SEO in 2026

Tamara Novitović shares the importance of predicting user needs with AI & secure backlinks that drive rankings and engagement. Talking points include: How do we Predict user needs with AI? How does this help to secure backlinks that drive both rankings and engagement? How important a ranking factor is user intent and how should we optimise for it? What about engagement - how important a rankin...

Manuel Madeddu shares the importance of not being used by AI. Discussion points include: What are the challenges with AI? What’s best practice? What is a holistic approach? How do you work on efficiencies? What are your thoughts on search engines using AI?

Taylor Kurtz discusses the importance of utilizing AI as an ally, rather than viewing it as a threat. Discussion points include: Why might AI be a threat? How do you turn it into an ally? How do you use AI for different agency tasks? - client communication - report analysis - content creation - much more? What sectors are you finding to be particularly suitable for the use of AI? What about halluc...

James Brockbank shares the importance of thinking about E-E-A-T as your brand’s online reputation. Talking points include: How can E-E-A-T your brand’s online reputation? What aspects of E-E-A-T are key to doing this? How do you align link building, content and brand signals? What aspects of link building, content and brand signals do you focus on most and why? Can you do this in an automated way?...

Chris Meabe shares the importance of including expert perspectives in your content. Discussion points include: How do you become an expert source? What measurable impact does it have? What statistics are Google using to quantify the level of expertise? How do you demonstrate your level of expertise? How do you enhance your level of expertise? How do you become the reliable source?

Jack Chambers Ward shares that authenticity is the difference maker for content in 2025. Discussion points include Jack's 5 tips for creating authentic content: 1. Curate your content like you’re a magazine editor 2. Let your brand values drive the content, before the brief, before the keywords. 3. Stay consistent with your message and branding across channels 4. Leverage positive and negative ele...

Dani Leitner shares the importance of concentrating on one topic at a time to gain topical authority and improve rankings. Talking points include: Why is Google focusing more on topical authority? What difference does this make to the quality of content it serves? What does this do for a small brand’s ability to compete? Why can small brands compete more effectively? How do you build topical autho...

Iva Jovanovic shares the importance of focusing on delivering meaningful content to users (and don't dismiss EEAT signals) . Talking points include: What is meaningful content? How important is EEAT in content in 2025? You say that “Quality content will now more than ever be the main thing for all search engines” - how do you define quality content? By all search engines - are you mainly referring...

In this episode, Ryan Jones shares the importance of focusing on building brand search volume. Discussion points include: Why is building brand search volume important? How do you measure increases in brand search volume? How do you know which marketing activity increased the brand search volume? Can SEOs claim credit for increasing brand search volume? What are the key SEO activities that can inc...

Gemma Fontané shares that Experience (within the E-E-A-T family) is the key element within the AI era. Discussion points include: - How experience will be a differential element for websites - Concrete tips to leverage experience through Google (&other platforms) - Why is experience so important? - How does Google measure experience? - How do you demonstrate experience? - How will the importan...

Jono Alderson shares that we should stop writing articles. He says "Stop assuming that 'producing content' is a core, valuable, or necessary component of modern SEO. Burn your content marketing playbook, and critically assess the role of content in a world where Google can synthesize answers to increasingly large numbers of (types of) queries." Discussion points include: Why do we need to burn our...

Laura Iancu discusses the intersection between UX and SEO with David Bain. Talking points include: Do you need to be a UX designer to deliver a user-friendly website architecture? What are some simple steps to take in order to deliver a search engine-friendly website? How do you like to stay on top of the latest UX trends and techniques? How do you ensure that UX and SEO works together effectively...

Andy Mollison shares the importance of using AI to help do the dirty work (the boring bits), but don't forget to be human first. He shares that using scripts and tools can automate processes that would normally take hours. Discussion points include: You say “Don’t forget to be human-first.” What does that mean in practice? What elements need to be done by a human? What processes should you be auto...

In this episode, Nikolas Monti-Potsolakis shares that SEO will be more about people, building relationships and getting to show empathy. Being in someone’s shoes. Understanding. And ultimately caring for their clients' business. For the person. Not just the numbers. Going above and beyond their needs and egos. Discussion points include: How can you measure the ROI of people? What good does buildin...

Amit Raj discusses the importance of relevance and depth when it comes to content and link building with David Bain. Discussion points include: What is relevance? Available vs retainable market / KD score Links - context - what content attracts best links? Most relevant links - content pitching publications What do you mean by depth? What does this mean when it comes to content? What does this mea...

Desmond Boateng shares the importance of not forgetting the human touch, hosted by David Bain. Discussion points include: How do you know when to use the human touch and when to rely on AI and automation? When does the use of AI go too far? You say that Google is smart enough to recognize your AI content - surely if you’re subtle with your use of AI content then this won’t be obvious to Google? Ho...

In this episode, Julia Carolin-Zeng discusses the return to human written content, how the flood of AI content has caused a decrease in quality and seeing a return to content written by humans with a human voice. Talking points include: How do you measure this decrease in quality? Is AI not getting better and better? How can human writers possibly compete with the speed of AI? What does “with a hu...

Arnout Hellemans shares that SEO in 2025 is a lot about task completion and query satisfaction. This means that UX and CRO will start to play an even bigger part in the ordering of documents. Discussion points include: What do you mean that SEO in 2025 is a lot about task completion and query satisfaction? How do you optimize for task completion and query satisfaction? What role will UX and CRO pl...

Jade Pruett shares the importance of focusing on creating original, expert-driven content with real stories and insights - and that Google rewards value over keyword stuffing. Discussion points include: What does the best original content look like at the moment? What do you mean by expert-driven content? Can you use internal and external experts? What kind of real stories and insights do Google p...

In this episode, Fabio Embalo shares that in 2025, SEO strategies will prioritise user experience, leverage AI-driven content and branding synergy, and emphasise mobile-first indexing, as search engines evolve to deeply understand user intent and content relevance. Discussion points include: How do we use AI and Machine Learning to analyse search trends? And what about content strategies - how do...

According to Heike Knip's conversation with David Bain, accessibility will be a ranking factor in 2025. Topics discussed include: Why will Accessibility be a ranking factor? How important will it be? What does Accessibility seem more important now than it used to be? How will it impact rankings? What legislation is going to enforce this? What will SEOs and UX professionals have to do to comply wit...

Sara Fernández Carmona shares the importance of optimizing for both search engines and users. Hosted by David Bain. Discussion points include: How would you define accessibility? In 2025, the European Union will enforce the European Accessibility Act - how would you summarise that and what does that mean for SEOs? What are the areas that providing good accessibility offers beyond visual impairment...

Billie Geena Hyde shares that Accessibility is sexy again (with the changes to the European Accessibility Act). Hosted by David Bain. Discussion points include: What changes have we seen to the European Accessibility Act? How does this affect SEOs? What are examples of the real data and facts around accessibility? How do we measure the value of improving accessibility? What are some big opportunit...

Yordan Dimitrov shares the importance of adapting to AI search trends with strong brand authority. Discussion points include: What AI search trends are you referring to? How do you adapt to AI search trends with strong brand authority? What does strong brand authority look like? How do you measure strong brand authority in the age of AI? How will AI search trends continue to evolve? How will this...

Martina Zrzavá Libřická shares that Customer Experience is the Alpha and Omega of SEO in 2025 - with David Bain. Discussion points include: What does Customer Experience becoming the Alpha and Omega of SEO actually mean in practice? Why is customer experience so important to SEO? What data should SEOs be looking for to find out more about their users? Which other in-house teams should you involve...