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AI-generated responses seem like a direct threat to the conventional organic traffic sites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the material on sites and individuals no longer need to visit a website any longer.
While I personally believe this danger is blown completely out of percentage (based on data from websites I've personally seen), I don't think it's a reason to disregard it totally. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, specifically to offer something, I can tell you that video converts way more than written content.
And the viewer can detect more subtleties in your message. It's a lot easier to inform if somebody is lying or loaded with it if you can see their facial expressions and their intonation. So YouTube must definitely remain in your SEO and material strategy. Use video as demand generation and a method to build trust with an audience.
And since you have actually built the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will transform much better. But there's a lot more to it. Previously this year, I had an inkling that if I turned some of my finest ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my article would rank even much better.
How AI Is Altering Browse Intent for ChicagoI utilized rank in between 2-3 for the keyword "AI marketing tools." I made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that blog site post, and I have actually been ranking # 1 given that. So in 2026, consider YouTube videos as a way to intensify your SEO post to rank even much better.
In 2025, we saw everybody talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond just SEO, the marketing neighborhood as a whole started to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI hype train.
It ended up being tough to find relied on sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to sell us something. While I do believe there are advantages to using LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast lots of marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a little part of the SEO market.
Google still dominates 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it's in the best position to win the AI search engine race. Search behavior hasn't fundamentally shifted away from Google. Beyond simply that, there are a couple of things that have rubbed me the incorrect method about the AI SEO pattern.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% discussion rate and is much better by more than 2X compared to Google. However what these online marketers don't recognize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The informational top of funnel material is "consumed" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
Google's conversion rates show less because the traffic is greater due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel material that is in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never ever totally follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still believe that think companies will business aside an experimental budget speculative test things evaluate ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools.
These techniques might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will ultimately get punished. Focus on white hat techniques that develop real authority and trust over time rather of going after quick wins that won't last.
Today, the algorithm is mature enough to overlook all that nonsense. Nevertheless, ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature yet. I can't name this individual, however I fulfilled an SEO director at a huge banking company. This individual told me they (and all their competitors) are producing microsites (like small blogs) on different domains.
And from there, they are using their primary business domain, that has an exceptionally strong brand authority, and sending out backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually led to greater rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that big, trusted companies are doing this. And I realized just how much black hat (or grey hat) methods are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these tactics will continue to occur. Till ChatGPT's algorithm gets as clever as Google's search algorithm.
Share real insights, use your own images and videos, and develop topical authority in your niche. This is how solo developers and small groups can beat substantial brand names in 2026. This is one of the greatest SEO trends for material marketing I'm seeing right now.
You need a genuine service, be it a newsletter organization, a service-based business, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And then you add on this human-centered niche blogging to the site to organically 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 content and which do not.
I understand tons of individuals silently squashing it with AI generated content (even going after top of funnel keywords). However what I am stating is that engaging, human content will outrank AI generated content without any initial insights. There are two paths I see with SEO's right now: Produce countless AI-generated post 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 first page. And anybody who writes better human content will rank greater in positions 1-3. The 2nd route is slower, but can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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