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AI-generated responses appear like a direct danger to the conventional organic traffic sites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs just rip the material on websites and individuals no longer require to check out a website anymore.
While I personally think this hazard is blown entirely out of percentage (based on information from sites I have actually personally seen), I don't believe it's a reason to overlook it totally. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, especially to sell something, I can tell you that video converts way more than written material.
And the viewer can select up on more subtleties in your message. It's a lot much easier to inform if someone is lying or loaded with it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. YouTube should definitely be in your SEO and material strategy. Usage video as demand generation and a method to build trust with an audience.
And because you have built the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will transform 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 article, my post would rank even much better.
Developing Modern AI Content Frameworks for Higher ROII used 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. So in 2026, consider YouTube videos as a way to boost your SEO article to rank even much better.
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 buzz train.
It became hard to find trusted sources that weren't biased or had a prejudice to offer us something. While I do believe there are benefits to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do think it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I anticipate lots of marketers will understand that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a small part of the SEO market.
Google still dominates 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it remains in the best position to win the AI search engine race. Browse behavior hasn't basically shifted away from Google. Beyond just that, there are a couple of things that have actually rubbed me the wrong method about the AI SEO pattern.
What these marketers do not recognize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The informative top of funnel material is "consumed up" by LLMs and shown to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that very same idea over to Google, you would see the same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates reveal less due to the fact that 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 completely follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still believe that bigger companies will set aside an experimental budget plan to test things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. In 2026, I forecast people will realize optimizing for Google will permit them to show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Just look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet browsers.
Do not do it. These methods may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will ultimately get penalized. Concentrate on white hat strategies that build genuine authority and trust in time rather of going after quick wins that won't last. The 2000s are back. Scammy keyword packing methods, paying for low-quality backlinks, shipping countless ineffective short articles all in the name of ranking high.
Now, the algorithm is fully grown enough to disregard all that rubbish. ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't call this person, but I fulfilled an SEO director at a substantial banking company. This individual told me they (and all their competitors) are producing microsites (like small blogs) on different domains.
And from there, they are utilizing their main company domain, that has a very strong brand authority, and sending out backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually led to greater rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that big, reliable companies are doing this. And I realized just how much black hat (or grey hat) techniques are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I forecast these strategies 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 recommend engaging in this. It's brief term thinking and your energy is best invested in white hat marketing techniques that can stand the test of time and enhance your sites trust signals gradually.
Share genuine insights, use your own images and videos, and build topical authority in your niche. This is how solo creators and little groups can beat big brands in 2026. This is one of the biggest SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing right now.
You require a real service, be it a newsletter service, a service-based company, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And after that you include on this human-centered niche blogging to the site to naturally grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I predict that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which web pages contain AI content and which don't.
I understand loads of individuals quietly crushing it with AI generated content (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI created material with no original insights. There are 2 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 article and get them to rank at the top of the first page. Quality over amount. The first path is based on sheer volume, and can cause traffic growth. However you do run the risk of a prospective algorithm update injuring your rankings. And anyone who composes much better human content 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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