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Specifically CMOs and those responsible for a business's marketing success. AI-generated responses look like a direct hazard to the traditional natural traffic sites utilized to get from online search engine. Before, you needed to click a website to see the outcomes. Today, LLMs simply rip the content on websites and people no longer need to check out a site any longer.
While I personally think this threat is blown entirely out of proportion (based on data from websites I've personally seen), I do not believe it's an excuse to ignore it entirely. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, especially to offer something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written material.
It's a lot much easier to tell if someone is lying or complete of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube needs to absolutely be in your SEO and material technique.
And since you have actually built the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will convert much better. But there's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned a few of my best ranking blog site posts into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my blog site posts would rank even much better.
Strategic Material Scaling for Modern Professional Local SeoI made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that blog post, and I've been ranking # 1 because.
In 2025, we saw everyone talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing community as a whole started to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI hype train.
It became tough to discover trusted sources that weren't prejudiced or had a prejudice to offer us something. While I do think there are advantages to using LLMs in our workflows, I do think it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast many marketers will recognize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a small part of the SEO market.
Google still controls 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it remains in the perfect position to win the AI online search engine race. Search behavior hasn't essentially shifted far from Google. Beyond just that, there are a couple of things that have actually rubbed me the wrong way about the AI SEO trend.
What these online marketers do not realize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be revealed in ChatGPT. The educational top of funnel material is "consumed up" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that very same principle over to Google, you would see the same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates reveal less because the traffic is higher due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel material that remains in the equation. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never fully follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still think that larger companies will set aside an experimental budget plan to evaluate things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. In 2026, I predict people will recognize optimizing for Google will enable them to reveal up in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Simply take a look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet browsers.
These techniques may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will ultimately get penalized. Focus on white hat techniques that construct genuine authority and trust over time rather of chasing after fast wins that won't last.
However now, the algorithm is mature enough to ignore all that rubbish. Nevertheless, ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown yet. I can't name this person, but I met an SEO director at a huge banking company. This individual told me they (and all their rivals) are creating microsites (like little blog sites) on different domains.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary company domain, that has an extremely strong brand authority, and sending out backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually led to higher rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, respectable companies are doing this. And I recognized just how much black hat (or grey hat) strategies are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these strategies will continue to take place. Up until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as wise as Google's search algorithm. That seems like a long time from now. Anyways, I personally would not suggest engaging in this. It's short term thinking and your energy is finest invested in white hat marketing techniques that can stand the test of time and enhance your websites trust signals with time.
Share genuine insights, utilize your own images and videos, and build topical authority in your niche. This is how solo developers and little groups can beat big brand names in 2026. This is one of the most significant SEO patterns for material marketing I'm seeing right now.
You need a real service, be it a newsletter business, a service-based organization, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And then you include on this human-centered niche blogging to the website to organically grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I anticipate that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which websites include AI material and which do not.
I know heaps of people quietly squashing it with AI created material (even going after top of funnel keywords). But what I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI generated content without any original insights. There are 2 routes I see with SEO's today: Produce thousands of AI-generated article and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human blog site posts and get them to rank at the top of the very first page. Quality over amount. The first path is based on large volume, and can result in traffic development. However you do risk a prospective algorithm upgrade injuring your rankings. And anybody who writes better human material will rank greater in positions 1-3. The 2nd route is slower, however can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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