SEO in 2026: how to build search presence across multiple platforms

Executive overview

Most people learning SEO today are learning strategies that no longer work. Modern buyers don't follow a single search path — they move across Google, YouTube, Reddit, and LLMs before making a decision.

Targeting high-intent, decision-stage keywords and publishing content structured for both humans and AI indexing is what drives growth now. Definition keywords have been largely captured by AI answers.

The biggest shift: SEO is no longer about ranking on Google — it's about appearing at every stage of a multi-platform decision journey.

How people actually search today

• Search is now a loop: curiosity → validation → comparison → confirmation, spread across multiple platforms
• Google is used for category-level understanding; YouTube for seeing tools in action
• Reddit and community platforms are used for honest, unbiased validation
• LLMs like ChatGPT are used to summarise options and shorten shortlists — not to make decisions
• Branded searches (pricing, alternatives, reviews) signal a near-final decision
• Focusing 100% on Google means missing large parts of the customer journey

SEO fundamentals that still matter

• Search intent is the foundation: every keyword signals whether someone is learning, comparing, or deciding
• Mismatched intent (e.g. serving a comparison page to someone in learning mode) kills rankings regardless of other quality
• Structure content in discrete, self-contained chunks — search engines and LLMs process pages section by section
• Understand crawling and indexing basics: unlinked pages rarely get indexed; robots.txt blocks kill ranking entirely
• Backlinks remain important, but one relevant link outweighs hundreds of random ones
• Unlinked brand mentions from credible sources also build authority in both search engines and LLMs

Focus on decision keywords

• Informational/definition keywords ("what is X", "how does Z work") are increasingly answered directly by AI — low conversion, lower value
• HubSpot lost massive traffic from definition keywords but conversions held — because that traffic was low-intent to begin with
• Prioritise commercial, comparison, and evaluation keywords — terms used when someone is about to choose
• These high-intent terms are harder for AI to fully replace and more likely to drive actual business growth

Doubling down on what works

• Don't obsess over rankings; watch Google Search Console impressions as an early signal that Google is willing to surface the page
• Track average position to see upward movement, then monitor clicks — in that order
• When a page performs well, identify the pattern and produce similar content
• Rinse and repeat: publish → watch impressions → scale what gains traction