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Specifically CMOs and those accountable for a company's marketing success. AI-generated responses seem like a direct risk to the traditional natural traffic websites utilized to obtain from search engines. Before, you needed to click on a website to see the results. Today, LLMs just rip the material on websites and people no longer need to go to a site anymore.
While I personally believe this danger is blown entirely out of proportion (based upon information from websites I have actually personally seen), I don't believe it's an excuse to disregard it totally. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, especially to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written material.
And the viewer can pick up on more subtleties in your message. It's a lot simpler to tell if somebody is lying or filled with it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube ought to certainly be in your SEO and material technique. Use video as demand generation and a method to build trust with an audience.
And since you have constructed the trust with video, your conventional SEO efforts will convert better. But there's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had a hunch that if I turned a few of my best ranking post into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing article, my post would rank even much better.
I utilized rank between 2-3 for the keyword "AI marketing tools." I made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that article, and I have actually been ranking # 1 since. So in 2026, consider YouTube videos as a way to intensify your SEO article to rank even better.
In 2025, we saw everyone talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond just SEO, the marketing community as an entire started to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became tough to find relied on sources that weren't prejudiced or had a prejudice to sell us something. While I do believe there are advantages to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast many online marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a little part of the SEO market.
Google still controls 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it's in the ideal position to win the AI search engine race. Browse habits hasn't basically shifted away from Google. Beyond simply that, there are a few things that have rubbed me the wrong method about the AI SEO trend.
What these marketers don't realize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The informative top of funnel material is "eaten up" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that exact same idea over to Google, you would see the exact same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates show less since the traffic is greater due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel material that is in the equation. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never ever fully follows prompts correctly (i.e.
I do still think that larger companies will set aside an experimental budget 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. Just look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet web browsers.
These strategies might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will eventually get punished. Focus on white hat methods that build real authority and trust over time instead of chasing quick wins that won't last.
However now, the algorithm is mature enough to neglect all that rubbish. ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't call this person, but I met an SEO director at a substantial banking business. This individual told me they (and all their rivals) are developing microsites (like little blogs) on various domains.
And from there, they are using their primary business domain, that has a very strong brand name authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually led to higher rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that substantial, reputable companies are doing this. And I realized how much black hat (or grey hat) strategies are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these methods will continue to happen. Till ChatGPT's algorithm gets as clever as Google's search algorithm.
Share real insights, use your own images and videos, and develop topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo developers and small teams can beat big brands in 2026. This is one of the most significant SEO trends for material marketing I'm seeing right now.
You require a genuine business, be it a newsletter business, a service-based company, SaaS company, or ecommerce store. And then you include on this human-centered niche blogging to the site to naturally grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I anticipate that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which web pages include AI content and which do not.
I know heaps of people silently squashing it with AI generated content (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am saying is that engaging, human content will outrank AI generated content with no original insights. There are 2 paths I see with SEO's today: Produce countless AI-generated post 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 amount. The very first path is based on sheer volume, and can result in traffic development. You do risk a possible algorithm upgrade harming your rankings. And anybody who composes much better human material will rank greater in positions 1-3. The second path is slower, however can yield greater ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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