Content, Internal Linking, and the Future of SEO:

An Analysis of Google and LLM Rankings for CRM Platforms

Abstract

This research compares the SEO structures and search performance of four CRM platforms — Salesforce, HubSpot, Bigin by Zoho, and Monday.com — by analyzing their presence in both Google organic search and ChatGPT recommendations. We expected technical SEO factors like schema markup, meta descriptions, and title tags to dominate performance. Instead, we discovered that content depth and internal linking were the true engines behind visibility in both search engines and large language models (LLMs). This study outlines the methodology, findings, and key takeaways small businesses can use to compete effectively without massive authority scores or backlink networks.

Introduction

Most small businesses aren’t competing against Salesforce or HubSpot — they’re competing against other local providers, industry peers, or vertical SaaS startups. You don’t need a million backlinks or 10,000 pages. You just need to out-content, out-link, and out-structure your direct competitors.

This paper was built to teach you how to do that — using real data from some of the biggest names in the CRM space, analyzed through the lens of what Google and ChatGPT actually prioritize.

Search engine optimization (SEO) has long focused on core technical elements: meta tags, title optimization, alt-text, and increasingly, schema markup. These elements are essential — but in today’s evolving digital landscape where AI and LLMs like ChatGPT influence buyer behavior and search outcomes, a deeper question arises:

What actually drives visibility — in both traditional search and AI-generated recommendations?

We began this study with a traditional hypothesis: that the core drivers of SEO and visibility were technical fundamentals like schema markup, meta descriptions, and optimized title tags. However, as we analyzed CRM platforms across both Google and LLM ecosystems, a more powerful truth emerged:

Schema helps. Meta helps. But content depth and internal linking are the true engines behind both Google rankings and ChatGPT recommendations.

This report explores how four platforms — Salesforce, HubSpot, Bigin by Zoho, and Monday.com — perform, and what small businesses can learn from their success and shortcomings.

Methodology

• Platforms Studied:
• Google Top 3: Salesforce, HubSpot, Bigin by Zoho
• ChatGPT Top 3: HubSpot, Zoho/Bigin, Monday.com
• Data Collection Tools:
• Custom-built All Great Things Website Crawler
• SEMrush for authority, traffic, and keyword analysis
• Manual ChatGPT queries and Google search reviews for LLM and SERP result verification
• Metrics Captured:
• Crawlability, schema, meta tags, technical SEO issues, LLM indexability score, and top 50 website pages (with some brands having tens of thousands of indexed URLs)
• Backlink totals and referring domains
• Organic traffic and keyword intent breakdown
• Internal linking totals and average links per page

Findings

1. Internal Linking Is a Power Signal

• Company Internal Links Avg. per Page HubSpot 7,257 145.14 Monday.com 6,576 131.52 Salesforce 2,322 46.44 Bigin 2,174 43.48 Pages with 100+ internal links are common on high-ranking domains.
• Internal linking ensures crawlers discover and index content beyond what’s listed in a sitemap.

2. Content Depth Over Technical Perfection

• Bigin had no schema but ranked in both Google and ChatGPT.
• HubSpot had schema inconsistencies but still ranked highly on both platforms, placing #2 on Google and #1 on ChatGPT.
• Salesforce had perfect schema — yet did not appear on ChatGPT’s top 10.

3. Non-Branded Keywords Correlate with LLM Visibility

Platform % Non-Branded Keyword Traffic Bigin 73% Monday.com 70.5% HubSpot 58.5% Salesforce 29.4% LLMs prioritize clarity, helpfulness, and semantic alignment — not brand power.

4. Backlink Profiles Are Important — But Not Everything

Backlinks are still a signal — and the largest sites have millions of them. But for small businesses, acquiring high-quality backlinks is one of the hardest parts of SEO. You’re not likely to get featured in Forbes or earn 10,000 referring domains overnight.

The reality is, the “build it and they will come” approach doesn’t work for small businesses with no brand awareness.

At All Great Things, we recognize this challenge and are actively building tools and strategies to help. Our platform is working on ethical and transparent ways for small businesses to build backlinks through:

• Link exchanges within vetted industry networks
• Paid content partnerships
• Cross-promotion between content clusters and blog roll alliances

The goal: help small businesses generate backlinks without relying on luck, PR budgets, or overnight virality.

Use what you can — and when you can't out-backlink your competitors, you can still out-think, out-structure, and out-content them.

Platform Authority Score Backlinks Referring Domains Salesforce 83 59.9M 431K HubSpot 78 104.6M 635K Monday.com 68 11.8M 24.2K Bigin 37 184K 1.4K Despite low authority, Bigin ranks because of precise alignment with buyer intent and a clean content structure.

Discussion

Our original hypothesis was clear: strong meta descriptions, schema markup, and SEO-compliant title tags would determine who ranks and who doesn't. But our findings suggest otherwise.

