Caleb Ulku presents a step-by-step strategy for ranking content on Google's first page within days by publishing on Medium.com, leveraging its high domain authority and topical breadth. The method involves using AI (specifically Claude 3.5 Sonnet) to generate keyword-targeted content for low-competition long-tail keywords, human-editing it for quality and EEAT compliance, then amplifying it by publishing related (not duplicate) content on additional high-authority platforms with backlinks to the Medium article. The strategy avoids paid backlinks entirely and is designed to work for local business lead generation, affiliate marketing, or agency client acquisition. Additional steps include fast indexing via social signals or tools like IndexMeNow, and building author EEAT for compounding long-term results.
The strategy involves leveraging another domain's authority and relevance to rank content fast, specifically by publishing on Medium.com. Instead of building backlinks or waiting months for results, you publish optimized content on a highly trusted, topically relevant domain (Medium) that Google already trusts. The full process involves keyword research, AI-assisted content creation, human editing, publishing on Medium, republishing related content on additional trusted platforms, getting content indexed, and building EEAT.
Medium.com is recommended because it meets three critical criteria for this strategy: (1) Google highly trusts it as a domain, (2) it has topical relevance across many different topics, and (3) it allows anyone to easily publish content. Additionally, Medium saw massive traffic growth from 9 million to over 30 million monthly visitors following a major Google update, and you can create an account and publish on it in just minutes.
Medium allows several monetization methods: (1) linking to your own website to generate leads for services, (2) using affiliate links as long as you disclose that you're using them, (3) using local content to generate leads for local businesses (e.g., an article about water heater replacement in Houston), (4) writing content to grow your own agency, and (5) building a community or email list to later monetize through offers, paid tiers, affiliates, one-on-one coaching, or other audience monetization methods.
You should target long-tail, low-competition keywords on topics you can monetize. For example, instead of broad terms, you'd target something like 'how to do SEO for a plumber in Houston' — a very specific, low-competition long-tail keyword. You can use AI to generate a list of these keywords, and then verify their competitiveness using Ahrefs' free keyword explorer tool or by simply Googling the keyword and evaluating the strength of currently ranking websites.
You have two free options: (1) Use Ahrefs' free keyword explorer tool — if it shows a pop-up when you search a keyword, it typically means competition and search volume are quite low. (2) Simply type the keyword into Google and look at the websites currently ranking for it, then assess how strong those websites are. If the ranking sites are weak or low-authority, the keyword is likely low competition.
As of September 2024, Medium discourages posting pure AI-generated 'drivel' straight to the platform, especially if you want to join their Partner Program. However, AI-assisted content is allowed as long as you include a proper disclaimer. The video strongly recommends focusing on AI-assisted content (where AI helps write but a human edits and improves it) rather than fully automated AI output, both because Medium requires the disclaimer and because pure AI content is unlikely to rank long-term or generate conversions.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is recommended as the best AI tool for writing content in this strategy. The creator compared ChatGPT, Perplexity, Genesis, and Claude, and Claude was the clear winner in content quality. That said, the prompts used in this strategy are designed to work with a variety of AI assistants.
Human editing is essential for several reasons: (1) AI makes factual mistakes, so you need to fact-check the content. (2) AI content benefits greatly from added human experience, knowledge, and anecdotes that make it more authentic and valuable. (3) Human editing helps the content pass AI content detectors, which many platforms use to scan submissions — getting a low AI-detection score future-proofs your content. Even though AI detectors are often inaccurate, you don't want your content flagged on Medium or other platforms.
While AI detectors are often unreliable and claim accuracy rates they don't fully deliver (most claim 97% success but are easy to fool), you should still aim for a low AI-detection score. Many platforms use these tools to scan content submissions, and Medium may start doing so in the future. Running your content through an AI detector and editing it to score low is a way to future-proof your content and avoid being flagged on current and future platforms you want to publish on.
Publishing on additional trusted platforms serves two purposes: (1) It creates backlinks from other trusted websites to your Medium article, which Google rewards — helping boost rankings for more competitive keywords. (2) Some of those additional articles may also rank on their own, giving you more visibility. The strategy recommends publishing on 3 to 5 additional platforms beyond Medium, depending on how competitive the target keyword is and whether the Medium article is already ranking.
