There Is No #1 Ranking Anymore: Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR & Charles Floate on SEO's New Rules

E1121: There is no permanent #1 ranking in AI search. Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR and Charles Floate join the show to explain why Google's results are becoming less fixed, more variable, and harder to measure with traditional rank tracking. They break down what is changing across Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other answer engines - and what they are changing in their own SEO strategies. The conversation goes beyond predictions. Koray and Charles share case studies, technical explanations, black-hat observations, and practical frameworks drawn from years of testing Google. In this episode: - Why AI search results are probabilistic - and why "position #1" no longer tells the full story - How rankings can change throughout the day, even when tracking tools report a stable average position - Why Google appears less tolerant of outdated content and large-scale AI publishing - The authority site that published more than 2,000 AI articles in one day and reportedly lost around 70% of its traffic - Why freshness depends on the query, and how Google may compare previous versions of a page - How Google's need for fresh sources in AI Overviews and AI Mode may be changing traditional search - Why Charles no longer wants to build the same "niche expert" content sites he built six or eight years ago - How one parasite page reached page one for a competitive finance query within three hours - Koray's $200, single-page site that grew from five clicks to 8,000 Google clicks per day without changing its content - What "visual semantics" means and why page layout, buttons, product grids, upload fields, and other functional elements may affect how Google classifies a page - Why Koray believes the Helpful Content Update would be more accurately described as a "functional content" update - Why a useful article may still struggle if the site does not clearly provide a product, service, tool, or other function - How to decide whether a query deserves its own page, a heading, or only a sentence - Why topical maps must be reviewed as Google changes query intent and semantic relationships - How topical focus, exact-match domains, expired domains, links, and click data work together - Why there is no single SEO silver bullet - and why content, links, technical SEO, entities, user behavior, and page function must support each other - How click satisfaction differs by query, and why a longer visit is not always a better signal - Why links and brand mentions serve different purposes when ranking pages, companies, products, and people - How Koray and Charles are using satellite sites, content distribution, and mentions to influence AI recommendations - What each guest would do with a fresh domain, $10,000, and six months to generate revenue - Which parasite platforms may work for B2B, local, B2C, and other markets - One SEO action listeners can implement this week that could affect rankings within 90 days This episode examines how Google evaluates pages, how AI systems retrieve and describe brands, and why tactics from traditional search cannot simply be copied into AI search. Subscribe for more conversations about SEO, Google, AI search, content, and backlinks. ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR's website - https://www.holisticseo.digital/  ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/koray-tugberk-gubur/  ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on 𝕏 - https://x.com/KorayGubur  ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TopicalAuthority  ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/koraytugberk.gubur.948/  ⭐️ Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on Medium - https://medium.com/@ktgubur  ⭐️ Charles Floate on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Charles_SEO  ⭐️ Charles Floate on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesfloate/  ⭐️ Charles Floate on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@CharlesFloate  ⭐️ Charles Floate on Facebook - https://facebook.com/thecharlesfloate  💎 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 Koray and Charles 00:22 Koray's SEO Origin Story 01:36 Topical Authority Breakthrough 02:30 Semantics vs Systems 04:56 What's Working in SEO 06:15 Google Gets Less Tolerant 09:07 Freshness and Historical Data 12:39 Charles' $250K SEO Lesson 15:35 Koray's Cost of Retrieval 16:24 Visual Semantics Case Study 20:19 SEO Myths and Schema 24:09 Entity Stacking Frameworks 28:09 Core Updates and Embeddings 31:05 Topical Maps Explained 36:11 Function Over Content 37:29 Visual Product Mimicry 40:02 Fake Collections That Rank 42:11 Helpful Content Misnomer 44:53 Agents For Visual Actions 46:05 Clicks And RankLab 48:02 Engagement And Satisfaction 50:38 AI Results Are Probabilistic 54:20 Liquid SERPs And Duration 55:48 AI SEO Tactics 01:00:04 Parasite SEO Playbook 01:08:12 Mentions Versus Backlinks 01:13:28 One Tactic This Week The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #seo #searchengineoptimization #blackhatseo #technicalseo

