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Especially CMOs and those responsible for a company's marketing success. AI-generated answers look like a direct hazard to the standard organic traffic sites utilized to get from search engines. Before, you needed to click a website to see the results. Today, LLMs simply rip the content on websites and people no longer require to check out a site anymore.
While I personally think this threat is blown totally out of percentage (based upon data from sites I've personally seen), I don't think it's an excuse to overlook it entirely. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, specifically to sell something, I can tell you that video converts way more than composed material.
And the audience can pick up on more subtleties in your message. It's a lot much easier to inform if somebody is lying or loaded with it if you can see their facial expressions and their intonation. So YouTube needs to definitely remain in your SEO and material strategy. Usage video as demand generation and a method to build trust with an audience.
And because you have actually developed the trust with video, your traditional SEO efforts will transform better. There's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had a hunch that if I turned a few of my finest ranking post into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my blog site posts would rank even better.
I made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that blog 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 simply SEO, the marketing community as a whole begun to get bombarded with influencers trying to ride the AI buzz train.
It ended up being tough to discover relied on sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to offer us something. While I do believe there are advantages to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do think it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I predict lots of marketers will recognize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a little 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 search engine race. Browse behavior hasn't fundamentally moved away from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have actually rubbed me the incorrect way about the AI SEO pattern.
What these online marketers don't understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel material, tends to be revealed in ChatGPT. The educational top of funnel content is "eaten up" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that same concept over to Google, you would see the same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates reveal less since the traffic is higher due to it being watered down by all the top of funnel material that remains in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never totally 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 individuals will recognize enhancing for Google will permit them to reveal up in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Simply take a look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet internet browsers.
These strategies might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will eventually get penalized. Focus on white hat strategies that develop real authority and trust over time rather of chasing after fast wins that won't last.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't name this person, but I satisfied an SEO director at a huge banking company.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary company domain, that has an incredibly strong brand name authority, and sending out backlinks to the microsite. And this has led to higher rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, trustworthy companies 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 strategies will continue to take place. Till ChatGPT's algorithm gets as smart as Google's search algorithm. But that appears like a very long time from now. Anyways, I personally would not advise engaging 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 over time.
Share real insights, use your own images and videos, and construct topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo creators and little groups can beat substantial brand names in 2026. This is one of the most significant SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing right now.
You need a genuine service, be it a newsletter business, a service-based company, SaaS business, or ecommerce store. And then you add on this human-centered specific niche blogging to the site to organically grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I anticipate that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which web pages contain AI material and which do not.
In truth, I understand lots of people silently crushing it with AI created material (even pursuing top of funnel keywords). But what I am saying is that engaging, human content will outrank AI created material without any original insights. There are 2 routes I see with SEO's today: Produce thousands of 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 first page. Quality over quantity. The first path is based on large volume, and can cause traffic development. However you do risk a possible algorithm upgrade hurting your rankings. And anyone who composes better human material will rank greater in positions 1-3. The second path is slower, however can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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