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AI-generated answers seem like a direct danger to the conventional natural traffic websites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs just rip the material on websites and people no longer require to go to a website any longer.
While I personally think this threat is blown entirely out of proportion (based on information from websites I've personally seen), I do not believe it's an excuse to ignore it completely. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, especially to offer something, I can inform you that video converts way more than composed content.
And the viewer can detect more subtleties in your message. It's a lot easier to inform if somebody is lying or loaded with it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. So YouTube ought to definitely be in your SEO and material method. Use video as demand generation and a way to construct trust with an audience.
And due to the fact that you have constructed the trust with video, your traditional SEO efforts will convert much better. But there's much more to it. Previously this year, I had a hunch that if I turned a few of my finest ranking post into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing blog posts, my blog site posts would rank even much better.
I made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that blog post, and I've been ranking # 1 given that.
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 attempting to ride the AI hype train.
It ended up being difficult to discover trusted sources that weren't biased or had a hidden agenda to offer us something. While I do believe there are benefits to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast lots of marketers will recognize 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 remains in the ideal position to win the AI search engine race. Browse behavior hasn't essentially shifted far from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have rubbed me the wrong way about the AI SEO pattern.
What these online marketers don't understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The informational top of funnel material is "eaten up" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
Google's conversion rates reveal less because the traffic is greater due to it being watered down by all the top of funnel material that is in the equation. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never ever totally follows triggers properly (i.e.
I do still believe that think companies bigger set aside an experimental budget to spending plan things check ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools.
These methods might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however 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 will not last.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown. I can't name this individual, but I satisfied an SEO director at a huge banking business.
And from there, they are using their main business domain, that has an incredibly strong brand authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually resulted in higher rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that big, respectable companies are doing this. And I understood just how much black hat (or grey hat) tactics are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I forecast these strategies will continue to occur. Till ChatGPT's algorithm gets as clever as Google's search algorithm. That seems like a long time from now. Anyways, I personally would not recommend participating in this. It's short term thinking and your energy is finest spent on white hat marketing techniques that can stand the test of time and improve your websites trust signals in time.
Focus 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 developers and small teams can beat substantial brands in 2026. Niche blogging is back child. However with a twist. This is among the biggest SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing today.
You require a real business, be it a newsletter company, a service-based business, SaaS company, or ecommerce store. And then you add on this human-centered niche blogging to the site 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 do not.
In fact, I understand lots of individuals silently crushing it with AI generated content (even pursuing top of funnel keywords). However what I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI generated content without any original insights. There are 2 routes I see with SEO's right now: Produce thousands of AI-generated blog posts 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 very first page. And anybody who writes better human material will rank higher in positions 1-3. The second path is slower, but can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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