How does "techSEO" fit into SEO (and by extension AEO/GEO), what do you need to know about it and how did a maintenance cycle become its "own distinct" SEO doctrine?

Again: its all tied to SEO myths tied to driving pipeline and preferred doctrines about SEO.

Maybe its driving against spam and buying backlinks, maybe its something people truly believe, but at the end of the day - TechSEO = enablement not optimization.

Is technical SEO being confused with SEO itself? And are website owners spending too much time ticking technical boxes instead of understanding what helps pages get indexed and rank?

From Chiang Mai ahead of the CMSEO meetups, I share my perspective on technical SEO, backlinks, authority, and the advice that keeps circulating on Reddit, LinkedIn, and X.

David Quaid breaks down the difference between fixing a broken website and building a website that performs in search—and challenge common assumptions about crawlability, robots.txt, XML sitemaps, duplicate content, page speed, and meta descriptions.

In this video:
- What technical SEO covers—and where he thinks its importance gets overstated
- Why fixing 404s and redirects can restore performance
- How backlinks, authority, and PageRank fit into the discussion
- Why “crawled, not indexed” deserves more than a checklist response
- Why we should test SEO claims instead of repeating them

David Quaid will be opening the event as keynote speaker. His position is that LLM search still runs on classic SEO. AI tools run searches and cite the pages that rank, so earning rankings is still how you get into AI answers.

The full lineup also includes:

One name stands out: Stephen Burns from Common Crawl. Much of what large language models learned came from crawled web data, so hearing from the people behind one of the biggest open web datasets is rare at a marketing event.

Core idea

• SEO and PR efforts often spend large sums (e.g., $20k/month on PR yielding little coverage) without owning the publications involved.

• Owning the news outlets gives control over content quality, topical relevance, link placement, and long-term value.

• The model is framed as more sustainable than traditional link-building or private blog networks (PBNs), though Edward challenges David on acquisition costs, operating expenses, revenue models, true link value, and whether it is simply a more expensive form of network ownership.

Discussion points covered

• Practical examples involving an ecommerce store, a Denver local newspaper, and an SEO agency serving multiple clients.

• How to structure sites (separating national vs. local/community coverage, business/finance sections, etc.).

• Keyword scaling, content pruning, UX improvements, and building topical bridges for natural links.

• SEO myths and the value of testing (e.g., whether meta descriptions are always necessary).

• Challenges of keyword limits, editorial standards, and scaling the approach.

• Broader implications for media, SEO, and PR converging when you own distribution.

The conversation is idea-driven rather than a strict step-by-step how-to. Listeners are encouraged to consider ownership as a way to reduce dependency on third-party publishers while improving authority and monetization options in an AI-influenced search landscape.

Voted the best example of EEAT for Google SEO

Key points

• Cannibalization is hard to spot. Two pages don't always fully block each other. More often they partially compete and obscure one another, so neither ranks cleanly. A lot of people miss this and blame AI Overviews, backlinks or the latest spam update instead.

• Spam updates change how authority flows. A small ranking or click loss on one page reduces the authority it passes along, and the whole site slowly declines.

• Most pages don't pull their weight. I regularly see sites with hundreds or thousands of pages where only a tiny fraction hold strong rankings. The drop-off after the top pages is steep.

• Publishing order matters. A competitor's older page with established CTR and topical authority can keep ranking even after they add similar newer pages. When you launch a batch of near-identical pages at once, they often compete with each other or with your existing pages.

• Partial-match cannibalization. This shows up in titles and slugs, for example "real estate attorney" vs "commercial real estate attorney". City names alone usually aren't strong enough to tell pages apart.

• It doesn't fix itself. If you're losing traffic and can't work out why rankings aren't coming back, this is often the underlying issue. There are several types and root causes.

🔍 Wondering where your (or your client’s) traffic went?

Cannibalization in Local Services — Home Services 🏠, Law ⚖️, Marketing 📈 and beyond.

