The Edward Show

E1064: Most business owners think their niche is too competitive for SEO.
It's not.
I explain why most people completely misjudge competition, why keyword difficulty scores are misleading, and how bottom-of-funnel SEO is still wide open - even in 2026.
Top-of-funnel informational SEO has taken a major hit. Click-through rates have dropped. AI overviews are reducing traffic. Ranking #1 doesn't mean what it used to mean.
But high-intent SEO is different.
If you sell a product or service, there is still enormous opportunity - and most of your competitors are not optimizing properly.
I break down:
- Why your niche is probably not as competitive as you think
- The mistake of relying on keyword difficulty scores
- How to actually evaluate competition by looking at the SERPs
- Why relevance matters more than most people realize
- The exact on-page placements that influence rankings (page title, URL, H1, first sentence)
- Why overusing your keyword can hurt you
- How to use keyword variants to rank for more terms with less effort
- Why bottom-of-funnel, high-intent SEO is still a blue ocean
- How to find longer-tail keywords that are easier to rank for and bring qualified traffic
Most businesses emailing me don't have an authority problem. They don't have penalties. 
They don't have technical blockers.
They have a relevance problem.
And they don't know how to evaluate real competition.
This episode walks through how to fix that.
⭐️ Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58% - https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/
💎 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 Competitors Aren't Scary
00:22 Stop Trusting Keyword Difficulty
01:02 Top of Funnel SEO Is Crushed
02:15 Bottom of Funnel SEO Blue Ocean
02:48 Check for Real Ranking Blockers
03:57 Relevance Beats Authority
04:28 Avoid Over Optimization
06:05 Three Mistakes and Fixes
08:52 Find and Target High-Intent Keywords
10:03 Final Outro and Thanks
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#bottomoffunnelseo #informationalseo #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1063: If you run a large ecommerce site with hundreds of thousands or millions of product pages, and only a fraction of them are indexed, you are not alone.
David Quaid and I break down why Google indexes only 30-40% of pages on many large sites - and what actually determines whether a product page gets crawled and indexed.
This conversation covers how authority flows through large websites, why crawl budget is often misunderstood, and how URL structure, topical relevance, and internal architecture affect indexation.
If you manage or market a large ecommerce site, this episode will change how you think about SEO.
What we cover:
- Why "discovered, not indexed" is a bigger problem than "crawled, not indexed"
- Why adding more internal links doesn't automatically improve indexation
- How Google's crawl pools actually work
- Why pruning pages rarely fixes indexing issues
- The role of the URL slug in determining whether a page gets crawled
- How topical authority influences whether a product page is worth indexing
- Why homepage backlinks don't help deep product pages as much as you think
- How hub pages can bypass traditional site hierarchy
- When to include keywords in subfolders vs. slugs
- Why some large sites perform well with only 40% of pages indexed
- What happens when authority "tightens" across your site
- How to decide which product pages actually need to rank
- The first three things to check when auditing a 1M+ product site
- The real difference between crawl efficiency and authority shaping
- How blog content can directly support deep product tiers
We also discuss:
- Whether AI-generated product content hurts indexing
- Why XML sitemaps do not solve indexation problems
- The difference between semantic ranking and topical authority
- Why step-by-step traffic decline often signals authority loss, not penalties
If you operate a large ecommerce site, this episode will help you think beyond crawl budget and start focusing on the pages that actually matter.
Drop your questions in the comments. We read them and often turn them into future episodes.
(And congratulations to friend of the podcast, Harpreet Singh, on his baby boy!)
⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid
⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/
⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.com/
🚀 Learn SEO for free - https://freeseoknowledge.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 Indexing Crisis Setup
01:07 Google Tightens Authority
03:36 Crawl Pools Explained
05:03 Why Pruning Fails
06:17 Authority Shaping Model
08:40 Build Traffic Tiers
11:05 Slugs vs Folders SEO
20:07 Saved Search Hub Pages
22:01 Facets Parameters Strategy
22:55 Links to Deep Pages
30:16 Bypass Folder Layers
33:50 Root Pages Folder Names
36:19 URL Hierarchy for SEO
38:30 Redundancy and Slugs
46:48 Clicks and Authority Flow
47:43 Auditing a Massive Site
51:20 Google Authority Tightening
58:49 AI Content and Labels
01:02:33 LLMs and SEO Advice
01:05:24 Indexing Decision and Wrap
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#ecommerce #searchengineoptimization #seo #dropshipping

E1062: Most link building advice sounds great until you try to execute it. The real challenge isn't "getting backlinks." It's getting links that make sense, earning real replies, and avoiding tactics that waste your time.
