The Edward Show

E1171: Query augmentation: how Google connects searches with related queries and why one page can end up ranking for hundreds or thousands of keywords that never even appear on the page.
James Dooley returns to the show, bringing the goods.
We get into the difference between lexical matching and query semantics, how Google interprets search intent, and why trusted sites with strong user and brand signals start ranking across much broader keyword buckets.
James explains why a page targeting one keyword can eventually rank for entirely different phrases when Google decides those searches share the same intent.
We cover:
- What query augmentation is and how it relates to query fan-out
- How synthetic queries expand a search into related terms
- Why a page can rank for keywords that are nowhere in the content
- The difference between dictionary semantics and query semantics
- Why "cheap" and "best" can mean the same thing in one industry and completely different things in another
- How branded search, social traffic, backlinks, user behavior, and site trust expand the queries a page ranks for
- Why smaller sites need tighter relevance while trusted sites get more freedom
- How to use Google Search Console to find queries Google already associates with a page
- A simple Claude workflow for turning existing GSC rankings into new H2s and sections
- How People Also Ask questions reveal additional topics worth targeting
- James' Google Images trick for finding entities connected to a question through modifier chips
- How query augmentation produces more impressions, clicks, leads, and sales
- How James uses self-optimizing pages to identify low-CTR queries and rewrite sections
- Why the text Google pulls into a search result matters for CTR
- How to decide whether a query deserves its own page or belongs as an H2
- Why SERP overlap is one of the clearest ways to make that decision
- Why 200 words is not automatically thin content
- Why satisfying search intent matters more than hitting an arbitrary word count
- Why James wants pages as short as possible and as long as necessary
- How changing only the H2 hierarchy moved pages into different query buckets
- How Claude-built websites often become too wordy
- How James uses AI agents focused on semantics, sales copy, compliance, information gain, and concision
- Why he uses multiple LLMs instead of relying on a single model
- How LinkGap ranked for related backlink terms despite having almost no written content
- How James says Koray's Audio To Text expanded into huge numbers of related searches as traffic, links, and usage grew
- What the ongoing "King of AEO" competition is revealing about Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, YouTube, and Google Images
- How James is seeing press release effects fade after roughly four to six weeks
- How LinkedIn posts are still competing with exact-match domains, guest posts, press releases, and other SEO tactics
The central idea is simple: rank for the initial query, satisfy the searcher, build trust, study the additional queries Google starts showing your page for, and then expand the page around the terms Google already associates with it.
⭐️ James Dooley's website - https://jamesdooley.com/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on 𝕏 - https://x.com/james_dooley 
⭐️ James Dooley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameszdooley/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jameszdooley/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/james.dooley1/ 
⭐️ James Dooley on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@JamesDooley 
💎 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 Query Augmentation
00:30 Synthetic Queries Explained
03:02 Intent and Behavioral Signals
03:47 Cheap vs Best Semantics
08:03 PPC Match Types Analogy
11:09 When Smaller Sites Win
14:24 Expanding Buckets with GSC
18:15 Entity Chips in Images
20:18 Turning Rankings into Revenue
22:04 CTR Optimization with AI
27:23 People Also Ask Link Strategy
29:08 Case Studies LinkGap and AudioToText
34:00 SEO Compounding Wins
34:40 Link Gap Lead Magnet
35:04 H2 vs New Page
37:43 Testing the 50 50 Call
39:04 Thin Content Myth
40:44 Claude Sites Done Right
45:11 Concise SOP Mindset
47:06 Query Augmentation Mistakes
49:28 Self Healing SEO Tweaks
50:40 AI Harness Model Debates
53:21 King of AEO Showdown
56:39 Press Releases and Social
01:01:23 Wrap Up and Thanks
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seotips #seo #digitalmarketing

E1169: How are SEOs doing keyword research in 2026?
I break down a viral thread from the SEO subreddit where SEOs shared their real processes, tools, shortcuts, and ways of deciding which keywords deserve attention.
Some of the advice is strong. Some of it misses the point.
The biggest mistake is treating keyword research like a spreadsheet exercise instead of looking at search intent, business value, and what is really ranking in Google.
In this episode:
- Why I ignore keyword difficulty scores from SEO tools
- Why looking at the actual Google SERP gives you better information than staring at a difficulty metric
- How to spot keywords competitors rank for but have not targeted properly
- Why a supposedly "high-difficulty" keyword sometimes ranks with very little work
- How to tell whether competitors have optimized a page for a keyword
- Why page titles, URL slugs, H1s, and the beginning of the first sentence matter when evaluating competition
- How to use competitor keyword research to build your initial keyword list
- Why search intent matters more than raw search volume
- How to identify high-intent searches that lead to customers, users, calls, and warm leads
- The type of keyword I value most: the searcher knows what they want but has not decided which brand will provide it
- How to use AI to group large keyword lists by topic and intent
- Why you should not ask an LLM to estimate keyword difficulty without giving it live search data
- How Google Search Console reveals keywords your site already has a chance of ranking higher for
- Why keywords sitting around positions 5-20 often deserve attention before completely new topics
- How to map keyword groups to individual pages
- When an existing page deserves optimization versus when you need to create a new page
- Why different searches require different page types, including product pages, service pages, landing pages, and blog posts
- How Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, ChatGPT, Semrush, and AlsoAsked fit into keyword research
- Why informational "how to" and "what is" keywords often have far less business value than bottom-of-funnel searches
- The four questions I start with when researching keywords: 1- Who are my competitors? 2- What are they ranking for but not targeting properly? 3- Which of those keywords will make me money? 4- Which SERPs are under-targeted?
I also explain why I prioritize keywords that directly connect SEO traffic to revenue instead of publishing huge amounts of top-of-funnel content just because a keyword tool shows search volume.
⭐️ Reddit: How Do You Choose Keywords for SEO? - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1wbmgx0/how_do_you_choose_keywords_for_seo/ 
⭐️ Ep 1104 - The 1-Hour SEO Update That Makes Your Best Pages Rank for More Keywords - https://youtu.be/GmsAuotHGso 
💎 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 Viral Keyword Question
02:04 Keyword Filtering
04:07 Intent and SERP Checks
05:19 Competitors and Priorities
08:27 Search Console Quick Wins
09:21 Free Tools and AlsoAsked
10:42 Keyword Grouping and Mapping
11:42 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#keywordresearch #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing

E1170: Nike has one of the strongest brands and domains on the internet, yet its blog gets an estimated 1,400 organic clicks per month.
That is an absurd amount of wasted SEO authority.
I sit down with David Quaid to break down why enormous companies like Nike, GoPro, and Chewy leave so much organic traffic on the table, despite having domains that smaller companies would kill to own.
Nike has decades of authority, massive amounts of branded search, famous athletes, globally recognized product lines, and enormous links and mentions across the web. Yet Nike Stories (its blog) barely takes advantage of it.
We break down what Nike would do differently if an aggressive SEO team took over its content strategy.
Topics covered:
- Why Nike's blog getting roughly 1,400 estimated organic clicks per month is so shocking
- Why a site with Nike's authority belongs at the top of enormous sports-related searches
- How Nike could build content around basketball, running, yoga, pickleball, athletes, shoes, training, and its individual product lines
- Why Nike should publish pages around the athletes and creators already associated with the brand
- How Red Bull uses athlete pages to capture search demand around the people it sponsors
- Why Nike's existing authority creates an enormous head start over almost any new sports website
- How major brands restrict themselves because they worry too much about staying "on brand"
- Why brands sometimes treat SEO as beneath them even when search demand is sitting directly in front of them
- The difference between building a brand and actually getting that brand discovered
- Why GoPro fails to properly target "action camera" even though GoPro created the category
- How companies miss high-intent commercial keywords because basic SEO elements never make it onto the page
- Why Chewy repeating "dry dog food" dozens of times still does not make up for weak page targeting
- How weak URLs, poor keyword selection, thin content, and limited internal linking waste existing authority
- Why search volume gives companies direct evidence of what customers already want
- How massive brands could turn informational traffic into remarketing audiences and product sales
- Why smaller companies still have room to outrank businesses with vastly more authority
- How SEO lets a company start from nothing, build rankings one page at a time, and eventually dominate an entire niche
We also get into press releases and AI search.
David explains how he approaches press release titles when the objective is ranking for a specific query, why he puts the primary keyword first, and why he sometimes leaves the brand name out of the headline entirely.
We use the ongoing "King of AEO" competition as an example of how SEOs are testing Google AI Overviews, press releases, exact-match domains, entity associations, and supporting websites in real time.
The bigger lesson is simple:
Authority only matters if you use it.
Nike already did the hardest part. It built one of the strongest brands in the world. The SEO opportunity sitting on top of that authority is enormous.
Meanwhile, smaller companies are taking the searches that major brands leave open.
⭐️ 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 Nike Blog SEO Fail
00:40 Why Nike Underperforms
02:10 Thin Content Missing Links
04:06 Robots.txt Easter Egg
05:03 GoPro Action Camera Miss
07:44 Branding Versus SEO
08:59 Press Release SEO Tactics
13:13 King of AEO Title Strategy
18:42 How To Fix Nike Blog
23:20 Breaking Down Nike Posts
25:26 Why SEO Still Wins
27:41 Podcast Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#searchengineoptimization #enterpriseseo #seo #digitalmarketing

E1167: Claude-generated websites have a serious SEO problem: they use a lot of unnecessary words.
Search intent is not only about covering the right topic. It is also about presenting the answer in a way that is fast and easy to consume.
I break down three real AI-heavy websites and show how unnecessary copy, repeated headings, pointless "eyebrows," bloated introductions, and buried answers create a worse experience for searchers.
I cover:
- Why satisfying search intent includes how information is presented, not just whether the information exists
- Why Claude-generated sites often add unnecessary words throughout the page
- Three real examples of wordy AI pages
- A Toronto SEO agency page that buries its H1 under repeated copy and targets the wrong search intent
- Why the first few sentences of a landing page need to immediately explain why the business is the right choice
- How multiple competing calls to action weaken the page
- A Sprout Social alternatives page that makes readers dig through long explanations before reaching the comparison table
- Why someone searching for an alternative already knows why they want an alternative
- Why "how we evaluated these tools" sections are often unnecessary
- Why a strong single-product alternative page beats another generic list of 10 tools
- A "King of AEO" page that repeats its title, author, company name, and other information before getting to the actual point
- Why AI pages frequently repeat information without adding anything useful
- How excessive copy leads searchers to return to Google and choose another result
- Why bad user behavior becomes far more dangerous when hundreds or thousands of AI pages are published quickly
- How scaled AI content creates bad behavioral signals faster than a normal site
- Why real photos and useful video make pages easier to consume
- Why service businesses should use real images instead of generic AI-generated visuals
- Why bottom-of-funnel keywords deserve most of your content effort
- Why buyers do not need a 2,000-word essay explaining why they need the thing they are already searching to buy
- Why 400 to 500 words is often enough for a strong SEO landing page
- How some pages need fewer than 200 words
- The questions I answer before writing: Who is searching this keyword? What do they want? What are they trying to achieve?
- Why I write the outline first and use AI as a writing assistant instead of letting AI decide what the page needs
- Why spending more time on one strong bottom-of-funnel page produces better long-term results than mass-producing disposable AI content
- How a well-built page keeps ranking and generating revenue for years without constant rewrites
The goal is not to hit a word count.
The goal is to give the searcher exactly what they came for with as little friction as possible.
⭐️ Ep 1164 - How $72 in Press Releases Made Google Call This Man the King of AEO - https://youtu.be/DhmQ7cZhHFw 
⭐️ Ep 1166 - Google Can Lose Faith In Your Website (Here's How To Get It Back) - https://youtu.be/Q4cB34UticI 
💎 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 Wordy Pages Fail
01:08 Claude Site Example One
02:14 Above the Fold Fluff
05:31 Claude Site Example Two
07:48 Cut the Ultimate Guide
08:36 Claude Site Example Three
12:36 Pogo Sticking Consequences
13:36 What to Do Instead
14:18 Short Pages That Convert
17:22 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #claudeseo

E1168: SaaS link building gets expensive fast. In this episode, Kristiyan Yankov breaks down why a single placement in the right listicle can be worth $1,000+, how he decides which backlinks are worth paying for, and the link-building methods his team uses across more than 60 SaaS companies.
We go deep into the actual process behind SaaS link building, from finding competitor backlink gaps to pitching publishers, negotiating paid placements, building relationships on LinkedIn, getting links from major publications, and using third-party mentions to increase visibility in both Google and AI search.
We also get into what separates a valuable backlink from one that Google may effectively ignore.
What we cover:
- Why some SaaS companies will pay $1,000+ for a single listicle placement
- What separates a $300 backlink opportunity from a $1,000+ opportunity
- How to identify the listicles and roundups dominating your industry
- How Kristiyan reverse-engineers competitors' backlink profiles in Ahrefs
- Why multiple competitors appearing on the same site signals a strong outreach opportunity
- Why existing articles are often better targets than creating brand-new guest posts
- How to check whether a listicle actually ranks, gets traffic, or feeds AI search results
- Why LinkedIn often beats cold email for link-building outreach
- What an actual paid-placement outreach message looks like
- When to mention payment in the first message and when not to
- Why you should not name your price first when negotiating a backlink
- Why smaller, highly targeted outreach lists outperform mass outreach
- How incentives such as free product access, payment, content creation, and link swaps improve response rates
- How to maintain consistent brand positioning across dozens of third-party listicles
- Why inconsistent descriptions of your company across the web create problems for AI search
- How to split backlinks between your homepage, commercial pages, comparison pages, and informational content
- How expert quote outreach gets links and mentions from sites such as BBC, HubSpot, Zapier, and Wix
- Why expert quote platforms remain one of the strongest low-budget link-building methods
- Foundational backlinks every new SaaS company should build
- Why directories such as Crunchbase, BetaList, and Product Hunt still matter
- How a Product Hunt launch caused a major organic traffic spike for one of my projects
- How to use link swaps without making the links look artificial
- Why adjacent industries are strong targets for link exchanges
- How link-building outreach itself can generate customers and partnerships
- How podcasts, industry meetups, and personal relationships create backlinks competitors struggle to copy
- Why thanking tools you use publicly can turn into case studies and backlinks
- How to build your own Rolodex of marketers and site owners for recurring link opportunities
- The biggest mistake people make when judging backlinks by DR and traffic alone
- Why a smaller, highly relevant site can be more valuable than a much larger generic site
- When guest posting is worth the effort and when it is a waste of time
- How third-party brand mentions influence ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI search systems
- Why getting included in the sources AI systems already retrieve is one of the fastest off-page opportunities
- Which link-building strategies compound over time instead of producing one-off results
Kristiyan and I also share some of the stranger link-building tactics we've used ourselves, including podcasts built partly around relationship building, industry networking, creative link exchanges, expert contributions, and other methods that go far beyond sending thousands of generic outreach emails.
⭐️ Kristiyan Yankov's agency, Above Apex - https://aboveapex.com/ 
⭐️ Kristiyan Yankov on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyan-yankov/ 
💎 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 SaaS Link Building Intro
00:12 Kristiyan SEO Journey
01:50 Top Link Building Plays
03:43 Link Gap Analysis Steps
07:01 Proving Competitor Links Work
09:12 Outreach and LinkedIn First
10:12 Incentives for Listicles
13:13 Outreach Message Templates
14:43 When to Lead With Money
17:01 Finding Dominant Listicles
17:58 Existing Posts and Indexing
22:23 Small Batch Outreach Strategy
28:18 Follow Ups and Timing
30:13 Listicle Pricing and Value
34:11 Positioning and Keywords
37:24 Deep Links Beyond Homepage
39:09 Expert Quote Outreach Setup
40:02 Best Quote Platforms
41:31 Low Budget Link Tactics
43:10 Directory Links That Work
45:37 Clicks From Backlinks
46:40 Adjacent Industry Link Swaps
51:42 Relationship Driven Links
56:50 Common Link Building Mistakes
01:00:28 Guest Posts Done Right
01:05:37 Brand Mentions For AI Search
01:10:52 Linkable Assets And Virality
01:15:05 Natural Backlink Profiles
01:17:41 Where To Find Christian
01:17:56 Bulgaria Rose Valley Chat
01:21:34 Podcast Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding #saasmarketing #seo