SEO in 2026

In many ways, the shifting SERP can feel like uncharted territory. Thankfully, Pam Aungst Cronin from Pam Ann Marketing is drawing up the maps for AI overviews as the new frontier. Pam says: “Focus on optimizing for AI overviews in Google, Bing, and even OpenAI’s forthcoming search engine – as well as the 10 blue links. You can sort of think of them as one and the same because initial studies show...

Like Folashade, Eli Schwartz, author of Product-Led SEO, believes that AI tools can help you gain a deeper understanding of the people behind the search queries. Eli says: “Everyone’s been talking about using AI for SEO, and they’re focusing on the wrong aspect of it. AI shouldn’t be used to create content; it should be used to understand your users and figure out who they are. You can then use AI...

Folashade Uba from Maersk has uncovered another often-overlooked but abundant source of user insight, direct from the horse’s mouth: support queries. Folashade says: “Analysing support queries is crucial for identifying customers’ pain points, uncovering their search intent, and discovering patterns and emerging trends in 2025. You can also use topic modelling to enhance your SEO strategies.” What...

Travis Tallent shares with David Bain that knowing where your audience's demand starts makes your SEO demand capture 10X stronger. Talking points include: When you say 10x stronger, what do you mean by that? How do you know where your audience's demand starts? What tools do you use to determine this? How do you know how to meet that demand? How do you know that this demand will convert to web traf...

Given the importance of understanding your users, you’re probably wondering where you can learn what they want. Michael MacMillan from MacMillan Search believes sales conversations are the place to look. Michael says: “Avoid ultra-competitive topics with limited intent by mining sales conversations for bottom-of-funnel content.” What are examples of ultra-competitive topics? “Project management is...

Sarah suggested you look into cognitive biases, and Garrett Sussman from iPullRank is here to help you do just that. Learn how these biases impact the way users behave to give you an edge over the competition. Garrett says: “Understand the role of cognitive biases in SEO. Our brains play a lot of tricks on us. When people are searching for things, we can be deceived by the shortcuts that our brain...

To really get to know your users, you need to get inside their heads. Sarah Pokorná Presch from Dragon Metrics tells you how to use the psychology of your customers to your advantage. Sarah says: “Start using psychology to stay ahead in the SERPs. The reason why I say that is because, if you don’t have any content, you’re not going to rank. If you don’t have any user experience, you’re not going t...

As Jake touched on, getting to know your users is also about knowing what journeys they are on. Christopher Hofman from HofmanSEO encourages you to map out those journeys and meet them on the road. Christopher says: “I work with B2B customers, so my focus is on them succeeding with SEO. In B2B, customer journeys are very long, with lots of touchpoints and lots of influences. I recommend that you m...

Ramona Joita shares with David Bain the importance of focusing on Omnichannel SEO. Talking points include: What is Omnichannel SEO? What impact is AI having on this? You mentioned that it's becoming increasingly crucial to understand that exclusively aiming for the number one ranking on Google is not sufficient - what should the additional aims be? How do you own more of the search space? How do y...

While Becky helped you prepare for the future, Jake Gauntley from KINESSO UK is keen to make sure that the users themselves don’t get lost along the way. Jake says: “Don’t lose sight of the people that you are actually trying to reach through SEO. As things like AI become ever-present in our lives and working plans, you should be tapping into the human side of search. It’s going to be even more im...

Becky Simms from Reflect Digital has advice on how to be ahead of the game so that you’re ready for the new ways that users interact in a world of omnipresent AI. Becky says: “With the ramping up of AI, we need to start thinking about how behaviour is going to change. We’re seeing a lot of search engines integrating it into how the algorithm works and the results that they’re showing, and we want...

Despite the expanding plethora of information available to us, it seems to be harder than ever to know what users are thinking. Mark Williams-Cook from Candour reminds you that intent is always changing. Mark says: “You should be monitoring search intent shift. Be aware of when what users want, and what they mean when they use a search term, changes over time – and adapt accordingly.” How do you f...

