How is SEO Changing in 2026?
You may have seen the length of this article and thought it would be better to summarise it using AI. That would be a good reflection of what SEOs are dealing with as we move into 2026.
Less attention, more summaries, and less clicks.
AI is everywhere whether you like it or not, and brands are suffering from a loss of traffic.
I don’t think it’s that users can’t hold their attention, more that they are getting the answers to their questions in summaries that don’t require a click.
Let’s dive into what’s going on, and what your SEO strategy should look like moving into a new year.
If you’re completely new to the subject of AI & SEO, check out my intro article.
Where are we at?
“Zero click search” is more prevalent than ever due to the rise of AI summaries and overviews.
AI Overviews reduce clicks to websites. An Ahrefs piece showed Position 1 Click Through Rate drops of 34.5% when AI Overviews are present.
A Pew Research study showed that pretty much no one is clicking links in AI Overviews, as did a SparkToro/Similarweb analysis.
Anecdotally, all of my clients have seen ‘keywords as AI-overviews’ increasing during 2025 and this is supported by data from Semrush.
Not only that, but Google Ads are showing above and below AI overviews, meaning there is more space taken up before organic results are even visible. Some Google ads are also just taking up more space, a topic for another time.
Outside of Google, more and more people are using AI tools such as ChatGPT as ways to search.
We are of course operating in a search market that is changing. It has always been changing, and you could argue the practice of good SEOs is to respond to ongoing change. But it’s been a while since we’ve seen such a monumental shift in search behaviour.
What can we do?
Let’s be clear: for the vast majority of organisations, Google search is still the primary source of traffic.
So my first piece of advice is to keep that in mind, and don’t panic. As with all of the changes to SEO, there aren’t any quick “fixes” to revert traffic drops. As ever, be very cautious of those promising quick results.
There needs to be a bit of a mindset shift for the new way of doing things, focusing on three key areas:
Shift KPIs beyond raw clicks: prioritise visibility in SERP features, brand demand, assisted conversions, and revenue attribution. You are going to struggle to stay strategic if you are only focused on clicks vs keywords level.
Practice AEO/GEO: call it “Answer Engine Optimisation” or “Generative Engine Optimisation”, it doesn’t really matter - the main thing is to acknowledge this as a subset of regular SEO, focusing on some key basics that are favoured by AI tools.
Protect and grow non‑overview searches: commercial, navigational, and ‘bottom‑of-funnel’ intents that are less likely to trigger AI overviews should be reassessed for possible review.
Understand conversions from AI: traffic from ChatGPT may be low, but a click means a user has decided to visit you despite already having their answers. What information are you surfacing in AI results?
Keep in mind though, that the core practices of SEO haven’t really changed.
So it’s about acknowledging this change in search, but not ignoring the fundamentals.
Let’s take a look at what that might look like in practice.
A 15 Point SEO Strategy in 2026
I’ve tried to distill the most important aspects of SEO into 15 points. Again to be clear; hopefully you are already doing most of these, and some are adding inspiration.
1.Get Your Technical House in Order
Strong SEO still starts with technical excellence. Ensure your site is crawlable, indexable, and fast. Your pages must render correctly for both Googlebot and users. AI crawlers cannot render JavaScript, so if your site is based on a JavaScript framework, ensure it is rendered server side.
2. Content Depth and Expertise (E-E-A-T)
Whilst you might feel E-E-A-T is old and boring, great content is of course absolutely essential. Prioritise original insights, first‑hand data, professional perspectives, and in general just focus on being experts at what you do.
3. Strengthen Site Architecture and Internal Linking
Find the topics and keywords you care about, and internally link to them using your target keywords. Good for AI, good for Google. On top of that, it gets you thinking about site structure - does your information architecture make sense? Can people easily find the information you most want them to see? These are long-time basics that still matter a lot.
4. Schema Markup and Structured Data
Implement schema such as FAQ, Product, Article, and Organisation. It helps Google and AI systems understand context and increases chances of being used as a snippet or being cited in AI Overviews. Don’t become obsessed with this, just get your core schema right.
