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AI-generated answers appear like a direct risk to the conventional natural traffic websites utilized to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the material on sites and individuals no longer require to check out a site any longer.
While I personally believe this risk is blown entirely out of percentage (based upon information from websites I have actually personally seen), I don't think it's an excuse to neglect it completely. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, particularly to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written material.
And the viewer can choose up on more subtleties in your message. It's a lot much easier to tell if someone is lying or filled with it if you can see their facial expressions and their intonation. So YouTube ought to certainly be in your SEO and content method. Usage video as demand generation and a method to construct trust with an audience.
And since you have constructed the trust with video, your traditional SEO efforts will transform better. However there's even more to it. Previously this year, I had an inkling that if I turned some of my best ranking blog posts into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing article, my post would rank even better.
Material Syndication for Maximum Reach in NCI made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that blog post, and I've been ranking # 1 since.
In 2025, we saw everybody talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond just SEO, the marketing community as an entire started to get bombarded with influencers trying to ride the AI buzz train.
It became tough to find trusted sources that weren't biased or had a concealed agenda to sell us something. While I do believe there are advantages to using LLMs in our workflows, I do think it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I anticipate lots of marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a small part of the SEO market.
Google still dominates 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it remains in the perfect position to win the AI online search engine race. Search habits hasn't fundamentally shifted far from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have actually rubbed me the incorrect method about the AI SEO trend.
What these marketers do not realize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be revealed in ChatGPT. The informational top of funnel material is "consumed up" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that very same concept over to Google, you would see the very same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates reveal less due to the fact that the traffic is higher due to it being watered down by all the top of funnel content that is in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never fully follows prompts correctly (i.e.
I do still believe that larger business will set aside an experimental spending plan to check things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. However in 2026, I forecast individuals will recognize enhancing for Google will permit them to reveal up in ChatGPT and Perplexity also. Simply take a look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet web browsers.
These strategies might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will eventually get penalized. Focus on white hat techniques that develop genuine authority and trust over time instead of chasing after quick wins that will not last.
Now, the algorithm is fully grown enough to ignore all that rubbish. However, ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown yet. I can't name this individual, but I met an SEO director at a huge banking company. This person told me they (and all their competitors) are developing microsites (like small blog sites) on various domains.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary business domain, that has an incredibly strong brand authority, and sending out backlinks to the microsite. And this has resulted in higher rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that big, reputable companies are doing this. And I understood how much black hat (or grey hat) tactics are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I forecast these strategies will continue to take place. Till ChatGPT's algorithm gets as smart as Google's search algorithm.
Share genuine insights, use your own images and videos, and build topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo creators and little teams can beat substantial brands in 2026. This is one of the greatest SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing right now.
You need a genuine organization, be it a newsletter company, a service-based business, SaaS business, or ecommerce store. And then you include on this human-centered niche blogging to the site to naturally grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I forecast that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which web pages consist of AI material and which don't.
I know tons of people silently squashing it with AI created material (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am stating is that engaging, human content will outrank AI created material with no initial insights. There are two paths I see with SEO's right now: Produce thousands of AI-generated blog posts and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human blog site posts and get them to rank at the top of the very first page. And anybody who writes better human content will rank higher in positions 1-3. The second path is slower, but can yield greater ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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