SEO in 2026

Tom Winter discusses with David Bain the importance of understanding your topical authority with AI to dominate your niche.

Talking points include:

What is topical authority?

Tell me about the Sitefocus score in latest Google score

Why is authority so important in the eyes of Google?

How do you determine what Google think your topical authority should be?

What to do if Google gets it wrong

How to change your topical authority

Read the full transcript of Tom's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/tom-winter

While he acknowledges the importance of entities, Charlie Whitworth from Whitworth SEO is here to remind you that keywords are still an integral piece of the puzzle.

Charlie says: “Keywords do still matter.”

Why do some people not believe that to be the case?

“I don’t know if it’s off the back of AI developments, but a lot of people have been talking about keywords being dead and saying that you should stop focusing on them. They quite rightly mention entities, which should absolutely be at the forefront of any high-volume SEO strategy.

Read the full transcript of Charlie's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/charlie-whitworth

Martha van Berkel from Schema App takes us deeper into the minutiae of entity SEO to look more closely at schema markup and how to build a powerful knowledge graph.

Martha says: “Start to think about entity SEO and managing your content knowledge graph.”

How would you define an entity?

“I always like to think about an entity as a thing. When you’re in a business, you can think about the most important strategic ‘things’ for the business. What makes an entity different from a keyword (or a word in general) is that it is multi-dimensional. You can describe that entity and how it relates to other things.

Read the full transcript of Martha's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/martha-van-berkel

As Jason pointed out, the value of entities goes beyond helping Google categorise your content. Ulrika Viberg from Unikorn explains how they can be the key to getting your brand noticed.

Ulrika says: “Utilise entities – not only for content creation, as we have been doing for quite some time, but also for brand optimization.

You can make your brand properly stand out in the search results by optimizing the entities around the brand.”

Read the full transcript of Ulrika's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/ulrika-viberg

To kick off our deep dive into entities, Jason Barnard from Kalicube breaks down how and why you need to optimize your entities in 2025 – from the content itself to the creator and the publisher.

Jason says: “You need to focus on Entity Optimization for EEAT, or what we at Kalicube call NEEATT.”

Entity Optimization starts with entity understanding, is that correct?

“Yes, 100%. Without entity understanding, there is no basis for EEAT. It is essential that you ensure Google understands who the creator or publishing entity behind the content you publish is. Without that understanding, EEAT means nothing.”

Read the full transcript of Jason's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/jason-barnard

Reena Bowden shares with David Bain why and how did we should create a multi-function approach to SEO.

Talking points include:

What do you mean by a multi-function approach to SEO?

How has SEO evolved throughout the organisation over the past few years?

Who’s responsible for different aspects of SEO nowadays?

What are the changes driven by?

What are the advantages to these changes?

What does this mean for tracking SEO performance?

If an organisation isn’t set up like this, how can a head of SEO start to implement these changes?

How should different SEO in-house departments be trained on the value of SEO?

How will this continue to evolve in the future?

Read the full transcript of Reena's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/reena-bowden

It wouldn’t be long before AI joined the brand party! If you want your name to show up in AI-driven results, then taking control of your brand entity is key, according to Crystal Carter from Wix.

Crystal says: “Manage your brand entity for visibility in generative search engines and tools.”

Why does generative search visibility mean that you should rethink your brand entity?

“One of the things that’s really important to consider is the way that LLMs work and the way that people are using them on a regular basis.

Over the last year, search has become very dissipated and decentralised. Rather than just using Google or Bing, people are searching across multiple search engines – including LLMs and tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini – to find their answers.

Find out more here: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/crystal-carter

Like the others in this chapter, Casie Gillette from Customers.ai believes that brand is changing the face of SEO. In her view, you don’t just need to build links anymore; you need to get your name out there.

Casie says: “Brand mentions are the new links.

Considering what we’re seeing with AI overviews, Reddit, and Quora, forums are back. Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s where you’re going to have to spend your time.

AI overviews are pulling from these various places. I can’t tell you how many searches we’re seeing Reddit pulled up for. Lily Ray recently assessed people who lost traffic and are now ranking number 2. Guess who they’re behind? Reddit.

Find out more here: https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/casie-gillette

You can put the work into your brand identity, but your customers need to recognise and believe in it too. Rana Abu Quba Chamsi from Expando.Digital explains how to gain a customer’s trust and attention.

Rana says: “Everything is changing, so build trust and focus on brand awareness for your clients.”

Why do you believe that traditional metrics are losing their importance?

“In the SEO world, we live with change, but what’s going on now is changing everything. We have witnessed a change in the ranking of websites, for example. SERPs are moving and some websites that have always been in the top positions are losing out to new websites.

Read the full transcript of Rana's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/rana-abu-quba-chamsi

Like Rejoice, Annika Haataja from Seeker Digital believes in the power of the brand, and she believes that brand should be central to everything that you do.

Annika says: “Make brand SEO a firm part of your analysis and strategy.

Consider brand almost as a superpower for websites and companies. I would count it as one of the three main pillars that can give you a huge competitive advantage.

The first pillar is topical authority, which is about content and content marketing within SEO. The second pillar is link authority, and the third pillar is definitely brand. Although brand is part of both of those other elements, there are ways that SEOs can analyse it and make it a firm part of their strategy.

Read the full transcript of Annika's interview at https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/annika-haataja