The Edward Show

E973: We sit down with Jake Tlapek and Gagan Ghotra to fully learn how Jake built a founder-led growth engine using TikTok Lives, converted inbound demand into high-value retainers, and structured an agency model that can scale without the founder running day-to-day delivery.
This is a tactical conversation for agency owners and operators about pipeline, positioning, offer structure, pricing, hiring, margins, retention, and leadership cadence. Jake explains what changed inside the business to support growth: productized service packages, better talent density, clearer operations, and a process that transfers trust from the founder to the delivery team.
Key agency growth lessons covered:
- TikTok Lives as an inbound lead generation channel for a marketing agency
- Building a repeatable client acquisition system from organic social
- Converting attention into booked calls, sales qualified leads, and closed retainers
- Founder-led marketing and content-led growth as the primary distribution strategy
- How Jake uses Q&A live streams to qualify leads and shorten the sales cycle
- Why engagement increases reach and how that impacts top-of-funnel growth
- How to handle "I only want to work with the founder" objections
- Trust transfer: moving a prospect's confidence from founder to specialists
- Hiring senior specialists vs. juniors, and why talent density protects delivery and retention
- Standardized offers: productized SEO services and paid media management pricing
- Packaging and pricing: moving from low-ticket a la carte work to premium retainers
- Raising rates, improving client quality, and reducing churn
- Protecting agency profit margins while scaling headcount and service delivery
- Margin killers to avoid: panic selling, discounting, unmanaged SaaS spend
- How to audit agency overhead and reduce waste without breaking operations
- Client retention and escalation: handling red flags before they become churn
- Real-time account management escalation using a "red alert" system
- The operational handoff: phasing the founder out of delivery and into growth
- Leadership team structure, management layer, and internal accountability
- EOS / Traction-style operating cadence: weekly leadership meetings and execution rhythm
- Agency merger strategy: combining SEO + PPC to increase LTV and expand accounts
- Pipeline rebuilding after a reset: ramping new business when there's no backlog
- AI SEO / GEO: what clients ask for, what's measurable, and what's not
- Lead quality: ChatGPT referrals vs. Google Search for B2B agency services
Bulleted takeaways for agency owners:
- Build a single primary acquisition channel and run it consistently
- Tighten your offer, then standardize delivery before you scale volume
- Price to match value and capacity, not to win every deal
- Hire people who can own outcomes, not people you need to manage daily
- Create escalation paths that protect retention and keep accounts stable
- Track costs quarterly, especially recurring subscriptions and hidden overhead
- Don't discount under pressure; discounting creates long-term margin compression
- Productize the work where possible so operations can scale with less friction
- Keep the founder focused on demand generation, distribution, and strategic growth
⭐️ Jake Tlapek on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thewizardmarketing
⭐️ Jake Tlapek on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewizardmarketing/
⭐️ Jake Tlapek on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thewizardofmarketing
⭐️ Jake Tlapek's agency - https://finch.com/
⭐️ 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/
💎 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 Agency Scale Snapshot
01:47 TikTok Live Audience
03:17 Simple Live Q&A Format
06:22 Founder Steps Back
08:42 Hire Better Talent
11:58 Mentor Becomes CEO
18:31 Merger and Growth
20:48 TikTok Drives Clients
22:41 Owners Eat Last
25:01 Answering SEO Live
26:49 Multistreaming Tradeoffs
29:44 Founder Led Trust
33:06 Eight Hour Workweek
49:13 Margins and Hard Calls
55:48 Phasing Out Ops
57:36 Stepping Back From Ops
58:18 Brand Strategy And Visibility
59:25 Hiring Through Personal Brand
01:00:24 Red Alert Client Escalations
01:04:14 EOS Leadership Structure
01:10:33 Finding The Right CEO
01:13:13 Disagree And Commit
01:19:29 Taking Big Swings Early
01:26:16 Productized Service Packages
01:32:35 GEO And AI Reporting Reality
01:36:34 Scaling To 125M Vision
01:42:55 Time Tradeoffs And Closing
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #marketingagency #agencygrowth

E972: We break down Wix's AI-driven SEO strategy and ask a simple question: why are they still ranking?
