Helping brands get rankings and revenue from Google, LLMs, AI Overviews | CEO of Contact.so | Mentions.so | Kleo.so

I help tech companies turn attention into predictable revenue.I am the CEO and co-founder of: • Contact (Most innovative SEO + AEO Agency in the World) • Kleo (AI tool that helps you create content optimized to go viral, build an audience, and get you customers)• Mentions (Helps you track your visibility and rank in ChatGPT and other LLMs)Across these businesses, we’ve built and scaled multiple bootstrapped, profitable companies, while also helping dozens of teams grow through SEO, LinkedIn, and AI-driven distribution.Most teams have the same problem: they invest in content, rankings, or social, but none of it compounds into a reliable acquisition engineMy work focuses on building distribution systems that actually scale:• Programmatic SEO and AEO that compounds• Organic content and distribution designed to convert, not just get likes• Content that helps you rank and get recommended by ChatGPT and other LLMsI work with tech teams and founders who want predictable growth without hiring massive teams or chasing tactics that stop working in six months.Here on LinkedIn, I share what we’re learning while building and scaling these companies, so other founders can avoid the mistakes that slow growth and waste years.My goal is simple: be the most transparent founder in the world, share everything, and hide nothing (so you can steal all our tactics to grow your own business) If you’re building a real business and care about predictable demand, following me will be useful.☎️GETTING IN TOUCH IS EASY:📞 Schedule a 30-minute free brainstorm and jam session with me here: https://calendly.com/trykleo/30min (Zero pressure, and if you need to reschedule, go right ahead.)

Rob Hoffman

SEO?
“Just add some keywords”
”Get green lights on Yoast”
”Let’s write a blog and rank #1?”
”Can’t we just buy some backlinks?”

But SEO in 2026 is a totally different beast.

Here’s what it actually involves:

- Total Addressable Search Market
- Google Search Console
- “Don’t change URLs”
- Quick win keywords
- Customer research
- Programmatic SEO
- Entity optimization
- LLM optimization
- Keyword Insights
- Topical authority
- Site architecture
- Schema markup
- Core Web Vitals
- Monthly reports
- Log file analysis
- Google updates
- Brand mentions
- Screaming Frog
- Technical audit
- Content decay
- Internal linking
- XML Sitemaps
- Topic clusters
- “llms.txt file?”
- Search intent
- Link building
- “It depends”
- Crawlability
- Canonicals
- Robots.txt
- Digital PR
- Mentions
- Semrush
- E-E-A-T

Just adding keywords or getting green lights on Yoast doesn't get SEO results.

True SEO and holistic marketing does.

PS. Want to see what SEO in 2026 looks like?

Join our first ever LIVE session later today. RSVP here (it’s free): https://lnkd.in/eiF7S-yM

Daily tactics to grow revenue with organic content and AEO / SEO. | My businesses: Contact.so | Mentions.so | Kleo.so (all bootstrapped, all profitable, all growing)

"I don't know how to do SEO in 2026"

Start from level 1 in The New SEO Game:

SEO isn't just Google rankings anymore.

It's now "Search Everywhere Optimization".

Reframe your “New SEO” project as a game, and you'll become addicted to levelling up.

Level 1: Traditional SEO

- Fix technical problems killing your rankings
- Research keywords and target quick wins
- Optimize on-page elements (titles, content)
- Earn quality backlinks through outreach and PR

Level 2: AI Search Optimization

- Format content so AI can parse it easily
- Build pages that AI platforms want to cite
- Structure information for machine consumption
- Test how your brand appears in AI search results

Level 3: Paid Search Visibility

- Run Google Ads for high-intent keywords
- Target competitor terms with YouTube Search Ads
- Capture Bing traffic through Microsoft Ads
- Measure paid performance across every platform

Level 4: LLM Answer SEO

- Produce authoritative content LLMs trust
- Build a knowledge base for AI training data
- Position your brand as the definitive source
- Monitor brand mentions in LLMs with Mentions

Level 5: Brand Authority SEO

- Get unlinked brand mentions across the web
- Feature in industry roundups and expert lists
- Build brand recognition without traditional backlinks
- Track brand mention volume and sentiment

