0:02 If you don't know this, you'll be left
0:05 behind. In 2026, AI isn't just changing
0:07 SEO. It's completely rewriting the
0:09 rules. Next year, it's not about
0:11 stuffing keywords or chasing back links
0:13 anymore. It's about how AI understands
0:15 what people actually mean when they
0:17 search and which brands it [music] can
0:19 trust to give the best answers. I'm Neil
0:21 Patel, and in this video, I'm breaking
0:23 down the five biggest AI SEO trends
0:25 shaping how people search, click,
0:27 [music] and buy online. If you don't
0:29 adjust to these changes, your rankings,
0:30 your traffic, [music] and sales could
0:33 drop fast. So, let's jump in. Trend
0:35 number one, brand citations over
0:37 backlinks. For two decades, SEO has
0:39 lived and died by backlinks. The more
0:41 links point to your site, the higher you
0:42 rank. Simple, right? But here's the
0:45 thing. [music] In 2026, backlinks are
0:47 losing value. They're being replaced by
0:49 something called brand citations. Now,
0:50 if you're still chasing backlinks the
0:52 old way, you're actually wasting time
0:54 and money. Here's why. In the old world,
0:56 you would convince bloggers and mediocre
0:58 sites to drop your links everywhere. And
1:00 that [music] was decently enough to rank
1:02 high. But AI has changed a game
1:04 completely. When someone asked Perplexi,
1:05 "What's the best email marketing
1:08 platform?" It doesn't just show you a
1:09 ranked list based on who has the most
1:12 backlinks. Instead, it mentions brands
1:14 in context. A typical answer looks like
1:17 this. Mailchimp is known for ease of
1:19 use, and it offers more advanced
1:21 automations compared to some of the
1:23 other alternatives. and then they may
1:25 list alternatives. See the difference?
1:27 LLMs are now assessing contextual
1:30 credibility the same way Google once
1:32 revolutionized search with page rank.
1:33 But instead of just counting back links,
1:36 Chad GPT and Perplexi are evaluating
1:38 three critical factors. First, how
1:40 relevant is a site mentioning your
1:41 brand? Right now, if a random blog
1:43 mentions you, it doesn't mean as much,
1:46 but it still helps with Chad GBT and a
1:47 little bit with perplexity. In the
1:49 future though, they're going to start
1:51 looking at how relevant is that site
1:53 mentioning you and the authority of that
1:55 site as well, such as is it Forbes
1:56 mentioning you or New York Times.
1:58 Second, what's the credibility and age
2:01 of your domain name? AI can detect which
2:02 sources are authoritative and which
2:05 aren't. And third, the one most people
2:07 miss, how is your brand framed in the
2:09 content? Are you being cited as an
2:11 industry leader or just mentioned in
2:12 passing? These AI systems are
2:14 essentially creating their own brand
2:16 authority score in real time. According
2:19 to SEM Rush's SEO branding report, brand
2:22 reputation, mentions, and sentiment are
2:24 overtaking link quality as a dominant
2:27 ranking factors in AIdriven search. This
2:29 mirrors page ranks early evolution. But
2:31 the stakes are higher because AI makes
2:33 these authoritative judgments in real
2:36 time across every query with zero
2:37 transparency. So what do you need to do
2:39 right now? First, shift from link
2:41 building to citation building. [music]
2:42 Get your brand mentioned in
2:44 authoritative publications. Pitch
2:46 journalists. Contribute expert
2:48 commentary [music] and get featured in
2:49 industry reports. Of course, if they
2:51 want to link to you as well, it won't
2:54 hurt. Second, track your AI visibility.
2:56 Use tools like Uber suggest that show
2:57 you where your brand appears in chat
3:00 GBT, Perplexity, or even Google's AI
3:02 overviews. Most businesses don't even
3:04 realize they are already invisible in AI
3:06 search. Third, manage your brand
3:07 sentiment everywhere. [music]
3:10 AI is crawling your reviews, your social
3:12 media, and news coverage to build your
3:14 authority score. The brands that focus
3:16 [music] on building more citations now
3:18 and quality ones will dominate in 2026.
3:20 And the ones that are still focused on
3:22 building back links, they're going to
3:23 watch their traffic and revenue
3:25 disappear. Trend two, community
3:28 platforms are losing AI ranking power.
3:30 Reddit and Kora used to be SEO gold
3:32 mines. Not anymore. And what's replacing
3:33 them changes everything. Here's a
3:36 reality. Leaving helpful comments on
3:38 community forums isn't useful anymore
3:40 when it comes to AI search results.
3:41 Sure, it could help a little bit, but it
3:43 doesn't dominate like it used to.
