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The Edward Show: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Edward Sturm
Daily SEO advice, hacks, and interviews with some of the top voices in search engine optimization, as well as sit-downs with many undiscovered talents.
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- Yesterday58 min
Microsoft Clarity Tutorial: Why Your SEO Traffic Isn't Converting
E1218: In this Microsoft Clarity tutorial, you'll learn how to find out why your SEO traffic isn't converting into leads, bookings, or sales. Josh Silverbauer, Head of Analytics at Intrepid Digital and an early contributor to Microsoft Clarity, shares his screen to show how he investigates conversion problems using Microsoft's free website analytics tool. We walk through heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, and filters you can use to understand what visitors do on your website, including visitors from organic search. You'll learn: - How to use Clarity's dashboard, heatmaps, and session recordings. - How to filter for organic traffic and examine visitors who reached a specific SEO landing page but didn't convert. - How to build funnels that track steps such as landing page → booking page → form submission. - How to watch recordings of visitors who reached a particular step but didn't finish the process. - How to identify rage clicks and distinguish them from dead clicks. - How click heatmaps reveal which links, buttons, and page sections get the most attention. - How first-click and last-click data change your understanding of visitor behavior. - How to use scroll and attention heatmaps to decide which page elements to move higher. - How to compare new and returning visitors, or desktop and mobile visitors, side by side. - How to find where people abandon lead-generation forms and e-commerce checkouts. - How to investigate whether visitors are reading an article, skimming it, or leaving early. - Creating Smart Events, funnels, and saved segments for repeat analysis. - Sending custom data through Google Tag Manager to filter users by role or sign-in status. - Using Clarity alongside Google Analytics 4 to investigate conversion problems. - Prioritizing page changes by potential impact, audience size, and ease of implementation. Josh also shares an example of a shopping-cart recommendation that was displayed more prominently than the product the customer had actually selected, creating confusion at checkout. I share how Clarity showed me that visitors were spending time reading testimonials on my Compact Keywords sales page. I moved those testimonials higher on the page, and that change made a meaningful difference. The central lesson: Don't make website changes based solely on assumptions. Find where visitors struggle, form a hypothesis, and test the change. Want Josh to review your website on a future episode? We're looking at doing a live Clarity analysis of a listener's site, particularly an SEO page that gets traffic but doesn't convert. Leave a comment with the problem you want diagnosed. ⭐️ Josh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsilverbauer/ ⭐️ Josh's website - https://joshsilverbauer.com/ ⭐️ Josh's agency (Intrepid Digital) - https://www.gointrepid.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 Josh and Clarity 01:36 What Is Microsoft Clarity 03:37 Core Tabs Tour 06:22 Filtering and Funnels 10:39 Finding Friction Fast 17:47 Heatmaps Compare Mode 21:19 Scroll and Attention 25:26 Heatmap Refresh and AI 30:11 Intent and Reading Signals 34:36 Recordings Done Right 41:58 Funnels for Form Dropoff 47:51 Mobile vs Desktop Insights 53:55 Advanced Custom Filters 56:27 Wrap Up and Next Steps The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #microsoftclarity #conversionrateoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo
- Yesterday9 min
How to Build Local Backlinks for Under $500 vs. $5,000 a Month
