SEO in 2026

Andrew Optimisey shares about he importance of controlling all of your domains.Talking points include:What does controlling all of your domains mean in practice?Who should be responsible for your domains?When should you buy a new domain and when should you build a new project on an existing domain?When should you change a domain for an existing project?When should you let a domain name expire?What do you do from an SEO perspective when you decide to let a domain name expire?What do you do if you have let an old domain expire, and you realise that this was a mistake. Is there any way to go back?What can you do if a spammer or scammer gets hold of your domain?What do you think of the newer domains - Is .com always best?When selecting a new domain, is brand or domain more important?Read the full transcript of Andrew's interview at: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/andrew-cock-starkey

Helen Pollitt shares the importance of understanding the cost as well as value of organic traffic.Talking points include:What is the difference between the cost and value of organic traffic?Why do we need to know the cost?How do we calculate the value?What do you mean by organic traffic in all forms?How do you prefer to calculate ROI?How does this lead into defining an SEO strategy?How often should this work be done?How is it changing due to AI and new technology?Read the full transcript of Helen's interview at: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/helen-pollitt

Andy Frobisher shares that it’s time to get serious about the internet and energy consumption.Talking points include:What companies are trying to go net zero?Does this have a positive business case?What does this mean for the overall size of pages on websites?What are the best ways to reduce the page speed of a web page in 2025?What does this mean for algorithms moving forward?What does this mean for SEO planning?How can Core Web vitals help us with this?How do we forecast a revenue increase or cost reduction as a result of reducing page speed?Read the full transcript of Andy's interview at: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/andy-frobisher

Bastian Grimm shares that inventory management is now more important then ever.Talking points include:What do you mean by Inventory management?How do you know which content to focus on?What do Google do when they can’t keep up with crawling and indexing the web?Should you get rid of some content?What content should you get rid of?What’s an example of poor quality content, produced by AI?What is state-of-the-art AI that SEOs should be using?What parts of your SEO and content production should you be using AI for?How else can AI help with your SEO performance?Read the full transcript of Bastian's interview at: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/bastian-grimm

Kaspar Szymanski shares that SEO in 2025 is all about signal input.Talking points include:What do you mean by SEO signals?Are Google and Bing looking for the same thing in terms of SEO signals?So the same signals apply to LLMs as well?How do you ensure that SEO signals are consistent?Why do regular, annual SEO audits help with SEO signals?What are the key things to be looking for in an SEO audit?Is using server log data important as part of this?What are you looking for in server log data?What software do you use to assist you with this?

Tin Dudajek shares the growing importance of schema markup.Talking points include:How would you summarise the current state of Schema?Why is it continuing to gain importance in 2025?What is schema used for in modern SEO? (data management)Why is Schema so important for AI?What content needs to be optimized for Schema for AI?Where is AI using these schema enhanced pages?What tools do you use to assist with this?How do you measure success?

Keith Goode shares that SEO Product Management is the natural progression of Technical SEO.Talking points include:What is SEO product management?What does the day-to-day life of an SEO product specialist look like?Why is SEO Product Management the natural progression of Technical SEO?Why does SEO Product Management help you go from just building audit lists to implementing changes?Should every SEO be considering this?What skillsets are developed?

Cathryn Stormont shares the importance of keeping track of the performance of core web vitals and overall site user experience.Talking points include:Why are your core web vitals so important to UX?How can you improve your core web vital scores?Are these metrics likely to change or be added to over the next couple of years?Are there any other key metrics that are important for UX?

Montserrat Cano advises the importance of getting to know your audience by undertaking market and competitor research to help overcome risks.Talking points include:How do you undertake market and competitor research to help overcome risks?Why does this work both in primary and global markets?Why does it help to overcome bias?You also talk about Avoiding Logical Fallacies in SEO & Broad Marketing - what do you mean by that?How does this process help you to maximise your budget?Why does this help you Avoid alienating potential customers?What data should you be gathering?Where should you get data from?How often should you be doing this?

