The Edward Show

E1183: ChatGPT is building more of its own search index, and that changes where SEO goes next. David G. Quaid joins me to break down what OpenAI appears to be doing, how its cached web content starts to function like an index, and what SEOs need to understand if ChatGPT relies less on Google and Bing over time. OpenAI has already discussed a long-term goal of serving most search traffic from its own first-party index. David explains why the change may already be happening: repeatedly fetching the same pages in real time costs too much, takes too long, and creates unnecessary dependence on traditional search engines. We get into: - Why ChatGPT's cache increasingly resembles its own search index - OpenAI's stated goal of serving more searches from first-party indexed content - Why the same small group of pages can receive tens of thousands of AI crawl requests - How Common Crawl fits into ChatGPT's search infrastructure - Why ranking #1 in Google does not automatically mean more visibility in ChatGPT - How LLMs use query fan-out to retrieve multiple documents - Why consensus across multiple sources matters more than being position #1 - How OpenAI could use Google for occasional quality checks instead of every search - Why OpenAI does not need to recreate Google's exact ranking order - Why Google's decades of spam-fighting experience still give it an advantage - How quickly OpenAI could copy major search-engine concepts once SEOs expose weaknesses - Why exact-match domains and separate satellite sites become interesting in AI search - How fabricated awards, press releases, and repeated claims across multiple websites influence AI answers - What the King of AEO experiments reveal about how easily AI systems accept manufactured consensus - Why targeting less competitive query fan-outs creates more opportunities - Why David still says doing strong Google SEO gives you the best foundation for AI visibility We also discuss another major change happening in SEO: traditional rank tracking is getting less reliable. Google's personalization and recent search changes increasingly create situations where rank trackers report positions that do not match what users actually see. David and I discuss why Google Search Console may become the real source of truth and why more SEOs may eventually build their own tracking systems around the Search Console API. Other topics include: - Whether traditional SERP trackers face an existential problem - Why impressions can fall while clicks stay flat - Google's increasing personalization of search results - Why newer SEOs suffer most when ranking data becomes less reliable - Why schema does not create authority simply because you declare an entity - Why Google's Knowledge Graph does not require schema to understand a person or brand - Why ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity produce very different answers despite working from overlapping web information - Why Google Images also prefers source diversity instead of showing one domain repeatedly The biggest takeaway: even if ChatGPT builds its own index, the fundamentals do not suddenly disappear. It still needs to discover pages, decide which sources belong in its retrieval set, compare competing claims, and synthesize an answer. Optimize for Google and you land the most simultaneous high-value wins. ⭐️ 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 LLMs Building Indexes 00:51 Crawl Inefficiency Signals 02:37 Caching Becomes Index 03:20 King Of AEO Experiments 05:24 Common Crawl Shift 07:42 OpenAI Index Evidence 10:00 Schema And Knowledge Graph 13:23 Authority Without Browser Data 18:50 SEO Spam And Digg Moment 21:35 Preparing For LLM Indexing 26:20 Rank Trackers Breaking 32:01 Flying Blind On ROI 35:01 Why This Episode 35:52 Guest Debate Fallout 36:15 LLMs Building Indexes 37:39 Why Reddit YouTube Drop 42:17 Caching Over Live Fetch 44:25 Consensus Not Ranking 46:11 Early AI Spam Loopholes 48:05 Google vs Gemini Output 48:56 Fake Awards Gray Hat 51:50 Calling Out GEO Grifters 55:23 SEO Agency Horror Story 59:19 Variance Across Sources 01:00:54 Wrap Up Next Episode The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/   #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1182: AEO companies keep presenting old SEO tactics as if AI search invented them. Harpreet Singh joins me to break down what is actually different about AEO/GEO, what is simply traditional SEO with new terminology, and where companies are wasting time because they do not understand the history of search. We start with the tactics now getting promoted on AI search conference stages: keywords in URLs, FAQs, meta descriptions, paragraphs, press releases, solution pages, listicles, and other concepts SEOs have used for years. Harpreet explains why removing the historical context around these tactics leads companies to overuse them and damage their search strategy. Then we get into what is genuinely changing. Harpreet walks through how he analyzes query fan-out, including ChatGPT searches that use site: operators to pull information from Gartner, G2, Capterra, and other third-party sources. For some brands, optimizing those profiles matters more than publishing another page on their own site. We also talk about how difficult competitive AI visibility becomes when an LLM already associates established brands