SEO Trends 2026: Key Insights for Optimization

Traditional SEO, long focused on Google rankings and keywords, is undergoing a major transformation driven by artificial intelligence and changing user behavior.

In this article, Promodo’s experts break down the trending SEO aspect for 2026 and share practical recommendations on what businesses should do to increase organic sessions and conversions in the era of AI-powered search.
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GEO: Optimizing for AI Answers

With the rise of AI, it’s not just search results that are changing. The entire logic of user behavior is transforming. People no longer always open Google to find information on your website. Instead, they ask questions directly to ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI models and receive instant, convenient, and personalized answers. This top SEO trend for 2026 definitely changes the way businesses need to optimize their websites.

For businesses, this means more touchpoints with the audience, but less direct control over them. And if your brand is not present in AI-generated answers, you are effectively losing part of your traffic and potential conversions.

That’s why GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is becoming one of the key website optimization trends. It is a new strategy focused on adapting content for generative search models that deliver fast, concise responses to user queries. GEO helps businesses appear exactly where decisions are being made today — inside AI-generated answers.

We’ve already put together detailed, practical recommendations on how to optimize your website for GEO.
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Generative
Engine Optimization

How to adapt to AI search and stay
ahead of the competition

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E-E-A-T: Trust Matters More Than Optimization

The latest Google updates in 2025 have been quite strict. The sites that suffered the most were those that ignored the importance of E-E-A-T factors—and this applies not only to YMYL (“Your Money or Your Life”) resources but also to regular e-commerce websites.
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“Websites and blogs that have played the so-called “fair game” from the very beginning—such as those where the blog author is a real person and an expert in their niche, follows best practices, and provides unique expertise—have become sources for citation in AI-powered search engines. In other words, high-quality, authoritative, and reliable content has become critically important for maintaining rankings and attracting traffic”.
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Maryana Hlоdan, SEO Content Specialist

How to strengthen E-E-A-T in 2026:

Add author pages with real photos, experience, positions, and certificates. AI reads these and uses them as a signal of expertise.
Publish original materials: your own case studies, research, interviews, and internal data. Generative systems can distinguish authentic content from machine-generated.
Boost experts’ personal brands on LinkedIn. LLMs index public profiles and use them to assess authority.
Include references to sources—this is a key signal for AI.

Thanks to a systematic approach to E-E-A-T and content marketing for the eCommerce project techtoro.io, we were able to maintain traffic and increase brand mentions in AI-generated responses by over 4000% in less than a year.
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*Statistics of AI Models Mentioning the E‑Com Site*

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In addition to the classic E-E-A-T requirements, for the techtoro.io blog we implemented a number of additional approaches that enabled us to achieve the following results:

Regularly updated content to maintain its relevance and alignment with user queries.
Incorporated the creation of unique images as a mandatory part of the content strategy to enhance trust, improve visual relevance, and increase the chances of appearing in AI-generated visual responses.
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Zero-Click: the User Doesn’t Even Open the Website

In 2026, the user’s path to your website is becoming increasingly complex. Google AI Overview, expanded Knowledge Panels, and Featured Snippets—all of these significantly reduce the number of clicks from search results. According to Statista, over 68% of Google searches now end without visiting any website. Therefore, so-called zero-click searches are one of the main current SEO trends.
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“We are seeing a noticeable decline primarily in informational traffic for eCommerce and service websites. At the same time, the number of AI blocks is increasing even for commercial queries, which becomes one of the eCommerce SEO trends 2026. That’s why our team is developing updated, adaptive content briefs focused on improving the chances of appearing in Featured Snippets and AI Overviews”.
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Ksenia Babenko, SEO Specialist at Promodo

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*Example of an informational query in AI Overviews*

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*Example of a commercial query in AI Overviews*

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How to capture zero-click traffic:

Create answer pages tailored to specific questions.
Add short FAQ blocks under each service.
Use complex, well-formatted data: lists, tables, formulas, timelines.
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Always include a hook that encourages users to visit your website. For example: “Next — step-by-step guide,” or “full analysis of features inside.”