To create related but unique content for other platforms, follow these steps: (1) Search your target keyword in Google and find the 'People Also Ask' section. If there's no PAA section, add 'how' or 'what' to your keyword. (2) Pick one of those related questions. (3) Copy your already-written Medium content and give it to Claude with a prompt asking it to rewrite the content focused on answering that related question. The result will be highly relevant to your topic but unique from your Medium article. Then add links back to your Medium article and one call-to-action link before publishing.
There are three methods to get content indexed quickly: (1) Source external links pointing to the content you want indexed — this signals to Google to crawl it. (2) Use social signals or blog comments to create activity around the content. (3) Use a paid indexing tool like IndexMeNow.com, which is described as very inexpensive and effective. The creator also mentions having a full dedicated video on getting content indexed in just minutes.
EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — a set of quality signals Google uses to evaluate content. It matters for this strategy because after Google's major attribute leak, it was confirmed that Google indexes author names and authority. Building EEAT means establishing the author's credibility so that content in similar topics will index and rank faster over time. While it's a long-term strategy, it amplifies the results of the Medium publishing approach and is especially important when using AI-assisted content.
Two practical examples are given: (1) Local business lead generation — write an article about 'water heater replacement in Houston,' use soft call-to-actions, link to informational pages, and include proper disclosures. This can generate leads for a local HVAC or plumbing business. (2) Agency growth — write content like 'how to do SEO for a plumber in Houston,' targeting a very low-competition long-tail keyword. A plumber searching for that term finds your content, which can lead them to hire your SEO agency.
The strategy is designed to take less than 30 minutes of your time and uses primarily free tools. Medium.com is free to create an account and publish on. Ahrefs offers a free keyword explorer tool. The AI tools like Claude have free tiers. The only potential cost is an optional paid indexing tool like IndexMeNow.com, which is described as 'very inexpensive.' The AI prompts used in the strategy are also available for free in the creator's School community.
High domain authority alone isn't enough — topical relevance also matters. For example, if you published an article about water heater replacement on WebMD.com, it would not rank well because WebMD has no topical relevance for plumbing topics. However, an article about a specific medical term on WebMD would likely rank almost immediately because it aligns with WebMD's established topical authority. This is why Medium.com is ideal for this strategy — it has both Google's trust AND broad topical relevance across many different subjects.
The 7-step strategy is: (1) Keyword Research — use AI to generate a list of low-competition, long-tail keywords on monetizable topics. (2) Content Generation — use AI (preferably Claude 3.5 Sonnet) with a specific prompt to produce high-quality AI-assisted content. (3) Human Editing — fact-check, add human experience/anecdotes, and run through an AI detector to get a low score. (4) Publish — post the content to Medium with call-to-action links. (5) Additional Platforms — publish related (not duplicate) content on 3-5 other trusted domains with links back to your Medium article. (6) Indexing — use external links, social signals, or a tool like IndexMeNow.com to get content indexed fast. (7) Build EEAT — establish author authority to accelerate future rankings.
This isn't about building backlinks or social signals or waiting months for results. This is a shortcut. We're going to leverage another domain's authority and relevance to get our content to rank.
If you went and published an article about water heater replacement on WebMD.com, it would not rank very well, even though WebMD is of course a very trusted domain. But if you wrote an article about a specific medical term, it would likely rank very well almost immediately.
The shortcut requires a domain that one, Google trusts, two, has topical relevance on a lot of different topics, and three, allows anyone to easily publish content.
AI generated drivel, even if it ranks, it's not likely to stay ranked for long and it isn't likely to generate successful conversion.
AI is great for content production, but it's definitely still in the assistant phase. You still should always rely on human editing to check and improve the content.
AI detectors are often terrible and they don't work as well as they claim. Most of the ones I've seen claim a 97% success rate, but they're super easy to fool.
Future-proof it by getting a low score on the AI content detectors.
