google Just Expanded AI Overviews: This Is What Still Gets Clicked

    E1157: Google is expanding some AI Overviews automatically, removing the need to click "Show More" and pushing traditional organic results much farther down the page. Predictably, a lot of SEOs are freaking out. I break down what Google actually changed and why I don't think businesses and publishers should panic about SEO. Google confirmed that AI Overviews can now dynamically expand when its systems believe a fuller AI answer would be useful. On those searches, users can get a much larger AI response plus the "Ask Anything" box before they ever reach the traditional blue links. I cover: - What Google changed with expanded AI Overviews - Why organic results can now appear much farther down the SERP - How Google is not simply sending every search directly into AI Mode - Why informational publishers have more reason to be concerned - Why SEO for products and services is a very different situation - The types of searches that still require people to visit a website - Why scenario-based keyword targeting continues to work - How to target people who know what they want but don't know which brand provides it - Why bottom-of-funnel SEO becomes even more important as informational searches get absorbed by AI - Why alternative pages and comparison pages influence buying decisions - Why detailed product and service documentation gives AI more information about when your business is relevant - Why AI systems can't recommend your company properly if you never explicitly explain what situations your product is for - Why useful backlinks and real brand mentions matter more than collecting links nobody sees - Why online reputation management matters for both AI recommendations and human searchers - Why building a real brand makes SEO, backlinks, AI visibility, and higher-volume rankings easier over time - Why I'm still not convinced blogging is dead - How Google Preferred Sources gives publishers another way to build repeat visibility inside Google - Why the right SEO strategy survives whether search is traditional, AI-enhanced, or eventually dominated by large language models ⭐️ Google AI Overviews Pushing Searchers Into AI Mode, Drops Show More Button - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-push-ai-mode-responses-41974.html  ⭐️ Ep 1049 - The Fastest Way to Get SEO Results: Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgGTmVZ1938  ⭐️ Ep 1074 - Blogging Isn't Dead: How Niche Blogs Still Make Money With SEO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRaNVjcnbw0  ⭐️ Ep 1156 - Google Just Gave SEOs a New Ranking Signal (Do This Now) - Preferred Sources - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv7n03rkgaM  ⭐️ The conversation on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1w1ur5u/google_making_ai_overviews_into_ai_mode_responses/  💎 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 Overviews Update 00:41 What Changed Exactly 02:31 Why SEO Still Crushes 03:01 Scenario Keywords That Convert 04:19 Pages That Influence AI 05:44 Holistic SEO And Branding 06:42 Blogging Is Not Dead 08:03 Preferred Sources Strategy 09:04 Stay Calm And Keep Going 09:38 Final Thoughts And Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/   #searchengineoptimization #seo #searchmarketing #digitalmarketing

  3. 4 days ago

    Preferred Sources Is Not Just for News Publishers (Google's Own Docs Prove It)

    E1156: Google Preferred Sources was originally introduced around news publishers, and that is still causing a lot of SEOs to dismiss it. That is a mistake. I go directly through Google's own documentation and explain why Preferred Sources now appears relevant far beyond traditional news sites. Google says any website that publishes fresh content is eligible. The feature is available globally in Top Stories and can also influence what users see in AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google Discover documentation also specifically references creator and source preferences. I also tested SaaS websites, local businesses, and ecommerce sites in Google's Preferred Sources tool. They were eligible. In this: - Why people keep saying Preferred Sources is only for news publishers - What Google's current documentation actually says - Why SaaS, ecommerce, local, and other commercial websites can be eligible - How Google does not require a news sitemap, RSS feed, or Google News Publisher Center setup - Google's statement that any website publishing fresh content is eligible - Why Google says people are twice as likely to click through to a preferred source - The significance of more than 345,000 unique sources already being selected - How Preferred Sources can affect AI Overviews, AI Mode, Top Stories, and Google Discover - Why I think Preferred Sources is an important behavioral signal - How this could matter even if Preferred Sources itself is not a direct ranking factor - Why I compare selecting a preferred source to subscribing to a YouTube channel - How increased visibility and clicks could create downstream SEO effects - How to add a Preferred Sources button to your website in five minutes - Where I placed Preferred Sources buttons on my own site - How I customized the buttons to match my website - Other placements you can test, including your header, footer, inside articles, and pop-ups - How to create a reusable global widget so you can place the button throughout your site The biggest point is simple: do not dismiss Preferred Sources because its original rollout focused on news. The current implementation is broader than that. And because adding it to a website is so easy, the potential upside makes it worth testing now rather than waiting until everyone agrees it matters. ⭐️ My article - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/google-preferred-sources-seo-ai-visibility/  ⭐️ Google Preferred Sources - test your site - https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=edwardsturm.com  ⭐️ Google Developers: Help your readers find your site through preferred sources in Google Search - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sources  ⭐️ Google Developers: Discover Core Update - https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/02/discover-core-update  ⭐️ Google Blog: Original High-Quality Content in Search - https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/original-high-quality-content-search/  ⭐️ Search Engine Journal: Google's Preferred Sources Is Now A Global SEO Signal - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-preferred-sources-feature-is-now-a-global-seo-signal/573591/  ⭐️ Google Developers: Preferred Sources Documentation - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sources  ⭐️ Preferred Sources button example on a blog post - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/parasite-seo-how-to-succeed-on-any-platform/#endingpreferredsource  💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/  00:00 Preferred Sources Revisited 00:43 What Preferred Sources Does 01:44 Viral Clip And Backlash 02:40 Docs Prove Eligibility 03:30 Not Just News Sites 05:42 Potential Ranking Signal 06:54 Add The Button Fast 07:29 Design And Placement Ideas 09:19 Worth Doing Anyway 09:59 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #contentmarketing #digitalmarketing

