The Edward Show

E1167: Claude-generated websites have a serious SEO problem: they use a lot of unnecessary words.
Search intent is not only about covering the right topic. It is also about presenting the answer in a way that is fast and easy to consume.
I break down three real AI-heavy websites and show how unnecessary copy, repeated headings, pointless "eyebrows," bloated introductions, and buried answers create a worse experience for searchers.
I cover:
- Why satisfying search intent includes how information is presented, not just whether the information exists
- Why Claude-generated sites often add unnecessary words throughout the page
- Three real examples of wordy AI pages
- A Toronto SEO agency page that buries its H1 under repeated copy and targets the wrong search intent
- Why the first few sentences of a landing page need to immediately explain why the business is the right choice
- How multiple competing calls to action weaken the page
- A Sprout Social alternatives page that makes readers dig through long explanations before reaching the comparison table
- Why someone searching for an alternative already knows why they want an alternative
- Why "how we evaluated these tools" sections are often unnecessary
- Why a strong single-product alternative page beats another generic list of 10 tools
- A "King of AEO" page that repeats its title, author, company name, and other information before getting to the actual point
- Why AI pages frequently repeat information without adding anything useful
- How excessive copy leads searchers to return to Google and choose another result
- Why bad user behavior becomes far more dangerous when hundreds or thousands of AI pages are published quickly
- How scaled AI content creates bad behavioral signals faster than a normal site
- Why real photos and useful video make pages easier to consume
- Why service businesses should use real images instead of generic AI-generated visuals
- Why bottom-of-funnel keywords deserve most of your content effort
- Why buyers do not need a 2,000-word essay explaining why they need the thing they are already searching to buy
- Why 400 to 500 words is often enough for a strong SEO landing page
- How some pages need fewer than 200 words
- The questions I answer before writing: Who is searching this keyword? What do they want? What are they trying to achieve?
- Why I write the outline first and use AI as a writing assistant instead of letting AI decide what the page needs
- Why spending more time on one strong bottom-of-funnel page produces better long-term results than mass-producing disposable AI content
- How a well-built page keeps ranking and generating revenue for years without constant rewrites
The goal is not to hit a word count.
The goal is to give the searcher exactly what they came for with as little friction as possible.
⭐️ Ep 1164 - How $72 in Press Releases Made Google Call This Man the King of AEO - https://youtu.be/DhmQ7cZhHFw 
⭐️ 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 Why Wordy Pages Fail
01:08 Claude Site Example One
02:14 Above the Fold Fluff
05:31 Claude Site Example Two
07:48 Cut the Ultimate Guide
08:36 Claude Site Example Three
12:36 Pogo Sticking Consequences
13:36 What to Do Instead
14:18 Short Pages That Convert
17:22 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #claudeseo

E1168: SaaS link building gets expensive fast. In this episode, Kristiyan Yankov breaks down why a single placement in the right listicle can be worth $1,000+, how he decides which backlinks are worth paying for, and the link-building methods his team uses across more than 60 SaaS companies.
We go deep into the actual process behind SaaS link building, from finding competitor backlink gaps to pitching publishers, negotiating paid placements, building relationships on LinkedIn, getting links from major publications, and using third-party mentions to increase visibility in both Google and AI search.
We also get into what separates a valuable backlink from one that Google may effectively ignore.
