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Struggling to find that perfect business idea? You might be overlooking a remarkably simple solution. In this insightful episode, I share my battle-tested approach to generating winning ideas that has powered multiple successful ventures.

The breakthrough moment came when I realized we're all constantly having ideas—most of them forgettable, some potentially transformative—but without a system to capture them, they vanish into thin air. My journey began with nothing more sophisticated than a Moleskine notebook where I recorded every business concept, website opportunity, and content inspiration that crossed my mind. Each received its own page with a brief headline, supporting details, and date. The front pages became an organized index of possibilities.

Though hundreds of ideas accumulated, most weren't viable due to skill, resource, or time constraints. But within this collection, patterns emerged. Certain concepts kept drawing me back, demanding further development. These became the foundation for my current websites and income streams—including KeywordsPeopleUse, which now serves thousands of daily users. The very podcast you're listening to began as a simple notation, an idea preserved rather than forgotten.

This approach has evolved with my business. Now we use Trello boards where team members collaborate, comment, and help identify the most promising concepts. But the fundamental principle remains unchanged: record everything without immediate judgment.

Ready to unlock your own breakthrough ideas? Start recording every thought today—using whatever system works for you—and watch as the truly valuable concepts naturally rise to the surface. Subscribe to the podcast for more practical SEO and business strategies, and visit KeywordsPeopleUse.com to try our tools free today.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Ever wondered why your content isn't ranking despite targeting the right keywords? The answer might lie in a common SEO pitfall that many website owners unknowingly create: topic cannibalization.

In this illuminating episode, SEO expert Edd Dawson tackles the crucial difference between keyword cannibalization and topic cannibalization—a distinction that can dramatically impact your search visibility. Drawing from his two decades of experience building and monetizing websites, Edd explains why simply using the same keyword across multiple pages isn't necessarily problematic. The real issue emerges when pages compete for the same user intent.

Using practical examples from his experience running a broadband comparison site, Edd demonstrates how to create effective topic hierarchies that help Google understand your site structure. You'll learn how pages like "broadband for gamers" and "broadband for students" can coexist without cannibalizing each other, despite sharing primary keywords. Edd provides actionable strategies for organizing content, from proper internal linking techniques to knowing when to consolidate competing pages versus maintaining separate resources.

Whether you're building a site from scratch or fixing existing cannibalization issues, this episode delivers clear guidance for creating content that Google can properly index and rank. Ready to stop your pages from competing with each other? Listen now, and discover how the right content architecture can transform your SEO results. Then book a free demo at keywordspeopleuse.com/demo to see how our tools can help you identify and organize the questions your audience is actually asking.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Pulling back the curtain on one of SEO's most controversial techniques, this episode dives deep into website cloaking—showing search engines different content than what human visitors see. While firmly acknowledging this as a black hat approach I no longer practice or recommend, I explain why understanding these techniques creates more well-rounded SEO professionals who can identify manipulation.

What exactly happens when websites serve different versions of content based on who's visiting? I break down the technical mechanics of cloaking, from user agent detection to sophisticated IP verification systems that aim to fool Google. You'll learn how cloakers distinguish between genuine Googlebot crawlers and competitors trying to uncover their tactics, complete with a fascinating historical perspective from the wild west days of SEO circa 2008-2009.

The episode provides practical knowledge for those curious about detecting cloaking, with specific browser plugin suggestions that let you view websites as if you were Googlebot. This knowledge isn't about encouraging risky tactics but rather understanding the digital landscape fully. Whether you're an SEO professional looking to deepen your technical knowledge or simply curious about the mechanics behind search manipulation, this episode provides valuable context about why sustainable, white hat approaches ultimately build more valuable digital assets than shortcuts. Ready to understand the smoke and mirrors of black hat SEO without getting burned? This episode delivers the perfect balance of technical insight and ethical perspective.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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We dive into a counterintuitive yet powerful concept that can transform your product or website: improving by removing. Drawing from real-world experience with Keywords People Use, I share how simplifying our complex three-credit system down to a single universal credit structure dramatically enhanced user experience and understanding.

When you build something from scratch, you understand every nuance and decision behind your creation. But your users don't have that context—they experience your product with fresh eyes, and what seems perfectly logical to you can be utterly confusing to them. This disconnect became apparent when we found ourselves struggling to explain our credit system to customers. The lesson was clear: the problem wasn't with our users' understanding; we had made the system too complicated.

The strategic removal of complexity doesn't just make things easier to explain—it creates a more flexible, user-centered experience. Our case study demonstrates how consolidating multiple credit types allows users to allocate resources according to their specific needs rather than being constrained by artificial divisions. This principle extends beyond complex systems to everyday elements like sign-up forms, where removing unnecessary questions can significantly boost conversion rates without sacrificing important data collection.