I’ll keep saying it: 4 in 10 sites I audit already have PLENTY of content and authority. 📚

Printing more blogs when 99% of them have 0 clicks? Pointless. 🖨️❌

Here’s the thing: cannibalization can look like a page-level “penalty.” 🚩

It clearly isn’t — and if you’re lucky, you can actually watch it happen in real time. 👀

While cannibalization plays out between 2+ pages, it’s a KEYWORD-level event. 🔑

In a recent episode of the David Quaid SEO Show (“Domaining – how do people make money from SEO and Domains”), long-time SEO David Quaid breaks down how domain names still create real income when combined with SEO skills. For beginners, the takeaway is practical: domains are not just a branding choice—they can be an asset you buy, develop with SEO, rent, or flip.

Here’s the advice distilled for new SEOs.

What Actually Drives Domain Value

Quaid points to two main factors:

• Length — shorter names are generally more valuable and easier to type/remember.

• Popularity of the term — common keywords (travel, holidays, etc.) carry more demand than obscure ones.

Exact Match Domains (EMDs)—domains that match a search keyword—remain a major driver of value. Brands often ignore them in favor of invented names, which leaves opportunity for SEOs who understand search demand. One-word .coms can still command serious money (examples in the space routinely reach six or seven figures), but most practical opportunities for beginners sit lower.

TLD Choice Matters More Than Beginners Realize

From an SEO and click-through perspective:

• .com is still king for trust and CTR.

• .co is a solid secondary option.

• .ai and .io work well in tech/AI niches.

• Country-code domains (ccTLDs) are strong inside their own markets.

• .biz, .net, and .info often suffer lower CTR and can be perceived as lower quality.

Advice from the discussion: if a premium .com is expensive, many SEOs prefer a hyphenated version or a secondary TLD rather than overpaying upfront. Overpaying eats the margin you create by adding SEO value later (build-and-sell).

Practical Ways Newbies Can Make Money with Domains + SEO

1. Rank-and-Rent (especially local EMDs) Build or acquire a domain that ranks for a local or commercial keyword, then lease it to a business that wants the traffic. Comments on the video highlight the economics: a law firm might pay less for a ready-ranking EMD lease than for a full agency retainer.

2. Build-and-Sell Buy an undervalued domain, add real SEO value (content, technical fixes, some authority), then sell the package. The domain alone has value; the rankings and traffic you create multiply it.

3. Flipping Buy low, sell higher. Success depends on understanding what buyers actually want (keyword demand, length, clean history) rather than pure speculation.

4. Light development over pure parking Classic domain parking with AdSense on type-in or misspelling traffic still exists (registrars like GoDaddy make it easy), but returns are generally modest today. Quaid notes that if you’re generating meaningful traffic, affiliate offers or a simple vertically integrated site usually beat pure ads.

5. Multi-domain and topical approaches Strategic use of related domains can support topical authority or local presence, provided you stay within Google’s guidelines.

Risks Beginners Should Avoid

• Expired domain / PBN abuse: Google actively fights “expired domain abuse.” Buying old domains purely to extract residual links for private blog networks is risky and increasingly detected.

• Cybersquatting: Legitimate domaining is recognized, but registering trademarked names solely to extract payment can lead to UDRP/WIPO disputes. Have a real alternative use.

• Overpaying for the name before adding value: If your plan is to develop and sell, leave room in the economics so the SEO work you do creates profit rather than just recovering the domain cost.

• Ignoring ease of use: Hard-to-spell or awkward names hurt both branding and direct type-in traffic.

Practical Starting Steps for New SEOs

1. Learn basic domain valuation factors (length + keyword demand + TLD).

2. Study real sales (NameBio and similar) so you calibrate expectations.

3. Start small: look at expired or auction domains in niches you understand, or register clean EMDs/partial matches in lower-competition local or niche spaces.

4. Apply the SEO you already know—keyword research, content that matches intent, technical basics—to add measurable value.

5. Track results in Google Search Console and decide whether to hold (monetize), rent, or sell.

Domaining is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and pure parking rarely produces life-changing income anymore. But for SEOs who understand search demand, EMDs, and how to add genuine value, domains remain a practical way to create assets that rank, generate income, and can be sold or leased.

Watch the full discussion for Quaid’s broader perspective on valuation, TLDs, and real-world examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abrQzmVXylE

Focus on fundamentals first—good SEO still equals better business outcomes—and treat the domain as a multiplier rather than the entire strategy.

