SEO in 2026

Becky Simms from Reflect Digital has advice on how to be ahead of the game so that you’re ready for the new ways that users interact in a world of omnipresent AI.Becky says: “With the ramping up of AI, we need to start thinking about how behaviour is going to change.We’re seeing a lot of search engines integrating it into how the algorithm works and the results that they’re showing, and we want to think about how behaviour will change."Read the full transcript of Becky's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/becky-simms

Despite the expanding plethora of information available to us, it seems to be harder than ever to know what users are thinking. Mark Williams-Cook from Candour reminds you that intent is always changing. Mark says: “You should be monitoring search intent shift. Be aware of when what users want, and what they mean when they use a search term, changes over time – and adapt accordingly.”How do you find out what users want?“That’s the million-dollar question. Intent shift happens in several different ways. Some are ways that people are already aware of, and others are harder to recognise because they are happening in the background."Read the full transcript of Mark's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/mark-williams-cook

Getting a little more specific, Aleyda Solis from Orainti encourages you to turn your attention towards the long tail keywords to keep up with changing user behaviour.Aleyda says: “Target and focus more on answering the long tail queries of your users.We are going to see a much bigger and more important impact from those as a consequence of the AI overviews and personalised AI results that we expect to have in the not-too-distant future.Read the full transcript of Aleyda's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/aleyda-solis

Tom Winter discusses with David Bain the importance of understanding your topical authority with AI to dominate your niche.Talking points include:What is topical authority?Tell me about the Sitefocus score in latest Google scoreWhy is authority so important in the eyes of Google?How do you determine what Google think your topical authority should be?What to do if Google gets it wrongHow to change your topical authorityRead the full transcript of Tom's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/tom-winter

While he acknowledges the importance of entities, Charlie Whitworth from Whitworth SEO is here to remind you that keywords are still an integral piece of the puzzle. Charlie says: “Keywords do still matter.”Why do some people not believe that to be the case?“I don’t know if it’s off the back of AI developments, but a lot of people have been talking about keywords being dead and saying that you should stop focusing on them. They quite rightly mention entities, which should absolutely be at the forefront of any high-volume SEO strategy.Read the full transcript of Charlie's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/charlie-whitworth

Martha van Berkel from Schema App takes us deeper into the minutiae of entity SEO to look more closely at schema markup and how to build a powerful knowledge graph.Martha says: “Start to think about entity SEO and managing your content knowledge graph.”How would you define an entity?“I always like to think about an entity as a thing. When you’re in a business, you can think about the most important strategic ‘things’ for the business. What makes an entity different from a keyword (or a word in general) is that it is multi-dimensional. You can describe that entity and how it relates to other things.Read the full transcript of Martha's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/martha-van-berkel

As Jason pointed out, the value of entities goes beyond helping Google categorise your content. Ulrika Viberg from Unikorn explains how they can be the key to getting your brand noticed.Ulrika says: “Utilise entities – not only for content creation, as we have been doing for quite some time, but also for brand optimization.You can make your brand properly stand out in the search results by optimizing the entities around the brand.”Read the full transcript of Ulrika's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/ulrika-viberg

To kick off our deep dive into entities, Jason Barnard from Kalicube breaks down how and why you need to optimize your entities in 2025 – from the content itself to the creator and the publisher.Jason says: “You need to focus on Entity Optimization for EEAT, or what we at Kalicube call NEEATT.”Entity Optimization starts with entity understanding, is that correct?“Yes, 100%. Without entity understanding, there is no basis for EEAT. It is essential that you ensure Google understands who the creator or publishing entity behind the content you publish is. Without that understanding, EEAT means nothing.”Read the full transcript of Jason's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/jason-barnard

Reena Bowden shares with David Bain why and how did we should create a multi-function approach to SEO.Talking points include:What do you mean by a multi-function approach to SEO?How has SEO evolved throughout the organisation over the past few years?Who’s responsible for different aspects of SEO nowadays?What are the changes driven by?What are the advantages to these changes?What does this mean for tracking SEO performance?If an organisation isn’t set up like this, how can a head of SEO start to implement these changes?How should different SEO in-house departments be trained on the value of SEO?How will this continue to evolve in the future?Read the full transcript of Reena's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/reena-bowden

It wouldn’t be long before AI joined the brand party! If you want your name to show up in AI-driven results, then taking control of your brand entity is key, according to Crystal Carter from Wix.Crystal says: “Manage your brand entity for visibility in generative search engines and tools.”Why does generative search visibility mean that you should rethink your brand entity?“One of the things that’s really important to consider is the way that LLMs work and the way that people are using them on a regular basis.Over the last year, search has become very dissipated and decentralised. Rather than just using Google or Bing, people are searching across multiple search engines – including LLMs and tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini – to find their answers.Find out more here: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/crystal-carter