• Schema markup improves click-through rate and structured search results but isn't a core signal for LLM inclusion.
• Meta descriptions still matter for CTR, but many top-ranking pages lacked them — or had duplicates.
• What truly separated winners from losers was content coverage and internal linking.

Content is still king — but internal linking is the crown.

Dense internal linking ensures:

• No orphan pages
• Strong crawl paths
• Distributed topic authority
• Enhanced semantic context for both bots and AI systems

This reinforces that small businesses don’t need Salesforce’s domain rating to rank — they need precision.

Context for Small Businesses

Not every small business is competing with enterprise giants like Salesforce or HubSpot — and they don’t need 10,000 blog posts or millions of backlinks to win in their niche. What they do need is a smarter, leaner content strategy than their direct competitors.

If your competitor has 20 blog posts, aim for 50. If they have weak internal linking, make sure yours is clean, structured, and interconnected. Victory in SEO doesn’t always go to the biggest — it goes to the best optimized, the most helpful, and the most discoverable.

Building an Effective Content, Keyword, and Linking Strategy

To rank in both traditional search and LLM platforms, you need more than just good blog content. You need to build a system — one that scales with your business and keeps bots (and users) flowing through your site.

1. Expand your Header and Footer Links

Your global header and footer appear on every page — they are powerful tools for distributing internal links and authority. Add links to:

• Key service/product pages
• Main blog categories
• High-converting resources or landing pages
• 'Best of' or evergreen content clusters

2. Create Strategic Content Clusters

Content clusters are groups of blog posts and landing pages centered on a single topic. Example: “CRM for Small Teams” could include:

• What Is a CRM?
• Best CRM Features for Startups
• How to Choose a CRM for Teams Under 10
• CRM Case Studies
• Free CRM vs Paid CRM

Each of these should link back to a central pillar page. That page, in turn, links to each supporting post.

3. Build a Precise Content Plan That Unlocks Scale

• Use tools like SEMrush or Google Search Console to find keyword gaps
• Prioritize long-tail, buyer-intent queries
• Write with clarity — aim for answers, not fluff
• Add internal links with anchor text that mirrors user search behavior

4. Design for Unlimited Internal Link Opportunities

• Every blog post should link to 3–5 others
• Use tag and category pages as secondary hubs
• Use sidebars, “related post” modules, and CTAs to build links naturally
• Don’t forget image links and footnotes — every link is a path

A smart structure doesn't just help SEO — it improves the user journey, boosts engagement, and keeps AI models fed with clear context.

Turn One Keyword Into One Thousand: The Power of Keyword Expansion

Many small businesses make the mistake of targeting only high-level, obvious keywords. But a single keyword — like “CRM for small businesses” — can be expanded into dozens or even hundreds of mid-tail and long-tail variations. These additional phrases create opportunities to:

• Rank for lower-competition search terms
• Cover a wider variety of search intent
• Provide more internal linking anchor points
• Increase semantic authority around a topic

Example:

• Primary keyword: CRM for small businesses
• Mid-tail variations: CRM software for startups, CRM platform for growing teams, sales CRM for agencies
• Long-tail variations: best free CRM for a 5-person sales team, how to choose CRM for real estate agents, Zoho CRM vs HubSpot for nonprofits

Search Intent Matters:

When building your content strategy, always consider the searcher’s intent:

• Informational: “What is a CRM?” → Blog article
• Navigational: “HubSpot login” → Login page
• Commercial: “Best CRM for small teams” → Comparison page
• Transactional: “Start CRM free trial” → Product landing page

Understanding these layers of intent helps you create content that ranks, even in high keyword difficulty (KD) spaces.

Don’t be afraid of high-KD keywords. High difficulty usually means high volume and high value — aim to rank for as many as possible by out-structuring and out-answering your competition.

Recommendations for Small Businesses

1. Prioritize content clusters over isolated posts.
2. Use internal links generously and logically.
3. Don’t neglect schema — but don’t over-invest if you’re missing content.
4. Build pages targeting long-tail commercial keywords.
5. Audit your orphan pages and eliminate dead ends.
6. Focus on helpfulness — not just keyword stuffing.

Conclusion

Meta data and schema still play supporting roles in SEO, but they are not the main act. In the age of AI and LLM-based discovery, the platforms that win:

• Publish helpful content
• Organize it semantically
• Connect it with intelligent internal links

“Content is still king — but internal linking is the crown that ensures every piece of content is seen, indexed, and valuable.”

For small businesses, this is the opportunity. You don’t need 100 million backlinks. You need a tight structure, smart strategy, and relevant, interlinked content.

References

• SEMrush Domain Overview Tools
• Screaming Frog Crawl Reports
• OpenAI ChatGPT Query Logs
• Google's SEO Starter Guide (2024)
• Internal linking best practices – Ahrefs, Moz

Prepared by: Jason Mellet / AllGreatThings.io