Top SEO (and AI) Trends & Predictions for 2026

What will shape the SEO industry next year?

Last year, I did my SEO predictions. Let’s see how they went:

• Even Less Organic Traffic ✅

• More Challenging Attribution ✅

• More Branded Searches ✅

• SEO and Brand Authority ✅

• Site Reputation Abuse Becoming Algorithmic (❓)

• Marketing diversification ✅

Now, let’s discuss the trends that will likely be huge in 2026:

>>> JOIN us to discuss free and LIVE on LinkedIn

1. Instant checkout (0-click buying)

We all saw this coming: If people can get all the answers without searching and clicking, the future, when they can perform actions without ever going to a website, is very near.

ChatGPT already announced Instant Checkout: A feature allowing consumers to buy products right from AI Answers. Underwhelmingly poorly executed and mostly not finished, this feature is the trend of the future: Sometime soon, consumers will live inside their conversations with AI bots, never leaving, having everything that needs to happen get done by their loyal AI agents.

This is the future not many businesses are prepared for, and 2026 is going to be the year to get ready.

2. AI Answer monetization

Both Google and OpenAI are testing showing ads inside AI Answers. All of those tests are disappointing, to say the least.

AI Mode was closer: They attempted to monetize “fan-out.” This is at least somewhat innovative. Instead of showing contextual ads, AI answer ads “guess” what could be the next step in each searching journey. They suggest solutions before a user even realizes a need.

ChatGPT’s monetization tests were hilarious: No relevance, no logic, nothing. It was poor;y executed even for a test.

But what’s more important: Those tests show that it’s coming. AI platforms struggle to become sustainable without ads. So they will have to work with businesses to try and get their money.

3. ChatGPT “Search Console”

And this is why it is good news: Once LLM platforms start engaging businesses in spending money on ads, they will have to give something back, i.e., data.

We’ve already seen leaks showing ChatGPT’s version of Search Console, which is used to report to OpenAI partners. Even this limited version of reporting would be better than nothing.

Once AI Answers are monetized, we will see some synergy between LLM platforms and businesses forming. And that’s when organic visibility will become more predictable and better informed.

4. More people using ChatGPT to search

ChatGPT has been predicted to become Google’s rival for months now. I’ve always said that consumer behaviors are not that easy to break. And yet, an interesting trend we’ve seen this year: One of the fastest increasing use cases for ChatGPT has been… seeking information (i.e., that’s what we used to use search for).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not at all sure ChatGPT will remain the go-to gen AI tool. Looking at what has been happening so far, Google (Gemini) is very likely to win the race.

What matters is changing searching behaviors and expectations. And that’s something we - SEOs - need to always keep in mind!

And two bonus SEO predictions I am not so sure about:

5. ChatGPT’s Own Search Engine

We are noticing ChatGPT searching differently, using very long fan-outs that steer results into more specific directions. This is what we expected from Google when it promised finding “hidden gems”. I am pretty sure this is what ChatGPT is trying to achieve here, i.e. surfacing more hidden, more useful pages.

It is quite likely, ChatGPT will attempt to rely more on internal cache at some point (it already hints that it caches results with two of its bots, and these bots share the cache).

6. Google’s Web Guide Becoming Default

We all expected Google to work on the AI Mode to become default but it has been recently working more on testing its Web Guide, which is an “AI Organized Search”.

It seems to make much more sense for users (it is actually quite useful) and for their monetization ROI, because it is much more click-friendly. As part of AI labs, I am already seeing the Web Guide as default behavior in Google Chrome.

What has been happening in digital marketing has been pretty surreal so far. There are, indeed, AI influencers, AI agents visiting web pages and performing actions, etc. It is moving fast, and it is still unclear where exactly it is moving.

The main question we are still solving: What we should be doing differently? So far, the fundamentals remain the same: Strong brand visibility within its niche, relevant content and context, external signals (backlinks, reviews, brand mentions).

Let’s stay together to help one another figure this out. Happy New Year!