The Edward Show

E952: I break down how to create research report linkable assets that journalists want to share - without needing proprietary data, expensive surveys, or massive resources. This approach has produced dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of high-quality backlinks by using existing studies, a clear point of view, and very targeted outreach. The work itself is not complicated. Most people fail because...

E951: I break down one of the most frustrating messages in Google Search Console: "Crawled, currently not indexed." Your page was crawled. There were no errors. No noindex tags. No robots.txt issues. And yet Google still refuses to index it. I explain what this status means, why it happens, and one common cause almost nobody talks about - along with a simple fix you can apply immediately. What you...

E950: David Quaid returns to the podcast to show how simple SEO can be. Instead of chasing competitive keywords, buying tools, or following complex frameworks, David invents a brand-new term - 'Funfluencer' - publishes a two-sentence blog post, and gets it indexed, ranked, and cited by both Google and AI systems like Perplexity. The result: a made-up term treated as a real concept, complete with d...

E949: Most people fail at journalist link building because they pitch what they want to say - not what the journalist is actually looking for. I break down the exact approach I use to consistently get featured by journalists across platforms like HARO, Source of Sources, Featured, and Quoted. When I'm actively link building, this method gets me around 20 journalist backlinks per month, with accept...

E948: A real SEO case study that challenges one of the most common link-building assumptions: that higher domain authority backlinks are always better. Using an example from the SEO subreddit, I explain how a nationally known appliance brand improved rankings for an extremely competitive keyword by moving away from high-authority websites and intentionally building links from smaller, real blogs i...

E947: Most SEOs are building backlinks the wrong way. I break down the backlink mistake almost every SEO makes: building links purely for rankings instead of credibility, referral traffic, and conversions. This is inspired by a real Reddit post from a B2B SaaS founder who worked with multiple PR agencies, got burned by most of them, but still uncovered why good PR and good link building overlap mo...

E946: Google search volatility is hitting hard, and this time the pattern is clear. We break down why Google appears to be cracking down on self-promotional "best of" listicles, especially across SaaS blogs and resource centers. Based on research and analysis shared by Lily Ray and Glenn Gabe, many sites are seeing major visibility losses tied specifically to blog content that prioritizes SEO tact...

E945: I'm joined by Matt Diamante and Jake Tlapek for a long-form, unfiltered conversation about what actually happens after you win on social media. All three of us came up through SEO content on TikTok and Instagram. This episode isn't about going viral - it's about turning attention into durable businesses, building teams, and deciding what you want to scale next. We cover the real mechanics of...

E944: Google has introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a system that allows merchants to send product data directly to Google so users can discover and buy products inside search, AI Mode, and Gemini - without ever visiting a website. In this episode, we break down what UCP actually is, how agentic commerce works, and what this shift means for e-commerce SEO, CRO, brand authority, and...

E943: How to get high-quality backlinks from podcast appearances and why podcast guesting is one of the most effective and overlooked SEO strategies available right now. This is based on real experience. In 2022, I went on 30 podcasts in three months before I had an audience, social media presence, or this podcast. Those appearances helped me build backlinks, branded searches, topical authority, a...

E942: A real case study showing how an $80 press release from Matt Diamante (Hey Tony Agency) ranked #1 on Google for a non-branded keyword and influenced Google's AI Overview. This isn't theory. This actually happened. I walk through exactly how a single press release, distributed through AB Newswire, showed up at the top of Google search results, was cited by a publication, and continued to infl...

E941: Edward is joined by Charles Floate and David Quaid for a deep, technical conversation about what is actually happening in search right now - and why many long-held SEO assumptions no longer hold. We discuss a growing pattern of manual actions that appear to be permanent, rejected reconsideration requests even after large-scale cleanups, and why some businesses may never fully recover organic...

E940: Google penalties are no longer feeling like temporary setbacks. More and more site owners are fixing everything they're told to fix, submitting reconsideration requests, and still getting rejected. In this episode, I break down why Google manual actions appear to be becoming semi-permanent, what multiple SEO practitioners are seeing in real data, and why Google may no longer be asking "did y...