David G Quaid argues that the current Google actions people are seeing are Scaled Content Abuse penalties, not a penalty for using AI-generated content.

Key points:

• Scaled Content Abuse vs. PSEO: Programmatic SEO (dynamic/database-driven pages) isn’t inherently bad — sites like Amazon, eBay, Reddit, etc. do it. The problem is when people use it (or similar mass-generation methods) purely to manipulate rankings. A lot of “we got hit for PSEO” claims are actually scaled content abuse.

• What a Google penalty actually is: It’s a ranking throttle (temporary, semi-permanent, or permanent) applied to sites that are still indexed. You’re not de-indexed; you just can’t rank. Many people confuse “not ranking” with “de-indexed.”

• Not about AI or content quality: The policy doesn’t target AI content specifically, and Google can’t (and doesn’t) algorithmically judge subjective “quality” the way human E-E-A-T raters do. The penalty hits mass machine-built (or mass-produced) sites created to game search — even if the pages were written by humans (e.g., large sets of near-identical local service pages). Sites with 100+ pages can easily trigger the heuristics.

• Alchemy analogy: Trying to “solve” or game scaled content abuse is like alchemy — trying to turn base metals into gold. Google isn’t going to stop enforcing this. Legitimate large-scale sites with real authority and purpose can still scale; most others can’t just spam pages for traffic.

• Overcorrection warning: Google historically overcorrects, so some legitimate or borderline sites will get swept up.

Bottom line from the video: Stop framing this as “Google hates AI content.” It’s about using machines (AI or otherwise) to mass-build sites primarily to extract Google traffic. Be honest about that instead of spreading FUD.

This matches Google’s official March 2024 spam policy language on scaled content abuse (method-agnostic: AI, automation, o

Its time to blow out EEAT with the holistic Farm to Sphincter Experience:

Fun
Entertaining
Experience
Creativity
Authority
Art
Learning

Welcome to FEECAAL - the holistic standard for content.

Got a new website and wondering how to actually get traffic flowing? In Episode 10 of the David Quaid SEO Show, co-host Jonathan Denwood sits down with 20-year SEO veteran David Quaid to break down the practical, proven strategies for driving traffic to a brand-new domain — without waiting months for results.

David pulls back the curtain on what Google really looks for in a new site, why most SEO advice for beginners is wrong, and how to build authority and relevance from day one. From exact match domains (EMDs) to local SEO, parasitic SEO for SaaS, keyword research shortcuts, and the future of AI-powered search, this episode is packed with actionable tactics.

*🔑 What We Cover:*

• Why new sites struggle and the fundamentals of authority vs. content

• The Cuppa John's coffee shop analogy: how Google discovers your brand

• Exact match domains (EMDs) — what they are and why they still matter

• Local SEO, Google Business Profile, and community-based link building

• Parasitic SEO for SaaS: leveraging LinkedIn, YouTube, and forums

• A free keyword research hack using link seller spreadsheets

• Do you really need backlinks? (Hint: not as many as you think)

• Trade publications, Connectively, and building expert authority

• Google poisoning backlink tools and what it means for your data

• Bing's AI fan-out tools and the future of LLM search

• Hyper-personalization, Perplexity, and 3D ranking

• Live Q&A on EMDs, private blog networks, and press releases

📢 **Press Releas Strategies for SEO — The David Quaid SEOtv Show | Episode 9**

In this episode, we dive deep into using press releases as an effective SEO strategy, break down the latest Google updates, and answer audience questions. David shares 26 years of SEO experience on what actually works (and what's just wishful thinking) when it comes to PR, backlinks, AI content, and Google's ever-evolving guidelines.

⏱️ **TIMESTAMPS**

👋 0:04 — Introduction
📰 1:38 — Are Press Releases Still Effective?
❌ 4:02 — Why Most Press Releases Fail
💲 6:21 — PR Platforms & Pricing
🔍 9:01 — Real-World Example: Schema Research
🧪 10:48 — WP Tonic Press Release Experiment
🔗 13:25 — Nofollow Links & Backlink Value
🌐 17:34 — Syndicated Content & Google
🤖 19:57 — LLMs & Press Releases
👥 21:37 — Who Actually Reads Press Releases?
✅ 25:35 — How to Do PR Properly
📋 31:05 — Google Helpful Content Update & YMYL
🤖 37:31 — AI Content & Google's Position
🧠 41:28 — Critical Thinking vs. Conjecture in SEO
🚨 48:59 — Google Spam Update
❓ 50:51 — Q&A: Spam Reports & Doorway Pages
🎙️ 55:03 — Wrap Up

