GEO/AEO in 2026: SEO Experts Weigh in on AI Search

If you’ve spent the last few years trying to figure out what GEO and AEO actually mean for your day-to-day work, you’re not alone. 

To cut through the noise around optimizing for AI search visibility, we went directly to the people closest to the problem: SEO strategists, technical leads, content specialists, and digital marketing directors actively navigating AI search in 2026. 

What follows is their collective thinking — unfiltered, often refreshingly blunt, and full of practical tips for anyone trying to stay visible in a world where AI increasingly decides what users see online.

What SEO experts are saying about optimizing for AI search visibility in 2026…

We asked dozens of SEO, GEO, content, and digital marketing experts around the globe how they were thinking about GEO in 2026. Here’s what they had to say…

Entity-building is key for GEO

“AI visibility will define SEO in 2026 because discovery is no longer confined to search engines; it’s happening inside AI conversations.

Whether users are asking ChatGPT for recommendations, researching through Perplexity, or relying on Google’s AI Overviews, brands need to be retrievable in those ecosystems. The challenge is that AI doesn’t think in keywords; it thinks in entities and relationships. That means the old way of optimizing for rankings doesn’t guarantee you’ll show up in AI responses.

For SEOs, this shift requires a mindset change: from optimizing for algorithms to educating AI about your brand. That means building clear topic–entity connections, consistent schema, and credible signals across every channel so your expertise becomes part of the LLM’s “understanding” of your niche.

My tip for 2026: stop chasing prompts and start tracking entity presence. If your brand is being cited, summarized, or referenced by AI, you’re not just visible, you’re trusted by the systems shaping the future of search.”

— Aimee Jurenka, SEO Strategist at RicketyRoo

Multichannel brand visibility & content quality influence AI selection

“SEO best practices remain essential even as AI search grows.

Focus on building brand visibility across multiple channels, creating AI-friendly content with structured headings and quotable insights, researching real user questions, and incorporating first-party data and unique perspectives. Above all, make your content genuinely helpful.”

— Ana Perez, SEO Manager

Understand both your human and machine audiences

“AIs and LLMs are moving too fast to pin down any ‘this works’ tactics. Things that work now may not work tomorrow. The best route is still sticking to doing the fundamentals well: know your target audience; understand their pain points; create content that talks to them; understand the machines that surface that content in the contexts and on the platforms where your audiences are looking.”

— Andrew Cock-Starkey, Founder & SEO Consultant at Optimisey

Create content clusters to improve semantic relevance for LLMs 

“Clustering can be really powerful, and all the SEO basics – this will help the semantic language be understood more powerfully by LLMs if the website makes sense from a crawler perspective and from a topic perspective.”

— Angèle Chevalier, SEO & Content Strategist at CharlieHR

Site structure, EEAT, and customer reviews matter for GEO and SEO alike

“GEO is becoming a critical part of SEO as AI-driven search and LLMs shape how information is discovered, and has changed the way users search altogether. That said, it’s important not to lose sight of traditional SEO fundamentals – strong technical and on-page optimization, high-quality content that follows E-E-A-T principles should remain the foundation before adding specific ‘AI optimisation’ tactics. 

To move the needle with GEO, structured, authoritative, and easy-to-understand websites are key (which, in truth, isn’t anything new!). This includes maintaining accurate business listings, implementing schema markup, and ensuring your content clearly signals relevance and brand identity. Encouraging reviews and user-generated content that reference your business in context can also help LLMs and AI assistants associate your brand with relevant queries.”

— Chloe Steele, SEO Account Manager at Verde Digital 

SEO, PPC, brand, and social media marketing channels need to work together for GEO

 “LLMs and AI tools are heavily reliant on two things – old school SEO and brand presence across the web. Focus on ensuring citations, reviews, content and UX, and it’s been shown that AI presence increases. There is no “secret sauce,” no shortcuts; achieving results from LLMs requires dedicated actions and research, and this goes beyond marketing ­— it’s all about the customer journey. 

Considering the entire customer journey, from search/content digestion to the post-purchase phase, it’s clear that both users and AI play a significant role in this journey.  LLMs and AI tools gather and present all available information, both good and bad, to users. Therefore, considering this as part of the overall strategy, from search to reviews, the entire process needs to be taken into account. 