  4. 5 days ago

    He Donated a Free Roof and Got Links You Can't Buy

    E1155: A roofer in South Florida donated a free roof through Habitat for Humanity. The charity wrote about it and linked to his business. Then a local news station picked up the story, his Facebook post was shared more than 200 times, and one act of goodwill produced the kind of links and attention that are extremely difficult to buy. That is goodwill link building. I break down how businesses can do genuinely useful things for people, nonprofits, organizations, and other companies, then turn that work into backlinks, partnerships, mentions, and press. The important part most businesses miss is simple: ask for the link. Businesses already sponsor youth sports teams, donate products, support nonprofits, volunteer their services, and contribute to community projects. But because they are not thinking about SEO, they often get a logo or plain-text mention and never ask for a backlink. I cover real examples and practical ways to use this strategy across SaaS, e-commerce, and local services. In this episode: - How a donated roof turned into a nonprofit backlink, local press, and 200+ social shares - Why sponsorships and donations frequently create easy backlink opportunities - The two-minute follow-up email most businesses never send - How Lily Ray generated a large number of links through a pro bono marketing project during COVID - How SaaS companies can give free accounts to nonprofits and earn relevant partner links - How to get links from companies whose products you already use - Why publicly saying something positive about another company can lead to a case study or customer-story backlink - How e-commerce brands can donate products to relevant causes - Why recurring donations can produce links from multiple pages over time - How returned or lightly damaged inventory can become a link-building asset instead of waste - How e-commerce businesses can donate their expertise, not just their products - How local service businesses can provide free work to nonprofits or newly opened businesses - How disaster preparation and disaster response can create legitimate local press opportunities - Why third-party tips to journalists often work better than pitching your own company - How one goodwill project can produce backlinks, social shares, partnerships, and press at the same time The bigger idea is that backlinks work best when they look like real marketing. Instead of inventing artificial reasons for websites to link to you, do something that actually gives another organization a reason to mention you. Support something meaningful. Give away something useful. Solve a problem. Share somebody else's business. Donate your expertise. Then ask for the backlink. ⭐️ Bodhi- Local SEO's roofer post and comments - https://x.com/irentdumpsters/status/2092371437365461368  ⭐️ Lily Ray's post - https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/2092672103283613939  💎 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 Goodwill Link Building Intro 00:34 Habitat Roof Story 01:44 Ask For The Link 03:16 SaaS Goodwill Ideas 05:11 Ecommerce Donation Plays 07:21 Local Services Givebacks 07:58 Turn Good Deeds Into Press 10:08 Student Results Example 11:20 Daily Podcast Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #linkbuilding #backlinks

  5. 6 days ago

    Google Can Detect Your AI Content. Here's What Happens Next.

