The Edward Show

E979: Google's recent updates have changed how link building works for local businesses. Exact match anchor text links that once helped rankings can now trigger serious problems. In this episode, Joy Hawkins explains what has changed and what local businesses should be doing instead.
Joy Hawkins runs Sterling Sky, one of the most well known local SEO agencies. She shares lessons from years of testing links, auditing sites, and watching how Google updates impact small business websites.
We discuss why some local business sites were wiped out by recent core updates, why anchor text links are now risky at scale, and what types of links still move rankings today.
This episode is a practical breakdown of modern local SEO link building and how to approach it safely.
Topics covered:
- Why exact match anchor text links are becoming dangerous
- How recent Google core updates have affected small business sites
- Why manual penalties are rare and algorithmic penalties are increasing
- How many links local businesses actually need to rank
- Why guest posting at scale can now backfire
- The link types that still work for local SEO
- Niche directories and industry-specific sites
- Award sites and why they are becoming more important in AI search results
- How AI Overviews are changing what signals Google surfaces
- Press releases and when they are still useful
- Why Reddit is becoming a long-term traffic and visibility channel
- The role of earned media and journalist mentions
- How social media traction can influence rankings
- What local businesses can do if they have almost no link building budget
- Common link building mistakes that lead to penalties
- What metrics actually matter when evaluating links
- Why domain authority metrics can be misleading
- How multi-location businesses should approach link building
This conversation focuses on long-term strategies that avoid risky tactics while still helping local businesses grow their visibility.
⭐️ Joy Hawkin's First Appearance on The Pod - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ9HZu4qFWY
⭐️ Joy Hawkin's Agency - Sterling Sky: https://www.sterlingsky.ca/
⭐️ Joy Hawkin's YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/SterlingSkyInc
⭐️ Joy Hawkin's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyhawkins/
⭐️ Local Search Forum - https://localsearchforum.com/
💰 Edward's SEO Articles - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/
💎 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 Do Links Still Matter?
00:48 Exact Match Anchor Text Link Risks
03:20 Core Updates Wiping Out Local Sites
06:17 Press Releases Without Anchors
07:43 Guest Post Link Decay
08:38 Disavows And Penalties
11:15 Local Pack Loophole
12:15 Niche Directories That Win
13:06 Awards For AI Visibility
17:23 Local News And Reddit
19:34 Reddit Strategy Timeline
21:57 YouTube Versus Reddit
23:40 Why Reddit Still Works
24:37 Digg Relaunch and Moderation
25:24 No Budget Link Building
28:41 Social Signals and SEO
29:44 Testimonial Link Tactic
30:51 Avoiding Link Penalties
33:04 Press Releases for LLMs
37:54 Multi Location Link Strategy
40:30 Repeatable Link System
42:47 Where to Follow and Goodbye
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#localseo #linkbuilding #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing

E978: One of the biggest questions in search right now is whether websites can scale rankings through content alone, especially in an era of AI-generated content and programmatic SEO. Do you actually need backlinks to keep growing in Google? Or can strong topical authority and internal linking be enough?
Edward Sturm sits down with SEO legend, David Quaid, to answer real questions from the SEO community.
David shares insights from years of hands-on SEO experimentation and discusses how Google's ranking systems may actually work behind the scenes. The conversation covers content scaling, internal authority flow, programmatic SEO, exact match domains, and how engagement signals may influence rankings.
This episode also explores how modern SEO differs from the early backlink-driven era, and why some websites can grow traffic rapidly even without active link building.
Topics covered:
- Whether websites can scale rankings without growing backlinks
- How topical authority works and how sites build it over time
- Why some programmatic SEO sites scale quickly without link building
- The role of internal linking and authority flow inside a website
- How click behavior and pogo-sticking may influence rankings
- Whether Google has site-wide quality scores
- Risks of large-scale AI content publishing
- How to expand into new niches without losing topical authority
- When to use separate pages for near-duplicate keywords
- Whether blogs should be on subdomains or subfolders
- How forums affect SEO authority
- Exact match domains and keyword domains in modern SEO
- Why some SEOs avoid buying backlinks entirely
- The relationship between user behavior signals and rankings
- How companies can structure their websites for long-term search growth
David also explains why real business relationships often produce stronger links than traditional link building campaigns, and why traffic flowing through a page may matter more than the perceived prestige of the site hosting the link.
The discussion includes practical examples from job boards, ecommerce platforms, SaaS companies, and content sites that have grown organic traffic through different strategies.
If you are working in SEO, building websites, or running an online business, this episode provides a detailed look at how experienced practitioners think about Google's ranking systems and where experimentation still matters.
About the guest:
David Quaid is an experienced SEO and growth strategist who has worked with startups and large technology companies across industries including cybersecurity, fintech, and SaaS. He is known in the SEO community for his practical experiments and deep technical understanding of how search ranking systems operate.
⭐️ 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/
💎 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 Community SEO Questions
00:28 Scaling Content Without Links
07:24 Programmatic SEO Examples
09:42 Machine Content Detection
15:38 Authority Shaping And Walls
19:49 User Signals Versus PageRank
23:19 Why David Doesnt Buy Links
26:18 Traffic Based Link Value
33:14 People Also Ask Strategy And Pivoting
37:11 New Index Reality
37:32 Matt Cutts Wisdom
38:30 Sitewide Quality Score
42:10 Folder Level Impact
44:25 Near Duplicate Keywords
50:38 Subdomain vs Subfolder For Blogs
53:33 Forums and Authority
57:51 Exact Match Domains
01:06:41 SEO Industry Outlook
01:13:18 Final Thanks and Wrap
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #seo #pagerank #growthmarketing