Maria Scheibengraf shares that in your international SEO efforts, translation and SEO shouldn't be separate tasks performed by separate professionals.Discussion points include:Why does translation and SEO need to be the same task?What happens if these tasks aren’t tackled together?Surely technical SEO and content creation are quite different tasks?What aspects of SEO do people who are translation specialists commonly miss out on?What aspects of getting translations right do SEO specialists generally get wrong?How do you ensure that translations are correct for the local region?What tools does an SEO need to do both of these tasks effectively together?How do you determine if a translation has been effective?Do localised translations need to be optimised differently for local search engines?Is AI not impacting the need for localised translations?

Joseph Kahn explains why adapting to the Local SEO Evolution is key.Talking points include:What changes in local search algorithms are you referring to?How is ‘features with AI’ affecting local SEO?How do you optimize for "near me" searches ?What do you mean by optimizing for location-based queries using AI?How do you leverage user-generated content for local SEO using AI?

Sean Barber shares why tracking LLM traffic matters.Talking points include:Why does tracking LLM traffic matter?How do you go about doing this?What LLMs are driving the most traffic at the moment?How should an SEO optimize for LLMs?What are some specific steps that SEOs should take to optimize for LLMs?Why is this important compared with other SEO activities?How is the LLM space evolving?What does this mean for the future of SEO?

Edward Ziubrzynski explains why global EEAT needs to be a local strategy.Talking points include:What do you mean by EEAT being a local strategy?How could an EEAT strategy vary in different locations?What local considerations do brands generally need to be aware of?How do you strategically roll this out if you’re a big company?How does this improve your SEO?How do you measure the success of this?

Myriam Jessier and David Bain talk about the importance of tackling local marketing and SEO with cognitive insights.Discussion points include:What do you mean by cognitive insights?How can cognitive insights help with local marketing?How can familiarity help to build your brand?What’s an example of hyper-localised content?How do you deliver hyper-localised content?What are the benefits of delivering hyper-localised content?

Maximise your global reach by treating each international market as unique and creating tailored campaigns that resonate with local audiences.Lau Miguez and David Bain discuss:What do you mean by treating each international market uniquely?You say Transcreate, Don’t Translate - what does that mean?What other content creation tips do you have when trying to appeal to a local market?Why do you have to understand the local Media Landscape?How do you use the local media?How do you get to know the local audience?You advise on appreciating local Cultures and Subcultures - what does that mean in practice and how does this help to create a more impactful campaign?

In this episode, Sinead shares that you should find ways to look beyond what SEO tools show you, and that you sometimes you have to go manual to stand out.Discussion points include:What are examples of not getting enough information from tools?When Media databases don't show you the most relevant contacts, how do you get the most relevant contacts?You say that Google doesn't always show you all the relevant stories from a straight search - why is this important and what should you do about it?Backlink tools can't always show you the full range of backlinks in a domain - why does this matter and how do you dig deeper?How much value does this human digging deeper provide?How do you measure the impact of it?Can AI not assist with this?

In a world where over 65% of searches end without a click, No-Click SEO is reshaping how businesses approach search visibility.David and Rose discuss:Why is no-click SEO a thing?Why are traditional click-through rates (CTR) are no longer the best success metric?How are Google’s AI-driven search features (SGE, featured snippets, and People Also Ask) keeping users on Google, and what does this mean for SEO?What actionable strategies can you offer that mean that users search for a brand directly? (AI-generated snippets, leveraging structured data)How do you continue to future-proof your SEO?

In this episode, David and Alexandra discuss the importance of approaching link building differently in the age of AI-summarized results.Topics discussed include:Why is link building different now?How do we focus on acquiring links now?How do we measure success?

With Google reducing the payoff from SEO by introducing AIOs, building authority is becoming ever more important. But how do you use data to design highly effective digital PR campaigns?In this episode, David's questions to Andreas include:- You suggest Benchmarking link volumes, quality and velocities to see where you are vs competitors - what does this mean and why do you suggest this?- You say that SEOs are chasing link sources, and that they should chase the target destinations instead. What does this mean?You also recommend using Internal search pages as an insight by product - why?- You suggest using indexes to find where you're under indexing on your content. What’s the value in doing this?

Sally Raymer talks about how you should go about tackling changes from algorithm updates.Discussion points include:How do you keep track of Algorithm Updates?How do you decide what are the key algorithm updates to act on?How soon do you act?Changes in intent / competition / volatilityHow do you analyze changes in user intent?How do you determine whether your brand can continue to compete in these spaces?How do you find new opportunities?What are some examples of bad practices that get punished now?How do you regain momentum after suffering from an algorithm update?How do you predict the sustainability of new found opportunities?

