The Edward Show

E1082: WPBeginner used to be one of the biggest WordPress educational blogs on the internet.
According to Semrush, WPBeginner was getting around 2.6 million monthly clicks from Google at its peak in May 2021. Now it appears to be down to roughly 27,000 monthly clicks.
That is not a small decline. That is a near-total collapse in Google traffic for a site that many WordPress users have relied on for years.
In this episode, I break down what may have happened, what probably did not cause it, and what WPBeginner could do if they want to recover.
I cover:
- Why WPBeginner's traffic decline is so unusual
- How Google algorithm updates appear to line up with the drop
- Why AI stealing clicks probably does not explain the whole collapse
- Why "Google hates independent publishers" is too simple of an explanation
- Whether content decay or keyword cannibalization could have played a role
- The problem with overly promotional top-of-funnel content
- Why self-promotional listicles can work until they stop working
- How bad user signals may have hurt the brand over time
- Why long, fluffy blog posts with delayed answers may no longer work
- Why Google may be rewarding shorter, faster, less promotional answers
- What Lars Lofgren said about pruning and cutting down the site
- Why WPBeginner may need to consolidate, rewrite, and remove a large amount of content
- How WPBeginner could shift from bloated blog content to shorter conversion-focused SEO pages
- What other SEOs and publishers should learn from this case
My take:
WPBeginner probably did not lose nearly all of its Google traffic because of one single issue.
The more likely explanation is a combination of:
- Too much cannibalization
- Too much promotion in informational articles
- Too much fluff before the answer
- Incomplete answers
- Searchers losing trust in the brand
- Google updates rewarding more-trusted pages that answers the query faster
If your SEO strategy depends on long informational posts that exist mainly to push products, plugins, affiliates, or internal offers, this case is worth paying attention to.
It will still work in small amounts.
But when an entire site starts to feel like that, Google and users will eventually stop rewarding it.
⭐️ Lars Lofgren's post on 𝕏 - https://x.com/larslofgren/status/2066581447373394325?s=46
⭐️ Lars Lofgren's post on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7472346782119866369/
⭐️ WPBeginner - https://www.wpbeginner.com/
⭐️ Episode 898 - How NapLab Built an SEO Moat (103,000 Keywords, No Shortcuts) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9vzdovTfmw
⭐️ Episode 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 WPBeginner Traffic Collapse
01:27 Lars Lofgren Flags
03:07 Possible Causes Rundown
05:48 Promotion Backlash
09:23 Fluff Content Problem
11:15 Can They Rebound
13:13 Prune Rewrite Refocus
15:08 Wrap Up And Farewell
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #seo #wordpress #blogging

E1081: Google Merchant Center can make or break ecommerce revenue.
Gagan Ghotra and Harpreet Singh join the show to break down how Google Merchant Center works, why it matters for ecommerce SEO, and the common mistakes that cause products to lose visibility, get disapproved, or underperform in Google Shopping and free product listings.
We cover how product feeds influence visibility across Google, what separates strong feeds from weak ones, and why Merchant Center is not just an SEO task. It touches inventory, pricing, product pages, reviews, shipping, return policies, merchandising, email marketing, and the wider ecommerce operation.
Topics covered:
- What Google Merchant Center is and why ecommerce brands need it
- How Merchant Center differs from Google Search Console
- Why product feeds matter for Google Shopping, free listings, AI Mode, Gemini, and future agentic commerce
- How Google decides which products show up in product grids
- Why brand authority still plays a major role in ecommerce visibility
- How smaller ecommerce stores can compete with larger brands
- The importance of accurate pricing, inventory, shipping, and product availability
- Why mismatches between your website, schema, and Merchant Center feed can lead to product disapprovals or account suspension
- How checkout experience and deceptive cart behavior can hurt Merchant Center performance
- Why local inventory, in-store pickup, and nearby availability can help smaller retailers stand out
- What "investing in Merchant Center" actually means
- Why Merchant Center should involve SEO, inventory, merchandising, operations, email marketing, and customer service
- How delayed inventory syncing can create major problems
- Why reviews matter for Merchant Center, ecommerce SEO, and AI visibility
- How to improve product titles, descriptions, and images
- Why copying manufacturer descriptions or Amazon descriptions is a mistake
- How to differentiate products when competitors sell the same items
- Why GTINs, MPNs, and brand data matter
- What to audit first when inheriting a new Merchant Center account
- How to approach large catalogs with thousands of SKUs
- When AI can and cannot be used for product images
- Why heavily AI-generated product images can create trust and legal risks
- The biggest Merchant Center mistakes new ecommerce marketers make
- Why rejected products can affect the performance of accepted products
- How Merchant Center supports Performance Max campaigns
- The key Merchant Center metrics ecommerce teams should monitor
- What causes Merchant Center suspensions most often
- Why there is less misinformation around Merchant Center than other areas of SEO
- The fastest Merchant Center quick wins ecommerce teams can implement this week
A major theme in this conversation is that Merchant Center performance depends on consistency.
