2025 was a dynamic year in SEO. With the rollout of AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, alongside the continued dominance of Google, the SEO landscape never stops evolving. Here are six SEO tips to help you stay ahead in 2026.
Earn Backlinks
Yes – traditional SEO practices, such as earning high-quality backlinks, continue to play an imperative role in SEO. The more authoritative and relevant backlinks a website earns, the more likely it is to achieve higher rankings in Google search results. There are several ways to acquire high-quality backlinks, including PR outreach, guest blogging, and working with credible backlink vendors.
Increase Webpages’ Indexability Using Google Search Console and Bing Search Console
Just because you’ve published an article on your website does not mean it will automatically appear in Google or Bing search results. For an article to be eligible to appear in search results, it must first be crawled and indexed by a search engine bot such as Googlebot. To increase the likelihood of a webpage being crawled and indexed, you can request indexing through tools like Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. For example, you can submit https://www.rwdigital.ca/seo-services/ in Google Search Console and request that Google index the webpage. While Google ultimately determines whether a webpage is crawled and indexed, submitting an indexing request is considered a best practice and increases the probability of inclusion in search results.
Encourage positive Google Reviews and Reviews on other Directories
Gaining positive Google Reviews can improve a website’s visibility and rankings within Google Maps and the Google Local Map Pack. In addition to Google Reviews, positive reviews across third-party directories such as Yelp and Yellow Pages can increase the likelihood of a website being surfaced by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Perplexity for intent-based queries such as “best hotels in Vancouver” or “best CRMs for small businesses.” Overall, consistently acquiring positive reviews strengthens brand authority, enhances online reputation signals, and improves visibility across both search engines and AI-powered recommendation platforms.
Write Content that Match Users’ Queries or Questions
Online users rely on LLMs and search engines such as Google and Bing to discover information and answer intent-driven queries. To improve the likelihood of your content ranking in traditional search results or being surfaced within LLM-generated responses, write content that address specific user questions and search intents. For example, publish an article on selecting the appropriate self-storage unit size to rank for relevant queries on Google or be incorporated into LLM responses for prompts related to storage size selection.
Although creating content with user queries does not guarantee direct URL attribution within LLM-generated outputs, since LLMs such as ChatGPT or Perplexity summarize information from multiple sources without citations, it remains one of the most effective approaches for increasing brand visibility and the probability of being referenced in question-based, AI-generated responses.
Get Featured in Best-Of Lists
A recent study by Ahref found that when ChatGPT answers questions about software, products, or agencies, it mostly cites websites that list the “best” options, making up nearly 44% of all sources. Being listed near the top of these lists, whether the company made the list itself or was included on another website’s, makes it more likely to be mentioned by ChatGPT. Keeping content fresh also matters, as most cited lists were updated in 2025, though many came from low-authority websites. This pattern is seen on other AI platforms and Google AI too.
Invest in an AI Visibility Tool
Tools such as SEMRush offer an AI visibility feature where you can see which prompts you or your competitor is appearing on AI results. For example, you can enter a website domain such as https://mobileklinik.ca/ and SEMRush can display which prompts the website appears for in AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overview or Perplexity. These insights help you gain a better understanding of the types of prompts entering and the types of businesses that are appearing in the prompt results. You can use this information to optimize your website to increase the chances of appearing in prompt results.
If you want help with your SEO in 2026, please feel free to reach out and we will be happy to help!
