0:02 Most searches in 2026 will be answered
0:05 by AI before anyone clicks on your site.
0:07 That means [music] your traffic could
0:09 tank even if you're ranking number one
0:11 right now. But here's the good news. I'm
0:12 Neil Patel and I've been [music] doing
0:15 SEO since 2001. I survived Panda,
0:17 Penguin, Rank Brain, Fur, and every
0:19 other major shakeup Google's thrown at
0:21 us. And every single time, the people
0:24 who adapt early typically [music] come
0:26 on top. So today I'm breaking down the
0:28 five strategies you need to rank and
0:30 stay relevant in this new AI power
0:33 search role. Let's dive in. Strategy
0:35 one, focus on entities and topical
0:37 depth, not just keywords. Here's
0:38 something that might surprise you. If
0:40 your traffic's been dropping even though
0:42 you're doing SEO, right? This is
0:44 probably why. A recent study analyzed
0:46 over 1,500 Google search results and
0:49 found no consistent correlation between
0:50 keyword density and ranking. [music] In
0:53 fact, higher ranking pages actually had
0:54 lower keyword density on average.
0:56 Another study by WLDM, ClickStream,
0:58 [music] and Searching Journal looked at
1:01 over 250,000 search results and found
1:03 [music] that topical authority is now
1:05 the strongest onpage ranking factor,
1:08 even stronger than domain traffic. So,
1:10 what does that mean for you? Google's AI
1:12 isn't just looking for pages that
1:14 mention a keyword 20 times. Is looking
1:16 for pages that demonstrate real
1:18 understanding how ideas connect, relate,
1:20 and build on each other. Think about it
1:22 like this. You're in a meeting. It's
1:23 easy to tell who's just throwing around
1:26 buzzwords versus who actually knows
1:28 their stuff, right? AI works the same
1:30 way. It spots surface level content
1:32 instantly and rewards the people who
1:34 show genuine expertise. Here's how to
1:37 actually do this. One, build topical
1:39 depth. Create one pillar page, let's say
1:41 the complete guide to running shoes, and
1:43 [music] link to subtopics like best
1:45 running shoes for flat feet, trail
1:46 running shoes, and how cushioning
1:48 prevents injuries. That interlinking
1:51 [music] signals to Google that you fully
1:53 understand the topic. It makes you the
1:55 trusted authority and boosts the
1:58 rankings for all the related pages. Two,
2:00 use semantic variety. Tools like Surfer
2:03 SEO and [music] Google's NLP API show
2:05 you the related concepts and entities
2:07 Google connects to your topic, brands,
2:09 [music] locations, techniques, people.
2:11 Weave those naturally into your content
2:13 so AI naturally understands [music] the
2:15 full context of what you're talking
2:16 about. But there's one layer of
2:18 authority most people [music] completely
2:20 overlook. Without it, your content will
2:21 always struggle to get visibility.
2:24 Strategy two, build author and brand
2:27 authority. E A T for AI. Most marketers
2:29 tell you to make good content. And
2:31 that's fine advice, but have you ever
2:33 noticed that even your best content
2:35 sometimes gets zero traction? Here's
2:38 why. Average content from an authority
2:40 outperforms great content from a nobody
2:42 almost every time. There's actually a
2:44 famous psychology study where people
2:46 were twice as likely to follow
2:48 instructions when a person giving them
2:51 wore a doctor's coat, even when they
2:53 weren't even an actual doctor. A's
2:55 algorithm mimics the same human bias.
2:57 They rank and quote content from
2:59 recognized authorities because trust
3:01 reduces risk for both the platform and
3:03 the user. Google's a overviews and
3:06 perplexity don't just ask what does this
3:09 page say? They ask who said it and can
3:11 we trust it. The same way you wouldn't
3:13 trust medical advice from some random
3:15 dude on the internet. AI is hesitant to
3:18 promote content from someone unverified
3:20 with no credentials. Number one, show
3:22 your experience. Add author bios,
3:24 credentials, and firsthand stories.