    E1153: Breaking down the debate around AI-written SEO content, Google's ability to identify machine-generated text, and whether AI detection could eventually become a meaningful part of Google's search and training systems. Google's John Mueller recently liked a LinkedIn post arguing that Google may be moving toward an algorithm designed to target all AI content. That comes after the August spam update, which many site owners reported hit AI-heavy websites particularly hard. But detecting AI content and penalizing AI content are two very different things. I also look at an argument from SEO, Dan Petrovic, who explains why Google has little reason to automatically remove content simply because AI was involved in creating it. Google already has sophisticated systems for evaluating content quality, usefulness, and user behavior. In this episode: - Why John Mueller liking a post about an AI content crackdown caught my attention - What the August spam update may tell us about Google's treatment of AI-heavy websites - How easily Google may be able to detect AI-generated text - Why AI detection does not automatically mean an SEO penalty - How Google could use AI detection as one signal among many - Why user behavior may matter more than whether a human or AI wrote the first draft - How Google can use post-click behavior, session activity, and other signals to evaluate usefulness - Why low-quality content existed long before ChatGPT and other LLMs - How AI-generated content could be treated differently in search results versus AI training data - Three possible ways Google could handle AI-generated text going forward - Why Google might allow AI content to rank while excluding some of it from model training - Why AI content could receive less weight rather than being completely ignored - How user-generated content from customers, Reddit, reviews, and other sources could become increasingly important - Why I am still using AI for SEO content - The difference between using AI as a writing assistant and publishing completely AI-generated articles - Why short-prompt, publish-without-editing AI content is a bad SEO strategy - How we use AI for ideation, articulation, summarization, and heavily edited drafts - Why satisfying search intent still matters regardless of how the content was created - Why high-intent SEO remains one of the areas where I believe AI can be especially useful My view is that AI content is not going to disappear from Google Search simply because Google can identify it. Google has much more information available than authorship alone. It can evaluate whether a page answers the query, whether users find it useful, and whether the website is creating something people actually want. That means the goal should not be to make AI content undetectable. The goal should be to use AI carefully, edit heavily, add real information, satisfy search intent quickly, and create pages that deserve to rank. For us, AI remains a writing assistant rather than a replacement for the entire content process. ⭐️ Ep 1140 - Claude Is Watermarking Everything It Writes. Google Doesn't Have the Key - https://youtu.be/U4WKswNBr0s  ⭐️ Kristine Schachinger on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kschachinger-seo_i-said-it-a-couple-months-ago-and-im-going-share-7498052042116976640-re-G/  ⭐️ Dan Petrovic: No AI Penalty - https://dejan.ai/blog/ai-penalty/  💎 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 John Mueller Likes AI Warning 00:54 August Spam Update Fallout 01:21 Can Google Detect AI 01:31 EU AI Act Watermarking 02:48 What If Detection Is Cheap 03:18 Dan Petrovic Takeaways 05:07 Detection vs Quality Signals 07:41 Three Future Scenarios 09:23 How To Use AI Safely 11:43 Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #aiseo #digitalmarketing

  6. 29 Aug

    Stop Panicking About Google's Goto Redirects. Build Your Own Tools Instead.

    E1154: Google's new goto redirects have a lot of SEOs worried that rank tracking is about to become less accurate, more expensive, or much harder to do. David Quaid joins me to break down what is actually happening, what it means for tools like Semrush and Ahrefs, and why the answer may be for SEOs to start building more of their own tools. Google's goto redirects add another step between the search result and the destination URL. That creates problems for companies that scrape Google at scale because they may now need to follow redirects instead of simply extracting destination URLs from the search results. That matters because a huge amount of SEO software depends on collecting SERP data. David and I discuss: - What Google's goto redirects actually are - Why Google may have introduced them - How they affect rank trackers and SERP scraping - Why exact ranking URLs may become harder to collect - Whether tools can still reliably track ranking domains - Why rank tracking data should not always be treated as exact - How Google Search Console can provide a second source of ranking data - Why SEOs may need to combine SERP data with Search Console - Why David believes most SERP tools are still largely usable - The problems with checking rankings only once per day - Why Google's changes could increase data collection costs - Whether Semrush and Ahrefs can adapt - Why smaller SEO tools and open-source projects may benefit - OpenSEO and the growing number of self-hosted SEO tools - Why SEOs should consider building internal tools - Using AI coding tools to work with Search Console data - Why Search Console data may become more valuable - How Bing Webmaster Tools could become more important - Why SEO agencies should pay attention to their own data instead of depending entirely on third-party reports - How ranking data relates to traffic, leads, and client reporting - What happens when a rank tracker says you rank somewhere but a manual search shows something different - Keyword cannibalization and how David uses Search Console to identify it - Why David cares more about ranking domains than exact URLs in many rank-tracking reports - Google's ongoing fight against scraping and automated search activity - Whether these changes are aimed at SEO tools, SERP APIs, OpenAI, or all three - Why Google may be making click-through manipulation harder - Whether OpenAI is building its own search index - The changing relationship between Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other search systems - Why SEO is still worth doing - Why the next generation of SEO tools may come from individual developers and small teams David's main point is simple: SEOs should not panic. Rank tracking is not disappearing. Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, SERP data, internal reporting, and custom tools can increasingly be combined to create your own view of what is happening. For SEOs who are willing to build, test, and work directly with their own data, these changes may create more opportunities than problems. We also discuss the SEO Tool Dev community on Reddit, where developers and SEOs can share scripts, extensions, tools, experiments, and new approaches to SEO data. ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid  ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/  ⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DavidQuaid  ⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/  ⭐️ SEO Tool Dev Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO_tool_dev/  ⭐️ OpenSEO 𝕏 post - https://x.com/ihteshamali/status/2093319473914921327  💎 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 Goto Redirects Panic 01:11 What Goto Redirects Are 02:09 Scraping War With SERP APIs 07:28 Rank Trackers Break Down 08:43 Future Tools Using GSC 11:51 Open Source SEO Tools 14:30 Short Term Survival Tips 18:09 Costs Rising For SEO Data 19:14 Consulting Shift And Expertise 23:27 Fixing SEO Tool Reporting 26:47 Tracking Domains Not URLs 29:12 Cannibalization Fixes 32:13 CTR Manipulation Crackdown 33:44 Google Versus AI Search 36:27 LLMs And Junk Content 39:41 SERP Tools Future Costs 42:58 Build Your Own SEO Tools 45:27 SEO Tool Dev Subreddit 46:50 Podcast Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #technicalseo #digitalmarketing

