- \n
- Build the foundation:<\/strong> Match search intent, develop topical authority, structure content clearly, remove technical barriers, and optimize images. These practices help content qualify to compete.<\/li>\n
- Give systems a reason to choose the content:<\/strong> Show real expertise, publish original evidence, and build recognition beyond the website itself, earning rankings, mentions, links, and citations.<\/li>\n
- Adapt and measure:<\/strong> Make the site easier for AI agents to use, then track visibility across Google and AI platforms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The first layer is the entry requirement: a crawlable, well-structured, relevant page. Without it, the second and third layers cannot give search engines and AI systems stronger reasons to choose, cite, and surface the content.<\/p>\n
1. Understand what the audience wants<\/h2>\n
To earn visibility in search and AI results, content needs to match what people are actually trying to accomplish. This is search intent, the goal behind a query or prompt. For example, someone searching for “best SEO tools” likely wants to compare products before choosing one. Looking at the results on Google and on an AI tool like ChatGPT can confirm that the keyword has commercial intent: the searcher wants to research products before buying.<\/p>\n
Keyword research shows what the audience searches for and how often. Entering a broad topic into a keyword tool, then looking for terms with real search volume and a difficulty score the site can compete at, is a strong starting point. Many keyword tools also identify keyword intent, and prompt research tools can reveal the search intent for topics and prompts used across AI platforms.<\/p>\n
Intent is more than a label like “commercial” or “informational.” The complete task includes the questions users want answered, the information and format they expect, the criteria they use to make a decision, and likely follow-up questions. People Also Ask results, communities, reviews, support tickets, and customer conversations often surface needs and language that keyword data misses.<\/p>\n
Write for how people ask AI<\/h3>\n
Queries typed into Google tend to be short. Someone might type “best CRM small business.” The same person might ask ChatGPT, “What’s a good CRM for a growing business that’s easy to use and doesn’t cost a fortune?” The longer version shows what they care about: price, ease of use, and room to grow. Build those details into the page, write the way the audience talks, and review Reddit threads, sales calls, and AI prompt data to see how they describe the problem in their own words.<\/p>\n
Finally, give each page one clear primary intent. Closely related terms like “SEO best practices,” “best SEO practices,” and “best practices for SEO” can usually be covered together when they serve the same underlying need. Prioritize satisfying the task, not matching keywords one by one.<\/p>\n
2. Focus on topical authority<\/h2>\n
Topical authority comes from covering an important subject deeply across a group of useful, connected pages. It helps search engines and AI systems recognize the site as a credible source on topics relevant to the business. Google’s December 2025 core update appears to reward topical authority, favoring commercially oriented content from brands or specialized retailers over generic ecommerce platforms or publications.<\/p>\n
A common way to build topical authority is with topic clusters. To build topical authority, first pick a core topic related to the business. Next, create a pillar page that gives a broad overview of the topic, then write supporting cluster pages that cover related subtopics. Consider whether the site allows nesting URLs to clarify the structure, for example, “trello.com\/guide\/remote-work” for the pillar and “trello.com\/guide\/remote-work\/communication-collaboration” for a subpage. Use internal links to connect the pillar page and cluster pages so readers, search engines, and AI tools can navigate the content and understand how it relates. Finally, regularly update the content with new insights, data, and examples to show that it remains relevant. Keyword strategy tools can also identify related keyword clusters and plan pillar and supporting pages.<\/p>\n
The goal is not to cover every keyword in a category but to build enough depth on the topics that matter to the audience and the business that the site becomes a credible resource.<\/p>\n
Refresh and improve existing content<\/h3>\n
Building topical authority does not always mean publishing more content. Often, more value comes from improving pages that already have some visibility or authority. Start with pages already earning search impressions or rankings, organic traffic, backlinks or brand mentions, or AI mentions or citations. A top pages report can surface these candidates. Then look for ways to make each page meaningfully better, such as updating outdated advice or examples, expanding weak or incomplete sections, adding missing examples, evidence, or firsthand experience, supporting claims with stronger sources, filling gaps in intent coverage, and strengthening internal links to and from related pages. Simply changing the publication date or making minor wording edits is not a real content refresh.<\/p>\n
3. Structure content so search and AI systems can extract it<\/h2>\n
Clear structure makes content easier for readers to scan and helps search engines and AI systems identify useful passages to surface in their results. Start with the basic on-page SEO signals. Include the primary keyword naturally in the title tag, H1, and meta description, and make sure each one accurately reflects the page’s topic and search intent. The title tag and H1 do not need to match word for word, and the meta description is not a direct ranking factor, but all three should make it immediately clear what the page is about.<\/p>\n
