Topical Authority for AI SEO: Rankings for LLMs - Interview Koray Tugberk GUBUR by Jesper Nissen

In this technical SEO interview, Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR, founder of Holistic SEO & Digital and the inventor of the Topical Authority methodology in SEO, explains how Google rankings are changing in the age of AI, Large Language Models, Semantic SEO, entity understanding, visual semantics, and human-effort signals.

The conversation explores how Google evaluates websites, documents, entities, brands, internal links, user behavior, topical coverage, historical ranking data, content originality, page layout, and social media signals. Koray explains why Google has moved beyond basic link-based ranking systems and increasingly relies on natural language processing, semantic relevance, entity relationships, document understanding, and real-business signals.

Koray shares his background in iGaming and large-scale PBN management, how the August 2018 medical update pushed him to study Google patents, and how he moved toward white-hat Semantic SEO and Topical Authority. He also explains his internal linking methodology, the importance of main-content links, unique anchor texts, topical coverage, historical data, and why websites can rank without traditional link-building when semantic consistency is strong.

This interview covers rank merge, Chrome traffic, unicorn clicks, visual semantics, centerpiece annotations, content effort, originality, salience, word order, entity gaps, vectorization, social amplification, and the role of YouTube and social media channels in building a stronger web entity.

Koray explains Topical Authority as a methodology built on topical coverage multiplied by historical data. He also discusses how Google may distinguish real businesses and high-effort content from automated, generic, or low-originality websites, especially as AI-generated content becomes more common.

This conversation is useful for SEO professionals, agency owners, content strategists, affiliate marketers, SaaS companies, publishers, and digital marketers who want to understand Topical Authority, Semantic SEO, Entity SEO, AI SEO, LLM SEO, Google algorithms, Google patents, internal linking, topical maps, and modern search engine optimization.

00:07 Introduction and meeting Koray
01:08 Koray’s background in iGaming and PBN management
02:05 Losing 3,000 websites during the August 2018 medical update
02:22 Studying Google patents and shifting from links to semantics
03:32 Ranking websites without footer or header links
04:00 Internal linking strategy with three unique anchor texts
05:29 Case study attention, Matt Diggity interview, course, community, and agency
06:31 Managing Holistic SEO and understanding people vs. algorithms
08:44 Google’s shift toward language understanding
10:24 Rank merge, popularity, links, and Chrome traffic
12:29 Unicorn clicks and user-history-based ranking impact
14:27 Topical authority formula: topical coverage × historical data
15:52 Visual semantics and page block placement
17:45 Business vs. informational site classification
18:28 Content effort and human effort signals
22:03 Originality, uniqueness, and ranking
22:50 Centerpiece annotation and page purpose
24:35 Why plain HTML pages can rank better
26:18 SEO design, section coordination, and ranking impact
33:56 High-commercial-value keywords and stricter algorithms
38:32 Limitations of SEO correlation tools
40:59 Salience, word order, and sentence relevance
43:31 Schema Writer, vectorization, and entity gaps
44:33 Entity additions, index refinement, and dilution risks
48:45 Human-based on-page SEO and AI agents
50:50 Using Infranodus to understand SERP anatomy
52:54 Testing Google patents in real SEO scenarios
53:59 Google engineers, patents, and implementation signals
01:00:03 Social amplification and web entities
01:02:01 Brand-topic co-occurrence and document statistics
01:03:03 Social media channels in Search Console
01:03:54 Social posts as parasite SEO assets and AI Overview signals
01:06:52 Organic traffic growth for Instagram, Facebook, and Threads
01:07:21 People-first content, human effort, and real business signals

#seo #llmseo #topicalauthority #semanticseo