Your product page, product schema, product feed, pricing, availability, shipping promises, return policies, and customer experience all need to line up. If they do not, Google can reject products, reduce visibility, or suspend the account.
We also talk about why Merchant Center is becoming more important as Google adds more product-led search experiences and AI-driven shopping features. Even if Google Shopping is not a major traffic source in your country today, having clean, accurate, complete product data is likely to become more important over time.
⭐️ 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/
⭐️ 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
00:00 Merchant Center Basics
02:38 Why It Matters
05:42 Ranking Factors
11:12 Feed Accuracy Risks
13:41 Team Investment
21:02 Building Brand Authority
25:34 Feed Optimization
32:19 Identifiers And Audits
38:03 Scaling With AI
43:55 Mistakes And Suspensions
48:30 Metrics And Quick Wins
58:40 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #ecommerceseo #ecommerce #seo

E1080: Sarvesh Shrivastava grew a new Instagram account from zero to almost 300,000 followers using AI videos of himself.
He has not recorded a single video for that account.
The face is AI. The voice is AI. The scripts come from his existing ideas, Loom videos, 𝕏 posts, and team research. The editing is handled by his team. And the account has reached millions of views per month.
Sarvesh breaks down exactly how the system works.
We talk about:
- How Sarvesh grew to almost 300,000 Instagram followers with AI videos
- Why he started with a new account instead of using his personal Instagram
- How he uses HeyGen to create an AI avatar of himself
- How he uses ElevenLabs to clone his voice
- Why he still uses human editors instead of trying to automate everything
- How his team hides imperfect AI moments with B-roll, screen recordings, and fast edits
- The three-second rule his editors use for short-form videos
- Why most viewers do not notice or care that the videos are AI-generated
- How he structures the team behind the account
- How he uses Claude to turn Loom videos, Twitter threads, and past content into new video scripts
- Why generic AI scripts usually fail
- How to make AI scripts sound more like you
- Why he recommends using your own past content as the source material
- How he is testing long-form AI videos
- Why editing is still the hardest part to automate
- How often he posts
- Why he does not use a VPN to post
- What changed when he shifted from general business content to SEO content
- How YouTube Shorts helped grow his YouTube channel
- Why YouTube videos can also rank on Google
- How descriptions and keywords help videos show up in search
- Why local business owners, agency owners, and camera-shy founders should pay attention
The main workflow:
- Record a short training video of yourself for HeyGen
- Record voice samples for ElevenLabs
- Write or generate a script from your own ideas
- Create the voiceover in ElevenLabs
- Upload the voiceover into HeyGen
- Generate the AI avatar video
- Send the raw video to an editor
- Add B-roll, screen recordings, captions, sound effects, and music
- Hide the moments where the avatar looks unnatural
- Post manually to Instagram, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, LinkedIn, or other platforms
Sarvesh explains why this works especially well for people who know they should be making video content but never actually do it.
This includes:
- Founders who are too busy to record
- Clients who refuse to get on camera
- Local business owners who want more content
- Agency owners who want a repeatable content system
- Creators who are camera shy
- People with useful ideas but no time to film daily
We also talk about the risks. If you already have an audience that knows you personally, posting AI videos of yourself without testing first could feel strange or inauthentic. Sarvesh and I discuss why starting with a separate account can be a safer way to test the idea before using it on your main profile.
