Here we go again. 2026 will be here in just a couple of weeks. This means it’s time for our 2026 SEO predictions.
Before we go there let’s congratulate ourselves. Our 2025 ranking factors all checked out.
We still don’t have that crystal ball, what we do have is unmatched SEO expertise and over a decade of experience.
So what will move the SEO needle in 2026.
Some things never change. Links continue to be the king of SEO. Ranking for competitive keywords without domain authority is not possible and we don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future.
What we do see is a lot of SEO practitioners struggling with link building. It’s by far the most desired and difficult to learn and execute part of SEO.
Just like links, content has been a constant factor since a long time. In particular since Panda.
Your pages will still need well researched and optimised content.
Don’t look for shortcuts in AI, you will be very disappointed.
Another constant here and the guiding principles have not changed. Accessibility, consistency and clarity is the key. One thing to keep in mind is that search engine crawlers are getting impatient. What we mean by that is that due to so much AI slop, engines are much more selective in what to crawl and what to index. Making their job easier will help you.
Search Engine Optimisation trend predictions where is the internet going
Is the AI bubble going to burst?
We’re not sure. One thing is certain, the sheer quantity of spammy AI content is staggering. This creates crawling and indexing challenges for the search engines.
For users, it creates a lot of disappointment. Imagine researching a topic and every other piece of content you stumble upon is a rehashed AI slop.
Ironically, the quantity of AI slop is also affecting the AI models themselves. Many users have been reporting new versions of chatbots not actually getting any better. Some suggest the reason for that is that they run out of material to train them on and they started training on their own rehashed content. You can only imagine the output 🙂
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence's 2025 survey, 42% of companies abandoned most of their AI initiatives this year.
AI Overviews in SERPs are also a new development which will become more important in 2026.
These affect a lot of informational queries and will affect you especially if you are a content producer who makes revenue from content. So blogs, informational sites etc.
Your content could be taken by AI and served to users by a search engine. With everyone on the way making profit and not sharing it with you. It will not be long before we see a pushback here from EU regulators.
The second solution and one we would recommend if you are a blogger creating unique content is to build community and consider gating your content. Monetise via subscription and platforms like Patreon. Of course you should not do it without thorough research.
If you are still getting a ton of valuable traffic from organic search and you are monetising that traffic, then there is no need to act just yet.
However if you already have a massive community, huge email list and presence on platforms like Patreon, then it may be time to start experimenting.