I break down a Reddit post that ranks five link building methods by how well they work in practice. I walk through each method, why it works, what to watch out for, and give many examples along the way.
In this episode:
- The 5 link building methods, ranked by effectiveness
- Why "relevance" often beats raw authority
- How to think about links in a way that avoids spam tactics
- What runs out quickly vs. what scales over time
- A simple question to filter good link ideas from bad ones: would this link still make sense if Google didn't exist?
The 5 methods (ranked):
- Adjacent niche outreach (complementary businesses, same audience, not competitors)
- Competitor backlink gap (find sites that link to competitors but not you)
- Niche blog outreach (contextual placements, but you must vet sites carefully)
- Partner/supplier/customer mentions (real relationships, natural links)
- Agency-to-agency link swaps (rare, but works when relationships exist)
Examples mentioned:
- Roofing company swapping links with a gutter installer (same homeowner, not competitors)
- Directory and listing opportunities discovered through competitor backlink profiles
- Guest contributions on niche sites that have real organic traffic
- Vendors or partners featuring you in customer stories or recommended tools pages
Key cautions covered:
- Don't publish on sites that exist only to sell links
- Check for real organic traffic and whether it's stable or increasing
- Expect low reply rates in outreach, and plan for it
- Some methods are high quality but limited by how many real relationships you have
- Look for relevance
⭐️ 5 link building methods ranked by how well they actually work - https://www.reddit.com/r/linkbuilding/comments/1tgeomv/5_link_building_methods_ranked_by_how_well_they/
⭐️ Episode 1001 - Guest Blogging Is DEAD for SEO (According to Google) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StrGzJ_05qY
⭐️ Episode 1037 - How One Simple Website Got 384,000 Backlinks (Linkable Assets Explained) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Q5HHatvoc
⭐️ The AI System to Find Relevant Journalists, Land Coverage, and Earn Ongoing High-Authority Backlinks - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/articles_ai-system-find-journalists-earn-high-authority-backlinks/
💎 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 Link Building Fails
00:17 Reddit List Overview
00:53 Adjacent Niche Outreach
02:06 Competitor Backlink Gap
02:46 Niche Blog Outreach
04:20 Pitch Journalists Instead
05:31 Partner Supplier Mentions
06:40 Agency Link Swaps
07:33 Relevance Beats Authority
08:13 Linkable Assets Resource
09:50 Final Thoughts
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#linkbuilding #backlinks #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1061: Breaking down one of the most interesting SEO experiments in recent memory: the Cats.txt hoax created by Mark Williams-Cook.
He invented a completely fake "standard" called cats.txt, published formal documentation for it, and made it look legitimate. Soon after, major crawlers were requesting the file. Google indexed it. AI overviews described it as real. ChatGPT even said it could help you rank in search and large language models.
Then the experiment went viral.
Now AI systems acknowledge that it started as a joke. But before that happened, they confidently explained how it worked and why it mattered.
This episode covers:
- What the Cats.txt experiment actually was
- How Googlebot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, BingBot, AppleBot and others crawled it
- Why ChatGPT initially claimed Cats.txt could help with rankings
- What this reveals about how LLMs retrieve and synthesize information
- Why "LLMs.txt" style tactics are often misunderstood
- How consensus-looking content becomes treated as truth
- The circular authority problem in AI systems
- Why you can't reliably ask an LLM how its own infrastructure works
- How this connects to previous experiments with fake schema markup
The key takeaway: large language models do not inherently know what is authoritative. If enough content presents something as real, the model may confidently describe it as real. LLMs are very good at modeling what people say is true. That is not the same as knowing what is true.
