Show Notes
E1191: One SEO spent the summer going through more than 30,000 documents and narrowing them down to 9,249 SEO case studies, tests, and papers with measurable results. The final dataset covered 552 cited sources and 182 SEO tactics. I go through some of the weirdest findings, the tests I agree with, the ones I question, and the tactics worth experimenting with on your own sites. Some of the findings: - Writing title tags entirely in capital letters increased organic traffic 17.5% across two independent tests - Removing synonym keywords from title tags reduced organic traffic 27% - Removing the word "compare" from title tags increased organic traffic 24% - Putting product prices in title tags reduced organic traffic 15% - Number emojis in meta descriptions reduced organic traffic 5% - Using a 410 instead of a 404 got removed pages dropped from Google's index much faster - Editorial backlinks earned through digital PR increased organic sessions 71% - Disavowing links without a manual penalty showed no measurable direction - Adding internal links to orphaned blog posts produced major ranking improvements - Homepage footer links to category and subcategory pages increased organic sessions 5-10% in one controlled test - Adding prominent brand CTA blocks to product pages increased conversions 80% across two tests I also dig into the AEO and GEO findings. The evidence there is much thinner, but some of the reported results are worth testing: - Adding quantitative statistics increased AI citations 37% - Adding quotes from credible named sources increased citations 22-41% - Keyword stuffing reduced AI citations 10% - Putting a direct answer in the opening paragraph increased citations 280% - Writing content as discrete factual statements produced a 5X increase - Moving source references directly next to claims increased citations 40% - Adding author bylines increased AI citations 113% - Human editing of AI-written content increased citations 67% - Targeted AI-written additions to specific pages increased citations 73% - Publishing AI-generated text across an entire site reduced organic sessions 35% I also cover one of the most interesting findings around LLMs.txt. Across the underlying measurements, results ranged from -19.7% to +81%. More importantly, there wasn't a single controlled LLMs.txt test in all 9,249 documents. Anyone claiming LLMs.txt definitively improves SEO or AI visibility is working with extremely weak evidence. We also get into Google Business Profile categories, keywords in URLs, emojis in title tags, internal linking, disavow files, title tag testing, mass AI content, and why so many GEO studies are difficult to trust. The biggest takeaway: traditional SEO testing still produces some of the strongest measurable results, especially around title tags, internal links, backlinks, and page structure. ⭐️ Reddit: I Read 9,249 SEO Case Studies to Build the Biggest SEO Meta-Study - https://www.reddit.com/r/TechSEO/comments/1wmb181/i_read_9249_seo_case_studies_to_build_the_biggest/ ⭐️ Ovisy: The Biggest SEO Meta-Study (Full Study) - https://ovisy.hr/blog/seo-meta-study ⭐️ Ep 763 - The SEO Trick That Breaks All the Rules: How Ultra-Long Page Titles Boost Rankings - https://youtu.be/ufjwb51hJuc 💎 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 Meta Study Setup 00:52 How The Data Was Built 01:38 Title Tag Oddities 03:15 Breadcrumbs And Status Codes 04:01 Backlinks And Disavow 05:27 Internal Linking Wins 07:31 AEO And GEO Evidence 10:27 LLMs.txt And AI Content 11:50 Local SEO And URL Keywords 13:02 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization
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E1206: Black Friday SEO usually starts months before the sale. But if you're starting late, there are still ways to get your offers in front of buyers on Google and ChatGPT. I'm joined by Gagan Ghotra, Harpreet Singh, and David Quaid to break down Black Friday SEO for ecommerce brands, SaaS companies, and anyone selling products online. We go through the pages to create, the keywords to target, and the changes you can still make as Black Friday approaches. What we cover: - When to publish Black Friday pages, why February is a better starting point than October, and what to do if you're late. - The keyword format "Black Friday + product category + deals" and how to use it for specific buyer searches. - How many Black Friday landing pages to create without making them compete against each other in Google. - Why brands need to own searches for their discount codes, coupons, and Black Friday offers, even when they don't run a seasonal sale. - How different discount amounts give Google and ChatGPT more relevant offers to surface for specific searches. - How to structure Black Friday URLs, keep useful pages year after year, and build internal links from your best-performing product and collection pages. - How to use Google's People Also Ask questions to update existing pages and pursue rankings even at the last minute. - What product descriptions need for AI search: materials, dimensions, compatibility, weather resistance, and the details shoppers compare before buying. - Why product comparisons and buying guides matter when customers research in ChatGPT before they search for a deal. - How product schema and Google