Digital marketing is no longer a silo of SEO, brand, PPC and social  ­—  all areas need to be considered and work as a team to get the best possible results.”

— Chris Evans, SEO Specialist

Optimize both technical site elements and trust-building signals to boost AI citations

“Schema, website technical health and thought leadership/authority all come to mind when I think of GEO. We need to understand the way that AI crawls and dissects content to provide a response, and therefore structure our content to make this as seamless as possible. E.g. adding unique, useful questions and answers, implementing schema so LLMs (and Google) understand content better. 

The thought leadership/authority comes in to help your business or product/service seem more trustworthy and subsequently be cited in AI responses more. All of these tactics are not dissimilar to traditional SEO, but now there may be greater emphasis on some ‘ranking factors’ that were previously overlooked before.”

— Dorothy Edgar, SEO Manager at Beauty-SEO 

SEO best practices are also GEO best practices — some, like digital PR and producing original content, are increasingly important

“Personally, I am yet to see any tactics or strategies that are new and different from what great SEOs have been doing anyway. Yes, we might now be giving more importance to some elements than before.

The SEO tactics that seem to be more important now than ever are:

• Understanding your users and how your brand is presented in Gen AI-powered search. This is particularly relevant for the next stage – agentic search. At the moment it is users who come to your website and a bad first impression can be fixed. What happens when it’s agents taking that row? If your messaging is segmented, not aligned across channels (owned and external) and you are not serving your users what they want, how long will it take for agents to stop visiting your website and for LLMs to stop serving it? 
• PR –  PR becomes much more important when mentions are taken as an element of success and not just links. This also connects to the first point – consistency in branding. 
• Original content – Personally, I have no issue with AI content. As long as it helps the user and is reviewed and edited by humans, I encourage it. The issue starts when no additional value is added to the content. As AI content increases, the companies that will get visibility are those who stand out in this sea of sameness. An industry colleague Dorron Shapow  developed a really nice framework to start people on the road of thinking about information gain (not the patent!). It’s called I.N.S.I.G.H.T. I would suggest you check it out.  
• Building websites that reduce cognitive friction – We have a great podcast on this with Arnout, and it aligns with agentic search – unlike users, agents will be much less forgiving when it comes to friction in your most important user journeys. SEOs will need to understand how to set up tracking to discover the bottlenecks and then work to unblock them, preferably before agentic search kicks in.”

. . .

“Two courses I always recommend for developing LLM literacy skills are Lazarina Stoy’s Intro to Machine Learning and Britney Muller’s AI for Marketing. Both are excellent! “

— Emina Demiri-Watson, Head of Digital Marketing at Vixen Digital 

Focus on answering real user queries

“New or refreshed content that focuses on exact queries people are asking (found, for example, by parsing data from Reddit or PAA results) is the key to a solid “GEO” strategy. This can be used as a testing ground since AI generally scrapes and pulls in content faster than traditional SEO results. In my own experience, I have seen AEO (answering FAQs or PAA results with on-site content) helps websites rank (or at least be mentioned/cited) quicker within AI Overview results.”

— Eric Hoover, SEO & AI Search Director at Kepler Group

Make AI prefer your brand over others as a trustworthy, authoritative source on key topics

“I think GEO/AEO is going to completely redefine what “SEO success” looks like. It’s not enough to just rank #1 on Google anymore ­— AI is pulling information from multiple sources, summarizing it, and even acting on behalf of users. If your content isn’t structured, unique, and trusted, it simply won’t get surfaced, no matter how good your traditional SEO is.

Tactics that can actually move the needle:

• Build brand authority and consistency – AI prefers to cite brands it recognises and trusts. A unified narrative across your website, social channels, and community platforms strengthens credibility.
• Focus on quality service content and comparisons – Detailed descriptions, service differentiators, FAQs, and side-by-side comparisons give AI clear signals of value and relevance.
• Leverage reviews and local signals – Fresh, authentic reviews, accurate Google Business listings, rich media, and local citations help AI understand trustworthiness and local context.
• Optimize for agentic actions – Structure content for AI-driven actions like bookings or purchases (product feeds, APIs, clear CTAs), so AI can directly drive conversions.

