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Want links without cold emails or sketchy deals? We dive into a practical system for earning citations by putting useful work in front of the right people, then letting trust and timing do the heavy lifting. Ed Dawson, founder of Keywords People Use, unpacks why links still drive rankings and why they matter even more as AI search surfaces sources in responses.

We start with the reality check: buying links and anchor manipulation can waste money or trigger penalties. From there we map a cleaner path for new sites stuck in the awareness gap. Ed shares how he launched a brand‑new domain and sparked momentum with low‑cost, high‑signal moves: consistent posting on Twitter and LinkedIn, value‑first replies on Reddit and Quora, direct outreach to peers without asking for links, and a modest BrightonSEO sponsorship that put an engaging tool into the hands of the right audience. The result was a flywheel where attention created links, links improved rankings, and rankings created more discovery.

You’ll hear how to pair long tail content with attention channels to get early wins, then convert that traffic into an email list that compounds every launch. We talk through lead magnets that actually earn signups, what to send to subscribers, and why “ask for feedback” beats “please link me.” Ed explains how reciprocity in communities builds site‑level authority, helping more pages get indexed and climb the SERPs. By the end you’ll have a simple checklist: find your audience, show up consistently, ship something genuinely useful, announce it where it belongs, and repeat until the flywheel turns.

If this helped you reframe link building, tap follow, share it with a friend who’s launching a site, and leave a quick review. Want hands‑on help? Book a free, no‑obligation demo at keywordspeopleuse.com/demo and bring your SEO questions.

SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com

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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

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"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/