E1120: Your competitors may have 500 to 1,000 backlinks while your site has only a handful. That does not automatically mean you need hundreds of links to compete. I break down a popular SEO subreddit discussion about how to build backlinks today. I review the strongest comments, explain which advice is useful, and show why relevance, real traffic, relationships, and search intent often matter more than the total number of links pointing to a site. You'll learn: - Not doing any link building to get backlinks - The debate on PBNs - When buying backlinks can create risk - Why cold outreach and guest posting work, but require time and consistency - How businesses earn links through podcasts, niche publications, partnerships, sponsorships, and digital PR - Why a relevant link that sends real visitors can be more valuable than a high-metric link that gets no traffic - How to evaluate a website before asking for a backlink from it - Why you should check traffic history, ranking keywords, indexing, and sharp traffic declines - How original stock photos can attract natural backlinks with little or no outreach - How reverse image search can uncover websites using your images without attribution - Why brand mentions may still help Google understand your business, even when there is no link - How answering one journalist request per day can lead to strong editorial mentions and backlinks - Why industry events and business relationships can produce users, press, partnerships, and links at the same time - How hosting or appearing on podcasts can help you build relationships with people in your market - Why three highly relevant links may sometimes be more useful than hundreds of weak or unrelated links - How under-targeted, high-intent keywords can help a lower-authority site compete with larger websites The main point is simple: do not measure your backlink strategy only by quantity. A good backlink should make sense for the business. Ideally, it should appear on an indexed page, come from a relevant source, support your reputation, and send interested people to your site. Links created only to manipulate rankings are easier to identify as spam and less useful to a real business. I also explain why link building should not be separated from marketing. Useful content, expert commentary, podcast appearances, earned media, partnerships, events, and sponsorships can all generate links while also building awareness and bringing potential customers to your website. ⭐️ The Reddit thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1v2qkjz/how_do_you_get_backlinks/  ⭐️ Ep 1092 - The Digital PR Playbook That Earns High-Authority Links (Most SEOs Never Learn) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prWLsQNMHqo  ⭐️ Ep 1116 - James Dooley Episode - https://youtu.be/EOkrLkKNDrY  ⭐️ Ep 1111 - Why Red Bull Ranks for Everything: The SEO Power of Viral Marketing and Sponsorships - https://youtu.be/lmPBNIDwIks  ⭐️ How to Get On Podcasts as a Guest in 2026: The Easy Way - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/get-on-podcasts-as-guest-2026/  ⭐️ How I Produce Guest Podcasts in 90 Minutes (That Help Me Rank in Google) - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/how-i-produce-guest-podcasts-in-90-minutes/  ⭐️ https://aipodcastmatcher.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 Reddit Backlink Question 01:12 Four Link Methods 01:53 Guest Posts Deep Dive 02:28 PBNs And Buying Links 02:57 PR And Podcast Links 05:17 Evaluating Link Quality 07:23 Stock Photo Link Hack 09:07 Digital PR And Mentions 10:57 Earned Media Examples 12:20 Journalist Quotes Daily 13:07 Partnerships And Hosting 14:42 Relevance Beats Backlinks 16:27 Wrapping The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #seo #linkbuilding #searchengineoptimization #backlinks

E1119: Most ecommerce brands assume they need more traffic. But sometimes the real problem is the product page. I sit down with James Backenstone from Build Grow Scale as we screenshare and tear apart real ecommerce product pages while explaining why some pages convert while others lose the sale. James has spent 10 years studying customer behavior, working with more than 100 brands, and reviewing stores ranging from startups to eight- and nine-figure businesses. Across Build Grow Scale's work, the team has managed roughly $1 billion in ecommerce revenue. We look at the good, the bad, and the confusing across subscription and one-time-purchase product pages. James explains what he would change, what he would test, and which details can quietly cause a customer to leave. You'll learn: - The three questions a product page should answer before a visitor scrolls - What belongs above the fold on desktop and mobile - Why a vague product title can hurt both conversions and SEO - How clutter, unclear selections, broken-looking buttons, and unnecessary popups create friction - Why benefits and key product details should appear before secondary offers - Where to place reviews, star ratings, testimonials, and customer photos - Why