In my opinion, the biggest shift here is preference over position. The winners will be the brands that AI recognizes as authoritative, consistent, and actionable. 

GEO/AEO isn’t about tweaking rankings – it’s about building an ecosystem where AI chooses you because it can trust your content and your brand.”

— Irina Ginghina, SEO Director at Modern Citizens

Understand the differences in how LLMs process website content vs traditional search engines, but remember that SEO fundamentals remain essential for GEO

“My thoughts are that nothing has changed significantly, except for the fact that we have a new medium and a new way of presenting information. GEO/AEO are all essentially the same things done in “regular” SEO. There is a difference in how LLMs process websites, which just means a different look at Technical SEO, as well as possibly a different look at the way we produce content, but the essential whitehat tactics that have been used by SEOs for years remain unchanged. “ 

— Iva Jovanovic, Conference Organizer & Digital Marketing Specialist 

GEO is an evolution of SEO, not a replacement

“GEO/AEO is just another evolution of SEO so we need to be incorporating this new way of search into our strategies.

Our job as SEO’s is to reach our target audience and provide the best experience for them. 

So if that means working to show up in these new areas because that is where our audience is, then we should.

But it’s important to be aware that this isn’t the only way people search and so if our audience isn’t there then we need to understand how best to support them i.e. if they are looking for a local / offline experience.

In regards to moving the needle with GEO/AEO it remains the same as it always has, producing quality and relevant content that your target audience wants to see whilst ensuring that your site overall is technically sound so you are delivering the best customer experience.”

— Jess Batin, Head of SEO & CRO at Lantra 

How we think about online brand visibility is changing 

“We’re no longer just chasing that top spot in search engine results, but making sure our content stands out in AI-powered overviews, chatbots and conversational search. With more and more people having conversations with search engines, rather than just firing off a query and waiting for a response, how we think about visibility is changing.”

. . .

“GEO and AEO represent a seismic shift in the SEO landscape. Ever since RankBrain showed up on the scene, we’ve been moving from just trying to please the search engines to figuring out how to make our content appeal to the massive language models that are now interpreting and re-packaging our stuff. 

However, as we learn more about these models, we are discovering that much of the output is grounded in Google results, then reordered based on each LLM’s unique set of ranking attributes (freshness for example). So, traditional SEO (that helps you rank in Google) still has a strong claim to stand on when it comes to influencing citations in LLMs.

That said, below are some nuanced tactics focused on LLMs:

• Focus: entities and context
• Output: direct answers, citations and summaries
• Format: Snippets, questions and answer, structured formats
• Key Metrics: AI mentions, visibility in responses.
• Include FAQs at the bottom of of pages
• TLDR or summaries for quick parsing
• Don’t sleep on meta descriptions! Write unique, informative descriptions that spoil the content.”

— Jon Clark, Managing Partner at Moving Traffic Media

The new goal in search: become a definitive source for AI

“The goal post has shifted; it’s no longer just about ‘top 10 ranking’. It’s about becoming THE definitive source for your niche, so AI systems recognize, trust, and cite your content. 

Tactics that will help move the needle are: 

1. Building topical authority and creating comprehensive content

2. Providing original data and first-hand experience/insights 

3. Optimizing for multimodal search and thinking about taking up as much search real estate as possible 

4. Continuing to do SEO fundamentals and doing them well.”

— Josh Petit, SEO Manager at SnoCountry

Build your brand presence across the wider web to boost AI mentions

“Every industry and every site (and their audiences) are different. GEO/AEO with the ChatGPT 4 update has rolled right back into SEO. If the LLMs just scrape Google results, be there or pull the blinds and shut the curtains.

What does and will continue to matter is brand presence on the wider web ­— social media, YouTube and publications, a clear site structure, well written and executed content and keeping users engaged. This will inevitably help getting into those LLM mentions and keep the flow of sessions and sales going.

We can definitely also use LLMs as a useful tool for identifying how it understands the brand and the site, and the way it goes about retrieving information (via long-tail queries) and what links it provides to sites and when, to understand how we can capture traffic. Building out content around these long-tails and customer pain-points could likely get more visibility than purely focusing on search volumes.

