SEO in 2026

Majestic.com
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SEO is continuing to change at an alarming pace. And yet, in some sense, the principles of good SEO remain the same. Hello, and welcome to SEO in 2026 – a significant repository of current thinking from many of the world’s leading SEOs. We're pleased to be able to welcome you to the fifth book and fifth series in this podcast, now well and truly an annual tradition, brought to you by Majestic. “How people search has seen a bigger shift in the last 12 months than the last 12 years, and this makes SEOin2026 a must-read for anyone working in the industry. Majestic has brought together 117 of the SEO industry's brightest minds to share their insights into what matters, and what doesn't, to continue to drive growth with organic search during a period of massive uncertainty, and the book should be seen as a valuable reference point to keep your strategy on the right track.” JAMES BROCKBANK Managing Director and Founder, Digitaloft “I highly recommend that every SEO professional set aside a couple of days for SEOin2026. You'll thank me for helping you plan your year effectively. I'm extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside some of the world's leading SEO champions.” NITIN MANCHANDA Founder & Chief SEO Consultant, Botpresso “This collection of wisdom from many of the best minds in SEO today is a great line in the sand of where we as an industry are, what problems we face, and how we tackle them. Anyone in SEO or marketing should be dipping into this on a regular basis.” SIMON COX Technical SEO Consultant, Cox and Co. Creative “This series continues to be the industry’s leading source of the most timely advice a marketer could ever want. The most forward-thinking SEO experts in the world come together once a year to create this invaluable collection of new knowledge that should never be passed up on!” PAM AUNGST CRONIN President and Founder, Pam Ann Marketing and Stealth Search and Analytics “2025 has been a sprint for the SEO industry, with AI reshaping how we understand visibility, relevance, and authority. SEOin2026 is not just another trends book; it’s a roadmap for what’s actually coming. I loved being part of it and seeing how experts around the world approach the same challenges from different angles.” RAMONA JOITA SEO Consultant and Founder “David is good at drawing out the substance of a conversation. He will explore the topic and challenge assumptions, steer the conversation into an unexpected direction, and build on your ideas – making you think a bit deeper and sharper. Our recent conversation flew by as always, and as always – I’ve come out energised about the topic with more to think about.” SUKHJINDER SINGH Freelance SEO Consultant

  1. Focus on the things that are hurting your brand - with David Iwanow

    1D AGO

    Focus on the things that are hurting your brand - with David Iwanow

    David Iwanow shares how to focus on the things that are hurting your brand. Discussion points include: What is typically hurting brand and revenue now? What is genAI? How do you track genAI success? How do you obtain genAI guidance? What tools do you use an why? How do you incorporate this into an overarching content strategy? What industries does this impact the most? How will this continue to evolve?

    16 min
  2. Expand your horizons beyond Google – with Sean Barber

    2D AGO

    Expand your horizons beyond Google – with Sean Barber

    Leading on from Ed Ziubrzynski’s tip, Sean Barber muses over what platforms you should consider optimizing for in 2026. Sean says: “Think beyond Google. The search landscape has gone way further than Google now.” What do you define as being beyond Google? “It's two-fold. First, there’s the fact that users aren't just starting their search journey on Google. They're starting it on all different platforms and places. Also, it’s not just at the start of their journey; they're bouncing around. They're going to Google, then they may go to Reddit, Amazon, or large language models. On the other side, AI models are coming into play a lot more now. They're also using different sources to gather the information they need about a certain query or brand.”

    16 min
  3. Step outside the comfort zone of traditional platforms – with Ed Ziubrzynski

    3D AGO

    Step outside the comfort zone of traditional platforms – with Ed Ziubrzynski

    What is SEO nowadays? According to Ed Ziubrzynski, it’s a lot more than just Google. Ed says: “SEO needs to be everything, everywhere, all at once – and at all times.” Does that mean everything in marketing, everything in business, or everything in the world? “Definitely everything in marketing. Gone are the days when SEO was solely split into on-site (your content work, blogs, landing pages, commercial pages, etc.) and then just having off-site reserved for digital PR and typical link building strategies. We've very much gone beyond the idea of those being the most important things in SEO. Now you need to go where your users are. This also ties into the idea of passive marketing and getting in front of your audience at all times, even when they're not necessarily looking for your products or services. With apps like TikTok, short-form video content has over a billion users a month, and YouTube has over 122 million users every day on its platform. Making sure that you cover every medium imaginable with your content is almost a necessity with how the world has changed, and how internet behaviour and consumer behaviour have pivoted with it. We've got more information available at our fingertips than ever before, but the way that we digest and use content is changing rapidly. Even simple things, such as looking for a recipe. Previously, you'd read a 2,000-3,000-word blog article all about the history of that recipe before you got the information that you wanted and needed, like ingredients and cooking time. Now, it's readily available in AI overviews, and that information needs to be lifted from somewhere. As another example, for tutorials on how to change a tyre, users are heading straight to YouTube or TikTok to get that answer within the smallest timescale possible. They’re looking for a 45-second video telling you exactly how to do it and what tools you need, as opposed to landing on a website and reading a 3,000-word article that would take a lot more time and involvement from the user.”

