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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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- Today12 min
Blog Post, Landing Page, or Category Page? (Search Intent Quiz)
E1188: Your page might target a keyword properly and still lose rankings because you chose the wrong type of page for the search. I turn search intent into a quiz: for each keyword, predict whether searchers want a blog post, landing page, or category page - before I reveal the answer. I recently consulted a site with thousands of pages that had steadily lost SEO traffic for years. They blamed negative SEO and bad backlinks. But new pages still ranked within two weeks, then lost their positions. The bigger problem was mismatched search intent: the site frequently used the wrong page type and the wrong copy for what searchers wanted. In this episode: - The exercise I recommend when your SEO traffic starts declining - Why I start with a site's most-clicked pages - How to decide between a blog post, landing page, and category page - Why "top tenant screening tools" needs a blog post - Why "tenant screening software" needs a landing page - Why "tenant screening software features" needs a blog post - Why "shingle repair Dallas" needs a service landing page - Why "PR agencies for service businesses" needs a blog post - Why "roof repair cost Dallas" needs informational content - Why "handwoven storage baskets" needs an ecommerce category page - Why "how to choose an ergonomic office chair" needs a blog post - How I approach "best office chairs for back pain" with a blog/category hybrid - The important difference between "Salesforce alternative" and "Salesforce alternatives" - Why a singular landing page outranks plural listicles - How satisfied clicks influence which result deserves to stay near the top - Why searchers sometimes prefer a direct first-party landing page over another comparison article - My page title formula: Target Keyword | Benefit or Searcher's Goal | Brand Name - How I place the target keyword in the page title, URL, H1, and opening sentence - How "Looking for tenant screening software? We've got you covered" wastes valuable above-the-fold copy - How to write an opening sentence that immediately tells searchers what the product does - Why mismatched search intent hurts rankings more today than it did several years ago - What pogo-sticking tells a search engine about the experience on your page - The search-intent audit I recommend running even when your traffic looks healthy The core exercise is simple: Start with your most-clicked pages. Ask what primary keyword each page targets. Then ask whether someone searching that keyword actually wants the type of content you gave them. A relevant page is not enough. The page also needs to satisfy what the searcher came to Google looking for. 💎 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 Fix Declining SEO Traffic 00:39 Case Study Intent Problem 02:16 SaaS Page Type Quiz 03:51 Services Keyword Examples 04:46 Ecommerce Category vs Blog 05:59 Singular vs Plural Nuance 08:09 Page Titles and Copywriting 09:13 Why Intent Mismatch Hurts 10:52 Exercise Recap 12:05 Final Thanks and Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #performancemarketing
- Today33 min
Exact Match Domains Still Rank in Local SEO - David Quaid Explains How
E1189: Exact match domains still rank in local SEO, and David Quaid explains where they still give businesses an advantage. David breaks down how to use exact match domains for local businesses, how they interact with Google Business Profiles, why branded domains and EMDs serve different purposes, and where people go wrong when they expect the domain alone to do all the work. David also explains why EMDs work especially well in competitive cities, how he thinks about topical authority, and why a local business should build around one valuable root keyword instead of trying to rank for everything. We cover: - Why exact match domains still matter in local SEO - How to choose an EMD around your highest-value keyword - Why city modifiers matter for local businesses - How EMDs affect Google Business Profile relevance - Why David prefers combining a brand with the target keyword - When to use a new domain versus your existing branded domain - Why EMDs still need links, authority, and trust - Why adding "best" to a domain does not automatically improve rankings - Why "near me" domains no longer carry the same weight - How Google treats branded searches differently from generic searches - Why EMDs work differently now than they did years ago - How strong brands make competitor EMDs harder to rank - Why EMDs often show up in competitive local map results - How David thinks EMDs affect topical authority - Why one focused EMD beats spreading relevance across unrelated services - How child pages inherit relevance from the domain topic - What an EMD homepage should look like - Why the site still needs to look like a real business - Why service pages should match Google Business Profile services - How to connect service pages to your Google Business Profile - Why Google Business Profile verification remains one of the hardest parts - Why real offices, signage, and business information matter - How multiple locations affect local visibility - Why local businesses often rank across dozens of commercial