SEO in 2026

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...

Not all metrics are tangible, though. Anna Bravington asks us a simple question: Are you proud of the content that you are putting out into the world? Anna says: “As AI becomes part of our workflow, ethical SEO means that you should be creating content that you're proud to put back into the world.” Does ethical SEO mean human-created content? “Not necessarily. I'm a huge believer in AI for helping...

What worked in content marketing 5 years ago isn’t as likely to work now. Araminta Robertson advises us to focus on bottom-of-funnel in 2026. Araminta says: “Now, it's more important than ever to do bottom-of-funnel content to help appear for the right topics and the right keywords in Google, but also for LLMs.” How do you describe the different stages of the funnel, and the content that is needed...

A key way to beat the competition is to learn from other industries. Rosemary Osuoha teaches us what we can learn from healthcare brands. Rosemary says: “Healthcare brands can use AI and SEO to reach more patients using research papers.” How can you use research papers to reach more users, and why is this particularly beneficial for healthcare brands? “First of all, I'm a healthcare professional....

Brandon Leibowitz talks about the importance of focusing on building topical authority in 2026 by creating in-depth content hubs that answer your audience’s questions better than anyone else. Talking points include: What are in-depth content hubs? How do you find your audience’s questions? What metrics do you use to ensure that you are answering the right questions? How do you know what type of co...

One of the key challenges at the moment is to identify which tasks should be done by AI and which tasks should be done by a human. This is something that Ahmed Bhula explores. Ahmed says: “Use AI as part of your SEO workflow, and involve the human element at every point.” How do you decide what AI should do and what humans should do? “Where there's administrative work – researching keywords, repet...

Valentina Stragliotto explores the idea that it’s also key to demonstrate expertise and trustworthiness through high-quality content. Valentina says: “Focus on EEAT and high-quality content. Also, use traditional SEO, as we always have.” Is EEAT just as relevant for newer, AI search engines as it is for more traditional search engines? “We have been talking a lot about GEO as opposed to SEO. After...

Isa Lavahun explains that you can enhance the perceived authority of your content through real, human expertise. Isa says: “Authority should be built on earned expertise. What I mean by that is real experience and credible voices that can’t be easily replicated or automated. In the age of AI, the most humanised content is what’s going to give you competitive edge” How does a person earn that exper...

You’ve selected your content distribution opportunities based upon AI and where your audience resides, but your content should be written based upon real, authentic human experience, according to Greg Gifford. Greg says: “Don’t get distracted by all of the AI content on the web. A lot of people are choosing to use AI to write all of their content, but AI is just predicting words based on the conte...

Nick Musica shares that the technical, on-page, and off-page. The expressions of those SEO building blocks have evolved over the years, but they remain the fundamental building blocks. Talking points include: What do you mean by “The expressions of those SEO building blocks have evolved over the years” What are the fundamental SEO building blocks of on-page? What are the fundamental SEO building b...

When you are creating content, you need to be thinking multimodally, advises Irina Papuc. Irina says: “Think multimodally. A consistent trend that we've seen growing over time is the inclusion of different types of media in search results. AI can already parse images and videos really well, and it can also explain what's depicted in detail. By thinking multimodally, you will increasingly capitalis...

Katherine Nwanorue shares that the content medium you select should be based upon the content medium that your target AI platform prefers. Katherine says: “Multimodal content isn't new, but AI is going to make it non-negotiable.” How would you describe multimodal content? “Basically, it is content that exists across several mediums. We have audio, video, text, and images. For as long as I can reme...

One of the ways that you can teach AI about what you offer is to enhance your image offering. This is what Desmond Boateng advises. Desmond says: “Use visual commerce, which means using contextual images for e-commerce. Also, for any business that works with products, instead of using plain product photos, use contextual photos with different settings based on AI.” Is there a type of image that yo...

Myriam Jessier highlights the importance of ensuring that machines truly see the precise nature of your products. Myriam says: “Everyone is slowly coming to realise that SEO is changing in many different ways. My tip is to make sure that your brand and your products are machine-readable, because we're dealing with multimodal search now. That means I can take out my phone, take a picture of your pr...

Kirsty McLellan shares that it's key to stop designing SEO pages as AI encyclopaedias — and start designing them as human experiences. Talking points include: How do you design pages for AI and humans? If you design for humans are you less optimised for AI? Can you design separate pages for AI and humans? What does the optimum combined optimised page look like? Is it worthwhile to still optimize f...

Tory Gray highlights that community blends the worlds of AI and SEO together. Tory says: “Drop the AI and SEO binary and redirect that effort into tactics, including community-building tactics, that increase visibility across both platforms.” Are you saying that anything you do for SEO is naturally optimizing for AI as well? “Not inherently everything, but there is significant overlap. It’s simila...

Jon Mest shares that AI needs human interaction in order to be confident in the authority of recommendations. Jon says: “User intent matters more than ever in AI search.” How do you determine what the user intent is in AI search? “So much of traditional SEO is about building your backlink profile, making sure that other reputable sites reference you, and making sure that other people say that you...