Within the content itself, use descriptive headings that clearly explain what each section covers, then answer the heading directly, ideally in the first sentence or paragraph. Content can also be made easier to understand and extract by keeping paragraphs relatively short and focused on one idea, using lists for steps, examples, or grouped information, using tables when readers need to compare options, defining unfamiliar terms clearly, breaking long sections into useful subheadings, and keeping important claims understandable without relying heavily on surrounding paragraphs.<\/p>\n
That last point is particularly useful for AI search. Research on content optimization shows that pages cited by AI scored about 33% higher on clarity and summarization than pages that only ranked in Google, 25% higher on Q&A formatting, and 23% higher on section structure. AI systems often retrieve or quote individual passages rather than reproducing an entire page. An important statement should therefore make sense when taken out of its original context. “It can improve visibility” is difficult to interpret on its own; “Building topical authority can improve search visibility” is more self-contained. Think of this as making content quotable rather than simply adding more formatting.<\/p>\n
4. Do technical SEO, including AI crawler access<\/h2>\n
Technical SEO is essential because content cannot earn visibility if search systems cannot reliably access and process it. It also helps AI agents navigate the site, interpret key elements, and complete actions reliably on a user’s behalf. Before diagnosing rankings or traffic, confirm that important pages are actually indexed. A free SEO checker can give a fast technical read on a page. Then check for issues such as crawl blocks or accidental noindex directives, incorrect canonicals, broken links and redirect chains, XML sitemap problems, poor mobile usability or page performance, and important content that depends on JavaScript to render.<\/p>\n
Site audit tools can surface these issues at scale, including modules that flag pages blocked from AI search. Ensure speed, mobile usability, security, and crawlability, and manage search and AI bot access via robots.txt.<\/p>\n
Within the content itself, descriptive headings, short paragraphs, and schema markup all help. Markup can be validated with Google’s Rich Results Test.<\/p>\n
5. Optimize images for search<\/h2>\n
Optimized images are better for user experience and more likely to gain search visibility. Use descriptive file names, add alt text, compress files, and enable lazy loading so images load efficiently across devices.<\/p>\n
6. Showcase E-E-A-T<\/h2>\n
Content written by credible experts with real experience is more likely to perform well and be cited. Add author bios, cite reputable sources, and include real examples or data so readers and AI platforms can see who is behind the content and why it can be trusted.<\/p>\n
7. Publish original data and citable evidence<\/h2>\n
Specific evidence gives publishers and AI systems a reason to cite a site over a generic competitor. Turn firsthand experience into evidence-backed content with original data, research findings, or case studies, and look to research hubs like university publications, industry reports, and original survey results for examples of what that looks like in practice.<\/p>\n
8. Build an off-site presence where search and AI systems look<\/h2>\n
Brand mentions and backlinks from trusted sources build the credibility AI systems look for. Backlink and brand monitoring tools help track where a brand is being talked about. Create useful content and use direct outreach to build links, and prioritize relevant placements over high-volume generic links.<\/p>\n
9. Prepare for agentic search and commerce<\/h2>\n
AI agents need accurate, structured data and a well-maintained accessibility tree to act on a site on a user’s behalf. Keep pricing, specs, inventory, and identifiers accurate. Use Product or Offer markup and structured feeds. Run accessibility scans to confirm the site’s accessibility.<\/p>\n
10. Monitor performance across Google and AI search<\/h2>\n
Measure results to see whether SEO efforts are working. Go beyond rankings and traffic to capture the full value of SEO. Position tracking and AI visibility toolkits can track organic rankings, AI mentions, citations, and Share of Voice over time, giving a full picture of how the brand surfaces across both classic and AI-driven search.<\/p>\n
FAQ<\/h2>\n
What counts as an SEO best practice in 2026?<\/h3>\n
An SEO best practice in 2026 is a repeatable method that helps search engines and AI systems access, understand, trust, and surface content. Beyond the basics, content also needs original evidence, stronger expertise, better coverage of the user’s task, and recognition from sources beyond the site’s own domain.<\/p>\n
How is SEO different for AI search and AI agents?<\/h3>\n
AI search and AI agents rely on the same SEO foundations, including search intent, useful content, technical accessibility, expertise, authority, and trust, but they evaluate and reuse those fundamentals across more surfaces at once, such as AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI agents acting on a user’s behalf. AI systems also extract and quote individual passages, so structured, quotable content and AI crawler access matter more.<\/p>\n
What tools help measure SEO and AI visibility together?<\/h3>\n
Position tracking and AI visibility toolkits can track organic rankings alongside AI mentions, citations, and Share of Voice over time, giving a fuller picture of how a brand appears across both Google and AI platforms.<\/p>\n
Try the site audit tool<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe site audit tool runs a full technical audit of a site and shows the measured result behind every check. Open the site audit tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n
- Give systems a reason to choose the content:<\/strong> Show real expertise, publish original evidence, and build recognition beyond the website itself, earning rankings, mentions, links, and citations.<\/li>\n
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