How 5,000 SEO Visits Got Her Client's Local Business Bought by Private Equity

E1087: For the past year, one question has dominated conversations around AI search: Is GEO actually different from SEO? Some marketers argue that Generative Engine Optimization is an entirely new discipline. Others believe it's simply good SEO applied to a new interface. In this episode, I sit down with David Quaid and Vlad Pivnev for a detailed debate on what has changed, what hasn't, and whether businesses should rethink how they approach search in the age of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Rather than repeating popular opinions, we challenge assumptions, compare evidence, and explore where traditional SEO ends and AI visibility begins. Topics we cover include: - Is GEO a genuinely new marketing discipline? - Why AI search engines produce different answers from Google - How ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini retrieve information - Whether ranking #1 in Google guarantees visibility in AI search - The role of brand authority, reviews, PR, Reddit, and citations - Query fan-out, retrieval, and how LLMs build answers - Whether AI search relies primarily on Google, Bing, or its own crawling - Can brands become visible in AI search without traditional rankings? - Measuring AI visibility versus traditional SEO performance - Practical approaches businesses can use today Whether you're an SEO professional, agency owner, marketer, founder, or simply trying to understand how AI is changing search, this conversation offers a detailed look at one of the biggest debates happening in the industry today. If you enjoy long-form discussions about SEO, AI search, Google updates, and digital marketing, consider subscribing for future episodes. 🔥 The previous SEO vs GEO debate - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FFMFdFAVLs  ⭐️ Vlad Pivnev on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pivnevvladislav/  ⭐️ Vlad Pivnev on 𝕏 - https://x.com/p_vlad  ⭐️ Vlad Pivnev's Agency, Stive - https://stive.ai/  ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid  ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/  ⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@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 GEO vs SEO Intro 01:08 Why Search Behavior Is Shifting 03:33 Shopping Mall vs Sales Rep Analogy 06:45 What GEO Requires Beyond SEO 10:08 Debating Definitions of SEO 17:20 Query Fan Out and RAG Explained 34:48 Testing Perplexity Results Live 38:40 Do AI Bots Crawl Your Site 43:29 Memory Math and Web Scale 45:10 Web Scale Reality Check 47:51 Why LLMs Need Search 48:40 Query Fanout Explained 54:33 GEO Versus SEO Debate 01:01:48 AI Visibility Audit Workflow 01:04:09 Measuring Citations and Clicks 01:10:49 Is GEO Just Modern SEO 01:14:27 Web Search Toggle Confusion 01:16:51 Funfluencer Case Study 01:17:35 Search vs Web Memory 01:19:12 LLM Crawlers Explained 01:22:00 Bing Citations Mystery 01:27:23 Crypto Agency Case Study 01:31:23 Brand Rankings Debate 01:44:14 Reddit Lists Gaming 01:48:33 Press Release Manipulation 01:52:22 Top Two Recommendations 01:54:25 Closing and Where to Find The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1086: Tiffani Daniel is back on the show to talk about how SEO copywriting can turn into real business value. Last time, we talked about how one blog a week helped take a local dentist to 130,000 monthly visits - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsI3XJ-_FUs  This time, Tiffani shares another local SEO story: a landscaping and pest control client that reached about 5,000 monthly visits, got calls from all over Florida, and ended up being bought by private equity. What makes the story interesting is that the traffic did not come from a huge ad budget or a massive social media presence. The blogs were doing most of the work. In this episode, we talk about how to write SEO content that people want to read, how to use keyword research to find new business opportunities, and why local businesses should pay more attention to service pages, blog topics, and the way real customers describe their problems. We also get into AI Overviews, social media SEO, About pages, copywriting voice, and why "just answer the question" is still one of the most important rules in SEO. Topics covered: - How 5,000 monthly SEO visits helped make a local business more attractive to buyers - Why local SEO traffic can matter even when the numbers look small - How Tiffani thinks about top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel content - Why "what does mouse poop look like" can be a valuable SEO topic for a pest control company - How blog traffic led to calls from across Florida - Why keyword research can reveal new services, products, and revenue opportunities - How SEO copywriting can help businesses decide what to sell next - Why service pages and homepages may matter more now because of AI Overviews - How to write blog titles that feel more personal and less