real reviews often look more trustworthy than a page filled with perfect five-star ratings - How to build a clear subscription and one-time-purchase section - When a sticky add-to-cart button is worth testing - How to order product images, ingredient details, dosage information, videos, and customer content - Why captions should be added to product videos - How large video files can slow down a Shopify store - When comparison charts help customers understand why your product is different - Why brand-focused numbers can matter less than customer-focused proof - How to use customer objections to decide what information belongs on the page - Why "clarity trumps persuasion" when someone is deciding whether to buy James also explains how his team combines Shopify server-side data, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Microsoft Clarity to study behavior across a store. They use Claude to compare the data, find repeated patterns, and create a testing plan instead of relying on a single analytics platform. We also discuss: - Microsoft Clarity heatmaps and scroll tracking - Intelligems and VWO for A/B testing - Matching landing-page language to the ad or search that brought the visitor in - Exit-intent offers and timing popups based on average time on page - AI customer support that clearly identifies itself and transfers difficult questions to a human - Why every page change should be tested on real users rather than judged only by appearance The main lesson is simple: traffic cannot fix a product page that fails to explain what the product is, what problem it solves, and why the customer should buy it from you. Subscribe for daily episodes on SEO, AI, ecommerce, marketing, and building businesses online. ⭐️ Build Grow Scale - https://buildgrowscale.com/  ⭐️ AI Powered Store Audit - https://buildgrowscale.com/bgs-intelligence-snapshot  ⭐️ James Backenstone on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-backenstose-839048206/  💎 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 Product Page Teardowns Intro 00:35 Meet James and BGS 03:38 Why CRO Principles Matter 06:03 Mystery Tackle Box Audit 12:21 Clarity Over Cleverness 19:33 Reviews and Credibility 29:15 Heatmaps and AI Analysis 33:08 Pet Supplement Page Done Right 37:52 Mobile Sticky Add to Cart 41:00 Images and Made in USA Trust 44:35 Captions For Product Videos 46:26 Buy Box Breakdown 50:47 Sticky Layout Idea 52:01 UGC Testimonials And Hosting 01:02:04 AI Chat And Exit Intent 01:08:11 Cut Redundant Sections 01:12:45 Comparison Charts And Reviews 01:19:26 Conversion Summary And Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #conversionrateoptimization #ecommerce #seo #searchengineoptimization

E1118: Google hit WindowsForum.com with a manual action covering roughly 168,000 forum threads and more than half a million posts. The site's owners argued that Google unfairly punished a decades-old community for "thin content" without providing example URLs. But once you look deeper, the case becomes much more complicated. We investigate what WindowsForum says happened, what changed on the site before the penalty, and whether Google's action was deserved. The site presented the penalty as an attack on old forum content that had survived years of Google updates. However, its own response also revealed a large automated AI publishing system that created news articles, forum replies, and content based on material from other sources. Some of that content included unrelated topics such as: - Cryptocurrency promotions - Stock price predictions - Analyst ratings - General financial news - Articles that had little connection to Windows - Automated forum replies that summarized and praised user comments - AI-generated news pages built from third-party sources WindowsForum later said it was removing thousands of low-quality articles produced by its automated system. It also claimed that every bot-authored article had been reviewed after the manual action. That raises several questions: - How much AI-generated content was published? - How much human review took place before publication? - Why did the site's organic traffic increase so rapidly before the penalty? - Was Google targeting the old forum archive or the newer automated content? - Should a manual action against part of a site suppress an entire URL pattern? - Should independent forums be treated differently from large platforms? - Are users actually helped by AI-generated replies inside community discussions? The traffic pattern is also worth examining. WindowsForum's estimated organic traffic remained relatively stable for years, then increased sharply from around 4,900 monthly clicks to more than 150,000 monthly clicks. That increase appears to line up with the expansion of its automated publishing activity. We break down: - WindowsForum's public explanation of the penalty - The details missing from the original Reddit discussion - The site's automated AI content pipeline - The admission that thousands of low-quality articles were published - The use of AI accounts inside forum discussions - The site's scraped and