E977: Google has quietly released one of the biggest updates to Google Search Console in years.
I break down the new AI-powered reporting feature that lets you analyze your Search Console data using natural language. Instead of manually building filters and digging through reports, you can now ask Google Search Console questions about your search performance and instantly uncover insights about the queries driving traffic to your site.
This change fundamentally alters how SEOs, marketers, and site owners can work with their search data. With simple prompts, you can now identify high-intent keywords, uncover missed ranking opportunities, and quickly surface the queries most likely to drive leads and sales.
Edward also walks through practical ways you can immediately find "low-hanging fruit" transactional keywords - high-intent search queries where your site is already ranking but not yet in the top positions.
We also cover major news from the AI world: reports that ChatGPT is abandoning its push into agentic commerce. After introducing instant checkout and partnerships with retailers like Walmart, Etsy, and Shopify merchants, OpenAI appears to be stepping back from allowing users to complete purchases directly inside ChatGPT.
If this shift holds, it has major implications for SEO, ecommerce, and the future of AI-driven shopping.
Topics covered:
- The new AI prompt feature inside Google Search Console performance reports
- How natural language queries can replace manual filters and data exploration
- Prompts you can use to identify transactional search queries
- How to find keywords with strong buying intent
- A simple method for discovering low-hanging fruit ranking opportunities
- Why ranking position filters reveal your biggest SEO opportunities
- Why this update could significantly change how SEOs analyze search data
- Reports that ChatGPT is stepping away from agentic commerce
- Why users were researching products in ChatGPT but not completing purchases there
- The technical challenge of catalog normalization across millions of ecommerce products
- Why companies like Google and Microsoft took years to build shopping infrastructure
- Consumer behavior challenges around trusting AI agents with purchases
- Why AI platforms may remain traffic drivers rather than transaction platforms
If you work in SEO, content marketing, ecommerce, or growth, this episode explains how these two developments could affect how people discover and purchase products online.
⭐️ ChatGPT is abandoning agentic commerce - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/juozas_chatgpt-is-abandoning-agentic-commerce-its-activity-7435308306329473025-Ncy0/
💎 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 Big Updates
00:36 GSC AI Performance Report
01:37 Prompts for Buyer Intent
02:22 Low-Hanging Fruit Keywords
03:07 Limits and What's Next
04:06 ChatGPT Drops Agentic Commerce
05:23 Why Instant Checkout Failed
06:41 Trust and Behavior Barriers
07:32 Normalization Debate
09:09 SEO Takeaways
10:35 Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #seo #generativeengineoptimization #digitalmarketing

