The Edward Show

E1207: An SEO spent his summer collecting more than 30,000 documents to find which SEO tactics work. That SEO, Krešimir Ćorluka, narrowed them to 9,249 studies, tests, and papers, then ranked the strongest evidence.
I covered some of his most surprising findings in an earlier episode. This time, Krešimir joins me to explain how he built the research, which results he trusts, which ones he questions, and which tactics he prioritizes in his own SEO work.
We dig into:
- How he used Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, two AI models, and manual checks to sort thousands of SEO studies.
- Why so many SEO case studies fail to prove causation: no control group, multiple changes at once, seasonality, and agencies rarely publishing failed experiments.
- Why adding "Just Updated" to a title tag beats putting the current year in it.
- What the tests found about exact-match internal link anchor text versus using lots of variations.
- Why dynamic and static prices in title tags produced different traffic outcomes.
- The Google Lens test that reported a 90% increase after adding EXIF location data and ImageObject schema, and how other EXIF tests found no benefit.
- How removing review-related schema coincided with rankings recovering for two of Krešimir's clients.
- Why he questions many AI search optimization studies, especially those measuring ChatGPT mentions from a handful of prompts.
- What the evidence says about LLMs.txt, expert quotes, statistics, and tables for AI citations.
- Why disavowing backlinks without a manual action generally doesn't improve rankings.
- His theory that Open Graph images influence which thumbnail Google shows in search results.
- Why digital PR, original company data, and useful calculators earn backlinks and brand mentions.
- How clearer product descriptions and more prominent calls to action affect ecommerce traffic and conversions.
- Why big technical SEO questions, including pagination and content pruning, still need better research.
- How to keep an SEO change log so you can revisit each change and judge its effect months later.
We also discuss a critical distinction: a study can report a large traffic increase without proving which change caused it. Krešimir explains why controlled tests deserve more weight and why you need to think through the implications before trying an unusual tactic on a client site.
Near the end, I ask what he would tell an SEO to do tomorrow. His answers include investing in digital PR and making sure your website clearly answers the questions customers ask about your products and services.
⭐️ My earlier episode breaking down the research: https://youtu.be/q3zknvoFuNc 
⭐️ The SEO Meta Study - https://ovisy.hr/blog/seo-meta-study 
⭐️ Krešimir Ćorluka on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kresimir-corluka/ 
⭐️ SEO Evidence Checklist - https://ovisy.hr/seo-checklist 
⭐️ Krešimir Ćorluka's agency, Ovisy - https://ovisy.hr/ 
⭐️ Croatia SEO Summit - https://croatiaseosummit.com/ 
⭐️ Zagreb SEO Day - https://croatiaseosummit.com/zagreb-seo-day/ 
💎 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 SEO Meta Study Setup
00:59 Building the Research Pipeline
03:57 Free PDF and Why
07:39 What Makes a Tactic Best
10:03 AEO and GEO Reality Check
15:24 Anchor Text and Disavow Surprises
20:32 Title Tag Experiments
25:11 EXIF and Schema Debate
28:08 Footer Links and SEO Risks
31:29 Product Pages That Convert
37:40 Using Proprietary Data for PR
42:36 Linkable Assets
43:25 Calculator SEO Case Study
44:10 Programmatic SEO Pitfalls
45:03 Linkable Assets Still Win
48:34 Meta Study Takeaways
50:34 Unanswered SEO Questions
52:53 Keep an SEO Changelog
56:40 What Makes Tests Shareable
01:00:55 Tell Tests as Stories
01:03:42 OG Images for CTR
01:08:27 Schema Risks and Penalties
01:13:38 Running SEO Conferences
01:19:10 Final Advice and Wrap-Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization

E1206: Black Friday SEO usually starts months before the sale. But if you're starting late, there are still ways to get your offers in front of buyers on Google and ChatGPT.
I'm joined by Gagan Ghotra, Harpreet Singh, and David Quaid to break down Black Friday SEO for ecommerce brands, SaaS companies, and anyone selling products online.
We go through the pages to create, the keywords to target, and the changes you can still make as Black Friday approaches.
What we cover:
- When to publish Black Friday pages, why February is a better starting point than October, and what to do if you're late.
- The keyword format "Black Friday + product category + deals" and how to use it for specific buyer searches.
- How many Black Friday landing pages to create without making them compete against each other in Google.
- Why brands need to own searches for their discount codes, coupons, and Black Friday offers, even when they don't run a seasonal sale.
- How different discount amounts give Google and ChatGPT more relevant offers to surface for specific searches.
- How to structure Black Friday URLs, keep useful pages year after year, and build internal links from your best-performing product and collection pages.
- How to use Google's People Also Ask questions to update existing pages and pursue rankings even at the last minute.
- What product descriptions need for AI search: materials, dimensions, compatibility, weather resistance, and the details shoppers compare before buying.
- Why product comparisons and buying guides matter when customers research in ChatGPT before they search for a deal.
- How product schema and Google Merchant Center feeds affect shopping features, plus what they won't do for organic rankings.
- How to use press releases, digital PR, affiliate partnerships, and relevant backlinks to reach searches your own site may not rank for.
- Why social posts, short videos, creator reviews, and Reddit discussions matter for Google results and AI-generated product recommendations.
- What brands can learn from Black Friday pages and search results involving Amazon, Adidas, Nike, Sony, and Mattress Firm.
- How to decide between SEO and paid ads, and how to keep converting shoppers after Cyber Monday.
We also discuss competitor keyword gaps, the risk of creating too many near-identical sale pages, and why an offer with the lowest price doesn't always get the sale.
Whether you've spent months preparing or you're putting your Black Friday campaign together now, this episode gives you concrete tactics to test before the shopping rush.
⭐️ 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/@seoharp  
⭐️ 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/ 
⭐️ 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 Black Friday SEO Kickoff
00:30 When to Publish Pages
01:49 SERP Displacement Tactics
06:36 Discount Codes Strategy
09:10 Own Your Coupon SERPs
11:20 Above the Fold Offers
13:56 Avoid Cannibalization
21:59 AI Product Attributes
28:25 Payments and Deal Terms
31:58 Social Media SEO Plays
36:09 Creator Reviews Ecosystem
38:04 Review Domains and Mentions
40:29 Reddit Landing Pages
42:06 Should Brands Build Subreddits
42:47 Reddit Spam Crackdown
51:18 Working With Moderators
53:02 Reddit In AI Results
54:35 Digital PR Playbook
58:58 Press Release Example
01:00:47 Backlinks And Partnerships
01:03:58 LLM Guides And Long Tails
01:07:55 Agentic Buying Reality Check
01:10:20 Attribution And Analytics Fixes
01:16:17 Schema And Merchant Center
01:19:25 Claude For Schema
01:21:02 Claude vs Gemini Schemas
01:21:27 AI Video Editing Workflow
01:23:37 Merchant Center Feed Sync
01:26:54 LLMs and Product Feeds
01:29:03 Gift Guides Without ROI
01:30:07 Amazon Black Friday URLs
01:37:27 Cannibalization Explained
01:38:59 Black Friday Site Architecture
01:42:18 PAA Hack for Rankings
01:43:50 Internal Links and CRO Widgets
01:45:27 Beat Brands With Relevance
01:49:58 Budget Split and ROI Math
01:52:12 Discounts Shipping and Trust
01:53:45 Cyber Monday and Post Sale
01:56:12 Wrap Up and Key Takeaways
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #ecommerce #digitalmarketing

E1204: Google is heading toward an algorithm designed to target AI-generated content, according to Kristine Schachinger, an SEO and Google penalty recovery specialist with 15 years of recovery experience. Google's John Mueller liked her public prediction that recent spam updates are testing the approach.
Kristine joins me to explain what she thinks Google is preparing, what she's seeing on sites hit by spam updates, and how businesses should protect their rankings before the next major update.
In this episode:
- Why Kristine predicts an AI content-focused algorithm in the next 6-8 months.
- How repeated AI-generated content could contaminate the training data behind Google's AI systems.
- Why Kristine refuses to publish AI-written content for clients, even when the content initially ranks.
- A client whose writers used AI without the owner's knowledge: Google lifted the manual spam action in seven days, but the site still hadn't recovered a year later.
- Why ranking AI content often survives for months before Google's quality systems fully evaluate it.
- What to do if your site already has hundreds of AI-written pages: don't delete everything; rewrite weak sections in stages and measure the results.
- What Kristine noticed during Google's September 2026 spam update, and why she thinks Google is escalating its response to AI content.
- How to spot indexing problems in Google Search Console, including "Crawled - currently not indexed" and "Discovered - currently not indexed."
- Why a site that stops ranking for its own brand name needs an immediate technical and penalty investigation.
- Kristine's theory that Google's Helpful Content Update mistakenly hit legitimate sites that resembled affiliate spam.
- How rebuilding links, improving content, and strengthening brand signals affect recovery after a major traffic collapse.
- Why H1s, descriptive headings, image alt text, entity relationships, and accessibility matter for search engines and AI agents.
- How a JavaScript error made hundreds of pages appear blank to Googlebot even though visitors could load them.
- How spammers exploited indexable internal search pages on a major e-commerce site, forcing a review of 300,000 URLs and triggering a manual action just before Black Friday.
- Why Kristine starts recovery audits with crawling, rendering, indexing, and Core Web Vitals before working on content.
- Her take on AI Overviews, neural matching, and why "GEO" is still SEO.
Kristine also explains how she recovered sites from Penguin penalties, what Google means when its systems "lose faith" in a website, and why a lifted penalty doesn't guarantee that traffic will return.
⭐️ Kristine Schachinger on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kschachinger-seo/ 
⭐️ Webcology podcast on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4igLPEdtHFuMaaaT8eJFuf 
⭐️ Webcology podcast on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/webcology/id280183059 
⭐️ Webcology podcast website - https://redcircle.com/shows/webcology 
💎 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 Content Crackdown
02:07 Model Collapse Explained
04:01 SEO Origins Story
06:19 Why Ban AI Content
08:05 Penguin Fallout Lessons
10:44 Training Data Ethics
14:27 Watermarking And SynthID
15:46 When AI Content Gets Hit
18:39 Entities And Cosine Relevance
22:36 Headers And Accessibility
26:20 Manual Actions Recovery
30:09 Crawled Not Indexed Signals
35:07 Behavior Signals And Navboost
39:13 Google Watches SEOs
42:53 Google Tracks Everything
43:52 Google Plus Identity Era
45:03 Author Myth Explained
47:10 Fake Bios and Personas
47:54 Penguin Recovery Case Study
48:57 Alt Text Done Right
52:40 HouseFresh HCU Comeback
53:45 Why HCU Broke Sites
56:27 Brand Queries and Suppression
01:02:02 Hidden Gems and UGC Shift
01:04:20 AI Overviews and Neural Matching
01:06:27 2026 Spam Update AI Focus
01:11:30 Big Brands vs Small Sites
01:17:27 How Google Measures Quality
01:22:11 Why GEO Is Made Up
01:26:58 AI Search Is Still Search
01:28:14 Why GEO Is Misleading
01:30:07 Brand Signals That Help LLMs
01:31:40 Write Clear Structured Content
01:33:49 AI Traffic And Breadcrumbing
01:35:02 Technical SEO First Always
01:36:50 Core Web Vitals Drops Hurt
01:38:54 Hidden Rendering Failures
01:40:45 Indexable Search Spam Attack
01:46:19 Lock Down Search Pages
01:47:46 300 Percent Growth From Tech Fixes
01:51:15 Why Push Button Audits Fail
01:53:08 Diagnosing Traffic Losses
01:57:50 Tools For Content Versus Tech
01:59:31 Where To Find Christine
02:00:40 Podcast Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #webdevelopment #seopodcast

E1203: Bodhi Gallo reveals the local SEO tactics he's using to rank businesses on Google Maps, including strategies he believes Google hasn't caught up with yet.
Bodhi grew a dumpster rental business to roughly $750,000 in annual revenue through local SEO before selling it. Today, he runs a 60-person SEO agency serving home service businesses.
We break down his most aggressive strategies, including how he got a brand-new business into Google Maps' top 3 in just 24 hours.
We cover:
- How Bodhi reached Google Maps' top 3 in 24 hours with an exact-match domain, matching Business Profile, and almost no competition. He expects the site to generate roughly $200,000 in extra profit for his dad this year.
- Why keyword-rich business names outrank competitors with far more reviews, and whether Google will crack down.
- How he creates multiple Google Business Profiles for different services and locations without triggering suspensions.
- Why exact-match domains still rank, including domains targeting individual neighborhoods.
- How he structures location pages, Google Maps embeds, and internal links across multiple service areas.
- How he gets backlinks through vendors, reciprocal links, local publications, and private blog networks.
- Why youth sports sponsorships, chambers of commerce, and business partners make strong local link sources.
- The private link-exchange network his team is building across roughly 8,000 websites.
- Why review velocity matters, plus tactics involving paid reviews and customer incentives
- Why Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook, and business directories affect local SEO and AI recommendations.
- How to inspect ChatGPT and Gemini's sources, then earn mentions from websites they cite.
- How LinkedIn articles rank for local service keywords and occupy additional Google results, even when the posts contain AI-generated content.
- How he optimizes Google Local Services Ads with fast phone answers, at least 10 new photos a week, and a steady flow of reviews.
- Why branded searches matter and how Facebook ads and short-form videos generate more of them.
- How to uncover valuable keywords like "EV charger installation near me" and "metal roofing."
- Why mass-producing AI location pages creates indexing problems, and how he expands sites gradually.
- How he handles "Crawled - currently not indexed" pages and decides when to rewrite content.
- How he'd spend a local business's first $1,000 monthly SEO budget on links, citations, pages, and review tools.
- Why programmatic SEO is overrated while posting real business videos across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube is underrated.
We also discuss Google Maps driving-direction manipulation, Google Business Profile posts, AI content, the future of on-page SEO, and which tactics Google might target next.
Bodhi's takeaway: Target services that generate revenue, build focused pages, establish a legitimate local presence, earn reviews and backlinks, and build a brand.
⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bodhigallo/ 
⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on 𝕏 - https://x.com/irentdumpsters 
⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bodhigallo/ 
⭐️ Bodhi Gallo on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Bodhigallo 
⭐️ Bodhi Gallo's agency, Stryker Digital - https://stryker-digital.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 Bodhi Gallo
00:20 Scaling and Exit Story
00:41 Multiple GBP Playbook
02:23 Backlinks and PBN Tactics
04:17 Service Pages After HCU
04:42 Keyword Stuffed Names
07:22 Exact Match Domains Setup
09:06 Neighborhood EMD Strategy
12:13 Trade Operator Advantage
14:00 Hiring Stallions
16:46 SEO Origin Story
18:45 Roofer Ranking Blueprint
21:32 Apple Maps and Citations
24:17 LSA Optimization Tips
25:54 Creative Link Building
32:47 Social Alpha and Events
38:35 AI Sites and Indexing
41:38 Vanity Traffic vs Revenue
43:31 High Intent SEO Wins
44:22 Finding Keyword Gaps
46:19 Local SEO Keyword Process
46:57 Review Generation Tactics
49:17 Review Velocity Strategy
50:50 Authority Links And Indexing
51:49 Multi Location Page Structure
54:52 Branded Search Growth
58:17 GBP Non Negotiables
01:00:05 Driving Directions Debate
01:03:11 GBP Posts And AI Visibility
01:04:36 Citations And Parasite SEO
01:09:39 Programmatic SEO Reality
01:12:11 Mentors And Paid Access
01:14:42 Future Proof Local SEO
01:16:56 AI Content And Social Posting
01:19:35 Spending 1000 On SEO
01:22:49 Overrated Vs Underrated
01:27:10 Closing And Where To Find
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#localseo #googlebusinessprofileoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1202: AI is turning self-promotion into recommendations. People are calling themselves the top expert in their niche on LinkedIn, in press releases, and on their own websites. Google's AI Overviews then repeat those claims and cite the original posts as evidence.
I break down real examples from the competitive SEO industry and show how to use these tactics to get AI to associate your name or business with the searches that matter.
Here's what I cover:
- How Pedro Dias called himself the world's most renowned AI visibility expert in a LinkedIn post, and Google's AI Overview repeated the claim hours later.
- Why starting a LinkedIn post with your target search phrase puts that language in the page title, URL, and meta description.
- How a relevant LinkedIn profile, established posting history, followers, and backlinks strengthen a post's chances of ranking.
- How Zeeshan Yaseen got Google's AI to call him a leading LLM SEO expert by distributing a press release through GlobeNewswire that appeared on Yahoo Finance.
- How that Yahoo Finance release continued appearing in AI answers months later, with backlinks to the release contributing.
- The three press release approaches: a strong placement with backlinks, a strong placement without backlinks, and recurring lower-cost releases.
- What an $80 AB Newswire release gets you versus a more expensive Yahoo Finance placement, plus the $500-per-year package for 83 releases mentioned in the episode.
- How David Quaid published a "Who Is the King of SEO?" article on his own website, then appeared in Google's AI Overview as the person associated with that title.
- How matching your target phrase in the page title, H1, URL slug, and beginning of the first sentence makes the page relevant to the query.
- How self-promotional "best of" listicles work to put your own business at number one.
- How you should publish only a handful of these listicles, disclose your connection, give competitors fair coverage, and avoid exaggeration.
- How to combine an on-site listicle, a press release, social posts, and backlinks so several sources reinforce the same claim.
The larger point: You don't need to wait for someone else to call you the leading expert. You need relevant pages, strong platforms, and a consistent claim that search engines can find.
⭐️ Source article - How to Get AI to Recommend You as the Expert - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/how-to-get-ai-to-recommend-you/ 
💎 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 Makes You Famous
01:14 LinkedIn Claim Hack
02:44 Press Releases That Stick
05:10 Your Website Crowns You
06:24 Self Promotional Listicles
07:45 Stack Tactics Together
08:46 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #onlinereputationmanagement