Monitoring brand searches can also be an indication, as when there are no direct links from LLMs users might try to navigate to the pages via branded Google search. Just means we need to connect more dots in our tracking and reporting.”

— Kamilla Revfy, Senior SEO Manager at Rebel

Optimize for third-party brand mentions (linked or unlinked) to improve AI visibility

 “I believe in having your brand mentioned (linked or unlinked) in contextual and topically relevant articles on websites other than your own to improve visibility in LLMs and AI search. The more your brand appears across the web, the easier it is for AI crawlers to find it — and the more likely you are to be cited or mentioned in AI searches and LLMs.”

. . .

On strengthening brand signals (brand mentions, brand searches, social media) for better visibility in Google and LLMs: 

“Before, it might have been enough to just have good content and rank on any site — but now you also need to make sure your brand is strong enough to rank in Google, as Google prefers to rank stronger brands (with more referring domains, brand mentions, and brand searches) higher. You now also need to optimize for AI searches and LLMs — not just Google — and therefore ensure your brand is visible on other sites to be cited in LLMs and rank at the top in Google.

Work on strengthening your brand alongside your content efforts. Allocate part of your SEO budget to Digital PR and securing brand mentions on sites other than your own to improve trust and authority for both Google and LLMs.”

— Katarina Dahlin, Senior Growth Hacker at WhitePress

Make sure your GEO tactics align with broader business objectives

“When it comes to GEO, AEO, or any AI-Search-related acronym of choice, much of what I’ve observed tends to be either fleeting algorithm-hacking or recycled strategies from a decade ago. Yes, there are nuances and various means to an end; however, I’ve always believed in focusing on business objectives vs obsessing over the latest, popular trends – as some of these come and go like the seasons. 

I think it’s crucial to critically evaluate each tactic by asking a simple question: “In 12-18 months, will this genuinely contribute to the brand’s larger objectives?” If the answer is a firm “Yes!”, then those opportunities warrant investment. For example, in our work with a SaaS company, we identified YouTube search as a significant opportunity to reach its audience. This strategy coincidentally aligns with current trends in LLM citations.”

— Kevin Kapezi, Director & SEO Consultant at Growthack.io

AI search considers a wide breadth of inputs: build your multi-site brand presence

 “AI surfaces are not IR systems, when searches happen, they are relying on traditional indexes. It’s still all the same principles of SEO, just how we do them is tweaked.”

. . .

“Search engines have traditionally had more success the more power they take away from webmasters. The most obvious example is PageRank. Rather than relying on the words the webmaster provided, it ‘democractized’ popularity signals which proved incredibly effective. 

The way LLM-type search surfaces work means a much wider breadth of opinion is summarized, so a multi-site presence and consistency in what is being said about you is more important than ever.

This means that effective digital PR, getting people to talk about your brand, your story, your data, on trusted websites, with consistency, will pay even bigger dividends than before, link or not.”

The challenge, ironically, is AI; there are fewer journalists and a huge spike in AI spam sent to them. I would focus on building those relationships and cutting AI out, so they know you can be relied upon.” 

— Mark Williams-Cook, Director at Candour 

Keep your content fresh — and don’t dismiss unlinked brand mentions

“Content freshness becomes a major factor: Search engines have always valued content that’s relevant and up-to-date. LLMs and AI bots will place even greater emphasis on content freshness, opting to cite content that has been recently published or updated. I can see reworking and refreshing outdated content playing a pivotal role in many site’s SEO strategies for 2026, as even evergreen pieces now require regular updates to maintain visibility.

Unlinked brand signals will carry greater weight: LLMs and AI-based search models will continue to prioritize content from authoritative sources, rather than focusing solely on how well individual webpages are optimized for specific keywords. Unlinked brand mentions will also carry more weight, as bots evaluate overall brand sentiment and trustworthiness when deciding which sites deserve visibility.

Shifting responsibilities brings collaboration potential: I can definitely see more SEO teams expanding to cover GEO and AI optimization as part of their day-to-day responsibilities. This is the perfect opportunity to rethink where SEO teams sit in many organizations, as collaboration with developers and engineers becomes even more critical. SEOs need to understand how LLMs discover, process and interpret their content if they want to boost visibility in AI-powered search. This inherently means more technical fluency is required, as well as greater cooperation with adjacent teams.”

