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H.S. SPORTS: Tamaqua alum Erika Davis named to District 11 Hall of Fame

The PIAA Distrct 11 Hall of Fame class of 2026 was announced on Tuesday, and among the newest selections into the hall of fame is Tamaqua Area High School multi-sport athlete Erika (Barron) Davis.

Davis, who now serves as the coach of the Tamaqua girls’ basketball team, participated in cross country, basketball, track and field, and volleyball during her time at Tamaqua. She finished her career with a school record 2,317 points and was a two-time All-State selection in the process.

She’d go on to have a standout collegiate career at Susquehanna University, where she totaled nearly 900 points in 102 career games played while also recording 364 assists and 159 steals.

Davis, this past school year, completed her 11th season as Tamaqua’s girls’ basketball coach.

Also being inducted into this year’s hall of fame is former Northern Lehigh’s Bob Chandler (cross country), Catasauqua’s Amanda Gerhard (soccer), Keith Groller (media – The Morning Call), Stroudsburg’s Jake Jakobsen (wrestling), Stroudsburg’s Ken Lacey (men’s basketball), East Stroudsburg’s Stacy Perryman (basketball), and Parkland’s Andre Williams (football).

Coaches being inducted are long-time former Southern Lehigh softball coach Brian Neefe, former Emmaus swimming coach Mike Seip, former Easton football coach Steve Shiffert, and former Salisbury baseball coach Frank Yelinko.

There are also two media selections for this year’s Hall of Fame. With the Morning Call’s Keith Groller and Severice Electric Network’s Mike Zambelli both earning the honor.

American retirees use ETH AI auto trading via MoneySimpler to earn $58,500 stable passive income monthly

14 July 2026 at 20:59
As interest in AI-driven investing grows, platforms like MoneySimpler are attracting retirees seeking automated digital asset management and trading tools. In the United States, many retirees are starting to look into digital asset investments, hoping to generate additional income beyond…

Bitcoin’s safety: $470 billion in assets may be a target of quantum hackers

14 July 2026 at 19:23
Quantum computing concerns are renewing focus on Bitcoin security as institutions research long-term cryptographic protections and network resilience. With the continued development of quantum computing technology, the future security of Bitcoin has once again become a focus of market attention.…

How AI search gives old negative content new life

14 July 2026 at 16:00
How AI search gives old negative content new life

Ten years ago, a negative piece of online content primarily affected search rankings.

Today, that same article can influence across Google’s AI Overviews and other AI search experiences. It can be summarized, cited, and redistributed, making it more influential and longer-lasting than it ever should be.

As a result, outdated stories can resurface long after they disappear from traditional search results. That gives older content renewed visibility and makes reputation management far more difficult.

When old articles resurface

I recently saw this happen with a client who owns a grocery chain in the Midwest that has grown successfully for more than two decades. 

In the mid-2010s, one location received negative press over a customer service issue. The problem was resolved shortly afterward, and the article gradually faded from public attention.

Years later, AI Overviews gave the story new visibility. Seemingly overnight, the article became a recurring source in AI-generated answers about the business. 

A single, outdated news story began shaping how AI systems described a company whose reputation had long since moved on.

Be the brand AI recommends.

See where your brand appears in AI search, where competitors are winning, and what it takes to become the answer AI recommends.

See your AI visibility

Why AI keeps resurfacing old stories

AI search engines don’t just retrieve information. They generate answers by relying on published sources they consider reliable.

That changes the role of negative news articles. Even if an article no longer ranks prominently in traditional search results, it can remain an authoritative source for AI-generated answers.

Media coverage often carries strong authority signals. If a negative article receives attention, citations, or discussion, AI systems may continue treating it as a reliable source long after the underlying issue is resolved.

That’s why a single article can influence how AI describes a person, company, or brand years after it was published. The article doesn’t need to dominate search rankings anymore. It only needs to remain a trusted source.

Five or 10 years ago, handling negative content involved suppression. We aimed to bury the negative content by publishing fresher, more positive, and more accurate content, optimizing a client’s online profiles and social media, and building microsites to strengthen its reputation.

That approach matters less today. AI systems readily access and cite original negative sources, even when those sources no longer rank prominently in search results.

Dig deeper: How negative information spreads from Wikipedia into AI search

How to adapt your reputation strategy

AI has changed online reputation management, but you still have options. Here are the approaches we’ve found most effective.

Diversify your sources

To combat those negative news articles, it’s imperative to build new sources that are credible and that present across multiple trusted platforms. The aim is to publish articles on respected outlets, focusing on thought leadership and expert insights — with factual resources to boot. 

Respond faster and smarter

Be proactive rather than reactive. Before a negative news source becomes widely cited, get on top of it. Address it with responses that clarify the initial controversy.

Build content that’s citation-worthy

Perhaps the best way to counter an original negative news source is to trump it with citation-worthy content. 

Remember the grocery chain I mentioned earlier? To thwart the original negative news article, we focused on publishing original case studies and expert insights tied to the success of the grocery chains. We made sure these pieces were all published on reputable, longstanding media outlets. 

Monitor visibility on AI platforms

Returning to the topic of being proactive, the best way to do so is by constantly monitoring your brand. 

It’s not enough anymore to see how your brand appears on everyday search engines. You must track how you appear in Google AI Overview and other generative search tools. Spend a few hours every month or so typing queries about your brand into various AI search engines. 

Several tools can help you detect negative narratives earlier and monitor how AI platforms present your brand.

Dig deeper: Why AI search is your new reputation risk and what to do about it

Remove negative or outdated articles

Tools like removenews.ai simplify outreach to publishers.

Paste an article URL, and removenews.ai generates a personalized removal request and identifies the editor’s contact information, making it easier to request updates or removal. The tool is free and takes about a minute.

Monitor AI visibility and citations

Need to understand how AI platforms describe your brand? Tools such as Otterly.ai, Mangools, and Ahrefs Brand Radar can monitor citations, visibility, and sentiment across AI search experiences.

Continue using traditional ORM tools

Don’t abandon your existing ORM and digital PR tools.

Platforms such as Semrush and Surfer continue to expand their capabilities, making them valuable additions to an AI-focused reputation strategy.

Dig deeper: Online reputation management: Top 10 hurdles and how to overcome them

From suppression to proactive monitoring

Older negative news articles, including defamatory or inaccurate ones, can carry more influence than ever.

AI search engines cite these articles in generated answers, allowing a single article from 15 years ago to trigger a modern reputation problem.

Suppressing negative content alone is no longer enough. You also need to monitor and influence the sources AI systems rely on.

That means tracking AI citations, publishing authoritative content, and responding quickly when outdated or misleading narratives begin resurfacing.

AI search will continue giving old content new life. Your best defense is making sure it has better, more current sources to cite.

UCF’s Jamichael Stillwell part of lawsuit fighting NCAA for eligibility

UCF senior forward Jamichael Stillwell is among 16 college athletes suing the NCAA, seeking an injunction granting them another year of eligibility.

The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of Cobb County, Georgia, is the latest in a series of lawsuits in response to the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility regulation or “5 for 5” rule.

The measure allows athletes to use up to five seasons of eligibility within a five-year window. The clock would begin either immediately after an athlete enrolls at an institution or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday. Athletes who completed their fourth season during the 2025-26 academic year would not receive an additional year of eligibility.

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Florida attorney Darren Heitner, who is representing the athletes in the case, has been involved in several lawsuits against the NCAA seeking immediate eligibility for athletes. He served as an attorney for Clemson receiver Tristan Smith, who received a temporary injunction against the NCAA from a South Carolina judge in June.

He’s also the attorney for former Kansas defensive end Dean Miller, who is currently seeking an extra year of eligibility, which he hopes to use to play at UCF.

According to the lawsuit, Stillwell’s time at Miami-Dade College and Butler County Community College shouldn’t count against his competition limit and he should be eligible to play during the 2026-27 season.

The lawsuit also states that if he’s granted an additional year of eligibility, Stillwell would return to UCF, which it claims has a roster spot available for him.

If Stillwell receives an injunction and returns to the Knights, it would be a massive boost for a team coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2018-19 season.

The 6-foot-8, 245-pound Georgia native averaged 11.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in his only season at UCF. He recorded nine double-doubles last season, including a 10-point, 13-rebound performance against UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Stillwell previously played two seasons at the junior college level before signing with Milwaukee as a junior in 2024-25. He averaged a double-double with 13 points and 10.7 rebounds per game for the Panthers.

He transferred to UCF prior to the 2025-26 season, along with former Milwaukee teammate Themus Fulks.

The Knights’ roster underwent another massive rebuild this offseason. Seniors Riley Kugel, George Beale Jr., Devan Cambridge and Fulks all exhausted their eligibility. Center Jeremy Foumena, guards Kris Parker, Chris Johnson and Poopha Warakulnukroh, and forward Jordan Burks all left via the transfer portal.

Stillwell also entered the portal, but with the caveat that if he could get an additional year of eligibility, he would return to the Knights.

His return would solidify a roster that features returnees John Bol, Carmelo Pacheco and Elijah Hulsewe, along with transfers Cayden Vasko, Arturo Dean, Mister Dean, Dior Johnson, Lewis Walker, Jason Asemota, Dylan Mann, Isaiah Malone, Ladarius Givan, Churchill Abass, Jahda Swann and Tanner Jones.

Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com

Newly launched 2026 cloud mining app with smart AI, unaffected by market swings, earning up to $67,000 daily

13 July 2026 at 17:57
AI-powered cloud mining platforms are simplifying crypto participation by automating resource management, optimization, and daily operations for users. Over the past few years, cloud mining has undergone several technological iterations, but the barrier to entry remains a significant hurdle for…

Former UH swimming coach releases book on Amazon

“Freestyle Biomechanics: The Science Behind The Strokes,” a book by former University of Hawaii swimming coach Jan Prins, is now available via Amazon.

The book focuses on freestyle, but also touches on “the three other competitive strokes,” said Prins, who earned a doctorate in kinesiology at Indiana in 1978 and still teaches at UH. “(It) covers … every freestyle movement from stroke pattern, body position, flutter kick, hand entry to recovery and much more.”

It is the culmination of nearly 50 years of coaching, presentations, research and video workshops Prins has conducted for competitive swimmers and coaches.

“It will become a continuous shelf reference for all swimmers, especially triathletes and adults,” said Garry Rodrigues, swim consultant to USA Triathlon for the 2028 Olympics.

Link building for legitimacy: Building brand credibility in a competitive search environment by Resolve

10 July 2026 at 15:00

Link building for legitimacy means earning authoritative backlinks, brand mentions, and media coverage that signal trust, expertise, and credibility to search engines and AI systems. Instead of chasing link volume, it uses digital PR, original research, thought leadership, and journalist relationships to earn editorial citations — the authority signals behind Google’s E-E-A-T framework that help brands appear in AI Overviews, get cited by LLMs, and build visibility that survives ranking swings.

A little competition is healthy in almost every part of life. It challenges us and pushes us to keep striving for bigger, better things.

But in today’s search environment, LLMs and algorithm updates are changing the game and reshaping search behavior, making it nearly impossible to keep up.

The metrics you once used to keep brands afloat (e.g., traffic, DA increases, keyword rankings) no longer define SEO success. You can top the SERP and still see minimal conversions. 

If we keep chasing these metrics, we’ll be left behind. We have to adapt.

Instead of focusing on these metrics, we need to widen our view to the “metrics” that truly matter: trust and brand authority. Unlike traditional metrics, trust and authority don’t come easily or quickly. 

It takes time to spread the word about your brand and even more time to build trust. But once you do, it takes a lot to knock it down. 

Traffic can dip overnight after an algorithm update. Trust can’t.

But how can you build trust and boost your brand when every other organization is trying to do the same? And how do you measure such nebulous ideas? 

The answers may involve some nuance, but they’re simpler than you think. It just takes a shift in perspective.

Why link building is more than just rankings now

For years, link building was a popularity contest. Whoever earned the most votes won spots at the top of the SERP. 

But over time, Google and other search engines updated their algorithms to improve searchers’ experiences. With each update, Google has cracked down on more sites trying to “hack” the system with high backlink volume instead of links with real editorial and searcher value. Inevitably, countless sites lost traffic, with repercussions still felt today.

Instead of ranking by backlink volume, Google began prioritizing relevance to the searcher’s query, industry trust, and authority. That means big-name brands with similar content and keywords often attract more searchers than the little guy.

Large language models (LLMs) and Google’s AI Overviews have widened this divide even further. These systems use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to pull sources with the most relevant information, often preferring proprietary data. Because of this, if you’re citing the same information as a top-tier publication, RAG will often choose the top-tier publication to avoid spreading misinformation. 

With this shift, new generations of searchers are increasingly using AI instead of search tools — 61% of Gen Z use generative AI in lieu of Google, according to a 2025 Resolve study.

That doesn’t mean all link building signals spam to Google and LLMs. Instead, backlinks should work alongside authority signals. 

Publications and journalists citing your brand signal authority. Original content and proprietary data signal authority. Eye-catching graphics and informative videos signal authority. 

Once Google and LLMs see these signals and the backlinks that act as votes of confidence, your site is more likely to rank higher in SERPs, appear in the AI Overviews, and receive more citations in LLM answers.

The role of E-E-A-T in a competitive search environment

In 2018, Google updated its rater guidelines so content showing expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) could better reach relevant searchers. In 2022, it added another E: experience. Together, these factors form a framework for how Google evaluates a site’s credibility and legitimacy:

  • Experience: Whether the site’s author has personally engaged with the topic, such as a forum of users who tested a product or a gardener’s blog post about personal trials with pest prevention.
  • Expertise: Whether the content’s author has credentials that support their information and advice.
  • Authoritativeness: Whether other credible sources and industry voices have linked back to the site, establishing it as a leading figure in the community.
  • Trustworthiness: Whether the site is transparent and consistently accurate. It doesn’t deceive users or engage in link-building activities that manipulate them.

While E-E-A-T plays a role in on-page SEO — author bios can demonstrate expertise, accurate sourcing can demonstrate trustworthiness, and so on — it also plays a role in off-page SEO. Specifically, Google evaluates E-E-A-T based on who links to you and which journalists rely on you as a trusted source. Both on-page and off-page E-E-A-T affect how Google assesses your value to searchers and whether you provide trustworthy, accurate information.

If your site consistently earns backlinks from dozens of irrelevant sites, Google sees that as a sign of low quality. But if a few journalists mention your brand because of a study you just published, Google is more likely to see that as a vote of confidence. 

In this way, link quantity no longer signals legitimacy. Google looks for backlinks that demonstrate real value.

You can’t earn these links half-heartedly. You earn them with a multifaceted strategy that works on and off the page.

Off-page SEO tactics that demonstrate value to search engines

So what can you do to build strong links that search engines and LLMs use to evaluate whether you’re a trusted source? They don’t come from a single outreach. They come from multiple tactics you address continuously.

Creating linkable assets

To show that people actually want to link to your site, you need to create content that people and publishers want to reference. For brands used to quick, easy links, this may mean investing more in content than they’re used to. A typical “how-to” article or listicle won’t cut it anymore.

Instead, “linkable” now means anything journalists or people find unique and engaging — something they haven’t seen before. This could include any of the following content formats:

  • Original data and proprietary research: One of the best ways to catch searchers’ and journalists’ attention is to publish information they can’t find anywhere else. In such a competitive, information-rich search environment, that means creating original research no one has created before. When a journalist wants to reference a statistic and your site is the only one with it, you earn a natural backlink.
  • Thought leadership and expert commentary: If you feature an original perspective from a credible voice at your brand, you provide a quote publishers may use later.
  • Authoritative long-form guides: Anyone can answer a question simply. But if you answer it fully and address every related follow-up question, you can earn more links over time as searchers go deeper into their research.
  • Engaging visuals and infographics: YouTube mentions strongly correlated with sites featured in AI Overviews, according to Ahrefs. That means visuals, especially videos, carry extra weight in search algorithms. It isn’t limited to videos, either. Informative infographics give publishers something they crave: a visual they can use with their own audience.

While these formats may take more time, effort, and money to create, they’re often more sustainable than other content. They help earn credible citations from publications and build industry authority that no algorithm update can disrupt.

Digital PR

At the heart of every authority-building discussion is digital PR — and for good reason. It bridges brand establishment and link building. It can help you earn more links and spread the word about your organization through credible journalists. In the eyes of search engines, that’s exactly what they look for when assessing your site’s legitimacy.

Unlike traditional PR, digital PR focuses on generating online coverage through backlinks from news sites and media outlets. Often, this means creating assets and proprietary data journalists find interesting, then pitching stories that align with their beat. 

Many of these publications hold major sway online and have large audiences that can spread the word about your brand. If the publication is highly authoritative, other journalists may naturally pick up the news and share it organically. This can be amplified through syndication, when a media conglomerate posts an article on subsidiary sites, helping you earn dozens of links at once.

