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Specifically CMOs and those responsible for a business's marketing success. AI-generated answers seem like a direct danger to the standard organic traffic sites used to obtain from online search engine. Before, you had to click on a site to see the results. Today, LLMs just rip the content on sites and people no longer need to visit a website any longer.
While I personally believe this danger is blown entirely out of percentage (based on information from websites I have actually personally seen), I do not think it's an excuse to neglect it totally. From my own experience growing both blogs and YouTube channels, specifically to offer something, I can inform you that video converts way more than written content.
And the audience can pick up on more subtleties in your message. It's a lot simpler to tell if somebody is lying or loaded with it if you can see their facial expressions and their tone of voice. So YouTube should absolutely remain in your SEO and material method. Use video as need generation and a way to construct trust with an audience.
And due to the fact that you have actually constructed the trust with video, your conventional SEO efforts will convert better. But there's much more to it. Earlier this year, I had an inkling that if I turned a few of my best ranking blog site posts into YouTube videos, and embedded them into my existing blog posts, my blog site posts would rank even better.
The Power of Earned Media for Digital Marketing StrategyI made a YouTube video about the subject, embedded it into that blog post, and I've been ranking # 1 given that.
In 2025, we saw everyone talking about how AI search was going to take over Google. Beyond just SEO, the marketing neighborhood as an entire started to get bombarded with influencers attempting to ride the AI buzz train.
It became tough to discover trusted sources that weren't prejudiced or had a covert agenda to offer us something. While I do believe there are advantages to using LLMs in our workflows, I do think it has been overhyped. And in 2026, I predict many marketers will realize that ChatGPT and Perplexity are just a little part of the SEO market.
The Power of Earned Media for Digital Marketing StrategyGoogle 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 essentially shifted away from Google. Beyond just that, there are a few things that have rubbed me the incorrect method about the AI SEO pattern.
Some claim ChatGPT has a 16% discussion rate and is much better by more than 2X compared to Google. However what these online marketers do not realize 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" by LLMs and revealed to users without anywhere to click.
If you were to take that 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 watered down by all the top of funnel content that is in the formula. Other things like how ChatGPT can make stuff up, it never completely follows prompts properly (i.e.
I do still think that larger business will reserve an experimental budget plan to test things like ChatGPT apps and other AI SEO tools. In 2026, I forecast individuals will realize enhancing for Google will enable them to reveal up in ChatGPT and Perplexity. Simply look at ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity's Comet internet browsers.
Do not do it. These methods may work now in ChatGPT and other LLMs, however they're short-term plays that will eventually get punished. Concentrate on white hat strategies that build real authority and trust over time instead of chasing after fast wins that will not last. The 2000s are back. Scammy keyword packing methods, paying for low-quality backlinks, shipping countless useless articles all in the name of ranking high.
ChatGPT and other LLM algorithms are not as mature. I can't name this individual, however I satisfied an SEO director at a huge banking company.
And from there, they are using their primary company domain, that has an extremely strong brand name authority, and sending backlinks to the microsite. And this has actually led to greater rankings for their brand name in LLMs like ChatGPT.It blew my mind that huge, reputable companies are doing this. And I understood how much black hat (or grey hat) strategies are going on behind the scenes.
In 2026, I predict these strategies will continue to happen. Until ChatGPT's algorithm gets as smart as Google's search algorithm.
Concentrate on quality over amount. Share genuine insights, utilize your own images and videos, and construct topical authority in your niche. This is how solo developers and little groups can beat big brand names in 2026. Niche blogging is back infant. But with a twist. This is one of the biggest SEO patterns for content marketing I'm seeing today.
You need a real organization, be it a newsletter organization, a service-based service, SaaS business, or ecommerce store. And then 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 websites contain AI material and which do not.
I understand tons of individuals silently crushing it with AI produced content (even going after top of funnel keywords). What I am saying is that engaging, human material will outrank AI produced material with no initial insights. There are 2 routes I see with SEO's today: Produce thousands of AI-generated post and get them to rank in the middle/bottom of page 1.
Produce a hundred human blog posts and get them to rank at the top of the very first page. And anyone who composes much better human material 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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