Level 6: Community SEO

- Provide value in relevant Reddit threads
- Share expertise on Quora in your space
- Engage in Slack communities and Discord servers
- Build reputation in industry forums and groups

Level 7: Parasite SEO

- Repurpose content on Medium and LinkedIn Pulse
- Publish beehiiv newsletters to rank in Google
- Guest post on high-authority platforms/websites
- Leverage existing domain authority for quick rankings

Level 8: Platform-Specific SEO

- Optimize for Amazon search if selling products
- Focus on YouTube SEO for video content
- Master TikTok's algorithm for short-form content
- Optimize App Store listings for apps/extensions

Level 9: Topic Domination

- Own conversations across ALL channels
- Create content ecosystems to reinforce each platform
- Become the go-to expert mentioned everywhere
- Monitor and maintain authority across all channels

Completed all levels?

SEO is constantly evolving in 2026.

Stay ahead or get left behind.

PS. Need help levelling up?

Join our first ever SaaS SEO in 2026 LIVE session tomorrow, March 4th. 
RSVP here (it’s free): https://lnkd.in/eiF7S-yM

We analysed 1,000s of AI answers to find out how LinkedIn content can improve your AI visibility.

Semrush found that LinkedIn is the 2nd most cited website in AI answers (behind Reddit).

But their only other insight?

"LinkedIn: A steady rise across all AI platforms"

So we went much deeper with Mentions and analysed 4.8M AI answers and 13.4M citations.

Here are 7 key insights we found:

1. Almost half (42.5%) of all AI prompts we’re tracking cite LinkedIn at least once. Huge reach for a single platform.

2. AI citations of LinkedIn grew by 72% in just 6 months. AI tools are finding and using LinkedIn content more every month.

3. 85% of LinkedIn citations come from Google’s AI products (AI Mode and Overviews). Using LinkedIn for AI visibility is mostly playing a Google game.

4. LinkedIn Pulse articles get 8x more citations than regular LinkedIn posts. Long articles work way better than short posts for AI visibility.

5. LinkedIn Pulse articles are doing two things at once: They help content rank on Google and then get picked up by AI answers.

6. Company pages get cited more often than any other LinkedIn page type. If your company page ranks well, it is cited more consistently by AI.

7. AI loves LinkedIn most when people ask about people, companies, experience, and practical advice.

Here are the types of prompts where AI is most likely to pull from LinkedIn (from highest to lowest):

- Hiring and HR questions (69.17%)
- Real examples and case studies (65.12%)
- “Who is this person or company?” (58.89%)
- Learning and training topics (57.04%)
- Software and tools (56.10%)
- “Why” questions (54.76%)
- “How” questions (49.72%)
- “Best” or “top” lists (48.92%)
- Recommendations (48.59%)
- Reviews and opinions (48.21%)
- Comparisons (47.35%)
- “What” or “which” questions (45.14%)
- Everything else (33.34%)

We’re currently building an AI visibility strategy for beehiiv using these exact insights.

Worth sharing the process in real-time?

Our SEO Agency is trending on X News right now... last time this happened the CEO of Google himself weighed in.

If you haven't seen it yet, Jake Ward published a controversial article yesterday.

It breaks down his AI-powered SEO experiment that will likely redefine how founders think about organic content and SEO in 2026.

So far, the results are insane:

- +466% SEO traffic growth in 60 days
- 13,000+ pages published in just 3 hours
- 50% of those pages aren't even indexed yet

People think SEO is slow. But this proves it could be the fastest growth channel for startups in 2026.

The two biggest takeaways for founders looking to invest in this growth channel:

1. Content today is built like software, not written.
2. People want to interact with content, not read it.

I've talked to dozens of founders over the past weeks, and one thing is clear…

Most know this is a growth channel they can't miss out on, but have no idea where to start.

If that sounds like you, or you’re wondering whether this would work for your site, DM me or book a call (link in comments).

I called my shot last year, then spent 183 days making it happen:

Launched 2 businesses in 4 cities and hit $75k MRR.

I lived out of a suitcase, built in public, experienced setbacks, took massive risks…

But here’s what calling my shot has made painfully clear:

1. Define the shot before you take it

I asked myself: What would the best 6 months of my life look like?