    17 min
  4. Focus on the strategies that scale – with Montserrat Cano

    6D AGO

    Focus on the strategies that scale – with Montserrat Cano

    For Montserrat Cano, the key elements to include in your 2026 strategy are the parts that scale. Montserrat says: “In 2026, SEOs should stay grounded and focus on those strategies that scale across global markets, instead of chasing every single AI-related shiny object.” What are the strategies that scale across global markets? “The strategies I'm referring to are those strategies that reflect your business values, your business objectives, and everything that you've been trying to do. I would use AI as a helper, as something that will actually help achieve those business objectives in your target market and with your target audiences. It is really important at this moment in time because, from what I can see, artificial intelligence is actually evolving at a pace faster than most individuals and companies can adapt to. I understand that the hype is so big and the temptation is very strong to jump on to every single AI strategy that comes out and gets published, and use every single AI tool, but all of this can only be useful if you think about what you actually need to do, and why you need to use those strategies, tactics, AI tools, etc. When it comes to global businesses, the adoption of AI is quite different across global markets. According to McKinsey, in Europe, the UK is leading the way with AI adoption. It's used in many different areas, including marketing, sales, and the public sector. Whereas in other markets, such as Denmark and Belgium, AI is mostly being used in automation. It's important to bear this in mind because your target users may not even be using Perplexity, or they are using Perplexity, AI Mode or AI overviews for different reasons. They may just be validating their answers, but what are they validating their answers with? Research what your users are actually doing, and what their preferences are. There are sociological and regulatory environments that might determine what platforms they are using and how they are using them. For example, do they prefer Mistral’s Le Chat to ChatGPT? Why might that be?”

    14 min
  5. Maintain traffic through local SEO – with Cathryn Stormont

    MAY 14

    Maintain traffic through local SEO – with Cathryn Stormont

    Cathryn Stormont shares that good local SEO can still provide a lot of traffic. Cathryn says: “Focus on local SEO. With AI overviews and AI Mode dominating the SERPs, it's really important to focus on local SEO to try and maintain a certain level of traffic volume.” Is this more relevant for certain types of businesses? “There are businesses where their content is very much informational, like solicitors or accountants, where their blog content is being picked up by AI overviews dominating that space, which means their traffic volumes are starting to decrease. We're seeing that in lots of different sectors. However, they have a local edge. They have a local office, and it's those local searches where people are looking for ‘solicitors in Brighton’, where the AI overviews are not being shown as much. It’s typically around 40% for those versus about 90% for informational-led content. There's an opportunity to try and maximise that element, your local SEO, to try and get more traffic and keep that traffic up as much as you can.”

    14 min
  6. Focus your AEO strategy on showing up in Dark AI conversations - Tom Rudnai

    MAY 13

    Focus your AEO strategy on showing up in Dark AI conversations - Tom Rudnai

    Tom Rudnai says that instead of chasing citations, focus your AEO strategy on showing up in Dark AI conversations where problems are framed. Talking points include: What are Dark AI conversations? How do AI responses change at different stages of the buyer journey? Why are citations is a bad north star metric? How should SEOs measure AI performance? What analytics to use? What content performs best in AI? How do you research what content to write? - Key trends: intent-matching, convergence - What is "Dark AI"? - How to measure AI performance and why citations is a bad north star metric

    16 min
  7. Stand out in any region through better personalisation – with Gemma Fontané