generic - Why "How I did this" can be more clickable than a standard how-to headline - How to make SEO content sound like it came from a real person - Why Tiffani uses Reddit to find the actual problems people are talking about - How to answer a search query quickly without making the content boring - Why formatting, short sections, and clear answers matter more than ever - How to use open loops in blog introductions - Why old blog posts should be updated after you see them with fresh eyes - Why publishing an imperfect article can be better than never publishing - How Tiffani changed as a writer after writing 20,000 words a week for Screen Rant - Why brand voice is becoming more important for SEO - Where to add personality on a website - How microcopy can make a site more memorable - Why About pages should target keywords too - How to make copywriting less painful if you hate writing - Why voice notes can help business owners explain what they actually do - How to use the same keyword across blogs, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, Threads, and 𝕏 - Why social media SEO is still underused - How to pick content buckets and build topical authority over time - Why blogging still matters even when people are also using YouTube, TikTok, Substack, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews Watch this if you are trying to understand how local SEO, better copy, and smarter keyword research can lead to more than just traffic. It can change what a business sells, who finds it, and how valuable the business becomes. ⭐️ Tiffani Daniel's last time on the pod - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsI3XJ-_FUs  ⭐️ Tiffani Daniel at Your Creative Content blog - https://www.yourcreativecontent.com/blog  ⭐️ Tiffani Daniel on Threads - https://www.threads.net/@yourcreativecontent  ⭐️ Tiffani Daniel on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@yourcreativecontent  ⭐️ Tiffani Daniel on Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/yourcreativecontent/  ⭐️ Tiffani's SEO Copywriting Services - https://www.yourcreativecontent.com/copywriting-services  ⭐️ Tiffani's SEO content membership, SEO Storytellers- https://www.yourcreativecontent.com/seo-storytellers  💎 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 and Background 00:49 SEO Storytelling and Titles 03:12 AI Overviews and Clicks 05:26 Personal Titles for Boring Niches 07:56 Landscaping Case Study Funnel 11:25 Writing for Humans Google AI 15:57 Modern Blog SEO Basics 18:02 Cheap SEO Tools Post Breakdown 20:44 Publish Then Update 21:51 Evolving Writing Style 23:25 Witty Words and Brand Voice 26:17 Authenticity on Key Pages 28:02 About Page Keywords 30:06 Make Copywriting Fun 32:33 Niche SEO Opportunities 34:35 Cheapest SEO Tools 36:44 Google Discover Traffic 39:54 Self Promo Pitfalls 41:26 Social Media SEO 45:30 Why SEO Feels Hard 48:12 Client Wins and Offers 55:04 Topical Authority Plan 56:38 Wrap Up and Where to Find The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seocopywriting #copywriting #blogging

E1085: Caleb Ulku joins to talk about one of the most practical local SEO systems I've heard in a while: the "Core 30." The idea is simple: stop treating your website and Google Business Profile like two separate things. Caleb's approach is to build the website so it directly supports the Google Business Profile. Your GBP categories, services, landing page, location pages, service pages, and internal links should all send Google the same clear signal about what your business does and where it does it. Caleb says that for many local businesses, this ends up being around 30 pages. That is why he calls it the Core 30. We also get into how AI is changing local SEO. Not in a vague way. Caleb explains how Google, Gemini, ChatGPT, and other AI systems are likely to read local business websites, what they need to see, and why messy websites may become a bigger problem as AI agents become more involved in search. In this episode, we cover: - Why Caleb moved away from non-local informational SEO after ChatGPT came out - Why he now treats the Google Business Profile as the "money page" for local SEO - How the Core 30 works for plumbers, lawyers, home services, and other local businesses - How to structure service pages around your GBP categories and services - Why many local businesses are underusing secondary GBP categories - Why keyword stuffing GBP services does not make sense anymore - How to think about location pages for multi-location businesses - Why Caleb cares more about internal linking than URL structure - Where the keyword still matters on a local service page - Why the first paragraph of a local page should not be a company history lesson - How AI changes the way local business content should be written - What "attribute matching" means for ChatGPT, Gemini, and local recommendations - Why local pages need real local detail, not copied city-swap content - How Caleb uses rank maps to decide what content to build next - The