| Marpo

The digital landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) at its core. This year has been less about the initial disruption of AI and more about strategically leveraging its capabilities within the SEO industry. The fundamental principle of SEO—making your brand visible online wherever your audience seeks information—remains constant, but the "where" and "how" are rapidly evolving.

The traditional focus on Google, rankings, and keywords is expanding. As Ashley Liddell aptly puts it, we're moving towards "search everywhere optimization." This encompasses platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Google, ChatGPT, and Reddit, often in combination.

For the technical side of SEO, ensuring pages are accessible to all search engines and machines is paramount. On the content front, the focus shifts to creating experiences that can be cited and understood by these systems. Crucially, every SEO effort must align with defined business outcomes, emphasizing measurable results over mere activity.

A significant area of focus is agentic AI—closed systems that complete actions for users, such as booking holidays or personalized shopping. Being present and included in these emerging "closed spaces" is vital for future visibility. The AI future is accelerating, making 2026 a critical year for SEO professionals to adapt and embrace these changes.

To guide the industry through this pivotal period, Search Engine Journal asked 20 leading SEO experts, including many of its contributors: "In 2026, what should SEOs focus on to maintain visibility and achieve measurable results?" Their insights, presented below in the order of response, offer a roadmap for navigating the evolving search landscape.

How To Maintain Visibility Online In 2026

1. Be Mentioned In the Right Places

Kevin Indig, Growth Advisor

For 2026, Kevin Indig emphasizes that online visibility stems from three key areas: creating the right content, engaging on the right channels, and securing mentions in authoritative places.

He advises developing hyperlong-tail content and data-driven stories, noting that user prompts are significantly longer than traditional Google searches. This content should be tailored to specific audience contexts and offer unique data points, which Large Language Models (LLMs) favor.

Regarding channels, Indig highlights the importance of platforms like Google, ChatGPT, Reddit, Quora, review sites, LinkedIn, and niche forums. These are frequently cited by LLMs and Google Search, requiring an engagement-focused strategy rather than a traditional SEO approach.

Finally, he stresses the value of mentions from authoritative publishers and industry review sites. LLMs heavily consider mentions from relevant external sites, making contextual presence crucial for reflecting a brand's positioning and market standing.

2. We Have To Do More Than Just Appease Google

Cindy Krum, CEO & Founder, MobileMoxie

Cindy Krum asserts that SEOs must move beyond merely satisfying Google's algorithms. While a high-quality, indexable website remains foundational, it's no longer sufficient for comprehensive online visibility. Google's traditional algorithm focused on ranking individual sites based on content and links. However, AI search utilities and LLMs operate differently, synthesizing information from across the web to find consensus.

This shift means relying solely on your website for visibility is inadequate. To achieve broad visibility, your branding message needs to be widely and consistently distributed across the web, presenting a unique yet cohesive brand narrative.

3. Optimize For Systems That Read Like Machines

Duane Forrester, Founder and CEO, UnboundAnswers.com

Duane Forrester advises SEOs in 2026 to view visibility as something earned through retrieval, not just ranking. The focus should be on how AI systems chunk, cite, and, most importantly, trust content. This involves auditing what surfaces in chatbots and answer engines, not just traditional Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Building authority signals that machines can verify—such as structured data, consistent sourcing, and clear entity definitions—is crucial. Forrester suggests using embeddings, vector search, and retrieval testing to understand how meaning, rather than just keywords, drives exposure. The goal is no longer a blue link but becoming the trusted source that AI systems turn to when users ask questions, with trust being paramount in 2026.

4. Be Retrieved, Cited, And Trusted Wherever Users Search

Carolyn Shelby, Founder, CSHEL Search Strategies

Carolyn Shelby emphasizes a refocus on clarity, consistency, and comprehension for SEOs in 2026. She states that every channel describing a brand—its site, feeds, listings, and profiles—must tell the same story using consistent language, understandable by both humans and machines. This means streamlining fragmented site structures, making important facts visible on the page (not hidden behind tabs), and ensuring content is semantically clear.

While Schema still matters, Shelby highlights situations where JSON-LD Schema might not be fully read, making visible on-page text for product specs and data essential. Optimizing for "lowest-common-denominator crawlers" won't penalize Google or Bing performance but will enhance overall visibility. Pages should be fast, crawlable, and feature consistent product, pricing, and positioning statements across all surfaces. The ultimate goal is to be retrieved, cited, and trusted wherever users search, whether on Google, Bing, or an LLM.

5. Visibility Will Depend On Agentic Readiness

Andrea Volpini, Co-Founder and CEO, WordLift

Andrea Volpini predicts that 2026 will see the design of the "Reasoning Web," where AI agents act on our behalf, transforming SEO into the discipline of making these systems effective. Visibility will hinge on "agentic readiness," which involves clean structured data, stable identifiers, precise ontologies, and knowledge graphs. These elements enable agents to resolve entities, compare offers, execute tasks, and learn from interactions.

Volpini describes this as a semantic shift, moving beyond mere mentions in AI Overviews or ChatGPT. It's about exposing products, content, and services as machine-operable assets through feeds, APIs, and tools that continuously enhance agent intelligence. Brands that empower agents to operate safely and verifiably will lead the next chapter of search.

