State of SEO in 2026

Does It Make Sense to Invest in SEO in 2026?

Short answer: yes, but it depends on the goal.

I've been working in SEO since 2009, and every year, with every Google algorithm update, people have predicted that SEO was going to die. We've been hearing the same thing for nearly two decades.

With every Google update, we've had to buckle down and get to work. The truth is that SEO work is a constant learning process and, from the very beginning, it's been a bit like "dark magic": search engines don't provide clear, precise information about how their algorithms work under the hood. Those of us in this industry have had to figure out what works through trial and error.

This has led to a lot of secrecy (and there still is), even among those of us who do this for a living. Whoever discovers a way to rank a website in top positions tends to keep the secret or sell it at a premium. And everyone advertising free courses or publishing "the secrets of SEO" just wants to grab attention, generate traffic, and make some money along the way. Web positioning is much harder and, above all, more of a long-term game than what's usually sold.

Google Started Acknowledging SEO

It's true that this has changed somewhat in recent years. Google began to acknowledge that something called "SEO" exists and, rather than fighting against it, started publishing help guides so we'd do things the way they want.

But this doesn't mean that web positioning is just about following what Google says. In fact, if we only follow their recommendations and don't go much further in our research, we won't be able to outperform the competition in search results.

And Then Came Artificial Intelligence

A bit of context: the AI race in search engines began in February 2023, when Microsoft launched the new [AI-powered Bing](https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/07/reinventing-search-with-a-new-ai-powered-microsoft-bing-and-edge-your-copilot-for-the-web/), based on OpenAI's technology. Barely a month later, in March 2023, Brave incorporated its own [AI summary system](https://brave.com/blog/ask-brave/) ("Summarizer") into its search engine. And of course, ChatGPT had launched months earlier (November 2022), which many predicted would become the new search engine and dethrone the big G.

Google, curiously enough, was the last to make the move. They had far more to lose. In May 2023, they introduced the Search Generative Experience (SGE) in beta, and it wasn't until [May 14, 2024](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/) that they officially launched AI Overviews in the United States. From October 2024, they expanded to over 100 countries.

What Are AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are an AI-generated summary displayed prominently in search results, above traditional organic results.

It's important to clarify that AI Overviews don't always appear above paid ads. According to [Google Ads' official documentation](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16297775?hl=en), ads can be shown above, below, or even within AI Overviews themselves. In sectors like travel, energy, or retail, ads appear above AI Overviews in more than 75% of cases, according to data from [Adthena](https://www.adthena.com/resources/blog/how-to-track-ads-in-google-ai-overviews-as-they-emerge-copy/). What is undeniable is that AI Overviews have significantly pushed traditional organic results further down—the very space where most websites were fighting for their visibility.

But Killing Google Isn't That Easy

Although ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI assistants are capturing more and more queries, Google remains dominant. Curiously, it may now be hurting itself with AI Overviews. We don't know for sure, but they must have a big plan to monetize AI if they're willing to undermine what has been their business model for over 20 years.

In May 2025, Google took it a step further with the launch of [AI Mode](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/), a fully conversational search experience powered by Gemini 2.0, which goes beyond AI Overviews and turns search into an ongoing dialogue with AI.

Which Sectors Have Been Hit the Hardest?

In general, all searches have been affected. Google is sending a smaller percentage of traffic to websites every day. But the most impacted searches, by far, are informational ones: those queries that can be answered in a few words, that don't carry a direct purchase intent. In short, the questions an AI can answer without the user needing to visit any website.

The least affected searches are those with a clear purchase intent, local searches, and branded searches.

The Data Speaks for Itself

A [recent study by Growtika](https://growtika.com/blog/tech-media-collapse) (published in February 2026) analyzed organic visits to 10 major English-language tech publications, including Wired, CNET, The Verge, TechRadar, and Mashable. They compared each outlet's peak traffic in 2024 with January 2026 data. The result: a combined drop of 58%, going from 112 million monthly organic visits to 47 million.

Some cases are especially dramatic: Digital Trends fell 97% (from 8.5 million to 265,000 visits) and The Verge dropped 85%. It's worth noting that the study uses Ahrefs estimates and compares peak months with January 2026, which could slightly skew the data. Even so, the trend is undeniable.

Broader data from the [Reuters Institute](https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2026), based on Chartbeat measurements across more than 2,500 sites, confirm that Google Search traffic globally fell 33% year-over-year between November 2024 and November 2025, and 38% in the United States.

The Storefront Analogy (With Caveats)

Imagine that in your physical business, from one year to the next, 58% fewer people walk past your storefront. Sounds devastating. But as we'll see below, not all of those passersby were potential customers.

