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AI-generated responses seem like a direct danger to the conventional natural traffic sites utilized to get from search engines. Today, LLMs just rip the material on sites and people no longer need to check out a site any longer.
While I personally believe this risk is blown entirely out of proportion (based on information from websites I've personally seen), I do not believe it's an excuse to disregard it completely. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, particularly to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written content.
It's a lot much easier to inform if somebody is lying or complete of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube needs to definitely be in your SEO and material method.
And due to the fact that you have built the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will convert better. There's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned a few of my best ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing article, my article would rank even much better.
I used 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've been ranking # 1 given that. So in 2026, consider YouTube videos as a method to intensify your SEO post to rank even better.
Keep focusing on Google, which still owns 90% of search market share. Purchase AI search experiments if you have budget, but don't desert what's actually driving traffic and conversions today. In 2025, we saw everybody discussing how AI search was going to take control of 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 tough to find trusted sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to offer 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 anticipate many marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply a small 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 online search engine race. Browse behavior hasn't essentially shifted away from Google. Beyond simply that, there are a couple of things that have actually rubbed me the incorrect way about the AI SEO trend.
What these marketers do not understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The informative top of funnel content 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 because the traffic is higher due to it being watered down by all the top of funnel content that remains in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never ever fully follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still think that bigger business will set aside a speculative budget plan to test things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. But in 2026, I predict people will recognize optimizing for Google will enable them to appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity as well. Just look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet web browsers.
These tactics may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will eventually get punished. Focus on white hat techniques that develop genuine authority and trust over time rather of going after quick wins that will not last.
Now, the algorithm is mature enough to overlook all that rubbish. ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't name this person, however I satisfied an SEO director at a huge banking business. This person informed me they (and all their rivals) are developing microsites (like small blog sites) on different domains.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary business domain, that has an exceptionally strong brand name 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 big, credible companies are doing this. And I recognized just how much black hat (or grey hat) methods are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these strategies will continue to occur. Up until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as smart as Google's search algorithm.
Concentrate on quality over quantity. Share genuine insights, utilize your own images and videos, and develop topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo creators and small teams can beat substantial brand names in 2026. Niche blogging is back baby. But with a twist. This is one of the biggest SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing today.
You require a genuine company, be it a newsletter service, a service-based organization, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And after that you include on this human-centered niche blogging to the website 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 consist of AI material and which don't.
In truth, I know tons of people silently squashing it with AI generated content (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am stating is that engaging, human content will outrank AI generated material with no initial insights. There are two routes I see with SEO's right now: Produce thousands of AI-generated article and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human blog posts 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 result in traffic development. You do run the risk of a prospective algorithm upgrade harming your rankings. And anyone who composes better human content will rank greater in positions 1-3. The 2nd route is slower, but can yield greater ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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