search terms - How EMDs may affect Google Ads quality score and paid search costs - Why David recommends announcing new branded domains through press releases - Why subfolders usually beat subdomains for sharing authority - When separate domains make sense for divisions, services, or locations David also walks through a hypothetical web design company in New York and shows how he would structure its domain, Google Business Profile, homepage, service pages, links, and local presence from the ground 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/ 💎 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 Rapid Listener Episode 01:04 Business Names and DBAs 02:20 EMD Domain Strategy 03:57 Google Profile Verification 05:12 Keyword Research Setup 06:51 Multiple Profiles and Categories 11:48 Profile Optimization Basics 14:56 EMD Links and Ads Savings 17:10 API Leak and EMD Reality 20:00 Bad Domain Examples 24:24 Topical Authority Boost 28:38 Building the EMD Site 31:15 Subfolders Not Subdomains 31:50 Wrap Up and Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #localseo #googlebusinessprofileoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo
- Yesterday13 min
Google Just Changed Its AI Content Guidelines (Unreviewed AI Is Now a Liability)
E1187: Google changed its guidance on AI-generated content on October 1, and the new language makes one thing very clear: publishing unchecked AI content creates real SEO risk. Google now explicitly says publishers must manually fact-check and review AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing. That review doesn't stop with the body copy. Google says it also applies to page titles, meta descriptions, structured data, and image alt text. I break down exactly what Google changed, what it means for SEOs using AI at scale, and how I use AI without handing an entire page over to an LLM. We cover: - Google's new October 1 guidance on AI-generated content - Why Google now explicitly calls for manual fact-checking - Why hallucinations give Google another reason to distrust scaled AI pages - Why scaled AI content becomes especially risky when nobody reviews it - Google's stance on AI content vs. AI spam - Why Google does not ban AI-generated content - How Google evaluates low-quality automated content - Why useful, original AI-assisted content still ranks - What Google says about AI disclosures and author bylines - Why I recommend using AI as a writing assistant instead of one-shotting entire SEO pages - How one-shot AI pages frequently miss search intent - How unchecked AI content often creates weak above-the-fold experiences - How bad user signals build when pages fail to satisfy searchers - How Google can lose faith in an entire website after enough weak pages - Why images and video matter when you use AI-generated text - How AI produces bloated pages that hurt conversions - How cutting copy, navigation, and distractions increases conversions - Why AI-detected content may also get excluded from AI training data The biggest takeaway: AI content itself is not the problem. Google explicitly says automation and AI generation are not automatically spam. The problem starts when publishers use AI to generate large amounts of content without adding value, reviewing the output, correcting inaccuracies, or making sure the page satisfies search intent. My approach remains the same: use AI as a writing assistant. Guide it closely. Edit aggressively. Fact-check everything. Add original thought, images, video, examples, and real experience. Do not give an LLM a keyword and blindly publish whatever comes back. I also explain why simply proofreading a fully AI-written page still falls short. Once the AI decides the structure, arguments, and interpretation of search intent, you are already anchored to its thinking. ⭐️ Google Search's guidance on using generative AI content on your website - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/using-gen-ai-content ⭐️ Google's FAQ - https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/02/google-search-and-ai-content ⭐️ How to Humanize AI Content - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/humanize-chatgpt-content/ ⭐️ How to Double Your Conversions by Doing Less (10 Before-and-After Examples) - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/conversion-rate-optimisation-strategy-simplify-landing-pages/ ⭐️ Ep 1083 - Google's New AI Spam Detector Could Wipe Out Entire SEO Networks - https://youtu.be/I78IQS99EwU ⭐️ Ep 1153 - Google Can Detect Your AI Content. Here's What Happens Next. - https://youtu.be/G0qcfknUCcU ⭐️ Ep 1166 - Google Can Lose Faith In Your Website (Here's How To Get It Back) - https://youtu.be/Q4cB34UticI 💎 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 Content Warning 00:24 Google AI Guidance Overview 01:14 Quality Raters And AI 02:03 October 1 Fact Check Update 02:51 Scaled AI Content Risks 03:29 Give Users Context 04:21 FAQ What Counts As Spam 05:44 Detection And EEAT Basics 06:50 Authorship And Disclosures 07:42 Practical AI SEO Workflow 09:38 Humanize With Media 10:26 Trim Fluff Boost Conversions 11:20 AI Detection Consequences 13:00 Episode Outro The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: <a href= "https://edwardsturm.com/the
- 3 days ago1h 16m
Google's AI Overviews Now Tell Customers Why to Avoid Your Brand (w/ Ann Smarty)