3:46 According to [music] Contensify HQ, B2B
3:48 SAS trends report, community platforms
3:49 like Reddit and Quora are [music]
3:52 becoming saturated, and AI tools are
3:54 actively shifting towards verified
3:57 expert authoritybased content instead.
3:59 Why? Because these platforms are really
4:01 easy to manipulate with bots and fake
4:03 engagement. Now, when Chad GBT answers a
4:05 medical question, it's not citing Reddit
4:07 thread with 500 up votes. It's
4:09 prioritizing an authoritative article
4:10 from an actual [music] medical
4:13 professional with verified credentials.
4:15 AI is asking two critical questions. Who
4:17 wrote this? What are their credentials?
4:20 And where else are they cited? A comment
4:22 from some random user will never compete
4:24 with verified industry experts on
4:26 authoritative domains. So, here's what
4:28 you need to do right now. First, stop
4:30 relying on community platforms for SEO.
4:33 They're losing AI weight fast. Second,
4:35 publish on industry specific
4:37 authoritative sites and trade
4:39 publications where AI systems actually
4:41 look for expertise. Third, establish
4:43 your credentials publicly with verified
4:45 by lines, author bios, and professional
4:48 certifications. AI is actively scanning
4:49 for these [music] trust signals. Having
4:51 authority over entire topics will help
4:53 AI site you, but you also need to
4:55 understand that the entire transaction
4:58 model is changing. Trend three, LLMs are
5:00 becoming transaction endpoints. The goal
5:02 of SEO has always been simple. Drive
5:04 traffic to your website. The more
5:06 clicks, the better. But AI platforms are
5:08 making changes that will make website
5:10 traffic irrelevant when it comes to
5:11 actually converting visitors into
5:14 buyers. In September 2025, OpenAI
5:16 partnered with Stripe to launch instant
5:18 checkout directly inside Chad GPT. Now,
5:20 when you ask Chad GBT to find me a
5:22 handmade leather wallet, it shows you
5:25 options from Etsy and Shopify merchants,
5:27 and [music] you can complete the entire
5:29 purchase without ever leaving the chat
5:31 interface. Think about that for a
5:33 second. Search and land's August 2025
5:36 report [music] documented a 527%
5:38 increase in AI referred sessions. But
5:40 here's a critical insight [music] that
5:42 most people are missing. That number
5:44 represents AI platforms becoming traffic
5:46 sources themselves, not referral
5:49 engines. Facebook built lead ads to keep
5:51 users inside Facebook. Instagram created
5:53 an in-app checkout to prevent you from
5:55 leaving. Now AI platforms are doing the
5:57 same thing, but faster and more
5:59 seamlessly. When Chad GBT can process
6:01 payments, book appointments, or handle
6:03 signups without you ever clicking a
6:05 link, why would it send you anywhere
6:08 else? But this doesn't mean it's the end
6:10 of sales to website traffic. You just
6:12 need to adapt. Here's how. First, stop
6:15 thinking about AI as a referral source.
6:17 It's a sales channel. Your brand needs
6:19 to exist inside these platforms, not
6:21 just be mentioned by them. Second,
6:24 optimize for onplatform conversions. Get
6:25 integrated with the commerce systems
6:27 these AI platforms are building like
6:29 chat GBT Stripe integration. Third,
6:32 track your AI native conversions
6:34 separately. Most analytics won't show
6:36 you when someone converts inside a AI
6:37 interface. And speaking of conversions,
6:39 there's another massive shift coming.
6:41 Trend four, AI ads are about to take
6:43 over organic conversions. [music]
6:44 Remember when Google search just had 10
6:46 blue links? Then Google ads came along
6:48 and suddenly you had to scroll past a
6:50 handful of ads to see the organic
6:51 results. [music] Clickthrough rates
6:54 collapsed. Businesses had to pay just to
6:56 be seen. Well, the exact same thing is
6:58 about to happen inside Chat GBT and
7:00 every other AI platform. According to
7:02 Search Engine Land, OpenAI is preparing
7:05 to launch its own ad platform in 2026.