  7. 28 Aug

    Google Analytics Is Hiding Your AI Traffic (And Google Can Detect Your AI Content)

    E1152: Google Analytics is one of the most widely used analytics platforms on the web, but there is a growing category of traffic it was never really designed to help you understand: bots, AI crawlers, and AI agents. I sit down with analytics consultant Jason Packer, author of Google Analytics Alternatives, to talk about what GA4 is measuring, what it can miss, and how the rise of AI is changing both analytics and SEO. We get into AI companies crawling the web, the possibility of companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic developing their own web indexes, and what that could mean if AI platforms increasingly rely on their own infrastructure rather than traditional search indexes. We also discuss a separate issue that matters to anyone using AI for SEO: detecting AI-generated content. Jason explains current approaches to identifying AI-generated text and images, including watermarking systems such as SynthID, classifiers, and emerging standards around identifying AI-generated material. We also discuss whether Google can detect AI-generated content and why simply asking whether content was written by AI may be the wrong question. The bigger question is whether the content is useful, accurate, distinctive, and reviewed by a human. Topics covered: - What traffic Google Analytics 4 may be missing - Why GA4 intentionally filters much bot traffic - Why AI crawlers and AI agents create a new analytics problem - The difference between human visitors, traditional bots, AI crawlers, and AI agents - Why identifying AI traffic from user agents is difficult - What Cloudflare data can tell us about the growth of AI crawling - Whether OpenAI and Anthropic could build their own web indexes - How an AI-owned search index could change SEO - Why ranking for an LLM may work differently from ranking in Google - Whether early AI search systems could create new opportunities for SEOs - Hidden GA4 features and reports that many users overlook - How modeled users can affect what you see inside GA4 - Using device-based reporting identity to better understand your analytics data - Creating custom GA4 insights and anomaly alerts - Using Explore and User Explorer in GA4 - Where GA4 is genuinely powerful - Why GA4 may not be the right default analytics platform for every website - Google Analytics alternatives including PostHog, Amplitude, Piwik PRO, Plausible, Fathom, and others - Whether it makes sense to build your own analytics platform with AI coding tools - How AI-generated text and images can be detected - Google SynthID and AI watermarking - Why interoperability between AI detection systems matters - Whether Google can identify AI-generated SEO content - The risks of publishing AI content at scale - Why human review still matters when using AI for SEO - How AI can be used without sacrificing usefulness, accuracy, or brand voice The conversation ultimately comes back to a problem SEOs are going to have to understand: the web is no longer being visited only by humans and traditional search-engine crawlers. AI systems are increasingly crawling, retrieving, processing, and potentially indexing web content. At the same time, publishers are using those same systems to produce more content. That creates two important questions for SEO: How do you measure AI traffic that conventional analytics tools may filter or fail to identify? And how should you use AI to create content when search engines and AI platforms are becoming increasingly capable of identifying how that content was produced? ⭐️ Jason Packer's website, Quantable - https://quantable.com  ⭐️ Jason Packer's book, Google Analytics Alternatives: A Comprehensive Guide - http://gaalternatives.guide  ⭐️ Jason Packer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhpacker/  💎 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 Jason Packer 01:25 GA4 Hidden Insights 02:11 Modeled Users Explained 06:52 Custom Insights Alerts 09:12 Explore Reports Tricks 12:27 Learning GA4 Fast 14:39 Ask Advisor Critique 17:21 GA4 Basics For Beginners 21:40 Attribution And UA Nostalgia 25:19 What Traffic GA4 Misses 28:48 AI Crawlers And Analytics 31:04 Cloudflare Radar Web Crawling 33:05 AI Indexes And SEO Future 38:52 Spam In New Indexes 40:35 GA4 Alternatives Framework 41:20 Best Product Analytics Tools 43:11 Simpler Web Analytics Picks 46:10 Vibe Coding Analytics Risks 48:38 What Analytics They Use 50:19 Detecting AI Text Watermarks 52:42 EU AI Act And Detection APIs 56:09 SynthID Limits And SlopGuard 01:02:40 AI SEO Best Practices 01:07:15 Human Writing With AI Assist 01:11:47 Podcast Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/   #digitalmarketing #googleanalytics #searchengineoptimization #seo