E1186: Google is now showing AI Overviews for simple brand-name searches, and those summaries sometimes tell customers why they should avoid the company they just searched for. Ann Smarty joins to break down what this means for SEO, branded search, online reputation management, Reddit, reviews, and the way businesses control what people see before they ever reach their website. We look at real examples including GoDaddy, JustAnswer, and Bluehost. Someone searches a company name, and Google immediately surfaces complaints, controversies, cancellation information, outdated pricing, old Reddit threads, and other third-party information. That creates a completely different customer journey. Someone already knows your brand. They type your name into Google or even their browser address bar. Google autocomplete sends them toward searches like "[brand] legit" or "[brand] reviews." Then an AI Overview summarizes what Google finds before that person ever visits your site. In this episode, Ann and I cover: - Why AI Overviews appearing for brand-name searches matter so much - How old Reddit threads and outdated reviews influence what Google says about your company - Why unhappy customers naturally create more public content than happy customers - Finding the branded searches that influence buying decisions - Why you should monitor the top 10 to 20 results for important branded queries - How to identify the complaints and pain points Google keeps surfacing - Why strong customer support forms the foundation of reputation management - How your website, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and other properties work together in branded search - Why Ann recommends creating dedicated YouTube playlists around customer reviews - How video testimonials give you additional branded search assets - Why businesses should answer questions about pricing, complaints, controversies, and policies themselves instead of forcing customers to search elsewhere - Why hiding important information often creates more branded searches around words like "scam," "legit," "reviews," and "price" - How to use a branded subreddit without making the mistake of deleting every negative comment - Why responding calmly to criticism often works better than trying to erase it - What happens when brands try to bury negative search results too aggressively - How companies use parasite properties and unofficial-looking accounts for reputation management - Why those tactics create serious risks when employees, contractors, or community members expose what the company is doing - How to prepare for a reputation crisis before one happens Ann also tells the story of the Google penalty that hit her guest blogging platform after it became one of the biggest platforms in the industry. Google publicly targeted the platform, users received manual penalties, and Ann faced the news while speaking at an industry conference. Instead of disappearing, she addressed it publicly, supported her users, kept working, and continued building her career. The biggest takeaway: reputation management starts long before you have a reputation problem. If you plan to grow a brand, start controlling your branded search results now. Know what ranks for your name. Build properties you control. Answer uncomfortable questions directly. Take care of customers. Give happy customers reasons to share their experiences. Now Google does not just rank what people say about your brand. It summarizes it for your customers. ⭐️ Ann Smarty's SEO for AI Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO_for_AI/ ⭐️ Ann Smarty on 𝕏 - https://x.com/seosmarty ⭐️ Ann Smarty on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/annsmarty/ ⭐️ Ann Smarty's site - https://www.annsmarty.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 AI Overviews Hit Brands 01:51 Branded Search Horror Stories 02:57 Zero Click Reputation Risk 06:15 Why Negativity Dominates 10:00 Audit Branded SERPs 14:25 Own The Pain Points 18:40 Customer Support Fixes ORM 19:37 Burying Lawsuit Searches 22:59 ChatGPT Digs Everything 23:51 Anne's Google Penalty Story 28:15 Video Reviews Everywhere 32:31 Stop Hiding Pricing 38:42 Can You Bury Minor Issues 40:27 Owning The Spotlight 41:30 Quiet Statement Strategy 42:36 Reddit Fire Control 44:28 Crisis Playbook Basic
- 3 days ago16 min
Google's September 2026 Spam Update Phase 2 Hits (And Reddit's AI Translations Are Winning Again)
E1185: Google's September 2026 spam update just entered what looks like phase two. Google launched the update on September 24. The first major wave hit around September 25-27. Things cooled down, then volatility exploded again on September 30. This rollout looks very different from Google's recent spam updates. Instead of finishing in roughly two days, Google says this one will run for around two weeks, which means we're seeing separate waves of sites drop, recover, and move throughout the rollout. I break down what changed during the September 30 wave, what types of sites are getting hit, why some previously crushed sites are suddenly recovering, and one of the strangest winners so far: Reddit's AI-translated pages. Reddit's AI translations surged across countries including Italy, Germany, Brazil, and France. These pages previously dropped hard during Google's May 2026 core update and June 2026 spam update, but they're climbing again. Reddit itself has now reached an all-time high