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AI-generated answers seem like a direct danger to the standard organic traffic websites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the content on websites and individuals no longer need to go to a site anymore.
While I personally believe this threat is blown entirely out of proportion (based upon data from websites I have actually personally seen), I do not think it's an excuse to neglect it totally. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, particularly to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written material.
And the audience can detect more subtleties in your message. 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 should absolutely be in your SEO and material technique. Use video as need generation and a way to construct trust with an audience.
And due to the fact that you have actually developed the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will convert better. However there's much more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned some of my finest ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing article, my article would rank even better.
I made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that blog post, and I have actually been ranking # 1 since.
Keep concentrating on Google, which still owns 90% of search market share. Invest in AI search experiments if you have budget, but don't abandon what's in fact driving traffic and conversions today. In 2025, we saw everybody discussing how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing neighborhood as a whole started to get bombarded with influencers trying to ride the AI hype train.
It ended up being difficult to find trusted sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to sell us something. While I do believe there are advantages to using LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I anticipate lots of marketers will recognize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply a little part of the SEO market.
Distribution Excellence for Modern Professional BrandsGoogle 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. Browse behavior hasn't basically moved far from Google. Beyond just that, there are a couple of things that have actually rubbed me the incorrect method about the AI SEO trend.
What these marketers don't realize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be revealed in ChatGPT. The informational top of funnel content is "eaten up" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
Google's conversion rates show less because the traffic is greater due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel content that is in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never ever completely follows prompts correctly (i.e.
I do still believe that think companies bigger set aside an experimental budget speculative spending plan things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools.
These strategies may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will ultimately get penalized. Focus on white hat techniques that construct real authority and trust over time rather of chasing quick wins that will not last.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't name this individual, however I met an SEO director at a substantial banking business.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary company domain, that has an extremely 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 substantial, reliable business are doing this. And I understood just how much black hat (or grey hat) strategies are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these strategies will continue to take place. Up until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as wise as Google's search algorithm.
Concentrate on quality over amount. Share real insights, utilize 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. Specific niche blogging is back child. With a twist. This is one of the greatest SEO trends for content marketing I'm seeing today.
You require a real organization, be it a newsletter company, a service-based company, SaaS business, or ecommerce shop. And then you include 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 consist of AI material and which don't.
In reality, I understand lots of people quietly crushing it with AI created content (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am saying is that engaging, human content will outrank AI generated material 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 post and get them to rank at the top of the very first page. Quality over amount. The first path is based on sheer volume, and can result in traffic growth. You do risk a prospective algorithm update injuring your rankings. And anybody who composes better human content will rank higher in positions 1-3. The second route is slower, however can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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