I also explain why you do not need fancy technical files like LLMs.txt to show up in AI-driven systems. A clear About page, strong positioning, relevant landing pages, brand mentions, and real marketing fundamentals will do more for you than trying to implement something that sounds advanced.
If you are a business owner and want to show up in Google and in AI systems:
- Target high-intent searches tied directly to what you sell
- Build conversion-focused landing pages, not just blog posts
- Structure your site around demand
- Earn links and brand mentions
- Do marketing that makes people want to search for you
That is what moves the needle.
⭐️ Introducing cats.txt: The Missing Standard for SEO and GEO - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-catstxt-missing-standard-seo-geo-mark-williams-cook-dijre/
⭐️ Cats.txt - https://catstxt.org/
⭐️ Lily Ray's post about Cats.txt - https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/2058119840565436567
💎 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 Cats.txt Prank
00:43 Proof It Fooled Crawlers
02:07 Why LLMs.txt Fails
03:19 Authority And Feedback Loops
04:02 Inside Cats.txt Spec
05:18 Fake Schema Parallel
05:53 Simple GEO Advice
07:35 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#generativeengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #seo

E1060: AI search is not magic.
It is pattern recognition at scale. It looks for consensus, relevance, authority, repetition, and reinforcement across the web. If you understand that, you can influence it.
In this episode, Kasra Dash and I break down how AI search engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity decide who to recommend.
We go deep into what is working right now, what most SEOs are missing, and how brands can control what AI says about them.
This is based on live testing, deleted pages, AI citation tracking, and real-world case studies.
We cover:
- Why YouTube is massively underutilized in AI search
- How AI engines build "consensus" around a brand
- Why reviews impact not just SEO, but paid ads and AI recommendations
- How to swap out review platforms when one is hurting you
- The real effect of listicles in AI citations
- How ChatGPT uses multiple bots (and why that matters)
- What happens when you delete pages that are being cited in AI
- Differences between ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity
- How to influence AI by amplifying reviews across external sites
- Why most SEOs are undervaluing their skillset
- Whether affiliates and publishers still have a future in AI search
- Why customer service may be the most overlooked SEO lever
- How to think about fan-out queries and recommendation prompts
- When schema helps and when it does nothing
We also talk about:
- Click manipulation in competitive industries
- Query fan-out strategy for product recommendations
- Why brand > anonymous affiliate sites in the current environment
- Why owning assets beats running an agency long term
- How to structure comparisons and "alternatives" pages properly
If you run a SaaS, local service business, agency, affiliate site, or media brand, this episode will change how you think about AI search.
The goal is simple:
Do not let AI decide your narrative.
Understand how it works.
Build consensus.
Control your positioning.
Use SEO as leverage.
⭐️ Kasra Dash on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@kasradash/featured
⭐️ Kasra Dash on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Kasra_Dash
⭐️ Kasra Dash on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasra-dash/
⭐️ Kasra Dash's Website - https://kasradash.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 Kasra Dash
00:20 From Web Dev to SEO
01:54 YouTube Parasite SEO
03:55 Fixing AI Review Consensus
06:55 ChatGPT Reviews Thought Experiment
10:00 Swapping Review Platforms
13:53 Avoiding Cannibalization
15:51 Retargeting Warm Traffic
18:05 Claim Frame Prove
22:05 Customer Service Drives Reviews
25:53 iGaming Click Manipulation
27:05 Building Your Own Assets
35:10 AI Citation Testing
42:41 Getting Recommended by LLMs
45:37 Local SEO Foundations
46:48 Reviews and Kitchen Sink
47:59 Omnichannel Content Coverage
50:10 Grok and LLM Citations
54:06 Listicles and Schema Myths
58:13 Knowledge Panels and SameAs Schema
01:01:16 Future of Affiliates
01:07:14 Early SEO Mistakes
01:12:21 Building Authority Backlinks
01:18:25 Rapid Fire Takeaways
01:21:33 Presence and Mindfulness
01:24:01 Fail Faster and Seven Figures
01:29:00 Where to Find Kasra
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo