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AI-generated answers appear like a direct threat to the conventional organic traffic sites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the content on websites and individuals no longer need to visit a site any longer.
While I personally believe this danger is blown totally out of proportion (based on data from websites I've personally seen), I do not think it's an excuse to ignore it totally. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, specifically to offer something, I can tell you that video converts way more than composed material.
It's a lot much easier to inform if someone is lying or full of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube should definitely be in your SEO and material strategy.
And due to the fact that you have actually built the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will convert much better. There's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had a hunch that if I turned some of my best ranking blog site posts into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my post 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 have actually been ranking # 1 given that. So in 2026, consider YouTube videos as a way to intensify your SEO blog site posts 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 neighborhood as a whole begun to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became hard to discover relied on 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 think it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast many marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just 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 perfect position to win the AI search engine race. Browse habits hasn't essentially moved far from Google. Beyond simply that, there are a few things that have rubbed me the incorrect way about the AI SEO pattern.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% discussion rate and is better by more than 2X compared to Google. What these online marketers do not understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be revealed 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 principle over to Google, you would see the same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates reveal less due to the fact that 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 ever fully follows triggers properly (i.e.
I do still believe that larger companies will set aside a speculative budget to evaluate things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. However in 2026, I forecast people will understand optimizing for Google will enable them to show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity also. Simply look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet web browsers.
These methods might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will ultimately get punished. Focus on white hat techniques that develop genuine authority and trust over time rather of chasing fast wins that won't last.
Now, the algorithm is fully grown enough to neglect all that nonsense. However, ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown yet. I can't name this individual, but I fulfilled an SEO director at a huge banking company. This person told me they (and all their competitors) are producing microsites (like little blogs) on various domains.
And from there, they are using their primary company domain, that has an incredibly strong brand name authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has resulted in greater rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, reliable business are doing this. And I understood just how much black hat (or grey hat) methods are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I anticipate these tactics will continue to occur. Up until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as clever as Google's search algorithm.
Concentrate on quality over quantity. Share real insights, use your own images and videos, and construct topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo developers and little groups can beat huge brand names in 2026. Niche blogging is back baby. With a twist. This is among the greatest SEO patterns for material marketing I'm seeing right now.
You need a genuine company, be it a newsletter service, a service-based business, SaaS business, or ecommerce shop. And after that you add on this human-centered specific 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 web pages include AI content and which do not.
I understand lots of individuals silently crushing it with AI produced content (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI created material with no initial 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 first page. And anybody who writes 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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