If we wanted to pour some gasoline on that fire, or maybe target some higher competition keywords, we know that Google rewards sites that have links from other trusted websites.
Just like a tree falling in the forest — if Google doesn't index it, it doesn't really exist.
After Google had that massive attribute leak, we learned that Google does index author's name and authority.
Medium is a trusted, high-traffic domain (30M+ monthly visitors) that allows anyone to publish content and has topical relevance across many subjects — ideal for leveraging domain authority
Step 1 of the strategy — long-tail, low-competition keywords are easier to rank for quickly on a trusted domain like Medium
The prompts are long and specific; the creator made them available for free rather than requiring viewers to copy them from the video
After generating keyword ideas with AI, check them in Ahrefs to confirm low competition; a pop-up in Ahrefs typically indicates very low competition and low search volume
A simple manual check to assess keyword competition before investing time in content creation
Step 2 — Claude outperformed ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Genesis in the creator's comparison test for content quality
Step 3 — Pure AI content won't stay ranked, won't convert, and may violate Medium's guidelines; AI-assisted content with human polish is the goal
Step 3 — Many platforms (and potentially Medium in the future) use AI detectors to scan submissions; future-proof your content by getting a low AI detection score
Medium's September 2024 guidelines require disclosure for AI-assisted content; adding it is easy and keeps you compliant
Step 4 — For many long-tail keywords, Medium's domain authority alone is enough to rank the content almost immediately
Step 5 — You need unique but related content for each additional platform; PAA questions provide ready-made related angles
A quick workaround to surface related questions when the PAA box doesn't appear for your keyword
Step 5 — Publishing unique but related content on multiple trusted domains builds links back to your Medium article and increases ranking power, especially for more competitive keywords
The additional platform articles serve as supporting content and link equity for your main Medium article, and may rank independently as well
Step 6 — If Google doesn't index the content, it won't rank; fast indexing is critical to the speed of this strategy
Step 7 — After Google's attribute leak, it was confirmed that Google indexes author name and authority; building EEAT causes future content to index and rank faster over time
Step 7 — The creator has a dedicated video with the full process for establishing author authority, which compounds ranking results over time
One of three suggested monetization approaches — local long-tail keywords are very low competition and can generate leads with proper disclosure
Medium explicitly allows affiliate links as long as proper disclosure is made; failure to disclose may violate Medium's guidelines
An alternative monetization strategy to direct lead generation — build an audience first, then monetize in multiple ways
Core platform recommended for the ranking strategy due to its trusted domain, topical relevance, and open publishing
"It's medium.com. Now medium is a powerful multi-topic domain, perfect for a strategy and what we're trying to do here."
Used as an example of a trusted domain with topical relevance limitations
"If you went and published an article about water heater replacement on WebMD.com, it would not rank very well, even though WebMD is of course a very trusted domain."
Referenced as the search engine whose algorithm and trust signals the strategy is designed to leverage
"Google's current algorithm near the end of 2024 is heavily favored toward domains that it highly trusts."
Recommended as a free keyword explorer tool to check keyword competition
"Ahrefs has a free keyword explorer tool that you can go ahead and use."
Recommended AI assistant for content generation, identified as the best performer in a comparison
"Here's the prompt that we use to produce AI-assisted content with Claude 3.5 Sonnet."
Mentioned as one of the AI assistants compared against Claude, implied to be less effective
"I did a comparison of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Genesis, and Claude."
Mentioned as one of the AI assistants compared against Claude, implied to be less effective
"I did a comparison of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Genesis, and Claude."
Mentioned as one of the AI assistants compared against Claude, implied to be less effective
"I did a comparison of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Genesis, and Claude."
Recommended as a paid indexing tool described as inexpensive and effective
"The third way is to use a paid tool like indexmenow.com very very inexpensive works really well."
Speaker's own free community where AI prompts and platform lists are made available for download
"I'm going to go ahead and make this available for free at my school community. I have a link in the description so that you can join it and grab this."
Speaker and creator, references his own seven-figure SEO agency and prior videos
"My name is Caleb Alku and I built a seven-figure SEO agency and have helped hundreds of others start and grow their own."