What’s your SEO strategy for 2026? I’ll admit that I pay close attention to the changes AI is bringing to SEO. At the same time, I know that no matter how much the landscape evolves, there are still a few core principles that, if followed consistently, will keep a website aligned with Google’s standards.

I learned about the following market insights, trends, and AI optimization tactics during the webinar Essential GEO Tactics (AI Optimization) for 2026, presented by Radu Marcusu, CEO of Upswing.

Google remains an important search channel in Romania and globally, and optimizing websites for AI is no longer a plan — it is already part of the present.

On January 27, a new Datos State of Search report for Q4 2025 was released, showing how users interact with search engines, how usage behavior is changing, and what the global trends look like across Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI-powered tools.

Before starting, let’s clarify the terminology used now:

Key Terminology in AI Search Optimization

Several terms are now commonly used in AI and search optimization:

• GEO = Generative Engine Optimization
• AEO = Answer Engine Optimization
• AIO = AI Optimization / AI Overviews (Google)

A common myth suggests that a website ranking highly in Google will automatically rank well in AI-generated responses.

This may happen, but it is not guaranteed.

According to the ZipTie Study, websites ranking in Google’s top 10 have a higher probability of appearing in AI Overviews.

Market Insights

What do you notice when searching on Google today? There is now the option to search using AI Mode. Google AI Mode was launched in autumn 2025 and delivers results in a format similar to ChatGPT. The differences between the two experiences are currently minimal.

Why Did Google Launch AI Mode?

ChatGPT experienced extraordinary growth in less than three years, going from 1 million users in its first week to 800 million weekly active users by October 2025. This represents one of the fastest technology adoption rates in history.

Today, it actively engages nearly 10% of the world’s population.

Between October 2024 and December 2025, usage of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and DeepSeek increased steadily.

In practice, the market conversation often focuses on two major platforms: ChatGPT and Gemini, as they are currently the most widely used.

• ChatGPT grew from 30% usage share in October 2024 to 46% by autumn 2025, after which growth appeared to stabilize.
• Gemini, however, showed steady growth, increasing from 4.4% to nearly 15%.

This means Gemini nearly tripled its adoption rate within a year — an impressive evolution. If this pace continues, the gap between ChatGPT and Gemini could narrow significantly.

Google AI Mode Usage (EU & UK)

In September 2025, only 0.01% of Google users in Europe and the UK used AI Mode. By December, that number increased to 0.06%.

While this percentage remains small compared to ChatGPT and Gemini, Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained the company’s long-term vision:

“Our current plan is AI mode is going to be there as a separate tab for people who really want to experience that, but it’s not yet at the level there, our main search pages. But as features work, we will keep migrating them to the main page, and so you can view it as a continuum. AI mode will offer you the bleeding-edge experience, but features that work will continue flowing into AI Overviews and the main search experience.”

If AI Mode becomes Google’s default search experience, these numbers may change dramatically.

AI tool adoption in the EU and UK doubled last year.

• Around 10% of internet users still rely on traditional search every quarter.
• Approximately 1.54% use AI tools.

Although the gap remains noticeable, the two usage models may eventually reach similar levels.

How Users Interact with ChatGPT

User behavior in ChatGPT differs significantly from traditional search engines such as Google.

Users primarily rely on ChatGPT for:

• Practical guidance — 28.3%
• Content generation — 28.1%
• Information seeking — 21.3%
• Technical help — 7.5%
• Multimedia tasks — 6%
• Self-expression — 4.3%

Additional behavioral insights:

• Asking (49%) — Users ask questions for decision-making or information retrieval. Only 2.1% of these queries are transactional, meaning they involve direct product purchasing intent.
• Doing (40%) — Users request outputs, expecting ChatGPT to complete a task or generate content.
• Expressing (11%) — Open-ended conversations without a specific goal, reflecting exploratory and interactive usage.

The fastest-growing category is information seeking.

It increased from 14% of total usage in July 2024 to a projected 24% by July 2025, showing that users increasingly treat AI tools like search engines.

ChatGPT User Demographics and Usage Trends

Several myths around AI adoption are no longer accurate.

• In 2022, roughly 80% of users were male.
• By 2025, women represented 52% of users.
• Nearly half of all interactions come from users aged 18–26.
• The highest adoption rates were recorded in low- and middle-income countries with GDP per capita between $10,000 and $40,000.
• Around 20% of conversations are work-related, while 80% are non-work-related.

Google vs. Other Search Engines

A common assumption is that as more people turn to ChatGPT, Google loses a large share of users.

Current data does not fully support this.

Google still holds the largest market share, although a slight decline was observed toward the end of last year. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue.

Bing appears to benefit from some of Google’s search engine losses.

However, user behavior suggests that people are not replacing Google with ChatGPT entirely.

The shift resembles what happened when TikTok emerged — YouTube and Instagram did not disappear. Instead, users simply added another platform to their digital habits.

Google continues to dominate the search engine market, but clicks are declining

Although Google continues to lead in market share, the number of users clicking through to websites is decreasing.

According to US data:

• In July 2024, 45% of users clicked on an organic search result.
• By September 2025, that figure dropped to 41.6%.

This decline is largely linked to the rollout of AI Overviews.

Historically, organic click-through behavior has fallen from approximately 60% to 41%, and the downward trend appears to continue.

In Europe and the UK, the situation remains more stable, with approximately 46% of users still clicking organic search results.

However, since the US often shapes future digital behavior trends, a decline in organic traffic is expected over time.

Fewer Monthly Searches Per User

The average number of monthly searches per user is also decreasing.

• In Europe and the UK, average searches dropped from 113 to 102 per month.
• In the US, the decline was more dramatic, falling from 120 to 95.

These figures suggest users are finding answers more quickly.

Within AI Overviews, company names increasingly appear without direct links to websites.

Instead of driving traffic to a company site, clicking a name may trigger another Google search.

This approach allows Google to retain users within its own ecosystem.

Tracking these trends is important, even if their impact seems limited today, because they indicate where search behavior is heading.

How Many Keywords Do Users Use in Search?

In Europe and the UK, most searches contain around five words.

In the US, searches increasingly reach 15 words or more.

Users are moving toward conversational search patterns, and traffic is increasingly driven by highly specific, niche queries.

Identifying these search patterns and creating content around them is essential for maintaining visibility.

The question is no longer whether brands should adapt to AI — but how soon they should do it.

Updates from Google – purchases from Google

Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol, allowing users to purchase products directly within Google AI Mode without visiting a website.

The purchasing process is handled through Google-powered agents operating behind the scenes.

At the same time, Apple is building its AI future with Google.

An agreement signed in January 2026 includes the use of Gemini models and Google Cloud infrastructure to support Apple Intelligence.

In this context, lacking AI visibility may eventually mean losing access to an audience of approximately 1.5 billion Apple users.

How AI Search Works: Query Fan-Out

When a user asks:

“What’s the best laptop for a college student who needs long battery life and does some video editing?”

AI systems do not search the full question as a single query.

Instead, they break it into multiple related searches.

These smaller searches often include:

• Product reviews
• Current year references
• Use-case variations
• Performance comparisons

Understanding this behavior offers valuable insight into how to structure blog and product content for discoverability.

ChatGPT primarily accesses Bing’s index, while Gemini relies on Google’s index.

AI systems still depend on traditional search infrastructure to retrieve information.

When an AI tool recommends “the best product,” it often synthesizes conclusions from multiple indexed results.

This reinforces the importance of visibility within Google and Bing.

Strategies and Tactics for Proof SEO

Build a Strong Technical Foundation

Technical SEO remains essential.

A well-structured website creates the foundation required for both search engines and AI systems to access, interpret, and trust your content.

Create Content Around E-E-A-T Principles

AI systems prioritize content that demonstrates trustworthiness.

Content should:

• Show real-world expertise
• Demonstrate first-hand experience
• Include credible authorship
• Be well-supported with accurate information

Strong E-E-A-T signals increase the likelihood of AI systems selecting your content as a reliable source.

Ensure Bing Indexation

Since SearchGPT and some AI tools rely on Bing’s infrastructure, indexing in Bing is increasingly important.

Key actions include:

• Submitting sitemaps through Bing Webmaster Tools
• Aligning content with Bing ranking factors
• Regularly checking how pages appear in Bing’s index

Clarify Your Brand’s Information Structure (Graph Path)

AI does not only understand text — it understands relationships between entities.

Brands should organize connections between:

• Products
• Services
• People
• Locations
• Categories

Structured relationships make it easier for search engines and AI systems to understand brand identity.

Integrate Schema Markup

Structured data helps AI and search engines understand meaning, not just text.

Useful schema types include:

• Product
• Organization
• FAQPage
• Person

Schema markup increases interpretability and can improve visibility in AI-generated responses.

Critical Elements That Affect Indexation

499 Errors

A 499 error occurs when the server begins responding but the connection closes before the page fully loads for a crawler.

In automated indexing environments, delays can cause crawlers to abandon scanning altogether.

The Role of Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions no longer have a direct ranking impact. However, they still act as an initial relevance signal. They help automated systems decide whether a page deserves deeper analysis.

JavaScript Limitations

Many crawlers do not fully process JavaScript and instead rely on the initial HTML output.

If essential information appears only after rendering, it may never be detected.

Safer alternatives include:

• Server-side rendering
• Static pages
• Pre-rendering for crawlers

URL Structure Matters

URLs provide context. A short numeric URL reveals very little.

A descriptive URL helps both users and AI systems understand the page topic before loading it. Clear URL structures support faster classification and interpretation.

What Can You Do with Older Articles?

Older content should not be ignored.

You can improve its AI compatibility by:

• Updating and optimizing it for AI search
• Adding audio versions for accessibility
• Including interactive elements such as calculators
• Converting content into video formats

How to Create AI-Friendly Content

To increase the likelihood that AI systems will use your content, ensure it is:

• Well structured
• Easy to scan
• Organized with tables
• Supported by Q&A sections

How to Measure Results

AI visibility metrics differ from traditional SEO reporting.

Important metrics include:

AI Search Mentions

Track:

• Whether your website is cited in AI-generated answers
• The position of the citation
• Visibility scores across AI systems

Platform-Level Performance

Measure visibility separately across:

• Google AI Overviews
• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Device-specific experiences

Keyword-Level Data

Analyze how individual keywords appear across:

• SERP results
• Google search
• AI Overviews
• AI Search environments

Important indicators include:

• Whether links appear in AI responses
• Brand mention sentiment
• Presence versus absence of citations

Currently, search volume data from ChatGPT is still unavailable.

Competition-Level Data

Benchmark competitors to understand:

• Where they gain stronger visibility
• Where they are mentioned more frequently
• Which gaps can be improved within your own strategy

Tracking traffic from AI tools alone is not enough.

Brands should also monitor:

• Visibility across AI ecosystems
• Brand mentions
• Context and sentiment of those mentions
• Whether AI references support or weaken brand positioning

The future of SEO is no longer limited to rankings.

Visibility within AI-generated ecosystems is becoming equally important.

Conclusion

SEO in 2026 is no longer just about ranking on Google — it’s about being visible wherever users search for answers, whether through traditional search engines, AI tools, or conversational interfaces.

The data clearly shows that user behavior is changing. Search queries are becoming longer, more conversational, and increasingly driven by intent rather than simple keywords. At the same time, AI platforms are reshaping how information is discovered, summarized, and recommended.

For brands and website owners, this means technical SEO, structured content, E-E-A-T principles, schema markup, and entity relationships are no longer optional. They are foundational.

Personally, I don’t see AI as a replacement for SEO, but as an extension of it. The fundamentals still matter — creating trustworthy content, building a strong technical structure, and understanding user intent. The difference is that now we also need to think about how AI systems interpret, select, and cite information.