The Edward Show

E1222: Press release backlinks work, even when they're nofollow. I break down an SEO experiment where a press release backlink made Google's own head of webspam rank for a made-up keyword that didn't appear anywhere on his website.
I also explain Kyle Roof's findings about when nofollow backlinks pass ranking value, share a black hat SEO tactic involving press releases and job listings, and cover legitimate ways to apply these ideas to improve Google rankings.
In this episode:
- The Matt Cutts press release experiment: Google's former Head of Webspam, Matt Cutts, publicly stated that he wouldn't expect press release links to benefit rankings. An SEO company tested this by publishing a press release linking to his personal blog.
- Ranking for a made-up keyword: The press release used the invented anchor text "Sreppleasers," a term that didn't appear anywhere on Matt Cutts' website. His blog subsequently ranked at the top of Google for the term.
- Why press release backlinks usually don't work: Most press release distribution services use nofollow links, which generally don't pass ranking authority the same way followed links do.
- Kyle Roof's nofollow backlink findings: Kyle's testing suggests that nofollow backlinks can influence rankings when the linking page itself ranks in Google and receives clicks.
- Joy Hawkins' independent tests: Joy tested nofollow backlinks from her local SEO forum and found that they improved rankings for a linked page. Even a YouTube video embedded on that page started ranking.
- A black hat press release strategy: An SEO I met in Bucharest described a tactic involving job listings without website links. Applicants searched Google for the company and job, found an optimized press release, and clicked through to an application form.
- How the strategy passed authority: The press release linked to the application form, which linked to two or three SEO pages. Applicants had to visit those pages to answer questions, generating clicks through the internal links.
- Why branded searches matter: Publishing job listings without direct links can generate searches for a company's name. I discuss how SEOs use these searches and clicks to influence Google rankings.
- A legitimate alternative using promotions: Run a promotion where participants search Google for your brand, find a press release, and visit relevant pages on your site to find information needed to enter.
- Using press releases for actual company news: Publish announcements that people want to read, link to relevant SEO landing pages, and create opportunities for readers to discover your SEO content.
- Anchor text and internal linking: How to use descriptive anchor text in press releases and connect announcement pages to important SEO landing pages.
- Press release distribution services: I compare AB Newswire, which offers one-off press releases for $80 and bulk pricing as low as $6 per release, with EIN Presswire, which costs more but can keep releases indexed longer.
The central lesson is that where a backlink appears, whether its page ranks, and whether people click through can matter more than simply counting backlinks.
⭐️ 21 SEO Experiments That Will Change The Way You Think About SEO (Forever) - https://seosherpa.com/seo-experiments/ 
⭐️ Ep 1213 - Kyle Roof Ranked Gibberish #1 on Google. Then Google Deindexed 20 of His Sites. - https://youtu.be/LCrW28jb9UM 
⭐️ Ira Bodnar's post on 𝕏 - https://x.com/irabukht/status/2114390277737890085 
💎 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 Release Links Matter
00:34 Matt Cutts Experiment
01:54 Why Nofollow Can Count
02:18 Kyle Roof Podcast Clip
03:30 Dark Job Listing Tactic
05:47 White Hat Alternatives
07:13 Press Release Services
07:42 SEO That Makes Money
08:28 Wrap Up and Goodbye
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #backlinks #linkbuilding #seo

E1221: OpenAI is reportedly building its own Search Console for ChatGPT. The new tool could show businesses how often they're mentioned in ChatGPT answers, how many people click through to their websites, and how their visibility changes over time.
Google Search Console doesn't separately report clicks from AI Overviews. OpenAI's new tool could give businesses data that Google currently doesn't provide.
I break down a new Search Engine Roundtable report about OpenAI's upcoming business analytics tools, what the leaked screenshots reveal, and what this could mean for SEO.
