SEO in 2026

David and Krzysztof discuss the key elements of getting set up with your analytics.Talking points include:What are the key elements of getting set up with your analytics?What is your definition of a bounce rate?How do you merge analytics with Google Search Console data?How do you record user sessions with Microsoft Clarity?What metrics are you tracking on a regular basis?What are the pros and cons with GA4?What other options do Microsoft Clarity bring to the table?

David and Olga discuss the importance of doing SEO testing to prove the SEO concepts you preach.Talking points include:How do you know what to test?How do you test?What software do you use?How long should tests last?How often should you test?What shouldn’t you test?What don’t you test yet, but do you intend to test in the future?

David and Sally discuss the importance of striving to achieve stakeholder buy-in in an ever-evolving SERP.Talking points include:Why is this important?Who are the key stakeholders?How do you achieve stakeholder buy-in?How do you appeal to different stakeholders?How do you continue to work with different stakeholders?How does this impact the role of SEO moving forward?Why does the ever-evolving SERP landscape make this necessary?

According to Elena Dyulgerova, it;s essential that you diversify your traffic sources in 2024.Talking points include:Where are the best sources to diversify traffic sources from?What are the most valuable sources of traffic?How does Pinterest optimization work best in 2024?Is Pinterest only for e-commerce?How does this differ by industry?How do you optimise for different platforms?

Ash Nallawalla from CRM911 Digital believes that SEO deserves a bit more recognition – and businesses will benefit greatly from giving SEO managers a bigger voice. Discussion points include:Where in a corporate structure should an SEO manager sit?What do they need to control?What do they need to influence?How do they manage to climb the organisation hierarchy?

Helen Pollitt says that you need to ensure that SEO takes its rightful place as a strategic business function.Discussion points include:Why has SEO been traditionally been considered a marketing channel?Why is it imperative that SEO is fully integrated into design, brand, engineering, customer services and UX teams?How should a company change their focus from "SEO as a marketing channel" to "SEO as a strategic business lever"?

Gus shares that you can improve your impact by taking inspiration from how product managers operate.Gus says: “Think like a product manager.""For me, it’s about following a process of discovery, testing, and seeing whether the things that you’re doing actually have an impact or not. Let’s say you believe that you can improve indexation on a website. That’s your hypothesis. Then, you’re going to start with the discovery phase: what are the possible things you can do to solve this problem? There are many different ways that you can do this, depending on the size of your website and the resources that you have."

You can diversify your own approach and skillset, but International SEO and Digital Marketing Specialist Monsterrat Cano is a firm believer in strength in numbers. It’s foolish to work alone, she says.Discussion points include:Can every SEO collaborate - even in-house SEOs working by themselves?How do you collaborate during a- migration process- recession- algorithm update- tech integration

In this episode David and Ashley discuss the importance of learning from what's currently ranking, but offer something different with your content.Discussion points include:How do you learn what you should be ranking for?How do you learn what’s currently ranking?How do you offer something different with your content?How do you know that search engines will prefer your content?What type of content tends to be more effective nowadays?How often should you update your content?

If you’re looking for a new weapon to add to your arsenal, Sara Taher from Assembly Global says that video is the way to go. She believes that this is where users and search engines are turning their attention.Sara says: “Integrate video content into your SEO strategy, be it long-form, short-form, vertical, horizontal, or square videos.”"You want to leverage video on the SERPs themselves and also on other platforms as well – like YouTube and TikTok. You basically want to create video content that you can also post on your website. For each of those, there are values that they are going to bring to your business."

Navah Hopkins believes that SEOs need to know about Performance Max ads.Discussion points include:What are Performance Max ads?What will iOS17 do for tracking and attribution of your marketing campaigns?What creative works best? Ad or landing page perspective or both?Why are they different?What does adapting content to visual first placements mean?Why are they better?Is there any downside?Why are they important for SEO?How should paid and SEO work together?

Crystal Carter believes that you should be using multimedia to slice across your marketing channels.Discussion points include:What do you mean by slicing?Does multimedia work for every type of content?What stage in the customer journey does multimedia content work for?Does multimedia replace content?Do you mean multimedia off site?What does the ideal content production process look like?How is AI changing multimedia content?

Izzy Wisniewska believes that you should befriend other marketeers and go holistic in 2024.Talking points include:What does holistic actually mean in practice?How do you unite as a marketing department in a large organisation?How does a content team, PR team, video team join forces with sEO to deliver a more effective customer experience?What other teams impact areas like:EEAT, technical performance, user experience, speed, user intent, content qualityWhat does this mean for channel team members - do they need to train themselves on other channels?How do you measure success?Who gets credit for a customer purchase?

In this episode, David and Sukhjinder discuss the importance of knowing your audience, meet their search intent & ensure your content is “Helpful”.Discussion points include:Why is knowing your audience and meeting their search intent even more important in the age of SGE?How do you know your audience?How do you meet their intent?How do you ensure that your content is helpful for both users and search engines?What does having E.E.A.T.-worthy content actually mean?How is this changing in 2024 and beyond?

Luke Carthy believes that 2024 is the year of the yearning for original, creative and well-written human content.Discussion points include:What can humans do that AI can’t do?What’s the difference between well-written human content and AI content?What should humans stop doing and hand over to AI?How long will this be the case for?How is TikTok a competing ecosystem to Shopify and Google?What should SEOs do about this?Is it an SEO’s job to optimize for every platform?

Nikki Halliwell shares that creating actionable audits that your client understands, and can be used by stakeholders at all levels and being able to follow them through and get fixes implemented by working closely with dev teams and speaking their language for faster implementation.Discussion points include:What is an actionable audit?Is there any type of audit that you see SEOs doing that don’t provide much value?What stakeholders should be using this audit?What language should you be using in your audit reports to assist you in engaging with various stakeholders?How do you get dev teams on board to implement fixes more quickly?What software do you use for your audits?How often should you do these audits?

Andor Palau shares the importance of investing in additional tools and external testing when doing a migration.Talking points include:What are some examples of some of the preventable errors that can occur with migrations?What tools do you use?How do you end up paying with missing revenue?What different perspective or different data layers might you end up missing?How should you plan for a migration?Who should you involve in a planned migration?Is there anything that you need to keep checking post-migration?

As many contributors to this project have alluded to, the long-reaching arms of AI are reaching into many aspects of digital life, which is why Emma Russell from Oxford Comma Digital says that you need to be a more discerning gatekeeper, and that you should Limit crawlability to your content.

In this episode, David and Manu discuss the importance of keeping a wide open eye and being flexible in your SEO approach.Discussion points include:Can you give an example of the new possibilities of integrating AI in your workflow and processes?When you say, “make sure you have access to the right and accurate data”, what data are you referring to?How do you work cross-channel?How do you determine what delivers the most value to your audience?How do you know when to pivot an SEO strategy?

Fili Wiese shares what impact site speed and Core Web Vitals has on SEO in 2024.Discussion points include:What impacts site speed most in 2024?- Server and hosting- File sizes and types- Plugins and add-ons- Traffic volume- Poor codingHow should we be using Core web Vitals to direct our site performance improvements?Inside Search Console?- Loading (Largest contentful paint - how fast is fast enough? How do you improve this?)- Interactivity (First input delay - how fast is fast enough? How do you improve this?)- Visual stability (Cumulative layout shift - what issues are key?)

Tom Pool advises that you ensure technical quality throughout your entire site.Discussion points include:What does good technical site quality look like in 2024?Has anything changed in terms of technical setup best practice in the past couple of years?How does a good technical set up deliver better user experience?How do you build a solid technical foundation if you’re not sure how large you’re going to grow?If users are happy using your site is it worthwhile to continue to invest in further technical improvements?How do you measure the impact of technical improvements?

Alexandra Tachalova shares that building the right links should be one of the biggest priorities for marketers.Discussion points include:What are the right links at the moment?What are the wrong links at the moment?How do you get the best links?Why is this more important than other marketing activities?You say that Sites that have a strong domain authority can easily reach excellent results in Google SERPs without building any links back to their individual pages - does this mean that you only have to build links to certain pages?Can you stop building links after a while?Will links stay important with AI results?

Eva Cheng shares why you shouldn't give up on "Hero Campaigns" in Digital PR.Discussion points include:What are hero campaigns?What are the typical results you are looking to achieve from hero campaigns?How do you create a hero campaign?How do you manage a hero campaign?How do hero campaigns fit into the bigger picture?Why should SEOs consider building category page links?At what point in your SEO strategy should you implement this? Are there any specific Digital PR tactics that have proven more successful for category page links?Why do you say that an SEO shouldn’t be afraid to build category page backlinks?How do building category page backlinks fit into the bigger picture?

Rad Paluszak shares the importance of prioritizing "Value" over "Sheer SEO".Discussion points include:Why is working on improving the site better than obsessing about SEO?You say that SEO-elements on a website CAN be imperfect - why?You say that if your site is not useful or does not deliver truly unique value, it might be throttled and suffer in the long term - what do you mean by this?Why should SEOs stop obsessing over AI developments?

Jo O'Reilly believes that you should start prioritising building smaller numbers of relevant high-quality links.Discussion points include:How do you define relevant high-quality links?How do you define irrelevant spammy links?How do you measure the value of a link?How do you conduct outreach?Ideally what style of links are you looking for?Are you willing to pay for links?

Alan Silvestri advises that you leverage happy customers for ethical backlinks.In this video we discuss the importance of leveraging happy customers for:* Case Studies* Testimonials* Guest Blogging* Webinars and Podcasts* Affiliate Programs* User Generated Content* Community Forum or Groups

Rana Abu Quba Chamsi shares the importance of mastering your video SEO.Discussion points include:What do you mean by video SEO - optimizing video to appear on the SERP?What type of business is video most suitable for?What’s the ideal length and format? How do you optimize? What’s your process?What are some other video-based platforms that you optimize for and how is that optimization process different?What kind of intent does video traffic have and does that differ to other traffic?How does video fit into the overall content mix?How is AI impacting video optimization?What is the future of video optimization?

Amit Raj shares the importance of building relationships before you link build.Discussion points include:How would you define a valuable link?What do you have to give to obtain a valuable link nowadays?How do you stand out with your outreach?Is that link a logically relevant link between those websites?Does it provide value?Is your outreach relevant and genuine to the receiver?Are you approaching sites with something that will genuinely resonate, and that their audience would benefit from?

Debbie Chew emphasises the importance of staying on top of link and mention building.Discussion points include: Why build mentions?What do you mean by generative AI chatbots and search being influenced by listicles?What do you mean by that you shouldn’t "blindly" build links to pages without regularly revisiting the SERPs?What are the link building tactics to focus on in 2024?

Andreas Voniatis shares the importance of optimizing internal links to increase the relevance scores of target content.Discussion points include:What scoring system do you use to analyse the relevance scores of target content?What are the data sources requiredWhat are some data cleaning tipsHow do you determine anchor text relevance with python functions? How do you use statistical distributions to model the relevance and highlight under-served target content?

Katherine Nwanorue shares the importance of linking sub-categories to parent categories as part of your on-page SEO strategy.Discussion points include:What about linking the other way around - from the main category body content to the minor category page?Why do this if there are links on the navigation menu?What measurable value does this provide?Does this make it more likely for the pages to be indexed?Will it result in higher rankings?Is the keyword text within the links important?How many links per page do you recommend?Any other internal link strategies that you recommend?Can this be automated?

Veronika Höller shares that adopting search generative experience as your SEO strategy in 2024 is pivotal.Discussion points include:How is SGE changing the SERP?What markets does this affect at the moment?What timescale are we looking at for full international roll-out?What industry sectors does this affect the most?What about queries - what types of queries does this affect the most?What does this mean for the way that we write or optimize content?How are other search engines changing?Does this reduce the impact of Google as an organic search discovery channel?Do we have to turn to other content mediums like YouTube, TikTok or podcasts?

Anna Uss shares the importance of understanding the full advantage of internal link optimization.Discussion points include:How do you build an internal links strategy?How important is it to have your target keyword phrase in internal links?Where should you have your internal links?How often does your internal links strategy need to be reviewed?Why is having an internal links strategy so important?Can you have measurable success thanks to an internal links strategy?What tools do you use to help manage your internal links?

Bill Hartzer shares the importance of understanding the whole link profile of your website, not just the tier 1 links.Discussion points include:How deep do you go?What impact do the 2nd and 3rd tier links have?What tools do you use to research this?How can you affect the 2nd and 3rd tier links?How often should you be working on this?How do you build a multi-tier link building strategy?

Mark Williams Cook discusses why you should use AI assistance to validate long-form content that fulfills intent.Discussion points include:What type of content is this for?How do you use AI to validate long-form content that fulfils intent?What does validation mean?Why is this valuable?What AI tools do you use?How does doing this at scale provide an easy map of what needs improving?What does ‘scale’ mean?What does an easy map of what needs improving look like?

Natalie Arney believes that reduce, reuse, recycle applies to your website as well as the products you use.Discussion points include:How do you Reduce, reuse, and recycle content?How do you review your content?How do you determine what you already have provides value?How do you provide more value?How do you ensure that content stays relevant - or do you always have to review content?What style of content are users typically enjoying at the moment?

In this episode, Santi Clarke from Duda recommends that your agency is maximizing its use of AI.Discussion points include:How has AI changed the way that agencies work?How do you maximize your use of AI?How do you know what aI you should be using?How do you stay on top of the most appropriate AI to be using?What are your favourite AI tools for agencies at the moment?How do you think an agency’s use of AI will continue to evolve over the coming year?What is the future of the agency model, thanks to AI?

Jack Chambers-Ward shares how to harness the power of informational content for e-commerce sites.Discussion points include:Why is informational content so important for ecommerce sites?Can Informational content help at every stage of the customer journey?How do How-to articles help?What about comparison articles - are they important for E-E-A-T?How do you deal with landing pages for seasonal products?How do you use FAQs?

Lidia Infante shows how to level-up content, tech and links in your SEO.Discussion points include:- With opinionated, unique, expert-driven contentWhat’s an example of this?How to you go about creating this?Why can’t AI replicate this?- Rich Schema markupWhat Schema do you need to use?How do you insert it and manage it?Will AI not lead to the end of Rich Schema?- Focusing on brand awarenessWhat does that mean practically for SEO?Where do you want to see the increased brand awareness?How do you measure the impact of improved brand awareness?

Bibi Raven says that you need to think human-first with your AI copywriting.Discussion points include:What does Human-first AI copywriting mean?What do you love about AI language models?What don’t you love about AI language models?What do we need to do about AI copywriting?What does authenticity mean?Should a business define a brand voice?How does a business know that it is investing in the right creativity?

In this episode Paige Hobart shares how important it is for your SEO to get to know your thought leaders.Discussion points include:Why get to know your thought leaders?What can sales reps offer?What can product evangelists offer?What can the CEO offer?What types of content is produced?How do you measure success?Why is search volume reactive not proactive?

In this epsiode, Arnout Hellemans explores why he believes that 2024 is the year of query satisfaction.Discussion points include:How are content UX, core web vitals and E-E-A-T coming together?How do you know which queries to optimise for?What software do you use?How do you go about establishing how to answer the query? (i.e. content form)How do you satisfy UX, core web vitals and E-E-A-T at the same time?How do you optimise for Google’s SGE and other AI results?What is your content creation process?

Maria White and David Bain discuss how we need to be moving from Influencer Marketing to Influence Search.Discussion points include:What does Influence Search mean?Are you talking about using influencer to create quality and relevant content for your website?How do you identify the influencers?How do you persuade them to write for you?Do you ask these influencers to talk to the press on your behalf?What does success look like?How do you measure the success of related social activity?

Ashley Liddell and David Bain discuss how creator-led SEO will dictate 2024 and beyond.Discussion points include:What will these relationships with creators look like?Why long-term relationships?How do you build these relationship?How much do they cost?What sort of content do you want them to create?What happens when the relationships ends?

Martin Huntbach and David Bain discuss the importance of listening to what your customers say FIRST and then validating this with keyword research.Discussion points include:How do you listen to your customers?Face-to-face / video recordings / surveys?How do you validate it with keyword research?Are there missed opportunities if your customers don’t suggest certain topics?What tools do you use?What search volume is good?Is zero search volume ever still interesting?How do you incorporate the keyword on the page and within the content?How do you choose what content suits the keyword?How do you try to rank for the keyword?

Fabio Embalo and David Bain discuss why ee are going to have to adapt extremely fast in 2024.Discussion points include:What do SEOs have to do differently?How does this impact the way that things are currently done?What has to be optimised to appear in SGE?How do you drive traffic from SGE?Should SEOs also be using AI in their own processes?Should SEOs also be using AI to create content?

In this episode, Kerry Campion discusses why it's important to become "uncopyable" for SEO success in 2024.Discussion points include:How do you become "uncopyable"?What’s an example of a strong brand messaging strategy?How do you lean heavily into your own customer stories and what value does that provide?How do you nurture relationships with thought leaders and what are you looking to achieve from that?Are internal or external thought leaders key?Are there any AI evolvements that you are nervous about from a content perspective?

Begum Kaya and David Bain discuss the importance of making sure your content attracts the right audience and helps them convert.We have endless opportunities to find the right topics, optimize the websites accordingly, and try to reap fruits before really understanding our audience. However, we've seen many examples where it doesn't mean anything beyond some text. Begum believes we have to move towards the communicative and humane side of things and build our voice rather than covering all we can that touches our niche on the internet.

Nik Ranger and David Bain discuss what a post-SGE, AI influenced world means for SEO.Discussion points include:How do you leverage natural language processing techniques for information retrieval?How do you leverage natural language processing techniques for text analysis?Why is it more important than ever to understand the mechanisms that underpin how and why results are displayed?What does this mean for SEO?How does this affect an SEO strategy?

Eli Schwartz and David Bain discuss why you need to focus on the end user only and understand WHY they are searching.Discussion points include:Why is this important?How do you find out why they are searching instead of what they are searching?What tools do you use to assist you with this?How do you alter your content to appeal to the why?Does this apply to every type of content?How does this interweave with other digital marketing activities?How does this change of focus impact the bottom line measurable?