Some of the best digital PR campaigns use one or more of these tactics:

  • Data-led PR campaigns: When creating a campaign, don’t focus on topics or ideas you find interesting. Check local news sites or Google News to see what journalists find interesting and which topics are trending. If you consider journalists’ intent from the start, you’re more likely to earn responses and successful link placements.
  • Newsjacking or reactive PR: If your organization can move quickly, newsjacking or reactive PR can be one of the best ways to get media attention fast. You jump on breaking news relevant to your brand by providing expert opinions, data, or commentary journalists can use when covering the story.
  • Proactive PR: Proactive PR anticipates trends before they break. You provide unique insights that align with recurring news, holidays, and relevant media moments.
  • Contributed content and guest features: Featured content, written by you or experts at your organization, can be one of the best ways to speak directly to a publication’s audience and earn recognition.

These tactics elevate your brand to a level competitors can’t easily reach. 

Building relationships with journalists, publishers, and industry authorities

Even the most interesting proprietary data, packaged in an expertly built linkable analysis, can fail if you don’t approach journalist outreach strategically. 

Today, journalists receive countless PR pitches every day that can either help or hinder their work. Nearly nine in 10 journalists say at least some of their stories come from PR pitches, according to a 2026 MuckRack study


Still, the same survey found that 54% seldom or never respond to most PR pitches. The reason? Relevance. Nearly half of journalists in the study said relevant pitches are rare.

If a journalist at an economics journal receives a pitch about music-listening trends, they’ll likely turn it down because only a small share of their readers would care. It’s nothing personal. Journalists build careers around specific topics and beats, and PR professionals should supplement that beat, not distract from it.

Instead, approach journalist outreach as relationship-building: a two-way exchange that benefits both parties. Treat the person on the other end as a real person.

  • Personalize your emails. 
  • If they say no, respond kindly. They may bite on your next pitch. 
  • Share their publications on social media. 
  • Leave comments. 
  • Cite them in future content. 

The more you build the relationship, the more likely they are to respond to future opportunities. Journalists are more likely to respond positively to follow-ups or second pitches when they know you have good data on hand.

PR relationships grow over time, so even if your first pitch doesn’t fit a journalist’s beat, don’t hesitate to reach back out with new data.

How to measure metrics that reflect real brand authority

Authority, trust, and legitimacy are less concrete than hard metrics like traffic or keyword positioning. But they’re even more crucial today. Traffic volume may seem positive, but it can signal temporary attention from keyword manipulation, which can change quickly after an update or once web crawlers detect that searchers are losing interest in the page.

On the other hand, authority and legitimacy last. And you can still measure the impact of these tactics through metrics like:

  • Earned media placements: Track publications that cover your brand, including unlinked brand mentions. This is a strong measure of brand credibility.
  • Branded search volume: As people discover your brand through different publications, they’ll search for it naturally.
  • Industry coverage: After you successfully reach one publication, others — even those you haven’t contacted — may naturally cite you to stay relevant. This helps establish you as an authority in your industry.
  • Conversions: When searchers find you credible, they’re more likely to trust you and your products or services, leading to more conversions — the metric every SEO and marketing professional strives for.
  • Organic ranking improvements for target keywords: While traditional link building can improve keyword rankings, rankings can also show how search engines compare you to others on the SERP. As you become more authoritative, you may start to see movement.

These “metrics” don’t appear overnight. 

  • Creating proprietary data takes effort. 
  • Building trust with journalists takes relationship-building. 
  • Growing authority takes time. 

Be patient. You’ll see results.

How to build a credibility-focused link building strategy

Even if you know the best practices for building SEO authority, creating a full campaign around them can be a different beast. That’s why we’ve created this step-by-step guide:

  • Step 1 — Define target publications: Identify five to 10 publications your audience trusts most and Google sees as authoritative in your space. These are your primary link targets. Your goal is to earn coverage from journalists in these spaces.
  • Step 2 — Develop linkable assets: Create at least a couple of content pieces or media assets designed to interest your target publications. Rely on proprietary data from original surveys, visual guides, and thought leadership.
  • Step 3 — Launch a digital PR campaign: Pitch these assets proactively to target publications. Use platforms like Connectively or MuckRack to generate ongoing backlink opportunities with writers covering stories relevant to your linkable assets.
  • Step 4 — Nurture relationships over time: Treat every positive media interaction as the start of a longer relationship. Follow up with useful information, engage with the coverage, and build rapport journalists can rely on.
  • Step 5 — Measure and iterate: Review the metrics above quarterly and adjust your content and outreach strategies accordingly.

