AI-SEO Is Changing Everything in 2026

Most searches in 2026 will be answered

by AI before anyone clicks on your site.

That means your traffic could tank even

if you're ranking number one right now.

But here's the good news. I'm Neil Patel

and I've been doing SEO since 2001. I

survived Panda, Penguin, Rank Brain,

Fur, and every other major shakeup

Google's thrown at us. And every single

time, the people who adapt early

typically come on top. So today I'm

breaking down the five strategies you

need to rank and stay relevant in this

new AI power search role. Let's dive in.

Strategy one, focus on entities and

topical depth, not just keywords. Here's

something that might surprise you. If

your traffic's been dropping even though

you're doing SEO, right? This is

probably why. A recent study analyzed

over 1,500 Google search results and

found no consistent correlation between

keyword density and ranking. In fact,

higher ranking pages actually had lower

keyword density on average. Another

study by WLDM, ClickStream, and

Searching Journal looked at over 250,000

search results and found that topical

authority is now the strongest onpage

ranking factor, even stronger than

domain traffic. So, what does that mean

for you? Google's AI isn't just looking

for pages that mention a keyword 20

times. Is looking for pages that

demonstrate real understanding how ideas

connect, relate, and build on each

other. Think about it like this. You're

in a meeting. It's easy to tell who's

just throwing around buzzwords versus

who actually knows their stuff, right?

AI works the same way. It spots surface

level content instantly and rewards the

people who show genuine expertise.

Here's how to actually do this. One,

build topical depth. Create one pillar

page, let's say the complete guide to

running shoes, and link to subtopics

like best running shoes for flat feet,

trail running shoes, and how cushioning

prevents injuries. That interlinking

signals to Google that you fully

understand the topic. It makes you the

trusted authority and boosts the

rankings for all the related pages. Two,

use semantic variety. Tools like Surfer

SEO and Google's NLP API show you the

related concepts and entities Google

connects to your topic, brands,

locations, techniques, people. Weave

those naturally into your content so AI

naturally understands the full context

of what you're talking about. But

there's one layer of authority most

people completely overlook. Without it,

your content will always struggle to get

visibility. Strategy two, build author

and brand authority. E A T for AI. Most

marketers tell you to make good content.

And that's fine advice, but have you

ever noticed that even your best content

sometimes gets zero traction? Here's

why. Average content from an authority

outperforms great content from a nobody

almost every time. There's actually a

famous psychology study where people

were twice as likely to follow

instructions when a person giving them

wore a doctor's coat, even when they

weren't even an actual doctor. A's

algorithm mimics the same human bias.

They rank and quote content from

recognized authorities because trust

reduces risk for both the platform and

the user. Google's a overviews and

perplexity don't just ask what does this

page say? They ask who said it and can

we trust it. The same way you wouldn't

trust medical advice from some random

dude on the internet. AI is hesitant to

promote content from someone unverified

with no credentials. Number one, show

your experience. Add author bios,

credentials, and firsthand stories.

Google's AI looks for realworld proof

that you know what you're talking about.

Don't just say you're expert. Prove it

with case studies, results you've

gotten, specific examples from your

work. Two, earn brand mentions. Get

featured on podcasts, blogs, or even

news outlets. Even unlin mentions

strengthen your authority footprint. And

here's something interesting from our

data. When companies get cited in news

or industry specific sites, they see a

massive boost in how often AI platforms

quote them. When we looked at what gets

cited most, it's blogs and getting cited

on news or industry specific sites. This

is all versions of blogging, right?

Three, be consistent. Align your author

name, bios, and tone across every

platform. YouTube, LinkedIn, your

website. AI is looking at all this to

determine if you're legit. But here's

the problem. Even if you build that

authority, it won't matter if AI can't

find and quote your content in the first

place. Strategy three, optimize for

featured and summarized results. Number

one ranking blog posts are losing

traffic right now because people aren't

searching the way they did 4 years ago.

AI is answering their questions before

they even click on a site. And here's

what everyone gets wrong. They look at

their analytics and say, "AI isn't

driving traffic." Yeah, no crap. But you

know what? AI is driving conversions. We

ran a study with companies investing in

both traditional SEO and AI

optimization. The AI platforms weren't

driving even 1% of the traffic. But look

at the conversion numbers. AI was

responsible for 9.7% revenue in B2B

companies and 11.4%

in BTOC companies. You're not going to

get the traffic you're looking for from

AI platforms, but the conversion rate is

insane. And here's why. Most people use

AI platforms for top of funnel research.

When we looked at the data, majority of

LLM users aren't even researching

products or services initially, but

certain percentages are researching

products and roughly 14% or more are

actually purchasing. Some in store, some

directly on the website. In B2B, we're

seeing mainly direct on the website.

It's a huge conversion channel. It

doesn't even show up in the data because

people do research on platforms before

they even click or go to your website.

Think about AI powered search like a

conversation, not a search engine. When

someone asks a question, a doesn't list

websites anymore. It quotes them. If

your content answers the question

directly and is easy to parse, it

becomes the exact line AA lists for its

summary. Here's how to make that happen.

Number one, write like you're answering

a question. For example, the question

could be, "What's the best SEO tools for

beginners?" The answer could be Uberys,

Hrefs, SEM Rush, and Google Search

Console. They're easy to use and scale

as you grow. That format makes it

effortless for AI to lift your content.

Two, structure for scanners. Use short

paragraphs, bullet points, and

subheadings. If a humans can skim it, AI

can summarize it. We're seeing that AI

platforms love content that's well

structured more than anything else.

