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AI-generated responses appear like a direct risk to the standard organic traffic sites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the content on sites and people no longer need to check out a website any longer.
While I personally believe this danger is blown totally out of percentage (based upon data from sites I've personally seen), I don't think it's an excuse to disregard it completely. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, especially to sell something, I can tell you that video converts way more than composed content.
And the viewer can detect more subtleties in your message. It's a lot easier to tell if someone is lying or full of it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. So YouTube must absolutely remain in your SEO and content strategy. Usage video as demand generation and a method to build trust with an audience.
And since you have actually constructed the trust with video, your conventional SEO efforts will transform much better. But there's even more to it. Previously this year, I had a hunch that if I turned a few of my finest ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my blog site posts would rank even better.
Optimizing for AEO and New AI Search EnginesI utilized rank in between 2-3 for the keyword "AI marketing tools." I made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that article, and I have actually been ranking # 1 since. In 2026, believe of YouTube videos as a method to beef up your SEO blog posts to rank even better.
In 2025, we saw everybody talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing community as an entire begun to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became tough to discover relied on sources that weren't biased or had a concealed program to sell us something. While I do believe there are advantages to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I predict many marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply a small part of the SEO market.
Optimizing for AEO and New AI Search EnginesGoogle 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 behavior hasn't basically shifted away from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have rubbed me the wrong method about the AI SEO pattern.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% conversation rate and is better by more than 2X compared to Google. What these marketers don't understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be revealed in ChatGPT. The educational top of funnel material is "consumed" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
Google's conversion rates reveal less since the traffic is higher 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 ever completely follows prompts correctly (i.e.
I do still believe that think companies bigger business aside an experimental budget to budget plan things evaluate ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools.
Do not do it. These tactics may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will eventually get penalized. Concentrate on white hat techniques that construct genuine authority and trust over time rather of going after fast wins that will not last. The 2000s are back. Scammy keyword stuffing methods, paying for low-quality backlinks, shipping countless worthless articles all in the name of ranking high.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't name this individual, but I met an SEO director at a big banking company.
And from there, they are utilizing their primary business domain, that has a very strong brand authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has resulted in greater rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, respectable business are doing this. And I realized how much black hat (or grey hat) tactics are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I anticipate these techniques will continue to occur. Up until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as smart as Google's search algorithm. However that looks like a long time from now. Anyways, I personally would not advise participating in this. It's brief term thinking and your energy is finest invested in white hat marketing techniques that can stand the test of time and improve your websites trust signals gradually.
Share genuine insights, utilize your own images and videos, and construct topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo creators and small groups can beat big brands in 2026. This is one of the most significant SEO patterns for material marketing I'm seeing right now.
You require a real service, be it a newsletter service, a service-based service, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And after that you include on this human-centered 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 consist of AI content and which don't.
In fact, I understand lots of people quietly crushing it with AI created content (even pursuing top of funnel keywords). But what I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI created content with no initial insights. There are two routes I see with SEO's right now: Produce thousands of AI-generated article and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human post and get them to rank at the top of the very first page. Quality over quantity. The first route is based on large volume, and can cause traffic development. However you do run the risk of a possible algorithm upgrade hurting your rankings. And anyone who composes better human content will rank greater in positions 1-3. The second path is slower, but can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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