summarized news content - The unusual organic traffic growth before the manual action - Why old content may not have been the real reason for the penalty - Why domain authority cannot protect a site from low-quality publishing - What this case means for site owners using scaled AI content The evidence suggests that WindowsForum used its established domain authority to publish large amounts of automated content, much of which added little original value and sometimes had little connection to the site's main topic. Google's response may have been broad, and the lack of example URLs makes the reconsideration process harder. But the site's own admissions make it difficult to argue that the penalty came without warning or justification. This case is a useful warning for anyone planning to publish large amounts of AI-generated content. AI can help with research, organization, editing, and drafting. It should not replace subject-matter expertise, fact-checking, original analysis, or human editorial review. Publishing more pages is not the same as creating more value. ⭐️ WindowsForum full response - https://windowsforum.com/threads/  ⭐️ Join the Reddit discussion - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1v6jn8x/google_hit_windowsforumcom_with_a_thincontent/  ⭐️ Join the discussion on X - https://x.com/gaganghotra_/status/2081287139271250274  💎 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 Detective SEO 00:14 Manual Action Breakdown 01:51 What Actually Changed 02:28 Why Google Hits Broadly 04:00 WindowsForum Response 04:38 AI Workflow Red Flags 06:26 Suspicious Traffic Spike 08:35 AI Slop Examples 09:43 Bigger AI Crackdown Context 11:30 Wrap The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #seo #searchengineoptimization #webdevelopment #digitalmarketing

E1117: Breaking down Rank-and-Rent, one of the most profitable local SEO business models. We are joined by a pro in the subject: Ippei Kanehara Ippei has been building Rank-and-Rent websites for more than 11 years. During that time he's built hundreds of local lead generation sites, generated recurring income from websites that are over a decade old, and recently built 130 new sites to test what's working in SEO today. One of his earliest websites took around 15 hours to build and has generated more than $240,000 over its lifetime while continuing to produce recurring monthly revenue. We cover the complete strategy behind modern Rank-and-Rent SEO, including niche selection, keyword research, website architecture, topical authority, Google Business Profiles, AI content workflows, and why bottom-of-the-funnel SEO continues to outperform many traditional content strategies. Whether you're an SEO professional, agency owner, affiliate marketer, local business owner, or someone looking to build recurring income online, this episode is packed with practical insights and real-world examples. Topics covered include: - What Rank-and-Rent SEO is - Whether Google Business Profiles are still required - How the business model differs from running an SEO agency - How to generate leads before signing clients - Using free leads to acquire long-term customers - Commission deals vs. flat monthly rental agreements - Why recurring rental income often produces lower client churn - The biggest misconceptions about rank and rent - How successful operators continue building without relying entirely on GBP - Choosing profitable local niches - Why home service businesses continue to offer strong opportunities - High-ticket vs. low-ticket service industries - Avoiding overly competitive local markets - What to look for when analyzing competing websites - Why many local businesses still have weak SEO - Exact match domains and partial match domains - Building brands around local search intent - Website structures that consistently rank - Homepage optimization - Heading hierarchy - Service page strategy - Sub-city landing pages - Internal linking strategy - Using the homepage as the authority hub - Building topical authority across an entire site - How many pages to launch with - Creating dozens of bottom-of-the-funnel pages - Expanding into neighboring cities - Finding overlooked service keywords - Using Google's autocomplete for keyword research - Google Search Console to discover new opportunities - When to create new pages versus expanding existing content - Information architecture for local SEO - AI-assisted content creation - Entity optimization - Editing AI content for higher quality - Making local landing pages more unique - Case studies and location-specific content - Image strategies for local websites - Link building vs. topical authority - Why Ippei has largely stopped relying on guest posts - Using internal authority across owned websites - Building multiple websites for the same client - Scaling local SEO without unnecessary complexity - The first 30 days of launching a new Rank-and-Rent website - Why beginners should build multiple sites - Common mistakes new local SEO operators make We also discuss how Google's algorithm updates have affected different business models. Ippei