difference between topical relevance and geographical relevance - Why some blog posts bring traffic but do not help local rankings - How to build content around service intent instead of empty informational searches - Why Caleb likes local sponsorship links, chambers of commerce, charities, and events - How he found a $250 sponsorship link from a UT Austin TEDx page - Why video may matter more for local SEO as Gemini becomes more important in Maps - When AI images are better than no images, and why real client images are still better - Why phone answer rate can affect local SEO performance - What happens when someone calls your business, hangs up, and calls a competitor - How Caleb thinks about AI answering services for local businesses - How to ask for reviews in a way that actually gets people to respond - Why trust content may become more important as AI reads more of your site This is a very tactical local SEO conversation. If you work with local businesses, run a local SEO agency, or own a business that depends on Google Maps rankings, this episode will give you a clearer way to think about site structure, GBP optimization, content, reviews, links, and AI search. ⭐️ Caleb Ulku on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@calebulku  💎 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 Caleb Ulku 01:16 From Exxon to Freedom 03:06 First SEO Lessons 06:06 Upwork to Big Brands 09:28 Pivot to Local SEO 11:12 Core 30 Blueprint 15:03 Multi Location Strategy 16:47 GBP Mistakes to Fix 18:43 URLs and Internal Links 22:31 Writing for AI Agents 27:05 Hyperlocal Content Research 30:44 AI Images and EXIF 32:34 Video for Gemini Maps 35:40 Local Links via Sponsorships 38:22 Backlinks for SaaS 39:52 Blog SEO Pitfalls 40:42 Traffic vs Local Calls 42:44 Rank Map Metrics 44:58 Topical Relevance Threshold 46:54 Geographic Content Strategy 48:30 AI Lowers Content Costs 49:48 Trust Content for LLMs 52:53 Press Releases for AI 54:37 Phone Answering Impacts Rankings 59:59 AI Phone Agents 01:03:26 Review Strategy for Ask Maps 01:05:44 Avoiding Review Scams 01:09:13 Rebuilding an Agency 01:13:25 Scaling to Seven Figures 01:16:15 Future of SEO Trust 01:21:22 Digital PR and Linkable Stunts 01:24:56 Final Thanks and Where to Find The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #localseo #localmarketing #searchengineoptimization #googlebusinessprofile

E1084: Should you avoid 301 redirects because they reduce link equity? A lot of SEOs still believe that 301 redirects cause a loss in PageRank. That belief made sense years ago. In 2013, Matt Cutts said 301 redirects could result in a PageRank loss. But in 2016, Gary Illyes from Google said redirects no longer lose PageRank. And Google's own documentation still says that 301 and other permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank. In this episode, I break down why the old 301 redirect fear is outdated, when redirects are safe to use, and what you still need to watch out for when redirecting URLs. Covered in this episode: - Why SEOs still worry about 301 redirects losing link equity - The old 2013 Google statement that created the misconception - What Gary Illyes said in 2016 about redirects and PageRank - What Google's current documentation says about 301 redirects - Why 301 redirects are still useful for site migrations, URL cleanup, and domain moves - Why redirect chains are still worth avoiding - Why server-side redirects are better for Googlebot than client-side redirects - Why redirect relevance still matters - How anchor text and link signals can pass through redirects - Why redirecting irrelevant backlinks to unrelated pages is not a magic fix - The Cyrus Shepard case study where a redirected site migration saw traffic increase instead of drop - Why the best redirect is usually one where the URL changes, but the content stays mostly the same The main point: If you have a real reason to use a 301 redirect, do not avoid it because of outdated PageRank fears. Use redirects when they make sense. Use them for: - Proper site migrations - Better URL structure - Consolidating pages - Moving from HTTP to HTTPS - Moving content to a new domain - Sending users to the right destination - Cleaning up old or unnecessary URLs But do not use them carelessly. Avoid: - Long redirect chains - Redirects to irrelevant pages - Client-side redirects - Redirects that confuse users - Redirects where the destination does not match the original intent of the page 301 redirects are not something to fear. They are a normal part of technical SEO when used properly. ⭐️ 301 Redirects for SEO: Google Removes the Penalty (And Cyrus Shepard Case Study) - https://moz.com/blog/301-redirection-rules-for-seo  ⭐️ Gary Illyes statement - https://x.com/methode/status/757923179641839616  ⭐️ Google documentation saying 301s don't lose PageRank - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes  💎 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/  00:00 301 Redirect Myth 00:27 Google PageRank Updates 00:55 What 301 Redirects Do 01:32 Official Google Guidance 01:55 Redirect Best Practices 02:28 Relevance Still Matters 03:04 Cyrus Shepard Case Study 04:16 Wrap Up The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #301redirect #pagerank #searchengineoptimization #linkequity 

