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Particularly CMOs and those responsible for a business's marketing success. AI-generated answers seem like a direct threat to the traditional natural traffic sites utilized to get from search engines. Before, you needed to click on a site to see the results. Today, LLMs simply rip the material on sites and people no longer need to go to a website any longer.
While I personally believe this hazard is blown completely out of proportion (based on information from sites I have actually personally seen), I do not 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 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 complete of it if you can see their facial expressions and their intonation. YouTube needs to absolutely be in your SEO and content strategy. Usage video as demand generation and a method to construct trust with an audience.
And because you have actually constructed the trust with video, your traditional SEO efforts will convert much better. There's even more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned a few of my finest ranking article into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing post, my blog posts would rank even better.
Boosting ROI With Powerful Content Optimization ToolsI utilized rank in between 2-3 for the keyword "AI marketing tools." I made a YouTube video about the topic, embedded it into that blog post, and I've been ranking # 1 since. In 2026, think of YouTube videos as a way to beef up your SEO blog posts to rank even much better.
Keep concentrating on Google, which still owns 90% of search market share. Buy AI search experiments if you have budget, however do not abandon what's actually driving traffic and conversions today. In 2025, we saw everyone talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond simply SEO, the marketing community as an entire started to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI hype train.
It became tough to find trusted sources that weren't prejudiced or had a concealed program to sell us something. While I do think there are benefits to utilizing LLMs in our workflows, I do believe it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I anticipate many marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a small part of the SEO market.
Boosting ROI With Powerful Content Optimization ToolsGoogle still controls 90% market share and with its AI Mode and AI Overviews, it's in the ideal position to win the AI online search engine race. Search behavior hasn't basically shifted far from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have rubbed me the wrong way about the AI SEO pattern.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% conversation rate and is much better by more than 2X compared to Google. What these marketers do not realize is that Things like homepages, pricing pages, or bottom of funnel content, tends to be shown in ChatGPT. The informational top of funnel material is "consumed" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
Google's conversion rates show less due to the fact that the traffic is higher due to it being watered down by all the top of funnel material that is in the equation. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never fully follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still believe that larger companies will business aside an experimental budget to test things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools.
Don't do it. These methods might work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, but they're short-term plays that will ultimately get penalized. Concentrate on white hat strategies that build real authority and trust gradually rather of going after fast wins that will not last. The 2000s are back. Scammy keyword stuffing tactics, paying for low-grade backlinks, shipping thousands of worthless short articles all in the name of ranking high.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't name this person, but I met an SEO director at a substantial banking business.
And from there, they are using their main business domain, that has an extremely strong brand name 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 substantial, respectable companies are doing this. And I recognized how much black hat (or grey hat) methods are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I anticipate these methods will continue to take place. Up until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as smart as Google's search algorithm. But that appears like a long period of 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 methods that can stand the test of time and enhance your websites trust signals in time.
Concentrate on quality over quantity. 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 brands in 2026. Specific niche blogging is back infant. With a twist. This is among the biggest SEO patterns for material marketing I'm seeing today.
You require a real service, be it a newsletter service, a service-based service, SaaS company, or ecommerce shop. And after that you add on this human-centered specific niche blogging to the website to organically grow your core product/service offering. In 2026, I forecast that Google's algorithm will continue to get smarter about which websites include AI content and which don't.
In reality, I understand loads of individuals quietly squashing it with AI generated material (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am saying is that engaging, human content will outrank AI created content with no initial insights. There are two routes I see with SEO's right now: Produce countless 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. And anybody who writes much better human material will rank greater in positions 1-3. The 2nd path is slower, however can yield higher ranking positions and more trust with readers.
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