shares how large content websites can be heavily impacted by updates while many local lead generation sites continue producing consistent results by focusing on commercial search intent and bottom-of-the-funnel keywords. ⭐️ Ippei's Blog - https://ippei.com/  ⭐️ Ippei's Web Builder & Call Tracking - https://ippei.com/dashboard/  ⭐️ Ippei Kanehara on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@IppeiSEO  💎 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 Rank and Rent Intro 00:27 Model Breakdown 03:31 Monetization and Billing 05:03 Why It Beats Agencies 08:48 Ippei Origin Story 14:24 Best Site Example 14:58 Misconceptions and GBP 17:17 Picking Profitable Niches 18:46 Reading Competition Right 23:07 Site Structure Basics 25:44 Branding and Scaling Cities 28:22 EMDs and Must Have Pages 31:36 Internal Linking Strategy 36:31 Avoiding Doorway Pages 39:44 AI Content Workflow 43:34 Keyword Research Methods 46:22 GSC Insights and New Pages 47:27 Keyword Page Splits 48:31 Backlinks Versus Authority 51:09 First 30 Days Blueprint 54:38 Site Structure Strategy 56:35 Image Sourcing Tactics 57:59 GBP Lead Boost 01:00:45 Video Verification Hacks 01:05:52 Reviews And Conversions 01:08:23 Monetization Models 01:10:08 Lead Handoff Scripts 01:16:16 Contracts And Leverage 01:18:14 Scaling And Mistakes 01:21:51 Mega Brand Rollup 01:27:18 Why Projects Fail 01:29:30 Final Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #rankandrent #seo #searchengineoptimization

E1116: James Dooley joins the pod to explain what's working in SEO in 2026, based on years of testing across hundreds of websites, multiple industries, and highly competitive search markets. James describes himself as a "money-hat SEO": he is less interested in labels such as white hat or black hat and more interested in testing, measuring results, managing risk, and building assets that make money over the long term. We discuss: - What James does during the first 30 days of a new SEO project - Why he often builds an exact-match domain, a partial-match domain, and a branded website for the same business - How he chooses between short-term ranking opportunities and long-term brand building - Why bottom-of-the-funnel pages remain central to his lead-generation strategy - How to tell whether a site needs more authority, better content, content pruning, or conversion work - What "discovered, not indexed" and "crawled, not indexed" can reveal about a website - Why deleting a large percentage of weak pages can sometimes increase traffic - What the Google API leak confirmed about user signals, clicks, branded searches, and NavBoost - Why site speed, concise content, image size, dwell time, and user behavior still matter - Which links still move rankings in 2026, including digital PR, guest posts, citations, press releases, and PBNs - Why James now prefers links that competitors cannot easily copy - What still works in iGaming SEO and why James is reducing his involvement in that market - How parasite SEO, expired domains, exact-match domains, and indexing tools fit into his current process - Why top-of-the-funnel content is increasingly being published on Reddit, social platforms, and third-party sites - How one strong review, testimonial, award, or case study can be repurposed across many platforms - Why force-indexing social posts and third-party content may help those pages appear in search and AI systems - How brands can improve their chances of being cited and linked in Google AI Overviews - Why consensus and third-party corroboration matter for recommendations in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity - James's "who you are, what you do, and why you're brilliant" framework - How knowledge panels, Knowledge Graph IDs, schema, books, podcasts, IMDb, Wikidata, and entity connections work together - The difference between using schema for rankings and using schema to clarify an entity - How James outranked another well-known person with the same name in Google's Knowledge Graph - Why fewer clicks from informational searches do not always mean fewer leads or sales - How AI-assisted search can send better-informed prospects who are more likely to convert - The SEO mistakes James has made, how he tests penalties, and why he teaches new team members to find the limits - The one SEO action he recommends completing in the next 24 hours - Why SEOs should test ideas instead of repeating advice they have never verified ⭐️ 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 Welcome James Dooley 00:32 From Business to SEO 01:46 Content Amplification Flywheel 05:11 First 30 Days SEO 08:07 Money Hat SEO 11:58 Google Leak Signals 15:52 iGaming Negative SEO 19:13 Pruning and Authority 21:14 Revenue Keyword Research 23:52 Multi Domain Strategy 26:26 Entity SEO Knowledge Panels 31:01 Link Tactics 2026 36:17 Schema for Entities 40:50 Search Volume vs Corroboration 42:20 Schema for Knowledge Panels 43:37 Schema Testing for Rankings 44:35 R&D Testing Mindset 46:13 Social Platforms for Long Tails 48:12 AI Overviews and Better Leads 50:15 Consensus Framework for AI 52:56 Amplify Testimonials Everywhere 56:57 Ethics of Review Manipulation 59:49 Semantic Triples Explained 01:01:35 Force Indexing Social Proof 01:04:43 Omnichannel Consistency Wins 01:08:20 Mentorship and Industry Growth 01:10:27 Nofollow and Mentions Debate 01:11:44 Unlinked Mentions Matter 01:12:36 Why SEO Is Surging 01:13:54 Bottom of Funnel Keyword Wins 01:15:01 Inside Their SEO Testing Lab 01:16:43 Image Search Traffic Plays 01:18:01 Video And Podcasting Boost 01:18:37 Podcast Syndication For LLMs 01:24:08 Monetizing Podcasts With Sponsors 01:26:49 Strategic Micro Episodes Plan 01:30:16 Three Questions 01:36:04 Who To Follow In SEO 01:40:46 Wrap Up And Where To Find The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #blackhatseo #digitalmarketing