What we cover:
- Why some SaaS companies will pay $1,000+ for a single listicle placement
- What separates a $300 backlink opportunity from a $1,000+ opportunity
- How to identify the listicles and roundups dominating your industry
- How Kristiyan reverse-engineers competitors' backlink profiles in Ahrefs
- Why multiple competitors appearing on the same site signals a strong outreach opportunity
- Why existing articles are often better targets than creating brand-new guest posts
- How to check whether a listicle actually ranks, gets traffic, or feeds AI search results
- Why LinkedIn often beats cold email for link-building outreach
- What an actual paid-placement outreach message looks like
- When to mention payment in the first message and when not to
- Why you should not name your price first when negotiating a backlink
- Why smaller, highly targeted outreach lists outperform mass outreach
- How incentives such as free product access, payment, content creation, and link swaps improve response rates
- How to maintain consistent brand positioning across dozens of third-party listicles
- Why inconsistent descriptions of your company across the web create problems for AI search
- How to split backlinks between your homepage, commercial pages, comparison pages, and informational content
- How expert quote outreach gets links and mentions from sites such as BBC, HubSpot, Zapier, and Wix
- Why expert quote platforms remain one of the strongest low-budget link-building methods
- Foundational backlinks every new SaaS company should build
- Why directories such as Crunchbase, BetaList, and Product Hunt still matter
- How a Product Hunt launch caused a major organic traffic spike for one of my projects
- How to use link swaps without making the links look artificial
- Why adjacent industries are strong targets for link exchanges
- How link-building outreach itself can generate customers and partnerships
- How podcasts, industry meetups, and personal relationships create backlinks competitors struggle to copy
- Why thanking tools you use publicly can turn into case studies and backlinks
- How to build your own Rolodex of marketers and site owners for recurring link opportunities
- The biggest mistake people make when judging backlinks by DR and traffic alone
- Why a smaller, highly relevant site can be more valuable than a much larger generic site
- When guest posting is worth the effort and when it is a waste of time
- How third-party brand mentions influence ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI search systems
- Why getting included in the sources AI systems already retrieve is one of the fastest off-page opportunities
- Which link-building strategies compound over time instead of producing one-off results
Kristiyan and I also share some of the stranger link-building tactics we've used ourselves, including podcasts built partly around relationship building, industry networking, creative link exchanges, expert contributions, and other methods that go far beyond sending thousands of generic outreach emails.
⭐️ Kristiyan Yankov's agency, Above Apex - https://aboveapex.com/ 
⭐️ Kristiyan Yankov on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyan-yankov/ 
💎 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 SaaS Link Building Intro
00:12 Kristiyan SEO Journey
01:50 Top Link Building Plays
03:43 Link Gap Analysis Steps
07:01 Proving Competitor Links Work
09:12 Outreach and LinkedIn First
10:12 Incentives for Listicles
13:13 Outreach Message Templates
14:43 When to Lead With Money
17:01 Finding Dominant Listicles
17:58 Existing Posts and Indexing
22:23 Small Batch Outreach Strategy
28:18 Follow Ups and Timing
30:13 Listicle Pricing and Value
34:11 Positioning and Keywords
37:24 Deep Links Beyond Homepage
39:09 Expert Quote Outreach Setup
40:02 Best Quote Platforms
41:31 Low Budget Link Tactics
43:10 Directory Links That Work
45:37 Clicks From Backlinks
46:40 Adjacent Industry Link Swaps
51:42 Relationship Driven Links
56:50 Common Link Building Mistakes
01:00:28 Guest Posts Done Right
01:05:37 Brand Mentions For AI Search
01:10:52 Linkable Assets And Virality
01:15:05 Natural Backlink Profiles
01:17:41 Where To Find Christian
01:17:56 Bulgaria Rose Valley Chat
01:21:34 Podcast Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding #saasmarketing #seo

E1166: Google can lose faith in your website.
That is the language Google's John Mueller used when discussing sites filled with large amounts of programmatic SEO content, low-quality pages, and generated content that fails to give users enough value.
I break down what that means, why bad old pages continue to hurt a site, and what actual SEO recoveries look like.
I cover:
- John Mueller's warning that Google's systems can lose faith in a site based on its old pages
- Why publishing hundreds or thousands of weak pages creates a sitewide problem
- The danger of scaled AI content and programmatic SEO
- Why producing more content does not fix a site that already has a quality problem
- The "Boy Who Cried Wolf" effect in SEO
- How repeatedly disappointing searchers damages the reputation of a site
- Why click-through rate and pogo-sticking matter when thinking about user satisfaction
- How weak pages create bad behavioral signals at scale
- Why programmatic SEO makes the problem worse by publishing bad pages far faster than a human could
- What happens when Google becomes more cautious about showing content from a site
- How fixing the problem takes significant work and time
I also break down a real recovery example where a company deleted around 200 thin AI-written pages and later saw Google traffic grow from roughly 1,000 to nearly 4,000 monthly visitors.
Their new approach included:
- Deleting thin AI pages first
- Keeping only pages worth maintaining
- Using real search data instead of having AI invent the content
- Researching SERPs, search volumes, Reddit, Hacker News, and X
- Using the actual language customers use
- Writing bottom-of-funnel pages buyers actively search for
- Publishing competitor lists with current pricing
- Creating alternative pages for products people are leaving
- Publishing original customer stories
- Reviewing and editing every piece of content before publishing
I also cover another recovery shared by Lily Ray. The site was hit by the December 2025 spam update, started making fixes, and finally began recovering roughly five months later.
