Table of Contents
BizVision BVTV Podcast
Last Update October 26, 2026
Quality backlinks are the piece of SEO most businesses never get told about, and that’s usually why their rankings stall. Most businesses don’t fail at SEO. They get sold the wrong version of it.
Brandon Leibowitz, founder of SEO Optimizers, made that case on the Biz Vision Podcast with host Malcolm Gallagher, broadcasting from the BizVision studios in the UK. Over a three-part series, they covered how Google builds trust, how to measure SEO results, and what to watch out for before you hire anyone.
Malcolm opened with a familiar complaint: an inbox full of spam promising “page 1 of Google next week.” Most of those emails are badly written. So imagine that same quality going into the work they’d do on your website.
Here’s what Brandon said actually matters.
Google doesn’t trust anybody
Brandon compares SEO to a puzzle. There are hundreds of pieces, but a few of them are much bigger than the rest.
The biggest one is trust. Google has been tricked by so many websites over the years that it now looks at every site with suspicion and asks: “How do we know you are who you say you are?”
The answer is backlinks, meaning other websites linking to and talking about you. The more trusted sites that mention you, the more Google trusts you.
Why a perfect website isn’t enough
Many business owners pour everything into their website: keywords, fast load times, a clean design. That’s all worth doing.
But Google uses your on-page keywords to decide what to rank you for, only after backlinks have earned you the trust to rank at all. It doesn’t work the other way around.
“You could spend millions of dollars building the perfect website, but if you don’t build backlinks, Google’s not going to give you that trust and you’re not going to get that free organic traffic.”
What makes quality backlinks different
Not every link helps. The wrong ones can push you down the rankings.
Brandon says most of Google’s algorithm updates are aimed at spammers who game the system, and that is usually done with cheap, low-quality links.
Relevance comes first
A quality link comes from a website related to yours. If you’re a doctor, a link from a restaurant doesn’t make sense. You want links from health, medical, and wellness sites.
| Your business | Relevant link sources | Irrelevant link sources |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor or clinic | Health sites, medical directories, other practitioners | Restaurants, car blogs |
| Accountant | Finance blogs, accounting software directories | Fashion sites |
| Contractor | Home improvement blogs, trade associations | Gaming forums |
Relevance is the factor most people overlook, and it is the one that moves rankings most.
How to earn quality backlinks from your competitors
Links rarely show up on their own for small businesses. You have to network, build relationships with other website owners, and start the conversation yourself.
Brandon’s go-to tactic is to study who already links to your competitors:
- Choose one backlink tool, such as Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush (you only need one)
- Enter the URLs of competitors on page one of Google
- Pull the list of sites linking to them
- Enter your own URL to see where the gaps are
- Reach out to those sites one by one
If a site already links to a competitor, there’s a good chance it will link to you. And if that competitor ranks on page one, those links are clearly helping.
White hat, gray hat, and black hat SEO
Malcolm asked whether “black hat SEO” still exists. It does, and Brandon explained all three approaches in plain terms.
| Approach | What it means | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| White hat | Do nothing and wait for natural links | Low risk, but only works for big brands |
| Gray hat | Active outreach and link building | What competitive businesses actually do |
| Black hat | Deceiving Google | Ranking drops or permanent removal |
A classic black hat trick is hiding keywords in white text at a 0.001 font size on a white background. Google usually catches it.
The penalty is either a sharp drop in rankings or, in the worst case, being removed from Google for good.
Is Google the only search engine that matters?
For most businesses, yes. Brandon has studied analytics since 2007, and across those sites, Google sends anywhere from 20% to 80% of all traffic.
Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia each tend to stay around 1%. The rest of the traffic comes from social media, email, paid ads, and people typing your URL directly.
Should you do SEO yourself?
Some of it, yes. You can add keywords and publish blog posts on your own.
Link building is different. It becomes a full-time job, and building the wrong links without knowing it can send your rankings backward. That’s time taken away from running your business.
How to measure SEO success
Malcolm put it this way: traffic is vanity, connecting is sanity, and engagement is king. Brandon agreed and laid out which numbers he tracks.