Do Fewer Informational Visits Mean Fewer Sales?

The reality is that media outlets and corporate blogs are receiving considerably fewer visits. A few years ago, having a blog on your website was essential for attracting traffic. And it still is, but we need to understand an important nuance: not all informational visits generated customers.

If your business published an article about "what is digital marketing" and received thousands of visits, most of those visitors weren't looking to hire your services. They were resolving a question. Now AI answers that question directly, and that visit no longer reaches your website.

Therefore, the loss of informational visits doesn't necessarily translate into a loss of leads or direct sales.

This brings us back to the beginning of the post: yes, it's still worth investing in SEO. It remains one of the most cost-effective marketing methods that delivers the best results over the long term, especially for local businesses and major brands.

AIs Need Sources (And You Can Be One of Them)

Artificial intelligences need information to answer users. And more and more users, instead of consulting a search engine, go directly to a chat like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude.

But that AI needs to discriminate among all available options and show the ones it considers most relevant. It will display just a few links and sources. It's still necessary to invest in SEO and in the quality of your content to appear among the responses of these AI systems—what the industry is already calling GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) or AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).

Do Fewer Visits Mean Lower Server Costs?

Another problem stemming from artificial intelligence is that it doesn't lead to reduced web hosting costs. In fact, the opposite is happening.

Fewer human visitors are coming in, but the volume of bot visits has skyrocketed. Large language models (LLMs) need enormous amounts of text for training, and crawling web pages is far cheaper than acquiring licenses for digital or physical books. According to data from [Cloudflare](https://radar.cloudflare.com/), AI bot traffic has grown exponentially since 2023, and many websites report that bots already represent a significant proportion of their server requests.

Therefore, it's more important than ever to protect your website from indiscriminate access by AI bots. Not all bots are beneficial, nor do they bring visits in return.

A large volume of bots continuously accessing a website can slow down the server. The result: human visitors don't get a good browsing experience. And if the server isn't prepared, these spikes of artificial traffic can cause outages lasting minutes, hours, or even days, depending on the quality of the technical support and the person responsible for the website.

Properly configuring your robots.txt file and using bot management tools is no longer optional: it's a necessity.

What Has AI Actually Changed?

With artificial intelligence, everything has accelerated. Users want quick answers. They don't want to read a 3,000-word text to resolve a simple question. But they're just as demanding about quality—or even more so than before ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews, Perplexity, or Claude came along.

Investing in a website to attract customers remains essential. And SEO goes far beyond writing long texts stuffed with keywords.

### SEO in 2026 Covers Much More

- Loading speed: a slow website drives away both users and the algorithms themselves.

- Website structure and architecture: the services your company offers must be easy to find and understand, for both humans and the AIs crawling your site.

- User intent research: understanding what your customers' real questions are and answering them clearly and directly.

- Technical SEO: resolving crawling, indexing, structured data, and performance issues.

- Presence in AI ecosystems: making sure your content is cited by AI assistants.

- Guiding the buyer's journey: from first contact to conversion, your website should lead the user through a seamless experience.

## Conclusion: SEO Hasn't Died, It Has Evolved

The SEO of 2026 isn't the same as when I started in 2009. It's not even the same as 2023. The rules of the game have changed drastically with the irruption of artificial intelligence in search engines.

But the essence remains: whoever has the best answer for a user's need, wins. Before, you won by ranking among Google's 10 blue links. Now, you win by appearing as a cited source in an AI Overview, in a ChatGPT response, or in a Perplexity result.

If you have a local business, an online store, or a brand that wants to attract customers over the long term, SEO remains one of the most profitable investments you can make. You just need to adapt to the new landscape. And for that, as always, the key is to keep moving.

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Sources consulted:

- [Growtika - Tech Publications Lost 58% of Google Traffic Since 2024](https://growtika.com/blog/tech-media-collapse)

- [Reuters Institute - Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2026](https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2026)

- [Google - AI Overviews in Google Search expanding to more than 100 countries](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/ai-overviews-search-october-2024/)

- [Google Ads - About ads and AI Overviews](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16297775?hl=en)

- [Adthena - How AI Overviews are impacting ad position](https://www.adthena.com/resources/blog/how-to-track-ads-in-google-ai-overviews-as-they-emerge-copy/)

- [Microsoft - Reinventing search with AI-powered Bing](https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/07/reinventing-search-with-a-new-ai-powered-microsoft-bing-and-edge-your-copilot-for-the-web/)

- [Brave - Introducing Ask Brave](https://brave.com/blog/ask-brave/)