  8. 28 Aug

    Google's Goto Redirect Broke Rank Tracking. Moz Explains What Happens Now.

    E1151: Google has started routing search-result links through new google.com/goto redirects, masking the final destination URL for logged-out users. That sounds like a small technical change. For rank trackers, SERP scrapers, SEO tools, and marketers who depend on Google search data, it creates a much bigger problem. I'm joined by Jonathan Berthold from Moz to break down what Google changed, why rank tracking is being affected, how SEO platforms are responding, and what marketers should expect next. We also get into the larger fight happening behind the scenes. Google has been making it harder to collect search results at scale, from the removal of the num=100 parameter to these new Goto redirects. One possible explanation discussed in the episode is that Google is making it more difficult and expensive for AI companies and other automated systems to collect its search data. The problem is that SEO tools rely on some of the same underlying access. We cover: - What Google's new google.com/goto redirects actually do - Why the destination URL is now hidden in Google search results - Why this creates problems for rank tracking software - How Moz is handling the change - Why other SEO platforms have had to adjust their systems - Whether simply following each redirect solves the problem - How additional requests could increase the cost and complexity of collecting SERP data - Why agencies and consultants may see temporary changes in ranking reports - What SEOs should tell clients if their reporting starts looking different - How this could affect competitive analysis and other workflows that rely on SERP data - Why AI workflows that analyze Google results could also be affected - How this compares with Google's removal of the num=100 search parameter - Whether Google Search Console could see downstream effects - Why Jonathan expects SEO tools to adapt rather than rank tracking disappearing - The possibility that Google extends these redirects beyond logged-out searches - What this means for the continuing competition between Google, OpenAI, and other AI companies - Why AI companies have an incentive to develop their own indexes and alternative data sources - Why rankings are ultimately a directional metric rather than the final measure of SEO success - Why revenue, leads, and sales from organic search still matter more than individual ranking positions Jonathan's main advice for SEOs is simple: be adaptable. Google can change not only its ranking algorithms, but also the infrastructure that SEO tools use to collect and interpret search results. Rank trackers adapted after the num=100 change, and Jonathan expects the industry to find ways to deal with Goto redirects as well. The immediate question isn't whether SEO is dead. It's how much these changes affect the reliability, complexity, and cost of measuring search performance. And the longer-term question is bigger: as Google protects access to its search data and AI companies build their own sources of information, what does SEO measurement look like next? ⭐️ Jonathan Berthold on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanberthold/  ⭐️ Jonathan Berthold on 𝕏: https://x.com/j_bertho  ⭐️ Moz (my affiliate link): https://edwardsturm.com/refer/moz/  💎 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 Goto Redirect Panic 00:48 What Changed In SERPs 02:47 Why Google Did It 05:15 Costs And Workarounds 07:37 SEO Tool Fallout 10:10 Beyond Rank Tracking 12:08 Fix Timeline And Pricing 14:33 OpenAI Index And Yelp 16:31 Search Console Volatility 17:26 Adaptability Takeaways 19:33 Does SEO Still Work 21:26 Wrap Up And Thanks The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/   #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #seoagency

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About

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

Information

  • Creator
    Edward Sturm
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1.2k
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    The Edward Show

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