The Edward Show

By Edward Sturm

Daily SEO advice, hacks, and interviews with some of the top voices in search engine optimization, as well as sit-downs with many undiscovered talents.... more

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The podcast currently has 1,164 episodes available.

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Number 1: Google Admits They Fake Understanding Your Content
E1162: In 2016, Google gave an internal presentation called Q4 Search All Hands. Years later, slides from that presentation surfaced during discovery in Google's antitrust trial, and one of them contains an unusually direct admission: "We do not understand documents. We fake it." Google explained that its ability to understand documents directly was minimal. Instead, it watched how people reacted to search results and learned from those responses. I break down what Google said, why this presentation still matters for SEO, and what you can actually do with this information. We cover: - The 2016 Google presentation that surfaced during the antitrust trial - Google's statement that it did not actually "understand" documents - Why Google said it watched how users reacted to documents instead - How positive and negative user reactions contribute to Google Search - Google's description of sustaining the "illusion" that it understands - Why user signals are so important for SEO - Why I rank user signals above relevance and authority - How a highly relevant page can outrank a much more authoritative website - The story of how I outranked The New York Times within five minutes with a one-year-old site - Why satisfying search intent matters more than trying to guess what Google wants - How adding a TLDR to a page improves the user experience and improves conversions - A case where adding TLDR sections increased conversions by 33% - Why giving searchers the answer above the fold reduces confusion - How to structure page titles around the exact keyword someone searched - Why repeating the searcher's language makes your result immediately feel relevant - How adding the searcher's primary goal or benefit to a title increases clicks - The three questions you should answer before creating SEO content - Why blindly asking AI to write SEO content misses what the searcher wants - How to use AI as an assistant without outsourcing the important thinking - Why matching the type of page to the search intent matters - When to use an SEO landing page versus a blog post - Why giving someone informational content when they are trying to buy something creates a bad search experience The biggest takeaway is simple: Stop obsessing over what you think Google wants. Think about the person who searched the keyword. Who are they? What do they want? What are they trying to achieve? Then create the page that gives them exactly that. ⭐️ Google 2016 Q4 Search All Hands - https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/417516.pdf ⭐️ David Quaid post on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid/status/2095861936927691185 ⭐️ My explanation on 𝕏 - https://x.com/edwardeachday/status/2095115036691767658 ⭐️ Reddit: How Adding a TLDR Boosted My Conversions by 33% - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1h3qstq/how_adding_tldr_boosted_my_conversions_by_33/ 💎 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 Google Trial Slide Leak 01:02 We Do Not Understand Documents 01:44 SEO Implication User Reactions 02:51 When Fake Understanding Fails 03:39 User Signals Still Rule 04:07 Poll Backlinks vs Behavior 05:27 TLDR Above the Fold 06:54 Page Title Benefit Formula 07:50 Three Questions for Intent 08:55 Match Content to Intent 10:37 Wrap Up Key Takeaway The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #growthhacking #digitalmarketing
September 09, 202612min
Number 2: Google Can Detect Your AI Content. Here's What Happens Next.