Like the others in this chapter, Casie Gillette from Customers.ai believes that brand is changing the face of SEO. In her view, you don’t just need to build links anymore; you need to get your name out there.Casie says: “Brand mentions are the new links.Considering what we’re seeing with AI overviews, Reddit, and Quora, forums are back. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s where you’re going to have to spend your time.AI overviews are pulling from these various places. I can’t tell you how many searches we’re seeing Reddit pulled up for. Lily Ray recently assessed people who lost traffic and are now ranking number 2. Guess who they’re behind? Reddit.Find out more here: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/casie-gillette

You can put the work into your brand identity, but your customers need to recognise and believe in it too. Rana Abu Quba Chamsi from Expando.Digital explains how to gain a customer’s trust and attention.Rana says: “Everything is changing, so build trust and focus on brand awareness for your clients.”Why do you believe that traditional metrics are losing their importance?“In the SEO world, we live with change, but what’s going on now is changing everything. We have witnessed a change in the ranking of websites, for example. SERPs are moving and some websites that have always been in the top positions are losing out to new websites.Read the full transcript of Rana's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/rana-abu-quba-chamsi

Like Rejoice, Annika Haataja from Seeker Digital believes in the power of the brand, and she believes that brand should be central to everything that you do.Annika says: “Make brand SEO a firm part of your analysis and strategy.Consider brand almost as a superpower for websites and companies. I would count it as one of the three main pillars that can give you a huge competitive advantage.The first pillar is topical authority, which is about content and content marketing within SEO. The second pillar is link authority, and the third pillar is definitely brand. Although brand is part of both of those other elements, there are ways that SEOs can analyse it and make it a firm part of their strategy.Read the full transcript of Annika's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/annika-haataja

Grégory Dominé joins David Bain to discuss the importance of shifting to agile SEO.Talking points include:What does working in an agile way actually mean?What are the benefits of working in an agile manner?What are the practical steps that you can take in order to shift to Agile SEO?Are there elements of SEO that can’t work in an agile approach?What are examples of tasks that work really well using an agile approach?Does an agile approach help you get things done more quickly?How do you define what needs to be done first?How do SEOs move from their current approach to a more agile approach?Does working in an agile way help you work more effectively with other departments?What are the first steps that an SEO needs to take to find out more about Agile?Read the full transcript of Grégory's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/gregory-domine

In a world increasingly overpopulated with labels, Rejoice Ojiaku from Nelson Bostock UNLIMITED suggests brand archetypes as a way to make your identity cohesive and compelling to the customers that matter.Rejoice says: “Start incorporating and integrating brand archetypes into your content strategy to align your content and identify buyer personas.”What is a brand archetype?“Brand archetypes are a set of 12 frameworks. It is a more psychological approach to developing emotional connections with your audience through your brand. A lot of brands inherit these different distinct personas that can represent a brand identity and create a narrative within your audience about what the brand is."Read the full transcript of Rejoice's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/rejoice-ojiaku

Compliance is starting to have a more important role in many businesses, and Ash Nallawalla from CRM911 Digital is here to explain why digital governance is an area that you can’t afford to miss.Ash says: “Digital governance is lacking in most web-enabled businesses, at least in a formal sense.Although websites have been around for 20 years or more, their execution tends to be ad hoc, ultimately resulting in a less-than-ideal outcome for the business.‘Digital’ is a loose term that people use when they think of computers. In the context of governance, it covers websites, social media platforms, our software if we make software, and apps for mobile phones and tablets if we make apps. The definition tends to vary a little. It usually implies the internet; it doesn’t have to, but it usually does.”Read the full transcript of Ash's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/ash-nallawalla

Effective communication is about more than just making yourself heard, and Anthony Barone from StudioHawk UK knows how to get clients and agencies to sing from the same hymn sheet.Anthony says: “I’m going to explain how to get optimal results from an agency and how an agency can get good results from their client.It’s all about working together and focusing on that relationship.”What does an optimal client-agency partnership look like in 2025?“Traditionally, it would just be: ‘We pay you, you do work.’ Then, sometimes, the client won’t actually know what you’re doing and it just keeps on rolling and rolling."Read the full transcript of Anthony's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/anthony-barone

Building on Adrijana’s motivational advice, Anna Bravington from Those That Dare and Oxford Innovation Space helps you speak up and have your voice heard in budget discussions.Anna says: “Integrate SEO into the business better so that you can talk finance and get those CFOs to give you a budget.”Is it an SEO’s fault when they don’t get the budget or a CFO’s fault?“It’s a bit of both. There is a balance and tension between CFOs and CMOs. Apparently, 40% of CFOs don’t think that CMOs and marketing people can speak business, and marketers also don’t think that finance people understand marketing."Read the full transcript of Anna's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/anna-bravington

David Bain and Otuto Umeji discuss what content is required for each stage of the buyer journey.Talking points include:How do you create content for each stage of the buyer journey?How do you establish user intent?How do you know what type of content to write?How do you measure success?Read the full transcript of Otuto's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/otuto-umeji

It’s not just the decision-makers who undervalue SEO; sometimes it’s SEOs themselves. Adrijana Vujadin from AV Mindset Coaching urges you to fight for what you’re worth.Adrijana says: “Stop under-earning.”Are SEOs bad at charging what they’re worth?“Yes, because people are not respecting them enough. That is why we lack confidence. Money, and money mindset, is a specific topic that not a lot of SEOs are talking about. Whenever we mention money, there is a negative attitude around it. People say that it’s not all about the money and they will say they’re getting enough."Read the full transcript of Adrijana's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/adrijana-vujadin

In a world where the value of SEO can often be overlooked by decision-makers, it’s essential for SEOs to be able to articulate the value of their activities. This is where we begin, with Lucia Dello from Dello Insights.Lucia says: “Prove the value of your e-commerce SEO.”How do you prove the value of it?“In this world, where acquisition remains a challenge and marketing budgets are tight, we want to demonstrate that SEO is bringing in the people you want. Retailers are looking well beyond the campaign level. They want to understand their whole sales portfolio and how it's growing over time. Therefore, you want measures that don't stop at the level of the activity, engagement or a sales total."

David Bain and Jonathan Moore discuss the importance of leveraging planning strategy, data analysis and what-if scenarios to navigate ambiguity.Talking points include:What data analysis are you referring to when planning a strategy?Where are the best sources of data?What are some examples of what-if scenarios that you are referring to?Link profile may not be what you want it to be?Content may not be what you hoped it would be?How does this help to navigate ambiguity and the unknown?What type of ambiguity are you trying to avoid?Why is it important to do this?How does this measurable impact your SEO success?How often should you be planning SEO strategy?What else should be incorporated in an SEO strategy?

David Bain and Sabine Ljunggren discuss why you need to add social media to your search strategy.Talking points include:Why do you need to add social media to your search strategy?What does this mean in practice?What social media are we talking about?What content works best on different social media sites?Why does this fit as part of a search strategy?How do you measure success on social?How do you measure success as part of an integrated search strategy?How will this continue to evolve in the future?

Desmond Boateng joins David Bain to discuss the importance of building a brand with your own story over link building.Talking points include:Why is building a brand with your own story so important?How do you craft your story?Where should you publish your story?How does your brand story interweave with the rest of your content marketing efforts?What measurable impact does this have on your SEO success?How often should you hone your story?Is this more effective than link building?Read the full transcript of Desmond's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/desmond-boateng

Ahmed Bhula and David Bain discuss balanced/consistent link building and creating content consistently within limits. Before you know it, you'll be competing against the larger companies and every Google update will benefit your rankings.Talking points include:What does Balanced/consistent link building look like?What links are good links in 2024?How many should you be building a month?What are the limits you talk about?What does constant content creation look like?What content is best?Why does this help compete with larger companies?How do Google updates benefit rankings?Read the full transcript of Ahmed's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/ahmed-bhula

Kyle Rushton McGregor and David Bain discuss how to utilise the customisation options in GA4 to your advantage.Talking points include:What are the customisation options?How should SEOs be customising them?Why should SEOs be using them?Should SEOs get assistance from a GA4 professional?What data is available?How should SEOs be using this data?What other software do you like to connect to GA4?Are the customisation options likely to change again in the near future?Read the full transcript of Kyle's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/kyle-rushton-mcgregor

PPC and Paid Media expert Sophie Fell joins David Bain to discuss how SEOs can test potential opportunities using PPC and why close collaboration between SEO and PPC can lead to data-driven insights and better-optimized landing pages, which in turn can improve conversions.Discussion points include:Why should SEOs be testing opportunities using PPC?How should they define the opportunities to test?What does the testing process look like?What software should they be using?How do they select a winner?What do they do once a winner is selected?What's your opinion of SEO and PPC ranking for the same term - should PPC be turned off?Read the full transcript of Sophie's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/sophie-fell

David and Dani discuss the importance of focusing on building a strong, recognizable brand around a specific topic, so people automatically think of you, ensuring that regardless of changes in algorithms, your brand remains a go-to source. Discussion topics include:How do you build a strong, recognizable brand around a specific topic?How can you ensure that people remember your brand after reading your content?What content do you prefer to publish?Where do you publish your content?How do you measure the SEO value of this?How do you view AI content?Read the full transcript of Dani's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/dani-leitner

In this episode, Tom Winter and David Bain discuss why you should team up with AI by using the "Cyborg Method" to deliver content.Discussion points include:How do you team up with AI?What AI do you recommend working with?How do you deliver content that is more valuable than you could before?How do you know it is more valuable than previous content?What are the risks to doing this?When you talk about doing this at scale - what scale level are you talking about?Is it possible to compete without using AI?How do you think your strategy will continue to evolve over the coming few months?

In this episode, Michał Suski and David Bain discuss why, if you have a strong, authoritative domain, you should publish as much as you can.Discussion points include:How do you know if you have a strong, authoritative domain? What metrics do you use?How do you make your domain more authoritative?What do you mean by ‘publish as much as you can’?What form of content works best?How do you measure the success of your content publishing?How has your content publishing strategy changed over the years?How is AI affecting your publishing process?

In this episode, Luca Tagliaferro and David Bain discuss "Zero-Lead Marketing".Discussion topics include:What is Zero-Lead marketing?What standalone insights and information are you referring to?Why is there no need to convert?What are the benefits to this?How does this impact SEO strategy?How does it work with other channels?

We're in 2024 and log files analysis is still an underrated source of SEO knowledge.David and Julien discuss:What is log file analysis?How do you get access to your log files?Where are log files stored and are everyone’s log files a similar structure?What software do you use to analyse your log files?What do you look for when analysing your log files?Do you combine your log file analysis with other data for better insights?How should log file analysis impact your SEO strategy?

Look at SEO holistically, from an entity building perspective. Onpage, but largely offpage also. Ensuring those foundational layer links & signals are in place. To focus on this, rather than obsessing and spending thousands on guest posts. David and Adam discuss:What is holistic SEO?What are the key elements to building a successful online entity?Gaps in entity - software to analyseWhat aspects of onpage do you focus on?What areas of offpage SEO do you start with?What are the best types of links to be getting nowadays?By having a holistic approach, do you also try to work with other marketing channels?Do you not like guest posting?

Focus on User Intent and build content, authority and a website experience that matches that and helps them to get towards their goals. David and Amanda discuss:How do you focus on user intent?How do you prefer to categorise user intent?How do you define a user’s goals?How do you build content, authority and a website experience that matches user intent?How do you build authority by delivering the right user intent?How do you alter a website experience to match a user intent?How is user intent changing?How do you determine the likely user intent?

To save time, increase efficiency, and minimise errors, utilise automation for auditing your websites.David and Jonathon discuss:What automation is key?What software do you use?How much time do you save?Why do you minimise errors and what errors do you tend to minimise?How often should you audit your websites?What are the primary issues that you are looking for when you are auditing?How is the automation of auditing likely to change over the coming year?

SEO is constantly evolving, but one thing remains constant: Google's goal is to provide the best results for users. While the signals (CTR, time on page, etc.) may change, Google's focus on quality does not. By creating the best content, you'll succeed regardless of changing rules.David and Ana discuss:How do you optimize for Google to provide the best results to users?How does Google measure quality?How do you create the best content?What type of content works best nowadays?How do you know that you’ve created the best content?What do you track to ensure that you’re consistently measuring the best content?How do you build content creation into an SEO strategy?Hoow do you measure success?

David and Azahara discuss the importance of using AI to gain deeper insights into user intent and refine your keyword strategy.Talking points include:How do you use AI to gain deeper insights into user intent?How do you ensure that you’re targeting the right users?How does this lead on to refining your keyword strategy?How do you make sure that keywords aren’t missed?What do you mean by a cohesive approach?What AI tools do you use?How do you continue to refine your approach?What are the advantages of this versus a more traditional approach?What are your thoughts on how your approach will continue to evolve in the future?

David and Andy discuss why you shouldn't let your technical SEO slip after the Helpful Content Update.Talking points include:Google launched the Helpful Content Update in mid-2022. What was that about, and has anything changed since then?How has the helpful content changed SEO?Why do you say that you shouldn't let your technical SEO slip after the Helpful Content Update?What are the key aspects of technical SEO that yo9u shouldn’t let slip?Is this the same for every industry?How do you track technical SEO success?

David and Carlos discuss why it's crucial to diversify your content strategy in the age of AI.Talking points include:How would you summarise the way that AI is transforming content marketing?Why diversify your content strategy with video?Why did you mention TikTok first?What does a good TikTok SEO strategy look like?Why does this fit into the customer journey?What other video platforms do you recommend?How do you measure the impact of a video SEO strategy?How do you think that this will continue to evolve over the coming year?

David and Kalin discuss the importance of accepting that you don't always know what is going on.Talking points include:What do you mean by that?What precisely do you have to accept you don't know what is going on?Why does this matter?How does this impact the way that you actively do SEO?How does this impact the software that you work with?How does this impact your strategy?How does this impact the way that you manage a team?To turn your tip around, what should you know that is going on?

David and Tamara discuss the importance of ensuring that your link-building strategies align with user needs rather than algorithms.Talking points include:How do you align your link-building strategies with user needs?What kind of user needs are you referring to?You talk about evading spam risks during core updates - what spam risks are you talking about and can you give me an example of a core update that has made it more likely for a site to be flagged as a spammer?Should you just target your link building strategies at driving traffic now?What mistakes do you tend to see with link building strategies?What link building strategies tend to work best now?What metrics track user-focused link-building success for SEO?How is link building changing in the world of AI?

David and Rejoice discuss why you should expand your content ideation and keyword research beyond Google.Talking points include:What do you mean by Social Media SEO?How do people begin their searches on social media?How do you track this?How can you determine the most appropriate content ideas to be targeting?How do you optimise for social media?Where does this fit into the customer journey?Do you find that people use Google search as well, further down the buyer journey?Can you determine keyword volumes?How can you forecast likely results based on what you intend to target?

David and Naomi discuss the importance of using your internal data to find exactly what your customers want.Talking points include:What internal data should you be utilising?What are examples of wishes that you’ve discovered that customers are looking for?What sort of experience are you talking about when you’re saying that this is what you should use to address this?What systems and tools do you use to make this procedure more effective?What measurable impact does this have on SEO?Competitors - how do you know that their content is hitting it out of the park?

David and Lucia discuss the importance of breaking the built-in failure cycle and running campaigns that delight your client.Talking points include:What is the built-in failure cycle?What causes it?What can you do to stop it and change it?What are examples of campaigns that delight a client?How do you make this more likely to happen in the future?How do you replicate this or automate this?

David and Dan discuss why Time to Result - is key when planning page content.Talking points include:What do you specifically mean by TTR - it sounds like Largest Contentful Paint!What are the key ways to ensure that the user’s key initial focus is on the content that is likely to satisfy their query?What are some of the mistakes that websites make to distract users from what they’re looking for?How can SEOs help to avoid this?How can you measure the impact of this from an SEO perspective?How does this impact best practice for mobile design?How will user satisfaction continue to impact SEO success in the future?

David and Alex discuss the importance of not letting AI take over your content strategy.Talking points include:What is a good use of AI?How do you know if you’re using AI too much?How do you measure the impact of creative, helpful and unique storytelling?Why will this always shine through?Why won’t AI ever take over creative, helpful and unique storytelling??How do you use AI tools most effectively?

David and Josh discuss the impact of updating your information on Wikipedia/Wikidata.Talking points include:What is Wikidata for the uninitiated?How does Wikipedia and Wikidata impact search results?How does the new AI world use Wikipedia and Wikidata?What information do you need to update to take advantage of this?Should you update your Wikipedia listing by yourself?How often should you update or refresh your listings?How do you think AI will continue to evolve to make use of Wikipedia and Wikidata?Are there any other Wiki sites that SEOs should be aware of?

David and Sarah discuss how change and challenges are inevitable in SEO, and what to do about this.Talking points include:How often is it changing?How often do rankings change?What trends do we need to look for?Should we bother with chasing algorithms?What is Google changing about the SERP?What do we do when Google takes something away?AI – challenge, people worried about taking jobs - what are the solutions?What do SEOs need to get familiar with when it comes to AI?

David and Adriana discuss how 2024 will be the marketing era of “do more with less” and the way to do that with SEO is have air tight people operations.Talking points include:Why “do more with less”?Is this because of AI?In-house or agency side?What are the pros and cons?Can you get as much done?What is the ultimate team size?

David and Luis discuss elevating the value of SEO by developing internal capabilities - agency vs in-house.Talking points include:Is in-house best?What should be done in-house vs agency-side?How do you identify what is best for you , benefits or downsides .What is more efficient?Importance of teams feeling familiar across organizations - is automation diluting learning opportunities for new SEOs?