Start with Google Analytics today
Google Analytics is free, and it only starts tracking from the day you install it. Wait a month, and you lose a month of data.
Even one visitor a day gives you data you can use. Platforms like WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix include basic analytics, but they’re not as detailed.
The metrics Brandon watches
- Traffic sources: where visitors come from (Google, Bing, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn). In GA4, find this under Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
- Organic traffic growth: week over week, month over month, year over year
- Keyword positions: tracked for free in Google Search Console, along with searches and clicks
- Bounce rate: on average, about half of your visitors leave right away
- Conversions: sales, leads, phone calls, and form fills
That last one matters most. Traffic is only half the battle. The real goal is turning visitors into customers before they hit the back button and choose one of the other nine results.
Give before you ask: building your email list
Malcolm asked whether the first goal should be a newsletter signup. Brandon’s answer came from a mistake he made himself.
For about five years he had a plain “sign up for my newsletter” box. Almost nobody signed up.
Once he started offering free classes in exchange for an email address, signups took off. Lead magnets that work include:
- Free classes or webinars
- Ebooks and guides
- Discount codes, such as 10% off a first order
Once you have the email, you can nurture the relationship with useful tips instead of sales pitches. You can also upload your list to Google Ads for remarketing.
Brandon calls email the most powerful marketing tool there is. The amount of spam in everyone’s inbox shows how well email still works.
Building trust with real people
Google has to trust you, and so do your customers. Brandon recommends:
- A video at the top of your homepage. People skim instead of reading, and a video puts a face to the company.
- Reviews and testimonials. This is social proof that you deliver.
- Active social media profiles. Nobody looks for a dentist on Facebook, but they’ll check Facebook after finding one on Google to make sure the practice is real.
Brandon says it can take around five touchpoints before someone trusts you: your website, social media, email, remarketing ads, and so on. A $5 purchase needs fewer of them than a high-ticket service.
Why video matters for search
Google owns YouTube, and that shapes the search results. When videos show up on Google, they come from YouTube about 90% of the time.
The reason is money. A YouTube click usually starts with an ad, so Google earns revenue even when nobody clicks a search ad.
Video also matches how people consume content now. Instagram is mostly video, TikTok is all video, and YouTube is one of the most visited websites in the world. Brandon’s advice is to start a YouTube presence sooner rather than later.
The future of SEO and machine learning
Google’s algorithm now uses machine learning, so it partly teaches itself. Even Google’s own engineers work in separate teams so nobody sees the whole algorithm.
Brandon’s view is that you don’t need to crack it:
“We’re not trying to beat Google. We’re just trying to beat those 10 websites on that first page of Google.”
Google changes something every day, but the basics haven’t changed: quality backlinks, strong content, and no deception. To keep up, follow current blogs, forums, Facebook groups, and videos, and skip SEO advice from 10 years ago. It may have been true then, but it’s probably out of date now.
Patience beats shortcuts
Why do some businesses get frustrated with SEO? They expect instant results.
SEO takes about six months to really take effect. Rankings will bounce around, but the overall trend should point up.
| Strategy | Speed | Long-term cost |
|---|---|---|
| Paid ads | Immediate | You pay for every click, indefinitely |
| SEO | About 6 months | Organic traffic keeps coming without paying per click |
If you need leads this week, run ads. To build lasting growth without paying Google or Facebook forever, invest in SEO.
What to ask before you hire an SEO company
Malcolm’s closing advice was simple: beware of amateurs, and beware of anyone promising page one tomorrow. Based on this conversation, ask any SEO provider:
- How will you build quality backlinks, and where will they come from?
- How do you make sure every link is relevant to my industry?
- Do you use any tactics that could get my site penalized?
- Which KPIs will you report on, and will conversions be one of them?
- What realistic timeline should I expect?
If the answers involve guaranteed rankings, link packages in bulk, or results in days, walk away.
Get Brandon’s free gift
Want help building quality backlinks the right way? Visit seooptimizers.com/gift for Brandon’s free gift and his free SEO classes.
Have a question about this? Ask me in Be The Answer, my free SEO community.