Wix scaled dozens of "how to make money" articles shortly after ChatGPT launched. On the surface, the strategy worked. Organic traffic doubled. Pages ranked. Visibility increased.
But when you look closely, patterns start to appear.
We analyze:
- How Wix scaled top-of-funnel AI content
- Why most smaller sites would not survive the same strategy
- The concept of "Mount AI" (scaling with AI, then crashing)
- What happened to similar strategies at Shopify
- How algorithm updates impact pattern-heavy content
- Why linking to the same authority sources can create detectable footprints
- The real difference between citations and meaningful AI visibility
- Whether this traffic likely drives business value
We also discuss:
- What "information gain" actually means
- Why AI content struggles to create original insight
- The risks of obvious structural patterns in large content libraries
- Why domain authority changes the risk profile
- How to think about risk vs reward when scaling AI content
- Whether Google's current stance on AI content is temporary or evolving
Most importantly, we explore what you should do instead.
If you're running a SaaS company, managing SEO in-house, or advising clients, this episode focuses on practical decisions:
- When AI content makes sense
- When it becomes a liability
- How to reduce detectable patterns
- How to add real experience to informational content
- Why interactive elements (templates, calculators, quizzes) can change the value equation
- Why commercial intent pages often deserve more focus than broad top-of-funnel plays
This is not a blanket argument against AI content. It's an examination of how it's being used at scale - and what happens when patterns become too obvious.
If you're considering scaling content production with AI, this episode will help you think through the trade-offs before you commit resources.
⭐️ 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/@harpsdigital 
💎 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 Wix SEO Overview
00:38 How to Make Money Content
01:20 Mount AI Explained
02:16 Post ChatGPT Scaling
03:37 AI Footprints Patterns
07:26 ClickUp Link Patterns
10:14 Information Gain GEO
12:35 Bing AI Report Limits
14:32 AI Visibility Tools
16:02 Wix vs Shopify Hits
18:05 Rank and Tank Risks
20:54 Avoiding AI Patterns
21:46 Interactive Content Upgrades
23:51 How Many Pages
24:23 Wix Content Scale Timeline
25:15 Why Wix Ranks Anyway
27:37 Would It Still Work Today
29:19 SEO Must Drive Value
32:11 Templates Over Blog Spam
33:13 Avoiding AI Content Patterns
39:37 How Wix Could Add Experience
43:56 Why Video Beats AI How Tos
45:34 Wrap Up and Where to Follow
The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #seo #growthhacking #searchmarketing

E971: Matt Diamante shares a simple experiment that produced surprising results: adding expert quotes to AI-written content led to AI Overview citations within two hours of publishing.
We break down what was tested, what changed, and why this small adjustment may be influencing how Google's AI Overviews and large language models evaluate content.
What we cover:
- The exact test Matt ran and what was different about the winning content
- Why adding expert quotes may increase AI Overview citations
- The role of outbound links and why linking out can improve rankings
- The relationship between expert quotes and E-E-A-T signals
- Whether this works for informational content only, or also bottom-of-funnel pages
- How AI Overviews affect click-through rates and what that means for strategy
- Why topical authority still matters in an AI-first search environment
- How to build topical authority using People Also Ask questions
- The risks of scaling AI content too aggressively
- What separates good AI-assisted content from low-quality AI spam
- When technical SEO fixes matter - and when they don't
- Why matching search intent is still the foundation of ranking
- How local businesses can use simple marketing tactics to dominate their market
We also discuss:
- Whether SEO for LLMs is actually different from traditional SEO
- How branded search impacts authority
- Why some experienced SEOs still operate like it's 2014
- The importance of structure, clarity, and answering the question immediately
- Why above-the-fold content matters more than ever
This episode goes deeper than just "add expert quotes." It's a broader conversation about how search is evolving, what Google is rewarding, and how to adapt without overcomplicating the fundamentals.