I wrote down the answer. Then showed it to my co-founder, Jake:

"We’ll spend 6 months moving from city to city, meeting interesting people. Launch two businesses and grow them fast. Build in public, and get invited on all the podcasts we've been fans of for years."

And it all came true.

You can't call your shot if you don't have total clarity on what it is. Write it down. Make it specific. Then do it.

2. Go to where the interesting people are

Whatever shot you're calling, you will need people.

I spent 6 months moving from city to city, connecting with unique and talented people.

The people I met ended up becoming my co-founders, clients, and team members.

Moving cities is your competitive advantage because so few people are willing to do it.

3. Be the first to drink the Kool-Aid

People want to join a mission and get excited about something. So don't be afraid to sell it.

You may never arrive at the original destination, but here's a secret: nobody cares.

Most people just want an excuse to go on an epic adventure.

Dream big, define your vision, then build a team around it.

4. The biggest mistake is moving so slow you don’t make any

Our first CTO quit. And we didn't let it slow us down.

In less than 24 hours we:

Met with a new candidate
Made a handshake deal for equity and comp
Flew him across the world to sleep on our couch

If you make mistakes, good. That means you're moving fast enough.

You can't steer a stationary ship.

5. Be loud and unapologetic

I’ve documented everything we built on platforms like LinkedIn and X.

People told me not to share our numbers and growth strategies publicly. But I did it anyway.

I used Kleo to turn my ideas and stories into posts (like this one) that got attention.

That attention turned into:

- 2 dream podcast appearances
- Incredible talent asking to work with us
- lead flow for all three of our businesses

The most powerful lesson in all this (for business and life)?

When you call your shot…Call it loud.

Life is short. So tell the world exactly what you want, then go get it.

Helping founders make predictable revenue from organic content and rankings on LinkedIn, Google, and LLMs | CEO of Contact.so | Mentions.so | Kleo.so

I run 3 businesses. $400K MRR (total). All growing fast.

Is there some "secret sauce?"

Kind of:

It's called a constraints analysis.

This is the highest leverage skill any Founder can develop.

Before I show you how I do it, remember:

Like any other skill, you build this one through repetition.

Repeat this system every month.

Keep honing your craft.

Hope this helps someone level up their business in 2026.

Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/eSjVPsgj

CEO @ uSERP — Your SEO & Link Building Growth Partners | Hiring! | Forbes 30 under 30 | We'll scale your SEO-driven revenue 10x faster than hiring in-house

Founder & CEO at uSERP, the preferred link building agency for industry leading brands like monday.com, Robinhood, Crowdstrike, Binance, Wiz, Freshworks, Henry, Hightouch, Glassbox, and 100s more. We drive revenue through strategic SEO and authoritative link building, aligning search with business goals. Our team embeds with yours to execute outcome-focused programs that scale organic growth, build defensible authority, and win competitive markets.

Testimonials: 

· "uSERP is purpose built for any enterprise class organization looking to scale organic growth. They're my ace in the sleeve." — Tyler Naples, Senior SEO at OnBoard

· "uSERP is the equivalent of having an SEO expert in your back pocket. The key to having a strong relationship with any SEO agency is ensuring that your content strategy is in alignment with your backlink strategy – and that has been critical to our success with uSERP. We don’t have to waste brain power trying to acquire high-quality backlinks or optimize anchor text, which means we can move at a much faster velocity.” — Luke Kline, Content Marketing Manager at HighTouch 

· "Anybody that’s looking to get a leg up on SEO and implement a streamlined process to be able to bring that authority to their site, I would definitely recommend uSERP.” — Raffaele Riconosciuto, Head of Marketing at Termly

· “uSERP gets results. Plain and simple. In the first three months, we achieved better outcomes than more than a year into working with a different company. Our internal goal for our domain rating growth was hit within 4 months, and I am beyond excited at the prospect of working with them well into the future and see where we can go.” — Stanford Swanson, SEO Strategist at Fusion Medical

· “I’ve never seen quality link building like this. Get these guys on your team before one of your competitors does. I’ve never seen quality link building scale up like this. They have exactly the right approach to improve authority and rankings.” — Andy Crestodina, CMO of Orbit Media