Merchant Center feeds affect shopping features, plus what they won't do for organic rankings. - How to use press releases, digital PR, affiliate partnerships, and relevant backlinks to reach searches your own site may not rank for. - Why social posts, short videos, creator reviews, and Reddit discussions matter for Google results and AI-generated product recommendations. - What brands can learn from Black Friday pages and search results involving Amazon, Adidas, Nike, Sony, and Mattress Firm. - How to decide between SEO and paid ads, and how to keep converting shoppers after Cyber Monday. We also discuss competitor keyword gaps, the risk of creating too many near-identical sale pages, and why an offer with the lowest price doesn't always get the sale. Whether you've spent months preparing or you're putting your Black Friday campaign together now, this episode gives you concrete tactics to test before the shopping rush. ⭐️ 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/@seoharp ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra on 𝕏 - https://x.com/gaganghotra_ ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gagan-ghotra/ ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra's website - https://gaganghotra.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 Black Friday SEO Kickoff 00:30 When to Publish Pages 01:49 SERP Displacement Tactics 06:36 Discount Codes Strategy 09:10 Own Your Coupon SERPs 11:20 Above the Fold Offers 13:56 Avoid Cannibalization 21:59 AI Product Attributes 28:25 Payments and Deal Terms 31:58 Social Media SEO Plays 36:09 Creator Reviews Ecosystem 38:04 Review Domains and Mentions 40:29 Reddit Landing Pages 42:06 Should Brands Build Sub
E1204: Google is heading toward an algorithm designed to target AI-generated content, according to Kristine Schachinger, an SEO and Google penalty recovery specialist with 15 years of recovery experience. Google's John Mueller liked her public prediction that recent spam updates are testing the approach. Kristine joins me to explain what she thinks Google is preparing, what she's seeing on sites hit by spam updates, and how businesses should protect their rankings before the next major update. In this episode: - Why Kristine predicts an AI content-focused algorithm in the next 6-8 months. - How repeated AI-generated content could contaminate the training data behind Google's AI systems. - Why Kristine refuses to publish AI-written content for clients, even when the content initially ranks. - A client whose writers used AI without the owner's knowledge: Google lifted the manual spam action in seven days, but the site still hadn't recovered a year later. - Why ranking AI content often survives for months before Google's quality systems fully evaluate it. - What to do if your site already has hundreds of AI-written pages: don't delete everything; rewrite weak sections in stages and measure the results. - What Kristine noticed during Google's September 2026 spam update, and why she thinks Google is escalating its response to AI content. - How to spot indexing problems in Google Search Console, including "Crawled - currently not indexed" and "Discovered - currently not indexed." - Why a site that stops ranking for its own brand name needs an immediate technical and penalty investigation. - Kristine's theory that Google's Helpful Content Update mistakenly hit legitimate sites that resembled affiliate spam. - How rebuilding links, improving content, and strengthening brand signals affect recovery after a major traffic collapse. - Why H1s, descriptive headings, image alt text, entity relationships, and accessibility matter for search engines and AI agents. - How a JavaScript error made hundreds of pages appear blank to Googlebot even though visitors could load them. - How spammers exploited indexable internal search pages on a major e-commerce site, forcing a review of 300,000 URLs and triggering a manual action just before Black Friday. - Why Kristine starts recovery audits with crawling, rendering, indexing, and Core Web Vitals before working on content. - Her take on AI Overviews, neural matching, and why "GEO" is still SEO. Kristine also explains how she recovered sites from Penguin penalties, what Google means when its systems "lose faith" in a website, and why a lifted penalty doesn't guarantee that traffic will return. ⭐️ Kristine Schachinger on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kschachinger-seo/ ⭐️ Webcology podcast on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4igLPEdtHFuMaaaT8eJFuf ⭐️ Webcology podcast on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/webcology/id280183059 ⭐️ Webcology podcast website - https://redcircle.com/shows/webcology 💎 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 Crackdown 02:07 Model Collapse Explained 04:01 SEO Origins Story 06:19 Why Ban AI Content 08:05 Penguin Fallout Lessons 10:44 Training Data Ethics 14:27 Watermarking And SynthID 15:46 When AI Content Gets Hit 18:39 Entities And Cosine Relevance 22:36 Headers And Accessibility 26:20 Manual Actions Recovery 30:09 Crawled Not Indexed Signals 35:07 Behavior Signals And Navboost 39:13 Google Watches SEOs 42:53 Google Tracks Everything 43:52 Google Plus Identity Era 45:03 Author Myth Explained 47:10 Fake Bios and Personas 47:54 Penguin Recovery Case Study 48:57 Alt Text Done Right 52:40 HouseFresh HCU Comeback 53:45 Why HCU Broke Sites 56:27 Brand Queries and Suppression 01:02:02 Hidden Gems and UGC Shift 01:
E1203: Bodhi Gallo reveals the local SEO tactics he's using to rank businesses on Google Maps, including strategies he believes Google hasn't caught up with yet. Bodhi grew a dumpster rental business to roughly $750,000 in annual revenue through local SEO before selling it. Today, he runs a 60-person SEO agency serving home service businesses. We break down his most aggressive strategies, including how he got a brand-new business into Google Maps' top 3 in just 24 hours. We cover: - How Bodhi reached Google Maps' top 3 in 24 hours with an exact-match domain, matching Business Profile, and almost no competition. He expects the site to generate roughly $200,000 in extra profit for his dad this year. - Why keyword-rich business names outrank competitors with far more reviews, and whether Google will crack down. - How he creates multiple Google Business Profiles for different services and locations without triggering suspensions. - Why exact-match domains still rank, including domains targeting individual neighborhoods. - How he structures location pages, Google Maps embeds, and internal links across multiple service areas. - How he gets backlinks through vendors, reciprocal links, local publications, and private blog networks. - Why youth sports sponsorships, chambers of commerce, and business partners make strong local link sources. - The private link-exchange network his team is building across roughly 8,000 websites. - Why review velocity matters, plus tactics involving paid reviews and customer incentives - Why Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook, and business directories affect local SEO and AI recommendations. - How to inspect ChatGPT and Gemini's sources, then earn mentions from websites they cite. - How LinkedIn articles rank for local service keywords and occupy additional Google results, even when the posts contain AI-generated content. - How he optimizes Google Local Services Ads with fast phone answers, at least 10 new photos a week, and a steady flow of reviews. - Why branded searches matter and how Facebook ads and short-form videos generate more of them. - How to uncover valuable keywords like "EV charger installation near me" and "metal roofing." - Why mass-producing AI location pages creates indexing problems, and how he expands sites gradually. - How he handles "Crawled - currently not indexed" pages and decides when to rewrite content. - How he'd spend a local business's first $1,000 monthly SEO budget on links, citations, pages, and review tools. - Why programmatic SEO is overrated while posting real business videos across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube is underrated. We also discuss Google Maps driving-direction manipulation, Google Business Profile posts, AI content, the future of on-page SEO, and which tactics Google might target next. Bodhi's takeaway: Target services that generate revenue, build focused pages, establish a legitimate local presence, earn reviews and backlinks, and build a brand. ⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bodhigallo/ ⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on 𝕏 - https://x.com/irentdumpsters ⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bodhigallo/ ⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Bodhigallo ⭐️ Bodhi Gallo's agency, Stryker Digital - https://stryker-digital.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 Bodhi Gallo 00:20 Scaling and Exit Story 00:41 Multiple GBP Playbook 02:23 Backlinks and PBN Tactics 04:17 Service Pages After HCU 04:42 Keyword Stuffed Names 07:22 Exact Match Domains Setup 09:06 Neighborhood EMD Strategy 12:13 Trade Operator Advantage 14:00 Hiring Stallions 16:46 SEO Origin Story 18:45 Roofer Ranking Blueprint 21:32 Apple Maps and Citations 24:17 LSA Optimization Tips 25:54 Creative Link Building 32:
E1202: AI is turning self-promotion into recommendations. People are calling themselves the top expert in their niche on LinkedIn, in press releases, and on their own websites. Google's AI Overviews then repeat those claims and cite the original posts as evidence. I break down real examples from the competitive SEO industry and show how to use these tactics to get AI to associate your name or business with the searches that matter. Here's what I cover: - How Pedro Dias called himself the world's most renowned AI visibility expert in a LinkedIn post, and Google's AI Overview repeated the claim hours later. - Why starting a LinkedIn post with your target search phrase puts that language in the page title, URL, and meta description. - How a relevant LinkedIn profile, established posting history, followers, and backlinks strengthen a post's chances of ranking. - How Zeeshan Yaseen got Google's AI to call him a leading LLM SEO expert by distributing a press release through GlobeNewswire that appeared on Yahoo Finance. - How that Yahoo Finance release continued appearing in AI answers months later, with backlinks to the release contributing. - The three press release approaches: a strong placement with backlinks, a strong placement without backlinks, and recurring lower-cost releases. - What