Focus on User Intent

SEO Google trends are increasingly shifting focus from individual keywords to understanding user intent. Google algorithms and AI models are getting better at recognizing context, semantics, and even the emotions behind a query. This means an effective content strategy is no longer based on a set of keywords. A holistic approach to user intent has become essential.

To fully cover a single intent, it’s necessary to create content clusters: several interrelated pages that address different aspects of the same topic. For example, a page titled “How to Choose a Multicooker” can be accompanied by separate materials on multicooker features, price comparisons of different models, and so on.
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“Working with content clusters is based on in-depth insights: analyzing search trends, studying forums and social media, conducting client interviews, as well as interviews with the target audience”.
Ksenia Babenko, SEO Specialist at Promodo

This approach allows you to create content that addresses not only surface-level queries but also the underlying needs of users, increasing the chances of being included in AI-generated responses and Featured Snippets.
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Voice, Visual, and Multimodal Search

In 2026, users will use not only keyboards but also alternative search formats:

Voice queries via smartphones and car systems.
Visual search using tools like Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and others
Multimodal queries, where a user simply takes a photo or screenshot and generates a search related to the image.

How to Adapt Your Business to This SEO Trend

Optimize content for natural language

Voice queries sound like real questions: “What is the best coffee machine for home?” or “Where to buy winter tires nearby?” Use phrasing close to everyday speech, add direct answers and FAQs structured around “how,” “where,” and “best.”

Create content that’s easy for voice assistants to read

Use short paragraphs, clear lists, definitions, and “What is / How to” blocks. Voice systems prefer content that can be read aloud without complex constructions.

For eCommerce — prepare visual attributes for Google Lens

This includes:

Unique, clear, high-contrast product photos
Images from different angles
White background shots + lifestyle content
Accurate file names and alt texts with product details

Google Lens “understands” products through visual quality and detail.

Brand Strength Grows

Google AI Overview, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other LLM models increasingly generate answers around trusted brands, not just individual pages with well-optimized keywords. Brands with clear expertise, consistent search presence, and external mentions are most often featured in AI responses as authoritative sources.

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The growth of branded search has several effects:

Increases trust from Google and LLM models.
Boosts CTR and stabilizes rankings for non-branded queries.
Associates the brand with a specific problem or niche.

We recommend actively working on expanding branded queries that include your target keywords:

Create “brand + keyword” connections: encourage searches like “brand name + problem” or “brand name + product.”
Leverage external platforms: publish expert materials, columns, case studies, and comments using branded queries in the text.
Use PR and social media as a search driver: not just for reach, but to shape the query in the user’s mind—what they should “Google” about you.
Enhance authority with content: in-depth guides, research, proprietary methodologies, and unique insights significantly increase the chances of the brand being cited in AI-generated responses.
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User-Generated Content (UGC)

UGC is now one of the most traffic-generating sources and one of the future SEO trends. Platforms like Reddit, Quora, and niche forums are rapidly growing, as users increasingly seek authentic, human experiences rather than perfectly polished marketing content.

This trend directly impacts SEO in 2026. Google and LLM models actively surface discussions, reviews, comments, and real user cases, especially for queries with high uncertainty or before a purchase decision.

We recommend systematically working with UGC:

Encourage honest and authentic reviews on your website, marketplaces, and niche platforms without trying to overly polish them.
Invest in video reviews and user testimonials — this format scales best in AI-generated results and multimodal search.
Be present where users are talking: forums, communities, comments, social media, and niche platforms. Participate in discussions.
Integrate UGC into your SEO strategy: add reviews, Q&A, and user cases directly to commercial pages — this increases trust, conversion, and the chances of appearing in AI-generated responses.

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Conclusion

For over 20 years, Promodo has been helping businesses rank at the top of search results. Since 2025, we have also been ensuring that brands appear in AI model recommendations and AI search results.
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x4 Organic Traffic Growth in the Global Fashion B2B Sector

Structure optimization case study.

Read

We have a deep understanding of how search optimization is evolving in 2026 and know exactly which tools and new SEO trends work for your business—and which could simply become a waste of budget.
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