E1115: Endre Olsvik Elvestad built a large SEO program around SignLab, a sign-language learning company. Its websites offered searchable sign language videos across multiple countries. Then Google AI Overviews appeared. SignLab lost about 50% of its Google clicks. High-intent traffic and app downloads fell even harder. Google could show the answer directly in search by displaying SignLab's videos, leaving users with no reason to visit the website. In this episode, Endre explains what happened, why the original programmatic SEO strategy stopped producing the same results, and how the company rebuilt organic acquisition across Google, YouTube, and AI search. We cover: - How AI Overviews reduced clicks while rankings and impressions often stayed stable - Why losing website visits caused a much larger drop in app downloads - How SignLab moved thousands of sign language videos from self-hosting to YouTube - The upload limits, verification issues, and automation challenges involved - Why YouTube became an important search engine for sign language queries - Why YouTube improved visibility without fully replacing website conversions - The difference between top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel traffic - Which queries produced the most app downloads after the decline - Why "Does Duolingo have ASL?" became a strong bottom-of-funnel topic - How the team shifted from individual sign queries to broader communication problems - Why traditional SEO fundamentals still mattered after AI Overviews - How SignLab manages separate SEO strategies across multiple countries and domains - Why direct translation was not enough for international SEO - How AI agents help with research, outlines, writing, review, publishing, and updates - Why content must reflect the culture, search behavior, and needs of each country - How customer reviews can feed new topics into an automated SEO workflow - What useful, specific, reviewed AI-generated content looks like - Which tactics were less useful, including gray-hat LLM tactics and expensive monitoring tools - The few actions that drove most of the recovery This case study is for anyone dealing with declining organic clicks, zero-click search, AI Overviews, programmatic SEO, international SEO, YouTube SEO, or AI-assisted content production. SignLab did not recover by finding a shortcut. It recovered by changing its content, expanding into YouTube, targeting queries closer to conversion, and applying solid SEO practices across every market. ⭐️ Endre Olsvik Elvestad on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/endreelvestad/  ⭐️ Endre Olsvik Elvestad's company, SignLab - https://www.signlab.co/  ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/  ⭐️ Will Qu on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-qu/  💎 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 Cut in Half 00:27 Sign Language SEO Model 01:37 AI Overviews Steal Videos 05:25 App Downloads Collapse 07:19 Working With David 09:44 Recovery Strategy Shift 15:24 YouTube Migration Plan 16:08 Upload Limits and Workflow 18:41 Verification to Scale Uploads 20:52 Titles Format and Editing 25:25 Replacing Embeds and SERP Impact 26:59 Why It Felt Unfair 32:31 YouTube Beats AI Answers 34:38 SEO Reset With Experts 36:16 What Good Content Means 38:21 Middle vs Bottom Funnel 42:00 Links And Topical Authority 44:06 Agentic Multilingual Publishing 46:25 Avoiding AI Translation Traps 51:12 Automated Content Feedback Loops 57:12 What Actually Drove Recovery 59:15 LLM Visibility And Community 01:01:40 Lessons And Closing The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #programmaticseo #digitalmarketing

