Brian Rubin

PBNs can boost rankings. But for how long? Only until Google catches you. And Google’s SpamBrain flags 40 billion spam pages. Every. Single. Day. Think your PBN is invisible? It’s not. Here’s the problem: PBNs aren’t authority. They’re an illusion of it. They violate Google’s spam policies. They strip away trust. They invite penalties. And when a penalty hits? Your traffic doesn’t dip. It disappears. Because SEO isn’t about link quantity. It’s about link quality. Real authority comes from: → Content people want to share → Links you earn, not buy → A reputation you protect, not gamble Shortcuts feel fast. But rebuilding from zero takes years. So before you buy that next PBN link, ask yourself: “Would I still want this link if Google didn’t count it?” If the answer is no… That’s your warning. ♻️ Share this with someone who’s one shady backlink away from disaster. #SEO #techSEO #SEOservices #SEOconsultant #B2BSEO #LocalBusibessGrowth #LocalBusinessMarketking

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Please stop calling newsletters "Substacks" -- The vast majority of blogs are created using WordPress software. No one calls their blog a "WordPress" for the very good reason that there are other ways to create and publish blogs. So if you've been gaslighted into calling someone's newsletter their "Substack' just because they use that platform, please stop. You're just doing PR for a company that manifestly doesn't deserve it. Why is that? You may not know that it was funded by Trump supporters and is run by people who have no problem helping right-wing extremists spread and monetize their bile. If you're thinking of starting a newsletter, by the way, there are many fine alternatives including Ghost (what I use), Buttondown, Beehiv, WordPress Medium and more. And please ask your friends who use Substack to look at the alternatives as well.

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Mobile Moxie CEO 📱 Cindy Krum highlights TikTok's blend of search and social. It's vital for local communities, demanding authentic, engaging vertical video optimized with keywords and trends, offering repurposing for broad digital reach. #localu #localseo

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As far as I can tell, the major newsletter publishing platforms (except WordPress) obfuscate outbound links inside their own URLs. So you have no idea where a click will take you until you click. This may be good business for the platforms, but it's non-transparent, anti-user behavior.

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Lawsuit trolls are using scanners to find ADA violations on websites, then suing small business owners for tens of thousands of dollars. We just built a scanner of our own to fight back. Yeah, I know it's the most basic necessity of a business to have a website. But for 13+ years we've treated our clients like friends, and friends don't let friends get hit with ADA lawsuits. Think I'm being dramatic? Google "ADA website lawsuits" real quick. These lawsuit trolls aren't looking to make the web more accessible. They're scanning thousands of sites using automated tools, hunting for technicalities, and targeting small businesses that can't afford expensive legal battles. They’re looking for settlements. And since we’re the team that gets called in to make the website WCAG compliant before it goes to court, we know exactly what the trolls are looking for. So we built our own scanner. It started as an internal tool to help us confirm our remediation work met all the legal requirements. But now that it’s built and tested, we’re using it to help our friends identify and fix the issues that templates, plugins, CMS platforms and developers who are unfamiliar with WCAG standards (the vast majority of them) inadvertently build into 90%+ of websites.  We’re able to run a scan in a few minutes that checks for the EXACT compliance issues we've seen businesses get sued for. Drop your website in the comments and DM me your email. I'll run a complimentary scan and let you know where you stand. No obligation. No sales pitch. Just one business owner looking out for another.

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AI Mode in Google Search is rolling out in the US today. This is a huge shift for search as it will provide a direct response to user queries and allow for chat-like follow-up conversations to occur. Some implications from this feel fairly obvious -- organic traffic will decline for most sites assuming this new feature gets widespread adoption. The question of how publishers are expected to make money if they don't get the same level of traffic definitely remains unanswered. What I keep getting stuck on is if publishers go under, what will AI train on in the future? If partnerships start to emerge between large publishers and companies like OpenAI and Google, we're going to lose smaller, niche publishers. And I'm not sure I want an internet that only consists of content from a handful of parent companies like Conde Nast. What a depressing thought. So I really hope companies like Google are looking further down the road at implications for publishing. I'm not convinced they are though. I am not someone who thinks this is the end of the road for SEO. The fight to get into the results is only going to get more competitive. There will always be opportunity to help sites optimize and grow. But, there are definitely going to be fewer sites to help in the future, and that feels like a shame. What makes the internet great is the diversity of voices out there. Wired did a good writeup on this and some of the accuracy concerns they have with the results in AI Mode and their generative AI experiences in general. It's worth checking out. It's posted in the comments below. ⬇️

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SEO Pro Tip: Make your content cite-ready. Add dates, numbers, definitions, and primary sources. Create a section that answers “what changed” and “what to do next.” That is the part that earns references.

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How I've used this principle to build my companies: Got a bad customer review? ↳ See what caused that and fix it. Client canceled angrily? ↳ See what caused that and fix it. Ad campaign didn't work? ↳ See what caused that and fix it. Every setback is a data point. Some of them are useless, but many teach crucial lessons. Take nothing personally. Analyze, improve, and try again.

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Breaking news SEO 101: Don't sleep on question queries. The government shutdown began at 12:01 a.m., and people almost instantly flooded Google with questions: "Will SSI be affected by a government shutdown?" "When will the government open back up?" "Is the DMV open during a shutdown?" These question-based queries may seem simple, but answering them with straightforward, fact-rich coverage is foundational in moments of uncertainty. They reveal, in real time, what folks care about most. Pro tip: Frontload question words... will, can, should, how, where... to your base keyword (like shutdown). It's one of the fastest ways you can align your journalism with the questions readers are already asking. #NewsSEO #SEO #governmentshutdown

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Reminder to not get scammed by those too-good-to-be-true pagespeed optimization services on Fiverr. The Shopify subreddit had an interesting post over the weekend where someone who used to run that scam explained it. Real performance issues show up in your revenue, not PageSpeed Insights. Check Search Console's Core Web Vitals for actual data. If someone guarantees specific scores or claims they can fix everything in 24 hours, run.

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