E976: Nebojša "Vujo" Vujinović - the SEO entrepreneur Wired once called the "AI clickbait king" - joins the show.
Vujo has spent more than 20 years building websites, buying expired domains, and experimenting with search engine optimization. Today he runs a massive network of nearly 9,000 websites and a team of around 30 people managing content, links, and SEO campaigns across many industries.
In this conversation, Vujo explains how his system works, how he evaluates expired domains, and how he has adapted his strategy as Google updates, AI tools, and search behavior continue to change.
The discussion covers the practical side of running a large-scale SEO operation, including domain acquisition, content workflows, monetization models, and the risks of operating in gray areas of search.
Edward and Vujo also talk about the Wired article that made him famous, the backlash he received from the SEO community, and how that publicity led to both opportunities and major setbacks with partners like Amazon and Mediavine.
Topics discussed:
- How Vujo built a network of nearly 9,000 websites
- Why expired domains can still work for SEO
- How to evaluate a domain before buying it
- What metrics actually matter when analyzing backlinks
- Why domain authority and DR can be misleading
- The real impact of recent Google updates on expired domains
- How Vujo structures and manages thousands of sites
- Why Amazon affiliate sites have become much harder to run
- His monetization model using sponsored articles
- How display advertising contributes to his revenue
- How he sells backlinks and sponsored placements
- How his team produces 300 to 400 articles per day
- The role AI plays in content production today
- Why most AI content still requires heavy human review
- How his content pipeline works from research to publishing
- Why backlinks are still critical for ranking
- How brand signals and user experience affect SEO today
- His controversial tactics like CTR manipulation and expired domain redirects
- Strategies for recovering from Google penalties
- The Wired article that labeled him the "AI clickbait king"
- Why the SEO community reacted strongly to his interview
- The story behind buying the former website of the Pope
- Why he refused to sell the domain despite large offers
- His view on AI's role in the future of publishing
About Nebojša "Vujo" Vujinović
Vujo is an SEO entrepreneur from Serbia who started building websites more than two decades ago. His business focuses on expired domain acquisition, large-scale content publishing, and SEO services for companies across multiple industries.
He previously worked as a DJ and music producer before moving fully into the online business world.
About The Edward Show
The Edward Show is a daily podcast about online business, SEO, entrepreneurship, and the systems behind building and scaling internet companies.
This episode is part of Edward's daily podcast streak, recorded 976 days in a row without missing a day.
New episodes every day.
⭐️ Nebojša "Vujo" Vujinović on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nebojsa-vujinovic-vujo/
⭐️ Nebojša "Vujo" Vujinović's agency - https://shantel.co/
⭐️ The Wired article - https://www.wired.com/story/confessions-of-an-ai-clickbait-kingpin/
💎 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 AI Clickbait Kingpin Intro
03:13 Nine Thousand Sites
08:00 Pope Domain Auction
15:39 Wired Backlash Fallout
24:20 Expired Domain Checklist
36:24 301 Page Transfer Trick
42:59 Monetization Mix Explained
50:52 AI Content Pipeline
01:42 Backlinks Still Matter
01:16:16 Tools & Hosting Workflow
01:21:53 Internal Linking Rules
01:40:23 Criticism Viral Stories
01:56:36 CTR Manipulation Signals
02:07:19 Google Penalty Recovery Playbook
02:12:41 Final Wrap Up
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #seo #aiseo #digitalmarketing

E975: I break down a strategy that some advanced SEOs are experimenting with: autonomous niche websites that rank on Google, build backlinks, publish content automatically, and recommend a specific brand or product.
These sites are designed to target a tight cluster of commercial keywords using a domain that closely matches the niche. The homepage is optimized for competitive "best" keywords, while the site publishes blog posts automatically using live keyword data.
The interesting part is that the entire workflow can be automated.
The content publishing, link building, journalist outreach, and keyword targeting can all be handled by AI workflows and agent tools. In many cases, the site is not even connected to Google Search Console. Instead, it gets discovered and indexed through real backlinks from directories and journalist mentions.
Because of this, the site can operate independently from the main brand website while still recommending the brand's products or services.
In this episode:
- What autonomous SEO sites are and how they work
- Why people use niche domains instead of exact match domains
- How the homepage is optimized for competitive "best" keywords
- How AI tools can build the site and publish content automatically
- The automated link building workflows being used
- How journalist outreach can be generated using prompts and agent tools
- Why some sites publish two posts per week with different brand mentions
- How the strategy maintains plausible deniability
- Why some people keep these sites disconnected from Google Search Console
- The risks involved with grey hat and black hat SEO tactics
- Why this approach may or may not be worth doing depending on your workflows
I also explain why many people may be better off focusing their effort on their main site instead of building separate autonomous properties.
That includes things like:
- Targeting bottom-of-funnel keywords
- Building conversion-focused landing pages
- Increasing topical authority
- Building a natural backlink profile
- Driving branded searches through social content
At the end of the episode, I also talk about my SEO framework called Compact Keywords.
This method focuses on identifying keywords where the searcher is looking to:
- buy something
- use a product
- book a call
- request a service
- make a decision
Instead of publishing blog posts, these keywords are targeted with conversion-based landing pages designed to generate customers and warm leads.
Many people are now automating parts of this workflow using AI.
If you want to learn the full framework, including templates and examples, you can find it here: https://compactkeywords.com
The course currently includes:
- 13.5 hours of material
- page templates for conversion landing pages
- keyword research frameworks
- link building strategies
- site structure examples
- ongoing weekly updates
💎 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 - Introduction to Autonomous Domains for SEO
00:34 - Strategy for Exact Match Domain (EMD) Creation and Brand Integration
01:51 - Leveraging AI for Rapid Site Creation and Automation
02:26 - Automated Link Building with AI Journalist Outreach
04:59 - AI-Powered Content Strategy for Plausible Deniability
06:17 - Mitigating Risks: The 'Gray Hat' Safety Net with Site Isolation
08:04 - Considerations: Is This Autonomous Domain Strategy For You?
11:51 - Conclusion and Podcast Information
The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
#searchengineoptimization #seo #aiseo #digitalmarketing