    MAY 12

    Stand out in any region through better personalisation – with Gemma Fontané

    Gemma Fontané recommends that personalisation is key when it comes to international SEO success. Gemma says: “Focus on personalisation, adapting your content in each language and across different formats, to really build your brand in each region. These actions will allow you to stand out from your competition, demonstrate authority and expertise, compete in multilingual markets, and stay visible in the era of generative AI.” How do you go about personalising content? “First of all, personalising content is very important nowadays because search engines today are rewarding depth, expertise, and true relevance, in order to stand out. In 2026, with AI-generated content everywhere, what will really make the difference is cultural, linguistic, and format-specific personalisation, if you really want to differentiate your brand. How can you do that? There are two different things that you can do. If you want to start your strategy in a newer market or you are already working in that region, you can do an EEAT analysis to analyse which channels will allow you to show expertise, experience, trust, and authority. Also, you can analyse the main experts to see how people show trustworthiness through different formats. In order to personalise your content, you can also conduct multilingual keyword research in each market. This will not only help you know what people are looking for, related to your product or service, but also understand how people are looking for your product in each market. This will help you identify the best strategy related to the format. For example, you might find that people are looking for images related to your product, a step-by-step guide, or maybe a video that will help them to understand, know, or choose to purchase your product.”

    15 min
  8. Treat individual markets individually – with Lau Miguez

    MAY 11

    Treat individual markets individually – with Lau Miguez

    Global SEO isn’t about treating every market the same. As Lau Míguez puts it, ‘European markets demand full commitment and strong EEAT signals — well-positioned experts are now essential for success,’ and that expectation has only grown over the past few years. Lau says: “What’s really shifted is how demanding each market has become. Working closely with Spain, and across international campaigns, I’ve seen clients move away from the idea of ‘Europe’ as one block. A few still ask for LATAM as a region, but no one says, ‘Can you do Europe?’ anymore. The penny has finally dropped: each country behaves differently. If you want results, you have to show genuine expertise, authority, and brand trust – not generic international presence.” Is using hreflang and a direct translation of content not enough anymore? “If you’re translating a piece that was originally written for the US, what you end up with is a perfectly translated article about a completely different reality. It will still talk about states instead of regions or cities, and even if you mention Spain once or twice, you might pick up a couple of links – but you’re not building any real trust. Nothing in that content shows an understanding of the Spanish audience or what’s actually relevant to them. That’s why localisation matters. If you’re talking about the job market, and Spain is currently debating a 37-hour working week, include it. Reflect what’s happening in that country. When you speak to the concerns and conversations happening locally, the audience feels it — and so do journalists. That’s why localising your content and your strategy has become more important than ever.”

    16 min
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About

SEO is continuing to change at an alarming pace. And yet, in some sense, the principles of good SEO remain the same. Hello, and welcome to SEO in 2026 – a significant repository of current thinking from many of the world’s leading SEOs. We're pleased to be able to welcome you to the fifth book and fifth series in this podcast, now well and truly an annual tradition, brought to you by Majestic. “How people search has seen a bigger shift in the last 12 months than the last 12 years, and this makes SEOin2026 a must-read for anyone working in the industry. Majestic has brought together 117 of the SEO industry's brightest minds to share their insights into what matters, and what doesn't, to continue to drive growth with organic search during a period of massive uncertainty, and the book should be seen as a valuable reference point to keep your strategy on the right track.” JAMES BROCKBANK Managing Director and Founder, Digitaloft “I highly recommend that every SEO professional set aside a couple of days for SEOin2026. You'll thank me for helping you plan your year effectively. I'm extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside some of the world's leading SEO champions.” NITIN MANCHANDA Founder & Chief SEO Consultant, Botpresso “This collection of wisdom from many of the best minds in SEO today is a great line in the sand of where we as an industry are, what problems we face, and how we tackle them. Anyone in SEO or marketing should be dipping into this on a regular basis.” SIMON COX Technical SEO Consultant, Cox and Co. Creative “This series continues to be the industry’s leading source of the most timely advice a marketer could ever want. The most forward-thinking SEO experts in the world come together once a year to create this invaluable collection of new knowledge that should never be passed up on!” PAM AUNGST CRONIN President and Founder, Pam Ann Marketing and Stealth Search and Analytics “2025 has been a sprint for the SEO industry, with AI reshaping how we understand visibility, relevance, and authority. SEOin2026 is not just another trends book; it’s a roadmap for what’s actually coming. I loved being part of it and seeing how experts around the world approach the same challenges from different angles.” RAMONA JOITA SEO Consultant and Founder “David is good at drawing out the substance of a conversation. He will explore the topic and challenge assumptions, steer the conversation into an unexpected direction, and build on your ideas – making you think a bit deeper and sharper. Our recent conversation flew by as always, and as always – I’ve come out energised about the topic with more to think about.” SUKHJINDER SINGH Freelance SEO Consultant

Information

  • Creator
    Majestic.com
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    500
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Majestic.com
  • Show Website
    SEO in 2026

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