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Specifically CMOs and those responsible for a business's marketing success. AI-generated answers look like a direct risk to the conventional organic traffic sites utilized to obtain from search engines. Before, you needed to click a website to see the results. Today, LLMs just rip the content on sites and people no longer need to check out a website any longer.
While I personally believe this hazard is blown totally out of proportion (based on data from sites I've personally seen), I do not think it's an excuse to overlook it totally. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, especially to offer something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written material.
It's a lot easier to tell if someone is lying or complete of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube must certainly be in your SEO and content method.
And due to the fact that you have built the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will transform better. There's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned some of my best ranking blog posts into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my blog posts would rank even much better.
I used rank 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 considering that. So in 2026, think about YouTube videos as a method to intensify your SEO blog posts to rank even better.
In 2025, we saw everyone talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing community as an entire begun to get bombarded with influencers trying to ride the AI hype train.
It ended up being hard to find trusted sources that weren't biased or had a concealed agenda to offer us something. While I do think there are benefits to using LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I predict many online marketers will recognize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply 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 search engine race. Search behavior hasn't fundamentally moved far from Google. Beyond just that, there are a couple of things that have rubbed me the wrong method about the AI SEO pattern.
What these marketers don't understand 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 "consumed up" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that exact same concept over to Google, you would see the exact same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates reveal less due to the fact that 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 totally follows triggers 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. However in 2026, I forecast individuals will understand enhancing for Google will permit them to show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity too. Simply take a look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet browsers.
These strategies might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will ultimately get punished. Focus on white hat strategies that construct real authority and trust over time rather of chasing after quick wins that won't last.
Now, the algorithm is fully grown enough to neglect all that nonsense. ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown. I can't call this person, however I fulfilled an SEO director at a huge banking business. This individual informed me they (and all their competitors) are developing microsites (like little blogs) on different domains.
And from there, they are using their primary business domain, that has an incredibly strong brand name authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually resulted in greater rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, respectable business are doing this. And I understood just how much black hat (or grey hat) tactics are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I anticipate these methods 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 recommend engaging in this. It's brief term thinking and your energy is finest invested in white hat marketing techniques that can stand the test of time and improve your websites trust signals with time.
Concentrate on quality over amount. Share genuine insights, use your own images and videos, and build topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo creators and little teams can beat big brands in 2026. Specific niche blogging is back baby. With a twist. This is among the most significant SEO trends for content marketing I'm seeing right now.
You require a real business, be it a newsletter service, a service-based service, SaaS business, or ecommerce store. And after that you include on this human-centered niche blogging to the website to organically grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I forecast that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which web pages include AI content and which do not.
I understand heaps of individuals quietly crushing it with AI produced content (even going after top of funnel keywords). But what I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI generated content without any initial insights. There are two routes I see with SEO's today: 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 quantity. The very first route is based on large volume, and can result in traffic growth. However you do run the risk of a possible algorithm upgrade hurting your rankings. And anyone who composes better human content will rank greater in positions 1-3. The second path is slower, but can yield greater ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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