in estimated organic search traffic. I also cover: - Why September 30 looks like the second major phase of the spam update - Why Google's unusually long two-week rollout matters - Sites recovering after previous spam updates - One recovery that jumped from nearly zero to roughly 8,000 Google clicks per day - Reddit AI translations returning to Google Search - Why Reddit's AI-translated UGC performs differently from mass-translated blog content - The types of pages taking the hardest hits - Highly templated service pages - Programmatic SEO pages with little unique value - Thoughtless AI-generated content - Doorway pages that swap locations while keeping almost everything else identical - A site with 143 templated county service pages getting hit - Why Google keeps targeting large-scale page generation that fails to satisfy specific search intent - Why normal white-hat sites are still seeing volatility during the rollout - Amazon Spain reportedly losing significant estimated organic traffic during the update - Why Ahrefs, Semrush, and other rank trackers are showing unreliable SERP data right now - Google's latest anti-scraping changes and the problems they're creating for SEO tools - Why Google Search Console matters more than third-party rank tracking during this period - What I'm doing while the update continues rolling out The biggest pattern remains clear: Google keeps going after scaled pages that exist mainly because someone found a template and multiplied it across hundreds or thousands of keywords. Changing a city, county, product, or keyword while leaving almost everything else the same does not create a page specifically for that searcher. But this update isn't only producing losses. Sites hit by previous spam updates are also seeing major recoveries. Google appears to be reevaluating sites as its spam systems update, meaning work done after an earlier hit is showing up during later algorithm updates. My advice during the rollout remains simple: don't panic and make massive changes while Google is still moving everything around. Instead, look closely at the pages that actually make you money. Ask whether those pages: - Satisfy search intent immediately - Give the searcher what they came for above the fold - Remove unnecessary distractions - Make the main action obvious - Contain information created specifically for that query rather than copied from a template Google's September spam update still has time left to run. September 30 looks like the second major wave, and we'll see whether another phase hits before the rollout finishes. ⭐️ SE Roundtable: Phase Two of the Google September 2026 Spam Update Hits - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-september-2026-spam-update-two-42209.html ⭐️ Glenn Gabe on 𝕏 - https://x.com/glenngabe/status/2105638422102561193 ⭐️ Lily Ray on 𝕏 - https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/2105298995543425445 ⭐️ Charles Floate on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Charles_SEO/status/2104504430683197518 ⭐️ How to Double Your Conversions by Doing Less (10 Before-and-After Examples) - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/conversion-rate-optimisation-strategy-simplify-landing-pages/ 💎 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 produ
- 5 days ago1h 21m
Jacky Chou: Clone Indie Hacker Apps, Then Outrank Them on Google
E1184: Jacky Chou and David Quaid sit down for a wide-ranging conversation about where SEO still makes money in 2026, what Jacky would build today, and why he thinks most indie hackers leave huge opportunities on the table. Jacky's opening argument is simple: find SaaS products already making money, build a competing product, then use SEO and paid distribution to beat founders who know how to code but do not know how to market. From there, the conversation goes deep into SaaS, affiliate SEO, parasite SEO, Reddit, ChatGPT, listicles, backlinks, partial-match domains, offsite SEO, and what Jacky would do if he had to start from zero again. In this episode: - Why Jacky says SaaS is the biggest SEO opportunity right now - How he finds indie hacker apps with proven revenue, rebuilds the idea, and attacks the search demand around it - Why marketers now have an advantage when AI makes software much easier to build - How Jacky replaced a $600/month rank tracker with his own tool and sold it as a lifetime deal - Why he launches constantly instead of betting everything on one business - How some of his older income streams fell roughly 90%, and why that changed how he thinks about diversification - Why he believes traditional SEO display-ad sites have largely disappeared while affiliate SEO still works - Why "best X" and other buyer-intent searches still produce revenue even with AI Overviews - Why Jacky barely checks Google Search Console unless revenue drops - How he validates new products with paid ads instead of waiting for SEO - Why he thinks many AI SEO tools fail because their creators do not actually understand SEO - Why he says Reddit spam became much harder, and why buying established subreddits entered the playbook - How Jacky thinks Google's preference for high-authority sites creates more opportunities for parasite SEO - Why he believes listicles remain one of the strongest ways to influence what ChatGPT cites and recommends - Why he thinks ChatGPT and Google are becoming less