E1218: How do you build local backlinks with a $500 monthly budget? What changes when you can spend $5,000? I cover practical local link-building tactics for both budgets, with examples for local companies. Learn how to get backlinks from partners, nonprofits, journalists, directories, and trade associations. LOCAL LINK BUILDING: UNDER $500/MONTH - Business partnerships: Partner with complementary companies. A plumber and electrician who refer customers to each other can link through partner pages, articles, or case studies. - Donate services: Offer free work to local nonprofits, schools, or charities and request a backlink acknowledging your contribution. - Community projects: A landscaping company can clean up a park, document before-and-after results, and invite residents and local press. - Sponsorships: Sponsor a youth sports team, nonprofit, or local event. Ask for a linked logo or listing on the organization's website. - Pitch journalists: Offer useful advice tied to current events. A roofer can explain storm preparation; a locksmith can share home security tips following local burglaries. - Unlinked mentions: Contact organizations you've previously helped and ask them to link existing mentions of your business. - Directories: Find relevant local directories and trade associations. Use Claude deep research to organize opportunities by price. - Social profiles: Set up accounts and publish a few posts to establish an active online presence. LOCAL LINK BUILDING: UNDER $5,000/MONTH - More sponsorships: Sponsor five to eight local nonprofits, youth sports teams, charities, or community events. - Higher-value donations: A South Florida roofer donated a free roof through Habitat for Humanity. The charity linked to his business, local news covered the story, and his Facebook post was shared over 200 times. - Chambers of commerce: Join organizations with member directories and opportunities to contribute articles or participate in events. - Trade associations: Consider more expensive memberships with relevant business listings and backlink opportunities. - Video production: Hire an editor through YTJobs.co to turn footage from jobs into daily videos targeting keywords your website already targets. - Journalist relationships: Share local journalists' work, credit them, and build familiarity before pitching your own stories. MORE SEO LESSONS IN THIS EPISODE - Why links from pages that rank in Google and receive clicks are especially valuable. - Why even nofollow backlinks can pass authority. - How sponsorships can build trust, referrals, and brand recognition. - Why you can build links gradually instead of pursuing every tactic at once. - Why bottom-of-funnel local keywords may be less competitive than you think. - How to use your target keyword in the page title, URL, H1, and opening sentence. ⭐️ Ep 1109 - How Local Businesses Build Powerful Backlinks Through Community Sponsorships - https://youtu.be/RBuVt8mqD7U ⭐️ Ep 1155 - He Donated a Free Roof and Got Links You Can't Buy - https://youtu.be/0aZi6sdOD-M ⭐️ Ep 936 - How to Build Local Backlinks That Actually Increase Local Rankings - https://youtu.be/Z0Iq0yG2sIk 💎 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 Budget Link Building Plan 00:07 Partner With Businesses 00:44 Nonprofit Service Donations 01:15 Foundational Social Profiles 01:27 Small Local Sponsorships 02:21 Pitch Local Journalists 02:45 Turn Mentions Into Links 03:22 Directories And Associations 03:53 Stay Consistent Weekly 04:11 Scaling Under Five Thousand 04:20 Bigger Sponsorship Portfolio 04:44 Viral Donation Case Study 05:32 Chamber And Trade Groups 05:54 Content To Win Journalists 07:15 What Makes Links Valuable 07:45 Ranking With Few Links 08:25 More Resources And Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #localseo #searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding #seo
- 3 days ago1h 48m
Craig Campbell: The SEO Tricks Google Still Can't Stop
E1217: Craig Campbell has spent 25 years testing what works in SEO, including tactics Google says shouldn't work. In this interview, he explains how SEOs manipulate Google rankings and ChatGPT answers, which older link-building methods still have uses, and why he now avoids many of those tactics on businesses he wants to keep for years. We discuss real tests, specific tools, and the difference between a tactic that gets results for a few months and a strategy that can support a business long-term. In this episode: - How a Chinese restaurant website can rank for online casino searches through canonical abuse, and why Craig won't reveal the full process. - How an expired French aquapony domain was used to convince ChatGPT and other AI tools that Craig coached an Olympic aquapony team. - Why press releases and mentions on trusted publications can influence what ChatGPT says about a business. - Craig's preferred press release services, including The News Guy, Magic PR, and Press Advantage, and how Yahoo Finance placements matter to him. - Why he uses Scrapebox, blog comments, and automated links to try to keep press releases and other pages in Google's index. - What separates a useful private blog network (PBN) from one with obvious footprints, including hosting, IP addresses, content quality, and outbound links. - How Backrefs