Dalin de GraffHeadshot

Dalin de Graff | SEO Strategist – First Rank

LLM AI Search Marketer + Search Engine Optimization Strategist at First Rank — Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

Dalin de Graff is an SEO and Generative Engine Optimization strategist at First Rank, where he develops search strategies that drive organic traffic, qualified leads, and revenue for clients.He also helped build First Rank’s Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) department from the ground up and has played a key role in developing the agency’s approach to optimizing brands for both traditional search engines and AI-powered search.

His work spans SEO strategy, technical SEO, content strategy, authority building, local SEO, AI search visibility, and the development of internal systems and tools that improve how First Rank’s SEO team executes campaigns. Beyond managing client campaigns, Dalin trains and mentors members of First Rank’s SEO department, develops internal SEO and GEO processes, and works to turn individual SEO expertise into repeatable systems that can be applied across the agency.

What Dalin does at First Rank

Dalin works at the intersection of traditional SEO and AI search. His work covers technical SEO, content strategy, and backlink building, with a specialty in structuring brands so AI models recognize and cite them as trusted sources, following First Rank’s approach of studying what each search environment actually rewards.

Inside the agency, Dalin trains and mentors members of First Rank’s SEO department and builds internal SEO and GEO productivity tools for the technical team.

Dalin’s Recent SEO And GEO Campaign Results

Dalin’s work is focused on measurable business outcomes across organic search and AI-powered search.

SEO Leadership at First Rank

Dalin doesn’t just run SEO campaigns at First Rank. He builds the systems, trains the people, and sets the strategy that let the department deliver consistent results across a growing client base.

Team Development

Dalin trains and mentors members of First Rank’s SEO department in technical fundamentals, critical thinking, strategic decision-making, and client communication. The goal: strategists who think like consultants and judge their own work by client outcomes, not completed checklists.

SEO Systems & Processes

He develops the internal frameworks and productivity tools the team uses to research, execute, analyze, and improve campaigns. That standardization means consistent quality no matter which strategist is on the account.

SEO & GEO Strategy

Dalin built First Rank’s GEO department from the ground up: the offering, the processes, the strategy, the reporting frameworks, and the client deliverables. Today he works across traditional SEO and AI search, structuring client brands to win in Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and every search surface that’s coming next.

Knowledge Development

Search is moving fast. Dalin tracks shifts in search behavior, algorithm updates, and AI-generated results, then translates them into practical playbooks for the team and clients, so First Rank accounts benefit from changes before competitors react.

Client Growth

Campaigns are measured in business outcomes, not rankings. Recent work: +311% organic clicks for an e-commerce campaign, +300% calls in 8 months for a Winnipeg therapy clinic, and +98% LLM search traffic in 30 days for a GEO campaign.

From SEO Execution to SEO Leadership

Dalin’s approach to SEO goes beyond optimizing individual pages or targeting individual keywords. He focuses on building systems that allow SEO to scale. That means understanding:

  • How technical architecture affects organic visibility
  • How content and topical authority influence search performance
  • How internal linking and entity relationships strengthen websites
  • How local SEO translates visibility into calls and leads
  • How brand authority influences both traditional and AI-powered search
  • How AI search is changing the way people discover businesses
  • How SEO teams can use automation and internal tools to execute more efficiently
  • How organic search performance ultimately connects to leads, revenue, and ROI

His goal isn’t simply to produce SEO work.

It’s to develop strategies, systems, and people that produce better SEO work at scale.

Dalin’s SEO Philosophy

Build for users first. Optimize for search second.

The strongest SEO strategies aren’t built around manipulating individual ranking factors. They’re built around creating websites and brands that search engines have a reason to trust.

Measure business outcomes, not vanity metrics.

Rankings and traffic are useful indicators, but the ultimate objective is qualified leads, sales, and revenue.

Build systems, not one-off tactics.

SEO should become more efficient over time. Documented processes, repeatable frameworks, automation, and team development allow successful strategies to scale.

Optimize for where search is going.

Traditional Google search remains critical, but the search experience is increasingly expanding into AI-generated answers and other discovery environments. SEO strategies need to account for both.

Background

Before joining First Rank, Dalin was Marketing Director at Laxiamedia (2023–2025) and Content Marketing Team Lead at PersonalBrands.io (2023–2024), where he led content and search programs across multiple brands.

More about Dalin

Visit his official site at dalindegraff.com. You can also find him on X, LinkedIn, and Threads.

Work with Dalin and the First Rank team

Contact First Rank for a free consultation. We’ll audit your current online presence and show you exactly where the biggest opportunities are.

FAQ

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

GEO is the process of structuring your content and brand signals so AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini recognize your business as a trusted source and cite it in their answers. Dalin built First Rank’s GEO department to deliver exactly that for clients.

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO optimizes for ranking in the list of results on a search page. GEO optimizes for being cited inside AI-generated answers. Both reward the same fundamentals: trustworthy content, clear structure, and strong brand signals, but GEO adds entity clarity and citation-worthiness as explicit targets.

What results has Dalin de Graff delivered for clients?

His campaigns include +311% organic clicks for an e-commerce client, +300% phone calls in 8 months for a Winnipeg therapy clinic, and +98% LLM search traffic in 30 days for a GEO campaign.