· "We’re now thought of as a market leader. We’ve gone from an unknown brand in the space to one that is thought of as a market leader. We’ve seen our site traffic increase from nothing to 70,000 organic visitors per month in 16 months.” — Caleb Frankel, Co-founder of EarlyBird

· “My number one keyword target to rank for was ‘business credit cards.’ With uSERP scaling top-tier links, we outranked NerdWallet and CreditCards, driving $140,000 per month in revenue.” — Garit Boothe, SEO at Nav

Jeremy Moser

If you're investing in SEO and GEO/AEO this year, be selective on who you partner with. The amount of purely misleading content about SEO and LLMs on LinkedIn has reached all time highs. 

You cannot rank first on ChatGPT. That's fundamentally not how LLMs work. AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending solutions. LLMs are probabilistic and they’re meant to give unique answers. There is no consistent #1 ranking brand.
  
The amount of times I have seen a Google Search Console screenshot....showing metrics from Google search...as "proof" that someone's LLM strategy is working...is nonsensical. 

Clicks are not what you track to determine visibility in generative engines. CTR from ChatGPT is abysmal because it's not designed to be a list of links. 

What you should be tracking is self-reported attribution, branded search growth, direct traffic, deep page entry, etc. 

Looking broadly, track visibility percentages across dozens to 100+ prompts you execute multiple times from multiple devices. 

Focus on building a cohesive, complimentary strategy between traditional SEO + AI. Look at core prompts that could serve your business as the solution, and understand how LLMs are coming to that conclusion. 

More often than not, it boils down to:

- Some prompts will pull from the brands website to cite and mention the brand (owned SEO content on your site where ChatGPT mentions you and cites you as the reason it mentioned you)

- Some prompts will pull from third-party comparisons, listicles, directories (link building / off page SEO)

- Some prompts will pull from reddit, social, and YouTube (forums, social, public town hall type content)

👉👉 Track, measure, and understand the intent behind these prompts, why different source materials are cited, and reverse engineer your strategy to build consensus across those common touch points: your website (content marketing), third party sites (link building), directories (off-page SEO), social/forums (off-page).

CEO @ uSERP — I get you more revenue from organic search.

Every GEO/AEO solution on the market tells you to publish significantly more content to "show up in AI engines." Then, structure that content for LLMs. Spin off 100 programmatic posts per month. Chunk your content. Listicles. Comparison posts. The whole nine yards.

While publishing great content in multiple formats on core keywords and prompts is fantastic...that's one of the smallest pieces of the puzzle.

It's table stakes now. Everyone is doing it. 

As a business, you don't actually want more CITATIONS in AI. You want more MENTIONS for decision making prompts. 

You want your brand to be recommended by someone asks ChatGPT "what are the best solutions for XYZ" more than you want ChatGPT to cite your article as a source to informational, broad prompts. 

And low and behold, the best way to make that happen?

Off-page SEO, link building, brand building, PR.

AI engines only pull from your site 8% of the time when recommending you. Meaning 92% of the time an LLM like ChatGPT gives a brand/product/solution recommendation, they are pulling from other websites that mention and discuss the topic. 

If your strategy for both SEO + AI search does not include link building, PR, and brand building, you are going to see poor results. 

Creating consensus (the new term in AEO/GEO) to show up in AI is done via great off-page SEO and brand building. 

Thanks for sharing this great data, Yamini Rangan / HubSpot!

GEO/AEO is here to stay.

~27% of our agency's inbound leads self attribute to LLMs.

SEOs can fight it all they want, but it's driving real revenue right now.

The amount of leads my agency gets from LLMs is growing daily. Our branded search, direct visits, and homepage visits are growing. 

This doesn't mean that good SEO is forgotten. Hardly. Good SEO is still the 80/20 foundation.

LLMs just sometimes require more niche and specific approaches within the general SEO discipline to maximize results.

For example: link building is critical for SEO. Everyone knows that already. But certain links and mentions increase LLM citations + mentions more than others. Meaning you CAN tailor a strategy towards GEO within the SEO discipline itself. 

Same with content. Various content types show more frequently in LLMs, even if they might not fit search intent for the query in Google's results.

Now, with social, Reddit, YouTube coming into the mix of citation sources, SEO is becoming less siloed. 