automates lower-tier link building, and what Craig says those links can and cannot accomplish. - How Craig bought an affiliate website for £10,000, spent another £4,000 improving it, and sold it for £48,000 four months later. - The experiment where Craig published 1,200 unedited AI articles, watched traffic rise, then saw the site lose its rankings after about six months. He says replacing the content did not restore the site. - How he used an expired domain from a bankrupt hotel chain to create a new affiliate site. - Why he wouldn't use many of those tactics on a long-term business today, even when he thinks they might work. - How Craig uses interviews with football players to develop news stories, pitch journalists, and earn links to his own website. - Why a podcast can become a way to build relationships with bloggers, journalists, and future link partners. - How he's building a sports trading card business using live streams, marketplaces, and SEO rather than relying on Google alone. - Why Craig believes brand searches matter and says he wouldn't trust AI to run SEO tasks without human review. - What 25 years in SEO changed about how much Craig trusts Google's public guidance. Craig also shares why his priorities have moved from finding every possible ranking loophole to building businesses that generate revenue without depending on one search algorithm. ⭐️ Craig Campbell's website - https://craigcampbellseo.com/ ⭐️ Craig Campbell on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@CraigcampbellseoUk ⭐️ Craig Campbell on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/craigcampbellseo ⭐️ Craig Campbell on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@craigcampbellseo ⭐️ Craig Campbell on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcampbell0302 ⭐️ Craig Campbell on 𝕏 - https://x.com/craigcampbell03 ⭐️ Craig Campbell on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/craigcampbellseo03 💎 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 Craig Campbell Joins 00:24 Google Lies And Tactics 02:40 Canonical Abuse 06:10 LLM Manipulation Tactics 10:27 SEO Testing Competitions 17:11 Aquapony LLM Prank 22:40 Press Releases For ChatGPT 25:55 Indexing With Spam Links 30:49 Nofollow Links Still Work 33:36 Kyle Roof Lorem Ipsum 35:25 Building Undetectable PBNs 38:09 PBN Upkeep Reality 40:22 Modern PBN Tools 41:51 White Hat Wins 44:32 Clean Niches Strategy 46:00 Programmatic Cards SEO 53:12 Marketplaces vs Search 58:36 PR Link Building Playbook 01:07:54 Automated Tiered Links 01:12:43 Affiliate Site Flip Lessons 01:17:22 Seasonal Site Flip 01:19:24 AI Slop Penalty 01:22:35 Churn and Burn Debate 01:23:04 Expired Domain Leverage 01:27:47 Diversify Traffic Sources 01:30:56 Agency Advice Reality 01:35:40 Journalist Connec
- 3 days ago12 min
AI Watermarking Is Coming to Everything: The AI Content That Will Still Rank
E1216: Anthropic is expanding AI text watermarking to more Claude models on November 3. Other AI companies have also committed to watermarking their outputs. What does this mean for SEO? Will Google start penalizing AI-generated pages, and can it tell the difference between content written entirely by AI and content edited with AI? I break down the risks of publishing unedited AI content, what Google's recent guidance suggests, and why I still expect carefully reviewed, AI-assisted pages to rank and even be trained upon. In this episode: - Claude's expanding text watermarking: Which models Anthropic says will next receive watermarks why this matters for publishers. - The Ahrefs AI content study: 5.3% of top-ranking pages were classified as fully AI-generated, another 9% as at least 80% AI-generated, and 80% of high-AI pages were indexed compared with 49% of low-AI pages. - Google's position on AI content: Quality rater guidance for unoriginal, low-effort pages, warnings about hallucinations, and the risks of publishing AI pages at scale without proofreading. - The possibility of tougher Google updates: How some SEOs expect more action against scaled AI content, and why that remains a prediction rather than a confirmed update. - My GPTZero test: A roughly 400-word SEO landing page was identified as human-written and AI-polished, while an AI-generated article about me was classified as 100% AI. - Real examples of AI hallucinations: False claims I found in an AI-generated article about my own work, videos, and audience. - AI detection as a spectrum: Why assisted writing, AI polishing, and fully generated text shouldn't be treated as identical. - How Google might evaluate AI-heavy sites: My theories about user