E604: Two bits of SEO guest posting mastery: 1. Do you write for the website you’re guest posting on or the backlink you are obtaining? 2. Is it ever best to write your guest posts in the first person? This is about crafting a natural backlink profile so that it doesn’t appear that you are actively gaming Google and Bing with strategically procured SEO backlinks. The masters of guest posting know how to maximize the chances their guest posts are accepted, ranked, and useful for SEO algorithms. T...
Feb 28, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 604
E603: Topical authority in SEO - how trusted your website and brand is on a specific niche. The more topical authority you have, the more you can rank for competitive keywords within your industry - search terms that bring you more money. These are four straightforward methods for establishing your topical authority in 2025. While most content on topical authority is outdated, this resource is specifically designed to be the most up-to-date. Half of the four ways are on-site methods to better sh...
Feb 27, 2025•12 min•Season 1Ep. 603
E602: AI Parasite SEO on Medium is insane. Black hat SEOs gaming Google with the laziest content possible. Tremendous ChatGPT-generated blocks of text spamming the search results - all AI - you could literally get a better more-catered answer just asking ChatGPT yourself. Capitalizing off Medium’s high domain rating/authority and Google’s priority for UGC (user generated content). This is: - What’s going on with Medium.com and AI-generated parasite SEO. - How to do this yourself - The risks invo...
Feb 26, 2025•18 min•Season 1Ep. 602
E601: I tried to hack Google Images. I partially succeeded. But I learned one VERY important thing. I learned how Google Images operates… what it prioritizes ABOVE ALL ELSE. This is what I did to hack Google images, the extent to which it worked, and the very hard truth that I had to face. 📸 My Photos Page - https://edwardsturm.com/photos/ 🧲 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get purchase-intent traffic to your business through SEO - step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied a...
Feb 25, 2025•9 min•Season 1Ep. 601
E600: I have a new website, but I can only do three SEO methods for it… what do I choose? It can be any mix of keyword targeting and link building. Off site, on site, black hat, white hat, link building strategies… what do I choose? They say the greatest progress comes from constraints. How much progress could I really make in SEO if I can use just three strategies? Any progress? Only some? A lot of progress? WHAT WILL I CHOOSE???? That’s what you’re getting on this episode of the show. ——— 🧲 C...
Feb 24, 2025•27 min•Season 1Ep. 600
E599: Google writes meta descriptions that have higher click-through rates than what you write. Tons of studies back this up. So does this mean you should stop writing meta descriptions? Deeper analysis reveals why Google’s meta descriptions are better and gives clear direction on what to do for your SEO - to beat your competitors and rank higher in the SERPS. If you want to dominate Google and get tons of organic clicks from qualified visitors, this episode tells you what to do. 💚 Source: http...
Feb 23, 2025•11 min•Season 1Ep. 599
E598: How to start, grow, and monetize a newsletter - from Josh Spector, making $20,000+/month with his own newsletter. He shares the biggest drivers of newsletter growth, what’s most and least important, and how to monetize a newsletter to get more consulting or agency clients. This is what he’s learned after 447 consecutive weeks sending his newsletter out. Then I share Ali Abouelatta’s advice on newsletter growth. Ali is a Product Manager at Duolingo and notices other things that people don’t...
Feb 22, 2025•13 min•Season 1Ep. 598
E597: How Waqar Azeem and his team made and launched Usermaven, getting $120,260 in revenue in their first 3 weeks. In this, we’ll cover: - How they got the idea to build this SaaS - How they got beta users and validated the idea - What channels they used to drive visitors to their website - Why they decided to do a lifetime deal (LTD) and how they did it without Appsumo - The best practices of running a lifetime deal campaign - Traffic stats, revenue figures, and everything in between is reveal...
Feb 21, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 597
E596: First, I test if the new Grok 3 and Grok 3 DeepSearch are recommending my SEO pages for my keywords. I also test ChatGTP and other AI chatbots. Then, I share my favorite short-term quick-win marketing methods vs. my favorite long-term evergreen marketing methods. I give examples of launching on Product Hunt and BetaList and even come up with a new, easy way to create a viral linkable asset. 🚀 “How Much Traffic, Users, and Backlinks Does Product Hunt Bring? Results From 5 Successful Launch...
Feb 20, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 596
E595: Growing a business requires countless small wins that add up to some very big victories. But there is one change that REALLY moves that needle. It doesn’t just move the needle, it crushes it. And what might that one little change be? Your price. Double it. That’s right, double your price. You see, we have a nasty habit of undervaluing our services. This is especially true for first-time SaaS entrepreneurs. Most of us are down-right SCARED to price our product. Who am I to ask for so much? ...
