The Edward Show

E1002: We break down one of the most persistent SEO myths: the idea that you can "hoard" or control SEO authority by using nofollow links. This belief has been around for over a decade, and despite Google addressing it years ago, many SEOs and marketers still structure their sites around it. They avoid linking out. They overuse nofollow. They try to channel authority internally. It doesn't work. T...

E1001: Guest blogging for SEO has declined, what Google said about it, and how most people are using it the wrong way in 2026. Back in 2014, Google's head of web spam, Matt Cutts, published a post called "The Decay and Fall of Guest Blogging for SEO." His message was clear: guest blogging as a link building tactic had become too spammy to trust. More than a decade later, many SEOs are still relyin...

E1000: Julian Goldie, Charles Floate, and Alejandro Meyerhans join this milestone episode to break down a simple but important question: if you had to start from zero today, with almost no budget, how would you build an SEO business to $10,000 per month? Each guest approaches the problem differently. We go deep into what actually works right now, what has changed, and what is being overlooked by m...

E999: If your content sounds like it was written by AI, people can tell. And when they can tell, trust drops. That leads to higher bounce rates, more pogo sticking, and lower conversions. In this episode, I break down exactly why obvious AI writing is a problem for SEO and what to do instead. This is an updated take on humanizing AI content. The rules have changed over the past year, and what work...

E998: Google's March 2026 Core Update is rolling out, and early data shows significant volatility across search results. I break down what's happening, what people in the SEO community are reporting, and what you should actually do if you want to avoid losing traffic. We're still in the early phase of the rollout, which means most of what you're seeing right now is speculation mixed with early sig...

E997: Most people think "GEO" is replacing SEO, and that getting cited by tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity requires a totally different strategy. I break down why that narrative is wrong. Using a real discussion from the SEO subreddit, I walk through what's actually happening behind the scenes in AI search - and why, after six months of testing, even experienced "GEO" practitioners still can't fig...

E996: Google's March 2026 spam update just dropped and it's one of the fastest rollouts we've ever seen. The update launched on March 24 and finished rolling out by March 25. Unlike previous updates that took weeks, this one was completed in just a couple of days, which suggests a more targeted and specific change rather than a broad algorithm shift. We go through what's been observed so far, what...

E995: Nathan Gotch joins the show to talk about what it takes to build and grow an SEO SaaS in the AI era. Nathan shares what's happening behind the scenes at Rankability, including how they made 7,000 product changes in 90 days, why they eliminated free trials entirely, and how AI is changing execution without changing SEO fundamentals. We also get into real workflows, tools, and strategies that...

E994: I sit down with Yas Haque, former Head of SEO at Omnicom, to break down what actually separates the world's largest SEO agencies from smaller shops. This is how enterprise SEO works in practice - how big agencies win clients, structure work, get buy-in from massive organizations, and where they waste time and money. We cover what smaller agencies can immediately adopt, what they should ignor...

E993: I break down a real SEO case study from Charles Floate, who generated $53,000 in 45 days through organic search while operating under heavy scrutiny. Because of his reputation in black hat SEO, this campaign had to be strictly within the rules. That makes this a useful example of what actually works when you cannot take risks. We go step by step through the exact strategy, including how the...

E992: Reddit SEO is going crazy. Ann Smarty and David Quaid, both experts in Reddit marketing, join the show to explain what's happening and how to get results. Reddit has become one of the most influential platforms in search. It ranks at the top of Google, shows up heavily in AI answers, and can directly impact brand perception and revenue. But at the same time, it is being flooded with spam, au...

E991: Five user experience (UX) principles that directly improve your SEO performance and help you convert more visitors into customers, users, or leads. If people are landing on your page and leaving immediately, that sends a strong negative signal. Search engines pick up on this behavior. It affects your rankings, your site-wide performance, and ultimately your ability to grow through search. Th...