behavior, sitewide patterns, branded searches, and future AI detection. These are possibilities, not confirmed ranking factors. - AI content in model training: The concern that training on unverified AI-generated material could increase errors and hallucinations. - How we're writing pages for a SaaS I'm funding: Using AI line by line as a writing assistant while manually reviewing the language ourselves. - Building branded searches through short-form video: How SEO entrepreneur Ilias ISM hired creators for $500 per creator per month to post daily videos, generate millions of views, and increase searches for his brand. My main point: AI watermarking doesn't mean every page touched by AI is destined to lose rankings. There's an important difference between publishing hundreds of unchecked AI pages and using AI as a writing assistant. ⭐️ Claude Watermark Announcement - https://pasqualepillitteri.it/en/news/27785/claude-watermark-november-3-opus-4-7-sonnet-4-6 ⭐️ Ep 1210 - The Backlinks Worth Paying $2,000 For (w/ Ilias ISM) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NRS4ibsMKg ⭐️ My Exact Social Media Posting Strategy - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/social-media-posting-strategy/ 💎 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 Anthropic Watermark Email 00:35 AI Content Panic 00:50 Ahrefs AI SEO Stats 01:31 Google Cracks Down 02:45 Hallucination Example 03:41 Detection Is a Scale 05:42 How Google Penalizes 07:27 Training Data Concerns 08:34 Branded Search Signals 08:59 Buy Branded Searches 11:13 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #seopodcast
- 5 days ago10 min
Discord Is Coming to Google Search: How to Own the Next Reddit
E1215: Discord is coming to Google Search, and this could be one of the biggest new SEO opportunities heading into 2027. Starting November 16, 2026, Discord will give every eligible Discoverable Server a public webpage. Beginning in mid-December, messages from public channels may also appear on those pages and in Google Search. Imagine owning a leading Discord server in your niche, with the influence that moderators of major subreddits have over the discussions people find when researching products and services. I break down Discord's announcement, the eligibility requirements, what to optimize for SEO, and why I think this could be a major opportunity for people who start building communities now. What I cover: - Why Discord is making public server discussions available on the web after years of keeping them inside the platform. - The November 16 launch of Server Web Pages and the mid-December rollout of publicly accessible messages. - What qualifies as an SEO-available Discoverable Server: at least 1,000 members, at least eight weeks old, and compliance with Discord's activity and safety requirements. - How there's more than 63,000 existing Discoverable Servers. - How Discord's domain authority of 94 and the search performance of other user-generated content platforms, particularly Reddit, could affect rankings. - How Discord discussions could eventually be cited in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and other AI search results. - What to optimize for SEO: your Discord server name, short description, longer About section, categories, and public messages. - How your server name affects its URL, page title, and H1, and why those elements matter for Google rankings. - Why putting relevant keywords at the beginning of public messages and threads could be valuable. - How to build a community targeting top-of-funnel searches that can attract new members directly from Google. - What happened when SEOs flooded Digg with spam, causing bans and eventually another reset of the platform. - Why Discord could face similar problems with bot-inflated membership, spammed messages, and servers created purely for rankings. - Why I recommend building a legitimate community that can attract members, influence buying decisions, and maintain rankings for years. I also explain Discord's privacy and control settings. Server admins can manage which public channels participate under Server Settings > Web Presence. Public channels are included by default unless admins change the settings. Individual users can opt out of having their messages shown under User Settings > Data & Privacy. Private servers and DMs are not included in these changes. The opportunity is to build an influential community before Discord's public discussions become widely available through Google. Just like owning an influential subreddit, owning a leading Discord server in your niche could become a valuable SEO asset. ⭐️ Discord announcement - https://discord.com/blog/making-content-from-discoverable-servers-easier-to-discover ⭐️ Mashable article - https://mashable.com/tech/discord-public-server-web-pages-messages-discoverable-in-google-search 💎 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 Discord SEO Bombshell 00:47 How Indexing Works 01:46 Admin Privacy Controls 02:16 Eligibility Requirements 03:46 Why Discord Will Rank 04:31 Server Optimization Tips 05:15 Digg Spam Cautionary Tale 06:58 Spam Risks and Long Game 08:54 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #parasiteseo #searchengineoptimization #seo #blackhatseo
