SEO in 2026

What is SEO nowadays? According to Ed Ziubrzynski, it’s a lot more than just Google. Ed says: “SEO needs to be everything, everywhere, all at once – and at all times.” Does that mean everything in marketing, everything in business, or everything in the world? “Definitely everything in marketing. Gone are the days when SEO was solely split into on-site (your content work, blogs, landing pages, comm...

For Montserrat Cano, the key elements to include in your 2026 strategy are the parts that scale. Montserrat says: “In 2026, SEOs should stay grounded and focus on those strategies that scale across global markets, instead of chasing every single AI-related shiny object.” What are the strategies that scale across global markets? “The strategies I'm referring to are those strategies that reflect you...

Cathryn Stormont shares that good local SEO can still provide a lot of traffic. Cathryn says: “Focus on local SEO. With AI overviews and AI Mode dominating the SERPs, it's really important to focus on local SEO to try and maintain a certain level of traffic volume.” Is this more relevant for certain types of businesses? “There are businesses where their content is very much informational, like sol...

Tom Rudnai says that instead of chasing citations, focus your AEO strategy on showing up in Dark AI conversations where problems are framed. Talking points include: What are Dark AI conversations? How do AI responses change at different stages of the buyer journey? Why are citations is a bad north star metric? How should SEOs measure AI performance? What analytics to use? What content performs bes...

Gemma Fontané recommends that personalisation is key when it comes to international SEO success. Gemma says: “Focus on personalisation, adapting your content in each language and across different formats, to really build your brand in each region. These actions will allow you to stand out from your competition, demonstrate authority and expertise, compete in multilingual markets, and stay visible...

Global SEO isn’t about treating every market the same. As Lau Míguez puts it, ‘European markets demand full commitment and strong EEAT signals — well-positioned experts are now essential for success,’ and that expectation has only grown over the past few years. Lau says: “What’s really shifted is how demanding each market has become. Working closely with Spain, and across international campaigns,...

Simone De Palma warns that client-side routing and rendering can be problematic for rankings. Simone says: “Align with marketing goals, and make sure to challenge anything that is client-side routed or client-side rendered, especially within React web-based apps.” What do the terms client-side routed and client-side rendered mean, and what impact does that have on SEO? “To start with, I will just...

One of the ways that AI engines struggle with determining a brand’s topical relevance and authority is when they encounter inconsistent data, highlights Kaspar Szymanski. Kaspar says: “My tip is about data consistency, which is a topic that is very close to my heart.” How do you ensure data consistency in 2026? “Some people may not consider this to be the most innovative or popular concept, and it...

Krešimir Ćorluka shares that SEO is not dying, but bad SEO most certainly is. Talking points include: What is bad SEO? What doesn’t work anymore? What fundamentals work now? Where are SEOs confused with what works now? How do you learn and stay on top of what works now? How do you futureproof your future success? A lot of the stuff the average SEO has been doing has had the wrong fundamentals. Tec...

Arnout Hellemans advises that you don’t have to provide AI crawlers with full access to all of your content. Arnout says: “People really need to look at their technical setup. With that, I mean the rendered version versus the raw HTML – especially with a lot of AI crawlers not rendering yet, and also because I've seen a lot of discrepancies in that area.” Is the rendered version typically quite di...

One of the ways that you can enhance your website foundation is to combine high technical SEO standards with great user experience, shares Iva Jovanovic. Iva says: “Technical SEO and user experience will remain the foundation for websites, even when optimizing for AI chatbots.” Why do AI chatbots like user experience? “To start with, crawlability has been a topic in SEO for years and years. It's n...

To commence our technical SEO discussion, Jono Alderson advises against settling for an average website. Jono says: “Stop accepting technical mediocrity.” What does mediocrity look like in the world of technical SEO? “We all know it, and we see it all the time. We have accepted that it's normal for websites to be rubbish. Whether they're the ones we work on, our clients’, or the ones we browse, th...

In the previous tip, Eva Cheng shares the value of combining social and content with digital PR. Charlotte Crowther adds to that by also incorporating traditional PR. Charlotte says: “Don't ignore digital and brand PR. They are becoming really entwined with SEO, GEO, and LLMs. Ignoring branded digital PR is going to have a large impact on your visibility, particularly as we're seeing a move toward...

