E906: I sit down with Shaun Anderson (Hobo Web), one of the most respected SEOs in the industry - someone who has been working in search since the early 2000s and has firsthand experience with every major Google shift, from early link-based ranking to AI-driven systems.

We look at what the Google API Leak actually showed, what Google has been consistent about for years, and where SEO narratives have gone wrong. This is a technical, honest conversation focused on how Google really evaluates websites today.

Topics covered:
- Why Google wasn't lying about how rankings work
- What the Google API Leak confirmed about ranking systems
- How Google evaluates trust at the site level
- Why trust can override traditional authority metrics
- How links still matter and what they actually represent
- How Google determines who owns and operates a website
- Why responsibility and transparency matter for rankings
- How E-E-A-T works in practice, not theory
- Why monetization changes how a page is evaluated
- When affiliate sites can rank successfully
- Why some affiliate sites collapse while others grow
- The difference between informational intent and commercial intent
- What "helpful content" actually means to Google
- Why some pages never get indexed
- How site-wide quality issues block indexing
- How to quickly identify technical vs content vs authority problems
- Why publishing velocity can trigger ranking corrections
- Why removing low-quality pages still works
- Lessons from major updates like Google Penguin
- What the Helpful Content Update changed long term
- What "content effort" means and how it's evaluated
- Why AI-generated content often fails
- How AI should be used responsibly in SEO
- What SEO tasks should never be handed fully to AI
- Why SEO strategy still requires human judgment
- Why entity SEO matters more than most people realize
- The role of Google Business Profiles for trust
- Why authorship, policies, and disclosures matter
- How domain-wide signals are applied across pages

Who this episode is for:
- SEOs working on long-term, legitimate businesses
- Founders who rely on organic search
- Affiliate site owners navigating post-HCU SEO
- Anyone confused by recent Google updates
- Anyone whose "good content" isn't ranking

This episode is not about tricks or shortcuts.

It's about how Google actually evaluates websites based on trust, responsibility, and real-world experience.

New episodes every day.

Subscribe for more in-depth conversations on SEO, search, and growth.

⭐️ Shaun Anderson at Hobo SEO blog - https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/shaun-anderson/
⭐️ Shaun Anderson on 𝕏 - https://x.com/hobo_web
⭐️ Shaun Anderson on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@hobo_web
⭐️ Shaun Anderson on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-anderson-hobo/

⭐️ Shout out to Metehan Yesilyurt on 𝕏 - https://x.com/metehan777
⭐️ Shout out to Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR on 𝕏 - https://x.com/KorayGubur

💎 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 Introduction and Guest Background
02:01 Journey into SEO: Early Days and Achievements
09:54 SEO Challenges and Overcoming Penalties
30:03 Understanding E-EA-T and Its Importance
58:00 AI in SEO: Tools and Techniques
01:03:57 SEO Tasks AI Shouldn't Handle
01:04:48 Creative Backlink Strategies
01:08:38 Controlling a Niche with Exact Match Domains
01:13:57 Diagnosing SEO Traffic Problems
01:18:35 Entity SEO and Google Business Profiles
01:37:07 More Insights from the Google API Leak
02:03:49 Final Thoughts and Reflections

The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/

#searchengineoptimization #eeatseo #seotips #googleapileak