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AI-generated responses appear like a direct threat to the standard organic traffic sites utilized to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the material on sites and individuals no longer need to go to a site any longer.
While I personally believe this danger is blown totally out of proportion (based upon information from websites I've personally seen), I don't believe it's an excuse to overlook it completely. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, especially to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than composed content.
It's a lot easier to inform if someone is lying or complete of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube must absolutely be in your SEO and content technique.
And since you have actually constructed the trust with video, your traditional SEO efforts will convert much better. However there's a lot more to it. Previously this year, I had an inkling that if I turned a few of my best ranking blog posts into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing blog site posts, my article would rank even better.
How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Keyword ResearchI utilized rank between 2-3 for the keyword "AI marketing tools." I made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that blog post, and I have actually been ranking # 1 given that. In 2026, believe of YouTube videos as a way to beef up your SEO blog posts to rank even much better.
Keep focusing on Google, which still owns 90% of search market share. Buy AI search experiments if you have budget, but don't abandon what's really driving traffic and conversions today. In 2025, we saw everyone speaking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing neighborhood as an entire begun to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became difficult to discover relied on sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to sell us something. While I do think there are benefits to using LLMs in our workflows, I do think it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast many marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply a small part of the SEO market.
Google still controls 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it's in the ideal position to win the AI online search engine race. Search behavior hasn't basically moved away from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have actually rubbed me the incorrect method about the AI SEO trend.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% conversation rate and is much better by more than 2X compared to Google. However what these online marketers do not understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be displayed in ChatGPT. The educational top of funnel material is "eaten up" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that exact same principle over to Google, you would see the very same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates show less since the traffic is greater due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel material that is in the equation. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never completely follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still think that larger business will reserve an experimental spending plan to evaluate things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. In 2026, I predict people will understand optimizing for Google will allow them to reveal up in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Simply look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet browsers.
These techniques may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will ultimately get penalized. Focus on white hat techniques that develop real authority and trust over time instead of going after fast wins that will not last.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't call this individual, but I met an SEO director at a substantial banking business.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary company domain, that has an incredibly strong brand authority, and sending out backlinks to the microsite. And this has led to greater rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, reputable business are doing this. And I realized how much black hat (or grey hat) strategies are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I forecast these tactics will continue to happen. Until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as clever as Google's search algorithm. That appears like a long time from now. Anyways, I personally would not advise participating in this. It's brief term thinking and your energy is best invested in white hat marketing methods that can stand the test of time and improve your websites trust signals with time.
Focus on quality over amount. Share real insights, utilize your own images and videos, and build topical authority in your niche. This is how solo creators and little teams can beat big brand names in 2026. Niche blogging is back baby. With a twist. This is one of the biggest SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing right now.
You need a genuine organization, be it a newsletter company, a service-based service, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And after that 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 websites contain AI material and which don't.
In truth, I know heaps of individuals silently crushing it with AI produced material (even pursuing top of funnel keywords). However what I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI created material with no initial insights. There are 2 paths I see with SEO's today: Produce countless AI-generated blog site posts and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human article and get them to rank at the top of the very first page. Quality over quantity. The very first path is based upon large volume, and can lead to traffic growth. But you do risk a potential algorithm update harming your rankings. And anyone who writes much better human material 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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