The New Rules of Ranking in an AI World. How Link Signals Still Drive LLM Visibility with Carl Holden, CEO of RankBot

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 SEO02:52 Automating Link Building with AI04:22 Challenges and Strategies in Link Building12:02 The Future of Off-Page SEO17:15 Leveraging AI in Marketing22:58 Final Thoughts and Advice for Marketers