SEO still works in 2026. What’s changed is the reward: fewer clicks, but more visibility and better enquiries if you aim at the right searches. Your pages still need to be crawlable, quick, relevant and trusted to rank, and ranking is still how you get into AI Overviews, AI Mode and most AI assistants. The difference is where the clicks go, which searches are worth chasing and how you measure success.
We hear it a lot at the moment: “Is SEO dead?” It isn’t. But if you’re still judging it the way you did in 2019, it can certainly feel that way. Let’s look at what’s really going on, and where to put your time.
The short version
- When an AI Overview appears, the top-ranked page now gets about 58% fewer clicks than it would without one (Ahrefs, 300,000 keywords).
- Even before AI Overviews, about six in ten Google searches in the US and EU ended without a click to any website (SparkToro, 2024).
- The basics haven’t changed: technical health, matching what the searcher wants, helpful content, internal links and genuine links from other sites.
- Put your effort into commercial, local and ready-to-buy searches, where clicks and enquiries still follow rankings.
- Measure impressions, enquiries, searches for your name and AI visits as well as website visits.
In this article
What’s changed in search?
Three big shifts sum up SEO in 2026.
The answer now sits above the links. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode answer lots of questions directly. Ahrefs compared click-through rates for similar keywords in December 2023 and December 2025. Where an AI Overview now appears, the page in first place went from an average click-through rate of 7.3% to 1.6%. Allowing for the general drop in clicks, AI Overviews account for a fall of about 58%. Lower positions felt it too: second place lost around half of its expected clicks.
Zero-click searches were already common. SparkToro and Datos found that in 2024, 58.5% of Google searches in the US and 59.7% in the EU ended without a click to any result. For every 1,000 searches in the EU, only 374 clicks went to the open web.
People search in more places. Back in February 2024, Gartner predicted that traditional search engine volume would fall by 25% by 2026 as people turned to AI assistants. Google, meanwhile, reports more searches than ever, helped along by AI Mode passing 1 billion monthly users. Both can be true at once: people search more overall, across more tools, and click less each time.
What still works in SEO
Solid technical foundations
If a search engine can’t crawl, read and index a page, nothing else matters. The must-haves:
- Clean HTML with one H1 and headings in a sensible order.
- An XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- No accidental
noindextags, blocked files or chains of redirects. - Canonical URLs that point to the version you want to rank.
- HTTPS everywhere, with nothing loading over plain HTTP.
- Core Web Vitals in the “good” range for real visitors: Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1.
Speed also affects how many visitors turn into customers. Your hosting, caching and images are SEO decisions as much as technical ones.
Matching what the searcher wants
To rank, you need to give people what they came for. Search for the phrase you want to rank for and look at what’s there now. Guides? Product pages? Local listings? Comparisons? Build the kind of page Google is already rewarding, then make yours better.
Helpful content from people who know their stuff
Google’s guidance on helpful content and E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust) is the clearest public description of what it wants. In plain English: show who wrote the page and why they know what they’re talking about, include first-hand detail, cite your sources and keep pages up to date.
Linking your own pages together
Link related pages to each other using descriptive link text. A main guide with supporting articles, all linked together, helps search engines understand what you’re an expert in, and passes authority to the pages that bring in work.
Links and mentions from other sites
Links from relevant, respected websites are still one of the strongest ranking signals. In 2026 they also feed AI answers, which prefer sources other people cite. Original data, expert comment and genuine local relationships earn far better links than template outreach emails ever will.
Local SEO
If you serve a town or region, the local results are often the most valuable spot on Google. A complete Google Business Profile, the same business details across directories, service pages with real local relevance and a steady stream of reviews are the heart of local SEO. Our Google Business Profile guide walks through every setting.
Where to focus, by type of search
Not every search deserves the same effort any more. Use this as a rough guide.
| Type of search | Example | Effect of AI Overviews | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Looking for information | “what is a canonical tag” | High, many are answered on the page | Write the best answer to get mentioned; measure impressions and searches for your name |
| Comparing options | “best SEO agency for dentists” | Medium | Comparison pages, case studies, reviews and clear prices |
| Ready to buy | “book SEO audit Brighton” | Low | Fast, focused service pages with a clear next step |
| Local | “marketing agency near me” | The map results take over | Google Business Profile, reviews, local listings |
| Looking for you | “Happy Otter contact” | Low | Tidy brand pages, matching details, sitelinks |
How long should SEO content be?
There’s no magic word count, and Google has said word count isn’t a ranking factor. The research does show some patterns, though. Backlinko’s analysis of 11.8 million Google results found the average first-page result was about 1,447 words, and its study of 912 million blog posts with BuzzSumo found long articles earned 77.2% more backlinks than short ones.
Our rule of thumb:
- Service pages: 600 to 1,200 words, answer first, with FAQs.
- Guides on competitive topics: 1,500 to 2,500 words, with a short answer near the top.
- Statistics and research pages: as long as the data needs. These earn the most links.
Length should come from answering the question properly, not from padding. A 1,200-word page that answers the question fully will beat a 3,000-word page that wanders off.
A technical SEO checklist for 2026
- Check which pages are indexed in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools every month.
- Fix broken pages and redirect chains, and point internal links at the final address.
- Keep Core Web Vitals in the good range on mobile, using real visitor data as well as lab tests.
- Compress and size images properly, use modern formats and only lazy-load images further down the page.
- Add schema for Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, Article and BreadcrumbList.
- Make sure robots.txt and your CDN let in the crawlers you want, including Bingbot and AI search bots.
- Use IndexNow so new pages reach Bing and Copilot quickly.
- Show “last updated” dates on guides, and refresh your key pages at least every three months.
How to measure SEO when clicks fall
If you only judge SEO by website visits, 2026 will look worse than it really is. Track these instead:
- Impressions and average position in Search Console for your most important pages.
- Enquiries, calls and sales, by the page people landed on.
- Searches for your name. If these are rising, people are meeting you somewhere, often in AI answers.
- Visits from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, as their own channel in GA4.
- How often you appear in the map results for your main services in your main towns.
Your questions, answered
Is SEO still worth it for a small business?
Yes. Search engines and AI assistants both rely on the things SEO builds: pages they can read, relevant content, links and a business they can trust. The best returns now come from commercial and local searches, where people still click and call.
How much does SEO cost in the UK?
It depends on how competitive your market is and how much needs doing. Smaller local campaigns are usually a monthly fee, and bigger national campaigns cost more. Whoever you talk to, ask them to tie the fee to specific work and to the numbers you’ll review together.
How long does SEO take to work?
Technical fixes can show results within weeks. Content and reputation usually take three to six months to build steady gains, and longer in very competitive markets.
Do AI Overviews mean I should stop blogging?
No, but write fewer, better posts. Focus on the questions customers ask before they buy, include your own experience and data, and link each post to the service it supports.
What are good Core Web Vitals scores?
Google’s “good” thresholds are Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1, measured across 75% of real visits.
Ready for some help?
Want to know what’s holding your website back? We’ll take a look and explain what we find in plain English, with the quick wins first. Book a free SEO and AI visibility check, or try our free marketing ideas tool in the meantime.
References
- Ahrefs, Update: AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58%, February 2026.
- Search Engine Land, Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024, reporting the SparkToro and Datos study.
- Gartner, Gartner predicts search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026, 19 February 2024.
- Alphabet, Q2 2026 earnings call: remarks from the CEO, 22 July 2026.
- Backlinko, We analysed 11.8 million Google search results.
- Backlinko, We analysed 912 million blog posts.
- Google Search Central, Understanding Core Web Vitals.
- Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.