What ChatGPT's new Search Console could do:
- Let businesses claim and verify their presence in ChatGPT
- Track how often a business appears in ChatGPT responses
- Show impressions and clicks on links to business websites
- Display daily charts showing changes in visibility
- Let businesses add products, services, pricing, and other information
- Keep business information accurate and up to date
- Give ChatGPT a source of information directly from the business
- Allow businesses to verify ownership
What the tool reportedly won't show at launch:
- The prompts that caused ChatGPT to mention your business
- Information about individual ChatGPT users
- Rankings or comparisons against competitors
- Why your brand mentions or clicks are increasing or decreasing
I also discuss how the tool could evolve, including whether OpenAI might eventually add more detailed reporting.
Will claiming your business improve your ChatGPT rankings?
Being able to describe your business directly to ChatGPT could make its answers about your products and services more accurate.
But I don't expect claiming your business to dramatically increase how often ChatGPT recommends you.
ChatGPT still searches the web to find information for many of its answers. Your visibility across websites, search results, reviews, and user-generated content will continue to matter.
My SEO recommendations:
- Target bottom-of-funnel keywords that indicate buying intent
- Create landing pages for your products and services
- Target pricing and cost keywords
- Create pages targeting competitor alternatives
- Target comparison and review keywords
- Build pages around specific situations your customers want to solve
- Organize these landing pages into a hub page
- Link to that hub page from your website's footer
- Build relevant backlinks to strengthen your website's authority
- Make sure your business appears in the sources ChatGPT uses when researching customer questions
I also explain how you could use your existing keyword research to describe your business inside ChatGPT's new tools, and why OpenAI might eventually use the information businesses submit to identify spam.
The feature is reportedly still in development. There's no confirmed public launch date.
⭐️ OpenAI Working On ChatGPT Tools For Business For Analytics & Citations - https://www.seroundtable.com/chatgpt-tools-for-business-42476.html 
⭐️ Gary Illyes Implies Click Data Not Coming To Google Search Console AI Reporting - https://www.seroundtable.com/click-data-search-console-ai-reporting-42437.html 
💎 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 Breaking News Drop
00:14 Claim Your Business
01:34 Analytics And Clicks
02:28 Screenshots And Verification
03:06 Limits And Future Features
03:39 Spam Honeypot Theory
04:56 How It Might Work
05:32 Will Visibility Increase
06:20 SEO Advice For Brands
07:07 Wrap Up And Outro
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #ecommerce

E1220: Can you rank on Google without backlinks? I break down what five SEOs say about ranking a new website without building links, share my own take, and play a clip from SEO expert Kyle Roof explaining his 3-to-1 internal linking rule on this podcast.
A new website can rank without backlinks, but the keywords you choose matter. If established websites have strong backlink profiles and dedicated pages targeting the same keywords, competing without links can be difficult.
The better opportunity is finding high-intent keywords that other websites aren't targeting with a relevant page.
I cover:
- What five Reddit commenters say about ranking on Google without backlinks
- Why low-competition keywords are easier to rank for, even on brand-new websites
- How to find keywords that established websites rank for without specifically targeting them
- Why search intent matters more than vague claims about "high-quality content"
- How to use long-tail keywords and overlooked search queries to get initial rankings
- How to structure supporting pages and internal links to strengthen your most important pages
- Kyle Roof's 3-to-1 rule: Three internal links of similar value can equal one external backlink of that value
- Why internal linking can reduce the number of backlinks you need to rank
- Easy ways to build backlinks through directories, podcast appearances, and journalist requests
- Why ranking for a keyword with 137,000 monthly searches doesn't necessarily bring in customers
- How to turn informational traffic into something more valuable through internal links
- Why targeting bottom-of-funnel keywords can generate more revenue than chasing high search volume
I also discuss a business whose article ranked at the top of Google for "apples," a keyword with an estimated 137,000 monthly searches, but generated zero additional business.
That example demonstrates the difference between vanity traffic and traffic that brings revenue. However, a popular informational page can still be valuable when you use internal links to direct traffic and ranking strength toward commercial pages.