with a category. If a company spent 10 years being known as a mid-market product and suddenly wants to become an enterprise brand, changing a few pages will not rewrite that positioning. The company needs consistent signals across its own site, third-party profiles, reviews, media, creators, press, and search results. In this episode: - Why Harpreet says AEO companies are selling 2016 SEO - Old SEO tactics getting repackaged as new AI search tactics - Why SEO remains the foundation of AI visibility - What query fan-out actually changes about keyword research - Why Gartner, G2, Capterra, Reddit, YouTube, and other third-party sources matter - How to optimize third-party profiles for the positioning you want LLMs to understand - Why industry pages matter more as AI results become personalized - How Harpreet tracks prompts like keywords instead of tracking endless prompt variations - Why he ignores top-of-funnel AI citations that do not connect to revenue - How to attack hyper-competitive terms such as "best email marketing software" - Why solution pages and listicles still matter - How reviews, press releases, influencers, and outside websites create consensus around a brand - Why moving a brand from mid-market to enterprise creates an AI visibility problem - How New Balance can outrank Nike and Adidas with basic category-page SEO - Why enterprise SEO is often much worse than people assume - Why creator-led AEO still has an attribution problem - The simple "How did you hear about us?" field Harpreet uses to track AI-driven customers - Why cheap press releases still influence AI answers - Why AI search optimization remains a game of Whac-A-Mole - Why search optimization does not disappear even if AI companies build their own indexes The biggest point: AI search changes the surfaces and the retrieval process, but it does not erase the fundamentals. Relevance, authority, positioning, third-party validation, keyword targeting, internal linking, and strong pages still determine what gets found and trusted. Harpreet Singh joins me for a 90-minute breakdown of what serious AI search optimization looks like once you strip away the new labels. ⭐️ 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   💎 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 AEO and GEO Repackaging 01:27 Conference Speaker Concerns 04:14 Misleading Studies and Statistics 07:02 Debating AEO Tactics 08:47 Business Expansion Beyond AEO 10:57 Current AEO Sprint Work 13:24 Press Releases and Parasite SEO 15:41 Versus Pages Strategy 17:06 Industry Pages and Personalization 19:28 Query Fan Out Analysis 23:34 Profile Optimization Tactics 25:37 Award Winning Strategies 26:37 Brand Reviews Domain Tactic 28:13 Small Business Advantages 29:38 Tools and Tech Stack 30:34 Prompt Tracking Strategy 32:23 Hyper Competitive Keywords Approach 39:40 Brand Repositioning Challenges 43:26 AI Has Picked Winners 46:00 New Balance SEO Example 48:53 Fixing Page Copy 49:29 Internal Links Win 50:35 Enterprise SEO Fails 54:28 Why Copy Moves Rankings 56:29 Small Brands Need More 58:54 What AEO Talks Miss 01:00:34 Creator Led AEO ROI 01:07:27 Attribution Workarounds 01:09:10 Reputation and Affiliates 01:13:48 Small Business AEO Playbook 01:16:40 Press Releases Game AI 01:28:09 Why SEO Never Dies 01:29:41 Wrap Up and Where to Find The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/  #generativeengineoptimization #answerengineoptimization #searchengineoptimization #seo

E1181: I break down six SEO habits that marketers and site owners use to grow traffic without chasing a new tactic every week. These came from a popular SEO Growth subreddit thread where people shared the habits that made the biggest difference for them. I go through the best responses, explain why they work, and show you how to take each one further. In this episode: - Export Google Search Console data every month and study what Google tells you. Look at which queries generate impressions, where your pages rank, which pages get clicks, and where the gaps are. - Separate keywords into covered and uncovered opportunities. Covered keywords tell you which existing pages deserve updates. Uncovered keywords tell you what new pages to create. This also reduces unnecessary overlap between pages targeting similar searches. - Refresh old content instead of constantly publishing new pages. Update outdated information, tighten search intent above the fold, remove fluff, improve what comes next, and add relevant queries your page already ranks for. - Build backlinks every single week. Consistent link acquisition compounds. Journalist outreach, partnerships, link outreach, and other repeatable methods beat doing one huge link-building push every six months. - Use Google Search Console to find queries you rank for but never intentionally targeted. If a page sits on page two for a relevant search, add a section or paragraph that directly addresses that query. Google already sees the page as relevant. Give it a stronger reason to rank higher. - Study search results constantly. When you search Google, look at why certain pages rank above others. When you use ChatGPT or Claude, study which sources they cite and why. Over time, patterns become obvious. I also cover: - Why informational content keeps losing clicks even when impressions stay strong - How to spot pages that need an update - Why broken links