E1083: Google researchers published a paper showing how coordinated AI spam can be detected at scale. The research focuses on video spam, but the methods are highly relevant to SEO because they show how Google may think about mass AI content, repeated templates, automated publishing patterns, and networks of accounts or sites using similar generative systems. The key idea is simple: instead of judging one piece of content at a time, Google can look for patterns across a whole cluster. That matters for anyone using AI to publish SEO content at scale. In this episode, I break down the Search Engine Journal article from Roger Montti, Glenn Gabe's comments on the research, and why this could become a major risk for mass AI SEO strategies. Topics covered: - Why Google's research is focused on coordinated AI spam, not all AI content - What the Scalable Cluster Termination System, or S-CTS, is designed to do - Why Google may look beyond individual pages or videos and evaluate whole clusters - How repeated semantic templates can leave detectable patterns - Why AI-generated content can be "unique" while still being functionally identical - How text embeddings and Sentence-BERT can help identify similar AI-generated narratives - Why traditional content-level quality filters may not be enough anymore - How coordinated accounts, botnets, scripts, and publishing behavior can expose spam networks - Why LoRA and Automatic Prompt Optimization may help Google adapt faster to new spam patterns - What this means for AI SEO tools and sites publishing large amounts of AI content - Why using AI is not automatically the same as spam - Where the real risk begins: thin content, low-quality output, repeated templates, and scaled content abuse The important distinction is that Google is not saying all AI content is spam. The problem is mass-produced AI content that is low quality, repetitive, automated, or built mainly to exploit search systems. If you are using AI to help create genuinely useful content, that is a different situation. But if you are relying on AI tools to publish large volumes of similar SEO pages across one site or many sites, this research is worth paying attention to. Google appears to be moving toward systems that can detect the structure behind the spam, not just the content itself. That means the risk is no longer only whether one page looks low quality. The bigger risk may be whether your publishing patterns, templates, infrastructure, and content similarities make you look like part of a coordinated spam operation. I also talk about why I am not taking this approach with my own SEO strategy. My preference is still to build a strong brand, publish content that serves real search intent, and play the long game on a single domain. ⭐️ Search Engine Journal: Google Research Shows How AI Spam Can Be Detected - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-generated-ai-detected/579987/  ⭐️ Glenn Gabe commentary on 𝕏 - https://x.com/glenngabe/status/2067951984187949532  ⭐️ Lily Ray's post - https://x.com/lilyraynyc/status/2067975986893709496  💎 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 AI SEO Spam Warning 01:09 Google Paper Overview 02:10 Cluster Detection System 02:44 LoRA and Prompt Adaptation 03:36 Embeddings and S-BERT Signals 04:16 Why Spam Is Exploding 05:33 Networks and Botnets 06:36 AI Content vs Spam Debate 07:55 Scaling Risks and Fine Line 08:39 Mass Site Operators Tease 10:45 Episode Wrap Up The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #googlealgorithmupdate #generativeengineoptimization

E1082: WPBeginner used to be one of the biggest WordPress educational blogs on the internet. According to Semrush, WPBeginner was getting around 2.6 million monthly clicks from Google at its peak in May 2021. Now it appears to be down to roughly 27,000 monthly clicks. That is not a small decline. That is a near-total collapse in Google traffic for a site that many WordPress users have relied on for years. In this episode, I break down what may have happened, what probably did not cause it, and what WPBeginner could do if they want to recover. I cover: - Why WPBeginner's traffic decline is so unusual - How Google algorithm updates appear to line up with the drop - Why AI stealing clicks probably does not explain the whole collapse - Why "Google hates independent publishers" is too simple of an explanation - Whether content decay or keyword cannibalization could have played a role - The problem with overly promotional top-of-funnel content - Why self-promotional listicles can work until they stop working - How bad user signals may have hurt the brand over time - Why long, fluffy blog posts with delayed answers may no longer work - Why