E1153: Breaking down the debate around AI-written SEO content, Google's ability to identify machine-generated text, and whether AI detection could eventually become a meaningful part of Google's search and training systems. Google's John Mueller recently liked a LinkedIn post arguing that Google may be moving toward an algorithm designed to target all AI content. That comes after the August spam update, which many site owners reported hit AI-heavy websites particularly hard. But detecting AI content and penalizing AI content are two very different things. I also look at an argument from SEO, Dan Petrovic, who explains why Google has little reason to automatically remove content simply because AI was involved in creating it. Google already has sophisticated systems for evaluating content quality, usefulness, and user behavior. In this episode: - Why John Mueller liking a post about an AI content crackdown caught my attention - What the August spam update may tell us about Google's treatment of AI-heavy websites - How easily Google may be able to detect AI-generated text - Why AI detection does not automatically mean an SEO penalty - How Google could use AI detection as one signal among many - Why user behavior may matter more than whether a human or AI wrote the first draft - How Google can use post-click behavior, session activity, and other signals to evaluate usefulness - Why low-quality content existed long before ChatGPT and other LLMs - How AI-generated content could be treated differently in search results versus AI training data - Three possible ways Google could handle AI-generated text going forward - Why Google might allow AI content to rank while excluding some of it from model training - Why AI content could receive less weight rather than being completely ignored - How user-generated content from customers, Reddit, reviews, and other sources could become increasingly important - Why I am still using AI for SEO content - The difference between using AI as a writing assistant and publishing completely AI-generated articles - Why short-prompt, publish-without-editing AI content is a bad SEO strategy - How we use AI for ideation, articulation, summarization, and heavily edited drafts - Why satisfying search intent still matters regardless of how the content was created - Why high-intent SEO remains one of the areas where I believe AI can be especially useful My view is that AI content is not going to disappear from Google Search simply because Google can identify it. Google has much more information available than authorship alone. It can evaluate whether a page answers the query, whether users find it useful, and whether the website is creating something people actually want. That means the goal should not be to make AI content undetectable. The goal should be to use AI carefully, edit heavily, add real information, satisfy search intent quickly, and create pages that deserve to rank. For us, AI remains a writing assistant rather than a replacement for the entire content process. ⭐️ Ep 1140 - Claude Is Watermarking Everything It Writes. Google Doesn't Have the Key - https://youtu.be/U4WKswNBr0s ⭐️ Kristine Schachinger on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kschachinger-seo_i-said-it-a-couple-months-ago-and-im-going-share-7498052042116976640-re-G/ ⭐️ Dan Petrovic: No AI Penalty - https://dejan.ai/blog/ai-penalty/ 💎 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 John Mueller Likes AI Warning 00:54 August Spam Update Fallout 01:21 Can Google Detect AI 01:31 EU AI Act Watermarking 02:48 What If Detection Is Cheap 03:18 Dan Petrovic Takeaways 05:07 Detection vs Quality Signals 07:41 Three Future Scenarios 09:23 How To Use AI Safely 11:43 Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #aiseo #digitalmarketing
August 30, 202613min
Number 3: Why Your SEO Traffic Is Declining (The Reason Nobody Wants to Admit)
E1147: Your organic traffic is declining. Your rankings are getting more volatile. Pages that have been stable for months or years are suddenly moving down. Before blaming a Google update, backlinks, AI Overviews, or some mysterious algorithm change, look at the simplest explanation: Your pages might not be satisfying search intent well enough. I break down the most common reasons SEO traffic decline and what to do. First, not every traffic decline matters. SEO is volatile. Rankings go up and down. What matters is the overall trend and, more importantly, which pages are losing traffic. Losing low-value top-of-funnel informational clicks is very different from losing rankings on pages that generate leads, sales, signups, or discovery calls. I cover: - How to tell normal SEO volatility from a decline you should worry about - Why you should separate top-of-funnel traffic losses from bottom-of-funnel losses - Why search intent is one of the first things I check when rankings decline - How too much fluff above the fold can hurt a page - Why targeting keywords with conflicting intent on the same page creates problems - A real example where fixing search intent stabilized a company's declining search visibility - Why sites that look obviously AI-generated may create a new user-trust problem - How competitors entering your SERPs