This process can easily consume your team, especially if you’re working with limited resources or know-how. 

In these cases, it may be worth working with a link building and digital PR specialist who can amplify your efforts and keep up with algorithm updates. Doing so can keep your brand afloat long term, so you don’t have to sweat the small stuff.

Build brand authority that lasts with Resolve

Today, most SEOs know quality stands the test of time over quantity. But for most brands, the hard part is keeping their eye on the prize. 

Don’t get distracted by flashy metrics or competitors seeing temporary traffic spikes. Instead, focus on what matters: real authority and legitimacy built through years of content production, PR outreach, and relationship-building.

When that patience is hard to come by, Resolve can step in. 

Resolve works with brands to build credibility-focused SEO campaigns through linkable content, data-driven digital PR, and boots-on-the-ground link building. With it, you can help your brand build sustainable organic growth — not temporary results that decay after the next algorithm update.

It’s an approach we’ve seen pay off. A recent data-led campaign for EZ Contacts earned more than 1,000 placements in outlets like the New York Post and Yahoo. As coverage built, its visibility in ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews doubled — the kind of durable growth that lasts beyond the next algorithm update.

Ready to build links that last? Visit growresolve.com today to learn more.

FAQs about link building strategy and brand authority

What is the difference between link building and Digital PR?

Link building and digital PR overlap significantly, but they aren’t identical. Link building is the broader practice of acquiring backlinks from other websites to improve search authority. Digital PR is a specific approach within that category — one focused on earning backlinks through media coverage, journalist relationships, and placements in credible publications rather than directory submissions, guest post exchanges, or other lower-authority tactics. Digital PR tends to generate the highest-quality backlinks from outlets with real editorial standards while building brand visibility and consumer trust in ways other link building methods don’t.

How long does a credibility-focused link building campaign take to produce results?

Authority backlinks and earned media coverage don’t produce overnight results. That’s one honest trade-off of a credibility-focused approach versus more aggressive tactics. Most brands start seeing meaningful domain authority gains and initial ranking movement within three to six months of consistent campaign execution. More competitive keywords and higher-authority placements may take longer. The advantage is that results compound and last: links from credible publications don’t disappear, journalist relationships recur, and the brand authority built through consistent coverage keeps generating value long after the initial campaign investment.

What is an authority backlink, and how is it different from a regular backlink?

An authority backlink comes from a source that search engines — and its users — treat as credible and trustworthy. These are typically publications with high domain authority, real editorial processes, genuine audiences, and topical relevance to your industry. A regular backlink can come from any site willing to link to yours, regardless of authority, relevance, or editorial standards. The distinction matters because search engines weigh backlinks based on the authority of the linking source. One link from a high-authority industry publication can carry more weight than dozens from low-authority sites — and signal E-E-A-T credibility in a way bulk links never can.

Can brand mentions count as a link building signal even without a hyperlink?

Yes. Google can associate brand mentions with brand entities even when those mentions don’t include a hyperlink. Unlinked mentions in credible publications, especially in relevant industry coverage, contribute to the brand authority signals that inform E-E-A-T evaluation. That’s why digital PR efforts that generate coverage, even without always securing a link, still strengthen a brand’s overall search authority. It also reinforces why a credibility-focused off-page SEO strategy shouldn’t be reduced to link acquisition alone. The real goal is building a brand that publications want to mention, cite, and cover.

What’s the risk of using outdated link building tactics?

The risks are real, ranging from ineffectiveness to active penalties. Tactics like link buying, link exchange schemes, private blog networks (PBNs), and manipulative anchor text optimization violate Google’s guidelines. They can trigger manual actions or algorithmic penalties that significantly suppress a site’s visibility. Even when they don’t trigger immediate penalties, they often lose effectiveness as algorithm updates get better at identifying and devaluing manufactured signals. Recovering from a link-related penalty is time-consuming and expensive. Investing in credibility-focused link building from the start is lower-risk and more durable than repairing damage from outdated tactics.