- 6 days ago1h 4m
Google Maps Just Shrunk Everyone's Ranking Radius (Biggest Proximity Shift in 20 Years)
E1214: Google Maps rankings are changing dramatically, and proximity to the searcher appears to have become far more important than reviews, backlinks, and business authority. Matt Hammerton returns to the podcast with data from 40-50 local ranking scans showing what he calls the biggest proximity shift he's seen in 20 years of doing SEO. Matt manages more than 100 Google Business Profiles and works with personal injury law firms and home service businesses. He noticed the changes on October 27, 2026, and has been investigating what happened. In one Phoenix personal injury lawyer market, a business went from an average Google Maps ranking of 2.5 to 16.9 across the same geographic grid. It was still the highest-ranking business overall because its competitors experienced similar declines. In another example, businesses that previously ranked from more than a mile away disappeared from the local results, replaced by businesses located just a fraction of a mile from the searcher. We go through Matt's ranking reports, what he's seeing across different industries, and what businesses should do if these changes stick. Topics covered: - The Google Maps proximity changes Matt discovered between October 22 and October 27, 2026. - How he identified the same pattern in roughly 85% of the 40-50 local ranking scans he examined. - Why businesses that previously ranked across three to five miles are suddenly seeing their ranking areas shrink. - A Phoenix personal injury law firm whose average map ranking fell from 2.5 to 16.9 despite remaining the strongest competitor in its market. - Another example in Mesa, Arizona, where average rankings changed from 1.9 to 6.6. - Why Google appears to be giving proximity significantly more weight than reviews, backlinks, and other authority signals. - How businesses with only a handful of reviews can now outrank competitors with hundreds of reviews simply by being closer to the searcher. - Why service area businesses, including plumbers, HVAC companies, and locksmiths, appear particularly vulnerable. - How these changes are affecting actual phone calls and leads, not just ranking reports. - Why businesses with thousands of reviews and established Google Business Profiles may be losing ground while smaller competitors gain visibility. - Whether this is a permanent Google Maps algorithm change, a temporary experiment, or a mistake. - Why opening additional legitimate business locations could become more important for local SEO. - How Matt identifies neighborhoods with little competition before choosing locations for new offices. - How to use Google Maps to examine competitors, review counts, and geographic opportunities. - Why optimizing Google Business Profiles for more services and keywords may become more important when ranking areas shrink. - The relationship between Google Business Profile rankings and the keywords on the linked website's landing page. - Whether branded searches and stronger organic SEO can offset reduced Google Maps visibility. - Why businesses shouldn't immediately make major changes in response to sudden ranking fluctuations. We also discuss black hat versus white hat SEO, why building a real brand is more sustainable than chasing temporary ranking tricks, Google's history of algorithm penalties, and what Matt learned from 20 years of SEO. These proximity findings are based on Matt's own ranking data. Google hasn't confirmed the cause, and we don't yet know whether the changes will remain in place. ⭐️ 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 Matt Returns and Big Finding 00:43 Proximity Pinch Explained 01:56 Rank Reports Reveal the Shift 03:34 Before and After Grid Proof 04:46 Phoenix Case Study Breakdown 08:26 Pizza Shop Effect and SAB Hit 10:08 Veri
- 1 weeks ago2h 5m
Kyle Roof Ranked Gibberish #1 on Google. Then Google Deindexed 20 of His Sites.
