SEO Is Not That Hard – Details, episodes & analysis

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What if one small, free tool could earn you more backlinks, leads, and trust than months of blogging? We dive into engineering as marketing, a strategy that turns lightweight, useful tools into link magnets and lead engines, especially powerful as AI search surfaces cited, authoritative resources.

I walk through the core idea: build a free tool that solves a real problem right next to your product’s value. From HubSpot’s Website Grader to Ahrefs’ free Backlink Checker, we break down why these tools spread so fast, how they capture qualified interest, and what makes them defensible. You’ll learn the principles that matter most: tight product alignment, single-purpose scope, instant output, and honest value that earns shares without heavy gating. We also talk about how this approach fits top-of-funnel intent, attracting people who are problem-aware but not yet shopping, and why that early trust compounds into stronger SEO performance and brand recognition.

Then we get practical. I outline how to choose the right idea, avoid feature bloat, and plan a small but focused launch to trigger the first wave of links and usage. We cover lightweight promotion on LinkedIn and Twitter, tapping your network for early feedback, and using supporting content to answer questions and strengthen search visibility. The point is simple: difficulty becomes your moat—if it’s genuinely useful and hard to copy, it will keep earning attention over time.

If you’re ready to stand out from a sea of lookalike content, this is your playbook for building something people can’t wait to share. Subscribe for more SEO strategies, share this with a teammate who’s stuck on content ideas, and leave a quick review to tell me which tool you’ll build next.

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

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Want more high‑quality links without playing whack‑a‑mole with paid placements or low‑value directories? We walk through a strategy that flips the usual script: stop entering awards and start running them. By becoming the awarding body in your niche, you can earn relevant backlinks from major brands, spark press coverage, and build durable authority that search engines and AI assistants recognise.

We begin with why links still matter, especially as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity cite trusted sources. Then we compare two paths: paying to enter business awards versus designing your own programme. The first can help E‑E‑A‑T a bit, but links are often generic and pricey. The second lets you set clear categories, publish transparent criteria, and celebrate real winners in your vertical. Think “Best Value Broadband,” “Fastest Fibre,” or for ecommerce, “Best Electric Lawn Mower Under £200.” With a solid methodology and a public winners page, merchants proudly display badges, issue press releases, and link back to your site.

We dig into the playbook: how to craft objective scoring, create a badge and media kit, write compelling winner blurbs, and build award pages that naturally attract links. We share examples from comparison sites that use awards to get merchant links that are topically spot‑on and hard to replicate. You’ll hear practical tips for scaling from a lightweight launch to full ceremonies, and why physical trophies and livestream announcements dramatically increase participation and coverage. We also cover outreach, PR timing, and ethical guardrails so your awards remain credible and defensible.

If you’ve ever considered spending five figures on link buying, you’ll see how reallocating a slice of that budget to an awards programme can produce safer, stronger, and longer‑lasting results. By the end, you’ll have a step‑by‑step path to design categories, ship badges, and turn recognition into backlinks, brand searches, and press mentions that compound year after year. Enjoy the episode, and if this helps you rethink your link strategy, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review to tell us what award you’d launch first.

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

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Tool mentioned in the podcast: https://validator.schema.org/


Machines don’t reward guesses; they reward clarity. We walk through a practical, four‑step framework to make search engines and LLMs understand your brand, your people, and your offers without ambiguity. The focus is on schema markup that scales: JSON‑LD for clean implementation, @id for stable references, and a connected entity graph that links Organisation, Website, Person, Product, and Service into one coherent map of your business.

We start by establishing a sitewide identity with Organisation and Website markup, then strengthen it with authoritative sameAs profiles so your name is matched to the right entity in the knowledge graph. From there, we embed authorship into Article schema and connect each writer back to the brand via affiliation, with optional knowsAbout fields to highlight topical expertise and support EEAT. Next, we mark up Products and Services with properties that mirror visible content, reinforcing trust and unlocking eligibility for rich results. Finally, we tie it all together using @id URLs as canonical anchors so every reference points to a single, durable source of truth.

Along the way, we share common pitfalls to avoid, why isolated page labels leave performance on the table, and how a connected schema strategy helps search engines attribute content, surface it confidently, and reduce confusion with lookalike brands. We also cover essential tooling: the Schema Markup Validator for structure and the Rich Results Test for feature eligibility, plus pointers to research resources for deeper implementation.

If you want your authority recognised by both users and machines, this is your blueprint to ship. Subscribe for more hands‑on SEO strategy, share this with a teammate who owns structured data, and leave a review telling us which schema type you’ll implement first.

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

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Edd shares a fascinating experiment where his SEO Growth Framework was fed into Google's Notebook LM AI tool, resulting in a surprisingly accurate AI-generated conversation about the methodology.

• Google's Notebook LM creates podcast-style dialogues between AI voices based on content you provide
• The AI conversation accurately captured almost the entire Growth Framework (G-R-O-W-T)
• The framework breaks down as Gather (finding audience questions), Refine (clustering questions by theme)
• Optimize (creating content that answers questions), Watch (monitoring performance), Tune (refining strategy)
• Final framework steps Hone and Repeat will be covered in future episodes
• AI-generated explanations might make complex topics more accessible for some audiences
• Minor inaccuracy noted around overemphasis on meta descriptions which Google often changes

Try our SEO intelligence platform at KeywordsPeopleUse.com where we help you discover questions people ask online, group related keywords, and optimize your content with personalized advice. Connect with Ed on LinkedIn and BlueSky by searching for Ed Dawson (spelled with two Ds), or visit www.eddawson.com for consulting services.

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

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Vibe coding represents a revolutionary AI-driven approach to software development that allows anyone to create functional applications using natural language instead of traditional programming.

• Coined by Andrej Karpathy (former Tesla AI director and OpenAI co-founder) in February 2025
• Dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for software development
• Enables rapid prototyping and iteration through conversational feedback loops
• Particularly useful for creating "software for one" - personal tools to solve specific problems
• Major tools include Cursor, Replit, and even general AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude
• SEO professionals can use vibe coding to build custom data processing and analysis tools
• Currently has limitations with complex systems and quality control
• Best used for prototyping or solving personal workflow challenges
• The technology is evolving rapidly, with capabilities expanding monthly

Try our SEO intelligence platform at keywordspeopleuse.com where we help you discover questions people ask online, organize them into topical groups, and optimize your content with personalized advice to grow your traffic.

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

Send us a text

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

Send us a text

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

Send us a text

This episode emphasises the essential steps involved in the GROWTH Framework for effective content optimisation, especially focusing on monitoring and evaluating performance metrics for SEO success. We delve into various strategies for tracking user engagement and refining content, thereby enhancing visibility and achieving business goals.

• Introduction to the GROWTH Framework 
• Importance of monitoring and evaluating performance 
• Strategies for tracking user engagement and refining content

Don't forget to check out the linked document in the show notes for an expanded version of the framework!

Link to work in progress doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u-L6JjxG3OsVzjL9xxU8qNPYGbtmqNDLplugN4dzJkY/edit?usp=sharing

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

Send us a text

We explore the transformative impact of mastermind groups on SEO and online business. Sharing wisdom, accountability, and fresh perspectives fosters growth among members.

• Discussion on the concept of masterminds and their importance 
• Benefits of collaboration, including problem-solving and networking 
• Tips on how to find and maximise your mastermind experience 

If you’re interested in learning more about me personally or looking for dedicated consulting advice, then visit www.eddawson.com. 

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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

Send us a text

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

Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo

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

Ask me a question and get on the show Click here to record a question

Find Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & Twitter

Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use

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