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Specifically CMOs and those accountable for a business's marketing success. AI-generated responses look like a direct threat to the conventional organic traffic sites used to obtain from online search engine. Before, you had to click a site to see the results. Today, LLMs simply rip the material on sites and individuals no longer need to go to a website anymore.
While I personally believe this danger is blown completely out of percentage (based upon information from websites I've personally seen), I do not believe it's an excuse to overlook it entirely. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, particularly to offer something, I can inform you that video converts way more than composed content.
It's a lot much easier to tell if somebody is lying or full of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube ought to definitely be in your SEO and content strategy.
And because you have built the trust with video, your traditional SEO efforts will convert better. There's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had a hunch that if I turned a few of my finest ranking post into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing blog posts, my article would rank even much better.
Winning the Material War With Better DistributionI utilized rank between 2-3 for the keyword "AI marketing tools." I made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that post, and I have actually been ranking # 1 given that. In 2026, think of YouTube videos as a method to beef up your SEO blog site posts to rank even much better.
Keep focusing on Google, which still owns 90% of search market share. Buy AI search experiments if you have spending plan, but don't desert what's really driving traffic and conversions today. In 2025, we saw everyone talking about how AI search was going to take control of Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing community as an entire started to get bombarded with influencers trying to ride the AI buzz train.
It became difficult to find trusted sources that weren't biased or had a hidden agenda to offer us something. While I do believe there are benefits to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast many marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a little part of the SEO market.
Google still dominates 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it remains in the best position to win the AI online search engine race. Browse habits hasn't fundamentally moved far from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have rubbed me the incorrect method about the AI SEO pattern.
What these online marketers do not understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The educational top of funnel content is "consumed up" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that same principle over to Google, you would see the very same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates show less because the traffic is greater due to it being watered down by all the top of funnel material that is in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never totally follows prompts correctly (i.e.
I do still think that bigger companies will set aside a speculative spending plan to test things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. But in 2026, I forecast people will understand optimizing for Google will enable them to appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity also. Simply look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet internet browsers.
Don't do it. These methods may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will ultimately get penalized. Concentrate on white hat strategies that construct genuine authority and trust over time rather of chasing after quick wins that will not last. The 2000s are back. Scammy keyword packing strategies, spending for low-quality backlinks, delivering thousands of worthless articles all in the name of ranking high.
Now, the algorithm is mature enough to ignore all that nonsense. ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown. I can't name this individual, however I fulfilled an SEO director at a huge banking company. This individual informed me they (and all their rivals) are creating microsites (like small blogs) on different domains.
And from there, they are utilizing their main business domain, that has an incredibly strong brand name authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually resulted in higher rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that big, trustworthy business are doing this. And I understood how much black hat (or grey hat) tactics are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these methods will continue to happen. Till ChatGPT's algorithm gets as wise as Google's search algorithm.
Focus on quality over quantity. Share real insights, use your own images and videos, and develop topical authority in your niche. This is how solo developers and small groups can beat substantial brands in 2026. Specific niche blogging is back infant. However with a twist. This is one of the greatest SEO trends for content marketing I'm seeing today.
You need a real organization, be it a newsletter organization, a service-based business, SaaS business, or ecommerce shop. And then you add on this human-centered niche blogging to the site to naturally grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I forecast that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which websites include AI material and which do not.
In reality, I understand loads of people silently squashing it with AI produced material (even going after top of funnel keywords). However what I am stating is that engaging, human material will outrank AI produced material without any initial insights. There are 2 paths I see with SEO's right now: Produce countless AI-generated blog site posts and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human article and get them to rank at the top of the first page. Quality over quantity. The first path is based on large volume, and can cause traffic growth. However you do run the risk of a possible algorithm update harming your rankings. And anyone who writes much better human material will rank greater in positions 1-3. The 2nd path is slower, but can yield greater ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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