E1213: Kyle Roof ranked a page written mostly in Lorem Ipsum gibberish #1 on Google for a rhinoplasty keyword. After the experiment made headlines, Google deindexed it. That same night, Google also deindexed 20 of his other SEO test sites, despite their separate hosting and lack of links between them. Kyle, SEO legend and founder of PageOptimizer Pro, tells me exactly how he pulled it off, why he believes Google changed its spam rules afterward, and why he says his gibberish pages still rank today. We also get into what he's learned from more than 400 SEO experiments and which popular SEO recommendations his tests contradict. In this two-hour epic pod, we cover: - How Kyle used Lorem Ipsum mixed with target keywords, variations, and contextual terms to rank #1 in Google organic search and Maps. - What happened when Google deindexed his original site and 20 seemingly unrelated test sites, and what Kyle suspects Google did to identify them. - Why Kyle says his 2019 Lorem Ipsum pages are still on page one, and how he continues testing Google's algorithm with gibberish content. - The four on-page keyword placements Kyle prioritizes: title tags, H1s, paragraph text, and URLs, plus his findings on H2s, H3s, and anchor text. - Why misspellings, grammar, reading level, and even a 25-second page load failed to hurt rankings in his tests. - What his tests show about click-through rate, and why bounce rate, dwell time, and pogo-sticking are harder to pin down. - Why he thinks agencies waste money obsessing over Core Web Vitals, and why he checks time to first byte and total blocking time. - Why he recommends buying expired domains, what he checks before buying, and how they speed up SEO testing and new businesses. - What his GoDaddy domain tests found about exact-match domains, descriptive extensions like .florist, indexing speed, and shorter URLs. - How hidden text and page-builder templates affect Google's word counts, and what to check before migrating a website. - Why the Yandex algorithm leak reinforced his views about TF-IDF, BM25, and Google's ranking systems. - Why AI-written articles often miss important contextual terms, and how to give AI word-count and keyword benchmarks that match the SERP. - How Kyle builds content silos, links supporting pages to competitive target pages, and uses People Also Ask questions for both Google and AI search. - Why he believes SEO and GEO rely on the same foundations, and why he questions whether ChatGPT visibility is worth chasing for every business. - Why pages that stray too far from a website's main topic can hurt SEO, using HubSpot's organic traffic collapse as an example. - His $1,000, 90-day SEO plan: restore pages on an expired domain, target attainable keywords, and decide whether to spend the remaining budget on Google Ads. - How Kyle and Joy Hawkins found that nofollow backlinks can influence rankings, and his favorite way to earn links by organizing community events. - His prediction that today's large language models will be replaced by a different technology within three years. ⭐️ PageOptimizer Pro - https://pageoptimizer.pro ⭐️ Kyle Roof on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-roof-seo/ 💎 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 Kyle Roof 00:58 SEO Barely Changes 02:59 Four Pillars of Search 05:05 Algorithms Are Math 08:29 Testing Myths Busted 12:04 Do User Signals Matter 17:10 AI Content and Context 20:11 Lorem Ipsum Rhinoplasty 27:45 Expired Domains Shortcut 35:17 On Page Signals That Win 38:16 PageOptimizer Pro and AI 41:34 What SEOs Underestimate 43:01 SERP Intent Edge Cases 45:15 Authority vs Pogo Sticking 48:42 User Signals and Metrics 49:44 Core Web Vitals Myth 51:11 Descriptive TLD Experiments 56:37 Short URLs and Subfolders 59:38 SEO Tricks vs Humans 01:00:37 Niches and YMYL Attacks 01:03:54 API Leaks and BM25 01:06:17 CMS Hidden Word Counts 01:11:31 Schema Hype Reality 01:14:31 AI Content Benchmarks 01:17:32 Content Silos for AI 01:22:03 LLMs vs Google Surfaces 01:23:38 AI Indexes and SERP Poisoning 01:26:51 Rank Tracker SERP Glitches 01:28:38 Using GSC for History 01:30:10 Query Fanout Opportunities 01:32:08 GEO vs SEO Debate 01:36:28 PAA Content Mining 01:37:45 AI Search Vanity Metrics 01:41:45 Grind Over Worrying 01:42:56 Topical Focus and HubSpot 01:48:05 90 Day SEO
- 1 weeks ago1h 31m
The New SEO Business Model: Buy News Sites Instead of Backlinks (w/ David Quaid)
