Arman Advani: SEO and AI SEO Lessons From Hundreds of Thousands of Search Atlas Websites

Welcome to Market Movers: Building Brands & Links with Linkifi! Your go-to podcast for transforming your business into an unforgettable brand, where branding meets SEO and link-building. I’m Chris Panteli, Co-Founder and CEO of Linkifi, and I’m joined by my co-host and Co-Founder, Nick Biggs.

In this episode, we’re joined by Arman Advani, Partner and Head of Partnerships at Search Atlas, where he’s helping build AI-powered systems that automate modern SEO and digital marketing execution.

 

Key Talking Points

✅ From Agency to SaaS Platform. Search Atlas did not start as a standalone tool. It grew out of LinkGraph, the agency Arman and the team started around 2017 as a white label SEO fulfillment provider for other agencies.

✅ The Agency Bottleneck Problem. As LinkGraph grew to around 65 employees and roughly $15 million ARR, the team ran into the same problems most agencies face: too much reliance on human capital, too many fragmented tools, and hiring bottlenecks every time new clients came in.

✅ Search Atlas Was Built From Necessity. The platform was originally created to help the agency operate more efficiently, centralize workflows, reduce tool-switching, and use AI and automation to get more out of the team.

✅ AI as Empowerment, Not Replacement. Arman is clear that Search Atlas was not built to replace marketers or agencies. The goal is to remove grunt work so people can focus on strategy, client relationships, sales, and decision-making.

✅ Built for Non-Experts Too. A small business owner does not need to know every technical SEO task. They can select a goal like improving map pack rankings or optimizing on-page SEO, and Atlas Brain orchestrates the workflow.

✅ SEO Is Still a Stack of Micro-Wins. Arman argues that SEO is rarely transformed by one magic action. Results come from stacking many small improvements, then using automation to compress the timeline from months to weeks.

✅ AI Search and SEO Are Not Separate Channels. One of Arman’s biggest points is that AI visibility and SEO are deeply connected. LLMs still rely on web search, citations, trusted sources, and content that can be retrieved and verified.

✅ How LLMs Search the Web. Arman explains that models rely on different search sources. Gemini has access to Google’s ecosystem, ChatGPT has partnered with Bing, Claude has used sources such as Brave, and all models may draw from open sources like Common Crawl.

✅ Backlinks Still Matter. Links are still important because they act as trust signals, but the context around the link matters more than ever. A valuable backlink is not just a URL. It is a link wrapped in relevance, sentiment, and authority.

✅ AI Search Needs Third-Party Validation. If a brand claims to be the best on its own website, LLMs need supporting evidence from other trusted sources, such as awards, reviews, case studies, media mentions, and authoritative backlinks.

✅ The Future Is Still Slow Adoption. Even though agentic browsers and AI search are moving fast, Arman believes mass adoption will take time. Many users and businesses still rely on old habits, old tools, and traditional search behaviour.

✅ Agencies Are Not Going Away. Arman does not believe tools like Search Atlas will kill agencies. Many businesses still want execution done for them, even when tools make the work easier.

✅ Search Atlas Can Help Agencies Scale. For smaller agencies especially, Arman sees Search Atlas as a way to improve fulfillment, reduce overhead, increase margins, and help teams deliver better results without hiring specialist after specialist.

 

Notable Quotes & Moments

📌 “Search Atlas was built purely out of necessity.”
📌 “It’s meant to empower people so they can focus on strategy and client relationships, not grunt work.”
📌 “We want to be the agentic execution layer for all things digital marketing.”
📌 “SEO is the sum of all the micro enhancements you make over time.”
📌 “AI search visibility and SEO are not two separate channels.”
📌 “A backlink today is a link wrapped in sentiment and context.”
📌 “No matter how easy you make something, there will still be businesses that want it done for them.”
📌 “The world has changed. Who’s going to figure it out?”

 

About Arman Advani

Arman Advani is a founding partner of the Search Atlas group and Partner and Head of Partnerships at Search Atlas. He has helped build and scale both the LinkGraph agency and the Search Atlas software platform, with a focus on SEO automation, AI-powered workflows, agency enablement, and modern digital marketing execution.

🔗 Search Atlas: https://searchatlas.com/
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arman-advani-searchatlas/

 

🚀 Build Your Brand with Real Links

At Linkifi, we help ambitious brands scale organic visibility through digital PR, brand storytelling, and SEO strategy. Book your FREE strategy session today:
🔗 https://book.linkifi.io/widget/bookings/pr-discovery-call

 

👋 Connect with your hosts:
👉 Chris Panteli on LinkedIn
👉 Nick Biggs on LinkedIn

 

🎧 Listen to more Market Movers episodes:
🌍 https://marketmoverspod.com