The takeaway is simple:
If you flood your site with content that repeatedly disappoints searchers, cleaning it up is not instant. Delete the weak pages, improve the pages worth keeping, publish content people actually want, and give Google's systems enough time to see the change.
Google does not forget a large history of bad content overnight.
⭐️ John Mueller's statements - https://bsky.app/profile/johnmu.com/post/3muwiaq3mws22 
⭐️ Charlotte Schmitt on 𝕏 - https://x.com/LottiSchmitt/status/2096967274343047324 
⭐️ Lily Ray on 𝕏 (recovery post) - https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/2069739309075161234 
⭐️ Ep 989 - Google's Helpful Content Update DESTROYED the Internet (What Actually Happened) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YLUFjYrIEA 
💎 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 Can Google Lose Trust
00:25 John Mueller on Programmatic SEO
01:53 Behavior Signals Explained
02:42 Boy Who Cried Wolf SEO
04:24 How Sites Recover
05:13 Pruning Playbook Steps
06:06 Bottom of Funnel Content Wins
06:37 Customer Stories Strategy
07:45 Recovery Timelines and Updates
08:51 Learn SEO the Right Way
10:40 Final Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #seorecovery #programmaticseo

E1165: Position #1 on Google is dead, at least as a single, static ranking you can check once and trust.
Joy Hawkins returns to break down a study of 8.1 million Google search results that found organic rankings became 48.7% more volatile after the May 2026 Core Update. 97% of the tracking reports analyzed started shuffling, and two people searching the same phrase at the same time now regularly see different rankings.
The volatility didn't disappear after the update ended. It stayed elevated.
We get into what this means for SEO, rank tracking, local search, AI Overviews, Google's new AI local results, content pruning, scaled AI content, reviews, and measuring whether SEO is actually making money.
Topics we cover:
- The 8.1 million-search study that found Google rankings became 48.7% more volatile
- Why 97% of the tracking reports studied started shuffling
- Why saying "we rank #1" or "we rank #3" is becoming increasingly inaccurate
- How two people searching the exact same keyword can see completely different results
- Why city + service keywords such as "Denver plumber" were among the searches hit hardest
- Why checking a keyword once is no longer enough to measure rankings
- How many searches Joy wants before she trusts rank-tracking data
- Why top-three visibility across many searches matters more than one recorded position
- Why SEOs need to connect rankings to traffic, calls, leads, and revenue
- Why Joy trusts Search Console and call tracking more than a single rank-tracker snapshot
- How Google's go-to redirects are making life harder for rank trackers and scrapers
- Why rank trackers could start contaminating Search Console click data
- The theory that increased ranking variation could make CTR manipulation easier for Google to detect
- Why Google's traditional local pack, organic results, and AI local results need to be treated as different algorithms
- SEO tactics that work in the traditional local pack but lose strength in AI local results
- Why keyword-stuffed business names and extended business hours matter less in AI local packs
- The three review signals Joy sees affecting traditional local rankings: rating, review count, and review frequency
- Why the actual language inside customer reviews matters more for AI searches
- How Google uses reviews to answer subjective local searches such as finding a cafe with fast Wi-Fi
- Why your Google Business Profile description does not move rankings
- How changing copy on your website changes what Google says about your business inside AI results
- The risks of self-promotional "best X" listicles
- Why a strong differentiator on your landing page matters more now
- Joy's experiment deleting roughly 1,000 pages receiving zero clicks
- Her experiment comparing Claude-generated content from expert interviews against content written by a human from the same source material
- What happened after pruning more than half the content from sites hit with domain-wide ranking losses
- Why scaled AI content on a real business website has become far riskier
- How businesses can see enormous traffic growth from scaled content before the entire site crashes
- Why AI content itself isn't the problem and where Joy sees legitimate uses for AI-generated content
The biggest change is not that SEO stopped working. Sites still dominate search results. The problem is that a single ranking position no longer tells you enough.
You need enough searches to measure how often you appear near the top, then connect that visibility to traffic, leads, calls, and ultimately revenue.