dependent on the same underlying results - Why Jacky prefers partial-match domains and puts more energy into offsite SEO than onsite SEO - How David thinks about expired domains, backlinks, clicks, and authority - Why both of them think SEOs overcomplicate Google - What Jacky would do if he had to start over today - How he took a new iOS app from $0 to about $1,000/month in its first month through search - Why Jacky says the fastest way to learn SEO is to stop reading, start testing, and keep launching Jacky and David also get into the economics behind SEO software, Meta retargeting, programmatic SEO, site reputation abuse, Forbes, buyer's guides, and why execution beats waiting for the perfect idea. If you work in SEO, build software, run affiliate sites, or want to use search to launch your own products, this episode gives you a direct look at how Jacky Chou and David Quaid approach SEO in 2026. ⭐️ Jacky Chou on 𝕏 - https://x.com/indexsy ⭐️ Jack Chou's website - https://jackychou.com/ ⭐️ Jacky Chou on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@indexsy ⭐️ 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 Jackie and David Join 01:17 Biggest SEO Opportunity SaaS 05:35 Affiliate and Ads Reality 08:27 From Consulting to SaaS 13:08 AI Tools and Indie Hackers 17:28 Sprint Before AI Loop 24:15 Launch Fast and Iterate 26:18 Replacing Tools and Paid Ads 32:05 Google Spam and Parasites 34:43 Reddit Spam and Sub Markets 39:46 Buying Subreddits Pricing 42:39 Build vs Buy Communities 43:20 Buyer Guides vs Listicles 44:38 LLMs Splitting from Google 45:56 Spamming ChatGPT Citations 47:29 Forbes and Reputation Abuse 49:59 Entrepreneur Paths for Engineers 52:17 SEO Learn by Doing 54:22 Modern SEO Frameworks 56:12 Parasite SEO and Offsite Focus 01:00:22 Indexers and User Signals 01:04:39 Parasite Deals and Economics 01:09:07 Building Multiple Brands<br
- 6 days ago1h 1m
ChatGPT Is Building Its Own Search Index. Here's How to Rank in It
E1183: ChatGPT is building more of its own search index, and that changes where SEO goes next. David G. Quaid joins me to break down what OpenAI appears to be doing, how its cached web content starts to function like an index, and what SEOs need to understand if ChatGPT relies less on Google and Bing over time. OpenAI has already discussed a long-term goal of serving most search traffic from its own first-party index. David explains why the change may already be happening: repeatedly fetching the same pages in real time costs too much, takes too long, and creates unnecessary dependence on traditional search engines. We get into: - Why ChatGPT's cache increasingly resembles its own search index - OpenAI's stated goal of serving more searches from first-party indexed content - Why the same small group of pages can receive tens of thousands of AI crawl requests - How Common Crawl fits into ChatGPT's search infrastructure - Why ranking #1 in Google does not automatically mean more visibility in ChatGPT - How LLMs use query fan-out to retrieve multiple documents - Why consensus across multiple sources matters more than being position #1 - How OpenAI could use Google for occasional quality checks instead of every search - Why OpenAI does not need to recreate Google's exact ranking order - Why Google's decades of spam-fighting experience still give it an advantage - How quickly OpenAI could copy major search-engine concepts once SEOs expose weaknesses - Why exact-match domains and separate satellite sites become interesting in AI search - How fabricated awards, press releases, and repeated claims across multiple websites influence AI answers - What the King of AEO experiments reveal about how easily AI systems accept manufactured consensus - Why targeting less competitive query fan-outs creates more opportunities - Why David still says doing strong Google SEO gives you the best foundation for AI visibility We also discuss another major change happening in SEO: traditional rank tracking is getting less reliable. Google's personalization and recent search changes increasingly create situations where rank trackers report positions that do not match what users actually see. David and I discuss why Google Search Console may become the real source of truth and why more SEOs may eventually build their own tracking systems around the Search Console API. Other topics include: - Whether traditional SERP trackers face an existential problem - Why impressions can fall while clicks stay flat - Google's increasing personalization of search results - Why newer SEOs suffer most when ranking data becomes less reliable - Why schema does not create authority simply because you declare an entity - Why Google's Knowledge Graph does not require schema to understand a person or brand - Why ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity produce very different answers despite working from overlapping web information - Why Google Images also prefers source diversity instead of showing one domain repeatedly The biggest takeaway: even if ChatGPT builds its own index, the fundamentals do not suddenly disappear. It still needs to discover pages, decide which sources belong in its retrieval set, compare competing claims, and synthesize an answer. Optimize for Google and you land the most simultaneous high-value wins. ⭐️ 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 LLMs Building Indexes 00:51 Crawl Inefficiency Signals 02:37 Caching Becomes Index 03:20 King Of AEO Experiments 05:24 Common Crawl Shift 07:42 OpenAI Index Evidence 10:00 Schema And Knowledge Graph 13:23 Authority Without Browser Data 18:50 SEO Spam And Digg Moment 21:35 Preparing For LLM Indexing 26:20 Rank Trackers Breaking 32:01 Flying Blind On ROI 35:01 Why This Episode 35:52 Guest Debate Fallout 36:15 LLMs Building Indexes 37:39 Why Reddit YouTube Drop 42:17 Caching Over Live Fetch 44:25 Consensus Not Ranking 46:11 Early AI Spam Loopholes 48:05 Google vs Gemini Output 48:56 Fake Awards Gray Hat