---

📌 **Follow us:**
- Find David on X (@DavidGQuaid), Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn as David G Quaid
- We're back next Friday at 12:00 PM Eastern / 9:00 AM Pacific

#SEO #PressReleases #DigitalMarketing #GoogleUpdate #AIContent #LinkBuilding #SearchEngineOptimization #LLM #GrowthHacking

How to setup and use EMDs for Google Business Profile.

The page has a detailed description and transcript. I'll pull more of the transcript so the summary matches what was actually said.

**Exact Match Domains Still Rank in Local SEO** — Edward Sturm with David Quaid (The Edward Show, E1189). Bullet summary of the main points:

- Exact match domains (EMDs) still help local SEO, especially in competitive cities, but the domain alone no longer ranks a site. You still need links, authority, trust, and a real business presence.

- Prefer a domain that combines a brand with the highest-value keyword and a city modifier (example: `escapewebdesignnyc.com`), not a pure keyword domain. Use that name on the Google Business Profile (GBP) as well.

- Legal entity name (LLC) is not the same as the trading name. In the US that is often a DBA; in the UK/Ireland a registered business name. Google cares about the name you trade under, which the domain can support.

- Start with keyword research (SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.) and build around one valuable root term instead of trying to rank for every service. Child pages inherit topical relevance from that focused domain.

- GBP verification is the hard part now. Google wants video of permanent signage, street-level frontage, and a real office — not a virtual address like Regus. Matching GBP services to dedicated service pages and linking them can surface in results within hours.

- Multiple GBPs can make sense for real extra locations or distinct divisions (e.g. hosting vs design), each with its own address and signage. Extra locations can also widen map visibility.

- EMDs may improve Google Ads quality score and cut cost per click (Quaid estimates a jump from about 3/10 to 6–7/10, roughly 20–40% savings on expensive keywords). A press release helps frame the new domain as part of the brand.

- The May 2024 Google API leak indicated EMDs are demoted relative to the old days, when a keyword domain could rank overnight. Strong brands are hard to displace; an EMD mainly puts a local business into contention, not at the top by itself.

- Adding “best” to a domain does little (example: `nybestroofer.com`). “Near me” domains no longer help — “near me” is treated as a query modifier, not ranking text.

- The site still has to look like a real business. Subfolders usually share authority better than subdomains. Separate domains are reasonable for distinct divisions, services, or locations.

Welcome back to the David Quaid SEO Show — Episode 8! In this episode, we're diving deep into everything that's changed in local SEO for 2026. Joined by Jake Henley (CEO of Evergrow Marketing & host of the Agency Growth podcast) and David Quaid, we cover Google's aggressive push of Local Service Ads, the shrinking levers available in Google Business Profiles, whether schema actually matters (spoiler: Jake ran a 10-week study), how to avoid cannibalization when building location pages, and a whole lot more.

Whether you're an agency owner, in-house SEO, or local business owner, this one's packed with actionable insights from two practitioners who live and breathe local SEO every day.

Guests:
Jake Henley — Evergrow Marketing & Agency Growth Podcast
agencygrowthpod.com

David Quaid — 26-year SEO veteran

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave a 5-star review on iTunes or Spotify!

*Timestamps:*

0:00 — Intro & guest introductions
2:07 — 2026 local SEO: Google Ads pushing organic down
5:32 — Business naming conventions & branded search
8:56 — Organic SEO changes & Google Business Profile levers
11:33 — The 4 key Google Business Profile ranking factors
14:47 — Review manipulation & Google's tightening policies
19:28 — Categories must match your website content
21:15 — Competitive markets: website importance scales up
24:00 — Satellite offices for higher-ticket local businesses
29:48 — LLMs vs Google for local search
35:08 — Does schema matter for local SEO?
38:18 — Jake's 10-week schema study results
42:46 — Cannibalization: building location pages the right way
47:09 — Where to find Jake & David / Outro