Getting a little more specific, Aleyda Solis from Orainti encourages you to turn your attention towards the long tail keywords to keep up with changing user behaviour. Aleyda says: “Target and focus more on answering the long tail queries of your users. We are going to see a much bigger and more important impact from those as a consequence of the AI overviews and personalised AI results that we ex...

Tom Winter discusses with David Bain the importance of understanding your topical authority with AI to dominate your niche. Talking points include: What is topical authority? Tell me about the Sitefocus score in latest Google score Why is authority so important in the eyes of Google? How do you determine what Google think your topical authority should be? What to do if Google gets it wrong How to...

While he acknowledges the importance of entities, Charlie Whitworth from Whitworth SEO is here to remind you that keywords are still an integral piece of the puzzle. Charlie says: “Keywords do still matter.” Why do some people not believe that to be the case? “I don’t know if it’s off the back of AI developments, but a lot of people have been talking about keywords being dead and saying that you s...

Martha van Berkel from Schema App takes us deeper into the minutiae of entity SEO to look more closely at schema markup and how to build a powerful knowledge graph. Martha says: “Start to think about entity SEO and managing your content knowledge graph.” How would you define an entity? “I always like to think about an entity as a thing. When you’re in a business, you can think about the most impor...

As Jason pointed out, the value of entities goes beyond helping Google categorise your content. Ulrika Viberg from Unikorn explains how they can be the key to getting your brand noticed. Ulrika says: “Utilise entities – not only for content creation, as we have been doing for quite some time, but also for brand optimization. You can make your brand properly stand out in the search results by optim...

To kick off our deep dive into entities, Jason Barnard from Kalicube breaks down how and why you need to optimize your entities in 2025 – from the content itself to the creator and the publisher. Jason says: “You need to focus on Entity Optimization for EEAT, or what we at Kalicube call NEEATT.” Entity Optimization starts with entity understanding, is that correct? “Yes, 100%. Without entity under...

Reena Bowden shares with David Bain why and how did we should create a multi-function approach to SEO. Talking points include: What do you mean by a multi-function approach to SEO? How has SEO evolved throughout the organisation over the past few years? Who’s responsible for different aspects of SEO nowadays? What are the changes driven by? What are the advantages to these changes? What does this...

It wouldn’t be long before AI joined the brand party! If you want your name to show up in AI-driven results, then taking control of your brand entity is key, according to Crystal Carter from Wix. Crystal says: “Manage your brand entity for visibility in generative search engines and tools.” Why does generative search visibility mean that you should rethink your brand entity? “One of the things tha...

Like the others in this chapter, Casie Gillette from Customers.ai believes that brand is changing the face of SEO. In her view, you don’t just need to build links anymore; you need to get your name out there. Casie says: “Brand mentions are the new links. Considering what we’re seeing with AI overviews, Reddit, and Quora, forums are back. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s where you’re going to ha...

You can put the work into your brand identity, but your customers need to recognise and believe in it too. Rana Abu Quba Chamsi from Expando. Digital explains how to gain a customer’s trust and attention. Rana says: “Everything is changing, so build trust and focus on brand awareness for your clients.” Why do you believe that traditional metrics are losing their importance? “In the SEO world, we l...

Like Rejoice, Annika Haataja from Seeker Digital believes in the power of the brand, and she believes that brand should be central to everything that you do. Annika says: “Make brand SEO a firm part of your analysis and strategy. Consider brand almost as a superpower for websites and companies. I would count it as one of the three main pillars that can give you a huge competitive advantage. The fi...

Grégory Dominé joins David Bain to discuss the importance of shifting to agile SEO. Talking points include: What does working in an agile way actually mean? What are the benefits of working in an agile manner? What are the practical steps that you can take in order to shift to Agile SEO? Are there elements of SEO that can’t work in an agile approach? What are examples of tasks that work really wel...

In a world increasingly overpopulated with labels, Rejoice Ojiaku from Nelson Bostock UNLIMITED suggests brand archetypes as a way to make your identity cohesive and compelling to the customers that matter. Rejoice says: “Start incorporating and integrating brand archetypes into your content strategy to align your content and identify buyer personas.” What is a brand archetype? “Brand archetypes a...