Send us a text Are Exact Match Domains truly harmful to your SEO efforts? In this revealing episode, I tackle one of the most misunderstood topics in search engine optimization—whether having keywords in your domain name helps or hurts your rankings. Drawing on my 20+ years of experience building and monetizing websites, I challenge the prevailing wisdom that Exact Match Domains (EMDs) are outdated relics of SEO past. The reality? Google's own documentation confirms they still consider domain ke...
Jun 16, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 273
Send us a text SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com Ask me a questio...
Jun 13, 2025•15 min•Season 1Ep. 273
Send us a text Customer feedback isn't just a nice-to-have—it's the heartbeat of effective product development. This episode dives deep into why responding to user insights should be your top priority for business growth and product improvement. Ever wondered what separates good products from truly great ones? The answer lies not in flashy features dreamed up in boardrooms, but in listening closely to the people who use your product daily. I share a compelling real-world example where our team a...
Jun 11, 2025•9 min•Season 1Ep. 272
Send us a text The digital landscape shifts constantly, and zero-click searches represent one of the most significant evolutions in how users interact with search engines. This eye-opening episode tackles the phenomenon where Google provides answers directly in search results—no clicking required. What exactly are zero-click searches? Whether appearing as featured snippets, knowledge panels, or quick answer boxes, these results fulfill user intent instantly. While this might initially sound alar...
Jun 09, 2025•15 min•Season 1Ep. 271
Send us a text We've compiled 101 quick SEO tips from Edd Dawson's popular series into one comprehensive episode to help you improve your website rankings. This collection covers everything from technical foundations to content strategy and link building techniques. • Make your website as fast as possible because Google hates slow sites and so do your users • Ensure new pages are linked from existing ones so Google can find and index them • Always use HTTPS for your site to improve security and ...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 270
Send us a text Edd Dawson explores why Google is a superior source for SEO data compared to ChatGPT, explaining how Google's real-time web model and user behavior data provides more accurate keyword research. Despite ChatGPT's usefulness for content creation and coding assistance, it lacks understanding of web relationships and user search behavior, making it unreliable for SEO tasks like keyword clustering. • ChatGPT is limited by static datasets that become outdated (currently April 2023) • Ch...
Jun 04, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 269
Send us a text Google patents offer an unparalleled glimpse into how search actually works, yet few SEO professionals take advantage of this valuable resource. Edd Dawson explains how exploring Google's patent database can reveal the mechanisms behind search features and help cut through common SEO myths. • Google has over 100,000 patents, many directly related to search functionality • Patents require public disclosure of technical information, providing rare transparency • Patent documents can...
Jun 02, 2025•14 min•Season 1Ep. 268
Send us a text We explore the often overlooked power of internal linking for both SEO strategy and user experience, covering everything from basic definitions to advanced implementation tactics. • Internal links are hyperlinks connecting pages within the same website • They serve two main purposes: enhancing user navigation and helping search engines crawl and understand site structure • Proper internal linking prevents "orphan pages" that search engines struggle to find and index • Internal lin...
May 30, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 267
Send us a text Edd Dawson shares his twenty years of experience on the importance of diversification for SEO professionals and website owners. He draws from his personal journey of recovering from the Google Penguin update that decimated his site traffic to explain why having multiple income streams provides security during algorithm changes and business challenges. • Diversification means splitting risk across multiple income streams or traffic sources • When Broadband.co.uk was hit by Penguin ...
May 28, 2025•15 min•Season 1Ep. 266
Send us a text Google Tag Manager simplifies website management by allowing you to add and modify tracking codes without editing your site's code directly. This one-time implementation saves time and reduces errors while providing advanced functionality through triggers and variables. • Requires only a one-time code placement on your website • Eliminates the need to edit site code when adding new tracking services • Particularly valuable for non-developers or those without direct site access • I...
May 26, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 265
Send us a text SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com Ask me a questio...
May 23, 2025•12 min•Season 1Ep. 264
Send us a text Edd Dawson shares his 20-year journey building and selling broadband.co.uk, offering insights into affiliate marketing success and navigating major Google updates like Penguin and Panda. He reveals the data-driven strategies that led to a life-changing business exit during COVID in 2021. • Building broadband.co.uk as one of the UK's first comparison sites by identifying a gap in the market for postcode-specific broadband availability tools • Developing a successful affiliate model...
May 21, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 263
Send us a text Edd Dawson challenges the common SEO approach of targeting high-volume keywords, arguing that website owners should focus on building topical authority by comprehensively answering questions instead. This best-of episode demonstrates why obsessing over search volume metrics can distract from creating truly useful content that naturally ranks for a variety of keywords. • Search volume tools often show zero volume for specific questions people actually search for • Websites should f...
May 19, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 262
Send us a text Link building and link buying are fundamentally different approaches with vastly different risks for your SEO strategy. Google's original PageRank algorithm used backlinks as genuine votes of confidence, which is why artificially manipulating this system through paid links violates their guidelines. • Link buying is transactional and violates Google's terms of service • Google considers backlinks as votes of confidence between websites • Penguin update specifically targeted websit...
May 16, 2025•15 min•Season 1Ep. 261
Send us a text Edd Dawson explores why audience research delivers better SEO results than traditional keyword research. He breaks down how understanding your audience helps you find low-difficulty terms that convert better than competitive trophy keywords. • High-volume keywords are often highly competitive and don't convert well • Traditional keyword research leads to "trophy terms" with traffic but poor conversion rates • Audience research helps identify specific needs of different customer se...
May 14, 2025•14 min•Season 1Ep. 260
Send us a text FAQs are powerful engagement tools that can significantly boost your website's performance and SEO rankings. Research shows FAQs can generate over 20% of a page's engagement, outperforming even testimonials when implemented strategically. • Wood burner example demonstrates how answering questions builds authority and expertise • Recent studies show FAQs are the most engaged-with elements on websites • Strategic FAQ placement (with links from above the fold) increases user interact...
May 12, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 259
Send us a text Edd Dawson shares a smart competitor research tip from Freddie Chatt that can help improve your website's traffic and rankings. When researching competitors, look beyond the high authority sites at the top and focus on sites with lower domain authority that still rank in the top 10. • Sites with lower domain authority ranking high are succeeding because of their content, not just their backlinks • These lower-authority sites provide valuable insights into effective content strateg...
May 09, 2025•8 min•Season 1Ep. 258
Send us a text Edd Dawson explores the complex world of expired domains and auction purchases for SEO value, sharing a detailed case study of a domain that appeared valuable but had significant hidden issues. Although initially impressive with 2,554 backlinks from 377 domains including Telegraph and Wikipedia, a thorough investigation revealed multiple points where the domain likely lost its link equity. • Domain had been 301 redirected by its original owner for four years (2016-2020) • After ex...
May 07, 2025•14 min•Season 1Ep. 257
Send us a text We explore how to revolutionize your content strategy with keyword clustering, a powerful technique for grouping related keywords to target them on a single page rather than creating multiple competing pages. • Keyword clustering helps prevent content cannibalization while creating more topically relevant pages • Traditional clustering methods using AI like ChatGPT often create imprecise clusters with limitations • Our data-driven approach analyzes Google's own search results to i...
May 05, 2025•14 min•Season 1Ep. 256
Send us a text Creating interactive tools is one of the most effective ways to earn natural backlinks because people link to content they cannot easily replicate themselves. This episode explores how tools differ from standard content and why they generate links automatically when they provide unique value. • Tools that perform complex functions or aggregate difficult-to-collect data naturally attract links without outreach • Real examples include a broadband postcode checker and speed test that...
May 02, 2025•15 min•Season 1Ep. 255
Send us a text Guest posting can lead to Google penalties if links aren't properly managed, as demonstrated by Niche Site Lady's recent manual penalty despite her claims of never buying links. • Guest posting provides content to other websites while including backlinks to your own site • Google considers guest posting purely for link building purposes as algorithm manipulation • Google requires guest post links to use "nofollow" attributes to avoid appearing manipulative • Niche Site Lady receiv...
Apr 30, 2025•13 min•Season 1Ep. 254
Send us a text The Rank and Rent model represents a promising SEO monetization strategy for 2023, allowing marketers to build websites targeting local service niches and sell the resulting leads to service providers. • Focus on service niches that don't monetize well with traditional methods like plumbing, roofing, or carpet cleaning • Target businesses that rely on leads and aren't typically SEO-savvy themselves • Individual leads can be extremely valuable when the service has high profit margi...
Apr 28, 2025•14 min•Season 1Ep. 253
Send us a text Programmatic SEO offers a powerful strategy for creating web pages at scale through automation rather than manual creation. This approach uses templates and databases to generate location-specific or variable-based content that would be too time-consuming to create individually. • Airbnb exemplifies programmatic SEO with their location-specific pet-friendly rental pages • Two key elements: page templates that remain consistent and databases that provide variable content • Modern t...
Apr 25, 2025•12 min•Season 1Ep. 253
Send us a text Google's EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) evaluation likely works through sophisticated AI that analyzes writing patterns rather than just author bios. Two key Google patents reveal how the search engine might classify both authors and websites based on writing style fingerprints compared against established experts. • EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust—factors used in Google's Quality Rater Guidelines • Google added "Experience" to EAT in 202...
Apr 23, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 252
Send us a text Edd Dawson discusses a question-based approach to online marketing that outperforms traditional keyword methods. Questions reveal deeper insights about audiences and their needs, creating stronger content that builds authority across various marketing disciplines. • Questions form the foundation for stronger SEO content clusters and topical authority • PPC specialists improve landing pages by addressing objections found in customer questions • Copywriters gain deeper understanding...
Apr 21, 2025•12 min•Season 1Ep. 251
Send us a text SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tips To get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me now See Edd's personal site at edddawson.com Ask me a questio...
Apr 18, 2025•9 min•Season 1Ep. 250
Send us a text Site architecture stands as the foundation for building topical authority, with proper structure helping both users and search engines understand relationships between content pieces. Topical clusters serve as the strategic framework for organizing website content in a way that builds authority over time. • Randomly posting content without strategic architecture makes it difficult for Google to understand your site • Topical clusters focus on specific areas that can be broken down...
Apr 16, 2025•8 min•Season 1Ep. 249
Send us a text We explore how a creative marketing approach using the 'curiosity gap' at Brighton SEO conference generated over 1000 new users without speaking to anyone. • Springtime-related change in podcast schedule with some best-of episodes coming up • Explanation of Brighton SEO conference and our minimal sponsorship package • Implementation of the curiosity gap principle using a scratch card promotion • Every conference attendee was a winner of at least something valuable • QR code strate...
Apr 14, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 248
Send us a text The SEO landscape continues to evolve rapidly, with AI tools revolutionizing how professionals approach optimization strategies and workflow efficiency. Edd Dawson revisits his SEO tool stack from 18 months ago, highlighting the dramatic shift toward incorporating Large Language Models like ChatGPT and Claude into daily operations. • Comparison between current tool usage and tools mentioned 18 months ago • Large Language Models now essential for research, coding assistance, and st...
Apr 11, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 247
Send us a text We dive into the world of branded search, exploring what it is, why it matters for your SEO strategy, and practical tactics to build a stronger brand presence that Google recognizes and rewards. • Branded search refers to queries where users include your brand name in their search terms • Strong branded search signals to Google that your brand has credibility and authority in your niche • Branded searches typically enjoy higher click-through rates than generic queries • Google use...
Apr 09, 2025•12 min•Season 1Ep. 246
