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AI-generated responses seem like a direct threat to the traditional organic traffic websites used to get from search engines. Today, LLMs simply rip the material on sites and individuals no longer need to visit a site any longer.
While I personally believe this danger is blown completely out of percentage (based on information from sites I've personally seen), I do not believe it's an excuse to overlook it completely. From my own experience growing both blog sites and YouTube channels, especially to sell something, I can inform you that video converts way more than composed material.
And the audience can detect more subtleties in your message. It's a lot simpler to inform if someone is lying or loaded with it if you can see their facial expressions and their intonation. So YouTube must absolutely remain in your SEO and content method. Use video as demand generation and a way to build trust with an audience.
And since you have constructed the trust with video, your standard SEO efforts will convert better. However there's much more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned some of my best ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my post would rank even much better.
Smarter Search Insights for Growing Nationwide BrandsI made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that blog site post, and I've been ranking # 1 given that.
Keep focusing on Google, which still owns 90% of search market share. Invest in AI search experiments if you have budget, however don't desert what's actually driving traffic and conversions today. In 2025, we saw everyone discussing how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing neighborhood as a whole started to get bombarded with influencers trying to ride the AI hype train.
It became hard to discover trusted sources that weren't biased or had a covert agenda to offer us something. While I do believe there are advantages to using LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has actually been overhyped. And in 2026, I forecast numerous marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are simply a small part of the SEO market.
Google still controls 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it remains in the best position to win the AI search engine race. Search habits hasn't essentially moved away from Google. Beyond simply that, there are a couple of things that have rubbed me the wrong method about the AI SEO trend.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% conversation rate and is better by more than 2X compared to Google. But what these online marketers don't recognize 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 "consumed" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that very same principle over to Google, you would see the exact same conversion rates. Google's conversion rates show less because the traffic is greater due to it being diluted by all the top of funnel material that is in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make things up, it never fully follows prompts correctly (i.e.
I do still believe that larger business will reserve an experimental budget to check things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. In 2026, I anticipate people will recognize enhancing for Google will enable them to reveal up in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Just take a look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet browsers.
These techniques might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will eventually get penalized. Focus on white hat techniques that develop genuine authority and trust over time rather of chasing quick wins that won't last.
And now, the algorithm is fully grown enough to disregard all that nonsense. ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't name this individual, however I fulfilled an SEO director at a substantial banking company. This person informed me they (and all their competitors) are creating microsites (like little blog sites) on different domains.
And from there, they are using their primary business domain, that has an incredibly strong brand name authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually led to greater rankings for their brand in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, reliable business are doing this. And I recognized how much black hat (or grey hat) techniques are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these methods will continue to occur. 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 suggest participating in this. It's brief term thinking and your energy is best spent on white hat marketing methods that can stand the test of time and improve your sites trust signals in time.
Share genuine insights, utilize your own images and videos, and build topical authority in your specific niche. This is how solo creators and little teams can beat substantial brands in 2026. This is one of the greatest SEO trends for material marketing I'm seeing right now.
You require a real service, be it a newsletter company, a service-based organization, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And after that you include on this human-centered specific niche blogging to the site to organically 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 do not.
I understand lots of people quietly crushing it with AI produced content (even going after top of funnel keywords). However what I am stating is that engaging, human material will outrank AI created material with no initial insights. There are 2 paths I see with SEO's today: Produce countless AI-generated post 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 writes better human material will rank higher in positions 1-3. The 2nd route is slower, however can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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