I also examine PDFfiller, a website generating $106 million annually with 860,000 paying customers. Its homepage ranks for keywords it isn't directly optimized for, illustrating what prolonged time building authority and backlinks can accomplish.
Whether you're doing SEO for a local business, ecommerce website, SaaS company, or new website, this episode explains when you can rank without backlinks, how to use internal links to strengthen your pages, and why consistently building backlinks can make it easier to rank for more lucrative keywords.
⭐️ The Reddit thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/seogrowth/comments/1xibhdy/can_a_new_website_rank_on_google_without_building/ 
⭐️ The Apples X post - https://x.com/roblabonne/status/2118072363057369325 
⭐️ Ep 1218 - How to Build Local Backlinks for Under $500 vs. $5,000 a Month - https://youtu.be/GjbkLBWmDxQ 
⭐️ Ep 1213 - Kyle Roof Ranked Gibberish #1 on Google. Then Google Deindexed 20 of His Sites. - https://youtu.be/LCrW28jb9UM 
💎 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 You Rank Without Links
00:30 Reddit Says Long Tail Wins
01:23 Internal Linking Content Clusters
02:30 What High Quality Means
03:46 Pattern is Low Competition Queries
05:47 My Take is Build Some Links
06:17 Easy Link Building Tactics
07:24 Apples Case Study
08:33 Internal Links Boost Money Pages
10:37 Kyle Roof Internal Links Math
11:56 Wrap Up And Goodbye
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #seo #linkbuilding #digitalmarketing

E1219: In this Microsoft Clarity tutorial, you'll learn how to find out why your SEO traffic isn't converting into leads, bookings, or sales.
Josh Silverbauer, Head of Analytics at Intrepid Digital and an early contributor to Microsoft Clarity, shares his screen to show how he investigates conversion problems using Microsoft's free website analytics tool.
We walk through heatmaps, session recordings, conversion funnels, and filters you can use to understand what visitors do on your website, including visitors from organic search.
You'll learn:
- How to use Clarity's dashboard, heatmaps, and session recordings.
- How to filter for organic traffic and examine visitors who reached a specific SEO landing page but didn't convert.
- How to build funnels that track steps such as landing page → booking page → form submission.
- How to watch recordings of visitors who reached a particular step but didn't finish the process.
- How to identify rage clicks and distinguish them from dead clicks.
- How click heatmaps reveal which links, buttons, and page sections get the most attention.
- How first-click and last-click data change your understanding of visitor behavior.
- How to use scroll and attention heatmaps to decide which page elements to move higher.
- How to compare new and returning visitors, or desktop and mobile visitors, side by side.
- How to find where people abandon lead-generation forms and e-commerce checkouts.
- How to investigate whether visitors are reading an article, skimming it, or leaving early.
- Creating Smart Events, funnels, and saved segments for repeat analysis.
- Sending custom data through Google Tag Manager to filter users by role or sign-in status.
- Using Clarity alongside Google Analytics 4 to investigate conversion problems.
- Prioritizing page changes by potential impact, audience size, and ease of implementation.
Josh also shares an example of a shopping-cart recommendation that was displayed more prominently than the product the customer had actually selected, creating confusion at checkout.
I share how Clarity showed me that visitors were spending time reading testimonials on my Compact Keywords sales page. I moved those testimonials higher on the page, and that change made a meaningful difference.
The central lesson: Don't make website changes based solely on assumptions. Find where visitors struggle, form a hypothesis, and test the change.
Want Josh to review your website on a future episode?
We're looking at doing a live Clarity analysis of a listener's site, particularly an SEO page that gets traffic but doesn't convert. Leave a comment with the problem you want diagnosed.
