AI-SEO Is Changing Everything in 2026

by AI before anyone clicks on your site.

That means [music] your traffic could

tank even if you're ranking number one

right now. But here's the good news. I'm

Neil Patel and I've been [music] doing

SEO since 2001. I survived Panda,

Penguin, Rank Brain, Fur, and every

other major shakeup Google's thrown at

us. And every single time, the people

who adapt early typically [music] come

on top. So today I'm breaking down the

five strategies you need to rank and

stay relevant in this new AI power

search role. Let's dive in. Strategy

one, focus on entities and topical

depth, not just keywords. Here's

something that might surprise you. If

your traffic's been dropping even though

you're doing SEO, right? This is

probably why. A recent study analyzed

over 1,500 Google search results and

found no consistent correlation between

keyword density and ranking. [music] In

fact, higher ranking pages actually had

lower keyword density on average.

Another study by WLDM, ClickStream,

[music] and Searching Journal looked at

over 250,000 search results and found

[music] that topical authority is now

the strongest onpage ranking factor,

even stronger than domain traffic. So,

what does that mean for you? Google's AI

isn't just looking for pages that

mention a keyword 20 times. Is looking

for pages that demonstrate real

understanding how ideas connect, relate,

and build on each other. Think about it

like this. You're in a meeting. It's

easy to tell who's just throwing around

buzzwords versus who actually knows

their stuff, right? AI works the same

way. It spots surface level content

instantly and rewards the people who

show genuine expertise. Here's how to

actually do this. One, build topical

depth. Create one pillar page, let's say

the complete guide to running shoes, and

[music] link to subtopics like best

running shoes for flat feet, trail

running shoes, and how cushioning

prevents injuries. That interlinking

[music] signals to Google that you fully

understand the topic. It makes you the

trusted authority and boosts the

rankings for all the related pages. Two,

use semantic variety. Tools like Surfer

SEO and [music] Google's NLP API show

you the related concepts and entities

Google connects to your topic, brands,

[music] locations, techniques, people.

Weave those naturally into your content

so AI naturally understands [music] the

full context of what you're talking

about. But there's one layer of

authority most people [music] completely

overlook. Without it, your content will

always struggle to get visibility.

Strategy two, build author and brand

authority. E A T for AI. Most marketers

tell you to make good content. And

that's fine advice, but have you ever

noticed that even your best content

sometimes gets zero traction? Here's

why. Average content from an authority

outperforms great content from a nobody

almost every time. There's actually a

famous psychology study where people

were twice as likely to follow

instructions when a person giving them

wore a doctor's coat, even when they

weren't even an actual doctor. A's

algorithm mimics the same human bias.

They rank and quote content from

recognized authorities because trust

reduces risk for both the platform and

the user. Google's a overviews and

perplexity don't just ask what does this

page say? They ask who said it and can

we trust it. The same way you wouldn't

trust medical advice from some random

dude on the internet. AI is hesitant to

promote content from someone unverified

with no credentials. Number one, show

your experience. Add author bios,

credentials, and firsthand stories.

Google's AI looks for realworld proof

that you know what you're talking about.

Don't just say you're expert. Prove it

with case studies, results you've

gotten, specific examples from your

work. Two, earn brand mentions. Get

featured on podcasts, blogs, or even

news outlets. Even [music] unlin

mentions strengthen your authority

footprint. And here's something

interesting from our data. When

companies get cited in news or industry

specific sites, they see [music] a

massive boost in how often AI platforms

quote them. When we looked at what gets

cited most, it's blogs and getting cited

on news or industry specific sites. This

is all versions of blogging, right?

Three, be consistent. [music] Align your

author name, bios, and tone across every

platform. YouTube, LinkedIn, your

website. AI is looking at all this to

determine if you're legit. But here's

the problem. Even if you build that

authority, [music] it won't matter if AI

can't find and quote your content in the

first place. Strategy three, optimize

for featured and summarized results.

Number one ranking blog posts are losing

traffic right now because people aren't

searching the way they did 4 years ago.

AI is answering their questions before

they even click on a site. And here's

what everyone gets wrong. They look at

their analytics and say, "AI isn't

driving traffic." Yeah, no crap. But you

know what? AI is driving conversions. We

ran a study with companies investing in

both traditional SEO and AI

optimization. The AI platforms weren't

driving even 1% of the traffic. But look

at the conversion numbers. AI was

responsible for 9.7% revenue in B2B

companies and 11.4%

in BTOC companies. You're not going to

get the traffic you're looking for from

AI platforms, but the conversion rate is

insane. And here's why. Most people use

AI platforms for top of funnel research.

When we looked at the data, majority of

LLM users aren't even researching

products or services initially, but

certain percentages are researching

products and roughly 14% or more are

actually purchasing. Some in store,

[music] some directly on the website. In

B2B, we're seeing mainly direct on the

website. It's a huge conversion channel.

It doesn't even [music] show up in the

data because people do research on

platforms before they even click or go

to your website. Think about AI powered

search like a conversation, not a search

engine. When someone asks a [music]

question, a doesn't list websites

anymore. It quotes them. If your content

answers the question directly and is

easy to parse, it becomes [music] the

exact line AA lists for its summary.

Here's how to make that happen. Number

one, write like you're answering a

question. For example, the question

could be, "What's the best SEO tools for

beginners?" The answer could be Uberys,

Hrefs, SEM Rush, and Google Search

Console. They're easy to use and scale

as you grow. That format makes it

[music] effortless for AI to lift your

content. Two, structure for scanners.

Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and

subheadings. If a humans can skim it, AI

can summarize it. We're seeing that AI

platforms love content that's well

structured more than anything else.

Three, target people also ask. Those

questions often feed AI summaries. Each

[music] one is a chance to earn a

citation. And when you get cited, you're

not just getting traffic, you're getting

high intent users who convert. Now, if

you want to get included in Google's AR

view specifically, [music]

they're citing facts and comparisons.

More than anything else from what we're

seeing, that's where to focus your

attention if you really want to get

included. Getting AI to quote you is

only half the battle, though. If your

content [music] isn't easy for AI to

read and understand in the first place,

it'll skip you no matter how good you

are at answering questions. Strategy

four, feed the machines. Structured data

and AI friendly content. Here's

something most marketers don't clearly

understand. A doesn't automatically pick

the best content. It skims just like

humans do. If a reader would click away

from your page, a will skip it too and

site someone else instead. Imagine

walking into a massive library. Most of

the books are just random piles of

pages. No titles, no chapters, no

structure. But the one book that stands

out has a clear table of contents, clean

headings, and quick summaries. You need

one answer fast. Which book [music]

would you pick? AI works the same exact

way. It skims and sites content that's

organized and easy to parse. If your

content isn't structured, AI treats it

like lowquality noise and moves on to

the next site. Now, here's the

difference between traditional SEO and

what I call GEO or AEO or even AI SEO,

whatever you want to call it. With

traditional SEO, things like thoroughess

are super important as well as quality.

But with AI and LLMs like TAG GBT, they

really care about structure and

formatting. If you don't get those

right, you're not going to do as well.

Traditional SEO cares about links. GEO

cares about citations. If you're not

getting those citations, you're not

going to do as well. This is why

blogging is so important. When AI

understands your content better, humans

do, too. That's a win you'll see in both

rankings and conversions. With AI, they

also look at things like sentiment.

Traditional SEO does not look at

sentiment as much. Are people saying

things positively about you or

negatively? So, here's how to fix this.

One, use schema markup. Add FAQ, howto,

and review schema [music]

so AI instantly knows what your content

represents. Schema is like a nutrition

label for your content. It helps

machines read, digest, and recommend

your material confidently. Two, add

multiple formats. include videos,

visuals, and charts. AI prefers

multimodal data. It signals [music]

depth and clarity. And here's something

interesting. When we looked at what AI

platforms actually site, they love

blogs. But blogs with images, videos,

and data visualizations get cited way

more often. Three, make your data

explicit. Use number lists, stats, and

tables. Don't hide value in long

paragraphs. When you site facts and

stats, and unique research, data

platforms eat that stuff up. That's what

they're pulling from more than anything

else. But none of this matters if you're

still treating SEO as a one-time thing.

Strategy five, rethink your SEO workflow

for generative search. Back in the day,

stuffing content with keywords [music]

and updating it once a year was enough

to keep ranking. Today, that's not even

close to doing well. If you're not

training AI to think like you, it's

quoting your competitors instead. Think

about teaching a parrot to speak.

[music] If you repeat clear phrases

consistently, the parrot mimics you

perfectly. But if you mumble, switch

topics randomly, or talk once in a

while, the parrot [music] learns from

the TV instead. AI is the parrot, and

right now it's listening to everyone.

The question is, whose voice will it

repeat? Here's how to make sure it

learns from you. Number one, add AI

visibility metrics to your reports.

[music] Track how often your content is

referenced or cited in AI summaries, not

just where it ranks. This is the new

KPI. Forget about just tracking

rankings. Start [music] tracking

citations. And you can actually do this

for free using Uber Suggest. Just go to

ubercess.com and check out the AI

visibility report. We started working

[music] with companies on GEO or AEO.

And we started seeing their traffic grow

within a 12-month [music] period. And

more importantly, within that period, we

saw AI platforms like Chad GPT drive

roughly 5.8% of their total online

sales. Now, these companies did have a

leg up because they were doing SEO

before, but it shows you can actually

get a lot of revenue from these

channels. Two, test your summaries.

Paste your post into chat geor [music]

perplexia and ask summarize this. If AI

misses your key points or gets it wrong,

rewrite for clarity. This is how you

know if you're [music] actually AI

ready. Three, build recognizable

patterns. Instead of vague brand

slogans, develop unique phrasing,

visuals, and frameworks AI can associate

you with. This is how you train it to

quote your brand. When we work with

companies on this, we help them develop

signature frameworks and terminology

that AI starts recognizing and citing.

And here's one more thing that most

people aren't doing. But before I get

into that, if you need help getting

cited by AI and just want my team to do

it all for you, check us out at NP

Digital, where we do this for a lot of

brands. So now, let's dive back in. You

want to blog consistently. I know

everyone's saying blogging is dead.

People have been telling us for years

[music] that they're not blogging as

much because it doesn't drive as much

traffic as it used to. But if you don't

blog, you're not going to get included

in chat GBT. When we look at what AI

platforms site the most, as I mentioned

before, blogs dominate. AI loves blogs.

[music] And if you don't believe me,

just check out this chart. It breaks

down what happens when companies stop

blogging versus companies who are

actually blogging. And it shows [music]

how their search traffic may have

decreased from organic traditional

search, but their AI traffic went up

more and their total [music] sales went

up more as well, which is the most

important thing. Revenue, revenue,

revenue. It [music] matters more than

traffic. Perplexity also loves blogs and

getting cited in news or industry

specific sites [music] helps with it as

well. Google's AI loves blog articles,

mainstream news, product blogs, [music]

and even LinkedIn articles. All versions

of blogging, right? This is a big chunk

of the [music] citation share. Blogging

may not drive traffic that it used to,

but it does drive revenue through these

AI platforms and search is moving in

[music] this direction whether you like

it or not. Now, here's the thing.

Understanding AI visibility is just step

one. And if you're not doing it, you're

missing out on all this potential AI

traffic. As I mentioned earlier, you can

do a lot of this for free within Uber

Suggest. But the real shift isn't just

happening on your website. It's

happening [music] inside Google itself.

The way traffic, leads, and sales flow

online is about to change forever. So in

this next video, I break down exactly

how Google's AI update is rewriting both

organic and paid search and what it

means for your business.