The landscape shifted, again

Search in 2026 looks nothing like it did even two years ago. AI overviews now sit above the classic ten blue links for a growing share of commercial queries, and the old playbook — pick a keyword, write a longer page than the competition, build some links — no longer reliably works. But that doesn't mean SEO is dead. It means the unit of work has changed.

What's actually working now

Three things are moving the needle for our clients this quarter. First, entity SEO — making sure your brand and your products are unambiguously defined entities that search engines can place within a topic. Second, topical authority — covering a topic comprehensively across a cluster of interlinked pages rather than chasing isolated keywords. Third, earning a place in AI overviews, which increasingly means being the source that overviews cite, not the page they summarise.

Entity SEO, in practice

Start by auditing how your brand appears in structured data, on Wikipedia, and across the sites that rank for your entity. If you're not clearly defined, you can't be included in an overview. Implement schema for your organisation, products, and authors, and make sure your internal linking reinforces what each page is about.

Topical clusters over keyword lists

Stop publishing one article per keyword. Pick a topic your buyers research, map the sub-questions around it, and build one pillar page supported by a set of focused articles that link back up. This is how you signal that you're an authority on a topic — which is what earns both classic rankings and overview inclusion.

What to stop doing

Thin 'keyword page' content, link exchanges, and any tactic whose goal is to trick the ranking system rather than be the best answer. They cost budget, they don't compound, and they increasingly earn penalties rather than placements.

The goal isn't to rank for a keyword. It's to be the source an AI overview reaches for when someone asks a question in your space.

That's a harder bar, but it's one that rewards genuine expertise — and it's the work that compounds long after the campaign ends.