Filipa Serra Gaspar talks about the importance of refreshing old content.Discussion points include:How do you select the content that needs to be refreshed?What metrics are you looking at when deciding on the content that needs to be refreshed?How do you know when to refresh the content, when to delete the content and when to leave it alone?How do you refresh the content?How do you know the part of content to refresh?Do you remove some of the old content or just add new content?What tools do you use?How do you know what to add to the content?Can you outsource this process?What are you looking to happen when you refresh content?How do you measure the impact of this?

Vivek Shankar shares why AI is here to stay and what to do about it.Talking points include:Why is AI here to stay?What does that mean for content marketers?What do you mean by implementing AI successfully?You talk about models - are these best models to use for different industries?What is the wrong way to implement AI?How do you ensure quality in content?How do you measure results?What AI software do you use?How do you integrate this into your content strategy?

Olga Zarr shares why you need to nail on-page SEO before doing anything else.Talking points include:Why are aspects of on-page SEO often neglected?What aspects of on-page SEO are key for 2025?How do you know which aspects of on-page SEO to prioritize?Can you achieve much success just by focusing on on-page?Are you saying that off-page isn’t as important?How do you know when your on-page SEO activities are done?Do you use tools to measure this?How is on-page SEO changing?How do you keep a track on how SEO changes?How can you measure the success of your on-page SEO activities?

Monty Mathur shares about the importance of focusing on SEO fundamentals and first principles rather than chasing trends.Discussion points include:You talk about Applying SEO First Principles - what does that actually mean?How do you ensure that your strategies are aligned to SEO First Principles?What does high authority actually mean?What are the core UX metrics and why?You don’t recommend chasing SEO tactic trends - why is that?How is SEO evolving and what do we need to be careful about?

Greg Gifford shares about the importance of not getting distracted by AI tools and algo updates.Talking points include:What are the basics?Why are the basics still the most important part of what an SEO does?How long will the basics remain relevant for?Has anything changed about the basics recently?What does getting distracted by AI tools and algorithm updates look like?What’s an example of bad use of AI?Shouldn’t we keep track of algorithm updates and update our tactics accordingly?Is there a good use of AI?You’re known as a local SEO expert - does this advice apply to all kinds of SEO as well as local SEO?How do you incorporate focusing on the basics as part of an SEO strategy?

Itamar Blauer shares the importance of not neglecting the SEO fundamentals that move the needle for a website.Talking points include:What impact do the fundamentals have?How do you track and measure, how do you stay on top of the fundamentals?What percentage of your time should be spent on the fundamentals rather than newer tactics or strategies?You talk about so many shiny new things happening in SEO - how do you know which shiny new thing to pay attention to? How do you tell a client that you want to focus on the fundamentals, when all they’re interested in is AI?

Joe Hale shares why e-commerce sites are leaving revenue off the table.Talking points include:Why does this leave revenue on the table for e-commerce sites?What is the difference between a collection and a category page?What impact does creating & utilising collection/category pages have?How do you measure this impact?How do you optimise your use of these pages?How do you know which categories to focus on first?What process do you go through to promote these pages?Is this advice suitable for all types of e-commerce sites?

Olesia Korobka shares that it is important to ensure the SEO fundamentals are done before we proceed anywhere further.Discussion points include:What are the basics and fundamentals that you talk about?What are the common technical issues you’re seeing on websites nowadays?Can you share some tips on how best to structure a website for 2025?Why do you start with your goals and expectations from the user?What are a few examples of good goals for a website?How do you set the funnel that you’d like users to follow towards your goal?How do you decide on the users that you want to visit your website?How do you format your content for the SERP?What do you do if you have content that isn’t bringing in the right type of user?

Gus Pelogia shares how to use LLMs to build simple SEO tools without coding.Talking points include:What types of simple SEO tools are you talking about building?Why should SEOs build these sorts of SEO tools by themselves?How can you do this using Screaming Frog?What is vector embedding and why is it important?What is cosine similarity?How do you use Screaming Frog and OpenAI to extract embeddings?You then use LLMs to create a Python Script - why is a python script important?What’s the end result that you’re trying to achieve?What are some other simple SEO tools that SEOs could build using LLMs?

