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Particularly CMOs and those accountable for a business's marketing success. AI-generated answers appear like a direct danger to the standard organic traffic websites utilized to obtain from search engines. Before, you had to click on a website to see the results. Today, LLMs just rip the content on websites and individuals no longer require to check out a website any longer.
While I personally believe this danger is blown completely out of percentage (based on information from sites I've personally seen), I do not believe it's a reason to overlook it entirely. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, specifically to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than composed content.
It's a lot easier to inform if somebody is lying or full of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube needs to certainly be in your SEO and content method.
And because you have constructed the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will convert much better. There's even more to it. Previously this year, I had an inkling that if I turned some of my best ranking post into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing article, my article would rank even much better.
The Power of Earned Media for Growth-Stage CompaniesI used rank in between 2-3 for the keyword "AI marketing tools." I made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that blog site post, and I've been ranking # 1 since. In 2026, believe of YouTube videos as a way to beef up your SEO blog site posts to rank even better.
In 2025, we saw everybody talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond just SEO, the marketing community as a whole begun to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became difficult to find relied on sources that weren't prejudiced or had a hidden program to offer us something. While I do think there are benefits to using LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I predict lots of marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply a small part of the SEO market.
The Power of Earned Media for Growth-Stage CompaniesGoogle still dominates 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it's in the ideal position to win the AI search engine race. Search behavior hasn't basically shifted away from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have actually rubbed me the wrong method about the AI SEO trend.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% discussion rate and is much better by more than 2X compared to Google. What these marketers don't recognize 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" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
Google's conversion rates reveal less because the traffic is higher due to it being watered down by all the top of funnel content that is in the equation. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never ever fully follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still believe that think companies will business aside an experimental budget to spending plan things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools.
Don't do it. 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 real authority and trust with time rather of going after fast wins that won't last. The 2000s are back. Scammy keyword packing tactics, paying for low-quality backlinks, shipping thousands of ineffective posts all in the name of ranking high.
Now, the algorithm is fully grown enough to ignore all that nonsense. However, ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown yet. I can't call this person, however I fulfilled an SEO director at a substantial banking business. This person told me they (and all their rivals) are creating microsites (like little blogs) on different domains.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary business domain, that has a very strong brand authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has resulted in higher rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that big, credible companies are doing this. And I understood how much black hat (or grey hat) techniques are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I anticipate these strategies will continue to happen. Until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as wise as Google's search algorithm.
Share genuine insights, use your own images and videos, and develop topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo creators and small groups can beat substantial brand names in 2026. This is one of the greatest SEO trends for material marketing I'm seeing right now.
You require a genuine business, be it a newsletter company, a service-based company, SaaS company, or ecommerce store. And then you add on this human-centered niche blogging to the website to naturally grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I forecast that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which websites contain AI content and which don't.
In reality, I know loads of people quietly crushing it with AI created content (even pursuing top of funnel keywords). However what I am stating is that engaging, human content will outrank AI produced content without any original insights. There are two routes I see with SEO's right now: Produce thousands of AI-generated blog posts and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human post and get them to rank at the top of the first page. Quality over amount. The very first route is based upon large volume, and can cause traffic development. However you do risk a possible algorithm update hurting your rankings. And anyone who writes much better human material will rank higher in positions 1-3. The second route is slower, but can yield greater ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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