AI SEO + SEO + AEO = The New Frontier of Marketing

Digital marketing is marketing. SEO is on it's way out. Revolutionised back to real brand marketing. 2026 SEO will be another interesting year as old ways die and trust becomes important. SEO may be dying, but  digital marketing for searchers is 100% alive and about to thrive. 

If you want to win in the long run at SEO in 2026, you play by the old fashioned rules of business. Be nice, do a good job, build a reputation and do the marketing suitable for your business. Use our 10%+ better than all your competitors and you will be golden.

If it's that simple why am I here? Because to know what works and doesn't takes experience, analytical thinking and a passion for marketing. SEO should die off as we know it before 2030. It should be replaced with a standard everyone can meet. Leaving reviews, reputation and brand awareness as differentiators. 

What happens to SEO in 2026?

 I used to outsource most work but the last year or two has been very different. I figured out "everything SEO" 6 months before I ever touched AI. My experience and knack for predicting trends and figures showed me the way, but I didn't know how to explain it all. Things are actually simpler now. Back to the old ways. 

Back to common sense best practices like nurturing brand reputation. Google is the Yellow Pages, where you go to locate a company. The decision is made with AI. Google Organic Search is dead as we knew it. 1st position gets clicked 10% of the time now. It was 30% before. If you aren't first, forget it. 2-4% of the clicks isn't worth it. Now we optimise for AI which will help you in 2026, as all markets see the same trends.

Now people get to your site when they choose to, not because of the rankings in Search. A third are tracked, a third type in the website (Direct in GA4). A third are brand searches in Google. This will account for 80% of traffic and 90% of sales (AI trafic is higher quality).Google Ads is out for the time being. Especially for high IQ niches.  AI Ads may change that.