Featured
Table of Contents
AI-generated answers seem 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 individuals no longer need to go to a website anymore.
While I personally think this danger is blown totally out of proportion (based upon data from sites I've personally seen), I don't think it's an excuse to overlook it totally. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, particularly to offer something, I can tell you that video converts way more than composed content.
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. YouTube should definitely be in your SEO and content strategy.
And since you have developed the trust with video, your traditional SEO efforts will convert much better. But there's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had a hunch that if I turned a few of my best ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing article, my article would rank even better.
I made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that blog post, and I've been ranking # 1 because.
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 started to get bombarded with influencers trying to ride the AI hype train.
It became hard to find trusted sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to offer us something. While I do think there are advantages to using LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I anticipate numerous marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply a little part of the SEO market.
Leveraging AI to Outperform Rivals in MiamiGoogle still controls 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it remains in the best position to win the AI online search engine race. Browse habits 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% discussion rate and is much better by more than 2X compared to Google. What these online marketers don't understand is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be revealed in ChatGPT. The informative top of funnel content is "consumed" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that exact same idea over to Google, you would see the exact same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates show less since the traffic is higher due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel content that is in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never ever totally follows triggers properly (i.e.
I do still believe that larger business will set aside a speculative spending plan to evaluate things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. But in 2026, I forecast individuals will realize optimizing for Google will allow them to appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity as well. Just look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet internet browsers.
These methods may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will eventually get penalized. Focus on white hat strategies that build genuine authority and trust over time instead of chasing fast wins that won't last.
Now, the algorithm is fully grown enough to overlook all that nonsense. ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as fully grown. I can't call this person, however I met an SEO director at a huge banking company. This person told me they (and all their rivals) are developing microsites (like little blog sites) on various domains.
And from there, they are utilizing their main company domain, that has a very strong brand authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually resulted in greater rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that substantial, reliable business are doing this. And I realized just how much black hat (or grey hat) tactics are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these techniques will continue to take place. Up until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as smart as Google's search algorithm.
Share genuine insights, utilize your own images and videos, and develop topical authority in your niche. This is how solo creators and little groups can beat substantial brand names in 2026. This is one of the most significant SEO trends for content marketing I'm seeing right now.
You require a real company, be it a newsletter business, a service-based business, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And after that you add on this human-centered niche blogging to the website to organically grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I anticipate that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which websites consist of AI content and which don't.
In reality, I understand lots of people quietly squashing it with AI generated content (even going after top of funnel keywords). But what I am stating is that engaging, human content will outrank AI produced material with no original insights. There are two routes I see with SEO's today: Produce thousands of AI-generated article 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. Quality over quantity. The very first route is based upon sheer volume, and can cause traffic development. However you do risk a potential algorithm update harming your rankings. And anyone who composes much 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.
Latest Posts
Scaling Advanced AI-Driven Marketing Workflows
Primary Benefits of Advanced Marketing Tools
Maximizing Digital Visibility for Enterprise Markets