Jeremy Moser discusses how to create a SERP monopoly with off-page SEO. Talking points include: How to crowd SERPs with your brand and capture more mindshare at the bottom of the funnel - Why leveraging paid off-page strategies can still work - Zero click searches are less common at MOFU and BOFU searches, your goal is going narrow and deep and capturing market-share at decision making stages - To...

Eva Cheng shares that aligning social and content strategies will boost your digital PR success. Eva says: “Make your digital PR work harder with social and content alignment.” What does digital PR look like in 2026? “Digital PR in 2026 is all about trying to get your work featured within AI searches. We’re now seeing that a lot of people are relying on AI for the simplest queries, like the best r...

One of the key reasons why you should be embracing digital PR in 2026 is that AI pays a keen ear to what the press is saying. James says: “You need to be earning press mentions if you want your brand to be recommended by AI-powered search.” Why do you suggest press mentions over other content online? “When I talk about AI-powered search, I'm talking about Google's AI overviews and AI Mode, but als...

Annabelle Sacher shares that digital PR is one of the most powerful keys you can use to unlock the door to AI search visibility in 2026. Annabelle says: “As we move into 2026, it's clear that AI search strategy needs to become a core focus for us as SEOs. We know that the search landscape is evolving really, really fast. While, currently, AI only makes up a small percentage of the search landscape...

One way that you can compete with other sites that are relying too heavily on AI is to raise your editorial standards, explains Alex Moss. Alex says : “Be concise and raise the game of your editorial standards.” Why is being concise more important nowadays? “Machines, LLMs, and agents are all ingesting content using tokenization. The more tokenization that's used, the more processing power is requ...

Jeremy Horne shares that analytics should be core to your SEO strategy in 2026 Talking points include: What is a media mix model? Why should analytics be at the core of a marketing strategy? How do you use analytics to power a marketing strategy? How often should you revisit your analytics in relation to powering your marketing strategy? What metrics are key? What software do you use? How do you w...

If you’re an e-commerce business, Joe Hale suggests that you may be missing out on a significant ranking opportunity. Joe says: “E-commerce stores need to be using collection pages to maximise the potential of their SEO.” What are collection pages for e-commerce sites? “Collection pages for e-commerce sites are essentially category pages. They are lists of products that live on the site, and there...

Once you know what you want to be an expert in, Andreas Voniatis advises that you should produce meaningful research to stand out in AI search. Andreas says: “Produce scaled insights in your content, to get your website AI-recommended.” Is that the same as scaling content production? “No. Scaled insights is about producing research that has achieved a significant sample size, which means that the...

One of the big content questions to ask yourself to begin with is: ‘What do you want to be known as an expert in?’ This is something that Pieter Serraris explores. Pieter says: “Don't let AI take away your focus from your bigger SEO strategy. Stay focussed on topics and topical authority.” Should AI be part of your overall SEO strategy? “With a lot of companies, everything seems to revolve around...

As we’ve highlighted already (and will undoubtedly continue to be advised in the future), EEAT is just as important as it ever was. This is what Tom Winter believes. Tom says: “Focus on EEAT – but actual EEAT, not the fake one.” What is fake EEAT? “Right now, I see a lot of SEOs trying to figure out how to create EEAT without actually understanding what EEAT is. They are trying to find hacks (beca...

Tom Vaughton shares that we need to stop relying on the same tools to churn out the same results. Because in the age of AI search, it’s the human SEO perspective and strategist who creates SEO that connects, differentiates, and drives real decisions. Talking points include: What is the value of being quoted in AI? How do you become the brand that AI wants to quote? You advise that SEOs should Stop...

We’ve also heard many metrics that demonstrate how short a user’s attention is likely to be once they hit your web page. Sara Fernández Carmona asks whether you’re driving true, demonstrable value straight away. Sara says: “If your value proposition is not instantly clear, above the fold, your SEO efforts won't pay off. A lot of websites look good from an SEO point of view – you’re getting traffic...