3:26 Google's AI looks for realworld proof
3:28 that you know what you're talking about.
3:29 Don't just say you're expert. Prove it
3:31 with case studies, results you've
3:32 gotten, specific examples from your
3:34 work. Two, earn brand mentions. Get
3:37 featured on podcasts, blogs, or even
3:39 news outlets. Even [music] unlin
3:40 mentions strengthen your authority
3:42 footprint. And here's something
3:43 interesting from our data. When
3:46 companies get cited in news or industry
3:47 specific sites, they see [music] a
3:50 massive boost in how often AI platforms
3:52 quote them. When we looked at what gets
3:54 cited most, it's blogs and getting cited
3:57 on news or industry specific sites. This
3:59 is all versions of blogging, right?
4:01 Three, be consistent. [music] Align your
4:04 author name, bios, and tone across every
4:06 platform. YouTube, LinkedIn, your
4:08 website. AI is looking at all this to
4:10 determine if you're legit. But here's
4:12 the problem. Even if you build that
4:14 authority, [music] it won't matter if AI
4:16 can't find and quote your content in the
4:18 first place. Strategy three, optimize
4:20 for featured and summarized results.
4:22 Number one ranking blog posts are losing
4:24 traffic right now because people aren't
4:26 searching the way they did 4 years ago.
4:28 AI is answering their questions before
4:30 they even click on a site. And here's
4:32 what everyone gets wrong. They look at
4:34 their analytics and say, "AI isn't
4:36 driving traffic." Yeah, no crap. But you
4:39 know what? AI is driving conversions. We
4:41 ran a study with companies investing in
4:42 both traditional SEO and AI
4:45 optimization. The AI platforms weren't
4:47 driving even 1% of the traffic. But look
4:48 at the conversion numbers. AI was
4:52 responsible for 9.7% revenue in B2B
4:54 companies and 11.4%
4:57 in BTOC companies. You're not going to
4:58 get the traffic you're looking for from
5:01 AI platforms, but the conversion rate is
5:04 insane. And here's why. Most people use
5:06 AI platforms for top of funnel research.
5:08 When we looked at the data, majority of
5:10 LLM users aren't even researching
5:12 products or services initially, but
5:14 certain percentages are researching
5:16 products and roughly 14% or more are
5:18 actually purchasing. Some in store,
5:20 [music] some directly on the website. In
5:22 B2B, we're seeing mainly direct on the
5:24 website. It's a huge conversion channel.
5:26 It doesn't even [music] show up in the
5:28 data because people do research on
5:31 platforms before they even click or go
5:33 to your website. Think about AI powered
5:35 search like a conversation, not a search
5:36 engine. When someone asks a [music]
5:38 question, a doesn't list websites
5:40 anymore. It quotes them. If your content
5:42 answers the question directly and is
5:44 easy to parse, it becomes [music] the
5:47 exact line AA lists for its summary.
5:48 Here's how to make that happen. Number
5:50 one, write like you're answering a
5:52 question. For example, the question
5:54 could be, "What's the best SEO tools for
5:56 beginners?" The answer could be Uberys,
5:58 Hrefs, SEM Rush, and Google Search
6:00 Console. They're easy to use and scale
6:02 as you grow. That format makes it
6:04 [music] effortless for AI to lift your
6:06 content. Two, structure for scanners.
6:08 Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and
6:11 subheadings. If a humans can skim it, AI
6:13 can summarize it. We're seeing that AI
6:15 platforms love content that's well
6:16 structured more than anything else.
6:19 Three, target people also ask. Those
6:21 questions often feed AI summaries. Each
6:23 [music] one is a chance to earn a
6:25 citation. And when you get cited, you're
6:27 not just getting traffic, you're getting
6:29 high intent users who convert. Now, if
6:31 you want to get included in Google's AR
6:32 view specifically, [music]
6:35 they're citing facts and comparisons.
6:37 More than anything else from what we're
6:39 seeing, that's where to focus your
6:40 attention if you really want to get
6:42 included. Getting AI to quote you is
6:44 only half the battle, though. If your
6:45 content [music] isn't easy for AI to
6:47 read and understand in the first place,
6:49 it'll skip you no matter how good you
6:51 are at answering questions. Strategy
6:53 four, feed the machines. Structured data
6:55 and AI friendly content. Here's
6:57 something most marketers don't clearly
6:59 understand. A doesn't automatically pick
7:01 the best content. It skims just like
7:03 humans do. If a reader would click away
7:05 from your page, a will skip it too and
7:07 site someone else instead. Imagine
7:09 walking into a massive library. Most of
7:11 the books are just random piles of
7:13 pages. No titles, no chapters, no
7:15 structure. But the one book that stands
7:17 out has a clear table of contents, clean
7:20 headings, and quick summaries. You need
7:22 one answer fast. Which book [music]
7:24 would you pick? AI works the same exact
7:26 way. It skims and sites content that's
7:28 organized and easy to parse. If your
7:30 content isn't structured, AI treats it
7:33 like lowquality noise and moves on to
7:34 the next site. Now, here's the
7:36 difference between traditional SEO and
7:39 what I call GEO or AEO or even AI SEO,
7:40 whatever you want to call it. With
7:42 traditional SEO, things like thoroughess
7:44 are super important as well as quality.
7:46 But with AI and LLMs like TAG GBT, they
7:48 really care about structure and
7:50 formatting. If you don't get those
7:52 right, you're not going to do as well.
7:54 Traditional SEO cares about links. GEO
7:56 cares about citations. If you're not
7:58 getting those citations, you're not
7:59 going to do as well. This is why
8:01 blogging is so important. When AI
8:03 understands your content better, humans
8:05 do, too. That's a win you'll see in both
8:08 rankings and conversions. With AI, they
8:10 also look at things like sentiment.
8:12 Traditional SEO does not look at
8:14 sentiment as much. Are people saying
8:15 things positively about you or
8:18 negatively? So, here's how to fix this.
8:21 One, use schema markup. Add FAQ, howto,
8:23 and review schema [music]
8:25 so AI instantly knows what your content
8:27 represents. Schema is like a nutrition
8:29 label for your content. It helps
8:31 machines read, digest, and recommend
8:33 your material confidently. Two, add
8:35 multiple formats. include videos,
8:37 visuals, and charts. AI prefers
8:39 multimodal data. It signals [music]
8:41 depth and clarity. And here's something
8:43 interesting. When we looked at what AI
8:45 platforms actually site, they love
8:47 blogs. But blogs with images, videos,
8:50 and data visualizations get cited way
8:52 more often. Three, make your data
8:54 explicit. Use number lists, stats, and
8:57 tables. Don't hide value in long
8:59 paragraphs. When you site facts and
9:01 stats, and unique research, data
9:03 platforms eat that stuff up. That's what
9:05 they're pulling from more than anything
9:07 else. But none of this matters if you're
9:10 still treating SEO as a one-time thing.
9:12 Strategy five, rethink your SEO workflow
9:14 for generative search. Back in the day,
9:16 stuffing content with keywords [music]
9:18 and updating it once a year was enough
9:20 to keep ranking. Today, that's not even
9:22 close to doing well. If you're not
9:24 training AI to think like you, it's
9:26 quoting your competitors instead. Think
9:27 about teaching a parrot to speak.
9:29 [music] If you repeat clear phrases
9:31 consistently, the parrot mimics you
9:33 perfectly. But if you mumble, switch
9:35 topics randomly, or talk once in a
9:36 while, the parrot [music] learns from
9:39 the TV instead. AI is the parrot, and
9:41 right now it's listening to everyone.
9:42 The question is, whose voice will it
9:44 repeat? Here's how to make sure it
9:46 learns from you. Number one, add AI
9:48 visibility metrics to your reports.
9:49 [music] Track how often your content is
9:52 referenced or cited in AI summaries, not
9:53 just where it ranks. This is the new
9:55 KPI. Forget about just tracking
9:57 rankings. Start [music] tracking
9:59 citations. And you can actually do this
10:01 for free using Uber Suggest. Just go to
10:03 ubercess.com and check out the AI
10:05 visibility report. We started working
10:07 [music] with companies on GEO or AEO.
10:09 And we started seeing their traffic grow
10:11 within a 12-month [music] period. And
10:13 more importantly, within that period, we
10:16 saw AI platforms like Chad GPT drive
10:19 roughly 5.8% of their total online
10:21 sales. Now, these companies did have a
10:22 leg up because they were doing SEO
10:24 before, but it shows you can actually
10:26 get a lot of revenue from these
10:28 channels. Two, test your summaries.
10:30 Paste your post into chat geor [music]
10:32 perplexia and ask summarize this. If AI
10:35 misses your key points or gets it wrong,
10:37 rewrite for clarity. This is how you
10:38 know if you're [music] actually AI
10:40 ready. Three, build recognizable
10:42 patterns. Instead of vague brand
10:44 slogans, develop unique phrasing,
10:46 visuals, and frameworks AI can associate
10:48 you with. This is how you train it to
10:50 quote your brand. When we work with
10:52 companies on this, we help them develop
10:54 signature frameworks and terminology
10:56 that AI starts recognizing and citing.
10:58 And here's one more thing that most
11:00 people aren't doing. But before I get
11:02 into that, if you need help getting
11:04 cited by AI and just want my team to do
11:06 it all for you, check us out at NP
11:08 Digital, where we do this for a lot of
11:10 brands. So now, let's dive back in. You
11:12 want to blog consistently. I know
11:14 everyone's saying blogging is dead.
11:16 People have been telling us for years
11:18 [music] that they're not blogging as
11:20 much because it doesn't drive as much
11:21 traffic as it used to. But if you don't
11:23 blog, you're not going to get included
11:26 in chat GBT. When we look at what AI
11:27 platforms site the most, as I mentioned
11:30 before, blogs dominate. AI loves blogs.
11:31 [music] And if you don't believe me,
11:33 just check out this chart. It breaks
11:35 down what happens when companies stop
11:37 blogging versus companies who are
11:39 actually blogging. And it shows [music]
11:41 how their search traffic may have
11:43 decreased from organic traditional
11:45 search, but their AI traffic went up
11:46 more and their total [music] sales went
11:48 up more as well, which is the most
11:51 important thing. Revenue, revenue,
11:52 revenue. It [music] matters more than
11:55 traffic. Perplexity also loves blogs and
11:57 getting cited in news or industry
11:58 specific sites [music] helps with it as
12:01 well. Google's AI loves blog articles,
12:02 mainstream news, product blogs, [music]
12:05 and even LinkedIn articles. All versions
12:07 of blogging, right? This is a big chunk
12:09 of the [music] citation share. Blogging
12:11 may not drive traffic that it used to,
12:13 but it does drive revenue through these
12:15 AI platforms and search is moving in
12:17 [music] this direction whether you like
12:18 it or not. Now, here's the thing.
12:21 Understanding AI visibility is just step
12:23 one. And if you're not doing it, you're
12:25 missing out on all this potential AI
12:27 traffic. As I mentioned earlier, you can
12:29 do a lot of this for free within Uber
12:31 Suggest. But the real shift isn't just
12:33 happening on your website. It's
12:34 happening [music] inside Google itself.
12:36 The way traffic, leads, and sales flow
12:38 online is about to change forever. So in
12:40 this next video, I break down exactly
12:42 how Google's AI update is rewriting both
12:44 organic and paid search and what it
