SEO in 2026

An extremely popular community platform in 2026 is Reddit, and building your own branded subreddit is something that Chris Meabe recommends. Chris says: “Make your own branded subreddit. The fact that Reddit is dominating the SERPs right now is something that everyone is noticing, even people who aren't SEO specialists. It's a really fast and underappreciated way to start ranking for a lot of high...

Erin Simmons shares that, although AI is important, users still rely on communities to assist with the final buying decision. Erin says: “In 2026, we’re already starting to see that AI is where people start their research, and community is where people make up their minds. Therefore, in 2026, the smartest SEO strategies are going to optimize for both.” Is it becoming the norm for people to use AI...

Richard George shares that content decay, where website content becomes outdated or irrelevant, negatively impacts user engagement, SEO, and brand reputation, and requires practical strategies and tools for identification and management to keep content fresh and effective. Talking points include: How do you identify ineffective content? What metrics do you look at? What has the zero click serp don...

Andrew Stubbs suggests that, once you understand your consumers, you should be ensuring that your content is structured appropriately to be featured by AI search engines. Andrew says: “There is a growing need to understand an awful lot more about consumer activity in terms of where they're actually searching. People used to go on about voice search, which is obviously important, but now you should...

Christopher Hofman Laursen shares that once you’ve mapped out your customer journey, it’s time to determine where AI is going to help you. Christopher says: “Take a step back and really try to understand where generated AI platforms will fit into the customer journey.” Do you do that by instinct, or is there research and data you can use to determine where that's likely to be? “First off, it's sup...

Gianluca Fiorelli advises that, to truly understand and deliver for your customer in 2026, you should be revisiting how you utilise clustering at every touchpoint. Gianluca says: “Rethink the concept of clustering. We usually think of clustering as something that is only for creating content, especially in the informational space. However, we know that we need to be visible along the entire search...

Becky Simms shares that user intent doesn’t stand still, and this is something that you should be continually analysing. Becky says: “We are seeing huge shifts in how people search, and you need to stay on top of that, but not just by looking at what platforms are doing. You need to understand what users are doing, and how their intent is changing where they search.”

Joao Pereira shares the importance of being where your users are. Talking points include: How do you know where your users are? How do you identify who your users are? What tools do you use to help to identify where they interact? What do you do once you know where your users are? How does this fit into your marketing funnel? What measurable SEO benefit does this have?

It’s one thing to understand who your audience is, but how do you get a true sense of what your customers experience? Eli Schwartz advises walking a mile in their shoes. Eli says: “Map out your customer journey and figure out where search fits.” How do you start mapping an actual search journey? “It's very, very simple: you switch chairs. Marketers always have this marketing hat on when they're tr...

Will Slater uses a ’90s analogy to demonstrate the importance of being unique, even though it takes a little bit longer to get done. Will says: “Be more mixtape, specifically when you're writing content. To explain that, I need to take you back in time to the mid-90s. I'm a big music fan, I have been for most of my life, and my formative years with music were in the ‘90s. Back then, there were two...

Melissa Popp highlights that it’s easy to take the easy route when it comes to creating content in 2026, but this isn’t the way you stand out. Melissa says: “With AI rewriting the rules of search, content that zeroes in on real user intent is the only content that will stand out and survive.” How do you establish the user intent to begin with? “You have to look at the problem you're trying to solv...

Vince Nero believes that it’s all too easy to forget about the end user in the age of AI. Vince says: “Things are changing so rapidly with AI, you should be leaning on what works for people and not the algorithms.” Will doing what works for people naturally mean that you will be successful in catering towards the newer algorithms? “That's the big question. In theory, Google’s algorithms and the to...

Alun Lucas shares that there's no point perfecting your SEO if people get to your site and there is a horrible form that causes them to abandon - use form analytics to improve the UX of your form and make sure you aren't losing customers unnecessarily. Talking points include: What are the typical differences between a well converting form and a poorly converting form? What fields are necessary? Wh...

Ebere Cecilia Jonathan explains why she believes that user experience is much more than just the way you deliver your content on your website. Ebere says: “Focus on the user experience. This has always been my advice, but with the change in user search behaviour and the introduction of AI, it is even more important now.” Why is user experience even more important in the age of AI? “Before now, we...

According to Sanja Markovic, user experience is now an essential part of modern SEO. Sanja says: “Integrate SEO and UX to build content strategies for real people.” Is it not necessary to think about algorithms or bots crawling your site? “Technical SEO is, of course, an essential aspect. However, especially nowadays, with all this noise about AI, we're forgetting that content is still king, and w...

For Ashley Segura, you should be revisiting the way you think about your content and how your content is designed to meet the needs of your users through their entire journey. Ashley says: “Stop building content for ranking purposes and start thinking about content as assets for every stage of the user journey. By doing that, you’re going to build trust, address their questions, supply helpful inf...

For Ryan Jones, it’s not just about where your audience is likely to interact – it’s meeting them at the right place at the right time. Ryan says: “Leverage multi-channel SEO, along with customer journey matching for a two-pronged approach. First, you need to understand where your audience is, where they spend their time, what platforms they visit, where they communicate with other people, and whe...

Bengu Sarica Dincer shares the importance of treating your brand as a multi-platform entity in 2026. Talking points include: What does treating your brand as a multi-platform entity actually mean? How do you treat your brand as a multi-platform entity? How does this interplay across search engines, social platforms, AI assistants, and niche communities? What search engines are key in 2026? Why do...

Once you identify who your audience is, Izabela Janczak shares that the next step is to learn more about the generation you’re targeting and to identify where they interact. Izabela says: “Meet your target generation where they search.” How would you define a generation, in this context? “You can start with the typical generations: Generation Z, Generation X, Boomers, Millennials, etc. Obviously,...

The way that Casie Gilette understands more about her audience is to define an Ideal Customer Profile. Casie says: “Get hyper-specific about what your ICP (ideal customer profile) actually needs. The era of generic SEO content is over. AI overviews already own those answers. They already own those broad surface-level questions, and the only way to really stand out is to understand what your custom...

Lazarina Stoy shares how to start understanding your users through research and query semantics. Lazarina says: “Learn how to incorporate and scale query semantics and user research, with the help of AI and machine learning.” What are query semantics? “Query semantics means understanding anything that relates to how users search. It's not just the words that are being typed, but also the context o...

Emina Demiri-Watson shares that focussing on your audience can help you avoid getting bogged down in what technology can offer. Emina says: “First of all, don't get bogged down with all of the flashy terms. We're all talking about fan-out, chunking, and cosine similarity. All of that is amazing, I love technology, but also go back to the basics of marketing and who your audience is. Those tools ar...

Silvi Nuñez shares that in an AI-heavy world where content feels generic, localized and culturally aware content becomes a powerful SEO strategy in 2026. Talking points include: What is localized and culturally aware content? How do you localize content as effectively as possible? How do we make content more culturally aware? How do we measure the impact of this? Why is this a powerful SEO strateg...

For Travis Tallent, it all begins with discovering who your audience is before deciding on how to serve them. Travis says: “Audience-first marketing has and will always win, no matter how technology advances. It's not a new concept, but it's more critical than ever. With AI entering the space, we are seeing huge shifts with AI and agentic search. The only way to thrive is to really understand your...

It’s easy to get dazzled by the next shiny bright thing, but Tin Đudajek is keen to highlight the importance of delivering on ‘proper SEO’. Tin says: “Don't get lost in AEO or GEO, and keep doing proper SEO.” Answer Engine Optimization focuses on answering common questions and long tail queries that can appear in AI, so isn't that good for SEO? “It's good for SEO, but what I'm aiming at is that, c...