— Natalie Stubbs, Senior Technical SEO at Lumar  

Brand trust matters more than ever

On GEO: “While I am still a firm believer to not throw out your focus on SEO in lieu of GEO, it’s clear that this is a crucial part of SEO moving forward and that AI is becoming an option for users in addition (but not instead!) of search. “

. . .

 “It’s become clear that gaining visibility in AI isn’t about optimization—it’s about creating brand and trust signals so strong that AI would be foolish not to put you front and center. Focus on brand first and content optimization second to get the traffic and impact from AI that drives real results, not just visibility as a vanity metric.”

— Natasha Burtenshaw-deVries, Director of Organic Growth at Flywheel Digital 

AI struggles with JavaScript rendering — ensure your website content is accessible for AI bots

“I think AI search is not a revolution in search, it’s just an extension. AI search strategies put more light on previously undervalued areas of SEO that some of us ignored or took for granted. 

In some areas it’s time to go back to basics e.g. with rendering. Google told us for years that they manage to render pages well (I still have pretty large doubts) but now AI search crawlers again don’t render JavaScript and we again need to optimize how we render content to make sure AI search crawlers can find it. Making your site cheaper to both render and understand content is getting more and more important.”

— Patryk Wawok, Co-founder & Head of Technical SEO at Organic Hackers

Semantic relevance and brand authority are key aspects of GEO

“A lot of SEOs have been talking about new techniques to appear in AI search results and LLM-generated responses. But at the end of the day, the foundation still lies in SEO fundamentals. AI systems pull their information from web content indexed in search engines. They ground their responses in that data to verify accuracy.

That means if your website isn’t properly optimized, LLMs won’t be able to access or use your content effectively. So, maintaining a strong technical setup, ensuring your robots.txt isn’t blocking key pages, building topical authority and EEAT, and strengthening your external brand reputation are still essential. 

It’s also valuable to analyze how your brand (and your competitors) are appearing in AI-generated responses: what information is being surfaced, which sources are cited, and how your content is represented. These insights can help you refine your SEO strategy and position your site better for both traditional search and AI-driven visibility.”

. . .

On semantic analysis: 

“Now it’s not enough to just research some keywords and optimize for them. We need to focus on creating topical authority and semantic relations within our content to have higher chances of ranking in AIO or AI tools.”

. . .

On brand authority for GEO: 

“I think brand reputation and authority will be more important than ever in 2026. We’ve always talked about becoming a reference in your niche and getting backlinks from reputable sources, but now it’s even more important to showcase that expertise through your own data, expert quotes or insights, and contributions from real professionals in the field, all of which help strengthen your topical authority.

As we know, brand authority isn’t built overnight. Most of the brands already showing up in AI-generated responses are there because they’ve been doing the work for years and have earned that recognition. We’ve always focused on getting dofollow backlinks, and that’s still relevant, but simple brand mentions will also matter more now, since AI models can recognize and display those sources.

That’s because AI doesn’t just evaluate backlinks; it looks at mentions, reviews, EEAT consistency, and other credibility signals. So, strengthening your digital PR and content marketing efforts will be key. You should also check how AI tools mention your brand to understand how they perceive your business, and identify ways to improve both visibility and trust.”

— Raquel González Expósito, CEO & Founder @ Seoulful Connect

From keywords to credibility: structured, factual content wins in GEO

“As search engines evolve into answer engines powered by generative AI, traditional SEO practices focused on ranking for blue links are being replaced by the need to be cited within AI-generated summaries. 

In 2026, GEO/AEO will be essential for visibility, requiring content to be highly structured, fact-based, and semantically rich to be considered authoritative enough for AI to reference. Rather than chasing rankings alone, SEOs must now optimise for inclusion in zero-click, conversational responses—ensuring that brand-owned content is answer-ready and aligned with user intent at a granular level.”

. . .