Joy Hawkins is one of the most experienced local SEO testers in the industry, and this episode gets deep into what she is seeing across millions of searches and active client campaigns.
⭐️ Joy's write-up on this - https://www.sterlingsky.ca/the-dynamic-serp-update-may-2026-core-update-changed-seo/ 
⭐️ Joy Hawkin's Agency - Sterling Sky: https://www.sterlingsky.ca/ 
⭐️ Joy Hawkin's YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/SterlingSkyInc 
⭐️ Joy Hawkin's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyhawkins/ 
⭐️ Local Search Forum - https://localsearchforum.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 Joy Returns and Setup
00:18 May Update Weirdness
02:42 Eight Million Study Results
05:55 Static Rankings Are Dead
08:38 Measure Leads Not Spots
10:21 How to Trust Rank Data
11:19 Client Reporting and Revenue
14:57 Why Google Changed SERPs
16:17 Go To Redirect Fallout
20:49 AI Packs and Shortcut Tactics
25:01 Not Personalization and Next Steps
33:00 Business First SEO
33:17 Lead Source Tracking
34:58 Local Rankings Reviews
36:22 AI Local Packs
37:42 Review Keywords AI
41:17 Listicles And Risks
46:27 USP For AI Overviews
47:31 Experiments And Tools
51:13 Pruning And Penalties
54:35 Scaled Content Scams
58:58 Accident Page Case Study
01:02:51 Safer Testing Domains
01:03:20 Traffic Spike And Crash
01:03:49 Screen Share SEO Graphs
01:05:06 Scaled Content Publishing
01:05:55 Is Number One Dead
01:06:20 What Still Works Now
01:09:50 Keywords And Local Links
01:12:54 Risky Tactics And Scale
01:22:09 AI Content Nuance
01:23:40 AI Slop Backlash
01:25:53 Hype Versus Proven SEO
01:28:57 Closing Thoughts And Farewell
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #localseo #digitalmarketing

E1164: It cost just $72 in press releases to get Google's AI Overview to call James Dooley the "King of AEO."
I break down how two cheap press releases created enough relevance and third-party confirmation for Google to repeat the claim directly inside an AI Overview.
The first press release cost $66 through an EIN Newswire package. The second cost $6 through AB Newswire. Both placed "King of AEO" in the locations that matter most for relevance: the headline, page title, URL slug, and opening sentence.
Google then cited those releases when answering the query "Who is the king of AEO?"
I break down:
- How $72 in press releases influenced a Google AI Overview
- The exact press releases Google cited
- How the phrase "King of AEO" appeared in the title, H1, URL slug, and first sentence
- How direct, unambiguous language matters when building entity associations
- How one $66 EIN Newswire press release became the first citation in the AI Overview
- How a $6 AB Newswire press release syndicated to USA Today became another supporting source
- Why repeating the same entity association across multiple sources creates consensus
- Why Google's AI Overview confidently repeated a claim about a crowning ceremony that never actually happened
- How the press release image also started appearing in Google Images for "King of AEO"
- What happened after I posted videos about the experiment across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube Shorts
- How other SEOs then started publishing their own "King of AEO" press releases
- Why the SERP turned into an SEO battleground
- Why James Dooley still remained the dominant entity associated with "King of AEO"
- How relevance and consensus work together when multiple people compete for the same entity association
- Why press releases still matter for both traditional Google Search and AI-generated answers
- What this experiment shows about influencing the information Google uses to construct AI Overview responses
Before the competition started, James had a major advantage: most of the highly relevant pages around "King of AEO" pointed to him.
Once more people entered the SERP with their own press releases, social posts, videos, images, and websites, Google started acknowledging the competing claims while still naming James as the person most widely associated with the title.
This is a clear look at how the sausage gets made inside modern search.
If you understand how relevance, entity associations, third-party mentions, syndication, and consensus work together, a bizarre AI Overview like this becomes much easier to explain.
💎 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 Do Press Releases Still Work
00:59 EIN Newswire Case Study
01:30 Keyword Placement Breakdown
02:55 AB Newswire For Six Bucks
04:13 The Fake Crowning Event
04:44 Google Images Impact
05:05 Blowing Up The SERP
05:38 New Challengers Appear
07:51 Why This Works
10:48 Wrap Up And Goodbye
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization