The short answer
SEO as a bag of tactics is dead. SEO as “make sure the people who are looking for what you sell can find you and trust you” is not, and in 2026 it matters more, because AI answers now recommend specific businesses by name. If you have been told SEO is dead by someone selling ads, or that nothing has changed by someone selling SEO, both were protecting an invoice. The truth is in the middle, and it is not complicated.
What actually stopped working
- Publishing to fill a calendar. Two blog posts a week on generic topics used to bring traffic. Now AI answers those questions on the results page, and the traffic never arrives. Most sites have seen informational clicks fall sharply since 2024, and nothing you do will bring those particular clicks back.
- Keyword pages. A page for “plumber Leeds”, another for “plumbers Leeds”, another for “Leeds plumbing”. Google treats them as one intent and often as spam.
- Cheap links. Directory packages, guest posts on sites nobody reads, link exchanges. At best ignored, at worst a manual penalty.
- AI content at scale. Hundreds of pages generated in an afternoon. Google’s spam policies now name this directly, and the pages do not get cited by AI engines either, because they add nothing.
- Reporting rankings instead of customers. “Keywords in the top 100” was always a vanity number; now it is a meaningless one.
What still works, and works better than before
- A fast, clear site with one honest page per service. What you do, for whom, where, what it roughly costs, proof it works, one next step. Both Google and AI engines reward pages that can be understood in ten seconds.
- Your Google Business Profile, alive. For local businesses this is now more than half the game. Correct category, real photos, weekly activity, reviews that describe the job. The map pack has not been replaced by AI; it sits above it. The local checklist covers every step.
- Consistent business facts everywhere. AI engines name businesses they can verify: same description on your site, LinkedIn, directories, reviews. Inconsistent facts get you skipped.
- Being mentioned by other people. A trade publication, a partner’s website, a podcast, a real review platform. Three genuine mentions beat three hundred directory links, for Google and for ChatGPT.
- Answering the hard questions in public. Prices, timelines, “is this worth it”, “what goes wrong”. Pages that answer these plainly get cited, get trusted and get the enquiry.
- Measuring enquiries. Traffic is down for almost everyone. Enquiries from search, for businesses that did the five things above, mostly are not.
A worked example
Composite example: details changed, numbers typical of what I see rather than one named client.
A small accounting practice publishes 90 blog posts over two years with an agency. Traffic peaks at 6,000 visits a month, then falls by half through 2025 as AI answers take the “how do I” queries. Enquiries were never tracked. The agency says SEO is harder now and proposes more posts. The practice instead rewrites its four service pages with real prices and named client types, fixes its Business Profile, asks 40 clients for reviews, and gets listed on two professional directories. Six months later, traffic is still down 40% from the peak. Enquiries from search are up, from an estimated four a month to eleven, because the visitors who arrive now are looking for an accountant, not a definition. Same market, same AI answers, different work.
What this means for you
- Local service business: SEO is alive and mostly free for you. The Business Profile, reviews and one page per service are the whole plan. Blog if you want; it is not where your customers are.
- E-commerce: buying guides lost traffic; category and product pages did not. Put the guide content on the categories in short form, keep product data accurate, and treat AI shopping assistants as a new shelf you need to be on.
- B2B or SaaS: the model that leaned hardest on educational content is the one that has to change most. Comparison pages, use cases, pricing transparency and third-party mentions replace the blog calendar as the engine.
What to do this quarter
- Weeks 1 to 2: pick the five pages that make you money. Rewrite each one so a stranger understands what you do, for whom, at what price, with proof, in one screen. Make sure each loads in under three seconds on a phone.
- Weeks 3 to 4: write one plain description of your business and make it identical on your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and every directory you are on. Fill every field on the profile.
- Weeks 5 to 8: ask every customer for a review that mentions the work. Reply to all of them. Pitch two genuine mentions: a partner’s site, a local or trade publication, a podcast.
- Weeks 9 to 12: answer the three hardest questions your buyers ask, in public, on your site, with numbers. Then check in Search Console whether impressions on your money searches are moving. That, and enquiries, is your scoreboard now.
If you want a second opinion on which five pages to start with, send me the site. It is the question I answer most often at the moment, and it takes me ten minutes.