The Edward Show

Edward Sturm
  • 4.9 (11)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Daily

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. 5h ago

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

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

  2. 22h ago

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

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

  3. 3d ago

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

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

  4. 4d ago

    How to Get Recommended by Google Maps AI | Darren Shaw

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

  5. 4d ago

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

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

  6. 6d ago

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

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

  7. Aug 11

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

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

  8. Aug 11

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

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

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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
    1.1K
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    The Edward Show

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