an $80 AB Newswire release gets you versus a more expensive Yahoo Finance placement, plus the $500-per-year package for 83 releases mentioned in the episode. - How David Quaid published a "Who Is the King of SEO?" article on his own website, then appeared in Google's AI Overview as the person associated with that title. - How matching your target phrase in the page title, H1, URL slug, and beginning of the first sentence makes the page relevant to the query. - How self-promotional "best of" listicles work to put your own business at number one. - How you should publish only a handful of these listicles, disclose your connection, give competitors fair coverage, and avoid exaggeration. - How to combine an on-site listicle, a press release, social posts, and backlinks so several sources reinforce the same claim. The larger point: You don't need to wait for someone else to call you the leading expert. You need relevant pages, strong platforms, and a consistent claim that search engines can find. ⭐️ Source article - How to Get AI to Recommend You as the Expert - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/how-to-get-ai-to-recommend-you/ 💎 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 Makes You Famous 01:14 LinkedIn Claim Hack 02:44 Press Releases That Stick 05:10 Your Website Crowns You 06:24 Self Promotional Listicles 07:45 Stack Tactics Together 08:46 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #onlinereputationmanagement
E1201: Google is feeding Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, and other SEO rank trackers incorrect search results. Websites appear to lose rankings overnight, even when Google Search Console shows stable rankings and traffic. Google's crackdown on AI companies scraping its search results is disrupting SEO tools. I explain what's happening, why rank tracking data has become unreliable, and what SEOs need to trust instead. Here's what I cover: Why SEO rank trackers are showing incorrect data: - Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz are showing major inconsistencies in Google ranking data. - Some tools show websites disappearing from page one for their own brand names. - Google Search Console often shows no corresponding drop in rankings, impressions, or clicks. - Agencies must explain these discrepancies to concerned clients. How Google's anti-scraping measures are disrupting SEO tools: - Google's legal fight against SERP API and efforts to stop AI companies from scraping Search. - IP blocking targeting the proxy networks rank trackers use. - New /goto/ redirects that create additional opportunities for session checks and bot detection. - Increased CAPTCHAs and other anti-bot measures. - Poisoned SERPs that give scrapers incorrect results rather than blocking them outright. What the SEO community is reporting: - Charles Floate's observations about rank trackers showing different results from Google SERPs. - Reports of phantom search results, HTTP 429 errors, and pages full of irrelevant content. - Why misleading data is worse than tools failing to retrieve rankings. Why rank tracking might recover: - Google's existing search syndication agreements, including Ecosia. - Barry Schwartz's comment of Google's private search APIs for select partners. - Google's original Search API, launched in 2002 and shut down in 2009. - The 2025 antitrust ruling and licensing search results to qualified competitors. - Rank Tracker's unverified claim that it restored top-100 keyword tracking. - Improvements I've personally observed in Moz's search results. What SEOs need to do right now: - Use Google Search Console for your own site's rankings, clicks, and impressions. - Cross-check suspicious third-party reports against actual Google Search results. - Use the Search Console API to build reports and preserve data beyond its 16-month limit. - Find keywords where your existing pages rank but don't fully satisfy search intent. - Build dedicated landing pages for high-intent keywords already getting clicks. - Keep building relevant content, authority, and pages that satisfy search intent. - Don't assume a sudden drop in a rank tracker means your website actually lost visibility. I also explain why keyword search volume estimates remain largely unaffected. Ahrefs and Semrush use Google Keyword Planner and third-party clickstream data, not just scraped SERPs. The takeaway: Google's anti-scraping measures have disrupted rank tracking, not the fundamentals of SEO. Check Search Console before changing your strategy. ⭐️ Charles Floate on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Charles_SEO/status/2104504430683197518 ⭐️ Ep 1169 - How SEOs Actually Find Keywords in 2026 (What Reddit Gets Right and Wrong) - https://youtu.be/yIsli0iMQQs ⭐️ Ep 1190 - Barry Schwartz: Google's War on AI Scrapers Is Breaking SEO Tools - https://youtu.be/wu_hOPmuDHE 💎 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 Rank Trackers Going Haywire 02:02 Why Google Changed SERPs 02:36 Anti-Scraping Measures Explained 03:24 Poisoned SERPs Fake Data 03:55 What The SEO Community Sees 05:24 Will Tools Work Again 07:06 What To Do Right Now 08:08 Use Search Console As Truth 09:15 Keep Fundamentals And Keyword Research 11:32 Learn Proper SEO And Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwards