SEO in 2026

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?

Amanda White and David Bain discuss how to be continuous and use a wide variety of SEO elements.Discussion points include:Surely you can’t work on everything at the same time?How do you identify who user is?How do you create a strategy around that?Should you not be prioritising the most impactful SEO activities?What are the well-trusted methods we shouldn’t be forgetting?How do you know when you should automate or use AI?How can SEO work more effectively with PR for greater success?How do you know what you need to adapt and change in your processes?

In this episode, Bart Magera shares that the answers to your SEO problems lie in the SERPs.Discussion points include:What answers are you looking for in the SERPs?How do you use the SERP to define opportunities?How have the SERPs changed recently?How do you use the SERP to form your SEO strategy?What are your thoughts on the future of the SERP?Read the full transcript of Bart's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/bart-magera

Ken "Magma" Marshall and David Bain discuss how rather than focusing on SEO, you should focus on HEO. "Human Engagement Optimization"Discussion points include:What is "Human Engagement Optimization"?How do you focus on creating web content with the user intent and needs in mind?Show should you use AI / ML?How do you know what your user or customer expects?How do you ensure that you are delivering excellent experiences?Why will Keyword data matter less?How do you get more sophisticated around attribution?How do you know which keywords have made a company most profitable?How do you measure "Human Engagement Optimization"?

Jan-Willem Bobbink and David Bain discuss understanding the limitations of AI based tools for SEO.Discussion points include:What are the useless exercises are happening based on LLMs that are not suitable for it?What are the limitations of AI-based tools?What are the elements of SEO that go hand-in-hand with AI?What are the elements of SEO that don’t go hand-in-hand with AI?

Myriam Jessier and David Bain discuss how mid-funnel is your strategic target.Discussion points include:What do you mean by mid-funnel?How do you identify Mid-funnel opportunities?What are good goals for Mid-funnel opportunities?Can you not work with both traditional marketing funnels and customer journey mapping?What are the typical touchpoints where SEO is overshadowed where search is critical?

Ian Helms and David Bain discuss how to stop chasing Google rankings and focus on building a real relationship with customers.Discussion points include:What are SEO best practices at the moment?How do you deliver personalized content, that is also beneficial for SEO?How do you measure the SEO value of creating a great customer experience?Is it possible to use AI generated content and to create a great customer experience at the same time?

On this episode Rasmus Sørensen discusses how small changes can lead to big impacts in eCommerce SEO.Discussion points include:What small changes?How do you know what to change?What big impacts does this have?How do you measure this?What are the biggest recent changes in eCommerce SEO?What CMS Software do you recommend?Read the full transcript of Rasmus's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/rasmus-sørensen

Dixon Jones and David Bain discuss how to cut through the AI noise in 2024.Discussion points include:How do you cut through the AI noise?Why does this make a difference?How long will this differentiating factor work effectively?Does this mean that you have to have a fairly manual process to be successful?How do you determine who your “audience of one” is, and how to talk to them?

Gerry White and David Bain discuss how the biggest challenge in 2024 will be standing out.Discussion points include:How do you deliver a reason to visit and engage with the site?What if you look at the SERP and the search engine appears to be looking for a particular type of result for a query - do you still try to be different?How do you stand out?How do you measure the impact of trying to stand out?Do you split-test trying to stand out?How do you stand out in the world of a single AI result?Will Google Perspectives help you stand out?Can you use other marketing channels to help you stand out?

Filipa Serra Gaspar and David Bain discuss the importance of Experience, high quality, author info and transparency.Discussion points include:How do you demonstrate Experience?How do you show that you offer high quality information?How do you format your author bio?What do you mean by showing transparency?What are examples of credible sources?How do you cite credible sources and what impact does this have?Can AI produced content demonstrate EEAT?

Anthony Barone and David Bain discuss how being a topical authority is key to your entity SEO.Discussion points include:How do you ensure that you create a comprehensive online version of an entity?Where do you include the information?What do you include?How do you hone your entity to appeal to your target user?How do you measure the impact of creating a comprehensive online entity?How do you differentiate yourself from ChatGPT content?How do you know that you are delivering a real and valuable answer?What should you use ChatGPT for?

In this episode Valentina shares that we should now consider all the organic channels and make them work in synergy to ensure success and that SEO is turning into OSO. Topics covered:What do you mean by OSO?What do you mean by all the organic channels?How do you make them work in synergy?How do you determine what your audience wants?What are the benefits of this?How does this ensure success?How do you measure success?Read the full transcript of Valentina's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/valentina-stragliotto

Andrew Cock-Starkey and David Bain discuss how Google is getting more and more focused on authority, expertise and experience.Discussion points include how too many people are still too scatter-gun with their approach. Andrew shares some advice on how to focus down on topic areas and really demonstrate your Expertise, Authority and Experience to search engines.

Dre de Vera and David Bain discuss how SEOs must adopt the content creator mindset for their clients and employers.Discussion points include:What is Google’s new Perspectives filter and how do you take advantage of that?How do you optimise your content on other sites to take advantage of this?How do you need to style your content?What sorts of queries are more likely to surface the Perspectives filter?How do you get content ideas from Reddit and Quora?Can any business take advantage of this?Is this for any type of content?How do you use this to build your build your E-E-A-T?Where do you lie on the use of AI to create content?

Ben Howe and David Bain discuss how you need to acknowledge that E-E-A-T considerations are no longer "nice to haves".Discussion points include:What do you have to do to demonstrate your use of EEAT principles?Do you have to do this to every piece of content, every type of intent?How do modifiers on long-tail targets look in practice in terms of landing pages? Will we have to rely on optimising for the user to receive the answer on the SERP or in an AI-powered chatbot in the future?How do SEOs segment organic audiences?

Kerstin Reichert and David Bain discuss how to build authority and collaborate to amplify your reach.Discussion points include:Do we reduce our authority by using AI to generate content?How can we be more selective about content and utilise AI at the same time?How do we use AI to be faster and better at the same time?How do we change our SEO strategy as search engines move from multiple options to answer?How do we stand out with our content in 2024?How do we utilise our authoritative figures in 2024?What style of content will work best?How do we promote the content?

In the current climate, it's more important than ever for SEOs to communicate to the business their value - ensuring they're aligning with business goals and reporting back in ways that the c-suite/business owners can understand the value SEO brings.In this episode, Anna shares with David:- How do you communicate your value to the business as an SEO?- Why do this?- Who should you communicate with, and how should you communicate? - How do you ensure your SEO activities align with business goals?- How do you report back in ways that the c-suite/business owners can understand the value SEO brings?- Should all SEOs be involved in this?- What does this mean for how you go about building your SEO career?Read the full transcript of Anna's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2024/additional-insights/anna-bravington

Taylor Kurtz and David Bain discuss the importance of focusing on known benchmarks and best practices in UX to improve your SEO.Discussion points include:What known benchmarks and best practices are you referring to?What is Virtual Environment Optimization?How do you measure the value of focusing on EEAT?What are best practices in UX and how does this impact SEO? Why should this be a priority?

Kavi Kardos and David Bain discuss the importance of following Google's lead and renew focus on E-E-A-T in 2024.Discussion points include:Why is E-E-A-T so important in 2024?What are the good ways of using AI?By announcing Perspectives and emphasizing E-E-A-T in their most recent messaging, Google has indicated that they're predicting a future preference for user generated content - what user generated content are they looking for?How do we integrate social with SEO?How do we incorporate community voices into our own content?

Ed Ziubrzynski and David Bain discuss how you should start with EEAT, and your strategy will follow.Discussion points include:How do you start with EEAT?What do you mean your your strategy will follow?How does EEAT integrate with a holistic marketing strategy?How often should you review your EEAT performance and future campaigns?How do you measure EEAT success?

Anne Berlin believes that we need to accept and prepare for the fact that Schema is becoming less relevant.Discussion points include how 2024 will be the year that structured data implementation plateaus. Anne believes that NLP has evolved to the point where most structured data is superfluous, except in a few use cases such as for publishers that have page resources prioritization/page speed or rendering issues.

David and Andy discuss why it's important not to forget your basics and that good strategy doesn't have to be complicated!Discussion points include:- You say that a good strategy doesn't have to be complicated! What is a good strategy?- You talk about complicated tricks and tools available - what shouldn’t you be doing?- What about AI?- How do you know what newer tips and tactics to listen to?

Austine Esezobor and David Bain discuss why branded keywords will become increasingly more important than generic keywords.Discussion points include:What is an entity?Why will branded keywords become more important?What strategy takes best advantage of branded keywords in 2024?Do you not focus on generic keywords at all?What is your keyword research process?

Sara Moccand-Sayegh and David Bain discuss entity building for better EEAT.Discussion points include:How do you build a digital entity?What are the key elements that search engines need to know and how do you teach them?What content do you need before you apply your Schema?What other sites do you need to be on to cement your entity’s authority?You say that when there is understanding, you can get a Twitter Carousel. How does this work?Will search engines and AI not get clever enough not to need Schema?

Ulrika Viberg and David Bain discuss how the new AI landscape we all have found ourselves in flips around the technical SEO rules.Discussion points include:What are the rules for technical SEO in 2024?How has AI altered this?How do we focus better on semantics on how does this assist AI?How do we better position our AI for AI?How do we mark up our content better for machines?Can we automate the marking up of our content?

Miracle Inameti-Archibong and David discuss the resurgence of BrandSEO due to the rise of SGE.Discussion points include:What does brand SEO actually mean?How do you improve your brand SEO?How do you work closely with other marketing teams to promote the brand?What does brand SEO success look like?How do you measure brand SEO performance?What brand SEO opportunities does SGE offer?Any other SGE opportunities?Any SGE concerns?

In this episode, David and Charlie discuss why you should be combatting cannibalisation and utilising the reviews system to take advantage of Google’s updates.Topics include:- What are the biggest cannibalisation issues?- How does cannibalisation impact SEO?- How does this impact content?- What do you mean by utilising the reviews system?- How do reviews positively impact SEO?

Martha van Berkel and David discuss how to use connected Schema Markup to prepare your organization for AI and build your company's knowledge graph.Discussion points include:What does optimizing your site and using schema markup in a connected way mean?What are your 3 tips for doing "connected" schema markup? Why does this matter?Why this is important for what's changing in Search - (SGE, ChatGPT/Bing)?How does this position SEO to be the hero in preparing marketing data for broader AI initiatives? What does this mean for the future role of SEO?

Mufaddal and David discuss the Importance of how visual elements are going to be more than ever in the new world of SGE.Discussion points include:Why are visual elements becoming more important?What are examples of the visual elements you mean?How do you optimise these visual elements?Where do they appear?What measurable result does this deliver?

Independent Technical SEO Consultant Jono Alderson advises that you cast an impartial eye across your site, asking why Google would want to crawl, index, and rank what you’re offering.

Julia-Carolin Zeng from Charlie on the Move would like to share that the opportunity you are optimizing for is constantly evolving, thanks to the shifting SERP.

In this episode, David and Mathilde discuss why you shouldn't forget the power of TikTok when planning your SEO strategy.Discussion points include:- How does TikTok work as a search engine?- How do you determine if your audience is on there?- Do you conduct keyword research?- How do you optimise your content?- What is the best publishing schedule?- Any other ways to optimise content?