Ask YouTube AI search experience expands to U.S. desktop users

9 July 2026 at 21:14
Ask YouTube

YouTube expanded Ask YouTube to signed-in U.S. desktop viewers 13 and older, moving its conversational search experience beyond a Premium-only test.

What is Ask YouTube? Ask YouTube lets users type natural-language questions into the YouTube search bar and receive responses that combine text, video clips, long-form videos, and Shorts. Users can also ask follow-up questions to refine results.

Access expands. When YouTube announced the test in April, Ask YouTube was limited to U.S. YouTube Premium members 18 and older who opted in through youtube.com/new. On July 6, YouTube expanded it to signed-in U.S. viewers 13 and older using English-language searches on desktop.

  • Signed-out viewers and supervised accounts remain excluded.
  • YouTube said it will roll out the feature to more devices, languages, and users worldwide in the coming months.

YouTube standard Search isn’t going away. Users can switch back to traditional video results by clicking All on an Ask YouTube results page or by returning to the Home page. Ask YouTube remains a separate search option rather than a replacement for standard YouTube Search.

Views count for creators. YouTube said videos featured in Ask YouTube responses give creators another way to be discovered.

  • Views from Shorts, videos, and previews shown in Ask YouTube responses count toward total view metrics and YouTube Partner Program eligibility. Featured videos also display the video title and channel name.
  • YouTube said creators can improve their chances of appearing by publishing unique, high-quality content with clear chapters and descriptive titles. Those signals help its systems match video segments to viewer questions.

Why we care. YouTube is putting conversational search in front of a much larger group of U.S. desktop users. Your videos may need clear titles, chapters, and segments that answer specific questions well enough to appear in Ask YouTube responses.

What it looks like. Here’s a GIF of Ask YouTube in action:

The announcement. Try a new conversational search experience with Ask YouTube

ChatGPT gave OpenAI a $1 trillion valuation, Stargate LLM shares that upside with users while Ethereum, ADA prices tumble

8 July 2026 at 21:00
Stargate LLM is gaining attention as investors compare crypto-native AI models with traditional AI platforms and explore community-focused alternatives. OpenAI loses roughly $1.22 for every $1 it earns, and internal projections point to $14 to $27 billion in losses this…

Free cloud mining platforms of 2026: EX DeFi makes earning BTC and XRP easy for everyone

7 July 2026 at 17:00
EX DeFi is gaining attention as an AI-powered cloud mining platform, offering users access to BTC, DOGE, and LTC mining without owning hardware. As we enter 2026, mainstream digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC) continue…

Fed rate cuts or higher rates: How to choose between oil, gold, and real estate investments in 2026

7 July 2026 at 16:17
XRPPower integrates AI analysis, automated management, and risk monitoring as investors explore new digital finance solutions amid global market uncertainty. Entering 2026, global financial markets remain highly focused on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy. In recent years, the Fed…

While ADA, ETH sink to multi-year lows, money is rotating into AI, Stargate LLM leads the charge with 50x potential

6 July 2026 at 21:00
As Ethereum and Cardano face steep declines, investors are increasingly exploring AI-focused blockchain projects such as Stargate LLM. Ethereum spent 2025 in the room with the majors, trading near $5,000 and trading places with Bitcoin as the asset every altcoin…

Yim Leak seeks US discovery under 28 U.S.C. 1782 as social media data shows coordinated activity around Thailand’s largest asset freeze

6 July 2026 at 15:41
Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office has frozen over $600 million in assets linked to Cambodian businessman Yim Leak under civil forfeiture laws. Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office has frozen more than 20 billion baht, more than $600 million, in assets belonging to…

Earn $5,000 daily: BM Blockchain helps users participate in Bitcoin mining without purchasing hardware

3 July 2026 at 19:37
BM Blockchain is promoting cloud mining as a simpler alternative to traditional Bitcoin mining by removing hardware and maintenance requirements. Bitcoin mining has long been viewed as a technical and capital-intensive activity. For many individuals, the biggest barriers are clear:…

Forget Bitcoin; XRP holders could earn up to $7,000 per day after ETF inflows

3 July 2026 at 15:09
Growing optimism around XRP ETF developments is driving interest in early-yield strategies, with EX DeFi gaining attention alongside cloud mining infrastructure. The optimism surrounding XRP ETF inflows is driving investors towards early-yield strategies, and the potential opportunities presented by cloud…

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