1113: Five websites once dominated Google search, bringing in millions and millions of clicks every month. Then their rankings collapsed. We break down five major SEO declines from the last few years, explain what caused them, and show why one site was able to recover while the others continued to struggle. These examples cover some of the most common SEO mistakes companies are still making today, including scaled AI content, aggressive self-promotion in top-of-funnel content, weak search intent alignment, topical overreach, poor user experience, and an overdependence on informational traffic. You'll learn what happened to: - AInvest - WPBeginner - ClickUp - HubSpot - HouseFresh AInvest scaled AI-generated finance content and briefly grew from roughly 270,000 monthly Google clicks to 9.5 million. After Google's spam updates, that traffic fell to fewer than 8,000 monthly clicks. WPBeginner went from being one of the largest WordPress resource sites to losing nearly all of its organic search visibility. Its decline shows what can happen when informational content becomes overloaded with promotion, slow introductions, thin answers, and poor user experience. ClickUp's blog fell from approximately 1.19 million monthly organic visitors to around 28,000. Many of its pages were built around ClickUp's conversion funnel rather than the searcher's actual intent. When rankings started falling, the company added thousands of additional templated pages instead of addressing the underlying problems. HubSpot lost millions of monthly Google clicks after publishing across too many unrelated topics. Its content ranked for searches involving career advice, quotes, emojis, technical instructions, business ideas, and other subjects far outside its core expertise. HubSpot survived because its business was not dependent on blog traffic alone. HouseFresh is the recovery story. After being hit by Google's helpful content update, HouseFresh fell from around 50,000 monthly clicks to approximately 1,000. Instead of abandoning the site, the team continued improving its reviews, navigation, design, brand visibility, and presence outside Google. HouseFresh later recovered to approximately 275,000 monthly clicks, more than five times its traffic before the original decline. You'll learn: - Why scaled AI content can create serious long-term SEO risks - Why search intent matters more than publishing volume - How excessive self-promotion can weaken informational content - Why adding more pages may make an SEO decline worse - How topical authority affects rankings - Why high traffic does not always lead to revenue - How branded search, direct traffic, referrals, and other channels reduce dependence on Google - Why product pages and commercial pages can be more resilient than broad informational content - What HouseFresh did differently after losing nearly all of its traffic - Which SEO practices companies should avoid moving forward The main lessons: - Match the searcher's intent - Do not scale low-value AI pages - Do not publish content simply to increase page count - Stay within subjects where your business has real expertise - Avoid forcing product promotion into informational articles - Give people useful answers quickly - Build branded search and direct traffic - Earn backlinks that also generate referral and direct traffic - Create useful commercial pages for searches with buying intent - Continue improving the site when rankings decline - Do not use Google as your only source of customers ⭐️ Google's War on Scaled AI Content: The Rise and Fall of AInvest - Ep 803 - https://youtu.be/RpgOKUO_SyI  ⭐️ Google Took WPBeginner From 2.6M Clicks to 27K - Here's Why - Ep 1082 - https://youtu.be/pUBiXeLrxf4  ⭐️ From 1.19M to 28K: ClickUp's SEO Collapse (And What It Teaches Us) - Ep 1038 - https://youtu.be/SDsxGF3KTcc  ⭐️ Writeup - HubSpot SEO collapse - https://thestacc.com/blog/hubspot-traffic-drop-analysis/  ⭐️ Why HubSpot Lost 20M Clicks (and How They Plan to Recover) - Ep 820 - https://youtu.be/AqjXoBv-7nA  ⭐️ From 1,000 to 200,000 Clicks: The INSANE SEO Comeback of HouseFresh.com - Ep 832 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QewNJ2AgQxM  💎 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 Biggest SEO Collapses 00:38 First Crash 02:51 Second Downfall 04:57 Third Decimation 07:13 Fourth Overreach and Destruction 10:14 Why It Survived 12:41 The Major Comeback 14:42 SEO Lessons Recap 15:22 Wrapping The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #seopodcast

E1114: AI can search faster, pull data from dozens of sources, analyze entire websites, and complete hours of SEO research in minutes. But AI still does not think. Andrew Melnychuk-Oseen explains what large language models actually do, why their reasoning can look more intelligent than it is, and where AI agents commonly fail when used for SEO. We discuss why AI-generated work often sounds convincing while completely missing search intent, how bad context compounds across prompts, and why automating SEO without expert review can quietly destroy a website. Andrew also breaks down how he uses AI agents responsibly to collect data, run SEO audits, create reports, and handle narrow tasks without allowing the system to publish unchecked changes. Topics covered: - Why an LLM is a statistical model, not a human brain - Why AI "thinking" is different from actual human judgment - How ChatGPT and AI agents use search and query fan-out - Why AI often produces average or surface-level SEO content - How AI misunderstands bottom-of-funnel search intent - Why correcting an AI can accidentally make its output worse - What context poisoning is and how it affects future responses - Why memory can introduce irrelevant or incorrect assumptions - How hallucinated numbers can corrupt SEO analysis - The