E1212: What if SEO agencies stopped buying backlinks and started buying the news sites that publish them? David Quaid joins me to break down a business model he calls "news as a service": acquiring established news sites, local publications, and niche blogs, improving their SEO, and using them to build businesses that earn money beyond advertising. David argues that SEO agencies spend huge amounts on link building and PR without controlling the publications they depend on. He recalls one company spending $20,000 per month on PR and getting just one press mention in six months. But would buying a publication actually make more financial sense? I push David on the acquisition costs, operating expenses, revenue, link value, and whether this is just a more expensive private blog network. We work through examples involving an ecommerce store, a Denver local newspaper, and an SEO agency with multiple clients. In this episode: - Why David believes SEO agencies should consider owning news sites instead of continually paying third parties for backlinks and PR. - How an agency could acquire a local newspaper or niche publication, grow its organic traffic, and build a business around an existing audience. - Why a publication's value goes beyond backlinks to include referral traffic, brand exposure, and relationships with local businesses. - How to evaluate the economics: buying the site, paying journalists, growing readership, and finding revenue that supports the operation. - How a local publisher could expand into separate websites for community news, restaurants, business, and other topics. - Where sponsored articles, advertorials, editorial independence, and rel="sponsored" links fit into the model. - Why David sees a major difference between acquiring a legitimate publication and operating a traditional PBN. - Why the strategy could also work in reverse, with publishers acquiring SEO or PR agencies and selling services to existing advertisers. - How publishers facing fewer clicks from Google AI Overviews could use newsletters, affiliate offers, and other revenue sources. - Why I disagree with the idea that AI Overviews have made it impossible to grow organic traffic, and what I found when investigating Windows Forum's traffic decline. - Whether targeting a keyword with every new article counts as excessive SEO, and how quickly David recommends expanding a smaller site. - How to review a publication's existing content, prune pages that no longer serve a purpose, and improve its technical SEO and internal linking. - Why David questions the assumption that a backlink from a topically relevant website must be more valuable than one from a different industry. - Whether HubSpot could have avoided some of its SEO losses by moving unrelated content onto separate, focused domains. We also discuss the future of publishers as AI changes search, the limitations of buying individual backlinks, and the opportunity to combine SEO, PR, and publishing under one company. This is a live exploration of the idea. David explains why he believes in it, and I challenge the details to see where the numbers and the strategy hold up. ⭐️ 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/ ⭐️ Nik Hulewsky's episode - https://youtu.be/IyUv47A5m40 💎 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 News as a Service Intro 00:50 Why News Lost Value 01:27 Vertical Integration Lessons 03:55 TikTok Shop and PR SEO 05:06 GEO vs Owning Property 07:59 PR Spend Reality Check 09:51 Agency Moat via News 12:39 Monitors Niche Outlet Example 18:02 PBN vs Traffic Brands 20:45 Acquisition Economics Debate 28:21 Local Newspaper Multi Sites 31:54 Who Buys and Funding 38:42 Disclosure and Sponsored Links 45:38 Forbes Style Linking Tactics 46:41 Sponsored Link Debate 47:39 Costco Chicken Lesson 49:43 Local Newsletter Goldmine 52:18 Publishers Buy Agencies 55:08 AI Overviews And Clicks 01:01:15 Windows Forum AI Fail 01:06:32 News As A Service 01:09:03 Keyword Scaling Limits 01:12:48 Pruning And UX Fixes 01:17:00 Topical Bridges And L
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Entrepreneurs share lessons on building businesses and personal growth through real experiences and mistakes.
Creative Entrepreneur: A Podcast For Business Growth and Trending News
Examines how entrepreneurship, creativity, and media trends shape modern business and personal branding.
About The Edward Show
Daily SEO advice, hacks, and interviews with some of the top voices in search engine optimization, as well as sit-downs with many undiscovered talents.
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AI-powered recaps with compact key takeaways, quotes, and insights.
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Get key takeaways from The Edward Show in a 5-minute read.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's The Edward Show daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of The Edward Show as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
How does the The Edward Show podcast summary work?
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official The Edward Show product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by Edward Sturm.
Can I get summaries of other podcasts too?
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts, any in the catalog. Basic raises that to 15, Pro to 40 and Max to 100. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
How often does The Edward Show release new episodes?
The Edward Show publishes daily. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does The Edward Show cover?
The Edward Show covers topics including Business, Marketing, Entrepreneurship. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Start getting The Edward Show summaries tomorrow morning.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.