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AI-generated answers seem like a direct risk to the standard organic traffic websites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the content on websites and individuals no longer need to visit a site any longer.
While I personally think this hazard is blown totally out of percentage (based on data from sites I've personally seen), I don't think it's an excuse to neglect it totally. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, especially to offer something, I can inform you that video converts way more than composed material.
And the audience can choose up on more subtleties in your message. It's a lot simpler to tell if somebody is lying or filled with it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. So YouTube ought to absolutely remain in your SEO and material technique. Usage video as need generation and a method to construct trust with an audience.
And since you have actually built the trust with video, your conventional SEO efforts will convert much better. There's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned a few of my best ranking post into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my blog site posts would rank even better.
Changing Info into Entity-Driven Assets for Your AreaI made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that blog site post, and I've been ranking # 1 considering that.
In 2025, we saw everyone talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond just SEO, the marketing community as a whole started to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became hard to discover trusted sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to offer us something. While I do think there are benefits to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I anticipate lots of online marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just 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 perfect position to win the AI search engine race. Browse behavior hasn't basically shifted far from Google. Beyond simply that, there are a couple of things that have actually rubbed me the wrong 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. What these marketers don't recognize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The educational top of funnel material is "consumed up" 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 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 ever totally follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still believe that think companies bigger business aside an experimental budget speculative budget plan things check ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools.
These tactics might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will eventually get penalized. Focus on white hat methods that develop real authority and trust over time instead of chasing 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 mature yet. I can't name this individual, but I met an SEO director at a huge banking business. This person told me they (and all their competitors) are producing microsites (like little blog sites) on various domains.
And from there, they are using their main company domain, that has an exceptionally strong brand authority, and sending out backlinks to the microsite. And this has led to greater rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, reputable companies are doing this. And I understood 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. That seems like a long time from now. Anyways, I personally would not advise participating in this. It's short term thinking and your energy is best invested on white hat marketing methods that can stand the test of time and enhance your sites trust signals gradually.
Share genuine insights, use your own images and videos, and develop topical authority in your niche. This is how solo creators and small groups can beat substantial brand names in 2026. This is one of the biggest SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing right now.
You need a real business, be it a newsletter service, a service-based service, SaaS company, or ecommerce store. And then you add on this human-centered specific niche blogging to the website 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 contain AI content and which don't.
In fact, I know loads of people quietly squashing it with AI generated content (even pursuing top of funnel keywords). What I am stating is that engaging, human content will outrank AI created material with no initial insights. There are 2 routes 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 blog site posts and get them to rank at the top of the very first page. And anyone who composes better human content will rank higher in positions 1-3. The second path is slower, however can yield greater ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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