Three, target people also ask. Those

questions often feed AI summaries. Each

one is a chance to earn a citation. And

when you get cited, you're not just

getting traffic, you're getting high

intent users who convert. Now, if you

want to get included in Google's AR view

specifically, they're citing facts and

comparisons. More than anything else

from what we're seeing, that's where to

focus your attention if you really want

to get included. Getting AI to quote you

is only half the battle, though. If your

content isn't easy for AI to read and

understand in the first place, it'll

skip you no matter how good you are at

answering questions. Strategy four, feed

the machines. Structured data and AI

friendly content. Here's something most

marketers don't clearly understand. A

doesn't automatically pick the best

content. It skims just like humans do.

If a reader would click away from your

page, a will skip it too and site

someone else instead. Imagine walking

into a massive library. Most of the

books are just random piles of pages. No

titles, no chapters, no structure. But

the one book that stands out has a clear

table of contents, clean headings, and

quick summaries. You need one answer

fast. Which book would you pick? AI

works the same exact way. It skims and

sites content that's organized and easy

to parse. If your content isn't

structured, AI treats it like lowquality

noise and moves on to the next site.

Now, here's the difference between

traditional SEO and what I call GEO or

AEO or even AI SEO, whatever you want to

call it. With traditional SEO, things

like thoroughess are super important as

well as quality. But with AI and LLMs

like TAG GBT, they really care about

structure and formatting. If you don't

get those right, you're not going to do

as well. Traditional SEO cares about

links. GEO cares about citations. If

you're not getting those citations,

you're not going to do as well. This is

why blogging is so important. When AI

understands your content better, humans

do, too. That's a win you'll see in both

rankings and conversions. With AI, they

also look at things like sentiment.

Traditional SEO does not look at

sentiment as much. Are people saying

things positively about you or

negatively? So, here's how to fix this.

One, use schema markup. Add FAQ, howto,

and review schema so AI instantly knows

what your content represents. Schema is

like a nutrition label for your content.

It helps machines read, digest, and

recommend your material confidently.

Two, add multiple formats. include

videos, visuals, and charts. AI prefers

multimodal data. It signals depth and

clarity. And here's something

interesting. When we looked at what AI

platforms actually site, they love

blogs. But blogs with images, videos,

and data visualizations get cited way

more often. Three, make your data

explicit. Use number lists, stats, and

tables. Don't hide value in long

paragraphs. When you site facts and

stats, and unique research, data

platforms eat that stuff up. That's what

they're pulling from more than anything

else. But none of this matters if you're

still treating SEO as a one-time thing.

Strategy five, rethink your SEO workflow

for generative search. Back in the day,

stuffing content with keywords and

updating it once a year was enough to

keep ranking. Today, that's not even

close to doing well. If you're not

training AI to think like you, it's

quoting your competitors instead. Think

about teaching a parrot to speak. If you

repeat clear phrases consistently, the

parrot mimics you perfectly. But if you

mumble, switch topics randomly, or talk

once in a while, the parrot learns from

the TV instead. AI is the parrot, and

right now it's listening to everyone.

The question is, whose voice will it

repeat? Here's how to make sure it

learns from you. Number one, add AI

visibility metrics to your reports.

Track how often your content is

referenced or cited in AI summaries, not

just where it ranks. This is the new

KPI. Forget about just tracking

rankings. Start tracking citations. And

you can actually do this for free using

Uber Suggest. Just go to ubercess.com

and check out the AI visibility report.

We started working with companies on GEO

or AEO. And we started seeing their

traffic grow within a 12-month period.

And more importantly, within that

period, we saw AI platforms like Chad

GPT drive roughly 5.8% of their total

online sales. Now, these companies did

have a leg up because they were doing

SEO before, but it shows you can

actually get a lot of revenue from these

channels. Two, test your summaries.

Paste your post into chat geor perplexia

and ask summarize this. If AI misses

your key points or gets it wrong,

rewrite for clarity. This is how you

know if you're actually AI ready. Three,

build recognizable patterns. Instead of

vague brand slogans, develop unique

phrasing, visuals, and frameworks AI can

associate you with. This is how you

train it to quote your brand. When we

work with companies on this, we help

them develop signature frameworks and

terminology that AI starts recognizing

and citing. And here's one more thing

that most people aren't doing. But

before I get into that, if you need help

getting cited by AI and just want my

team to do it all for you, check us out

at NP Digital, where we do this for a

lot of brands. So now, let's dive back

in. You want to blog consistently. I

know everyone's saying blogging is dead.

People have been telling us for years

that they're not blogging as much

because it doesn't drive as much traffic

as it used to. But if you don't blog,

you're not going to get included in chat

GBT. When we look at what AI platforms

site the most, as I mentioned before,

blogs dominate. AI loves blogs. And if

you don't believe me, just check out

this chart. It breaks down what happens

when companies stop blogging versus

companies who are actually blogging. And

it shows how their search traffic may

have decreased from organic traditional

search, but their AI traffic went up

more and their total sales went up more

as well, which is the most important

thing. Revenue, revenue, revenue. It

matters more than traffic. Perplexity

also loves blogs and getting cited in

news or industry specific sites helps

with it as well. Google's AI loves blog

articles, mainstream news, product

blogs, and even LinkedIn articles. All

versions of blogging, right? This is a

big chunk of the citation share.

Blogging may not drive traffic that it

used to, but it does drive revenue

through these AI platforms and search is

moving in this direction whether you

like it or not. Now, here's the thing.

Understanding AI visibility is just step

one. And if you're not doing it, you're

missing out on all this potential AI

traffic. As I mentioned earlier, you can

do a lot of this for free within Uber

Suggest. But the real shift isn't just

happening on your website. It's

happening inside Google itself. The way

traffic, leads, and sales flow online is

about to change forever. So in this next

video, I break down exactly how Google's

AI update is rewriting both organic and

paid search and what it means for your

business.