From a spare room in Derby to the US: Linkology drops "UK" from its name as American demand drives expansion into AI search

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From a spare room in Derby to the US: Linkology drops "UK" from its name as American demand drives expansion into AI search.

UK link-building agency relaunches as Linkology.co as it wins more US clients, growing its team to 33 people across the UK and beyond.

DERBY, UK - 26 October 2026: UK Linkology, the Derby link-building and digital PR agency, today relaunches as Linkology.co as growing demand from American clients drives an expansion of its team and services. The agency now employs 33 people after creating new specialist roles in 2026 to help businesses get recommended by AI tools such as ChatGPT.

Over the past year, a growing share of the agency's new business has come from the United States, where companies are looking beyond Google rankings to understand how they can be recommended by AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Mode. Removing "UK" from the name reflects a business that now serves clients on both sides of the Atlantic.

"I started this from a spare room in Derby. Fifteen years later, and with the addition of George Blandford as partner in 2017, we're a team of 33 across three countries, and a growing share of our work comes from America; the business has grown well beyond the name we started with," said Jason Brooks, Founder and Co-owner of Linkology.

"For years, helping businesses get found online meant earning the links and authority needed to perform well in search engines. Now our clients are asking a bigger question: when somebody asks ChatGPT or Google AI mode which business they should use, will we be one of the recommendations?

"That demand has created a significant opportunity for us, particularly in the US. We're investing in the people and expertise needed to support that growth, and removing "UK" from our name is a natural next step. We're building one brand for an increasingly international business."

Investing in specialist talent

To support its expansion, Linkology has created new specialist roles in 2026, including a Head of Digital PR, a reactive PR strategist and a podcast specialist.

The appointments bring together the agency's link building and outreach with a fuller digital PR offer: data-led campaigns that generate news coverage, reactive commentary that places clients in relevant media conversations, and podcast guest placement that helps business leaders build authority. The aim is to make clients visible both in search engines and in the sources AI tools draw on.

"Digital PR is no longer just about getting a brand mentioned in the press," said George Blandford, Co-owner of Linkology. "It's about building the kind of credibility that travels across the internet. When a business is consistently referenced by relevant, trusted publications, it is more likely to be discovered, understood and recommended.

"Businesses are beginning to realise that ranking on Google and appearing in AI-generated answers aren't necessarily the same thing. We're building the expertise to help them do both."

The gap between search rankings and AI recommendations

BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults found that 45% now use AI tools to find local businesses, compared with 6% a year earlier. Meanwhile, Local Falcon found that 83% of the restaurants it tracks did not appear in ChatGPT results, compared with 14% that were absent from Google results.

"An independent business in Derby and a growing company in Austin might operate in completely different markets, but they're facing the same question: can potential customers find them when they ask for a recommendation?" added Blandford.

"We want to help businesses understand where they're visible today, where they're missing out and what they can do about it."

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Linkology.co replaces uklinkology.co.uk from 27 October 2026
• Headcount and new business information is from Linkology's internal records
• BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 1,002 US adults: brightlocal.com/research/lcrs-ai-trust
• Local Falcon, "The AI visibility crisis", data collected February 2026 from restaurants tracked on its platform: localfalcon.com/research
• Jason Brooks and George Blandford are available for interview.

About Linkology

Founded in Derby in 2011, Linkology is a digital PR and link-building agency helping businesses across the UK and US improve their visibility in search engines and AI-generated recommendations. The agency has worked with more than 1,600 businesses and connects brands with a vetted database of more than 63,000 publisher sites. For more information, visit linkology.co.