In this episode, Gen Furukawa  speaks with Carl Holden, founder and CEO of RankBot, to unpack one of the most misunderstood parts of modern SEO: how link authority, automated outreach, and external site signals power both traditional Google rankings and AI-generated answers across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

Carl explains why backlinks still matter in an AI-first world, why large language models continue to depend on search results for rankings, and how marketers can build durable visibility in an era defined by Answer Engine Optimization.

You’ll learn how to think about off-page SEO in an unreliable, fast-changing algorithm landscape, and why diversifying your presence across blogs, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and short-form video is becoming essential for LLM citations.

01:35 Understanding Link Building and SEO

02:52 Automating Link Building with AI

04:22 Challenges and Strategies in Link Building

12:02 The Future of Off-Page SEO

17:15 Leveraging AI in Marketing

22:58 Final Thoughts and Advice for Marketers