⭐️ Josh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsilverbauer/ 
⭐️ Josh's website - https://joshsilverbauer.com/ 
⭐️ Josh's agency (Intrepid Digital) - https://www.gointrepid.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 Josh and Clarity
01:36 What Is Microsoft Clarity
03:37 Core Tabs Tour
06:22 Filtering and Funnels
10:39 Finding Friction Fast
17:47 Heatmaps Compare Mode
21:19 Scroll and Attention
25:26 Heatmap Refresh and AI
30:11 Intent and Reading Signals
34:36 Recordings Done Right
41:58 Funnels for Form Dropoff
47:51 Mobile vs Desktop Insights
53:55 Advanced Custom Filters
56:27 Wrap Up and Next Steps
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#microsoftclarity #conversionrateoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1218: How do you build local backlinks with a $500 monthly budget? What changes when you can spend $5,000?
I cover practical local link-building tactics for both budgets, with examples for local companies.
Learn how to get backlinks from partners, nonprofits, journalists, directories, and trade associations.
LOCAL LINK BUILDING: UNDER $500/MONTH
- Business partnerships: Partner with complementary companies. A plumber and electrician who refer customers to each other can link through partner pages, articles, or case studies.
- Donate services: Offer free work to local nonprofits, schools, or charities and request a backlink acknowledging your contribution.
- Community projects: A landscaping company can clean up a park, document before-and-after results, and invite residents and local press.
- Sponsorships: Sponsor a youth sports team, nonprofit, or local event. Ask for a linked logo or listing on the organization's website.
- Pitch journalists: Offer useful advice tied to current events. A roofer can explain storm preparation; a locksmith can share home security tips following local burglaries.
- Unlinked mentions: Contact organizations you've previously helped and ask them to link existing mentions of your business.
- Directories: Find relevant local directories and trade associations. Use Claude deep research to organize opportunities by price.
- Social profiles: Set up accounts and publish a few posts to establish an active online presence.
LOCAL LINK BUILDING: UNDER $5,000/MONTH
- More sponsorships: Sponsor five to eight local nonprofits, youth sports teams, charities, or community events.
- Higher-value donations: A South Florida roofer donated a free roof through Habitat for Humanity. The charity linked to his business, local news covered the story, and his Facebook post was shared over 200 times.
- Chambers of commerce: Join organizations with member directories and opportunities to contribute articles or participate in events.
- Trade associations: Consider more expensive memberships with relevant business listings and backlink opportunities.
- Video production: Hire an editor through YTJobs.co to turn footage from jobs into daily videos targeting keywords your website already targets.
- Journalist relationships: Share local journalists' work, credit them, and build familiarity before pitching your own stories.
MORE SEO LESSONS IN THIS EPISODE
- Why links from pages that rank in Google and receive clicks are especially valuable.
- Why even nofollow backlinks can pass authority.
- How sponsorships can build trust, referrals, and brand recognition.
- Why you can build links gradually instead of pursuing every tactic at once.
- Why bottom-of-funnel local keywords may be less competitive than you think.
- How to use your target keyword in the page title, URL, H1, and opening sentence.
⭐️ Ep 1109 - How Local Businesses Build Powerful Backlinks Through Community Sponsorships - https://youtu.be/RBuVt8mqD7U 
⭐️ Ep 1155 - He Donated a Free Roof and Got Links You Can't Buy - https://youtu.be/0aZi6sdOD-M 
⭐️ Ep 936 - How to Build Local Backlinks That Actually Increase Local Rankings - https://youtu.be/Z0Iq0yG2sIk 
💎 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 Budget Link Building Plan
00:07 Partner With Businesses
00:44 Nonprofit Service Donations
01:15 Foundational Social Profiles
01:27 Small Local Sponsorships
02:21 Pitch Local Journalists
02:45 Turn Mentions Into Links
03:22 Directories And Associations
03:53 Stay Consistent Weekly
04:11 Scaling Under Five Thousand
04:20 Bigger Sponsorship Portfolio
04:44 Viral Donation Case Study
05:32 Chamber And Trade Groups
05:54 Content To Win Journalists
07:15 What Makes Links Valuable
07:45 Ranking With Few Links
08:25 More Resources And Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#localseo #searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding #seo