6. Search And Product Are Intimately Connected

Ray Grieselhuber, Founder & CEO, DemandSphere

Ray Grieselhuber emphasizes that AI search is now ubiquitous across three core experiences: SERPs, LLMs, and agentic experiences. While SERPs and LLMs share a common search index (often Google), their retrieval processes differ significantly. This highlights the critical need for accurate and fine-tuned monitoring and data pipelines.

For agentic experiences, though still nascent, Grieselhuber advises integrating product strategy with feeds, APIs, and new protocols like MCP. He argues that search and product have always been, and will continue to be, intimately connected, a truth that forward-thinking professionals will recognize.

7. Have A Relentless Focus On Being The Best

Barry Adams, Polemic Digital

Barry Adams cautions against succumbing to AI hype and radically overhauling SEO efforts. While growing traffic and revenue from search will become more challenging, he notes that many SEOs have relied on Google's inherent growth. With stagnating clicks, a smarter approach is necessary.

Adams advocates for reducing "busywork" that yields no measurable improvement. Instead, focus on strategies that genuinely work, prioritizing quality, and relentlessly striving to be the best. Capitalize on site strengths and eliminate weaknesses. Sites with significant technical or editorial shortcomings will fail. He stresses an "all-in" commitment to search, without cutting corners, as anything less will lead to being on the "wrong side of the zero-sum game that Google search has become."

8. Focus On Quality And Conversion Over The Quantity Of Content

Lily Ray, Vice President, SEO Strategy & Research, Amsive

Lily Ray reiterates the enduring importance of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) for 2026, especially with the rise of AI search. She explains that being cited in AI search hinges on reputability, experience, and trust. The more a brand is recognized and respected within its industry, the more likely LLMs are to cite it as a trusted source. This requires earning mentions and positive reviews in relevant places, and having a respected team contributing authentic, expert insights.

As AI-generated content proliferates, users will increasingly seek out real human creators and authentic conversations. Ray advises prioritizing the quality and conversion potential of content over sheer quantity, warning that the latter can lead to significant SEO challenges over time.

9. Maintain A Strong Focus On Retrieval Systems And Search Overall

Pedro Dias, Technical SEO/AI Discoverability Consultant, Visively

Pedro Dias stresses the importance of maintaining objectivity and pragmatism in approaching organic visibility, particularly search, given the influx of new AI technologies. Professionals must deeply understand both the technical and behavioral changes at play. He warns against clinging to old habits and metrics, urging a reevaluation of strategies and tactics.

Dias highlights the overwhelming number of tools claiming to offer AI insights, emphasizing that the industry is still in an exploratory phase regarding AI optimization and inference influence. For 2026, SEOs should maintain a strong focus on retrieval systems and overall search. He advises ensuring SEO strategies are current, considering all aspects contributing to consistent visibility—content, branding, technical—and adopting an omnichannel, unsiloed share-of-voice strategy. Critical thinking, questioning inconsistencies, and caution against overpromising claims, outdated methodologies, and vanity metrics are also essential.

10. Remain Focused On What Drives Impact

Montserrat Cano, MC. International SEO & Digital Strategy

Montserrat Cano advises SEOs and digital marketers in 2026 to combine a deep understanding of AI platforms with strong knowledge of their user base across all markets. As search becomes more personalized, AI-driven, and fragmented, visibility will increasingly depend on comprehending local search behaviors, cultural nuances, and how audiences interact with SERP features and LLMs throughout their purchase journey.

The true value lies in embedding this research into ongoing internal processes like content planning, prioritization, and testing. This ensures teams focus on high-impact activities—relevant queries, effective content formats, and engaging AI experiences. Grounding strategies in first-party data, current market insights, and continuous learning will protect visibility and foster sustainable growth, becoming a core capability for effective SEO and marketing.

11. Review How Content Is Organized, Linked, And Surfaced

Alex Moss, Principal SEO, Yoast

Alex Moss highlights that while site speed, UX, and Information Architecture (IA) remain constant priorities, the structure of content needs significant auditing and improvement to accommodate both AI agents and human users. SEOs should review how content is organized, linked, and surfaced. Schema is crucial for 2026, as it will be increasingly utilized to understand entities and their relationships, thereby reducing AI hallucinations. Moss also recommends revisiting IA, query grouping, and internal linking strategies. For brand and offsite SEO, the focus should shift from traditional link acquisition to building brand sentiment through third-party perspectives, including native digital PR and unlinked brand mentions. Finally, he advises investing in multi-modal content—imagery, video, and platforms beyond traditional search—to enhance discoverability.

12. Focusing On Evaluating The Revenue Impact Of Your Strategies

Helen Pollitt, Head of SEO, Getty Images

Helen Pollitt emphasizes that in 2026, SEOs must focus on evaluating the revenue impact of their strategies. She notes that many SEOs fall into the trap of optimizing for traffic or chasing the latest tactics, often losing sight of commercial goals. The most effective SEO strategies are those consistently driving revenue or other business objectives. Keeping this premise central will prevent distraction by fads and ensure efforts contribute genuine value.

Pollitt suggests prioritizing projects based on their likelihood of success and revenue-generating potential. This calculation helps identify which activities are worth budget and resources, allowing SEOs to discern whether a new "reverse-meta-optimization-deindexing" fad, for instance, truly warrants pursuit.

13. Treat The Website Like An Enterprise System

Bill Hunt, Global Strategist with Bisan Digital

SEO in 2026: Experts Share AI-Driven Visibility Strategies