If you care about ranking in AI Overviews, building authority, and understanding what is actually moving the needle right now, this episode will give you practical ideas to test.
New episodes every day.
⭐️ Matt Diamante on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/heytony.agency/
⭐️ Matt Diamante on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@heytonyagency
⭐️ Matt Diamante on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@heymattdiamante
⭐️ Matt Diamante's agency - https://heytony.ca/
💎 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 Expert Quotes Breakthrough
00:57 How to Add Real Quotes
02:28 Outbound Links Experiment
04:28 Top vs Bottom of Funnel
09:08 Building Topical Authority
09:53 People Also Ask Scaling
13:54 AI Content Spam Risks
18:50 Write for Scanners
21:04 LLM SEO vs Google
25:45 Site Audit Priorities
36:57 Shopify SEO Essentials
41:49 Second Person Wins
45:59 Outdated SEO Habits
47:20 Low-Hanging Fruit Wins
50:26 Technical Fixes vs Content
51:50 When Fixes Matter
01:00:35 Schema and SERP Reality
01:04:20 Branded Search Signals
01:05:29 Buying Local Businesses
01:10:05 Nail Salon Marketing Playbook
01:14:50 Prioritizing for Owners
01:17:46 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing

E970: Breaking down one of the most debated SEO topics: the "bad neighborhood" hosting effect.
There's a persistent theory that shared hosting damages rankings, that you need a dedicated IP to compete, and that being on the wrong server can suppress your visibility in Google. 
Lance Dockins, founder of WordKeeper and longtime hosting and security expert, joins the show.
We unpack what's real, what's exaggerated, and what actually matters.
This conversation goes deep into how hosting, IP reputation, site speed, bot traffic, security, and Core Web Vitals intersect with SEO performance.
What we cover:
- The "bad neighborhood" hosting theory - myth vs reality
- Whether shared hosting actually hurts rankings
- Dedicated IP vs dedicated server - what's the difference
- IP reputation lists and how to check yours
- When you should consider switching hosts (and when you shouldn't)
- Signs your hosting environment is hurting your SEO
- How overcrowded servers affect performance and stability
- Managed hosting vs AWS and VPS setups
- Core Web Vitals - how much they really matter
- Why obsessing over PageSpeed scores can backfire
- How bot traffic (including AI bots) impacts site speed
- Whether to block SEO tools like Ahrefs and Screaming Frog
- SEO hijacking attacks and how they work
- Practical security habits that prevent ranking loss
- What good hosting actually looks like
We also discuss how email deliverability, spam reputation, crawl behavior, and server instability can create indirect SEO problems that most site owners never consider.
If you run a local business, ecommerce store, agency, or content site, this episode will help you make better decisions about your hosting setup without overreacting to internet myths.
If you have questions about your hosting setup, drop them in the comments. We may do a follow-up Q&A episode.
⭐️ Lance Dockins on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lancedockins/
⭐️ Lance Dockins on 𝕏 - https://x.com/lancedockins
⭐️ WordKeeper, Lance Dockins' hosting company - https://wordkeeper.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 Hosting SEO Myths
01:07 Bad Neighborhood Experiment
04:38 Why Cheap Hosts Hurt
09:19 Naming Risky Hosts
13:05 When To Switch Hosts
16:25 Check IP And Blacklists
22:06 CDN IP Confusion
24:22 Dedicated IP Vs Server
25:58 HostGator And Better Options
29:21 Robots And Crawl Chaos
33:25 SEO Friendly Hosts List
35:39 VPS And Cloud Hosting
37:27 Pricing And Practical Guidelines
41:49 Security Claims Red Flags
43:28 Server Crowding Reality
43:56 SEO Hijacking Explained
46:44 Google Penalties After Hacks
48:17 Practical Security Habits
51:13 Firewalls and Cloudflare
52:15 AWS Versus Managed Hosting
54:29 Core Web Vitals Context
58:23 When Speed Moves Rankings
59:24 Hosting Speed Versus Frontend
01:04:46 Bot Traffic and Noisy Neighbors
01:09:03 Blocking SEO Tool Crawlers
01:10:10 Why Start a Hosting Company
01:14:40 AI Bots and Crawl Control
01:19:44 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #technicalseo #seotips #webhosting

E969: How digital PR, brand mentions, and earned media are becoming some of the most important drivers of visibility across Google and AI search.