and fading pages deserve regular attention - Why giving companies free SEO recommendations sometimes turns into paid work - How partnerships create recurring backlink opportunities - Why learning directly from SERPs beats blindly trusting tool scores ⭐️ The Reddit Thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/seogrowth/comments/1wh0yvq/whats_one_seo_habit_that_has_made_the_biggest/  ⭐️ Ep 787 - The #1 SEO Hack: Why Content Refreshes Beat New Content - https://youtu.be/UKvGmqzIxg4  ⭐️ Ep 1104 - The 1-Hour SEO Update That Makes Your Best Pages Rank for More Keywords - https://youtu.be/GmsAuotHGso  ⭐️ Ep 1160 - How To Get Free Backlinks in 2026 (Methods That Actually Work) - https://youtu.be/U-5VL9o9RGQ  ⭐️ Ep 1173 - The Internal Linking Trick That Uses Topical Authority You Already Have - https://youtu.be/2dPc80Z_DZk  ⭐️ AI SEO/GEO/AEO: How to Get Shown in LLMs in 2026 - https://edwardsturm.com/articles/ai-seo-geo-aeo-get-shown-llms-2026/  💎 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 Habit 00:16 Monthly GSC Review 01:14 Covered vs Uncovered Keywords 01:45 Content Refresh Checklist 03:22 Weekly Backlink Outreach 04:40 Query Tweaks to Rank 05:27 Learn From Other Sites 07:37 Consistency and Internal Links 08:21 Partnership Link Exchanges 09:08 Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/   #searchengineoptimization #seo #digitalmarketing #performancemarketing

E1180: Google's September 2026 spam update is rolling out, and this one looks very different from the last few. The update started September 24 and is registering a 9.4/10 on Semrush's volatility tracker. Google Search Advocate John Mueller also confirmed that this spam update is expected to take longer than recent spam updates, with volatility potentially continuing for roughly two weeks. At the same time, a Google research paper about a system called SAFE started circulating across the SEO industry. SAFE stands for Scaled Abuse Forensic Examiner. Google describes it as an AI-driven anti-abuse system built to identify synthetic threats that traditional classifiers and manual review struggle to catch. The timing raises an obvious question: is SAFE connected to the September spam update? Google has not confirmed that. But the paper shows how far Google's anti-spam systems have moved beyond simply asking whether a page "looks AI-generated." I break down: - What Google's September 2026 spam update is - How this rollout is taking longer than recent spam updates - What I'm seeing across two very different websites - Why one bottom-of-funnel SaaS site dropped and quickly recovered - Why a top-of-funnel content site is still experiencing volatility - How Google's SAFE analyzes content, behavior, infrastructure, timing, and relationships between content producers - Why multimodal semantic embeddings matter - How Google is using specialized AI agents to investigate synthetic abuse - Why SAFE appears designed to catch new forms of spam that traditional classifiers miss - How this relates to Google's other 2026 AI spam detection research - Why some SEOs think the September update is catching spam missed by the August update - What SEOs are reporting across X and Reddit - Why thin programmatic SEO pages may be especially exposed - What to do if your Google Search Console data suddenly becomes volatile - Why I would wait for the rollout to finish before making drastic changes - The two things I would still check immediately on your most important pages - How bottom-of-funnel SEO tends to remain more stable through major updates The biggest point: do not panic and start rebuilding your site because rankings move during the rollout. Wait until the rollout ends. Always check whether your important pages are tightly relevant to the query. Make sure the keyword appears in the title, URL, H1, and opening sentence. Then make sure the page answers search intent immediately. Google's spam systems are getting more sophisticated. SAFE shows that Google is looking at far more than individual pages. It can analyze coordinated behavior, infrastructure, semantic patterns, content relationships, and signals across larger abuse networks. The September spam update is still rolling out, so we do not have the full picture yet. I'll continue covering what changes as more data comes in. ⭐️ SE Roundtable: Google September 2026 Spam Update - https://www.seroundtable.com/google-september-2026-spam-update-42163.html  ⭐️ SEMrush Volatility Tracker - https://www.semrush.com/sensor/  ⭐️ Search Engine Journal - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-has-deployed-a-new-ai-spam-detector-called-safe/590918/  ⭐️ Google's SAFE Research Paper (PDF) - https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-research2023-media/pubtools/1039292.pdf  ⭐️ Barry Schwartz on 𝕏 (update rollout discussion) - https://x.com/rustybrick/status/2103161355561766957  ⭐️ 2026 September spam update on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1wp6ml7/google_search_central_on_x_today_we_released_the/  ⭐️ Ep 1083 - Google's New AI Spam Detector Could Wipe Out Entire SEO Networks - https://youtu.be/I78IQS99EwU  ⭐️ Ep 1153 - Google Can Detect Your AI Content. Here's What Happens Next. - https://youtu.be/G0qcfknUCcU  💎 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 September Spam Update Hits Hard 00:34 What Spam Updates Mean 01:24 How This Rollout Is Longer 02:16 Real Site Volatility Examples 03:18 SAFE Paper Goes Viral 05:00 How SAFE Detects Abuse 07:33 SAFE Technical Foundations 10:01 SEO Community Reactions 11:57 What To Do If Hit 12:31 Bottom of Funnel SEO Stability 13:56 Final Sign-Off The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/   #searchengineoptimization #seo #googlespamupdate #searchmarketing