can cause previously stable rankings to move - Why competitors aggressively building backlinks can shake up rankings - How tracking individual keywords makes diagnosing declines easier - Why you should check whether losses are isolated to a specific subfolder or happening sitewide - Why I prefer organizing SEO sites into logical subfolders instead of using completely flat architecture - How unrelated content can confuse what Google understands your site to be about - When pruning or noindexing unrelated content can make sense - Why outdated content may be the entire problem - How keyword cannibalization can cause multiple pages on your site to compete with each other - Technical mistakes that can suddenly destroy visibility - Accidental robots.txt blocks and noindex tags - Staging sites accidentally getting indexed - Plugins generating huge numbers of meaningless pages - Programmatic SEO projects that can damage an entire site - Why you should still check Google Search Console for manual actions I also talk about something I think SEOs will have to pay much more attention to: AI-looking websites. Even if the information is good, users may increasingly distrust a site that immediately looks like it was generated by Claude or another AI tool. If searchers have repeatedly encountered generic, fluffy, or hallucinated AI content, the appearance of your site itself could affect whether they stick around long enough to see that your content is actually useful. The biggest takeaway from this episode is simple: Before looking for a complicated explanation for declining SEO traffic, look at your pages as a searcher. - Are you answering what they searched for? - Are you answering it quickly? - Is the answer obvious above the fold? - Are you targeting one clear intent? - Would you be satisfied if Google sent you to this page? Sometimes you already know the answer. You just don't want to admit it. ⭐️ Ep 1141 - Can You Launch 100,000 Pages and Survive Google? - https://youtu.be/wNtiygMsRfg ⭐️ Ep 1030 - Keyword Cannibalization: Why Your SEO Pages Compete (And How to Fix It) - https://youtu.be/n3jrXrau6kE ⭐️ Darren Shaw's LinkedIn Post - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7495990440530272256/ ⭐️ My 𝕏 post - https://x.com/edwardeachday/status/2091817392372400392 💎 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 Traffic Drops Explained 00:39 Assess What Matters 01:26 Top of Funnel Reality Check 02:14 When To Take Action 02:46 Search Intent Fixes 05:21 AI Slop Trust Issues 08:25 SERP Shifts And Links 09:52 Site Structure Diagnostics 11:56 Cannibalization And Tech 12:52 Do Stable SEO The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #seo #searchengineoptimization #digitalmarketing #seopodcast
August 25, 202616min
Number 4: Google Just Gave SEOs a New Ranking Signal (Do This Now) - Preferred Sources
E1145: Google just gave SEOs a new feature that could change how publishers build visibility across Search, Discover, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. I break down Google Preferred Sources, how it works, why it matters, and why publishers should pay attention before everyone starts using it. Google Preferred Sources allows users to choose publishers they want to see more often in Google Search experiences. These selections become a user-controlled signal that works alongside Google's ranking systems. I cover: - What Google Preferred Sources is and why Google launched it - Why this could become an important signal for publishers and SEOs - How Preferred Sources connects with Google Discover, Top Stories, AI Overviews, and AI Mode - How to check if your website is eligible to appear as a preferred source - How to add a Preferred Source button to your website - Where to place the button to maximize the chances that readers select your site - How I customized my own Preferred Source buttons using WordPress and Elementor - Why this is not just for news publishers, but can also apply to brands with company blogs and product pages - How domain-level and subdomain-level sites are eligible while subdirectories are not - How SEOs can think about this as an audience-building strategy Google's documentation says Preferred Sources selections do not override relevance. Your content still needs to match user interests and provide value, but this gives publishers a new way to encourage users to tell Google they want more from their website. This is one of the few features where publishers can directly encourage users to create a signal around their website. If you run a website, publish content, work in SEO, or care about Google Discover and AI search visibility, this is something you should understand. I also share how to implement this on a website, where I would place the buttons, and why I think many publishers will overlook this opportunity. ⭐️ Search Engine Journal: Google's Preferred Sources Feature Is Now a Global SEO Signal - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-preferred-sources-feature-is-now-a-global-seo-signal/573591/ ⭐️ Google Developers: Preferred Sources Documentation - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sources ⭐️ Compact Keywords testimonial insert - Rank & Rent SEO: How Ippei Built 130 Sites - and Made $240K From One 15-Hour Website - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muwrS4Dh_R8 💎 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 Preferred Sources Breakthrough 00:17 How the Feature Works 01:10 Old Button vs New Popup 02:51 Designing High Converting Buttons 03:41 Where to Place the CTA 04:29 Setup Guide With Claude 05:21 Discover and Ranking Limits 06:07 AI Mode and Global Impact 06:39 Domain Eligibility Rules 07:18 SEO That Makes Money The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #ecommerce