Google may be rewarding shorter, faster, less promotional answers - What Lars Lofgren said about pruning and cutting down the site - Why WPBeginner may need to consolidate, rewrite, and remove a large amount of content - How WPBeginner could shift from bloated blog content to shorter conversion-focused SEO pages - What other SEOs and publishers should learn from this case My take: WPBeginner probably did not lose nearly all of its Google traffic because of one single issue. The more likely explanation is a combination of: - Too much cannibalization - Too much promotion in informational articles - Too much fluff before the answer - Incomplete answers - Searchers losing trust in the brand - Google updates rewarding more-trusted pages that answers the query faster If your SEO strategy depends on long informational posts that exist mainly to push products, plugins, affiliates, or internal offers, this case is worth paying attention to. It will still work in small amounts. But when an entire site starts to feel like that, Google and users will eventually stop rewarding it. ⭐️ Lars Lofgren's post on 𝕏 - https://x.com/larslofgren/status/2066581447373394325?s=46 ⭐️ Lars Lofgren's post on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7472346782119866369/ ⭐️ WPBeginner - https://www.wpbeginner.com/ ⭐️ Episode 898 - How NapLab Built an SEO Moat (103,000 Keywords, No Shortcuts) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9vzdovTfmw ⭐️ Episode 989 - Google's Helpful Content Update DESTROYED the Internet (What Actually Happened) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YLUFjYrIEA 💎 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 WPBeginner Traffic Collapse 01:27 Lars Lofgren Flags 03:07 Possible Causes Rundown 05:48 Promotion Backlash 09:23 Fluff Content Problem 11:15 Can They Rebound 13:13 Prune Rewrite Refocus 15:08 Wrap Up And Farewell The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #searchengineoptimization #seo #wordpress #blogging

E1081: Google Merchant Center can make or break ecommerce revenue. Gagan Ghotra and Harpreet Singh join the show to break down how Google Merchant Center works, why it matters for ecommerce SEO, and the common mistakes that cause products to lose visibility, get disapproved, or underperform in Google Shopping and free product listings. We cover how product feeds influence visibility across Google, what separates strong feeds from weak ones, and why Merchant Center is not just an SEO task. It touches inventory, pricing, product pages, reviews, shipping, return policies, merchandising, email marketing, and the wider ecommerce operation. Topics covered: - What Google Merchant Center is and why ecommerce brands need it - How Merchant Center differs from Google Search Console - Why product feeds matter for Google Shopping, free listings, AI Mode, Gemini, and future agentic commerce - How Google decides which products show up in product grids - Why brand authority still plays a major role in ecommerce visibility - How smaller ecommerce stores can compete with larger brands - The importance of accurate pricing, inventory, shipping, and product availability - Why mismatches between your website, schema, and Merchant Center feed can lead to product disapprovals or account suspension - How checkout experience and deceptive cart behavior can hurt Merchant Center performance - Why local inventory, in-store pickup, and nearby availability can help smaller retailers stand out - What "investing in Merchant Center" actually means - Why Merchant Center should involve SEO, inventory, merchandising, operations, email marketing, and customer service - How delayed inventory syncing can create major problems - Why reviews matter for Merchant Center, ecommerce SEO, and AI visibility - How to improve product titles, descriptions, and images - Why copying manufacturer descriptions or Amazon descriptions is a mistake - How to differentiate products when competitors sell the same items - Why GTINs, MPNs, and brand data matter - What to audit first when inheriting a new Merchant Center account - How to approach large catalogs with thousands of SKUs - When AI can and cannot be used for product images - Why heavily AI-generated product images can create trust and legal risks - The biggest Merchant Center mistakes new ecommerce marketers make - Why rejected products can affect the performance of accepted products - How Merchant Center supports Performance Max campaigns - The key Merchant Center metrics ecommerce teams should monitor - What causes Merchant Center suspensions most often - Why there is less misinformation around Merchant Center than other areas of SEO - The fastest Merchant Center quick wins ecommerce teams can implement this week A major theme in this conversation is that Merchant Center performance depends on consistency. Your product page, product schema, product feed, pricing, availability, shipping promises, return policies, and customer experience all need to line up. If they do not, Google can reject products, reduce visibility, or suspend the account. We also talk about why Merchant Center is becoming more important as Google adds more product-led search experiences and AI-driven shopping features. Even if Google Shopping is not a major traffic source in your country today, having clean, accurate, complete product data is likely to become more important over time. ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra on 𝕏 - https://x.com/gaganghotra_ ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gagan-ghotra/ ⭐️ Gagan Ghotra's website - https://gaganghotra.com/ ⭐️ Harpreet Singh's Personal Site - https://harpsdigital.com ⭐️ Harpreet on X - https://x.com/harpreetchatha_ ⭐️ Harpreet's Newsletter - https://seoespresso.com ⭐️ Harpreet on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/harpreetsingh8/ ⭐️ Harpreet on TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@seoharp ⭐️ Harpreet on YouTube - https://youtube.com/@harpsdigital 00:00 Merchant Center Basics 02:38 Why It Matters 05:42 Ranking Factors 11:12 Feed Accuracy Risks 13:41 Team Investment 21:02 Building Brand Authority 25:34 Feed Optimization 32:19 Identifiers And Audits 38:03 Scaling With AI 43:55 Mistakes And Suspensions 48:30 Metrics And Quick Wins 58:40 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #ecommerceseo #ecommerce #seo

E1080: Sarvesh Shrivastava grew a new Instagram account from zero to almost 300,000 followers using AI videos of himself. He has not recorded a single video for that account. The face is AI. The voice is AI. The scripts come from his existing ideas, Loom videos, 𝕏 posts, and team research. The editing is handled by his team. And the account has reached millions of views per month. Sarvesh breaks down exactly how the system works. We talk about: - How Sarvesh grew to almost 300,000 Instagram followers with AI videos - Why he started with a new account instead of using his personal Instagram - How he uses HeyGen to create an AI avatar of himself - How he uses ElevenLabs to clone his voice - Why he still uses human editors instead of trying to automate everything - How his team hides imperfect AI moments with B-roll, screen recordings, and fast edits - The three-second rule his editors use for short-form videos - Why most viewers do not notice or care that the videos are AI-generated - How he structures the team behind the account - How he uses Claude to turn Loom videos, Twitter threads, and past content into new video scripts - Why generic AI scripts usually fail - How to make AI scripts sound more like you - Why he recommends using your own past content as the source material - How he is testing long-form AI videos - Why editing is still the hardest part to automate - How often he posts - Why he does not use a VPN to post - What changed when he shifted from general business content to SEO content - How YouTube Shorts helped grow his YouTube channel - Why YouTube videos can also rank on Google - How descriptions and keywords help videos show up in search - Why local business owners, agency owners, and camera-shy founders should pay attention The main workflow: - Record a short training video of yourself for HeyGen - Record voice samples for ElevenLabs - Write or generate a script from your own ideas - Create the voiceover in ElevenLabs - Upload the voiceover into HeyGen - Generate the AI avatar video - Send the raw video to an editor - Add B-roll, screen recordings, captions, sound effects, and music - Hide the moments where the avatar looks unnatural - Post manually to Instagram, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, LinkedIn, or other platforms Sarvesh explains why this works especially well for people who know they should be making video content but never actually do it. This includes: - Founders who are too busy to record - Clients who refuse to get on camera - Local business owners who want more content - Agency owners who want a repeatable content system - Creators who are camera shy - People with useful ideas but no time to film daily We also talk about the risks. If you already have an audience that knows you personally, posting AI videos of yourself without testing first could feel strange or inauthentic. Sarvesh and I discuss why starting with a separate account can be a safer way to test the idea before using it on your main profile. Resources: - Sarvesh got his first editor from Fiverr and his second one through his first editor's referral - For more editors and thumbnail designers - https://ytjobs.co/  - HeyGen - https://www.heygen.com  - ElevenLabs - https://elevenlabs.io  - Descript - https://www.descript.com  - Reuse Video - https://reusevideo.com  - Exactly how to post across social platforms - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/social-media-posting-strategy/  - How to get video ideas - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/content-creation-ideas/  - How to edit with Descript - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/15-minute-no-thinking-video-system-500k-views/  ⭐️ Sarvesh on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marketingwithsarvesh/  ⭐️ Sarvesh on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bloggersarvesh/  ⭐️ Sarvesh on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/bloggersarveshseo/  ⭐️ Sarvesh on 𝕏 - https://x.com/bloggersarvesh ⭐️ Sarvesh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarvesh-shrivastava-blogger/  ⭐️ Sarvesh's agency, Alventra Marketing - https://alventramarketing.