E1179: PBNs still work in 2026, and Kalin Karakehayov has the numbers to back up why he thinks they remain one of the most underrated strategies in SEO. I'm joined by Kalin Karakehayov, Charles Floate, and David Quaid for a deep discussion on black hat SEO, private blog networks, aged domains, backlinks, AI search, parasite SEO, and where search is heading next. Kalin owns more than 200,000 domains and operates a PBN of roughly 30,000 websites. He explains why PBNs have become easier to operate than they were a decade ago, why his network doesn't need organic traffic to pass value, and how he evaluates domains based on strength, relevance, history, and geography. Charles and David push the discussion further into how agencies could build private networks of their own, why backlinks remain fundamental to ranking, and why so many SEOs have moved away from link building even though links still drive results. Then the conversation moves into AI search. Kalin explains his research into Common Crawl and harmonic centrality, a link metric based on proximity across the web rather than the traditional PageRank model. He lays out a theory for using domains with high harmonic centrality to increase crawling and potentially increase the chances of websites entering AI training data. Charles explains how Common Crawl data can also be reverse engineered to find valuable domains and connections between websites, and the group discusses what this means for GEO, AI citations, brand associations, and the future value of aged domains. We also get into: - Why Kalin believes PBNs are underrated in 2026 - How a 30,000-site PBN works without ranking the individual sites - PBNs vs. public link farms - Why private networks are harder for Google to identify - Why backlinks without traffic still pass value - How Kalin evaluates aged and expired domains - Exact-match domains and partial-match domains - Why valuable domains keep getting more expensive - PageRank vs. harmonic centrality - Common Crawl and AI training data - How domains could influence AI visibility - Charles' approach to reverse engineering Common Crawl - The danger of negative SEO in AI search - Why the internet increasingly becomes a fight for digital territory - The ultra-high-quality vs. ultra-low-quality content strategy - Why Kalin thinks websites stuck in the middle face the biggest problem - How Charles chooses between Google, YouTube, AI search, and other channels - Using parasite SEO to test markets before investing heavily - How Charles would approach a new website with a limited budget - Building the entire core of a site before launch - When to start building links - Why SEO risk isn't as simple as "white hat" vs. "black hat" - Why Charles focuses on ROI instead of labels This is a wide-ranging conversation about what actually works in SEO, how black hat SEOs think about risk and assets, and how those strategies are evolving as search expands beyond Google into AI. ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on 𝕏 - https://x.com/Karakehayov  ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karakehayov  ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kalin.karakehayov/  ⭐️ Kalin Karakehayov on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/karakehayov  ⭐️ SEO.Domains (domains and backlinks) - https://seo.domains  ⭐️ GigaLinks (AI SEO and citations) - https://gigalinks.com  ⭐️ SEO.BO (SEO agency) - https://seo.bo  ⭐️ I Grow Younger - https://i.gy  ⭐️ I Grow Younger on YouTube - https://youtube.com/@growyounger  ⭐️ Charles Floate's community - https://seo.stream  ⭐️ 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   ⭐️ David "The King" Quaid on 𝕏 - https://x.com/DavidGQuaid  ⭐️ David "The King" Quaid on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidquaid/  ⭐️ David "The King" Quaid on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@DavidQuaid  ⭐️ David "The King" 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 Meet The Panel 00:39 Are PBNs Underrated 02:04 PBN Risks And Footprints 04:25 Shared PBNs And EMDs 07:24 Zero Traffic PBN Math 10:40 Buying And Assessing Domains 12:38 Backlinks Culture Wars 16:34 AI Search Makes Domains Pricier 19:28 Harmonic Centrality For LLMs 22:35 Testing Common Crawl Strategies 27:44 Token Engineering And Negative SEO 31:20 Economics Of Link Inflation 34:28 Stop Debating Start Building 41:03 Territory Mindset And AI Agents 44:21 Search Opportunity And Click Economics 46:38 Cheap Sites With AI 47:29 Budget Question Reframed 47:48 Ultra High vs Low 50:43 Channel First Planning 54:10 MVP Zero To 100 56:26 Build To Exit 58:26 Career Moves And Networking 01:00:59 Comfort Zone Duality 01:04:51 Safe But Dangerous 01:10:31 Hedging With Parasites 01:12:09 Sell Links As Hedge 01:18:44 Scale Like A Commodity 01:21:36 Minimum Viable SEO 01:23:41 Where To Find Them 01:25:47 Podcast Wrap Up The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/   #blackhatseo #searchengineoptimization #privateblognetwork #seo