“GEO/AEO (Generative Engine Optimisation / Answer Engine Optimization) represents a fundamental shift in how users interact with search. Rather than clicking through a list of blue links, people are increasingly receiving direct, conversational answers powered by large language models like ChatGPT, Google SGE, or Bing Copilot. This means that the traditional SEO focus on rankings is giving way to optimising for visibility within AI-generated responses—where your brand or content might be cited, summarised, or completely bypassed. 

To truly move the needle in GEO/AEO, SEOs must shift from simply targeting keywords to creating factually sound, semantically structured, and highly credible content. 

Here are a few [GEO] tactics that can make a real difference: 

1. Build Topical Authority Through Depth and Interlinking: LLMs favour sources that demonstrate comprehensive coverage of a subject. Creating tightly connected content clusters around core topics—supported by internal links—signals depth and helps AI systems identify your site as a trusted source. 

2. Use Structured Data and Semantic Mark-up: Schema.org mark-up helps search engines and LLMs better interpret and attribute your content. While it doesn’t guarantee inclusion in AI responses, it does support machine comprehension—especially for entities, products, FAQs, and reviews. 

3. Publish Clear, Evidence-Based Content With Named Sources: AI models often reference content that is factual, well-sourced, and aligned with user intent. Including original data, cited studies, or quotes from experts improves the chances of being selected or paraphrased by an answer engine. 

4. Optimize for Queries With Strong Informational Intent: Focus on long-form, question-led content that answers common user queries in a conversational but structured format. Well-formatted subheadings (e.g., H2/H3), summaries, and TL;DRs make it easier for LLMs to extract and repackage content accurately. 

5. Enhance Brand Mentions and Digital PR: Even when content isn’t directly cited via links, LLMs still recognise brand mentions across the web. Digital PR, thought leadership, and high-authority citations all improve your chances of surfacing in AI-driven summaries. 

In short, GEO/AEO isn’t just another ranking update—it’s a new paradigm. The focus now is on being the best possible source for the answers users seek, not just the most optimised page for a keyword. 

Those who adapt early—by embracing structure, authority, and semantic clarity—will secure disproportionate visibility in the future of AI-powered search.”

. . .

“In 2026, the real competition won’t just be for position one—it will be for the AI’s attention. If your content isn’t structured, factual, and credible enough to be cited in a large language model’s response, you may be invisible to the user entirely. 

As AI continues to collapse the traditional SERP into conversational answers, SEOs must rethink what visibility means. Optimizing for inclusion in LLM outputs—rather than just rankings—requires a shift in strategy, content design, and measurement. It’s not about being found, but about being the source.”

— Rejoice Ojiaku, Senior Content Specialist @ Wise

AI search is essentially long-tail search

“I think many people are forgetting that LLMs still run on Google and Bing and AI search is essentially long-tail search. This isn’t anything new to SEOs and, frankly, strategies focused on including long-tail keywords, informative content, and improving formatting or internal linking for context building should’ve already been part of everyone’s strategies.”

. . .

“Google’s shift to AI Mode has shaken people even more so than LLMs entering the scene. I think this is partially due to users now worrying that Google will completely remove the view we’ve used since Google launched in 1998. 

We’re seeing tests to check whether Google can remove pagination in SERPs, AI Overviews are testing PPC, AI Mode is being pushed with giant buttons and pop ups on every scroll. It’s clearly a new way of searching they will try to push as not enough users are utilizing Gemini due to the need to sign in (unlike ChatGPT or Perplexity).

We have yet to see any data from Google on how they track CTR from AI Mode, how GA4 and GSC will report on it, or what it could mean for the websites that are still visible in traditional SERP view vs AI Mode answers. This is something Google will have to work hard on to convince users to move towards as many businesses could be negatively impacted by this change. SEOs will need to watch closely, test how they perform in Gemini vs other LLMs as that is likely what will drive AI Mode.”

— Sara Kavanagh, Director of SEO at Candidsky 

AI visibility depends on how well LLMs can understand, extract, and cite your content

“GEO/AEO (Generative Engine Optimization / AI Engine Optimization) represents a fundamental shift in search. The goal is no longer just ranking on traditional SERPs, but ensuring that your content is accurately retrieved, cited, and surfaced by large language models (LLMs) and AI-driven assistants. Today, visibility depends on content structure, authority, and semantic clarity, not just keywords or backlinks. Essentially, GEO/AEO is about shaping how AI “understands” your content, its entities, context, relationships, and factual authority. Brands that fail to optimize for AI risk being invisible in zero-click answers or misrepresented in AI-generated summaries.