5. Build a Brand
In a sea of endless competition and AI generated content, brands will stand out. Be memorable outside of search, and create a visual identity that users can trust. SEOs are still struggling with this, so if you’re an organisation working with an SEO consultant - listen to them when they talk about brand.
Related article: What is a Brand?
6. Measure Brand + topics
You want to understand how your brand is shown to users of AI tools vs the topics you care about. Choose 10 key topics and use Waikay (or similar) to monitor these. Create content that fills any gaps.
7. Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO / GEO)
Anticipate AI and SERP summaries by structuring pages to answer users’ core questions concisely. Introduce definitions, tables, and step‑based guides high on the page. Lean on question‑based H2s and ensure answers are factually dense, scannable, and copyable; exactly what large language models and AI Overviews look for. But be smart - if it doesn’t feel right for users, prioritise their experience first.
8. Understand Non-summarisable Intents
Commercial, local, and navigational searches are still less affected by AI Overviews. Find these keywords and analyse the important pages ranking for them. A simple process like the following might help.
9. Invest in Multiple Channels and Video Content
AI‑summarised text is everywhere, but images, video, and tools still attract clicks. Add calculators, videos and invest in your YouTube channel or similar. Use video schema and timestamps for extra visibility.
10. Topical Clusters and Semantic Coverage
I hope you’ve been doing this all along, but build depth rather than breadth. Create “pillar” pages supported by subtopic content that answers related questions in detail. Strong topical clusters help Google and AI systems recognise your site as authoritative within a subject domain. Links to point 2: keep it quality.
11. Monitor SERP Features and Zero‑Click Patterns
Track where your keywords trigger AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, People Also Ask, and video or shopping blocks. Measure impressions versus clicks to calculate “visibility without visit” ratios. This helps you defend vital queries and reallocate energy toward those that still send traffic.
12. Realign KPIs Around Influence, Not Just Clicks
Track assisted conversions, brand impression share, engagement rate, and conversion value attribution - not just sessions. Your organic channel now has a broader job: influence, validation, and ongoing presence, even if the visitor doesn’t click the first time.
13. Consolidate Brand Search Demand
Users who already know you will seek you out regardless of SERP features. Encourage branded search via PR, thought leadership, and consistent multi‑channel campaigns. Branded queries remain the least disrupted by AI summaries.
14. CRO and UX
Conversions of course depend on usability, and good SEOs should be questioning CRO whilst clicks are becoming scarce - how do you ensure on-site changes like basket or form optimisation aren’t getting in the way of someone converting?
15. Use Automation and AI Tools Wisely
AI tools are brilliant at summarising, structuring and doing research. But do not make the mistake of relying on them to write your content. Be the source of information the LLM is learning from.
A Note on Tools
Monitoring AI Search is difficult. Prompts of course change by the user, and keywords aren’t easy to transfer over to this method of monitoring.
With AI monitoring tools, you have to monitor topics, and what I’ve found is that it’s super useful for discovering topic gaps vs competitors - something that is sometimes less obvious when doing traditional monitoring.
Of all the tools I’ve used, there are two that have been actionable and useful:
Waikay is great for topic reports and ongoing monitoring, whilst SEMRush is solid on competitor discovery as well as brand discovery.
SEO, GEO, AEO, Whatever
I hope this article provided you with some inspiration for your own SEO strategies, and perhaps a look at what the industry is going to be focused on in 2026.
One thing that is coming up often is people trying to name this new era of search, and I’ve used a few of these acronyms in the article.
To be honest it doesn’t really matter what we call it, what matters is that we’re preparing for a new way of not just how people are searching, but how they are using their computers and interacting with information. Maybe I’ll do a 2030 version of this article and be proved wrong, we shall see.
If you’re looking to understand what this shift means for your business, or need help turning these ideas into an actionable strategy, get in touch with me here.