7:07 They're actively hiring ad executives
7:09 and building entire monetization teams
7:12 dedicated to conversational AI. When ads
7:14 dominate AI responses, organic [music]
7:16 brand mentions will suffer visibility
7:18 loss. The brands dominating AI search in
7:21 2025 will have less visibility in 2026
7:23 [music] unless they pay to play, just
7:25 like what happened with traditional SEO
7:26 on Google. Sure, you can still get
7:28 organic traffic and it is still
7:30 valuable, but a certain portion of the
7:32 searchers will click on paid ads. So,
7:34 here's what you need to do to profit
7:36 from this AI ads way. First, maximize
7:39 your organic AI visibility before ads
7:41 launch. Build your brand authority and
7:42 citation profile where organic
7:44 placements still matter. We've covered
7:47 this in trends one and two. Second,
7:48 [music] allocate 10 to 15% of your
7:50 current ad budget to AI platform
7:52 testing. When chat GPT ads launch,
7:54 you'll want the capital ready to grab
7:57 early inventory at lower cost. In the
7:58 meantime, Google has already started
8:00 rolling out its own AI powered ad
8:02 products. So, you can actually launch
8:05 ads in Google AI overviews right now.
8:07 Third, test early when these platforms
8:09 launch. Early adapters always get better
8:11 performance and lower cost before the
8:13 auction becomes competitive. The
8:15 businesses that prepare now will
8:17 dominate paid placements. But there's
8:19 one more trend that's even more
8:21 critical. Before I go into trend five,
8:23 if you just want someone to do this all
8:25 for you, check us out at NP Digital. We
8:27 just took Refi Jet and got him a
8:30 three-digit traffic increase from LLMs
8:32 and won a OMA award for the results.
8:34 Trend five. Voice-based AI search
8:36 creates winner take all markets. In
8:39 voicebased AI search, ranking number one
8:41 is the only position that matters. When
8:43 someone asks their car's AI for the best
8:46 plumber near me, only one brand gets
8:47 recommended. Second place doesn't
8:50 [music] exist. The more people use AI,
8:52 the more visibility gets concentrated to
8:54 a tiny [music] portion of the market.
8:56 And we're already there. Apple is
8:58 integrating advanced AI search into
9:00 Siri. Voice integration is exploding in
9:02 [music] homes, cars, wearables, and
9:04 devices everywhere. And this creates a
9:05 fundamental shift in how markets [music]
9:07 work. So what do you need to do right
9:10 now? First, optimize for voice queries.
9:12 Voice searches are conversational
9:13 question based. Your content needs to
9:16 directly answer what's the best and who
9:18 should I use for type questions in your
9:20 niche. Second, dominate your category
9:23 positioning. You can't be a good option.
9:25 You need to be the definitive answer. AI
9:28 only recommends the most authoritative
9:30 brand. Third, test your AI [music] voice
9:33 visibility now. Ask Chat GPT, Siri, and
9:34 voice assistants questions [music] your
9:36 customers would ask. If your brand isn't
9:38 recommended first, you're losing right
9:40 now. Voice-based AI search is creating
9:42 monopolies in every category. The brands
9:44 that become the default answer in 2026
9:46 will start capturing the majority of the
9:48 [music] market, especially when the
9:50 younger generation grows up as they
9:52 primarily use voice search over
9:54 textbased search. Bonus trend: Keywords
9:56 are dead. topics rule. If you ask a SEO
9:59 expert in 2023 how to rank for email
10:01 marketing, they tell you to create a
10:03 really in-depth guide [music] on email
10:05 marketing. But in 2026, that strategy
10:07 won't save you because AI doesn't read
10:09 content the way the old Google did. More
10:11 [music] keywords doesn't equal more
10:13 relevance anymore. If anything, it's
10:15 likely to get you flagged as lowquality
10:17 content. Many studies and even what we
10:20 see across our own clients show that SER
10:22 success now depends on full topic
10:24 coverage and intent alignment. When
10:26 someone asks about email deliverability,
10:28 Google's AI just doesn't look at the
10:29 phrase five times. It scans for
10:31 everything connected to it. Sender
10:33 reputation, authentication, list
10:35 hygiene, engagement metrics, the full
10:38 topic. Businesses creating thin content
10:39 targeting individual keywords will
10:41 become [music] invisible. So here's how
10:43 to avoid that. First, audit your content
10:46 for topic coverage, not keyword density.
10:48 Second, build comprehensive content hubs
10:50 that cover subjects completely, not
10:52 isolated post targeting single keywords.
10:54 Third, structure content for AI
10:56 comprehension using clear headers,
10:58 structured data, and complete
11:01 explanations. Look, these five trends
11:03 are just the beginning. The AI
11:05 revolution in search is happening right
11:07 now, and businesses that adapt will
11:08 dominate their markets. The ones that
11:10 don't, they'll be left behind wondering
11:12 what happened. But here's the thing,
11:14 this only works if you know how to audit
11:16 your content for AI readiness. In my
11:18 next video, I'll break down how we help
11:20 clients futureproof their entire content
11:22 strategy so they're recognized as a
11:25 trusted authority and they outplace
