More Backlinks, AI Innovations, and Google Updates for Agencies

As schools head into the end of their first month back, this week's newsletter is your study guide for staying ahead in the fast-paced world of SEO marketing. We’re sharpening our pencils with three key topics that will help your agency ace the competition. First, we'll dive into the why and how of backlinks, giving your clients the answers they need to rise to the top of search rankings. Then, we’ll take a closer look at OpenAI's new o1 model – a standout student in the world of AI, ready to help you master your content strategies. Finally, we’ll explore Google's latest “class project” involving online discussions and forums. Ready to pass with flying colors? Let’s break it down and see how these updates can help your agency graduate to the top of digital marketing!

Remember high school, where being friends with the cool kids boosted your social status? Well, welcome to the internet's version of that popularity contest: backlinks!

In the bustling hallways of the World Wide Web, backlinks are like votes of confidence from one website to another. Essentially, a backlink is simply a link from one website to another. Think of backlinks as recommendations—when a credible site links to your client’s page, search engines see this as a sign of trust and authority, significantly improving SEO performance.

For example, let’s say Adobe links to Adaptify with the anchor text “Adaptify Keyword Magic.” In this case, Adobe is the referring site, while Adaptify is the site benefiting from the backlink. The more reputable the referring site, the greater the SEO value passed along.

But just like in high school, not all friends (or backlinks) are equal. Google uses backlinks to crawl the web and discover new content, ultimately deciding which pages are relevant and authoritative. High-quality links from authoritative sites are invaluable, while backlinks from low-quality or spammy sites can harm your ranking.

This is why a mix of follow and nofollow links helps maintain a natural and balanced backlink profile. Nofollow links—typically from user-generated content like blog comments—signal to search engines not to pass SEO value. While these links don’t directly affect rankings, having a healthy balance of both types is key.

At Adaptify, we’ve made Press AI backlinks a breeze for agencies. With minimal input, we take your clients’ author name, LinkedIn profile, headshot, and a unique bio, and our AI system does the rest. It answers journalist queries across hundreds of outreach topics, creating opportunities for high-quality backlinks that boost SEO performance.

And here’s the best part: we can also target specific pages on your client’s site for strategic interlinking, enhancing internal structure and ranking potential.

We now offer flexible options for guaranteed backlinks, making it easier than ever to increase your clients' visibility:

You can upgrade your plan or explore options directly from your PR Backlink Dashboard under “Selected Plan” (see screenshot below for additional details).

Backlinks are the secret sauce in Google's ranking recipe. They're like letters of recommendation for your website and are essential because they directly influence your website’s authority score, a key metric in determining how well you rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). For example, pages that rank highly for competitive terms like "invoice template" often have thousands of backlinks from high-quality domains such as Microsoft, giving them a distinct SEO advantage.

However, it’s not just about quantity—quality matters even more. Backlinks from relevant, authoritative websites carry much more weight than those from unrelated or less credible sources. Plus, backlinks also help Google crawl and index your website, increasing your chances of ranking for more search queries. So, the key to long-term SEO success is to build a diverse, high-quality backlink profile that will make Google take notice of your client’s site as a valuable resource in your industry.

Move over, chess club champions—there’s a new genius in town, and it goes by the name of o1. OpenAI’s latest model represents a significant breakthrough in complex reasoning. According to OpenAI, the o1 model outperforms previous models, including GPT-4, in areas like math, programming, and scientific knowledge. But according to Search Engine Journal what makes this model particularly interesting is its ability to mimic human-like reasoning, tackling problems step-by-step with impressive accuracy.

OpenAI claims that the new o1 model ranks in the 89th percentile in competitive programming challenges and even exceeds the performance of human PhD holders in certain scientific tests. These advancements could have a far-reaching impact on industries such as data analysis, content creation, and yes, even SEO.

Imagine a computer program that not only aces tests but also shows its work, just like your math teacher always insisted. The model does this by using a method called “chain of thought” reasoning, allowing it to tackle problems step-by-step, correcting mistakes along the way. This process enables the model to break down complex questions and arrive at better answers—an ability that could reshape how AI is used to interpret search queries or generate content.

For instance, SEO relies heavily on understanding user intent. As models like o1 improve in their ability to reason through complex search queries, they could offer more precise answers, which would elevate the entire search experience. While there’s a healthy dose of skepticism about whether o1 can truly reason at a human level, early signs suggest it could become a valuable tool in industries requiring deep technical expertise.

It's as if they’ve created a digital person that can reason its way through problems. Scary? A little. Cool? Absolutely!

From an SEO perspective, advancements in AI models like o1 could lead to more sophisticated content generation, better optimization, and enhanced user experiences. The real-world applications are just beginning to unfold, but agencies utilizing AI for content strategy and SEO will likely be at the forefront of these innovations.

In a move that could shift how users engage with content, Google, always the trendsetter, is now shining a spotlight on the wallflowers of the internet – discussion forums and online communities. For Google this new move seems to be about testing a new feature to expand discussions and forum results in search. If your clients are already being talked about in online communities like Reddit or Quora, this update could bring more attention to those conversations.

Previously, Google would only show a few snippets in the “Discussions and Forums” section, but, per Search Engine Roundtable, now users will be able to expand these results to see more detailed threads.This is huge for agencies because it means more visibility for authentic, user-generated content.

For your clients, this could lead to more organic engagement and traffic. And as an agency, it’s an opportunity to monitor and participate in these conversations, guiding the narrative or simply ensuring that your clients’ brands are seen in a positive light. Staying on top of these expanded discussions gives you a competitive edge—one that could significantly boost your client’s digital presence.

With these updates, agencies will need to prioritize staying active in online communities and consider how user-generated content plays a role in overall SEO strategies. It’s about being part of the conversation—because that’s where your clients’ future customers are hanging out. In other words - take this as your cue to start mingling at the digital water cooler.

At Adaptify one of our goals for your agency SEO is to ensure your clients are featured as experts across various industry topics, steadily growing their site’s authority. Give us a try and before you know it, you'll be the talk of the digital town! Existing users can check out the new backlink plans from your site’s PR backlink dashboard. For new users, ready to dive in and see the power of Press backlinks for themselves, sign up for a 7 Day Free Trial or book a demo to get more insight on how Adaptify can work for you.