If you provide SEO services and GEO/AEO approaches, it's YOUR JOB to explain how they relate, where the strategy might differ, and how to capture more market share for your potential clients. 

It's your job to communicate across disciplines and business sectors that were previously detached. 

Great SEO can produce great GEO/AEO. But there are still more specific approaches you can take to maximize results, too. 

Building well-rounded SEO + GEO strategies is going to drive insane results for businesses this year. 

Already seeing this BTW. In the last three months, we took a client from 46.7% to 56.7% brand mention rate across AI platforms, with Google AI Mode hitting 92% visibility. On the organic side, we moved 161 essential BOFU keywords into the top 3 Google positions and grew traffic value by $18.3K/mo.

Great data from Peep Laja / Wynter!

Most agencies are still treating AI visibility like it’s optional. Meanwhile, competitors are showing up where your clients should be. 

Your SEO foundations matter — quality links, strong authority. I've seen it drive 1,500%+ traffic growth for clients. That hasn’t changed.

But I've been testing tools to track how clients show up inside AI engines, and most fall short. 

Wellows is one that I keep coming back to…

It tracks how your clients appear across every major LLM, and turns citation data into outreach opportunities. Shows which third-party URLs AI engines cite. Builds repeatable workflows to earn citations for your clients, so it becomes a growth channel, not a one-off project.

Historical Monitoring tracks ranking movements, citation shifts, and causality over time. Client Reporting shows citation growth week-to-week, built for renewal calls. 

No more random pitching. Systematize your outreach with verified contacts, templates and sentiment analysis. 

Wellows helps close the major reporting gap between good SEO and AI visibility. 

SEO isn’t dead. Links are still the engine. Good content is the foundation.

You just need better visibility into where that engine is taking you in AI search.

Check it out here → https://lnkd.in/eVKHPan2

Most agencies don't fail because they can't get clients. They fail because they can't handle the ones they have.

I’ve scaled uSERP to 75+ active accounts. The hardest part wasn’t landing clients. It was realizing infrastructure decisions have real consequences. 

 → Bad hosting? You lose a client when their site goes down during a product launch. 
 → No link reclamation system? Millions in link equity evaporates and nobody notices until rankings drop. 
 → Manual reporting? Your team spends 20 hours a week on decks instead of execution.

At scale, infrastructure isn’t optional. 

Kinsta® just released a series of conversations with four agencies about what it really takes to scale: Built Mighty, 40Q, Fixel, and Pronto. 

They talk about infrastructure mistakes, the clients they should have turned down, systems that actually stuck, and the tradeoffs nobody shares publicly. 

No polished case studies. Just honest conversations with founders still figuring it out in real time.

If you're scaling an agency, this is worth your time.

Brand partnership • CEO @ uSERP — I get you more revenue from organic search.

It's a literal full time job to keep up with the pace of AI. If you're worried about the near future, you're not alone. However, I am optimistic about one thing...

Marketing. Those that can reliably command attention, build a brand with true affinity, and shape visibility in the marketplace are going to explode in demand. 

The more that execution becomes commoditized by AI, the lower the barrier to entry in...nearly every single space. The product building component of entrepreneurship becomes 100x easier. 

BUT, this also means that saturation and competition EXPLODE. Just because you build it does not mean they will come and use it. This has already been true in the last few years, and will become even more true as AI enables anyone to compete in mere days.

People that can command attention are going to be the #1 most valuable hire in companies over the next 5 years. 

Can you reliably...capture demand with SEO? Build a massive audience on Instagram and YouTube? Nurture a huge email distribution list people look forward to reading daily? 

If so, you're going to win BIG.

We're already seeing this:

1.  HubSpot just acquired Pat Walls' Starter Story (and previously The Hustle)
2. Pinterest acquired tvScientific to expand connected TV reach
3. Semrush acquiring media brands, blogs, etc
4. Pendo acquired Mind the Product community

Dozens more examples.

The more that barriers to entry vanish, the more important standing out becomes. 

Marketing is going to be more in demand than ever before.

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The Battle

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Jeremy Moser

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taplio

The Battle

Rob Hoffman

Jeremy Moser

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Rob Hoffman's LinkedIn Performance

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