Tactics that can truly move the needle include:

1. Rigorous Schema & Structured Data (The Data Layer): Use entity-rich, specific schema types like HowTo, FAQ, Product, FactCheck, and About (for authors/organizations). This ensures LLMs can accurately ingest your content and cite it reliably in AI-generated answers.

2. Query Fan-Out & Topical Cluster Architecture: AI often expands a single query into multiple sub-queries. Structuring content in tightly knit topical clusters ensures your brand becomes the authoritative source across the entire topic, capturing both the main question and all related follow-ups.

3. Evidence-Rich, High-Quality Content: LLMs prioritize factual, verifiable content. Include citations, statistics, expert authorship, and short structured answer blocks (100–150 words) marked up with FAQ or HowTo schema. Linking entities to recognized concepts (e.g., via schema or Wikipedia) reinforces authority and improves retrievability.

4. Cross-Platform & Multi-Modal Optimization: GEO/AEO is not limited to text. Optimizing videos, images, and audio with structured metadata increases your chances of being surfaced across YouTube, visual search tools, marketplaces, and social platforms.

5. AI Testing & Prompt-Driven Audits: Regularly test how your content is retrieved by AI using realistic prompts. Identify gaps in entity coverage, clarity, or factual accuracy, and iterate. Understanding AI behavior allows you to proactively ensure your content is trustworthy and retrievable.”

. . .

“Of course, while my main focus is on Multi-Modal and Multi-Surface Discovery, I’ll also be looking closely at two other critical trends:

1. Passage-Level & Vector-Based Optimization: Search is evolving beyond traditional page-level indexing. AI-driven engines now retrieve specific passages from content and rely on dense vector embeddings to understand context and meaning. For SEOs, this means granular, semantically rich content will outperform generic, keyword-stuffed pages.

By 2026, success in SEO won’t be about ranking a page, it will be about ensuring the right passage from your content is surfaced in response to an AI query. Traditional keyword targeting alone won’t suffice. SEOs need to structure content into clear sections, use semantic clustering, and optimize each passage for clarity and relevance. Tightly scoped, well-organized content ensures AI systems can accurately extract the information they need, increasing the chances of being cited in AI-generated answers.

2. Citation and Reference Authority: Clicks will no longer be the ultimate measure of success. LLMs will prioritize trustworthy, verifiable content that can be cited in AI-generated responses. Zero-click answers mean that authority, not traffic, defines visibility.

This creates a challenge for SEOs: how do you build credibility in a system that may never direct users to your site? The answer lies in structured data, factual citations, entity linking, and transparent authorship. By embedding data points, references, and authoritative signals into content, SEOs can make their brand visible to AI systems, even if users never click through.”

. . .

“Finally, focus on trust and authority. AI prioritizes sources that are accurate, consistent, and citable. By building credibility through factual transparency, structured references, and reliable content, you can maintain visibility even in zero-click and AI-first search environments. SEOs who combine technical rigor, semantic understanding, and disciplined execution will be best positioned to thrive in 2026 and beyond.”

— Stephen Akadiri, Senior SEO & Organic Growth Specialist at Grey 

Brand authority and unique, high-quality content take center stage for GEO

 “SEO fundamentals are still the same, but we have shifted priorities: Good content alone is not going to move the needle anymore. We need strong brand authority. 

Things that have long been seen as “nice to have” or “bonus SEO” are now must-haves, such as Digital PR to generate positive brand sentiment and brand mentions. 

When it comes to content, I see people trying to compensate for traffic losses by generating long-tail content at scale with AI, but the end result is still the same type of generic content that has lost clicks to begin with. 

I think the key to organic visibility now is to focus on high-quality pieces with unique data, be it thought leadership that you can’t find anywhere else or first-party data and whitepapers. It’s about becoming a source, not rehashing existing content from sources.”

— Tina Reis, Senior SEO Strategist at Muhlert Digital  

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