The Edward Show

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

E1217: Craig Campbell has spent 25 years testing what works in SEO, including tactics Google says shouldn't work.
In this interview, he explains how SEOs manipulate Google rankings and ChatGPT answers, which older link-building methods still have uses, and why he now avoids many of those tactics on businesses he wants to keep for years.
We discuss real tests, specific tools, and the difference between a tactic that gets results for a few months and a strategy that can support a business long-term.
In this episode:
- How a Chinese restaurant website can rank for online casino searches through canonical abuse, and why Craig won't reveal the full process.
- How an expired French aquapony domain was used to convince ChatGPT and other AI tools that Craig coached an Olympic aquapony team.
- Why press releases and mentions on trusted publications can influence what ChatGPT says about a business.
- Craig's preferred press release services, including The News Guy, Magic PR, and Press Advantage, and how Yahoo Finance placements matter to him.
- Why he uses Scrapebox, blog comments, and automated links to try to keep press releases and other pages in Google's index.
- What separates a useful private blog network (PBN) from one with obvious footprints, including hosting, IP addresses, content quality, and outbound links.
- How Backrefs automates lower-tier link building, and what Craig says those links can and cannot accomplish.
- How Craig bought an affiliate website for £10,000, spent another £4,000 improving it, and sold it for £48,000 four months later.
- The experiment where Craig published 1,200 unedited AI articles, watched traffic rise, then saw the site lose its rankings after about six months. He says replacing the content did not restore the site.
- How he used an expired domain from a bankrupt hotel chain to create a new affiliate site.
- Why he wouldn't use many of those tactics on a long-term business today, even when he thinks they might work.
- How Craig uses interviews with football players to develop news stories, pitch journalists, and earn links to his own website.
- Why a podcast can become a way to build relationships with bloggers, journalists, and future link partners.
- How he's building a sports trading card business using live streams, marketplaces, and SEO rather than relying on Google alone.
- Why Craig believes brand searches matter and says he wouldn't trust AI to run SEO tasks without human review.
- What 25 years in SEO changed about how much Craig trusts Google's public guidance.
Craig also shares why his priorities have moved from finding every possible ranking loophole to building businesses that generate revenue without depending on one search algorithm.
⭐️ Craig Campbell's website - https://craigcampbellseo.com/ 
⭐️ Craig Campbell on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@CraigcampbellseoUk 
⭐️ Craig Campbell on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/craigcampbellseo 
⭐️ Craig Campbell on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@craigcampbellseo 
⭐️ Craig Campbell on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcampbell0302 
⭐️ Craig Campbell on 𝕏 - https://x.com/craigcampbell03 
⭐️ Craig Campbell on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/craigcampbellseo03 
💎 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 Craig Campbell Joins
00:24 Google Lies And Tactics
02:40 Canonical Abuse
06:10 LLM Manipulation Tactics
10:27 SEO Testing Competitions
17:11 Aquapony LLM Prank
22:40 Press Releases For ChatGPT
25:55 Indexing With Spam Links
30:49 Nofollow Links Still Work
33:36 Kyle Roof Lorem Ipsum
35:25 Building Undetectable PBNs
38:09 PBN Upkeep Reality
40:22 Modern PBN Tools
41:51 White Hat Wins
44:32 Clean Niches Strategy
46:00 Programmatic Cards SEO
53:12 Marketplaces vs Search
58:36 PR Link Building Playbook
01:07:54 Automated Tiered Links
01:12:43 Affiliate Site Flip Lessons
01:17:22 Seasonal Site Flip
01:19:24 AI Slop Penalty
01:22:35 Churn and Burn Debate
01:23:04 Expired Domain Leverage
01:27:47 Diversify Traffic Sources
01:30:56 Agency Advice Reality
01:35:40 Journalist Connections
01:38:27 AI Needs Supervision
01:40:51 Google Trust Shift
01:45:45 Quiet Life Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ 
#blackhatseo #searchengineoptimization #privateblognetwork #seo