E939: If you've just launched a website and have no backlinks, this episode walks through how to build links the right way - without shortcuts, spam, or jumping into strategies that don't work for new sites. This episode is based on a real thread from Charles Floate's r/linkbuilding subreddit, where someone asked how to build high-quality backlinks for a brand-new beauty blog with no existing auth...

E938: I break down new data showing that YouTube has officially overtaken Reddit as the most cited social platform in AI search, including large language models like ChatGPT. We'll cover what this shift means for SEO, brand visibility, and how to actually get your content cited by AI using YouTube. What changed in AI search - YouTube is now cited more frequently than Reddit in AI-generated answers...

E937: Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/e13R_Z1pFwk A deep, practical look at how Claude Cowork is changing the way SEO work is actually executed. This is not a theoretical discussion about AI. The focus is on real workflows: how Claude Cowork performs hands-on SEO tasks that normally require hours of manual effort, and how agencies can realistically use it today. The conversation walks through l...

E936: Local SEO lives or dies by local authority - and one of the biggest drivers of that authority is local backlinks. I break down exactly how to build high-quality local backlinks that help search engines see your business as an authority in a specific city or region. This applies whether you're starting a local business, competing in a crowded market, or expanding into new locations. I cover p...

E935: I break down a recently funded AI startup that is scaling SEO with unchecked, fully AI-generated financial content - and why this strategy has already failed before. I've seen this exact playbook play out with AInvest: rapid traffic growth driven by AI content, press, and links… followed by a sharp collapse after Google's spam and quality updates. Now we're watching the same model surface ag...

E934: Google's quiet removal of the num=100 parameter sent shockwaves through the SEO tooling ecosystem. Many called it an apocalypse. Others barely noticed. I sit down with Jonathan Berthold, VP of Revenue at Moz, to unpack what actually happened, why Google made the change, and how it connects to a much bigger shift happening across search, AI, and zero-click results. We cover how SEO is evolvin...

E933: How URL structure directly impacts SEO performance, topical authority, and whether Google views your site as legitimate or spammy. I walk through two common URL structure approaches that many sites use when targeting similar keywords - and explain why one of them often triggers spam signals, ranking cannibalization, and doorway page issues, even when the content itself is solid. If you're bu...

E932: I break down the most interesting marketing opportunities I'm seeing right now and why they matter if you care about getting in early. We start with the Digg relaunch and why, despite recent crackdowns on obvious SEO spam, it's still one of the most compelling platforms to pay attention to. I explain what's changed since the first Digg episode, which niches are being targeted, which ones are...

E931: Small and mid-sized law firms regularly can outrank national legal brands in Google, even with smaller teams and far lower marketing budgets. This breaks down how that actually happens. We go deep into what drives legal search rankings, what converts traffic into signed cases, and why many common law firm SEO strategies fail. This is a practical, experience-based discussion focused on result...

E930: Expanding local SEO into new cities is harder than most businesses expect, and doing it the wrong way can get you suspended or quietly ignored by Google altogether. Darren Shaw joins the show to explain what actually works when you want to rank in cities where you are not physically located. Darren is the founder of Whitespark and one of the most experienced voices in local SEO, and this is...

E929: David Quaid joins the show to break down three link building techniques that still work today across local businesses, SaaS companies, and any other industry. This is a practical conversation about how Google treats links, why many SEO "rules" don't exist, and how to build links without buying them or obsessing over domain authority. If you work in SEO, run an agency, own a local business, o...

E928: Digg is back, and almost nobody is paying attention. I break down why Digg's relaunch quietly created one of the most powerful parasite SEO opportunities we've seen in years, and why the window will not stay open for long. Digg has massive historical trust, a clean link profile, and crawlable, indexable URLs. Google doesn't care that Digg is "new again." Google cares that Digg is trusted. Th...