Edward Sturm
SEO, digital marketing, organic social media marketing, growth hacks, and founder stories. Everything I'm doing to grow my ...
Most SEO Copywriting Is Killing Your Rankings (And Costing You Sales)
The episode rejects common SEO copywriting mistakes that reward rankings but fail on user intent and conversions, emphasizing that satisfying searchers instantly and guiding them down the funnel improves rankings and sales. It covers how to align content with search intent, avoid pogo-sticking, and craft conversion-focused first sentences and examples (top-of-funnel vs bottom-of-funnel), using practical plumbing and room-planner scenarios. The presenter also promotes a compactkeywords course for deeper, actionable SEO optimization.
The Death of Clicks? Rand Fishkin on Brand, AI & the Future of Marketing
The conversation with Rand Fishkin centers on a shift in marketing from traditional link-building to broader, signal-based strategies focused on brand, audience presence, and three core channels. They discuss SparkToro, Alert Mouse, and the concept of compact keywords, the rise of AI in marketing, and the importance of choosing channels that fit your audience, passion, and unique value. The talk weaves in personal experiences, the evolving role of SEO, and practical guidance for bootstrapped founders toward sustainable, multi-channel growth and authentic brand building.
The Fastest Way to Get SEO Results: Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast
The video warns against rushing SEO by overloading a site with pages and low-quality content. It advocates the mantra slow is smooth, smooth is fast, emphasizing deliberate planning, proper authority, thoughtful keyword targeting, controlled page growth, and careful link-building to avoid penalties and achieve better long-term results.
How to Get Backlinks for a Brand New Website (Even With Zero Authority)
The episode outlines practical backlink strategies for a brand-new site with low authority, stressing the importance of building trust and relationships before asking for links. It covers a range of tactics—from spike posts and thoughtful engagement to leveraging journalists, guest contributions, VA help, podcasts, and shareable assets—while emphasizing quality, authenticity, and long-term value over spammy outreach.
Google Says GEO Doesn’t Exist… Here’s What They’re Not Telling You
The video analyzes Google's guidance on optimizing for generative AI and how it relates to SEO, debunking myths and separating effective practices from hype. It emphasizes creating non-commodity, user-focused content, leveraging core SEO fundamentals, and avoiding black‑hat tactics like mass AI-generated pages or fake reviews while outlining practical tips for better rankings and user experience.
Image SEO Secrets: 241,000 Impressions from Optimizing Alt Text
The speaker presents practical image SEO tactics to boost search visibility and site performance, emphasizing that well-optimized images can drive traffic and improve relevance. Key tips include naming files descriptively, using alt text with context, using original images, compressing images (preferring WEBP), placing images near relevant text, and creating image-focused pages or ports like personal photo galleries to reinforce branding.
Managing 90 SEOs: What Actually Scales (And What Breaks)
The guest reflects on leading a large, cross-functional SEO/CRO/DPR operation at Brain Labs, emphasizing the importance of clear vision, scalable systems, and strong communication. He covers hiring three key roles, onboarding, and processes to align teams, discusses DPR and linkable assets, and shares practical lessons on change management, measuring success, and the impact of AI on strategy and execution.
Why Smart SEOs Don’t Use the Same Brand Message Everywhere
The video argues that offsite messaging should be shaped by SEO realities, not a one-size-fits-all brand blurb. Through a fictional SaaS example (Fizzle/Fizzel Client), it demonstrates crafting multiple, keyword-targeted blurbs for different high-intent pages, emphasizing how variations can build topical authority, improve rankings, and boost click-throughs while considering audience and placement across link building, PR, and marketing channels.
Schema Doesn’t Boost AI Citations (New Ahrefs Study)
A deep dive into a breaking study that questions whether adding schema markup truly boosts AI-cited pages, showing little to no positive impact and even small declines in some AI contexts. The host walks through multiple experiments, discusses methodological rigor, and concludes that schema is not a reliable lever for increasing AI citations, while advising a focus on relevance, authority, and solid content unless specific SERP features justify its use.
22 Claude Prompts That Can Rank Any Local Business (Free Stack)
In this episode, the guest extols Claude Co-work as a powerful AI assistant for SEO and agency work, highlighting how a built-in “brain” in the cloud handles tasks from client onboarding to competitor research and PDF reporting. They demonstrate a 22-item cloud prompt stack that produces actionable outputs (site audits, keyword/GBR analysis, backlink gaps, and GBP postings) and discuss practical workflows, risk considerations, and how automation accelerates results while still needing human oversight.
Google Just Killed FAQ Schema (And Most SEOs Still Don’t Get It)
The episode covers Google's deprecation of FAQ rich results and the broader trend of frequent schema changes, arguing for critical thinking in SEO rather than blindly chasing every new schema type. It offers practical guidance: assess SERP features for target keywords, use content-first optimization focused on relevance and intent, and verify guidance from tools like LLMs with real search data. It also includes a real-world method—spend time upfront answering three questions about the searcher—to create high-intent content and avoid wasting effort on ineffective schemas.
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