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 AI Avatar Goes Viral 01:46 Why This Matters 02:28 YouTube Shorts Expansion 03:07 AI Labels and Disclosure 03:49 Next Step Long Form 07:08 Origin Story and Audience Reaction 09:10 Team Roles and Workflow 15:47 Posting Strategy and Geo Reach 18:32 Tool Stack HeyGen ElevenLabs 24:36 Who Notices AI Videos 25:08 Getting Fooled by B Roll 26:22 Scripts from Looms and Threads 30:33 Editing Captions Tools 32:19 Ranking on Google SEO 33:06 Descriptions Keywords Strategy 34:33 New IG Account Viral 35:16 Retention Three Second Rule 36:25 Music Workflow Reposting 38:41 Posting Frequency Growth 41:03 Authenticity New Accounts 44:05 Manual Posting Crosspost 44:49 Thanks and Outro The Edward Show. The #1 digital marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #artificialintelligence #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing #viralmarketing

E1079: David Quaid returns to the podcast to talk through SEO myths that refuse to die, and why a lot of the current advice around SEO, GEO, AI search, backlinks, content, and LLMs is either incomplete or flat-out misleading. We start with the SEO vs. GEO debate and why treating them like two separate worlds can lead to bad strategy. David argues that if your site cannot rank, cannot get crawled properly, and cannot build authority in search, you should not assume AI systems are going to magically find and trust you. From there, we get into the myths people keep repeating about content, backlinks, EEAT, Gemini, toxic links, parasite SEO, expired domains, HTML sitemaps, and what helps a site rank in 2026. Topics we cover: - Why "just build a good brand and AI will find you" is not a real SEO strategy - Why GEO does not let you bypass Google, backlinks, rankings, or authority - The problem with treating SEO and GEO as separate disciplines - Why "good content" alone is usually not enough to rank - Why overproducing content and landing pages can waste time and money - How Microsoft Clarity can show what users actually do on a landing page - Why people often misunderstand thin content, duplicate content, and information gain - The problem with surface-level EEAT advice like author bios, outbound links, and forced credibility signals - What David thinks people get wrong about the Google API leak - Why Google may have author-related and site-related variables without those variables meaning what SEOs assume they mean - Why backlinks still matter in 2026 - Why you do not need backlinks to every page - Why constantly buying more links may not help if you are losing or devaluing links at the same time - How to think about link quality beyond domain-level relevance - Why relationships, partner content, and real pages with traffic can still matter for authority - What David would do in the first 30 days of SEO for a new SaaS site - Why he recommends publishing low-difficulty pages early and seeing what gets indexed - Why he thinks an HTML sitemap matters more than most people realize - How an HTML sitemap can help both search engines and AI systems understand a site - Why toxic backlink reports are often more harmful than helpful - When disavowing links might make sense, and why that is rare for most sites - Why Moz spam score and similar third-party metrics can create unnecessary fear - How David thinks about expired domains and when they might be useful - Why expired domains are risky as a primary domain - How PBNs and link farms have changed as Google has changed how it handles link spam - Why "link echoes" may be explained by user signals and ranking history - Why a page can keep ranking after a backlink disappears - How relevance and authority work together in competitive search results - Why long-tail keywords can still work extremely well - Why the idea that "keywords do not matter anymore" usually comes from people who have worked on very high-authority sites - Why Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and other LLMs can give bad SEO advice - Why knowing what advice to ignore is the difference between an expert using AI and a beginner being misled by it - Why LLMs often repeat popular SEO myths because those myths rank on high-authority websites - Why technical SEO advice is often overstated for new sites - Why crawlability is usually more binary than people make it sound - Why XML sitemaps do not solve the authority problem for new websites - Why parasite SEO is not an automatic ranking shortcut - What people