August 23, 20269min
Number 5: Google's August Spam Update Just Crushed Scaled Content - SaaS Is Winning
E1144: Google's August 2026 spam update has officially finished rolling out, and we're seeing clear patterns in who got hit, who recovered, and who is winning. The update launched August 18 and completed just three days later on August 21. But the volatility started well before Google officially announced it. Throughout August, sites were reporting major ranking swings, sudden traffic losses, and unexpected recoveries. One of the biggest patterns: scaled content sites are getting crushed. I break down what happened during the August spam update using real sites, Google Search Console screenshots, Reddit posts, Ahrefs & Semrush data, and examples being shared throughout the SEO community. Topics covered: - How the August spam update started affecting sites before its official August 18 launch - Sites publishing 500 to 1,000 pages per day suddenly losing rankings and traffic - The difference between legitimate programmatic SEO and scaled content abuse - Google's policy against scraping, stitching, and combining content without adding meaningful value - A site getting roughly 2,200 organic users per day before its traffic started collapsing - Guru99 falling from an estimated 14 million monthly organic clicks in 2021 to roughly 50,000 today - The pattern of sites rapidly increasing their number of pages while their organic traffic falls - Why "Mount AI" happens when sites use AI to rapidly scale low-value content - Mike King's explanation for why Google may not need to detect AI-generated content directly - How user behavior and site-quality signals can eventually expose bad scaled content - Why generative AI at scale is not inherently spam if the pages actually provide value - An expired-domain case that some SEOs initially blamed on the spam update - Why redirects from acquired or expired domains aren't automatically expired domain abuse - The importance of maintaining search intent when migrating or redirecting pages - SaaS sites that appear to be winning during the August volatility - Why short bottom-of-funnel landing pages are continuing to work - Sites previously hit by Google spam systems suddenly reporting recoveries - Whether this spam update could be followed by another Google core update I revisit Mike King's explanation of Mount AI. His argument is that Google doesn't need to reliably identify whether content was written by AI. Google can initially rank a large new set of pages, collect signals about how searchers respond, and then adjust the site's visibility based on those signals. Publishing 100,000 pages isn't automatically the problem. Publishing 100,000 pages that don't give searchers unique value is. There is a legitimate way to do programmatic SEO at scale. The underlying data, usefulness of the pages, search intent, UX, and reason for those pages to exist all matter. Meanwhile, I'm seeing encouraging movement from SaaS sites. Our own vibe-coded SaaS has been growing throughout August without aggressively scaling content, and I share another newer SaaS using short bottom-of-funnel landing pages that has also been gaining organic clicks. The August spam update is finished. Now we get to see whether the volatility settles down or Google has something else coming next. ⭐️ SE Roundtable: Google August 2026 Spam Update - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-august-2026-spam-update-done-41906.html ⭐️ Reddit: Who got hit - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO_Marketing_Offers/comments/1vsln4q/comment/p4mlfam/ ⭐️ David Quaid - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid/status/2090046206290386970?s=20 ⭐️ Expired Domain Comment - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1vrv11e/breaking_google_august_2026_spam_update_is/ ⭐️ Ep 1141 - Can You Launch 100,000 Pages and Survive Google? - https://youtu.be/wNtiygMsRfg ⭐️ Donmend0 on 𝕏 (site recovery) - https://x.com/donmend0/status/2090438229635879068 ⭐️ Ganesh_S_007 on 𝕏 (site recovery) - https://x.com/Ganesh_S_007/status/2090502537741029874 ⭐️ Ep 1127 - Google's Biggest SEO Leak Changed Everything… But Almost Nobody Adapted - https://youtu.be/fIs1ZSmEJGU ⭐️ James Dooley - https://youtu.be/EOkrLkKNDrY 💎 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 Spam Update Recap 01:03 Scaled Content Fallout 03:32 Spam Policy Breakdown 04:11 Programmatic SEO Wipeouts 05:31 Guru99 Case Study 08:15 Mount AI Explained 10:32 Expired Domain Confusion 12:49 SaaS Sites Winning 13:54 Recoveries and Core Rumors 15:13 Durable SEO 17:06 Episode Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #programmaticseo #seopodcast
August 22, 202618min