Feb 19, 2025•8 min•Season 1Ep. 595
E594: Is it a good strategy to copy your competitors’ backlink profile? This is actually something that lots of SEOs do. It takes time, but many SEOs believe it will be worth it. Is it, though? Does it work, and is it a good strategy? We answer that and much more on this episode of the show. Can you outsmart Google? What are the best guiding principles for link building and SEO as a whole? 🤌 Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1imd65e/link_building_in_2025_strategies_for_success_and/ ...
Feb 18, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 594
E593: Everything learned from selling two information products for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tons of mistakes made and lessons learned. Everything shared with graphs and exact copy used. Lessons that transformed failures to success. If you want to make money selling info products or doing ecommerce, this is tons of value. ⭐️ Source: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-made-210-822-selling-a-pdf-and-a-video-on-the-internet-RjdFakSXxnxtCGu09RmI 🎧 E592 - How To Make An Info Product (Gu...
Feb 17, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 593
E592: How to make an information product (courses, ebooks, guides) that actually sells - or info products that can be used as lead magnets for other products and services. The creator economy isn’t going away, it’s only going to get more popular. Information products are a great way to monetize or drive traffic to your monetizable offer. First, we distinguish between a valuable info product and a scammy one. When is an info product actually useful? Then, we talk about how to find a profitable ni...
Feb 16, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 592
E591: You don’t realize just how many people there are out there who are Googling, looking for what you’re selling. These are the best keywords, and they’re ALWAYS hidden. This episode is how to find these keywords. 🚀 Compact Keywords - Get purchase-intent traffic for your business through SEO - step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/ 00:00 📝 Introduction 00:36 🔍 Keyword Research 01:53 🛠️ Optimizing Y...
Feb 15, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 591
E590: High link velocity is typically way better than low link velocity because it usually indicates virality and real sharing. Virality means real backlinks from top publications, without black hat techniques. This is an explanation of how positive link velocity led the same outstanding SEO results as a competitor, for only 20% of the backlinks. Then, there are two case studies of crazy link velocity. One that cost a lot of money and one that was pretty much free. Finally, we go into creative l...
Feb 14, 2025•11 min•Season 1Ep. 590
E589: How this consumer app used 45 accounts across TikTok and a lot of trial and error to scale to over 120 million views in only 3 months. The app is Yope, a montage app for friend groups. Whereas their competitors are only going after the English market, Yope is focusing on videos for the Spanish-language market. Out of 45 accounts, more than 50% are in Spanish. Each account posts twice a day, with over 1,500 videos posted to date. The Spanish accounts are performing incredibly well, with tt@...
Feb 13, 2025•7 min•Season 1Ep. 589
E588: Joshua Ryan Schaver (@bagelfinagles on IG) gives his funnel for doing $20,000+/month with Instagram. If you’re doing organic Instagram marketing, especially as a creator, or thinking about starting, this will be useful. This means not spending on ads, just making Reels and normal Posts. This is the 4 step funnel that Josh has developed. 1️⃣ Step 1 – Create a webpage, a blog post, etc. 2️⃣ Step 2 – Create a free product and paid products. (You don’t have to make these yourself—these could b...
Feb 12, 2025•8 min•Season 1Ep. 588
E587: This SEO stopped using link insertions, and his client’s rankings increased. Why? Because most link insertions are garbage. First, the SEO shares the different tiers of link inserts; then he shares the alternative, which is way superior. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1imd65e/link_building_in_2025_strategies_for_success_and/ Compact Keywords - Get purchase-intent traffic for your business through SEO (without many backlinks) - step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to...
Feb 11, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 587
E586: Google is going after spammy SEO sites that make searchers scroll and scroll to find their answers. This is an effort to combat the poor user experience that’s been driving searchers away to competitors such as ChatGPT or UGC solutions. Searchers hated this too, it’s one of the most complained about things with Google Search. Spammy SEOs would maximize time on page by obscuring answers and hiding them way down on the page, below a ton of fluff. This update from Google is starting with just...
Feb 10, 2025•7 min•Season 1Ep. 586
E585: Lots of websites are showing dramatic Helpful Content Update recoveries, back to pre-HCU levels. Is Google’s Helpful Content Update over? It might be - Google even made an announcement on what they’re looking for in 2025 - and it corroborates why the HCU even happened in the first place. This is the situation on how the Helpful Content Update is ending, how websites are recovering, and how to avoid this in the first place. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1ijce42/it_looks_like...