misunderstand about using Medium, Reddit, and other high-authority platforms - Why some SERPs are much harder to enter than others - How click history, backlinks, and relevance can make rankings harder to disrupt - Why "we know nothing about SEO" is also a myth - How reverse engineering search behavior can still teach SEOs a lot - What David changed his mind about after seeing how video content performed - The decline of WPBeginner and what its traffic graph may suggest about backlinks, content quality, and site direction This conversation is for SEOs, founders, content marketers, SaaS teams, and anyone trying to understand what still works in organic search while AI search changes how people discover information. ⭐️ David Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid  ⭐️ David Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/  ⭐️ David Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@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 Legendary Guest Return 01:15 GEO vs SEO Risks 04:01 Bing AI Share Voice 06:55 Stop Content Overproduction 08:29 EEAT and Thin Content Myth 12:36 API Leak Explained 16:57 Backlinks Still Matter 20:27 New Site First 30 Days 28:16 Toxic Backlinks Myth 31:37 Expired Domains PBNs 34:59 Link Echoes User Signals 38:44 Relevance Beats Authority 40:06 Keywords Still Matter 41:26 Broad Match Rankings Fade 42:23 Myth LLMs Know SEO 44:10 Tech Stack Myth 46:30 Content EEAT Schema Myths 48:12 Parasite SEO Reality 49:48 Breaking Into Locked SERPs 51:56 Reddit Medium Parasite SEO Tactics 55:24 Myth We Know Nothing 58:00 Changing Minds On Content 01:02:22 WPBeginner Traffic Collapse 01:07:59 Google Infrastructure Moat 01:11:44 One Thing To Focus 01:14:15 Wrap Up and Next Debate The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #searchengineoptimization #seo #webdevelopment #digitalmarketing

E1078: Charles Floate joins the show to talk about where SEO is going as Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI systems change how people find information. The main question: if brand mentions are becoming more important, do backlinks still matter? Charles argues that backlinks still have value, but mentions are becoming much more important because AI systems do not only look at links. They also look at where a brand is mentioned, which sources mention it, how often it appears near certain topics, and whether those sources are trusted in a specific niche. We also talk about why Charles stepped back from his day-to-day role at PressWhiz, what he thinks is happening to link building, why small teams may have an advantage right now, and how SEO work is changing as search becomes more personalized and answer-based. Topics covered: - Why brand mentions are becoming more valuable in SEO - How to acquire brand mentions - Whether backlinks still matter for AI Overviews, AI Mode, and ChatGPT - How AI systems may evaluate trust, authority, and source quality - Why different niches may have different ranking and citation signals - Why Reddit, YouTube, podcasts, reviews, PR, and community signals can matter - The difference between links, mentions, co-occurrence, and trusted sources - Why mass AI content can hurt a site long term - How small technical teams can compete with larger companies - Why Charles left the day-to-day work of a major link building marketplace - What he is building next - Why video is becoming more important for SEO - Why customer support and product quality can affect brand mentions - Why automating marketing before understanding it is usually a mistake - How AI may change SEO teams, agencies, and software companies We also discuss Google I/O, AI Mode, AI Overviews, multimodal search, query fanout, personalization, digital PR, Reddit manipulation, link building marketplaces, indie hackers, AI startups, and why SEO interest is higher than ever. ⭐️ 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  ⭐️ Charles Floate Training - https://charlesfloatetraining.com/  ⭐️ Charles Floate's PressWhizz - https://presswhizz.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 Charles Floate 00:13 Newlywed Europe Plans 01:09 Why Shift From PressWhizz 02:24 Google IO Fallout 04:14 Multimodal Search Future 06:09 Trust Signals And EEAT 08:04 Adult And iGaming SEO 12:08 AI Search Centralization 14:37 GEO Versus SEO Debate 18:37 Indie Hacker Beats Brands 22:25 Leaving PressWhizz Explained 26:13 Backlinks Versus Mentions 27:38 Getting Brand Mentions 29:30 Unbundling Tool Suites 31:12 Three Startups In Motion 33:53 Team And Marketing Setup 34:47 Hiring Video Editors 36:26 Why SEO Marketing Sucks 36:43 Avoiding Tough Niches 37:35 Hiring Editors With AI 39:21 SEO Interest Surging 41:55 Optimism About Grounded AI 45:07 Businesses Struggling With Change 49:48 What Not To Automate 54:16 Video Workflow And Descript 01:00:26 Email And Social Strategy 01:05:43 Best Next Step CRO 01:08:22 Closing And Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #backlinks #linkbuilding #searchengineoptimization #seo