Chris Panteli of Linkifi returns to the show!
We go deep into how journalists actually source experts, why most HARO and expert quote pitches fail, and how real media coverage influences rankings, reputation, and LLM visibility - even when there is no backlink.
Chris also breaks down the systems his agency uses to build relationships with journalists, filter opportunities at scale, and turn a single media placement into long-term coverage across multiple publications.
This is a practical conversation focused on what is working right now - not recycled link building advice and not tactics that stopped working years ago.
Topics covered:
- Why brand mentions are becoming as powerful as backlinks for AI search visibility
- How Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity build trust through consensus and coverage
- The difference between SEO digital PR and authority PR
- How expert quotes lead to podcast features, op-eds, and major media placements
- Mistakes that get HARO pitches ignored or journalists to blacklist sources
- Why fake AI personas are creating new verification challenges for journalists
- How to build journalist relationships instead of chasing one-off placements
- Using CRMs, alerts, and follow-ups to turn one mention into ongoing coverage
- Real examples of coverage leading to ChatGPT referrals and organic growth
- How agencies use AI to categorize journalist requests and filter opportunities
- Why smaller niche publications can be more valuable than high-DR general sites
- The role of reputation management in modern SEO and AI visibility
- How local businesses can earn press coverage through newsjacking and local expertise
- Practical ways to pitch local journalists even if you are not a PR professional
Chris also shares how his team uses custom systems to monitor journalist requests, manage outreach without spamming, and maintain quality while scaling expert quote placement.
For local businesses, consultants, and founders, the discussion around local media coverage and news-driven outreach offers one of the most overlooked opportunities to build authority, trust, and conversions.
If you are trying to understand how visibility works beyond traditional backlinks - especially inside AI systems - this episode provides a clear look at the mechanics behind earned media and authority building.
⭐️ Contact Christopher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-panteli/
⭐️ Christopher Panteli on 𝕏: https://x.com/Linkifi_
⭐️ Christopher Panteli's agency: https://www.linkifi.io/
⭐️ Tier-one media coverage cheat sheet: https://go.linkifi.io/press-coverage-cheat-sheet-page
💎 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 Agency Growth Since HCU
01:06 What Makes Linkifi Different
02:15 Two Core Offerings
05:09 Brand Mentions And AI Visibility
10:26 Reputation Management Demand
13:01 Do Links Move Rankings
15:44 Case Studies And LLM Referrals
16:33 Best Platforms For Expert Quotes
17:32 Stop Using AI Spam Responses
20:57 Deplatforming To Direct Journalist Relationships
22:28 Systematizing Journalist Relationships
25:43 Team Size And Hiring For PR Talent
27:42 Gifting Journalists Ethics And Ideas
31:20 Biggest HARO Mistakes Authenticity
38:57 Read The Query And Match Bias
43:24 Custom GPTs For Client Compliance
44:17 Digital PR Versus Link Building
46:34 Landing Tier One Features Case Study
49:51 Follow Up Cadence And CRM
53:14 AI Filtering And Airtable Workflow
58:16 Reddit And Blacklists For Quality
01:03:52 Hyperlocal PR And Newsjacking
01:15:11 Press Releases And Pitch Quality
01:17:34 Wrap Up And Where To Find Chris
The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding #backlinks #publicrelations