The Edward Show

E1140: Claude is now watermarking everything it writes, and the SEO community is worried about what this means for AI content and Google rankings.
But there's an important detail: Google likely doesn't have the key needed to verify Claude's watermark.
I break down what Anthropic's new watermarking system does, why it's being implemented, what it can and can't prove, and whether any of this should change how SEOs use AI-generated content.
Anthropic is adding machine-readable marks to Claude's output as part of its compliance with the EU AI Act. The watermark can remain in text that has been copied and pasted, and Claude-generated files can include provenance metadata. The system is being rolled out across Claude, including its API and third-party platforms.
But a watermark doesn't necessarily mean Claude wrote something from scratch. If you give Claude your own writing and ask it to fix grammar, translate it, summarize it, or otherwise process it, the resulting text may still contain the mark. And if no watermark is detected, that doesn't prove Claude wasn't involved.
In this episode:
- Why Anthropic is watermarking Claude's output
- How AI text watermarking works
- Why the EU AI Act matters here
- Why switching from Claude to another major AI model won't solve anything
- What Claude's watermark can and cannot tell you
- Why short passages and heavily edited text are harder to verify
- Why Anthropic's secret detection key matters
- Why Google currently can't validate Claude's watermark
- Whether Google could use AI watermarking as an SEO ranking signal
- What Ahrefs' research says about AI-generated pages ranking in Google
- Why AI content and bad content shouldn't be treated as the same thing
- Where AI watermarking could matter for agencies, clients, and contracts
- The potential EU disclosure requirements for publishers
- Why human review and editorial responsibility matter
- My take on whether this changes anything for SEO
- Why generic AI content could still create problems even without an AI-content penalty
- Why trust, original data, strong opinions, fact-checking, and editorial review matter more than whether AI touched the content
- An example of AI-generated content that I genuinely enjoyed
- How we're using AI-assisted SEO content on a new SaaS while targeting bottom-of-funnel keywords
I also discuss Ahrefs' data on AI content in Google. Their research found AI-generated and heavily AI-assisted pages ranking throughout the search results, including at the top. The bigger issue appears to be something SEO has dealt with long before generative AI existed: bad content.
My view is simple: if the output is enjoyable, novel, useful, accurate, and properly reviewed, the fact that AI was involved doesn't automatically make it bad content.
The bigger long-term question is what happens to brands that publish large amounts of generic AI content without developing a recognizable voice, adding original information, taking meaningful positions, or earning trust with their audience.
AI can help make great content. It can also make a lot of mediocre content very quickly. The difference is what the person using it actually puts into the process.
⭐️ Ahrefs: Claude Now Watermarks Everything It Writes - https://ahrefs.com/blog/claude-now-watermarks-everything-it-writes/ 
⭐️ My post on 𝕏 - https://x.com/edwardeachday/status/2089307227064500665 
⭐️ Ep 1110 - Google's Next SEO Apocalypse: The Scaled AI Content Crackdown Is Coming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w66ME9-IRQ 
⭐️ Ep 1124 - YouTube's AI Detector Is Punishing Real Creators - Is Google Search Next? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33QKtsBy9As 
⭐️ Super Mario Bros 3 Jazz Lo-fi Remix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNjuiOd1c1I 
💎 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 Claude Watermark Panic
00:31 What Watermarking Means
01:58 EU AI Act Compliance
03:08 How Text Watermarks Work
03:58 Limits and Detection Keys
04:25 Google Rankings Impact
06:07 SEO Community Reactions
07:22 My Skeptical Take
08:49 Real Risk Reputation
11:23 AI LoFi Success Story
13:24 Using AI for SEO
14:54 Wrap Up and Thanks
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #seopodcast

E1139: Image backlinks work surprisingly well for SEO, and one old experiment found they could even outperform exact-match anchor text links.
I break down an SEO experiment from Dan Petrovic that tested four different types of backlinks to see which had the greatest effect on rankings.
The test compared:
- An exact-match anchor text backlink
- A naked URL placed after the target keyword
- An image backlink using the target keyword as the image alt text
- A "click here" backlink with the target keyword placed near the link
The result that stood out: the image backlink with the target keyword in the alt text performed better than every other link type in the experiment, including the exact-match anchor text link.
The experiment was conducted in 2013, so I also look at whether the idea still matters today:
Linked image alt text is still treated as anchor text for SEO purposes. I also cover more recent research from Kevin Indig and Semrush analyzing 35,000 backlink data points across 1,000 domains, which found that image backlinks correlated more strongly with AI search visibility than text links.
Then I get into the practical part: how to actually build backlinks using images.