risks of connecting AI to Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics - Why automated title and content updates can create bad user signals - How agencies can damage client websites by removing human supervision - Why Google is equipped to identify large-scale AI spam - Why mass AI publishing could lead to severe Google penalties - How to keep prompts, instructions, and source information focused - Which SEO tasks AI agents are actually good at - How one SEO audit went from 16 hours to eight minutes - Why that audit still required an hour of professional quality control - How AI agents can run separate research tasks without overloading one context window - Why retrieving and organizing information is often AI's greatest strength - When it is faster to stop prompting and complete the work yourself - Why experienced professionals should use AI as an assistant, not a replacement - How smaller companies and solo operators may adopt AI faster than large organizations - Why AI is more likely to change jobs than eliminate human work entirely The main lesson is simple: AI can dramatically reduce the time required to gather and organize information, but it cannot replace the judgment required to make good SEO decisions. Use AI to retrieve, summarize, format, and assist. Do not let it think it is the SEO. ⭐️ Andrew Melnychuk-Oseen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amovfx/  ⭐️ Saaga Solve - https://saagasolve.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 the Guest 01:06 From Games to Bitcoin 02:52 Crypto Hype Lessons 05:57 Agents Need Humans 08:07 LLMs Explained Simply 16:11 Search and Fan Out 19:55 Why LLMs Feel Smart 24:00 Spam and Google Purge 29:08 Dead Internet Incentives 32:18 Jobs and Upskilling 34:55 Common SEO Failures 37:47 Context Hygiene Tips 43:36 How He Uses Agents 47:00 When AI Slows You Down 49:16 Model Choice Matters 51:25 AI Inside Organizations 53:42 16 Hour SEO Audit to 8 Minutes 57:40 Sales Agent Edge Cases 01:01:32 Are LLMs Topping Out 01:07:46 AI SEO for Non Natives 01:11:44 Recursive Hyper Agents 01:18:01 Automation Traps and Risks 01:27:21 Responsible Agent Workflow The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #aiseo #digitalmarketing

E1112: Medium is ranking strongly in Google again, and brands are using it to publish keyword-focused content, earn fast rankings, and appear in AI-generated search results. I explain why Medium has returned as a useful parasite SEO platform, how companies are using it alongside LinkedIn and other social platforms, and what can go wrong when the strategy becomes too promotional. You'll learn: - What parasite SEO means and why high-authority platforms can rank quickly - Why Medium's organic traffic and top-three keyword rankings have increased - How Medium articles can rank within days of publication - Why Medium content can also appear in AI Overviews and AI search tools - How to optimize a Medium article's page title, URL slug, H1, meta description, opening sentence, and image alt text - Why LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and X can support similar strategies - How brands are creating separate author profiles and consultant-style identities to promote products - Why some companies hire employees specifically to publish Medium and social content - How brands balance general niche content with posts targeting commercial keywords - Why publishing frequency and cross-platform distribution matter - How Medium articles are repeatedly shared through social accounts using keyword-focused language - Why this strategy works better in industries where customers are less familiar with SEO tactics - Why excessive links and one-sided recommendations can make content look promotional - How poor content can cause searchers to return to Google and choose another result - Why Google can reduce visibility across an entire author profile - Why brands should not depend on one third-party platform for long-term rankings - What past platforms such as Yahoo Answers can teach us about temporary search visibility - Why Medium may rank well today but lose visibility after a future algorithm change Medium currently benefits from Google's preference for useful user-generated content, but that does not make every tactic safe or sustainable. The strongest content still needs to satisfy the searcher, answer the query clearly, and avoid misleading claims or undisclosed promotion. This episode covers what brands are doing, not what every company should copy. The more aggressive versions of this strategy can create legal, reputational, and search-related risks. 💎 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 Medium Parasite SEO Returns 00:18 What Parasite SEO Means 00:45 Medium Traffic Surge Stats 01:30 Why Medium Ranks Fast 02:53 Tim Soulo Medium Playbook 04:05 Brands Running Stealth Parasite SEO 05:16 Posting Cadence Across Platforms 07:28 Why It Works and Where 08:58 Biggest Risks and Penalties 09:57 Platforms Change Over Time 10:50 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #parasiteseo #searchengineoptimization #seo #blackhatseo