Whether you're running a large platform or a simple website, challenge yourself to view your creation through a beginner's eyes. What complexity can you remove? What barriers can you eliminate? The most powerful improvements often come not from adding new features but from thoughtfully taking things away. Book a free demo at keywordspeopleuse.com/demo to see our simplified system in action and discuss how these principles might apply to your own digital presence.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us a text

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us a text

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us a text

The SEO landscape is undergoing a profound transformation driven by artificial intelligence, and staying ahead requires understanding how these changes impact traffic, revenue, and content strategy. 

Many website owners are noticing a curious trend: overall traffic numbers are declining, yet revenue remains stable. This pattern reveals a critical shift in how we should measure SEO success - quality now trumps quantity. While AI overviews and search assistants are absorbing top-of-funnel informational queries, users with purchase intent are still finding their way to the right websites and converting. This creates a significant challenge for sites monetized through display advertising, which depend directly on raw page views, but presents opportunities for those focused on sales and conversions.

To thrive in this evolving environment, building genuine topical authority is essential. Creating deep, interconnected content clusters that demonstrate comprehensive expertise makes your site a reliable resource for AI systems to reference. The sites I've seen continue to perform well are those providing unique value by synthesizing hard-to-obtain data or offering insights that search engines cannot easily replicate. Remember that AI models still source their information from the open web, using many of the same signals search engines have traditionally valued.

During my recent break from regular podcasting, I've been experimenting with using AI to transform my podcast transcripts into a structured book format, developing new tools with RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), and using AI agents for rapid prototyping. These experiences mirror the broader lesson that success in both SEO and life requires persistence, continuous improvement, and adaptability. Want to discover how to optimize your content for this new era? Visit keywordspeopleuse.com to try our SEO intelligence platform and learn how to build genuine topical authority that performs in the age of AI.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us a text

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us a text

Struggling with duplicate content issues? Feeling like your SEO efforts aren't paying off? The answer might lie in a commonly misunderstood SEO concept: canonicalization.

In this episode, I break down what canonicalization actually means and why it's so crucial for your website's search performance. When search engines encounter the same content across multiple URLs, they get confused about which version to rank – leading to split link equity, wasted crawl budget, and potentially lower rankings. Through practical examples from e-commerce sites (where product pages can exist under numerous URLs due to filters and sorting options), you'll understand exactly why proper URL management matters.

The heart of this episode focuses on implementation strategies that work. From the proper use of the rel="canonical" tag to maintaining consistency across your site architecture, I share battle-tested techniques developed over my 20+ years in SEO. You'll learn why even unique pages should have self-referencing canonical tags, how to handle content syndication across domains, and the importance of using absolute URLs in your canonical implementation.

What sets this discussion apart are the real-world mistakes I've witnessed throughout my career – from the surprisingly common practice of canonicalizing all pages to the homepage to the subtle but damaging inconsistency in trailing slashes. Remember: Google treats canonical tags as hints, not directives, which means your broader SEO strategy must align with your canonicalization choices. Ready to consolidate your SEO power and stop confusing search engines? This episode gives you the knowledge to take action today. Subscribe now and discover how proper canonicalization can transform your search visibility.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us a text

Tooltips might be the most underrated weapon in your SEO arsenal. Those little informational popups that appear when users hover over elements on your website aren't just helpful navigation aids—they're secret powerhouses for both user experience and search rankings.

In this value-packed episode, I dive deep into exactly how tooltips enhance usability while simultaneously boosting your SEO efforts. You'll discover why these small interface elements reduce cognitive load, improve form completion rates, and enhance accessibility—all factors that contribute to better user engagement metrics that search engines love. I explain the direct SEO benefits: increased time on page, reduced bounce rates, improved click-through rates, and opportunities to naturally incorporate keywords that might not fit elsewhere in your content.

The implementation details matter tremendously, and I walk you through best practices to ensure your tooltips work for both users and search engines. From using proper semantic HTML and ARIA attributes to ensuring mobile compatibility and maintaining consistent design, you'll learn how to avoid common pitfalls that could negate the SEO benefits of your tooltips. I even share a real-world example from my own platform, where tooltips solved a specific usability challenge with technical data tables.

Whether you're optimizing an existing site or building a new one, this episode provides actionable insights into how these small interface elements can drive significant improvements in both user satisfaction and search rankings. Remember, SEO isn't just about keywords and backlinks—it's also about creating experiences that keep users engaged, and tooltips are an often-overlooked tool to accomplish exactly that. Ready to implement this strategy on your own site? Listen now for the complete guide.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips

To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now

See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/