- 1 weeks ago1h 30m
AEO Companies Are Selling You 2016 SEO
E1182: AEO companies keep presenting old SEO tactics as if AI search invented them. Harpreet Singh joins me to break down what is actually different about AEO/GEO, what is simply traditional SEO with new terminology, and where companies are wasting time because they do not understand the history of search. We start with the tactics now getting promoted on AI search conference stages: keywords in URLs, FAQs, meta descriptions, paragraphs, press releases, solution pages, listicles, and other concepts SEOs have used for years. Harpreet explains why removing the historical context around these tactics leads companies to overuse them and damage their search strategy. Then we get into what is genuinely changing. Harpreet walks through how he analyzes query fan-out, including ChatGPT searches that use site: operators to pull information from Gartner, G2, Capterra, and other third-party sources. For some brands, optimizing those profiles matters more than publishing another page on their own site. We also talk about how difficult competitive AI visibility becomes when an LLM already associates established brands with a category. If a company spent 10 years being known as a mid-market product and suddenly wants to become an enterprise brand, changing a few pages will not rewrite that positioning. The company needs consistent signals across its own site, third-party profiles, reviews, media, creators, press, and search results. In this episode: - Why Harpreet says AEO companies are selling 2016 SEO - Old SEO tactics getting repackaged as new AI search tactics - Why SEO remains the foundation of AI visibility - What query fan-out actually changes about keyword research - Why Gartner, G2, Capterra, Reddit, YouTube, and other third-party sources matter - How to optimize third-party profiles for the positioning you want LLMs to understand - Why industry pages matter more as AI results become personalized - How Harpreet tracks prompts like keywords instead of tracking endless prompt variations - Why he ignores top-of-funnel AI citations that do not connect to revenue - How to attack hyper-competitive terms such as "best email marketing software" - Why solution pages and listicles still matter - How reviews, press releases, influencers, and outside websites create consensus around a brand - Why moving a brand from mid-market to enterprise creates an AI visibility problem - How New Balance can outrank Nike and Adidas with basic category-page SEO - Why enterprise SEO is often much worse than people assume - Why creator-led AEO still has an attribution problem - The simple "How did you hear about us?" field Harpreet uses to track AI-driven customers - Why cheap press releases still influence AI answers - Why AI search optimization remains a game of Whac-A-Mole - Why search optimization does not disappear even if AI companies build their own indexes The biggest point: AI search changes the surfaces and the retrieval process, but it does not erase the fundamentals. Relevance, authority, positioning, third-party validation, keyword targeting, internal linking, and strong pages still determine what gets found and trusted. Harpreet Singh joins me for a 90-minute breakdown of what serious AI search optimization looks like once you strip away the new labels. ⭐️ Harpreet Singh's Personal Site - https://harpsdigital.com ⭐️ Harpreet on X - https://x.com/harpreetchatha_ ⭐️ Harpreet's Newsletter - https://seoespresso.com ⭐️ Harpreet on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/harpreetsingh8/ ⭐️ Harpreet on TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@seoharp ⭐️ Harpreet on YouTube - https://youtube.com/@harpsdigital 💎 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 AEO and GEO Repackaging 01:27 Conference Speaker Concerns 04:14 Misleading Studies and Statistics 07:02 Debating AEO Tactics 08:47 Business Expansion Beyond AEO 10:57 Current AEO Sprint Work 13:24 Press Releases and Parasite SEO 15:41 Versus Pages Strategy 17:06 Industry Pages and Personalization 19:28 Query Fan Out Analysis 23:34 Profile Optimization Tactics 25:37 Award Winning Strategies 26:37 Brand Reviews Domain Tactic 28:13 Small Business Advantages 29:38 Tools and Tech Stack 30:34 Prompt Track
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Interviews with AI executives reveal practical applications and strategic insights for business leaders adopting AI.
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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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. Upgrade to Pro for 15, or Premium for 50. 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.
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Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.