In this episode, Ben Howe shares the importance of not being put off by the horror-stories; leverage AI for at-scale SEO output. But do it SMARTLY.

Victoria Olsina shares the importance of building your own prompt libraries for your clients.During the conversation we focusing on the following steps:Data Collection: Gather extensive data from the client, including previous content, style guides, and brand guidelines.Training the Model: Use this data to train a GPT, ensuring it understands the client's voice, preferences, and industry specifics.Customization: Fine-tune the model to handle specific content types like blog posts, social media updates, and product descriptions.Integration: Integrate the GPT with tools like content management systems and collaboration platforms for seamless use.Continuous Improvement: Regularly update the model with new data and feedback to keep it current and effective.

Danielle Neah Amponsah shares why digital PR isn’t just for links - it’s a powerful tool to build your brand.Talking points include:How do you run a successful digital PR campaign in 2025?How does digital PR integrate with other marketing channels?Is digital PR part of SEO?How do digital PR and SEO work more effectively together?How do you measure the impact of a digital PR campaign?How do you incorporate digital PR into an overarching marketing strategy?How is digital PR changing?

Kevin Indig shares that the key to success in SEO for 2025 is automation.Discussion points include:1/ mining insights from forums, SERP Features, and top-ranking content2/ creating massive amounts of baseline drafts for editorial content3/ enhancing aggregator content programmatically

Erik Wikander shares that it is essential that you understand how AI will impact search behaviour and content creation.Topics discussed include:How will AI impact search behaviour?How will AI impact content creation?How do you create unique AI content that performs well in search?How do you use AI for the entire SEO and content marketing process?What are the downsides to this?How do you compete if everyone is doing the same thing?

Ian Helms believes that AI doesn’t need to improve—SEOs and marketers need to get better at using it.Talking points include:How do you maximise the potential of AI?What are the key limitations of AI?Are these limitations likely to stay?How do SEOs work smarter with their use of AI?What tools should they be using?How should they incorporate AI into their workflow?What happens if you don’t use AI? Will you get left behind?Are there certain SEO tasks that will never use AI for?

Bill Hartzer shares that you can use AI tools to help you do your job more efficiently.Talking points include:What AI tools are you referring to?How do you use them as efficiently as possible?How do you link everything up together?How do you ensure that AI is doing a good job?How do you know what to ask AI to do, and what to do yourself?What other tasks are you planning on testing AI on?

Zack Kadish believes that in the age of AI, content marketers must prioritize human-centered, customer-first content.Talking points include:How would you summarise the AI-driven and evolving SERP landscape at the moment?Why is it important to prioritize human-centered, customer-first content?Why does this make it more likely that SEO will be a success in an AI-driven and evolving SERP landscape?What does creating authentic, authoritative content that addresses real user needs look like in 2025?Why does this strengthen trust, enhance user experience, and build brand credibility?How do you measure the impact of this?How do you continue to stay on top of the evolving SERP landscape and how do you know when to adapt your SEO strategy accordingly?

Ashley Segura and David Bain discuss the age-old debate: Quantity vs Quality.Talking points include:- How to produce content at scale- What tools do you recommend?- What type of content works best?- How should content be produced?- Do you favour in-house or agency?- What data should be utilised?

Tamara Novitović shares the importance of predicting user needs with AI & secure backlinks that drive rankings and engagement.Talking points include:How do we Predict user needs with AI?How does this help to secure backlinks that drive both rankings and engagement?How important a ranking factor is user intent and how should we optimise for it?What about engagement - how important a ranking factor is that?How can AI be used to predict user search trends and behavioural patterns? (competitor analysis, algorithm impact, etc).Can we provide AI with user data to help it better understand their needs?What metrics do we use to track user behaviour?Can we use AI to build a backlink strategy that attracts credible links?

Manuel Madeddu shares the importance of not being used by AI.Discussion points include:What are the challenges with AI?What’s best practice?What is a holistic approach?How do you work on efficiencies?What are your thoughts on search engines using AI?

Taylor Kurtz discusses the importance of utilizing AI as an ally, rather than viewing it as a threat.Discussion points include:Why might AI be a threat?How do you turn it into an ally?How do you use AI for different agency tasks?- client communication- report analysis- content creation- much more?What sectors are you finding to be particularly suitable for the use of AI?What about hallucinations?Any other sectors that you are working with?

James Brockbank shares the importance of thinking about E-E-A-T as your brand’s online reputation.Talking points include:How can E-E-A-T your brand’s online reputation?What aspects of E-E-A-T are key to doing this?How do you align link building, content and brand signals?What aspects of link building, content and brand signals do you focus on most and why?Can you do this in an automated way?How does this link together in an overarching strategy?

Chris Meabe shares the importance of including expert perspectives in your content.Discussion points include:How do you become an expert source?What measurable impact does it have?What statistics are Google using to quantify the level of expertise?How do you demonstrate your level of expertise?How do you enhance your level of expertise?How do you become the reliable source?

Jack Chambers Ward shares that authenticity is the difference maker for content in 2025.Discussion points include Jack's 5 tips for creating authentic content:1. Curate your content like you’re a magazine editor2. Let your brand values drive the content, before the brief, before the keywords.3. Stay consistent with your message and branding across channels4. Leverage positive and negative elements in your marketing5. Cut once, measure twice

Dani Leitner shares the importance of concentrating on one topic at a time to gain topical authority and improve rankings.Talking points include:Why is Google focusing more on topical authority?What difference does this make to the quality of content it serves?What does this do for a small brand’s ability to compete?Why can small brands compete more effectively?How do you build topical authority?How do you know the right audience questions to answer?How do you know where you should be engaging with your audience?

Iva Jovanovic shares the importance of focusing on delivering meaningful content to users (and don't dismiss EEAT signals) .Talking points include:What is meaningful content?How important is EEAT in content in 2025?You say that “Quality content will now more than ever be the main thing for all search engines” - how do you define quality content?By all search engines - are you mainly referring to Google?How do you think that the content creation process should be handled in 2025?How should brands decide on what content to create?How should a brand incorporate EEAT into their content?What are some mistakes that companies are making with their content creation process?

In this episode, Ryan Jones shares the importance of focusing on building brand search volume.Discussion points include:Why is building brand search volume important?How do you measure increases in brand search volume?How do you know which marketing activity increased the brand search volume?Can SEOs claim credit for increasing brand search volume?What are the key SEO activities that can increase brand search volume?What are the key non-SEO ways to increase brand search volume?Should you try to increase brand search volume on non-traditional search engines and discovery engines?What is the future of building brand search volume?

Gemma Fontané shares that Experience (within the E-E-A-T family) is the key element within the AI era.Discussion points include:- How experience will be a differential element for websites- Concrete tips to leverage experience through Google (&other platforms)- Why is experience so important?- How does Google measure experience?- How do you demonstrate experience?- How will the importance of experience continue to evolve?

Jono Alderson shares that we should stop writing articles. He says "Stop assuming that 'producing content' is a core, valuable, or necessary component of modern SEO. Burn your content marketing playbook, and critically assess the role of content in a world where Google can synthesize answers to increasingly large numbers of (types of) queries."Discussion points include:Why do we need to burn our content marketing playbook?How do we critically assess the role of content in a world where Google can synthesize answers to increasingly large numbers of queries?What does this do - how do we adapt our strategy?What does a content marketing playbook look like in 2025?What content strategies won’t make it?Is AI going to make content marketing doomed?Can we use AI in a way that augments our content, without fear of being gazumped?How does this affect the setting of an SEO strategy?

Laura Iancu discusses the intersection between UX and SEO with David Bain.Talking points include:Do you need to be a UX designer to deliver a user-friendly website architecture?What are some simple steps to take in order to deliver a search engine-friendly website?How do you like to stay on top of the latest UX trends and techniques?How do you ensure that UX and SEO works together effectively in a large organisation?What do you look for as a user to ensure that your website is mobile friendly?You say that UXR is your friend - what do you mean by that?You advise that an SEO should practise by constantly auditing competitor websites - what does this look like?You say that the accessibility tab in Google Lighthouse + a screen reader can be your best friends - why is this?