E990: Nicolas Gorroño from AI Ranking shares his screen and breaks down how to automate SEO using AI without getting penalized. There's a lot of noise right now around AI SEO. People are publishing hundreds or thousands of pages, seeing short-term gains, and then watching everything disappear. In this demonstration, we focus on what is actually working long-term. Nico walks through how he builds w...

E989: We break down Google's Helpful Content Update (HCU) - one of the most disruptive changes to search ever - and what it actually did to the internet. Entire websites lost 70-90% of their traffic overnight. Some never recovered. Others quietly adapted. And a few avoided the damage altogether. This is not a surface-level recap. This is a real conversation between people who were directly impacte...

988: Jason Barnard, founder of Kalicube and one of the early voices behind Brand SERPs and entity SEO, joins the show! Jason has been working in search since 1998, has spent the last decade focused on how search engines and AI systems understand brands, people, and organizations - (and Jason is really smart). The conversation explores how SEO is changing as search moves toward AI-driven systems. J...

E987: Lily Ray joins the show to discuss how search is evolving in the age of AI. We cover the latest Google Core Updates, the rise of generative engine optimization (GEO), and how AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and AI Overviews are changing the way websites earn visibility. Lily shares insights from years of analyzing Google updates and explains why many SEO strategies that work today even...

E896: Google has been recommending outbound links for years, yet many SEOs still avoid them. We go through Google's own documentation about linking out, an SEO experiment that tested whether outbound links help rankings, and Matt Cutts' guidance on when to use the nofollow attribute. The core idea is simple: linking to relevant, trustworthy sources can improve the usefulness of your content. It he...

E985: A lot of people say exact match domains stopped working years ago. In this episode, we take a closer look at whether that's actually true. SEO veteran David Quaid joins the show to break down how exact match domains (EMDs) still play a role in modern search strategies. We discuss when they work, when they don't, and why many companies underestimate the value of owning keyword-focused domains...

E984: Two stories that highlight a broader problem on the modern internet: systems that are easily manipulated once incentives are introduced. First, Microsoft has published research describing what it calls AI recommendation poisoning. Companies are embedding hidden instructions inside "Summarize with AI" buttons and AI prompt links. When users click these links, they can inject instructions into...

E983: Amazon is one of the largest search engines in the world, but most sellers misunderstand how products actually rank. In this episode, Edward sits down with Amazon operator and agency founder Nik Hall to break down how the Amazon ranking system works in 2026. Nik has built and scaled multiple seven-figure brands, taken products from zero to tens of thousands of retail locations, and helped do...

E982: I talk with Bas de Goei (Head of Marketing at Orb) about the SEO strategy that helped Orb rank #1 on Google for competitive keywords like "usage-based billing" - without relying on a large backlink profile. Orb competes against companies like Stripe and other well-funded SaaS platforms. Despite this, their marketing team built strong organic traffic by focusing on topical authority, structur...

E981: Growth strategist Cody Schneider joins the show to discuss how AI agents are changing the way marketing, SEO, and product growth work. Cody explains how he builds automated workflows that analyze Search Console data, refresh content, generate new articles, run marketing experiments, and even manage advertising campaigns. The conversation covers practical systems for scaling SEO, building int...

E980: There were some technical issues during the recording, but the information Alejandro shared was so FIRE, I couldn't deny it from the world. Hope the technical issues don't get in the way of you enjoying this ep. Alejandro Meyerhans joins the show to talk about how Google rankings actually work today. The conversation covers NavBoost, link graphs, user behavior signals, the Google API leak, a...

E979: Google's recent updates have changed how link building works for local businesses. Exact match anchor text links that once helped rankings can now trigger serious problems. In this episode, Joy Hawkins explains what has changed and what local businesses should be doing instead. Joy Hawkins runs Sterling Sky, one of the most well known local SEO agencies. She shares lessons from years of test...

E978: One of the biggest questions in search right now is whether websites can scale rankings through content alone, especially in an era of AI-generated content and programmatic SEO. Do you actually need backlinks to keep growing in Google? Or can strong topical authority and internal linking be enough? Edward Sturm sits down with SEO legend, David Quaid, to answer real questions from the SEO com...