The Shockingly Easy Way to Rank: Listicle Self-Plugs, Medium, and the Future of SEO

E884: Some of the most shockingly effective SEO tactics of 2025: listicle self-plugs, Medium parasite SEO, Reddit domination, AI visibility hacks… then the future of SEO/GEO/AEO tactics in 2026.

Ivan Palii (Head of Product at Sitechecker) joins the podcast to share real experiments he's running right now - including AI manipulation, influencer marketing results, backlink insertion tactics, Reddit sub takeover strategies, and how Medium articles with zero backlinks are still outranking major brands.

If you're an SEO, a founder, or anyone trying to rank in the age of AI search, this might be the most actionable podcast you listen to all year.

Topics We Cover
- Why listicle self-plugs STILL work in 2025 (and when they'll stop)
- How LLMs treat citations - and why small brands can hack them
- The rise of Medium as a parasite SEO powerhouse
- How Ivan ranks competitive keywords on Medium with no backlinks
- Reddit as the SEO frontier + how to grow a subreddit that ranks
- Backlink insertions vs guest posts (what actually works now)
- AI chat visibility: what influences Claude/ChatGPT rankings
- The future of SEO in 2026 - predictions you can act on today
- The real results from spending $20K on LinkedIn influencers
- Why most agencies spend 0% effort protecting rankings (and should)

🔔 Subscribe for daily episodes (884 days in a row!). I drop a new podcast every single day on SEO, marketing, AI, growth, and experiments that actually work.

⭐️ Ivan Palii's Looker Studio templates - https://ivanhoe.pro/
⭐️ Sitechecker - SEO & AI visibility for agencies - https://sitechecker.pro/
⭐️ Ivan Palii's SEO newsletter - https://www.hackthealgo.com/
⭐️ Ivan Palii's SEO community - https://www.reddit.com/r/seogaps/
⭐️ Ivan Palii on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanpalii/
⭐️ Ivan Palii on 𝕏 - https://x.com/IvanPalii
⭐️ Ivan Palii on Medium - https://medium.com/@ivanpalii
⭐️ Ivan Palii on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@ivanhoedigital

💎 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 Initial Question
00:22 Debating AI-Generated Backlinks
01:15 Quality Over Quantity in Backlinks
01:35 The Power of Listicles
04:38 SEO Strategies and Tools
06:42 SEO in Ukraine
08:27 Crazy SEO Trends in 2025
10:11 Influencing AI and Search Engines
16:17 User Engagement and SEO
29:51 Marketing Experiments and Strategies
43:21 Creating Anonymous Accounts for Experiments
45:24 SEO Agencies: Visibility vs. Protection
49:54 Influencer Marketing on LinkedIn
55:54 Effective Link Building Tactics
01:13:40 SEO Strategies for 2026
01:17:37 Final Thoughts and Future Plans

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

#searchengineoptimization #growthhacking #answerengineoptimization #generativeengineoptimization