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Specifically CMOs and those responsible for a company's marketing success. AI-generated answers look like a direct hazard to the traditional organic traffic sites utilized to receive from online search engine. Before, you needed to click a site to see the outcomes. Today, LLMs just rip the content on sites and people no longer need to go to a site anymore.
While I personally believe this risk is blown totally out of proportion (based upon information from websites I have actually personally seen), I don't believe it's a reason to overlook it totally. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, especially to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written content.
It's a lot easier to inform if someone is lying or full of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube ought to certainly be in your SEO and content technique.
And since you have actually built the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will convert better. But there's a lot more to it. Earlier this year, I had a hunch that if I turned a few of my finest ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my article would rank even better.
I utilized rank in 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 considering that. So in 2026, believe of YouTube videos as a way to boost your SEO post to rank even much better.
Keep concentrating on Google, which still owns 90% of search market share. Buy AI search experiments if you have budget, however do not abandon 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 just SEO, the marketing neighborhood as a whole begun to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became tough to discover relied on sources that weren't prejudiced or had a hidden agenda to sell 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 numerous marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just 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. Search habits hasn't basically shifted away from Google. Beyond simply that, there are a couple of things that have actually rubbed me the wrong way about the AI SEO trend.
What these marketers don't realize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be revealed in ChatGPT. The educational top of funnel material is "eaten up" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that same idea over to Google, you would see the same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates show less because the traffic is higher due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel content that remains in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never completely follows prompts correctly (i.e.
I do still believe that bigger business will set aside an experimental budget plan to evaluate things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. In 2026, I forecast people will understand optimizing for Google will permit them to reveal up in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Just look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet 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 real authority and trust over time rather of going after fast wins that won't last.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't call this individual, however I fulfilled an SEO director at a big banking company.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary company domain, that has an incredibly strong brand authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has led to higher rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that big, credible business are doing this. And I recognized just how much black hat (or grey hat) methods are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I forecast these methods will continue to take place. Up until 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 taking part in this. It's short term thinking and your energy is finest invested on white hat marketing methods that can stand the test of time and improve your websites trust signals with time.
Focus on quality over quantity. Share genuine insights, use your own images and videos, and build topical authority in your niche. This is how solo developers and little groups can beat big brands in 2026. Niche blogging is back baby. But with a twist. This is among the most significant SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing today.
You need a real service, be it a newsletter company, a service-based organization, SaaS business, or ecommerce store. And after that you add on this human-centered specific 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 content and which don't.
In truth, I understand lots of individuals quietly squashing it with AI created material (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am stating is that engaging, human content will outrank AI produced material with no original insights. There are two paths I see with SEO's today: Produce thousands of AI-generated post 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 anyone who composes better human material will rank higher in positions 1-3. The second route is slower, but can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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