We break down:
- Why image backlinks affect search rankings
- What Dan Petrovic's anchor text proximity experiment tested
- Why the image backlink beat the other link types
- How Google uses image alt text as anchor text
- Why image backlinks may also matter for visibility in AI search
- How to use infographics, charts, photos, maps, and product images for link building
- How reverse image search can uncover websites already using your images
- David McSweeney's TRUST formula for creating images journalists and bloggers may want to use
- How to find topics journalists are already covering
- How to turn research and data into simple visual assets
- How to find journalists and bloggers who may be interested in your images
- Why niche-specific stock photos can continue generating backlink opportunities after you publish them
- Why you should still be careful with exact-match anchor text
I explain a simple image strategy: create original niche-specific photos, charts, data visualizations, infographics, or other useful images and make them available on stock image platforms.
If bloggers, journalists, or other websites use those images, they may credit the source. You can also periodically reverse image search your work to find websites that used an image without attribution and contact them to request a source link.
The important point is that link building does not always have to start with asking someone to link to a page.
You can create assets people already have a reason to use.
⭐️ SEO Sherpa: SEO Experiments - https://seosherpa.com/seo-experiments/ 
⭐️ Dejan Marketing: Anchor Text Proximity Experiment - https://dejanmarketing.com/anchor-text-proximity-experiment/ 
⭐️ Growth Memo: How AI Really Weighs Your Links - https://www.growth-memo.com/p/how-ai-really-weighs-your-links-analysis 
⭐️ Ahrefs: Build Links with Images - https://ahrefs.com/blog/build-links-with-images/ 
⭐️ Charles Floate's image SEO post - https://x.com/Charles_SEO/status/2021835662538813870 
💎 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 Image Backlinks Surprise
00:37 Dan Petrovic Experiment Setup
01:56 Results Image Alt Text Wins
02:27 Still Relevant Today
03:09 Link Worthy Image Ideas
03:42 TRUST Formula for Visuals
04:46 Outreach and Promotion
05:02 Stock Photos Backlink Hack
05:50 Reverse Image Search Links
06:28 Avoid Over Optimization
06:38 Optimize Well Find Great Keywords
08:55 Sign Off
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #seo #linkbuilding #backlinks

E1138: How does James Dooley start a brand-new SEO site with 650 industries worth of SEO experience?
James walks through how he evaluates a new SEO opportunity from the beginning, including when he'll use a fresh exact-match domain, when he'll buy an aged domain, how he evaluates the backlink profile before buying, and how he turns simple lead generation sites into larger brands.
We also get into the economics behind local lead generation, why James thinks SEOs put too much weight on DR, and what "good content" actually means when the goal is to rank and convert.
James explains why the strategy changes completely depending on the market. A low-competition local site might be built and earning quickly, while industries like finance or iGaming can require powerful aged domains, significantly more authority, and a completely different risk tolerance.
We cover:
- How James decides whether a new SEO opportunity is worth pursuing
- Why his team analyzes search volume and CPC when entering new industries
- Fresh domains vs. aged domains vs. exact-match domains
- When an EMD makes sense for local SEO and long-tail keywords
- Why competitive finance niches can require established authority
- What James looks for before buying an aged domain
- Why DR alone can give you a misleading picture of a domain
- How he evaluates branded anchors, naked URLs, spam, trust, and backlink quality
- The SEO tools and metrics his team combines when analyzing domains
- Why an existing Google Business Profile can make a domain more attractive
- The economics of buying high-value aged domains
- How aggressive iGaming operators can rank repurposed domains extremely quickly
- Why James is moving away from the churn-and-burn side of iGaming
- How he approaches local lead generation sites
- Why 50 targeted service/location pages can sometimes be enough to start
- How a small lead gen site can fund the next site and eventually become a portfolio
- James's definition of good SEO content
- Why some pages can rank with only a few sentences
- Why content should be "as short as possible but as long as necessary"
- The problem with burying answers inside thousands of words of unnecessary content
- How James turns an SEO site into a real brand
- Citations, reviews, Google Business Profiles, case studies, awards, social profiles, and third-party reputation signals
- How AI makes it easier to distribute brand assets across multiple platforms
James has spent years repeating this process across hundreds of industries, so this episode is less about one isolated tactic and more about the decision-making process behind starting an SEO project from zero.
If you're building your first site, launching another lead generation property, evaluating an aged domain, or deciding how much authority a new project actually needs, this episode gives you James Dooley's approach from the ground up.
⭐️ Ep 1131 - James Dooley & David Quaid: The SEO "Best Practices" We Ignore - https://youtu.be/jW8hYUn99Uk 
⭐️ James Dooley's website - https://jamesdooley.com/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on 𝕏 - https://x.com/james_dooley 
⭐️ James Dooley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameszdooley/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jameszdooley/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/james.dooley1/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@JamesDooley 
💎 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 Background
00:56 How James Starts Sites
01:19 New Site Context Matters
01:53 EMDs in Finance
03:06 650 Industries Explained
05:39 Aged Domains Strategy
09:05 Tools and Anchor Checks
11:35 iGaming Churn and Burn
13:46 Local Lead Gen Blueprint
14:37 Good Content Definition
16:51 Building a Brandable Site
18:50 David Quaid Call In
19:13 Wrap Up and Outro
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #seo #blackhatseo #digitalmarketing

E1137: Local SEO is changing as Google Maps becomes more AI-driven.
I'm joined by Darren Shaw, founder of Whitespark and one of the most respected people in local SEO, to break down Google's Ask Maps AI and what businesses need to do to get recommended.
Ask Maps combines Gemini with Google's location data, Google Business Profiles, reviews, Maps activity, and other signals to answer detailed local questions and recommend specific businesses.
Darren believes this is where local search is heading, and that traditional Google Maps rankings may eventually become increasingly AI-driven.
We cover what actually influences these recommendations and what local businesses should focus on now.
In this episode:
- What Google Ask Maps AI is and how it differs from normal Google Maps search
- Why Darren thinks AI-driven results could eventually become the default experience in Maps
- Why ranking well in traditional local search still gets you most of the way toward showing up in Ask Maps
- How to fully optimize your Google Business Profile for AI recommendations
- Why every service in your GBP should have a detailed description
- How Google uses your products, attributes, posts, photos, videos, and social profiles
- Why reviews are one of the strongest signals for Ask Maps
- How to ask customers for reviews that give Google more useful information about your business
- Why review responses may matter more now that AI can reference them
- Why you should diversify reviews beyond Google
- How to use Ask Maps itself as a local SEO research tool
- How to uncover the most common customer complaints and pain points in your market
- How to find third-party websites Google references for businesses in your industry
- How Ask Maps can reveal information about competitors and service-area businesses
- Why Reddit, local communities, and broader brand mentions matter for AI visibility
- A simple Reddit strategy for local businesses
- Why sponsoring and participating in local events can strengthen your brand presence
- Local SEO tactics Darren considers low-value, including Google stacking and local business schema
- Why NAP consistency is becoming more important again with AI search
- Why citation optimization matters more than obsessing over every minor citation inconsistency
- Why your website still has a major influence on Ask Maps
- Why you should have separate pages for every major service and sub-service
- How FAQs and query fan-out can uncover questions to answer on service pages
- Why pricing information should be included on your website
- How to use Ask Maps to find obscure services your competitors aren't covering
- When competitor comparison pages make sense and when they become manipulative
- Why proximity matters less in AI-driven Maps results than traditional local rankings
- How personalization changes which businesses different people get recommended
- How search history, Maps history, Gemini activity, and other Google data can influence recommendations
- Why there may no longer be one universal "#1 ranking" in local AI search
- How often Darren recommends refreshing important pages and Google Business Profile content
- How to manually measure Ask Maps visibility despite probabilistic results
- Why prompt tracking requires multiple searches across multiple AI systems
- Darren's highest-priority local SEO actions for businesses that don't have time to do everything
Darren's core recommendation is simple: completely fill out your Google Business Profile, create strong pages for every service you offer, add useful FAQs, and consistently collect detailed customer reviews.
Those fundamentals mattered before AI, and they remain the foundation for getting recommended by Google Maps AI.
⭐️ Darren Shaw's first time on the pod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1awWMG1e5kY 
⭐️ Local Search Ranking Factors: https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors/ 
⭐️ Whitespark's local SEO software and services: https://whitespark.ca/ 
⭐️ The Whitespark Local Update Podcast: https://whitespark.ca/the-whitespark-local-update-podcast/  
⭐️ Darren's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/whitesparkca  
⭐️ Darren's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrenshawseo/ 
⭐️ Darren's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenshawwhitespark/ 
⭐️ Darren's Threads: https://www.threads.com/@darrenshawseo 
⭐️ Darren's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darrenshawseo/ 
⭐️ Darren's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@darrenshawseo 
💎 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 Ask Maps AI Intro
00:57 What Ask Maps Does
03:35 Future of Local Search
04:49 Core Ranking Tactics
06:07 Optimize Your GBP
11:49 Reviews That Drive AI
16:31 Ask Maps Research Hacks
21:54 Branding Signals Matter
23:00 Reddit and Community Playbook
25:17 Local Events and Subreddits
27:55 Local SEO Time Wasters
29:16 Geotags and Google Stacking
30:37 Why Schema Backfires
32:05 Citations and NAP for AI
33:37 Service Pages and FAQs
35:19 Pricing and Hidden Services
37:27 Accordion FAQs and AI Parsing
39:40 Comparison Pages Done Right
42:05 Proximity vs Reputation in AI
44:06 Personalized Ask Maps Results
47:45 Freshness and GBP Posting
50:50 Measuring Ask Maps Visibility
52:04 Prompt Tracking Reality Check
53:47 80-20 Local SEO Checklist
54:52 Whitespark Tools and Wrap-Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#localseo #googlebusinessprofileoptimization #searchengineoptimization #generativeengineoptimization

E1136: Charles Floate has been doing SEO for years, across everything from brand-new sites to companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on backlinks.
In this episode, Charles lays out how he approaches SEO from A to Z: starting a site, building authority, finding keywords, structuring pages, getting links, becoming a topical authority, scaling what works, and changing the strategy as a site gets bigger.
We get into:
- Charles' "zero to 100" strategy for launching a brand-new site
- How he uses entity stacking, citations, directories, social profiles, and reference sites to establish a new brand
- How many backlinks he would build to a 10-page site vs. a 1,000-page site
- Why backlink velocity has to match the size of the site
- What actually makes a backlink valuable
- Why a backlink that never gets indexed may provide no value
- Why Charles doesn't force-index every backlink
- How to find your real SEO competitors instead of just your business competitors
- How to reverse engineer competitors' backlink profiles
- Why Charles looks for referring domains shared across multiple ranking competitors
- How smaller companies can beat larger competitors by doing better link due diligence
- Why he usually targets long-tail, higher-intent keywords before the biggest keyword in a niche
- How he knows when a site has reached topical authority
- How topical authority changes the economics of publishing new pages
- How Charles thinks about page-level relevance
- The weight-loss site that lost most of its revenue after expanding into gardening and composting content
- How to expand into adjacent topics without destroying your existing topical focus
- How Charles would structure categories, URLs, navigation, and core site pages
- His process for building topical maps
- How he uses ranking competitors to expand one keyword set into hundreds of related queries
- How SEO changes between a new site, a growing site, and an enterprise site
- Why enterprise SEO is often easier to rank but harder to execute
- When keyword cannibalization becomes a serious problem
- How Charles approaches "crawled, currently not indexed" pages
- Why refreshing existing content can outperform constantly publishing new content
- How optimizing for traditional Google results differs from optimizing for ChatGPT, Claude, and AI Overviews
- Semantic triples and how machines understand relationships between entities
- Brand mentions, citations, consensus, and AI visibility
- Charles' experiment getting an AI Overview to recognize his SEO awards site
- Parasite SEO and satellite microsites for taking more positions in long-tail SERPs
- What Charles considers the most important ranking factor in traditional Google search
- How user engagement signals matter after you start ranking
- How hidden keyword stuffing in schema and source code can over-optimize a page
- What SEO tactics Charles thinks Google is likely to go after next
This is Charles Floate's SEO process from a site with zero authority and zero rankings all the way through large-scale and enterprise SEO.
⭐️ Charles Floate on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Charles_SEO 
⭐️ Charles Floate on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesfloate/ 
⭐️ Charles Floate on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@CharlesFloate 
⭐️ Charles Floate on Facebook - https://facebook.com/thecharlesfloate 
⭐️ Charles Floate's community - https://seo.stream  
💎 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 SEO Playbook Kickoff
00:40 Meet Charles Floate
01:24 Authority And Links
02:44 Zero To 100 Launch
06:56 Social Profiles Activity
07:48 What Makes A Good Link
10:27 Backlink Indexing Reality
12:24 Reverse Engineer Competitors
18:55 Buying Links And Due Diligence
23:21 Competitor Link Overlap
26:38 Relevance And Topical Focus
31:46 AI SEO And Semantics
35:43 Generic vs Topical Authority
36:43 HubSpot Traffic Drop
38:49 Refresh Content Strategy
40:55 Pivoting Beyond Weight Loss
45:00 Building Topic Bridges
47:50 Site Structure Basics
51:19 Keyword Research Framework
55:52 Topical Maps Explained
57:00 Enterprise vs Small SEO
01:01:10 Indexing Issues Fixes
01:03:55 Content Overlap ROI
01:07:44 CRO Beyond Rankings
01:09:32 Sell Outcomes Not SEO
01:10:43 Auditing Traffic Drops
01:13:42 Common Decline Causes
01:16:20 Quality Score Explained
01:19:16 AI SEO Opportunity
01:22:49 Training Data Tactics
01:25:39 Gaming AI Overviews
01:29:42 Parasite SEO Plays
01:30:48 Ranking Factors Today
01:33:49 Future Updates Focus
01:35:46 Information Gain Framework
01:37:40 Episode Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #seo #linkbuilding #seopodcast