E1216: Anthropic is expanding AI text watermarking to more Claude models on November 3. Other AI companies have also committed to watermarking their outputs. What does this mean for SEO? Will Google start penalizing AI-generated pages, and can it tell the difference between content written entirely by AI and content edited with AI?
I break down the risks of publishing unedited AI content, what Google's recent guidance suggests, and why I still expect carefully reviewed, AI-assisted pages to rank and even be trained upon.
In this episode:
- Claude's expanding text watermarking: Which models Anthropic says will next receive watermarks why this matters for publishers.
- The Ahrefs AI content study: 5.3% of top-ranking pages were classified as fully AI-generated, another 9% as at least 80% AI-generated, and 80% of high-AI pages were indexed compared with 49% of low-AI pages.
- Google's position on AI content: Quality rater guidance for unoriginal, low-effort pages, warnings about hallucinations, and the risks of publishing AI pages at scale without proofreading.
- The possibility of tougher Google updates: How some SEOs expect more action against scaled AI content, and why that remains a prediction rather than a confirmed update.
- My GPTZero test: A roughly 400-word SEO landing page was identified as human-written and AI-polished, while an AI-generated article about me was classified as 100% AI.
- Real examples of AI hallucinations: False claims I found in an AI-generated article about my own work, videos, and audience.
- AI detection as a spectrum: Why assisted writing, AI polishing, and fully generated text shouldn't be treated as identical.
- How Google might evaluate AI-heavy sites: My theories about user behavior, sitewide patterns, branded searches, and future AI detection. These are possibilities, not confirmed ranking factors.
- AI content in model training: The concern that training on unverified AI-generated material could increase errors and hallucinations.
- How we're writing pages for a SaaS I'm funding: Using AI line by line as a writing assistant while manually reviewing the language ourselves.
- Building branded searches through short-form video: How SEO entrepreneur Ilias ISM hired creators for $500 per creator per month to post daily videos, generate millions of views, and increase searches for his brand.
My main point: AI watermarking doesn't mean every page touched by AI is destined to lose rankings. There's an important difference between publishing hundreds of unchecked AI pages and using AI as a writing assistant.
⭐️ Claude Watermark Announcement - https://pasqualepillitteri.it/en/news/27785/claude-watermark-november-3-opus-4-7-sonnet-4-6 
⭐️ Ep 1210 - The Backlinks Worth Paying $2,000 For (w/ Ilias ISM) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NRS4ibsMKg 
⭐️ My Exact Social Media Posting Strategy - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/social-media-posting-strategy/ 
💎 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 Anthropic Watermark Email
00:35 AI Content Panic
00:50 Ahrefs AI SEO Stats
01:31 Google Cracks Down
02:45 Hallucination Example
03:41 Detection Is a Scale
05:42 How Google Penalizes
07:27 Training Data Concerns
08:34 Branded Search Signals
08:59 Buy Branded Searches
11:13 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #seopodcast

E1215: Discord is coming to Google Search, and this could be one of the biggest new SEO opportunities heading into 2027.
Starting November 16, 2026, Discord will give every eligible Discoverable Server a public webpage. Beginning in mid-December, messages from public channels may also appear on those pages and in Google Search.
Imagine owning a leading Discord server in your niche, with the influence that moderators of major subreddits have over the discussions people find when researching products and services.
I break down Discord's announcement, the eligibility requirements, what to optimize for SEO, and why I think this could be a major opportunity for people who start building communities now.
What I cover:
- Why Discord is making public server discussions available on the web after years of keeping them inside the platform.
- The November 16 launch of Server Web Pages and the mid-December rollout of publicly accessible messages.
- What qualifies as an SEO-available Discoverable Server: at least 1,000 members, at least eight weeks old, and compliance with Discord's activity and safety requirements.
- How there's more than 63,000 existing Discoverable Servers.
- How Discord's domain authority of 94 and the search performance of other user-generated content platforms, particularly Reddit, could affect rankings.
- How Discord discussions could eventually be cited in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and other AI search results.
- What to optimize for SEO: your Discord server name, short description, longer About section, categories, and public messages.
- How your server name affects its URL, page title, and H1, and why those elements matter for Google rankings.
- Why putting relevant keywords at the beginning of public messages and threads could be valuable.
- How to build a community targeting top-of-funnel searches that can attract new members directly from Google.
- What happened when SEOs flooded Digg with spam, causing bans and eventually another reset of the platform.
- Why Discord could face similar problems with bot-inflated membership, spammed messages, and servers created purely for rankings.
- Why I recommend building a legitimate community that can attract members, influence buying decisions, and maintain rankings for years.
I also explain Discord's privacy and control settings.
Server admins can manage which public channels participate under Server Settings > Web Presence. Public channels are included by default unless admins change the settings.
Individual users can opt out of having their messages shown under User Settings > Data & Privacy. Private servers and DMs are not included in these changes.
The opportunity is to build an influential community before Discord's public discussions become widely available through Google. Just like owning an influential subreddit, owning a leading Discord server in your niche could become a valuable SEO asset.
⭐️ Discord announcement - https://discord.com/blog/making-content-from-discoverable-servers-easier-to-discover 
⭐️ Mashable article - https://mashable.com/tech/discord-public-server-web-pages-messages-discoverable-in-google-search 
💎 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 Discord SEO Bombshell
00:47 How Indexing Works
01:46 Admin Privacy Controls
02:16 Eligibility Requirements
03:46 Why Discord Will Rank
04:31 Server Optimization Tips
05:15 Digg Spam Cautionary Tale
06:58 Spam Risks and Long Game
08:54 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  
#parasiteseo #searchengineoptimization #seo #blackhatseo