Resources:
- Sarvesh got his first editor from Fiverr and his second one through his first editor's referral
- For more editors and thumbnail designers - https://ytjobs.co/ 
- HeyGen - https://www.heygen.com 
- ElevenLabs - https://elevenlabs.io 
- Descript - https://www.descript.com 
- Reuse Video - https://reusevideo.com 
- Exactly how to post across social platforms - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/social-media-posting-strategy/ 
- How to get video ideas - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/content-creation-ideas/ 
- How to edit with Descript - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/15-minute-no-thinking-video-system-500k-views/ 
⭐️ Sarvesh on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marketingwithsarvesh/ 
⭐️ Sarvesh on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bloggersarvesh/ 
⭐️ Sarvesh on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/bloggersarveshseo/ 
⭐️ Sarvesh on 𝕏 - https://x.com/bloggersarvesh
⭐️ Sarvesh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarvesh-shrivastava-blogger/ 
⭐️ Sarvesh's agency, Alventra Marketing - https://alventramarketing.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 AI Avatar Goes Viral
01:46 Why This Matters
02:28 YouTube Shorts Expansion
03:07 AI Labels and Disclosure
03:49 Next Step Long Form
07:08 Origin Story and Audience Reaction
09:10 Team Roles and Workflow
15:47 Posting Strategy and Geo Reach
18:32 Tool Stack HeyGen ElevenLabs
24:36 Who Notices AI Videos
25:08 Getting Fooled by B Roll
26:22 Scripts from Looms and Threads
30:33 Editing Captions Tools
32:19 Ranking on Google SEO
33:06 Descriptions Keywords Strategy
34:33 New IG Account Viral
35:16 Retention Three Second Rule
36:25 Music Workflow Reposting
38:41 Posting Frequency Growth
41:03 Authenticity New Accounts
44:05 Manual Posting Crosspost
44:49 Thanks and Outro
The Edward Show. The #1 digital marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#artificialintelligence #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing #viralmarketing

E1079: David Quaid returns to the podcast to talk through SEO myths that refuse to die, and why a lot of the current advice around SEO, GEO, AI search, backlinks, content, and LLMs is either incomplete or flat-out misleading.
We start with the SEO vs. GEO debate and why treating them like two separate worlds can lead to bad strategy. David argues that if your site cannot rank, cannot get crawled properly, and cannot build authority in search, you should not assume AI systems are going to magically find and trust you.
From there, we get into the myths people keep repeating about content, backlinks, EEAT, Gemini, toxic links, parasite SEO, expired domains, HTML sitemaps, and what helps a site rank in 2026.
Topics we cover:
- Why "just build a good brand and AI will find you" is not a real SEO strategy
- Why GEO does not let you bypass Google, backlinks, rankings, or authority
- The problem with treating SEO and GEO as separate disciplines
- Why "good content" alone is usually not enough to rank
- Why overproducing content and landing pages can waste time and money
- How Microsoft Clarity can show what users actually do on a landing page
- Why people often misunderstand thin content, duplicate content, and information gain
- The problem with surface-level EEAT advice like author bios, outbound links, and forced credibility signals
- What David thinks people get wrong about the Google API leak
- Why Google may have author-related and site-related variables without those variables meaning what SEOs assume they mean
- Why backlinks still matter in 2026
- Why you do not need backlinks to every page
- Why constantly buying more links may not help if you are losing or devaluing links at the same time
- How to think about link quality beyond domain-level relevance
- Why relationships, partner content, and real pages with traffic can still matter for authority
- What David would do in the first 30 days of SEO for a new SaaS site
- Why he recommends publishing low-difficulty pages early and seeing what gets indexed
- Why he thinks an HTML sitemap matters more than most people realize
- How an HTML sitemap can help both search engines and AI systems understand a site
- Why toxic backlink reports are often more harmful than helpful
- When disavowing links might make sense, and why that is rare for most sites
- Why Moz spam score and similar third-party metrics can create unnecessary fear
- How David thinks about expired domains and when they might be useful
- Why expired domains are risky as a primary domain
- How PBNs and link farms have changed as Google has changed how it handles link spam
- Why "link echoes" may be explained by user signals and ranking history
- Why a page can keep ranking after a backlink disappears
- How relevance and authority work together in competitive search results
- Why long-tail keywords can still work extremely well
- Why the idea that "keywords do not matter anymore" usually comes from people who have worked on very high-authority sites
- Why Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and other LLMs can give bad SEO advice
- Why knowing what advice to ignore is the difference between an expert using AI and a beginner being misled by it
- Why LLMs often repeat popular SEO myths because those myths rank on high-authority websites
- Why technical SEO advice is often overstated for new sites
- Why crawlability is usually more binary than people make it sound
- Why XML sitemaps do not solve the authority problem for new websites
- Why parasite SEO is not an automatic ranking shortcut
- What people misunderstand about using Medium, Reddit, and other high-authority platforms
- Why some SERPs are much harder to enter than others
- How click history, backlinks, and relevance can make rankings harder to disrupt
- Why "we know nothing about SEO" is also a myth
- How reverse engineering search behavior can still teach SEOs a lot
- What David changed his mind about after seeing how video content performed
- The decline of WPBeginner and what its traffic graph may suggest about backlinks, content quality, and site direction
This conversation is for SEOs, founders, content marketers, SaaS teams, and anyone trying to understand what still works in organic search while AI search changes how people discover information.
⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid 
⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/ 
⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DavidQuaid 
⭐️ David Quaid's agency - https://primaryposition.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 Legendary Guest Return
01:15 GEO vs SEO Risks
04:01 Bing AI Share Voice
06:55 Stop Content Overproduction
08:29 EEAT and Thin Content Myth
12:36 API Leak Explained
16:57 Backlinks Still Matter
20:27 New Site First 30 Days
28:16 Toxic Backlinks Myth
31:37 Expired Domains PBNs
34:59 Link Echoes User Signals
38:44 Relevance Beats Authority
40:06 Keywords Still Matter
41:26 Broad Match Rankings Fade
42:23 Myth LLMs Know SEO
44:10 Tech Stack Myth
46:30 Content EEAT Schema Myths
48:12 Parasite SEO Reality
49:48 Breaking Into Locked SERPs
51:56 Reddit Medium Parasite SEO Tactics
55:24 Myth We Know Nothing
58:00 Changing Minds On Content
01:02:22 WPBeginner Traffic Collapse
01:07:59 Google Infrastructure Moat
01:11:44 One Thing To Focus
01:14:15 Wrap Up and Next Debate
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #seo #webdevelopment #digitalmarketing

E1078: Charles Floate joins the show to talk about where SEO is going as Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI systems change how people find information.
The main question: if brand mentions are becoming more important, do backlinks still matter?
Charles argues that backlinks still have value, but mentions are becoming much more important because AI systems do not only look at links. They also look at where a brand is mentioned, which sources mention it, how often it appears near certain topics, and whether those sources are trusted in a specific niche.
We also talk about why Charles stepped back from his day-to-day role at PressWhiz, what he thinks is happening to link building, why small teams may have an advantage right now, and how SEO work is changing as search becomes more personalized and answer-based.
Topics covered:
- Why brand mentions are becoming more valuable in SEO
- How to acquire brand mentions
- Whether backlinks still matter for AI Overviews, AI Mode, and ChatGPT
- How AI systems may evaluate trust, authority, and source quality
- Why different niches may have different ranking and citation signals
- Why Reddit, YouTube, podcasts, reviews, PR, and community signals can matter
- The difference between links, mentions, co-occurrence, and trusted sources
- Why mass AI content can hurt a site long term
- How small technical teams can compete with larger companies
- Why Charles left the day-to-day work of a major link building marketplace
- What he is building next
- Why video is becoming more important for SEO
- Why customer support and product quality can affect brand mentions
- Why automating marketing before understanding it is usually a mistake
- How AI may change SEO teams, agencies, and software companies
We also discuss Google I/O, AI Mode, AI Overviews, multimodal search, query fanout, personalization, digital PR, Reddit manipulation, link building marketplaces, indie hackers, AI startups, and why SEO interest is higher than ever.
⭐️ 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 Training - https://charlesfloatetraining.com/ 
⭐️ Charles Floate's PressWhizz - https://presswhizz.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 Charles Floate
00:13 Newlywed Europe Plans
01:09 Why Shift From PressWhizz
02:24 Google IO Fallout
04:14 Multimodal Search Future
06:09 Trust Signals And EEAT
08:04 Adult And iGaming SEO
12:08 AI Search Centralization
14:37 GEO Versus SEO Debate
18:37 Indie Hacker Beats Brands
22:25 Leaving PressWhizz Explained
26:13 Backlinks Versus Mentions
27:38 Getting Brand Mentions
29:30 Unbundling Tool Suites
31:12 Three Startups In Motion
33:53 Team And Marketing Setup
34:47 Hiring Video Editors
36:26 Why SEO Marketing Sucks
36:43 Avoiding Tough Niches
37:35 Hiring Editors With AI
39:21 SEO Interest Surging
41:55 Optimism About Grounded AI
45:07 Businesses Struggling With Change
49:48 What Not To Automate
54:16 Video Workflow And Descript
01:00:26 Email And Social Strategy
01:05:43 Best Next Step CRO
01:08:22 Closing And Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#backlinks #linkbuilding #searchengineoptimization #seo