Feb 09, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 585
E584: The story of how a YouTuber who reviews SaaS products made his own SaaS product with no code tools, scored #1 on Product Hunt, and now uses UGC and programmatic SEO to get tons of rankings on Google… in a niche that also gives him power. Very cool case study here. If you’re curious about making your own SaaS, building something with no code tools, doing programmatic SEO, doing YouTube SEO, or even having UGC on your website, check this episode out. The Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/r...
Feb 08, 2025•14 min•Season 1Ep. 584
E583: YouTube link for this one - https://youtu.be/IQrqrYXTs88 5 stories from the last month of this podcast, starting with the story of how Joshua Ryan Schaver was scammed by his affiliate partner. Josh’s retaliation was to leave the partner and start a competing business that is now eating their lunch! Episodes mentioned: 573 - Joshua Ryan Schaver - https://youtu.be/AGnNN0KyynA 580 - Nick Musica - https://youtu.be/JBjohKA22zI 560 - Jason Levin - https://youtu.be/snWC6tMTvAg 566 - Mike and Kass...
Feb 07, 2025•14 min•Season 1Ep. 583
E582: It took me two years of marketing this company from different angles to make me its biggest affiliate. And it was from an angle I hadn’t tried before where I succeeded. Sometimes the answer is staring you right in the face. Sometimes it takes a lot of experimentation. This is a story both where the answer was staring me right in the face and it took a lot of experimentation for me to see it. The success after two years of attempts was me becoming this company’s biggest affiliate. Mentioned...
Feb 06, 2025•15 min•Season 1Ep. 582
E581: Over the last two years, the Google Helpful Content Update has been killing small and mid-sized blogs. Just recently, it’s gotten more serious. Even HubSpot has lost 80% of its blog traffic. But was this due to the Google Helpful Content Update or to something else? And all the data suggests there was a different root cause. It wasn’t just Google taking out the blogs with the HCU (Helpful Content Update). It was a preventative measure to stop searchers from leaving Google altogether. Black...
Feb 05, 2025•24 min•Season 1Ep. 581
E580: Nick Musica joins the podcast! A true veteran, he’s been doing search engine optimization since 2003. He led SEO at High Point Insurance (Now Plymouth Rock), Esurance, and Rocket Lawyer before starting his SEO agency, Optics In, in 2019. Nick and his team provide SEO strategy and execution for small businesses in various sectors, including finance, technology, & cannabis. Nick co-authored When Search Meets Web Usability, a book about SEO and web usability, in April of 2009. He also tau...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 580
E579: This is a crazy unlock you get when you’ve posted videos every day for over a year. I discovered this only last night and am hyped out of my mind about it. Most creators: 1. Don’t know this. 2. Don’t want to share this secret. 3. Don’t want you to know how the sausage is made. Well, I’m sharing it all - including my optimized version of the unlock. Some of what’s in the episode will be familiar, but the extent to which I’m able to do this now is crazy. To tease you - I posted 6 videos yest...
Feb 03, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 579
E578: How I ranked well for ‘SEO Trends 2018’ with my site that was still relatively new. The TL;DL - I got a head start! But why this worked so well was surprising. Don’t try to climb the mountain all at once. The best shortcut is the longcut. From https://edwardsturm.com/articles/trending-keywords/ Subscribe to the weekly digital marketing newsletter: https://edwardsturm.com/newsletter/ Backlinks don’t matter - Get tons of purchase-intent traffic for your business with my SEO Program - step-by...
Feb 02, 2025•6 min•Season 1Ep. 578
E577: We answer, “Do Fiverr backlinks boost SEO rankings? Does using inexpensive link building packages from Fiverr increase search engine rankings?” Then, we talk about other link building methods. Then I share my personal philosophy on getting backlinks and building links from good places. Sources 👇 Buying Fiverr backlinks?: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1iaucfx/buying_fiverr_backlinks/ Link building - how easy is it actually? What should I focus on?: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comm...
Feb 01, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 577
E576: These are the six principles of sticky ideas. Mark Twain noted, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” Meanwhile, people with important ideas, struggle to make their ideas stick. These six principles explain why one idea can spread like wildfire while others die on the starting line. These are things every marketer should keep in mind when: - Making ads - Making content - Doing SEO - Doing social media marketing - Crafting stories - Making merc...
Jan 31, 2025•11 min•Season 1Ep. 576
E575: These are the top ways to appear on the first page of the Google Search results. The tried and tested methods that actually work and get SEO results. If you haven’t had much success with search engine optimization or just infrequent success, this episode will be very helpful. This is a lot more specific than “make good content” - that’s actually bad advice. And this isn’t “get backlinks bro” - that’s also generally unnecessary advice unless you’re going after the most competitive keywords ...
Jan 30, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 575